The ATM at my bank is so popular that it is actually faster to walk in, find a live teller and do your transaction than it is to sit outside in a line waiting for the ATM. Is that ironic? Depends on how you define irony.
In January of this year, I pieced together a small LAN game machine in the hopes that I would be playing HL2 or Doom 3. It was a nice P4 2.8Ghz, 1GB RAM, 80GB SATA HD, Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB in a nice little Shuttle XPC.
It was great and I was highly anticipating the release of said games but then they were delayed. So here I was with this awesome gaming rig and no game to take advantage of it. Sure, there was BF: Vietnam and Farcry, both of which were entertaining but not what I wanted (Demons and Aliens are what I prefer to kill). Now all I ever play is Natural Selection. A half-life mod. My system is a little overkill for that.
In the end, I would have to say that there are several reasons for lack of PC game sales.
One reason is due to the fact that there haven't been many really good releases barring BF: Vietnam and Farcry.
Another reason is value. PC games can rarely be traded in or purchased in used condition. EB is the only one I know that does this. Gamestop used to but now they are only console. Blockbuster is also like that. I buy more used console games than anything else. It's easier to buy a $20 console game and get $2 in trade-in versus buying a new PC game at $50 and not being able to trade it in at all.
Three, portability and ease of use. I can take a console game to a friends house and easily pop it in and play it. A PC game only works if our computers have the same minimum requirements.
I'm sure there are other reasons but those stick out most in my mind.
I've been thinking about this for quite some time and I realize that I'm more comfortable around cartoon and animated graphics than I am with pseudo realistic graphics. I've seen some movies and games where they try to make the face of a character as realistic as possible. However, it just feels eery to me. The closer they get to reality the more eery it feels. There is always something that just doesn't fit. Lips don't move properly, the skin is too shiny, the face too perfect, or the features too symmetrical.
In fact, I just looked on Google to see if anyone else noticed this and found this article.
Actually, that's a good idea. Considering that Romulans and Vulcans have blood history that had been kept under wraps for such a long time. I remember something about Romulans being illogical, emotional Vulcans that were exiled from Vulcan. To prevent political strife, the Vulcans and higher up humans could have covered up seeing Romulans.
Hmmm... I remember playing the E3 demo for Guild Wars. It's almost an MMORPG. The pricing scheme announced for this game seemed totally different from other MMORPGs and seems more desirable. Basically, you pay a one time fee for the basic game. Every few months, they release an expansion which allows for new classes, skills, areas, etc. You can buy the expansion or if you want to try out the new stuff for free, ask a buddy who has the expansion to invite you to a new area. All the content is streamed over the internet. The gameplay handles like Diablo 2. Check it out here.
So I had been waiting for Suikoden 2 to drop from it's $49.99 price when it first came out. A few months later, the price was still the same and there wasn't a copy to be found. Years later, I still look for a copy some where in some bargain bin. It still sells at $49.99 used at Game Stop. Even Ebay prices are exorbitent reaching up to over $100. And here I thought that no one would be interested in the game. Bah.
I think that this will be a big issue in the coming years. Many people right now may skoff at the idea of 3d games on something tiny like a cellphone. However, I forsee that hand held gaming, pda, music, video, camera, and pretty much every other hand held device will begin to merge. Sure, there are plenty of these on the market now but I'm talking about the extinction of the standalone devices in favor of the combination devices. Nokia has the right idea, too bad their implementation leaves much to be desired.
"Well, a 5 star hotel is considered the cream of the crop but what about a hotel full of stars?"
In other news, Motel 6 has changed their slogan from "We'll leave the light on for you." to "My God, it's full of stars!"
I would love to see this type of controller with the games built right in like they are doing with the old atari controllers with the 10 in 1 games. This is something I would certainly pick up. Perhaps having a flash card reader for adding more games. Certainly, it would end up being another console but what a great way to get all your classic arcade games right on the tv.
I run the Game Shark Media Player. It does a decent job playing mp3, divx, and xvid from my pc. The only problem I run into is if the video is encoded poorly. My pc can fight through it and continue to play, the media player just dies. The other problem I have is the load time on the disk. Sometimes it reads, sometimes it doesn't. Loading takes about 4-5 minutes.
