This is exactly the manner in which Blockbuster forced Full-Screen movies on the average consumer.
If you notice, movies made after Blockbuster became a huge mega conglomerate, are made in very close shots so the transfer to Full Screen Videos and DVD's would not be a pan and scan nightmare. Hollywood's standards are to shoot movies in this manner because of Blockbuster's influence. The same thing will happen if this DVD maker gets his way. Hollywood will further censor and place more stingent policies that will take away a screenplay/Director's vison than they already do.
Movies made before Blockbuster are cenematically better and more creative than movies made now a days. (Independent movies aside)
If this tool is to be allowed into peoples homes, it will put a permanent, negative, and irreversable mark into the creativity of movie making.
If you don't want you or your kids watch potentially offensive material...DONT FRIGGN WATCH IT!!!!
Censorship in TV and the movies are bad enough as it is. Check out the Problems Jimmy Kimmel has with his show. This is but an example of what happens when stupidity and Political Correctness goes unchecked.
We don't need another homoginization or censorship of creativity.
One thing to keep in mind is the old IT/Support saying:
"He/She who screams loudest, wins."
If your laptop is/is not under warranty, ask for a different series laptop or get your money back outright.
When talking to a given support tech, keep the following in mind:
- Call Tech Support and Present Problem/Issue to IBM Rep on phone in a business tone.
- If the person who you are talking to can't or won't help you, then ask to talk to the person's supervisor.
- Keep repeating the above steps until the problem is solved. Do not take 'No' or 'Sorry, there's nothing I can do for you' as an answer.
- If you keep getting 'No's' from IBM, use the following phrase:
"I'm sorry, that is an answer I cannot accept. Please offer me a different solution."
One thing to keep in mind about IBM is that one division of IBM has no idea what the other is doing. You may have some problems with people not knowing who to contact or to connect you to or be able to offer a solution for you.
Dolemite _____________________________
The Best/Worst Ad(s) of the Superbowl!!!
on
Superbowl XXXVII
·
· Score: 1
The overall winner is Bud-Light with the many, various and hilarious commercials.
Honorable mention goes to Jimmy Kimmel's pregame spot by saying good by to Cable. (Two Soprano's Cast members throwing him into the East river was hilarious).
Individually, it's a toss up for me between the following:
1) Bud Light Ad where the Clown looked like he was drinking beer out of his ass. (After grossing everyone in the bar out, then asked for a hotdog at the end of the commercial). 2) Reebok's - Terry Tate - Office Linebacker ("You didn't put a coverpage on those TPS reports!!!") 2) New Matrix Reloaded Trailer 3) New Hulk Teaser 4) Bud-Light 'Strongman' Ad. 5) Fed-Ex 'Castaway' Ad. 6) H&R Block Ad with Willie Nelson 7) ESPN Commercial where ESPN 'Chef' Joe Montana looses his Super Bowl Ring and ends up in an ESPN broadcasters lunch.
Worst Ads?
1) The Government's anti-drug and smoking ads. 2) The Sierra Mist/Pepsi Soft Drink Ads. All of them. 3) The new Cadillac Commercials 4) The Chrisler/Celine Dion Commercial 5) Anheuser-Busch ad with the Zebra reviewing a play. 6) Terminator 3 - Face it. This movie will suck ass. 7) Dodge Ad where a truck is used to dislodge a piece of Beef Jerkey in his passengers mouth....and yes Shania Twain (can you say boobs?!?!?) did lip synch.
Stay away from Adcritic.com for Superbowl ads...unless you want to pay $70 to view them.
Lost of people (sometimes it's over 75%) that read posts here are dying to have Linux become more mainstream. However, when someone posts their impressions of trying to do a specific task from THEIR (not your) perspective (granted, the article was written in a non-professional manner), everyone gets their panites in a bunch.
The panty bunching is usually is followed by; a tantrum (probably from too much Mountain Dew or Coffee), posts about their technical superiority over the author of the web page, and eventually a nap (for being too crabby or sugar crashing from said Mountain Dew sugar high).
Most non-open source companies that release operating systems would call JWZ's comments 'customer usability feedback' and improve on those comments (again, the tone of AWZ's piece is anything but professional) for future releases of a given product.
