I have been a member of the gaming media, and finally had become fed up with it two years ago. Try to work with these people some time if you want to see unprofessional at its finest. I actually will never go to another E3 again, people (grown men and women) take pride in not showering, oogling "booth babes" more than the games, have maturity levels near plankton, and are generally a pain to be around (try going to a after hour release party some time... these people have no idea how to act because they simply have never been in these situations in real life). I'm not saying this is the case for everyone, but the majority.
In all of my years developing sites and writing reviews I always kept an unbiased view of the titles and wrote hard hitting truthful reviews backed by actual facts. The amount of "bought" reviews would make you sick, and the young reviewers who are so thrilled to be schmoozed by a company gush about their products like schoolgirls. I've seen reviewers play a game for 15 minutes and write a glowing review to meet deadlines, and because the game was considered a top game of the year... I reviewed the same title and gave it mid-to-low ratings because it was simply substandard (then I proceeded to get nasty emails from the company and other reviewers because I must be crazy to give an honest opinion and pick apart a so-called "A" title.)
I've thrown up my hands and given up trying to bring honest reviews to the public because it has always been headaches, I enjoy Guild Wars and look forward to the Revolution console and that's about as much gaming as I care to be a part of anymore.
I'm quite aware of the Connectix purchase, and it has no bearing here. MS has already stated they are going to require recompiles for any sort of "backwards compatability," your argument is poor here: "MS could do it but its hard", so that's why they wouldn't expend the time or resources to true backwards compatability... which is a major factor, and its so much harder than designing an entire console and development software for it?!? They can't do it because it can't be done.
I accuse people who blatantly disregard fact in favor of hype, because there is no other excuse for people to try to defend ridiculous claims such as how the XBOX 360 is REALLY 15 times more powerful than XBOX 1, it makes no logical sense. I, in fact, have been a member of the *Sony* videogame media for over 4 years and have quite a bit of experience with consoles, programming for them, and covering the hardware and software. My credentials prove I am no fanboy of Nintendo, I don't even own a n64 or GC! I simply state facts that Sony and MS are getting off course with these next gen consoles and Nintendo is filling the actual wants and needs of customers. I'm not dead set on it, it could be a huge flop, I'm hoping not because it is the only one of the three to offer affordable gaming, accessible gaming, innovative and fun concepts, and not try to create another media center.
After this long reviewing games and systems one becomes jaded, I don;t want more of the same, I'm looking for someone to offer something new and fresh and renew my love for gaming... so far the Revolution is the only one to be doiung that or at least heading that way. For those who love their FPS's stay with MS or Sony, no matter to me.
Boy that is a misguided soul, if you really think that 3 cores==3times 3.2Ghz you are, frankly, a moron.
As was stated by the others who were as amazed at your logic as I, by your theory a dual core AMD is equal to 2 exact same AMD CPU's... you ever look at a benchmark for a dual core CPU? They aren't even close to 100% faster. Parrellelized code is ineficient because of latencies, and the XBOX 360 is going to have latency out the @ss due to the shared memory for graphics (ever used onboard PC graphics with shared memory, yeah it sucks.)
Sony and MS are talking out of their @sses with these specs, and it is amazing to me that people don't see right through it... especially a site for nerds. Marketing is a powerful thing indeed.
It is actually quite true, the Revolution wil be based on a 3 core custom CPU, and a custom GPU with most of the same features as the Xbox 360 and even a few additional ones such as the VGA output for monitors. The PS3 will have a slight edge on it power-wise (as it does on the Xbox 360 for the same reasons) but not by very much.
Wipe away the marketing hype and look at the real numbers. The Xbox 360 has 512MB *shared* memory between CPU and GPU (if this was a pc with shared video ram people would be dissing it left and right) and a cpu with three cores, The PS3 has a single core supported with symmetrical processing units (just glorified math co-processors bolted on) the GPU is where it pulls away a bit... the Revolution is right in line with these specs. That is how I arrive at my statement and it is totally accurate.
I'm not sure how long you've been around console releases but this is always the case. Huge claims of hardware capabilities, big prices for the console and accessories, and then it makes a nice conversation piece for a couple months because there is one or two good games and the usual littany of sports/rehashed titles.
