Heh, I don't expect the PSP to be cheap or sturdy. I expect one good smack to it's large, unprotected screen would put it out of commission. I doubt it will behave well if you drop it. And I doubt that in either case I'd be willing to fork over $300+ for another.
Honestly, I see people's computers all messed up all the time. I fix them. But truly, I have no idea how they get that way, since I generally know what many of these people do with them. In the last...oh, year and a half, at least, I have never had any problems with viruses. I have multiple scanners running and neither ever even intercepts anything. I have never had any spyware that I noticed ill effects from, though there have been a few possible-data-miner-types. Basically, the biggest issue I've ever had with XP is a little error about IDE controllers since I replaced the motherboard without reinstalling Windows (better than I'd expected...), which just means I have to hit 'enter' when I start up to get the window to go away. (I'd deal with this now, but I'll be getting a new video card in several days and I'd prefer to just do it then.) I'm not a particularly careful user. I click on things I know I probably shouldn't. I have no firewall running, software or otherwise. And still, I get nothing.
I'll just pretend GMail is actually out for this post.
It's not the same thing at all. E-mail is all interoperable. Different mail services are like different IM clients, not like different IM networks. Being one of the few users of an email provider has a certain appeal to most people. However, with an IM service, it's useless unless other people are using it too.
The single most important deature in an IM service, by far, is user base. How many people care if a service is open protocol or not? Not enough to make it popular enough to appeal to anybody else, that's how many.
You're not allowed to say anything good about Halo unless you have significant experience with two of the following: Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Timesplitters 2.
I have hundreds of hours on each, and Halo multiplayer seems bland and repetative by comparison.
I don't even see why the Anachronox movie counts. It's exactly like the game, but they made it for zero players instead of one. They didn't use the engine to create anything significantly new, they almost just string the cutscenes together. Give me something like RvB over that any day.
Not only do I agree with the point about the CRT (I am NOT spending $250 for a monitor when I can get a bigger and better-looking screen for half that) I also have to point out that I just bought a new motherboard and the SATA drivers came on a floppy. As they tend to do.
Really, the truth is that ditching IE is easily the most important thing. Every one of the other things has sat idle for over a year at nearly 24/7 connectivity.
I think the GameCube has, far and away, the best console controller ever. So...nyah.
The problem is just that cross-platform designers fail to utilize it properly. If their game doesn't work as well on another platform, their options areto release it anyway, or change it to make it work. I suppose they just choose the former.
Unless, of couse, your idea of a good platform is one that's identical to all the others, I don't see how you can have a problem.
Argh, stab me in the face. Okay. I'm fully awake now. Corrections:
There's a reason modern consoles all have big analog sticks. Now, since I'm posting again anyway, I'll explain. I have no faith in that little one to be of any use at all. Honestly, I think I'd have better luck playing GT with the D-Pad. With a stick like that, I think it would perform nearly the same, perhaps exactly the same for a person of my hand-shakiness. It reminds me of a joystick hat, and I have plenty of trouble with those even if they're digital.
I'm not saying that the game would be better on GBA or DS or anything, I'm saying it shouldn't be a handheld game. It requires sharp, precise control, and no handheld can really provide that.
Yeah, it looks nice, fine. Buy the PSP as a movie player then, because a game like that is going to play like crap. No matter how nice the screen is, you still have to deal with the controls. There's a reason modern consoles all have analog sticks. This doesn't. You can't take a slight turn, you have the options of turning hard and going straight, and nothing in between.
I said this after E3 when GT was used as a example of how great the games would be. The fact is, it's not going to convert well, and all they have to show from it is pretty pictures. Big deal.
Actually I'd argue that one of the reasons movies like Shrek are so good is that they *don't* go for realism.
First off, I agree with that. Shrek's perfect look comes from the fact that it is a cartoon. If something isn't exactly as it's supposed to look, that's okay, a viewer won't even know. But ina movie like Final Fantasy,we know exactly how it should look, and notice the differences.
Now that I've expanded on and explained your point a little, I have to say that I think it's irrelevant. Problems like those FF had only occur at the level just before photorealism is achieved, with the wierdness of being perfect in some ways, but still having flaws. In games, we aren't at that level.
Also, even if we were, with the distraction of actual gameplay, the imperfections would be less noticable. Just a minor point.
Well, yeah. Crappy games tend to do that. "Ooh, let's let them fly the freighters, instead of the starfighters! Brilliant!" And the game was dead already.
Granted, that's not the only problem. But IMO it's the biggest one.
I hope the fixes work with the versions I have...there are a few versions of each and I can never keep them straight.
Best three space sims ever, IMO? Freespace 2, TIE Fighter, X-Wing. In best-to-least-best order. And now I can (maybe) play every one of them. I thank whoever did this. I really do.