Linux IMO has the worst record for standardiztion of an operating system I've ever seen.
Of course, all of the software I write runs on Linux; that's the beauty of standards, and of cross-platform code. I don't have to run your OS (he uses SGI's), and you don't have to run mine, and we can use the same applications anyway!
I think Linux is a great thing, in the big picture. It's a great hacker's tool, and it has a lot of potential to become something more. I hope that some day it will have evolved to the point where my mom can take home a Linux box, turn it on, and get on with her life without having to become a Unix sysadmin first, and without having to give up on all the ease of use she's come to expect from allegedly less powerful operating systems. (Is everyone listening here to where he's coming from?)
Because, you see, what I want to do is to commoditize the OS. I want to have access to all the applications that I need to do the things that I need to do, regardless. Why should someone have to retrain themselves to use a new application that does the same basic thing as the old application, just because something as trivial as the operating system changed out from under them?
This is totally right on.
Way back when MIT released their Kerberos package (server, client, etc) they pretty much distributed the packages as they were created to the public. At this time could you straight out and install this package on a Red Hat Server? (Please note: This is before Red Hat started including Kerberos packages in their distributions)
No, you could not.
Why not?
Because the source from MIT was written in Free BSD. To port (Read: re-engineer) the kerberos Package to Red Hat you had to 1) Be familiar with all aspects of Kerberos. 2) You needed to have a familiarity of the commands (and associated tags of said commands) in Free BSD to run the Kerberos Commands. 3) You need to have familiarity of the commands in Red Hat and all related Tags that are needed to run Kerberos. Long story short, you basically have to know Free BSD before you could port Kerberos to Red Hat. Needless to say, this is a major undertaking. Especially if you had multiple flavors of Unix in your office.
Secondly, at one of my former jobs I started a side project of seeing if I could port a web application from Solaris to Red Hat. Theoretically, it could be done but the additional programs needed to run this app on Red Hat needed to be located. I needed to find an install of Apache (no prob) with a few rarely used modules (ASP..no prob, a specific SSL module and a Java related module that solaris uses). Tracking down developers for mod's (especially the rarely used ones) or other related questions was a nightmare because they no longer worked on a given initative. On Solaris, the engineers for these mods where in house. After three days of trying, I gave up because I came to the conclustion that no one else was trying to do what I was doing and that finding experts in non-common areas was practically non-existent. Since this was a project on my own at work, I had to give it up for more pressing issues.
IMO both these examples show unecessary re-training and time spent on projects Unix users defined in the first paragraph shouldn't have to worry about.
By the way, the suggestion to switch Linux distrubutions in order to get a single app to work might sound absurd at first. And that's because it is.
I don't know how many times I've tried to transfer a program on an older Red Hat system that runs well with no issues to a new Red Hat Server. Unfortunately, the same program can't be installed on a newer OS version of a Red Hat system because Red Hat thought it would be neat to change some of the new version of the Operating system around. Said changes would make the program, inoperable. Most companies and home users (the non-technical type) dont have the time or money to spend on working on initatives such as this. They need a solution and they need it yesterday. Users should not have to go back to a previous distribution, or re-engineer a solution because an operating system developer made system changes that adversely effect the running of a simple program.
What JWZ is stating are suggestions to make things better. Unfortunately, the initial reaction of the Unix Bigots, after reading and replying to articles like this, is to knock people down without understanding where he's coming from.
Dolemite
Note to JWZ there are Mac alternatives for Emacs it's not X but it works. I've been using the NT Emacs for a while now (5+ years). The (Unix) developer has put some serious work into this version of Emacs.
Really though, we're doing nothing that we weren't already doing for years - making mix tapes from albums and CD's and swapping them. It's just now we a a higher-quality medium to achieve the same thing.
Lars Ulrich of Metallica, media whore during the whole Napster ordeal, did the same thing when he was young. He used to make mix tapes of Euorpean metal bands (not available in the US at the time or VERY hard to get) and trade them to friends in the Bay Area. Did he ever once pay royalties to the bands he made tapes of?
It's because of his hyprocitical actions during the Napster ordeal that I lost all respect for him and Metallica.
You have to call this place!!! Tell them that you are putting together a geek wedding, they will be able to help out. They have TONS of stuff that would be awesome.
