As to why everyone is so up-in-arms about Nintendo not having an online component at launch, I guess YOU'LL have to explain that.
It does not say there will be no online component at launch. The article says that 3rd party companies will not have access to the online code at launch. The first party games, arguably the most popular (Zelda, Metroid, Red Steel, etc...) will all have the possibility of being online on launch day.
Plus it says no 3rd party online access until next year. The Wii is expected to release near the end of Sept. or in Oct. That's all of 2-3 months before "next year" hits, so it could be a very short wait indeed.
Exotic High Risk Projects?
Clearly you are NOT American, because it is very obvious to any outsider looking in that the USA will no tolerate any reasonable level of risk at all
Your assumption that government represents every single one of its citizens accurately is incorrect.
Case in point; I am an American and I would love to see NASA take on some "exotic high risk projects". We're exploring space, it's going to be dangerous, and I wish more of us (Americans) would accept the fact that some loss is going to occur.
The fact that the government listens to the whiney few who can't tolerate an astronaut with a sprained ankle in no way means someone is "NOT American" because they would like to see the agency that's exploring outer space accept a certain level of risk... or heck, even embrace it.
And wouldn't the 1-dimensional surface of a ball be a circle?
A circle requires 2 dimensions to exist (depending on the medium perhaps*).
A 1-dimensional surface of a ball, or of anything for that matter, is simply a line.
* - String theory posits that the smallest building blocks that all matter is made from are 1-dimensional loops of vibrating string. A 1-dimensional loop doesn't make a whole lot of sense, unless you consider that maybe the spatial dimension it exists in is folded into itself.
Nintendo's Wii controller requires you to setup two sensors on the side of your TV which I don't care for.
I believe it's actually just a single sensor bar, long and flat, which you lay on top of your TV, or somewhere near there. It contains the two sensors in the ends of the bar so they always stay in the proper relation to each other. A picture can be seen here (bottom picture): http://wii.nintendo.com/hardware.html
...a normal controller that I already enjoy as opposed to a remote shape that I'm concerned about when playing normal games, especially using the virtual console.
When using the virtual console for original NES games you will turn the controller counter-clockwise 90 degrees which will place the directional crosshairs under you left thumb, and an A and B button under your right thumb (see pictures at link below). For Super NES and beyond you will use the Classic controller shell which is basically a combination of all the controllers from Super NES on up. You can see a picture and read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_Remote#Classic_Co ntroller
...there are projects out there that something like VB is the best answer for.
I'd like to think my major project at my current company is an example of this, but being the only programmer here, it is harder for me to tell. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can tell me if I made the right choice doing the project with VB6?
It's basically a big client info database. The program itself, including all 34 forms, is roughly 55k lines of code by last count. The program consists of one main MDI form with 8 forms nested within. The first form contains 7 tabs of pure, data entry fun. Hundreds of fields of info that a user can fill out and save. The rest is basically more data entry, and a reporting section that uses crystal reports to give the user info about what he has entered.
I think given the intensive number of forms, fields and buttons, and the fact that it was all written and maintained soley by me, justifies the use of Visual Basic 6. I looked into some other languages, but the requirement to specifiy every button position, every button label position, etc... means I could have done it alone, but it probably would have taken twice as long to code.
Almost all the doom and gloom proposed in the summary is solved by the Wii. Did the writer honestly not know:
Pointlesswasteoftime has been tracking what is looking like a Hindenburg voyage for console gaming, with HDTV playing the role of Hydrogen. > That bodes well for the console that does not care about HDTV and will work great on any screen.
And when gaming comes back, it will hopefully be different and innovative and based on something other than eye candy and the shock value of blood and guts and hookers. > Pretty much exactly what the Nintendo executives have been saying for months now. Instead of going the "small improvement in graphics" route they redesigned the UI. From the reports I've read it is quite innovative to use.
Hopefully it will allow for creativity from the players, and room for small, independent game makers to create content. > Nintendo's online service could possibly be used to download 3rd party games, and indie developers should love the freedom of creativity a motion-sensing controller allows, while the dev kits are easy to use, cheap, well-established (from the time of Game Cube) and no HD visuals means they don't need a warehouse of artists designing highly detailed textures.
