Yes, except that the exclusivity is completely up for grabs. The only thing we know is that FF13 will be released for the PS3... whether its exclusive or not is not known anymore. CEO of SCE France has indicated that there is trouble in this area. It should be noted that he was only talking about the "Final Fantasy XIII" game, in particular, not Versus XIII or the rest of the series. Currently FFvXIII is still slated to be a PS3 exclusive, agito is for cellphones, and Square has strongly hinted that there will be a Wii and DS exclusive in the lineup for the other three.
Who knows, FFXIII may once again regain its Sony exclusivity, but for the moment, that is doubtfull. I'd look for it exploding out into all consoles and PC, if it loses exclusivity... since it would be more ecconomical to do so.
Dude, Wii Sports' graphics are simple... but they're far from PlayStation quality. They're clean and everything that the developers intended them to be. Have you played Okami on the PS2? That's my benchmark for success, at the moment, a game with incredibly beautiful, but low powered graphics that I feel accomplished everything they tried to achieve. Mario Sunshine is another example: it's cartoony and fun... it's smooth and clean, developers could have used 10 shaders, but they only needed 3 (or whatever). This becomes clear once you notice the trailors for Super Mario Galaxy, and realize that there's really no graphical improvement over Sunshine... because there really can't be.
Most of the games currently out for the Wii don't even attempt to use the Wii's graphical power to its advantage. Seriously, the best game you saw on that kiosk was a GameCube port (Twlight Princess), and I'd have to say it was one of the most beautiful games I've ever played, regardless of its graphical "impressiveness"... it accomplished exactly what it set out to do: no less, no more... and is currently my favorite game of all time.
The fact is, while the current Wii games could have been done on the PlayStation, the Wii can do them flawlessly, without you having to think about how poor they look. Many of the games look like they were drawn by Terri Gilliam (Wario Ware), or a 3 year old (parts of Super Paper Mario), but that's because that was their intention.
Now, go check out some of the trailors for Metroid Prime 3, which puts Halo 2 to shame and rivals some of the stuff we've seen for Halo 3. Umbrella Chronicals is another one. It's really all about the developers' intent. The PS3 and 360 have the potential to be graphically superior to the Wii... but not if the developers keep doing the same old shit they've been doing for years.
I dunno, it's sorta painful to go back to the PS2 after just playing on the GAMECUBE. I'm playing Tales of the Abyss, right now, after having played Tales of Symphonia on the GameCube, and it really is painful to go back like that. From a hardware perspective, the Wii is like two overclocked gamecubes with a boosted graphics card, and a few more shaders and goodies like that.
So wait... this makes no sense. Why is it painful to go from the PS2 to the Wii, when I found it painful to go from the GameCube to the PS2? Something tells me you need to get out more, cuz even the latest PS2 games are pretty crappy compared to early GameCube titles.
It's really hard to blame games for a crime when its commited by someone who has a long history of mental instability who has been in and out of various instituations for half his life. You can argue that violent video games promote certain amounts of aggression (I'll buy that, in fact), but it's hard to prove that video games promote levels of mental instability to the degree that this person has shown.
Not really. Using my question (#2) as a way of painting yourself as the Henry Ford-style, "product for THE PEOPLE", gaming CEO will only get you so far when you fail to price the product at a level that THE PEOPLE can afford.
They're stuck. They have the opportunity to present themselves as the BMW of game consoles, offering the most sophistication for your buck. Yet, they're constrained by being a MASSIVE company, that needs to eat 2x its weight every month to survive, meaning that it can't afford to be that picky. So, its forced to charge luxury rates for a gaming experience that may or may not be any more sophisticated than anyone else's.
Henry Ford wouldn't have had much credibility, had he started out making Lexus's, now, would he?
Well, until demand is met (which it clearly hasn't been, yet), those numbers say nothing about the actual demand, so it's impossible to chalk up to disinterest in Wii titles. Those numbers are pure reflections of how many units are being produced, since 100% of all inventory is being sold the moment it hits the floor. Large titles aren't going to increase sales at all, at this point, if Nintendo can't even meet the damand that is already out there.
