good level design requires a lot of skill and experience, and most people don't have that.
Most people won't need it though. As the GP states, only a handful will rise to the top as the best levels. If the developers are really smart, they'll allow multiple people to work together to build a level and play it. That's really where the fun stuff comes in. If you have multiple people creating obstacles and whole levels, then it really becomes a group challenge and then you have a few mediocre people making a level that they themselves find fun. If they're having fun, then the game has served it's purpose. Even if you just share your levels between friends and they suck, the game is still a success because it's engaged those people to be creative.
I love how the same people that relish Nintendo's creative bent and defend it's games as not being made for kids bash Sony for the exact same reasons.
As for the charge that this is a kid's game, it isn't. Yes, it has pretty graphics and cute music. However, it also has dynamic content and world creation, something that the average 8-12 year old isn't capable of handling or caring about. This game isn't going to appeal to kids, just like Psychonauts didn't appeal to kids otherwise it would have sold more. It appeals to industry insiders, developers, and anyone with a creative bent and a copy of photoshop.
Will kids like it upon seeing it? Definitely. Will the community content be built by these kids? Definitely not. This is a graphics artist funhouse waiting to happen.
Putting aside the rest of the comments at your thread level that are discussing who's killing gaming more, Microsoft or Sony, the guy does have a point. CPU power is used for more than graphics these days, especially now that GPUs are so powerful. Multithreading applications are extremely necessary for even the most supposedly rudimentary tasks, particularly as multiplayer gaming becomes more popular. How do you handle 3 and 4 players in the same game displayed at the same time in split screens if you don't have the CPU power? Add in the AI (Pathfinding anyone?), 3D sound effects, networking, and the operating system overhead and you don't have much to work with. CPU power matters for more than just pretty graphics, you know.
Second question: did they reveal what kind of bandwidth you're going to need to walk around a virtual world with HD video streaming on billboards?
I didn't hear any comment, but I doubt they're going to have 20 videos blasting in your face. Most of the video content I've downloaded from PSN has been 20 MB at most, so it can't take that long.
Third Question: Playstation Edge. I assume this is only for licensed developers, yes? Meaning that there's STILL no way for a hobbyist developer to make anything...
Most likely, but no official announcement has been made yet. It's too early in the conference and the session is later today. As for the hobbyist developers, there really isn't any incentive for Sony to launch that yet. It's only 6 months into the consoles life for crissakes. As Zonk alluded to, there's a huge amount of possibility with Home and I doubt that Sony is going to let people not develop with something similar to XBLA. If they created this in response to Mii's and XB Accomplishments, I'm pretty sure they have something up for homebrew.
Finally, regarding LittleBigPlanet, how is this different from, say, half-life 2 with garry's mod?
Garry's mod isn't a game per say. This is - you compete in puzzles and minigames in a map (which has a name but I can't remember it) by working in cooperation with other players. You balance on a beam, climb ropes, and complete puzzles. You don't necessarily have to create the content as some will be available for purchase and with the game, supposedly. So content creation is along the lines of both modifying your character and creating unique maps for other players to play. You can keep track of who's playing your maps and what other maps are popular.
Couple of quick comments on your PS3 comments. Fair criticisms, but a few points I want to make.
the only PS3 game I have that supports it so far is Resistance- I'm not about to subject myself to playing a FPS online, though I suspect that I may play Motor Storm online once I pick it up
Every game I have for the PS3 supports online - Resistance, Blazing Angels, Ridge Racer 7, MLB2k7. The online experiences vary with each, but the connections are consistent. The only game I've experienced lag in was Ridge Racer 7, and it was pretty bad. It only happens once in a while when someone in Japan is hosting (I'm in the US, so a little lag is understandable). I've only seen lag in Resistance once in 50 matches, and that was a 40 player game and the lag was just a small jump of a player. It was hardly noticeable and I had two other laptops going on the same wireless connection at the time. All in all, I'm very satisfied with the PS3 online experience.
The Playstation Network on the PS3 also has a few things going for it- at least I haven't found it nearly as convoluted as everyone tries to make it out to be.
The interface is pretty easy to ignore and I hardly use the friends options. However, I have noticed a few inconsistencies. The biggest thing is that Resistance doesn't seem to populate the Recent Players list on the PS3 XMB, so it's difficult to match up with players you meet in that game. Most of the others I've played around with - Blazing Angels and Full Auto 2 - work well with the XMB. Games have been easy to find and join in all games, and the integration with online is seamless in many of them - RR7 especially is pretty transparent between the network and game itself. You can easily upload race times after a race and the streaming updates on track times and rankings on the main menu is pretty cool as well. I think that this kind of thing is going to become the norm in PS3 games to the point where you can't even tell the difference between what is streaming from online and what isn't.
