ScummVM is excellent, I have to say. I remember a number of years ago I was in a independent game store in London and, there on the shelf, I spotted a copy of The Dig... for £2. £2!! Wow.
It was a DOS game and being a Linux user, I felt a little bit dismayed that I wouldn't be able to play it, unless I booted into Windows or wrestled with DOS Box. My brother then pointed out that it was supported by ScummVM, so I thought, what the hell, it's only £2... So I bought it, give it a go and it worked like a charm. First try too. No issues at all.
So, thanks to the ScummVM team, who without I would not have been able to play The Dig, Beneath a Steel Sky, and Flight of the Amazon Queen. All legally too!
Early reviews? Scores have been pouring in for weeks! The game has received more than two dozen reviews from numerous sources, the vast majority of which have been unanimous in their praise of the game. The only blips have been EDGE (a magazine which has been going rapidly downhill for the past few years) and Maxim's review, which scored less than 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. There again, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
Having played the demo and watched all the gameplay videos, I'm confident my pre-order decision was a good one (£30 off Play.com, so it's not exactly breaking the bank).
The only downer I felt was that the original cast members from the first game, Templer, Lugar, etc., are not the lead characters in this sequel. I'm not even sure if any of them feature at all, apart from an odd cutscene here and there. A shame, really. Sometimes I think video game writers and designers need to consider that games like Killzone should care more about what happens to these characters as they fight this war. They don't have to be the most overly developed of characters, but at least it would allow the player to build an affinity with them, be more drawn into the story, and therefore enjoy the game on another level. (rant over - sorry)
More like they've gone for the alleged tactic of the early Windows releases and just turned a blind eye to it, knowing that the end user base only benefit them in the long term...
I think it's a great idea! Mainly because I came up with it first and you stole it.
But, in all seriousness, I think this is something the *PC* market needs desperately! When you buy a PC game, you're stuck with it. You can't trade it in or exchange it if it's rubbish. There's too much risk!
However, if you could pay a subscription to, let's say Steam, and download as many games at a time as your subscription allowed, then there will be no more risk. Once you're done with the game, you could relinquish your lease on that game and download another. And if you wanted to keep it for good, you just have to pay a little bit extra to buy it.
Of course, this will never happen and legit gamers will just have to put up with DRM...
... in the UK is that young people now care more about who is going to win X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent than own performance at school.
And when you can just show up for an audition to a TV program, do a little dance and become rich and famous overnight, why on earth would you want an education?
The main problem with buying a PC game is that you're pretty much stuck with it.
What I mean by this is: if you buy a game for a console, you can be assured that if it turns out to be a bag of shit, you can take it back to where you bought it and either get store credit or just exchange it for something else.
You can't do this with PC games (not to my knowledge anyway). Once you've bought it, it's with you forever.
The risk involved in buying a game to play on your computer is far to high - It might be crap, it might not run properly, it might not run at all. There's too much risk.
I think what PC games really need is some sort of subscription system, whereby the user will pay a certain amount of money per month or year to download a set number of titles at any one time (let's just say 3 titles). Effectively you'll be renting the games, rather like when console gamers trade in their old ones to buy new ones.
Once you're bored of the game, you just revoke your lease on it and then get a different one instead. The data could stay on your hard drive in case you change your mind (and also so you don't have to download 6GBs each time you want to play).
Doing so would eliminate a great deal of the risk attached to buying a game that basically turns out to be rubbish.
(oh, and by the way - GTA4 is shit. That and Devil May Cry 4 are the worst games I played this year. You'll not care for either.)
"Hopefully movie theaters and restaurants do it next."
That's the one thing that really pisses me off when I go to watch a film in the cinema: some dickhead who decides to start texting or checking the football scores during the movie.
Seriously, these guys must be loaded if they can afford to pay £8 to watch a film and then spend the whole time on their fucking phone.
... they don't do anything really annoying like have a mandatory "music and movie tax" on all broadband connections.
For someone like me, that happily pays for movie and music that I enjoy, I wouldn't want to be helping to line the pockets of Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson, and all the other shit that is so prominent in the charts right now.
... fucks me off about the way the industry sometimes operates is that they will release a song to be played on the radio, but not allow people to buy the fucking thing for up to 6 weeks later.
Huh?! I cannot count the times that I've heard a song on a radio and thought, hey, I like that, I'll head over to my favourite online story and buy a copy, only to discover I won't be able to until over a month later.
Spontaneous purchases, that's what is going to sell more of Al's records...
