If you've ever seen a so-called "casual" gamer get into a game you'll notice they really devote a LOT of attention to it and tend to deal even with the harshest challenges. What you need to make one of them play your game isn't low difficulty, it's a beginning that convinces them the game is worth their time and many "hardcore" games botch that badly with overly long intro cinematics followed by boring as hell tutorials which are necessitated by overly complex game design. Complex here doesn't mean deep, many games that use the whole controller are just "shoot anything that moves", it's that they have a crapload of minor functions thrown in there that you'll rarely need but still have to memorize and camera views geared for "immersion" rather than understanding WTF is going on.
You could probably implement a modern FPS with Contra's gameplay without really sacrificing the fun. Contra was something recently made gamers enjoyed on the NES. It didn't waste your time, it was about action and offered the joy of playing cooperatively. And if it's too hard, up up down down left right left right B A.
Sonic Rush isn't remotely as bad as Sonic Advance 3 which will happily have those Sonic run sequences end in a deathtrap that you get 1 second to spot and dodge.
I think stringing them up on the town square would work better, their lawyers can warn them about the law but only their common sense can warn them about the people.
I'll say BOOOOOO to this. The DS is the last system where developers don't have the bias that 2D is somehow out of style and will actually put significant resources behind a 2D game, if the DS was upgraded so much that it could do current or last gen home console graphics that'd likely be the end of 2D gaming on it and the beginning of more and more repetitive 3D games that we've got enough of on the home consoles.
In continental Europe Steam's pricing is mostly fine, I think UK retailers abuse some clause in their shipping contracts to sell at lower prices and recover the difference from the manufacturer so they can sell games at prices the rest of the continent considers insane.
When's the last time you got an XBox360 game brand new for $10?
Yesterday actually but that was without a manual or box, only the disc (of course you get neither a box nor a manual with Steam either), I suppose some idiot didn't notice that GameStop only puts empty boxes on shelves and stole one. A better comparison might be PC games which have piles upon piles of great games that are a few years old for a tenner a piece, console games just don't drop that far (and aren't available on Steam either).
Eh, Dawn of War 2 has the same problems and there is no console version of that, it's not the port nature but the nature of devs deciding to use GFWL instead of the superior Stream features.
Games For Windows Live isn't really a Steam competitor, its focus is on online play and account management, not digital distribution of whole games. Sure, Steam can do all of the GFWL features too (and better) but its main purpose is digital distribution which has competitors in stuff like Impulse or Direct2Drive.
No, he says that that's not a fundamental issue with Steam but with those who put games on it, a retail version is not required to use Steam even if a Steam version is available and if the retail version does it anyway that's the fault of the developer/publisher of that game, not Steam.
What really hacks me off is the bit lately where there's "free DLC" that you can only get by preordering the game from a specific retail outlet.
The dumbest one I've seen was some "exclusive" stuff in Section 8, the game box included a card with the unlock codes (static ones like cheat codes, not unique like cd keys). The box is the same no matter where you buy it, in fact the box is even labeled in multiple languages so they're not even issuing per-country versions. All that really does is add another step to your install process and could just as well have been in the game without any code nonsense.
The Wii tends to sit connected online even in standby so it'd theoretically make a nice bot but I don't think it's as easy to install malware on the thing without causing mass bricking which would alert everybody.
This is an official Disney project and I doubt they're going to turn him into Sonic the Hedgehog or anything, they may not even make the character darker at all, we only know that the environment is darker and Mickey looks like he's melting (or made out of fresh paint since the game involves painting).
I can't think why both of these are the #1 sellers by large margins in consoles and portables... It's certainly not the quality of titles.
Lolwut? The Wii sold almost entirely on stuff like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, neither of which is vulnerable to piracy and both reach out to many people who were not interested in gaming before. IF you're seriously going to argue that the DS has no good games I can only stare in disbelief.
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I really didn't have trouble with that, all the boost roads ended in regular walls for me unless I interfered with jumps at the wrong time.
If you've ever seen a so-called "casual" gamer get into a game you'll notice they really devote a LOT of attention to it and tend to deal even with the harshest challenges. What you need to make one of them play your game isn't low difficulty, it's a beginning that convinces them the game is worth their time and many "hardcore" games botch that badly with overly long intro cinematics followed by boring as hell tutorials which are necessitated by overly complex game design. Complex here doesn't mean deep, many games that use the whole controller are just "shoot anything that moves", it's that they have a crapload of minor functions thrown in there that you'll rarely need but still have to memorize and camera views geared for "immersion" rather than understanding WTF is going on.
