Fight Night Round 3. (slowdown issues fixed from the 360 version). Oblivion... better framerates and much better load times...
Granted, most of EA's ports are half-assed, but the Burnout folks are saying a PS3 developed game (Burnout Paradise) makes the 360 _port_ better.
So, let me mention one thing... "graphically superior" is subjective. And since it is, you can stop trying to convince everyone your opinion is correct.
And as for poorly done ports... Call of Duty 4 looks awesome on BOTH machines... which shows that companies who think the PS3 is "underpowered" or "less" than the 360 are just lazy or stupid about developing for it *cough* EA *cough*
I can see, sort of, what they're driving at (and like you I disagree with their method)...
Suppose (for the sake of this discussion), he only "shared" it with his local LAN, streamed them to his entertainment center in the living room, and never allowed them to go beyond his house? A "shared folder" is too broad of a brush for me. I can see what their point is, but they're obviously not hip to the tech involved and thus, it sounds like they're grasping... and grasping at something I fundamentally disagree with. (I don't believe "making available" constitutes infringement, and some states' AG don't either.) That's entirely too broad a net for this sort of thing.
I believe Oregon (among others) is really clamping down on the RIAA's tactics... and should their AG win, it will vastly change the way the RIAA can bring suits against people. Universities are telling the RIAA to bugger off.. and they simply won't go after some schools.:)
Additionally, EMI is getting tired of throwing good money at the RIAA (did you see their balance sheet?) and I'll wager they're seriously considering their bottom line when it comes to the RIAA's siphoning of cash to fund these sorts of suits that, once they go to trial, have been a hit and miss affair (so far) with States, universities, and individuals finally saying "enough is enough" and "extortion is illegal". Their whack-a-mole tactics are getting the attention of the legal system (and not in a good way.) Too bad the RIAA won't stop until it runs out of money. Maybe the "member companies" will stop bleeding profit and curttail this nonsense once and for all. Just hire someone with more than 1 brain-cell devoted to technology, RIAA... please before you put someone's eye out.:)
And on a side note, I still firmly hold to the idea that this sort of infringement (no monetary gain) was never, ever intended to be a criminal offense like bootlegging or counterfeit merchandise (like our "pals" in China do.) The RIAA is simply trying to expedite their plan to punish everyone like a crazy person wailing and swinging a bat... Sometimes (rather, most of the time) they hit an unintended target. And yet, they don't use their "vast" resources to take the real criminals to court...
Due process is out the window since the War on Drugs. And some folks challenged it, but the difference was, no one "liked" the drug dealers... when Grandma loses her computer to the government... people might start taking the 4th amendment seriously. But I doubt the sheeple will notice. Such is life after soma.
At least they had a warrant (such that it was...) when they stole the drug dealers' property. Now they don't even need that to grab your stuff.
I think it was a precedent-setting sort of coverage in terms of tech companies and I suspect we'll see more of it. In what form, or how long the coverage stays at such a high level is anyone's guess.
I wasn't convinced the story had legs because one of them was IBM or Novell, but because SCO's public statements, press releases, "dire" warnings, predictions and ranting were so focused on the Linux side of things, and that Linux was somehow tainted as a result of IBM's misappropriation of SCO's IP. I mean, the past is dim, but we can chart on an exponential scale the ramping up of the rhetoric from the original filing on IBM to the counter-suits by Novell and such. It was also a huge tinfoil hat "win" so to speak when Microsoft was suspected of propping up funding for the suit... as if their new tactic to combat "free" was to undermine the entire community with a lawsuit that would frighten other companies from adopting Linux for fear of litigation....
It didn't work of course... but the initial volleys never do... what really makes me wonder is what's next? The tinfoil hat wearer in me wonders who they'll go after next (not SCO of course, but the unseen puppeteers who are trying to undermine Linux...) but then I realize I don't look good in hats, so I dismiss those thoughts.;)
There are bad lawyers, bad doctors, and bad engineers. Trouble is, bad lawyers can keep practicing law long after their reputation or sanity would have permitted *cough*thompson*cough*. Just because they do it for a living doesn't make them good at it. That assumption really doesn't hold water.
While I agree there are passionate interests on both sides, the fact remains that SCO threatened legal action to practically everyone and his sister in the PR press. If they wanted to wage a smear campaign against linux... they lost... and it cost them. Regardless of the "dispassionate" facts of the dispute in question (which brought into the mix copyrights, breach of contract, etc etc... and never once did we see any proof of infringement, as I recall.. for whatever reason... my guess is, dispassionately, that they didn't have jack squat.)
How can you compete with free, they asked? Litigate them back to the stone age... SCO lost, they're appealing, the other matter's going through, we're all going to die.. the earth is round... (I could go on...)
