you make a good point. one that i thought of myself too.
the revolution controller is great in concept, but ultimately it is up to the publishers and developers. as consumers, we have overall been playing console games for 20 some odd years. we get excited by something new; whether new graphics abilities, new genres, etc... what scares me most about the new controller, is that it/COULD/ provide developers with the lazy way out. what i mean is instead of allowing new genres of games to be created, it could just rest on the ability to play the same games in a new way. thats not true innovation. true innovation in my humble opinion is inspiring developers to create new games to be played in ways that normally would NOT be possible.
open the way to a new path. dont just make us keep walking the same path, except now you can ride a bike down the same path. different experince? yes, but its still the same thing. to nintendos defense, its still better than how the other consoles have us walking the same path, except now with prettier pictures on the walls.
case in point. a FPS on revolution would theoretically be better and control easier. thats great! BUT, that doesnt change the genre; it just makes for an easier way to control it. i cant "DO" anything new that was impossible with a controller or with a keyboard/ mouse.
the dual screen of the DS is a very nice aspect of the system. but other than the convenience factor of not having to pause to view subscreens, inventories, being able to have a vertically larger screen, etc, etc... the advantage of the dual screens has not truly been capitalized upon. has there been a DS game that would have been totally impossible to port to another system due to the lack of dual screens? the hardware is more convenient. if there was a game made possible only by having dual screens, and impossible to play without... that would be innovative in my opinion. the same goes for the stylus. the stylus makes certain games more convenient to play, but with a few major exceptions, the majority of games for the DS could be ported to other consoles. most DS games would lose their edge if pushed back to regular control schemes, but in theory most DS games could be.
personally, i want games that are ONLY possible with a stylus. not just games that are better due to having one. this is not nintendos fault. i dont blame them. they created the hardware and inspiration. their first party titles have even provided example to follow, but the publishers and developers have the final say so to shovel off an existing game, and claim that its new and innovative because now it can be played with a stylus.
i read yoru link and there is no official announcement there that ties sony to toy story. i see bloggers and hearsay. no executive was quoted as stating the claim, and no journalist gave an approximate time or place when the quote was made regarding toy story.
this here is a direct link to the microsoft toy story claim, however:
the psp isnt winning anything by a landslide, but given the way that nintendo has a chokehold on the portable market, i think the psp is doing just fine.
the DS has some excellent quality games, but it also has some bad quality games as well. other games may be good quality, but lack length and or complexity. this was a hallmark of the gameboy product line. i think he was touching on that. for every metroid prime hunters you have two games that could very well have been created for the GBA sans the developer throwing in a random "touch" puzzle or gameplay mechanic.
the psp has its share of clunker titles too. dont get me wrong. but i think the OP was getting at the fact that some developers are developing GBA games but throwing in a "touch" gimmick and instead releasing them for the DS because they can command a slightly higher price.
ill admit fingerprints are a bitch, its worse than my ipod because at least the ipod is white. but scratches? i dont have a screen protector for my psp, but i have ZERO scratches. what am i doing wrong? my ipod on the other hand looks like its been through war with all the scratches. i bought the ipod only 2 months before i bought my psp.
battery life:
odd, i usually get about six hours of life out of a charge. but then again, i dont play GTA or use the wireless very much. heres a hint... if you need to play a handheld for more than four/five hours at a time you should just plug it in; youre obviously not outside. that or buy a new battery. i recall seeing a battery that lasts about 10 hours on a psp website not long ago. if its that big a deal to you, you can fix it. at least sony allows you to swap batteries, unlike my ipod. not many current psp owners complain about battery life.
load times:
when consoles decided to switch to cd and dvd based gaming, load times became part of the culture. load times should be brief, and give players a moment to breathe before proceeding to the next chapter or into the next fight/ match/ stage or whatever... as is usually the case with launch and first year games, early PSP games just were not properly optimized for the system. 30 seconds is alot of time to wait. i have only played a slight handful of games where the loading times gave me pause [im looking at you ATV offroad fury!]. games will get better with time, and so will their loading times. its a trade off; ill accept "reasonable" loading times for the psp's graphics, sound and game length any day of the year.