You're correct, I don't trust that article for a minute. A bunch of fanboys from all sides have been quoting it on various sites, and I take absolutely no stock in it.
A) there is no evidence that FFXIII is being ported to the 360 B) there is no evidence that FFXIII is being ported to the Wii C) there is no evidence that FFXIII is being ported to the DS
BUT...
There IS evidence that FFXIII may NOT be exclusive to the PS3, but that could mean any one of the above, or the PC. The only sure quote we have is from the president of SCE France saying that FF13s exclusivity is under question. No platforms have been named, so anything up until this point is pure rumor, speculation, and wishfull thinking. Nothing wrong with speculation, but don't present it as fact.
Actually, that's already a given. Square has said that there are going to be six games in the Fabula Nova Chrystalis series (FF13 series) that will span quite a few different platforms and styles of gameplay, and has STRONGLY hinted at Wii and/or DS titles. What's more up in the air is the central title itself, Final Fantasy XIII, whose exclusivity is now under question.
I think that a 360 port would be a bit simpler, especially since the white engine runs on both the PS3 and the 360... although reprogramming for non-cell architecture is no small feat. I've made this analogy before, but it's like choosing to take a cross-country trip from LA... if the Wii is NYC, then the 360 is Pitsberg... sure, Pitsberg is closer, but considering the length of the trip, it's not going to make a huge difference, one way or the other.
As for re-doing the game, that's a little unneccessary. Mother 3 isn't a very good example, since the N64 and GBA use incredibly different hardware... the N64 can do 3D graphics, the GBA can't. The Wii and PS3 still can do exactly the same kinds of graphics, just to different degrees of perfection. They polygon count isn't quite as much of an issue as the shaders and lighting effects, which are pretty simple to step down off of. Making the game 480p instead of 1080p will reduce power requirements greatly, practically solving a lot of the GPU issues right there. As people have said, the difference between Wii and PS3/360 graphics at 480p resolutions is pretty marginal.
About 90% of development time and costs for RPGs are in their design, NOT their coding, so if you're not going to obtain the exclusivity bonus, you might as well port it to all possible consoles (within reason). So I think there's probably a good chance that we'll see a tri-system release for FFXIII.
Versus XIII is still a PS3 exclusive, for all we've heard, though.
Guitar Hero III has been officially announced for the Wii, btw.
Anyway, as a gamer, I still do want to see a steady influx of more immersive, involved games on the Wii, but I'm not too worried. As of late, it's only 5 months in, developers haven't had the time to make those big, juicy epics yet, as they take a long time to make. I just think we're going to see more games, and more game developers come into their own, over the next few years. I think the Wii will inevitably have just as many immersive games as the other guys... at least I hope so, because I'd like to see the Wiimote combined with some epic content.
I've had a Wii for a while now, and while I enjoyed it, my personal opinion, alone, hasn't convinced me, one way or another, what the draw of the console will be. Last night, this question was proven to me, once and for all.
I brought it to a BBQ that another friend of mine was hosting. Half of the people there were gamers, and half of the people there were decidedly NOT gamers (Chinese students, a few hippies, some others). At first, all my gamer friends screamed for some "SMASH!" and that went on for about 45minutes in the other room while everyone else went outside and sat around jawing.
Then I pried the GameCube controllers away from the gamers, and stuck in Wii Sports. The other half of the party suddenly rushed inside and grabbed controllers. They'd obviously never played or seen the games before, since they had no idea what to do, but within 5 minutes, everyone had made their own Miis, and were smacking tennis balls around to their hearts content. We alternated Wii Sports and WarioWare for the next few hours. By the end, many of the non-gamers were coming up to me, asking me how much the Wii cost, and where they could get them. I was pretty shocked, myself. I'd heard stories like this before, but hadn't really witnessed it in person, and was pretty amaized at the degree of involvement everyone had. Also, it was a party... none of us were sitting around, alone, brooding over a scummy screen. We were joking with eachother, making cracks all the time--we were interacting with each other even more than if we'd been doing most other normal party activities. In the end, the host came up to me and thanked me profusely, saying that everyone there had had a blast, and bringing the Wii was exactly the thing we needed.
