Speaking of when the targets killed someone before you could kill them... my main gripe was that (unlike the rest of the crowds in Creed) I couldn't push through the crowds just in time to step in and assassinate the target right before he was able to plunge a dagger into the guy he was killing. I mean, what's the point of being an assassin-hero if you can't make a bold, heroic gesture and save someone's life at the critical moment?
Aha. Now that you mention it, it reminds me of ANOTHER C-64 vehicle combat strategy game, but I can't for the life of me remember the title. It was turn based, and you scrounged up various types of vehicles for your fleet, recruited soldiers, etc. The soliders would get promoted by surviving combat, and followed some sort of A-E thing. I remember that D stood for Dragoon, and it was the next to highest rank they could achieve; I think Elite was the final but I'm not sure.
Anyway, you'd have guys on the top of your vehicles and guys inside of 'em, you could scuttle other peoples' vehicles, and of course the semi trucks were the baddest things on the road. Get a bunch of elite soldiers on top of a flatbed, and they could eliminate just about any other vehicle broadside by shooting out its tires.
The game was set after a (nuclear?) apocalypse, and you were trying to take over a certain city before the timer ran out. I never did manage to take over that city, although I did manage to take over a bunch of 'em.
Multi-vehicle RPG and such reminded me of that game... hopefully someone will remember the game I'm talking about, because I'm actually wanting to hunt it down for emulation now.:)
In order for it to truly be next-gen, it must become more or less a standard. While the Wii may be setting standards for motion games, it's far from making everyone go "Gee, I really wish I could control all games that way". Maybe for some folks, but for me, I look at the Wii and say, "Thank the Lord I don't have to play games that way." I figure the Wii's user interface is probably more comparable to the Nintendo Zapper for the NES. Sure, it was the first really mainstream zapper peripheral, but it didn't mean that all shooting games started using it. It just became the standard way that light gun games are controlled - it created its own genre. Fast forward to now - light gun games are available on all the major consoles, in one form or another. But people didn't try to bolt light gun controls onto games where it doesn't contribute to the game (light gun controls on Tekken? Erm, no).
Ultimately, that's the direction that the Wii's interface is headed. Sure, Wii's the only player in the game that really has the motion control thing down perfectly at present. But, eventually that'll change - just don't expect all games to switch over to motion control, because for most games it just doesn't add to the experience. And ultimately, that's what user interface design decisions should boil down to.
Actually, I was very thankful when his career ended, because I stopped having to hear all the girls (and one gay guy) at college make the obvious pun on his name, "van dayumn" - referring to his arse.
I think he just got too old for the early-20s-year-old squeal factor to carry him anymore.
Clearly you haven't been exposed to the unwashed closet-yaoi-fangirl sect, which make these disturbingly excited noises whenever Dante or various Final Fantasy characters are mentioned. They are truly a fearsome sight to behold.
My fiance may love Final Fantasy, but thankfully she isn't one of those beasts.
...you mean I'll break a sweat if I carve through an army? I thought we were all like the video game guys.
Although seriously, I did actually discover a couple weeks ago that hauling a 24lb 50cal rifle, a Thompson, and a PS90 at the same time, while carrying a box of various parts, wasn't exactly feasible. I think I coulda handled it if they were all on carry straps instead of in bulky gun cases, though.
I would counter that I'd rather see an honest (and preferably self-confessed) FPS fanatic reviewing FPSes.
For example, I'm a bit of an RPG hound myself. I would consider it a disservice if I chose not to buy an RPG based upon a magazine having FPSfanatic, who hates RPGs, do the review. Later, I hear about how legendary this RPG is, but it's out of print and I can't get it anymore.
I would also hope that a fanatic for the genre would have taste within it and at least recognize that there are good and bad. I do also like FPSes, and for instance I absolutely despised Clive Barker's Jericho's "Dance Dance Revolution" style scripted event fights. Based on the demo, I would've considered renting it (or buying it once it hits the cheapo rack) if it weren't for the aforementioned disqualifier. Based on those, I give the game a thorough fail, which is a pity since the actual look and combat system was actually kinda neat.