PS1 games for the PSP isn't a bad deal, I've paid for a few of those, although I do wish that I had the option of playing them on the PS3 as well as the PSP).
That's rumored to come in the next major firmware update, which could be as early as today and as late as next week due to the launch of the PS3 in Europe.
Of course there's a sequel!
on
Crackdown Review
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· Score: 4, Funny
Can someone tell me whether there will be a sequel or not?
Are you kidding me? The game has been released for about two weeks. Of course there will be a sequel! In fact, it was started soon after the original game was pitched to publishers. It should be coming out in September, as part of Microsoft's one-three punch with Halo 3 and a price drop to annhilate the Wii, PS3, DS, PSP, Dreamcast, Genesis, and all other competition from the historty books and all eternity. Other consoles will only be a comma taught to game designers everywhere thanks to this game's sequel Crackdown 2: When Crystal Meth Attacks!
I'm going to point you to my Journal on the Wii and PS3 here. I really don't think the PS3 is in as much trouble as people say it is. There's a strong offering in the pipeline and they're in a much better place now than the Xbox 360 was a year ago. I think Sony would be in big trouble if the console wasn't as widely available on the shelf as it is today. The $600 to the 360's $400 isn't that intimidating, IMO, once you factor in Xbox Live ($50 for a one year subscription, right?) and HD DVD. The down side is that most consumers won't take the Xbox Live into account probably because you can pay month-to-month, right?
I'm going to say this is a big deal in the short run, but not a big deal in the long run. In two years the library will be large enough for the PS3 that few people will be using their PS2 games that much. Right now, however, the library is much smaller and so PS2 games definitely substitute for that lack of games. I myself have bought a few (I didn't own a PS2) since getting the PS3 and have had no problems since the 1.5 update.
I'll temper the statement with the fact that a lot of great games are coming out in the next two months or so, including Motorstorm, Enchanted Arms, MLB 07 The Show, and Lair. That's coupled with the two fighting games that just came out and older games like Oblivion and FEAR, neither of which I've played for various reasons. So this might not be as important right now as I think.
We're talking even the smallest retailers have a a stack of half a dozen machines, with the big stores having stacks of the things.
You're right, I was just in Best Buy and Circuit City last night, and thanks to Sony's console I now have two pending lawsuits due to negligence from stumbling over the damn boxes! They're piled up outside and the retailers can't even give them away!
Let's cut the hyperbole for a second. If the crisis was as bad as you say it is, two things would be happening.
1) Retailers would be screaming for a price cut or motivational factor to move the consoles. They don't want them sitting on the floor, they want them moving, especially due to the high price of the investment that it represents in inventory. If it was really bad, they'd be willing to take the loss that a price drop to consumers represents and would demand that Sony reimburse them. There have been no public reports of this.
2) Sony wouldn't be shipping as many consoles as they are currently. How many consoles have they shipped to date? 2 million?. If they are not selling like you say they are, then the next quarterly report will note a decrease in console shipments (so less than 2 million more shipped). Until then, you can make no conclusions about how the actual console is selling because retailers won't report this information fast enough!
First person comments do not count! Give me a statistic - a published report of 24 consoles per big box retailer or something. But piles and piles doesn't mean anything to me. Besides, you don't know how many of those are empty boxes. To have a $600 console just sitting on the floor without protection (especially in the smaller Gamestops and EBGames) is kind of stupid since someone will just run out the door with them.
One of the nicest things about the PS3 in the US is its backwards compatibility. I'm basically able to buy any game from anywhere and play it without a problem using the newest firmware. Not having a PS2, this was a pretty nice feature. FFXII looks and plays really nice, as does older games like Deus Ex, which I bought specifically to test whether the PS3 would play it. Makes even less sense that they're going to do this without lowering the cost of the console for consumers.
This is not troubling for Sony - let's check Xbox 360 last year at this time. Gamasutra reports that last January 2006 Xbox 360 sold approximately 250,000 units, about the same as PS3 this year. That's without a competitor with an excellent games library or a competitor which is the newest fad and phenomenon that outsold you 2:1. In fact, this January the Xbox only sold 40,000 more than last January. And that's without the supply issue that last year's sales displayed. So basically, the 360 isn't exactly red hot either. If the 360 was so amazing, it'd be killing the PS3. As it is, it's barely holding on.
