I think Babylon 5 is a good example of what you describe above.. most of the fans wanted J. Michael Straczynski to spin B5 off like they did to StarTrek but he too felt that it was better to end on a high note than to become similar to ST: Enterprise. TBH I think the SG1 team has just ran out of scripts and like you said, the Ori weren't really that spectacular.
I think you just need to see the review of 'new super mario bros' to see the 'state' of what platformers could be.... The sad truth of the matter is that 2D in general costs more due to animated frames and artists having to put their magical touch to the games.... but I dont believe they are dead, unpopular and crap as a whole.
Admittedly NSMB is partly 3D, but I believe that this game still shares the same foundations and roots as a 'true' platformer. I think developers these days just havent got it into their head that it doesnt matter how many more polygons at an object you cant add gameplay with pretty graphics.
That's ok... you're American -- its understandable.
wit aside, I find it quite sad that people do believe what you wrote.. I guess rather than the comment going over my head I just stereotyped you as the average american 'dont blame the parents sue the food industry' guy-in-a-van tree hugging kinda way.
>:)
(and yes I know you all aren't like that... but I couln't resist.
I don't entirely disagree with you here... but I do have to ask this question about the following quote:
"this is so true with something like food where eating one unhealthy meal is usually all it takes for a child to go screaming back to mommy and daddy for healthy food."
I just played it again earlier today actually... I was reminiscing over the Amiga days and a month or two before that I'd seen a monkey island 4 and thought it was for the PS2 only...
well.. I acquired all 4 for a few hours just to live the glory days and went through them sequentially missing the 3rd because I'd already played it to death. I played the first... brilliant but the graphics don't hold me now.
I played the second FANTASTIC !! again played to death and it was the text only version so I didn't last there very long...
I then decided to try out the 4th thinking I'd never played it before -- well actually in the beginning I thought it was the last one I played (the 3rd where you sink the pirates) -- the game starts with me having my hands tied behind a ships mast and a few objects round about me... no mouse ? I guess its because I had my hands tied up? innovative I thought - nice touch.
I plunder around the keystrokes before checking the keyconfig and sorting out my keys.... and then the painful memories come flooding back. Mouse ??? there is no mouse !! The game from the very beginning has been PS2 retarded and as I played further and further through the game it came to me that the game also was aimed at *&^$ded PS2 only gamers.
The very soul of the Scumm games was point and click.. using the arrow keys to cycle through plot objects was depressing and dam-right frustrating, eventually I gave up remembering I'd played it before, loaded 3 and sunk more pirates ! Lucas arts really did botch number 4 and I blame more the fact it was likely a PS2 game ported to PC rather than the other way around.
I still really love playing the scumm games on my pda (1 and 2 dont look so bad on the small screen)... maybe Ron Gilbert will get a break again on these small devices? I will buy another point and click adventure in an instant.... but I certainly wont if I need a console controller to play it !
hehe... since apple hardware has been 'commoditized' I'd compare it to a 'good' Dell with extra fluffy dice:P
x amount more to have apple put their name on memory x amount more to have a different processor.... oh wait scratch the different x amount more to buy the very same graphics card minus a bios flash.... x amount more for an apple branded DVD writer that usually performs poorer than cheaper higher spec platform independent hardware a few months after release -- just because?
x amount more for the appearance of the system... hmmm up until Dell bought Alienware I'd have said it was almost as good yet cheaper -- kudos to apple though because some of their innovations are pretty good (I still get kicks from the hover over power button and shear integration on my cube) x amount **less** for the operating system itself... in some ways Windows is more user friendly than OS X... but the eye-candy itself is pretty amazing..
I sound confused I know.... I have a modified cube that now uses dual third party cpu's and 5 top quality brand PC components (256mb 128bit geforce fanless 5600).. my other systems are all x86 based but I do love my cube and most of OS X... I kinda believe that some of the reasons Apple is so expensive to buy straight out is because the OS is heavily subsidized ? Apple always stated it was a 'hardware company' is this a stealth tax? Compared to windows I think that the value of OS X client and server is almost too good to be true.
