Part of your moms problem, and the GP's wife's problem is education. Did you guys bother to teach them that the internet isn't safe and that they probably shouldn't click on every link they see?
And if they'd rather not listen, let them educate themselves; do not help them. I had to do this to my mom and sister and they've been virus/spyware/malware free for a year now. They know to keep Windows up to date and run a scan at least once a week for any suspicious. They've also learned to not click on every fool link there is just because they can.
What? You had something decent going until the near end. I know it's not hip to RTFA, but the end of your one paragraph per sentence BS just seems to go off away from the topic at hand.
Get off your high horse. He may very have written the Source engine, even if some of the code is partially used. Modifying existing code is... writing code! And by reading the comments on the link you gave, there was only 30MB or so leaked out. You can't possibly conclude that the entire engine is 30MB in size.
But in any case, to go off on such a tangent in a completely unrelated topic is well, off-topic. Gabe probably didn't write the entire engine. Some parts of it are obviously licensed. So tell us, what is YOUR agenda by going off the handle like this?
I'll sacrifice some Karma to agree with you openly. While the Japanese voice acting is sometimes better, there's generally a lot of flavor lost in subtitles. Actual English dialogue can have more flavor. The problem with subtitles is that they try to be direct translations. Dialogue, not so much.
Cowboy Bebop got this right in that regard. The actual English dialogue compared to the subtitles was immensely superior. While some purists will be naysayers no matter what, there was some good work there. Casting Keanu Reeves as the role of Spike is a huge let down... Maybe he learned to act at some point? Because then it might have been a good choice.
The problem is providing the informed sales staff. It just won't happen. It probably never happened at CompUSA, I know it never happened at any Circuit City I've visited, Staples to some extent doesn't have it with what little PC stuff they sell, and Every BB I've been into doesn't have it.
No retail store has it unless those employees have taken the time to learn certain things on their own. It's a damn shame if you ask me. Every try to get the specs of a TV at a brick and mortar store, or even their website? A lot of them don't provide that information and if you ask, you get puzzled looks and they shit themselves.
Their managers tend to shit themselves too when they start talking to their manager about the questions I have. I used to have a lot of good fun pulling that stuff when I was younger.
So not only do they need to provide a person with informed sales staff, they also need to provide us with necessary information so that we can make more informed purchasing decisions while we're at the stores, or at the very least doing some shopping online. When I am actually looking to make a purchase, I hate being dragged through the store to a PC that's on the other side so they can look at the manufacturer's website, decide I don't like those specs, and go back and look at another TV, only to repeat the process. And when I'm online, I hate having to go to manually go to each manufacturer's website myself. The information needs to be there.
A lot of online retailers don't do it right too, but at least the prices are better, so they're doing something right. I'm not entirely sure Newegg has the format right, but they at least provide you with specifications and often decent prices. It would be nice if more online stores provided much of the same service.
Right, I'm a sexually frustrated 15 year old because I've pointed out flaws in someones understanding. I hope you enjoy your troll mod.
CAN you play every game that ever came out for 360 without hardware upgrades?
Do you HAVE TO upgrade your 360 in order to run (not play - run) the latest 360 games?
A bit irrelevant. When it comes time for updates, whether it be bug patches or content update, you're going to need that hard drive. Maybe you don't want updates? That's fine.
Assemble a "gaming PC" for ANY of those prices
People do it all the time. Hell, my old gaming PC can still max out L4D's settings. It has an X2 4800, 2GB DDR400 RAM, and a 7950GT. It's old by today's standards and can run games well into the future. But I'm sure you'll go on some long winded rant about Crysis, a game that is the exception, horribly developed, and certainly isn't the rule, right? Because no gaming PC can handle that game at max settings.
But wait, you guys on the consoles can't even change your graphical settings. So when a game is horribly designed and you get frame rate issues, there's not a whole lot you can do.
For the OS, they can easily install Linux and use Wine. You don't need an uber leet box to make sure you can play games at max settings next year, or even the year after.
The CPU is fine. Not top end, but it can hold it's own. The GPU is more powerful than a 3870, which can still max out every recent game so far, except for the exceptions (which none can max out). And 4GB of RAM will last a very long time.
