I played the X-Wing series with mouse and keyboard actually, as did most of the people who were playing the series.
Joysticks are seldom if ever used in games these days (aside from Flight Simulators)
Gamepads seem to be replacing the niche once held by joysticks, and they cost about the same.
Re:It gives you something just as bad...
on
Review: Spore
·
· Score: 1
On the one hand, if it's an "official" firmware from the hardware vendor, then it seems reasonable -- this game has a dependency on rev x of the system, if you don't have it we'll get you there.
To answer your question, the games don't usually (at least that I've seen so far) actually require the firmware updates.
The firmware updates are inserted by Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft respectively in that sense they are "official" and not hacked together by third parties.
These updates seldom if ever are published to add new features, functionality or to fix bugs in the embedded operating systems.
It also has to do with the profit model for consoles though, sell the console at a loss or low profit margin, and continually reap royalties on the games sold. They have even more of a vested interest in enforcing DRM than PC game companies.
The best example is probably the Sony PSPs firmware updates, new functionality of dubious value is usually introduced with each firmware update. The games require a certain version of firmware to run, but not because of dependencies.
I think one analogy would be if software actually started requiring the use of the Trusted Platform Module in PCs, and the chipset manufacturers routinely updating the TPM to enforce DRM.
Update your firmware or no new software will function on your PC essentially.
Re:It gives you something just as bad...
on
Review: Spore
·
· Score: 1
He's the fundamental difference: on a console you put in the CD which is needed to authenticate that you have the disk, but it doesn't actually update the firmware of your system.
First off I hate DRM as much as the next guy here, and prefer not to buy games that use onerous DRM schemes. This thinking should also apply to consoles.
But have you owned a console recently? The disks _do_ in fact update your firmware once in awhile, and will not let you play a game unless you update it.
Additionally, "eFUSE technology is used in the Xenon CPU in the Xbox 360 game console. This fact has given rise to concerns that Microsoft could remotely deactivate Xbox 360 units over DRM or piracy issue" - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFUSE
But declaring Spore mediocre would be a HUGE courtesy, its not even decent, really. Graphically there are a few worse games, but that's not saying much.
The Stages the game take place over are all loosely hacked together, each being a sub par offering within its genre. I played through this piece of crap on the Normal Difficulty mode.
The Cellular stage is a sluggish action arcade game.The Land stage is a primitive RTS not even on par with the first Command and Conquer.
The Tribal Stage also a rudimentary RTS not worthy of any mentions.
The Civilization stage is an RTS with AI less sophisticated than the above two games, and a clunky and hastily pushed out building model.
The Space phase is a sub par implementation of the old Starflight / Star Control series of games. Shallow economy, lots of time sinking traveling and refueling, micromanagement and insipid missions.
Essentially the game is a pathetic RTS, built around the premise of your being able to design your units, but with no benefits real or perceived to doing so. To give you an idea of how truly insipid it was, I built the limit for the land vehicles for the civilization phase (7 tanks) sent them to attack an enemy city and went for a smoke break to come back to a win.
Well, the question is really one of ethics. If I get recruited with "we have the greatest child care in the world at X dollars", and a year later the X becomes X+1000, then I'd be thinking someone lied to me to the tune of $12,000 a year.
Quite obviously not many of Google's employees were using the service anyway (1% daycare spots based on the number of employees, that number should be around 10% realistically), and they still needed to heavily subsidize it. Someone can't do their math, what's bad for business in any case.
They could actually very easily lower the costs of this service..outsource to India!
But somehow I doubt the parents would go for it..
Someone can open a childcare center close by and do it for cheaper maybe? if its even worth their time?
2. Even if they wanted to, a lot of households NEED two incomes to make ends meet.
I'm sure what you meant was a lot of households NEED two incomes to maintain their HIGHER standards of living.
Btw, its been this way since the dawn of time when Urgg or Blaggah had more children cramming up their cave they were faced with a few difficult decisions, namely hunt and gather more, eat less, or well..infanticide.
Depending on their circumstances and their environment this was difficult to varying degrees.
At least we no longer have to resort to infanticide with birth control, family planning and more education, what's the excuse for having a family larger than you can afford to feed in the USA?
Having Children is a conscious choice and responsibility for the majority in this day and age, one you should not enter lightly into without being prepared to make sacrifices financially, temporally, in your career or otherwise.
