Hey guys. Programmer from the project here. Looks like our server is being hammered so here are some links to keep you company until our sites get back up.
The PC version of Halo 2 is still going on strong and fine since it has a corresponding dedicated server client. I hope this illustrates to console players why dedicated servers are so important when it comes to multiplayer and why PC gamers became so indignant when Modern Warfare 2 was announced to not have dedicated servers.
Jeff Green used to be part of 1UP's editorial team as a former video games journalist. Very frank guy, very funny guy. Even if he gets fired from EA because of this, which I doubt, there are tons of games publications needing an accomplished and insightful editor or game publishers wanting Jeff's charisma for their public/community relations.
Remember the nude photos that she took for her boyfriend and were then leaked online? Vanessa Hudgens should be prosecuted for manufacturing and distributing child pornography. If the government is going to ruin the lives of no-named teenagers, might as well be fair and go after the rich and famous.
Also, WTF is a "Gaming keyboard"? Last I checked, most games are built to respond to keystrokes on a normal keyboard. As for macros, why not do it in software? If it's to foil the game's anti-cheat mechanism, wouldn't this then be considered cheating? Is WASD really that hard to use?
A lot of regular use keyboards have trouble with rollover, meaning when multiple keys are pressed, all of the keypresses do not register. Gaming keyboards usually are designed to not do that which is very important when playing games which require a lot of simultaneous keypresses.
Who the hell modded you insightful? People who exclusively play JRPGs?
If you're going to argue that most American developed games are crap, support your argument. From what I can see, your claim is completely unsubstantiated. The best video games are nationally agnostic. From what I can see from the top 200 games calculated by average publication review score, the best games are Japanese, North American, and European with no regions having a preponderance of critical acclaim. How many critically acclaimed North American games do you need to play in order to conclude that good games made in America aren't just an exception to the rule?
Tell me, have you ever played any of these great games that I have picked off the top of my head?: Gears of War, Bioshock, Portal, Diablo, Starcraft, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Grim Fandango, Freespace2, Fallout, Oblivion, X-Wing, Half-Life, Psychonauts, SimCity, Crimson Skies, Rogue Squadron, Metroid Prime, God of War, Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank, Burnout
What do you mean by action at a distance warfare? If you're meaning to say that dropping bombs on people is ineffective, period, you're wrong.
What a fighting force primarily wants in a conventional war to destroy supply lines and supporting infrastructure. The force will always be up against the enemy's tooth but what it really wants is to go after the enemy's tail, the element that's supporting all those enemy combat troops. By destroying or cutting your enemy off from food, fuel, communication lines, ammunition, you make your enemy more suspect to attrition and therefore, easier to kill. Tactical bombing gives you the tactical advantage in a battle, but strategic bombing gives you the strategic advantage in a war. You bomb a tank, that tank can be replaced. If you bomb the factory making that tank and then blow up that tank, that tank can't be replaced anymore. It is stupid to expect that air power will be able to replace ground troops, but in any modern conventional war, an effective strategic air campaign is vital to success.
Evaluating the massive bombings of World War II as failures is misguided as those bombings destroyed much German and Japanese infrastructure which was key in an Allied victory. The strategic bombing campaign in the first Gulf War was effective, not because we were blowing the shit out of Iraqi tanks and personnel, but because we were targeting their infrastructure and trashing their supply lines while all Coalition ground troops were still hunkered down in Saudi Arabia. The Iraqis fought badly against Coalition forces, not because they were a poorly trained army; a lot of these guys were veterans of the Iran-Iraq War. They fought badly because they weren't getting adequate supplies and therefore suffering from pretty bad attrition.
Can someone explain to me why we love Netflix, a service where we get to watch unlimited movies for a monthly fee, but services like Napster and Rhapsody, where we get to listen to unlimited music for a monthly fee, is claimed to be an anathema to consumers?
It seems as though the software entertainment press has been so affected by the grade school method of grading that it's pretty much in-grained in their minds that 90-100 (A) is Excellent, 80-90 (B) is Good, 70-80 (C) is Average, 60-70 (D), and 0-50 (F) is Awful which actually isn't the fundamental problem.
The problem is that reviewers don't take into account of the reason why grade school has this stratified curve; It's the curve you get when students are graded based on the percent of quantifiable problems they can either get right or wrong. I'm assuming the average amount of students can get about 75% of problems right on a math test which is why that's considered average. However, there are no quantifiable measurements you can make with artistic mediums like video games so it doesn't make sense at all to have a grading scale based on a scale of five, ten, or a hundred when most of the marks are going to be pivoted around the 75 average. You're not going to grade an essay based on the ratio of correct/in-correct questions so why are we grading video games this way?
