I'm actually glad to hear that the whole Jedi thing is going to be cleared up and revamped. A holocron told my brawler that he should become a master doctor. Imagine my shock and dismay! Seriously, though, I hold that they will maintain some kind a mystery to the process making it very hard for most, but occasionally easy for a select few newbs based some randomness coupled with in game actions.
I played SWG a couple of months last summer, then quit after getting tired of Fed Ex runs that usually got me killed. It just wasn't that much fun. So I decided to quit a while and then returned about 3 months later when the vehicle patch came out. One thing I noticed on return was that the missions had gotten quite a bit easier. They aren't pushovers, but definitely more fun for the casual gamer. Still, I'd like far more story than I've seen.
Grinding levels isn't going to keep most people playing, but a truly all encompassing story and in game events would. Most of the time I play as a wookie artisan, and quite frankly the Galactic Civil War doesn't mean squat to me. I do crafting missions and make stuff to sell, but I don't think any of those things impact the story line at all. That shouldn't be a the case at all. At the very least all missions should have some kind of faction points associated with them.
Yeah, I know that an all permeating story line will be hard work. But that would truly hook people and keep them playing to be a part of an epic drama that was different every time it cycled through. I suppose that's the holy grail of MMORPGs!
Like many who have posted here, I'm rather disappointed that this new console doesn't appear to be anything revolutionary given the hype. I'm reminded of how the Dreamcast VMU was supposed to enhance game play by displaying additional information (such as callable plays) on the LCD display of the VMU. It was okay, but hardly necessary given that Sony has yet to find a need to imitate it on the PS2 in any fashion. Furthermore, Nintendo's own proclivity to link GC games to the GBA goes the Dreamcast one better, but has not shown itself to be a system seller. So I'm at a loss as to how Nintendo sees a dual display portable being anything special.
I can only guess that Nintendo is literally tossing this thing out in hopes that something unforseen will save the day. Again, this is an okay idea, but probably not a real money maker. I predict a release in limited numbers (if at all) with the Japanese market in mind. This sounds like just the sort of faddish thing that will give Nintendo some important mindshare back home, but I don't think they really expect to make a lot of money off it. This is just something to stay in the papers until the GC successor console is ready.
Ahhh yes! A truly guilty pleasure, but not really in the way that is most apparent. After playing some of the JAST and Peach Princess games, I realized that these are really just often cheesy, interactive romance novels for men! At least that's what I told my wife...
Seriously, once I realized that I essentially enjoying the male equivalent of Harlequin romance novels with Fabio on the cover, my true guilt became apparent. Oh the shame!
Call me crazy, but given the titles that Jason Hall has been a part of, this thing might just fly. I don't believe he would want to just turn out lots of licensed crap. So I think there's a good chance that we'll see some cool creative stuff, if the suits give him a free hand.
A few years ago there was all of this hype about how games were becoming like movies. As a result we were all treated to lots of motion captured cut scene crap, for a while. I think that now lessons have been learned and we're on the verge of some really great things in interactive entertainment. Games like Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, and the engrossing RPGs from Square and their online cousins, are pointing the way to the future. If Jason Hall is a visionary, then he'll be looking to go in this direction too. I'm talking about where the game is bigger than your PC or console, where it plays in your head and your heart too!
With this in mind, it's a good thing that a lot of Warner movie and comic related properties are already licensed to other companies. They'd just be a constant distraction and a siren song to failure. Granted, the chances of success are still not great, but if you're going to suck, it's best to suck with your own original stuff!
I once asked a Korean friend about this. She said that she thought that the MMO game craze was due to the very competitive spirit of the Korean people. Perhaps this really says it all, from what I've seen, there is historically a great love of gaming (and wagering) in east Asia. So it's only a natural progression to see this reflected in computer gaming.
'There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore,' Carly Fiorina
I really hope that there's video of her saying this! I think that between Bush's new immigration initiative and the offshoring of high skill jobs, the Republicans could be setting themselves up for a November surprise big time. None of the press seems to realize it just yet, but this whole jobs issue could be ready to explode. On the one hand, Bush wants to basically create a permanent class of low paid immigrant workers who will have no say in the politics and policies of this country. These people will help keep the bottom low. And if you think they will just be picking fruit, forget it. Once there is legal status for currently illegal immigrant workers, just watch them start moving up the skill chain courtesy of U.S. corporations wanting to lower the bottom at home as well as abroad. And on the other end higher skilled tech jobs will continue to move away, thus lowering the top. The corporations complain about American schools, but what is the point of good math and science if the jobs that need it go away simply because people elsewhere work for wages an American cannot hope to live on here?