SCO picked a fight and lost, not because they attacked IBM, but because they didn't have any solid anything with which to battle... and their wildly fantastic claims and conspiracies they spread in the press merely fueled the hatred of them.... and the questions about their very sanity.
For the SCO folks (and apologists).. Life's hard. Buy a helmet. This wasn't mob justice. This was one company trying to build a house of cards against another company. That's all. The blogs, the press, the linux/sco war of words outside of the courtroom is just entertainment.
If MS admits a design flaw, it's gotta be to keep heat off their mounting reliability issues in general... (I can't confirm this... I should google it...) because if they admit it's a manufacturing defect, we'd get a nice recall notice in the mail.;) The folks in Redmond are jumping through their own assholes to prevent that from happening... (hence the $1 billion... BILLION, kids, write off of _extending_ the warranty to 3 years _for_ the 3 Red Rings...) But if it truly is a design flaw, nothing will fix it this generation... and they're just hoping no one finds out until the Xbox 720... which at the rate my MS consoles have failed on me (and _NO_ other has since the SNES) I'm not getting on that bandwagon... period. They've lost me as a customer, as far as decent equipment goes (I don't buy their OSes... so piss of Ballmer.)
The review units, iirc (according to apologists and anonymous, unconfirmed sources...) had a beefier heat pipe and other niceties that MS removed from production models as a cost-saving measure. Granted, it's anecdotal, and probably a load of shit, but I imagine they didn't spare any expense at keeping a review unit, pre-production unit, or demo unit from crapping all over itself, a-la the "Plug-and-Pray" demo of Win 95.)
A piss-poor decision to go with craptacular heatsinks is just those greedy bastards in Redmond trying to stop the bleeding of a -$4 billion/year division... I don't believe if they had spent the extra $5 per unit on a decent friggin' heat sink/pipe combo we'd be talking about how shoddy the units are. I can say my new 360 with the revamped heatpipe/sink is performing much better (plus I got HDMI... pity the poor sod who got my old console, though...) but I'm not putting much stock in it lasting... once it goes... I sell off the games and tell Microsoft where they can shove their POS console... (right next to their OS, in my case.)
To me, I liken it still to a manufacturing problem. Maybe I'm just trying to justify the $359 I spent on the fucking thing. Inadequate heat-sink and dissipation on the GPU (which is the cause of the 3 RRoD) coupled with undue stress when the expanding heated environment literally yanks the thing off its screws (so to speak) is merely MS saving a couple of bucks per console... otherwise I'm more pissed at them than normal.;) I admit it.. I got suckered. Considering the only console that isn't still working from last gen (and I got a launch PS2) is my XBox.;) Imagine that. Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, I'm an idiot.:P
They have tried to change the design to return to the original idea of, oh, I dunno, keeping the damn GPU cool... and beefed it up... without changing how the console was designed that I can tell...
Just to piss off a few more in the cheap-seats: Look at the PS3... it's well-engineered, much to the chagrin of the fanbois... and it's a tank. Sorry, you can't do Folding@Home on a 360... it'd jump off your desk into the trash if you tried. Not to mention the other design decisions that make it a rather nice console... too bad no one notices.:(
The Falcons everyone so desires are merely a smaller CPU measurement... _not_ the GPU (which is the culprit to begin with....) So big whoop. It probably will keel over and die too.. This _has_ to be losing them mindshare and goodwill... because if not, God help us all... we're truly fucking sheep and whatever that bastard company shoves down our throats we take without gagging.
You have a point there... and considering I have a 720p TV (albeit a really good one)... I'm noticing one thing... the games look great, but not _as_ great in comparison to their previous counterparts as they did from previous transitions. (I mean, even Tekken Tag Tournament looked phenomenal compared to say, Tekken 2....) It's evolution rather than revolution, but the companies can't sell you anything until they hype it to death... and make you think you're not a whole person until you "buy our stuff!"
The PC isn't _that_ much better... it's a slower progression even with the rapid HW changes, and mostly they are targeting faster processors to make up for shoddy design. They're hitting a moving target on horseback... (not all are shitty, but quite a few too many just shovel the next big FPS out there and wonder why no one is buying them Ferraris....) That's why I got out of the PC gaming rat race a long time ago (additionally, I didn't update to XP...) and prefer the console to the PC for gaming now... I've played some current-gen PC games at friends' houses, but I just don't want to get back into that rut... The real sentiment is... "if you want to beta test everything... get a PC game...";) The last addictive game that kept me up at night (besides Diablo 1 and 2) was Total Annihilation. A verifiable digital-crack addictive game in my book.;) So that shows how long it's been since I've fired up a Windows PC away from work...
