Too many games and not enough hours to play them in is the problem in my book. Any game that is either short but sweet or has very frequent save points is OK with me. But games that have huge gaps between save points are a real pain, worse still are the ones that put you miles back into the level when you die or ones that make you sit through un-skippable cut-scenes you've seen 10 times before.
Back in the good old days I could devote hours to a game after school without caring, these days, a snatched 45-minutes is a blessing. The length of a game isn't necessarily important (as long as it's all fun and not repetitive) it's whether the game caters for players who just don't have hours available to devote to it.
Agreed, I bought two PSPs and they both had 2-3 stuck pixels. Sony build quality has always been poor, right from the first PS1 with its dead CD drive and tendency to overheat. To their credit they usually iron the out the problems but at the cost of the early adopter who finds all these problems for them.
Most game stores are full of "industry experts" who are only too willing to tell me what they think is the best game or best system that I should buy. They're usually regurgitating the latest rumours they've heard from the internet as facts and they seem to think that by just working in a games shop they must be a much more hardcore gamer than myself. It's that air of superiority they have that makes them think they know more than anyone who comes through the door that frustrates me. They're usually the kind that go to clog up E3 too.
There are a few good guys out there, but there are a so many annoying wannabe "insiders" who just tell you to buy whatever machine they own, which inevitably means a PS2 or sometimes Xbox. The way Nintendo gets completely dismissed is bad as well. Give the customer a choice, don't just assume because you think the PS2 is the "best console evar" that everyone else will agree with you.
Redubbing and distributing other people's works is all Disney is good for these days. They will probably never get back to their glory days because the suits appointed to run the company just can't understand what makes a good animated feature.
I don't think Miyazaki can save Disney's soul either. He's a creative type who makes what he wants to. Disney don't make what they want, they make what their demographics tell them people want. Until Disney changes this, they will change nothing.
Interestingly Disney are required by contract not to cut or change any of Ghibli's films without explicit approval from Ghibli. However John Lasseter of Pixar is the main man behind getting Disney to distribute Ghibli's work in the US which explains why they have been released relatively unharmed.
Plus those are the coveted early adopters who tell their friends which console to buy, and they're not going to be recommending the Revolution if it can't do HD.
Plus, how is the Revolution supposed to compete when sites like IGN do their "Head to Head" articles where they compare a game available for multiple platforms to tell you which is the best version to buy? I can see them slating the Revolution's graphics for being low-res and indistinct now...
As much as I love Nintendo's games, they really do seem to have no clue when it comes to what the market really wants.
... we have access to the world's largest repository of porn, and therefore we know all the positions, where the clitoris is and how to spit on your cock for a bit of anal invasion.
Well that's something they've improved since I last used it then. I just installed it and it actually asked during install if I wanted it to move my music or not. Last time I installed iTunes it started moving my music without even asking. I can't remember if the option not to copy music was there or not, I was too annoyed that it started copying things without even asking before.
Apple have made some improvements but it's still not a patch on Winamp for me.
Well I haven't used iTunes for ages so I can't remember if that was in there or not when I last tried it. So in the interests of fairness I installed the latest version and tried out the minimized mode. It's not bad but it's too "tall", I can't find anywhere to put it when I'm coding as it covers the controls of the IDE. Maybe when I get a monitor that does 1600x1200...;)
My main problem with iTunes is how it likes to organise my music. I had a massive collection of MP3s long before iTunes came out and I organised my music into directories by type and by the name of the CD the music was from.
iTunes however likes to move everything into its own special folder and organise the music by artist and album, which just doesn't work very well for me as the ID3 tags of my MP3s are eclectic to say the least thanks to the wildy varying submissions of people to the FreeDB.:)
So normally I just go to the folder with the type of music I want and choose the folder with the mp3s I want and play them. With iTunes there's just a huge list of songs to scroll through. Admittedly I can narrow it by artist or album but first I have to know the name of one or the other assuming the ID3 tag is correct. I could take the time to fix them, but I have nearly 50Gb of music, audio books etc now and I just can't summon the will...;)
Another problem I have with iTunes is that it doesn't have a visible minimised mode. Winamp shrinks down to a discrete horizontal bar that I can set to "Always on top" and put at the top of my screen so I can access it anytime. iTunes doesn't have this, it's either the huge window or nothing which is annoying when I just want to hit pause or add a song to the playlist. I also find iTunes has a much bigger memory footprint compared to Winamp.
My final problem is more of an "ethical" one I guess, in that I can't watch fullscreen movie trailers in Quicktime unless I have iTunes installed. What does iTunes do that allows Quicktime to go full screen? Quicktime used to be able to go full screen before iTunes came out but it magically lost this feature when iTunes was released. It just seems like a cheap way to force people into going the iTunes way.:(
Great work! I've been using EphPod for ages as it supports Winamp playlists but obviously this is even better, especially since it doesn't crash all the time like EphPod...;)
I'm glad there are more and more alternatives to iTunes, it's such a horrid program to use IMO.
