Well, not necessarily evidence, but I modded a friend's PSX that was just like that. No parallel port = no simple plugin device to play backups. I am sure one of the hardware faqs here will tell you when that model became available. Checking the newsgroup FAQ, it looks like any model number before and including 7500 has the port. Essentially the first model that shipped with a Dual Shock. So there are a lot of PSXs (not just PSOnes) out there without the parallel port!
Ghost in the Shell struck me as being both pretentious and half-baked. There is a good reason for that: it is.:)
Though I do enjoy the film, your criticisms are absolutely correct. There are far better stuff out there - though not a bad film, I am not sure why the film version of GitS gets such praise in the West. I think it is just a lot of people's first exposure to more 'adult cartoons', so they are easily impressed.
The film Memories just came out this week in the USA, which I would recommend you check out. It is an anthology of three stories - all feature fairly different themes and drawing styles, and none of them are too reliant on a knowledge of Japanese culture. You get some black humor, some psychological horror, some social critique.
The problem you will find with a lot of anime fans giving recommendations to newbies is that they are rather myopic. FLCL is a great series for example, one of my faves, but at least half of its humor, plot, and various quirks revolve around references to other anime, manga, etc. It just isn't going to appeal to too many new anime watchers, because they don't have the proper context.
Other than the advice to wait for when a friend with similar tastes recommends some anime (an excellent suggestion), I would just try and find some anime similar to whatever non-anime you like. Like moody horror films? Go for something like Boogiepop Phantom. Like Hitchcock suspense and are not too squeemish? Go for Perfect Blue. Cyberpunk and David Lynch? Maybe Serial Experiments Lain is up your alley. Big R-rated action films and Indiana Jones? Spriggan. Gross-out humor and a tolerance for some bizarre Japanese cultural stuff? Ping-pong Club. Etc. etc. Space opera with some hard Einsteinien physics? Gunbuster. There is a huge variety of anime out there, some for every possible taste.
You seem also to imply that there was a lot of fans of GitS manga, and that it was a masterpiece, before the movie was created, as it is the case for LotR. That is just not true. Umm, there are a lot of fans of the GitS manga. Myself, among others (the very high sales agree with this). And quite a few fans would call it a masterpiece, too.
One of the things that disappointed me so much about the GitS film is how shallow it was compared to the manga. It was also less exciting, less funny, less imaginative, and in general pretty incompetent sci-fi - it didn't manage to portray a particularly interesting or different world than the one we live in now. This is something the manga did a very nice job on (and something Shirow is pretty good at). The GitS film felt just like it was our world, just with some rare cyborgs and fancier military machines, and maybe a slightly more advanced internet. Maybe if it had something more interesting to say about this technology, but all it manages to present is the Cliff Notes version of the manga themes.
And other than some admittedly nice montages in places (I love the rain one), some good (if repetitive) music, fairly good animation, and the possible benefit of a shorter exposure time, the film doesn't really add much. No new ideas, no new themes, no new characters, no truly new scenes. It also exactly followed the basic storyline of the manga, with lots of stuff cut out, pacing changes, and a very slight change in the ending. So I am not sure why you feel it is such a divergence, as opposed to the LOTR films, which cut lots of stuff, changed the pacing, and had a slight change in the ending.
(The Patlabor series has the same problem as sci-fi, IMO - you have one or two areas of amazingly high technology advancement, and the rest of the world is completely unchanged, really. So bizarrely unimaginative.)
My grudge with IGN is that they decided to charge for their bad reviews and images/movies. There are god knows how many other gaming sites out there offering the same things for free. And lets face it, gamers don't usually have money to drop on a website subscription (they'd rather put it towards a game).
Just wanted to mention that this is not entirely true anymore, AFAIK. Reviews (which are certainly better than, say, Gamespot's) and images are free - though sometimes you get those full-page ads prior to going to the page. Most movies are free, but they do have special high quality (and usually exclusive/custom) movies that you do need a subscription for. I don't have one myself, but I think this is understandable - movies require a lot of bandwidth, and that does cost money. Then they have a few articles, usually the more hardcore stuff (like multiplatform game comparisons, or Gaming Life in Japan), that also requires a subscription. Most of the content is free though, and almost always the pricey stuff is labeled clearly as such (finally!).