All of the competition is basically on even footing even with staggered release dates, and the impending release of Halo 3. Sony and Nintendo just have to release their hardware a couple weeks early as is always the case and steal MS's Halo thunder. A christmas release does give an edge but we've yet to begin the real marketing battles, and things like the problems with backwards compatibility and false claims will also put a damper on MS's release if these things keep cropping up.
As I've been modded a troll for saying exactly this, maybe now people will realize that there is no way to make the Xbox backwards compatible. The Xbox was a cobbled together console based on PC hardware with no way to provide backwards compatibility on a PPC CPU... this is Slashdot you'd think more people could have figured this out from the initial announcement, but alas the hype has gotten the better of a lot of fanboys.
I hate to tell you too that the shared memory of the Xbox 360 is going to be a downfall, as bandwidth is going to be a big issue. Developers are already grumbling about this. That 22Gb/s bandwith is going to be eaten up pretty quickly with all of the bandwidth hungry components fighting for their share. Do some simple math on the numbers involved with HD resolutions, AA, system processing, memory, and other overhead and the XBOX 360's shiny hype-filled exterior begins to dull a bit... it is most definitely NOT 15 times more powerful than the Xbox. Sony is actually pretty on target with the Xbox 1.5 comments. (I'm no longer a Sony guy either, so this is not said with any bias or loyalty.)
The Revolution has this game in the bag by playing the backfield right now. Let the two "Big Guns" slug it out and sling all the mud they want at each other while no one even targets them... then once the fervor is over release the full details and have no easy open media forum for rebuttal. They spring a few new titles, release the innovations of their controller, their low price-point, and the reality that their processing power is right in line with the competition, and bingo you've got a winner.
I think this is the final straw for most true gamers for Sony and MS. No one wants media center consoles that cost a kidney and a right arm. The claims are just outrageous, 30 times more powerful 15 times?!? OK 733Mhzx15=just under 11GHz if you went by Hertz alone... and the PS3 would have to be equivalent to double that... I don't think so.
A bunch of features no one wants, high price tags, games that only offer better textures and bump mapping (which looks overused already in all of the screenshots I've seen), same old rehashed titles... I think I'll go for a revolution, not just the console a true revolution in games and gameplay... it is sorely needed, and quick.
OK, one last time. I FULLY UNDERSTAND THERE ARE NEW 18-23 YEAR OLDS... get it? What I'm saying is the new breed of 18-23 are not the same as the previous ones, the previous target audience are the true hardcore gamers that grew up with the rise of videogaming and are able to remember the Konami code by heart, or a time without the internet. While there is a new group of 18-23 they are not as true to gaming, they are just as (if not more) interested in cell phones and iPods as in gaming.
My age group should still be the target, the target needs to shift and scale a bit, we are the hardcore gamers who have lived gaming from its infancy to now. The current crop of FPS twitch gamers is not going to carry a system to mass appeal as before. Have you noticed the game releases so far? FPS, FPS, FPS, Driving, Fighting, FPS, War, and FPS. Consoles are about hitting the target audience and offering titles that have mass appeal, right now these two new consoles from Sony and MS are not focusing on mass appeal only Nintendo is and that will make a big difference.
Did you even read my post? I quite clearly understand this and stated that new 18-23 year olds will eat these new systems up. I have been in this business a long time and am quite clear on the market dynamics. My main point being that the target audience for the XBOX and PS2 are NO LONGER the target audience because we have aged, this is the first time that the gamers who started with the Atari or NES are now out of the target range!
Making the systems into media consoles and upping the price to appeal to us is not what we want, we all have TiVo or HTPC's for the most part. Expense is no longer the factor as we all support ourselves now, time is, and we don't have as much to devote to gaming as before. Nintendo realizes this and it is the only one addressing it and marketing to young and older alike.
The pricing of the Xbox and PS3 are going to be very high, and the intended audience (which were the 20 somethings last round) are now all 5 years older, probably have families now (amazing even gamers manage to procreate), and are not going to have the time or money to splurge on these consoles. What will happen, is that they will grab a revolution for a more normal price, a couple new titles, and download a few oldies and enjoy gaming again.
