This news doesn't suprise me in the least! Watch - come around the end of December it still won't be out then VALVE will say it'll be out by April, then pushed back again until September 2004 and maybe by then the STEAM problems will be ironed out and it will have been delayed another year. Just like Microsoft products.:D
IDK seems like more boring sports games to me with online play. Now you can play with little kids and hope they are mature enough to co-operate in the first place!
I think simoniker described the gist of this article.
""The study also indicates that those who played are more likely to be in fights. It's a good thing the authors cautioned that this study did not prove a link between game violence and real-life behavior.""
It's the same old crap again in the media as usual. Oh yes blame kids violence on video games when in fact schools and parents should be blamed for poor teaching and poor parenting. You must never point fingers at the real problem - oh no that's too forbidden, must point at video games.
Damn disgusting if you ask me. Especially since boys have been fighting in schools since the dawn of time way before video games were even invented!
By the time this device comes out - if it ever does in the USA and Canada, I figure 2006 at the latest - Nintendo will already likely have their next generation handheld out on the market.
And if it's anything like the past - Nintendo's next hand-held would sport N64 quality graphics.
Gamespy never had good articles to begin with lol. Plus Gamespy is known for horrible ads especially in thier gamespy programs, and their forums are full of kiddie nit-wits. And crap like this gets posted on Slashdot games section?
In the future please don't post about Gamespy crap here.:D
I read the entire sorry article and I have to say they are morons for saying NWN and SFC were over-rated. Especially since SFC 2 and 3 improved upon the original SFC.
Perhaps I am too old fashioned in my ways but I don't trust games patching themselves - because Murphys Law eventually comes into it where something WILL go wrong.:)
People have the right to complain especially seeing how VALVE has handled STEAM from the get go. Problems galore since the beta release and now the non beta release - plus the fact STEAM is so bug ridden and shoots up system requirements that it is killing off a lot of the players the TFC and CS community HAD to begin with.
Besides STEAM won't be running free games forever - eventually they will want people to use credit cards to play "future" games on it.
I don't think VALVE realized this is exactly why Half Life lasted over 4 years and *WAS* the most online played game on the net for a long time. It was because it had low system requirements - all you needed was a machine above 133 mhz and a decent 3D card.
Heck even a Voodoo3 was good enough to run TFC and or CS with some tweaking and still enjoy the game. Now that STEAM has shot up the system requirements I know a lot of players - often those who are older game players or are satisfied with thier current systems that may be a few years old but serving them well will now have to abandon the game.
To be honest Cyranose I do not trust VALVE's answer on this. I suspect they ARE doing something in the background that could possibly be spyware related and are just trying to use some "good feeling answers" to quiet the masses.
Maybe I am right - maybe I am not, who knows. The point is VALVE has effectivly ticked off a lot of hardcore half life players whether it was TFC/CS or some other mod with this STEAM crap.
Funny how people always thought with Half Life patches that they needed to download all the incremental version patches seperately (Ie 1004 to 1008 then to 1010 etc) when all people needed to do was install Half Life then DOWNLOAD the FULL upgrade patch (which last time was around 70 megs or so) and install it.
Plain and simple. STEAM is aimed towards the AOL crowd who is often too stupid to unzip a zip file - never mind patching a game.
Blah I forgot that you have to register to see the public forums on that Forum topic link. No need to since I posted the system requirements that the fellow Ford_Prefect had posted anyway.
Sorry DDR I didn't make it up. Take a look at this Forum Topic Here and you will see a post by a fellow named Ford_Prefect. In it he states the system requirements that VALVE put out.
Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP
500 MB HD space
256 MB RAM
1.0 Ghz processor
1GB HD space (strongly recommended)
Broadband Internet connection (128kb/s or higher strongly recommended)
It is also recommended that Steam be installed on a hard disk formatted using NTFS. Fat32 drives will work, but performance will be slower.
According to the system requirements for STEAM - it will work on a FAT32 partition but VALVe recommends a NTFS partition for much better performance. Now try telling "Joe Blow with a 6 pack" that he needs to reformat with a NTFS partition (assuming he's running a Windows version that supports it) and he'll just stare at you..
I've talked to a lot of clan folk in IRC lately for some CS and TFC clans I know - a LOT of people are not happy with Steam.
And to be honest I can't blame them. The close to 400 meg download apparantly only has CS 1.6 but doesn't include TFC 1.6. Plus Steam also shot up the system requirements for Half Life from a 133mhz machine with a decent 3D video card to at least a 1ghz CPU with lots of ram and NTFS Partitions.
I just pray they don't use STEAM with Half Life 2 - who need's STEAM to auto patch your installation whether you agree to it or not.
Most of those things download themselves without the user's consent!
And you know why that is - Simple. Average Joe Shmoe with his 6 pack of Coors Beer wouldn't have the first clue how to tighten down his Internet Explorer browser or even use alternatives such as Mozilla or variants like Firebird or K-Meleon even.
