Convergence is really just a pretense for movie producers wishing to exert creative pull over games (and thus acquire another revenue stream). John Carmack has done more to make video games look like movies than Steven Spielberg has done to make movies play like video games. I am all for more intelligent and dramatic camera techniques - as long as it doesn't interfere with gameplay. But if you let the moguls have their way every game will be a breathtaking cutscene with a few unplayable, unfun action segments spliced in between.
If the studio heads really believe in convergence, how come there isn't a single A-grade movie on DVD that lets me decide how the movie turns out via remote control? It's possible today. But you won't see one anytime soon. You want to see the 1982 theatrical release of E.T., fork over your cash for the 4-disc collector's edition. Artist's vision - well what about the vision the special effects technician had? When the movie biz was hyping DVDs (because they knew they could get higher margins than VHS) they mentioned multiple ratings on the same disc (as to appeal to families). Today we see the only multiple ratings movies are ones sold separately (even though it only costs $1 to press a disc) and only unrated courser material. They are so concerned about artistic integrity (as long as it's their own), but by-and-large disregard consumer choice.
I will believe that the convergence is a real artistic driven phenomenon when I go into a movie theatre, don my vid glasses and can control the camera angle, jerkiness, and editing style of an pre-rendered CGI movie. And let the audience vote en-masse whether the cute romantic couple gets back together or they both move on. But wait Spielberg will wave his arms and shout, "YOU ARE RUINING MY ARTISTIC VISION!!"
[Note: I don't have anything really against Steven Spielberg. I like his movies. But although he is a director, he is also a Hollywood suit. I trust EA suits to make a good game more than I trust Hollywood suits]
G4TV - Gonad-4 Testicular Virus. Symptoms include painful hallucinations of scantily clad women, pop-media reviews, ditz speech patterns, and cheesy art design. May prevent significant female others from remaining in the room. In rare extreme cases, prolonged exposure may lead to hemorrhaging of the eyes. Upon diagnosis, immediately shut off television.
Seriously though, there are only a few shows that I can stand to watch. I mainly watch X-Play for the humorous vignettes and the ability to check out the graphics in real-time without downloading. Occasionally Icons or Gamemakers make for interesting mini-documentaries.
I know of a system that doesn't require high definition, but still enables people to become completely absorbed in a photorealistic, life-like world. The system is designed around using incredibly complex models and taking in billions of scattered rays of light off them from a particular viewing angle and running it through a process that similar to anti-aliasing, but 1000 times better. It's called a television broadcast.
Seriously, my family's HDTV takes a satellite signal from an S-video (i.e. low def) cable and puts out one incredible image. Yes, I can't see all of the skin pores all the time and clothing textures and faraway grass may look slightly blurred, but overall the picture looks VERY sharp, and it is definitely photorealistic enough to make watching a good movie an engrossing experience.
My point is that even if a system doesn't have a high-def output, it can use all of its horsepower in creating more polygons, more textures, more AA/AF, higher framerates, etc., etc., etc. Incidentally, this could have the potential create a more photorealistic image from the same horsepower than if the graphics were produced for ultracrisp high-def. This is especially true if you are sitting more than four feet (1.3 meters) away from your TV set while playing.
The Borg should be required to speak to eachother in all caps and maybe leetspeak. CAPTURE 477 71F3F0RM5. Furthermore, to be totally acurate, the Borg would have to maintain a strict although dynamic hierarchy in accordance with their wireless network ranges. And any player with greater hierarchy would be able to see the point of view of any lesser player, and if needs be take CONTROL over said player. This would ensure that all players in the Borg faction would conform to the will of the Borg.
Likewise Klingon factions should always have the option of fighting a higher ranking officer to the death to gain their position. I mean seriously what's the point of having multiple races in a MMO if they all have the same play mechanics.
A Senate investigation of hidden "hot coffee"-type content will end up costing millions of dollars if you consider the operation costs of the Senate. Why doesn't Senator Hillary Clinton just pay $50 to a fourteen year-old with an internet connection to Google "video game easter eggs." Trust me, what would take the Senate a week to do, one fourteen year-old could do in 3 hours.
