RTFA. I mean it is not entirely your fault, the idiotic "reporting" of "news" from michael leaves a lot to be desired, but in the article, as well as in the three line summary to which you reply, there is a mention of some people only losing network connectivity after installing the patch. Actually READING the article (a novel idea, but bear with me) renders the following:
""There were hundreds of thousands of people who downloaded this, and we know of only a handful of people who had the problem."
Do you know why Greece does not have broadband? Because Greece does not have a cable TV network. The only network capable of high-speed internet belongs to the phone company that, after decades of despotic state rule finds itself in a free economy. IIRC the proposed ADSL prices go something like 150EUR for a 256/64 connection. While ok for most people (I guess you wouldn't mind paying that much, for example), it is WAY overpriced for everyone else. And I won't even start speaking of Greek connectivity, it is hilarious. When I was visiting Greece last year I was told that the main connection to the Internet was a 10Mbit line!
Just for comparison purposes, here in Portugal I have a choice between cable Internet for about 50eur (768/128) or ADSL (various speeds, up to 1024/256). The 1024/256 option costs about 200eur, including modem and fixed ip. And you are connected to the European backbone (my isp is Via.networks, they OWN their own backbone).
Anyway, and to the point, wireless broadband is the only way that Greece will get true broadband...
For $10 a month you get a fairly decent selection of good music. It is all mp3 encoded, 192VBR lame encoder. Not bad quality AT ALL.
If you want something and they don't have it, go to the forums and ask for it. If more people want it, they WILL try to get it.
The best thing about emusic, though, is not finding stuff you want. It is finding stuff you would NEVER have listened to. I like 80s rock and punk rock, I found a lot of stuff from that period there, but due to their catalogue I am gaining an appreciation of blues music and I am redescovering other areas too.
I am an emusic customer. An extremely happy one, at that. I pay my 10$ a month and I get GOOD music to listen to, no limits, no limitations. Do I get the greatest hits? No. Will I ever get them? No. Will most people who subscribe to emusic be disappointed? Yes. Why? Because most people think that Britney and Christina and all the other pop idols are "music". They are not. Emusic is perfect if you know what you are looking for. It is even better if you don't know what you are looking for and are willing to experiment. It is horrible for the kazaa crowd. But in terms of value for money, hell, I can't fault it!
Sorry, I was talking about mmorpgs specifically. I don't know why, I just cannot imagine myself playing that kind of game in the livingroom. Can't wait for online fighting / racing games to tell you the truth... GT4 online should be excellent...
Hehe, excellent tr^H^H contribution. OK, I'll tell you why consoles still exist:
1. They are cheap. 200$/euros buy you an excellent console. No need to spend any more money, no hidden costs. It all is in the box.
2. They JUST work. No need to install and maintain an OS, not to talk about updating it.
3. A game loads almost instantly.
4. They fit in the living room. Well, kind of, all three of them are UGLY as hell, but better than having a PC there...
5. All the best games are ONLY released on consoles which forces the people who want to play them to buy the respective console:-)
I, myself, think that if you have a reasonably high-end PC, there's not much reason to invest in a console. Sure, you'll never get to play Zelda, or Mario, or Ratchet and Clank, and you'll play Final Fantasy and Vice City years after they come out for the consoles, but there's SO MUCH out there that you won't miss it.
I do agree with you on the online games thing, though. Even though I'm quite happy to play DAOC on my PC, I cannot imagine playing something like that on a console. But that's me... I do guess, however, that Lucasarts agree with me since they seem to be focusing on the PC port first...
Portugal is a disgrace as well. Full price games retail for about 65-70 Euros. I've NEVER bought a console game from over here. Having them shipped from amazon.co.uk is way cheaper...
Gamecube having off the shelf components? The only off the shelf thing in the Gamecube is the processor, and that has been HEAVILY tweaked by IBM. If you think the Cube is less powerful than PS2, well, sorry, I'm not in the mood for feeding trolls, look at the games and judge for yourself. I thoroughly enjoy PS2 games but that does not make the console more powerful than the Gamecube.