And supposedly they are doing pretty well with subscriptions, so it must be working with some people.
Well yeah, and then you can't do stuff like the KOTOR saves, really. The ability to have big save games is a really nice feature, and games like KOTOR or Fable (or even Halo in-mission saves) would be very difficult to do with a memory card, even assuming it is four times bigger than current cards (which was the jump last gen IIRC, so 2 meg -> 8 meg -> 64 meg). Sure, you can do some clever optimizing to allieviate part of the problem, but game saves are only going to get bigger.
Non-obtrusive autosaves are also a nice feature that I assume isn't being done on other consoles without hard disks (since poorly programmed multiplatform titles like Tony Hawk feature long pauses for saving, something you really don't find in the better Xbox games).
The parent post was referring to the next Xbox possibly not having a hard drive - so you would need to download that stuff every time. It would hurt loading times quite a bit, as well as lowering responsiveness in general. MS better have a good solution for this if they decide to take this route... (Maybe large integrated flash memory, so at least reduce the frequency? Rewriteable discs?)
He wasn't attacking Xbox Live, so lay off the fanboy defensiveness.:D
To add to your point, I believe most modern studies suggest 'standard' hunter-gatherer societies would require a member to spend about four hours a day, tops, to gather enough food. And oftentimes this food would also be enough to support others that couldn't do as useful work - like the very young or the hunters (who were responsible for considerably less food calorie-wise, generally).
If Nintendo can generate and crack teh female gaming market they could easily come out on top. Nintendo's blathering nonsense to the contrary, the female gaming market does exist (in every major market, AFAIK), and generates huge profits as well. How well has The Sims sold? Have you looked at the statistics on who what gender plays more online Flash games like Bejeweled?
These games were already ported to the Xbox and/or GC for America - that is why there is controversy. These ports won't be released in Europe because Sony paid money to ensure that.
Won't bother arguing the rest of your post (EA has other reasons too that you should mention), but "The TCO pain" is nothing. MS does it for free if you include Live capability.
Like I said, I don't really play the game, so I can't answer all of your questions perfectly. But I can do at least a few: Some people on the forums I read don't like the Xbox version's song list, claiming it too closely resembles that of Konamix, which they already have. This very well could be true. The song list (minus secret and downloadable songs) is somewhere here. (Oooh, didn't realize it had a Gradius song - I may have to go play it a bit after all.) Other than the classic LupinIII remix, "Ready Steady Go" is the first DDR song I have heard that I actually already liked, so it gets bonus points for me. In general, the music just sounds better to me than the rest of the DDR games I have heard. A little bit more like real dance music, and less like the MIDI-mess that is 'eurobeat'.
And if there are adapters to let the player use a PS1 dance pad on an Xbox console, how well do they work with Ultramix in practice? There are adaptors, but I am not sure how well they work. My brothers just use modified versions of the official Xbox pad.
All home versions of DDR other than handheld versions have a two-player split screen mode ("Versus"). But does the Xbox's four-player mode allow for four players on one console, or does it require two Xbox consoles at 180 USD each plus two copies of the game at 50 USD each? Nope, it works all on the same console. You can also play four player via Live, of course. And you do need additional pads, of course.
The online play additionally requires an upgrade from dial-up Internet access to cable or DSL at 240 USD/yr for each player (more if you're currently on NetZero instead of a real ISP) and an Xbox Live subscription at 50 USD/yr for each player, plus a five-figure USD setup fee for each player (that is, the cost of moving house) if you don't already live in an area with cable or DSL service. In addition, the songs you bought seem locked to one Xbox; if it breaks, you've lost all the money you've put into buying songs. (In contrast, the iTunes Music Store and Roxio Napster business models allow for authorizing additional PCs should one break.) Yeah, those are potentially problems, though I am not sure about the locked to one Xbox thing. I haven't tested it, but I am pretty sure the songs are associated with your Xbox Live user account. The Xbox Live upgrade isn't so bad though, as you can get both hardware and games (Tetris!) with your purchase. Does the PS2 version allow online play about 56k? I was pretty sure only the Xbox version has online play, in which case complaints about broadband requirements aren't really fair...you aren't going to be playing it online regardless.
