What about having Free games? Developed by hackers on the internet, with focus on gameplay and writing instead of millions of dollars worth of eye candy? Proprietry software, including games, hurts society. Please do not support it. Don't trade your Freedom for the convenience of playing a Proprietry game.
Right. Okay. Pick -- Linux runs propriety games, or Linux remains almost unknown on the desktop. There's no in-between. This is a discussion that is really about marketing, you must realize. Your Free games are irrelevant, unless these individuals that spend nothing on the game itself turn around and spend millions on advertising.
I really have to disagree with the statement about propriety games hurting society. It's just entertainment! It's like a movie. It's like a book. You don't get access to all the intricate processes that went into the final product (that's what code is), but you do get the final product.
It doesn't upset society (well, not more than open-source games would), it just upsets you.
Not true. I'm hardcore gamer. Really, I play at LEAST 6 hours a day, averaging well over 10. I sleep little. I play everything, too, and today have played 6 games, the oldest of which is Diablo 2.
And you're right about one thing -- I won't do onboard sound. My CPU cycles are too valuable. Past that, to me, sound-upgrading happens only after visuals are taken care of. By 'taken care of' I mean I can play any game for the next year or so smoothly, with the graphics settings all at low to medium settings. Then, I can do some sound.
The bottom line is that it is nowhere near as important, when you don't feel like spending gobs of money on it. In the last few months, I've had two games simply refuse to even load because the MX series doesn't support pixel shading 1.1. That's it -- no Prince of Persia or Deus Ex 2 for me. Not saying I would have liked these games, but I may never know. Splinter Cell 2 uses it, too...However, even with onboard sound, these games would have run fine with adequate video hardware.
You'd lose some quality. The sound would just be less accurate. Compare that to having older video hardware, when the game will be completely unplayable.
If you have an unlimited budget, you'll get everything, sure. But if not, video is far more important.
Uh...no. You misread those numbers. GameCube recently caught up to XBox in the US, and XBox has been pretty much a complete failure in Japan, selling under a million units IIRC.
Another idea is not to make fast-paced FPS games, since that genre appears to be the only one where this comes up.
Excuse me? Ever hear of RTS map hacks? Of course, the reason those are possible is because there IS no server in most cases, the connection is client-to-client. There's no purely technical way to solve that one, either. Unless you consider the costs of server maintenance a 'technical' problem.
As for the emergent gameplay, I am impressed with the technical expertise that must have gone into it. Still, I think the effort was largely wasted due to some other problems -- mainly, the much-lamented repetative nature of the game in general. It's nice to have something crazy happen, but I don't want to have to move through dozens of identical areas hoping something will. And that problem applies even more when it comes to questions of replayability. I know this is a console game, I've noticed console games do, really, tend to be slightly more repetative than PC games (or maybe Half-Life just tips the balance and throws my perception all out of whack) but I got bored quickly playing Halo.
The vehicles were nice for a while. But if I wanted a destructive rally like you'd suggest, I'd probably go out and buy Twisted Metal. There's something about multiplayer that I find boring as well -- fun for a few minutes, but the same thing always ends up happening, and it's not really a fun thing. I again place the blame on level design, and possibly weapons. I say that because I'm thinking back to Goldeneye and what I loved about that. (Warning: If you don't know Goldeneye like the back of your hand, prepare to be a bit confused) I didn't like the temple, or the archives level; I liked the complex, I liked the facility. The varied levels. Halo doesn't seem to have things like that. If the same things did end up happening, there was something about the game, or the repetitive event that could keep them fun. For example, in the facility, 2v2 games would inevitably involve one team holing up in the long hallway with the body armor in the room at the end. I think the wide weapon selection kept that fun, as well as the better level design. Well, it doesn't seem wide now, but compared to Halo, there was a lot of variety.
I'm not saying that Halo is bad. But I AM saying that I would never choose to play it again. If I'm with some people, and they're playing it, fine. If there's a 16 player match set up in the CompSci room at my old high school and I can skip class and go there instead, well, hey, that's the first time I ever played. But as far as I'm concerned, there's always something more fun to play.