My assertion that the psx did not have 3d capabilities was wrong. However, 3d gaming took the form it has today (beyond Tekken etc) because of Nintendo innovation. Simple as that. They defined a genre, much as Metal Gear solid defined another.
Disagreeing with someone, tactfully or not, does not merit the branding of "fanboy". Fact is, I enjoy games and Nintendo offer an oasis of innovation where others walk with fear of putting out something new. They never take the easy way out, and even when they disappoint, they do with style (Mario Sunshine).
As far as the 3d capabilities of the n64 and the psx are concerned, the psx's 3d capabilities are laughable compared to the n64. That is what I mean. It was the N64 and mario 64 that pushed the console gaming world to 3d. You had NOTHING like that before.
As I said in my original post, perhaps innovation was not the correct word. But the N64 era had games that were absolutely unforgetable, and they pushed gaming in a different direction. Yes, they have lost the edge now and, much as I love Zelda's latest outing, it does not amaze me like Ocarina did. Metroid was a surprise, yes, but I guess we'll have to wait for the next Nintendo console to see true innovation.
The "you are wrong" part, btw, refered to the assertion that Nintendo should stick to software. I think he was wrong, and I said so, writing a couple of paragraphs framing my ideas a bit. If I offended you, well, it was not my intention.
You are wrong. Nintendo have in the past been the one force of innovation in the gaming market, both in software and hardware. Innovation might be too strong a word, actually, but they have succeded were others have failed miserably. The Gameboy, for example, was amazing for its time, as was the SNES. The N64 was the first, and for a while, the only console that was built with 3d in mind. But that is not really the point. The point is that Nintendo is not a software company that does hardware, or vice versa. They apply a holistic approach to gaming, they use their hardware experience to innovate in software (Mario 64), and they create hardware to create a different level of interaction (remember the first time you saw the N64 controller). It just happens that the current console is less innovative than the past nintendo consoles have been but there are a few things you cannot find anywhere else (gameboy connection, wavebird, etc)
I don't care whether I can play Zelda and Halo on the same console. Face it, if you are a true gamer you are pretty much forced to have all three major consoles, plus a gameboy. And I definitely do not want Nintendo to copy Sony's strategy. Sony are doing quite well, no need to have more of the same. I want new things, and Nintendo have been there. Less so in the past year or so but I think it is more likely they will bring something that will astonish the gaming market than, for example, Microsoft.
how little attention this thread has been getting! Sierra games basically sum up my adolescente computer game playing. I remember being stuck with an Atari ST with a mono monitor (640x400 resolution baby) and Sierra and Lucasarts games were the only ones playable on the machine without needing to occupy the family TV. Anyhow, I remember playing Police Quest, yes, Leisure Suit Larry, Hero's Quest, the ultra-funny Space Quests and, of course, the epitome of frustration that was King's Quest IV. I still remember that stupid scene where you had to tiptoe on a whale's tongue....
Even though everyone remembers them for the "Quest" series, the memory of playing the two Manhunter games. Truly a testament to excellence. Manhunter and Loom were two of the most original games of the 80s, and I cannot help but think of the Manhunter people doing Loom 2...
A cellphone has been more than a cellphone for at least two years now everywhere in the world except for the US. GPRS, WAP, iMode, Java Games etc. etc. etc. Microsoft are not trying anything new, they're following SonyEricsson and, of course, Nokia.
Your fine sarcasm was not lost my dear friend, although it probably was not obvious in my reply. I never saw the point nor fine philosophical points of John Woo movies myself but to each his own, I guess...
You know, with all respect to everyone out there who bought and is enjoying "The Sims", every time I see someone play that piece of crap I think "well, what do you expect when you de-marginalise gamers - you get pointless drivel for people without the skills to play proper games"... Again, no offence...