If enough people wake up in time and see what is happening, Bush could be out in November in a landslide. I can see the adds now, Bush talking about welcoming millions of visiting workers then a cut to Carly about how no American has a God given right to a job! Put in some voice over about this being your country and having a God given right to the American dream, don't let Bush and traitorous corporations take it away from you! Images like this can speak volumes, and you can bet this year's election will be nasty with a lot of people wanting some payback for that Florida deal! It's just unbelievable that Bush is setting this trap for himself, it's almost too easy.
Call me crazy, but I'm guessing the new game device is (drum roll....) Virtual GameCube! They'll call it something else, but the very terse comments about how existing titles will work with the device got me thinking about the ill fated Virtual GameBoy of years past.
Seriously, I expect some kind of 3D headset, with stereo headphones built in that will plug into some kind of expansion deck that you connect to the bottom of your GC. The headset will look kinda like those cool wrap around sunglasses (a.hack look) and the phones will be those high end noise cancelling type.
The idea will be to fully immerse you in the game like never before. This will work with current games, but since they haven't been made with it in mind you'll only get the full effect from new titles. Imagine, instead of moving Mario around, you ARE Mario. Oh, and of course this will have a mike and the expansion deck with plug into broadband.
Nintendo is a proud company. They aren't going to let the failure of the Virtual Boy just sit there. This is their chance to get sweet revenge, but doing it right this time!;-)
When I read about this and some of the comments, the thought suddenly came to mind that if this sells at all, Microsoft is a big winner. Why? Because you know MS is not giving the embedded Windows XP away for free and since they aren't making this thing, every sale is money in the bank for them. And the embedded XP is probably similar to what they use in the XBox, so they get a little more return on that investment.
As for VIA, this doesn't make much sense as a games console. Usually a console maker takes a loss on the console hardware itself (at least at first) and makes up the losses on game royalties. PC games don't sell anywhere near the number that console games do, plus a PC game publisher pays no royalties to anyone. As it is unlikely that the market will support another proprietary format, games are not likely going to make VIA any money.
Since VIA is in business to make money, one can only conclude that they plan to make a profit on the hardware itself. Being able to play some PC games and do PC-like things then becomes just another marketing bullet point. This is also support by the fact that the thing looks like a more or less standard DVD player. This strategy can work if they keep the manufacturing costs down and do a good job of marketing. My final guess is that this will be marketed primarily in Asia where PC penetration is low which would make a device with some PC functionality more attractive. And the you can bet that games like Starcraft and other titles wildly popular in places like South Korea and China will run on the system without a hitch.
...when it came to getting extra value from game music. I say that because a lot of the time the music on Saturn CDs are plane audio tracks easily ripped to your hard drive these days.
The best tracks I got came from Nights, Virtua Cop I and II, and Wipeout. Yep, there actually was Wipeout on the Saturn at one time. And as much as many hated it, I even listen to the music from Daytona USA on occasion. Listening to these tunes long after the Saturn's demise makes me feel I got a pretty good value after all.
Over the last decade or so, it seems that games have done a lot to drive the progression of computer technology. Afterall, your secretary doesn't really need a 2.4 GHz P4 to write reports, except maybe for the next iteration of MS Office! Given this, it would seem that China and Korea are well positioned to become the next nexus pushing the IT envelope.
Purhaps the real foundation for The World (been watching a lot of.hack//Sign lately) is being laid in Shanghai and Seoul. In the U.S. playing MMORPGs still makes you a nerd, but in China it seems to be becoming a part of everyday life which has definite ramifications for technological prowess in that society. And with all of the government support the online ventures are getting there, they will only continue to grow. Before you know it, the new standards in networking, security, and online virtual world building will all be Chinese with an installed base too large to ignore. I wonder how much of this is being built on Redflag Linux. Hmmm...