Virgin Media are fucking shit. I moved from them myself. Their service becomes unusual between 4pm and midnight. At one stage I couldn't even get onto Google without the connection timing out.
And how come they are allowed to do such a thing?! One rule for them, another for us. Here's an example: The other day my brother calls me up to tell me he's lost his glasses. He's trekking in a jungle somewhere in Malaysia and now cannot see very well.
However, he asks me to get his prescription details so he can get a pair made up there. I then call the optician and explain the predicament. But, to my dismay, they refuse to hand over the details because it is a breach of the Data Protection Act. Erm... WHAT?!!
These ISPs should not be handing over any ones' details, at all. It's not like the users are planning to blow up Canary Wharf...
I think Lucas missed an opportunity to turn Indiana Jones into a James Bond-like franchise.
I believe that was the idea when Clive Cussler's Sahara was adapted to the big screen.
As I understand it there was a desire to turn Dirk Pitt into a brand new big screen hero, as a combination of James Bond and Indiana Jones, hence the tag line,
"Dirk Pitt. Adventure has a new name"
However, the film was a box office bomb and nothing else came of it.
It probably didn't help matters that Clive Cussler himself attempted to torpedo the franchise.
But, in fairness to him, he did request to approve the script and then they made alterations without consulting him after he'd signed off.
I've probably got some of this wrong, and I imagine Dirk Pitt fans will correct me:)
... "the web" was lots of computers all networked together, clients and servers. Which, if it is, mean that the web remains what it was yesterday, what it is today, and what it will be tomorrow.
Slashdot Mirror
ScummVM is excellent, I have to say. I remember a number of years ago I was in a independent game store in London and, there on the shelf, I spotted a copy of The Dig... for £2. £2!! Wow.
It was a DOS game and being a Linux user, I felt a little bit dismayed that I wouldn't be able to play it, unless I booted into Windows or wrestled with DOS Box. My brother then pointed out that it was supported by ScummVM, so I thought, what the hell, it's only £2... So I bought it, give it a go and it worked like a charm. First try too. No issues at all.
So, thanks to the ScummVM team, who without I would not have been able to play The Dig, Beneath a Steel Sky, and Flight of the Amazon Queen. All legally too!
Early reviews? Scores have been pouring in for weeks! The game has received more than two dozen reviews from numerous sources, the vast majority of which have been unanimous in their praise of the game. The only blips have been EDGE (a magazine which has been going rapidly downhill for the past few years) and Maxim's review, which scored less than 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. There again, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
Having played the demo and watched all the gameplay videos, I'm confident my pre-order decision was a good one (£30 off Play.com, so it's not exactly breaking the bank).
The only downer I felt was that the original cast members from the first game, Templer, Lugar, etc., are not the lead characters in this sequel. I'm not even sure if any of them feature at all, apart from an odd cutscene here and there. A shame, really. Sometimes I think video game writers and designers need to consider that games like Killzone should care more about what happens to these characters as they fight this war. They don't have to be the most overly developed of characters, but at least it would allow the player to build an affinity with them, be more drawn into the story, and therefore enjoy the game on another level. (rant over - sorry)
In Soviet Russia, "rm -rf /" deletes you! :)
More like they've gone for the alleged tactic of the early Windows releases and just turned a blind eye to it, knowing that the end user base only benefit them in the long term...
"Good idea? Bad idea?"
I think it's a great idea! Mainly because I came up with it first and you stole it.
But, in all seriousness, I think this is something the *PC* market needs desperately! When you buy a PC game, you're stuck with it. You can't trade it in or exchange it if it's rubbish. There's too much risk!
However, if you could pay a subscription to, let's say Steam, and download as many games at a time as your subscription allowed, then there will be no more risk. Once you're done with the game, you could relinquish your lease on that game and download another. And if you wanted to keep it for good, you just have to pay a little bit extra to buy it.
Of course, this will never happen and legit gamers will just have to put up with DRM...
Blob Wars : Metal Blob Solid
Project: Starfighter
Virus Killer
All are 2D software rendering with screen modes of 640x480 or 800x600. They've proved fairly popular in the past...
Bart: Hey guys, just so you don't hear any wild rumors, an Australian judge has ruled that some drawings of us are considered to be child porn.
Homer: Pfff. That's no reason to block the TV.
Panic when the dolphins decide its time to leave.
... in the UK is that young people now care more about who is going to win X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent than own performance at school.
