Three minutes after the topic goes live, we get our first "I USE MAME DURRRR" post. Nice job.
This is collectible and nostalgic. For many gamers, playing an arcade game on a coin-op upright cabinet is part of the game itself, and emulated MAME versions do not compare. These things (and other retro products like the Classic Collection compilation games, the TV Games handhelds, and the NES GBA series) appeal to two types: nostalgia gamers who want the full-on experience and casual gamers who don't know/don't wish to use MAME. Not for you.
Mmmmm. The Odyssey II. What do we have to do to get Jakks to do a TV Games version of a bunch of those games. K.C. Munchkin! Pick Axe Pete! Monkeyshines! Killer Bees! Wow.
If you're going to include the Xbox price vs a PC price, then you're opening up to a whole slew of variables as to the worth of that cost. The PC has more uses beyond games, so, yes, it costs more.
The point is that publishers have no fear of nickel-and-diming Xbox Live users for every little bit, despite Xbox Live having a regularly assigned monthly cost. As several posters above pointed out, it was originally a big deal that the Xbox HD + Live combo meant free additional content... that is swiftly becoming a memory. Chalk that up to old launch day marketing-speak (along with faked screenshots and lies about exclusivity) that have never fully evaporated.
What we're learning is that your Xbox Live fee is for Xbox live itself and nothing else (except maybe a couple patches, and new stuff from more generous companies.) Whether or not Xbox live is worth that cost is another debate, seeing as how lots of people do the same stuff (or similar) with PCs and PS2s for no additional cost.
"people nitpicking"? In the world of press releases and buyer perception, making that kind of claim is huge. Of course, this isn't Microsoft making that claim, it's some fanboy news submitter. Regardless, lots of people here will repeat it as truth, even after Zonk puts an editor's note on the article.
If a lot of people are willing to pay $5 for additional content,
Well, a lot of people won't. A minority of Xbox owners use Xbox Live. A minority of Xbox Live users bought this game. A minority of people who bought the game will buy the extra content.
No, I don't have any actual figures to back this up. But I suspect this is exactly how it will play out.
Thanks for the warning. Now I can avoid your entire fanboy post.
I notice you don't mention the vast diversity of games found on the PS2 and Gamecube... most likely because you only play one genre of game and avoid all the rest. Katamari Damacy? Donkey Konga? Sly Cooper 2? Pikmin 2? All PS2 and Gamecube exclusive titles released within the last month that you will never see. The Xbox only has a few AAA titles, amid an overwhelming list of ports and same-as-last-year sports titles.
Let's go through the rest of your big Plus list:
"save more games" Well, the memory card vs. HD thing is well debated, and there are certainly benefits to both. But isn't Xbox2 NOT going to have an HD anyway?
"play your own music" This one gets thrown around a lot, and it sounds great... until you learn that only a handful of games support it. It's a featureless feature.
"play online" Score. Xbox has online play figured out, and no one is going to argue that. Of course, there's far too many chatty asshats out there, plus only a minority of Xbox users subscribe. But the underlying service is well constructed.
"download new content" Even. Yeah, new levels are great... but new patches and fixes are not. We don't need our console games as sloppy and rushed as most PC games.
"system link" Another feature that applies to only a select few. Most people just aren't going to bother with this. I know, I know, YOU do. But most consumers do not. Regardless, you could do this on certain PS1 games - and you can on some PS2 and Gamecube games anyway, so why all the fervor? How about some love for games that provide awesome multiplayer within the cost-friendly experience of one screen? Mario Party? Smash Bros? WarioWare? EyeToy?
If you think online play is the vanguard of video game innovation, you obviously don't own a PC, nor have you bothered to check out the varying game types and hardware available from the competition. At least you didn't jizz all over the usual "AWESUM GFX!!!11!!" argument.
It's a great game. You seem to agree. Why all the vitriol directed towards people who like/want it?
Your example ("imagine that in Japan") is stupid. OF COURSE Culture A is likely to be excited about Culture B's big game. That's because A doesn't often see games like it. Doesn't matter who A is or who B is. Katamari Damacy/Japan = Grand Theft Auto US/UK. What's exotic for one is mundane for the other. I don't know what boring homogenous world you're from, but that's the way EVERYTHING works. We're fascinated by Pocky and Domo-Kun. They're fascinated by McDonald's and Star Wars.