That said, I've got enough backlog on the PS2 to keep me busy until I die anyway.;) I'm a couple of RPG's from sitting the 'next' gen out.;)
Microsoft admitted to it... every console out "now" (at the time of the statement) had the potential to go T.U. Do you think they added a 3 year warranty _FREE_ for the RRoD issue (only) out of the goodness of their pea-pickin' hearts? That's RECALL protection... Unfortunately for them, it's still not _class_action_ protection.
Anything over 10% is a problem... so people need to stop defending Microsoft for uber craptacular harwdare. (And yes, I own one... it's a nice console.. when it works.) They may have designed a good console... they MANUFACTURED a shitty one.
Very true and your point is well taken (and sound), but I'd quibble with the term "American Corporation"... there aren't any more of those.... they're all multinational, and thus, they're even _MORE_ dangerous with even _less_ state loyalty than they had in the 50's. (If they had much at all... but they were distinctly "American" as much as you could say so...)
The citizens of every country are fighting against entities that feel transcending national borders and interests is a rite of passage to a new utopia where corporations _are_ the countries.
Coded Arms, Jewel Summoner, Monster Hunter, Platypus, Castlevania!!!!, Wipeout Pure, Gradius Galaxies, Legend of Heroes, Jeanne D'Arc, FF Tactics, Valkyrie Profile:Lenneth, Field Commander, Dungeon Siege, and so on and so on....... If you can't find something by now, you're missing out...;)
And the battery life isn't as craptacular as you might believe......to each his/her own.
And very true that a glut this early in the game (and this close to shopping frenzy season) would be bad for Nintendo in a PR sense, I think though having one or two left on the shelf at any given time would alleviate that quite a bit... having stacks high as mountains in Best Buy like the 360/PS3 do might be a really bad idea for Nintendo this Christmas in terms of mindset and achieving a bigger slice of the pie... Not that there isn't aeven a remote chance that they are going to have that problem, though...
Early on, I was under the tinfoil hat thinking Nintendo was artificially creating buzz by holding back units (I just don't trust corporations...heh), but after this long, I don't believe that to be the case, and with 1.8M per month, that's some SERIOUS cheddar for Nintendo, who got left out of the last gen's top spot by a deeply entrenched Sony lead. (And a few missteps w/r/t third party title capacity, I'd wager...) I think the PS2 choked the life out of the 2nd and 3rd place markets to a degree that it was unhealthy for competition (not that Sony would care...) I mean, it was a nice system and I own one... but when you're that far ahead, it seems that the other consoles get mostly scraps or first party stuff (in the case of the Gamecube.. which I also own and enjoy as well.)
This generation, the Wii's a different animal, and by the same token, not necessarily competing on the same field as the PS3/360. So in effect, the Wii's success isn't strangling off the hardcore market as much as I figured a console with that much in terms of units sold would...(it's still a footrace, but I think the hardcore consoles are holding up well, in spite of Sony's missteps and MS's QC problems.)
I may not want one (I've not seen the game I _really_ want to play on it yet... that doesn't mean there won't be one..) but I can appreciate the frustration of trying to find one (I did early on try to find one but gave up....) When things die down and things start to level off (2008 is Nintendo's magic forecast year, according to their spokesdrones)... I might try to pick one up... maybe they'll have a blue one...:)
It works great initially, but if you consistently cannot meet demand, I think the perception (investor and possibly laymen) will be that you're either holding back some units to create "buzz", or you really can't handle the demand and that will eventually negatively impact things going forward.
They can meet the DS demand shortly after they sold out (different product, I know) and for the most part, they've been good about meeting demands in the past (after inital shortages)... the Wii having shortages into 2008 means they _could_ sell more, but they won't, because they can't get enough in stores...
You're right.. it's like a golden goose, but Nintendo best be sure they don't shoot the goose.:)
It's more to do with the tipping point, actually. When does the Wii become "everyone who has one has one, and everyone who wanted one has one...", where naturally the curve will level off? I personally don't want one, but I don't mind if someone else does.. it's just not my bag. Still, with supply shortages plaguing Nintendo, I think some of the rise in demand stems partially from the "scarcity" perception... people who were sitting on the fence (new to gaming) might have thought it a "must buy" solely based on the lack of units in stock at any given retailer. And chances are, they know someone who has one and are getting non-stop anecdotal evidence that the Wii is the best thing since the toaster.
At some point we'll see the leveling off happen, but when and how long it will take to start dipping in sales is anybody's guess. Maybe then those who are trying to find one but have given up will be able to get their Wii.;)
Not to mention, as Jefferson said, supported by a free and independent press.