I'm really only bitter because everybody seems to love it so much, and gets far more respect than I think it deserves--often from people who, it seems, have never played another console FPS that actually deserves the respect (and sales figures) that Halo enjoys.
I guess I just love my favorites and care what happens to them.
I was Romeo once too. But man, mine was way better, I got to kill Tybalt. We had wooden swords. The teacher obviously wanted us to do a "They fought, Tybalt died, it took five seconds," thing, but we drew it out to about ten minutes.
Give me a video on Timesplitters 2 or Goldeneye, or Perfect Dark for that matter. Games made by the masters, and IIRC all shared a sizable number of developers. Games that actually brought me something I'd never seen before. On consoles, Goldeneye was the first killer multiplayer FPS, Perfect Dark gave us the first decent bots, and TS2 took PD and added staggering amount of variety. Those games were the very definition of this "evolution" that Halo claims.
Since Halo is always billed as one of the BEST GAMES EVAR, could somebody please tell me what is better in Halo (XBox version) than in these games?
This is what I do, though I go a bit farther. I don't even have explorer.exe running. Alternate browser, productivity tools, file manager and shell. Windows? Yeah, well...barely. It's really quite nice. Since I started doing things this way a couple years ago I've never gotten any viruses, I've never had a reboot-requiring problem that couldn't be blamed solely on some other program doing something I didn't like. And I can still play all my games. Sure, just running the OS and vital services takes 100MB of RAM...but this is a gaming rig, it can deal.
I'm not sure about that. I have the extreme point of view here as a heavy, heavy gamer, so program compatibility issues affect me a lot -- easily enough to keep me from even considering switching to Linux as a primary OS in the next few years. Of course I realize that this shortcoming of Linux's ultimately isn't technical, but commercial -- a developer could make games for Linux if they felt it was profitable, but the market share is too insignificant.
Like I said, my viewpoint is extreme. But Linux has to somehow cross the barrier of whatever most companies percieve as a significant home user base. That, if it really exists in some vague form, is to be a crucial point in Linux's future on the desktop, unless the users want to throw away nearly all the resources the commerical software industy has to offer. And though, as you say, it is getting there, I feel that it's the kind of thing that shows diminishing returns, where each percentage point is harder than the last. It's building momentum now, I think, and though I am a dedicated Windows user I'd love to be a dedicated Linux user instead -- but I'm not sure how good the chances are of Linux becoming a mainstream desktop platform.
Right. Becuase when people steal all your stuff, it makes you so successful...
Winning and losing is not determined by number of consoles sold. It's determined by profit. Traditionally, the kind of user you're talking about, who buys the system and pirates the rest, is more likely to cost the company a few bucks than anything.
You know, it's strange. I've only been drunk once. Hated every second of it. I have this neurotic self-control thing...the moment I even begin to lose control of myself or my thoughts in any way, I freak out. The worst moment of my life was when I had the flu, and woke up with a very high fever and couldn't think straight. A few months later my girlfriend of three years broke up with me right before my best friend died. Still, the flu thing was worse. I even get agitated if I just stop thinking--this makes sleeping difficult.
Anyway, on top of all this I'm also a very violent person, with my aggression only just contained beneath a thin coat of civilization. So...long story short, I'm at a party. I drink a little. I feel different. This alone, just feeling differently than I normally do, makes me agitated. I drink more to get rid of it. Doesn't work. Get more agitated. Get violent. Get in fights. With sober girls. Eventually, I lose.
Your problem wasn't that you could read those textbooks, it's that you did and that you liked it. Being intelligent will keep a very few people from liking you. Being bookish, on the other hand, will keep many people from liking you. Plenty of people who think way above their age level still manage to be active socially. I read A Brief History of Time when I was in 4th grade, and probably understood it as well as I ever will. But at the same time i spent time with people, was never arrogant about how easily I understood things (this has now changed, I think...) and in social situations just had fun, not intellectual discussions.
Sounds to me like you wasted the carefree years of youth trying to be an adult.