Hopefully it will be something every working person can afford. > The highest I can imagine this will come out at is $250. At best I'd guess $200. Considered by itself that is still a decent chuck of change for a stand-alone game player, if playing games isn't that important to you (I've heard rumors people like that are out there), but when put next to the other 2 game playing options it looks like a steal.
I hope the interesting change refers to having that character and not the grappling hook part. (-cough-Link-cough-Samus-cough-)
That's true both of those characters have something similar, but in both of those cases it was used as that characters grab move, which all characters have in one form or another, and had a very short range.
For the Bionic Commando character I was thinking of it working more along the lines of how it was used in the game he's from. A full 20-30 feet of grappling hook would shoot out and latch onto any platforms it hits, and he could then pull himself across the screen, or up onto a high ledge with it. That is what would add an interesting dynamic to SSB.
In a nod to the availability of some of the old Genesis games being offered through the Virtual Console, I'd like to see one of the character from Altered Beast added as a playable character. The transformation dynamic (though used before) could make for some interesting gameplay.
It could also be fun to add the main character from Bionic Commando. His grappling hook could latch onto the various platforms and would make for an interesting twist on things.
The black mage from Final Fantasy III could be fun with his little pointy hat.
Or how about Glass Joe from Punch Out?
Haven't seen Earthworm Jim around lately...
Ultimately, I think I'd like to go out and kick some ass as a Pikmin.
This seems like a good idea. I've always wondered why AI researchers want to try making AI that begins its existance near the level of an adult, with an understanding of language, "commons sense", etc... I understand it in that language recognition is an important piece of the AI puzzle, but researchers who want to make a "human-like" robot seem to aim too high.
Even the human brain, extremely advanced compared to where we're at in the creation of intelligence, starts out nearly helpless and takes years to learn the basics. We can try to skip all that, and program our prior knowledge in, but we're most definitely going to miss some realtionships and other important sub-concious features of the way ideas and concepts are linked in our brains, and the end result is just not going to be as robust as an instance where the "brain" learned for itself and made its own connections in its own way as it learned the concepts.
They aren't talking about any D&D rules that I'm aware of...and I play 3.5e on a weekly basis.
Seriously? I play 3.5 and these are all rules as can be found in the SRD. You may want to look into some of them as they could be a great boon to your chatacter.
...it is the first comment in the thread that makes no sense. a miss chance is a miss chance.
The post I replied to stated that the 20% miss chance provided by the cloak of evasion does not work against constructs or undead. I was simply saying that "Miss chance is miss chance no matter what you are" and so the fact that they are undead or constructs does not make any difference, they are still subject to the same chance to miss as anything else. Does that not make sense?
That's either funny in a very juvenile sense, or quite the oxymoron, I can't decide which...:)
But seriously, I fully agree... this round of the console wars is proving to be very exciting, (with the exception of Xbox360, which has not impressed me at all).
If Nintendo can pull off an incredibly accurate motion-tracking system, and game developers can get creative enough with it, I think we'll truly see a home gaming Revolution.
I haven't seen anyone mention Warhammer Online yet, but it's the one on the list I am most looking forward to. It's made by the same people who made Dark Age of Camelot, which featured such things as Realm vs. Realm combat, and Warhammer Online will be heavily focused on player versus player action.
One of the best ways to keep an MMOG interesting is to utilize the best AI you can for the game, another human opponent. I play WoW, and while there is limited PvP through their Battlegrounds system, most of the action at the level cap is raiding. You fight through the same dungeons, with the same monsters and the same bosses, and once you learn it that raid instance is on "farm status". This becomes boring quickly as the encounters never change.
Some of the previews I've read about Warhammer Online said you can progress through the entire game solely through PvP based quests against real human opponents. You can choose to do some side quests, gathering supplies and the like, but you do not have to. I imagine the end game "raids" for this game would be storming another factions castle, full of human players of the opposing side, and would certainly prove to be different every time.
Yeah, but it doesn't work against constructs or undead, which is why I'll take my epic level cloak of elvenkind any day of the week.