Maybe instead of ignoring, dicrediting, or refuting Jack Thompson (or even just allowing him to exist in the media spotlight as a somewhat ineffective alarmist) the best thing to do would be to CONVERT him. Like by shipping him our old games that we think he would enjoy. If he can browse Penny Arcade on his computer, then certainly he could load Civ III on his machine. Or maybe CSI or Nancy Drew or something else. Anyone got an old console with Tetris or Mario or Katamari Damacy just lying around?
Maybe he's just negative against games because he has only seen VIDEO clips of the most violent video games. I mean I get pissed off when I'm at somebody's place and they hog a single player game. Maybe someone just needs to give him an opportunity to PLAY.
His worst response to this would be trying to SUE you for sending him FREE stuff. But imagine the press if he did turn to the GAME side. Sure he might never turn into a video game advocate, he might have less free time to sue people if he were addicted to a stategy, simulation, puzzle, or lawyer game.
I think the real reason that FMV disappeared (in that past form) was that it clashed with the then emerging 3D graphics. It's acceptable to switch to FMV (even of pixelated quality) with live actors when your 3D models of characters are blocky and undetailed, but once the 3D models of characters in your game start looking half-way decent then any differences between the gameplay and dialogue scenes will only look more glaring.
Todays games typically switch from in game scenes to pre-rendered scenes using slightly higher quality 3D models. Then for the intro scene, the conclusion, and a few in between scenes they use what is essentially DVD footage of a CGI film clips. Yes, they match well with the in-game because they use the low polygon count in game models as a design basis for the high polygon count CGI models (or vice-versa).
But as in-game 3D graphics increase in their realism, some games will cut out the pre-rendered step. Furthermore, it's possible that some games would include high-def FMV using live actors digitally inserted into enhanced game locations (ala Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). I think what (other than hype and bandwagon behavior) will limit this technique will be whether artists using facial animations on models can make a more immersive and emotional scene than actors. Keep in mind that animators can tweak every little bit of each scene, and actors can sometimes put out really poor performances.
Maybe the Hallmark Channel should come out with a games division. A while back I watched a movie on the Hallmark Channel with my mom (or maybe it was a 2hr long season opener show). It was called Jane Doe and it was about how a suburban housewife that secretly (even to her family) was a retired analyst for a secret government agency. Of course she gets pulled back in, and becomes so busy finding clues and evading bad guys that she nearly misses her daughter's cheerleading tryouts.
I was laughing pretty hard at some parts and so was my mother, but no doubt about it she was eating it up in spite of its so readily apparent cheeziness (and my mom is pretty intelligent). Now, doesn't the plot of that flick tell volumes about the psychology of its target audience. I mean, even the secret government agency was hidden under the local grocery store.
A while ago my brother and I tried to get our mom and dad (both in their early 60's) to play the PS2 game Burnout 3 for the PS2. My dad got through maybe a quarter of a lap, but he was prepared for the rapid button by such racers as Tetris and Columns. However, I believe this was the first and only experience that my mom has had in PLAYING video games.
My mom in real life is definitely not an agressive driver or even a driver with a focused attention. She would sign notes to our teachers while driving us kids to elementary school. In Burnout 3 she had trouble figuring out that she had to continously press down the gas button to accelarate. Her car just kept lurching forward like a skittish Driver's Ed. student. Once we coached her to keep accelerator held down, she was soon cruising around 150 mph down the straightaway. And then slammed into the back of a taxi cab with a loud BOOM and sparks and parts flying. "That's terrible!" she exclaimed. Then she handed us back the controller.
Of course my mom might be a little more conservative than the typical recent grandmother in her early 60's (I don't think she ever rode with drag racing guys during her teen years), but she definitely equated the simulated crash with a real life crash along with all of its injuries and financial problems.
That Grant Naylor guy(s) can really predict the future.
But seriously, I sometimes wonder if humans will eventually lose some major macrofauna species and replace them with robots to console the loss (as seen in Blade Runner). For most species, I don't see this being insurmountable in the near future, especially since we have lots of film footage of the more popular species. We have faux furs in the fashion industry. The film industry makes fake animals all the time. We would easily be able to program behaviors that account for 95% of the "real" species behavior, but it would be that last 5% that would be hard to replicate perfectly.
