I agree with you wholeheartedly. The Wii is MADE for the tilt mechanism to work. That is a primary focus of the console. Games will be designed around it.
The PS3 on the other hand has a pretty standard controller- adding a tilt sensor is just a gimmick. In this case, rumble would probably be better than tilt.
I probably won't ever buy a PS3, because I am a huge 360 fanboy.
But...your comment about not buying it unless you rich, or have no responsibilities....wrong.
I've commented before that it seems like a lot of poor people are on Slashdot. But remember, we aren't all poor.
My wife and I both work, neither of us makes a ton of money. But, our combined salary is about $125,000/year. So a PS3 would be.48% of my income. For something that should last 4-5 years, who cares?
Not a big deal- you don't have to be rich. I'm not rich, and I sure don't sweat $600. I would say that my income level is pretty average, and I do have responsibilities (House, cars, family, etc.) but the price does not concern me.
I'm just amazed that on Slashdot, with so many people working in the tech field, people cry poor all the time. What do these people do, write free code for non-profits?
I've been gaming since the 70's- and I think this is the golden age.
I can go out and buy a game that has better mini-games than anything that was made in the 80's. An easy, if over-used example would be Geometry Wars, which was just a small part of Project Gotham Racing 2.
The on-line gaming space is absolutely fantastic now. Not only are there millions of opportunities for you to get a game going, but the games actually WORK. Just last night I was playing Call of Duty 2 on my Xbox 360. Rooms would fill up with 8 people in just about 1 minute. The lag was imperceptible, the automatic matchmaking meant that the competition was good- AND we could all chat while playing!
In the 1980's I couldn't even dream that I would be able to TALK to a player who was thousands of miles away, as we planned our attack on 4 opposing human players in a fairly realistic 3d world. And while I was crouched, protecting our radio (headquarters) I could tell where the enemy was using my surround sound system. And when the enemy finally made it to the door, my team-mate sniper could tell me "move to the left, I have a clear shot".
Maybe this isn't for you. Maybe you would rather play a game by yourself, pushing colored blocks around while sub-midi quality music played repetitively through your speakers.
I do remember multi-player in the 80's it was a lot of fun. My friends and I would sit around a computer and take turns playing a game. (Whoever lost the last city in Missle Command would get pummeled by the rest of us.) It was great fun. Now I have the option of Internet gaming, OR we can still gather around one box and play. (I do both)
As someone who has been gaming consistently for 30 years (sadly...yes, for 30 years consistently and nearly constantly) it is my opinion that games have never been better.
My Rio Carbon (no longer sold) is an awesome audio player. The fact that I can drag and drop files from my desktop and use it as a portable drive is great- and the fact that it will look for audio files, and add them to the playlist is fantastic.
No extra software necessary- it just plays the way I would want it to. Too bad Sony can't see this as an advantage.
I do not want an iPod- I don't want the hassle. So I am looking for a good replacement for my Rio, because the battery is starting to fade.
I too care about the Zune. I hope they have the drag and drop capability that the Rio has (had).
At this point, when the PS3 comes out, my Xbox 360 will be a year old. I will have spent a year using (? is playing games 'using'?) it, and enjoying it.
So making a direct comparison is not entirely accurate. For instance, I bought a new computer last January for about $800. I would expect that in January 2007, my $800 will buy me a computer with better specs. That's the way technology goes.
HD-DVD wasn't available last November. Personally, I'm glad that Microsoft didn't wait- I've already gotten quite a bit of play out of my 360.
As far as HD-DVD or Blue-Ray. Sadly, I'm not interested in either. Yes, I own a HDTV, but I won't be going out to re-purchase my DVDs in a new format. I will be very happy to wait 2 years or so before I do this. I won't really care to make a move until Netflix has a majority of thier stuff in a new format.
Cloning Clyde on Xbox Live Arcade is good example of where platformers are now. They're not the A-List games, but they are still being made.
I personally am not a huge platformer fan- I get frustrated by a lot of the puzzles. (Sad but true) But Cloning Clyde was a refreshing change of pace for me. It is a platformer with some pretty nice graphics and some interesting play mechanics, like turning into a chicken or a frog to get through different levels.
Both my wife and daughter said, "Oh, that looks like Mario Brothers" when they watched me play it.
Platformers aren't completely dead, but I don't think they'll make it back as one of the biggest genres in video games.
Does awesome graphics preclude the game from being fun?
I hear that same mantra again and again on Slashdot- "graphics don't make the game fun."
But fantastic graphics can make a good game even better- and GRAW is a good example. The game is solid- fun, well balanced, good off-line and good-online.
But the graphics really send everything over the top. The game is beautiful, which makes it even more fun to play. Just as watching a movie on 70mm film is a much more enjoyable than the same on Super-8.