Hmmm, I think pity has little to do with the seemingly changed attitude at GameSpy and the like. Even to a casual observer, Nokia is spending a lot of money advertising on TV and all over the web, including on GameSpy. I'd like to think that advertising dollars don't affect editorial content, but that just isn't true most of the time.
It'll be interesting to see if Nokia stays in the market and eventually improves the N-Gage. I can forgive a bunch of crappy first generation games, but you gotta get the console itself right! Other goofs aside, whoever decided to make changing cartridges so difficult in light of the GameBoy and every other handheld games console ever made should give back this year's bonus! (Aren't I nice and nonviolent, eh?)
As for the Tomb Raider give away, hmmm, I'm guessing they'll have 35K of those left over or in the trash at the end of it. Afterall, would you take a game for a machine you aren't likely to go out and buy? And most people probably don't know anyone who does own one. Still, this may be less embarassing than a desert burial.
I wonder how many people will go home and try to stick this thing in their kids' GameBoys?
This is totally cool. I just checked out the refreshed DC Homebrew site, downloaded some.sbi's and burned a CD. Then fired up the ol' DC so me and my son could do a test drive.
This is some cool stuff, I may just add the DC to my list of platforms just for the pure fun of it! Kudos to all the DC homebrewers out there!
I read the Yahoo! article with great interest and generally agree with the observations therein. But the truth of the matter, IMHO, is that it doesn't matter anymore, the damage is done.
When I was in grad school, there were all of these stories, based on labor dept. stats, that there was going to be a dire shortage of science professors in the future (ie now). Something had to be done to get more Americans to pursue academic careers in science, etc. etc.. Well, it didn't happen! Tenured professors stayed longer, there weren't that many students interested in science because it was too hard and didn't lead to really lucrative jobs. So the schools didn't replace the professors once they did retire and generally cut back on math and science offerings in favor of more popular courses.
Now that people here see that the once lucrative IT jobs are leaving these shores by the tens of thousands, you'd have to be nuts to go to school and prepare for a career in which you will be unable to find work. The damage is done, even if some of the jobs come back, IT is not going to be a career path that our best and brightest are likely to embrace, if they want relatively secure employment. There will always be those who have a love and passion for IT who will pursue it in any case. And some of these will have the entrepreneural spirit needed to really be successful in the field by charting their own destiny. Afterall, your job can't be outsourced if you are the boss and the company belongs to you!
Exactly! I want my game machine to play games, my DVD player to play DVDs, and my pc to stay in the freakin office!
That said, Sony would have been better off to simply repackage the basic PS2 functionality into what looks and acts like a standard DVD player. This would be a DVD player that just happens to play PS2 and PSOne games. Then from this point forward, _all_ Sony DVD players would have this capability into the future. That would be a real coup, so don't be surprised if this comes to pass sometime before the PS3 comes out.
The media is always hyping doom and gloom on the GC, because they've got nothing better to do. But I like the moves Nintendo has made lately to push the GC.
Seriously though, now is a good time to own all of the major consoles. There are so many good titles out and coming out soon, that having all three means you can choose the best of best. This is heresy for me, since I'm a developer, but it is the PC that is on the way out.
I love to tinker with and build new PCs as much as anyone on/., but I don't want to spend so much time with that anymore when I can pop a disk into a console and it just runs. I can even get used to using a controller for an FPS like Halo! And I don't have to worry about disk space. For example, I'd love to try Final Fantasy XI online now, but I don't have the space (or cpu, or gpu for it) right now. So I'm going to wait until the US PS2 bundle comes out in '04. Yeah, it'll cost a pretty penny up front, but it's worth it to avoid the hassle of having to upgrade a perfectly good box.
This also sounds like a good way for independent developers to survive and make money against the likes of EA and other behemoths of the industry.
I'd like to think that independent developers will be the source of new gameplay ideas and genres in the future. The ability to easily set up shop on the internet means that the coolest new games won't necessarily be bought at Best Buy.
Count one vote for Karaoke Revolution! I know that karaoke is nothing new, but this game could drag it out of the bars and into the mainstream living room.