Hopefully, the Action Replay will fare better. With the USB connection, it will load faster and more reliably than the Game Shark.
Looking back at it, it was a very fun project but most of us (i.e. myself) were also very inexperienced in anything like this so our documentation is lacking. We never did finish it which kind of disappoints me.
I remember I took a computer systems architecture class in college where we took a programmable Xilinx board, two "customized" NES controllers, and a monitor and created our own game system. We emulated our own MIPS processor, created a compiler, wrote our own OS and filesystem and then wrote Pong for the system and a driver for the monitor and the controllers. Needless to say, it was a learning experience. Timing was a pain. We had about 9 weeks to do it all and I don't think we finished. Most of the parts were completed but we didn't have time to integrate everything. I wish we did, it would be nice to say I developed my own "console" on my resumè;-)
I agree in that storage medium was a big factor in the Playstation vs. N64 battle but in portables, this will be a little different.
In a portable, I would think that moving parts would cause serious battery drain. Cart vs. Optical, the cart is going to produce a longer battery life and will have faster access. Plus, they are much more durable than optical. Now, the optical will most likely have a much larger storage capacity. It'll be interesting to see what consumers choose in the long run.
In the end, it will still be about one thing. Games. Consumers will follow where their games lead them. And right now, it's a tough call. PSP has Metal Gear and Gran Turismo. DS has Mario and Metroid. With both having more to come. Mind the fact that the DS is supposedly backwards compatible where the PSP has no previous library.
I ran into this problem when I tried to purchase Suikoden II. It started out at 49.99 and I waited for the price to go down. It never did and they didn't make a whole lot so everywhere was sold out. Now the only place I can get it is on ebay for $70+. I have a feeling that both Disgaea and La Pucelle may face the same fate.
Whoops, sorry. I forgot to mention that I was refering to the NES version. No save game. Basically, you would get to the second to last boss and if you lost, they would send you back two levels. Talk about getting pissed.
I love Ikaruga. I wish they would bring back Silver Radiant Gun though. That game was hardcore. Talk about difficult. I never kept my eyes open for so long. I had a hard time shutting them after playing since they were so dry. You can't blink in those games.
You have to love a game that sets you back two whole levels when you die. Grrrrrr....
Now, if you want a game that really pissed me off, Ghost and Goblins. Oh, you think you beat the boss but wait, you have to play through the game twice to actually win.
Vagrant Story. That has to be one of the best story lines I have ever seen in a video game. Of course, the biggest problem was that it had a difficult to master battle engine and it didn't take much to get disoriented and lost in the world. However, the game had awesome camera work and dialogue when it came to the cutscenes. Even the music was awesome. But I would have to say the story was central to the game. I mean, it's in the title!
You're an independent agent of the Riskbreakers without a memory. The guy you are chasing slowly unlocks and untangles your memories. Soon enough, you wonder if you are even chasing the right guy. There are huge political schemes of which your only a pawn. Flashbacks and strange telepathic conversations guide you. I was totally blown away. If it weren't for that damn battle engine and poor level design I would play this game over and over again.
Another game I recommend for story is Xenogears. The problem is that when you get to the 2nd disk, they run out of game and it becomes a book. Seriously, the main characters sit down in a chair and just tell you the story. I had no problem with this as I was already deeply hooked in the story but I can see why others would not like this. It's bad enough to have a linear game but when the game decides it won't even let you move... ugh. I suppose the developers just ran out of time and couldn't complete the final areas of the game and just put the story in.
Slashdot Mirror
The ATM at my bank is so popular that it is actually faster to walk in, find a live teller and do your transaction than it is to sit outside in a line waiting for the ATM. Is that ironic? Depends on how you define irony.
In January of this year, I pieced together a small LAN game machine in the hopes that I would be playing HL2 or Doom 3. It was a nice P4 2.8Ghz, 1GB RAM, 80GB SATA HD, Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB in a nice little Shuttle XPC.
