Generally speaking, I'm a fan of a more detailed scale when rating a game - like half-points, or a scale from 0-100 instead of 0-10 (or worse, 0-5). The reason for this is that I tend to judge games based on others like them, and some games have flaws that are present but don't seem worth a 10%+ degradation in score. But it's chiefly personal preference, and docking a game a half-point for reasons unknown is certainly not good journalism (if you failed to award full marks, say why).
But there's a tricky side to reviewing "living" games, like MMOGs - and that's the Release factor. What seems like it should go flawlessly the day before everything goes Live, might have a nasty surprise or two in store for them.
And while that's not the only complaint I have about WoW, it is the only one I would rate above minor class issues - the release has not gone as smoothly as I would have liked.
Technically speaking, that's a post-release concern, and those aren't usually talked about during pre-release reviews (how can you rate something that hasn't happened yet?). So I'm curious - does your review account for the minor glitches of the past week, or is it a "State of the Game on Release" sort of review?
Let me get this out of the way - I really, really enjoy WoW. I played in the first Stress Test up to ~25, I played in the Open Beta up to ~25, and I'm just reaching there now in Retail. What I have played of the game is damn near perfect.
But it's not *flawless* - and by rating something 10/10, you're basically saying that there is *no* room for improvement, and that *nothing* could be done better.
So far, the release has been a little shakey. Yeah, it has only just now been a week, but there has been significant problems for four of the servers, some lag issues, and some unexpected down times. Nothing really serious - it has been a pretty good launch - but nothing worthy of a *PERFECT* score.
It's definitely 9/10 material, 9.5 even, and I would highly recommend it to fans of Warcraft and the MMOG genre.
> The amount of piracy in proportion to the total installed base of consoles is so microscopic as to be negligible.(sp)
So how big of a problem does it have to be before people go after it? It's not *RIGHT* just because "only a few" people do it. You've also grossly understated the number of people involved in the illegal distribution of games, imo.
> PC devs might have a better argument, but again, this is what happens when you gouge the consumer - 80 bucks for HL 2 with CS source? No thanks, assholes.
$50 gets you HL2 and CS:S over Steam. That's $5 less than the retail box, which only gets you HL2. You want to rethink that argument, troll?
> perhaps you should do some research before posting.
The stuff I read said it was going to play movies, music, and mp3s - which I misinterpreted as DVDs and CDs.
This is why I included "if I understand correctly". I didn't; I was wrong, and it's too bad/. doesn't have a "-1, Wrong" moderation, because that's what the grandparent should have been moderated as.
But feel free to flame me some more for making a pretty easy mistake.
-lw
They're not targetted at the same audience
on
PSP Pricing Announced
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· Score: 1, Interesting
> It's looking more and more all the time like Nintendo's going to take this one.
...uh, right. If I understand correctly, the DS is going to be a cartridge based system that has backwards capability for GB/A games, as well as all the bells and whistles of two screens, the stylus, and wireless capabilities. Which is nice for current GBA owners, as they can pick this up and not "lose" anything, and play whatever new stuff comes along.
But it's still just a game system.
The PSP, on the other hand, is more. It's supposed to play DVDs, music cds, mp3s, etc, etc. It's more of a multi-purpose thing that also plays games, and is priced as such.
Let's have some names. Running a MMOG costs huge amounts of cash for hardware and bandwidth alone. I'm willing to bet that the so-called "Free MMORPGs" are in no way massively multiplayer or persistant.
Do you mean coal scrubbing? It doesn't eliminate the pollution, but it does cut down on it. Still, we're talking a basically nonexistant chance of a meltdown + small amounts of uranium VS. significant amounts of pollution.
Wind and solar energy accounted for less than 2% of our (USA) total power consumption from 2001. Our solar technology basically hasn't changed since the mid-70s - it's about 2% efficient. These are not technologies that we have significantly invested in, and the time to find an alternative is almost up.
Shortly put, we don't have any other options - unless there is a gigantic scientific blitz of research. Truth be told, the way we're heading I'll be surprised if we get *anything* accomplished before it's too late to roll out a solution.
> I say, nuclear power becomes a more viable option when you can tell me what to do with the waste it generates. And the answer has to be better than 'bury it'.
You basically have one of two choices to make in the coming (10ish) years: Nuclear or Coal. No other technology is at the point where it can be made ready to deploy when petroleum starts (~50+yrs, generous est.) to run out and gets really, really expensive.
So take your pick: the world has the technology to create Nuclear reactors whose byproducts are non-radioactive (simply depleted uranium).
The alternative is to pump thousands of tons of burning coal into the atmosphere.