Although on second read, it sounds like only certain games will use it, which stinks. Plus, it occurs to me that you'd probably need to own the game to be a spectator... which would limit the ability to jump into any game to see how it plays or looks. If you didn't need the game itself, I'd buy an Xbox and probably never a single a game for it.
For a system that has been relatively low on innovation, this could develop into a genuine feature. Imagine if having spectators affected the game in some way... like say they can choose a side in a football game, and if your side has more spectators your players get a morale/speed/whatever boost.
I've long wished somebody would sell full recorded gameplays, because I would totally pay to watch someone go through the entire MGS2 or Kingdom Hearts or Fatal Frame or Mario Sunshine. INCLUDING cutscenes, I don't care about speed runs, I want to see the entire storyline. This news is close, but not there yet.
This would make me buy an Xbox, being able to spectate games. I don't want restrictions either, I want to browse every game out there and jump in to watch.
Guaranteed I'd find something a damn sight more interesting than whatever is on TV these days.
"Beginning to gain momentum game wise now"? After three years? Wow, that is something to be proud of.
Obviously Microsoft thought it was important to "fucking release" something just because the others are, or else they wouldn't have bothered. The point is how silly a topic Microsoft chose to mention.
This is modded Troll? He's making a point about the press release war. Nintendo reveals the DS, Sony immediately reveals the PStwo... and Microsoft has jack shit, so the best they can come up with is "Chip production is on schedule."
Chip production is on schedule! Get me to the fanboy forums immediately! OMG!
Yes, a gruff-but-loveable funny pig with fart-pants who is closely allied with you at the beginning. Again, no surprises. The good guys are clearly drawn, entirely obvious. Wouldn't it have been interesting to have Jade's pig-partner who grumbles about the Alpha Sections and was tight with her dead parents... turn out to be working for the bad guys? Instead, the pig acts entirely as expected, and remains a good guy throughout. The "shocker" that dopey ol' Pey'j is actually the resistance leader is hardly a point of magnificance in video game storytelling.
Whoa... let's stop that right there. BG&E is a fine game, but the story is nothing but one gigantic pathetic obvious cliche. The story has NO twists, NO surprises, and yet insists on being taken seriously. The game review columns all totally laid down on this one.
Spoiler Example: You know that government guy in the beginning who is big and ugly and says he's protecting the planet? HE'S NOT. In every scene, he's spouting like Hitler and marching like Mussolini, yet the characters spend half the game deciding that he's evil... something that is obvious to any gamer just on visual bigness, ugliness and Hitlerishness.
A truly worthy story - that would be worth the hype and meet the challenge of such an important sounding title as "Beyond Good & Evil" - would have eventually revealed the big, ugly Hitler guy as a genuine good guy and thus turn our preconceived notions of good and evil on their ear.
BG&E does nothing of the kind. Good guys are beautiful, bad guys are ugly, and that's as deep as it gets. Also, what's up with that boring cardboard-cutout soldier dude you're haplessly teamed with, who keeps quoting starfleet space regulations faster than Arnold J. Rimmer? I was hoping he would turn out to be evil just so he'd get a plot point... but he doesn't. He's handsome, so he must be good.
"Beyond Good and Evil." Please. Play the game, but don't go trumpeting it as a highmark of video game story development.
considering they could wait another month and buy something about 3 times as powerful.
Or wait another month and buy something 6 times as powerful. Or wait another month and buy something 9 times as powerful. Or wait another month and buy something 12 times as powerful. Or wait another month and buy something 15 times as powerful.
It is not possible to steal something multiple times unless you keep getting it back again.
Only if you're talking about something tangible. "Plagerize" is used by those wishing to water the offense down; "steal" is used by those wishing to trump it up. This is a pointless semantic argument and it doesn't change the color of the horse one bit.
Do a search on eBay for any of those all-in-one "classic" gaming console units. They are packed with illegal ROMs, both original ROMs and those with sprite changes to make them seem like different games. There's probably a kiosk in your local mall selling them too. They all originate from shady electronics companies in Taiwan and China and who knows where else - where copyright law is murkier - but they're being sold in US malls and online auctions. I'd like to see the legality on those pieces of junk.
So somebody is buying it. Probably stupid grandmothers.
That's a beautiful sentiment and all, I'm sure everyone here pirates ROMs solely for the art and history of it, because it's so wrong that companies deny us free access to property they stopped publishing 20 years ago. But what happens when somebody grabs the source code, changes the sprites into something else, and starts selling it? Suppose someone sells that car they cloned? The "my own use" argument does not stand up for very long.