Yes I do know I am making gross generalizations, but am not doing so with the express intent of trolling. I'm just trying to illustrate a point of view.
I don't think the human race is in any danger of extinction at present, and in fact we could probably do with everyone taking it easy for the next millennium or three.
I remember reading an article written by Hideo Kojima (of MGS fame) about whether he thought video games were art, and he said no.
He essentially said that he didn't believe video games were art as they offered an open ended experience where players can immerse themselves in order to form unique experiences.
And thus suddenly the reason every MGS game I've ever played seems to have an idiotic storyline has become apparent.
You detest solo play. Since a couple of games out there (EQ, AO, EVE come to mind) cater specifically to team gameplay, they are the only decent MMO games on the market.
The prime example of the most team oriented gameplay for any MMORPG we may ever see if Final Fantasy XI.
The only game so far where waiting for 3 - 6 hours to find a group of the ideal composition before you could even think about getting XP (Beastmaster aside) was the norm.
It actually got fairly obnoxious after awhile like you'd imagine it would.
XP penalties upon death up to the point of delevelling was great fun though. Never got enough of standing at the entrance to Valkurm Dunes and watch noobs delevel from trains =)
How about the rest of the advertised content--you know, the big pvp siege battles and all the other shit they typed?
Yeah really, that shit wasn't implemented till month 2, and was crashing the servers up to the point I left, around the start of month 4.
They were also furiously swinging the nerf bat, and ignoring classes that needed to be brought up to balance. (Necromancer, Dark Templar)
It was an AoE grinding game from 70 - 80 basically.
Casters basically blasted through the levels solo or even faster in 2 man groups. Tempest of Set and Priest of Mithra in particular. Necromancers pre-uber nerf were also levelling at awesome paces.
I played both games, and played AoC from launch to 80 Conqueror inside of month one. Granted this was fairly hardcore playing, the equivalent amount of time in WoW only got me to around 50, with about 50% of the content explored.
I had half a tier 1 set inside of 2 months, mostly from exploiting bosses, because they were so broken and out of balance (Honorguard Champion) that there was no way we could take him down in a remotely legit manner with a full raid.
WoW was definitely more tedious and grind intensive, but it also had significantly more content. Granted at launch it also experienced server instability (par for course, IMO) it had most of the systems and balance in place, sort of.
I quit quite awhile before BC was out, due to the sheer drudgery of assembling 40 men to go out and learn MC. (Llane Horde) The population just wasn't sufficient for that kind of bullshittery on my particular side of the server.
AoC wasn't even close to ready for launch, with many classes having ineffectual or downright useless skills.
Damage for combos wasn't scaling properly with level, so much so that a level 8 - 10 base skill was doing more damage than a skill received at 60.
Graphically it was gorgeous though, but seriously lacking in content and polish. A year more in development would have done it wonders, but WoTLK and WAR would have killed any potential audience I'm guessing.
to get Joe Public interested in politics? no, i'm really curious.
i'm 25 and my peers (in age) are more concerned with silly things than what really matters to the bigger picture. is there a way to get these people to see past the end of their noses?
Call the FBI and tell them said person is dealing in Afghan Hashish and let the rest sort itself out?
In my personal experience, I've had really good Red Snapper, and I've not so good Red Snapper. Was the difference because of the former factors, or because of the latter? Not having a raw sample and a DNA test, I couldn't tell you for sure.
This is part of the problem with American food culture versus that of Europe or Asia.
We purchase, prepare and serve our fish and meats whole in many cases, especially if the fish in question is of outstanding quality and/or freshness.
I can't imagine chefs, especially sushi chefs who did not know what they were serving, as opposed to were knowingly using cheaper fish to substitute for more expensive fish at the same price.
Patronize reputable Japanese restaurants and you _should_ be ok.
On a separate note, Japan has had its scandals in recent times where premium restaurants were caught red handed engaging in dodgy practices. Like re-using leftover food.
Sushi as most Americans perceive, the shaped rice platform with an ingredient on top is Nigiri Sushi.
Gunkan Sushi the rice platform, with a seaweed wrap around its circumference with loose or chopped ingredients on top. It keeps the Salmon roe, chopped scallops etc in place.
That said, if you can't tell the difference between raw Tilapia or Dory and Tuna in sashimi or sushi form, you shouldn't be wasting your money at dodgy sushi restaurants.