If Apple had kept to using PowerPC architecture and SOMEHOW IBM had found a way to keep heat down on the cpu's then I'd probably have to agree with you 100% that you paid a premium for the price and what you got was far better than the beige box alternatives.
Those days are gone now though... I'm still contemplating buying a mac book pro when the new OS / hardware ships next quarter -- but I cant help feel that I'm buying a Dell. A Dell for a good bit more money but a good few reasons less to argue why apart from a little flag in OS X that by default says no when you try and install on a none apple system. Apple always had the name of being the Rolls Royce equivalent when it came down to build quality, with my cube I'd agree absolutely -- no wonder it was so bloody expensive. Alas, with the stories I keep hearing of overheating laptops, shoddily built G5 towers and multiple other horror stories about Apple hardware... I'm scared to buy an apple just in case I really do end up with the build quality of a Dell... or even worse a new Sony !
I really really really did love my 2nd hand ebay stock cube when I bought it... I loved it even more when I hacked the schitt out of it and turned the 8x8x10" jewel into a more than adequate multipurpose OS X server... why didnt I buy a mac mini people ask? hmmm lets see a 64mb graphics card to start with? no PPC architecture? intel cpu ? I admit I miss the gigabit network considering all my other computers are 10/100/1000 and I probably kinda miss the DDR.... I just wish so many years ago when the cube came out that I wasn't so naive... that I'd realised the cube was far superior to the PIII equivalent mhz due to the boat load of cache and inherent architecture...
I even love OS9.2 after hating every system up to 7.2 (when I left school) hmmm, I actually blame school for my bigotry against G3/G4's at the very least. I look back at classic now and think god, even it had features that only BeOS could compete with (Mac OS 9.2.2 came with my stock cube) and I was gobsmacked at how colourful and eye catching it was compared to OS's of the same era... although I have to admit again that I was usually stuck behind a b/w classic, occasional LC475 in the library and at the very most a loiteringly old Performa in the art dept. I'd actually like to see the 'classic' interface come back in an embedded platform... am I the only one?
I'd say that all Apple really has left is the operating system.. and the way things are going I'm thinki
maybe true... but his question was to the/. readers not joe six pack and the others that will buy sony because its PlayStation.. not because its a good console.
I've been kinda wondering myself... the consensus for me is that most of you will maybe buy a wii and possibly a 360 when/if they are cheap enough.
But I see few if not none of the Sony PS2 fan-boys out bashing the other consoles like they did the gamecube.
have they simply matured since the Sega Nintendo 'blood and gore' battles ? or are they themselves rather worried with the continual depressing news and comments about Sony's next generation console?
I had the exact same problem in the UK when I went to cancel my back up dial up account when I'd had adsl for a year or two.... they tried all sorts to keep me and then ended up becoming offended and all I'd said was that I didnt phone up to find out about their new software with anti-spyware detection (even though I'd already told them I beta tested it) didn't want to hear about their broadband offers... and sure as hell didn't want to fill their freaking survey... spent ages on the phone:-\ I'd never recommend aohell to anyone and I was a CSi rep for years.
then I went to cancel my other backup demon.net dial up account.... which went through fine no questions no stupidity.... I thought woah ! a company with a clue -- then they billed me another month and because I'd changed cc cards sent a letter threatening goons if I didn't pay. Eventually they gave me a 30 day discount on my now deactivated dial up account as a 'good will gesture'.... I'm just SO glad, I've never had to deal with British Telecom.
true I guess:-| EA does not listen to the programmers period. Its all about the bottom line and most of the better games in history broke the bank before they made the bank...
The next expansion appears to be a half assed attempt at getting more money from their current subscribers and/or tempting those bored with thier wow level 60's to come back for a few weeks..