Bob I can honestly say I agree with you. I too have no sympathy for people who let adware and spyware install themselves onto the users own PC(s) - then they wonder why in a shock a year later when someone finally tells them about Adaware or Spybot: Search and Destroy why they found over 300+ installed spyware and adware programs...
Do you really trust AOL to filter spam and emails for you? Then good for you - you can join the other 35 million idiotic users who think AOL is the internet and have no clue what a "actual" ISP is.
You are correct - there is a hell of a lot to know to keep Windows systems secure including firewalls - proxies (web browsers) ways to prevent spyware and viruses and what not.
The sad fact is a lot of Windows users don't know any of this and they surf the net with everything WIDE open in the browser - email and even OS itself then wonder why the hell their system is being "owned" and going downhill fast from all the viruses - spyware - and hacking attempts.
The problem with most Windows users - whether they run 95/98/ME/NT/XP/2000 is that they DON'T understand how to lock down the system or that alternatives exist to Microsoft software. They don't know jack s*** about a firewall or better alternatives to Microsoft software that is often more secure, not to mention actually VIRUS scanning email attachments and downloads..
If you have to do e-mail - a very good and secure e-mail client is Pegasus Mail which does NOT blindly open up email attachments and run code like Outlook does.
Get a decent firewall like Sygate PRO or if you must even ZoneAlarm PRO and make sure it's configured properly. Again some windows users would have problems even with something so simple as this sadly.
Want to avoid the nasty crap in Internet Explorer or other browsers? Get a proxy like Proxomitron and JD5000 Filters for Proxomitron which then allows you lock down all that nasty MS crap like VB/ActiveX/Flash/Forced Download scripts/ADS and more that cause problems.
But as everyone else has mentioned here - all it takes is a moron to run a windows box - linux box or hell even a MAC OS X box and not keep up to date with patches. If he/she doesn't know what they are doing any of the three will be insecure.
Also with Microsoft a lot of users I believe are afraid to get the patches - because you keep seeing more and more supposed "horror stories" of how a patch broke Windows or a "feature". Same crap could also apply to same user running a Linux box.
Slashdot Mirror
This news doesn't suprise me in the least! Watch - come around the end of December it still won't be out then VALVE will say it'll be out by April, then pushed back again until September 2004 and maybe by then the STEAM problems will be ironed out and it will have been delayed another year. Just like Microsoft products. :D
IDK seems like more boring sports games to me with online play. Now you can play with little kids and hope they are mature enough to co-operate in the first place!
I think simoniker described the gist of this article.
""The study also indicates that those who played are more likely to be in fights. It's a good thing the authors cautioned that this study did not prove a link between game violence and real-life behavior.""
It's the same old crap again in the media as usual. Oh yes blame kids violence on video games when in fact schools and parents should be blamed for poor teaching and poor parenting. You must never point fingers at the real problem - oh no that's too forbidden, must point at video games.
Damn disgusting if you ask me. Especially since boys have been fighting in schools since the dawn of time way before video games were even invented!
By the time this device comes out - if it ever does in the USA and Canada, I figure 2006 at the latest - Nintendo will already likely have their next generation handheld out on the market.
And if it's anything like the past - Nintendo's next hand-held would sport N64 quality graphics.
Gamespy never had good articles to begin with lol. Plus Gamespy is known for horrible ads especially in thier gamespy programs, and their forums are full of kiddie nit-wits. And crap like this gets posted on Slashdot games section?
:D
In the future please don't post about Gamespy crap here.
I read the entire sorry article and I have to say they are morons for saying NWN and SFC were over-rated. Especially since SFC 2 and 3 improved upon the original SFC.
At least now they won't have to practice FORD on their computers - IE FIX OR REPAIR DAILY like they do with the cars. ^_^
Perhaps I am too old fashioned in my ways but I don't trust games patching themselves - because Murphys Law eventually comes into it where something WILL go wrong. :)
People have the right to complain especially seeing how VALVE has handled STEAM from the get go. Problems galore since the beta release and now the non beta release - plus the fact STEAM is so bug ridden and shoots up system requirements that it is killing off a lot of the players the TFC and CS community HAD to begin with.
Besides STEAM won't be running free games forever - eventually they will want people to use credit cards to play "future" games on it.
I don't think VALVE realized this is exactly why Half Life lasted over 4 years and *WAS* the most online played game on the net for a long time. It was because it had low system requirements - all you needed was a machine above 133 mhz and a decent 3D card.
Heck even a Voodoo3 was good enough to run TFC and or CS with some tweaking and still enjoy the game. Now that STEAM has shot up the system requirements I know a lot of players - often those who are older game players or are satisfied with thier current systems that may be a few years old but serving them well will now have to abandon the game.