Its time for the fat cats in the music industry to lower the CD prices to 10-12 dollars. No CD is worth $20. I can buy a DVD for this price.
Please don't tell me that prices can't be lowered. They can. New CD prices are inflated AT LEAST 8-10 dollars by the record execs and stores (even more if the store is Tower Records).
Until inflated CD prices go down to where they were 5-10 years ago, piracy will remain.
Just because they have a certification does not mean that they:
1)Know how to fix a car 2)Won't rip you off
Also, IMO a cert just means that they can pass a certain type of test aimed towards certain people. MS and Unix certs are like this.
I don't know how many people who are MS or Unix certified and have never touched an operating system. they just know how to take certain types of tests.
It's plain and simple. You put restrictions and hyped up press on games such as GTA, the games will become more popular and the kids will want the games all the more.
Stop hyping the games and the attention will go away.
Everyone is waiting for the price to go down. Flat panels are way too overpriced. If the average flatpanel prices were cut by 1/3 people would start buying.
Both of these games have a predecessor that have had sucess in it's previous
incarnations.
The 007 Games have had a standard to live up to ever since the console game
'Goldeneye' was released. This game gained it's popularity with the awesome
multiplayer aspects on the console. IMO this was the predecessor to all the
on-line console games that are out now.
No One Lives Forever 1 (NOLF1) was
an amazing game with a multiplayer aspect that immensely enhanced the single
player game and was the major reason that this game won all the awards that it
did. (Running over people with Snowmobiles is sooo fun)
When NOLF2 was released the reviews on the single player was favorable but
nothing was said about the multiplayer aspect. I began researching this game
for a possible purchase and
began vewing the Sierra Forums and noted Two problems:
1) All MP aspects that made NOLF1 a great game, was removed for a 'co-op'
multiplayer version. The 'Co-Op' version was essentially teams of online players playing against an AI Opponent.
2) The MP code was buggy. People were complaining of too many dropped
packets.
Sierra'sattitude for #1 was initally "If you don't like it go buy another
game that has on-line player vs online player this is not what this game is
about". (These threads have since mysteriously disappeared)
After player after player were complaining about the lack of the cool MP aspects
that made NOLF1 famous and the fact that people were mad that couldn't return
the game (they were all expecting the same MP aspects of NOLF1 in NOLF2), news
came out that a new patch would be coming out to add DM maps and better MP
code.
Needles to say this alienated players and left sour tastes in peoples stomach.
This reason alone and Sierra's initial atitude/response to this issue are the
reason why I didn't buy this game and I laugh when it received Game of the Year
Award by Adspy..er GameSpy.
007: Nightfire is EA/Gearbox's entry into the James Bond Game arena. This game
is based on the Half-Life engine and has an original storyline. The Single
player is amazing and has all the cool elements of a Bond Flick. The
Multiplayer blew me away by the maps and mods it released. (Imagine a CTF/DM
map that is a near perfect recreation of the Fort Knox Scene in 'Goldfinger'.)
Granted, when this product was initially released, there were issues with the
game (MP Exploit, No Server manual, No MP manual for N00bs who don't understand
the concept of Team-Killing). EA/Gearbox provided two methods to give feedback
about this game (EA - E-mail and
Gearbox Via their forums) and they (after about amonth of the PC
version being released) are releasing a SP 'after the new year'.
In addition, with immense interest in Modding for this game (our
clan is looking into creating MP maps that are recreations scenes in
Bond Movies.
We're looking to create maps for all the Bond Movies.), There will be a
SDK released after the New Year as well.
Day of Defeat is probably the best Mod I've ever played in MP (not a big
counter-strike fan). In short, this is a World War II mod with the Axis versus
the Allies in various map situations. The weapon Recreation, maps and the
general popularity is slowly growing every day. I beleive one of the main
reasons why this is is that The Day of Defeat MOD team
has a direct link to the public through their forums and are looking
for contunuous feedback on how this game can be improved.
I will always be a fan of this MOD because of the direct link to the
developers.
My advice to anyone who have problems with various games is to browse/Post to the game
designers forums or e-mail the company with your concerns, more often than not
the various companies will listen to the customers for they are the people who
will come back tothe various companies for their next release of a given
game.