ive seen a bunch of females with PSPs here on the east coast [inclusive of NYC]. the major difference is that most women [girls] i see with psp's are playing music off them or just watching movies.
would mean alot more if the source was actually given. the source could have been made up as far as any of us know. i mean, all journalists can be trusted to not make up quotes, right? especially coming from a source thats not direct competitor in next generation movie formats... yeah, right!
liberty city stories the only big game? what about syphon filter? burnout legends? winning eleven 9? socom? daxter? lumines? street fighter alpha3? wipeout pure? me and my katamari? if you look at the charts, the PSP and DS titles are scoring pretty evenly. the consoles have been selling about evenly here in the US. [the DS redesign effect hasnt hit just yet...]
theres a version of metal gear solid in the works thats action based like the console version. theres a version of killzone on the way. there another verion of GTA on its way. field commander. a metal slug compilation. monster hunter. a resident evil title, and a silent hill title. theres even talk of a portable god of war. the PSP isnt dead just yet.
if that were truly the case, why are ps2 games the most prominent? no matter what retailer you go to, the majority of the time you will see that the bestselling system will be most prominently displayed. in this case, the ps2.
this has remained constant with the psp. the psp gets more shelfspace and a more prominent location in stores. i vote that your second comment is probably the more likely truth. but more likely at least from my viewpoint, the psp games are usually located close to the ps2 games. the ps2 games being the most popular obviously have the most prominent shelfspace.
not many people like grinding or farming spells. hes not alone.
i think the author was touching on the fact that in most final fantasy games its quite rare to see the game over screen. not all, but the majority of RPGs are way too easy and simple. if you level properly, and buy the right equipment and magic, you are guaranteed for the win. with only few exceptions, such as fighting the final weapon bosses in ffvii, you can pretty much trample on anyone. if you find yourself in trouble, you can always run.
in RPGs its kinda stupid to build yourself up into this fighting demigod, and be able to defeat any and everything. stopping only to worry about equiping the right gear/ magic. sometimes youre NOT supposed to do the stupid things. in games overall you tend to envision your character as such a badass that you try dumb things just because you know youll get away with it.
sorry, youre absolutely right. i meant media, but wrote players.
according to AACS the image constraint token flag is implemented in the media, not the hardware itself. if the player reads a disk that has the ICT flag set and no HDCP enabled hardware is present, it will down-convert to 960x540 [little better than DVD]. studios reserve the right to implement the flag, so far there are only two studios that intend to implement the flag. the rest are being lenient for now. sony says they are against it [they wanted to avoid adding AACS to the blu-ray spec in the first place]
sony, fox, mgm and disney studios wish to forego using the ICT flag. warner brothers and paramount studios will use the ICT. keep in mind that sony and the blu-ray consortium only agreed to implement AACS in the blu-ray spec in order to have these two studios agree to publish titles using blu-ray.
sony has already announced that for the first generation of players, they will not be implementing the flag that signals an output downgrade. each studio has their own liberty whether to implement the flag or not. so far only two of the nine or so studios supporting blu-ray will implement that feature.
unfortunately, their stance is one where they are being lenient in regards to using the flag in order to woo new adopters of their product. they reserve the right to implement HDCP only full-HD output, as more sets reach market in a few years and HDMI becomes more commonplace.
Re:Wow, has Sony started to LEARN?
on
Region-free PS3
·
· Score: 1
they took the page with the apology down so they can put up info for the class action lawsuit. but you can see the page here:
i dont want to be apologetic for a company that effectively put money into designing a better virus delivery system, but i for one am not buying any sony/BMG cds. if sony ever brands the playstation with anything remotely resembling a BMG logo, im avoiding that too...
Some of the larger US websites have been speculating that PlayStation 3 would be shipping with an optional 60GB hard disc drive. However we can confirm this morning that all PS3 consoles will be sold with the HDD out of the box. Sony's president of Computer Entertainment, Ken Kutaragi, announced on Wednesday that all PS3 games are being developed to take advantage of the 60GB HDD.
here another report that states that it will. he did not confirm or deny anything, so i guess youre assuming that means it absolutely wont? who knows? sounds like sony has all the cards and it playing them close to their chest. we all shall know soon enough, eh?