After covering videogame news for years I know this all to well, because it is my story as well as most of my friends who are all 25ish. We don't care about extra polygons anymore, framerates, spending hundreds a month on gaming... we just want a good solid gaming fix in our free time with new and innovative ideas that we haven't played 100's of times before with lush new graphics. Sure the new 18-23 crowd will eat the xbox and PS3 up and be all over each bit of news and spec. but I think the true hardcore oldschool gamers are going to opt for a Revolution.
Hmm, a bit misguided but I'll try to clear things up a bit. MS has great API's that's not the problem, they are not giving the developers tools such as those Sony and Nintendo release. XBOX 360 games HAVE to be programmed in HD, this adds quite a bit of expense and time to releases and also alienates the smaller developers. This alone is going to swing favor to the Sony and Nintendo camps.
I am not claiming victory for anyone, and I even believe the XBOX to outsell the other consoles however once things are said and done the Revolution will be the one to own.
umm, you seem to be forgetting THEY DESIGNED THE ORIGINAL SYSTEMS! Emulation takes no time at all when you have all the design docs and software at your disposal... now for three high school/college kids to reverse engineer and develop an emu takes 11 months, not for the company that designed it originally. Do you think they don't already have perfect emu's for developers?
Absolutely, this is exactly what I was talking about. I should have worded it better, I didn't expect Nintendo to offer this, but I don't think EB would be able to move the original GBA's now so they may have no incentive.
Freedom of design: A dynamic development architecture equally accommodates both big-budget, high-profile game "masterpieces" as well as indie games conceived by individual developers equipped with only a big idea.
This could be the big feature even though it most likely won't see much coverage in mainstream media. Another quote from Nintendo they state game development is approaching 8 figures, and that developers are beginning to grow tired of this. Especially with the slashdot crowd you'd think this would be a big deal but not much is being said, the ability to affordably create your own titles with solid Nintendo toolsets is HUGE! This is the type of thing that breeds innovation and fresh new games. Devil Dice for PS1, Katamari Damacy for PS2 (kinda, it was a personal vision type of game), and numerous other great indy/small release titles. This just may be what steals the show if it is accessible.
How nice is this thing?!?, I'm so totally not a big N fanboy, but quickly turning into one. You can have your PS3 and Xbox multi-processor multi-hundred dollar systems that are mainly media systems, I want a game console and so far Nintendo is hitting the mark.
Downloadable content is phenomenal!!! I can play old favorites quickly and easily with no emulation woes, I just hope the payment system is similar to iTunes. A buck to have Excitebike, Zelda, FF would be amazing... I'd probably go up to $5-10 for newer stuff but not much over that.
I just want to see the controller, it is said to be the true revolution here and I'm sure it will be. This is what was needed in gaming, a return to the core focus. Sony and MS are missing out IMO, the Revolution is my only hope for gaming's future without juvenile "mature" titles like GTA and the like.
Now if it is priced low enough and the release a NES controller faceplate it's mine. Very nice design and idea, I just wish they could get the technology down to $49.99 because too many bought a GBA, then a GBA SP, now this. Or even a trade in system as before would be nice.
Normally I wouldn't even waste my time on an AC post, because you really were afraid to post as yourself eh? But nowhere did I mention anyone was lazy or dumb, that is certainly not the case with any game developer. Ever hear of the Sega Saturn, it was impossible to program for... it failed, I guess all the developers were lazy and dumb.
Early systems had to be programmed in assembly, difficulty has nothing to do with the programming it has to do with the hardware and the XBOX hardware will be found to be harder to program for than the PS3 and revolution which rely on much more basic layouts and toolsets. MS had DirectX and standard API's for the XBOX because it was x86, MS is not in the PPC business and their developers have been working in x86 for the life of the Xbox, what makes anyone think a jump to PPC is going to be a little one for MS? They are in new territory, territory where Nintendo and Sony have been entrenched for a long time with tons of experience... this will be no small battle for them.