It was great and I was highly anticipating the release of said games but then they were delayed. So here I was with this awesome gaming rig and no game to take advantage of it. Sure, there was BF: Vietnam and Farcry, both of which were entertaining but not what I wanted (Demons and Aliens are what I prefer to kill). Now all I ever play is Natural Selection. A half-life mod. My system is a little overkill for that.
In the end, I would have to say that there are several reasons for lack of PC game sales.
One reason is due to the fact that there haven't been many really good releases barring BF: Vietnam and Farcry.
Another reason is value. PC games can rarely be traded in or purchased in used condition. EB is the only one I know that does this. Gamestop used to but now they are only console. Blockbuster is also like that. I buy more used console games than anything else. It's easier to buy a $20 console game and get $2 in trade-in versus buying a new PC game at $50 and not being able to trade it in at all.
Three, portability and ease of use. I can take a console game to a friends house and easily pop it in and play it. A PC game only works if our computers have the same minimum requirements.
I'm sure there are other reasons but those stick out most in my mind.
I've been thinking about this for quite some time and I realize that I'm more comfortable around cartoon and animated graphics than I am with pseudo realistic graphics. I've seen some movies and games where they try to make the face of a character as realistic as possible. However, it just feels eery to me. The closer they get to reality the more eery it feels. There is always something that just doesn't fit. Lips don't move properly, the skin is too shiny, the face too perfect, or the features too symmetrical.
In fact, I just looked on Google to see if anyone else noticed this and found this article.
Actually, that's a good idea. Considering that Romulans and Vulcans have blood history that had been kept under wraps for such a long time. I remember something about Romulans being illogical, emotional Vulcans that were exiled from Vulcan. To prevent political strife, the Vulcans and higher up humans could have covered up seeing Romulans.
Hmmm... I remember playing the E3 demo for Guild Wars. It's almost an MMORPG. The pricing scheme announced for this game seemed totally different from other MMORPGs and seems more desirable. Basically, you pay a one time fee for the basic game. Every few months, they release an expansion which allows for new classes, skills, areas, etc. You can buy the expansion or if you want to try out the new stuff for free, ask a buddy who has the expansion to invite you to a new area. All the content is streamed over the internet. The gameplay handles like Diablo 2. Check it out here.
So I had been waiting for Suikoden 2 to drop from it's $49.99 price when it first came out. A few months later, the price was still the same and there wasn't a copy to be found. Years later, I still look for a copy some where in some bargain bin. It still sells at $49.99 used at Game Stop. Even Ebay prices are exorbitent reaching up to over $100. And here I thought that no one would be interested in the game. Bah.
I wonder if they'll release a Power Glove device for Xbox with the new remote vibrate feature?
"I just love the Power Glove, it's sooo bad."
I think that this will be a big issue in the coming years. Many people right now may skoff at the idea of 3d games on something tiny like a cellphone. However, I forsee that hand held gaming, pda, music, video, camera, and pretty much every other hand held device will begin to merge. Sure, there are plenty of these on the market now but I'm talking about the extinction of the standalone devices in favor of the combination devices. Nokia has the right idea, too bad their implementation leaves much to be desired.
The best part of the Matrix game, hacking it on the command line. I had more fun doing that than I did actually trying to play the main game.
"Well, a 5 star hotel is considered the cream of the crop but what about a hotel full of stars?" In other news, Motel 6 has changed their slogan from "We'll leave the light on for you." to "My God, it's full of stars!"
Imagine a beowulf cluster of these... *ducks*
I would love to see this type of controller with the games built right in like they are doing with the old atari controllers with the 10 in 1 games. This is something I would certainly pick up. Perhaps having a flash card reader for adding more games. Certainly, it would end up being another console but what a great way to get all your classic arcade games right on the tv.
I run the Game Shark Media Player. It does a decent job playing mp3, divx, and xvid from my pc. The only problem I run into is if the video is encoded poorly. My pc can fight through it and continue to play, the media player just dies. The other problem I have is the load time on the disk. Sometimes it reads, sometimes it doesn't. Loading takes about 4-5 minutes. Hopefully, the Action Replay will fare better. With the USB connection, it will load faster and more reliably than the Game Shark.
