Silent Hill 2 has, in my opinion, the single greatest ever moment in gaming history, and most people pass it by without knowing it. Read on.
*** SPOILER *** Your flashlight is used to find out where the monsters are in the dark and reveal them. It's ironic that your character finds the flashlight pinned on a mannequin that has his wife clothes, and is startled by the light illuminating him. Since at the end you find out that his wife didn't actually die of cancer, but was killed by him, and the whole alternate Silent Hill 2 and "monsters" are the product of his demented mind and crushing guilt. It makes sense, since what the game is actually trying to tell you is that *he* is the real monster.
You only realize this the second time you play and I believe me, it will send shivers down your spine. The way that game messes up with your emotional senses is something you find only in very good movies.
So the market goes where the money is. Fair enough. But then, why whine about the lack of originality in todays games if everybody is more than willing to pay full price for the same old game again?
It's more than obvious why Square has lost it's innovation: it's much more convenient for it to stick the proven formula and release carbon copy sequels than try something really groundbreaking like Ehrgeiz, Tobal or Einhander. Wonder why you don't see any more games like these coming from Square-Enix? The answer is simple, just feed the fanboys and secure your wad of cash. Because, after all, we don't mind getting fed the same old stuff again and again.
Sorry if I'm being too harsh in this comment, but I'm really disappointed at what Square-Enix has become. Actually, I'm more sad about the fact that gamers don't seem to care about it.
Oh, and Pirates was an original game, and very replayable, so it really doesn't count (or I wouldn't be playing freeciv till late at night, but that's another story).
David, the point of validation is that an SGML parser can effectively process and output your page on any display, or convert it in any other dialect (RSS, et al).
Usability also means "usable in any situation", which in turn means "with any hardware/software that complies with universally accepted standards". Note the "standards" part.
A lot of code wizards I know don't take the time in making their personal pages validate, RMS is an example. But then, don't criticize people that put effort in doing things the "right way". The only element that violates normally accepted usability notions is that the - perfect understandable and non redundant - navigation menu is at the bottom right instead of on top. This is done for esthetic reasons: they wanted to introduce an innovative design that takes the best elements from digital paper without the hassle of using externa, bloaty software, copying the design of a typical glossy magazine. It's a thousand times more interesting than your typical Gamespy template. No ads, no annoying flash menus, no cruft... just the article and the textual navigation menu at the bottom. What's so hard about that?
Also, David, for Christs sake, you're an IT professional aren't you?. You don't have to take my word for it, you can verify that for yourself, or don't you usually take the effort to check things out before signing them off?
A very nice rant indeed, I'd mod you up if I had points.
My answer is to your question
Why can't a binary driver be accepted?
is that if it would be accepted, it couldn't be part of a "free" operating system anymore.
What most people understand is that you can't have a totally free operative system if it runs on proprietary hardware. You need to set your priorities: do I want a free operative system, or just an alternative to Windows/OSX? In the first case, you _need_ to buy hardware from vendors that comply with the GPL, while in the latter you simply can't expect a smooth ride when the people involved (Stallman, Torvalds, etc) all think differently about what that Frankenstein renamed "GNO/Linux/KDE/X.org/whatever" should really be.
Theo de Raadt might be a hothead, but he's right in stating that the GNU/linux folk don't get it if they don't speak out and convince the hardware companies to open source their drivers. Not all of them will, of course, but a chain reaction might occur if there is a sufficient critical mass. That's where "normal" users need to give back. Not code, bucks, but letters and petitions.
Looking Glass is a move akin to flexing your muscles at the gym. Sun just wanted to prove "their stuff" to Microsoft and Apple, demonstrating a desktop technology demo.
It's barely usable and already been opensourced because, once shown to the press, it had little use to them.
Commodore is also known as the CBM 64, which stands for "Commodore Business Machines".
It did load an OS off a disk and that was GEOS, which was packaged with the computer in the late eighties and was much better than Windows 1.0/2.0.
Actually 320x200 _was_ hi-res mode, and was used for desktop publishing, spreadsheets and other graphical applications. Coupled with a dot-matrix printer, a peripheral never available to consoles.
A console is a device which has hardware components entirely dedicated to games. The CBM 64 is neither a PC nor a console, that's the "Microsoft era" mentality. A CBM 64 is a "home computer", which is yet another type of computer. These machines had a different market and a different target, but Commodore's aim was ultimately the business world. They failed because people always had this "game machine" misconception about them.
Enlightenment is what it is. A work in progress where a lot of innovation is going on. Like your shiny brushed metal interface on OSX? Guess where that came from? You're right, DR16.
DR17 is pretty much used by a lot of people. Obviously not as many as those using OSX, but then, even if only a handful of people ever visit your personal website/blog that doeswn't make it useless or pointless, does it?
At the end of the day, you use what suits you, your job and your habits. The role that OSS is playing today is both instrumental and inspirational. Instrumental because it gives systems like OSX the tools (samba, khtml, etc) to make it work flawlessly, and insipirational because it innovates where it would be too risky for a company like Apple to invest in.
And so everyone gets a lot more than they bargained for.