She stopped playing in public in the 1970s, having never attained much prominence as an artist. The retired critic James Methuen-Campbell heard two of her recitals in London's Wigmore Hall and recalls a pianist with an efficient and careful technique, but with an inability to convey the overall conception of a major work. Her approach, in his opinion, concentrated on detail.
While Resistence wasn't the best FPS ever made, the online definitely leaves Halo in the dust. I got bored of Halo in Halo 2...I didn't even finish the game. They had me for the first hour or so but as soon as I ended up on another Halo ring, I thought the plot went bust. The only difference was this twist in prophets and all that, but it was still pretty uninspired. I've played both Halo 2 multiplayer and Resistence, and I like Resistence better - it's lag free, large, fun battles with no cost outside that of the console and the game.
The fact that it didn't sell more than one million units isn't the fault of the game so much as the fault that the PS3 doesn't have as large of an install base as the 360 yet. To compare the two bases is dumb since the 360 has been out a year and had a worse launch than the PS3, fanboy hype aside. Using numbers sold to gauge a quality game would indicate that Barbie's Playworld or whatever was a much better game than Psychonauts, which I think we all know isn't true.
I guess this seems to be aimed at astroturfing as well, but without the text of the law it's hard to tell if this is aimed strictly at reviews or statements of opinion...I think there is a fine line. If you're on a website posting a rating of something versus a fanboy website there is a difference - I think few people would have taken the Sony PSP website seriously had it even been from a real fan, just as those flame wars that happen on message boards everywhere rarely sway a person one way or the other. But if you're purporting to review something with all seriousness, I think that's blatantly misleading with intent to influence someone. Astroturfing can be more subtle even if they have the desired effect.
I'm not defending them, I'm just anticipating possible arguments from high paid lawyers if the text isn't specific enough.
Slashdot Mirror
It's $599, after tax possibly $650. No way has it ever been $700.
Between F2 and GTA4, Microsoft is going to pwn Sony.
I think you deserve a pat on the back.
Finally a corporate shill has the balls to say who he is!
VTE contractor @ Microsoft: Windows SH team
good level design requires a lot of skill and experience, and most people don't have that.
Most people won't need it though. As the GP states, only a handful will rise to the top as the best levels. If the developers are really smart, they'll allow multiple people to work together to build a level and play it. That's really where the fun stuff comes in. If you have multiple people creating obstacles and whole levels, then it really becomes a group challenge and then you have a few mediocre people making a level that they themselves find fun. If they're having fun, then the game has served it's purpose. Even if you just share your levels between friends and they suck, the game is still a success because it's engaged those people to be creative.
I love how the same people that relish Nintendo's creative bent and defend it's games as not being made for kids bash Sony for the exact same reasons.
As for the charge that this is a kid's game, it isn't. Yes, it has pretty graphics and cute music. However, it also has dynamic content and world creation, something that the average 8-12 year old isn't capable of handling or caring about. This game isn't going to appeal to kids, just like Psychonauts didn't appeal to kids otherwise it would have sold more. It appeals to industry insiders, developers, and anyone with a creative bent and a copy of photoshop.
Will kids like it upon seeing it? Definitely. Will the community content be built by these kids? Definitely not. This is a graphics artist funhouse waiting to happen.
Putting aside the rest of the comments at your thread level that are discussing who's killing gaming more, Microsoft or Sony, the guy does have a point. CPU power is used for more than graphics these days, especially now that GPUs are so powerful. Multithreading applications are extremely necessary for even the most supposedly rudimentary tasks, particularly as multiplayer gaming becomes more popular. How do you handle 3 and 4 players in the same game displayed at the same time in split screens if you don't have the CPU power? Add in the AI (Pathfinding anyone?), 3D sound effects, networking, and the operating system overhead and you don't have much to work with. CPU power matters for more than just pretty graphics, you know.
But no, instead we get some worthless service that is designed to appeal to the "I spend $50 per month on ringtones" market.
So the Wii is genius for appealing to casual gamers, but the PS3 is fucking ridiculous for doing the same thing? Hmmm....
I can't tell if you're trolling, but I'll bite...
Second question: did they reveal what kind of bandwidth you're going to need to walk around a virtual world with HD video streaming on billboards?
I didn't hear any comment, but I doubt they're going to have 20 videos blasting in your face. Most of the video content I've downloaded from PSN has been 20 MB at most, so it can't take that long.
Third Question: Playstation Edge. I assume this is only for licensed developers, yes? Meaning that there's STILL no way for a hobbyist developer to make anything...