Re:Nothing really new except confirming rumors
on
GDC - Sony Keynote
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· Score: 1
apparently thats the plan. we shall see in what form it comes. sony has stated that they plan to offer a 60 gig harddrive and that it would be upgradable. if they plan to offer content downloads of games, that could QUICKLY fill up. so i can see them giving users the option.
it could be an upgradable harddrive, but you have to buy the upgrades direct from sony... OR you can go and purchase your own. chances are they will go the route you suggest, because a peripheral like a harddrive is probably sold at cost. so they would not get any additional benefit from selling their own branded harddrives.
well apparently it was announced, but as the person who is handling things on the software side of things, phil harrison didnt feel comfortable giving the final word.
technically thats not a revolution demo; thats a controller demo. the controller can be rigged to work with any console/ system. its a peripheral!
the ps3 demos where rigged to use a ps2 controller. does that equate to it being a demo of the ps2? nope. nintendo is putting alot of weight behind the revolution controller. thats good, but the controller is only as good as the system its attached to and the games that play on it. until we see all three, we havent seen anything really for either system.
i call bull here. part of the announcements made this week were to announce that not only would the ps3 handle HDMI, but the ps3 would also be compatible with SDTVs. at this point, why do people expect sony to say they plan to not at least meet the x360 on features?
in regards to blu-ray movie playback, who knows?
Re:Is Sony being charitable?
on
Region-free PS3
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· Score: 1
if i recall correctly, the case was to prevent importers from using the name PSP or playstation portable in advertisements.
importing PSP games isnt that big a deal to sony, never has been really... but for some reason, i guess they felt that importing the hardware was undercutting their eventual bottom line. maybe it has something to do with the fact that they lose money on the hardware? i dont expect to be able to import a ps3 from any region, but if the games are region free, thats great
Re:Wow, has Sony started to LEARN?
on
Region-free PS3
·
· Score: 1
er... wait, you missed that? theyve already done that. there was a letter posted. an offer to replace the cds, acknowledgement that they were wrong, and a way to remove the rootkits. as for the promise not to do it again, who knows? i doubt theyd try something stupid again, im sure hands have been slapped and heads have been rolling. maybe youre waiting on them to make it into a tv commercial. lol.
regardless, sony is a big company. is it possible to hate one division and ignore the rest? i mean, i hate internet explorer and windows ME, but XP and the xbox is cool. the gaming division is a separate world from the music division. im not the biggest fan of certain aspects of sony myself, but then if i were to boycott sony because of something BMG did, i would feel like those people that didnt buy xboxes because microsoft makes them.
this is microsoft... they can have 20 engineers working on shrinking the xbox360 power supply. who knows? my point is that this is all unfounded speculation. they could have transmeta working on almost anything. microsoft may be making their own version of the mac mini, who knows?
furthermore, the xbox line has stayed near to consumer available chips. their philosophy has been to mimic pc gaming on the console level. why would they switch that strategy during the inception of the xbox360?
so back to the example, i went to lunch with my boss and DIDN'T GET ANYTHING TO EAT. Since my boss is a woman and im a man, you assume that i must obviously be having sex; when in fact im only getting a blowjob. =)
correction. the article states that transmeta is working with microsoft on a secret project. no direct mention of a handheld console. we are supposed to infer that since they specialize in creating lowpower comsumption chips, they are working on a portable xbox? that's this guys biggest proof.
thats the equivalent of saying that i went to lunch with my boss. since my boss is a woman and i am a man, we must obviously be having sex.
Slashdot Mirror
you make a good point. one that i thought of myself too.
