Why do you have to equal the defensive behaviour of one's own language on one's own soil with anti-americanism ? It simply does not make sense.
Oh noes !! The french have made mandatory that any product sold in their country has to : _Use french language to describe the product on the packging (slap a sticker is fine) _Include a french traduction of any operating/Owner's manual inside.
Wow... Soooo Anti-americanism.. Requiring products sold in your country to be understandable by even the grand-ma's who speak no english. Who would have thought ?
And for your information, the french people hate no one. If we don't hate the germans for what they did to us during world war II (Occupation, Gestapo, concentration camps, entire villages slaughtered by SS, etc...), which we absolutely don't, there is definitely no one we can hate on the planet.
We have a beautiful country, excellent food, very nice healthcare, and vacations are treated like a god-given right. We're more busy enjoying life, which isn't perfect by any means, than waste it hating anyone.
It is not because you yourself are hateful that we are. Do not assert to someone else your very own bad sides.
Taking the Xbox as example, I would not be surprised if :
_Microsoft seriously commits to this product long enough _After several incremental iterations
This would end up being a fair product. If not good.
Especially when you read that some of the biggest user complaints stem from 'political decisions' made by Microsoft/media companies and do not come from a technical standpoint.
Can't MP3 be created using higher sampling frequency and with higher definition samples ? Anyone knows what the standard allows and if encoders are available for say, 96kHz(or 192kHz) / 24 bits ?
IIRC, the Allies lured Hitler into thinking the real D-Day would land elsewhere, namely dunkirk. They did so by positioning Patton and his forces in the part of Great Britain nearest to it. Hitler had much more consideration for Patton than the Allies actually did (his way of commanding troops was far from politically correct), and so the plan worked.
That's funny.. you remind me the story of a full VC sapper battalion during Vietnam that attacked a US base by surprise. Except they were actually tracked by a squad of LRRP (Long Range Recon Patrol) When the hundred of sappers rushed the fence they were welcomed by 4 trucks sporting quad cannon.50 cal machine guns. That means major pain... Sapper battalion was annihilated, no Us casualties.
Or should I mention the 12 man squad of Korean Marines that decimated a 400 man VC battalion, suffering two casualties.
EVE Online & Guild Wars & EverQuest II, First place ex-aequo with a Rating of 8.3 Dark Age of Camelot & Ryzom , Second place ex-aequo with a rating of 8.2
Yes, yes, I know. There is no room for the Ex-Aequo concept in the US culture. Every competion MUST have a WINNER and a LOSER, right ?
"simple access to formulas will take min-maxing to the extreme and will make balancing nearly impossible."
umh.. no. At all. A properly designed game has absolutely no problems with that. Only shoddy crafted ones do.
"Good luck getting anyone to agree how to balance the game"
You are missing the point entirely. MMORPG as free software means... Freedom to compete. You don't like the balance on this particular server ? Then go to another ! The choice is yours.
Commercial RPGs lock you into a monopolistic micro market where you have absolutely no choice. If the GM, events, hotfixes, balance, design, etc... sucks, then tough luck. But if the game is free software, you can still enjoy the game on a server that you agree more with.
"Still, in comparison to other shooters that were around at the same time, halo 1 and 2 did NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING that other games hadn't done ten times over."
Wrong.. Wrong.. and Wrong.
My credentials :
Hosted LAN parties in my appartment for 3 years, 6 to 8 people every time. We started with Quake II, then Half-Life, then Half-Life : Opposing Force, Counter-Strike Betas, FireArms, Quake III, Unreal Tournament, Day of Defeat, Sven Co-op, etc.. etc..
And I grew weary of all those. Rather burnt-out with FPS' playability, really.
It was I guess, either get one shot in the first 20 seconds of a match then wait 3-5 min looking at the paint on the wall (CS). Get in prone position defending your flag and an enemy just ran past you in the hallway even if you spray assault rifle on him (jacket defense + run speed. FireArms). See all avatars do the bunny hopping move on steroids all around you with one shot-kill weapons (UT).
