Yes, I must admit that I was hoping more than a little that this news of lost contact would be accompanied by a last few photos taken by the Spirit, showing some shadowy figures approaching the rover and posing for the camera.
There are a few pages (including this one) showing how people have created airsoft or paintball version of the assault rifles from Aliens (complete with working digital counter for ammo!). I'm sure these guys could pretty easily come up with some weapons to go along with that suit. Of course, you'd only get to carry two at once, so choose carefully.
No, my understanding is that Nintendo makes some kind of profit on every Gamecube they sell (although maybe that profits has been reduced with the $99 price). Regardless, they don't necessarily want to sell hardware for profit, they want to sell hardware in order to have a large user base so that developers will make games for the Gamecube. Every Gamecube sold is another potential purchaser for a Gamecube game. The more potential purchaser, the more likely your Square-Enix, or EA, or whoever, is going to want to make a game for the Gamecube.
Oh, I have a Gameboy player, and the GBA Castlevania's are great. But everytime I play SOTN on my PS2, I feel like "Geez, couldn't they have done another one of these, except with sharper graphics and a much, much larger area to explore?" When I first heard of that the Lament of Innocence team was comprised largely of people who had worked on SOTN, I figure they were doing that, but instead they rejected the RPG elements of SOTN and went for something that owes as much to Devil May Cry as it does to SOTN. Personally, I was disappointed.
Given the high esteem people generally hold SOTN in (and the popularity of the GBA Castlevanias) you'd think that Konami would greenlight something like this. Maybe with the PS2 getting into the later part of its life cycle, they'll be willing to take a slight risk on something like this.
Why doesn't the PS2 Castlevania team get it together and gives us what at least some of us really want -- a PS2 sequel to Symphony of the Night? They've had their flirtation with a 3d/action-oriented Castlevania, now how about a fully updated, 2D sequel to SOTN, with all the RPG elements intact? The GBA Castlevania's have obiviously been successful with this model, so where's our full blown SOTN sequel? It would be easy for that team -- they made the original game, they know what to do. I want more SOTN!
Well, since they didn't tell you how many units of the game were actually sold, a 435% increase isn't necessarily all that impressive. If (to make up a number) 100 people a month were buying Halo over the last few months at it $49.99 price (because, as you suggest, almost everyone with an XBox owns it), then the 435% increase only means sales went up to 435 for the time period they're looking at (note: numbers and time periods totally made up.) In fact, given that they didn't give an actual sales number, but just gave a percent, I have a feeling that the actual number of Halo sales wasn't that large. The price cut to $30 wasn't that impressive anyway, since it was pretty easy to get the game for $40 or less before the price cut.
I can vaguely understand wanting to buy virtual items from an MMORPG, so that you save the time in acquiring them, and gain the status of having rare/powerful items.
But low ICQ numbers? I can't comprehend this at all? Is it a status thing, as in "I was here first?" Can someone explain this one?
Are you kidding? That's one of the best NES games ever. It's got great platform action, a tremendous large world map to explore, lots of items to gather, and an awesome soundtrack (including, I'm sure, the NES rendition of a Cyndi Lauper song.) Goonies II is an outstanding game -- I was impressed the list, that speaks highly of the people who responded.
They'll probably come out with the stand along drive at some point in the future, but for now it looks like FFXI or nothing. I imagine that they're counting on enough people wanting FFXI that they'll be able to get a decent installed base, which will then encourage publishers to make games utilizing the drive. They must assume that the percentage of PS2 owners who want the drive but not FFXI is minimal. I saw that the press release said SOCOM II will support downloadable content. I bet that once enough big games do so, Sony will be motivated to sell the hard drive without FFXI on it.
I think they've sold a total of something less than 350,000 units since launch in Japan. Apparently their current solution to this problem is release a slew of non-localized Western games.
But that's, what, about 3% of the 13 million XBox owners out there. I remember reading somewhere that SOCOM for PS2 had sold something more than 600,000 copies, but even assuming that all those purchasers play on-line, that's an even smaller percentage of PS2s out there.