/COULD/ provide developers with the lazy way out. what i mean is instead of allowing new genres of games to be created, it could just rest on the ability to play the same games in a new way. thats not true innovation. true innovation in my humble opinion is inspiring developers to create new games to be played in ways that normally would NOT be possible.
the revolution controller is great in concept, but ultimately it is up to the publishers and developers. as consumers, we have overall been playing console games for 20 some odd years. we get excited by something new; whether new graphics abilities, new genres, etc... what scares me most about the new controller, is that it
open the way to a new path. dont just make us keep walking the same path, except now you can ride a bike down the same path. different experince? yes, but its still the same thing. to nintendos defense, its still better than how the other consoles have us walking the same path, except now with prettier pictures on the walls.
case in point. a FPS on revolution would theoretically be better and control easier. thats great! BUT, that doesnt change the genre; it just makes for an easier way to control it. i cant "DO" anything new that was impossible with a controller or with a keyboard/ mouse.
the dual screen of the DS is a very nice aspect of the system. but other than the convenience factor of not having to pause to view subscreens, inventories, being able to have a vertically larger screen, etc, etc... the advantage of the dual screens has not truly been capitalized upon. has there been a DS game that would have been totally impossible to port to another system due to the lack of dual screens? the hardware is more convenient. if there was a game made possible only by having dual screens, and impossible to play without... that would be innovative in my opinion. the same goes for the stylus. the stylus makes certain games more convenient to play, but with a few major exceptions, the majority of games for the DS could be ported to other consoles. most DS games would lose their edge if pushed back to regular control schemes, but in theory most DS games could be.
personally, i want games that are ONLY possible with a stylus. not just games that are better due to having one. this is not nintendos fault. i dont blame them. they created the hardware and inspiration. their first party titles have even provided example to follow, but the publishers and developers have the final say so to shovel off an existing game, and claim that its new and innovative because now it can be played with a stylus.
i read yoru link and there is no official announcement there that ties sony to toy story. i see bloggers and hearsay. no executive was quoted as stating the claim, and no journalist gave an approximate time or place when the quote was made regarding toy story.
, 40970,00.html?tw=wn_story_related
this here is a direct link to the microsoft toy story claim, however:
http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282
the psp isnt winning anything by a landslide, but given the way that nintendo has a chokehold on the portable market, i think the psp is doing just fine.
the DS has some excellent quality games, but it also has some bad quality games as well. other games may be good quality, but lack length and or complexity. this was a hallmark of the gameboy product line. i think he was touching on that. for every metroid prime hunters you have two games that could very well have been created for the GBA sans the developer throwing in a random "touch" puzzle or gameplay mechanic.
the psp has its share of clunker titles too. dont get me wrong. but i think the OP was getting at the fact that some developers are developing GBA games but throwing in a "touch" gimmick and instead releasing them for the DS because they can command a slightly higher price.
the screen:
ill admit fingerprints are a bitch, its worse than my ipod because at least the ipod is white. but scratches? i dont have a screen protector for my psp, but i have ZERO scratches. what am i doing wrong? my ipod on the other hand looks like its been through war with all the scratches. i bought the ipod only 2 months before i bought my psp.
battery life:
odd, i usually get about six hours of life out of a charge. but then again, i dont play GTA or use the wireless very much. heres a hint... if you need to play a handheld for more than four/five hours at a time you should just plug it in; youre obviously not outside. that or buy a new battery. i recall seeing a battery that lasts about 10 hours on a psp website not long ago. if its that big a deal to you, you can fix it. at least sony allows you to swap batteries, unlike my ipod. not many current psp owners complain about battery life.
load times:
when consoles decided to switch to cd and dvd based gaming, load times became part of the culture. load times should be brief, and give players a moment to breathe before proceeding to the next chapter or into the next fight/ match/ stage or whatever... as is usually the case with launch and first year games, early PSP games just were not properly optimized for the system. 30 seconds is alot of time to wait. i have only played a slight handful of games where the loading times gave me pause [im looking at you ATV offroad fury!]. games will get better with time, and so will their loading times. its a trade off; ill accept "reasonable" loading times for the psp's graphics, sound and game length any day of the year.
ive seen a bunch of females with PSPs here on the east coast [inclusive of NYC]. the major difference is that most women [girls] i see with psp's are playing music off them or just watching movies.
