It depends on what you want to learn. If you just want to learn how to program, then something like Pascal might be a good place to start. My problem with it is that I didn't really understand a lot of what I was doing in Pascal. I had only a weak grasp on the concept of a pointer until I took a class in computer architecture and did some assembly programming on a VAX. A language like C is much closer to the hardware level, and while that makes it much easier to do something wrong and stupid, it also means that you learn a lot more about what is going on under the hood.
When I started my degree in '93, we were still using Pascal as our introductory language. A couple years later, they switched to C++ and started teaching object-oriented concepts right off the bat. Somewhere in there, I picked up a couple O'Reilly books and taught myself C and C++.
Re:Do people care about PC games anymore?
on
The Sims 2 For Mac
·
· Score: 1
Other than Tetris or some other arcade style time killer, what is the appeal to playing some long, complex game on a computer rather than a cheap console?
I own a computer for multiple reasons. Gaming is one of them, but I also use it for development, word processing, e-mail, web browsing, photo processing... I could go on for a while. It makes more sense to me to have a single device that can do all these things, as well as play most games better than any console, rather than owning a single device (or multiple devices) that can only play games.
An Xbox/PS2/GameCube is about $150-200 and has ergonomic interfaces for game play, rather than a mouse and keyboard. So why buy an Alienware desktop for $2000 when you could buy every console and 10 games for each one for that price?
The interface is not a valid argument. Any controller you can use on a console has an equivalent for PC, only the PC generally has many more options. I have, in my own collection, a simple joystick, a joystick/throttle set, a force-feedback steering wheel, and a gamepad. In adition, I can still use the mouse and keyboard for games that are better suited to them (FPS games, strategy games, etc). Again, the flexability of the PC is superior. As far as price, while the initial investment may be steep, a PC can be upgraded fairly easily over time. I've been incrementally upgrading the same PC for over 10 years now. A new processor here, a faster video card there... Admittedly, the only original part I have left is the 3.5" floppy drive. This still costs more money over time, but PC games get more technologically advanced all the time. To see a major advance in console games, you have to wait for the next generation of consoles to be released.
In the end, there just aren't that many games unique to console systems that I really want to play. Usually, if I wait, the really good ones get ported to PC anyway (Halo, Splinter Cell, GTA3). On the other hand, there are a very large number of games I enjoy playing that are only available on PC.
Yes, the boxes are almost certainly ready to go, but it *still* takes time to stuff them and ship them out.
If you think about it, it actually makes sense that Vivendi wants to release the game worldwide on the same day. If they stagger the release dates to get the game out sooner in the US, they will most likely lose more sales to Steam overseas as gamers eager to get their hands on it swarm to sign up.
The testing work is done. It still takes time to actually stamp the CDs and package them. Not to mention they need time to plan all the release parties. Games that are released worldwide usually do so on a staggered schedule. Heck, most games are never even localized until after they've already sold a half-million copies. The fact that they're so sure this will be a huge seller is the only reason they're willing to go so far to release it everywhere at the same time. But it means they will need a little more time than most games.
I was never misled. I understood before I bought that I would not be able to play until it was released for retail. It's still a good deal for me for several reasons. I don't have to deal with any stupid CD protection schemes and their associated issues. I don't have to wait the obligatory extra day for the retail copies to actually arrive at the store. I save the time and gas I would spend on the trip to the software store (nearest one is 35 miles from my home). And perhaps the biggest bonus: I don't have to listen to the counter-jockey at said store prattle on about how awesome the new Final Fantasy is, and have I pre-ordered game X yet? Because the copies are running out and if you want it on release day you better hurry up!
I'm not sure how you think anyone was misled. It was made clear by Valve when they released the Steam packages for HL2 a couple weeks ago that HL2 would not be playable until release. If you were excited about something you heard from some other, unconfirmed source, prior to that time, you have nobody to blame but yourself.
The problem with sticking a digital camera on another consumer device (like a cell-phone or PDA or, in this case, a digital music player) is that you have to make the optics very small and fixed focus. Which means you'll never be able to get very good pictures out of it.
A lot of animosity, and a lot of uninformed opinions in this thread. It seems clear to me that many who are most vehemently opposed to Steam haven't even tried it to see that it A) actually works quite well, B) does not require you to sign over your first born in order to play games, and C) there are no recurring fees.