With a mind for safety, Nuclear is *SAFE*. The same *CANNOT* be said of coal.
Absolutely, and your post proves it! It also goes to show that you were (almost from the get-go) able to jump right into Fallout's *game* and ignore the rules. Isn't that what a great RPG is about? Not having to be a rule-jockey, but immersing yourself in the story and/or gameplay?
What you experienced in Fallout is (more or less) the same sort of thing I experienced with Morrowind; I took a little bit of time to learn the character creation interface, and then picked some skills I thought sounded good. After about ten minutes (plowing through a nearby cave), I realized I wasn't having fun. So I dropped back out and built a character based on a concept that had worked for me in the past, instead of min/maxing everything. I found the resulting Khajiit Fighter/Thief to be one of the best characters I have ever had the pleasure of gaming with.
I had the misfortune of not picking up Fallout until a year or two ago; it took me months (literally!) to find a character concept I was comfortable with. I wasn't able to hit that same niche, because with only three tagged skills, it seemed a lot more important that I got those three skills (and two gifts) "right".
Having a useless major or minor skill in Morrowind doesn't seem fatal; there's five of each, one imperfection doesn't seem like that big of a deal. But when you're working with stats that can't be changed, 3 skills that can't be untagged, and 2 gifts that can't be given back, each one seems vital.
Eventually, I just got over it and thoroughly enjoyed the game. Sometimes, that's hard to do with RPGs - be they Fallout, Morrowind, or whatever. The rules can get in the way.
You're kidding, right? The SPECIAL system is a lot of things, but in no way is it simple and streamlined.
The vast majority of Fallout fans are worried about them making a *less* complex system than SPECIAL. The fact that you think it's less complex than Morrowind's character system just shows that you're very, very comfortable with SPECIAL.
> You are right, every single person who is playing an online game is running...
Have you ever muted or banned someone while playing on XBL? Or run into someone who wasn't using their mic? I'm sure you have, because every person I've spoken with has expressed similar experiences; not everyone is mature enough to be allowed mic access.
On the other hand, the majority of Battlefield servers also run Team Speak (and I believe UT2k4 has voice built into the game); I use XFire to know which of my friends are online and what they're playing, and it alerts me if one of them wishes me to join their game. And this does not require $5/mo.
> nowhere near as fun without... everyone using controllers.
This is personal preference. I find joypads immensely inferior for FPS and RTS games; most of the time, I'd just rather have my trackball and keyboard shortcuts (excepting in the case of driving and flying, where I tend to use a joystick or wheel).
Plus, with services like Team Speak, I get to be much more selective with people who I have to hear talk (White Listing instead of Black Listing). A clan can open up their channel for everyone on the server, or keep it for private use only.
> And we all know how well Sony itself manages online games.
Except that Sony isn't the bar which the Xbox should measure itself; internet connectivity is something *relatively* new to consoles, but PC users have enjoyed the benefits of this for over 10 years. XBL is definitely better than anything Sony or Nintendo offers (which is nothing), but it's still a flat tax on playing games online.
You might think it's worth it, but it's a bad concept to introduce into the industry - paying for the privilege of using tiny amounts of their resources, and then denying any optional recourse to the customer.
Ask yourself this: if the same (or very similar) services were available, for free, in direct competition to XBL, how many subscribers would there be?
> This is a whole network for crying out loud, not just a server browser.
So it's a: Server browser (free for every non XBL MP game, plus there are several free unified game browsers), friends list (AIM, XFire, all free), voice chat (roger wilco, teamspeak, all free), plus download (free for every non XBL MP game, patches for SP games, etc).
Note that implementations without banner ads exist for all of these. So you don't either pay for the service, or see the ads; you only pay for the service if you have the misfortune of being forced to pay for MP play on the XBox.
Don't kid yourself; you're being ripped off. You're not offered any choice in the matter - if you wish to play MP on the XBX, you *MUST* pay for XBL. If you wish to be allowed to download patches, you *MUST* subscribe to XBL. Again, these are basic services that no other platform requires a susbcription for.
Speaking as someone who owns PCs, PS2, GCN, and XBX, I am appalled that I have to shell out $60+NIC for (as an example) the privilege of paying an addition $5/song pack for DDR Ultramix ("the DDR mix with the fewest songs"). It's not a service, it's extortion.
> It's a SERVICE and last time I checked, you paid for those
Like AIM, All Seeing Eye, Xfire, being able to download patches & mods from the devs, publishers, or a third party site (Fileplanet)?
Oh wait, those are all FREE SERVICES. Great example with EQ btw - you can run AIM in-game, so you can see if your friends are playing AoM.