If you enjoy all the situations, fine. It simply wasn't for me and found it deeply unsatisfactory.
Then enter Halo. I have my xbox but no games, I'm borrowing my friend's. Can't complain about the titles, beggars can't be choosers.
First action scene, after the story setting, the masterchief (you) is thawed from his artificial slumber. The crew asks you to look at lights patterns up and down to check if you are fully restored. Fine. And then I realize.. the game just auto-adapted to my control scheme !(I'm a flight simulator type, push the stick forward to lower my view). Holy crap.. now that's smart. This game just jumped +10 points in my book...
Then let me present you what I dub the holy trinity of Halo gameplay.
At any moment in the game, you have always three different ways to hurt an enemy _Fire you main weapon _Launch a grenade _Clobber with whatever you're holding in your hands. The choice and use of these three is seamless and requires NO prior action (like changing weapons/selecting another) and fits a gamepad play perfectly.
Second point, and very important one :
You run SLOWER than other FPS. (You jumps are slower too) And that boosts the playability tenfold. Because it makes it easier to clobber someone, as well as stick a grenade on him, magnifying the beneficial effect of the trinity decribed earlier. (example : in QuakeIII you have to switch weapons in order to brawl. and the run speed is way higher)
Third point, Halo is in part a platformer game. There are places you can reach and vehicles you can obtain if you use your head and the physics engine. Places you can bring a vehicle to. And it's very rewarding when you succeed, not to mention fun as hell to lay waste with a vehicle on enemies you had to fight on foot otherwise.
Fourth point, Co-op rules. There was nothing that came close to doing the whole Halo campaign in co-op with your buddy. Nothing.
Fifth point, multiplayer goodness Blood gulch CTF with vehicles. Enough said. I would pay $$ to join a party.
Halo 2 was a disapointment for me gameplay wise, and I like it nowhere as much as Halo 1.
"If you need to play a PS2 game on the PS3, and it doesn't work well. WHY NOT PLUG IN YOUR PS2?"
Because the PS2 is an inferior product, as 99.99% of it's games can't be run on a progressive display ? Compare that with the 98% DreamCast games that ran fine with a VGA cable.
You will then understand why I said for years that I would play PS2 games the day I have a PS3, to finally be able to play them not in a crappy interlaced format.
Is that the first PS3 customer, and most of the first batch, were not eager Sony fans, but people who had absolutely no interest in the product.
This is Japan we're talking about. The dedication of Japanese fans for what they care about is legendary, and their accomplishments are many. (example : Comic Market)
To not have them there to greet the launch of a major item of fandomness (how can you beat the PS3 in that respect ?), seeing them beaten to the line by hired people, is disturbing. Profoundly.
"PSO is no different from Diablo 1, a RPG that you can happen to play online."
Re-read again. PSO was the first CONSOLE rpg, and was playable with a 33.6 modem from all over the world, including via satellite connections. Oh, and it was real 3D.
I get so sick of all those PSO is just diablo comments. Let me add my own stupid comment then : "And diablo 1 was just yet another isometric game (like crafton & xunk, syndicate, populous, etc..etc..) that just happened to have an online part."
"While I haven't played many other Capcom fighting games I have played GGX on PC and I found that it was extremely unbalanced. Still it's fun to play."
Would you mind detailing a bit ? I never experienced such imbalance on the DreamCast version.
Some characters require less practise than others (Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske for example) in order to be very effective. For example, my favourite character Jam is weaker than them, but more nimble. I am convinced that properly played, she can beat them. My recently acquired Arcade Stick has allowed me to pull new tricks over the usual DC joypad, and thus improved my gameplay.
"my X-box I won for free in a drawing at a Microsoft presentation on Visual Studio - even swearing that I'd never buy one I *STILL* ended up with one of things:/ "
Climb down from your high horse and look at the reality. Did you like Jet Set Radio on the DreamCast ?
The studio behind JSR, Smilebit, subsequently did Jet Set Radio Future, Gunvalkyrie, and Panzer Dragoon Orta on the Xbox.
Just play the games, not the brand/system politics.