I see you are writing from Portugal. Well, so am I - and I have to agree, the piracy thing is truly phenomenal in this country. I have met nobody, NOBODY who actually buys their games here. PS2 sold like crap. Then the neo2 chip came. People started buying them from one moment to the other. Xbox, ditto. Gamecube has NO market in this country even though the best gaming gems of 2003 are coming out for that platform. Why? Well, because you cannot go to pt.mercado.informatica and hunt down a friendly Gamecube pirate. But you can get pirate ANYTHING here for more or less 3 euros. Yes, I know, it is truly stupid to buy something for 50euros when you can get it for 1/10 of the price, but believe me, the experience is not the same...
Now, regarding MMORPGs, in Portugal, well, frankly, the level of English of the average Portuguese gamer is not good enough so they can feel confident to invest their time in the game. I have never seen any MMORPG being marketed here either, but as I don't really buy any game magazines I am reporting my own experiences from mega-stores. It is simply not mainstream in most countries.
You know, I quite enjoyed the game. I thought that, at points, it got ridiculously hard and it overplayed that bullet time gimmic to the point that you had to play the game in slow motion to get anywhere. I thought the best parts of MP were the cut-scenes and voice acting. Yes, they were over the top but they really appropriate to the story. The dream sequences, on the other hand, were some of the worst gaming experiences I can describe, and I've seen them all. As to the werehouse, well, ok, what did you expect to find in a warehouse? Crates are appropriate.
Since you plug your site, I'll bite and give you my two cents. Why oh why do you focus on the negative aspects of everything you review? I mean, I understand the point of your site, but, frankly, after reading your comments on Ape Escape, Zelda and Max Payne, I am beginning to wonder if there is any game you do enjoy. Not meaning to offend there, just think you are far too unforgiving and that your levels are too high for what is, essentially, entertainment.
I like my wmvs and rp9s and mpeg4 as much as the next guy, and I think it's excellent there is another player in the block. I'm not really into justifying my choices of codec with political arguements (free, open source, gpl etc.), but many here are. The article, as presented, left the impression that vp6 was free (since vp3 was free and, indeed, open source). I'm just pointing out, for the/.ers who do care, that it is not. If it is irrelevant to you, no harm done, but if you are on the lookout for the next big open source thing, well, this is not it.
People, this codec is not free, it is not open source and I'm not even sure that it will be a free download. Even though VP3 was indeed open-sourced and is as free as can be, VP6 is not. It does not have MPEG4's licencing limitations but it is not open-source. It is, for all intents and purposes, as free as WMV and Real.
I remember playing UT on a P200 with 64Mb RAM,a Voodoo 2 card and a 56k (42k really) connection and it was a really good experience running at 640x480. Since the main problem with online gaming is high pings and not low bandwidth, as long as you stick with local servers or manage to get a truly global ISP (i.e. Via.Networks and UUNET in Europe, everything else does not have its own backbown afaik), you are guaranteed to play a good online game. Why you would need a 333MHz PC to play a game that is this basic is beyond me.
The trailer looked as if we were talking about some action FPS. Snake spraying bullets? What the hell?!??!??! Where is the stealth element that made the previous game amazing?
SS2 on the PS2 was craptastic, especially the second part. Truly disappointing, the story was one of the worst EVER. If this trailer is anything to go by, we are going to have another disappointement coming our way...
Re:What I would like to know.
on
Libranet 2.8 Review
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Fair enough... This is actually a fairly complete answer. I just use the software that does the job I want to do but I appreciate your viewpoint. I don't agree with RMS's view of the world and of software (and I don't think it is a subject that can be discussed in/. without flames and trolling), but I guess if it works for you it is ok with me... I haven't had much experience with using just Free software other than Redhat 8.0 which, as I understand, comes out of the box with only GPL software and, frankly, is unusable as a home PC (no mp3, no video player of any use etc. etc.) I find Mandrake with the Texstar and PLF sources to be the best Linux desktop myself.