Some of the oldest tricks in the book, see the emotion engine could very easily model each hair on a human head with no problem... however to do anything meaningful with them would require logic, physics, and a host of other things which eat up huge amounts of resources and then at that point you can't model each hair individually and you get games that look exactly like current PS2 titles.
Synthetic benchmarks and tech specs mean very little when game programmers are programming for the lowest common denomiator so that they can port their game to all three systems (or to reach mass appeal on PC's), in a time crunch, and under budget. Heck the Gamecube has the best graphics capabilities of the current gen, but you'd be hard pressed to *use* an 8 layered texture on each element of a game and make it playable past PONG levels.
They are not alone either, developers are saying meh, and most peoples eyes (once they wipe away the hype) are saying meh too... Take a look at the screens from the XBOX 360 and the PS3 notice anything? Stevie Wonder can see the difference. Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo (mid-level for a PS2 game), etc. for XBOX look like current gen titles for PC at best. Now look at GT, Fight Night, and Unreal on the PS3... umm gee, I wonder why non-biased articles would point out the obvious.
getting Square to release on any system anymore is not big news at all, they need the money and MS has deep pockets... I'm sure they are both quite aware of the situation and MS is capitalizing on it to gain some ground in this area. With that being said the FF series is deteriorating and is no longer the big draw it once was, sure it will boost some XBX console sales but Square will be releasing for all three consoles for this same reason and it will wash out in the end.
Not only was it not meant to be a troll, it wasn't even all opinion, it is based on FACT. I have contacts in the gaming industry and have been a member of the videogame media myself for years, I have been speaking with developer friends of mine about the specs and info as it becomes available and, except for one who works for a MS owned dev studio, they are all none to plussed about programming/porting to the XBOX... for that matter they are similarly not happy about the total mess this time around as far as hardware and the ability to port from one system to the next and reap any of the individual consoles benefits without total rewrites of major portions of the code.
These are very specialized pieces of hardware this time around and are going to require games to be built from the ground up for one console to utilize the components fully. What I am hearing is that most are going to underutilize the processors to make porting/optimizing easier and focus the main efforts tweaking for the individual GPU's.
The initial poster wanted info about the CPU's and without spending two hours of my time to write about each and every feature and what it translates to in real-world performance I decided to give a broader brushed approach to save my time and effort and get down to what the differences mean to the developers... who actually MAKE the games and what they have been grumbling about.
Wow! Even though I have been quite down on this round of consoles, the PS3 is bringing the goods to game developers to do some amazing things very easily. Robust physics engines, video features for days, and excellent throughput will make game development easy and offer new features never seen before.
Unlike the XBOX 360 which is already getting bad looks from developers, that aren't on the MS payroll. With the extra development time on XBOX 360 the titles and screens shown so far do little to impress and bring nothing new except "bloom" effect. PD:Zero looks like any PC title, Kameo looks like a second gen PS2 title... then you see GT on PS3 and pick up your jaw as well as almost everything else shown - Fight Night, Unreal, the explosion, etc.
However, as I feared nothing new or fresh at all shown to garner some speculation and buzz (c'mon FFVI?!?, let it go already). No new title like Pikmin for GC that had people talking and interested before launch, I really hope the PS3 can pull out some innovation and not stagnate on Unreal, fight night, GT, tekken, etc... they are starting to get a little long in the tooth now after 10+ years. It is still Nintendo's fight to win at this point. XBOX is running a bit flat, PS3 has shown rehashed(albeit very pretty) titles, Nintendo can step in with one or two totally new and innovative titles and steal the show. Let the games begin!
The PS3 architecture is much more robust and will allow for developers to tap into features that will make the games better and easier to code. The XBOX 360 brings power but at the cost of useless features as far as developers are concerned. Xbox will need to almost totally rely on in-house developed games and exclusive titles because no developers I know are excited about the hardware, and porting will be almost impossible to easily do this time around. What this round of consoles comes down to will be who can put out the best and most exclusive titles and I think Nintendo will be at the top with Sony right there too... halo and perfect dark zero are not enough.
wow... that was the best you could do huh? I'm quite sure that was the worst attempt at shutting down someone's opinion I have ever seen. Thank you creamcheese, we are all now dumber for having read your post.