My experience with Steam:
Last month, I heard that if you installed Steam you could pre-install HL2, so I installed it. Steam proceeded to download a couple gigs of data files to my computer. Very slick. Last week, when the packages were made available, I purchased the Silver package. I spent the weekend playing Counter-Strike Source and enjoying some of the back catalog of Half-Life mods that I had never tried. It takes about 5 seconds to authenticate before a game starts. That's about the same amount of time that most of the CD-protection schemes take, but since I never have to swap CDs out of my drive (or use disk imagers and virtual drives to get around the schemes) I have no problem with that.
I honestly believe that Valve has taken the first step on a path that will eventually lead the software industry in a new direction. As with most revolutionary ideas, there are those who embrace it, and those who think it will lead to the downfall of society.
To what extent do you think the influence of technology affects peoples' view of current events? Does the immediacy of today's media bring us closer to the world around us, or push us further away?
If Sierra goes belly up next week, how long do you think the Steam master server is going to be around?
Probably about as long as the verification servers that check your CD-Key and allow you to play any Half Life based game online. Which means your tangible property becomes a shiny coaster.
In other news, proof of life on Alpha Centauri was found on a Bazooka Joe bubble gum wrapper yesterday.
In response, the MPAA filed suit against Topps candy, demanding immediate removal of any and all material related to the 2000 film "Proof of Life" starring Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe.
Just another in a long list of reasons for me to not waste my time watching the Olympics on TV. I remember when just being at the Olympics was enough to justify a lifelong pursuit of perfection. Nowadays, it's just a ticket to a lucrative advertising career, and you'd better get the gold, because 2nd place won't get you on a Wheaties box.
Dune 2 wasn't the first, not by a long shot. It wasn't even the first on PC. The first PC RTS I remember was Modem Wars, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was something earlier that might qualify as well. But even before PC titles, there was Utopia for Intellivision. And there was probably something that predated that as well.
Remember, no matter how new and innovative you think an idea is, somebody else probably thought of it before you.
Wow, that was one of the more insightful posts I've seen on Slashdot. Thanks for sharing your very relavent personal experiences.
Oh...and also, while I was in the Army I lived in Germany. While OC may just be racist 'by accident' (mostly financial) I found Germany to be an extremely overtly racist place.
My wife's father and step-mother are German-born, and both grew up during WW2. We were in the car with them the other day and some woman in the next lane cut someone off and nearly caused an accident. My wife's step mother's response? "She must be Chinese." Later on, she was talking about how she has all these friends from different cultural backgrounds and how wonderful it is that they get to experience each others' different customs. I think I still have lacerations on my tongue from biting so hard. It doesn't help that I'm 1/4 Chinese.
Anyone else remember "Zak McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders?" It was the first LucasArts game I played, and I absolutely loved it. So many conspiracy-theory references and tounge-in-cheek humour. I don't think I ever actually finished it, though. A friend and I were playing it together, and we just got totally stuck very near the end of the game and couldn't get any further. This was before any of us had a modem or access to walk-throughs.
I just recently pulled my copy of Total Annihilation out of the archives and loaded it back up. It's still a great game, though I never got around to buying any of the expansions. It's the only RTS game I ever felt comfortable playing.
Murder is defined as killing another person, is it not? Isn't that what this driver did? He killed a person. Therefore he is a murderer.
Actually, it's much more complicated than that. The legal definition of murder requires that there be an intent to kill. Killing someone on accident is considered manslaughter. There are also varying degrees of each depending on the circumstances. First-degree murder, for instance, requires that the killer have planned out the act ahead of time. For second-degree murder, you only need prove that they acted with the intent to kill, even if it was only momentary during extreme emotional stress. The degree of manslaughter usually depends on whether you intended any harm towards the victim, or if you showed reckless disregard for their safety. Deciding which description applies in any particular case is, of course, the subject of many legal arguments.
First off, you (and several others) have misunderstood the story. They weren't trying to ban any games. They were trying to make it illegal to sell certain games to people under 17. The same group actually tried to pass a similar law with broader scope last year and failed for similar reasons (ie - guidelines too vague). They thought they could get it on the books if they were more specific, which is why the latest version applies only to games where violent acts are specifically commited against law-enforcement personnel.
Secondly, I don't think the law is an entirely bad idea. Everyone is always saying that if you don't want your kids to play violent games, don't buy them. Well, it makes a parent's job much harder when little billy can run down to the mall with his birthday money from Grandma, where the clerk will happily sell him a copy of "Whore-Killer 3: The Herpes Connection." We aren't talking censorship, here, just mild regulation.
The problem is, how do you define what a violent act is? And who is included in the group "law-enforcement personnel"? Police, obviously. But how about military? Federal agents? Alien overlords? (okay, I just threw that one in for fun)
My point is that this is not a cut-and-dry issue. And Washington (my home state) happens to be a fairly enlightened and forward-thinking place most of the time. At least we don't have any laws banning gay marriages yet. *ducks and covers*
If you hadn't noticed, John and John also did a recording session with the Homestar hand-puppet. I think you can find them in the "shorts" section on homestarrunner.com.