I gotta agree with the sibling on this -- stop being such a sheep.
The boss wasn't doing his job. The article says as much. The right thing would be for there to be some consequences for that. Without this horrible vigilate, that would never have happened. He would keep getting paid -- likely, getting paid quite well -- with public money, no less! For doing practically nothing. For just telling everybody he agreed with them, when he got around to it, and for managing his investments of said unearned wages. Note that this is a manager, and that supposedly his lack of motivation was affecting those under him.
But you say that a person dealing with this problem, correcting it and saving people money and/or improving government service, is worse than that? Because other people didn't do it, it's wrong for him to? And you use Big Brother as your evil analogy, even as you denounce an individual's determination to make a difference. Yikes, man, you scare me way more than any power-tripping sysadmin ever could.
Actually, historically, the big winners in the Sony space (walkman, Playstation, etc) were heavily (re)developed by Sony designers... not just "hardware guys".
In fact, most of the "hardware guys" for the Playstation...um...worked at Nintendo.
Gunbound is great fun. Sometimes. It depends on who you play with...you get a lot of little immature, annoying kids, for one thing, and a lot of people who make you remember why SC players all hated Koreans in general, because of a few (many?) idividuals (aside from getting their asses kicked by them!!!!!! kekekekeke!!!).
I witnessed a wonderfully intellectual verbal skirmish between two players in one game. "Yo momma sucked my dick and it was good!" "Yeah well my momma's dead you sick fuck!" "Yeah I like it like that!" "You're sick!" "Sick like yo momma!"
And I love the rare times when you get players who will fill the screen with lines of a single character. And the people who respond to the tiniest mistake on the most difficult shot with "Omgz youz arez teh nubz!" And, geek that I am, people who fail to understand the differences between network lag and slow machines cause me far more annoyance than one might expect.
I still play though, that's a statement about how fun the game can be, and usually is.
Slashdot Mirror
Heh, I don't expect the PSP to be cheap or sturdy. I expect one good smack to it's large, unprotected screen would put it out of commission. I doubt it will behave well if you drop it. And I doubt that in either case I'd be willing to fork over $300+ for another.
It might be more convenient to set up a firewall to block the game, actually.
Honestly, I see people's computers all messed up all the time. I fix them. But truly, I have no idea how they get that way, since I generally know what many of these people do with them. In the last...oh, year and a half, at least, I have never had any problems with viruses. I have multiple scanners running and neither ever even intercepts anything. I have never had any spyware that I noticed ill effects from, though there have been a few possible-data-miner-types. Basically, the biggest issue I've ever had with XP is a little error about IDE controllers since I replaced the motherboard without reinstalling Windows (better than I'd expected...), which just means I have to hit 'enter' when I start up to get the window to go away. (I'd deal with this now, but I'll be getting a new video card in several days and I'd prefer to just do it then.) I'm not a particularly careful user. I click on things I know I probably shouldn't. I have no firewall running, software or otherwise. And still, I get nothing.
What the hell is wrong with these people?!
I'll just pretend GMail is actually out for this post.
It's not the same thing at all. E-mail is all interoperable. Different mail services are like different IM clients, not like different IM networks. Being one of the few users of an email provider has a certain appeal to most people. However, with an IM service, it's useless unless other people are using it too.
The single most important deature in an IM service, by far, is user base. How many people care if a service is open protocol or not? Not enough to make it popular enough to appeal to anybody else, that's how many.
You're not allowed to say anything good about Halo unless you have significant experience with two of the following: Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Timesplitters 2.
I have hundreds of hours on each, and Halo multiplayer seems bland and repetative by comparison.
I agree with you there. Gamespy's endorsement of the PSP is the best predictor of the DS's overwhelming success that I can think of.
I don't even see why the Anachronox movie counts. It's exactly like the game, but they made it for zero players instead of one. They didn't use the engine to create anything significantly new, they almost just string the cutscenes together. Give me something like RvB over that any day.
When I buy a SATA-capable motherboard, I don't get any drivers on punch cards.
But the spy satellites just want friends!
Not only do I agree with the point about the CRT (I am NOT spending $250 for a monitor when I can get a bigger and better-looking screen for half that) I also have to point out that I just bought a new motherboard and the SATA drivers came on a floppy. As they tend to do.
Really, the truth is that ditching IE is easily the most important thing. Every one of the other things has sat idle for over a year at nearly 24/7 connectivity.
I think the GameCube has, far and away, the best console controller ever. So...nyah.
The problem is just that cross-platform designers fail to utilize it properly. If their game doesn't work as well on another platform, their options areto release it anyway, or change it to make it work. I suppose they just choose the former.