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I have been a member of the gaming media, and finally had become fed up with it two years ago. Try to work with these people some time if you want to see unprofessional at its finest. I actually will never go to another E3 again, people (grown men and women) take pride in not showering, oogling "booth babes" more than the games, have maturity levels near plankton, and are generally a pain to be around (try going to a after hour release party some time... these people have no idea how to act because they simply have never been in these situations in real life). I'm not saying this is the case for everyone, but the majority.
In all of my years developing sites and writing reviews I always kept an unbiased view of the titles and wrote hard hitting truthful reviews backed by actual facts. The amount of "bought" reviews would make you sick, and the young reviewers who are so thrilled to be schmoozed by a company gush about their products like schoolgirls. I've seen reviewers play a game for 15 minutes and write a glowing review to meet deadlines, and because the game was considered a top game of the year... I reviewed the same title and gave it mid-to-low ratings because it was simply substandard (then I proceeded to get nasty emails from the company and other reviewers because I must be crazy to give an honest opinion and pick apart a so-called "A" title.)
I've thrown up my hands and given up trying to bring honest reviews to the public because it has always been headaches, I enjoy Guild Wars and look forward to the Revolution console and that's about as much gaming as I care to be a part of anymore.
I'm quite aware of the Connectix purchase, and it has no bearing here. MS has already stated they are going to require recompiles for any sort of "backwards compatability," your argument is poor here: "MS could do it but its hard", so that's why they wouldn't expend the time or resources to true backwards compatability... which is a major factor, and its so much harder than designing an entire console and development software for it?!? They can't do it because it can't be done.
I accuse people who blatantly disregard fact in favor of hype, because there is no other excuse for people to try to defend ridiculous claims such as how the XBOX 360 is REALLY 15 times more powerful than XBOX 1, it makes no logical sense. I, in fact, have been a member of the *Sony* videogame media for over 4 years and have quite a bit of experience with consoles, programming for them, and covering the hardware and software. My credentials prove I am no fanboy of Nintendo, I don't even own a n64 or GC! I simply state facts that Sony and MS are getting off course with these next gen consoles and Nintendo is filling the actual wants and needs of customers. I'm not dead set on it, it could be a huge flop, I'm hoping not because it is the only one of the three to offer affordable gaming, accessible gaming, innovative and fun concepts, and not try to create another media center.
After this long reviewing games and systems one becomes jaded, I don;t want more of the same, I'm looking for someone to offer something new and fresh and renew my love for gaming... so far the Revolution is the only one to be doiung that or at least heading that way. For those who love their FPS's stay with MS or Sony, no matter to me.
Boy that is a misguided soul, if you really think that 3 cores==3times 3.2Ghz you are, frankly, a moron.
As was stated by the others who were as amazed at your logic as I, by your theory a dual core AMD is equal to 2 exact same AMD CPU's... you ever look at a benchmark for a dual core CPU? They aren't even close to 100% faster. Parrellelized code is ineficient because of latencies, and the XBOX 360 is going to have latency out the @ss due to the shared memory for graphics (ever used onboard PC graphics with shared memory, yeah it sucks.)
Sony and MS are talking out of their @sses with these specs, and it is amazing to me that people don't see right through it... especially a site for nerds. Marketing is a powerful thing indeed.
It is actually quite true, the Revolution wil be based on a 3 core custom CPU, and a custom GPU with most of the same features as the Xbox 360 and even a few additional ones such as the VGA output for monitors. The PS3 will have a slight edge on it power-wise (as it does on the Xbox 360 for the same reasons) but not by very much.
Wipe away the marketing hype and look at the real numbers. The Xbox 360 has 512MB *shared* memory between CPU and GPU (if this was a pc with shared video ram people would be dissing it left and right) and a cpu with three cores, The PS3 has a single core supported with symmetrical processing units (just glorified math co-processors bolted on) the GPU is where it pulls away a bit... the Revolution is right in line with these specs. That is how I arrive at my statement and it is totally accurate.