Most likely, but no official announcement has been made yet. It's too early in the conference and the session is later today. As for the hobbyist developers, there really isn't any incentive for Sony to launch that yet. It's only 6 months into the consoles life for crissakes. As Zonk alluded to, there's a huge amount of possibility with Home and I doubt that Sony is going to let people not develop with something similar to XBLA. If they created this in response to Mii's and XB Accomplishments, I'm pretty sure they have something up for homebrew.
Finally, regarding LittleBigPlanet, how is this different from, say, half-life 2 with garry's mod?
Garry's mod isn't a game per say. This is - you compete in puzzles and minigames in a map (which has a name but I can't remember it) by working in cooperation with other players. You balance on a beam, climb ropes, and complete puzzles. You don't necessarily have to create the content as some will be available for purchase and with the game, supposedly. So content creation is along the lines of both modifying your character and creating unique maps for other players to play. You can keep track of who's playing your maps and what other maps are popular.
Couple of quick comments on your PS3 comments. Fair criticisms, but a few points I want to make.
the only PS3 game I have that supports it so far is Resistance- I'm not about to subject myself to playing a FPS online, though I suspect that I may play Motor Storm online once I pick it up
Every game I have for the PS3 supports online - Resistance, Blazing Angels, Ridge Racer 7, MLB2k7. The online experiences vary with each, but the connections are consistent. The only game I've experienced lag in was Ridge Racer 7, and it was pretty bad. It only happens once in a while when someone in Japan is hosting (I'm in the US, so a little lag is understandable). I've only seen lag in Resistance once in 50 matches, and that was a 40 player game and the lag was just a small jump of a player. It was hardly noticeable and I had two other laptops going on the same wireless connection at the time. All in all, I'm very satisfied with the PS3 online experience.
The Playstation Network on the PS3 also has a few things going for it- at least I haven't found it nearly as convoluted as everyone tries to make it out to be.
The interface is pretty easy to ignore and I hardly use the friends options. However, I have noticed a few inconsistencies. The biggest thing is that Resistance doesn't seem to populate the Recent Players list on the PS3 XMB, so it's difficult to match up with players you meet in that game. Most of the others I've played around with - Blazing Angels and Full Auto 2 - work well with the XMB. Games have been easy to find and join in all games, and the integration with online is seamless in many of them - RR7 especially is pretty transparent between the network and game itself. You can easily upload race times after a race and the streaming updates on track times and rankings on the main menu is pretty cool as well. I think that this kind of thing is going to become the norm in PS3 games to the point where you can't even tell the difference between what is streaming from online and what isn't.
PS1 games for the PSP isn't a bad deal, I've paid for a few of those, although I do wish that I had the option of playing them on the PS3 as well as the PSP).
That's rumored to come in the next major firmware update, which could be as early as today and as late as next week due to the launch of the PS3 in Europe.
Yes, this is a typical example of a slashvertisement. Nothing to see, move along.
Ha Ha! Sorry. Mod me -1 for ignorance.
Can someone tell me whether there will be a sequel or not?
Are you kidding me? The game has been released for about two weeks. Of course there will be a sequel! In fact, it was started soon after the original game was pitched to publishers. It should be coming out in September, as part of Microsoft's one-three punch with Halo 3 and a price drop to annhilate the Wii, PS3, DS, PSP, Dreamcast, Genesis, and all other competition from the historty books and all eternity. Other consoles will only be a comma taught to game designers everywhere thanks to this game's sequel Crackdown 2: When Crystal Meth Attacks!
Sorry, went a little overboard there.
At least justify why you think a correction is in order.
Was that an irish coffee?
I'm going to point you to my Journal on the Wii and PS3 here. I really don't think the PS3 is in as much trouble as people say it is. There's a strong offering in the pipeline and they're in a much better place now than the Xbox 360 was a year ago. I think Sony would be in big trouble if the console wasn't as widely available on the shelf as it is today. The $600 to the 360's $400 isn't that intimidating, IMO, once you factor in Xbox Live ($50 for a one year subscription, right?) and HD DVD. The down side is that most consumers won't take the Xbox Live into account probably because you can pay month-to-month, right?
Good to know about Enchanted Arms. Thanks!
I'm going to say this is a big deal in the short run, but not a big deal in the long run. In two years the library will be large enough for the PS3 that few people will be using their PS2 games that much. Right now, however, the library is much smaller and so PS2 games definitely substitute for that lack of games. I myself have bought a few (I didn't own a PS2) since getting the PS3 and have had no problems since the 1.5 update.