I could have went cheaper on the Case, which would take out $14. I could have went with a 4670 with 1GB of RAM, which would take another $50 off. And that PC would still run games at max settings a year from now. That new price would be $448. More expensive than the 360 at launch by $50, but with greater backwards compatibility and room to do actual upgrades that mean something.
Let us for a moment live in an imaginary world where people play HD console games on old 15" TVs.
But people do. It may not be their old 15" TV, but those TV's probably don't have HD capabilities. Monitors inherently have it. A left over 19" monitor would be very acceptable.
Naturally... we are talking about GAMES games. Not your mom's solitaire or flash games, or some poor freeware game.
You are truly narrow minded. Those are still games. Would you toss Audiosurf into that mix as well? A game but really isn't a "game"? It's fun, it's cheap, and it can run without beastly hardware. How about any other awesome indie game?
Excuse me? Which game is that? The one that does not work with 100+ key controller and an additional 2+ keyed pointer device?
I don't know what you're smoking. I never said no game on the PC worked with that. I was just merely stating some genre's aren't going to be played with the optimal input devices with a mouse and keyboard. That doesn't make it any less doable.
I wasn't just sure what you were entirely trying to get at. I had a momentary lapse of judgement and wanted to think that most indie games that were worth more than a grain of salt came out on the consoles anyway, but I just realized what a stupid position that is to hold.
What should I do if I enjoy local multiplayer but also enjoy mods?
Deal with it? Both platforms have their faults and strengths. Consoles won't be an open platform for a long time. Some games are allowing you to do some sort of modding, but you're really not making an entirely different type of game with those tools. They just allow you to make more of the same in slightly different ways.
But have you any recommendations of games to try, other than emulators of questionably legal ROMs, M-rated titles, or EA sport sims?
Audiosurf has a two player mode. Uhh, I think both Shadowgrounds and Shadowgrounds: Survivor have some sort of two player option. Well, one of them does. I don't exactly remember the extent of those off the top of my head. I'm sure there are plenty more. Hell, when I was younger my friends and I used to do point and click adventures together. Some of them had some tricky questions or puzzles we'd try to figure out together. That was a lot of fun.
But four is much greater than one, and it's rare that more than four people want to play the same game at once. When I host the game room at my extended family's annual party, I typically bring two TVs, two consoles, and eight controllers, and I imagine a lot of families have the same needs as I.
My point was that if you needed more than 4 players (not all games are like this thankfully) you will have to have extra things. I would like to see more options for local play in the same area on the PC. It's certainly doable, but the stigma of it not being doable won't be shaken off any time soon.
So how is Windows update painful? It looks for updates for you and even installs them for you if you so choose. That's far less work that you have to do than the Wii. Yes, sometimes you have to reboot your PC, but so what? I wouldn't call that "painful".
Long load times have always been a problem with console games in the past ten years or so. That specific problem I wouldn't call "recent". But yeah, the other problems are more recent. I'm not trying to say they're equivalent by any means, but they do exist. If someone is going to make blanket statements that consoles don't suffer some of the same problems as PC gaming, I'm going to point out that they do suffer some of the same problems, because they do in fact suffer from the same problems.
You *may* be correct about Brawl. I just remember needing a firmware update. I remember talking to one of my coworkers about it and he found it odd, stating that if I was keeping the firmware up to date, I shouldn't have needed that update.
The distinction here is that the game doesn't work out of the box. While it might have the necessary updates to play the game on the disc, I couldn't just pop it in and play. But this is just on the Wii platform alone.
The PS3 has had a firmware update that made your PS3 useless. A lot of high profile games that have recently came out on the PS3 and the 360 just don't work properly for some people. Not because they can't be read, but the games themselves have bugs.
Once again, the whole point was that on the PC you had to do all of this tedious updating and on the consoles you don't. But you clearly do have to do some tedious updating on the consoles too. That things just sometimes don't work out of the box like everyone expects it too. And guess what? You need to pay for an Internet connection for these updates.
A PC for $300 bucks? I'm sure I could play half of the PC games "properly", whatever that means. The Wii was nothing more than last generation hardware. If we're going to go by those specs, I could do the same with the PC.