Even Konamix had essentially CD quality music, and it was on PS1. Or has Konami remixed the songs in 5.1 channel? Or do you refer to quality of announcer sounds rather than the music? I was referring more to the superior sound quality the Xbox puts out (just better components), but yes, I believe it does 5.1. I can't stand the announcer in any DDR game I have played, so no comment other than the two available seem slightly less annoying than usual.:D
I guess the big reason why I made grandparent comment is that I'm bitter that Konami isn't making DDR for the GameCube and that I can't afford the other consoles. I emphathize. Wish the developers would at least do direct-sales of some of these game ports - I realize they wouldn't sell much retail, but I imagine 5000-10000 copies online isn't anything to sneeze at. It is pretty easy to port an Xbox game to GC, assuming it doesn't push the hardware much. At least the various systems will eventually get very very cheap.
I don't think the latest Zelda, Mario, Kirby, Pokemon, FZero, Metroid, etc. franchise game is going to prevent gaming from getting into a rut. In fact, that creative rut is exactly why I have yet to pick up a GC. Though you will find plenty of sequels on PS2 or Xbox, the complete lack of new characters or settings by Nintendo for the GC or GBA is appalling. (Yes, there is Pikmin and a couple other exceptions.)
Worldwide more games were sold last year than the year previous. The only place where the videogame market is potentially stagnating is Japan, and that is more that the traditional gamemakers that don't adapt are suffering. Cell phone game sales and play are way up, for example. And I know Nintendo is planning to bring Japan out of its recession, but for the time being that is really messing up sales for things like games.:P
And Nintendo doesn't need to piece together a new network setup - they just need to copy Xbox Live.:D MS nailed it on the first go, the only issue being certain groups like EA not yet supporting it - an unavoidable problem if you aren't number one in sales.
There are certainly popular recent Japanese arcade games that can get you into that trance. Check out Dangun Feveron, DoDonPachi, Battle Garegga, or Ikaruga sometime (all emulated but the latter).
And I would argue fighting games (including stuff like Virtual On)can get you into that trance, but only when you and your opponent are very good.
Namco couldn't program an effective AI if their lives depended on it.
I remember the first time I tried Tekken4. Not a fan of the series whatsoever, so no real experience. beat the whole game on my first play, mostly by doing a few of the same moves over and over. Got the best time, too.
What's especially bad about SCII is that the AI really just teaches you bad habits when playing a normal opponent...
Eh, everyone I know prefers the Pump music, which has a lot more variety, if nothing else. Most DDR music only really appeals to a very small niche of people in the USA.
I don't play it myself, but my younger brothers are DDR freaks, and they both prefer the Xbox version to the PS2 one. What are the deficiencies, exactly? The online play, four-player mode, better licensed music, and downloadable songs all seem to favor the Xbox version. As does the superior sound quality. Graphics don't really enter into a DDR game, of course.
Many newer games do use off-the-shelf VGA monitors. And I am pretty sure for the bigger sizes you are still better off without VGA (25 inch or so and up). But it wasn't until fairly recently that those got as cheap as they are - you have more than 20 years of games that use the more standard arcade hardware.
And no, you can't just swap them in the vast majority of cases.
Yeah, and its all bullshit. EA is free to charge whatever additional fee they want for its games via Xbox Live - any publisher can. You want to be HBO, you charge customers extra beyond their basic service, just like HBO does!
The only real reason here is control. EA doesn't want to give it up, though potentially if MS pays them enough they will loosen their 'morals'.
More likely IMO is that many console gamers also have a far larger variety of games to choose from. You just aren't probably going to play only one game all of the time when you have a dozen others you want that cost $20 new.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, not necessarily evidence, but I modded a friend's PSX that was just like that. No parallel port = no simple plugin device to play backups. I am sure one of the hardware faqs here will tell you when that model became available. Checking the newsgroup FAQ, it looks like any model number before and including 7500 has the port. Essentially the first model that shipped with a Dual Shock. So there are a lot of PSXs (not just PSOnes) out there without the parallel port!
Actually, it does have Phantasy Star Online, but that doesn't use the hard drive really (being designed around a Dreamcast).
