IIRC, there was a fan-based mod of Half Life which went on to be sold as a standalone game in its own right (can't remember the name -- like a western in space or something).
ZeroPunctuation is certainly enjoyable and he also manages to be incredibly insightful in comparison to the majority of video games reviewers. Maybe they are so insular that they completely miss glaring flaws that apply to the majority of games. Even if he is just ranting about his own personal feelings towards a game, I have a better idea of whether I want it or not based on that than a formal review. He would have saved me buying Prince of Persia if only he'd put his review up sooner.
Regarding The Witcher port, in the words of Command and Conquer: On Hold. Cancelled.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe, and from this side only! The flight of a half-man, half-bird. Dinosaurs nuzzling their young in pastures where strip-malls should be. Cookies on dowels. All those moments lost in time; gone like eggs off a hooker's stomach. Time to die.
I couldn't agree more, you should never be made to have to fight the controls rather than the game. The claims of the controls being awkward in order to increase tension is true to an extent but I don't want to play a game like that. There are other ways of manufacturing fear and tension without bad controls. I think a better approach to not being able to move and shoot would be to allow you to but penalise with reduced accuracy.
They said the same thing about the DS when that came out. It was meant to be the "third pillar" along with the GBA and the GameCube. I don't see a new version of the GBA being released as everyone moved onto the DS. Expect the same, the DS will eventually vanish which is a shame because the GBA slot was quite useful
I actually really liked the first three seasons and I also spell it "humour". It was all about real situations turned surreal by the characters involved. However, when I bought the forth season, apparently when the show hit it's stride, I was massively disappointed with the direction they took. The episodes became sillier and sillier and they really lost what they were trying to do in the first place, a sitcom without sitcom cliches. With the exception of certain episodes, such as "Master of their domain", it wasn't worth watching anymore because it didn't ring true. For God's sake, there is even an episode where George is pretending to be a Whale Biologist to get a woman and when they are wandering the beach they happen to come across a beached whale!
You are right about the quotes, I was watching A New Hope recently and realised that practically every line that Alec Guiness delivers is a well known quote!
Gameplay? I think it's fairly safe to say the wiimote hasn't been the revolutionary leap in control it was played up to be. I can't think of a single high quality game that has been transformed by it. Mario Galaxy has the best use of it but a lot of the controls were traditional. Metroid Prime 3 was frustrating for me personally, the constant requirement to aim was counter to the game's puzzle-like nature. Zelda was nothing special with most of the motion controls being just button substitions (though I can understand that, what with it being a Gamecube game) Mario Kart is better controlled with the analogue stick rather than turning the remote. Smash Brothers almost demands the use of a traditional pad. Some have raved about Resident Evil 4 but I couldn't get on with that either, though in part I think that's a problem with the game. Controlling Leon feels like driving a bus!
I've done exactly that and switched from PC to 360. I also play a lot of FPSs. In my experience, I soon got comfortable with the gamepad but it comes down to two things:
1, It generally works better for games that have been designed for the console, such as Gears of War and Halo 3. Some PC ports can be slightly awkward, such as FEAR.
2, As gamepads are not as quick or accurate, the experience can be a bit more casual. It depends how much you care about pixel perfect precision and how "hardcore" you want your shooting experience to be.
Personally I'm of the opinion that if it uses the Xbox name then it should be compatible with Xbox titles. Same for PlayStation. It is nice to see them continue support for Xbox titles, I am enjoying going through the games I missed first time around. Especially seeing as Sony seem to have given up on backwards compatibility. On the flip side, they do still sell the PS2 and you can't say the same for the Xbox. As a side note, Xbox games seem to difficult to get hold of/expensive. For example, I have seen KOTOR 2 for £20 pre-owned!
It's probably more of a licensing issue as they won't own all of the chips.
The could try and hack it like the 360, but that takes time and money.
It's a shame because it's one of the plus points of the machine.
My PS2 doesn't work anymore and backwards compatibility is an incentive to buy a PS3.
Though I wasn't planning to until it was cheaper and some must have games are available.
I believe it's not actually any cheaper for them to reduce the size of the hard disk.
They would have to have 20Gb drives specially made and would cost more.
Why the 360 is still 20Gb I don't know.
Plus it's probably the same drive as the 80Gb but with less platters so saves on cost.
And also, it one up the 360 in a way, even if it is trivial. (this is Sony after all)
In game engines can't do everything unfortunately. Take for example, an epic scene with thousands of troops, an in game engine would struggle to produce high detail with a decent framerate. In game engines are also unsuitable for quick cuts to different environments (textures etc would need to be loaded).
It's worth noting that the game isn't actually the size of four disks. There will be a lot of data duplication between the disks, as you can visit the same areas on different disks. Remove the movies and it may even fit on one disk. I can't see a game needing any more than 4 disks, I think games have hit a few limits that prevent them getting much bigger. One, the cost to make a game vs. a saturated market (for RPGs). Two, content takes time to produce and test and games have to come out at some point. Three, games aren't getting longer, if anything they are getting shorter. Four, system limits such as RAM prevent textures from getting much bigger. In fact, the size should shrink if they can effectively use more compression.
Slashdot Mirror
Reboot IS getting a reboot:
http://reboot.com/
IIRC, there was a fan-based mod of Half Life which went on to be sold as a standalone game in its own right (can't remember the name -- like a western in space or something).
I think you are talking about Gunman Chronicles.
ZeroPunctuation is certainly enjoyable and he also manages to be incredibly insightful in comparison to the majority of video games reviewers.
