Aside from Zelda? Quite frankly, the sword fighting in Zelda rocks.
Again, though, my point is that we who game are no longer forced to upgrade Windows to WinVista just to play games. Most games are now available on one of: Mac, Linux, BSD, Wii, 360, and PS3. The days when we were forced to keep up with Windows upgrades is over. Especially when, as is true with WinVista, we literally have no choice but to shell out $2000 or more for a new PC or laptop just to play. Instead, we can easily do just as well with one of the other choices - and we probably have one or two of them.
I've got a Wii (runs my old GC games), a Mac Mini (with a nice giant monitor from Sony), and some older xBox and PS2 consoles, so I've just decided to heck with Windows Vista. If I end up needing to buy an xBox360 or PS3 to play them, it will be later when the consoles are cheaper and I have to buy a new HDTV for $300 or less anyway in 2009. Even if I hold out until 2008, the price for an HDTV should be below $500 and a PS3 is likely to have a street value of under $400 (selling in Japan today for that). So why bother tossing my perfectly good WinXP machine?
Hmm. But if you have both a Wiimote and a Nunchuk, then you probably would only have one massive arm if you hotkeyed all your weapons and spells to the one arm.
Regardless, if we have WoW on the Wii, and can play most WinVista games on the Mac, the Wii, the 360, and the PS3, then we have little need to bother with shelling out $2000 for a brand new PC or laptop when we can buy something for half that much or less which works just as well.
Economics is a cruel mistress - she charges by the hour.
Actually, Red Steel is one of the worst games on the Wii. Most are 4 or 5 star out of 5 games, like Rayman's Raving Rabbids, Zelda, Trauma Center, etc. Don't judge a console by it's worst title. Just as we shouldn't judge the PS3 by the only good non-cross-platform game for it, Resistance: Fall of Man (the only good one so far).
Now, I admit the 360 is coming out with a bunch of games, but for some reason most of the good games are Japan-region-encoded. Which means not gonna happen.
However, this proves the point that WinVista is not needed for modern gamers - we have many decent platforms to play them on, ranging from Wii to PS3 to 360 to Mac to Linux/BSD.
Well, I know it's intuitive, my 15 yo son just paid $1.99 for a two-week trial version for his Mac. But, you'd get more exercise, and avoid Cartman's fate if you actually could use Wii gestures to attack.
But still, there really are very few games that we need to have WinVista for anymore. Most exist on the Wii, 360, PS3 (hah), MacOS, BSD, and some on Linux.
So, when faced with the question - do I spend $2000 just to buy a new WinVista Premium laptop - or spend $2000 on 40 new games for my Wii and my Mac Mini, the answer is pretty darned simple, and it means there's no real need to "upgrade" to WinVista when it means tossing a perfectly good machine away.
Why? WoW on a Wii would be more fun, because you could actually cast spells or slash with a sword by actually doing it. Instead of hunting around for silly keys to click - and you'd still have a ribbon bar on the bottom.
My point is Vista is just barely capable of doing what my 2006 Mac Mini already does. And it cost half as much to buy, monitor and mouse included. Same goes for Linux laptop or using a Wii - it's just a heck of a lot cheaper. Why pay $200 for an OS when you don't need to?
Because I can't see shelling out a fresh $2000 just for a brand new laptop with fancy windowing that any MacOS can handle with existing graphics cards or that wouldn't be a good reason to just not bother and switch to a Linux or BSD laptop instead.
Besides, if a game won't run on my Wii or my son's Mac Mini (intel), it's not worth getting.
And that includes Spore, which I've been wanting for more than a year now.
But wonder why it took them four years to implement a Windows version of the BSD-based Mac OS that uses ten times the memory and four times the graphical power to do the same thing?
Sorry, I've given up. The only reason I have a WinXP box at home is to play the Sims on it, and I'm not shelling out $2000 to replace my $500 laptop when I could buy a Mac laptop that does the same thing for $1000.
with positive electrical charge. Soon to be subject to high voltages if sent to Texas, otherwise to be denied favorite occupation of irradiating people who yearn to be free.
Except, they have not yet charged him, they are requesting extradition and he's not in the UK or EU at present.
Sushi eaters everywhere are running scared, of course. Except on the West Coast of the US/Canada, where our rivers are filled with fish that have higher levels of Mercury than 10 years ago, so we're way more concerned about that.