And when you can just show up for an audition to a TV program, do a little dance and become rich and famous overnight, why on earth would you want an education?
The main problem with buying a PC game is that you're pretty much stuck with it.
What I mean by this is: if you buy a game for a console, you can be assured that if it turns out to be a bag of shit, you can take it back to where you bought it and either get store credit or just exchange it for something else.
You can't do this with PC games (not to my knowledge anyway). Once you've bought it, it's with you forever.
The risk involved in buying a game to play on your computer is far to high - It might be crap, it might not run properly, it might not run at all. There's too much risk.
I think what PC games really need is some sort of subscription system, whereby the user will pay a certain amount of money per month or year to download a set number of titles at any one time (let's just say 3 titles). Effectively you'll be renting the games, rather like when console gamers trade in their old ones to buy new ones.
Once you're bored of the game, you just revoke your lease on it and then get a different one instead. The data could stay on your hard drive in case you change your mind (and also so you don't have to download 6GBs each time you want to play).
Doing so would eliminate a great deal of the risk attached to buying a game that basically turns out to be rubbish.
(oh, and by the way - GTA4 is shit. That and Devil May Cry 4 are the worst games I played this year. You'll not care for either.)
"Hopefully movie theaters and restaurants do it next."
That's the one thing that really pisses me off when I go to watch a film in the cinema: some dickhead who decides to start texting or checking the football scores during the movie.
Seriously, these guys must be loaded if they can afford to pay £8 to watch a film and then spend the whole time on their fucking phone.
... they don't do anything really annoying like have a mandatory "music and movie tax" on all broadband connections.
For someone like me, that happily pays for movie and music that I enjoy, I wouldn't want to be helping to line the pockets of Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson, and all the other shit that is so prominent in the charts right now.
Rather unfortunate to place this directly above the article on the front page saying that the British Government needs more spies... :)
if you can't beat 'em, join 'em...
... fucks me off about the way the industry sometimes operates is that they will release a song to be played on the radio, but not allow people to buy the fucking thing for up to 6 weeks later.
Huh?! I cannot count the times that I've heard a song on a radio and thought, hey, I like that, I'll head over to my favourite online story and buy a copy, only to discover I won't be able to until over a month later.
Spontaneous purchases, that's what is going to sell more of Al's records...
"including 'pick the cat' style CAPTCHA."
This is excellent news, since it now means that I can rely on this thing to find me suitable pussy instead of having to look for it myself... :)
... you've got to admit that it's one hell of an achievement.
... but I can still get all my porn just fine! Oh Yeah!!! :)
I can't wait to be dragged into court for torrenting the latest Ubuntu ISO release for my Mum... :(
Virgin Media are fucking shit. I moved from them myself. Their service becomes unusual between 4pm and midnight. At one stage I couldn't even get onto Google without the connection timing out.
This is because of the woman who is facing a £16,000 ($32,000) fine for sharing Dream Pinball online.
I swear this contravenes the Data Protection Act.
And how come they are allowed to do such a thing?! One rule for them, another for us. Here's an example: The other day my brother calls me up to tell me he's lost his glasses. He's trekking in a jungle somewhere in Malaysia and now cannot see very well.
However, he asks me to get his prescription details so he can get a pair made up there. I then call the optician and explain the predicament. But, to my dismay, they refuse to hand over the details because it is a breach of the Data Protection Act. Erm... WHAT?!!
These ISPs should not be handing over any ones' details, at all. It's not like the users are planning to blow up Canary Wharf...
I think Lucas missed an opportunity to turn Indiana Jones into a James Bond-like franchise.
I believe that was the idea when Clive Cussler's Sahara was adapted to the big screen.
As I understand it there was a desire to turn Dirk Pitt into a brand new big screen hero, as a combination of James Bond and Indiana Jones, hence the tag line,
"Dirk Pitt. Adventure has a new name"
However, the film was a box office bomb and nothing else came of it.
It probably didn't help matters that Clive Cussler himself attempted to torpedo the franchise.
But, in fairness to him, he did request to approve the script and then they made alterations without consulting him after he'd signed off.
I've probably got some of this wrong, and I imagine Dirk Pitt fans will correct me :)
Copyright will continue to extend for as long as that damn mouse makes money.
Which will be forever unless,
1) Everyone gets over it
or
2) People start boycotting Disney
... "the web" was lots of computers all networked together, clients and servers. Which, if it is, mean that the web remains what it was yesterday, what it is today, and what it will be tomorrow.