It's been 5 years since the PS2 came out, and the emulators for it are barely getting to the title screens of commercial games.
I'd recommend buying a second hand machine if you're strapped for cash rather than hoping someone manages to emulate a complex piece of hardware like the PS2.
... I suppose having to put up with Sam Fisher wearing Mickey Mouse ears and infiltrating Big Thunder Mountain is preferable to EA getting their hands on Ubi.
So Nintendo is making a big mistake not releasing their console this year, and Sony don't get mentioned even though their console is slated for 2006 too?
True Sony have made noises about releasing the PS3 this year, but they did exactly the same thing to spoil the Dreamcast's launch. And even though they were about a year after the DC, Sony still had crappy release titles.
And best of all, Pac-Pix on the Nintendo DS is IMHO one of the most original and fun games I've played in a long time and is a very suitable tribute to the anniversary. It's good to see a 25 year old franchise can still innovate!
"What are we going to have to do to convince "ordinary users" to visit WindowsUpdate once in a while?"
How about we first try to teach users not to run executables attached to emails? This virus only infects machines when the attachment is run. It then starts emailing itself to everyone in the user's address book, but if you don't run the attachment to begin with it can't harm you.
Unless Microsoft have a patch for user's brains to make them not run executable attachments, sending them off to Windows Update will do nothing except provide them with a false sense of security.
"Could this and compatible clients be the replacement to SuprNova and Lokitorrents, or does the lack of search negate its effectiveness?"
The lack of a system that obfuscates the source and destination of data to prevent the RIAA/MPAA/etc from seeing what you are downloading is the feature everyone should be demanding. Decentralising torrents won't make it any harder to have your IP tracked and your identity revealed by court order.
Slashdot Mirror
Too many games and not enough hours to play them in is the problem in my book. Any game that is either short but sweet or has very frequent save points is OK with me. But games that have huge gaps between save points are a real pain, worse still are the ones that put you miles back into the level when you die or ones that make you sit through un-skippable cut-scenes you've seen 10 times before.
Back in the good old days I could devote hours to a game after school without caring, these days, a snatched 45-minutes is a blessing. The length of a game isn't necessarily important (as long as it's all fun and not repetitive) it's whether the game caters for players who just don't have hours available to devote to it.
Agreed, I bought two PSPs and they both had 2-3 stuck pixels. Sony build quality has always been poor, right from the first PS1 with its dead CD drive and tendency to overheat. To their credit they usually iron the out the problems but at the cost of the early adopter who finds all these problems for them.
Most game stores are full of "industry experts" who are only too willing to tell me what they think is the best game or best system that I should buy. They're usually regurgitating the latest rumours they've heard from the internet as facts and they seem to think that by just working in a games shop they must be a much more hardcore gamer than myself. It's that air of superiority they have that makes them think they know more than anyone who comes through the door that frustrates me. They're usually the kind that go to clog up E3 too.
There are a few good guys out there, but there are a so many annoying wannabe "insiders" who just tell you to buy whatever machine they own, which inevitably means a PS2 or sometimes Xbox. The way Nintendo gets completely dismissed is bad as well. Give the customer a choice, don't just assume because you think the PS2 is the "best console evar" that everyone else will agree with you.
All the Madrid bombers had valid ID also.
They counted back when they made them. What animation have Disney done recently?
Redubbing and distributing other people's works is all Disney is good for these days. They will probably never get back to their glory days because the suits appointed to run the company just can't understand what makes a good animated feature.
I don't think Miyazaki can save Disney's soul either. He's a creative type who makes what he wants to. Disney don't make what they want, they make what their demographics tell them people want. Until Disney changes this, they will change nothing.
Interestingly Disney are required by contract not to cut or change any of Ghibli's films without explicit approval from Ghibli. However John Lasseter of Pixar is the main man behind getting Disney to distribute Ghibli's work in the US which explains why they have been released relatively unharmed.
Plus those are the coveted early adopters who tell their friends which console to buy, and they're not going to be recommending the Revolution if it can't do HD.
Plus, how is the Revolution supposed to compete when sites like IGN do their "Head to Head" articles where they compare a game available for multiple platforms to tell you which is the best version to buy? I can see them slating the Revolution's graphics for being low-res and indistinct now...
As much as I love Nintendo's games, they really do seem to have no clue when it comes to what the market really wants.
It's a pity Betamax didn't win then, as shorter tapes would have spared us all the crappy "acting" that goes on before they get down to it.
... we have access to the world's largest repository of porn, and therefore we know all the positions, where the clitoris is and how to spit on your cock for a bit of anal invasion.