However, MS will need to continue to support games like True Fantasy Online - it is a great way to break into the Asian markets.
Ghost in the Shell struck me as being both pretentious and half-baked. :)
There is a good reason for that: it is.
Though I do enjoy the film, your criticisms are absolutely correct. There are far better stuff out there - though not a bad film, I am not sure why the film version of GitS gets such praise in the West. I think it is just a lot of people's first exposure to more 'adult cartoons', so they are easily impressed.
The film Memories just came out this week in the USA, which I would recommend you check out. It is an anthology of three stories - all feature fairly different themes and drawing styles, and none of them are too reliant on a knowledge of Japanese culture. You get some black humor, some psychological horror, some social critique.
The problem you will find with a lot of anime fans giving recommendations to newbies is that they are rather myopic. FLCL is a great series for example, one of my faves, but at least half of its humor, plot, and various quirks revolve around references to other anime, manga, etc. It just isn't going to appeal to too many new anime watchers, because they don't have the proper context.
Other than the advice to wait for when a friend with similar tastes recommends some anime (an excellent suggestion), I would just try and find some anime similar to whatever non-anime you like. Like moody horror films? Go for something like Boogiepop Phantom. Like Hitchcock suspense and are not too squeemish? Go for Perfect Blue. Cyberpunk and David Lynch? Maybe Serial Experiments Lain is up your alley. Big R-rated action films and Indiana Jones? Spriggan. Gross-out humor and a tolerance for some bizarre Japanese cultural stuff? Ping-pong Club. Etc. etc. Space opera with some hard Einsteinien physics? Gunbuster. There is a huge variety of anime out there, some for every possible taste.
You seem also to imply that there was a lot of fans of GitS manga, and that it was a masterpiece, before the movie was created, as it is the case for LotR.
That is just not true.
Umm, there are a lot of fans of the GitS manga. Myself, among others (the very high sales agree with this). And quite a few fans would call it a masterpiece, too.
One of the things that disappointed me so much about the GitS film is how shallow it was compared to the manga. It was also less exciting, less funny, less imaginative, and in general pretty incompetent sci-fi - it didn't manage to portray a particularly interesting or different world than the one we live in now. This is something the manga did a very nice job on (and something Shirow is pretty good at). The GitS film felt just like it was our world, just with some rare cyborgs and fancier military machines, and maybe a slightly more advanced internet. Maybe if it had something more interesting to say about this technology, but all it manages to present is the Cliff Notes version of the manga themes.
And other than some admittedly nice montages in places (I love the rain one), some good (if repetitive) music, fairly good animation, and the possible benefit of a shorter exposure time, the film doesn't really add much. No new ideas, no new themes, no new characters, no truly new scenes. It also exactly followed the basic storyline of the manga, with lots of stuff cut out, pacing changes, and a very slight change in the ending. So I am not sure why you feel it is such a divergence, as opposed to the LOTR films, which cut lots of stuff, changed the pacing, and had a slight change in the ending.
(The Patlabor series has the same problem as sci-fi, IMO - you have one or two areas of amazingly high technology advancement, and the rest of the world is completely unchanged, really. So bizarrely unimaginative.)
Well, you can get number 3 for Xbox in May...
My grudge with IGN is that they decided to charge for their bad reviews and images/movies. There are god knows how many other gaming sites out there offering the same things for free. And lets face it, gamers don't usually have money to drop on a website subscription (they'd rather put it towards a game).
Just wanted to mention that this is not entirely true anymore, AFAIK. Reviews (which are certainly better than, say, Gamespot's) and images are free - though sometimes you get those full-page ads prior to going to the page. Most movies are free, but they do have special high quality (and usually exclusive/custom) movies that you do need a subscription for. I don't have one myself, but I think this is understandable - movies require a lot of bandwidth, and that does cost money. Then they have a few articles, usually the more hardcore stuff (like multiplatform game comparisons, or Gaming Life in Japan), that also requires a subscription. Most of the content is free though, and almost always the pricey stuff is labeled clearly as such (finally!).
And supposedly they are doing pretty well with subscriptions, so it must be working with some people.