Because you, me, or anyone can download software development kits for programming languages like C, C++, Java, etc - and program them in our spare time to meet whatever demands we deem necessary - the PC remains as the more agile platform.
No matter how you want to try to spin it, you're paying for the privilege of playing online. Sony doesn't do that for their PS2. The only games that require that on the PC are MMOGs. What's MS' excuse for charge you, their customers, for a "service" everyone else in the industry is providing for free?
> The fees that people pay for Xbox Live help pay for the development of new content.
BS. This isn't the monthly fee for a MMOG - you're paying $5/mo. (however much) for the priviledge of playing multiplay on Microsoft's network, tiny amounts of bandwidth for downloads, and miniscule amounts of server space to host your player name.
Yeah, it's a cheap service, but you're paying for what every PC gamer gets for free.
> it doesn't detect my surround sound setup (sb live! with klipsch pro media 4.1's)
That's because it's not surround sound, it's quadraphonic. You'll notice that it tells you to check your setup in Windows - where you should be set up as 4 speakers. Surround sound includes a fifth speaker - a center channel.
Getting another 512mb of ram should help you; assuming you're playing games under w2k or wxp, you should have 1g of ram anyway.
Also, try to enjoy the intro - suspense needs a set up.
He didn't read the article. He just makes blind suppositions about the content of the because it's from a hardware enthusiast site.
Part of the beauty of these sites is that we can get information about how the hardware you and I have in our computers perform compared to what's available. They clearly demonstrate what framerate and image quality you're likely to get, compared to what different hardware is capable of.
Consider my situation. My computer is pretty current, though my video card is about a gen and a half behind the bleeding edge. I'm curious what sort of frame rate and IQ I can expect when my Doom 3 preorder arrives. I know that I'm probably going to be runnining in 10x7 with MQ - maybe HQ (they didn't benchmark my *exact* system).
That's fine. Sure, I could blow $600 on a top of the line video card to improve my framerate, but I don't consider it worth it for a card that will outperform 99% of the games I own.
Assuming Doom 3 is the game it's hyped to be, a year or two down the road I'll be able to come back and play this game in all the glory I could have spent $600 now to see. It's a matter of personal preference.
Hell, I've been doing that with System Shock 2 and Deus Ex for years. Each new video card yields at least one more playthrough, with higher graphics settings, more AA/AF, or whatever.
In regards to your situation of screwing someone out of perfectly good hardware, did it ever cross your mind to inform the gentleman that his hardware was perfectly acceptable, and that the Best Buy salesperson was just trying to make a buck?
In less polite terms, I hope I'm never mugged when you're around.
Are you now able to enter/exit vehicles, or are you still stuck as whatever you spawn? And have medics been added yet? One of my biggest problems was bleeding to death regardless of the seriousness of an injury, and being unable to ditch a badly damaged plane.
This is one of the reasons why I love BF1942, though it's quite a bit more of an action game than WWIIO's attempted sim.
> It really goes to show the almost paradoxical prudist warrior culture that permeates America today.
Where in the world do people come up with this stuff? Ever heard of a film called "Braveheart"? You may remember some scenes of violence in that movie. And what rating did it achieve? R, for "brutal medieval warfare". That doesn't pull any punches; that doesn't say word one about the sensuality between Wallace and Murron.
>...does it seem a bit weird that the ability to blow someone's head clean off is given a higher protection than showing someone's nipple? Which one is really worse in the long run?
That depends on how much you think seeing these things influences people. Would you rather deal with teenagers getting pregnant, STDs, AIDS-like epidemics, etc - or would you rather deal with murder, rape, riots, mobs, gangs, etc?
Seems like we have a lot of both to me.
Sex isn't love; desire is an emotion, just like anger. Either taken to an extreme can have unintended side effects.
Substitute some sort of exploitive pornography for "nipple", then ask yourself the same question again. Doesn't seem like children should be exposed to either one, does it? But, as you said, their parents need to be involved either way.
>...the people I'm trying to describe would dismiss [the GCN] as a "kiddy system", despite the vast range of genres and ESRB ratings across GC games.
These people just aren't thinking. They are unable to seperate the GCN from Nintendo's desire to make games enjoyable across all age groups.
All they see are the ratings of "flagship" titles: GCN: Super Mario Sunshine, LoZ:WW (Everyone) PS2: Grand Theft Auto 3/VC, MGS2 (Mature) XBX: Halo, KotOR (Mature, Teen)
Never mind that GCN has REmake, Eternal Darkness, and several ports of Mature titles. I'm not saying that the GCN is the ultimate system - arguably, the PS2 has the most exclusive, quality Mature titles (the majority of the Xbox's are ports). But a good game is a good game - and most of the people dismissing the GCN are loyal to one of Nintendo's competitiors instead of judging from gameplay experience.