Every PC FPS worth a crap has competitive multiplayer.
That's a broad and categorically false statement. The Thief series, Morrowind, System Shock 2, Deus Ex... All wildly popular FPS games that had no multiplayer at all, but instead focused on making an excellent single-player game.
But to answer the original question, yes Far Cry has competetive multiplayer modes, including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Assault. Assault is the most fun. One team is on attack and the other is on defense. The attacking team has to capture control points one at a time, while the defending team tries to hold them off. Engineers on the defensive side can use pre-placed crates to construct walls and emplaced weapons. Attacking engineers can blow them up with explosives, or build bridges to allow vehicles to cross water.
That's a national rate. In the last couple years, some states have had rates as high as 8.5%, and that's only counting the people who applied for unemployment benefits. Add in the homeless and people who just decided to live off their savings for a while, and I imagine you'd probably break that double-digits barrier.
Not sure what this has to do with the story, though. All too often, these days, employers are trying to cut costs by hiring fewer people to do more work, and not compensating them for the extra time. I think a win in this case would be a great breakthrough for the software industry, where such situations are almost a way of life.
Slashdot Mirror
It depends on what you want to learn. If you just want to learn how to program, then something like Pascal might be a good place to start. My problem with it is that I didn't really understand a lot of what I was doing in Pascal. I had only a weak grasp on the concept of a pointer until I took a class in computer architecture and did some assembly programming on a VAX. A language like C is much closer to the hardware level, and while that makes it much easier to do something wrong and stupid, it also means that you learn a lot more about what is going on under the hood.
I own a computer for multiple reasons. Gaming is one of them, but I also use it for development, word processing, e-mail, web browsing, photo processing... I could go on for a while. It makes more sense to me to have a single device that can do all these things, as well as play most games better than any console, rather than owning a single device (or multiple devices) that can only play games.
An Xbox/PS2/GameCube is about $150-200 and has ergonomic interfaces for game play, rather than a mouse and keyboard. So why buy an Alienware desktop for $2000 when you could buy every console and 10 games for each one for that price?
The interface is not a valid argument. Any controller you can use on a console has an equivalent for PC, only the PC generally has many more options. I have, in my own collection, a simple joystick, a joystick/throttle set, a force-feedback steering wheel, and a gamepad. In adition, I can still use the mouse and keyboard for games that are better suited to them (FPS games, strategy games, etc). Again, the flexability of the PC is superior. As far as price, while the initial investment may be steep, a PC can be upgraded fairly easily over time. I've been incrementally upgrading the same PC for over 10 years now. A new processor here, a faster video card there... Admittedly, the only original part I have left is the 3.5" floppy drive. This still costs more money over time, but PC games get more technologically advanced all the time. To see a major advance in console games, you have to wait for the next generation of consoles to be released.
In the end, there just aren't that many games unique to console systems that I really want to play. Usually, if I wait, the really good ones get ported to PC anyway (Halo, Splinter Cell, GTA3). On the other hand, there are a very large number of games I enjoy playing that are only available on PC.
If you think about it, it actually makes sense that Vivendi wants to release the game worldwide on the same day. If they stagger the release dates to get the game out sooner in the US, they will most likely lose more sales to Steam overseas as gamers eager to get their hands on it swarm to sign up.
The testing work is done. It still takes time to actually stamp the CDs and package them. Not to mention they need time to plan all the release parties. Games that are released worldwide usually do so on a staggered schedule. Heck, most games are never even localized until after they've already sold a half-million copies. The fact that they're so sure this will be a huge seller is the only reason they're willing to go so far to release it everywhere at the same time. But it means they will need a little more time than most games.
I think they're giving themselves extra time due to the fact that they intend to release localized versions world-wide on the same day.
I'm not sure how you think anyone was misled. It was made clear by Valve when they released the Steam packages for HL2 a couple weeks ago that HL2 would not be playable until release. If you were excited about something you heard from some other, unconfirmed source, prior to that time, you have nobody to blame but yourself.
The problem with sticking a digital camera on another consumer device (like a cell-phone or PDA or, in this case, a digital music player) is that you have to make the optics very small and fixed focus. Which means you'll never be able to get very good pictures out of it.