Unless, of couse, your idea of a good platform is one that's identical to all the others, I don't see how you can have a problem.
Argh, stab me in the face. Okay. I'm fully awake now. Corrections:
There's a reason modern consoles all have big analog sticks.
Now, since I'm posting again anyway, I'll explain.
I have no faith in that little one to be of any use at all. Honestly, I think I'd have better luck playing GT with the D-Pad. With a stick like that, I think it would perform nearly the same, perhaps exactly the same for a person of my hand-shakiness. It reminds me of a joystick hat, and I have plenty of trouble with those even if they're digital.
I'm not saying that the game would be better on GBA or DS or anything, I'm saying it shouldn't be a handheld game. It requires sharp, precise control, and no handheld can really provide that.
Yeah, it looks nice, fine. Buy the PSP as a movie player then, because a game like that is going to play like crap. No matter how nice the screen is, you still have to deal with the controls. There's a reason modern consoles all have analog sticks. This doesn't. You can't take a slight turn, you have the options of turning hard and going straight, and nothing in between.
I said this after E3 when GT was used as a example of how great the games would be. The fact is, it's not going to convert well, and all they have to show from it is pretty pictures. Big deal.
Actually I'd argue that one of the reasons movies like Shrek are so good is that they *don't* go for realism.
First off, I agree with that. Shrek's perfect look comes from the fact that it is a cartoon. If something isn't exactly as it's supposed to look, that's okay, a viewer won't even know. But ina movie like Final Fantasy,we know exactly how it should look, and notice the differences.
Now that I've expanded on and explained your point a little, I have to say that I think it's irrelevant. Problems like those FF had only occur at the level just before photorealism is achieved, with the wierdness of being perfect in some ways, but still having flaws. In games, we aren't at that level.
Also, even if we were, with the distraction of actual gameplay, the imperfections would be less noticable. Just a minor point.
We have the makings of a tv movie here.
A Lifetime movie, at that...the very worst kind.
...XWA sold 1/3 of the original X-Wing...
Well, yeah. Crappy games tend to do that. "Ooh, let's let them fly the freighters, instead of the starfighters! Brilliant!" And the game was dead already.
Granted, that's not the only problem. But IMO it's the biggest one.
On my system, at least, I can get them to run in DOSBox, technically, but....eh, it's not even worth playing. So slow...This is on a XP2100+.
I have TIE95, but X-Wing CD! Argh.
Yes.
There's a reson that there are huge many-pages guides on how to get these games to run, at all, if not perfectly.
I hope the fixes work with the versions I have...there are a few versions of each and I can never keep them straight.
Best three space sims ever, IMO? Freespace 2, TIE Fighter, X-Wing. In best-to-least-best order. And now I can (maybe) play every one of them. I thank whoever did this. I really do.
Vigilante justice is not justice.
I gotta agree with the sibling on this -- stop being such a sheep.
The boss wasn't doing his job. The article says as much. The right thing would be for there to be some consequences for that. Without this horrible vigilate, that would never have happened. He would keep getting paid -- likely, getting paid quite well -- with public money, no less! For doing practically nothing. For just telling everybody he agreed with them, when he got around to it, and for managing his investments of said unearned wages. Note that this is a manager, and that supposedly his lack of motivation was affecting those under him.
But you say that a person dealing with this problem, correcting it and saving people money and/or improving government service, is worse than that? Because other people didn't do it, it's wrong for him to? And you use Big Brother as your evil analogy, even as you denounce an individual's determination to make a difference. Yikes, man, you scare me way more than any power-tripping sysadmin ever could.
God, I wish I had some mod points right now :)
Actually, historically, the big winners in the Sony space (walkman, Playstation, etc) were heavily (re)developed by Sony designers... not just "hardware guys".
In fact, most of the "hardware guys" for the Playstation...um...worked at Nintendo.
Gunbound is great fun. Sometimes. It depends on who you play with...you get a lot of little immature, annoying kids, for one thing, and a lot of people who make you remember why SC players all hated Koreans in general, because of a few (many?) idividuals (aside from getting their asses kicked by them!!!!!! kekekekeke!!!).
I witnessed a wonderfully intellectual verbal skirmish between two players in one game. "Yo momma sucked my dick and it was good!" "Yeah well my momma's dead you sick fuck!" "Yeah I like it like that!" "You're sick!" "Sick like yo momma!"
And I love the rare times when you get players who will fill the screen with lines of a single character. And the people who respond to the tiniest mistake on the most difficult shot with "Omgz youz arez teh nubz!" And, geek that I am, people who fail to understand the differences between network lag and slow machines cause me far more annoyance than one might expect.
I still play though, that's a statement about how fun the game can be, and usually is.