Well yeah, and then you can't do stuff like the KOTOR saves, really. The ability to have big save games is a really nice feature, and games like KOTOR or Fable (or even Halo in-mission saves) would be very difficult to do with a memory card, even assuming it is four times bigger than current cards (which was the jump last gen IIRC, so 2 meg -> 8 meg -> 64 meg). Sure, you can do some clever optimizing to allieviate part of the problem, but game saves are only going to get bigger.
Non-obtrusive autosaves are also a nice feature that I assume isn't being done on other consoles without hard disks (since poorly programmed multiplatform titles like Tony Hawk feature long pauses for saving, something you really don't find in the better Xbox games).
The parent post was referring to the next Xbox possibly not having a hard drive - so you would need to download that stuff every time. It would hurt loading times quite a bit, as well as lowering responsiveness in general. MS better have a good solution for this if they decide to take this route... (Maybe large integrated flash memory, so at least reduce the frequency? Rewriteable discs?)
:D
He wasn't attacking Xbox Live, so lay off the fanboy defensiveness.
To add to your point, I believe most modern studies suggest 'standard' hunter-gatherer societies would require a member to spend about four hours a day, tops, to gather enough food. And oftentimes this food would also be enough to support others that couldn't do as useful work - like the very young or the hunters (who were responsible for considerably less food calorie-wise, generally).
You want to abolish society? That is what the anon was referring to, not social security, etc.
:P
Good luck with that tiny goal.
If Nintendo can generate and crack teh female gaming market they could easily come out on top.
Nintendo's blathering nonsense to the contrary, the female gaming market does exist (in every major market, AFAIK), and generates huge profits as well. How well has The Sims sold? Have you looked at the statistics on who what gender plays more online Flash games like Bejeweled?
You are pretty uninformed, no offense. :)
These games were already ported to the Xbox and/or GC for America - that is why there is controversy. These ports won't be released in Europe because Sony paid money to ensure that.
And the Xbox has done pretty okay in Europe. Almost a million more sold than the GC. Why you would think it would sell like it does in Asia is beyond me - are Europe's tastes generally closer to America (where Xbox is currently #2), or Japan?
Won't bother arguing the rest of your post (EA has other reasons too that you should mention), but "The TCO pain" is nothing. MS does it for free if you include Live capability.
Like I said, I don't really play the game, so I can't answer all of your questions perfectly. But I can do at least a few:
:D
Some people on the forums I read don't like the Xbox version's song list, claiming it too closely resembles that of Konamix, which they already have.
This very well could be true. The song list (minus secret and downloadable songs) is somewhere here. (Oooh, didn't realize it had a Gradius song - I may have to go play it a bit after all.) Other than the classic LupinIII remix, "Ready Steady Go" is the first DDR song I have heard that I actually already liked, so it gets bonus points for me. In general, the music just sounds better to me than the rest of the DDR games I have heard. A little bit more like real dance music, and less like the MIDI-mess that is 'eurobeat'.
And if there are adapters to let the player use a PS1 dance pad on an Xbox console, how well do they work with Ultramix in practice?
There are adaptors, but I am not sure how well they work. My brothers just use modified versions of the official Xbox pad.
All home versions of DDR other than handheld versions have a two-player split screen mode ("Versus"). But does the Xbox's four-player mode allow for four players on one console, or does it require two Xbox consoles at 180 USD each plus two copies of the game at 50 USD each?
Nope, it works all on the same console. You can also play four player via Live, of course. And you do need additional pads, of course.
The online play additionally requires an upgrade from dial-up Internet access to cable or DSL at 240 USD/yr for each player (more if you're currently on NetZero instead of a real ISP) and an Xbox Live subscription at 50 USD/yr for each player, plus a five-figure USD setup fee for each player (that is, the cost of moving house) if you don't already live in an area with cable or DSL service. In addition, the songs you bought seem locked to one Xbox; if it breaks, you've lost all the money you've put into buying songs. (In contrast, the iTunes Music Store and Roxio Napster business models allow for authorizing additional PCs should one break.)
Yeah, those are potentially problems, though I am not sure about the locked to one Xbox thing. I haven't tested it, but I am pretty sure the songs are associated with your Xbox Live user account. The Xbox Live upgrade isn't so bad though, as you can get both hardware and games (Tetris!) with your purchase. Does the PS2 version allow online play about 56k? I was pretty sure only the Xbox version has online play, in which case complaints about broadband requirements aren't really fair...you aren't going to be playing it online regardless.