However, I doubt one could find a plethora of prices from that time period. Even if you could find some prices, it's probably not enough information to do smart shopping to get the best deals. What you're clearly asking for is probably impossible.
And even then, what you may consider to be enough to be a full build, I may consider less to be a full build. I may consider that more items are necessary to be a full build. Am I allowed to reuse parts? Am I not allowed to reuse parts? Not all parts are immediately dated.
Are you saying the games for that console don't work well with it anymore? Or are you just saying that you lose the advantage of saying you've got the latest, greatest?
It's obsolete because it's older generation hardware. That doesn't mean people can't do with it as they please. Sony dropped backwards compatibility for PS1 and a lot of PS2 games. I also wouldn't call the 360 backwards compatible, as it doesn't work with most XBox games. The Wii is backwards compatible, but anything older than the GC (assuming you had one and games for it), you will have to pay money once again to get those games on your Wii IF they're available. The point is when companies start making next generation items of their hardware and make it so you can't use some of the old with their new hardware, it's obsolete.
And for the people who don't spend a lot of money every year on their PC, that doesn't mean that their initial build wasn't built to take future games into account, and it doesn't mean that they can't play newer games at max settings.
The hardcore PC gamer tends to spend a lot of money anyway. The average PC gamer, the ones who play a lot of flash based games, probably don't need to do a lot of updating period. Perhaps a memory upgrade after couple of years (though 2GB is pretty much the standard these days, and most won't need more than that). Or possibly a video card upgrade, which can run you as low as $30 or so and can net you a DX10 card. Those types of cards are low end, however if you do low end gaming, they suit their purpose well, and then some.
But it was suggested that with a console you *have* to buy accessories like a gamepad
Not sure where you got that idea from. It was actually suggested for the PC, and then only for a few types of genre's which aren't the "norm" on the PC.
But then you go on further to say that PC's you can buy don't automatically come with the right input devices to play the games. You must have a very narrow view of what the right input devices might be. All you need is a mouse and keyboard. They may not be "gaming specific", but not every game you play on the PC will benefit from "gaming
You can buy upgrades for the 360.
You can install games onto a console.
But can I run indie games on a PS3 or Wii without exploiting bugs in the OS to get unsigned code to run?
Not sure what you're trying to get at here. You can install games from your disc onto some consoles now. Some games see performance improvements, some do not. No, maybe you can't run all indie games on your PS3 or Wii, but you may not be able to do that on your PC either.
PC gaming isn't anymore expensive than the consoles when they're brand new
How many PCs do you need for three people to play, and how many copies of each game? Now how many consoles and how many copies?
I think that's kind of irrelevant depending on what type of gamer you are. If you enjoy local multiplayer, sure, the console would probably be the way to go. I know a lot of people who have consoles that rarely use local multiplayer. I know those that have consoles that do use it a lot. And believe it or not, some PC games do allow you to do local multiplayer on the same PC.
remember though, if you want to do local multiplayer with a console, it allows only up to four people. Beyond that you do need more consoles, copies of said game, and TV's, along with the controllers.
As I stated earlier, your point is irrelevant depending on your needs.
Alot of your tripe is irrelevant. The complaints were:
You don't need to upgrade a console.
Actually you might depending on what you buy and your needs.
Updating isn't necessary.
It is for certain games. I had to get Firmware updates for my Wii so I could play Brawl. Some games just don't work right out of the box for certain SKU's until you patch it. Your lack of problems are irrelevant here. Some games don't work properly and require patches. Consoles require firmware updates for certain games and features, and sometimes those updates can make things worse, not better.
PC Gaming is More Expensive.
It really isn't. Just because someone choose to build a $1000 box doesn't mean everyone has to. Just because someone choose to upgrade every year or sooner doesn't mean everyone else has to. If in the future you need to upgrade some major component in your PC, you can do that. It negates the cost of having to buy a new PC. Once a new console comes out (generation wise), the entire box is obsolete. You don't run into that as often with the PC. PC's have greater backwards compatibility than consoles do. Can you play every single one of your NES games on your Wii? Probably not. Can I do that on my PC? Yes I can! Besides, games on the PC are cheaper at retail by at least $10, if not more. My parents accidentally bought me the new PoP game for the PS3 instead of the PC for Christmas. When I returned it for an exchange, I got $11 and some change back. If you buy a lot of games, that really adds up.
