have to agree. the movie is pure popcorn entertainment (saw it last night), you go to these kinds of movies to have fun, not be intellectually manhandled. Its sad to see that the simple pleasures of a summer blockbuster can be totally lost on some people.
How is alienating your player base a good move? For whatever false sense of security they gain from banning curious players from their game they will lose far far more in terms of dollars and bad press.
I completely agree, since watching the film I've since talked about it with a few people and pretty often I hear "I just cant stay awake through that damn movie". The movie is dark, has very little dialog, and hardly any action. The movie really is a visual masterpiece, and half the fun of watching it comes from interpreting the world that Deckard lives in when theres nobody to cut in every few seconds to explain what is going on on-screen. Also, I really love noir films, so the movie really was a perfect fit.
Having never seen the film, I recently saw this latest release in theaters and have since fallen in love with the movie. It seems to me that from trying to track all that has been reworked and modified from the original film, you could loose the simple enjoyment of just watching the damn thing. Pick up a copy and watch it, then you can go ahead and obsess over minute detail if thats your cup of tea.
The day they begin ofering liner notes and the insert artwork in downloadable music is the day I stop buying music CD's altogether. Theres a real art in my opinion of making a cd case and insert look pleasing to the eye. Some bands also add some insights in the liner notes, which are always fun to read.
Lossless audio is also important to me, but i think I can live without it as long as audio quality is pretty good, I personally cannot differentiate too much between itunes store tracks and stuff ive ripped myself.
I can attest to just drinking more soda's and eating chips etc. while doing intense WoW sessions, it stems from not wanting to get up all the time to forage through the refrigerator, which is where an easy meal (read: unhealthy) comes into play. I've since stopped playing and corrected my diet, but the weight I put on is very noticeable. Im just lucky I still have a decent metabolism or else my body might have gone to all hell. The horror story of playing WoW (in the wrong way, I realize some people can control themselves) doesn't stop there though. Developing sores from sitting too long and losing all semblance of a non-online social life is par for the course for a lot of players, many of whom I met on raids and talked to in my guild.
Just don't get me started on those times I refused my bodies urgings for me to piss during raids. If i ever go back to WoW it'll involve a lot more breaks during and after play sessions.
Im not sure I understand your complaint. A game like half life 2: episode 1, which has a set script, can really never be made any different way than with a massive amount of triggers. The entire game is able to tell a well thought out story by leading the player through an environment with only minimal hints at what they should do. If anything, thats what I got out of the commentary track, that they went through a great many iterations of the same scene to make it feel like more fluid an experience. I usually describe the more dynamic scenes in half life 2 and episode 1 as a controlled chaos. Triggers give the player direction in the madness and allow the game to move forward. One things that the commentary stressed was that they were trying at all costs not to make the player feel bored. This is a goal I believe they accomplished. Playing Half life 2 for long stretches of time can actually make the person feel tired, according to many accounts (I can attest to this as well). That they achieved this without making gameplay feel repetitive is an accomplishment in itself.
Also, concerning your last point, that the real world isn't split so categorically into different locations that serve a purpose. I was under the impression that the point of a game was as an escape from the real world. The experience of a game would greatly suffer if it weren't so carefully paced out into different segments. Any good script writer knows that when you write an action film, you don't make the entire thing action. There has to be a defined pace to the movie. Slow periods (physics puzzles) must precede fast segments (zombie killing). Build up has to occur before you can get to the boss battle. The half life series achieves the cinematic experience without at any time wrenching control from the player and forcing them to watch a cut-scene. Are they perfect games? Thats a matter of opinion. My personal belief is that valve is one of the few game makers out there that cares about the players ultimate experience.
Im going to take a different approach and say that if you honestly think good movies arent coming out anymore, you arent looking particularly hard.
First of all, video on demand is not the place to begin your search, oh I know its convenient, but chances are you'll only find last years crap that couldn't make back production costs. Best of luck finding something good.
Check out some movie review sites before judging whether a movie is worth your time or not http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ has a pretty good track record with me.
Also, you don't necessarily need to watch something thats come out in the past few years, hundreds of good films have come come out over the past 80 years. I'd be willing to bet that you could easily dig up something good with a quick google search. I personally would much rather sit down with a good film noir than the 99% crap track record hollywood has going on. Start on the IMDB 250 http://www.imdb.com/chart/top and I guarantee you'll never be short of something good to watch.
You're pretty much right on target there. There are tons of people scratching their heads right now as to why Okami isnt being rushed straight to the DS as soon as possible.