Just the other night, NBC news ran a piece on how retirement communities were getting into games... although the only games they showed were Wii games, there was no mention of PS3 or 360 titles. It's clear, the Wii is a phonominon, like no other we've seen in videogame history. We are entering a period of unknowns, in gaming... this is the LAST time to be making doomsday prophecies for the game industry.
This guy from the BBC needs to get out more, see what exactly is going on in the world. He sounds as closeted as a 15-year-old gamer in his mother's basement.
Good point. I'd rather have a society where everyone is robbing eachother blind, and no one knows about it, than live in one where no one is robbing anyone, but everyone's so fucking paranoid that they can't get any sleep at night.
Nanny state... sure why not?
"Libertarians, get your party off my fucking lawn!"
I could give two shits about what the bill of rights or the constitution has to say about the issue, it needs to be changed. Screw the founding fathers: that was then, this is now. Laws are there to be A) followed, and B) changed to fit the needs of society AS A WHOLE. We lost THAT particular privilage when we achieved a higher murder rate than any other developed country, and higher than most developing countries. Hell, the British police force is able to keep the peace better, and all they have are sticks!
The thing I hate about libertarians is they only think about themselves, and they believe that if everyone were to just think ONLY about themselves, this world would be a right dandy place. Well, sorry Joe, there's a little something called "human interaction", and it's becoming more and more prevolent as time progresses. Social darwinism makes me sick.
I'd rather have a Nanny state than a "negligent step-father" state. In fact, where is this Nanny state you speak of, sounds like a pretty good place to me.
That's great... except for, ya know, the stuff about cutting government social programs, environmental apathy, handgun deregulation, not to mention, embracing social darwinism as the new religion...
Ummm, have you used OS9, lately? I mean, I liked it back in the day, after using the OSX Finder, Classic feels damn clunky. Sure, the OSX Finder isn't perfect, but the OS9 Finder was no beauty either, in fact, I think pretty much every feature added after 8.0 was useless crap, and symbolized everything as to why Apple was really failing during the mid 90s.
Tabbed Folders - WORST IMPLEMENTATION EVER! I thought they looked cool at first, and then I tried them, and oh man. They go completely counter to Apple's basic design philosophy, they make for a lot of useless clutter, and there's no precident on how they should be used efficiently. I'm glad they got rid of those, very glad.
Open in New Window - I railed on Microsoft when they first came up with the "open in exiting window" idea, but ya know what? I've gotta hand it to them (yes, I know, this was originally implemented in some Linux builds, but I hadn't used any yet), they were right to have done so. I never find myself clicking on the little oval in OSX to do classic-style window management.
Bottom line, Classic was good for its day, but and OSX finder definitely has room for improvement, but saying that OS9s Finder was better than OSX is just kidding yourself
I would say that there are some problems with it, but the basic functionality of it is just fine. They sorta broke a lot of their design rules with the windows, though... very minor things like the fact that the window shifts position when the collapse button is pressed, but they still irk me.
Only thing I really want to see is files and folders open with the Enter key, enough of this command-O bullshit! It's the ONE thing about Windows that I like better, it makes folder navigation so incredibly fast.
So, it will be _very_ difficult to create the 'exact mapping' lightsaber game that everyone wants. I think it will be a hybrid where you use gentle tilting for fine control, sudden gestures to trigger slashes/jabs, and maybe drill the user to return to a zero position/stance.
Your FPS tilt control idea could work if you can keep your nunchuck hand still and movements small in the heat of action. But in practice, tilt control is more suited to subtle inputs like boats/planes/cars. But, I agree that the infrared pointing should no longer be used for turning/looking - it's too easy to break. So, I think we are left with a strafe button, or a 'lock on and strafe' ala zelda.