> "Overfocus on hyper-realistic graphics and modeling, while not a bad idea in a general sort of way, can also impede quality of gameplay."
Gamers know this already; a game is not graphics alone. Without good gameplay to back it up, a good-looking game will still do rather poorly. And a game with relatively dated graphics can still do quite well with exceptional gameplay.
Wind Waker is a game for a certain type of person.
Not all of us who don't like the game blame it on cel-shading. I rather enjoyed XIII, and find Tales of Symphonia to be quite interesting.
But Wind Waker just wasn't my thing. I played it past the first island, and that was about it. I didn't enjoy the presentation; I don't mean graphics, I don't mean cel-shading, I mean that the presentation of the game didn't appeal to me.
As an example, I didn't think the little boy on the first island with the snot dripping out of his nose was cute or funny; I thought it was gross, and unneeded. And the "frenchman" you play the Battleship-esque "kill the squid" game with; while yeah, the whole "ka-booom!" thing was funny, I didn't find it charming or engaging.
I realize I'm in the minority; I also think The Adventures of Link were excellent, and that the series pinnacle was Link to the Past. I also enjoyed the sections of Ocarina of Time where you played Adult Link, but I feel the series has been going downhill starting with OoT.
That's fine; I'm okay with other people liking the game. Just don't claim that anyone who says otherwise is a 15 year old or of stunted intelligence.
> Morrowind on the PC (GOTY-edition) is probably the most buggy piece of software this side of Temple of Elemental Evil.
That's simply untrue. I have had absolutely ZERO problems with Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon. Have you applied official patches? Attempted to contact tech support?
Are you sure it's not your computer? Between myself and everyone I know who has played the game, we've experienced nothing like you describe.
ToEE, on the other hand, has bugs because its publisher REMOVED CONTENT during QA, and didn't allow Troika to fix the resulting fallout.
You want to complain about a piece of software, fine, but try to keep the grotesque hyperbole to a minimum.
> Do they really think that colombine was cause by doom, or because two kids were teased until they couldn't take it anymore?
They might really think it was a video game's fault - being able to blame an abstract concept, instead of a singular person or couple, is much easier. If a politician blames the *parents of bullies*, he finds himself on dubious ground with his constituents who (potentially) have bully children.
On the other hand, how many congress critters have to worry about a significant portion of their constituents being part of the gaming industry?
> unless the books and everything are official happenings in the SW universe, i'll shut up now.
There are three SW licenses. The "canon", which is reserved strictly for the movies.
Expanded Universe (or EU) is where almost all of the books and games takes place - all this stuff goes through and must be approved by Lucas / LucasArts. Check out the Star Wars Databank.
Finally, there's "Infinite Galaxies", which is what SWG and a select few other things fall under. Non-canon, non-EU, things that are IG don't actually occur in the SW timeline.
This is what frustrates myself and others about SWG. Since it isn't part of the Expanded Universe (as all other SW games are), they haven't stuck to the wealth of stories from the movies, books, and games - so, unlike playing through KotOR or Dark Forces, it doesn't have the same "feel" of a Star Wars game.
To us, it's just a generic MMOG with a SW skin. Which is frustrating to those of us who actually wanted a SW MMOG.
> SHOUT OUT TO ALL THE ONE-YEAR-OLD WOOKIES IN THE HOUSE!
For hardcore SW fans like myself, SWG represents a failure by SOE to include vital parts of the Star Wars universe, or indeed release a true SW MMOG.
I quoted the Wookie comment specifically because, for the time in which SWG takes place, the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk is blockaded by the Imperials. Wookies are a slave race, and the few Wookies who have escaped live in fear of being recaptured.
They don't wander about freely in Imperial cities, and there certainly isn't the hordes of them that you see in SWG. Why were they included? Because SOE had a poll, and they were the second most popular race.
There's also the whole failure of SOE to stick to the fundamentals of the Empire. The Empire is xenophobic - no aliens allowed (except in a few exceedingly rare cases). But SOE made it so that anyone of any race could join the Imperial Army.
They also removed the evil, oppresive edge the Empire had - so that there's no real reason for conflict. And that's a good thing, because the "PVP" they included is a joke at best.
SWG isn't so much a SW-themed MMOG as it a watered down pale immitation. That is why they fail.