If you have a GBA and can't find any good games for it then you aren't looking in the right places. I recently bought a DS (for when I travel for work) and a big reason for my buying it was GBA backwards compatibility. I went to gamespot.com and sorted their GBA reviews by rating and then read the reviews that most interested me, and then bought the 6 games that I thought I would most enjoy.
And you know what, they are a blast. Yeah, half of them I had to order on-line and some were ports or adaptations of old games (Super Mario Bros. 3, Zelda: A Link to the Past, Metroid: Zero Mission), but they were dang enjoyable games. Yeah, there's a lot of crap out there, but you can sift through it if you try.
At first kids would talk and play with their next door neighbors. Then they come out with books. Kids read to escape their dull lives by going to Treasure Island or the Little House on the Prairie. Then radio broadcasts come out and kids can listen to the Shadow or Little Orphan Annie and kids forget about their books. Then TV comes along and they can watch I Love Lucy or see Ed Sullivan introduce the new coolest bands and kids forget about radio programs. Then LSD, marijuana, and smoking bannana peels comes out and kids forget a lot of things.
Then video games come out with Pac-Man, Mario, Madden, MGS, and Halo and kids forget that they were addicted to drugs and become addicted to video games. Then the internet comes out and kids can talk and play with kids (and adults posing as kids) miles away, and kids forget about scripted forms of entertainment. Then they come out with the male contraceptive pill and all hell breaks loose.
Although I don't have an X-Box and don't plan on getting an X-Box 360 out of principle (that MS is bad for consumers, and the marketplace in its current form. I have read a few articles about J. Allard and interviews with him, and I get the idea that he is an alright guy that is one of the few people in MS that has the power and courage to change MS culture (even if most influence resides in the X-Box division). Of course in this interview he still uses exec-speak occasionally and has to tow the company line to not upset HIS bosses.
My favorite and laughable quotes are: "I hope that Sony's nervous right now"
Regarding 360 Hacks: "With 360, we said, 'Let's assume we can't stop it. How are we going to manage it?'... What can we do with connectivity to try to put a really big speed bump in place and, most importantly, protect the gamers from the hackers making it a crappy experience with them? Because that's my biggest nightmare."
Regarding the differences between gaming on PCs and on consoles: "On my console, I sit around the couch. There's usually some beer on the table. There's usually other people on the couch. It's a big-screen TV and it's usually action where there's a lot less precision required and I'm less bummed out if my army's wiped out because I just press restart and start again. "
Regarding developers complaining about DVDs limited capacity: "That's why games look better year over year. It's primarily because hardware comes in hot and developers, use the deficiency of the schedule not just to learn about hardware but also cut a couple of corners. "
Regarding the X-Box 360 not being a big enough departure from the original X-Box: "And if you go too far and you say, 'I'm going to change the category out completely and we're going to give you a wacky controller. And we're going to give you wacky games that you don't really understand, and we're going to market it or price it in a wacky way, I think that would have been very much a failing.'"
Regarding the approachability of the Revolution controller: "It's the same reason behind our DVD remote. At the press conference, I could have done my whole demo on the DVD remote."
Does anyone else think it is slightly odd that Square Enix doesn't release Chrono Trigger for the GBA? Or Final Fantasy VII for the DS? They would certainly make a killing, and if I understand correctly, the costs of porting to those systems are really quite low. Does this have to do with contracts that they have with Sony?
I never played those games (despite how great people say they are) for the simple reason that I don't have that kind of time to invest tethered to a console. I would love to see portable versions. They could at least port the SNES version of Dragon Warrior III to the GBA.
My apologies to all French people without obnoxious accents. But really isn't this simple. Developers claim that a AAA game (with all new content - not Rehash Sports '05) takes about 3 to 4 years now from cradle to gold. So it would rational to assume that when developers received development kits for the new consoles, they did a little house cleaning.
They took a look at the games that they were currently developing and had to decide if they would rather a) release that game for a future old-gen system (with a large player base, but dwindling hype), b) cancel the game (to concentrate resources on games with more potential), or c) make the game a next-gen game by using existing next-gen tech/content they've been developing and adapting it to the next-gen developer kits technology.
Probably the bigger change will come after Christmas of '06. By then publishers/developers will have a fairly good idea of what the size and demographics of each of the next-gen systems will be for the next few years. That will determine the number, types, and quality of games released during the "golden years" of each console.