Well, "lock on and strafe" ala Zelda, and "strafe buttons" ala Metroid, are both deal breakers for most FPS players (console and computer FPS fans), so those aren't really very good options. For my nunchuck idea, if you had a sufficient "null zone", where small amounts of tilting don't register, then even in the heat of battle, you could probalby keep it still enough to be precice. Remember that since you can aim anywhere on the screen with the WiiMote (unlike just in the center, with a mouse), turning doesn't have to be as precise as it is with a keyboard or even analog stick, so you can afford to have a pretty big null-zone, and have much grosser turns, once it gets out of the null-zone. Also, I'm invisioning that for head tilt, unlike turning, the nuncuck's azmouth would directly translate to head tilt, with a null-zone in the center, where the view would be parallel to the ground. The need to looking up and down would be much less than with a keyboard or a-pad configuration, since you can already aim the entire virtical angle of the screen height, which is probably about 40 degrees.
The bottom line is that, a nunchuck turning/tiliting system allows for the POTENTIAL of fast, and precise FPS gameplay. It may take some time to get used to (I remember my first time playing with a "mouse look" keybaord setup, that felt really funky), but I think most people would pick it up fairly quickly, and the elite gamers would quickly be able to become just as accurate as a mouse-look setup, and much better than an a-pad setup.
So, it will be _very_ difficult to create the 'exact mapping' lightsaber game that everyone wants. I think it will be a hybrid where you use gentle tilting for fine control, sudden gestures to trigger slashes/jabs, and maybe drill the user to return to a zero position/stance.
Yes, it's fairly obvious that the WiiMote is not setup very well to be able to do that. I think a hybrid would work quite well, though, and could allow for control that is fairly close to what people are looking for. Maybe future versions of the Wii, instead of using an IR reciever, might use Loran-like radio-wave positioning system with 2 transmitters (one at each end of the WiiMote) to deciefer exact horizontal angle. I don't know what the cost of that would be, but it doesn't seem like it would be all that difficult in this day-in-age. This would pretty much complete the requirements for doing a fairly accurate sword-play simulation (except for force feedback, which is nigh impossible).
No, unless the Wii firmware update that you had to do has some text updates, I doubt there's been any change. However, I would say that the News channel always had pretty good text, the Internet channel now matches the News channel's quality. If you're having problems, you should probably get a componant video cable, if that's an option for you... 480p looks A LOT BETTER.
Bingo. Obviously, all entertainment is supposed to be "rewarding" at some level. But "fun" is usually used to define things with little intelectual or thought-provoking value, that pray on more primal sensory input.
To a degree, MANY games are trying to break from this. RPGs, in general, tend to try on rely on higher-level sensory. The World of Warcraft example is one of the many aspects of this genre. Unfortunately, like any genre, RPGs have a tendancy to fall into a rutt.
Interestingly, though, I think it's plotlines that are the weakest. We're starting to see a lot of games with incredibly well-portrayed and interesting characters, thought-provoking dialog, and intelligent gameplay. Yet, many of those same games rely on the same old "save the world from baddy" plots. I've gotten to the point where it doesn't really bother me anymore... I don't play games for stories, but I do play them partially for characters and dialog, and those have come a long way. Even so, it'll be hard for most people to accept the intellectual value of games if their plotlines remain as cliche and contrived as they are now. Basically, games are either too cliche, or they try to hard. How about a nice, simple plot that hasn't been done 1000 times over? That's a rare occurence these days.
If you think about it, much of the most sophisticated narrative art/entertainment pieces have very simple frameworks in which to couch complex questions, emotions, and ideas. We're just not seeing it yet.