Slashdot Mirror
Generally speaking, I'm a fan of a more detailed scale when rating a game - like half-points, or a scale from 0-100 instead of 0-10 (or worse, 0-5). The reason for this is that I tend to judge games based on others like them, and some games have flaws that are present but don't seem worth a 10%+ degradation in score. But it's chiefly personal preference, and docking a game a half-point for reasons unknown is certainly not good journalism (if you failed to award full marks, say why).
But there's a tricky side to reviewing "living" games, like MMOGs - and that's the Release factor. What seems like it should go flawlessly the day before everything goes Live, might have a nasty surprise or two in store for them.
And while that's not the only complaint I have about WoW, it is the only one I would rate above minor class issues - the release has not gone as smoothly as I would have liked.
Technically speaking, that's a post-release concern, and those aren't usually talked about during pre-release reviews (how can you rate something that hasn't happened yet?). So I'm curious - does your review account for the minor glitches of the past week, or is it a "State of the Game on Release" sort of review?
Thank you for replying.
-lw
Let me get this out of the way - I really, really enjoy WoW. I played in the first Stress Test up to ~25, I played in the Open Beta up to ~25, and I'm just reaching there now in Retail. What I have played of the game is damn near perfect.
But it's not *flawless* - and by rating something 10/10, you're basically saying that there is *no* room for improvement, and that *nothing* could be done better.
So far, the release has been a little shakey. Yeah, it has only just now been a week, but there has been significant problems for four of the servers, some lag issues, and some unexpected down times. Nothing really serious - it has been a pretty good launch - but nothing worthy of a *PERFECT* score.
It's definitely 9/10 material, 9.5 even, and I would highly recommend it to fans of Warcraft and the MMOG genre.
-lw
> The amount of piracy in proportion to the total installed base of consoles is so microscopic as to be negligible.(sp)
So how big of a problem does it have to be before people go after it? It's not *RIGHT* just because "only a few" people do it. You've also grossly understated the number of people involved in the illegal distribution of games, imo.
> PC devs might have a better argument, but again, this is what happens when you gouge the consumer - 80 bucks for HL 2 with CS source? No thanks, assholes.
$50 gets you HL2 and CS:S over Steam. That's $5 less than the retail box, which only gets you HL2. You want to rethink that argument, troll?
-lw
> if i understand correctly... (from grandparent)
/. doesn't have a "-1, Wrong" moderation, because that's what the grandparent should have been moderated as.
> perhaps you should do some research before posting.
The stuff I read said it was going to play movies, music, and mp3s - which I misinterpreted as DVDs and CDs.
This is why I included "if I understand correctly". I didn't; I was wrong, and it's too bad
But feel free to flame me some more for making a pretty easy mistake.
-lw
> It's looking more and more all the time like Nintendo's going to take this one.
...uh, right. If I understand correctly, the DS is going to be a cartridge based system that has backwards capability for GB/A games, as well as all the bells and whistles of two screens, the stylus, and wireless capabilities. Which is nice for current GBA owners, as they can pick this up and not "lose" anything, and play whatever new stuff comes along.
But it's still just a game system.
The PSP, on the other hand, is more. It's supposed to play DVDs, music cds, mp3s, etc, etc. It's more of a multi-purpose thing that also plays games, and is priced as such.
-lw
Let's have some names. Running a MMOG costs huge amounts of cash for hardware and bandwidth alone. I'm willing to bet that the so-called "Free MMORPGs" are in no way massively multiplayer or persistant.
---
Do you mean coal scrubbing? It doesn't eliminate the pollution, but it does cut down on it. Still, we're talking a basically nonexistant chance of a meltdown + small amounts of uranium VS. significant amounts of pollution.
Wind and solar energy accounted for less than 2% of our (USA) total power consumption from 2001. Our solar technology basically hasn't changed since the mid-70s - it's about 2% efficient. These are not technologies that we have significantly invested in, and the time to find an alternative is almost up.
Shortly put, we don't have any other options - unless there is a gigantic scientific blitz of research. Truth be told, the way we're heading I'll be surprised if we get *anything* accomplished before it's too late to roll out a solution.
-lw
> I say, nuclear power becomes a more viable option when you can tell me what to do with the waste it generates. And the answer has to be better than 'bury it'.
You basically have one of two choices to make in the coming (10ish) years: Nuclear or Coal. No other technology is at the point where it can be made ready to deploy when petroleum starts (~50+yrs, generous est.) to run out and gets really, really expensive.
So take your pick: the world has the technology to create Nuclear reactors whose byproducts are non-radioactive (simply depleted uranium).
The alternative is to pump thousands of tons of burning coal into the atmosphere.
With a mind for safety, Nuclear is *SAFE*. The same *CANNOT* be said of coal.
-lw
> Comfortable? Maybe...