>How can I put Time Warner in their place? What data do I need to collect? Are there law firms I should contact with the data who would be likely to pursue a class action lawsuit? Paying to be abused like this is outrageous.
The only people who would gain anything substantial from this approach would be the lawyers. Your best bet is probably to just cancel your subscription and choose a less evil ISP.
I'm talking about pricing per GB of data transferred. Then, the heavy users can download as much as they want and the ISPs will love them for it.
Part of the problem with this approach is the light users will be paying less, and I suspect that overall it would be more profitable for ISPs to maintain their present subscription models.
They will always continue to oversell their lines, or throttle traffic regardless of what their subscription system looks like.
Its not like there's even any possibility for most if any of the user base to come close to the supposedly speeds they're always claiming to provide.
We don't allow children to compete at that level because it can prematurely DESTROY THEIR BODIES.
This is really no great mystery.
Not much of a stretch from your statement is that we allow anyone at all to participate in sports because it can destroy their bodies regardless of age.
As a former athlete with many friends who used to compete in track and field I can tell you that more than a coincidental number of them have developed knee problems after entering their 30s.
As an "Elder" Beta Tester, I personally don't see the big deal about their removing 4 classes, there are still 20 classes available. Though I admit I come from the side of the fence that is interested in WAR more because of Mythic Entertainment than the Warhammer Fantasy franchise.
The content I've seen so far in the closed beta ranks among the more complete I've seen in an MMORPG launch so far.
I was expecting the Open beta to last for at least a month, but many people who entered preorder codes were invited to closed beta shortly after registering their accounts.
I guess when you have more than 700,000 beta applicants you can get a lot of testing done in 7 days;P
Slashdot Mirror
I'm surprised no one else has mentioned the OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator yet.
Its essentially the same thing, but with a USB interface for PCs.
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/ocz_peripherals/nia-neural_impulse_actuator
Price is a little steep for a first gen product, but it has been quite widely reviewed and said to actually work.
My first experience with region locking was with the PS/2 (purchased in Japan and unable to run games from anywhere else). Never again. Never.
What a stupid idea. Stupid!
I can't buy my wife most video players for sale in the US for the same reason.
Ironically of the present generation of consoles, only the Sony PS3 is region free. By virtue of running on Bluray disks.
I guess the PSP and NDS are also region free if you want to count hand helds.
I played the X-Wing series with mouse and keyboard actually, as did most of the people who were playing the series.
Joysticks are seldom if ever used in games these days (aside from Flight Simulators)
Gamepads seem to be replacing the niche once held by joysticks, and they cost about the same.
To answer your question, the games don't usually (at least that I've seen so far) actually require the firmware updates.
The firmware updates are inserted by Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft respectively in that sense they are "official" and not hacked together by third parties.
These updates seldom if ever are published to add new features, functionality or to fix bugs in the embedded operating systems.
It also has to do with the profit model for consoles though, sell the console at a loss or low profit margin, and continually reap royalties on the games sold. They have even more of a vested interest in enforcing DRM than PC game companies.
The best example is probably the Sony PSPs firmware updates, new functionality of dubious value is usually introduced with each firmware update. The games require a certain version of firmware to run, but not because of dependencies.
I think one analogy would be if software actually started requiring the use of the Trusted Platform Module in PCs, and the chipset manufacturers routinely updating the TPM to enforce DRM.
Update your firmware or no new software will function on your PC essentially.
First off I hate DRM as much as the next guy here, and prefer not to buy games that use onerous DRM schemes. This thinking should also apply to consoles.
But have you owned a console recently? The disks _do_ in fact update your firmware once in awhile, and will not let you play a game unless you update it.
Additionally, "eFUSE technology is used in the Xenon CPU in the Xbox 360 game console. This fact has given rise to concerns that Microsoft could remotely deactivate Xbox 360 units over DRM or piracy issue" - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFUSE
I concur largely with your review.
But declaring Spore mediocre would be a HUGE courtesy, its not even decent, really. Graphically there are a few worse games, but that's not saying much.
The Stages the game take place over are all loosely hacked together, each being a sub par offering within its genre. I played through this piece of crap on the Normal Difficulty mode.
The Cellular stage is a sluggish action arcade game.The Land stage is a primitive RTS not even on par with the first Command and Conquer.
The Tribal Stage also a rudimentary RTS not worthy of any mentions.