You're kinda off, there. I'm almost inclined to believe that most of your own social interaction is with strangers, actually.
The only way to mess up a conversation is to OVERTHINK or OVERANALYZE it.
And there's the main fallacy. You think that, for example, people who talk too much when drunk are making a mess of things because they're thinking too hard?
It's true that people are less strict than computers. But that means they're less predictable. They are easily offended. And unlike an offended computer, their problems can't be solved with a quick reboot, and sometimes can't be solved at all.
I see it all the time, since I value honesty over all things and never hesitate to tell it like it is. Really, that's very similar to the way an antisocial person is likely to deal with people. I'm not willing to draw the line on the things I say, the antisocialite doesn't know where the line is supposed to go.
A friend has a Highlander katana...I'd expect it to be pretty cheap when compared to a LotR sword, or certainly anything like the Master Sword, just based on complexity.
Best thing about that katana, though...it looks nice, sure, but the thing is incredibly light and well-balanced. Holding it makes you want to USE it.
Of course, with such games one can always try some iron-man play. (In case it's unfamiliar, it means saving ONLY at the end of a playing session, and loading ONLY at the start of one. You die, you start over.) Still, the fact that you COULD reload if you wanted to somehow takes off a lot of pressure.
Multiplayer Crystal Chronicles WITHOUT the GBAs would be maddening. "Okay, guys, I need to switch items, get ready to pause!" "Oh, me too, so pause again right after!" Ugh. I would stab somebody so quick....if I didn't get stabbed first.
Slashdot Mirror
The answer to that one is most definitely both. D&D represents a vicious cycle into ultimate geek oblivion.
What about having Free games? Developed by hackers on the internet, with focus on gameplay and writing instead of millions of dollars worth of eye candy? Proprietry software, including games, hurts society. Please do not support it. Don't trade your Freedom for the convenience of playing a Proprietry game.
Right. Okay. Pick -- Linux runs propriety games, or Linux remains almost unknown on the desktop. There's no in-between. This is a discussion that is really about marketing, you must realize. Your Free games are irrelevant, unless these individuals that spend nothing on the game itself turn around and spend millions on advertising.
I really have to disagree with the statement about propriety games hurting society. It's just entertainment! It's like a movie. It's like a book. You don't get access to all the intricate processes that went into the final product (that's what code is), but you do get the final product.
It doesn't upset society (well, not more than open-source games would), it just upsets you.
Not true. I'm hardcore gamer. Really, I play at LEAST 6 hours a day, averaging well over 10. I sleep little. I play everything, too, and today have played 6 games, the oldest of which is Diablo 2.
And you're right about one thing -- I won't do onboard sound. My CPU cycles are too valuable. Past that, to me, sound-upgrading happens only after visuals are taken care of. By 'taken care of' I mean I can play any game for the next year or so smoothly, with the graphics settings all at low to medium settings. Then, I can do some sound.
The bottom line is that it is nowhere near as important, when you don't feel like spending gobs of money on it. In the last few months, I've had two games simply refuse to even load because the MX series doesn't support pixel shading 1.1. That's it -- no Prince of Persia or Deus Ex 2 for me. Not saying I would have liked these games, but I may never know. Splinter Cell 2 uses it, too...However, even with onboard sound, these games would have run fine with adequate video hardware.
You'd lose some quality. The sound would just be less accurate. Compare that to having older video hardware, when the game will be completely unplayable.
If you have an unlimited budget, you'll get everything, sure. But if not, video is far more important.
Feh, I use $10 headphones.
No. Unlike this, the Kessel Run can be explained in a way that makes sense.
Uh...no. You misread those numbers. GameCube recently caught up to XBox in the US, and XBox has been pretty much a complete failure in Japan, selling under a million units IIRC.
Another idea is not to make fast-paced FPS games, since that genre appears to be the only one where this comes up.
Excuse me? Ever hear of RTS map hacks? Of course, the reason those are possible is because there IS no server in most cases, the connection is client-to-client. There's no purely technical way to solve that one, either. Unless you consider the costs of server maintenance a 'technical' problem.