Yeah, the 20GB model was practically a hoax, Sony released a few of them, here and there, so they could say, openly, that the PS3 started at only $500. It was all just a sales gimmick to get people to come in and buy them, and then when there weren't any 20GB models on the shelves, they'd just go "oh well" and buy the 60GB models. Pretty pathetic, if you ask me. I mean, it's Walmart's tactic (get people to come in for the cheap stuff, but then sell them the expensive stuff), but at least Walmart actually HAS the cheap stuff, Sony didn't really even ever have a 20GB, there's little evidence that very many ever existed.
This also gives credence to the concept that the PS3 is not going to have a price drop for a VERY LONG TIME.
Probably their best bet is to outsource it. They really don't have time for bulldozers. One way or another, demand is going to slow down. They might not make as much money in the short term, but anything that saturates the market and mindshare with their console, right now, is going to do a lot of good for their future.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, except that the exclusivity is completely up for grabs. The only thing we know is that FF13 will be released for the PS3... whether its exclusive or not is not known anymore. CEO of SCE France has indicated that there is trouble in this area. It should be noted that he was only talking about the "Final Fantasy XIII" game, in particular, not Versus XIII or the rest of the series. Currently FFvXIII is still slated to be a PS3 exclusive, agito is for cellphones, and Square has strongly hinted that there will be a Wii and DS exclusive in the lineup for the other three.
Who knows, FFXIII may once again regain its Sony exclusivity, but for the moment, that is doubtfull. I'd look for it exploding out into all consoles and PC, if it loses exclusivity... since it would be more ecconomical to do so.
Dude, Wii Sports' graphics are simple... but they're far from PlayStation quality. They're clean and everything that the developers intended them to be. Have you played Okami on the PS2? That's my benchmark for success, at the moment, a game with incredibly beautiful, but low powered graphics that I feel accomplished everything they tried to achieve. Mario Sunshine is another example: it's cartoony and fun... it's smooth and clean, developers could have used 10 shaders, but they only needed 3 (or whatever). This becomes clear once you notice the trailors for Super Mario Galaxy, and realize that there's really no graphical improvement over Sunshine... because there really can't be. Most of the games currently out for the Wii don't even attempt to use the Wii's graphical power to its advantage. Seriously, the best game you saw on that kiosk was a GameCube port (Twlight Princess), and I'd have to say it was one of the most beautiful games I've ever played, regardless of its graphical "impressiveness"... it accomplished exactly what it set out to do: no less, no more... and is currently my favorite game of all time. The fact is, while the current Wii games could have been done on the PlayStation, the Wii can do them flawlessly, without you having to think about how poor they look. Many of the games look like they were drawn by Terri Gilliam (Wario Ware), or a 3 year old (parts of Super Paper Mario), but that's because that was their intention. Now, go check out some of the trailors for Metroid Prime 3, which puts Halo 2 to shame and rivals some of the stuff we've seen for Halo 3. Umbrella Chronicals is another one. It's really all about the developers' intent. The PS3 and 360 have the potential to be graphically superior to the Wii... but not if the developers keep doing the same old shit they've been doing for years.
I dunno, it's sorta painful to go back to the PS2 after just playing on the GAMECUBE. I'm playing Tales of the Abyss, right now, after having played Tales of Symphonia on the GameCube, and it really is painful to go back like that. From a hardware perspective, the Wii is like two overclocked gamecubes with a boosted graphics card, and a few more shaders and goodies like that.
So wait... this makes no sense. Why is it painful to go from the PS2 to the Wii, when I found it painful to go from the GameCube to the PS2? Something tells me you need to get out more, cuz even the latest PS2 games are pretty crappy compared to early GameCube titles.
I'm just not buying it.
It's really hard to blame games for a crime when its commited by someone who has a long history of mental instability who has been in and out of various instituations for half his life. You can argue that violent video games promote certain amounts of aggression (I'll buy that, in fact), but it's hard to prove that video games promote levels of mental instability to the degree that this person has shown.
Not really. Using my question (#2) as a way of painting yourself as the Henry Ford-style, "product for THE PEOPLE", gaming CEO will only get you so far when you fail to price the product at a level that THE PEOPLE can afford.