Make no mistake publishers may not know creativity, but they sure know business. I seriously doubt if any large 3rd party publisher will cast off any segment of the market right now. They will likely have a mixed basket for the new consoles to offset the risk. But they will also prepare and wait for the "good" market data to come in.
Government organizations sharing data. That's nothing. I really wouldn't care if they did more. They could have my DNA sequence, a GPS/RFD on me or my care, credit reports, websites visited, and friends that I have (via GPS proximity, email and phone records). I wouldn't care.
BUT... for every one of those informational privileges that are granted to the government, there should be a corresponding reasonable action for the common good that they are trying to perform AND there should most definitely be correspondingly STRONG safeguards.
Safeguards such as encrypted or dynamic ID numbers. There is NO reason any government database should have the name or address of a citizen unless there is already extremely strong probability that said citizen is in need of intervention for the common good. Likewise, there should be robust security to prevent hackers, employers, insurance companies, and former significant others from getting access to that type of sensitive data.
Furthermore, any intervention action should be run by a commission, board, or judge for an independent approval. The whole idea in the Patriot Act to avoid getting a warrant to expedite raids for national security reasons is bogus. It bypasses constitutional safeguards, and there isn't a check to stop abuse until after the fact. If national security is so important than we can pay a few judges to be on call 24/7 to issue warrants.
Target already cards for mature video games (and I'm willing to bet BestBuy, EB games, etc. do as well). I know, I'm 26 and I still get carded. The reason I am against these types of laws is because I don't think that the government can review these games fairly nor do I think that they can enforce these laws effectively or fairly.
Instead of spending all of this effort making life difficult concerned parents should: 1) Make sure their own kids don't have video games of which they disapprove. 2) Not buy innappropriate video games for their kids. 3) Not give their kids access to credit cards which would allow their kids to buy innappropriate games online. 4) Petition and picket stores that don't already have policies to enforce ESRB ratings. 5) Encourage their kid's friends' parents to do the same.
The article just seemed a little too verbal when a good summary graphic could have guided readers that might not have a clue about some of those systems.
Once the obital paths of manned spacecraft become clogged by mini-satellites, we will just need to send up small manned fighters equipped with undepletable rocket launchers and they can save the fleet from the vast, onslaught of semi-intelligent space-baddies through endless stages to get the high score.
Back east there are plenty of conventions to follow. Put your fork here. Be introduced all proper-like. Don't get soup in yer beard.
It's out here in the West where we don't have many of yer all fancy conventions. The only one that I know of is that if yer gonna kill a man, kill 'im yerself. None of that new-fangled "hire your nephew Tony the Weasel to plug him."
Duck Hunt 2- This time you can shoot the giggling dog. Avoid the Noid 2- How did Dominoe's Pizza allow this franchise to die? Superman 64 part 2- Substitute "purple haze" for "green kryptonite fog", and suddenly the sequel would make sense. Catch-22: The Videogame- It would have been the best WWII-themed game ever. The best part is that it was to contain no action gameplay (except perhaps drunk driving in Jeeps and other mischief). Had it been completed it would have been part economic simulation and part non-linear, non-goal oriented RPG with lots of hilarious dialogue branches.
There is only one way for humans and "natural" (non-toolmaking) creatures to peacefully coexist in a balanced manner. The solution is simple. The governments of the world need to spend more money on basic trans-dimensional/universal portal research. Once we have created a portal to an alternate Earth (one where humans have never existed), we can shamelessly industrialize this Earth while knowing that a pristene Earth exists on the other side of a small fusion-powered portal.
Of course people would be able to live or vacation in the pristene Earth, but only as God intended them to. Naked and with no tools! Without humans making things there is no way that they could take over the pristene Earth. After a few millenium a tribe might forget about the no tool rule, and a squad of bio-degradable bullet M-16 toting people would have to come from the industrial Earth and hunt down the tool using tribe. Bows and arrows would just give the other tribes ideas. The squad would probably have to where scary all-natural fiber masks so other tribes think it is the wrath of God.
And that is the only way for humans and nature to peacefully coexist. It requires two Earths.
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Convergence is really just a pretense for movie producers wishing to exert creative pull over games (and thus acquire another revenue stream). John Carmack has done more to make video games look like movies than Steven Spielberg has done to make movies play like video games. I am all for more intelligent and dramatic camera techniques - as long as it doesn't interfere with gameplay. But if you let the moguls have their way every game will be a breathtaking cutscene with a few unplayable, unfun action segments spliced in between.