The Civilization stage is an RTS with AI less sophisticated than the above two games, and a clunky and hastily pushed out building model.
The Space phase is a sub par implementation of the old Starflight / Star Control series of games. Shallow economy, lots of time sinking traveling and refueling, micromanagement and insipid missions.
Essentially the game is a pathetic RTS, built around the premise of your being able to design your units, but with no benefits real or perceived to doing so. To give you an idea of how truly insipid it was, I built the limit for the land vehicles for the civilization phase (7 tanks) sent them to attack an enemy city and went for a smoke break to come back to a win.
In short, go play Sins of a Solar Empire instead.
That would have been the Gigabyte I-Ram
I too fall under the exception category. I played WoW and farmed/raided for items to gear up to experience more content.
e-penis enlargement as far as I was concerned was just a by product of the exercise.
Well, the question is really one of ethics. If I get recruited with "we have the greatest child care in the world at X dollars", and a year later the X becomes X+1000, then I'd be thinking someone lied to me to the tune of $12,000 a year.
Quite obviously not many of Google's employees were using the service anyway (1% daycare spots based on the number of employees, that number should be around 10% realistically), and they still needed to heavily subsidize it. Someone can't do their math, what's bad for business in any case.
They could actually very easily lower the costs of this service..outsource to India!
But somehow I doubt the parents would go for it..
Someone can open a childcare center close by and do it for cheaper maybe? if its even worth their time?
2. Even if they wanted to, a lot of households NEED two incomes to make ends meet.
I'm sure what you meant was a lot of households NEED two incomes to maintain their HIGHER standards of living.
Btw, its been this way since the dawn of time when Urgg or Blaggah had more children cramming up their cave they were faced with a few difficult decisions, namely hunt and gather more, eat less, or well..infanticide.
Depending on their circumstances and their environment this was difficult to varying degrees.
At least we no longer have to resort to infanticide with birth control, family planning and more education, what's the excuse for having a family larger than you can afford to feed in the USA?
Having Children is a conscious choice and responsibility for the majority in this day and age, one you should not enter lightly into without being prepared to make sacrifices financially, temporally, in your career or otherwise.
Yes I do know I am making gross generalizations, but am not doing so with the express intent of trolling. I'm just trying to illustrate a point of view.
I don't think the human race is in any danger of extinction at present, and in fact we could probably do with everyone taking it easy for the next millennium or three.
I remember reading an article written by Hideo Kojima (of MGS fame) about whether he thought video games were art, and he said no.
He essentially said that he didn't believe video games were art as they offered an open ended experience where players can immerse themselves in order to form unique experiences.
And thus suddenly the reason every MGS game I've ever played seems to have an idiotic storyline has become apparent.
1) Send Overlords to scout for enemy bases.
2) Crank out Zerglings as fast as you can.
3) ???
4) Profit!
You detest solo play. Since a couple of games out there (EQ, AO, EVE come to mind) cater specifically to team gameplay, they are the only decent MMO games on the market.
The prime example of the most team oriented gameplay for any MMORPG we may ever see if Final Fantasy XI.
The only game so far where waiting for 3 - 6 hours to find a group of the ideal composition before you could even think about getting XP (Beastmaster aside) was the norm.
It actually got fairly obnoxious after awhile like you'd imagine it would.
XP penalties upon death up to the point of delevelling was great fun though. Never got enough of standing at the entrance to Valkurm Dunes and watch noobs delevel from trains =)
How about the rest of the advertised content--you know, the big pvp siege battles and all the other shit they typed?
Yeah really, that shit wasn't implemented till month 2, and was crashing the servers up to the point I left, around the start of month 4.
They were also furiously swinging the nerf bat, and ignoring classes that needed to be brought up to balance. (Necromancer, Dark Templar)
It was an AoE grinding game from 70 - 80 basically.
Casters basically blasted through the levels solo or even faster in 2 man groups. Tempest of Set and Priest of Mithra in particular. Necromancers pre-uber nerf were also levelling at awesome paces.
I played both games, and played AoC from launch to 80 Conqueror inside of month one. Granted this was fairly hardcore playing, the equivalent amount of time in WoW only got me to around 50, with about 50% of the content explored.
I had half a tier 1 set inside of 2 months, mostly from exploiting bosses, because they were so broken and out of balance (Honorguard Champion) that there was no way we could take him down in a remotely legit manner with a full raid.
