Last time I tried BSPlayer, it refused to send any video anywhere, and when it did, it did it slower, pixelated, or with display problems. Or with any combination of the above problems. Or it just crashed.
I'll try MPC though. I use WMP for my video duties and Winamp2 for audio, but you just sold me with the "It's like Windows Media Player 6.4" argument.
Anyone else play Initial D? It is quite possibly the most fun SEGA racing game ever made. Only problem is that it's rather rare, as the machine itself is expensive as all get out...up there with Beatmania IIDX in terms of price.
Not to mention the fact that the flatscreen deluxe version of Initial D costs even more. My arcade is lucky enough to have two v1 machines in their standard cabinets and two v2 machines in deluxe cabinets, but I'm sure it's the only place like it in the southeast..
Now all I have to do is wait for Initial D : Special Stage to be released stateside....I hope they add iLink support or 2 player or else I'm going to be extremely pissed.
Sure, it was multiplatform (there was an N64 incarnation as well), but the Dreamcast defeniatly got the best end of the deal. Single player got rather boring after a while, but if it's you and three friends, you'll have the most fun you've ever had. Sure, you can race, but why race when you can go flip out on the stunt tracks with three other friends (Wings were the best ever addition to Rush, ever). And the battle mode...the battle mode was in it's first incarnation in that game and it still was the best multiplayer vehicle battle mode i've ever played. All this running at a silky smooth framerate and huge draw distance made for one of the most underrated games on the system. It's a shame that the series has been silent since then, a Rush on Xbox Live would be something I would never quit playing.
Also, did anyone mention Mr. Driller? It's a really fun puzzle game, too bad it didn't support two players or else I might still be playing it.
And then of course you have Rez and Jet Grind Radio. But then again, they've been mentioned elsewhere anyway.
Uh, duh? So's Microsoft. Or do you think they charge $50 bucks for Xbox live out of concern for the customer?
Actually, I DO think that Microsoft is charging out of concern for its customers. I know, hell has frozen over, but I look at results. I pay fifty dollars for Xbox Live, I get a quality product with friends lists, game invites, almost lag nonexistant games, a wide selection of games to choose from online, and everything. The Xbox games have to abidte to a standard, and so no games have truely awful online support. Strangely, the worst Live support I've seen (Midnight Club 2) happens to be a PORT OF A PS2 GAME! Hmm....
I pay nothing for PS2's online content, it's pot luck, sometimes the developers do it right (Tribes:AA), sometimes they put no effort and just tack something on for the hell of it (EA sports).
"EA's problem with Xbox Live is that they do not want Microsoft managing their customers' experience: they don't trust Microsoft to play fair with them (and can you blame them?)."
Don't trust them? What are they afraid Microsoft would do> to the online game? The PS2 online game is total shit anyway, what do they have to lose, actually putting effort into it?
"PA's analysis is from the gamers' perspective, and that's perfectly fine, but EA is looking at this from their shareholders/company perspective: if they turn over their online customers to Microsoft (which is exactly what would happen if they supported Xbox Live) then they could be putting themselves out of business."
How did EA get by before the PS2 online orgy? Last I checked, they did just fine.
"So, if EA is holding out for a better deal, that's certainly their right: the people buying their games to play are their customers, not Microsoft's"
Please. You can make excuses for EA no matter how much or little they sell on the system.
1. EA games sell a lot on the XBox even with no online content. Why add it when it's selling so well, after all, they're obviously buying it anyway.
2. EA games dont sell well at all on the Xbox. Why invest in a system that isn't making them money.
Honestly, there is some alterior motive. Maybe a grudge? Maybe SCEA is paying them to not support the Xbox? Maybe they want a quick and easy way to support online play, and Microsoft's standards are too rigid? Either way, EA is acting with their own intersts in mind, not their customers.
However, the very fact that this is a console version of CS should dumb down the AWP enough. I mean, have you ever tried aiming a sniper rifle with a joystick as opposed to with a mouse in a game? It could be done, and done well, but it still would take miles more effort and wouldn't be done with quite the same accuracy as CS on the computer.
Plus you have to factor in the fact that CS will be without console scripts, which most professional CounterStrikers seem to use.
Aside from just collecting this guns, there are people that actually play with them ala paintball guns, with teams and everything (think real-life Counterstrike).
I actually did this a year or two ago with some friends when I was still in high school. He bought some cheap airsoft guns, dished them out and we just shot the crap out of each other in his backyard. Most fun I've had in a while too.