Eh, I really couldn't parse the first paragraph there.
But as for the rest... yep, there are places (mostly in really large cities) where cops won't go. But truthfully, there are comparable places in pretty much any large US city, regardless of state. It's also worth noting that most large cities happen to either be in highly anti-gun states, or have their own anti-gun city laws (see the city of Chicago's gun laws, vs the state of Illinois as a whole, for example).
As for riot readiness... well, the LA riots happened here too. And pretty much anywhere a Raiders game happens, ends up rioting whether they win or lose (raiders fans are the closest thing we've got to soccer hooligans here).
...and perhaps it's going back up because stay at home moms are an endangered species now, and no longer available to curb Timmy's violent urges?
Would be interesting if the two influences could be plotted on separate graphs; maybe using another country's data which didn't put legal abortion and the rise of almost-mandatory dual income families (well, if you want to own a house that is) around the same time.
I applaud your Dalek, and submit another unattributed quote...
"The innocent only exist until they inevitably become perpetrators. Guilt or innocence is a matter of timing."
And then, let's not forget... crimes are committed by the living. We can eliminate crime by eliminating all life!
The first is a movie quote, the second is a significant non-movie-appearing character's mental process. The first should be easy, the second maybe a little less so.:)
Likewise in any situation where you are facing an armed criminal in the process of a crime the chances that they have their weapon drawn and you do not is much more likely than the reverse.
Ok, I'll bite. How many surveillance videos have you watched of gas station holdups? Criminals have a phenomenally high miss rate, partially due to the fact they're less interested in being proficient with their firearms, than they are in simply getting what they came for (which may include killing folks along the way). The folks delusional enough to commit crimes with guns are usually not fully functional, mentally, to begin with.
In some Matrix universe... I'll say that, were you able to pair random gun hobbyists vs random criminals in holdup / mugging situations with, say, 3-5' distance (normal counter distance, in a repeating experiment)... in the majority of cases, if the hobbyist starts drawing while the random criminal already has his/her gun out, you will end up with a far larger pile of dead or wounded criminals than hobbyists. Heck, there's one convenience store video where a gang banger dumps a 15rd mag at a cashier standing 3 feet away and doesn't hit him.
BTW, given that the gun doesn't make you any more or less safe from the car bomb, I'd call that a red herring argument and not really worth responding to.
On a side note, I live in the irrationally gun-control-happy state of California, and usually the turkeys bringing up these points aren't even worth addressing since their minds are closed off anyway. I'm not saying you're one of them - I'm saying that I hope you aren't, and that this has given you something to think about.
Don't forget battery life. It costs more electricity to spin the disc than to read the memory card, which translates directly into longer battery life for memory stick based titles.
Relevant, yes. However, most of the Lovecraft movies are released straight to video. And admittedly, a fair number of the recent ones are bad movies that someone just had the bright idea to print the name "Lovecraft" on the front, in the hopes that fans would rent it.
Yeah, it was all those blasted wraiths. Too bad Conner was there instead of Duncan; he woulda chopped all their heads off.
(look up the somewhat horrible sci-fi channel "Wraiths of Roanoake" to get the reference)
You could spin Roanoke a lot of different ways, actually. UFO abduction, Babylon 4 style "we displaced them in time to help win a great battle", supernatural critters, vampires, etc.
My personal favorite scenario is that the colony was taken over by vampires, and that vampirism was the REAL disease that decimated the Native Americans, before anyone else got involved.
I think wishing for Matroska will be about like wishing for Ogg Vorbis support on DVD players a few years ago. Corporations are always the last to accept a free and popular format - look how long it took to accept mp3's! Regardless, I think this is a decent step forward.