I'm not sure how long you've been around console releases but this is always the case. Huge claims of hardware capabilities, big prices for the console and accessories, and then it makes a nice conversation piece for a couple months because there is one or two good games and the usual littany of sports/rehashed titles.
All of the competition is basically on even footing even with staggered release dates, and the impending release of Halo 3. Sony and Nintendo just have to release their hardware a couple weeks early as is always the case and steal MS's Halo thunder. A christmas release does give an edge but we've yet to begin the real marketing battles, and things like the problems with backwards compatibility and false claims will also put a damper on MS's release if these things keep cropping up.
As I've been modded a troll for saying exactly this, maybe now people will realize that there is no way to make the Xbox backwards compatible. The Xbox was a cobbled together console based on PC hardware with no way to provide backwards compatibility on a PPC CPU... this is Slashdot you'd think more people could have figured this out from the initial announcement, but alas the hype has gotten the better of a lot of fanboys.
I hate to tell you too that the shared memory of the Xbox 360 is going to be a downfall, as bandwidth is going to be a big issue. Developers are already grumbling about this. That 22Gb/s bandwith is going to be eaten up pretty quickly with all of the bandwidth hungry components fighting for their share. Do some simple math on the numbers involved with HD resolutions, AA, system processing, memory, and other overhead and the XBOX 360's shiny hype-filled exterior begins to dull a bit... it is most definitely NOT 15 times more powerful than the Xbox. Sony is actually pretty on target with the Xbox 1.5 comments. (I'm no longer a Sony guy either, so this is not said with any bias or loyalty.)
The Revolution has this game in the bag by playing the backfield right now. Let the two "Big Guns" slug it out and sling all the mud they want at each other while no one even targets them... then once the fervor is over release the full details and have no easy open media forum for rebuttal. They spring a few new titles, release the innovations of their controller, their low price-point, and the reality that their processing power is right in line with the competition, and bingo you've got a winner.
I think this is the final straw for most true gamers for Sony and MS. No one wants media center consoles that cost a kidney and a right arm. The claims are just outrageous, 30 times more powerful 15 times?!? OK 733Mhzx15=just under 11GHz if you went by Hertz alone... and the PS3 would have to be equivalent to double that... I don't think so.
A bunch of features no one wants, high price tags, games that only offer better textures and bump mapping (which looks overused already in all of the screenshots I've seen), same old rehashed titles... I think I'll go for a revolution, not just the console a true revolution in games and gameplay... it is sorely needed, and quick.
OK, one last time. I FULLY UNDERSTAND THERE ARE NEW 18-23 YEAR OLDS... get it? What I'm saying is the new breed of 18-23 are not the same as the previous ones, the previous target audience are the true hardcore gamers that grew up with the rise of videogaming and are able to remember the Konami code by heart, or a time without the internet. While there is a new group of 18-23 they are not as true to gaming, they are just as (if not more) interested in cell phones and iPods as in gaming.
My age group should still be the target, the target needs to shift and scale a bit, we are the hardcore gamers who have lived gaming from its infancy to now. The current crop of FPS twitch gamers is not going to carry a system to mass appeal as before. Have you noticed the game releases so far? FPS, FPS, FPS, Driving, Fighting, FPS, War, and FPS. Consoles are about hitting the target audience and offering titles that have mass appeal, right now these two new consoles from Sony and MS are not focusing on mass appeal only Nintendo is and that will make a big difference.
Did you even read my post? I quite clearly understand this and stated that new 18-23 year olds will eat these new systems up. I have been in this business a long time and am quite clear on the market dynamics. My main point being that the target audience for the XBOX and PS2 are NO LONGER the target audience because we have aged, this is the first time that the gamers who started with the Atari or NES are now out of the target range!
Making the systems into media consoles and upping the price to appeal to us is not what we want, we all have TiVo or HTPC's for the most part. Expense is no longer the factor as we all support ourselves now, time is, and we don't have as much to devote to gaming as before. Nintendo realizes this and it is the only one addressing it and marketing to young and older alike.