I love the fact that my Xbox doubles as a DVD player, but that's because...hell..the console used DVD media anyway, might as well include a DVD player on it.
I'm glad it was included, but then again, I don't expect to rely on built in DVD players either. I once rented a HK bootleg of Azumanga Daioh and it wouldn't play in my Xbox DVD player (Probably because it lacked a DVD menu, which says something about the quality of the DVD itself, but whatever...). I've also had trouble playing other movies in my PS2 DVD player.
And it might be a matter of personal preference, but I happen to like the interface and remote for my Xbox's DVD player in lieu of other DVD players, especially the PS2's DVD player. Just seems to cut 99$ of the bullshit, the remote isn't cluttered, and it sticks a lot of the angle and subtitle functions in its own little menu instead of yet another button on the rmote.
Which they've gotten around to fixing with the Controller S.
Hell, I love my Xbox, but dear jesus I can't stand those God- Forsaken Controller F's. I guess it's just a matter of preference, some of my Halo playing buddies use F's and can't stand S's...
(By the way, by Controller F I mean the origional Xbox controller...Fatbody's.)
For some reason, it doesn't seem to translate well over to the PC as well (You can't exactly punch someone in the arm if they are a few hundred or thousand miles away), but tha mount of fun you have with three other (or fifteen if you're at a LAN party) people is some of the most fun you'll ever have on a console. The multiplayer game has a surprising amount of depth, with the two weapon limit, the vehicles, easy access to grenades, and the melee attack.
The better the players you are playing with, the more one begins to realize this. Not only this, the game is an easy pick for LAN parties because face it, who has an Xbox but doesn't have halo?
Personally I am not upset at the xBox getting screwed. while Microsoft might have made a nice system, its licensing practices blow, and unlike PC companies who dont mind bending over and getting...
Seriously Activision, the joke's not funny anymore. Lack of Xbox Live support was the reason I never bought THPS4. Until then, I'll just have to make do with Xbox Connect and System Link, but you guys have got to straighten out your differences with Microsoft before THUG 2 comes out.
Actually, maybe they were throwing System Link as a bone...honestly, how many people do you know have their own copy of THUG for XBox? Or THPS4? Or hell, even THPS3 or THPS2x? Enough for a LAN party? Or do you get sidetracked with Halo like all of my LAN partys do? 8 Players over XBC seems much more likely.
I love how they are constatnly evolving the Park Editor though. I was lost in the THPS2 editor for hours at a time, but the whole feel of the THPS3 editor was....well...it was kinda lazily thrown in as an afterthought and wasn't using the full potential of the new engine. I tried out the THUG editor last night, and it was like the THPS3 editor except that it had all the pieces I had dreamed about (FINALLY, ROADS! WOO HOO, now I can make my own suburbia!). Not to mention all the other create a whatevers in this game. And getting off the board is like a free few seconds of an manual you don't need to balance. Brilliant (now if only they could make the controls better...).
Please, no more linking to Penny Arcade. We've all read that one. We've all read any one that you were thinking about linking too as well. We've read Penny Arcade. The links should be modded down as redundant anytime they are posted. Enough already.
You must be new here.
Don't you know that there always has to be a reference to Penny Aracde in stories like this? It's like an unwritten law or something.
"players will become bored... playing the same maps over and over and over again."
This is where the Xbox has the advantage over the PS2. Games like Mechassault and Return to Castle Wolfenstein have DLC, and it's helped extend the longevity of the games tremendously. (Mechassault's multiplayer game has almost more than doubled in size just because of DLC) Perhaps the PS2 Hard Drive will change this. Perhaps...
But really, how is this any different than gaming online on the PC? Example: Counter-Strike. Almost everyone plays the maps that are built into CS, reguardless of how many custom maps out there are made. Sure, the server can allow downloading of new maps, but it's really slow. (Unless the file size is really small, a la iceworld2k) This changes as soon as maps are included in new updates, but then, this isn't any different than DLC, is it?
They're probably one of the crap first run consoles.
At one of the K-Marts i've been to, they replaced it, and now it runs great. Played some MotoGP 2 on it, no problems (other than the controler, which they havn't replaced with the Controller S yet)
If your local store Xbox doesn't work, they're simply too lazy to send it back.
At a store near me, they even took down the EB magazines because it slammed the N-Gage. People were reading it and seeing through the marketing bullshit.
Obviously, they have gotten an order to SELL THIS THING OR DIE. May god have mercy on them. Or not.
I am one of your subscribors to Phantasy Star Online Episodes I and II for the Xbox. I throughly enjoy it, in spite of it's flaws. With Episode 3 looming on the horizon, I have this to say...