I should perhaps qualify things. I don't have any particular emotional attachment to Sony - they just happen to have made most of my favorite consumer electronics. I've taken around 16,000 pics with a DSC-F828 camera (from back when they were trying to pursue the prosumer market), have recently picked up an XBR5 TV based on its picture vs other comparably priced TV's on display, and have been a Playstation guy since the PS2 (the Dreamcast was my favorite console while it lasted, however). I certainly am not making any attempt to own an all-Sony hardware collection.
I should perhaps rephrase things as, "I am quite a devoted fan of the Sony products I own, and have a positive view of the company's other products as a result."
Now, I'm far from having bought everything I can from Sony, based on brand alone. I don't touch their computer line, unless you count the PS3. And they won't have my sound system business unless they introduce a receiver which supports 7.1 channel uncompressed PCM audio over HDMI concurrent with 1080p/24 video, at a price I'll pay, before someone else does. Tall order? You bet, which is why I'm perfectly content to switch between optical inputs on my Phillips surround sound receiver until then.
That having been said, I'm a fan of blu-ray because I feel that HD-DVD is kind of a handicapped format. That, and I like having a PS3 to play games on. Regardless of which video format wins, I'll still have a working console. But if someone buys an HD-DVD player and that format tanks, then they have a paperweight without an alternative use.
The fact that normal people buy their TV's at Wal-Mart is probably a factor in why normal people don't see a big difference. There's a HUGE difference between a premium HDTV and the cheapest HDTV that Wal-Mart can strong-arm a vendor into producing. Once you've seen a premium HDTV, it's almost as hard to look at budget HDTV's as it is to look at SDTV.
This is an old, incorrect meme which hasn't managed to die yet. Fabrication machines which were partially owned by Disney, were contractually prohibited from being used to press pornographic Blu-Ray discs. They don't own all the fab machines.
While I despise Microsoft with my entire being, and am a devoted Sony/Blu-Ray fan, I am compelled to point out that Toshiba is the HD-DVD pusher. Microsoft does have an HD-DVD add-on for the 360, but that's where their involvement ends in the HD-DVD format wars. HD-DVD isn't Microsoft's invention.
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Speaking of when the targets killed someone before you could kill them... my main gripe was that (unlike the rest of the crowds in Creed) I couldn't push through the crowds just in time to step in and assassinate the target right before he was able to plunge a dagger into the guy he was killing. I mean, what's the point of being an assassin-hero if you can't make a bold, heroic gesture and save someone's life at the critical moment?
Aha. Now that you mention it, it reminds me of ANOTHER C-64 vehicle combat strategy game, but I can't for the life of me remember the title. It was turn based, and you scrounged up various types of vehicles for your fleet, recruited soldiers, etc. The soliders would get promoted by surviving combat, and followed some sort of A-E thing. I remember that D stood for Dragoon, and it was the next to highest rank they could achieve; I think Elite was the final but I'm not sure.
:)
Anyway, you'd have guys on the top of your vehicles and guys inside of 'em, you could scuttle other peoples' vehicles, and of course the semi trucks were the baddest things on the road. Get a bunch of elite soldiers on top of a flatbed, and they could eliminate just about any other vehicle broadside by shooting out its tires.
The game was set after a (nuclear?) apocalypse, and you were trying to take over a certain city before the timer ran out. I never did manage to take over that city, although I did manage to take over a bunch of 'em.
Multi-vehicle RPG and such reminded me of that game... hopefully someone will remember the game I'm talking about, because I'm actually wanting to hunt it down for emulation now.
Ultimately, that's the direction that the Wii's interface is headed. Sure, Wii's the only player in the game that really has the motion control thing down perfectly at present. But, eventually that'll change - just don't expect all games to switch over to motion control, because for most games it just doesn't add to the experience. And ultimately, that's what user interface design decisions should boil down to.