With EA now taking over Mythic I can now imagine an online LOTR on smack with a model very similar to WoWs...
look forward to losing your rank if you have to go away, buying your abilities even though you had to grind for them and really really crap RvR ?
but you also get the flip side where the real gurus become stuck in their ways and/or wont touch a 3D workstation unless its SGi.
I wouldnt buy an xbox.... but then I'm a Nintendo fanboy and hate large conglomerates (sony, microsoft) trying to monopolize all the pies... but this guy with his lowly five years commercial experience could bring a new twist to the world where a guy with 20 years experience might have went stale 10 years ago.
I'm not trying to diss the experienced here at all... if an ex member of (the real) bullfrog wanted to develop games for my company then I'd be more likely to hire him than someone with less experience... but if the new guy impressed me more then why the hell not?
I've read the inq well for years... and they are very much a tabloid IT news site. What I have found however is that they don't follow the usual US PR crap and aren't afraid to post information that might get them sued ('think' apple ) That and the fact they have ears everywhere usually means there is some amount of truth in every story they post.
Slashdot Mirror
I think Babylon 5 is a good example of what you describe above.. most of the fans wanted J. Michael Straczynski to spin B5 off like they did to StarTrek but he too felt that it was better to end on a high note than to become similar to ST: Enterprise. TBH I think the SG1 team has just ran out of scripts and like you said, the Ori weren't really that spectacular.
I think you just need to see the review of 'new super mario bros' to see the 'state' of what platformers could be.... The sad truth of the matter is that 2D in general costs more due to animated frames and artists having to put their magical touch to the games.... but I dont believe they are dead, unpopular and crap as a whole.
http://uk.ds.ign.com/articles/705/705537p1.html
Admittedly NSMB is partly 3D, but I believe that this game still shares the same foundations and roots as a 'true' platformer. I think developers these days just havent got it into their head that it doesnt matter how many more polygons at an object you cant add gameplay with pretty graphics.
.... and in the process piss off all the cash wadded fanbois that did decide to buy a PS3 this time...
they are starting to sound like Sega.
My first reacton to that is -- atleast I'm willing to post opinions under my username..
what does that make you A/C? French ?
Irony? where? I thought we were talking about sarcasm.
That's ok... you're American -- its understandable.
wit aside, I find it quite sad that people do believe what you wrote.. I guess rather than the comment going over my head I just stereotyped you as the average american 'dont blame the parents sue the food industry' guy-in-a-van tree hugging kinda way.
>:)
(and yes I know you all aren't like that... but I couln't resist.
no offence but I wasn't the one originally bitching about spelling :P
/. do not speak English and that is just the Americans! And I'm talking about the perfectly 'literate' ones >:)
My point was who cares? the majority of
I don't entirely disagree with you here... but I do have to ask this question about the following quote:
"this is so true with something like food where eating one unhealthy meal is usually all it takes for a child to go screaming back to mommy and daddy for healthy food."
Why?
No offence .... but:
"You are quite over that limited,"
You can hardly talk can you?
games and office.... well and maybe native adobe support...
:(
if it weren't for those.......
hmmmmm
it wont matter if all the macs run xp will it ? :-Z
and if we are in the uk here ? just because its an american site doesnt mean everyone has to speak american :P
... try again "mum" ... once more "mummy"
repeat after me "mum"
got it ?
well done!
number 4 does suck btw... really really badly...
...
:P
I just played it again earlier today actually... I was reminiscing over the Amiga days and a month or two before that I'd seen a monkey island 4 and thought it was for the PS2 only...
well.. I acquired all 4 for a few hours just to live the glory days and went through them sequentially missing the 3rd because I'd already played it to death. I played the first... brilliant but the graphics don't hold me now.
I played the second FANTASTIC !! again played to death and it was the text only version so I didn't last there very long
I then decided to try out the 4th thinking I'd never played it before -- well actually in the beginning I thought it was the last one I played (the 3rd where you sink the pirates) -- the game starts with me having my hands tied behind a ships mast and a few objects round about me... no mouse ? I guess its because I had my hands tied up? innovative I thought - nice touch.