The pricing of the Xbox and PS3 are going to be very high, and the intended audience (which were the 20 somethings last round) are now all 5 years older, probably have families now (amazing even gamers manage to procreate), and are not going to have the time or money to splurge on these consoles. What will happen, is that they will grab a revolution for a more normal price, a couple new titles, and download a few oldies and enjoy gaming again.
After covering videogame news for years I know this all to well, because it is my story as well as most of my friends who are all 25ish. We don't care about extra polygons anymore, framerates, spending hundreds a month on gaming... we just want a good solid gaming fix in our free time with new and innovative ideas that we haven't played 100's of times before with lush new graphics. Sure the new 18-23 crowd will eat the xbox and PS3 up and be all over each bit of news and spec. but I think the true hardcore oldschool gamers are going to opt for a Revolution.
Hmm, a bit misguided but I'll try to clear things up a bit. MS has great API's that's not the problem, they are not giving the developers tools such as those Sony and Nintendo release. XBOX 360 games HAVE to be programmed in HD, this adds quite a bit of expense and time to releases and also alienates the smaller developers. This alone is going to swing favor to the Sony and Nintendo camps.
I am not claiming victory for anyone, and I even believe the XBOX to outsell the other consoles however once things are said and done the Revolution will be the one to own.
umm, you seem to be forgetting THEY DESIGNED THE ORIGINAL SYSTEMS! Emulation takes no time at all when you have all the design docs and software at your disposal... now for three high school/college kids to reverse engineer and develop an emu takes 11 months, not for the company that designed it originally. Do you think they don't already have perfect emu's for developers?
Absolutely, this is exactly what I was talking about. I should have worded it better, I didn't expect Nintendo to offer this, but I don't think EB would be able to move the original GBA's now so they may have no incentive.
Yep.
This could be the big feature even though it most likely won't see much coverage in mainstream media. Another quote from Nintendo they state game development is approaching 8 figures, and that developers are beginning to grow tired of this. Especially with the slashdot crowd you'd think this would be a big deal but not much is being said, the ability to affordably create your own titles with solid Nintendo toolsets is HUGE! This is the type of thing that breeds innovation and fresh new games. Devil Dice for PS1, Katamari Damacy for PS2 (kinda, it was a personal vision type of game), and numerous other great indy/small release titles. This just may be what steals the show if it is accessible.
How nice is this thing?!?, I'm so totally not a big N fanboy, but quickly turning into one. You can have your PS3 and Xbox multi-processor multi-hundred dollar systems that are mainly media systems, I want a game console and so far Nintendo is hitting the mark.
Downloadable content is phenomenal!!! I can play old favorites quickly and easily with no emulation woes, I just hope the payment system is similar to iTunes. A buck to have Excitebike, Zelda, FF would be amazing... I'd probably go up to $5-10 for newer stuff but not much over that.
I just want to see the controller, it is said to be the true revolution here and I'm sure it will be. This is what was needed in gaming, a return to the core focus. Sony and MS are missing out IMO, the Revolution is my only hope for gaming's future without juvenile "mature" titles like GTA and the like.
Now if it is priced low enough and the release a NES controller faceplate it's mine. Very nice design and idea, I just wish they could get the technology down to $49.99 because too many bought a GBA, then a GBA SP, now this. Or even a trade in system as before would be nice.
Normally I wouldn't even waste my time on an AC post, because you really were afraid to post as yourself eh? But nowhere did I mention anyone was lazy or dumb, that is certainly not the case with any game developer. Ever hear of the Sega Saturn, it was impossible to program for... it failed, I guess all the developers were lazy and dumb.
Early systems had to be programmed in assembly, difficulty has nothing to do with the programming it has to do with the hardware and the XBOX hardware will be found to be harder to program for than the PS3 and revolution which rely on much more basic layouts and toolsets. MS had DirectX and standard API's for the XBOX because it was x86, MS is not in the PPC business and their developers have been working in x86 for the life of the Xbox, what makes anyone think a jump to PPC is going to be a little one for MS? They are in new territory, territory where Nintendo and Sony have been entrenched for a long time with tons of experience... this will be no small battle for them.