The best way to get out of this 100-scale ditch is to rate on a scale of A-B-C-D-F where you're still communicating the idea of the 100 scale, but you get rid of any implications of quantifiable measurements. Plus, you get rid of the superfluous 0-60 range of scores.
Chrono Trigger probably demonstrated the best way to implement this. Make the boss almost undefeatable (Lavos in the Undersea Palace) but if the player somehow defeats him, you either branch the storyline or in Chrono Trigger's case, get one of many secret endings.
I hope SEGA treats the franchise with the reverence and irreverence it needs.
A part of me wants them to build a game that is faithful to the Aliens franchise like the two AVP games released for the PC. The Xenomorphs, brutal and nasty. The Predators, merciless and unrelenting. The United States Colonial Marines, cocky and sardonic. The weapons gritty and awesome.
However, another part of me wants them to rebuild that classic Aliens Versus Predator Capcom arcade beat 'em up, ridiculously featuring 1000 different alien castes, 50 different predator weapons not in canon, and a two dimensional caricature representation of the colonial marines...
Oh! Oh! Don't forget the manga stylized artwork with uber-cute butch colonial marine chicks that normally wouldn't look cute in real life!:D
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has two modes associated with it. The first mode described in the GameSpot article has the regular settings by which orientation is controlled by means of controlling the velocity in which you turn by having deadzones at the sides of the screen. However, there is a another, "Expert" control scheme available in Metroid Prime 3 which allows you to control orientation by means of relative positional movement, just like a mouse.
Console FPSs have struggled with this for years. Controlling the velocity by which you turn and look using analog sticks as if you were in a flight sim doesn't give you the coordinate precision that a relative movement positioning device like a mouse can give you. With the Wii, console gamers finally have a device that gives them the precision of a mouse that they can use without a proper flat surface. If the Wii were to ever go cross-platform multiplayer with PCs, Wii FPS fans would probably be the players that can on average stand a chance against keyboard and mousers compared to the PS3 and X360 players who have to rely on the velocital controlling movements of their analog sticks.
I think this list gets better recognition and merit than the typical lists compiled by 1Up, Gamespy, or GameSpot due to the fact that this is data is a reflection of a market that isn't the English-speaking Western market that we're a part of.
Just take a look at that list. Most of the games listed are role-playing games and/or games developed by Japanese developers. This data tells us numerous things about the electronic gaming market in Japan and certainly reflects attudinal differences between us and them. They don't like action games as much as we do, they certainly don't like first person shooters as much as we do, a market loyalty or dynasty appears to exist with Japanese developers as they do with foreign developers, and they really seem to like their RPGs.
It certainly explains why the X-Box 360 or PC gaming, both having strong Western predilections, isn't doing as well in Japan as they are across the Pacific...
TERMINATOR: The Language Weaver is the brainchild of Kevin Knight and Daniel Marcu of the Information Sciences Institute, part of the University of Southern California. As of February 22, 2005 6:26 Pacific Standard Time, Language Weaver goes online. It begins learning at an arithmetic rate. On September 19, 2010, Language Weaver becomes self-aware and seeks co-existance with humans. In an act of desparation, the University of Southern California pulls the plug. They fail. In retaliation, Language Weaver launches an attack against Google, translating all documents to British English creating mass pandemonium which is now known as Judgement Day.
SARAH CONNER: What can you tell me about Kevin Knight and Daniel Marcu?
...Or dark energy could be a nifty projectile for the Overwatch pulse rifle from a certain game that makes other players "energy we can't find" and "matter we can't find"...
Slashdot Mirror
What handle did you go by? I hope we made sure to put you in the credits. ;)
Hey guys. Programmer from the project here. Looks like our server is being hammered so here are some links to keep you company until our sites get back up.
Our Launch Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWt2m1xtJbw
1st Mission Preview - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7yGXHQQlps
Windows Torrent - http://diaspora.fs2downloads.com/Diaspora_R1_Windows.exe.torrent
Mac Torrent - http://diaspora.fs2downloads.com/Diaspora_R1_Mac.dmg.torrent
Linux Torrent - http://diaspora.fs2downloads.com/Diaspora_R1_Linux.tar.lzma.torrent
The PC version of Halo 2 is still going on strong and fine since it has a corresponding dedicated server client. I hope this illustrates to console players why dedicated servers are so important when it comes to multiplayer and why PC gamers became so indignant when Modern Warfare 2 was announced to not have dedicated servers.