I was never going to buy a karaoke machine, but I picked this up the day it came out based on previews. I've been singing/screaming my guts out with my kids ever since! The game is easy to pick up and play. The computer avatars are pretty cool and the special effects are decent, which makes it a fun game even solo. The song selection is pretty good with the promise of expansion discs in the future. So if you want some fun even with your nongamer friends, this is the ultimate party game. If it came with a handheld usb mike rather than the headset, it'd be perfect!
Actually, I was a bit surprised that it was on during Toonami at all given the violence. Don't get me wrong, Kenshin is pretty deep, but some of the fighting is too violent (and realistic relative to DBZ) for the age group most likely to be watching that part of the day.
You can see it on the Saturday night line (after the kiddies are in bed) up right now. They recently started over, so now's my chance to catch up!:-)
In the last couple of weeks, the Virgin Megastore in Chicago has created a section featuring soundtracks from Anime and Video games.
It's not a huge section, but it is big enough to be useful and features quite a bit of variety with soundtracks from Final Fantasy X to Grand Theft Auto Vice City. Even imports are cheaper than I've typically seen ($25 instead of $40). They certainly aren't in the charity business, so we could be seeing the beginning of a trend.
Like many have said here already, I prefer reading good old fashioned printed on paper books. Still I think that eBooks may have a chance once a really cheap and easy two sided printer hits the market.
If I could easily take the eBook and print my own paper copy to read that'd be perfect. I could get the book right away and print a few chapters at a time to read wherever I may be. Heck, I could print it on really cheap paper and recycle it all when I'm done if I want. And I could print the thing as big or as small as I like.
The only trouble with this is the absence of the right kind of printer at an affordable cost. But forget about any kind of inkjet printer, the ink is just too expensive for this.
At the beginning of the tech boom, my PhD in physics probably helped me get my first programming job because they thought I could learn the things I'd need to and wouldn't need a lot of handholding, both true. My PhD work was in high energy particle physics which required a lot of analysis and simulation coding.
By the end of my first job, laid off due to cheap Russian programmers also with PhDs, I would say that a PhD, in IT at least, would probably hurt one's chances. Right now I think a PhD is only a positive in academia, which is where I am now.
Now I work as an informatics manager for a university based clinical research center. Here a PhD in physics was a plus because the degree is in a scientific research discipline. With that, I can understand the needs of the researchers better, even though my degree is not in life sciences, and more importantly sometimes, I get a bit more respect from the investigators I work with. I'm not sure a PhD in CompSci would carry the same weight here. Still, I should note that it took 13 months of searching to get this job and I don't really think the PhD helped much in most situations, nor did being a minority. But I can't prove that!:-)
In the current environment of overseas outsourcing, I wouldn't bother with a PhD in any discipline unless you really want it for personal reasons and plan to work in academia. Otherwise, I'd say it's a big negative in corporate America. In fact, I wouldn't encourage anyone to get into IT right now, unless you're starting your own shop.
Seriously, in the future prisoners will write code. As companies look for cheaper labor, this is the inevitable conclusion.
Just imagine, prisoners are paid little or nothing for their work and can be easily penalized for poor quality. Imagine getting say 3 months added to your sentence for every bug! Or how about extra conjugal visits for software that sells a million copies. I could go on and on!
I wish this was just a joke, but I see little that could keep this from happening in the US or anywhere else. And few companies or consumers would care.
Where it stops depends on whether a backlash develops that hurts legitimate sales. If the people being dragged into court are clean cut kids from Wisconsin instead of the slimy guy selling pirated CDs out the back of his Chevy, then the backlash could be pretty strong.
I used to think that if they busted a few kids to make an example out of them, it might put the brakes on it. But file swapping has gotten too big now to really stop casual piracy. Besides, what RIAA is trying to do right now won't stop the slimy guy anyway. What will help is getting the price of CDs down and making legitimate, no strings attached, music buying/downloading easy and widespread. That makes sense to me, but some people just have to learn the hard way.
You raise a very good point. By going to a subscription model, there is now more pressure on MS to release something on a regular schedule. Software just doesn't work that way. It would be something like commissioning Picasso to create a masterpiece every 6 months. He could get you something, but they wouldn't all be masterpieces!
If the subscription price is really cheap, it's not so bad. But when the price is high and some released may be riddled with bugs having been rushed out the door, it's the worst of all worlds.
