Incidentally, Falun Gong is a weirdo cult like Scientology. It's funny how everyone in the West thinks they're some kind of counterculture heroes. Guess what, you've only heard one side of the story from the biased media.
That's really a very selfish opinion. Do you accept censorship in general, or only if it happens in other countries?
The chinese has tried to revolt against the government, only to be squashed by the government forces -- remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. Do you accept this as simply a problem for chinese citizens? The chinese government will demand that Google censor this event, along with a vast number of other "embarrassing" historical facts in the hope that the chinese will forget it ever happened. This is fine with you, of course.
Google is a company looking for profit. It might not care that it has to censor its search results, as long as it brings in the big bucks, but it sure doesn't seem right, no matter which way you put it.
Ok, so Arkanoid was a Breakout clone to begin with, but hey, Arkanoid took the crap out of Breakout and made the genre fun, so I wouldn't fault the original poster to equate Breakout style games with Arkanoid.:)
Flooded market, too many consoles, crap to good game ratio too high, and greedy companies looking to cash in on the boom... check, check, check, and check.
There's a huge difference between the conditions of the early eighties and today. Back then, you had a vast number of competing platforms (consoles and computers) instead of the select few you have today, and the quality of the games are exponentially greater than any games released in the early eighties. What triggered the crash back then was the extremely bad quality of big titles such as E.T. and Pacman (man those stunk up the place).
We won't see a crash like the early eighties today. However, the big software houses, like E.A., might topple over if they go for incremental changes, micro-payments etc. and people disapprove, but I think not. They will try this -- if it fails, they will try something else. Eventually, hopefully, people will buy games such as Katamari Darcy instead of yet another Madden.
At the time of writing this, there are about 150 comments to this article, and most of them are composed of people who complains about the big size, the lack of portability, the weight etc... But hey, some people want a laptop with a big monitor, and this fits the ticket. Other people want a feather weight laptop with a 12" screen, and there are laptops for those guys too. Why complain about the size of the new Dell when there is ample choice in the market place?
I think you'll find that there's a very loud group of people who really hated the movies and who wants to communicate that and take pot shots at George Lucas any time they can.
Personally, I enjoyed both movies, though there are few scenes in both movies that makes me cringe every time (Jar-Jar, obviously, and any scene with Jar-Jar and his people).
Sounds nice. I use the GBA Movie Player myself, which uses a CF cartridge. But how do you compress 7 hours of video on just a gig? Using the converter that came with the GBA Movie Player, I only get a half hours worth of video on half a gig. I'm looking into buying this now, as portable video with GBA/DS is very cool.
I find it awful funny to say the PSP doesn't have many good games, and to specifically compliment the DS games. The #1 complaint I hear from DS FANS is that it has no games.
I know, I know. There's plenty of good games out for both systems, although right now the PSP is mainly about racing/driving games and puzzles. I'm *very* much looking forward to the next batch of games for the PSP. I'll be first in line to buy them (import though, as the PSP isn't due to be released in Europe until september).
If you're out in public, you should be using headphones, anyway, not subjecting people to your noise, so the sound issue is probably negated that way. And if you're at home, you should probably be watching your video on your normal video equipment with decent audio. Sure, there are likely to be exceptions, but I'd expect that is the normal scenario, so I wouldn't get too worked up about it.
In public headphones, definitely. It's extremely annoying to listen to someone playing games on a handheld;)
However, at home, I mean, it's my choice, really. I like to sit and relax in the sofa or in bed playing a handheld. I do have a PS2, Xbox, CD32 ++, but sometimes it's just all right to use the handheld without having to turn on the TV, finding the hand controller, muting the volume (since the kids are sleeping at this point) etc. A handheld is nice to have for a lot of reasons.
To the point, the sound output of the PSP. I'm not saying that it's bad, but it's not quite up to par with its competition. It's not as loud and it sounds actually a bit tinny. Compare this to the stereo, surround sound output from the Nintendo DS, and it's clear that it's inferior. That said, I don't really consider this to be a big thing. It's not like you can't hear the PSP at all:=)
There are some good comparisons on Usenet, if you search it via Google groups. I've got both consoles (Nintendo DS and Sony PSP), so I'll chip in with an opinion. They're both good consoles, with some unique strenghts that make it worthwhile to own both.
The Nintendo DS has the most addictive games out there (Super Mario 64 DS is pretty awesome, if you like that type of game. However, I don't care for Metroid at all. It's nice enough, but it's a pretty boring game). The touch screen is a stroke of genius, because it gives you the combination of a wonderful analog "stick" (via the thumb stylus) and an ordinary touch screen/stylus combo.
Sony PSP has a wonderful and absolutely beautiful screen, no doubt, and I really like the size of it. It's got a decent MP3 player, a good photo viewer, but the speaker is not all that good. The sound output is much inferior to Nintendo DS and GBA SP, which is a bit odd. It doesn't have a lot of games released for it yet, but if you like racing games and card games/puzzles, you're in for a treat.