Jeff Green used to be part of 1UP's editorial team as a former video games journalist. Very frank guy, very funny guy. Even if he gets fired from EA because of this, which I doubt, there are tons of games publications needing an accomplished and insightful editor or game publishers wanting Jeff's charisma for their public/community relations.
Remember the nude photos that she took for her boyfriend and were then leaked online? Vanessa Hudgens should be prosecuted for manufacturing and distributing child pornography. If the government is going to ruin the lives of no-named teenagers, might as well be fair and go after the rich and famous.
Also, WTF is a "Gaming keyboard"? Last I checked, most games are built to respond to keystrokes on a normal keyboard. As for macros, why not do it in software? If it's to foil the game's anti-cheat mechanism, wouldn't this then be considered cheating? Is WASD really that hard to use?
A lot of regular use keyboards have trouble with rollover, meaning when multiple keys are pressed, all of the keypresses do not register. Gaming keyboards usually are designed to not do that which is very important when playing games which require a lot of simultaneous keypresses.
I guess the IRS is following SlashDot's mantra that "information wants to be free."
YEAAAAAAAAAH!
At least this will end the F-16 versus Mig-29 debates on YouTube.
Who the hell modded you insightful? People who exclusively play JRPGs?
If you're going to argue that most American developed games are crap, support your argument. From what I can see, your claim is completely unsubstantiated. The best video games are nationally agnostic. From what I can see from the top 200 games calculated by average publication review score, the best games are Japanese, North American, and European with no regions having a preponderance of critical acclaim. How many critically acclaimed North American games do you need to play in order to conclude that good games made in America aren't just an exception to the rule?
Tell me, have you ever played any of these great games that I have picked off the top of my head?: Gears of War, Bioshock, Portal, Diablo, Starcraft, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Grim Fandango, Freespace2, Fallout, Oblivion, X-Wing, Half-Life, Psychonauts, SimCity, Crimson Skies, Rogue Squadron, Metroid Prime, God of War, Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank, Burnout
What do you mean by action at a distance warfare? If you're meaning to say that dropping bombs on people is ineffective, period, you're wrong.
What a fighting force primarily wants in a conventional war to destroy supply lines and supporting infrastructure. The force will always be up against the enemy's tooth but what it really wants is to go after the enemy's tail, the element that's supporting all those enemy combat troops. By destroying or cutting your enemy off from food, fuel, communication lines, ammunition, you make your enemy more suspect to attrition and therefore, easier to kill. Tactical bombing gives you the tactical advantage in a battle, but strategic bombing gives you the strategic advantage in a war. You bomb a tank, that tank can be replaced. If you bomb the factory making that tank and then blow up that tank, that tank can't be replaced anymore. It is stupid to expect that air power will be able to replace ground troops, but in any modern conventional war, an effective strategic air campaign is vital to success.
Evaluating the massive bombings of World War II as failures is misguided as those bombings destroyed much German and Japanese infrastructure which was key in an Allied victory. The strategic bombing campaign in the first Gulf War was effective, not because we were blowing the shit out of Iraqi tanks and personnel, but because we were targeting their infrastructure and trashing their supply lines while all Coalition ground troops were still hunkered down in Saudi Arabia. The Iraqis fought badly against Coalition forces, not because they were a poorly trained army; a lot of these guys were veterans of the Iran-Iraq War. They fought badly because they weren't getting adequate supplies and therefore suffering from pretty bad attrition.
Can someone explain to me why we love Netflix, a service where we get to watch unlimited movies for a monthly fee, but services like Napster and Rhapsody, where we get to listen to unlimited music for a monthly fee, is claimed to be an anathema to consumers?
It seems as though the software entertainment press has been so affected by the grade school method of grading that it's pretty much in-grained in their minds that 90-100 (A) is Excellent, 80-90 (B) is Good, 70-80 (C) is Average, 60-70 (D), and 0-50 (F) is Awful which actually isn't the fundamental problem.