Amazingly enough, you, being British, can see the value of our Constitution (and yes, the Neocons should all be shot for mucking with it... or at the least, trying to avoid its limitations on their power...) and yet, our OWN CITIZENS cannot. It amazes me to no end that people would consider going on without our beloved Constitution...
Call me nutty, call me idealistic, call me late for dinner... but I believe in the Constitution... I cherish it as the foundation for my life as a free man, and I will fight to the death to defend it, from all threats... foreign AND domestic. I believe in it so strongly, that I cannot imagine life without it... not because it tells me that I am free, but because I _AM_ free, and the Constitution lets tyrants and thugs know that I am the captain of my own destiny. I do not need the Constitution to tell me my freedoms, but I do need the Constitution to remind those who would take those freedoms away what shaky ground they would be treading if they even _thought_ about trying to take those rights from me. I grant, as a free man, the government to exist. NOT the other way around... as certain candidates and politicians have so arrogantly suggested.
If only we had more people who believed in the foundation the Constitution provides, we'd not have so many people so eager to symbolically relenquish rights that the government has no business taking.... (nor ability, but that's another conversation.)
well said. Couldn't have said it better myself. They can pry the Constitution from my cold, dead, libertarian hands. If I'd mod points, you'd get my vote.
For the cheap seats and morons who haven't lived long enough to appreciate what the Constitution MEANS to ALL OF US:
THE CONSTITUTION IS NOT SUBJECT TO BEING THROWN OUT. PERIOD. Get that? I'll overthrow the entire government before my beloved Constitution gets TOUCHED. As a matter of fact, the Constitution PROVIDES for us the ability to remove our government when they no longer represent us. Read some Jefferson and you'll see what he meant by all of it. it's not unconstitutional to tell the government to pack in... the government wants you to BELIEVE that... but the Founding Fathers knew that we would need to clean "house" so to speak and left MOST of the power to the people, by which we've been systematically violating our own Constitution by allowing the government to "assume" the roles ORDAINED to us by our creator (god, buddah, the astronaut, whatever...) and NOT subject to negotiation.... nor are they subject to capitulation _to_ the government in order to "protect" us. The 2nd Amendment protects us... because an ARMED populace is a STRONG populace. But I digress... sheesh, these moronic children need to READ their Constitution before even considering tossing it out.
The Constitution _IS_ our bedrock... it _IS_ America. Without it, we might as well be European... hell, let's just apologize for that whole revolution thing and become a bigger group of colonies again!
Well, that's true (backwards compatible)... but with children... as long as they don't get to touch the DVDs, you're okay.;) heh.
I think the "vault" tactic is moot in the realm of DVD to begin with, but that's just me... the Great Unwashed still seem to believe the hype, so to speak.
You're right... I'm not taking bets on who goes hi-def only first... but I'm leaning towards Disney.... it just fits their attitude about the customer better.;) One of the many companies that are openly hostile to their customers... most corps hate the customer, but Disney's one of the few to be so openly proud of it.;)
Make no mistake, the first entity to drop the standard def will be Disney. They're not in any position to drive the market right yet, to be sure, but they certainly hold a BIG, HUGE, MONSTROUS (did I mention big?) card in Pixar. And with Jobs not afraid to shed older tech (iMac anyone?), we may see a forced hand for the HD-DVD/DVD folks in the near future (not yet, of course... give it a couple of years...) It will be seen sooner, rather than later, I think. They backed Divx until it sunk... they'll switch just to piss all of us geeks off.;)
But putting Disney as a niche player in this game is like missing the proverbial 800lb gorilla with sneakers on.:)
And disney's penchant for putting their shit in "the vault"... means that people might just panic themselves into buying a blu-ray version of the movie if they thought that the next time they saw the movie wouldn't be on DVD... That's a bogus attempt at market manipulation, but the great unwashed seem to buy into it.
Tell that to the soccer moms who want to get "Beauty and the Beast 37: Hell Wars" for little Suzie.:) They'll pay $200 for a player, because the little brats want DIS-NEEEEEY!!!:) I don't favor one or the other, but I can see that this isn't as simple as "UMD" or other proprietary formats that Sony has backed over the years.. Truly, the lack of sales for both formats shows that neither has caught any momentum...
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Bzzt! Thanks for playing.
Fight Night Round 3. (slowdown issues fixed from the 360 version). Oblivion... better framerates and much better load times...
Granted, most of EA's ports are half-assed, but the Burnout folks are saying a PS3 developed game (Burnout Paradise) makes the 360 _port_ better.
So, let me mention one thing... "graphically superior" is subjective. And since it is, you can stop trying to convince everyone your opinion is correct.