Granted, you may not always find forums with direct link to the
developersfor Games (ID Software is a good example of this) but if you
do, utilize these resources.
My advice to Game companies is to listen to your customer base and give them a
foum to give feedback for they pay your salaries and they dictate wether or not
your game will continue to sell.
Issues with games are easy to fix, runied reputataions over a given game are next
to impossible to fix.
Dolemite
Re:I'm replaying Half-Life this Xmas
on
Games of the Year
·
· Score: 1
Me too. The Most of the Games released this year were utter crap (see my rant about NOLF2). The only game I would recommend is 007:Nightfire for the PC. The most recent game I bought was Quake 3 Arena for 20 Bones. There's nothing good out on the market at this time.
As for Half-Life, this game never gets old. I'm having fun playing the following Mods (In order of Popularity):
1)Day of Defeat - Kick Ass WW2 Mod 2)TFC/Neo TF!!! 3)Tour of Duty - Great Vietnam Mod 4)Counter Strike 5)DM
Slashdot Mirror
...anymore?
Dolemite
This is exactly the manner in which Blockbuster forced Full-Screen movies on the average consumer.
If you notice, movies made after Blockbuster became a huge mega conglomerate, are made in very close shots so the transfer to Full Screen Videos and DVD's would not be a pan and scan nightmare. Hollywood's standards are to shoot movies in this manner because of Blockbuster's influence. The same thing will happen if this DVD maker gets his way. Hollywood will further censor and place more stingent policies that will take away a screenplay/Director's vison than they already do.
Movies made before Blockbuster are cenematically better and more creative than movies made now a days. (Independent movies aside)
If this tool is to be allowed into peoples homes, it will put a permanent, negative, and irreversable mark into the creativity of movie making.
If you don't want you or your kids watch potentially offensive material...DONT FRIGGN WATCH IT!!!!
Censorship in TV and the movies are bad enough as it is. Check out the Problems Jimmy Kimmel has with his show. This is but an example of what happens when stupidity and Political Correctness goes unchecked.
We don't need another homoginization or censorship of creativity.
Dolemite
One thing to keep in mind is the old IT/Support saying:
"He/She who screams loudest, wins."
If your laptop is/is not under warranty, ask for a different series laptop or get your money back outright.
When talking to a given support tech, keep the following in mind:
- Call Tech Support and Present Problem/Issue to IBM Rep on phone in a business tone.
- If the person who you are talking to can't or won't help you, then ask to talk to the person's supervisor.
- Keep repeating the above steps until the problem is solved. Do not take 'No' or 'Sorry, there's nothing I can do for you' as an answer.
- If you keep getting 'No's' from IBM, use the following phrase:
"I'm sorry, that is an answer I cannot accept. Please offer me a different solution."
One thing to keep in mind about IBM is that one division of IBM has no idea what the other is doing. You may have some problems with people not knowing who to contact or to connect you to or be able to offer a solution for you.
Dolemite
_____________________________
The overall winner is Bud-Light with the many, various and hilarious commercials.
...and yes Shania Twain (can you say boobs?!?!?) did lip synch.
Honorable mention goes to Jimmy Kimmel's pregame spot by saying good by to Cable. (Two Soprano's Cast members throwing him into the East river was hilarious).
Individually, it's a toss up for me between the following:
1) Bud Light Ad where the Clown looked like he was drinking beer out of his ass. (After grossing everyone in the bar out, then asked for a hotdog at the end of the commercial).
2) Reebok's - Terry Tate - Office Linebacker ("You didn't put a coverpage on those TPS reports!!!")
2) New Matrix Reloaded Trailer
3) New Hulk Teaser
4) Bud-Light 'Strongman' Ad.
5) Fed-Ex 'Castaway' Ad.
6) H&R Block Ad with Willie Nelson
7) ESPN Commercial where ESPN 'Chef' Joe Montana looses his Super Bowl Ring and ends up in an ESPN broadcasters lunch.
Worst Ads?
1) The Government's anti-drug and smoking ads.
2) The Sierra Mist/Pepsi Soft Drink Ads. All of them.
3) The new Cadillac Commercials
4) The Chrisler/Celine Dion Commercial
5) Anheuser-Busch ad with the Zebra reviewing a play.