Miss chance is miss chance no matter what you are and is only negated by something like True Seeing. Perhaps you're thinking of critical hits and sneak attacks, which do not apply to constructs or undead.
How do we win over the PS and Xbox fanboys now?
on
Both Sides of Wii
·
· Score: 1
I'm sure the negative buzz about the new name will die down over time, but I can still picture my Playstation obsessed cousin's reaction when I try to tell him how much I "love my Wii" and how he should "play with it and get a feel for how it handles".
I think it's really going to be hard for a lot of younger Americans to seriously consider this console now. Image is more important here than it should be, and I think a lot of kids still in school won't get one of these simply to avoid being beaten up for "playing with their Wii all night".
The "mature" jr. high and high schoolers are all going to get an Xbox because Xbox already has a reputation as the "mature" console. The new name "Wii" is only going to further cement this misconception and cut into Nintendo's sales.
A product with an accronym in its name has a harder time endeering itself
But that can't be right... Who doesn't love diving with their SCUBA gear? And how cool are LASERs? There wouldn't be a CD-ROM in every computer without them.
The article didn't say much of anything about what platforms the games would apear on for E3.. but i figure from the screens they're mostly 360 or ps3.
Did you ever see Resident Evil 4 on the Game Cube? It was pretty close in visual quality to the screens they showed for Resident Evil 5 on that site. And the Revolution is going to be multiple times more powerful than the gamecube was, so I see no reason those screens couldn't have been for the Revolution as well.
I just hope that the PS3 with hard drive isn't going to allow game developers to skip QA the way they do with PC games.
It could in fact encourage just that. With an online service that everyone will have access to, they can sell the players "additional" content for their games... something along the lines of, oh I don't know, maybe a Horse Armor model for a couple bucks?
Instead of just putting these things in the game in the first place they will find it more profitable to leave them out and then charge extra if you want the extra feature. If they leave a particularly annoying, but not game-breaking, bug in the code then more consumers are likely to download the patch to fix that for $2... in theory anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
Plus it says no 3rd party online access until next year. The Wii is expected to release near the end of Sept. or in Oct. That's all of 2-3 months before "next year" hits, so it could be a very short wait indeed.
Case in point; I am an American and I would love to see NASA take on some "exotic high risk projects". We're exploring space, it's going to be dangerous, and I wish more of us (Americans) would accept the fact that some loss is going to occur.
The fact that the government listens to the whiney few who can't tolerate an astronaut with a sprained ankle in no way means someone is "NOT American" because they would like to see the agency that's exploring outer space accept a certain level of risk... or heck, even embrace it.
A 1-dimensional surface of a ball, or of anything for that matter, is simply a line.
* - String theory posits that the smallest building blocks that all matter is made from are 1-dimensional loops of vibrating string. A 1-dimensional loop doesn't make a whole lot of sense, unless you consider that maybe the spatial dimension it exists in is folded into itself.
- Swinging on a swing - http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6368227.html
- Publishing on the Internet - http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/00/10/03/1523228.shtm
l ?tid=155
- Converting Windows File Names - http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/samples/ep800142/in
d ex.en.html
- Learning Language by comparing pronounciation - http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/samples/ep461127/in
d ex.en.html
I wouldn't be surprised at any new patents that come out these days. Let's all just hope for a complete overhaul of our patent system.How about just "Sharp as a CAT" (Controlled Atom Tip)?
We don't say "sharp as a tack, created by such and such a method" so why include that extra stuff in this acronym?
O Canada... *shakes head sadly*
When using the virtual console for original NES games you will turn the controller counter-clockwise 90 degrees which will place the directional crosshairs under you left thumb, and an A and B button under your right thumb (see pictures at link below). For Super NES and beyond you will use the Classic controller shell which is basically a combination of all the controllers from Super NES on up. You can see a picture and read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_Remote#Classic_C
...there are projects out there that something like VB is the best answer for.
I'd like to think my major project at my current company is an example of this, but being the only programmer here, it is harder for me to tell. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can tell me if I made the right choice doing the project with VB6?