I suppose the 64DD for the N64 was a failure, it got a very limited Japan release and that was it.
Other than that I guess the light guns for the NES and SNES were pretty much ignored too.
And I still play my Dreamcast today, I just wish Sega would make Shenmue III...
Well that's something they've improved since I last used it then. I just installed it and it actually asked during install if I wanted it to move my music or not. Last time I installed iTunes it started moving my music without even asking. I can't remember if the option not to copy music was there or not, I was too annoyed that it started copying things without even asking before.
Apple have made some improvements but it's still not a patch on Winamp for me.
Well I haven't used iTunes for ages so I can't remember if that was in there or not when I last tried it. So in the interests of fairness I installed the latest version and tried out the minimized mode. It's not bad but it's too "tall", I can't find anywhere to put it when I'm coding as it covers the controls of the IDE. Maybe when I get a monitor that does 1600x1200... ;)
My main problem with iTunes is how it likes to organise my music. I had a massive collection of MP3s long before iTunes came out and I organised my music into directories by type and by the name of the CD the music was from.
:)
;)
:(
iTunes however likes to move everything into its own special folder and organise the music by artist and album, which just doesn't work very well for me as the ID3 tags of my MP3s are eclectic to say the least thanks to the wildy varying submissions of people to the FreeDB.
So normally I just go to the folder with the type of music I want and choose the folder with the mp3s I want and play them. With iTunes there's just a huge list of songs to scroll through. Admittedly I can narrow it by artist or album but first I have to know the name of one or the other assuming the ID3 tag is correct. I could take the time to fix them, but I have nearly 50Gb of music, audio books etc now and I just can't summon the will...
Another problem I have with iTunes is that it doesn't have a visible minimised mode. Winamp shrinks down to a discrete horizontal bar that I can set to "Always on top" and put at the top of my screen so I can access it anytime. iTunes doesn't have this, it's either the huge window or nothing which is annoying when I just want to hit pause or add a song to the playlist. I also find iTunes has a much bigger memory footprint compared to Winamp.
My final problem is more of an "ethical" one I guess, in that I can't watch fullscreen movie trailers in Quicktime unless I have iTunes installed. What does iTunes do that allows Quicktime to go full screen? Quicktime used to be able to go full screen before iTunes came out but it magically lost this feature when iTunes was released. It just seems like a cheap way to force people into going the iTunes way.
Great work! I've been using EphPod for ages as it supports Winamp playlists but obviously this is even better, especially since it doesn't crash all the time like EphPod... ;)
I'm glad there are more and more alternatives to iTunes, it's such a horrid program to use IMO.
It's been 5 years since the PS2 came out, and the emulators for it are barely getting to the title screens of commercial games.
I'd recommend buying a second hand machine if you're strapped for cash rather than hoping someone manages to emulate a complex piece of hardware like the PS2.
Seriously, wait till you've had a go with it, you might change your mind it feels very comforatble.
... I suppose having to put up with Sam Fisher wearing Mickey Mouse ears and infiltrating Big Thunder Mountain is preferable to EA getting their hands on Ubi.
... it's not my fault the car stalled because I'm light on the clutch.
So Nintendo is making a big mistake not releasing their console this year, and Sony don't get mentioned even though their console is slated for 2006 too?
True Sony have made noises about releasing the PS3 this year, but they did exactly the same thing to spoil the Dreamcast's launch. And even though they were about a year after the DC, Sony still had crappy release titles.
The NES or GameBoy version? I never played the NES version but I completed the GB one.
And best of all, Pac-Pix on the Nintendo DS is IMHO one of the most original and fun games I've played in a long time and is a very suitable tribute to the anniversary. It's good to see a 25 year old franchise can still innovate!
Directive 1: Serve the fastest goals
Directive 2: Protect the DRM
Directive 3: Uphold the ball
Directive 4: Classified, see Bill Gates
I thought the first thing people try to get running on any new hardware is Linux? ;)
"What are we going to have to do to convince "ordinary users" to visit WindowsUpdate once in a while?"
How about we first try to teach users not to run executables attached to emails? This virus only infects machines when the attachment is run. It then starts emailing itself to everyone in the user's address book, but if you don't run the attachment to begin with it can't harm you.
Unless Microsoft have a patch for user's brains to make them not run executable attachments, sending them off to Windows Update will do nothing except provide them with a false sense of security.
"Could this and compatible clients be the replacement to SuprNova and Lokitorrents, or does the lack of search negate its effectiveness?"
The lack of a system that obfuscates the source and destination of data to prevent the RIAA/MPAA/etc from seeing what you are downloading is the feature everyone should be demanding. Decentralising torrents won't make it any harder to have your IP tracked and your identity revealed by court order.