I wouldn't recommend either one above the other. They're both great consoles.
Good thing for all wannabe PSP "pirates", although this certainly doesn't increase the chances that Sony will produce a consumer UMD burner, but those chances were slim to begin with anyway...
This is early days, for sure, but I wonder if it will be possible to play UMD extracted games from a memory chip in the future (whenever 2GB chips are released...). Would be a bugger to copy 1+ GB to a memory chip, I guess, not to speak of the memory chip being so expensive in the first place.;/
It often takes about a year from the discovery of the moon until it can be named. The
International Astronomical Union (IAU) require detailed observations over time in order to recognize the moon as an unique object.
The blurb is misleading, as the article specifically says that it won't be ready until late summer, both in Europe and the US.
Here's a quote: Valve's Doug Lombardi added credence to the news this morning, but fell short of specifying a release date.
"We plan to finish development of Half-Life 2 Xbox in late summer and have it available everywhere very shortly thereafter," he told Eurogamer. "No specific date to share just yet." US reports are suggesting that the game is to be finished in August.
This is actually the reason that the DS makes me somewhat sad. The GBA really was the last great refuge for the 2D gamer
Indeed. I was never a big fan of handhelds until recently (though I've owned a fair few, starting with the Gameboy (BW), Lynx and the Game Gear), but the outstanding 2D titles on the GB Advance has made me a convert. Playing Super Mario World and Double Dragon on the Advance is (almost) better than the real thing (a SNES or a fully fleshed arcade machine). Hope those times aren't over with the DS and the PSP...
Well said. I was a dedicated Outlook user until I got a Gmail account. I've been using tons of email clients over the years (Eudora, The Bat, Outlook Express, Outlook, Agent, Thunderbird etc. etc. You name it, I've tried it, but I eventually settled with Outlook), but Gmail is the tops. Its UI is great and searching for old mails is a snap. The crowning feature is its storage capacity and its transportability. Wherever I am, I can always access my email, and not just the last ten days worth of email, but every mail I've ever received (since I opened my account, that is).
When a Mareketing Manager is "ecstatic about our alliance with MTV" instead of ecstatic about the product. I begin to doubt. Is it me or does this article give off vibes of overhyping to compensate for a poor product?
Sheesh, didn't you know that marketing guys are ecstatic about everything that's even remotely connected to the products they are marketing.:)
In this context, of course they're ecstatic about their "alliance" with MTV. I'm *pretty* sure they're also ecstatic about their product, its line-up, its new look, their tie-in with ATI and IBM etc.
Don't know that the market really works that way, but here's my conspiracy theory. Regular "announcements" must buoy stock value more than regular "delays" devalue it. I can't imagine any other reason for Sony's usual (is it "traditional" after three generations?) behavior.
Definitely - as long as they actually come up with a product in the end.:)
I guess they've picked up the tactic from Microsoft, who habitually announce their products and its feature sets way before the products are in development.
But this time around, with a strong competition from Microsofts Xbox 2, delays could really hurt Sony. I hope they get the console out in time, so that we'll still have a competetive console market.
Software rivals are now complaining, however, that the new MP-less version is not fully compatible with their programs, further complicating the implementation of the EU's antitrust ruling.
Is anyone really surprised at this behavior . . .
So, why are they not compatible? Are they using WMP hooks or DLLs that are no longer present?
Slashdot Mirror
BTW, would you support the US Government if it started persecuting Scientologists like the chinese went after people who followed Falun Gong?
The chinese has tried to revolt against the government, only to be squashed by the government forces -- remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. Do you accept this as simply a problem for chinese citizens? The chinese government will demand that Google censor this event, along with a vast number of other "embarrassing" historical facts in the hope that the chinese will forget it ever happened. This is fine with you, of course.
Google is a company looking for profit. It might not care that it has to censor its search results, as long as it brings in the big bucks, but it sure doesn't seem right, no matter which way you put it.
I never thought I'd find a breakout game better than Arkanoid, but this was absolutely superb. Thanks for the link :)
Ok, so Arkanoid was a Breakout clone to begin with, but hey, Arkanoid took the crap out of Breakout and made the genre fun, so I wouldn't fault the original poster to equate Breakout style games with Arkanoid. :)
We won't see a crash like the early eighties today. However, the big software houses, like E.A., might topple over if they go for incremental changes, micro-payments etc. and people disapprove, but I think not. They will try this -- if it fails, they will try something else. Eventually, hopefully, people will buy games such as Katamari Darcy instead of yet another Madden.
At the time of writing this, there are about 150 comments to this article, and most of them are composed of people who complains about the big size, the lack of portability, the weight etc... But hey, some people want a laptop with a big monitor, and this fits the ticket. Other people want a feather weight laptop with a 12" screen, and there are laptops for those guys too. Why complain about the size of the new Dell when there is ample choice in the market place?
Personally, I enjoyed both movies, though there are few scenes in both movies that makes me cringe every time (Jar-Jar, obviously, and any scene with Jar-Jar and his people).