And as for poorly done ports... Call of Duty 4 looks awesome on BOTH machines... which shows that companies who think the PS3 is "underpowered" or "less" than the 360 are just lazy or stupid about developing for it *cough* EA *cough*
I can see, sort of, what they're driving at (and like you I disagree with their method)...
:)
:)
Suppose (for the sake of this discussion), he only "shared" it with his local LAN, streamed them to his entertainment center in the living room, and never allowed them to go beyond his house? A "shared folder" is too broad of a brush for me. I can see what their point is, but they're obviously not hip to the tech involved and thus, it sounds like they're grasping... and grasping at something I fundamentally disagree with. (I don't believe "making available" constitutes infringement, and some states' AG don't either.) That's entirely too broad a net for this sort of thing.
I believe Oregon (among others) is really clamping down on the RIAA's tactics... and should their AG win, it will vastly change the way the RIAA can bring suits against people. Universities are telling the RIAA to bugger off.. and they simply won't go after some schools.
Additionally, EMI is getting tired of throwing good money at the RIAA (did you see their balance sheet?) and I'll wager they're seriously considering their bottom line when it comes to the RIAA's siphoning of cash to fund these sorts of suits that, once they go to trial, have been a hit and miss affair (so far) with States, universities, and individuals finally saying "enough is enough" and "extortion is illegal". Their whack-a-mole tactics are getting the attention of the legal system (and not in a good way.) Too bad the RIAA won't stop until it runs out of money. Maybe the "member companies" will stop bleeding profit and curttail this nonsense once and for all. Just hire someone with more than 1 brain-cell devoted to technology, RIAA... please before you put someone's eye out.
And on a side note, I still firmly hold to the idea that this sort of infringement (no monetary gain) was never, ever intended to be a criminal offense like bootlegging or counterfeit merchandise (like our "pals" in China do.) The RIAA is simply trying to expedite their plan to punish everyone like a crazy person wailing and swinging a bat... Sometimes (rather, most of the time) they hit an unintended target. And yet, they don't use their "vast" resources to take the real criminals to court...
enough rambling.. I need breakfast.
Due process is out the window since the War on Drugs. And some folks challenged it, but the difference was, no one "liked" the drug dealers... when Grandma loses her computer to the government... people might start taking the 4th amendment seriously. But I doubt the sheeple will notice. Such is life after soma.
At least they had a warrant (such that it was...) when they stole the drug dealers' property. Now they don't even need that to grab your stuff.
scared yet?
Dan Glickman, is that you? C'mon, Danny! Stop posting AC!!! We wanna HUG YOU...
Dork.
I second T.A.'s soundtrack... it was superb... and a contrast to the high-tech world in which you were playing...
I think it was a precedent-setting sort of coverage in terms of tech companies and I suspect we'll see more of it. In what form, or how long the coverage stays at such a high level is anyone's guess.
;)
I wasn't convinced the story had legs because one of them was IBM or Novell, but because SCO's public statements, press releases, "dire" warnings, predictions and ranting were so focused on the Linux side of things, and that Linux was somehow tainted as a result of IBM's misappropriation of SCO's IP. I mean, the past is dim, but we can chart on an exponential scale the ramping up of the rhetoric from the original filing on IBM to the counter-suits by Novell and such. It was also a huge tinfoil hat "win" so to speak when Microsoft was suspected of propping up funding for the suit... as if their new tactic to combat "free" was to undermine the entire community with a lawsuit that would frighten other companies from adopting Linux for fear of litigation....
It didn't work of course... but the initial volleys never do... what really makes me wonder is what's next? The tinfoil hat wearer in me wonders who they'll go after next (not SCO of course, but the unseen puppeteers who are trying to undermine Linux...) but then I realize I don't look good in hats, so I dismiss those thoughts.
There are bad lawyers, bad doctors, and bad engineers. Trouble is, bad lawyers can keep practicing law long after their reputation or sanity would have permitted *cough*thompson*cough*. Just because they do it for a living doesn't make them good at it. That assumption really doesn't hold water.
While I agree there are passionate interests on both sides, the fact remains that SCO threatened legal action to practically everyone and his sister in the PR press. If they wanted to wage a smear campaign against linux... they lost... and it cost them. Regardless of the "dispassionate" facts of the dispute in question (which brought into the mix copyrights, breach of contract, etc etc... and never once did we see any proof of infringement, as I recall.. for whatever reason... my guess is, dispassionately, that they didn't have jack squat.)
How can you compete with free, they asked? Litigate them back to the stone age... SCO lost, they're appealing, the other matter's going through, we're all going to die.. the earth is round... (I could go on...)