One is Phantasy Star Online. The very first online console RPG, with its servers around the world, compulsive gameplay, instanced dungeons, large chatting lobbies, multi language traduction system, etc.. etc.. Omitting PSO for the DreamCast is simply not understandable. Even more when it is making the news these day with its newest incarnation PSU, launching on PS2/PC and Xbox 360.
Another is Guilty Gear X, which wipes the floor of any fighting game Capcom ever made.
And as has been remarked on / before, a licence is a contract,and a contract must be agreed upon by both parties BEFORE YOU PAY IT in order to be enforcable. Pushing down my throat whatever terms you feel like (not even mentionning altering them with a security update) after I have paid for the product has few chances of being regarded by a court of law as a valid pre-purchase agreement.
That's the fun point to be discussed by the justice system.
My HD projector has none, zero HDMI ports. It features DVI, VGA, Component, and S-video inputs.
The internet provides my PC with HD movies and HD anime feeding the projector with DVI. My XBOX360 provides HD gaming via VGA. Xbox legacy gaming comes as component.
Why on earth should I care about the DRM-ladden HDMI ?
Slashdot Mirror
StarCraft.
The balance is what keeps the game still relevant 10+ years after.
> I thought he asked you to go to bed. Why are you still here?
Pointless, unwarranted, and uninformative answer.
Thanks for reminding me what a troll looks like.
Why do you have to equal the defensive behaviour of one's own language on one's own soil with anti-americanism ?
... Soooo Anti-americanism .. Requiring products sold in your country to be understandable by even the grand-ma's who speak no english. Who would have thought ?
...), which we absolutely don't, there is definitely no one we can hate on the planet.
It simply does not make sense.
Oh noes !! The french have made mandatory that any product sold in their country has to :
_Use french language to describe the product on the packging (slap a sticker is fine)
_Include a french traduction of any operating/Owner's manual inside.
Wow
And for your information, the french people hate no one.
If we don't hate the germans for what they did to us during world war II (Occupation, Gestapo, concentration camps, entire villages slaughtered by SS, etc
We have a beautiful country, excellent food, very nice healthcare, and vacations are treated like a god-given right. We're more busy enjoying life, which isn't perfect by any means, than waste it hating anyone.
It is not because you yourself are hateful that we are. Do not assert to someone else your very own bad sides.
Taking the Xbox as example, I would not be surprised if :
_Microsoft seriously commits to this product long enough
_After several incremental iterations
This would end up being a fair product. If not good.
Especially when you read that some of the biggest user complaints stem from 'political decisions' made by Microsoft/media companies and do not come from a technical standpoint.
My overclocked Opteron fan also regularly stops.
Takes a while at boot-up before it feels the need to actually spin.
I am sure the Core duo praise is justified. Just wanted to say it isn't exclusive to it.
Can't MP3 be created using higher sampling frequency and with higher definition samples ?
Anyone knows what the standard allows and if encoders are available for say, 96kHz(or 192kHz) / 24 bits ?
Anyone else feels sour when reading the line :
.. an .. Idea ?
.. Like if the patent system wasn't abused enough. Sigh.
"The group is taking the step of patenting the idea"
Patenting
What the hell
IIRC, the Allies lured Hitler into thinking the real D-Day would land elsewhere, namely dunkirk.
They did so by positioning Patton and his forces in the part of Great Britain nearest to it.
Hitler had much more consideration for Patton than the Allies actually did (his way of commanding troops was far from politically correct), and so the plan worked.
"Dreamcast games were almost always anti-aliased"
Not to mention like 90% of DC games were 480p.
No wonder some people avoided the PS2 entirely. Interlaced and jaggies ? No thanks.
PS3's strongest contender is the PS2.
How sweet is that ?
Let's See ..
.. what was it called already ? ..
...) but you can't chose to turn a blind eye on only one of the belligerents.
2006-60 = 1946
I think your forgot something
ah ! yes. The Korean War. Maybe you should consult the wikipedia entry about it.
And yes, the US did a lot of bad things (chile, Iran's shah, etc
That's funny .. you remind me the story of a full VC sapper battalion during Vietnam that attacked a US base by surprise. .50 cal machine guns. ...