If the studio heads really believe in convergence, how come there isn't a single A-grade movie on DVD that lets me decide how the movie turns out via remote control? It's possible today. But you won't see one anytime soon. You want to see the 1982 theatrical release of E.T., fork over your cash for the 4-disc collector's edition. Artist's vision - well what about the vision the special effects technician had? When the movie biz was hyping DVDs (because they knew they could get higher margins than VHS) they mentioned multiple ratings on the same disc (as to appeal to families). Today we see the only multiple ratings movies are ones sold separately (even though it only costs $1 to press a disc) and only unrated courser material. They are so concerned about artistic integrity (as long as it's their own), but by-and-large disregard consumer choice.
I will believe that the convergence is a real artistic driven phenomenon when I go into a movie theatre, don my vid glasses and can control the camera angle, jerkiness, and editing style of an pre-rendered CGI movie. And let the audience vote en-masse whether the cute romantic couple gets back together or they both move on. But wait Spielberg will wave his arms and shout, "YOU ARE RUINING MY ARTISTIC VISION!!"
[Note: I don't have anything really against Steven Spielberg. I like his movies. But although he is a director, he is also a Hollywood suit. I trust EA suits to make a good game more than I trust Hollywood suits]
G4TV - Gonad-4 Testicular Virus. Symptoms include painful hallucinations of scantily clad women, pop-media reviews, ditz speech patterns, and cheesy art design. May prevent significant female others from remaining in the room. In rare extreme cases, prolonged exposure may lead to hemorrhaging of the eyes. Upon diagnosis, immediately shut off television.
Seriously though, there are only a few shows that I can stand to watch. I mainly watch X-Play for the humorous vignettes and the ability to check out the graphics in real-time without downloading. Occasionally Icons or Gamemakers make for interesting mini-documentaries.
My math says the average user would only have to have logged in 15 times in the opening month.
3,000,000 accesses / 200,000 unique visitors = 15 accesses/unique visitor.
I know of a system that doesn't require high definition, but still enables people to become completely absorbed in a photorealistic, life-like world. The system is designed around using incredibly complex models and taking in billions of scattered rays of light off them from a particular viewing angle and running it through a process that similar to anti-aliasing, but 1000 times better. It's called a television broadcast.
Seriously, my family's HDTV takes a satellite signal from an S-video (i.e. low def) cable and puts out one incredible image. Yes, I can't see all of the skin pores all the time and clothing textures and faraway grass may look slightly blurred, but overall the picture looks VERY sharp, and it is definitely photorealistic enough to make watching a good movie an engrossing experience.
My point is that even if a system doesn't have a high-def output, it can use all of its horsepower in creating more polygons, more textures, more AA/AF, higher framerates, etc., etc., etc. Incidentally, this could have the potential create a more photorealistic image from the same horsepower than if the graphics were produced for ultracrisp high-def. This is especially true if you are sitting more than four feet (1.3 meters) away from your TV set while playing.
The Borg should be required to speak to eachother in all caps and maybe leetspeak. CAPTURE 477 71F3F0RM5. Furthermore, to be totally acurate, the Borg would have to maintain a strict although dynamic hierarchy in accordance with their wireless network ranges. And any player with greater hierarchy would be able to see the point of view of any lesser player, and if needs be take CONTROL over said player. This would ensure that all players in the Borg faction would conform to the will of the Borg.
Likewise Klingon factions should always have the option of fighting a higher ranking officer to the death to gain their position. I mean seriously what's the point of having multiple races in a MMO if they all have the same play mechanics.
A Senate investigation of hidden "hot coffee"-type content will end up costing millions of dollars if you consider the operation costs of the Senate. Why doesn't Senator Hillary Clinton just pay $50 to a fourteen year-old with an internet connection to Google "video game easter eggs." Trust me, what would take the Senate a week to do, one fourteen year-old could do in 3 hours.