Seriously, what the hell were you guys thinking?
Maybe I need to play this in person to 'get it', but as of right now, I have no earthly idea how playing a card game online could make me want to pay for something like this.
What you guys should be doing is refining the engine used PSO Episodes I and II. Namely, fix the god damned targeting system, give us more levels, update the dated though still awesome looking graphics, more spells, more skin types, better lobby system).
That is something I would pay for. Not a card game. You guys had damn well better prove me wrong. Which you probably will, because...well...you're Sonic Team.
Slashdot Mirror
Knowing Microsoft, they would have figured out a way to make it unstable.
(Though I havn't had stability problems with Windows 2000 since I got it, on an unrelated note)
Almost 9 months ago, ,I was exactly like him. Then I actually bought an Xbox, Live and all the fixins.
Worth every fucking penny.
If you're not talking about one of the new-to-PC levels that I don't know about, it's called Sidewinder.
But in all seriousness, those who hate Halo's multiplayer mode have probably never played it with a large group of people. It is an absolute BLAST!.
I'll try MPC though. I use WMP for my video duties and Winamp2 for audio, but you just sold me with the "It's like Windows Media Player 6.4" argument.
Now all I have to do is wait for Initial D : Special Stage to be released stateside....I hope they add iLink support or 2 player or else I'm going to be extremely pissed.
Sure, it was multiplatform (there was an N64 incarnation as well), but the Dreamcast defeniatly got the best end of the deal. Single player got rather boring after a while, but if it's you and three friends, you'll have the most fun you've ever had. Sure, you can race, but why race when you can go flip out on the stunt tracks with three other friends (Wings were the best ever addition to Rush, ever). And the battle mode...the battle mode was in it's first incarnation in that game and it still was the best multiplayer vehicle battle mode i've ever played. All this running at a silky smooth framerate and huge draw distance made for one of the most underrated games on the system. It's a shame that the series has been silent since then, a Rush on Xbox Live would be something I would never quit playing.
Also, did anyone mention Mr. Driller? It's a really fun puzzle game, too bad it didn't support two players or else I might still be playing it.
And then of course you have Rez and Jet Grind Radio. But then again, they've been mentioned elsewhere anyway.
Actually, I DO think that Microsoft is charging out of concern for its customers. I know, hell has frozen over, but I look at results. I pay fifty dollars for Xbox Live, I get a quality product with friends lists, game invites, almost lag nonexistant games, a wide selection of games to choose from online, and everything. The Xbox games have to abidte to a standard, and so no games have truely awful online support. Strangely, the worst Live support I've seen (Midnight Club 2) happens to be a PORT OF A PS2 GAME! Hmm....
I pay nothing for PS2's online content, it's pot luck, sometimes the developers do it right (Tribes:AA), sometimes they put no effort and just tack something on for the hell of it (EA sports).
Don't trust them? What are they afraid Microsoft would do> to the online game? The PS2 online game is total shit anyway, what do they have to lose, actually putting effort into it?
"PA's analysis is from the gamers' perspective, and that's perfectly fine, but EA is looking at this from their shareholders/company perspective: if they turn over their online customers to Microsoft (which is exactly what would happen if they supported Xbox Live) then they could be putting themselves out of business."
How did EA get by before the PS2 online orgy? Last I checked, they did just fine.
"So, if EA is holding out for a better deal, that's certainly their right: the people buying their games to play are their customers, not Microsoft's"
Please. You can make excuses for EA no matter how much or little they sell on the system.
1. EA games sell a lot on the XBox even with no online content. Why add it when it's selling so well, after all, they're obviously buying it anyway.
2. EA games dont sell well at all on the Xbox. Why invest in a system that isn't making them money.
Honestly, there is some alterior motive. Maybe a grudge? Maybe SCEA is paying them to not support the Xbox? Maybe they want a quick and easy way to support online play, and Microsoft's standards are too rigid? Either way, EA is acting with their own intersts in mind, not their customers.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
However, the very fact that this is a console version of CS should dumb down the AWP enough. I mean, have you ever tried aiming a sniper rifle with a joystick as opposed to with a mouse in a game? It could be done, and done well, but it still would take miles more effort and wouldn't be done with quite the same accuracy as CS on the computer.
Plus you have to factor in the fact that CS will be without console scripts, which most professional CounterStrikers seem to use.
I actually did this a year or two ago with some friends when I was still in high school. He bought some cheap airsoft guns, dished them out and we just shot the crap out of each other in his backyard. Most fun I've had in a while too.