6) Terminator 3 - Face it. This movie will suck ass.
7) Dodge Ad where a truck is used to dislodge a piece of Beef Jerkey in his passengers mouth.
Stay away from Adcritic.com for Superbowl ads...unless you want to pay $70 to view them.
Dolemite
__________________________
...this article and everyone's posted comments.
Lost of people (sometimes it's over 75%) that read posts here are dying to have Linux become more mainstream. However, when someone posts their impressions of trying to do a specific task from THEIR (not your) perspective (granted, the article was written in a non-professional manner), everyone gets their panites in a bunch.
The panty bunching is usually is followed by; a tantrum (probably from too much Mountain Dew or Coffee), posts about their technical superiority over the author of the web page, and eventually a nap (for being too crabby or sugar crashing from said Mountain Dew sugar high).
Most non-open source companies that release operating systems would call JWZ's comments 'customer usability feedback' and improve on those comments (again, the tone of AWZ's piece is anything but professional) for future releases of a given product.
Linux IMO has the worst record for standardiztion of an operating system I've ever seen.
Here's two reaons why:
1) A quote from JWZ's page:
Of course, all of the software I write runs on Linux; that's the beauty of standards, and of cross-platform code. I don't have to run your OS (he uses SGI's), and you don't have to run mine, and we can use the same applications anyway!
I think Linux is a great thing, in the big picture. It's a great hacker's tool, and it has a lot of potential to become something more. I hope that some day it will have evolved to the point where my mom can take home a Linux box, turn it on, and get on with her life without having to become a Unix sysadmin first, and without having to give up on all the ease of use she's come to expect from allegedly less powerful operating systems. (Is everyone listening here to where he's coming from?)
Because, you see, what I want to do is to commoditize the OS. I want to have access to all the applications that I need to do the things that I need to do, regardless. Why should someone have to retrain themselves to use a new application that does the same basic thing as the old application, just because something as trivial as the operating system changed out from under them?
This is totally right on.
Way back when MIT released their Kerberos package (server, client, etc) they pretty much distributed the packages as they were created to the public. At this time could you straight out and install this package on a Red Hat Server? (Please note: This is before Red Hat started including Kerberos packages in their distributions)
No, you could not.
Why not?
Because the source from MIT was written in Free BSD. To port (Read: re-engineer) the kerberos Package to Red Hat you had to 1) Be familiar with all aspects of Kerberos. 2) You needed to have a familiarity of the commands (and associated tags of said commands) in Free BSD to run the Kerberos Commands. 3) You need to have familiarity of the commands in Red Hat and all related Tags that are needed to run Kerberos. Long story short, you basically have to know Free BSD before you could port Kerberos to Red Hat. Needless to say, this is a major undertaking. Especially if you had multiple flavors of Unix in your office.
Secondly, at one of my former jobs I started a side project of seeing if I could port a web application from Solaris to Red Hat. Theoretically, it could be done but the additional programs needed to run this app on Red Hat needed to be located. I needed to find an install of Apache (no prob) with a few rarely used modules (ASP..no prob, a specific SSL module and a Java related module that solaris uses). Tracking down developers for mod's (especially the rarely used ones) or other related questions was a nightmare because they no longer worked on a given initative. On Solaris, the engineers for these mods where in house. After three days of trying, I gave up because I came to the conclustion that no one else was trying to do what I was doing and that finding experts in non-common areas was practically non-existent. Since this was a project on my own at work, I had to give it up for more pressing issues.
IMO both these examples show unecessary re-training and time spent on projects Unix users defined in the first paragraph shouldn't have to worry about.
2) Another quote from JWZ's initial article:
By the way, the suggestion to switch Linux distrubutions in order to get a single app to work might sound absurd at first. And that's because it is.
I don't know how many times I've tried to transfer a program on an older Red Hat system that runs well with no issues to a new Red Hat Server. Unfortunately, the same program can't be installed on a newer OS version of a Red Hat system because Red Hat thought it would be neat to change some of the new version of the Operating system around. Said changes would make the program, inoperable. Most companies and home users (the non-technical type) dont have the time or money to spend on working on initatives such as this. They need a solution and they need it yesterday. Users should not have to go back to a previous distribution, or re-engineer a solution because an operating system developer made system changes that adversely effect the running of a simple program.