They're stuck. They have the opportunity to present themselves as the BMW of game consoles, offering the most sophistication for your buck. Yet, they're constrained by being a MASSIVE company, that needs to eat 2x its weight every month to survive, meaning that it can't afford to be that picky. So, its forced to charge luxury rates for a gaming experience that may or may not be any more sophisticated than anyone else's.
Henry Ford wouldn't have had much credibility, had he started out making Lexus's, now, would he?
Hot diggity!
No hands-on demonstration of DQIX... trailor only. :(
Well, until demand is met (which it clearly hasn't been, yet), those numbers say nothing about the actual demand, so it's impossible to chalk up to disinterest in Wii titles. Those numbers are pure reflections of how many units are being produced, since 100% of all inventory is being sold the moment it hits the floor. Large titles aren't going to increase sales at all, at this point, if Nintendo can't even meet the damand that is already out there.
You're correct, I don't trust that article for a minute. A bunch of fanboys from all sides have been quoting it on various sites, and I take absolutely no stock in it.
A) there is no evidence that FFXIII is being ported to the 360
B) there is no evidence that FFXIII is being ported to the Wii
C) there is no evidence that FFXIII is being ported to the DS
BUT...
There IS evidence that FFXIII may NOT be exclusive to the PS3, but that could mean any one of the above, or the PC. The only sure quote we have is from the president of SCE France saying that FF13s exclusivity is under question. No platforms have been named, so anything up until this point is pure rumor, speculation, and wishfull thinking. Nothing wrong with speculation, but don't present it as fact.
Actually, that's already a given. Square has said that there are going to be six games in the Fabula Nova Chrystalis series (FF13 series) that will span quite a few different platforms and styles of gameplay, and has STRONGLY hinted at Wii and/or DS titles. What's more up in the air is the central title itself, Final Fantasy XIII, whose exclusivity is now under question.
I think that a 360 port would be a bit simpler, especially since the white engine runs on both the PS3 and the 360... although reprogramming for non-cell architecture is no small feat. I've made this analogy before, but it's like choosing to take a cross-country trip from LA... if the Wii is NYC, then the 360 is Pitsberg... sure, Pitsberg is closer, but considering the length of the trip, it's not going to make a huge difference, one way or the other.
As for re-doing the game, that's a little unneccessary. Mother 3 isn't a very good example, since the N64 and GBA use incredibly different hardware... the N64 can do 3D graphics, the GBA can't. The Wii and PS3 still can do exactly the same kinds of graphics, just to different degrees of perfection. They polygon count isn't quite as much of an issue as the shaders and lighting effects, which are pretty simple to step down off of. Making the game 480p instead of 1080p will reduce power requirements greatly, practically solving a lot of the GPU issues right there. As people have said, the difference between Wii and PS3/360 graphics at 480p resolutions is pretty marginal.
About 90% of development time and costs for RPGs are in their design, NOT their coding, so if you're not going to obtain the exclusivity bonus, you might as well port it to all possible consoles (within reason). So I think there's probably a good chance that we'll see a tri-system release for FFXIII.
Versus XIII is still a PS3 exclusive, for all we've heard, though.
Me thinks the invisible hand needs a shiny new pair of handcuffs, from time to time, to teach it to stop groping people.
Guitar Hero III has been officially announced for the Wii, btw.
Anyway, as a gamer, I still do want to see a steady influx of more immersive, involved games on the Wii, but I'm not too worried. As of late, it's only 5 months in, developers haven't had the time to make those big, juicy epics yet, as they take a long time to make. I just think we're going to see more games, and more game developers come into their own, over the next few years. I think the Wii will inevitably have just as many immersive games as the other guys... at least I hope so, because I'd like to see the Wiimote combined with some epic content.
What, no Virtual Boy???
I've had a Wii for a while now, and while I enjoyed it, my personal opinion, alone, hasn't convinced me, one way or another, what the draw of the console will be. Last night, this question was proven to me, once and for all.