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I'm actually glad to hear that the whole Jedi thing is going to be cleared up and revamped. A holocron told my brawler that he should become a master doctor. Imagine my shock and dismay! Seriously, though, I hold that they will maintain some kind a mystery to the process making it very hard for most, but occasionally easy for a select few newbs based some randomness coupled with in game actions.
I played SWG a couple of months last summer, then quit after getting tired of Fed Ex runs that usually got me killed. It just wasn't that much fun. So I decided to quit a while and then returned about 3 months later when the vehicle patch came out. One thing I noticed on return was that the missions had gotten quite a bit easier. They aren't pushovers, but definitely more fun for the casual gamer. Still, I'd like far more story than I've seen.
Grinding levels isn't going to keep most people playing, but a truly all encompassing story and in game events would. Most of the time I play as a wookie artisan, and quite frankly the Galactic Civil War doesn't mean squat to me. I do crafting missions and make stuff to sell, but I don't think any of those things impact the story line at all. That shouldn't be a the case at all. At the very least all missions should have some kind of faction points associated with them.
Yeah, I know that an all permeating story line will be hard work. But that would truly hook people and keep them playing to be a part of an epic drama that was different every time it cycled through. I suppose that's the holy grail of MMORPGs!
Like many who have posted here, I'm rather disappointed that this new console doesn't appear to be anything revolutionary given the hype. I'm reminded of how the Dreamcast VMU was supposed to enhance game play by displaying additional information (such as callable plays) on the LCD display of the VMU. It was okay, but hardly necessary given that Sony has yet to find a need to imitate it on the PS2 in any fashion. Furthermore, Nintendo's own proclivity to link GC games to the GBA goes the Dreamcast one better, but has not shown itself to be a system seller. So I'm at a loss as to how Nintendo sees a dual display portable being anything special.
I can only guess that Nintendo is literally tossing this thing out in hopes that something unforseen will save the day. Again, this is an okay idea, but probably not a real money maker. I predict a release in limited numbers (if at all) with the Japanese market in mind. This sounds like just the sort of faddish thing that will give Nintendo some important mindshare back home, but I don't think they really expect to make a lot of money off it. This is just something to stay in the papers until the GC successor console is ready.
Ahhh yes! A truly guilty pleasure, but not really in the way that is most apparent. After playing some of the JAST and Peach Princess games, I realized that these are really just often cheesy, interactive romance novels for men! At least that's what I told my wife...
Seriously, once I realized that I essentially enjoying the male equivalent of Harlequin romance novels with Fabio on the cover, my true guilt became apparent. Oh the shame!
Call me crazy, but given the titles that Jason Hall has been a part of, this thing might just fly. I don't believe he would want to just turn out lots of licensed crap. So I think there's a good chance that we'll see some cool creative stuff, if the suits give him a free hand.
A few years ago there was all of this hype about how games were becoming like movies. As a result we were all treated to lots of motion captured cut scene crap, for a while. I think that now lessons have been learned and we're on the verge of some really great things in interactive entertainment. Games like Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, and the engrossing RPGs from Square and their online cousins, are pointing the way to the future. If Jason Hall is a visionary, then he'll be looking to go in this direction too. I'm talking about where the game is bigger than your PC or console, where it plays in your head and your heart too!
With this in mind, it's a good thing that a lot of Warner movie and comic related properties are already licensed to other companies. They'd just be a constant distraction and a siren song to failure. Granted, the chances of success are still not great, but if you're going to suck, it's best to suck with your own original stuff!
I once asked a Korean friend about this. She said that she thought that the MMO game craze was due to the very competitive spirit of the Korean people. Perhaps this really says it all, from what I've seen, there is historically a great love of gaming (and wagering) in east Asia. So it's only a natural progression to see this reflected in computer gaming.
'There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore,' Carly Fiorina
I really hope that there's video of her saying this! I think that between Bush's new immigration initiative and the offshoring of high skill jobs, the Republicans could be setting themselves up for a November surprise big time. None of the press seems to realize it just yet, but this whole jobs issue could be ready to explode. On the one hand, Bush wants to basically create a permanent class of low paid immigrant workers who will have no say in the politics and policies of this country. These people will help keep the bottom low. And if you think they will just be picking fruit, forget it. Once there is legal status for currently illegal immigrant workers, just watch them start moving up the skill chain courtesy of U.S. corporations wanting to lower the bottom at home as well as abroad. And on the other end higher skilled tech jobs will continue to move away, thus lowering the top. The corporations complain about American schools, but what is the point of good math and science if the jobs that need it go away simply because people elsewhere work for wages an American cannot hope to live on here?