I realize there's all sorts of reasons these numbers aren't entirely accurate, but it still seems to me that the on-line playing subset of console owners is very, very small.
I believe that the Spike Jones who has joined TNN's side in this fray is not the Spike Jonze who directed "Being John Malkovich" and numerous music videos. Instead, it's Spike Jones Jr., son of the musician and comedian Spike Jones (who is, I suppose, the musical precursor to Weird 'Al' Yankovic.)
I'd be curious to see where Spike Jonze (with a "z") is on this one. I can't believe a court gave Spike Lee a temporary injunction, but I'm pretty sure he will not succeed in the end. It's a generic word with common usage, it's not like his name is some fanciful word that he created himself.
I am, and yes, it is normal. Basically, the first thing you do, before you've investigated everything for your side, is preserve all your rights and objection that you might assert in the future by denying everything now. Since the lawsuit phase of this dispute has just started, the defendants probably don't know enough (or haven't had enough time to think about) the particular answers and defenses they will assert. The standard thing to do, then, is to deny the allegations because you don't have information sufficient to form a belief one way or the other.
Exactly. Even if I wanted to play certain cross-platform games on the Gamecube, the controller is just so poorly suited to most sports games and FPSs (for example) that I invariably get them for another console. Even the exceptional appeal of the Wavebird isn't enough to overcome the lack of a usable D-pad and a real second analog stick, and the uncomfortable placement of the Z-button. 1st party titles work pretty well, but 3d party cross-platform games invariably control better on PS2 or XBox.
Twisted Metal Black (about as good as TM2, lots of fun in co-op mode)
Project Eden (You can play this with up to four people co-op, switching between members of a 4 man squad. It's 1st or 3d person, and there's some combat, but it's largely puzzle-oriented, where you have to use each team member's unique talents to pass various obstacles. I picked it up quite cheap somewhere and was very pleased.)
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, I must admit that I was hoping more than a little that this news of lost contact would be accompanied by a last few photos taken by the Spirit, showing some shadowy figures approaching the rover and posing for the camera.
There are a few pages (including this one) showing how people have created airsoft or paintball version of the assault rifles from Aliens (complete with working digital counter for ammo!). I'm sure these guys could pretty easily come up with some weapons to go along with that suit. Of course, you'd only get to carry two at once, so choose carefully.
No, my understanding is that Nintendo makes some kind of profit on every Gamecube they sell (although maybe that profits has been reduced with the $99 price). Regardless, they don't necessarily want to sell hardware for profit, they want to sell hardware in order to have a large user base so that developers will make games for the Gamecube. Every Gamecube sold is another potential purchaser for a Gamecube game. The more potential purchaser, the more likely your Square-Enix, or EA, or whoever, is going to want to make a game for the Gamecube.
Oh, I have a Gameboy player, and the GBA Castlevania's are great. But everytime I play SOTN on my PS2, I feel like "Geez, couldn't they have done another one of these, except with sharper graphics and a much, much larger area to explore?" When I first heard of that the Lament of Innocence team was comprised largely of people who had worked on SOTN, I figure they were doing that, but instead they rejected the RPG elements of SOTN and went for something that owes as much to Devil May Cry as it does to SOTN. Personally, I was disappointed. Given the high esteem people generally hold SOTN in (and the popularity of the GBA Castlevanias) you'd think that Konami would greenlight something like this. Maybe with the PS2 getting into the later part of its life cycle, they'll be willing to take a slight risk on something like this.
Why doesn't the PS2 Castlevania team get it together and gives us what at least some of us really want -- a PS2 sequel to Symphony of the Night? They've had their flirtation with a 3d/action-oriented Castlevania, now how about a fully updated, 2D sequel to SOTN, with all the RPG elements intact? The GBA Castlevania's have obiviously been successful with this model, so where's our full blown SOTN sequel? It would be easy for that team -- they made the original game, they know what to do. I want more SOTN!