Maybe they are so insular that they completely miss glaring flaws that apply to the majority of games. Even if he is just ranting about his own personal feelings towards a game, I have a better idea of whether I want it or not based on that than a formal review. He would have saved me buying Prince of Persia if only he'd put his review up sooner.
Regarding The Witcher port, in the words of Command and Conquer:
On Hold. Cancelled.
I've just lost the game :(
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe, and from this side only! The flight of a half-man, half-bird. Dinosaurs nuzzling their young in pastures where strip-malls should be. Cookies on dowels. All those moments lost in time; gone like eggs off a hooker's stomach. Time to die.
I couldn't agree more, you should never be made to have to fight the controls rather than the game. The claims of the controls being awkward in order to increase tension is true to an extent but I don't want to play a game like that.
There are other ways of manufacturing fear and tension without bad controls.
I think a better approach to not being able to move and shoot would be to allow you to but penalise with reduced accuracy.
They said the same thing about the DS when that came out. It was meant to be the "third pillar" along with the GBA and the GameCube.
I don't see a new version of the GBA being released as everyone moved onto the DS.
Expect the same, the DS will eventually vanish which is a shame because the GBA slot was quite useful
I actually really liked the first three seasons and I also spell it "humour".
It was all about real situations turned surreal by the characters involved.
However, when I bought the forth season, apparently when the show hit it's stride, I was massively disappointed with the direction they took. The episodes became sillier and sillier and they really lost what they were trying to do in the first place, a sitcom without sitcom cliches. With the exception of certain episodes, such as "Master of their domain", it wasn't worth watching anymore because it didn't ring true.
For God's sake, there is even an episode where George is pretending to be a Whale Biologist to get a woman and when they are wandering the beach they happen to come across a beached whale!
You are right about the quotes, I was watching A New Hope recently and realised that practically every line that Alec Guiness delivers is a well known quote!
Or Arsenal, if you believe Ashley Cole...
Did they use Imperial or Metric seconds?
Gameplay?
I think it's fairly safe to say the wiimote hasn't been the revolutionary leap in control it was played up to be.
I can't think of a single high quality game that has been transformed by it.
Mario Galaxy has the best use of it but a lot of the controls were traditional.
Metroid Prime 3 was frustrating for me personally, the constant requirement to aim was counter to the game's puzzle-like nature.
Zelda was nothing special with most of the motion controls being just button substitions (though I can understand that, what with it being a Gamecube game)
Mario Kart is better controlled with the analogue stick rather than turning the remote.
Smash Brothers almost demands the use of a traditional pad.
Some have raved about Resident Evil 4 but I couldn't get on with that either, though in part I think that's a problem with the game. Controlling Leon feels like driving a bus!
There already is a dubbed version, at least in the UK, you can check out the cast here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_2:_Innocence#English_cast It's basically the SAC voice cast.
"I call it a Hawking Headset"
I've done exactly that and switched from PC to 360.
I also play a lot of FPSs.
In my experience, I soon got comfortable with the gamepad but it comes down to two things:
1, It generally works better for games that have been designed for the console, such as Gears of War and Halo 3. Some PC ports can be slightly awkward, such as FEAR.
2, As gamepads are not as quick or accurate, the experience can be a bit more casual. It depends how much you care about pixel perfect precision and how "hardcore" you want your shooting experience to be.
Is Niven the guy who ripped off Halo?
(I kid, I kid!)
Personally I'm of the opinion that if it uses the Xbox name then it should be compatible with Xbox titles. Same for PlayStation.
It is nice to see them continue support for Xbox titles, I am enjoying going through the games I missed first time around. Especially seeing as Sony seem to have given up on backwards compatibility. On the flip side, they do still sell the PS2 and you can't say the same for the Xbox.
As a side note, Xbox games seem to difficult to get hold of/expensive. For example, I have seen KOTOR 2 for £20 pre-owned!
Unfortunately, I can't mod you hyperinsightful!
It's probably more of a licensing issue as they won't own all of the chips. The could try and hack it like the 360, but that takes time and money. It's a shame because it's one of the plus points of the machine. My PS2 doesn't work anymore and backwards compatibility is an incentive to buy a PS3. Though I wasn't planning to until it was cheaper and some must have games are available.
I believe it's not actually any cheaper for them to reduce the size of the hard disk. They would have to have 20Gb drives specially made and would cost more. Why the 360 is still 20Gb I don't know. Plus it's probably the same drive as the 80Gb but with less platters so saves on cost. And also, it one up the 360 in a way, even if it is trivial. (this is Sony after all)
Well at least the Vault will always lock up...
In game engines can't do everything unfortunately.
Take for example, an epic scene with thousands of troops, an in game engine would struggle to produce high detail with a decent framerate.
In game engines are also unsuitable for quick cuts to different environments (textures etc would need to be loaded).
It's worth noting that the game isn't actually the size of four disks.
There will be a lot of data duplication between the disks, as you can visit the same areas on different disks.
Remove the movies and it may even fit on one disk.
I can't see a game needing any more than 4 disks, I think games have hit a few limits that prevent them getting much bigger.
One, the cost to make a game vs. a saturated market (for RPGs).
Two, content takes time to produce and test and games have to come out at some point.
Three, games aren't getting longer, if anything they are getting shorter.
Four, system limits such as RAM prevent textures from getting much bigger. In fact, the size should shrink if they can effectively use more compression.
They aren't evil, they are just religious nuts!
Well I'll prove you!