If enough people wake up in time and see what is happening, Bush could be out in November in a landslide. I can see the adds now, Bush talking about welcoming millions of visiting workers then a cut to Carly about how no American has a God given right to a job! Put in some voice over about this being your country and having a God given right to the American dream, don't let Bush and traitorous corporations take it away from you! Images like this can speak volumes, and you can bet this year's election will be nasty with a lot of people wanting some payback for that Florida deal! It's just unbelievable that Bush is setting this trap for himself, it's almost too easy.
Call me crazy, but I'm guessing the new game device is (drum roll....) Virtual GameCube! They'll call it something else, but the very terse comments about how existing titles will work with the device got me thinking about the ill fated Virtual GameBoy of years past.
Seriously, I expect some kind of 3D headset, with stereo headphones built in that will plug into some kind of expansion deck that you connect to the bottom of your GC. The headset will look kinda like those cool wrap around sunglasses (a .hack look) and the phones will be those high end noise cancelling type.
The idea will be to fully immerse you in the game like never before. This will work with current games, but since they haven't been made with it in mind you'll only get the full effect from new titles. Imagine, instead of moving Mario around, you ARE Mario. Oh, and of course this will have a mike and the expansion deck with plug into broadband.
Nintendo is a proud company. They aren't going to let the failure of the Virtual Boy just sit there. This is their chance to get sweet revenge, but doing it right this time! ;-)
When I read about this and some of the comments, the thought suddenly came to mind that if this sells at all, Microsoft is a big winner. Why? Because you know MS is not giving the embedded Windows XP away for free and since they aren't making this thing, every sale is money in the bank for them. And the embedded XP is probably similar to what they use in the XBox, so they get a little more return on that investment.
As for VIA, this doesn't make much sense as a games console. Usually a console maker takes a loss on the console hardware itself (at least at first) and makes up the losses on game royalties. PC games don't sell anywhere near the number that console games do, plus a PC game publisher pays no royalties to anyone. As it is unlikely that the market will support another proprietary format, games are not likely going to make VIA any money.
Since VIA is in business to make money, one can only conclude that they plan to make a profit on the hardware itself. Being able to play some PC games and do PC-like things then becomes just another marketing bullet point. This is also support by the fact that the thing looks like a more or less standard DVD player. This strategy can work if they keep the manufacturing costs down and do a good job of marketing. My final guess is that this will be marketed primarily in Asia where PC penetration is low which would make a device with some PC functionality more attractive. And the you can bet that games like Starcraft and other titles wildly popular in places like South Korea and China will run on the system without a hitch.
...when it came to getting extra value from game music. I say that because a lot of the time the music on Saturn CDs are plane audio tracks easily ripped to your hard drive these days.
The best tracks I got came from Nights, Virtua Cop I and II, and Wipeout. Yep, there actually was Wipeout on the Saturn at one time. And as much as many hated it, I even listen to the music from Daytona USA on occasion. Listening to these tunes long after the Saturn's demise makes me feel I got a pretty good value after all.
Over the last decade or so, it seems that games have done a lot to drive the progression of computer technology. Afterall, your secretary doesn't really need a 2.4 GHz P4 to write reports, except maybe for the next iteration of MS Office! Given this, it would seem that China and Korea are well positioned to become the next nexus pushing the IT envelope.
Purhaps the real foundation for The World (been watching a lot of .hack//Sign lately) is being laid in Shanghai and Seoul. In the U.S. playing MMORPGs still makes you a nerd, but in China it seems to be becoming a part of everyday life which has definite ramifications for technological prowess in that society. And with all of the government support the online ventures are getting there, they will only continue to grow. Before you know it, the new standards in networking, security, and online virtual world building will all be Chinese with an installed base too large to ignore. I wonder how much of this is being built on Redflag Linux. Hmmm...