Except they were actually tracked by a squad of LRRP (Long Range Recon Patrol)
When the hundred of sappers rushed the fence they were welcomed by 4 trucks sporting quad cannon
That means major pain
Sapper battalion was annihilated, no Us casualties.
Or should I mention the 12 man squad of Korean Marines that decimated a 400 man VC battalion, suffering two casualties.
In my tongue, it would be told as follows :
EVE Online & Guild Wars & EverQuest II, First place ex-aequo with a Rating of 8.3
Dark Age of Camelot & Ryzom , Second place ex-aequo with a rating of 8.2
Yes, yes, I know.
There is no room for the Ex-Aequo concept in the US culture. Every competion MUST have a WINNER and a LOSER, right ?
"simple access to formulas will take min-maxing to the extreme and will make balancing nearly impossible."
.. no. At all.
... Freedom to compete.
... sucks, then tough luck.
umh
A properly designed game has absolutely no problems with that. Only shoddy crafted ones do.
"Good luck getting anyone to agree how to balance the game"
You are missing the point entirely.
MMORPG as free software means
You don't like the balance on this particular server ? Then go to another ! The choice is yours.
Commercial RPGs lock you into a monopolistic micro market where you have absolutely no choice.
If the GM, events, hotfixes, balance, design, etc
But if the game is free software, you can still enjoy the game on a server that you agree more with.
"Still, in comparison to other shooters that were around at the same time, halo 1 and 2 did NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING that other games hadn't done ten times over."
.. Wrong .. and Wrong.
.. etc ..
.. the game just auto-adapted to my control scheme !(I'm a flight simulator type, push the stick forward to lower my view). .. now that's smart. This game just jumped +10 points in my book ...
Wrong
My credentials :
Hosted LAN parties in my appartment for 3 years, 6 to 8 people every time.
We started with Quake II, then Half-Life, then Half-Life : Opposing Force, Counter-Strike Betas, FireArms, Quake III, Unreal Tournament, Day of Defeat, Sven Co-op, etc
And I grew weary of all those. Rather burnt-out with FPS' playability, really.
It was I guess, either get one shot in the first 20 seconds of a match then wait 3-5 min looking at the paint on the wall (CS). Get in prone position defending your flag and an enemy just ran past you in the hallway even if you spray assault rifle on him (jacket defense + run speed. FireArms).
See all avatars do the bunny hopping move on steroids all around you with one shot-kill weapons (UT).
If you enjoy all the situations, fine. It simply wasn't for me and found it deeply unsatisfactory.
Then enter Halo. I have my xbox but no games, I'm borrowing my friend's. Can't complain about the titles, beggars can't be choosers.
First action scene, after the story setting, the masterchief (you) is thawed from his artificial slumber. The crew asks you to look at lights patterns up and down to check if you are fully restored.
Fine.
And then I realize
Holy crap
Then let me present you what I dub the holy trinity of Halo gameplay.
At any moment in the game, you have always three different ways to hurt an enemy
_Fire you main weapon
_Launch a grenade
_Clobber with whatever you're holding in your hands.
The choice and use of these three is seamless and requires NO prior action (like changing weapons/selecting another) and fits a gamepad play perfectly.
Second point, and very important one :
You run SLOWER than other FPS. (You jumps are slower too)
And that boosts the playability tenfold. Because it makes it easier to clobber someone, as well as stick a grenade on him, magnifying the beneficial effect of the trinity decribed earlier.
(example : in QuakeIII you have to switch weapons in order to brawl. and the run speed is way higher)
Third point, Halo is in part a platformer game.
There are places you can reach and vehicles you can obtain if you use your head and the physics engine. Places you can bring a vehicle to. And it's very rewarding when you succeed, not to mention fun as hell to lay waste with a vehicle on enemies you had to fight on foot otherwise.
Fourth point, Co-op rules.
There was nothing that came close to doing the whole Halo campaign in co-op with your buddy. Nothing.