Heh, you say that as if the fangirls who play Final Fantasy DON'T get all excited about the guys. :p
Car Wars was already made. What, everyone's forgotten Autoduel already? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoduel
Actually, I was very thankful when his career ended, because I stopped having to hear all the girls (and one gay guy) at college make the obvious pun on his name, "van dayumn" - referring to his arse.
I think he just got too old for the early-20s-year-old squeal factor to carry him anymore.
Clearly you haven't been exposed to the unwashed closet-yaoi-fangirl sect, which make these disturbingly excited noises whenever Dante or various Final Fantasy characters are mentioned. They are truly a fearsome sight to behold.
My fiance may love Final Fantasy, but thankfully she isn't one of those beasts.
Actually, I have no idea what she even looks like, I just looked her up in IMDB since everyone seemed to be talking about her lately.
...you mean I'll break a sweat if I carve through an army? I thought we were all like the video game guys.
Although seriously, I did actually discover a couple weeks ago that hauling a 24lb 50cal rifle, a Thompson, and a PS90 at the same time, while carrying a box of various parts, wasn't exactly feasible. I think I coulda handled it if they were all on carry straps instead of in bulky gun cases, though.
I would counter that I'd rather see an honest (and preferably self-confessed) FPS fanatic reviewing FPSes.
For example, I'm a bit of an RPG hound myself. I would consider it a disservice if I chose not to buy an RPG based upon a magazine having FPSfanatic, who hates RPGs, do the review. Later, I hear about how legendary this RPG is, but it's out of print and I can't get it anymore.
I would also hope that a fanatic for the genre would have taste within it and at least recognize that there are good and bad. I do also like FPSes, and for instance I absolutely despised Clive Barker's Jericho's "Dance Dance Revolution" style scripted event fights. Based on the demo, I would've considered renting it (or buying it once it hits the cheapo rack) if it weren't for the aforementioned disqualifier. Based on those, I give the game a thorough fail, which is a pity since the actual look and combat system was actually kinda neat.
Eh, I really couldn't parse the first paragraph there.
But as for the rest... yep, there are places (mostly in really large cities) where cops won't go. But truthfully, there are comparable places in pretty much any large US city, regardless of state. It's also worth noting that most large cities happen to either be in highly anti-gun states, or have their own anti-gun city laws (see the city of Chicago's gun laws, vs the state of Illinois as a whole, for example).
As for riot readiness... well, the LA riots happened here too. And pretty much anywhere a Raiders game happens, ends up rioting whether they win or lose (raiders fans are the closest thing we've got to soccer hooligans here).
...and perhaps it's going back up because stay at home moms are an endangered species now, and no longer available to curb Timmy's violent urges?
Would be interesting if the two influences could be plotted on separate graphs; maybe using another country's data which didn't put legal abortion and the rise of almost-mandatory dual income families (well, if you want to own a house that is) around the same time.
I applaud your Dalek, and submit another unattributed quote...
:)
"The innocent only exist until they inevitably become perpetrators. Guilt or innocence is a matter of timing."
And then, let's not forget... crimes are committed by the living. We can eliminate crime by eliminating all life!
The first is a movie quote, the second is a significant non-movie-appearing character's mental process. The first should be easy, the second maybe a little less so.
Ok, I'll bite. How many surveillance videos have you watched of gas station holdups? Criminals have a phenomenally high miss rate, partially due to the fact they're less interested in being proficient with their firearms, than they are in simply getting what they came for (which may include killing folks along the way). The folks delusional enough to commit crimes with guns are usually not fully functional, mentally, to begin with.
In some Matrix universe... I'll say that, were you able to pair random gun hobbyists vs random criminals in holdup / mugging situations with, say, 3-5' distance (normal counter distance, in a repeating experiment)... in the majority of cases, if the hobbyist starts drawing while the random criminal already has his/her gun out, you will end up with a far larger pile of dead or wounded criminals than hobbyists. Heck, there's one convenience store video where a gang banger dumps a 15rd mag at a cashier standing 3 feet away and doesn't hit him.