I'm really curious, why do you want to avoid all those things? I understand Opera, for example, you either pay or you get those hideous banners, but what is the problem with the rest? Assuming, of course, you want to build a workstation, not a server, for which case Libranet is a bit of a wrong solution imho.
Slashdot Mirror
""There were hundreds of thousands of people who downloaded this, and we know of only a handful of people who had the problem."
If you also block www and ftp traffic I GUARANTEE you will see a drop of 95% of traffic. The boss will LOVE that.
Just for comparison purposes, here in Portugal I have a choice between cable Internet for about 50eur (768/128) or ADSL (various speeds, up to 1024/256). The 1024/256 option costs about 200eur, including modem and fixed ip. And you are connected to the European backbone (my isp is Via.networks, they OWN their own backbone).
Anyway, and to the point, wireless broadband is the only way that Greece will get true broadband...
If you want something and they don't have it, go to the forums and ask for it. If more people want it, they WILL try to get it.
The best thing about emusic, though, is not finding stuff you want. It is finding stuff you would NEVER have listened to. I like 80s rock and punk rock, I found a lot of stuff from that period there, but due to their catalogue I am gaining an appreciation of blues music and I am redescovering other areas too.
I am an emusic customer. An extremely happy one, at that. I pay my 10$ a month and I get GOOD music to listen to, no limits, no limitations. Do I get the greatest hits? No. Will I ever get them? No. Will most people who subscribe to emusic be disappointed? Yes. Why? Because most people think that Britney and Christina and all the other pop idols are "music". They are not. Emusic is perfect if you know what you are looking for. It is even better if you don't know what you are looking for and are willing to experiment. It is horrible for the kazaa crowd. But in terms of value for money, hell, I can't fault it!
Sorry, I was talking about mmorpgs specifically. I don't know why, I just cannot imagine myself playing that kind of game in the livingroom. Can't wait for online fighting / racing games to tell you the truth... GT4 online should be excellent...
1. They are cheap. 200$/euros buy you an excellent console. No need to spend any more money, no hidden costs. It all is in the box.
2. They JUST work. No need to install and maintain an OS, not to talk about updating it.
3. A game loads almost instantly.
4. They fit in the living room. Well, kind of, all three of them are UGLY as hell, but better than having a PC there...
5. All the best games are ONLY released on consoles which forces the people who want to play them to buy the respective console :-)
I, myself, think that if you have a reasonably high-end PC, there's not much reason to invest in a console. Sure, you'll never get to play Zelda, or Mario, or Ratchet and Clank, and you'll play Final Fantasy and Vice City years after they come out for the consoles, but there's SO MUCH out there that you won't miss it.
I do agree with you on the online games thing, though. Even though I'm quite happy to play DAOC on my PC, I cannot imagine playing something like that on a console. But that's me... I do guess, however, that Lucasarts agree with me since they seem to be focusing on the PC port first...
As opposed to all the other MMPORPGs that run on Linux?
Portugal is a disgrace as well. Full price games retail for about 65-70 Euros. I've NEVER bought a console game from over here. Having them shipped from amazon.co.uk is way cheaper...
Live long and prosper, "bigger person"...
My assertion that the psx did not have 3d capabilities was wrong. However, 3d gaming took the form it has today (beyond Tekken etc) because of Nintendo innovation. Simple as that. They defined a genre, much as Metal Gear solid defined another.
As far as the 3d capabilities of the n64 and the psx are concerned, the psx's 3d capabilities are laughable compared to the n64. That is what I mean. It was the N64 and mario 64 that pushed the console gaming world to 3d. You had NOTHING like that before.
As I said in my original post, perhaps innovation was not the correct word. But the N64 era had games that were absolutely unforgetable, and they pushed gaming in a different direction. Yes, they have lost the edge now and, much as I love Zelda's latest outing, it does not amaze me like Ocarina did. Metroid was a surprise, yes, but I guess we'll have to wait for the next Nintendo console to see true innovation.