My experience with Steam: Last month, I heard that if you installed Steam you could pre-install HL2, so I installed it. Steam proceeded to download a couple gigs of data files to my computer. Very slick. Last week, when the packages were made available, I purchased the Silver package. I spent the weekend playing Counter-Strike Source and enjoying some of the back catalog of Half-Life mods that I had never tried. It takes about 5 seconds to authenticate before a game starts. That's about the same amount of time that most of the CD-protection schemes take, but since I never have to swap CDs out of my drive (or use disk imagers and virtual drives to get around the schemes) I have no problem with that.
I honestly believe that Valve has taken the first step on a path that will eventually lead the software industry in a new direction. As with most revolutionary ideas, there are those who embrace it, and those who think it will lead to the downfall of society.
To what extent do you think the influence of technology affects peoples' view of current events? Does the immediacy of today's media bring us closer to the world around us, or push us further away?
Probably about as long as the verification servers that check your CD-Key and allow you to play any Half Life based game online. Which means your tangible property becomes a shiny coaster.
In response, the MPAA filed suit against Topps candy, demanding immediate removal of any and all material related to the 2000 film "Proof of Life" starring Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe.
Just another in a long list of reasons for me to not waste my time watching the Olympics on TV. I remember when just being at the Olympics was enough to justify a lifelong pursuit of perfection. Nowadays, it's just a ticket to a lucrative advertising career, and you'd better get the gold, because 2nd place won't get you on a Wheaties box.
Remember, no matter how new and innovative you think an idea is, somebody else probably thought of it before you.
Oh...and also, while I was in the Army I lived in Germany. While OC may just be racist 'by accident' (mostly financial) I found Germany to be an extremely overtly racist place.
My wife's father and step-mother are German-born, and both grew up during WW2. We were in the car with them the other day and some woman in the next lane cut someone off and nearly caused an accident. My wife's step mother's response? "She must be Chinese." Later on, she was talking about how she has all these friends from different cultural backgrounds and how wonderful it is that they get to experience each others' different customs. I think I still have lacerations on my tongue from biting so hard. It doesn't help that I'm 1/4 Chinese.
Sure, but the retirement plan sucks.
Actually, it's much more complicated than that. The legal definition of murder requires that there be an intent to kill. Killing someone on accident is considered manslaughter. There are also varying degrees of each depending on the circumstances. First-degree murder, for instance, requires that the killer have planned out the act ahead of time. For second-degree murder, you only need prove that they acted with the intent to kill, even if it was only momentary during extreme emotional stress. The degree of manslaughter usually depends on whether you intended any harm towards the victim, or if you showed reckless disregard for their safety. Deciding which description applies in any particular case is, of course, the subject of many legal arguments.
Secondly, I don't think the law is an entirely bad idea. Everyone is always saying that if you don't want your kids to play violent games, don't buy them. Well, it makes a parent's job much harder when little billy can run down to the mall with his birthday money from Grandma, where the clerk will happily sell him a copy of "Whore-Killer 3: The Herpes Connection." We aren't talking censorship, here, just mild regulation.
The problem is, how do you define what a violent act is? And who is included in the group "law-enforcement personnel"? Police, obviously. But how about military? Federal agents? Alien overlords? (okay, I just threw that one in for fun)
My point is that this is not a cut-and-dry issue. And Washington (my home state) happens to be a fairly enlightened and forward-thinking place most of the time. At least we don't have any laws banning gay marriages yet. *ducks and covers*
If you hadn't noticed, John and John also did a recording session with the Homestar hand-puppet. I think you can find them in the "shorts" section on homestarrunner.com.
That's a broad and categorically false statement. The Thief series, Morrowind, System Shock 2, Deus Ex... All wildly popular FPS games that had no multiplayer at all, but instead focused on making an excellent single-player game.
But to answer the original question, yes Far Cry has competetive multiplayer modes, including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Assault. Assault is the most fun. One team is on attack and the other is on defense. The attacking team has to capture control points one at a time, while the defending team tries to hold them off. Engineers on the defensive side can use pre-placed crates to construct walls and emplaced weapons. Attacking engineers can blow them up with explosives, or build bridges to allow vehicles to cross water.
Women are objects in this game.
That only proves they used good encapsulation.
That's a national rate. In the last couple years, some states have had rates as high as 8.5%, and that's only counting the people who applied for unemployment benefits. Add in the homeless and people who just decided to live off their savings for a while, and I imagine you'd probably break that double-digits barrier. Not sure what this has to do with the story, though. All too often, these days, employers are trying to cut costs by hiring fewer people to do more work, and not compensating them for the extra time. I think a win in this case would be a great breakthrough for the software industry, where such situations are almost a way of life.
I'll be really impressed when they can make it drive around the lot and find a space by itself.