Actually, most of us in WA, OR, and CA would rather join with BC if we could, then we wouldn't have to drag around the tax-avoiding low-education parts of the US with our 40 percent of the US economy and 20 percent of the US population.
That's complete BS. Maybe in Quebec, where french films have to come from Europe, but here in English-majority Ontario, we all get the same idiotic, formulaic CRAP as you guys in the US.
Last time I checked there were 10 provinces and either 2 or 3 territories.
Ontario is only one of them. I used to live in BC, and while had many friends in Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec who had this kind of problem.
Also, unless you're near a major city in Ontario (which many people aren't), my statement still stands.
You have seen Little Mosque on the Prairie, haven't you? Eh? Eh!
Again, given the multi-ethnic population, the wide availability of superior bandwidth (compared to us in the US), and population distributions, my statement is correct, even if the Blue Laws that censor the films you then ship (expurgated) to the rest of Canada might make you think you actually watch the same film we get here in the US - but it isn't.
If your company does not yet have experience developing for video game consoles, then you'll need to start by obtaining incorporation papers, a detached office in leased space, and a published title on the Microsoft Windows platform.
Actually, I used to run a games company as a sole-proprietorship. To dev for the Wii you don't need Windows. You can use your garage (I used my basement).
If sony actually managed to get a $300 PS3 out, it would change dramatically the number of sold consoles.
This is a true statement. Notice the street price in Japan has already been slashed, even before the EU launches, as they try to deal with lower console sales there. Prices haven't dropped in the US market, but the product isn't moving either, according to a number of online and print articles in various business sources - WSJ, CNN Business, CNBC, etc.
With the massive console losses already in place, it might be better to realize who the real competition is - Nintendo's Wii console - and fight them on price. Because, frankly, Sony has a better console at the same price point of the Wii, at least on graphics and speed, even if they don't have a full-fledged motion controller.
You fight the battle with the enemy that's there, not the enemy you lied to yourself would be there.
Directly contradicting this story, I read the print edition of the Wall Street Journal(expensive subscription required) and it said that in point of fact - as also backed by articles in Fortune and Forbes - that Sony is losing the format war to HD-DVD, due to low adoption rates by pr0n providers, low sales of the PS3 consoles, and labels shunning the format. Perhaps if someone were prognosticating back in October 2007, such a forecast might have seemed reasonable, but the post-Christmas sales figures in the US and Japan as well as worldwide show that adoption rates are sub-par.
Many films never even get shown in Canada, and since they're a very multi-ethnic society, they tend to want to watch movies from many countries that just plain aren't shown there.
It's one thing to want people to pay for a movie that shows in a nearby theater.
It's another thing to want people to pay for a movie that: a. never showed within 100 miles of them; and b. when it did show was in another bleeding province.
1. Survey is an online survey - people online are not representative of the general population (for one thing, they're online) of the US - most people don't answer online surveys unless they are on one side or the other of the issue (survey bias) - respondents are not randomly chosen.
2. Why would people illegally download full-length movies? Basic reason - much is pr0n. People might be willing to pay for said movies, but don't want: a. incriminating movie CD/DVD that shows what it is b. incriminating record on credit card so spouse or SO finds out c. don't want FBI able to find out from rental store that they got it.
Now, after showing how the survey itself is not just flawed, but hilarious, can we admit that reality doesn't match the survey and get some tech stuff instead?
Well, you couldn't purchase it as of four months ago. I admit, I don't know what it is now, maybe it's changed, but it took so long to figure out that one can't blame someone for not trying again, just to be told No.
Heck, I've even tried to buy Japanese versions of games I know have English subtitling and they won't accept US credit cards. Which is funny when they can buy our games.
Seriously, at some point, you just have to give up and ignore things.
Slashdot Mirror
Aside from Zelda? Quite frankly, the sword fighting in Zelda rocks.
Again, though, my point is that we who game are no longer forced to upgrade Windows to WinVista just to play games. Most games are now available on one of: Mac, Linux, BSD, Wii, 360, and PS3. The days when we were forced to keep up with Windows upgrades is over. Especially when, as is true with WinVista, we literally have no choice but to shell out $2000 or more for a new PC or laptop just to play. Instead, we can easily do just as well with one of the other choices - and we probably have one or two of them.