The "you are wrong" part, btw, refered to the assertion that Nintendo should stick to software. I think he was wrong, and I said so, writing a couple of paragraphs framing my ideas a bit. If I offended you, well, it was not my intention.
I don't care whether I can play Zelda and Halo on the same console. Face it, if you are a true gamer you are pretty much forced to have all three major consoles, plus a gameboy. And I definitely do not want Nintendo to copy Sony's strategy. Sony are doing quite well, no need to have more of the same. I want new things, and Nintendo have been there. Less so in the past year or so but I think it is more likely they will bring something that will astonish the gaming market than, for example, Microsoft.
Even though everyone remembers them for the "Quest" series, the memory of playing the two Manhunter games. Truly a testament to excellence. Manhunter and Loom were two of the most original games of the 80s, and I cannot help but think of the Manhunter people doing Loom 2...
Ah, I guess I'm getting old...
A cellphone has been more than a cellphone for at least two years now everywhere in the world except for the US. GPRS, WAP, iMode, Java Games etc. etc. etc. Microsoft are not trying anything new, they're following SonyEricsson and, of course, Nokia.
You know, with all respect to everyone out there who bought and is enjoying "The Sims", every time I see someone play that piece of crap I think "well, what do you expect when you de-marginalise gamers - you get pointless drivel for people without the skills to play proper games"... Again, no offence...
I thought "The Sims" catered for that demographic...
Now, regarding MMORPGs, in Portugal, well, frankly, the level of English of the average Portuguese gamer is not good enough so they can feel confident to invest their time in the game. I have never seen any MMORPG being marketed here either, but as I don't really buy any game magazines I am reporting my own experiences from mega-stores. It is simply not mainstream in most countries.
Since you plug your site, I'll bite and give you my two cents. Why oh why do you focus on the negative aspects of everything you review? I mean, I understand the point of your site, but, frankly, after reading your comments on Ape Escape, Zelda and Max Payne, I am beginning to wonder if there is any game you do enjoy. Not meaning to offend there, just think you are far too unforgiving and that your levels are too high for what is, essentially, entertainment.
I like my wmvs and rp9s and mpeg4 as much as the next guy, and I think it's excellent there is another player in the block. I'm not really into justifying my choices of codec with political arguements (free, open source, gpl etc.), but many here are. The article, as presented, left the impression that vp6 was free (since vp3 was free and, indeed, open source). I'm just pointing out, for the /.ers who do care, that it is not. If it is irrelevant to you, no harm done, but if you are on the lookout for the next big open source thing, well, this is not it.
I remember playing UT on a P200 with 64Mb RAM,a Voodoo 2 card and a 56k (42k really) connection and it was a really good experience running at 640x480. Since the main problem with online gaming is high pings and not low bandwidth, as long as you stick with local servers or manage to get a truly global ISP (i.e. Via.Networks and UUNET in Europe, everything else does not have its own backbown afaik), you are guaranteed to play a good online game. Why you would need a 333MHz PC to play a game that is this basic is beyond me.
SS2 on the PS2 was craptastic, especially the second part. Truly disappointing, the story was one of the worst EVER. If this trailer is anything to go by, we are going to have another disappointement coming our way...
Fair enough... This is actually a fairly complete answer. I just use the software that does the job I want to do but I appreciate your viewpoint. I don't agree with RMS's view of the world and of software (and I don't think it is a subject that can be discussed in /. without flames and trolling), but I guess if it works for you it is ok with me... I haven't had much experience with using just Free software other than Redhat 8.0 which, as I understand, comes out of the box with only GPL software and, frankly, is unusable as a home PC (no mp3, no video player of any use etc. etc.) I find Mandrake with the Texstar and PLF sources to be the best Linux desktop myself.
I'm really curious, why do you want to avoid all those things? I understand Opera, for example, you either pay or you get those hideous banners, but what is the problem with the rest? Assuming, of course, you want to build a workstation, not a server, for which case Libranet is a bit of a wrong solution imho.