SCO picked a fight and lost, not because they attacked IBM, but because they didn't have any solid anything with which to battle... and their wildly fantastic claims and conspiracies they spread in the press merely fueled the hatred of them.... and the questions about their very sanity.
For the SCO folks (and apologists).. Life's hard. Buy a helmet. This wasn't mob justice. This was one company trying to build a house of cards against another company. That's all. The blogs, the press, the linux/sco war of words outside of the courtroom is just entertainment.
If MS admits a design flaw, it's gotta be to keep heat off their mounting reliability issues in general... (I can't confirm this... I should google it...) because if they admit it's a manufacturing defect, we'd get a nice recall notice in the mail. ;) The folks in Redmond are jumping through their own assholes to prevent that from happening... (hence the $1 billion... BILLION, kids, write off of _extending_ the warranty to 3 years _for_ the 3 Red Rings...) But if it truly is a design flaw, nothing will fix it this generation... and they're just hoping no one finds out until the Xbox 720... which at the rate my MS consoles have failed on me (and _NO_ other has since the SNES) I'm not getting on that bandwagon... period. They've lost me as a customer, as far as decent equipment goes (I don't buy their OSes... so piss of Ballmer.)
;) I admit it.. I got suckered. Considering the only console that isn't still working from last gen (and I got a launch PS2) is my XBox. ;) Imagine that. Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, I'm an idiot. :P
:(
The review units, iirc (according to apologists and anonymous, unconfirmed sources...) had a beefier heat pipe and other niceties that MS removed from production models as a cost-saving measure. Granted, it's anecdotal, and probably a load of shit, but I imagine they didn't spare any expense at keeping a review unit, pre-production unit, or demo unit from crapping all over itself, a-la the "Plug-and-Pray" demo of Win 95.)
A piss-poor decision to go with craptacular heatsinks is just those greedy bastards in Redmond trying to stop the bleeding of a -$4 billion/year division... I don't believe if they had spent the extra $5 per unit on a decent friggin' heat sink/pipe combo we'd be talking about how shoddy the units are. I can say my new 360 with the revamped heatpipe/sink is performing much better (plus I got HDMI... pity the poor sod who got my old console, though...) but I'm not putting much stock in it lasting... once it goes... I sell off the games and tell Microsoft where they can shove their POS console... (right next to their OS, in my case.)
To me, I liken it still to a manufacturing problem. Maybe I'm just trying to justify the $359 I spent on the fucking thing. Inadequate heat-sink and dissipation on the GPU (which is the cause of the 3 RRoD) coupled with undue stress when the expanding heated environment literally yanks the thing off its screws (so to speak) is merely MS saving a couple of bucks per console... otherwise I'm more pissed at them than normal.
They have tried to change the design to return to the original idea of, oh, I dunno, keeping the damn GPU cool... and beefed it up... without changing how the console was designed that I can tell...
Just to piss off a few more in the cheap-seats: Look at the PS3... it's well-engineered, much to the chagrin of the fanbois... and it's a tank. Sorry, you can't do Folding@Home on a 360... it'd jump off your desk into the trash if you tried. Not to mention the other design decisions that make it a rather nice console... too bad no one notices.
The Falcons everyone so desires are merely a smaller CPU measurement... _not_ the GPU (which is the culprit to begin with....) So big whoop. It probably will keel over and die too.. This _has_ to be losing them mindshare and goodwill... because if not, God help us all... we're truly fucking sheep and whatever that bastard company shoves down our throats we take without gagging.
Man, I need a beer...
You have a point there... and considering I have a 720p TV (albeit a really good one)... I'm noticing one thing... the games look great, but not _as_ great in comparison to their previous counterparts as they did from previous transitions. (I mean, even Tekken Tag Tournament looked phenomenal compared to say, Tekken 2....) It's evolution rather than revolution, but the companies can't sell you anything until they hype it to death... and make you think you're not a whole person until you "buy our stuff!"
;) The last addictive game that kept me up at night (besides Diablo 1 and 2) was Total Annihilation. A verifiable digital-crack addictive game in my book. ;) So that shows how long it's been since I've fired up a Windows PC away from work...
;) I'm a couple of RPG's from sitting the 'next' gen out. ;)
The PC isn't _that_ much better... it's a slower progression even with the rapid HW changes, and mostly they are targeting faster processors to make up for shoddy design. They're hitting a moving target on horseback... (not all are shitty, but quite a few too many just shovel the next big FPS out there and wonder why no one is buying them Ferraris....) That's why I got out of the PC gaming rat race a long time ago (additionally, I didn't update to XP...) and prefer the console to the PC for gaming now... I've played some current-gen PC games at friends' houses, but I just don't want to get back into that rut... The real sentiment is... "if you want to beta test everything... get a PC game..."