I've got a Wii (runs my old GC games), a Mac Mini (with a nice giant monitor from Sony), and some older xBox and PS2 consoles, so I've just decided to heck with Windows Vista. If I end up needing to buy an xBox360 or PS3 to play them, it will be later when the consoles are cheaper and I have to buy a new HDTV for $300 or less anyway in 2009. Even if I hold out until 2008, the price for an HDTV should be below $500 and a PS3 is likely to have a street value of under $400 (selling in Japan today for that). So why bother tossing my perfectly good WinXP machine?
Hmm. But if you have both a Wiimote and a Nunchuk, then you probably would only have one massive arm if you hotkeyed all your weapons and spells to the one arm.
Regardless, if we have WoW on the Wii, and can play most WinVista games on the Mac, the Wii, the 360, and the PS3, then we have little need to bother with shelling out $2000 for a brand new PC or laptop when we can buy something for half that much or less which works just as well.
Economics is a cruel mistress - she charges by the hour.
Actually, Red Steel is one of the worst games on the Wii. Most are 4 or 5 star out of 5 games, like Rayman's Raving Rabbids, Zelda, Trauma Center, etc. Don't judge a console by it's worst title. Just as we shouldn't judge the PS3 by the only good non-cross-platform game for it, Resistance: Fall of Man (the only good one so far).
Now, I admit the 360 is coming out with a bunch of games, but for some reason most of the good games are Japan-region-encoded. Which means not gonna happen.
However, this proves the point that WinVista is not needed for modern gamers - we have many decent platforms to play them on, ranging from Wii to PS3 to 360 to Mac to Linux/BSD.
Well, I know it's intuitive, my 15 yo son just paid $1.99 for a two-week trial version for his Mac. But, you'd get more exercise, and avoid Cartman's fate if you actually could use Wii gestures to attack.
But still, there really are very few games that we need to have WinVista for anymore. Most exist on the Wii, 360, PS3 (hah), MacOS, BSD, and some on Linux.
So, when faced with the question - do I spend $2000 just to buy a new WinVista Premium laptop - or spend $2000 on 40 new games for my Wii and my Mac Mini, the answer is pretty darned simple, and it means there's no real need to "upgrade" to WinVista when it means tossing a perfectly good machine away.
Why? WoW on a Wii would be more fun, because you could actually cast spells or slash with a sword by actually doing it. Instead of hunting around for silly keys to click - and you'd still have a ribbon bar on the bottom.
My point is Vista is just barely capable of doing what my 2006 Mac Mini already does. And it cost half as much to buy, monitor and mouse included. Same goes for Linux laptop or using a Wii - it's just a heck of a lot cheaper. Why pay $200 for an OS when you don't need to?
SWG and WoW still run on Linux
Man, I missed that news! I know WoW runs on my son's intel-based Mac Mini too.
Hope they get a Wii version soon, cause I'm not shelling out $2000 for a fresh laptop just to play games. My last one cost me $500 with WinXP bundled.
Because I can't see shelling out a fresh $2000 just for a brand new laptop with fancy windowing that any MacOS can handle with existing graphics cards or that wouldn't be a good reason to just not bother and switch to a Linux or BSD laptop instead.
Besides, if a game won't run on my Wii or my son's Mac Mini (intel), it's not worth getting.
And that includes Spore, which I've been wanting for more than a year now.
But wonder why it took them four years to implement a Windows version of the BSD-based Mac OS that uses ten times the memory and four times the graphical power to do the same thing?
Sorry, I've given up. The only reason I have a WinXP box at home is to play the Sims on it, and I'm not shelling out $2000 to replace my $500 laptop when I could buy a Mac laptop that does the same thing for $1000.
with positive electrical charge. Soon to be subject to high voltages if sent to Texas, otherwise to be denied favorite occupation of irradiating people who yearn to be free.
Except, they have not yet charged him, they are requesting extradition and he's not in the UK or EU at present.
Sushi eaters everywhere are running scared, of course. Except on the West Coast of the US/Canada, where our rivers are filled with fish that have higher levels of Mercury than 10 years ago, so we're way more concerned about that.
Actually, most of us in WA, OR, and CA would rather join with BC if we could, then we wouldn't have to drag around the tax-avoiding low-education parts of the US with our 40 percent of the US economy and 20 percent of the US population.
That's complete BS. Maybe in Quebec, where french films have to come from Europe, but here in English-majority Ontario, we all get the same idiotic, formulaic CRAP as you guys in the US.