I don't think anyone needs to 'question why they're playing a game' just because they enjoy the graphics. The graphics are an important piece of the entire puzzle. Good graphics make the game better- great graphics push it up even further.
Actually you can play a 360 at 1280x768 resolution- or more.
I play GRAW on my 360 at 1280x1024 all the time. And it looks damn good.
I move my 360 from an HDTV to 19" LCD- depending on how desperately my wife wants to watch TV. I have the two video cables so it is fairly easy to move- but now I *really* want an extra power supply. That would make it real easy.
Keyboard and mouse isn't the best way to play a 3rd person game.
But Pacman and Donkey Kong are not good games in comparison to what comes out now.
If Pacman were released today, it would be a bargain basement Popcap game. Hell, Bounce Out has more action, better sound, looks better, and is more exciting. Would the average casual gamer today feel that Donkey Kong is fun? It's too simplistic, but at the same time too difficult.
Don't expect a 13 year old to hold the same level as nostalgia for these games as you do. They see the game for what it is- just a simple, fairly boring, game. They don't care about the history of it- the fact that it was a huge phenomenon in the arcades...they just know that it sucks.
I've had tech support calls that consisted of somebody dragging the menu around in IE so that the "back" button had moved! (which underscores perhaps the most worthless feature MS has ever put out - the movable menu. Who ever wants to change that?)
Well, you're getting Office help calls, so I'll assume you are not a developer.
You would be amazed at the 'requirements' that a lot of users have, and the features that they MUST use. I write software for a primarily academic crowd. Each person (PhD) just needs to have the system work they way they want it to work. Because as you said, to them it is just a black box. If things don't look right, they can't figure it out.
After sitting in meetings where 4 people have 4 opinions on where a menu should be, eventually the only answer is to make the location an option, make it moveable.
Nobody has replied yet...but I deserve to get flamed.
After some research, I found that they are running a huge mish-mash of different languages and middleware. Calling it ColdFusion at this point is pretty much incorrect.
It might be depressing- and MySpace sites my look like crap.
But the part that makes me happy is that MySpace runs on ColdFusion.
It's impossible to say anything positive about ColdFusion here on Slashdot without being torn apart...and one of the reasons people complain about it is that some people don't think it's enterprise capable.
Well, the biggest site on the net runs ColdFusion, that sounds pretty damn good to me. No matter how the pages look, that doesn't matter. The important thing is that they load.
So now I can say it- I still run ColdFusion, and I still like it. I've been told that ColdFusion is dead. ASP is the only way to go. PHP is the only way to go, JSP is the only way to go,.Net is the only way to go, Python is the only way to go.
Now is the time for me to say: "Can't we all just get along?"
For me the biggest problem with 'budget' software that it is old, and in many cases (not all...) the on-line play suffers. (I don't play RPGs, so don't tell me how wonderful Everquest or World of Warcraft, or whatever is...)
When a game has been out for a long time, and you just jump in, the on-line experience usually sucks.
1- There is a good chance that many of the players have been playing for years. They know every trick, every little nuance. You don't have much of a chance to beat them. If a good player takes you under their wing (fat chance in a competitive game) you won't get to discover the game yourself, and learn things that very few other people have discovered.
2- Possibly the game wasn't too popular, but it is just something that people throw in when they're bored. They don't care about the game. They are much more likely to be griefers.
3- Maybe nobody plays anymore.
For a person who does about 80% of their gaming on-line, used budget games aren't a very good option.
Yes, of course some people are still playing Counterstrike, or Quake...my answer to that is, "geez dude, aren't you sick of that game yet?"
Slashdot Mirror
I have no idea why you were modded flamebait...
I agree with you wholeheartedly. The Wii is MADE for the tilt mechanism to work. That is a primary focus of the console. Games will be designed around it.
The PS3 on the other hand has a pretty standard controller- adding a tilt sensor is just a gimmick. In this case, rumble would probably be better than tilt.
I probably won't ever buy a PS3, because I am a huge 360 fanboy.
.48% of my income. For something that should last 4-5 years, who cares?
But...your comment about not buying it unless you rich, or have no responsibilities....wrong.
I've commented before that it seems like a lot of poor people are on Slashdot. But remember, we aren't all poor.
My wife and I both work, neither of us makes a ton of money. But, our combined salary is about $125,000/year. So a PS3 would be
Not a big deal- you don't have to be rich. I'm not rich, and I sure don't sweat $600. I would say that my income level is pretty average, and I do have responsibilities (House, cars, family, etc.) but the price does not concern me.
I'm just amazed that on Slashdot, with so many people working in the tech field, people cry poor all the time. What do these people do, write free code for non-profits?