Gameplay (and gamepads).
Only a minor point. Platforming and racing is still easily done with the mouse and keyboard. It's just more fluid with a controller. It's like FPS's on consoles. The controller isn't optimal, but it's very doable.
Your glib comment about me thinking all consoles are a PS3 is just idiotic rhetoric. All of your comments consist of, "I didn't have that same experience, therefore you are full of shit", instead of you actually looking at the facts.
Not sure why some tool modded you as flamebait. That's pretty much how I feel about playing on the Wii most of the time. Some of the games I have could certainly use better motion sensing, but other than that, just eh...
When was the last time you played on a Console. Go ahead, tell us?
You can buy upgrades for the 360.
You can install games onto a console.
You have to patch a lot of games out on consoles these days because of bugs.
PC gaming isn't anymore expensive than the consoles when they're brand new, and when they're brand new, they tend to have more features than their second and third generation counter parts (and so on).
The only thing you might have is gameplay, but that's only because certain types of games don't work to well with mouse + keyboard combo, but gamepads have existed forever to negate that.
So tell us, when was the last time you played on a console? And what Console? Furthermore, when's the last time you did PC gaming? You seem to lack some knowledge on both fronts.
While you can do that, if you're looking for some particular current draw from a specific component, you're not very likely to get anything substantial from a properly functioning IC. This is where your other components come into play. Logic oriented stuff? Save that for IC's. Power oriented, save it for the transistors.
Rumor has it that Bethesda spent significant amounts of budget on hiring the voice actors for the game, specifically two or three more famous ones, and that it broke the bank on the project. They invested so much money into voice acting that other aspects of the game had no extra budget.
That seems ridiculous. The engine was already built. All they needed to do was to modify it so it could use VAT's. Some minor graphical things were reused from Oblivion as well. Where the fuck is all of their money going? Did they even have a decent budget for this game? With the game engine being built, that takes out a significant portion of a budget and leaves extra money to do more... Just... wow....
Why would they need to rethink the parts count? The reason it went down was because they've been removing features from the console. When you remove a port, for example, then you can also remove all of the necessary electronic parts that are associated with said port. Removing backwards compatibility? You can also remove all said electronics for that as well. 2820 really isn't a whole lot when you look at the bigger picture.
A driver update is basically the same as a firmware update. It tells the hardware what to do and how to do it. No, Microsoft doesn't provide firmware updates specifically, but they have in the past (and still do) provide driver updates with the windows updater for certain pieces of hardware...
You are obviously being quite ignorant, and probably a tad dense here.
I wouldn't say the replay value for this game is high, but if you can find it for $30 or less, it's definitely worth a buy. It is a fun game, and what makes it more fun is the fact that it's taken some of the tedium out.
I personally wish this game had more combat involved, as I like the stylish acrobatic stuff. It's just fun to be the director of those type of things.
If you watched the video, then you'd know your complaint doesn't really follow for this discussion (and instead you creating a tangental topic which would be offtopic), and therefore you should get modded down as off-topic.
Still, Verizon limits the message size to 160 characters (including spaces!) for txt messages to people outside of the network. Even with the amount of money people pay for their txt messaging services, I think it's fucking crazy to limit it that extensively...
Microsoft does this too, but guess what? The average person doesn't necessarily understand it. Now you take your pick, are you being dense or ignorant?
And you're still riding the fail boat. Apple pretty much claims to do everything better than Microsoft. They shouldn't be making mistakes like this, period because of said claims, and for the fact that Microsoft was able to work out those issues with Vista and make it known what would and wouldn't work if you wanted to do the next big update, and they did this through an information campaign and their windows update.
Slashdot Mirror
Part of your moms problem, and the GP's wife's problem is education. Did you guys bother to teach them that the internet isn't safe and that they probably shouldn't click on every link they see?