It's basically a big client info database. The program itself, including all 34 forms, is roughly 55k lines of code by last count. The program consists of one main MDI form with 8 forms nested within. The first form contains 7 tabs of pure, data entry fun. Hundreds of fields of info that a user can fill out and save. The rest is basically more data entry, and a reporting section that uses crystal reports to give the user info about what he has entered.
I think given the intensive number of forms, fields and buttons, and the fact that it was all written and maintained soley by me, justifies the use of Visual Basic 6. I looked into some other languages, but the requirement to specifiy every button position, every button label position, etc... means I could have done it alone, but it probably would have taken twice as long to code.
I assume you are aware that glass is in fact a liquid at room temp.
u id
I would like to point your attention to this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass#Glass_as_a_liq
You realize that Nike hasn't run sweatshops for a long time now right?
Screenshot or it didn't happen.
Almost all the doom and gloom proposed in the summary is solved by the Wii. Did the writer honestly not know:
Pointlesswasteoftime has been tracking what is looking like a Hindenburg voyage for console gaming, with HDTV playing the role of Hydrogen.
> That bodes well for the console that does not care about HDTV and will work great on any screen.
And when gaming comes back, it will hopefully be different and innovative and based on something other than eye candy and the shock value of blood and guts and hookers.
> Pretty much exactly what the Nintendo executives have been saying for months now. Instead of going the "small improvement in graphics" route they redesigned the UI. From the reports I've read it is quite innovative to use.
Hopefully it will allow for creativity from the players, and room for small, independent game makers to create content.
> Nintendo's online service could possibly be used to download 3rd party games, and indie developers should love the freedom of creativity a motion-sensing controller allows, while the dev kits are easy to use, cheap, well-established (from the time of Game Cube) and no HD visuals means they don't need a warehouse of artists designing highly detailed textures.
Hopefully it will be something every working person can afford.
> The highest I can imagine this will come out at is $250. At best I'd guess $200. Considered by itself that is still a decent chuck of change for a stand-alone game player, if playing games isn't that important to you (I've heard rumors people like that are out there), but when put next to the other 2 game playing options it looks like a steal.
That's odd... I could have sworn all the mice I've used over the years have existed in three dimensions.
I hope the interesting change refers to having that character and not the grappling hook part. (-cough-Link-cough-Samus-cough-)
That's true both of those characters have something similar, but in both of those cases it was used as that characters grab move, which all characters have in one form or another, and had a very short range.
For the Bionic Commando character I was thinking of it working more along the lines of how it was used in the game he's from. A full 20-30 feet of grappling hook would shoot out and latch onto any platforms it hits, and he could then pull himself across the screen, or up onto a high ledge with it. That is what would add an interesting dynamic to SSB.
In a nod to the availability of some of the old Genesis games being offered through the Virtual Console, I'd like to see one of the character from Altered Beast added as a playable character. The transformation dynamic (though used before) could make for some interesting gameplay.
It could also be fun to add the main character from Bionic Commando. His grappling hook could latch onto the various platforms and would make for an interesting twist on things.
The black mage from Final Fantasy III could be fun with his little pointy hat.
Or how about Glass Joe from Punch Out?
Haven't seen Earthworm Jim around lately...
Ultimately, I think I'd like to go out and kick some ass as a Pikmin.
This seems like a good idea. I've always wondered why AI researchers want to try making AI that begins its existance near the level of an adult, with an understanding of language, "commons sense", etc... I understand it in that language recognition is an important piece of the AI puzzle, but researchers who want to make a "human-like" robot seem to aim too high.
Even the human brain, extremely advanced compared to where we're at in the creation of intelligence, starts out nearly helpless and takes years to learn the basics. We can try to skip all that, and program our prior knowledge in, but we're most definitely going to miss some realtionships and other important sub-concious features of the way ideas and concepts are linked in our brains, and the end result is just not going to be as robust as an instance where the "brain" learned for itself and made its own connections in its own way as it learned the concepts.
They aren't talking about any D&D rules that I'm aware of...and I play 3.5e on a weekly basis.
m #cloakofDisplacementMinor
c oncealment
c k
Seriously? I play 3.5 and these are all rules as can be found in the SRD. You may want to look into some of them as they could be a great boon to your chatacter.