I brought it to a BBQ that another friend of mine was hosting. Half of the people there were gamers, and half of the people there were decidedly NOT gamers (Chinese students, a few hippies, some others). At first, all my gamer friends screamed for some "SMASH!" and that went on for about 45minutes in the other room while everyone else went outside and sat around jawing.
Then I pried the GameCube controllers away from the gamers, and stuck in Wii Sports. The other half of the party suddenly rushed inside and grabbed controllers. They'd obviously never played or seen the games before, since they had no idea what to do, but within 5 minutes, everyone had made their own Miis, and were smacking tennis balls around to their hearts content. We alternated Wii Sports and WarioWare for the next few hours. By the end, many of the non-gamers were coming up to me, asking me how much the Wii cost, and where they could get them. I was pretty shocked, myself. I'd heard stories like this before, but hadn't really witnessed it in person, and was pretty amaized at the degree of involvement everyone had. Also, it was a party... none of us were sitting around, alone, brooding over a scummy screen. We were joking with eachother, making cracks all the time--we were interacting with each other even more than if we'd been doing most other normal party activities. In the end, the host came up to me and thanked me profusely, saying that everyone there had had a blast, and bringing the Wii was exactly the thing we needed.
Just the other night, NBC news ran a piece on how retirement communities were getting into games... although the only games they showed were Wii games, there was no mention of PS3 or 360 titles. It's clear, the Wii is a phonominon, like no other we've seen in videogame history. We are entering a period of unknowns, in gaming... this is the LAST time to be making doomsday prophecies for the game industry.
This guy from the BBC needs to get out more, see what exactly is going on in the world. He sounds as closeted as a 15-year-old gamer in his mother's basement.
Ever have one of those days when you worry that something you said just spawned WWIII?
Good point. I'd rather have a society where everyone is robbing eachother blind, and no one knows about it, than live in one where no one is robbing anyone, but everyone's so fucking paranoid that they can't get any sleep at night.
Nanny state... sure why not?
"Libertarians, get your party off my fucking lawn!"
I could give two shits about what the bill of rights or the constitution has to say about the issue, it needs to be changed. Screw the founding fathers: that was then, this is now. Laws are there to be A) followed, and B) changed to fit the needs of society AS A WHOLE. We lost THAT particular privilage when we achieved a higher murder rate than any other developed country, and higher than most developing countries. Hell, the British police force is able to keep the peace better, and all they have are sticks!
The thing I hate about libertarians is they only think about themselves, and they believe that if everyone were to just think ONLY about themselves, this world would be a right dandy place. Well, sorry Joe, there's a little something called "human interaction", and it's becoming more and more prevolent as time progresses. Social darwinism makes me sick.
I'd rather have a Nanny state than a "negligent step-father" state. In fact, where is this Nanny state you speak of, sounds like a pretty good place to me.
"Joe wasn't right... Joe is DEAD!"
That's great... except for, ya know, the stuff about cutting government social programs, environmental apathy, handgun deregulation, not to mention, embracing social darwinism as the new religion...
...no thanks. Keep your party off my lawn!
Ummm, have you used OS9, lately? I mean, I liked it back in the day, after using the OSX Finder, Classic feels damn clunky. Sure, the OSX Finder isn't perfect, but the OS9 Finder was no beauty either, in fact, I think pretty much every feature added after 8.0 was useless crap, and symbolized everything as to why Apple was really failing during the mid 90s.
Tabbed Folders - WORST IMPLEMENTATION EVER! I thought they looked cool at first, and then I tried them, and oh man. They go completely counter to Apple's basic design philosophy, they make for a lot of useless clutter, and there's no precident on how they should be used efficiently. I'm glad they got rid of those, very glad.
Open in New Window - I railed on Microsoft when they first came up with the "open in exiting window" idea, but ya know what? I've gotta hand it to them (yes, I know, this was originally implemented in some Linux builds, but I hadn't used any yet), they were right to have done so. I never find myself clicking on the little oval in OSX to do classic-style window management.