I've been gaming since the 70's- and I think this is the golden age.
I can go out and buy a game that has better mini-games than anything that was made in the 80's. An easy, if over-used example would be Geometry Wars, which was just a small part of Project Gotham Racing 2.
The on-line gaming space is absolutely fantastic now. Not only are there millions of opportunities for you to get a game going, but the games actually WORK. Just last night I was playing Call of Duty 2 on my Xbox 360. Rooms would fill up with 8 people in just about 1 minute. The lag was imperceptible, the automatic matchmaking meant that the competition was good- AND we could all chat while playing!
In the 1980's I couldn't even dream that I would be able to TALK to a player who was thousands of miles away, as we planned our attack on 4 opposing human players in a fairly realistic 3d world. And while I was crouched, protecting our radio (headquarters) I could tell where the enemy was using my surround sound system. And when the enemy finally made it to the door, my team-mate sniper could tell me "move to the left, I have a clear shot".
Maybe this isn't for you. Maybe you would rather play a game by yourself, pushing colored blocks around while sub-midi quality music played repetitively through your speakers.
I do remember multi-player in the 80's it was a lot of fun. My friends and I would sit around a computer and take turns playing a game. (Whoever lost the last city in Missle Command would get pummeled by the rest of us.) It was great fun. Now I have the option of Internet gaming, OR we can still gather around one box and play. (I do both)
As someone who has been gaming consistently for 30 years (sadly...yes, for 30 years consistently and nearly constantly) it is my opinion that games have never been better.
My Rio Carbon (no longer sold) is an awesome audio player. The fact that I can drag and drop files from my desktop and use it as a portable drive is great- and the fact that it will look for audio files, and add them to the playlist is fantastic.
No extra software necessary- it just plays the way I would want it to. Too bad Sony can't see this as an advantage.
I do not want an iPod- I don't want the hassle. So I am looking for a good replacement for my Rio, because the battery is starting to fade.
I too care about the Zune. I hope they have the drag and drop capability that the Rio has (had).
In most games you can speed up the gamepad control, just like you can speed up a mouse.
The PS3 doesn't come with anything yet....
Two weeks ago people would have sworn it came with an HDMI cable. Now it probably doesn't.
Not saying that the PS3 WON'T come with component cables- but we don't know anything yet.
When my friends and I go to a movie, we each pay for a ticket.
When I have friends over to play games- we all play the same copy of the game.
If I had to pay per person for my copy of Halo, I would have paid for at least 10 players by now. Many of whom have never played Halo anywhere else.
Also, when I am done watching a movie in the theatre, I can't sell my ticket to someone else. I can do that with a game.
So it isn't an apples to apples comparison, but there are a lot of other factors to look at.
That game has been made- it came out last year.
It's called, 'Blitz: The League'.
Fun game. Take a look: http://blitzleague.com/
But football games are based in the 'real' universe. What you do in the game is somewhat of a reflection of reality.
You can sit around and talk about the game with football fans who don't even play Madden.
Developer vs. Administrator.
One of history's classic rivalries.
If my Internet connection is down- I go home.
At this point, when the PS3 comes out, my Xbox 360 will be a year old. I will have spent a year using (? is playing games 'using'?) it, and enjoying it.
So making a direct comparison is not entirely accurate. For instance, I bought a new computer last January for about $800. I would expect that in January 2007, my $800 will buy me a computer with better specs. That's the way technology goes.
HD-DVD wasn't available last November. Personally, I'm glad that Microsoft didn't wait- I've already gotten quite a bit of play out of my 360.
As far as HD-DVD or Blue-Ray. Sadly, I'm not interested in either. Yes, I own a HDTV, but I won't be going out to re-purchase my DVDs in a new format. I will be very happy to wait 2 years or so before I do this. I won't really care to make a move until Netflix has a majority of thier stuff in a new format.
Cloning Clyde on Xbox Live Arcade is good example of where platformers are now. They're not the A-List games, but they are still being made.
I personally am not a huge platformer fan- I get frustrated by a lot of the puzzles. (Sad but true) But Cloning Clyde was a refreshing change of pace for me. It is a platformer with some pretty nice graphics and some interesting play mechanics, like turning into a chicken or a frog to get through different levels.
Both my wife and daughter said, "Oh, that looks like Mario Brothers" when they watched me play it.
Platformers aren't completely dead, but I don't think they'll make it back as one of the biggest genres in video games.
Does awesome graphics preclude the game from being fun?
I hear that same mantra again and again on Slashdot- "graphics don't make the game fun."
But fantastic graphics can make a good game even better- and GRAW is a good example. The game is solid- fun, well balanced, good off-line and good-online.
But the graphics really send everything over the top. The game is beautiful, which makes it even more fun to play. Just as watching a movie on 70mm film is a much more enjoyable than the same on Super-8.