And if they'd rather not listen, let them educate themselves; do not help them. I had to do this to my mom and sister and they've been virus/spyware/malware free for a year now. They know to keep Windows up to date and run a scan at least once a week for any suspicious. They've also learned to not click on every fool link there is just because they can.
Interestingly, security through obscurity is not real security.
Yeah, because stores will give up shelf real-estate and get zero of the pie for game companies. Think again.
What? You had something decent going until the near end. I know it's not hip to RTFA, but the end of your one paragraph per sentence BS just seems to go off away from the topic at hand.
Get off your high horse. He may very have written the Source engine, even if some of the code is partially used. Modifying existing code is... writing code! And by reading the comments on the link you gave, there was only 30MB or so leaked out. You can't possibly conclude that the entire engine is 30MB in size.
But in any case, to go off on such a tangent in a completely unrelated topic is well, off-topic. Gabe probably didn't write the entire engine. Some parts of it are obviously licensed. So tell us, what is YOUR agenda by going off the handle like this?
I'll sacrifice some Karma to agree with you openly. While the Japanese voice acting is sometimes better, there's generally a lot of flavor lost in subtitles. Actual English dialogue can have more flavor. The problem with subtitles is that they try to be direct translations. Dialogue, not so much.
Cowboy Bebop got this right in that regard. The actual English dialogue compared to the subtitles was immensely superior. While some purists will be naysayers no matter what, there was some good work there. Casting Keanu Reeves as the role of Spike is a huge let down... Maybe he learned to act at some point? Because then it might have been a good choice.
The problem is providing the informed sales staff. It just won't happen. It probably never happened at CompUSA, I know it never happened at any Circuit City I've visited, Staples to some extent doesn't have it with what little PC stuff they sell, and Every BB I've been into doesn't have it.
No retail store has it unless those employees have taken the time to learn certain things on their own. It's a damn shame if you ask me. Every try to get the specs of a TV at a brick and mortar store, or even their website? A lot of them don't provide that information and if you ask, you get puzzled looks and they shit themselves.
Their managers tend to shit themselves too when they start talking to their manager about the questions I have. I used to have a lot of good fun pulling that stuff when I was younger.
So not only do they need to provide a person with informed sales staff, they also need to provide us with necessary information so that we can make more informed purchasing decisions while we're at the stores, or at the very least doing some shopping online. When I am actually looking to make a purchase, I hate being dragged through the store to a PC that's on the other side so they can look at the manufacturer's website, decide I don't like those specs, and go back and look at another TV, only to repeat the process. And when I'm online, I hate having to go to manually go to each manufacturer's website myself. The information needs to be there.
A lot of online retailers don't do it right too, but at least the prices are better, so they're doing something right. I'm not entirely sure Newegg has the format right, but they at least provide you with specifications and often decent prices. It would be nice if more online stores provided much of the same service.
Right, I'm a sexually frustrated 15 year old because I've pointed out flaws in someones understanding. I hope you enjoy your troll mod.
CAN you play every game that ever came out for 360 without hardware upgrades? Do you HAVE TO upgrade your 360 in order to run (not play - run) the latest 360 games?
A bit irrelevant. When it comes time for updates, whether it be bug patches or content update, you're going to need that hard drive. Maybe you don't want updates? That's fine.
Assemble a "gaming PC" for ANY of those prices
People do it all the time. Hell, my old gaming PC can still max out L4D's settings. It has an X2 4800, 2GB DDR400 RAM, and a 7950GT. It's old by today's standards and can run games well into the future. But I'm sure you'll go on some long winded rant about Crysis, a game that is the exception, horribly developed, and certainly isn't the rule, right? Because no gaming PC can handle that game at max settings.
But wait, you guys on the consoles can't even change your graphical settings. So when a game is horribly designed and you get frame rate issues, there's not a whole lot you can do.
However I'll bite.
CPU - 99$
Motherboard - 55$
RAM - 38$
GPU - $150
Case (with PSU) - $50
HDD - $80
DVD Burner - 23$
Mouse - $10
Keyboard - 7$
Total Cost: $512
For the OS, they can easily install Linux and use Wine. You don't need an uber leet box to make sure you can play games at max settings next year, or even the year after.