BTW, given that the gun doesn't make you any more or less safe from the car bomb, I'd call that a red herring argument and not really worth responding to.
On a side note, I live in the irrationally gun-control-happy state of California, and usually the turkeys bringing up these points aren't even worth addressing since their minds are closed off anyway. I'm not saying you're one of them - I'm saying that I hope you aren't, and that this has given you something to think about.
Don't forget battery life. It costs more electricity to spin the disc than to read the memory card, which translates directly into longer battery life for memory stick based titles.
I can see Gamefly'ing them if you're going to be on a trip or something. But that's about it.
I have, however, seen UMD video put to good use to keep vendors' kids quiet and entertained at gun shows.
"Earth Vs the Spider", for instance?
Relevant, yes. However, most of the Lovecraft movies are released straight to video. And admittedly, a fair number of the recent ones are bad movies that someone just had the bright idea to print the name "Lovecraft" on the front, in the hopes that fans would rent it.
Yeah, it was all those blasted wraiths. Too bad Conner was there instead of Duncan; he woulda chopped all their heads off.
(look up the somewhat horrible sci-fi channel "Wraiths of Roanoake" to get the reference)
You could spin Roanoke a lot of different ways, actually. UFO abduction, Babylon 4 style "we displaced them in time to help win a great battle", supernatural critters, vampires, etc.
My personal favorite scenario is that the colony was taken over by vampires, and that vampirism was the REAL disease that decimated the Native Americans, before anyone else got involved.
I think wishing for Matroska will be about like wishing for Ogg Vorbis support on DVD players a few years ago. Corporations are always the last to accept a free and popular format - look how long it took to accept mp3's! Regardless, I think this is a decent step forward.
I should perhaps qualify things. I don't have any particular emotional attachment to Sony - they just happen to have made most of my favorite consumer electronics. I've taken around 16,000 pics with a DSC-F828 camera (from back when they were trying to pursue the prosumer market), have recently picked up an XBR5 TV based on its picture vs other comparably priced TV's on display, and have been a Playstation guy since the PS2 (the Dreamcast was my favorite console while it lasted, however). I certainly am not making any attempt to own an all-Sony hardware collection.
I should perhaps rephrase things as, "I am quite a devoted fan of the Sony products I own, and have a positive view of the company's other products as a result."
Now, I'm far from having bought everything I can from Sony, based on brand alone. I don't touch their computer line, unless you count the PS3. And they won't have my sound system business unless they introduce a receiver which supports 7.1 channel uncompressed PCM audio over HDMI concurrent with 1080p/24 video, at a price I'll pay, before someone else does. Tall order? You bet, which is why I'm perfectly content to switch between optical inputs on my Phillips surround sound receiver until then.
That having been said, I'm a fan of blu-ray because I feel that HD-DVD is kind of a handicapped format. That, and I like having a PS3 to play games on. Regardless of which video format wins, I'll still have a working console. But if someone buys an HD-DVD player and that format tanks, then they have a paperweight without an alternative use.
Ah, but what it loses in edibility, it gains in longevity. Remember, salt is a preservative!
The fact that normal people buy their TV's at Wal-Mart is probably a factor in why normal people don't see a big difference. There's a HUGE difference between a premium HDTV and the cheapest HDTV that Wal-Mart can strong-arm a vendor into producing. Once you've seen a premium HDTV, it's almost as hard to look at budget HDTV's as it is to look at SDTV.
This is an old, incorrect meme which hasn't managed to die yet. Fabrication machines which were partially owned by Disney, were contractually prohibited from being used to press pornographic Blu-Ray discs. They don't own all the fab machines.
While I despise Microsoft with my entire being, and am a devoted Sony/Blu-Ray fan, I am compelled to point out that Toshiba is the HD-DVD pusher. Microsoft does have an HD-DVD add-on for the 360, but that's where their involvement ends in the HD-DVD format wars. HD-DVD isn't Microsoft's invention.