The front page of apple.com specifically has the words "home movies" So it looks like you'll be able to put all you want on this baby (probably as long as its encoded in quicktime)
Thanks for the tips, I've always been a true believer in the power of vlc on any platform, most other comparable players out there just don't fit my preference on non-bloated software. The world is quickly adopting windows media player 10 and thats what scares me. There are times when I can only hear audio on a wmv movie, and other times when I can only see video, it gets annoying fast.
Funny thing is, I was actually going to add to my last post that my life feels incomplete somehow without a computer capable of playing Half Life 2.
Frankly I can say that there's absolutely nothing I miss about windows (except being able to play wmv movies, you never notice how everyone uses that dang format until you switch to mac). Buggy Software, bad operating system, Countless "protection" programs to keep running so your machine doesn't explode are just a few of my complaints.
The problem lies in staying the "go to guy" for the tech needs of my family and friends. Even though I maintain my households 4 windows computers it seems like Im having trouble keeping on top of the changing times. Nerd that I am, I gotta try out all the cool stuff out there to see what I can suggest to other people to meet their computer wants and needs. Unfortunately a lot of the "cool stuff" out there requires windows. I know it sounds asinine that I actually enjoy fixing other peoples computers, but what can I say, everyone has their quirks.
Having just discovered this power supply a few days ago, I can definitely say its going in my next PC. Although my primary machine thus far has been an Apple Powerbook, I can definite say that I miss a decent windows computer in my life (I switched to mac just this April). A friend asked me to troubleshoot his PC just a few days ago and scarily enough it took a few seconds to get into the groove of things in his windows environment.
Having said that, the value of a good power supply in your computer is second to none and the power supplies from Antec have never disappointed.
What intrigues me about this particular model is that unlike its less powerful brothers it actually does have a fan. Though under light loads the fan stays off or does very little spinning. For a computer I am building that is doubling as both a light gaming machine and a PVR the large rated output and silent properties make for one killer combination.
And thats what I tell myself every single dang day so I can justify its 200 dollar price tag!
The controller appears to be perfectly symmetrical so it doesnt look like being left handed is going to be an issue. If there is a big difference nintendo will no doubt allow you to specify the controller to be used in you left hand so that it can be calibrated accordingly.
August 23, For that authentic middle-of-the-dang-desert-so-hot-i'll-probably-die experience.
Actually it sounds like fun. It's as good an excuse as any to get out to Monument Valley (which i've been meaning to visit anyways).
Not to mention "Once upon a time in the west" is one of the most beautiful movies ever committed to film. It would be nice to see what Leone had to work with when he was out there.
I've been waiting for Apple to start providing dual-layer drives for a while now. Now im wondering why there arent more rumors as to when the powerbook line will be upgraded to the dual layer drives. Do dual layer drives just not fit the laptop form factor? Do the rotational speeds or something make it more difficult to keep it from overheating? I'm fairly sure these things exist somewhere but I cant imagine appple would be holding out this long.
Although good enough to be an april fools day joke these babys have been sold by apple ever since the last christmas rush where it was said that the iPod was the "Must Have" Gift. The socks are supposed to imitate christmas stocking (pretty obvious). I remember seeing these things sold at my local apple store during the holidays.
No but seriously, 2 button mice are great. Ever since I got my 8 button wireless logitech mouse I've been able to invent loads of new ways of using hotkeys on my mouse. The usefullness is incredible.
Hopefully the logic of 2 buttons will catch on and spread into their laptops (those 1 button laptops always kinda bugged me)
Not that I ever had a huge problem with the one button mouse, its just really hard to get people to consider switching to mac when they think right off the bat that you can't right click.
That being said, a 2 button mouse from Apple means that its one more mouse useful among any windows pc I have that needs a quick mouse replacement when one of them dies. I more than likely wont be using it on the mac itself.
Bill Gates becomes a cyborg and summons the forces of evil.
A new Cell is constructed out of unsold Itaniums (Not to be confused with the Cell built by Sony, which is a friendly robot that is found out to be good. ( Until he is found out to be evil when the heroes notice he is under the control of the cyborg Bill Gates who has been behind the charade the entire time) and challenges the world to a rematch of earth shattering proportions
Second string characters have meaningless conversations that take up entire episodes
There is hilarious comic relief from common citizens in various towns as their cities crumble around them
Krillin dies
The dragon is summoned
Goku gets a haircut...Good lord I should have my anime viewers license revoked for knowing all that crap.
Slashdot Mirror
have to agree. the movie is pure popcorn entertainment (saw it last night), you go to these kinds of movies to have fun, not be intellectually manhandled. Its sad to see that the simple pleasures of a summer blockbuster can be totally lost on some people.