The CPU is fine. Not top end, but it can hold it's own. The GPU is more powerful than a 3870, which can still max out every recent game so far, except for the exceptions (which none can max out). And 4GB of RAM will last a very long time.
I could have went cheaper on the Case, which would take out $14. I could have went with a 4670 with 1GB of RAM, which would take another $50 off. And that PC would still run games at max settings a year from now. That new price would be $448. More expensive than the 360 at launch by $50, but with greater backwards compatibility and room to do actual upgrades that mean something.
Let us for a moment live in an imaginary world where people play HD console games on old 15" TVs.
But people do. It may not be their old 15" TV, but those TV's probably don't have HD capabilities. Monitors inherently have it. A left over 19" monitor would be very acceptable.
Naturally... we are talking about GAMES games. Not your mom's solitaire or flash games, or some poor freeware game.
You are truly narrow minded. Those are still games. Would you toss Audiosurf into that mix as well? A game but really isn't a "game"? It's fun, it's cheap, and it can run without beastly hardware. How about any other awesome indie game?
Excuse me? Which game is that? The one that does not work with 100+ key controller and an additional 2+ keyed pointer device?
I don't know what you're smoking. I never said no game on the PC worked with that. I was just merely stating some genre's aren't going to be played with the optimal input devices with a mouse and keyboard. That doesn't make it any less doable.
Or something horribly awesome. I should have used better terminology, like amplification.
I wasn't just sure what you were entirely trying to get at. I had a momentary lapse of judgement and wanted to think that most indie games that were worth more than a grain of salt came out on the consoles anyway, but I just realized what a stupid position that is to hold.
What should I do if I enjoy local multiplayer but also enjoy mods?
Deal with it? Both platforms have their faults and strengths. Consoles won't be an open platform for a long time. Some games are allowing you to do some sort of modding, but you're really not making an entirely different type of game with those tools. They just allow you to make more of the same in slightly different ways.
But have you any recommendations of games to try, other than emulators of questionably legal ROMs, M-rated titles, or EA sport sims?
Audiosurf has a two player mode. Uhh, I think both Shadowgrounds and Shadowgrounds: Survivor have some sort of two player option. Well, one of them does. I don't exactly remember the extent of those off the top of my head. I'm sure there are plenty more. Hell, when I was younger my friends and I used to do point and click adventures together. Some of them had some tricky questions or puzzles we'd try to figure out together. That was a lot of fun.
But four is much greater than one, and it's rare that more than four people want to play the same game at once. When I host the game room at my extended family's annual party, I typically bring two TVs, two consoles, and eight controllers, and I imagine a lot of families have the same needs as I.
My point was that if you needed more than 4 players (not all games are like this thankfully) you will have to have extra things. I would like to see more options for local play in the same area on the PC. It's certainly doable, but the stigma of it not being doable won't be shaken off any time soon.
So how is Windows update painful? It looks for updates for you and even installs them for you if you so choose. That's far less work that you have to do than the Wii. Yes, sometimes you have to reboot your PC, but so what? I wouldn't call that "painful".
Long load times have always been a problem with console games in the past ten years or so. That specific problem I wouldn't call "recent". But yeah, the other problems are more recent. I'm not trying to say they're equivalent by any means, but they do exist. If someone is going to make blanket statements that consoles don't suffer some of the same problems as PC gaming, I'm going to point out that they do suffer some of the same problems, because they do in fact suffer from the same problems.
You *may* be correct about Brawl. I just remember needing a firmware update. I remember talking to one of my coworkers about it and he found it odd, stating that if I was keeping the firmware up to date, I shouldn't have needed that update.
The distinction here is that the game doesn't work out of the box. While it might have the necessary updates to play the game on the disc, I couldn't just pop it in and play. But this is just on the Wii platform alone.
The PS3 has had a firmware update that made your PS3 useless. A lot of high profile games that have recently came out on the PS3 and the 360 just don't work properly for some people. Not because they can't be read, but the games themselves have bugs.
Once again, the whole point was that on the PC you had to do all of this tedious updating and on the consoles you don't. But you clearly do have to do some tedious updating on the consoles too. That things just sometimes don't work out of the box like everyone expects it too. And guess what? You need to pay for an Internet connection for these updates.