Last time I checked there were 10 provinces and either 2 or 3 territories.
Ontario is only one of them. I used to live in BC, and while had many friends in Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec who had this kind of problem.
Also, unless you're near a major city in Ontario (which many people aren't), my statement still stands.
You have seen Little Mosque on the Prairie, haven't you? Eh? Eh!
Again, given the multi-ethnic population, the wide availability of superior bandwidth (compared to us in the US), and population distributions, my statement is correct, even if the Blue Laws that censor the films you then ship (expurgated) to the rest of Canada might make you think you actually watch the same film we get here in the US - but it isn't.
because not only is he interested in high tech assassination, he's also in favor of Open Sores.
maybe this might be possible.
More likely is a statistic that said more than 25 percent of all IP addresses have at least one CPU behind them which is part of a botnet.
That might be true.
I'd rather have Diablo III, personally. And, no, WoW is not the same. Sorry.
If your company does not yet have experience developing for video game consoles, then you'll need to start by obtaining incorporation papers, a detached office in leased space, and a published title on the Microsoft Windows platform.
Actually, I used to run a games company as a sole-proprietorship. To dev for the Wii you don't need Windows. You can use your garage (I used my basement).
Myth != Reality.
have to agree on the load times - my son picked up the PS2 Psychonauts title and those load screens are way too long.
If sony actually managed to get a $300 PS3 out, it would change dramatically the number of sold consoles.
This is a true statement. Notice the street price in Japan has already been slashed, even before the EU launches, as they try to deal with lower console sales there. Prices haven't dropped in the US market, but the product isn't moving either, according to a number of online and print articles in various business sources - WSJ, CNN Business, CNBC, etc.
With the massive console losses already in place, it might be better to realize who the real competition is - Nintendo's Wii console - and fight them on price. Because, frankly, Sony has a better console at the same price point of the Wii, at least on graphics and speed, even if they don't have a full-fledged motion controller.
You fight the battle with the enemy that's there, not the enemy you lied to yourself would be there.
Directly contradicting this story, I read the print edition of the Wall Street Journal (expensive subscription required) and it said that in point of fact - as also backed by articles in Fortune and Forbes - that Sony is losing the format war to HD-DVD, due to low adoption rates by pr0n providers, low sales of the PS3 consoles, and labels shunning the format. Perhaps if someone were prognosticating back in October 2007, such a forecast might have seemed reasonable, but the post-Christmas sales figures in the US and Japan as well as worldwide show that adoption rates are sub-par.
But, live in a dream world if you must.
of course not, the laser beams are mounted on the heads of the pirate sharks.
I was flying from Santa Barbara to Seattle and found the same thing at LAX, a few days after Christmas.
But since I only wanted to play the Sims, I just turned off the wireless card on my laptop.
Had to save battery power as I was stuck there for three hours waiting for a flight that kept getting delayed.
they wouldn't have to download them, would they?
Many films never even get shown in Canada, and since they're a very multi-ethnic society, they tend to want to watch movies from many countries that just plain aren't shown there.
It's one thing to want people to pay for a movie that shows in a nearby theater.
It's another thing to want people to pay for a movie that:
a. never showed within 100 miles of them; and
b. when it did show was in another bleeding province.
1. Survey is an online survey - people online are not representative of the general population (for one thing, they're online) of the US - most people don't answer online surveys unless they are on one side or the other of the issue (survey bias) - respondents are not randomly chosen.
2. Why would people illegally download full-length movies? Basic reason - much is pr0n. People might be willing to pay for said movies, but don't want: a. incriminating movie CD/DVD that shows what it is b. incriminating record on credit card so spouse or SO finds out c. don't want FBI able to find out from rental store that they got it.
Now, after showing how the survey itself is not just flawed, but hilarious, can we admit that reality doesn't match the survey and get some tech stuff instead?
If there are really that many movie pirates, why is global warming still occurring?
Because they refuse to wear eyepatches. Everyone knows real pirates have eyepatches. Even pirate fish.
Well, you couldn't purchase it as of four months ago. I admit, I don't know what it is now, maybe it's changed, but it took so long to figure out that one can't blame someone for not trying again, just to be told No.
Heck, I've even tried to buy Japanese versions of games I know have English subtitling and they won't accept US credit cards. Which is funny when they can buy our games.
Seriously, at some point, you just have to give up and ignore things.