How is alienating your player base a good move? For whatever false sense of security they gain from banning curious players from their game they will lose far far more in terms of dollars and bad press.
I completely agree, since watching the film I've since talked about it with a few people and pretty often I hear "I just cant stay awake through that damn movie". The movie is dark, has very little dialog, and hardly any action. The movie really is a visual masterpiece, and half the fun of watching it comes from interpreting the world that Deckard lives in when theres nobody to cut in every few seconds to explain what is going on on-screen. Also, I really love noir films, so the movie really was a perfect fit.
Having never seen the film, I recently saw this latest release in theaters and have since fallen in love with the movie. It seems to me that from trying to track all that has been reworked and modified from the original film, you could loose the simple enjoyment of just watching the damn thing. Pick up a copy and watch it, then you can go ahead and obsess over minute detail if thats your cup of tea.
The day they begin ofering liner notes and the insert artwork in downloadable music is the day I stop buying music CD's altogether. Theres a real art in my opinion of making a cd case and insert look pleasing to the eye. Some bands also add some insights in the liner notes, which are always fun to read.
Lossless audio is also important to me, but i think I can live without it as long as audio quality is pretty good, I personally cannot differentiate too much between itunes store tracks and stuff ive ripped myself.
I can attest to just drinking more soda's and eating chips etc. while doing intense WoW sessions, it stems from not wanting to get up all the time to forage through the refrigerator, which is where an easy meal (read: unhealthy) comes into play. I've since stopped playing and corrected my diet, but the weight I put on is very noticeable. Im just lucky I still have a decent metabolism or else my body might have gone to all hell. The horror story of playing WoW (in the wrong way, I realize some people can control themselves) doesn't stop there though. Developing sores from sitting too long and losing all semblance of a non-online social life is par for the course for a lot of players, many of whom I met on raids and talked to in my guild.
Just don't get me started on those times I refused my bodies urgings for me to piss during raids. If i ever go back to WoW it'll involve a lot more breaks during and after play sessions.
Im not sure I understand your complaint. A game like half life 2: episode 1, which has a set script, can really never be made any different way than with a massive amount of triggers. The entire game is able to tell a well thought out story by leading the player through an environment with only minimal hints at what they should do. If anything, thats what I got out of the commentary track, that they went through a great many iterations of the same scene to make it feel like more fluid an experience. I usually describe the more dynamic scenes in half life 2 and episode 1 as a controlled chaos. Triggers give the player direction in the madness and allow the game to move forward. One things that the commentary stressed was that they were trying at all costs not to make the player feel bored. This is a goal I believe they accomplished. Playing Half life 2 for long stretches of time can actually make the person feel tired, according to many accounts (I can attest to this as well). That they achieved this without making gameplay feel repetitive is an accomplishment in itself.
Also, concerning your last point, that the real world isn't split so categorically into different locations that serve a purpose. I was under the impression that the point of a game was as an escape from the real world. The experience of a game would greatly suffer if it weren't so carefully paced out into different segments. Any good script writer knows that when you write an action film, you don't make the entire thing action. There has to be a defined pace to the movie. Slow periods (physics puzzles) must precede fast segments (zombie killing). Build up has to occur before you can get to the boss battle. The half life series achieves the cinematic experience without at any time wrenching control from the player and forcing them to watch a cut-scene. Are they perfect games? Thats a matter of opinion. My personal belief is that valve is one of the few game makers out there that cares about the players ultimate experience.
First of all, video on demand is not the place to begin your search, oh I know its convenient, but chances are you'll only find last years crap that couldn't make back production costs. Best of luck finding something good.
Check out some movie review sites before judging whether a movie is worth your time or not http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ has a pretty good track record with me.
Also, you don't necessarily need to watch something thats come out in the past few years, hundreds of good films have come come out over the past 80 years. I'd be willing to bet that you could easily dig up something good with a quick google search. I personally would much rather sit down with a good film noir than the 99% crap track record hollywood has going on. Start on the IMDB 250 http://www.imdb.com/chart/top and I guarantee you'll never be short of something good to watch.
You're pretty much right on target there. There are tons of people scratching their heads right now as to why Okami isnt being rushed straight to the DS as soon as possible.
The front page of apple.com specifically has the words "home movies" So it looks like you'll be able to put all you want on this baby (probably as long as its encoded in quicktime)
Obviously their next add-on should be to attach a gas generator to make up for the 6 minute battery life.
Thanks for the tips, I've always been a true believer in the power of vlc on any platform, most other comparable players out there just don't fit my preference on non-bloated software. The world is quickly adopting windows media player 10 and thats what scares me. There are times when I can only hear audio on a wmv movie, and other times when I can only see video, it gets annoying fast.