"We have potential, as the only IM (instant messaging) company focused on communications and as a result of our fast growth. We're very happy with our prospects as a standalone company. We've always meant this company to be for the long run. We're investing heavily in our infrastructure,"
ReiserFS_3 "deprecated" ?!! Are you kidding? Where the hell did you hear that? Reiser4 isn't "Gentoo unfriendly", since filesystems should be distro-agnostic. The keywords here are "unstable", "beta" and "testing-only". You are using software that's still experimental and therefore you should expect to encounter bugs and other annoyances. That's the catch for staying bleeding edge.
I've used ReiserFS_3 for everything, from desktop workstations to mission critical servers and I haven't encountered one single fault yet. Surely, there must be a reason for NASA sponsoring and using it.
Actually unreasonable is what you would expect from the Microsoft PR department, not viceversa. Techie guys obviously have no interest whatsoever in corporate FUD and guerilla marketing tactics. They're interested in the value of technology and, since Microsoft employs some of the best and brightest in the field, this is a typical no-nonsense response you'd normally get from one of them.
A very interesting read and no doubt very flammable material to link to on the linux zealot forums.
since I'm not a rocket scientist, I fail to understand the importance of what John is doing (or has discovered? surely throatless engines aren't an entirely new concept are they?).
I understand that this *might* impact manufactoring costs, but exactly how is this revolutionary, or going to affect us? Are we going to sport some pocket engines in the future? Are they more environmental friendly? Do they scale well? Will it run Linux?
Seriously, after reading the story and the article a few times I haven't yet understood half of it.
This is going OT, but multi day compiles of KDE are actually a thing of the past.
Nowadays Gentoo encourages the use of split ebuilds that make for a much more efficient and less bloated desktop, not to mention faster compile times, since only explicitly requested stuff gets compiled and installed.
Slashdot Mirror
Out of curiosity I tried it out. Brilliant. Thanks for the tip.
Silent Hill 2 has, in my opinion, the single greatest ever moment in gaming history, and most people pass it by without knowing it. Read on.
*** SPOILER *** Your flashlight is used to find out where the monsters are in the dark and reveal them. It's ironic that your character finds the flashlight pinned on a mannequin that has his wife clothes, and is startled by the light illuminating him. Since at the end you find out that his wife didn't actually die of cancer, but was killed by him, and the whole alternate Silent Hill 2 and "monsters" are the product of his demented mind and crushing guilt. It makes sense, since what the game is actually trying to tell you is that *he* is the real monster.
You only realize this the second time you play and I believe me, it will send shivers down your spine. The way that game messes up with your emotional senses is something you find only in very good movies.
I wonder if there will be a CowboyNeal option.
... and throw in three Yale coeds, a kazoo and sushi in a fish bowl too, just for the kicks.
Actually, I do happen to like FF7 a lot.
So the market goes where the money is. Fair enough. But then, why whine about the lack of originality in todays games if everybody is more than willing to pay full price for the same old game again?
It's more than obvious why Square has lost it's innovation: it's much more convenient for it to stick the proven formula and release carbon copy sequels than try something really groundbreaking like Ehrgeiz, Tobal or Einhander. Wonder why you don't see any more games like these coming from Square-Enix? The answer is simple, just feed the fanboys and secure your wad of cash. Because, after all, we don't mind getting fed the same old stuff again and again.
Sorry if I'm being too harsh in this comment, but I'm really disappointed at what Square-Enix has become. Actually, I'm more sad about the fact that gamers don't seem to care about it.
Oh, and Pirates was an original game, and very replayable, so it really doesn't count (or I wouldn't be playing freeciv till late at night, but that's another story).
Seriously, are you willing to shell out at least 50 quid for an RPG you have already played, albeit with better graphics?
Old is new again. No thanks.
Remakes never made good games, and never brought back the old vibes.
Yes. Chinese crackers will eventually speed up the OS, make clippy do a blue hadouken and unlock Microsoft Bob as a playable character.
Then Microsoft will be forced to release Windows Vista Champion Edition.
David, the point of validation is that an SGML parser can effectively process and output your page on any display, or convert it in any other dialect (RSS, et al).
Usability also means "usable in any situation", which in turn means "with any hardware/software that complies with universally accepted standards". Note the "standards" part.
A lot of code wizards I know don't take the time in making their personal pages validate, RMS is an example. But then, don't criticize people that put effort in doing things the "right way". The only element that violates normally accepted usability notions is that the - perfect understandable and non redundant - navigation menu is at the bottom right instead of on top. This is done for esthetic reasons: they wanted to introduce an innovative design that takes the best elements from digital paper without the hassle of using externa, bloaty software, copying the design of a typical glossy magazine. It's a thousand times more interesting than your typical Gamespy template. No ads, no annoying flash menus, no cruft... just the article and the textual navigation menu at the bottom. What's so hard about that?
Also, David, for Christs sake, you're an IT professional aren't you?. You don't have to take my word for it, you can verify that for yourself, or don't you usually take the effort to check things out before signing them off?
I beg your pardon? Where did your see the flash? It's well laid out XHTML1.0 + CSS.