As for the emergent gameplay, I am impressed with the technical expertise that must have gone into it. Still, I think the effort was largely wasted due to some other problems -- mainly, the much-lamented repetative nature of the game in general. It's nice to have something crazy happen, but I don't want to have to move through dozens of identical areas hoping something will. And that problem applies even more when it comes to questions of replayability. I know this is a console game, I've noticed console games do, really, tend to be slightly more repetative than PC games (or maybe Half-Life just tips the balance and throws my perception all out of whack) but I got bored quickly playing Halo.
The vehicles were nice for a while. But if I wanted a destructive rally like you'd suggest, I'd probably go out and buy Twisted Metal. There's something about multiplayer that I find boring as well -- fun for a few minutes, but the same thing always ends up happening, and it's not really a fun thing. I again place the blame on level design, and possibly weapons. I say that because I'm thinking back to Goldeneye and what I loved about that. (Warning: If you don't know Goldeneye like the back of your hand, prepare to be a bit confused) I didn't like the temple, or the archives level; I liked the complex, I liked the facility. The varied levels. Halo doesn't seem to have things like that. If the same things did end up happening, there was something about the game, or the repetitive event that could keep them fun. For example, in the facility, 2v2 games would inevitably involve one team holing up in the long hallway with the body armor in the room at the end. I think the wide weapon selection kept that fun, as well as the better level design. Well, it doesn't seem wide now, but compared to Halo, there was a lot of variety.
I'm not saying that Halo is bad. But I AM saying that I would never choose to play it again. If I'm with some people, and they're playing it, fine. If there's a 16 player match set up in the CompSci room at my old high school and I can skip class and go there instead, well, hey, that's the first time I ever played. But as far as I'm concerned, there's always something more fun to play.
I'm really only bitter because everybody seems to love it so much, and gets far more respect than I think it deserves--often from people who, it seems, have never played another console FPS that actually deserves the respect (and sales figures) that Halo enjoys.
I guess I just love my favorites and care what happens to them.
"You're not getting it. The scorpions are symbolic--"
"--of the fizz! Kcht! Kcht Kcht!"
I was Romeo once too. But man, mine was way better, I got to kill Tybalt. We had wooden swords. The teacher obviously wanted us to do a "They fought, Tybalt died, it took five seconds," thing, but we drew it out to about ten minutes.
Good times.
Unfortunately, his work would still be stolen from the pens of giants that came long before him.
He probably would be doing things like, say, The Musketeer, or that Count of Monte Cristo movie, but doing them the way they should have been done.
Give me a video on Timesplitters 2 or Goldeneye, or Perfect Dark for that matter. Games made by the masters, and IIRC all shared a sizable number of developers. Games that actually brought me something I'd never seen before. On consoles, Goldeneye was the first killer multiplayer FPS, Perfect Dark gave us the first decent bots, and TS2 took PD and added staggering amount of variety. Those games were the very definition of this "evolution" that Halo claims.
Since Halo is always billed as one of the BEST GAMES EVAR, could somebody please tell me what is better in Halo (XBox version) than in these games?
LiteStep...the default theme, actually. Ultimately it's barely any different from explorer anyway, but I like it.
This is what I do, though I go a bit farther. I don't even have explorer.exe running. Alternate browser, productivity tools, file manager and shell. Windows? Yeah, well...barely. It's really quite nice. Since I started doing things this way a couple years ago I've never gotten any viruses, I've never had a reboot-requiring problem that couldn't be blamed solely on some other program doing something I didn't like. And I can still play all my games. Sure, just running the OS and vital services takes 100MB of RAM...but this is a gaming rig, it can deal.
The server keeps track, but the local machine has to know where everybody is. THat's all the parent said.
Yeah, that's true. Unfortunately, it also creates another problem. People then need to cheat to get higher rankings.
Still, I agree.
I'm not sure about that. I have the extreme point of view here as a heavy, heavy gamer, so program compatibility issues affect me a lot -- easily enough to keep me from even considering switching to Linux as a primary OS in the next few years. Of course I realize that this shortcoming of Linux's ultimately isn't technical, but commercial -- a developer could make games for Linux if they felt it was profitable, but the market share is too insignificant.