Funny thing is, I was actually going to add to my last post that my life feels incomplete somehow without a computer capable of playing Half Life 2.
Frankly I can say that there's absolutely nothing I miss about windows (except being able to play wmv movies, you never notice how everyone uses that dang format until you switch to mac). Buggy Software, bad operating system, Countless "protection" programs to keep running so your machine doesn't explode are just a few of my complaints.
The problem lies in staying the "go to guy" for the tech needs of my family and friends. Even though I maintain my households 4 windows computers it seems like Im having trouble keeping on top of the changing times. Nerd that I am, I gotta try out all the cool stuff out there to see what I can suggest to other people to meet their computer wants and needs. Unfortunately a lot of the "cool stuff" out there requires windows. I know it sounds asinine that I actually enjoy fixing other peoples computers, but what can I say, everyone has their quirks.
Having just discovered this power supply a few days ago, I can definitely say its going in my next PC. Although my primary machine thus far has been an Apple Powerbook, I can definite say that I miss a decent windows computer in my life (I switched to mac just this April). A friend asked me to troubleshoot his PC just a few days ago and scarily enough it took a few seconds to get into the groove of things in his windows environment.
Having said that, the value of a good power supply in your computer is second to none and the power supplies from Antec have never disappointed.
What intrigues me about this particular model is that unlike its less powerful brothers it actually does have a fan. Though under light loads the fan stays off or does very little spinning. For a computer I am building that is doubling as both a light gaming machine and a PVR the large rated output and silent properties make for one killer combination.
And thats what I tell myself every single dang day so I can justify its 200 dollar price tag!
Investing in a good armchair is going to be my solution.
Now getting the middle seat on the couch is going to really suck!
The controller appears to be perfectly symmetrical so it doesnt look like being left handed is going to be an issue. If there is a big difference nintendo will no doubt allow you to specify the controller to be used in you left hand so that it can be calibrated accordingly.
August 23, For that authentic middle-of-the-dang-desert-so-hot-i'll-probably-die experience.
Actually it sounds like fun. It's as good an excuse as any to get out to Monument Valley (which i've been meaning to visit anyways).
Not to mention "Once upon a time in the west" is one of the most beautiful movies ever committed to film. It would be nice to see what Leone had to work with when he was out there.
I've been waiting for Apple to start providing dual-layer drives for a while now. Now im wondering why there arent more rumors as to when the powerbook line will be upgraded to the dual layer drives. Do dual layer drives just not fit the laptop form factor? Do the rotational speeds or something make it more difficult to keep it from overheating? I'm fairly sure these things exist somewhere but I cant imagine appple would be holding out this long.
So I guess its pretty safe to say that this release is for the birds
*ducks*
Although good enough to be an april fools day joke these babys have been sold by apple ever since the last christmas rush where it was said that the iPod was the "Must Have" Gift. The socks are supposed to imitate christmas stocking (pretty obvious). I remember seeing these things sold at my local apple store during the holidays.
Seriously, how does a story like this get posted?
It's like im seeing double!
No but seriously, 2 button mice are great. Ever since I got my 8 button wireless logitech mouse I've been able to invent loads of new ways of using hotkeys on my mouse. The usefullness is incredible.
Hopefully the logic of 2 buttons will catch on and spread into their laptops (those 1 button laptops always kinda bugged me)
Not that I ever had a huge problem with the one button mouse, its just really hard to get people to consider switching to mac when they think right off the bat that you can't right click.
That being said, a 2 button mouse from Apple means that its one more mouse useful among any windows pc I have that needs a quick mouse replacement when one of them dies. I more than likely wont be using it on the mac itself.
the current version of AntiVir Guard is able to detect files as they are extracted from a RAR file. I should know, this just happened to me last week.
I always liked neXt Box
a DBZ reference: "Part 4: Cell Vs the PC"
...Good lord I should have my anime viewers license revoked for knowing all that crap.
The 45 episode saga in which:
Bill Gates becomes a cyborg and summons the forces of evil.
A new Cell is constructed out of unsold Itaniums (Not to be confused with the Cell built by Sony, which is a friendly robot that is found out to be good. ( Until he is found out to be evil when the heroes notice he is under the control of the cyborg Bill Gates who has been behind the charade the entire time) and challenges the world to a rematch of earth shattering proportions
Second string characters have meaningless conversations that take up entire episodes
There is hilarious comic relief from common citizens in various towns as their cities crumble around them
Krillin dies
The dragon is summoned
Goku gets a haircut
this is awesome! Think of the insane value you could get out of upgrading the ram and hard drive yourself! Cheap/powerful editing station here I come!