That said, I've got enough backlog on the PS2 to keep me busy until I die anyway.
After this crapfest that was Madden on the PS3? Probably not.
Don't worry. It will.
Microsoft admitted to it... every console out "now" (at the time of the statement) had the potential to go T.U. Do you think they added a 3 year warranty _FREE_ for the RRoD issue (only) out of the goodness of their pea-pickin' hearts? That's RECALL protection... Unfortunately for them, it's still not _class_action_ protection.
Anything over 10% is a problem... so people need to stop defending Microsoft for uber craptacular harwdare. (And yes, I own one... it's a nice console.. when it works.) They may have designed a good console... they MANUFACTURED a shitty one.
The remake blew dead bears... Why they feel the need to remake movies that don't need it is beyond me.
;)
I heard they were remaking Escape from New York too... such a crime.
Very true and your point is well taken (and sound), but I'd quibble with the term "American Corporation"... there aren't any more of those.... they're all multinational, and thus, they're even _MORE_ dangerous with even _less_ state loyalty than they had in the 50's. (If they had much at all... but they were distinctly "American" as much as you could say so...)
The citizens of every country are fighting against entities that feel transcending national borders and interests is a rite of passage to a new utopia where corporations _are_ the countries.
Brave New World indeed....
Bah...
;)
...to each his/her own.
Coded Arms, Jewel Summoner, Monster Hunter, Platypus, Castlevania!!!!, Wipeout Pure, Gradius Galaxies, Legend of Heroes, Jeanne D'Arc, FF Tactics, Valkyrie Profile:Lenneth, Field Commander, Dungeon Siege, and so on and so on....... If you can't find something by now, you're missing out...
And the battery life isn't as craptacular as you might believe...
No parentheses for you! (()) :P
And very true that a glut this early in the game (and this close to shopping frenzy season) would be bad for Nintendo in a PR sense, I think though having one or two left on the shelf at any given time would alleviate that quite a bit... having stacks high as mountains in Best Buy like the 360/PS3 do might be a really bad idea for Nintendo this Christmas in terms of mindset and achieving a bigger slice of the pie... Not that there isn't aeven a remote chance that they are going to have that problem, though...
:)
Early on, I was under the tinfoil hat thinking Nintendo was artificially creating buzz by holding back units (I just don't trust corporations...heh), but after this long, I don't believe that to be the case, and with 1.8M per month, that's some SERIOUS cheddar for Nintendo, who got left out of the last gen's top spot by a deeply entrenched Sony lead. (And a few missteps w/r/t third party title capacity, I'd wager...) I think the PS2 choked the life out of the 2nd and 3rd place markets to a degree that it was unhealthy for competition (not that Sony would care...) I mean, it was a nice system and I own one... but when you're that far ahead, it seems that the other consoles get mostly scraps or first party stuff (in the case of the Gamecube.. which I also own and enjoy as well.)
This generation, the Wii's a different animal, and by the same token, not necessarily competing on the same field as the PS3/360. So in effect, the Wii's success isn't strangling off the hardcore market as much as I figured a console with that much in terms of units sold would...(it's still a footrace, but I think the hardcore consoles are holding up well, in spite of Sony's missteps and MS's QC problems.)
I may not want one (I've not seen the game I _really_ want to play on it yet... that doesn't mean there won't be one..) but I can appreciate the frustration of trying to find one (I did early on try to find one but gave up....) When things die down and things start to level off (2008 is Nintendo's magic forecast year, according to their spokesdrones)... I might try to pick one up... maybe they'll have a blue one...
It works great initially, but if you consistently cannot meet demand, I think the perception (investor and possibly laymen) will be that you're either holding back some units to create "buzz", or you really can't handle the demand and that will eventually negatively impact things going forward.
:)
They can meet the DS demand shortly after they sold out (different product, I know) and for the most part, they've been good about meeting demands in the past (after inital shortages)... the Wii having shortages into 2008 means they _could_ sell more, but they won't, because they can't get enough in stores...
You're right.. it's like a golden goose, but Nintendo best be sure they don't shoot the goose.
It's more to do with the tipping point, actually. When does the Wii become "everyone who has one has one, and everyone who wanted one has one...", where naturally the curve will level off? I personally don't want one, but I don't mind if someone else does.. it's just not my bag. Still, with supply shortages plaguing Nintendo, I think some of the rise in demand stems partially from the "scarcity" perception... people who were sitting on the fence (new to gaming) might have thought it a "must buy" solely based on the lack of units in stock at any given retailer. And chances are, they know someone who has one and are getting non-stop anecdotal evidence that the Wii is the best thing since the toaster.