I'll temper the statement with the fact that a lot of great games are coming out in the next two months or so, including Motorstorm, Enchanted Arms, MLB 07 The Show, and Lair. That's coupled with the two fighting games that just came out and older games like Oblivion and FEAR, neither of which I've played for various reasons. So this might not be as important right now as I think.
Actually, I'd wait on buying one. It's already been patched so unless you already have one or buy an unpatched one on Ebay, this hack is useless.
We're talking even the smallest retailers have a a stack of half a dozen machines, with the big stores having stacks of the things.
You're right, I was just in Best Buy and Circuit City last night, and thanks to Sony's console I now have two pending lawsuits due to negligence from stumbling over the damn boxes! They're piled up outside and the retailers can't even give them away!
Let's cut the hyperbole for a second. If the crisis was as bad as you say it is, two things would be happening.
1) Retailers would be screaming for a price cut or motivational factor to move the consoles. They don't want them sitting on the floor, they want them moving, especially due to the high price of the investment that it represents in inventory. If it was really bad, they'd be willing to take the loss that a price drop to consumers represents and would demand that Sony reimburse them. There have been no public reports of this.
2) Sony wouldn't be shipping as many consoles as they are currently. How many consoles have they shipped to date? 2 million?. If they are not selling like you say they are, then the next quarterly report will note a decrease in console shipments (so less than 2 million more shipped). Until then, you can make no conclusions about how the actual console is selling because retailers won't report this information fast enough!
First person comments do not count! Give me a statistic - a published report of 24 consoles per big box retailer or something. But piles and piles doesn't mean anything to me. Besides, you don't know how many of those are empty boxes. To have a $600 console just sitting on the floor without protection (especially in the smaller Gamestops and EBGames) is kind of stupid since someone will just run out the door with them.
The PS3 has this switch too...I use it if the web browser crashes occasionally (usually loading some insanely flashed or image hungry site).
...of importing the US/JPY PS3 in the first place. Nice Catch-22, Sony.
One of the nicest things about the PS3 in the US is its backwards compatibility. I'm basically able to buy any game from anywhere and play it without a problem using the newest firmware. Not having a PS2, this was a pretty nice feature. FFXII looks and plays really nice, as does older games like Deus Ex, which I bought specifically to test whether the PS3 would play it. Makes even less sense that they're going to do this without lowering the cost of the console for consumers.
This is not troubling for Sony - let's check Xbox 360 last year at this time. Gamasutra reports that last January 2006 Xbox 360 sold approximately 250,000 units, about the same as PS3 this year. That's without a competitor with an excellent games library or a competitor which is the newest fad and phenomenon that outsold you 2:1. In fact, this January the Xbox only sold 40,000 more than last January. And that's without the supply issue that last year's sales displayed. So basically, the 360 isn't exactly red hot either. If the 360 was so amazing, it'd be killing the PS3. As it is, it's barely holding on.
From the unsourced Wikipedia article:
She stopped playing in public in the 1970s, having never attained much prominence as an artist. The retired critic James Methuen-Campbell heard two of her recitals in London's Wigmore Hall and recalls a pianist with an efficient and careful technique, but with an inability to convey the overall conception of a major work. Her approach, in his opinion, concentrated on detail.
While Resistence wasn't the best FPS ever made, the online definitely leaves Halo in the dust. I got bored of Halo in Halo 2...I didn't even finish the game. They had me for the first hour or so but as soon as I ended up on another Halo ring, I thought the plot went bust. The only difference was this twist in prophets and all that, but it was still pretty uninspired. I've played both Halo 2 multiplayer and Resistence, and I like Resistence better - it's lag free, large, fun battles with no cost outside that of the console and the game.
The fact that it didn't sell more than one million units isn't the fault of the game so much as the fault that the PS3 doesn't have as large of an install base as the 360 yet. To compare the two bases is dumb since the 360 has been out a year and had a worse launch than the PS3, fanboy hype aside. Using numbers sold to gauge a quality game would indicate that Barbie's Playworld or whatever was a much better game than Psychonauts, which I think we all know isn't true.
I guess this seems to be aimed at astroturfing as well, but without the text of the law it's hard to tell if this is aimed strictly at reviews or statements of opinion...I think there is a fine line. If you're on a website posting a rating of something versus a fanboy website there is a difference - I think few people would have taken the Sony PSP website seriously had it even been from a real fan, just as those flame wars that happen on message boards everywhere rarely sway a person one way or the other. But if you're purporting to review something with all seriousness, I think that's blatantly misleading with intent to influence someone. Astroturfing can be more subtle even if they have the desired effect.
I'm not defending them, I'm just anticipating possible arguments from high paid lawyers if the text isn't specific enough.