Really people, don't get mad, just don't get the game. If nobody is willing to pay the price than they will give up and go back to free.
Sports games fans are a bit looney anyway considering the fact that they pay $50 a year for new rosters and for what is basically the same game as they bough last year. Whats more, the resale value on sports games are terrible.
Now If I was a hardcore Madden fan, and EA offered me a $60 a year subscription to Madden football, that included regular roster updates, add ons and online play. In other words, instead of me having to buy a new version every year, I buy it once and the game gets upgraded/updated continously. That seems more reasonable.
Wait a second, this is EA? forget it they have never been reasonable why should anyone expect them to be now?
Apart from my disdain for allowing some program decide what music i want (clear channel already has the market cornered on that one) This is actually a humerous idea. I think the first batch of copies should be mailed straight to the RIAA and their poster children Metallica. A whole stones and glass houses argument would be just too funny.
To bad this isn't magic fairy land full of sugerplum houses and treacle streams.
ohhh if I had a dollar for everytime I hit the "don't send" button after a fatal crash I might be able to buy some shares of microsoft with which I could then hit Bill upside the head with.
I suppose that the unstability is all the fault of everybody else though, poor MS having to pick up the tab on windows patching to cover everyone elses' shoddy work.
What amazes and entertains me the most about the light/dark system in the game, isn't the obvious choices that turn out to be evil, but the simple things you do that result in pushing you to the darkside without even realizing that said action would cause it.
For example, I was investigating a murder and in talking to the witnesses it was very obvious that one of them wasn't telling me everything he knew. I couldn't talk the truth out of him, and since i was trying to prevent an innocent man from being executed for a crime he didn't commit, I thought "I'll just use my Jedi Mind trick and get it out of him" Seemed noble enough, but I got slapped with some darkside points. At another point you are forced to decide between upholding justice, or perserving the good of the greater populace.
That is what the conflict is all about, Sure walking through town and just killing everybody instead of helping them is a sure way to be evil, but Vader didn't start his carreer with such atrocities, there were little baby steps towards darkness and that is what makes this game interesting.
I have scanned through the responses to this subject here on slashdot, and while there are some that have been very negative, the overall vibe I get is positive. (or nuetral)
Now, go over to FARK.com, and read through the comments that were posted after the article went up yesterday. A vast majority of them are negative, and not just negative in the "bah Im smarter than everyone else" mindset that most of the FARK message boards are built upon, but rather an honest to god "I am offended at how stupid people are that would do this sort of thing" kind of way.
Not sure if its all that important or even on-topic but an interesting contrast of the two communities.
And here we have a case of the "good-old days syndrome"
"When I was your age.... All our software worked! There was no patching and freezing or any of that! None of this 6 years in development crap you kids today put up with"
While I won't argue for the quality of a lot of the games that get put out (3DO and Acclaim, I'm looking at you two) I would hardly say that the games of yesteryear were bug-free or really any more functional than the games of today.
Are games buggy? Yes
"But super mario brothers never froze when I was playing my NES" you say. And I ask "How many of Nintendo's games today freeze up all the time? Zero" The companies that produce crap, have produced crap since the dawn of time. Those that have been commited to quality, have for the most part stayed with that creed.
Is this a new phenomenon? No, we are just a lot more likely to notice and or hear about it from others than we used to.
I know this game wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but I personally loved both titles in the series. They have a gripping (if a tad bit clichéd) story, a very functional combat system, and loads upon loads of detail that go a long way for suspending your disbelief as you scoured the city in search of clues and situations to lay the smack down on any fools stupid enough to pick a fight with you. The second one was light-years ahead of the first in terms of game-play, and it would be a real shame if SEGA didn't continue the story along.
I guess the almighty dollar (and yen) have spoken though...
While I have no doubt in my cynical little heart, that this noble idea will become twisted and exploitative to the artists eventually (just as long ago the record companies served a good purpose for musicians) This is exactly what artists need to do, not just indie artists, Big artists especially.
If artists stop renewing contracts with major labels and begin to embrace the direct sale model, they will make crap tons of money more than they do with their current contracts. They already have the notoriety that they need to move product, and if enough big names go this route, the RIAA will quickly find itself without any clients.
I personally would happily give my business to an establishment such as this.
Considering the markup Borders has on its coffee (like 1000%, does one cup of coffee really cost them $2.50?) they are hardly loosing anything on the deal in this case.