I don't think anyone needs to 'question why they're playing a game' just because they enjoy the graphics. The graphics are an important piece of the entire puzzle. Good graphics make the game better- great graphics push it up even further.
Sure- that's why the N-gage won the hand-held gaming market. It was gaming and a PHONE rolled into one.
And that Motorola Rokr- that's also a winner.
Whoops- I forgot my link:
X box-360-VGA-HD-AV-Cable/p1/
http://hardware.teamxbox.com/reviews/xbox-360/40/
Actually you can play a 360 at 1280x768 resolution- or more.
I play GRAW on my 360 at 1280x1024 all the time. And it looks damn good.
I move my 360 from an HDTV to 19" LCD- depending on how desperately my wife wants to watch TV. I have the two video cables so it is fairly easy to move- but now I *really* want an extra power supply. That would make it real easy.
Keyboard and mouse isn't the best way to play a 3rd person game.
But Pacman and Donkey Kong are not good games in comparison to what comes out now.
If Pacman were released today, it would be a bargain basement Popcap game. Hell, Bounce Out has more action, better sound, looks better, and is more exciting. Would the average casual gamer today feel that Donkey Kong is fun? It's too simplistic, but at the same time too difficult.
Don't expect a 13 year old to hold the same level as nostalgia for these games as you do. They see the game for what it is- just a simple, fairly boring, game. They don't care about the history of it- the fact that it was a huge phenomenon in the arcades...they just know that it sucks.
I hate ACs, but you are a particularly stupid AC, so I'll respond.
Xbox Live isn't full of kiddies..in fact in the last 3 months of fairly heavy Live usage, I've probably run across 5 kids that were annyong.
That's why god invented the 'mute' button. Selective mute is great, you never have to hear from that person again.
Another great thing about Live- there's no such thing as an anonymous coward.
Tell that to every SUV owner on the road.
I've had tech support calls that consisted of somebody dragging the menu around in IE so that the "back" button had moved! (which underscores perhaps the most worthless feature MS has ever put out - the movable menu. Who ever wants to change that?)
Well, you're getting Office help calls, so I'll assume you are not a developer.
You would be amazed at the 'requirements' that a lot of users have, and the features that they MUST use. I write software for a primarily academic crowd. Each person (PhD) just needs to have the system work they way they want it to work. Because as you said, to them it is just a black box. If things don't look right, they can't figure it out.
After sitting in meetings where 4 people have 4 opinions on where a menu should be, eventually the only answer is to make the location an option, make it moveable.
This shit happens all the time.
That's a load of crap.
Whether people want to admit it or not, EA makes (distributes) a lot of really good games. For instance:
Burnout
Fight Night
Medal of Honor
Battlefield
Sims II
NBA Street
SSX
Etc. They have PLENTY of good games out there. Just because they are the biggest, everyone wants to say they suck. They don't.
Nobody has replied yet...but I deserve to get flamed.
After some research, I found that they are running a huge mish-mash of different languages and middleware. Calling it ColdFusion at this point is pretty much incorrect.
So, I was wrong.
It might be depressing- and MySpace sites my look like crap.
.Net is the only way to go, Python is the only way to go.
But the part that makes me happy is that MySpace runs on ColdFusion.
It's impossible to say anything positive about ColdFusion here on Slashdot without being torn apart...and one of the reasons people complain about it is that some people don't think it's enterprise capable.
Well, the biggest site on the net runs ColdFusion, that sounds pretty damn good to me. No matter how the pages look, that doesn't matter. The important thing is that they load.
So now I can say it- I still run ColdFusion, and I still like it. I've been told that ColdFusion is dead. ASP is the only way to go. PHP is the only way to go, JSP is the only way to go,
Now is the time for me to say: "Can't we all just get along?"
For me the biggest problem with 'budget' software that it is old, and in many cases (not all...) the on-line play suffers. (I don't play RPGs, so don't tell me how wonderful Everquest or World of Warcraft, or whatever is...)
When a game has been out for a long time, and you just jump in, the on-line experience usually sucks.
1- There is a good chance that many of the players have been playing for years. They know every trick, every little nuance. You don't have much of a chance to beat them. If a good player takes you under their wing (fat chance in a competitive game) you won't get to discover the game yourself, and learn things that very few other people have discovered.
2- Possibly the game wasn't too popular, but it is just something that people throw in when they're bored. They don't care about the game. They are much more likely to be griefers.
3- Maybe nobody plays anymore.
For a person who does about 80% of their gaming on-line, used budget games aren't a very good option.
Yes, of course some people are still playing Counterstrike, or Quake...my answer to that is, "geez dude, aren't you sick of that game yet?"