I plunder around the keystrokes before checking the keyconfig and sorting out my keys.... and then the painful memories come flooding back. Mouse ??? there is no mouse !! The game from the very beginning has been PS2 retarded and as I played further and further through the game it came to me that the game also was aimed at *&^$ded PS2 only gamers.
The very soul of the Scumm games was point and click.. using the arrow keys to cycle through plot objects was depressing and dam-right frustrating, eventually I gave up remembering I'd played it before, loaded 3 and sunk more pirates ! Lucas arts really did botch number 4 and I blame more the fact it was likely a PS2 game ported to PC rather than the other way around.
I still really love playing the scumm games on my pda (1 and 2 dont look so bad on the small screen)... maybe Ron Gilbert will get a break again on these small devices? I will buy another point and click adventure in an instant.... but I certainly wont if I need a console controller to play it !
I hope to god Lucas Arts are listening to this
thats funny.... every component that makes up the apple is made and can be bought from another manufacturer...
The apple hasnt been comoditized.... but every component inside has-- including the core duo.
The only difference between a beige box PC and an apple is a bit of sofftware that says no
When you quote wiki arent you worried people will call you inane for using such an unfounded source?
I'd never call myself an apple basher but you seriously have some issues with the truth.
hehe ... since apple hardware has been 'commoditized' I'd compare it to a 'good' Dell with extra fluffy dice :P
x amount more to have apple put their name on memory
x amount more to have a different processor.... oh wait scratch the different
x amount more to buy the very same graphics card minus a bios flash....
x amount more for an apple branded DVD writer that usually performs poorer than cheaper higher spec platform independent hardware a few months after release -- just because?
x amount more for the appearance of the system... hmmm up until Dell bought Alienware I'd have said it was almost as good yet cheaper -- kudos to apple though because some of their innovations are pretty good (I still get kicks from the hover over power button and shear integration on my cube)
x amount **less** for the operating system itself... in some ways Windows is more user friendly than OS X... but the eye-candy itself is pretty amazing..
I sound confused I know.... I have a modified cube that now uses dual third party cpu's and 5 top quality brand PC components (256mb 128bit geforce fanless 5600).. my other systems are all x86 based but I do love my cube and most of OS X... I kinda believe that some of the reasons Apple is so expensive to buy straight out is because the OS is heavily subsidized ? Apple always stated it was a 'hardware company' is this a stealth tax? Compared to windows I think that the value of OS X client and server is almost too good to be true.
If Apple had kept to using PowerPC architecture and SOMEHOW IBM had found a way to keep heat down on the cpu's then I'd probably have to agree with you 100% that you paid a premium for the price and what you got was far better than the beige box alternatives.
Those days are gone now though... I'm still contemplating buying a mac book pro when the new OS / hardware ships next quarter -- but I cant help feel that I'm buying a Dell. A Dell for a good bit more money but a good few reasons less to argue why apart from a little flag in OS X that by default says no when you try and install on a none apple system. Apple always had the name of being the Rolls Royce equivalent when it came down to build quality, with my cube I'd agree absolutely -- no wonder it was so bloody expensive. Alas, with the stories I keep hearing of overheating laptops, shoddily built G5 towers and multiple other horror stories about Apple hardware... I'm scared to buy an apple just in case I really do end up with the build quality of a Dell... or even worse a new Sony !
I really really really did love my 2nd hand ebay stock cube when I bought it... I loved it even more when I hacked the schitt out of it and turned the 8x8x10" jewel into a more than adequate multipurpose OS X server... why didnt I buy a mac mini people ask? hmmm lets see a 64mb graphics card to start with? no PPC architecture? intel cpu ? I admit I miss the gigabit network considering all my other computers are 10/100/1000 and I probably kinda miss the DDR.... I just wish so many years ago when the cube came out that I wasn't so naive... that I'd realised the cube was far superior to the PIII equivalent mhz due to the boat load of cache and inherent architecture...