I have done the same myself, a few years ago when I was between jobs and classes I would spend an afternoon reading a book from cover to cover in one sitting. SInce I would buy a Mocha and a Scone, they probably turned more profit than if i had bought the book.
the projectile breaks the sound barrier _after_ it leaves the gun
Please explain this, I admit that I don't know all that much about fire arms per se, but how can the projectile accelerate after it leaves the barrel? If its not carrying its own propellent the only force acting on it is drag which would decelerate it.
Fans are fans, and don't need anybody to tell them the game is great, because most of them will assume that it is great regardless of their actual experience. Maybe just being Starwars is enough for some peope in the same way that it was good enough to use that wiffle bat as a lightsaber when you were playing "Starwars" as a kid; Its not a lightsaber but its close enough.
In a way, I envy people that like the game, they are having a great time will those of us who think we have more complex tastes have to find other ways to entertain ourselves.
Its a bit of a tug-o-war on that. Specific laws like this seem to only chip away at the larger problems. But larger, more general laws leave a lot of room for interpertation and or abuse. (insert the name of your favorite blanket regulations here)
I hear ya though, there has to be a better way than addressing each and every case. Maybe, if law makers would go after the DMCA itself, rather than running around and trying to filter through all of its vast twisting tendrils individualy. This is a good first step though. Maybe more will follow suit, and maybe eventualy, somebody in congress will see the DMCA for what it really is...
I loved Dragon Warrior 7, I may be the only person in America that loved that game but I did. It's just so ugly, the psuedo-3d engine they used looked far worse than the game would have looked if they had just stuck to a 2d engine. The DW series has never been about eye-candy, I understand this, but still...
While the Final Fantasys have gotten more about CGI, and intricate stories full of angst ridden characters with goofy clothes and bad hair cuts, DW has stayed closer to its fantasy roots and offered good stories, great gameplay, and an overall deeper experience in each outing.
I would love for #8 to come state side, hopefully with a prettier outside so more people will look inside.
GTA is not PS2 exclusive exactly, there is just something like an 6 or 8 month waiting period before they are allowed to port it, at least that was my take on it. Vice City will be over a year old by the time it comes to x-box, most of it's revenue has already been made and if anything they will be selling it to many of the same people that already bought it since very few x-box owners don't have PS2s.
The name change trick is a clever idea, but it would never work if it went to court.
it's really a shame to see such a peaceful nation ruined by the scourge of video games. I'm glad they did something about them before the whole country got devastated.
IMHO, the Starwars line of games has never failed to disappoint in all but a few cases (rogue squadron) just as the recent films have done nothing but underwhelm. But even me, the eternal starwars cynic is looking forward to this release. It looks like they did all the right things, the most important being distancing themselves from the known cannon, and placing the story during a time span that they feel free to be creative with.
I may be in the minority in this, but I personally get annoyed when all Starwars games offer me are the same few planets extensively chronicled in the earlier films. The universe and the mythology is what is great about the series, not Hoth, ot Tatooine or any other place. I like to see what developers can come up with when they take the feeling of the story and run with it. I know what happens in the movies, now tell me what didn't happen in the films.
You are absolutely correct. Sorry if I jumped on it, that myth just really pisses me off.
The reason for this amazing ability the human mind has for recovery, has a lot to do with the redundancy built into the system, and is also a side effect of the way that the brain develops in the first place. Since I doubt anyone wants to hear a lecture on Neurological development, I will just cut to the chase: The brain is pretty fucking amazing.
In keeping with your stroke victim case, recovery for an older adult is possible, but often much harder than the recovery of a child from similar injury. There are for example numerous cases in which an entire half of a child's brain has been removed, and after a few months, full function (and intelligence) is possible even with only one half remaining. Take out half of yours or my brain, and you get a vegtable.
Slashdot Mirror
Wow, thats a word for word description of me cleaning my bathroom last week.
Really people, don't get mad, just don't get the game. If nobody is willing to pay the price than they will give up and go back to free.
Sports games fans are a bit looney anyway considering the fact that they pay $50 a year for new rosters and for what is basically the same game as they bough last year. Whats more, the resale value on sports games are terrible.
Now If I was a hardcore Madden fan, and EA offered me a $60 a year subscription to Madden football, that included regular roster updates, add ons and online play. In other words, instead of me having to buy a new version every year, I buy it once and the game gets upgraded/updated continously. That seems more reasonable.
Wait a second, this is EA? forget it they have never been reasonable why should anyone expect them to be now?
save the apples by burning down the orchard?