Maybe instead of ignoring, dicrediting, or refuting Jack Thompson (or even just allowing him to exist in the media spotlight as a somewhat ineffective alarmist) the best thing to do would be to CONVERT him. Like by shipping him our old games that we think he would enjoy. If he can browse Penny Arcade on his computer, then certainly he could load Civ III on his machine. Or maybe CSI or Nancy Drew or something else. Anyone got an old console with Tetris or Mario or Katamari Damacy just lying around?
Maybe he's just negative against games because he has only seen VIDEO clips of the most violent video games. I mean I get pissed off when I'm at somebody's place and they hog a single player game. Maybe someone just needs to give him an opportunity to PLAY.
His worst response to this would be trying to SUE you for sending him FREE stuff. But imagine the press if he did turn to the GAME side. Sure he might never turn into a video game advocate, he might have less free time to sue people if he were addicted to a stategy, simulation, puzzle, or lawyer game.
I think the real reason that FMV disappeared (in that past form) was that it clashed with the then emerging 3D graphics. It's acceptable to switch to FMV (even of pixelated quality) with live actors when your 3D models of characters are blocky and undetailed, but once the 3D models of characters in your game start looking half-way decent then any differences between the gameplay and dialogue scenes will only look more glaring.
Todays games typically switch from in game scenes to pre-rendered scenes using slightly higher quality 3D models. Then for the intro scene, the conclusion, and a few in between scenes they use what is essentially DVD footage of a CGI film clips. Yes, they match well with the in-game because they use the low polygon count in game models as a design basis for the high polygon count CGI models (or vice-versa).
But as in-game 3D graphics increase in their realism, some games will cut out the pre-rendered step. Furthermore, it's possible that some games would include high-def FMV using live actors digitally inserted into enhanced game locations (ala Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). I think what (other than hype and bandwagon behavior) will limit this technique will be whether artists using facial animations on models can make a more immersive and emotional scene than actors. Keep in mind that animators can tweak every little bit of each scene, and actors can sometimes put out really poor performances.
Maybe the Hallmark Channel should come out with a games division. A while back I watched a movie on the Hallmark Channel with my mom (or maybe it was a 2hr long season opener show). It was called Jane Doe and it was about how a suburban housewife that secretly (even to her family) was a retired analyst for a secret government agency. Of course she gets pulled back in, and becomes so busy finding clues and evading bad guys that she nearly misses her daughter's cheerleading tryouts.
I was laughing pretty hard at some parts and so was my mother, but no doubt about it she was eating it up in spite of its so readily apparent cheeziness (and my mom is pretty intelligent). Now, doesn't the plot of that flick tell volumes about the psychology of its target audience. I mean, even the secret government agency was hidden under the local grocery store.
A while ago my brother and I tried to get our mom and dad (both in their early 60's) to play the PS2 game Burnout 3 for the PS2. My dad got through maybe a quarter of a lap, but he was prepared for the rapid button by such racers as Tetris and Columns. However, I believe this was the first and only experience that my mom has had in PLAYING video games.
My mom in real life is definitely not an agressive driver or even a driver with a focused attention. She would sign notes to our teachers while driving us kids to elementary school. In Burnout 3 she had trouble figuring out that she had to continously press down the gas button to accelarate. Her car just kept lurching forward like a skittish Driver's Ed. student. Once we coached her to keep accelerator held down, she was soon cruising around 150 mph down the straightaway. And then slammed into the back of a taxi cab with a loud BOOM and sparks and parts flying. "That's terrible!" she exclaimed. Then she handed us back the controller.
Of course my mom might be a little more conservative than the typical recent grandmother in her early 60's (I don't think she ever rode with drag racing guys during her teen years), but she definitely equated the simulated crash with a real life crash along with all of its injuries and financial problems.
That Grant Naylor guy(s) can really predict the future.
But seriously, I sometimes wonder if humans will eventually lose some major macrofauna species and replace them with robots to console the loss (as seen in Blade Runner). For most species, I don't see this being insurmountable in the near future, especially since we have lots of film footage of the more popular species. We have faux furs in the fashion industry. The film industry makes fake animals all the time. We would easily be able to program behaviors that account for 95% of the "real" species behavior, but it would be that last 5% that would be hard to replicate perfectly.
If you have a GBA and can't find any good games for it then you aren't looking in the right places. I recently bought a DS (for when I travel for work) and a big reason for my buying it was GBA backwards compatibility. I went to gamespot.com and sorted their GBA reviews by rating and then read the reviews that most interested me, and then bought the 6 games that I thought I would most enjoy.