Absolutely, and your post proves it! It also goes to show that you were (almost from the get-go) able to jump right into Fallout's *game* and ignore the rules. Isn't that what a great RPG is about? Not having to be a rule-jockey, but immersing yourself in the story and/or gameplay?
What you experienced in Fallout is (more or less) the same sort of thing I experienced with Morrowind; I took a little bit of time to learn the character creation interface, and then picked some skills I thought sounded good. After about ten minutes (plowing through a nearby cave), I realized I wasn't having fun. So I dropped back out and built a character based on a concept that had worked for me in the past, instead of min/maxing everything. I found the resulting Khajiit Fighter/Thief to be one of the best characters I have ever had the pleasure of gaming with.
I had the misfortune of not picking up Fallout until a year or two ago; it took me months (literally!) to find a character concept I was comfortable with. I wasn't able to hit that same niche, because with only three tagged skills, it seemed a lot more important that I got those three skills (and two gifts) "right".
Having a useless major or minor skill in Morrowind doesn't seem fatal; there's five of each, one imperfection doesn't seem like that big of a deal. But when you're working with stats that can't be changed, 3 skills that can't be untagged, and 2 gifts that can't be given back, each one seems vital.
Eventually, I just got over it and thoroughly enjoyed the game. Sometimes, that's hard to do with RPGs - be they Fallout, Morrowind, or whatever. The rules can get in the way.
-lw
You're kidding, right? The SPECIAL system is a lot of things, but in no way is it simple and streamlined.
The vast majority of Fallout fans are worried about them making a *less* complex system than SPECIAL. The fact that you think it's less complex than Morrowind's character system just shows that you're very, very comfortable with SPECIAL.
-lw
> You are right, every single person who is playing an online game is running ...
Have you ever muted or banned someone while playing on XBL? Or run into someone who wasn't using their mic? I'm sure you have, because every person I've spoken with has expressed similar experiences; not everyone is mature enough to be allowed mic access.
On the other hand, the majority of Battlefield servers also run Team Speak (and I believe UT2k4 has voice built into the game); I use XFire to know which of my friends are online and what they're playing, and it alerts me if one of them wishes me to join their game. And this does not require $5/mo.
> nowhere near as fun without... everyone using controllers.
This is personal preference. I find joypads immensely inferior for FPS and RTS games; most of the time, I'd just rather have my trackball and keyboard shortcuts (excepting in the case of driving and flying, where I tend to use a joystick or wheel).
Plus, with services like Team Speak, I get to be much more selective with people who I have to hear talk (White Listing instead of Black Listing). A clan can open up their channel for everyone on the server, or keep it for private use only.
> And we all know how well Sony itself manages online games.
Except that Sony isn't the bar which the Xbox should measure itself; internet connectivity is something *relatively* new to consoles, but PC users have enjoyed the benefits of this for over 10 years. XBL is definitely better than anything Sony or Nintendo offers (which is nothing), but it's still a flat tax on playing games online.
You might think it's worth it, but it's a bad concept to introduce into the industry - paying for the privilege of using tiny amounts of their resources, and then denying any optional recourse to the customer.
Ask yourself this: if the same (or very similar) services were available, for free, in direct competition to XBL, how many subscribers would there be?
-lw
> This is a whole network for crying out loud, not just a server browser.
So it's a: Server browser (free for every non XBL MP game, plus there are several free unified game browsers), friends list (AIM, XFire, all free), voice chat (roger wilco, teamspeak, all free), plus download (free for every non XBL MP game, patches for SP games, etc).
Note that implementations without banner ads exist for all of these. So you don't either pay for the service, or see the ads; you only pay for the service if you have the misfortune of being forced to pay for MP play on the XBox.
Don't kid yourself; you're being ripped off. You're not offered any choice in the matter - if you wish to play MP on the XBX, you *MUST* pay for XBL. If you wish to be allowed to download patches, you *MUST* subscribe to XBL. Again, these are basic services that no other platform requires a susbcription for.
Speaking as someone who owns PCs, PS2, GCN, and XBX, I am appalled that I have to shell out $60+NIC for (as an example) the privilege of paying an addition $5/song pack for DDR Ultramix ("the DDR mix with the fewest songs"). It's not a service, it's extortion.
-lw
> It's a SERVICE and last time I checked, you paid for those
Like AIM, All Seeing Eye, Xfire, being able to download patches & mods from the devs, publishers, or a third party site (Fileplanet)?
Oh wait, those are all FREE SERVICES. Great example with EQ btw - you can run AIM in-game, so you can see if your friends are playing AoM.