Sounds nice. I use the GBA Movie Player myself, which uses a CF cartridge. But how do you compress 7 hours of video on just a gig? Using the converter that came with the GBA Movie Player, I only get a half hours worth of video on half a gig. I'm looking into buying this now, as portable video with GBA/DS is very cool.
I know, I know. There's plenty of good games out for both systems, although right now the PSP is mainly about racing/driving games and puzzles. I'm *very* much looking forward to the next batch of games for the PSP. I'll be first in line to buy them (import though, as the PSP isn't due to be released in Europe until september).
However, at home, I mean, it's my choice, really. I like to sit and relax in the sofa or in bed playing a handheld. I do have a PS2, Xbox, CD32 ++, but sometimes it's just all right to use the handheld without having to turn on the TV, finding the hand controller, muting the volume (since the kids are sleeping at this point) etc. A handheld is nice to have for a lot of reasons.
To the point, the sound output of the PSP. I'm not saying that it's bad, but it's not quite up to par with its competition. It's not as loud and it sounds actually a bit tinny. Compare this to the stereo, surround sound output from the Nintendo DS, and it's clear that it's inferior. That said, I don't really consider this to be a big thing. It's not like you can't hear the PSP at all :=)
Wow, I'm really out of date with my intel. Thanks for the link. Hopefully, it'll drop in price over the coming year :)
The Nintendo DS has the most addictive games out there (Super Mario 64 DS is pretty awesome, if you like that type of game. However, I don't care for Metroid at all. It's nice enough, but it's a pretty boring game). The touch screen is a stroke of genius, because it gives you the combination of a wonderful analog "stick" (via the thumb stylus) and an ordinary touch screen/stylus combo.
Sony PSP has a wonderful and absolutely beautiful screen, no doubt, and I really like the size of it. It's got a decent MP3 player, a good photo viewer, but the speaker is not all that good. The sound output is much inferior to Nintendo DS and GBA SP, which is a bit odd. It doesn't have a lot of games released for it yet, but if you like racing games and card games/puzzles, you're in for a treat.
I wouldn't recommend either one above the other. They're both great consoles.
This is early days, for sure, but I wonder if it will be possible to play UMD extracted games from a memory chip in the future (whenever 2GB chips are released...). Would be a bugger to copy 1+ GB to a memory chip, I guess, not to speak of the memory chip being so expensive in the first place.
It often takes about a year from the discovery of the moon until it can be named. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) require detailed observations over time in order to recognize the moon as an unique object.
Here's a quote:
Valve's Doug Lombardi added credence to the news this morning, but fell short of specifying a release date.
"We plan to finish development of Half-Life 2 Xbox in late summer and have it available everywhere very shortly thereafter," he told Eurogamer. "No specific date to share just yet." US reports are suggesting that the game is to be finished in August.
Well said. I was a dedicated Outlook user until I got a Gmail account. I've been using tons of email clients over the years (Eudora, The Bat, Outlook Express, Outlook, Agent, Thunderbird etc. etc. You name it, I've tried it, but I eventually settled with Outlook), but Gmail is the tops. Its UI is great and searching for old mails is a snap. The crowning feature is its storage capacity and its transportability. Wherever I am, I can always access my email, and not just the last ten days worth of email, but every mail I've ever received (since I opened my account, that is).
Obviously, he was 13 when the SNES was due to arrive the first time around. ;)
Air dates for "MTV Presents: The Next Generation Xbox Revealed"
Nord-Amerika: Torsdag 12. mai klokken 9.30 pm (21:30)
Japan/Asia: Fredag 13.mai klokken 11.30
Frankrike: Fredag 13. mai klokken 19:00
Tyskland: Fredag 13. mai klokken 19:00
Italia: Fredag 13. mai klokken 23:30
Nederland: Fredag 13. mai klokken 19:30
Polen: Fredag 13. mai klokken 21:00
Portugal: Fredag 13. mai klokken 20:00
Romania: Fredag 13. mai klokken 20.00
Skandinavia: Fredag 13. mai klokken 22:00
Spania: Fredag 13. mai klokken 21:30
England: Fredag 13. mai klokken 20:00
Australia: Fredag 13. mai klokken 19:00
In this context, of course they're ecstatic about their "alliance" with MTV. I'm *pretty* sure they're also ecstatic about their product, its line-up, its new look, their tie-in with ATI and IBM etc.
Bleh, it's people like you that made MS change their controller. The original controller was really well designed and fits into my hands perfectly.
I guess they've picked up the tactic from Microsoft, who habitually announce their products and its feature sets way before the products are in development.
But this time around, with a strong competition from Microsofts Xbox 2, delays could really hurt Sony. I hope they get the console out in time, so that we'll still have a competetive console market.
Games start at NOK 450 ($70).
I certainly won't be buying either a PSP or a game for the PSP at those prices.
In comparison, the Nintendo DS sells for NOK 1599 (roughly $250). An Xbox costs 1200 ($190).