Fifth point, multiplayer goodness
Blood gulch CTF with vehicles. Enough said.
I would pay $$ to join a party.
Halo 2 was a disapointment for me gameplay wise, and I like it nowhere as much as Halo 1.
To state it clearly:
Some PS3 launch games outputs at 720p
Lot of 2-3 years old HDTV cannot display 720p, but can do 1080i just fine.
But the PS3 is incapable of upscaling the game's graphics to 1080i. (unlike the xbox 360 for example)
Hence, the only display available for them is 480p.
To sum up : buy PS3, hook up to HDTV, play in 480p. (some games, some TV)
"If you need to play a PS2 game on the PS3, and it doesn't work well. WHY NOT PLUG IN YOUR PS2?"
Because the PS2 is an inferior product, as 99.99% of it's games can't be run on a progressive display ?
Compare that with the 98% DreamCast games that ran fine with a VGA cable.
You will then understand why I said for years that I would play PS2 games the day I have a PS3, to finally be able to play them not in a crappy interlaced format.
Is that the first PS3 customer, and most of the first batch, were not eager Sony fans, but people who had absolutely no interest in the product.
This is Japan we're talking about. The dedication of Japanese fans for what they care about is legendary, and their accomplishments are many. (example : Comic Market)
To not have them there to greet the launch of a major item of fandomness (how can you beat the PS3 in that respect ?), seeing them beaten to the line by hired people, is disturbing. Profoundly.
The CBS Colecovision and Mattel Intellivision consoles shipped with two controllers. .. This isn't making us any younger lol :)
Oh boy
"PSO is no different from Diablo 1, a RPG that you can happen to play online."
..etc ..) that just happened to have an online part."
Re-read again.
PSO was the first CONSOLE rpg, and was playable with a 33.6 modem from all over the world, including via satellite connections.
Oh, and it was real 3D.
I get so sick of all those PSO is just diablo comments. Let me add my own stupid comment then : "And diablo 1 was just yet another isometric game (like crafton & xunk, syndicate, populous, etc
"While I haven't played many other Capcom fighting games I have played GGX on PC and I found that it was extremely unbalanced. Still it's fun to play."
Would you mind detailing a bit ? I never experienced such imbalance on the DreamCast version.
Some characters require less practise than others (Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske for example) in order to be very effective.
For example, my favourite character Jam is weaker than them, but more nimble. I am convinced that properly played, she can beat them.
My recently acquired Arcade Stick has allowed me to pull new tricks over the usual DC joypad, and thus improved my gameplay.
"my X-box I won for free in a drawing at a Microsoft presentation on Visual Studio - even swearing that I'd never buy one I *STILL* ended up with one of things :/ "
Climb down from your high horse and look at the reality.
Did you like Jet Set Radio on the DreamCast ?
The studio behind JSR, Smilebit, subsequently did Jet Set Radio Future, Gunvalkyrie, and Panzer Dragoon Orta on the Xbox.
Just play the games, not the brand/system politics.
One is Phantasy Star Online. .. etc ..
The very first online console RPG, with its servers around the world, compulsive gameplay, instanced dungeons, large chatting lobbies, multi language traduction system, etc
Omitting PSO for the DreamCast is simply not understandable.
Even more when it is making the news these day with its newest incarnation PSU, launching on PS2/PC and Xbox 360.
Another is Guilty Gear X,
which wipes the floor of any fighting game Capcom ever made.
>
And as has been remarked on / before, a licence is a contract,and a contract must be agreed upon by both parties BEFORE YOU PAY IT in order to be enforcable.
Pushing down my throat whatever terms you feel like (not even mentionning altering them with a security update) after I have paid for the product has few chances of being regarded by a court of law as a valid pre-purchase agreement.
That's the fun point to be discussed by the justice system.
My HD projector has none, zero HDMI ports.
It features DVI, VGA, Component, and S-video inputs.
The internet provides my PC with HD movies and HD anime feeding the projector with DVI.
My XBOX360 provides HD gaming via VGA.
Xbox legacy gaming comes as component.
Why on earth should I care about the DRM-ladden HDMI ?