WoW was definitely more tedious and grind intensive, but it also had significantly more content. Granted at launch it also experienced server instability (par for course, IMO) it had most of the systems and balance in place, sort of.
I quit quite awhile before BC was out, due to the sheer drudgery of assembling 40 men to go out and learn MC. (Llane Horde) The population just wasn't sufficient for that kind of bullshittery on my particular side of the server.
AoC wasn't even close to ready for launch, with many classes having ineffectual or downright useless skills.
Damage for combos wasn't scaling properly with level, so much so that a level 8 - 10 base skill was doing more damage than a skill received at 60.
Graphically it was gorgeous though, but seriously lacking in content and polish. A year more in development would have done it wonders, but WoTLK and WAR would have killed any potential audience I'm guessing.
to get Joe Public interested in politics? no, i'm really curious.
i'm 25 and my peers (in age) are more concerned with silly things than what really matters to the bigger picture. is there a way to get these people to see past the end of their noses?
Call the FBI and tell them said person is dealing in Afghan Hashish and let the rest sort itself out?
Maybe it's a bit past the sell by date.
Or maybe it's not Red Snapper.
In my personal experience, I've had really good Red Snapper, and I've not so good Red Snapper. Was the difference because of the former factors, or because of the latter? Not having a raw sample and a DNA test, I couldn't tell you for sure.
This is part of the problem with American food culture versus that of Europe or Asia.
We purchase, prepare and serve our fish and meats whole in many cases, especially if the fish in question is of outstanding quality and/or freshness.
I can't imagine chefs, especially sushi chefs who did not know what they were serving, as opposed to were knowingly using cheaper fish to substitute for more expensive fish at the same price.
Patronize reputable Japanese restaurants and you _should_ be ok.
On a separate note, Japan has had its scandals in recent times where premium restaurants were caught red handed engaging in dodgy practices. Like re-using leftover food.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080529a5.html
Sushi as most Americans perceive, the shaped rice platform with an ingredient on top is Nigiri Sushi.
Gunkan Sushi the rice platform, with a seaweed wrap around its circumference with loose or chopped ingredients on top. It keeps the Salmon roe, chopped scallops etc in place.
That said, if you can't tell the difference between raw Tilapia or Dory and Tuna in sashimi or sushi form, you shouldn't be wasting your money at dodgy sushi restaurants.
>How can I put Time Warner in their place? What data do I need to collect? Are there law firms I should contact with the data who would be likely to pursue a class action lawsuit? Paying to be abused like this is outrageous.
The only people who would gain anything substantial from this approach would be the lawyers. Your best bet is probably to just cancel your subscription and choose a less evil ISP.
I'm talking about pricing per GB of data transferred. Then, the heavy users can download as much as they want and the ISPs will love them for it.
Part of the problem with this approach is the light users will be paying less, and I suspect that overall it would be more profitable for ISPs to maintain their present subscription models.
They will always continue to oversell their lines, or throttle traffic regardless of what their subscription system looks like.
Its not like there's even any possibility for most if any of the user base to come close to the supposedly speeds they're always claiming to provide.
We don't allow children to compete at that level because it can prematurely DESTROY THEIR BODIES.
This is really no great mystery.
Not much of a stretch from your statement is that we allow anyone at all to participate in sports because it can destroy their bodies regardless of age.
As a former athlete with many friends who used to compete in track and field I can tell you that more than a coincidental number of them have developed knee problems after entering their 30s.
Seriously, I've seen the pictures. How can it be water boarding when there's no board?
The board in Waterboarding is what the person is strapped onto.
"Players can get into the North American open beta by pre-ordering Warhammer Online from select retail partners."
How can it be called an "open beta" when you have to basically purchase the game?
When over 700,000 people apply for all stages of your beta?
Auction houses were/are not in game yet, and there is not much of a crafting system to speak of (yet?)
As an "Elder" Beta Tester, I personally don't see the big deal about their removing 4 classes, there are still 20 classes available. Though I admit I come from the side of the fence that is interested in WAR more because of Mythic Entertainment than the Warhammer Fantasy franchise.
The content I've seen so far in the closed beta ranks among the more complete I've seen in an MMORPG launch so far.
I was expecting the Open beta to last for at least a month, but many people who entered preorder codes were invited to closed beta shortly after registering their accounts.
I guess when you have more than 700,000 beta applicants you can get a lot of testing done in 7 days ;P