would mean alot more if the source was actually given. the source could have been made up as far as any of us know. i mean, all journalists can be trusted to not make up quotes, right? especially coming from a source thats not direct competitor in next generation movie formats... yeah, right!
liberty city stories the only big game? what about syphon filter? burnout legends? winning eleven 9? socom? daxter? lumines? street fighter alpha3? wipeout pure? me and my katamari? if you look at the charts, the PSP and DS titles are scoring pretty evenly. the consoles have been selling about evenly here in the US. [the DS redesign effect hasnt hit just yet...]
theres a version of metal gear solid in the works thats action based like the console version. theres a version of killzone on the way. there another verion of GTA on its way. field commander. a metal slug compilation. monster hunter. a resident evil title, and a silent hill title. theres even talk of a portable god of war. the PSP isnt dead just yet.
if that were truly the case, why are ps2 games the most prominent? no matter what retailer you go to, the majority of the time you will see that the bestselling system will be most prominently displayed. in this case, the ps2.
this has remained constant with the psp. the psp gets more shelfspace and a more prominent location in stores. i vote that your second comment is probably the more likely truth. but more likely at least from my viewpoint, the psp games are usually located close to the ps2 games. the ps2 games being the most popular obviously have the most prominent shelfspace.
not many people like grinding or farming spells. hes not alone.
i think the author was touching on the fact that in most final fantasy games its quite rare to see the game over screen. not all, but the majority of RPGs are way too easy and simple. if you level properly, and buy the right equipment and magic, you are guaranteed for the win. with only few exceptions, such as fighting the final weapon bosses in ffvii, you can pretty much trample on anyone. if you find yourself in trouble, you can always run.
in RPGs its kinda stupid to build yourself up into this fighting demigod, and be able to defeat any and everything. stopping only to worry about equiping the right gear/ magic. sometimes youre NOT supposed to do the stupid things. in games overall you tend to envision your character as such a badass that you try dumb things just because you know youll get away with it.
sorry, youre absolutely right. i meant media, but wrote players.
according to AACS the image constraint token flag is implemented in the media, not the hardware itself. if the player reads a disk that has the ICT flag set and no HDCP enabled hardware is present, it will down-convert to 960x540 [little better than DVD]. studios reserve the right to implement the flag, so far there are only two studios that intend to implement the flag. the rest are being lenient for now. sony says they are against it [they wanted to avoid adding AACS to the blu-ray spec in the first place]
sony, fox, mgm and disney studios wish to forego using the ICT flag. warner brothers and paramount studios will use the ICT. keep in mind that sony and the blu-ray consortium only agreed to implement AACS in the blu-ray spec in order to have these two studios agree to publish titles using blu-ray.
sony has already announced that for the first generation of players, they will not be implementing the flag that signals an output downgrade. each studio has their own liberty whether to implement the flag or not. so far only two of the nine or so studios supporting blu-ray will implement that feature.
unfortunately, their stance is one where they are being lenient in regards to using the flag in order to woo new adopters of their product. they reserve the right to implement HDCP only full-HD output, as more sets reach market in a few years and HDMI becomes more commonplace.
they took the page with the apology down so they can put up info for the class action lawsuit. but you can see the page here:
. html
i cle&sid=44&mode=&order=0&thold=0
the class action lawsuit
http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/
how to un-"stealth"/ uninstall the rootkit
http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/english/updates.html
and read the drama yourself:
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,69601,00
i dont want to be apologetic for a company that effectively put money into designing a better virus delivery system, but i for one am not buying any sony/BMG cds. if sony ever brands the playstation with anything remotely resembling a BMG logo, im avoiding that too...
the computer industry is just as bad. read up on the latest starforce drama [real or not...] which is 10x worse than the rootkit. i for one am avoiding any computer games from companies that use it.
http://r-force.org/modules.php?name=News&file=art
its a scary time when you realize that the best viruses, trojans and worms are paid for and condoned by big business.