Apart from my disdain for allowing some program decide what music i want (clear channel already has the market cornered on that one) This is actually a humerous idea. I think the first batch of copies should be mailed straight to the RIAA and their poster children Metallica. A whole stones and glass houses argument would be just too funny.
To bad this isn't magic fairy land full of sugerplum houses and treacle streams.
ohhh if I had a dollar for everytime I hit the "don't send" button after a fatal crash I might be able to buy some shares of microsoft with which I could then hit Bill upside the head with.
I suppose that the unstability is all the fault of everybody else though, poor MS having to pick up the tab on windows patching to cover everyone elses' shoddy work.
What amazes and entertains me the most about the light/dark system in the game, isn't the obvious choices that turn out to be evil, but the simple things you do that result in pushing you to the darkside without even realizing that said action would cause it.
For example, I was investigating a murder and in talking to the witnesses it was very obvious that one of them wasn't telling me everything he knew. I couldn't talk the truth out of him, and since i was trying to prevent an innocent man from being executed for a crime he didn't commit, I thought "I'll just use my Jedi Mind trick and get it out of him" Seemed noble enough, but I got slapped with some darkside points. At another point you are forced to decide between upholding justice, or perserving the good of the greater populace.
That is what the conflict is all about, Sure walking through town and just killing everybody instead of helping them is a sure way to be evil, but Vader didn't start his carreer with such atrocities, there were little baby steps towards darkness and that is what makes this game interesting.
If you want to see something interesting...
I have scanned through the responses to this subject here on slashdot, and while there are some that have been very negative, the overall vibe I get is positive. (or nuetral)
Now, go over to FARK.com, and read through the comments that were posted after the article went up yesterday. A vast majority of them are negative, and not just negative in the "bah Im smarter than everyone else" mindset that most of the FARK message boards are built upon, but rather an honest to god "I am offended at how stupid people are that would do this sort of thing" kind of way.
Not sure if its all that important or even on-topic but an interesting contrast of the two communities.
like Matador for example
I find it funny, but almost all of my favorite artists, are on lables that are not part of the RIAA
Even funnier, a few of my favorite artists, I was exposed to for the first time by a P2P download because they sure as hell get no radio play.
Sooooo.....
So anyone want to start taking bets that the RIAA site gets the crap vandalized out of it before the weekend is up?
How many of you just looked for your name on that list?
I haven't even used fileshare software in the last 2 years and I was looking for me....
And here we have a case of the "good-old days syndrome"
"When I was your age.... All our software worked! There was no patching and freezing or any of that! None of this 6 years in development crap you kids today put up with"
While I won't argue for the quality of a lot of the games that get put out (3DO and Acclaim, I'm looking at you two) I would hardly say that the games of yesteryear were bug-free or really any more functional than the games of today.
Are games buggy? Yes
"But super mario brothers never froze when I was playing my NES" you say. And I ask "How many of Nintendo's games today freeze up all the time? Zero" The companies that produce crap, have produced crap since the dawn of time. Those that have been commited to quality, have for the most part stayed with that creed.
Is this a new phenomenon? No, we are just a lot more likely to notice and or hear about it from others than we used to.
I know this game wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but I personally loved both titles in the series. They have a gripping (if a tad bit clichéd) story, a very functional combat system, and loads upon loads of detail that go a long way for suspending your disbelief as you scoured the city in search of clues and situations to lay the smack down on any fools stupid enough to pick a fight with you. The second one was light-years ahead of the first in terms of game-play, and it would be a real shame if SEGA didn't continue the story along.
I guess the almighty dollar (and yen) have spoken though...
While I have no doubt in my cynical little heart, that this noble idea will become twisted and exploitative to the artists eventually (just as long ago the record companies served a good purpose for musicians) This is exactly what artists need to do, not just indie artists, Big artists especially.
If artists stop renewing contracts with major labels and begin to embrace the direct sale model, they will make crap tons of money more than they do with their current contracts. They already have the notoriety that they need to move product, and if enough big names go this route, the RIAA will quickly find itself without any clients.
I personally would happily give my business to an establishment such as this.
How about Repoman? think about it...
GTA style controls, you go around and reposses cars, people shoot at you, you get a 1-up for every 100 pine air freshners you grab.
They wouldn't even have to make the game good, all they need to do is include a few hits of acid with it and nobody will know the difference...
Thats too bad. Its actually a pretty likeable game if you give it the chance.
Why did it fail? because it didn't have a half naked elf chick on the cover like some other MMORPG does.