This is why this is copyright law. It's not to keep you lot from playing fucking Pengo for free at 3am, it's to protect the creators/owners from getting ripped off. If you owned something that people kept stealing, you might see it differently.
Right, but most consumers are not you. Most consumers have never neard of MAME or emulators and don't wish to tread through porn-riddled warez sites to find them. For most people, seeing those TV Games Joysticks or these compilation disks is the first time they've seen these games in years.
I don't think that younger generations are the true target audience, except for those unlucky enough to be denied the more expensive consoles by their parents. (In my day, the cheapo alternative to an NES was those crappy LCD handheld games.) These collections are pointed squarely at nostalgia dollars.
And as for why YOU would buy it, well, this would be a legal alternative to all those ROMs you "own." If that doesn't make a difference to you, then, no, you're not going to buy it.
Slashdot Mirror
This is collectible and nostalgic. For many gamers, playing an arcade game on a coin-op upright cabinet is part of the game itself, and emulated MAME versions do not compare. These things (and other retro products like the Classic Collection compilation games, the TV Games handhelds, and the NES GBA series) appeal to two types: nostalgia gamers who want the full-on experience and casual gamers who don't know/don't wish to use MAME. Not for you.
As for the price, well, coin-ops are expensive.
Mmmmm. The Odyssey II. What do we have to do to get Jakks to do a TV Games version of a bunch of those games. K.C. Munchkin! Pick Axe Pete! Monkeyshines! Killer Bees! Wow.
The point is that publishers have no fear of nickel-and-diming Xbox Live users for every little bit, despite Xbox Live having a regularly assigned monthly cost. As several posters above pointed out, it was originally a big deal that the Xbox HD + Live combo meant free additional content... that is swiftly becoming a memory. Chalk that up to old launch day marketing-speak (along with faked screenshots and lies about exclusivity) that have never fully evaporated.
What we're learning is that your Xbox Live fee is for Xbox live itself and nothing else (except maybe a couple patches, and new stuff from more generous companies.) Whether or not Xbox live is worth that cost is another debate, seeing as how lots of people do the same stuff (or similar) with PCs and PS2s for no additional cost.
- pay for internet service
- pay for Xbox Live service
- pay for game
- pay for new content
As opposed to the PC, which goes:
- pay for internet service
- pay for game
- pay for new content
Can you spot what is missing?
"people nitpicking"? In the world of press releases and buyer perception, making that kind of claim is huge. Of course, this isn't Microsoft making that claim, it's some fanboy news submitter. Regardless, lots of people here will repeat it as truth, even after Zonk puts an editor's note on the article.
Rumor? You must not get out much.
Well, a lot of people won't. A minority of Xbox owners use Xbox Live. A minority of Xbox Live users bought this game. A minority of people who bought the game will buy the extra content.
No, I don't have any actual figures to back this up. But I suspect this is exactly how it will play out.
Shithead.
Thanks for the warning. Now I can avoid your entire fanboy post.
I notice you don't mention the vast diversity of games found on the PS2 and Gamecube... most likely because you only play one genre of game and avoid all the rest. Katamari Damacy? Donkey Konga? Sly Cooper 2? Pikmin 2? All PS2 and Gamecube exclusive titles released within the last month that you will never see. The Xbox only has a few AAA titles, amid an overwhelming list of ports and same-as-last-year sports titles.
Let's go through the rest of your big Plus list:
"save more games" Well, the memory card vs. HD thing is well debated, and there are certainly benefits to both. But isn't Xbox2 NOT going to have an HD anyway?
"play your own music" This one gets thrown around a lot, and it sounds great... until you learn that only a handful of games support it. It's a featureless feature.
"play online" Score. Xbox has online play figured out, and no one is going to argue that. Of course, there's far too many chatty asshats out there, plus only a minority of Xbox users subscribe. But the underlying service is well constructed.
"download new content" Even. Yeah, new levels are great... but new patches and fixes are not. We don't need our console games as sloppy and rushed as most PC games.
"system link" Another feature that applies to only a select few. Most people just aren't going to bother with this. I know, I know, YOU do. But most consumers do not. Regardless, you could do this on certain PS1 games - and you can on some PS2 and Gamecube games anyway, so why all the fervor? How about some love for games that provide awesome multiplayer within the cost-friendly experience of one screen? Mario Party? Smash Bros? WarioWare? EyeToy?