Hmmm, I think pity has little to do with the seemingly changed attitude at GameSpy and the like. Even to a casual observer, Nokia is spending a lot of money advertising on TV and all over the web, including on GameSpy. I'd like to think that advertising dollars don't affect editorial content, but that just isn't true most of the time.
It'll be interesting to see if Nokia stays in the market and eventually improves the N-Gage. I can forgive a bunch of crappy first generation games, but you gotta get the console itself right! Other goofs aside, whoever decided to make changing cartridges so difficult in light of the GameBoy and every other handheld games console ever made should give back this year's bonus! (Aren't I nice and nonviolent, eh?)
As for the Tomb Raider give away, hmmm, I'm guessing they'll have 35K of those left over or in the trash at the end of it. Afterall, would you take a game for a machine you aren't likely to go out and buy? And most people probably don't know anyone who does own one. Still, this may be less embarassing than a desert burial.
I wonder how many people will go home and try to stick this thing in their kids' GameBoys?
This is totally cool. I just checked out the refreshed DC Homebrew site, downloaded some .sbi's and burned a CD. Then fired up the ol' DC so me and my son could do a test drive.
This is some cool stuff, I may just add the DC to my list of platforms just for the pure fun of it! Kudos to all the DC homebrewers out there!
I read the Yahoo! article with great interest and generally agree with the observations therein. But the truth of the matter, IMHO, is that it doesn't matter anymore, the damage is done.
When I was in grad school, there were all of these stories, based on labor dept. stats, that there was going to be a dire shortage of science professors in the future (ie now). Something had to be done to get more Americans to pursue academic careers in science, etc. etc.. Well, it didn't happen! Tenured professors stayed longer, there weren't that many students interested in science because it was too hard and didn't lead to really lucrative jobs. So the schools didn't replace the professors once they did retire and generally cut back on math and science offerings in favor of more popular courses.
Now that people here see that the once lucrative IT jobs are leaving these shores by the tens of thousands, you'd have to be nuts to go to school and prepare for a career in which you will be unable to find work. The damage is done, even if some of the jobs come back, IT is not going to be a career path that our best and brightest are likely to embrace, if they want relatively secure employment. There will always be those who have a love and passion for IT who will pursue it in any case. And some of these will have the entrepreneural spirit needed to really be successful in the field by charting their own destiny. Afterall, your job can't be outsourced if you are the boss and the company belongs to you!
"Dwarf-throwing is illegal?! Did I miss a meeting?"
So that's why Lord of the Rings had to be shot in New Zealand!
Exactly! I want my game machine to play games, my DVD player to play DVDs, and my pc to stay in the freakin office!
That said, Sony would have been better off to simply repackage the basic PS2 functionality into what looks and acts like a standard DVD player. This would be a DVD player that just happens to play PS2 and PSOne games. Then from this point forward, _all_ Sony DVD players would have this capability into the future. That would be a real coup, so don't be surprised if this comes to pass sometime before the PS3 comes out.
The media is always hyping doom and gloom on the GC, because they've got nothing better to do. But I like the moves Nintendo has made lately to push the GC.
Seriously though, now is a good time to own all of the major consoles. There are so many good titles out and coming out soon, that having all three means you can choose the best of best. This is heresy for me, since I'm a developer, but it is the PC that is on the way out.
I love to tinker with and build new PCs as much as anyone on /., but I don't want to spend so much time with that anymore when I can pop a disk into a console and it just runs. I can even get used to using a controller for an FPS like Halo! And I don't have to worry about disk space. For example, I'd love to try Final Fantasy XI online now, but I don't have the space (or cpu, or gpu for it) right now. So I'm going to wait until the US PS2 bundle comes out in '04. Yeah, it'll cost a pretty penny up front, but it's worth it to avoid the hassle of having to upgrade a perfectly good box.
This also sounds like a good way for independent developers to survive and make money against the likes of EA and other behemoths of the industry.
I'd like to think that independent developers will be the source of new gameplay ideas and genres in the future. The ability to easily set up shop on the internet means that the coolest new games won't necessarily be bought at Best Buy.
Count one vote for Karaoke Revolution! I know that karaoke is nothing new, but this game could drag it out of the bars and into the mainstream living room.