Bottom line, Classic was good for its day, but and OSX finder definitely has room for improvement, but saying that OS9s Finder was better than OSX is just kidding yourself
I would say that there are some problems with it, but the basic functionality of it is just fine. They sorta broke a lot of their design rules with the windows, though... very minor things like the fact that the window shifts position when the collapse button is pressed, but they still irk me.
Only thing I really want to see is files and folders open with the Enter key, enough of this command-O bullshit! It's the ONE thing about Windows that I like better, it makes folder navigation so incredibly fast.
The bottom line is that, a nunchuck turning/tiliting system allows for the POTENTIAL of fast, and precise FPS gameplay. It may take some time to get used to (I remember my first time playing with a "mouse look" keybaord setup, that felt really funky), but I think most people would pick it up fairly quickly, and the elite gamers would quickly be able to become just as accurate as a mouse-look setup, and much better than an a-pad setup.Yes, it's fairly obvious that the WiiMote is not setup very well to be able to do that. I think a hybrid would work quite well, though, and could allow for control that is fairly close to what people are looking for. Maybe future versions of the Wii, instead of using an IR reciever, might use Loran-like radio-wave positioning system with 2 transmitters (one at each end of the WiiMote) to deciefer exact horizontal angle. I don't know what the cost of that would be, but it doesn't seem like it would be all that difficult in this day-in-age. This would pretty much complete the requirements for doing a fairly accurate sword-play simulation (except for force feedback, which is nigh impossible).
No, unless the Wii firmware update that you had to do has some text updates, I doubt there's been any change. However, I would say that the News channel always had pretty good text, the Internet channel now matches the News channel's quality. If you're having problems, you should probably get a componant video cable, if that's an option for you... 480p looks A LOT BETTER.
Bingo. Obviously, all entertainment is supposed to be "rewarding" at some level. But "fun" is usually used to define things with little intelectual or thought-provoking value, that pray on more primal sensory input.
To a degree, MANY games are trying to break from this. RPGs, in general, tend to try on rely on higher-level sensory. The World of Warcraft example is one of the many aspects of this genre. Unfortunately, like any genre, RPGs have a tendancy to fall into a rutt.
Interestingly, though, I think it's plotlines that are the weakest. We're starting to see a lot of games with incredibly well-portrayed and interesting characters, thought-provoking dialog, and intelligent gameplay. Yet, many of those same games rely on the same old "save the world from baddy" plots. I've gotten to the point where it doesn't really bother me anymore... I don't play games for stories, but I do play them partially for characters and dialog, and those have come a long way. Even so, it'll be hard for most people to accept the intellectual value of games if their plotlines remain as cliche and contrived as they are now. Basically, games are either too cliche, or they try to hard. How about a nice, simple plot that hasn't been done 1000 times over? That's a rare occurence these days.
If you think about it, much of the most sophisticated narrative art/entertainment pieces have very simple frameworks in which to couch complex questions, emotions, and ideas. We're just not seeing it yet.
Yeah, the 20GB model was practically a hoax, Sony released a few of them, here and there, so they could say, openly, that the PS3 started at only $500. It was all just a sales gimmick to get people to come in and buy them, and then when there weren't any 20GB models on the shelves, they'd just go "oh well" and buy the 60GB models. Pretty pathetic, if you ask me. I mean, it's Walmart's tactic (get people to come in for the cheap stuff, but then sell them the expensive stuff), but at least Walmart actually HAS the cheap stuff, Sony didn't really even ever have a 20GB, there's little evidence that very many ever existed.
This also gives credence to the concept that the PS3 is not going to have a price drop for a VERY LONG TIME.
Probably their best bet is to outsource it. They really don't have time for bulldozers. One way or another, demand is going to slow down. They might not make as much money in the short term, but anything that saturates the market and mindshare with their console, right now, is going to do a lot of good for their future.