And you know what, they are a blast. Yeah, half of them I had to order on-line and some were ports or adaptations of old games (Super Mario Bros. 3, Zelda: A Link to the Past, Metroid: Zero Mission), but they were dang enjoyable games. Yeah, there's a lot of crap out there, but you can sift through it if you try.
At first kids would talk and play with their next door neighbors. Then they come out with books. Kids read to escape their dull lives by going to Treasure Island or the Little House on the Prairie. Then radio broadcasts come out and kids can listen to the Shadow or Little Orphan Annie and kids forget about their books. Then TV comes along and they can watch I Love Lucy or see Ed Sullivan introduce the new coolest bands and kids forget about radio programs. Then LSD, marijuana, and smoking bannana peels comes out and kids forget a lot of things.
Then video games come out with Pac-Man, Mario, Madden, MGS, and Halo and kids forget that they were addicted to drugs and become addicted to video games. Then the internet comes out and kids can talk and play with kids (and adults posing as kids) miles away, and kids forget about scripted forms of entertainment. Then they come out with the male contraceptive pill and all hell breaks loose.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6135302.html
Although I don't have an X-Box and don't plan on getting an X-Box 360 out of principle (that MS is bad for consumers, and the marketplace in its current form. I have read a few articles about J. Allard and interviews with him, and I get the idea that he is an alright guy that is one of the few people in MS that has the power and courage to change MS culture (even if most influence resides in the X-Box division). Of course in this interview he still uses exec-speak occasionally and has to tow the company line to not upset HIS bosses.
My favorite and laughable quotes are: "I hope that Sony's nervous right now"
Regarding 360 Hacks: "With 360, we said, 'Let's assume we can't stop it. How are we going to manage it?'... What can we do with connectivity to try to put a really big speed bump in place and, most importantly, protect the gamers from the hackers making it a crappy experience with them? Because that's my biggest nightmare."
Regarding the differences between gaming on PCs and on consoles: "On my console, I sit around the couch. There's usually some beer on the table. There's usually other people on the couch. It's a big-screen TV and it's usually action where there's a lot less precision required and I'm less bummed out if my army's wiped out because I just press restart and start again. "
Regarding developers complaining about DVDs limited capacity: "That's why games look better year over year. It's primarily because hardware comes in hot and developers, use the deficiency of the schedule not just to learn about hardware but also cut a couple of corners. "
Regarding the X-Box 360 not being a big enough departure from the original X-Box: "And if you go too far and you say, 'I'm going to change the category out completely and we're going to give you a wacky controller. And we're going to give you wacky games that you don't really understand, and we're going to market it or price it in a wacky way, I think that would have been very much a failing.'"
Regarding the approachability of the Revolution controller: "It's the same reason behind our DVD remote. At the press conference, I could have done my whole demo on the DVD remote."
Does anyone else think it is slightly odd that Square Enix doesn't release Chrono Trigger for the GBA? Or Final Fantasy VII for the DS? They would certainly make a killing, and if I understand correctly, the costs of porting to those systems are really quite low. Does this have to do with contracts that they have with Sony?
I never played those games (despite how great people say they are) for the simple reason that I don't have that kind of time to invest tethered to a console. I would love to see portable versions. They could at least port the SNES version of Dragon Warrior III to the GBA.
It's simple cause and effect.
My apologies to all French people without obnoxious accents. But really isn't this simple. Developers claim that a AAA game (with all new content - not Rehash Sports '05) takes about 3 to 4 years now from cradle to gold. So it would rational to assume that when developers received development kits for the new consoles, they did a little house cleaning.
They took a look at the games that they were currently developing and had to decide if they would rather a) release that game for a future old-gen system (with a large player base, but dwindling hype), b) cancel the game (to concentrate resources on games with more potential), or c) make the game a next-gen game by using existing next-gen tech/content they've been developing and adapting it to the next-gen developer kits technology.
Probably the bigger change will come after Christmas of '06. By then publishers/developers will have a fairly good idea of what the size and demographics of each of the next-gen systems will be for the next few years. That will determine the number, types, and quality of games released during the "golden years" of each console.