A PC for $300 bucks? I'm sure I could play half of the PC games "properly", whatever that means. The Wii was nothing more than last generation hardware. If we're going to go by those specs, I could do the same with the PC.
However, I doubt one could find a plethora of prices from that time period. Even if you could find some prices, it's probably not enough information to do smart shopping to get the best deals. What you're clearly asking for is probably impossible.
And even then, what you may consider to be enough to be a full build, I may consider less to be a full build. I may consider that more items are necessary to be a full build. Am I allowed to reuse parts? Am I not allowed to reuse parts? Not all parts are immediately dated.
Are you saying the games for that console don't work well with it anymore? Or are you just saying that you lose the advantage of saying you've got the latest, greatest?
It's obsolete because it's older generation hardware. That doesn't mean people can't do with it as they please. Sony dropped backwards compatibility for PS1 and a lot of PS2 games. I also wouldn't call the 360 backwards compatible, as it doesn't work with most XBox games. The Wii is backwards compatible, but anything older than the GC (assuming you had one and games for it), you will have to pay money once again to get those games on your Wii IF they're available. The point is when companies start making next generation items of their hardware and make it so you can't use some of the old with their new hardware, it's obsolete.
And for the people who don't spend a lot of money every year on their PC, that doesn't mean that their initial build wasn't built to take future games into account, and it doesn't mean that they can't play newer games at max settings.
The hardcore PC gamer tends to spend a lot of money anyway. The average PC gamer, the ones who play a lot of flash based games, probably don't need to do a lot of updating period. Perhaps a memory upgrade after couple of years (though 2GB is pretty much the standard these days, and most won't need more than that). Or possibly a video card upgrade, which can run you as low as $30 or so and can net you a DX10 card. Those types of cards are low end, however if you do low end gaming, they suit their purpose well, and then some.
But it was suggested that with a console you *have* to buy accessories like a gamepad
Not sure where you got that idea from. It was actually suggested for the PC, and then only for a few types of genre's which aren't the "norm" on the PC.
But then you go on further to say that PC's you can buy don't automatically come with the right input devices to play the games. You must have a very narrow view of what the right input devices might be. All you need is a mouse and keyboard. They may not be "gaming specific", but not every game you play on the PC will benefit from "gaming
You can buy upgrades for the 360.
You can install games onto a console.
But can I run indie games on a PS3 or Wii without exploiting bugs in the OS to get unsigned code to run?
Not sure what you're trying to get at here. You can install games from your disc onto some consoles now. Some games see performance improvements, some do not. No, maybe you can't run all indie games on your PS3 or Wii, but you may not be able to do that on your PC either.
PC gaming isn't anymore expensive than the consoles when they're brand new
How many PCs do you need for three people to play, and how many copies of each game? Now how many consoles and how many copies?
I think that's kind of irrelevant depending on what type of gamer you are. If you enjoy local multiplayer, sure, the console would probably be the way to go. I know a lot of people who have consoles that rarely use local multiplayer. I know those that have consoles that do use it a lot. And believe it or not, some PC games do allow you to do local multiplayer on the same PC.
remember though, if you want to do local multiplayer with a console, it allows only up to four people. Beyond that you do need more consoles, copies of said game, and TV's, along with the controllers.
As I stated earlier, your point is irrelevant depending on your needs.
Alot of your tripe is irrelevant. The complaints were:
You don't need to upgrade a console.
Actually you might depending on what you buy and your needs.
Updating isn't necessary.
It is for certain games. I had to get Firmware updates for my Wii so I could play Brawl. Some games just don't work right out of the box for certain SKU's until you patch it. Your lack of problems are irrelevant here. Some games don't work properly and require patches. Consoles require firmware updates for certain games and features, and sometimes those updates can make things worse, not better.
PC Gaming is More Expensive.