Because you, me, or anyone can download software development kits for programming languages like C, C++, Java, etc - and program them in our spare time to meet whatever demands we deem necessary - the PC remains as the more agile platform.
No matter how you want to try to spin it, you're paying for the privilege of playing online. Sony doesn't do that for their PS2. The only games that require that on the PC are MMOGs. What's MS' excuse for charge you, their customers, for a "service" everyone else in the industry is providing for free?
-lw
> The fees that people pay for Xbox Live help pay for the development of new content.
BS. This isn't the monthly fee for a MMOG - you're paying $5/mo. (however much) for the priviledge of playing multiplay on Microsoft's network, tiny amounts of bandwidth for downloads, and miniscule amounts of server space to host your player name.
Yeah, it's a cheap service, but you're paying for what every PC gamer gets for free.
-lw
> it doesn't detect my surround sound setup (sb live! with klipsch pro media 4.1's)
That's because it's not surround sound, it's quadraphonic. You'll notice that it tells you to check your setup in Windows - where you should be set up as 4 speakers. Surround sound includes a fifth speaker - a center channel.
Getting another 512mb of ram should help you; assuming you're playing games under w2k or wxp, you should have 1g of ram anyway.
Also, try to enjoy the intro - suspense needs a set up.
-lw
Parent: -1, Troll.
He didn't read the article. He just makes blind suppositions about the content of the because it's from a hardware enthusiast site.
Part of the beauty of these sites is that we can get information about how the hardware you and I have in our computers perform compared to what's available. They clearly demonstrate what framerate and image quality you're likely to get, compared to what different hardware is capable of.
Consider my situation. My computer is pretty current, though my video card is about a gen and a half behind the bleeding edge. I'm curious what sort of frame rate and IQ I can expect when my Doom 3 preorder arrives. I know that I'm probably going to be runnining in 10x7 with MQ - maybe HQ (they didn't benchmark my *exact* system).
That's fine. Sure, I could blow $600 on a top of the line video card to improve my framerate, but I don't consider it worth it for a card that will outperform 99% of the games I own.
Assuming Doom 3 is the game it's hyped to be, a year or two down the road I'll be able to come back and play this game in all the glory I could have spent $600 now to see. It's a matter of personal preference.
Hell, I've been doing that with System Shock 2 and Deus Ex for years. Each new video card yields at least one more playthrough, with higher graphics settings, more AA/AF, or whatever.
In regards to your situation of screwing someone out of perfectly good hardware, did it ever cross your mind to inform the gentleman that his hardware was perfectly acceptable, and that the Best Buy salesperson was just trying to make a buck?
In less polite terms, I hope I'm never mugged when you're around.
-lw
> Hop in a HE-111 bomber deep within Germany...
Are you now able to enter/exit vehicles, or are you still stuck as whatever you spawn? And have medics been added yet? One of my biggest problems was bleeding to death regardless of the seriousness of an injury, and being unable to ditch a badly damaged plane.
This is one of the reasons why I love BF1942, though it's quite a bit more of an action game than WWIIO's attempted sim.
-lw
> It really goes to show the almost paradoxical prudist warrior culture that permeates America today.
...does it seem a bit weird that the ability to blow someone's head clean off is given a higher protection than showing someone's nipple? Which one is really worse in the long run?
Where in the world do people come up with this stuff? Ever heard of a film called "Braveheart"? You may remember some scenes of violence in that movie. And what rating did it achieve? R, for "brutal medieval warfare". That doesn't pull any punches; that doesn't say word one about the sensuality between Wallace and Murron.
>
That depends on how much you think seeing these things influences people. Would you rather deal with teenagers getting pregnant, STDs, AIDS-like epidemics, etc - or would you rather deal with murder, rape, riots, mobs, gangs, etc?
Seems like we have a lot of both to me.
Sex isn't love; desire is an emotion, just like anger. Either taken to an extreme can have unintended side effects.
Substitute some sort of exploitive pornography for "nipple", then ask yourself the same question again. Doesn't seem like children should be exposed to either one, does it? But, as you said, their parents need to be involved either way.
-lw
> ...the people I'm trying to describe would dismiss [the GCN] as a "kiddy system", despite the vast range of genres and ESRB ratings across GC games.
These people just aren't thinking. They are unable to seperate the GCN from Nintendo's desire to make games enjoyable across all age groups.
All they see are the ratings of "flagship" titles:
GCN: Super Mario Sunshine, LoZ:WW (Everyone)
PS2: Grand Theft Auto 3/VC, MGS2 (Mature)
XBX: Halo, KotOR (Mature, Teen)
Never mind that GCN has REmake, Eternal Darkness, and several ports of Mature titles. I'm not saying that the GCN is the ultimate system - arguably, the PS2 has the most exclusive, quality Mature titles (the majority of the Xbox's are ports). But a good game is a good game - and most of the people dismissing the GCN are loyal to one of Nintendo's competitiors instead of judging from gameplay experience.