;)
At some point we'll see the leveling off happen, but when and how long it will take to start dipping in sales is anybody's guess. Maybe then those who are trying to find one but have given up will be able to get their Wii.
That's what the 4th amendment's for.
Not to mention, as Jefferson said, supported by a free and independent press.
Amazingly enough, you, being British, can see the value of our Constitution (and yes, the Neocons should all be shot for mucking with it... or at the least, trying to avoid its limitations on their power...) and yet, our OWN CITIZENS cannot. It amazes me to no end that people would consider going on without our beloved Constitution...
Call me nutty, call me idealistic, call me late for dinner... but I believe in the Constitution... I cherish it as the foundation for my life as a free man, and I will fight to the death to defend it, from all threats... foreign AND domestic. I believe in it so strongly, that I cannot imagine life without it... not because it tells me that I am free, but because I _AM_ free, and the Constitution lets tyrants and thugs know that I am the captain of my own destiny. I do not need the Constitution to tell me my freedoms, but I do need the Constitution to remind those who would take those freedoms away what shaky ground they would be treading if they even _thought_ about trying to take those rights from me. I grant, as a free man, the government to exist. NOT the other way around... as certain candidates and politicians have so arrogantly suggested.
If only we had more people who believed in the foundation the Constitution provides, we'd not have so many people so eager to symbolically relenquish rights that the government has no business taking.... (nor ability, but that's another conversation.)
well said. Couldn't have said it better myself. They can pry the Constitution from my cold, dead, libertarian hands. If I'd mod points, you'd get my vote.
For the cheap seats and morons who haven't lived long enough to appreciate what the Constitution MEANS to ALL OF US:
THE CONSTITUTION IS NOT SUBJECT TO BEING THROWN OUT. PERIOD. Get that? I'll overthrow the entire government before my beloved Constitution gets TOUCHED. As a matter of fact, the Constitution PROVIDES for us the ability to remove our government when they no longer represent us. Read some Jefferson and you'll see what he meant by all of it. it's not unconstitutional to tell the government to pack in... the government wants you to BELIEVE that... but the Founding Fathers knew that we would need to clean "house" so to speak and left MOST of the power to the people, by which we've been systematically violating our own Constitution by allowing the government to "assume" the roles ORDAINED to us by our creator (god, buddah, the astronaut, whatever...) and NOT subject to negotiation.... nor are they subject to capitulation _to_ the government in order to "protect" us. The 2nd Amendment protects us... because an ARMED populace is a STRONG populace. But I digress... sheesh, these moronic children need to READ their Constitution before even considering tossing it out.
The Constitution _IS_ our bedrock... it _IS_ America. Without it, we might as well be European... hell, let's just apologize for that whole revolution thing and become a bigger group of colonies again!
Morons. Really.
Well, that's true (backwards compatible)... but with children... as long as they don't get to touch the DVDs, you're okay. ;) heh.
;) One of the many companies that are openly hostile to their customers... most corps hate the customer, but Disney's one of the few to be so openly proud of it. ;)
I think the "vault" tactic is moot in the realm of DVD to begin with, but that's just me... the Great Unwashed still seem to believe the hype, so to speak.
You're right... I'm not taking bets on who goes hi-def only first... but I'm leaning towards Disney.... it just fits their attitude about the customer better.
Make no mistake, the first entity to drop the standard def will be Disney. They're not in any position to drive the market right yet, to be sure, but they certainly hold a BIG, HUGE, MONSTROUS (did I mention big?) card in Pixar. And with Jobs not afraid to shed older tech (iMac anyone?), we may see a forced hand for the HD-DVD/DVD folks in the near future (not yet, of course... give it a couple of years...) It will be seen sooner, rather than later, I think. They backed Divx until it sunk... they'll switch just to piss all of us geeks off. ;)
:)
But putting Disney as a niche player in this game is like missing the proverbial 800lb gorilla with sneakers on.
And disney's penchant for putting their shit in "the vault"... means that people might just panic themselves into buying a blu-ray version of the movie if they thought that the next time they saw the movie wouldn't be on DVD...
That's a bogus attempt at market manipulation, but the great unwashed seem to buy into it.
And you think that the overt DRM isn't a draw for Disney, Jobs or not?
Tell that to the soccer moms who want to get "Beauty and the Beast 37: Hell Wars" for little Suzie. :) They'll pay $200 for a player, because the little brats want DIS-NEEEEEY!!! :) I don't favor one or the other, but I can see that this isn't as simple as "UMD" or other proprietary formats that Sony has backed over the years.. Truly, the lack of sales for both formats shows that neither has caught any momentum...