To be honest Cyranose I do not trust VALVE's answer on this. I suspect they ARE doing something in the background that could possibly be spyware related and are just trying to use some "good feeling answers" to quiet the masses.
Maybe I am right - maybe I am not, who knows. The point is VALVE has effectivly ticked off a lot of hardcore half life players whether it was TFC/CS or some other mod with this STEAM crap.
Funny how people always thought with Half Life patches that they needed to download all the incremental version patches seperately (Ie 1004 to 1008 then to 1010 etc) when all people needed to do was install Half Life then DOWNLOAD the FULL upgrade patch (which last time was around 70 megs or so) and install it.
Plain and simple. STEAM is aimed towards the AOL crowd who is often too stupid to unzip a zip file - never mind patching a game.
Blah I forgot that you have to register to see the public forums on that Forum topic link. No need to since I posted the system requirements that the fellow Ford_Prefect had posted anyway.
Sorry DDR I didn't make it up. Take a look at this Forum Topic Here and you will see a post by a fellow named Ford_Prefect. In it he states the system requirements that VALVE put out.
Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP
500 MB HD space
256 MB RAM
1.0 Ghz processor
1GB HD space (strongly recommended)
Broadband Internet connection (128kb/s or
higher
strongly recommended)
It is also recommended that Steam be installed on a hard disk formatted using NTFS. Fat32 drives will work, but performance will be slower.
According to the system requirements for STEAM - it will work on a FAT32 partition but VALVe recommends a NTFS partition for much better performance. Now try telling "Joe Blow with a 6 pack" that he needs to reformat with a NTFS partition (assuming he's running a Windows version that supports it) and he'll just stare at you..
I've talked to a lot of clan folk in IRC lately for some CS and TFC clans I know - a LOT of people are not happy with Steam.
And to be honest I can't blame them. The close to 400 meg download apparantly only has CS 1.6 but doesn't include TFC 1.6. Plus Steam also shot up the system requirements for Half Life from a 133mhz machine with a decent 3D video card to at least a 1ghz CPU with lots of ram and NTFS Partitions.
I just pray they don't use STEAM with Half Life 2 - who need's STEAM to auto patch your installation whether you agree to it or not.
And you know why that is - Simple. Average Joe Shmoe with his 6 pack of Coors Beer wouldn't have the first clue how to tighten down his Internet Explorer browser or even use alternatives such as Mozilla or variants like Firebird or K-Meleon even.
Bob I can honestly say I agree with you. I too have no sympathy for people who let adware and spyware install themselves onto the users own PC(s) - then they wonder why in a shock a year later when someone finally tells them about Adaware or Spybot: Search and Destroy why they found over 300+ installed spyware and adware programs...
http://www.jd500.net - JD5000 Proxomitron Filter Set (VERY POWERFUL)
LOL and you trust Google to filter ad's for you? Pfft. You are better off with Proxomitron and JD5000.Net Proxomitron Filters then trusting google.
Do you really trust AOL to filter spam and emails for you? Then good for you - you can join the other 35 million idiotic users who think AOL is the internet and have no clue what a "actual" ISP is.
You are correct - there is a hell of a lot to know to keep Windows systems secure including firewalls - proxies (web browsers) ways to prevent spyware and viruses and what not.
The sad fact is a lot of Windows users don't know any of this and they surf the net with everything WIDE open in the browser - email and even OS itself then wonder why the hell their system is being "owned" and going downhill fast from all the viruses - spyware - and hacking attempts.
The problem with most Windows users - whether they run 95/98/ME/NT/XP/2000 is that they DON'T understand how to lock down the system or that alternatives exist to Microsoft software. They don't know jack s*** about a firewall or better alternatives to Microsoft software that is often more secure, not to mention actually VIRUS scanning email attachments and downloads..
If you have to do e-mail - a very good and secure e-mail client is Pegasus Mail which does NOT blindly open up email attachments and run code like Outlook does.
Get a decent firewall like Sygate PRO or if you must even ZoneAlarm PRO and make sure it's configured properly. Again some windows users would have problems even with something so simple as this sadly.
Want to avoid the nasty crap in Internet Explorer or other browsers? Get a proxy like Proxomitron and JD5000 Filters for Proxomitron which then allows you lock down all that nasty MS crap like VB/ActiveX/Flash/Forced Download scripts/ADS and more that cause problems.
But as everyone else has mentioned here - all it takes is a moron to run a windows box - linux box or hell even a MAC OS X box and not keep up to date with patches. If he/she doesn't know what they are doing any of the three will be insecure.
Also with Microsoft a lot of users I believe are afraid to get the patches - because you keep seeing more and more supposed "horror stories" of how a patch broke Windows or a "feature". Same crap could also apply to same user running a Linux box.
Do we get to see a sequel? The big AT-AT's doing it? :D
I find your lack of librication disturbing...