Well, I wasn't too sure if our project page was still up since it's been about 3 years since I graduated but it's still there.
Computer System Architecture
Looking back at it, it was a very fun project but most of us (i.e. myself) were also very inexperienced in anything like this so our documentation is lacking. We never did finish it which kind of disappoints me.
I remember I took a computer systems architecture class in college where we took a programmable Xilinx board, two "customized" NES controllers, and a monitor and created our own game system. We emulated our own MIPS processor, created a compiler, wrote our own OS and filesystem and then wrote Pong for the system and a driver for the monitor and the controllers. Needless to say, it was a learning experience. Timing was a pain. We had about 9 weeks to do it all and I don't think we finished. Most of the parts were completed but we didn't have time to integrate everything. I wish we did, it would be nice to say I developed my own "console" on my resumè ;-)
I agree in that storage medium was a big factor in the Playstation vs. N64 battle but in portables, this will be a little different.
In a portable, I would think that moving parts would cause serious battery drain. Cart vs. Optical, the cart is going to produce a longer battery life and will have faster access. Plus, they are much more durable than optical. Now, the optical will most likely have a much larger storage capacity. It'll be interesting to see what consumers choose in the long run.
In the end, it will still be about one thing. Games. Consumers will follow where their games lead them. And right now, it's a tough call. PSP has Metal Gear and Gran Turismo. DS has Mario and Metroid. With both having more to come. Mind the fact that the DS is supposedly backwards compatible where the PSP has no previous library.
I ran into this problem when I tried to purchase Suikoden II. It started out at 49.99 and I waited for the price to go down. It never did and they didn't make a whole lot so everywhere was sold out. Now the only place I can get it is on ebay for $70+. I have a feeling that both Disgaea and La Pucelle may face the same fate.
Yeah, bad memory. I mix up Blaster Master and Master Blaster all the time too. Thanks for the correction.
Thanks for the correction. I knew it was something like that. I guess it's just my bad for trying to recall it from my bad memory.
Whoops, sorry. I forgot to mention that I was refering to the NES version. No save game. Basically, you would get to the second to last boss and if you lost, they would send you back two levels. Talk about getting pissed.
If you have a Sega Saturn, get Silver Radiant Gun. It's awesome. They made a sequel to it called Ikaruga for Dreamcast and GameCube. It rawks too.
I love Ikaruga. I wish they would bring back Silver Radiant Gun though. That game was hardcore. Talk about difficult. I never kept my eyes open for so long. I had a hard time shutting them after playing since they were so dry. You can't blink in those games.
The only winning move is not to play.
You have to love a game that sets you back two whole levels when you die. Grrrrrr....
Now, if you want a game that really pissed me off, Ghost and Goblins. Oh, you think you beat the boss but wait, you have to play through the game twice to actually win.
Vagrant Story. That has to be one of the best story lines I have ever seen in a video game. Of course, the biggest problem was that it had a difficult to master battle engine and it didn't take much to get disoriented and lost in the world. However, the game had awesome camera work and dialogue when it came to the cutscenes. Even the music was awesome. But I would have to say the story was central to the game. I mean, it's in the title!
You're an independent agent of the Riskbreakers without a memory. The guy you are chasing slowly unlocks and untangles your memories. Soon enough, you wonder if you are even chasing the right guy. There are huge political schemes of which your only a pawn. Flashbacks and strange telepathic conversations guide you. I was totally blown away. If it weren't for that damn battle engine and poor level design I would play this game over and over again.
Another game I recommend for story is Xenogears. The problem is that when you get to the 2nd disk, they run out of game and it becomes a book. Seriously, the main characters sit down in a chair and just tell you the story. I had no problem with this as I was already deeply hooked in the story but I can see why others would not like this. It's bad enough to have a linear game but when the game decides it won't even let you move... ugh. I suppose the developers just ran out of time and couldn't complete the final areas of the game and just put the story in.