Some of the oldest tricks in the book, see the emotion engine could very easily model each hair on a human head with no problem... however to do anything meaningful with them would require logic, physics, and a host of other things which eat up huge amounts of resources and then at that point you can't model each hair individually and you get games that look exactly like current PS2 titles.
Synthetic benchmarks and tech specs mean very little when game programmers are programming for the lowest common denomiator so that they can port their game to all three systems (or to reach mass appeal on PC's), in a time crunch, and under budget. Heck the Gamecube has the best graphics capabilities of the current gen, but you'd be hard pressed to *use* an 8 layered texture on each element of a game and make it playable past PONG levels.
They are not alone either, developers are saying meh, and most peoples eyes (once they wipe away the hype) are saying meh too... Take a look at the screens from the XBOX 360 and the PS3 notice anything? Stevie Wonder can see the difference. Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo (mid-level for a PS2 game), etc. for XBOX look like current gen titles for PC at best. Now look at GT, Fight Night, and Unreal on the PS3... umm gee, I wonder why non-biased articles would point out the obvious.
getting Square to release on any system anymore is not big news at all, they need the money and MS has deep pockets... I'm sure they are both quite aware of the situation and MS is capitalizing on it to gain some ground in this area. With that being said the FF series is deteriorating and is no longer the big draw it once was, sure it will boost some XBX console sales but Square will be releasing for all three consoles for this same reason and it will wash out in the end.
Not only was it not meant to be a troll, it wasn't even all opinion, it is based on FACT. I have contacts in the gaming industry and have been a member of the videogame media myself for years, I have been speaking with developer friends of mine about the specs and info as it becomes available and, except for one who works for a MS owned dev studio, they are all none to plussed about programming/porting to the XBOX... for that matter they are similarly not happy about the total mess this time around as far as hardware and the ability to port from one system to the next and reap any of the individual consoles benefits without total rewrites of major portions of the code.
These are very specialized pieces of hardware this time around and are going to require games to be built from the ground up for one console to utilize the components fully. What I am hearing is that most are going to underutilize the processors to make porting/optimizing easier and focus the main efforts tweaking for the individual GPU's.
The initial poster wanted info about the CPU's and without spending two hours of my time to write about each and every feature and what it translates to in real-world performance I decided to give a broader brushed approach to save my time and effort and get down to what the differences mean to the developers... who actually MAKE the games and what they have been grumbling about.
Wow! Even though I have been quite down on this round of consoles, the PS3 is bringing the goods to game developers to do some amazing things very easily. Robust physics engines, video features for days, and excellent throughput will make game development easy and offer new features never seen before.
Unlike the XBOX 360 which is already getting bad looks from developers, that aren't on the MS payroll. With the extra development time on XBOX 360 the titles and screens shown so far do little to impress and bring nothing new except "bloom" effect. PD:Zero looks like any PC title, Kameo looks like a second gen PS2 title... then you see GT on PS3 and pick up your jaw as well as almost everything else shown - Fight Night, Unreal, the explosion, etc.
However, as I feared nothing new or fresh at all shown to garner some speculation and buzz (c'mon FFVI?!?, let it go already). No new title like Pikmin for GC that had people talking and interested before launch, I really hope the PS3 can pull out some innovation and not stagnate on Unreal, fight night, GT, tekken, etc... they are starting to get a little long in the tooth now after 10+ years. It is still Nintendo's fight to win at this point. XBOX is running a bit flat, PS3 has shown rehashed(albeit very pretty) titles, Nintendo can step in with one or two totally new and innovative titles and steal the show. Let the games begin!
The PS3 architecture is much more robust and will allow for developers to tap into features that will make the games better and easier to code. The XBOX 360 brings power but at the cost of useless features as far as developers are concerned. Xbox will need to almost totally rely on in-house developed games and exclusive titles because no developers I know are excited about the hardware, and porting will be almost impossible to easily do this time around. What this round of consoles comes down to will be who can put out the best and most exclusive titles and I think Nintendo will be at the top with Sony right there too... halo and perfect dark zero are not enough.
wow... that was the best you could do huh? I'm quite sure that was the worst attempt at shutting down someone's opinion I have ever seen. Thank you creamcheese, we are all now dumber for having read your post.