Considering the markup Borders has on its coffee (like 1000%, does one cup of coffee really cost them $2.50?) they are hardly loosing anything on the deal in this case.
I have done the same myself, a few years ago when I was between jobs and classes I would spend an afternoon reading a book from cover to cover in one sitting. SInce I would buy a Mocha and a Scone, they probably turned more profit than if i had bought the book.
Between stuff like this, and Coffee crisps, Canada keeps looking better and better.
Now if they would just do something about the GST...
the projectile breaks the sound barrier _after_ it leaves the gun
Please explain this, I admit that I don't know all that much about fire arms per se, but how can the projectile accelerate after it leaves the barrel? If its not carrying its own propellent the only force acting on it is drag which would decelerate it.
Is it a completely realistic expectation that the white house is going to read and consider every single piece of mail it receives daily?
No, not really
Is this something that we want to know about?
No
Until there is a way to paper clip bribes, er I mean campaign contributions to e-mails, it's not like they are going to carry any weight anyway.
Thank you for the plug, shameless advertising isn't always a bad thing when its for something that is actually useful.
Does it really matter if it sucks?
Fans are fans, and don't need anybody to tell them the game is great, because most of them will assume that it is great regardless of their actual experience. Maybe just being Starwars is enough for some peope in the same way that it was good enough to use that wiffle bat as a lightsaber when you were playing "Starwars" as a kid; Its not a lightsaber but its close enough.
In a way, I envy people that like the game, they are having a great time will those of us who think we have more complex tastes have to find other ways to entertain ourselves.
Its a bit of a tug-o-war on that. Specific laws like this seem to only chip away at the larger problems. But larger, more general laws leave a lot of room for interpertation and or abuse. (insert the name of your favorite blanket regulations here)
I hear ya though, there has to be a better way than addressing each and every case. Maybe, if law makers would go after the DMCA itself, rather than running around and trying to filter through all of its vast twisting tendrils individualy. This is a good first step though. Maybe more will follow suit, and maybe eventualy, somebody in congress will see the DMCA for what it really is...
I loved Dragon Warrior 7, I may be the only person in America that loved that game but I did. It's just so ugly, the psuedo-3d engine they used looked far worse than the game would have looked if they had just stuck to a 2d engine. The DW series has never been about eye-candy, I understand this, but still...
While the Final Fantasys have gotten more about CGI, and intricate stories full of angst ridden characters with goofy clothes and bad hair cuts, DW has stayed closer to its fantasy roots and offered good stories, great gameplay, and an overall deeper experience in each outing.
I would love for #8 to come state side, hopefully with a prettier outside so more people will look inside.
GTA is not PS2 exclusive exactly, there is just something like an 6 or 8 month waiting period before they are allowed to port it, at least that was my take on it. Vice City will be over a year old by the time it comes to x-box, most of it's revenue has already been made and if anything they will be selling it to many of the same people that already bought it since very few x-box owners don't have PS2s.
The name change trick is a clever idea, but it would never work if it went to court.
it's really a shame to see such a peaceful nation ruined by the scourge of video games. I'm glad they did something about them before the whole country got devastated.
IMHO, the Starwars line of games has never failed to disappoint in all but a few cases (rogue squadron) just as the recent films have done nothing but underwhelm. But even me, the eternal starwars cynic is looking forward to this release. It looks like they did all the right things, the most important being distancing themselves from the known cannon, and placing the story during a time span that they feel free to be creative with.
I may be in the minority in this, but I personally get annoyed when all Starwars games offer me are the same few planets extensively chronicled in the earlier films. The universe and the mythology is what is great about the series, not Hoth, ot Tatooine or any other place. I like to see what developers can come up with when they take the feeling of the story and run with it. I know what happens in the movies, now tell me what didn't happen in the films.
KOTOR seems to be doing just this.
You are absolutely correct. Sorry if I jumped on it, that myth just really pisses me off.
The reason for this amazing ability the human mind has for recovery, has a lot to do with the redundancy built into the system, and is also a side effect of the way that the brain develops in the first place. Since I doubt anyone wants to hear a lecture on Neurological development, I will just cut to the chase: The brain is pretty fucking amazing.
In keeping with your stroke victim case, recovery for an older adult is possible, but often much harder than the recovery of a child from similar injury. There are for example numerous cases in which an entire half of a child's brain has been removed, and after a few months, full function (and intelligence) is possible even with only one half remaining. Take out half of yours or my brain, and you get a vegtable.