I for one would much prefer to slashdot the spammers, if it were at all possible.
I'm glad it was included, but then again, I don't expect to rely on built in DVD players either. I once rented a HK bootleg of Azumanga Daioh and it wouldn't play in my Xbox DVD player (Probably because it lacked a DVD menu, which says something about the quality of the DVD itself, but whatever...). I've also had trouble playing other movies in my PS2 DVD player.
And it might be a matter of personal preference, but I happen to like the interface and remote for my Xbox's DVD player in lieu of other DVD players, especially the PS2's DVD player. Just seems to cut 99$ of the bullshit, the remote isn't cluttered, and it sticks a lot of the angle and subtitle functions in its own little menu instead of yet another button on the rmote.
Hell, I love my Xbox, but dear jesus I can't stand those God- Forsaken Controller F's. I guess it's just a matter of preference, some of my Halo playing buddies use F's and can't stand S's...
(By the way, by Controller F I mean the origional Xbox controller...Fatbody's.)
For some reason, it doesn't seem to translate well over to the PC as well (You can't exactly punch someone in the arm if they are a few hundred or thousand miles away), but tha mount of fun you have with three other (or fifteen if you're at a LAN party) people is some of the most fun you'll ever have on a console. The multiplayer game has a surprising amount of depth, with the two weapon limit, the vehicles, easy access to grenades, and the melee attack.
The better the players you are playing with, the more one begins to realize this. Not only this, the game is an easy pick for LAN parties because face it, who has an Xbox but doesn't have halo?
It's so easy to say when you dont have one. :(
Actually, maybe they were throwing System Link as a bone...honestly, how many people do you know have their own copy of THUG for XBox? Or THPS4? Or hell, even THPS3 or THPS2x? Enough for a LAN party? Or do you get sidetracked with Halo like all of my LAN partys do? 8 Players over XBC seems much more likely.
I love how they are constatnly evolving the Park Editor though. I was lost in the THPS2 editor for hours at a time, but the whole feel of the THPS3 editor was....well...it was kinda lazily thrown in as an afterthought and wasn't using the full potential of the new engine. I tried out the THUG editor last night, and it was like the THPS3 editor except that it had all the pieces I had dreamed about (FINALLY, ROADS! WOO HOO, now I can make my own suburbia!). Not to mention all the other create a whatevers in this game. And getting off the board is like a free few seconds of an manual you don't need to balance. Brilliant (now if only they could make the controls better...).
Anyway...off my soapbox, back to game.
You must be new here.
Don't you know that there always has to be a reference to Penny Aracde in stories like this? It's like an unwritten law or something.
This is where the Xbox has the advantage over the PS2. Games like Mechassault and Return to Castle Wolfenstein have DLC, and it's helped extend the longevity of the games tremendously. (Mechassault's multiplayer game has almost more than doubled in size just because of DLC) Perhaps the PS2 Hard Drive will change this. Perhaps...
But really, how is this any different than gaming online on the PC? Example: Counter-Strike. Almost everyone plays the maps that are built into CS, reguardless of how many custom maps out there are made. Sure, the server can allow downloading of new maps, but it's really slow. (Unless the file size is really small, a la iceworld2k) This changes as soon as maps are included in new updates, but then, this isn't any different than DLC, is it?
They're probably one of the crap first run consoles.
At one of the K-Marts i've been to, they replaced it, and now it runs great. Played some MotoGP 2 on it, no problems (other than the controler, which they havn't replaced with the Controller S yet)
If your local store Xbox doesn't work, they're simply too lazy to send it back.
This guy addresses the "OMG SCRATCHED CD's" that are cropping up all over the rest of the replies to the story.
Please don't let this guy get overlooked.
At a store near me, they even took down the EB magazines because it slammed the N-Gage. People were reading it and seeing through the marketing bullshit.
Obviously, they have gotten an order to SELL THIS THING OR DIE. May god have mercy on them. Or not.
Seriously, what the hell were you guys thinking?
Maybe I need to play this in person to 'get it', but as of right now, I have no earthly idea how playing a card game online could make me want to pay for something like this.
What you guys should be doing is refining the engine used PSO Episodes I and II. Namely, fix the god damned targeting system, give us more levels, update the dated though still awesome looking graphics, more spells, more skin types, better lobby system).
That is something I would pay for. Not a card game. You guys had damn well better prove me wrong. Which you probably will, because...well...you're Sonic Team.
Love and Kisses
-Alex
Since when does EA "know how to do games right"?