LittleBigPlanet shows that that part is also very possible. It doesn't exactly have a direct character model editor, but you can make parts and stick them to your character, and there is a level editor plus easy ways to share your stuff and try out other people's stuff. Plus the guy said some things "aren't possible" on consoles, not that they "aren't willing". Jus as much is possible on consoles these days.
Games for the PSP are very cheap. I was considering cracking mine before just to get simple stuff like a better media player front end and an alarm clock. Emulators would be cool too but I didn't get the device just for gaming.
Sony's system literally can't be any worse than the Wii for pointing - they could do exactly the same trick that the Wii does if they want, and in reality they can do better if you can somehow define exactly where your TV is in relation to the camera, how big it is etc. The only reason Wii games seem better for pointing than the Sony tech demo is because they show a crosshair on screen, whereas the guy in the tech demo often had to physically control an object on screen and then guess where it was pointing. When it actually came to using something with a crosshair (the crossbow demo), it was just the same as the Wii-mote - and like I said, it has the level of tracking precision to work more like a light gun if they wanted.
Um.. you realise that argument works more in favour for consoles than PCs, at least if you want to keep your machine capable of playing games at their best? I used to spend lots on more RAM, faster processor, faster graphics cards every year or two when I was into PC gaming because things advance so rapidly.
With my PS3 all I've spent money on is more games, and the graphics are definitely "good enough" for the most part. I'm happy being forced to let my wallet grow fat for now, and I get plenty of regular exercise despite also enjoying a lot of quality time on my couch, thanks:P
While improvements in graphics are nice, improvements in processing capability and storage space for physics simulation, collision detection, freeroaming and/or destructible environments are the things that have been responsible for most of the improvements in gameplay over the last few years. More realistic control systems do make games more fun. Think of using a steering wheel compared to a joypad - the joypad is often a lot easier because of the tiny motions necessary to go from lock to lock for counter-steering and such, but the steering wheel is much more fun. Same with having a full joystick and throttle setup for flight sims. Wii Fit has shown that people are happy to be up and active while playing games too. If there was some 360 degree motion sensing treadmill attachment that let you actually do all the walking and running etc in games then I would definitely buy one (though games would need a headset too to really be able to work with it, then you could add rumble and gradient capability to the treadmill, etc), even if it cost a thousand pounds - it would be a lot more fun than a normal treadmill or going for a jog etc. Then there would be no need for artificial limits to a character's ability to sprint in games like GTA etc. Games could be true RPGs where you improve your own health and skill rather than some arbitrary numbers for your character's stats. In beat'em'ups you wouldn't have to get pissed off that a character takes so long to break a combo sequence or throw a kick etc because it would be all your own movements. Obviously unhealthy or disabled people wouldn't quite like that idea so much, but they could still use conventional control methods.
Wii Sports comes with the Wii - it shouldn't count. Likewise Wii Play always comes with a new controller so shouldn't count either, don't think either of them are sold separately (what would be the point?).
As for the rest, that's all valid. And note that Gran Turismo 5: Prologue is about half the price of a normal game, so it won't make so much profit. Would be interesting to see how many the real GT 5 sells.
it will hopefully be a shot in the arm for the platform if AAA titles look a lot better on the PC (or even has some good exclusives that just aren't possible on the consoles)
PC versions of games pretty much always look better than their console counterparts if you have good hardware, even if the only reason is a better resolution and/or framerate. Now that all consoles are networked and have decent storage space (though not all as standard yet, Xbox a HDD is optional, Wii I'm not sure how much space it has but it probably isn't more than 8GB or so.. PS3s are guaranteed to have a minimum of 20GB, though I upgraded mine from 40 to 320).
So I don't see what you could do on a PC that you can't do on a console these days. With all the funky control systems coming out for consoles, I'd actually say it's going to be the other way round for a few years - there isn't a standard 3D motion control system for PCs, so any game developer would also have to develop their own input system. Perhaps a few developers will band together and create some kind of motion controller standard so that PCs can play catch-up. MS are bound to release their system for Windows versions of their games anyway..
But the SCART or component cables that the Wii outputs through can't actually support that high a resolution (AFAIK, may be wrong), so it is the responsibility of the display itself to do any smoothing/upscaling. The Wii could do some anti-aliasing, but not actual 'upscaling' unless it has an HDMI connection.
The six-axis controller is fine as long as you don't expect it to be another Wii-mote. It works well in games like LittleBigPlanet, fl0w and Flower. Some games still work better on a controller with a lot of buttons, and motion sensing is a nice option to be able to enable if you want to use it. Most of the time I don't, but flow and flower were both designed with the sensor in mind and work very well. As for LittleBigPlanet, well if you've played it you'll understand how it's just a nice extra to have:)
Actually I also thought they screwed up the Wii Sports Golf, but I knew that it was probably the software rather than the hardware, because the rest of the Wii Sports games all have pretty good controls IMO.
Within the company there are departments that I like, and departments that I prefer to avoid.. when it comes to Sony or any company in fact, there are probably parts to like and parts to avoid. With Sony I like their games consoles, TVs and I liked the AIBO - everything else I'm not so fussed about.
The PS 1 and 2 may have had a lot of crap games, but they also had many, many good games. With my PS3 I must have spent far more time using it as a PVR and media player than as a games console.. but I still have some great games for it and hope that someone will use this motion controller setup to finally make some decent action game controls - I WANT MY LIGHTSABRE DUELS!! And I don't mean with a similarly crappy control system to Red Steel, I mean full motion sensing controls where I have to learn and use proper sword fighting techniques to win on the harder difficulties in a similar way that I had to practice my drumming for a couple of months before I fully completed Rock Band on expert.