Actually, it's so well done, it even validates by w3c standards, something your own site doesn't.
I can even read "The Escapist" in links!
A very nice rant indeed, I'd mod you up if I had points.
My answer is to your question
Why can't a binary driver be accepted?
is that if it would be accepted, it couldn't be part of a "free" operating system anymore.
What most people understand is that you can't have a totally free operative system if it runs on proprietary hardware. You need to set your priorities: do I want a free operative system, or just an alternative to Windows/OSX? In the first case, you _need_ to buy hardware from vendors that comply with the GPL, while in the latter you simply can't expect a smooth ride when the people involved (Stallman, Torvalds, etc) all think differently about what that Frankenstein renamed "GNO/Linux/KDE/X.org/whatever" should really be.
Theo de Raadt might be a hothead, but he's right in stating that the GNU/linux folk don't get it if they don't speak out and convince the hardware companies to open source their drivers. Not all of them will, of course, but a chain reaction might occur if there is a sufficient critical mass. That's where "normal" users need to give back. Not code, bucks, but letters and petitions.
Looking Glass is a move akin to flexing your muscles at the gym. Sun just wanted to prove "their stuff" to Microsoft and Apple, demonstrating a desktop technology demo.
It's barely usable and already been opensourced because, once shown to the press, it had little use to them.
Commodore is also known as the CBM 64, which stands for "Commodore Business Machines".
It did load an OS off a disk and that was GEOS, which was packaged with the computer in the late eighties and was much better than Windows 1.0/2.0.
Actually 320x200 _was_ hi-res mode, and was used for desktop publishing, spreadsheets and other graphical applications. Coupled with a dot-matrix printer, a peripheral never available to consoles.
A console is a device which has hardware components entirely dedicated to games. The CBM 64 is neither a PC nor a console, that's the "Microsoft era" mentality. A CBM 64 is a "home computer", which is yet another type of computer. These machines had a different market and a different target, but Commodore's aim was ultimately the business world. They failed because people always had this "game machine" misconception about them.
More information
What is a "home computer"?
Enlightenment is what it is. A work in progress where a lot of innovation is going on. Like your shiny brushed metal interface on OSX? Guess where that came from? You're right, DR16.
DR17 is pretty much used by a lot of people. Obviously not as many as those using OSX, but then, even if only a handful of people ever visit your personal website/blog that doeswn't make it useless or pointless, does it?
At the end of the day, you use what suits you, your job and your habits. The role that OSS is playing today is both instrumental and inspirational. Instrumental because it gives systems like OSX the tools (samba, khtml, etc) to make it work flawlessly, and insipirational because it innovates where it would be too risky for a company like Apple to invest in.
And so everyone gets a lot more than they bargained for.
Janus Friis of Skype just said the opposite:
"We have potential, as the only IM (instant messaging) company focused on communications and as a result of our fast growth. We're very happy with our prospects as a standalone company. We've always meant this company to be for the long run. We're investing heavily in our infrastructure,"
Link to story
ReiserFS_3 "deprecated" ?!! Are you kidding? Where the hell did you hear that? Reiser4 isn't "Gentoo unfriendly", since filesystems should be distro-agnostic. The keywords here are "unstable", "beta" and "testing-only". You are using software that's still experimental and therefore you should expect to encounter bugs and other annoyances. That's the catch for staying bleeding edge.
I've used ReiserFS_3 for everything, from desktop workstations to mission critical servers and I haven't encountered one single fault yet. Surely, there must be a reason for NASA sponsoring and using it.
DO NOT LET Dr. Mario touch your genitals! He is NOT a real doctor!!!
Emperor: There's linux in your kernel...
Darth Mc Bride:NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!11
Looks like *he's* the customer he's trying to convince.
Actually unreasonable is what you would expect from the Microsoft PR department, not viceversa. Techie guys obviously have no interest whatsoever in corporate FUD and guerilla marketing tactics. They're interested in the value of technology and, since Microsoft employs some of the best and brightest in the field, this is a typical no-nonsense response you'd normally get from one of them.
A very interesting read and no doubt very flammable material to link to on the linux zealot forums.
since I'm not a rocket scientist, I fail to understand the importance of what John is doing (or has discovered? surely throatless engines aren't an entirely new concept are they?).
I understand that this *might* impact manufactoring costs, but exactly how is this revolutionary, or going to affect us? Are we going to sport some pocket engines in the future? Are they more environmental friendly? Do they scale well? Will it run Linux?
Seriously, after reading the story and the article a few times I haven't yet understood half of it.
Exactly.
XSI is available for both Windows and Linux, but not for the Mac afaik.
Linkage
Actually, you proved his point, and that is: use whatever works for you.
Choice is freedom, and viceversa.
You spent $200 in Buble' merchandise???
If this isn't an epitome of evilness, I don't know what else could be...
$699
Thanks,
Darl.
This is going OT, but multi day compiles of KDE are actually a thing of the past.
Nowadays Gentoo encourages the use of split ebuilds that make for a much more efficient and less bloated desktop, not to mention faster compile times, since only explicitly requested stuff gets compiled and installed.
Gentoo KDE Split EBuilds HOWTO