Well, since they didn't tell you how many units of the game were actually sold, a 435% increase isn't necessarily all that impressive. If (to make up a number) 100 people a month were buying Halo over the last few months at it $49.99 price (because, as you suggest, almost everyone with an XBox owns it), then the 435% increase only means sales went up to 435 for the time period they're looking at (note: numbers and time periods totally made up.) In fact, given that they didn't give an actual sales number, but just gave a percent, I have a feeling that the actual number of Halo sales wasn't that large. The price cut to $30 wasn't that impressive anyway, since it was pretty easy to get the game for $40 or less before the price cut.
I can vaguely understand wanting to buy virtual items from an MMORPG, so that you save the time in acquiring them, and gain the status of having rare/powerful items. But low ICQ numbers? I can't comprehend this at all? Is it a status thing, as in "I was here first?" Can someone explain this one?
Are you kidding? That's one of the best NES games ever. It's got great platform action, a tremendous large world map to explore, lots of items to gather, and an awesome soundtrack (including, I'm sure, the NES rendition of a Cyndi Lauper song.) Goonies II is an outstanding game -- I was impressed the list, that speaks highly of the people who responded.
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (XBOX, and soon for PC) Deus Ex (PC, and presumably the Deus Ex sequel, Invisible War, when that comes out)
They'll probably come out with the stand along drive at some point in the future, but for now it looks like FFXI or nothing. I imagine that they're counting on enough people wanting FFXI that they'll be able to get a decent installed base, which will then encourage publishers to make games utilizing the drive. They must assume that the percentage of PS2 owners who want the drive but not FFXI is minimal. I saw that the press release said SOCOM II will support downloadable content. I bet that once enough big games do so, Sony will be motivated to sell the hard drive without FFXI on it.
I'd probably classify System Shock 2 as a first person horror game. And that had co-op.
I think they've sold a total of something less than 350,000 units since launch in Japan. Apparently their current solution to this problem is release a slew of non-localized Western games.
But that's, what, about 3% of the 13 million XBox owners out there. I remember reading somewhere that SOCOM for PS2 had sold something more than 600,000 copies, but even assuming that all those purchasers play on-line, that's an even smaller percentage of PS2s out there. I realize there's all sorts of reasons these numbers aren't entirely accurate, but it still seems to me that the on-line playing subset of console owners is very, very small.
I believe that the Spike Jones who has joined TNN's side in this fray is not the Spike Jonze who directed "Being John Malkovich" and numerous music videos. Instead, it's Spike Jones Jr., son of the musician and comedian Spike Jones (who is, I suppose, the musical precursor to Weird 'Al' Yankovic.) I'd be curious to see where Spike Jonze (with a "z") is on this one. I can't believe a court gave Spike Lee a temporary injunction, but I'm pretty sure he will not succeed in the end. It's a generic word with common usage, it's not like his name is some fanciful word that he created himself.
I am, and yes, it is normal. Basically, the first thing you do, before you've investigated everything for your side, is preserve all your rights and objection that you might assert in the future by denying everything now. Since the lawsuit phase of this dispute has just started, the defendants probably don't know enough (or haven't had enough time to think about) the particular answers and defenses they will assert. The standard thing to do, then, is to deny the allegations because you don't have information sufficient to form a belief one way or the other.
Exactly. Even if I wanted to play certain cross-platform games on the Gamecube, the controller is just so poorly suited to most sports games and FPSs (for example) that I invariably get them for another console. Even the exceptional appeal of the Wavebird isn't enough to overcome the lack of a usable D-pad and a real second analog stick, and the uncomfortable placement of the Z-button. 1st party titles work pretty well, but 3d party cross-platform games invariably control better on PS2 or XBox.
Twisted Metal Black (about as good as TM2, lots of fun in co-op mode) Project Eden (You can play this with up to four people co-op, switching between members of a 4 man squad. It's 1st or 3d person, and there's some combat, but it's largely puzzle-oriented, where you have to use each team member's unique talents to pass various obstacles. I picked it up quite cheap somewhere and was very pleased.)