Minor Cloak of Displacement:
http://d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.ht
20% miss chance, under concealment:
http://d20srd.org/srd/combat/combatModifiers.htm#
True Seeing:
http://d20srd.org/srd/spells/trueSeeing.htm
Sneak Attacks:
http://d20srd.org/srd/classes/rogue.htm#sneakAtta
...it is the first comment in the thread that makes no sense. a miss chance is a miss chance.
The post I replied to stated that the 20% miss chance provided by the cloak of evasion does not work against constructs or undead. I was simply saying that "Miss chance is miss chance no matter what you are" and so the fact that they are undead or constructs does not make any difference, they are still subject to the same chance to miss as anything else. Does that not make sense?
...by E3 Wii will no longer be funny...
:(
But slashdot won't be slashdot without all the +5 Funny posts.
...the Wii will be big...
:)
That's either funny in a very juvenile sense, or quite the oxymoron, I can't decide which...
But seriously, I fully agree... this round of the console wars is proving to be very exciting, (with the exception of Xbox360, which has not impressed me at all).
If Nintendo can pull off an incredibly accurate motion-tracking system, and game developers can get creative enough with it, I think we'll truly see a home gaming Revolution.
I haven't seen anyone mention Warhammer Online yet, but it's the one on the list I am most looking forward to. It's made by the same people who made Dark Age of Camelot, which featured such things as Realm vs. Realm combat, and Warhammer Online will be heavily focused on player versus player action.
w s.html?sid=6147072&mode=recent
One of the best ways to keep an MMOG interesting is to utilize the best AI you can for the game, another human opponent. I play WoW, and while there is limited PvP through their Battlegrounds system, most of the action at the level cap is raiding. You fight through the same dungeons, with the same monsters and the same bosses, and once you learn it that raid instance is on "farm status". This becomes boring quickly as the encounters never change.
Some of the previews I've read about Warhammer Online said you can progress through the entire game solely through PvP based quests against real human opponents. You can choose to do some side quests, gathering supplies and the like, but you do not have to. I imagine the end game "raids" for this game would be storming another factions castle, full of human players of the opposing side, and would certainly prove to be different every time.
A nice preview of the game can be found here:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/warhammeronline/ne
Yeah, but it doesn't work against constructs or undead, which is why I'll take my epic level cloak of elvenkind any day of the week.
Miss chance is miss chance no matter what you are and is only negated by something like True Seeing. Perhaps you're thinking of critical hits and sneak attacks, which do not apply to constructs or undead.
I'm sure the negative buzz about the new name will die down over time, but I can still picture my Playstation obsessed cousin's reaction when I try to tell him how much I "love my Wii" and how he should "play with it and get a feel for how it handles".
I think it's really going to be hard for a lot of younger Americans to seriously consider this console now. Image is more important here than it should be, and I think a lot of kids still in school won't get one of these simply to avoid being beaten up for "playing with their Wii all night".
The "mature" jr. high and high schoolers are all going to get an Xbox because Xbox already has a reputation as the "mature" console. The new name "Wii" is only going to further cement this misconception and cut into Nintendo's sales.
A product with an accronym in its name has a harder time endeering itself
But that can't be right... Who doesn't love diving with their SCUBA gear? And how cool are LASERs? There wouldn't be a CD-ROM in every computer without them.
The article didn't say much of anything about what platforms the games would apear on for E3.. but i figure from the screens they're mostly 360 or ps3.
Did you ever see Resident Evil 4 on the Game Cube? It was pretty close in visual quality to the screens they showed for Resident Evil 5 on that site. And the Revolution is going to be multiple times more powerful than the gamecube was, so I see no reason those screens couldn't have been for the Revolution as well.
I just hope that the PS3 with hard drive isn't going to allow game developers to skip QA the way they do with PC games.
It could in fact encourage just that. With an online service that everyone will have access to, they can sell the players "additional" content for their games... something along the lines of, oh I don't know, maybe a Horse Armor model for a couple bucks?
Instead of just putting these things in the game in the first place they will find it more profitable to leave them out and then charge extra if you want the extra feature. If they leave a particularly annoying, but not game-breaking, bug in the code then more consumers are likely to download the patch to fix that for $2... in theory anyway.