What JWZ is stating are suggestions to make things better. Unfortunately, the initial reaction of the Unix Bigots, after reading and replying to articles like this, is to knock people down without understanding where he's coming from.
Dolemite
Note to JWZ there are Mac alternatives for Emacs it's not X but it works. I've been using the NT Emacs for a while now (5+ years). The (Unix) developer has put some serious work into this version of Emacs.
...to make. Based on this CD, they signed a deal with Geffen and the rest is history.
It's still possible to make a record for this much.
Granted, if someone signs to a record label, they'll get a lot more money to play with.
Dolemite
_________________________________
What's next?
Classes on how the banter between Space Ghost, Moltar and Zorak (in a typical Space Ghost Episode) is a crypto facist metaphor for nuclear war?
Dolemite
_______________________
...following statement:
Really though, we're doing nothing that we weren't already doing for years - making mix tapes from albums and CD's and swapping them. It's just now we a a higher-quality medium to achieve the same thing.
Lars Ulrich of Metallica, media whore during the whole Napster ordeal, did the same thing when he was young. He used to make mix tapes of Euorpean metal bands (not available in the US at the time or VERY hard to get) and trade them to friends in the Bay Area. Did he ever once pay royalties to the bands he made tapes of?
It's because of his hyprocitical actions during the Napster ordeal that I lost all respect for him and Metallica.
Dolemite
This is Sprint, the ISP who doesn't do a thing about hackers originating from their domain.
I don't know how many times in the past I've tracked hackers at work to Sprint's networks.
Getting a reply or action from Sprint Security is non-existent. I guess it takes an article published in 'Wired' to get action from them.
Sprint and Prodigy are renown for not working with customers in addressing secuity issues.
Dolemite
_________________________________
That someone is now obtaining rights for the domain name that will be the source for all your linux Ports for this next generation console.
Not to mention finding out how the said group can get an advanced copy of this new console to see if linux can be installed on it.
Heh
Dolemite
__________________________
Really? You obviously haven't seen this:
http://www.fileplanet.com/bestof2002/mods/
Dolemite
__________________________________
..taking Counter-Strike's place as the best H/L mod.
Dolemite
______________________
You have to call this place!!! Tell them that you are putting together a geek wedding, they will be able to help out. They have TONS of stuff that would be awesome.
Here's the link.
I'd also get some Futurama items too.
Dolemite
I hear they are ripe for a lawsuit from SCO?
(/sarcasm)
Dolemite
_____________________
That's all I care about regarding this microwave.
Dolemite
_____________________
..to battling piracy.
No one will to pay 16-20 Dollars for a new CD.
Its time for the fat cats in the music industry to lower the CD prices to 10-12 dollars. No CD is worth $20. I can buy a DVD for this price.
Please don't tell me that prices can't be lowered. They can. New CD prices are inflated AT LEAST 8-10 dollars by the record execs and stores (even more if the store is Tower Records).
Until inflated CD prices go down to where they were 5-10 years ago, piracy will remain.
Dolemite
________________________________
Just because they have a certification does not mean that they:
1)Know how to fix a car
2)Won't rip you off
Also, IMO a cert just means that they can pass a certain type of test aimed towards certain people. MS and Unix certs are like this.
I don't know how many people who are MS or Unix certified and have never touched an operating system. they just know how to take certain types of tests.
Dolemite
It's plain and simple. You put restrictions and hyped up press on games such as GTA, the games will become more popular and the kids will want the games all the more.
Stop hyping the games and the attention will go away.
Everyone is waiting for the price to go down. Flat panels are way too overpriced. If the average flatpanel prices were cut by 1/3 people would start buying.
I notice how the article failed to note that, in 2002, there were more Linux/Unix explots than in MS operating systems by a margin of 2 to 1.
Dolemite
"I'm no Linux user." But it's the best thing since sliced bread.
You would think in the very least, he could read a couple of web sites about Linux before blowing smoke out of his ass.
Dolemite
...to put out an article like this.
Dsanfte is Right on about game companies not wanting to assist gamers about various issues.
I'll provide two examples as well, Two good and one bad.