Make no mistake publishers may not know creativity, but they sure know business. I seriously doubt if any large 3rd party publisher will cast off any segment of the market right now. They will likely have a mixed basket for the new consoles to offset the risk. But they will also prepare and wait for the "good" market data to come in.
Will Wright.
He already knows how to manage people, cities, farms, islands, ants, life, and Earth.
Government organizations sharing data. That's nothing. I really wouldn't care if they did more. They could have my DNA sequence, a GPS/RFD on me or my care, credit reports, websites visited, and friends that I have (via GPS proximity, email and phone records). I wouldn't care.
BUT... for every one of those informational privileges that are granted to the government, there should be a corresponding reasonable action for the common good that they are trying to perform AND there should most definitely be correspondingly STRONG safeguards.
Safeguards such as encrypted or dynamic ID numbers. There is NO reason any government database should have the name or address of a citizen unless there is already extremely strong probability that said citizen is in need of intervention for the common good. Likewise, there should be robust security to prevent hackers, employers, insurance companies, and former significant others from getting access to that type of sensitive data.
Furthermore, any intervention action should be run by a commission, board, or judge for an independent approval. The whole idea in the Patriot Act to avoid getting a warrant to expedite raids for national security reasons is bogus. It bypasses constitutional safeguards, and there isn't a check to stop abuse until after the fact. If national security is so important than we can pay a few judges to be on call 24/7 to issue warrants.
Target already cards for mature video games (and I'm willing to bet BestBuy, EB games, etc. do as well). I know, I'm 26 and I still get carded. The reason I am against these types of laws is because I don't think that the government can review these games fairly nor do I think that they can enforce these laws effectively or fairly.
Instead of spending all of this effort making life difficult concerned parents should:
1) Make sure their own kids don't have video games of which they disapprove.
2) Not buy innappropriate video games for their kids.
3) Not give their kids access to credit cards which would allow their kids to buy innappropriate games online.
4) Petition and picket stores that don't already have policies to enforce ESRB ratings.
5) Encourage their kid's friends' parents to do the same.
Here's a link to a fairly comprehensive video game controller family tree (complete with thumbnails).
http://www.axess.com/twilight/console/
The article just seemed a little too verbal when a good summary graphic could have guided readers that might not have a clue about some of those systems.
I will make it legal.
Once the obital paths of manned spacecraft become clogged by mini-satellites, we will just need to send up small manned fighters equipped with undepletable rocket launchers and they can save the fleet from the vast, onslaught of semi-intelligent space-baddies through endless stages to get the high score.
Back east there are plenty of conventions to follow. Put your fork here. Be introduced all proper-like. Don't get soup in yer beard.
It's out here in the West where we don't have many of yer all fancy conventions. The only one that I know of is that if yer gonna kill a man, kill 'im yerself. None of that new-fangled "hire your nephew Tony the Weasel to plug him."
Duck Hunt 2- This time you can shoot the giggling dog.
Avoid the Noid 2- How did Dominoe's Pizza allow this franchise to die?
Superman 64 part 2- Substitute "purple haze" for "green kryptonite fog", and suddenly the sequel would make sense.
Catch-22: The Videogame- It would have been the best WWII-themed game ever. The best part is that it was to contain no action gameplay (except perhaps drunk driving in Jeeps and other mischief). Had it been completed it would have been part economic simulation and part non-linear, non-goal oriented RPG with lots of hilarious dialogue branches.
There is only one way for humans and "natural" (non-toolmaking) creatures to peacefully coexist in a balanced manner. The solution is simple. The governments of the world need to spend more money on basic trans-dimensional/universal portal research. Once we have created a portal to an alternate Earth (one where humans have never existed), we can shamelessly industrialize this Earth while knowing that a pristene Earth exists on the other side of a small fusion-powered portal.
Of course people would be able to live or vacation in the pristene Earth, but only as God intended them to. Naked and with no tools! Without humans making things there is no way that they could take over the pristene Earth. After a few millenium a tribe might forget about the no tool rule, and a squad of bio-degradable bullet M-16 toting people would have to come from the industrial Earth and hunt down the tool using tribe. Bows and arrows would just give the other tribes ideas. The squad would probably have to where scary all-natural fiber masks so other tribes think it is the wrath of God.
And that is the only way for humans and nature to peacefully coexist. It requires two Earths.