You could probably implement a modern FPS with Contra's gameplay without really sacrificing the fun. Contra was something recently made gamers enjoyed on the NES. It didn't waste your time, it was about action and offered the joy of playing cooperatively. And if it's too hard, up up down down left right left right B A.
Sonic Rush isn't remotely as bad as Sonic Advance 3 which will happily have those Sonic run sequences end in a deathtrap that you get 1 second to spot and dodge.
I think stringing them up on the town square would work better, their lawyers can warn them about the law but only their common sense can warn them about the people.
I'll give you flash but 2D is treated as a niche thing on the Wii and PS2.
The flashcarters aren't exactly a worthwhile market anyway.
That and the screen would be exposed to scratches when the device is not in use.
The first 90% of the work take 90% of the time, the remaining 10% of the work take the other 90% of the time.
I'll say BOOOOOO to this. The DS is the last system where developers don't have the bias that 2D is somehow out of style and will actually put significant resources behind a 2D game, if the DS was upgraded so much that it could do current or last gen home console graphics that'd likely be the end of 2D gaming on it and the beginning of more and more repetitive 3D games that we've got enough of on the home consoles.
Windows has included BSD FTP for some versions already.
There's simply no reason to intervene, social economy doesn't require that you regulate for no reason.
In continental Europe Steam's pricing is mostly fine, I think UK retailers abuse some clause in their shipping contracts to sell at lower prices and recover the difference from the manufacturer so they can sell games at prices the rest of the continent considers insane.
When's the last time you got an XBox360 game brand new for $10?
Yesterday actually but that was without a manual or box, only the disc (of course you get neither a box nor a manual with Steam either), I suppose some idiot didn't notice that GameStop only puts empty boxes on shelves and stole one. A better comparison might be PC games which have piles upon piles of great games that are a few years old for a tenner a piece, console games just don't drop that far (and aren't available on Steam either).
Eh, Dawn of War 2 has the same problems and there is no console version of that, it's not the port nature but the nature of devs deciding to use GFWL instead of the superior Stream features.
Games For Windows Live isn't really a Steam competitor, its focus is on online play and account management, not digital distribution of whole games. Sure, Steam can do all of the GFWL features too (and better) but its main purpose is digital distribution which has competitors in stuff like Impulse or Direct2Drive.
No, he says that that's not a fundamental issue with Steam but with those who put games on it, a retail version is not required to use Steam even if a Steam version is available and if the retail version does it anyway that's the fault of the developer/publisher of that game, not Steam.
What really hacks me off is the bit lately where there's "free DLC" that you can only get by preordering the game from a specific retail outlet.
The dumbest one I've seen was some "exclusive" stuff in Section 8, the game box included a card with the unlock codes (static ones like cheat codes, not unique like cd keys). The box is the same no matter where you buy it, in fact the box is even labeled in multiple languages so they're not even issuing per-country versions. All that really does is add another step to your install process and could just as well have been in the game without any code nonsense.
Yeah but RailWorks is a train simulator, that's a genre, like the flight simulators, that sees tons of third parties making add-ons you can buy.
The Wii tends to sit connected online even in standby so it'd theoretically make a nice bot but I don't think it's as easy to install malware on the thing without causing mass bricking which would alert everybody.
Will be out? I already grabbed W7 off MSDNAA a few days ago, what did I get there then?
I'd rather not, that'd hurt.
This is an official Disney project and I doubt they're going to turn him into Sonic the Hedgehog or anything, they may not even make the character darker at all, we only know that the environment is darker and Mickey looks like he's melting (or made out of fresh paint since the game involves painting).
Yeah and JPS is headed by Warren Spector (Deus Ex) so we'll likely see a good game come out of this.
Microsoft prefers the computer percent: 1/128
I can't think why both of these are the #1 sellers by large margins in consoles and portables... It's certainly not the quality of titles.
Lolwut? The Wii sold almost entirely on stuff like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, neither of which is vulnerable to piracy and both reach out to many people who were not interested in gaming before. IF you're seriously going to argue that the DS has no good games I can only stare in disbelief.