-lw
> "Overfocus on hyper-realistic graphics and modeling, while not a bad idea in a general sort of way, can also impede quality of gameplay."
Gamers know this already; a game is not graphics alone. Without good gameplay to back it up, a good-looking game will still do rather poorly. And a game with relatively dated graphics can still do quite well with exceptional gameplay.
-lw
Wind Waker is a game for a certain type of person.
Not all of us who don't like the game blame it on cel-shading. I rather enjoyed XIII, and find Tales of Symphonia to be quite interesting.
But Wind Waker just wasn't my thing. I played it past the first island, and that was about it. I didn't enjoy the presentation; I don't mean graphics, I don't mean cel-shading, I mean that the presentation of the game didn't appeal to me.
As an example, I didn't think the little boy on the first island with the snot dripping out of his nose was cute or funny; I thought it was gross, and unneeded. And the "frenchman" you play the Battleship-esque "kill the squid" game with; while yeah, the whole "ka-booom!" thing was funny, I didn't find it charming or engaging.
I realize I'm in the minority; I also think The Adventures of Link were excellent, and that the series pinnacle was Link to the Past. I also enjoyed the sections of Ocarina of Time where you played Adult Link, but I feel the series has been going downhill starting with OoT.
That's fine; I'm okay with other people liking the game. Just don't claim that anyone who says otherwise is a 15 year old or of stunted intelligence.
-lw
> Morrowind on the PC (GOTY-edition) is probably the most buggy piece of software this side of Temple of Elemental Evil.
That's simply untrue. I have had absolutely ZERO problems with Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon. Have you applied official patches? Attempted to contact tech support?
Are you sure it's not your computer? Between myself and everyone I know who has played the game, we've experienced nothing like you describe.
ToEE, on the other hand, has bugs because its publisher REMOVED CONTENT during QA, and didn't allow Troika to fix the resulting fallout.
You want to complain about a piece of software, fine, but try to keep the grotesque hyperbole to a minimum.
-lw
> Do they really think that colombine was cause by doom, or because two kids were teased until they couldn't take it anymore?
They might really think it was a video game's fault - being able to blame an abstract concept, instead of a singular person or couple, is much easier. If a politician blames the *parents of bullies*, he finds himself on dubious ground with his constituents who (potentially) have bully children.
On the other hand, how many congress critters have to worry about a significant portion of their constituents being part of the gaming industry?
-lw
> unless the books and everything are official happenings in the SW universe, i'll shut up now.
There are three SW licenses.
The "canon", which is reserved strictly for the movies.
Expanded Universe (or EU) is where almost all of the books and games takes place - all this stuff goes through and must be approved by Lucas / LucasArts. Check out the Star Wars Databank.
Finally, there's "Infinite Galaxies", which is what SWG and a select few other things fall under. Non-canon, non-EU, things that are IG don't actually occur in the SW timeline.
This is what frustrates myself and others about SWG. Since it isn't part of the Expanded Universe (as all other SW games are), they haven't stuck to the wealth of stories from the movies, books, and games - so, unlike playing through KotOR or Dark Forces, it doesn't have the same "feel" of a Star Wars game.
To us, it's just a generic MMOG with a SW skin. Which is frustrating to those of us who actually wanted a SW MMOG.
-lw
> SHOUT OUT TO ALL THE ONE-YEAR-OLD WOOKIES IN THE HOUSE!
For hardcore SW fans like myself, SWG represents a failure by SOE to include vital parts of the Star Wars universe, or indeed release a true SW MMOG.
I quoted the Wookie comment specifically because, for the time in which SWG takes place, the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk is blockaded by the Imperials. Wookies are a slave race, and the few Wookies who have escaped live in fear of being recaptured.
They don't wander about freely in Imperial cities, and there certainly isn't the hordes of them that you see in SWG. Why were they included? Because SOE had a poll, and they were the second most popular race.
There's also the whole failure of SOE to stick to the fundamentals of the Empire. The Empire is xenophobic - no aliens allowed (except in a few exceedingly rare cases). But SOE made it so that anyone of any race could join the Imperial Army.
They also removed the evil, oppresive edge the Empire had - so that there's no real reason for conflict. And that's a good thing, because the "PVP" they included is a joke at best.
SWG isn't so much a SW-themed MMOG as it a watered down pale immitation. That is why they fail.
-lw