I even love OS9.2 after hating every system up to 7.2 (when I left school) hmmm, I actually blame school for my bigotry against G3/G4's at the very least. I look back at classic now and think god, even it had features that only BeOS could compete with (Mac OS 9.2.2 came with my stock cube) and I was gobsmacked at how colourful and eye catching it was compared to OS's of the same era... although I have to admit again that I was usually stuck behind a b/w classic, occasional LC475 in the library and at the very most a loiteringly old Performa in the art dept. I'd actually like to see the 'classic' interface come back in an embedded platform... am I the only one?
I'd say that all Apple really has left is the operating system.. and the way things are going I'm thinki
maybe true... but his question was to the /. readers not joe six pack and the others that will buy sony because its PlayStation.. not because its a good console.
I've been kinda wondering myself... the consensus for me is that most of you will maybe buy a wii and possibly a 360 when/if they are cheap enough.
But I see few if not none of the Sony PS2 fan-boys out bashing the other consoles like they did the gamecube.
have they simply matured since the Sega Nintendo 'blood and gore' battles ? or are they themselves rather worried with the continual depressing news and comments about Sony's next generation console?
I had the exact same problem in the UK when I went to cancel my back up dial up account when I'd had adsl for a year or two.... they tried all sorts to keep me and then ended up becoming offended and all I'd said was that I didnt phone up to find out about their new software with anti-spyware detection (even though I'd already told them I beta tested it) didn't want to hear about their broadband offers... and sure as hell didn't want to fill their freaking survey... spent ages on the phone :-\ I'd never recommend aohell to anyone and I was a CSi rep for years.
.... I'm just SO glad, I've never had to deal with British Telecom.
then I went to cancel my other backup demon.net dial up account.... which went through fine no questions no stupidity.... I thought woah ! a company with a clue -- then they billed me another month and because I'd changed cc cards sent a letter threatening goons if I didn't pay. Eventually they gave me a 30 day discount on my now deactivated dial up account as a 'good will gesture'
true I guess :-| EA does not listen to the programmers period. Its all about the bottom line and most of the better games in history broke the bank before they made the bank...
The next expansion appears to be a half assed attempt at getting more money from their current subscribers and/or tempting those bored with thier wow level 60's to come back for a few weeks..
With EA now taking over Mythic I can now imagine an online LOTR on smack with a model very similar to WoWs...
look forward to losing your rank if you have to go away, buying your abilities even though you had to grind for them and really really crap RvR ?
all my luv out to MrsDuck !
mine is certainly one of them !
.... R.I.P
*cries* EA hasnt done almost anything right since acquiring bullfrog
heheh people were coming back in droves from WoW.... not so sure if that will stay the same now :P
Sir, if I had mod points... you would have some :-|
kudos !
yup I was hearing those consoles loud in my head there...
:)
Sony just keeps shooting itself in the foot.... too expensive, bad marketing and overly complicated to program for..
long live the big 'N' hehe
I do agree...
but you also get the flip side where the real gurus become stuck in their ways and/or wont touch a 3D workstation unless its SGi.
I wouldnt buy an xbox.... but then I'm a Nintendo fanboy and hate large conglomerates (sony, microsoft) trying to monopolize all the pies... but this guy with his lowly five years commercial experience could bring a new twist to the world where a guy with 20 years experience might have went stale 10 years ago.
I'm not trying to diss the experienced here at all... if an ex member of (the real) bullfrog wanted to develop games for my company then I'd be more likely to hire him than someone with less experience... but if the new guy impressed me more then why the hell not?
at the end of the day.... they shouldnt sell what they cant provide, no matter how much an average persons b/w goes up per year.
I've read the inq well for years... and they are very much a tabloid IT news site. What I have found however is that they don't follow the usual US PR crap and aren't afraid to post information that might get them sued ('think' apple ) That and the fact they have ears everywhere usually means there is some amount of truth in every story they post.
probably not since the American propaganda machine wasnt in full swing by the neo conservatives.... .... ewww I need to get this tinfoil hat exchanged