If you think online play is the vanguard of video game innovation, you obviously don't own a PC, nor have you bothered to check out the varying game types and hardware available from the competition. At least you didn't jizz all over the usual "AWESUM GFX!!!11!!" argument.
It's a great game. You seem to agree. Why all the vitriol directed towards people who like/want it?
Your example ("imagine that in Japan") is stupid. OF COURSE Culture A is likely to be excited about Culture B's big game. That's because A doesn't often see games like it. Doesn't matter who A is or who B is. Katamari Damacy/Japan = Grand Theft Auto US/UK. What's exotic for one is mundane for the other. I don't know what boring homogenous world you're from, but that's the way EVERYTHING works. We're fascinated by Pocky and Domo-Kun. They're fascinated by McDonald's and Star Wars.
In summation, fuck off.
For a system that has been relatively low on innovation, this could develop into a genuine feature. Imagine if having spectators affected the game in some way... like say they can choose a side in a football game, and if your side has more spectators your players get a morale/speed/whatever boost.
I've long wished somebody would sell full recorded gameplays, because I would totally pay to watch someone go through the entire MGS2 or Kingdom Hearts or Fatal Frame or Mario Sunshine. INCLUDING cutscenes, I don't care about speed runs, I want to see the entire storyline. This news is close, but not there yet.
Guaranteed I'd find something a damn sight more interesting than whatever is on TV these days.
Obviously Microsoft thought it was important to "fucking release" something just because the others are, or else they wouldn't have bothered. The point is how silly a topic Microsoft chose to mention.
Chip production is on schedule! Get me to the fanboy forums immediately! OMG!
Yes, a gruff-but-loveable funny pig with fart-pants who is closely allied with you at the beginning. Again, no surprises. The good guys are clearly drawn, entirely obvious. Wouldn't it have been interesting to have Jade's pig-partner who grumbles about the Alpha Sections and was tight with her dead parents... turn out to be working for the bad guys? Instead, the pig acts entirely as expected, and remains a good guy throughout. The "shocker" that dopey ol' Pey'j is actually the resistance leader is hardly a point of magnificance in video game storytelling.
Spoiler Example: You know that government guy in the beginning who is big and ugly and says he's protecting the planet? HE'S NOT. In every scene, he's spouting like Hitler and marching like Mussolini, yet the characters spend half the game deciding that he's evil... something that is obvious to any gamer just on visual bigness, ugliness and Hitlerishness.
A truly worthy story - that would be worth the hype and meet the challenge of such an important sounding title as "Beyond Good & Evil" - would have eventually revealed the big, ugly Hitler guy as a genuine good guy and thus turn our preconceived notions of good and evil on their ear.
BG&E does nothing of the kind. Good guys are beautiful, bad guys are ugly, and that's as deep as it gets. Also, what's up with that boring cardboard-cutout soldier dude you're haplessly teamed with, who keeps quoting starfleet space regulations faster than Arnold J. Rimmer? I was hoping he would turn out to be evil just so he'd get a plot point... but he doesn't. He's handsome, so he must be good.
"Beyond Good and Evil." Please. Play the game, but don't go trumpeting it as a highmark of video game story development.
Or wait another month and buy something 6 times as powerful. Or wait another month and buy something 9 times as powerful. Or wait another month and buy something 12 times as powerful. Or wait another month and buy something 15 times as powerful.
I think you see where I'm going with this.
Only if you're talking about something tangible. "Plagerize" is used by those wishing to water the offense down; "steal" is used by those wishing to trump it up. This is a pointless semantic argument and it doesn't change the color of the horse one bit.
So somebody is buying it. Probably stupid grandmothers.
This is why this is copyright law. It's not to keep you lot from playing fucking Pengo for free at 3am, it's to protect the creators/owners from getting ripped off. If you owned something that people kept stealing, you might see it differently.
Neither is "stealing."
I don't think that younger generations are the true target audience, except for those unlucky enough to be denied the more expensive consoles by their parents. (In my day, the cheapo alternative to an NES was those crappy LCD handheld games.) These collections are pointed squarely at nostalgia dollars.
And as for why YOU would buy it, well, this would be a legal alternative to all those ROMs you "own." If that doesn't make a difference to you, then, no, you're not going to buy it.
There, now you have a news story.
Whoop. I feel sheepish. Mod me -1 Being Snotty Without Cause.
The real GTA fans probably don't notice your shirt because their shirts say "Degenatron."