Like I said, my viewpoint is extreme. But Linux has to somehow cross the barrier of whatever most companies percieve as a significant home user base. That, if it really exists in some vague form, is to be a crucial point in Linux's future on the desktop, unless the users want to throw away nearly all the resources the commerical software industy has to offer. And though, as you say, it is getting there, I feel that it's the kind of thing that shows diminishing returns, where each percentage point is harder than the last. It's building momentum now, I think, and though I am a dedicated Windows user I'd love to be a dedicated Linux user instead -- but I'm not sure how good the chances are of Linux becoming a mainstream desktop platform.
And that wasn't at all what the parent was talking about. Congratulations, you've missed the point.
Right. Becuase when people steal all your stuff, it makes you so successful...
Winning and losing is not determined by number of consoles sold. It's determined by profit. Traditionally, the kind of user you're talking about, who buys the system and pirates the rest, is more likely to cost the company a few bucks than anything.
You know, it's strange. I've only been drunk once. Hated every second of it. I have this neurotic self-control thing...the moment I even begin to lose control of myself or my thoughts in any way, I freak out. The worst moment of my life was when I had the flu, and woke up with a very high fever and couldn't think straight. A few months later my girlfriend of three years broke up with me right before my best friend died. Still, the flu thing was worse. I even get agitated if I just stop thinking--this makes sleeping difficult.
Anyway, on top of all this I'm also a very violent person, with my aggression only just contained beneath a thin coat of civilization. So...long story short, I'm at a party. I drink a little. I feel different. This alone, just feeling differently than I normally do, makes me agitated. I drink more to get rid of it. Doesn't work. Get more agitated. Get violent. Get in fights. With sober girls. Eventually, I lose.
Oh, God, don't make me remember...
Look, I really mean no offense here...
Your problem wasn't that you could read those textbooks, it's that you did and that you liked it. Being intelligent will keep a very few people from liking you. Being bookish, on the other hand, will keep many people from liking you. Plenty of people who think way above their age level still manage to be active socially. I read A Brief History of Time when I was in 4th grade, and probably understood it as well as I ever will. But at the same time i spent time with people, was never arrogant about how easily I understood things (this has now changed, I think...) and in social situations just had fun, not intellectual discussions.
Sounds to me like you wasted the carefree years of youth trying to be an adult.
You're kinda off, there. I'm almost inclined to believe that most of your own social interaction is with strangers, actually.
The only way to mess up a conversation is to OVERTHINK or OVERANALYZE it.
And there's the main fallacy. You think that, for example, people who talk too much when drunk are making a mess of things because they're thinking too hard?
It's true that people are less strict than computers. But that means they're less predictable. They are easily offended. And unlike an offended computer, their problems can't be solved with a quick reboot, and sometimes can't be solved at all.
I see it all the time, since I value honesty over all things and never hesitate to tell it like it is. Really, that's very similar to the way an antisocial person is likely to deal with people. I'm not willing to draw the line on the things I say, the antisocialite doesn't know where the line is supposed to go.
A friend has a Highlander katana...I'd expect it to be pretty cheap when compared to a LotR sword, or certainly anything like the Master Sword, just based on complexity.
Best thing about that katana, though...it looks nice, sure, but the thing is incredibly light and well-balanced. Holding it makes you want to USE it.
There can be only one! *lop* *thud*
My idol is by definition right and more infailible than the Pope.
Oh, come on. My cat is more infallible than the Pope.
Of course, with such games one can always try some iron-man play. (In case it's unfamiliar, it means saving ONLY at the end of a playing session, and loading ONLY at the start of one. You die, you start over.) Still, the fact that you COULD reload if you wanted to somehow takes off a lot of pressure.
Multiplayer Crystal Chronicles WITHOUT the GBAs would be maddening. "Okay, guys, I need to switch items, get ready to pause!" "Oh, me too, so pause again right after!" Ugh. I would stab somebody so quick....if I didn't get stabbed first.