from that article:
Some of the larger US websites have been speculating that PlayStation 3 would be shipping with an optional 60GB hard disc drive. However we can confirm this morning that all PS3 consoles will be sold with the HDD out of the box. Sony's president of Computer Entertainment, Ken Kutaragi, announced on Wednesday that all PS3 games are being developed to take advantage of the 60GB HDD.
http://uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/25/news/ps3-w ill-have-hard-drive-as-standard-3c0925.html
here another report that states that it will. he did not confirm or deny anything, so i guess youre assuming that means it absolutely wont? who knows? sounds like sony has all the cards and it playing them close to their chest. we all shall know soon enough, eh?
apparently thats the plan. we shall see in what form it comes. sony has stated that they plan to offer a 60 gig harddrive and that it would be upgradable. if they plan to offer content downloads of games, that could QUICKLY fill up. so i can see them giving users the option.
it could be an upgradable harddrive, but you have to buy the upgrades direct from sony... OR you can go and purchase your own. chances are they will go the route you suggest, because a peripheral like a harddrive is probably sold at cost. so they would not get any additional benefit from selling their own branded harddrives.
http://uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/25/news/ps3-w ill-have-hard-drive-as-standard-3c0925.html
http://uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/25/news/ps3-w ill-have-hard-drive-as-standard-3c0925.html
well apparently it was announced, but as the person who is handling things on the software side of things, phil harrison didnt feel comfortable giving the final word.
we shall see...
i like nintendo too, but i think you hit the nail on the head re: my only problem with most nintendo fans.
technically thats not a revolution demo; thats a controller demo. the controller can be rigged to work with any console/ system. its a peripheral!
the ps3 demos where rigged to use a ps2 controller. does that equate to it being a demo of the ps2? nope. nintendo is putting alot of weight behind the revolution controller. thats good, but the controller is only as good as the system its attached to and the games that play on it. until we see all three, we havent seen anything really for either system.
i call bull here. part of the announcements made this week were to announce that not only would the ps3 handle HDMI, but the ps3 would also be compatible with SDTVs. at this point, why do people expect sony to say they plan to not at least meet the x360 on features?
in regards to blu-ray movie playback, who knows?
if i recall correctly, the case was to prevent importers from using the name PSP or playstation portable in advertisements.
importing PSP games isnt that big a deal to sony, never has been really... but for some reason, i guess they felt that importing the hardware was undercutting their eventual bottom line. maybe it has something to do with the fact that they lose money on the hardware? i dont expect to be able to import a ps3 from any region, but if the games are region free, thats great
er... wait, you missed that? theyve already done that. there was a letter posted. an offer to replace the cds, acknowledgement that they were wrong, and a way to remove the rootkits. as for the promise not to do it again, who knows? i doubt theyd try something stupid again, im sure hands have been slapped and heads have been rolling. maybe youre waiting on them to make it into a tv commercial. lol.
regardless, sony is a big company. is it possible to hate one division and ignore the rest? i mean, i hate internet explorer and windows ME, but XP and the xbox is cool. the gaming division is a separate world from the music division. im not the biggest fan of certain aspects of sony myself, but then if i were to boycott sony because of something BMG did, i would feel like those people that didnt buy xboxes because microsoft makes them.
this is microsoft... they can have 20 engineers working on shrinking the xbox360 power supply. who knows? my point is that this is all unfounded speculation. they could have transmeta working on almost anything. microsoft may be making their own version of the mac mini, who knows?
furthermore, the xbox line has stayed near to consumer available chips. their philosophy has been to mimic pc gaming on the console level. why would they switch that strategy during the inception of the xbox360?
so back to the example, i went to lunch with my boss and DIDN'T GET ANYTHING TO EAT. Since my boss is a woman and im a man, you assume that i must obviously be having sex; when in fact im only getting a blowjob. =)
correction. the article states that transmeta is working with microsoft on a secret project. no direct mention of a handheld console. we are supposed to infer that since they specialize in creating lowpower comsumption chips, they are working on a portable xbox? that's this guys biggest proof.
thats the equivalent of saying that i went to lunch with my boss. since my boss is a woman and i am a man, we must obviously be having sex.