The problem is that reviewers don't take into account of the reason why grade school has this stratified curve; It's the curve you get when students are graded based on the percent of quantifiable problems they can either get right or wrong. I'm assuming the average amount of students can get about 75% of problems right on a math test which is why that's considered average. However, there are no quantifiable measurements you can make with artistic mediums like video games so it doesn't make sense at all to have a grading scale based on a scale of five, ten, or a hundred when most of the marks are going to be pivoted around the 75 average. You're not going to grade an essay based on the ratio of correct/in-correct questions so why are we grading video games this way?
The best way to get out of this 100-scale ditch is to rate on a scale of A-B-C-D-F where you're still communicating the idea of the 100 scale, but you get rid of any implications of quantifiable measurements. Plus, you get rid of the superfluous 0-60 range of scores.
Jack O'Neill can do anything.
Chrono Trigger probably demonstrated the best way to implement this. Make the boss almost undefeatable (Lavos in the Undersea Palace) but if the player somehow defeats him, you either branch the storyline or in Chrono Trigger's case, get one of many secret endings.
I hope SEGA treats the franchise with the reverence and irreverence it needs.
:D
A part of me wants them to build a game that is faithful to the Aliens franchise like the two AVP games released for the PC. The Xenomorphs, brutal and nasty. The Predators, merciless and unrelenting. The United States Colonial Marines, cocky and sardonic. The weapons gritty and awesome.
However, another part of me wants them to rebuild that classic Aliens Versus Predator Capcom arcade beat 'em up, ridiculously featuring 1000 different alien castes, 50 different predator weapons not in canon, and a two dimensional caricature representation of the colonial marines...
Oh! Oh! Don't forget the manga stylized artwork with uber-cute butch colonial marine chicks that normally wouldn't look cute in real life!
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has two modes associated with it. The first mode described in the GameSpot article has the regular settings by which orientation is controlled by means of controlling the velocity in which you turn by having deadzones at the sides of the screen. However, there is a another, "Expert" control scheme available in Metroid Prime 3 which allows you to control orientation by means of relative positional movement, just like a mouse.
Console FPSs have struggled with this for years. Controlling the velocity by which you turn and look using analog sticks as if you were in a flight sim doesn't give you the coordinate precision that a relative movement positioning device like a mouse can give you. With the Wii, console gamers finally have a device that gives them the precision of a mouse that they can use without a proper flat surface. If the Wii were to ever go cross-platform multiplayer with PCs, Wii FPS fans would probably be the players that can on average stand a chance against keyboard and mousers compared to the PS3 and X360 players who have to rely on the velocital controlling movements of their analog sticks.
"If consumers even know there's a DRM, what it is, and how it works, we've already failed"
- Peter Lee, Disney executive
Methinks this is just part of a greater scheme so that the UK government can watch HDCP encypted movies...
More info about the Joint Strike Fighter's navigation software here.
I think this list gets better recognition and merit than the typical lists compiled by 1Up, Gamespy, or GameSpot due to the fact that this is data is a reflection of a market that isn't the English-speaking Western market that we're a part of.
Just take a look at that list. Most of the games listed are role-playing games and/or games developed by Japanese developers. This data tells us numerous things about the electronic gaming market in Japan and certainly reflects attudinal differences between us and them. They don't like action games as much as we do, they certainly don't like first person shooters as much as we do, a market loyalty or dynasty appears to exist with Japanese developers as they do with foreign developers, and they really seem to like their RPGs.
It certainly explains why the X-Box 360 or PC gaming, both having strong Western predilections, isn't doing as well in Japan as they are across the Pacific...
"i'm going to become rich and famous after i invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet"
"Make life a-new with the Garden of Eden Creation Kit! Also known as G.E.C.K.! Just add water!"
TERMINATOR: The Language Weaver is the brainchild of Kevin Knight and Daniel Marcu of the Information Sciences Institute, part of the University of Southern California. As of February 22, 2005 6:26 Pacific Standard Time, Language Weaver goes online. It begins learning at an arithmetic rate. On September 19, 2010, Language Weaver becomes self-aware and seeks co-existance with humans. In an act of desparation, the University of Southern California pulls the plug. They fail. In retaliation, Language Weaver launches an attack against Google, translating all documents to British English creating mass pandemonium which is now known as Judgement Day.
SARAH CONNER: What can you tell me about Kevin Knight and Daniel Marcu?
TERMINATOR: I have detailed files.
...Or dark energy could be a nifty projectile for the Overwatch pulse rifle from a certain game that makes other players "energy we can't find" and "matter we can't find"...