Even Konamix had essentially CD quality music, and it was on PS1. Or has Konami remixed the songs in 5.1 channel? Or do you refer to quality of announcer sounds rather than the music?
I was referring more to the superior sound quality the Xbox puts out (just better components), but yes, I believe it does 5.1. I can't stand the announcer in any DDR game I have played, so no comment other than the two available seem slightly less annoying than usual.
I guess the big reason why I made grandparent comment is that I'm bitter that Konami isn't making DDR for the GameCube and that I can't afford the other consoles.
I emphathize. Wish the developers would at least do direct-sales of some of these game ports - I realize they wouldn't sell much retail, but I imagine 5000-10000 copies online isn't anything to sneeze at. It is pretty easy to port an Xbox game to GC, assuming it doesn't push the hardware much. At least the various systems will eventually get very very cheap.
I don't think the latest Zelda, Mario, Kirby, Pokemon, FZero, Metroid, etc. franchise game is going to prevent gaming from getting into a rut. In fact, that creative rut is exactly why I have yet to pick up a GC. Though you will find plenty of sequels on PS2 or Xbox, the complete lack of new characters or settings by Nintendo for the GC or GBA is appalling. (Yes, there is Pikmin and a couple other exceptions.)
:P
:D MS nailed it on the first go, the only issue being certain groups like EA not yet supporting it - an unavoidable problem if you aren't number one in sales.
Worldwide more games were sold last year than the year previous. The only place where the videogame market is potentially stagnating is Japan, and that is more that the traditional gamemakers that don't adapt are suffering. Cell phone game sales and play are way up, for example. And I know Nintendo is planning to bring Japan out of its recession, but for the time being that is really messing up sales for things like games.
And Nintendo doesn't need to piece together a new network setup - they just need to copy Xbox Live.
There are certainly popular recent Japanese arcade games that can get you into that trance. Check out Dangun Feveron, DoDonPachi, Battle Garegga, or Ikaruga sometime (all emulated but the latter).
And I would argue fighting games (including stuff like Virtual On)can get you into that trance, but only when you and your opponent are very good.
That is probably the best defense of SCII's unbalanced (IE too offense heavy) game engine I have ever read. Kudos. :)
Namco couldn't program an effective AI if their lives depended on it.
I remember the first time I tried Tekken4. Not a fan of the series whatsoever, so no real experience. beat the whole game on my first play, mostly by doing a few of the same moves over and over. Got the best time, too.
What's especially bad about SCII is that the AI really just teaches you bad habits when playing a normal opponent...
Eh, everyone I know prefers the Pump music, which has a lot more variety, if nothing else. Most DDR music only really appeals to a very small niche of people in the USA.
I don't play it myself, but my younger brothers are DDR freaks, and they both prefer the Xbox version to the PS2 one. What are the deficiencies, exactly? The online play, four-player mode, better licensed music, and downloadable songs all seem to favor the Xbox version. As does the superior sound quality. Graphics don't really enter into a DDR game, of course.
And let's not forget that many of these Sega games also have great graphics as well.
Gamers are a fickle bunch - word of mouth and advertising are what sell games the most.
(And Sega isn't really dying. Their arcade divisions are keeping them in the black, however.)
Many newer games do use off-the-shelf VGA monitors. And I am pretty sure for the bigger sizes you are still better off without VGA (25 inch or so and up). But it wasn't until fairly recently that those got as cheap as they are - you have more than 20 years of games that use the more standard arcade hardware.
And no, you can't just swap them in the vast majority of cases.
Yeah, and its all bullshit. EA is free to charge whatever additional fee they want for its games via Xbox Live - any publisher can. You want to be HBO, you charge customers extra beyond their basic service, just like HBO does!
The only real reason here is control. EA doesn't want to give it up, though potentially if MS pays them enough they will loosen their 'morals'.
Do you have anything to back this up, or is this just a baseless assertion?
Uhh, ditto to you.
More likely IMO is that many console gamers also have a far larger variety of games to choose from. You just aren't probably going to play only one game all of the time when you have a dozen others you want that cost $20 new.