It really isn't. Just because someone choose to build a $1000 box doesn't mean everyone has to. Just because someone choose to upgrade every year or sooner doesn't mean everyone else has to. If in the future you need to upgrade some major component in your PC, you can do that. It negates the cost of having to buy a new PC. Once a new console comes out (generation wise), the entire box is obsolete. You don't run into that as often with the PC. PC's have greater backwards compatibility than consoles do. Can you play every single one of your NES games on your Wii? Probably not. Can I do that on my PC? Yes I can! Besides, games on the PC are cheaper at retail by at least $10, if not more. My parents accidentally bought me the new PoP game for the PS3 instead of the PC for Christmas. When I returned it for an exchange, I got $11 and some change back. If you buy a lot of games, that really adds up.
Gameplay (and gamepads).
Only a minor point. Platforming and racing is still easily done with the mouse and keyboard. It's just more fluid with a controller. It's like FPS's on consoles. The controller isn't optimal, but it's very doable.
Your glib comment about me thinking all consoles are a PS3 is just idiotic rhetoric. All of your comments consist of, "I didn't have that same experience, therefore you are full of shit", instead of you actually looking at the facts.
Not sure why some tool modded you as flamebait. That's pretty much how I feel about playing on the Wii most of the time. Some of the games I have could certainly use better motion sensing, but other than that, just eh...
When was the last time you played on a Console. Go ahead, tell us?
You can buy upgrades for the 360.
You can install games onto a console.
You have to patch a lot of games out on consoles these days because of bugs.
PC gaming isn't anymore expensive than the consoles when they're brand new, and when they're brand new, they tend to have more features than their second and third generation counter parts (and so on).
The only thing you might have is gameplay, but that's only because certain types of games don't work to well with mouse + keyboard combo, but gamepads have existed forever to negate that.
So tell us, when was the last time you played on a console? And what Console? Furthermore, when's the last time you did PC gaming? You seem to lack some knowledge on both fronts.
While you can do that, if you're looking for some particular current draw from a specific component, you're not very likely to get anything substantial from a properly functioning IC. This is where your other components come into play. Logic oriented stuff? Save that for IC's. Power oriented, save it for the transistors.
Rumor has it that Bethesda spent significant amounts of budget on hiring the voice actors for the game, specifically two or three more famous ones, and that it broke the bank on the project. They invested so much money into voice acting that other aspects of the game had no extra budget.
That seems ridiculous. The engine was already built. All they needed to do was to modify it so it could use VAT's. Some minor graphical things were reused from Oblivion as well. Where the fuck is all of their money going? Did they even have a decent budget for this game? With the game engine being built, that takes out a significant portion of a budget and leaves extra money to do more... Just... wow....
Why would they need to rethink the parts count? The reason it went down was because they've been removing features from the console. When you remove a port, for example, then you can also remove all of the necessary electronic parts that are associated with said port. Removing backwards compatibility? You can also remove all said electronics for that as well. 2820 really isn't a whole lot when you look at the bigger picture.
A driver update is basically the same as a firmware update. It tells the hardware what to do and how to do it. No, Microsoft doesn't provide firmware updates specifically, but they have in the past (and still do) provide driver updates with the windows updater for certain pieces of hardware...
You are obviously being quite ignorant, and probably a tad dense here.
I wouldn't say the replay value for this game is high, but if you can find it for $30 or less, it's definitely worth a buy. It is a fun game, and what makes it more fun is the fact that it's taken some of the tedium out.
I personally wish this game had more combat involved, as I like the stylish acrobatic stuff. It's just fun to be the director of those type of things.
If you watched the video, then you'd know your complaint doesn't really follow for this discussion (and instead you creating a tangental topic which would be offtopic), and therefore you should get modded down as off-topic.
Still, Verizon limits the message size to 160 characters (including spaces!) for txt messages to people outside of the network. Even with the amount of money people pay for their txt messaging services, I think it's fucking crazy to limit it that extensively...
Microsoft does this too, but guess what? The average person doesn't necessarily understand it. Now you take your pick, are you being dense or ignorant?
And you're still riding the fail boat. Apple pretty much claims to do everything better than Microsoft. They shouldn't be making mistakes like this, period because of said claims, and for the fact that Microsoft was able to work out those issues with Vista and make it known what would and wouldn't work if you wanted to do the next big update, and they did this through an information campaign and their windows update.