I've never played Everquest so I can't comment on what this person is going through but I can comment on the following games:
No One Lives Forever 2
007: Nightfire
Day of Defeat - a Killer World War II Half-Life Mod
Both of these games have a predecessor that have had sucess in it's previous incarnations.
The 007 Games have had a standard to live up to ever since the console game 'Goldeneye' was released. This game gained it's popularity with the awesome multiplayer aspects on the console. IMO this was the predecessor to all the on-line console games that are out now.
No One Lives Forever 1 (NOLF1) was an amazing game with a multiplayer aspect that immensely enhanced the single player game and was the major reason that this game won all the awards that it did. (Running over people with Snowmobiles is sooo fun)
When NOLF2 was released the reviews on the single player was favorable but nothing was said about the multiplayer aspect. I began researching this game for a possible purchase and began vewing the Sierra Forums and noted Two problems:
1) All MP aspects that made NOLF1 a great game, was removed for a 'co-op' multiplayer version. The 'Co-Op' version was essentially teams of online players playing against an AI Opponent.
2) The MP code was buggy. People were complaining of too many dropped packets.
Sierra'sattitude for #1 was initally "If you don't like it go buy another game that has on-line player vs online player this is not what this game is about". (These threads have since mysteriously disappeared)
After player after player were complaining about the lack of the cool MP aspects that made NOLF1 famous and the fact that people were mad that couldn't return the game (they were all expecting the same MP aspects of NOLF1 in NOLF2), news came out that a new patch would be coming out to add DM maps and better MP code.
Needles to say this alienated players and left sour tastes in peoples stomach. This reason alone and Sierra's initial atitude/response to this issue are the reason why I didn't buy this game and I laugh when it received Game of the Year Award by Adspy..er GameSpy.
007: Nightfire is EA/Gearbox's entry into the James Bond Game arena. This game is based on the Half-Life engine and has an original storyline. The Single player is amazing and has all the cool elements of a Bond Flick. The Multiplayer blew me away by the maps and mods it released. (Imagine a CTF/DM map that is a near perfect recreation of the Fort Knox Scene in 'Goldfinger'.)
Granted, when this product was initially released, there were issues with the game (MP Exploit, No Server manual, No MP manual for N00bs who don't understand the concept of Team-Killing). EA/Gearbox provided two methods to give feedback about this game (EA - E-mail and Gearbox Via their forums) and they (after about amonth of the PC version being released) are releasing a SP 'after the new year'.
In addition, with immense interest in Modding for this game (our clan is looking into creating MP maps that are recreations scenes in Bond Movies. We're looking to create maps for all the Bond Movies.), There will be a SDK released after the New Year as well.
Day of Defeat is probably the best Mod I've ever played in MP (not a big counter-strike fan). In short, this is a World War II mod with the Axis versus the Allies in various map situations. The weapon Recreation, maps and the general popularity is slowly growing every day. I beleive one of the main reasons why this is is that The Day of Defeat MOD team has a direct link to the public through their forums and are looking for contunuous feedback on how this game can be improved.
I will always be a fan of this MOD because of the direct link to the developers.
My advice to anyone who have problems with various games is to browse/Post to the game designers forums or e-mail the company with your concerns, more often than not the various companies will listen to the customers for they are the people who will come back tothe various companies for their next release of a given game.
Granted, you may not always find forums with direct link to the developersfor Games (ID Software is a good example of this) but if you do, utilize these resources.
My advice to Game companies is to listen to your customer base and give them a foum to give feedback for they pay your salaries and they dictate wether or not your game will continue to sell.
Issues with games are easy to fix, runied reputataions over a given game are next to impossible to fix.
Dolemite
Me too. The Most of the Games released this year were utter crap (see my rant about NOLF2). The only game I would recommend is 007:Nightfire for the PC. The most recent game I bought was Quake 3 Arena for 20 Bones. There's nothing good out on the market at this time.
As for Half-Life, this game never gets old. I'm having fun playing the following Mods (In order of Popularity):
1)Day of Defeat - Kick Ass WW2 Mod
2)TFC/Neo TF!!!
3)Tour of Duty - Great Vietnam Mod
4)Counter Strike
5)DM
Thanks for the link!!