I was never going to buy a karaoke machine, but I picked this up the day it came out based on previews. I've been singing/screaming my guts out with my kids ever since! The game is easy to pick up and play. The computer avatars are pretty cool and the special effects are decent, which makes it a fun game even solo. The song selection is pretty good with the promise of expansion discs in the future. So if you want some fun even with your nongamer friends, this is the ultimate party game. If it came with a handheld usb mike rather than the headset, it'd be perfect!
Actually, I was a bit surprised that it was on during Toonami at all given the violence. Don't get me wrong, Kenshin is pretty deep, but some of the fighting is too violent (and realistic relative to DBZ) for the age group most likely to be watching that part of the day.
You can see it on the Saturday night line (after the kiddies are in bed) up right now. They recently started over, so now's my chance to catch up! :-)
In the last couple of weeks, the Virgin Megastore in Chicago has created a section featuring soundtracks from Anime and Video games.
It's not a huge section, but it is big enough to be useful and features quite a bit of variety with soundtracks from Final Fantasy X to Grand Theft Auto Vice City. Even imports are cheaper than I've typically seen ($25 instead of $40). They certainly aren't in the charity business, so we could be seeing the beginning of a trend.
Like many have said here already, I prefer reading good old fashioned printed on paper books. Still I think that eBooks may have a chance once a really cheap and easy two sided printer hits the market.
If I could easily take the eBook and print my own paper copy to read that'd be perfect. I could get the book right away and print a few chapters at a time to read wherever I may be. Heck, I could print it on really cheap paper and recycle it all when I'm done if I want. And I could print the thing as big or as small as I like.
The only trouble with this is the absence of the right kind of printer at an affordable cost. But forget about any kind of inkjet printer, the ink is just too expensive for this.
At the beginning of the tech boom, my PhD in physics probably helped me get my first programming job because they thought I could learn the things I'd need to and wouldn't need a lot of handholding, both true. My PhD work was in high energy particle physics which required a lot of analysis and simulation coding.
By the end of my first job, laid off due to cheap Russian programmers also with PhDs, I would say that a PhD, in IT at least, would probably hurt one's chances. Right now I think a PhD is only a positive in academia, which is where I am now.
Now I work as an informatics manager for a university based clinical research center. Here a PhD in physics was a plus because the degree is in a scientific research discipline. With that, I can understand the needs of the researchers better, even though my degree is not in life sciences, and more importantly sometimes, I get a bit more respect from the investigators I work with. I'm not sure a PhD in CompSci would carry the same weight here. Still, I should note that it took 13 months of searching to get this job and I don't really think the PhD helped much in most situations, nor did being a minority. But I can't prove that! :-)
In the current environment of overseas outsourcing, I wouldn't bother with a PhD in any discipline unless you really want it for personal reasons and plan to work in academia. Otherwise, I'd say it's a big negative in corporate America. In fact, I wouldn't encourage anyone to get into IT right now, unless you're starting your own shop.
Seriously, in the future prisoners will write code. As companies look for cheaper labor, this is the inevitable conclusion.
Just imagine, prisoners are paid little or nothing for their work and can be easily penalized for poor quality. Imagine getting say 3 months added to your sentence for every bug! Or how about extra conjugal visits for software that sells a million copies. I could go on and on!
I wish this was just a joke, but I see little that could keep this from happening in the US or anywhere else. And few companies or consumers would care.
Where it stops depends on whether a backlash develops that hurts legitimate sales. If the people being dragged into court are clean cut kids from Wisconsin instead of the slimy guy selling pirated CDs out the back of his Chevy, then the backlash could be pretty strong.
I used to think that if they busted a few kids to make an example out of them, it might put the brakes on it. But file swapping has gotten too big now to really stop casual piracy. Besides, what RIAA is trying to do right now won't stop the slimy guy anyway. What will help is getting the price of CDs down and making legitimate, no strings attached, music buying/downloading easy and widespread. That makes sense to me, but some people just have to learn the hard way.
You raise a very good point. By going to a subscription model, there is now more pressure on MS to release something on a regular schedule. Software just doesn't work that way. It would be something like commissioning Picasso to create a masterpiece every 6 months. He could get you something, but they wouldn't all be masterpieces!
If the subscription price is really cheap, it's not so bad. But when the price is high and some released may be riddled with bugs having been rushed out the door, it's the worst of all worlds.