I haven't tried half of those games, but in Resistance you can't even turn off the auto-aim, the enemies are both heavily scripted and incredibly dumb and the maps feel very linear (of course in almost all games progress is linear, but not all games make it feel so contrived).. it reminded me of the Unreal 1 and Halo 1 single player modes (not good at all). I don't see how anyone who has ever played stuff like Deus Ex, Half-Life/Counter-Strike/Day of Defeat/Opposing Force would consider something like R:FoM a 'good' game? Is it perhaps just the fact it was one of the first multiplayer FPSes on PS3 that has made it popular? I only tried the multiplayer very briefly with friends - we got bored within 5 minutes and went back to Rock Band.. the single player I played through the first 3 or 4 levels but don't feel any urge to complete it. Maybe it's just me but I get bored quickly with games where you have to pummel laser blast upon frickin laser blast into enemies rather than just being able to take them out with one well aimed shot at the head (and vice versa, I chose to play Deus Ex on 'realistic' mode for example).
And just out of interest did you ever play No One Lives Forever? I had completely forgotten about it until thinking back on all the FPSes I've played over the years.. most popular FPSes for the last say 4 years still seem to be the same old WWII team based/whatever rehash (though I admit the first Battlefield game I ever played was a demo of Bad Company, and I bought it straight away because it is a good game), no originality whatsoever. Another example is The Darkness, you can pick it up dirt cheap but all the customer reviews for it on Amazon were very positive, so I bought it and lo and behold it is a good fun game with an original take on the FPS, yet it seems to have been overlooked by the masses.
I agree with that, it's much more noticeable when something is wrong than when it's right:)
The GH background could definitely do with some anti-aliasing, Rock Band does it much better - and that's just Rock Band 1. I've not seen Rock Band 2, and probably won't until I live somewhere where the neighbours aren't bothered by my incessant drumming!
Another car analogy is: people need to get a license before they can drive. They might be able to get a car and drive around and avoid killing themselves or someone else due to a lack of knowledge of rules of the road, but they are significantly more likely to have an accident if they haven't been trained and don't know any rules. If you crash your car due to a lack of knowledge and/or experience, you can't blame the manufacturer. Neither do you expect to be able to be able to crash into walls and come away mysteriously unscathed.
Even if the computer hardware is in good condition and the software is 100% secure from exploits, people can and WILL still enter in their password just so that they can see some titties, or fall for the idea that "your computer has a virus!" and install a fake spyware cleaner app etc. Unless the device itself is heavily restricted in its intended uses and will simply not let you install any more software, including plugins (which isn't a bad idea at all for a browsing and messaging device), it can be compromised.
If computer viruses could easily and directly kill people in the same way that a car can, then nobody would be allowed to use a computer without a license.
If it was an actual known problem for that model and Ford didn't do a recall, then of course. But it's more likely someone cut your brake lines, or you didn't get the pads replaced and wore through the brake discs, in which case it's the users fault for not checking their brakes before driving off, and keeping their car well maintained.
Well, murder, rape, war, bent politicians, celebrity news etc are all pretty cliched too but the media outlets insist on reporting on them day after day.. and that's why I am not interested in most so called "news". Slashdot is usually fairly interesting, and this is in idle at least.
That method is a tad slow. If you increase the number of cheerleaders then I think you may be onto something though. And I think a simple king sized bed would prove more efficient and comfortable than a bouncy castle when it comes to marathon sessions of procreation.
Being a nerd doesn't make you superior to anyone else
I don't know, aren't "nerdy" types are usually classified as nerds simply because they are more intelligent and prefer mental pursuits rather than physical ones? They of course are not superior in every way, but I suspect the average nerd will have a higher IQ than the average non-nerd.
Slashdot Mirror
LittleBigPlanet shows that that part is also very possible. It doesn't exactly have a direct character model editor, but you can make parts and stick them to your character, and there is a level editor plus easy ways to share your stuff and try out other people's stuff. Plus the guy said some things "aren't possible" on consoles, not that they "aren't willing". Jus as much is possible on consoles these days.
Games for the PSP are very cheap. I was considering cracking mine before just to get simple stuff like a better media player front end and an alarm clock. Emulators would be cool too but I didn't get the device just for gaming.
Meh - my grandmother is faster than a Pentium 4, and only uses cups of tea for power.
Sony's system literally can't be any worse than the Wii for pointing - they could do exactly the same trick that the Wii does if they want, and in reality they can do better if you can somehow define exactly where your TV is in relation to the camera, how big it is etc. The only reason Wii games seem better for pointing than the Sony tech demo is because they show a crosshair on screen, whereas the guy in the tech demo often had to physically control an object on screen and then guess where it was pointing. When it actually came to using something with a crosshair (the crossbow demo), it was just the same as the Wii-mote - and like I said, it has the level of tracking precision to work more like a light gun if they wanted.
Um.. you realise that argument works more in favour for consoles than PCs, at least if you want to keep your machine capable of playing games at their best? I used to spend lots on more RAM, faster processor, faster graphics cards every year or two when I was into PC gaming because things advance so rapidly.
With my PS3 all I've spent money on is more games, and the graphics are definitely "good enough" for the most part. I'm happy being forced to let my wallet grow fat for now, and I get plenty of regular exercise despite also enjoying a lot of quality time on my couch, thanks :P
While improvements in graphics are nice, improvements in processing capability and storage space for physics simulation, collision detection, freeroaming and/or destructible environments are the things that have been responsible for most of the improvements in gameplay over the last few years. More realistic control systems do make games more fun. Think of using a steering wheel compared to a joypad - the joypad is often a lot easier because of the tiny motions necessary to go from lock to lock for counter-steering and such, but the steering wheel is much more fun. Same with having a full joystick and throttle setup for flight sims. Wii Fit has shown that people are happy to be up and active while playing games too. If there was some 360 degree motion sensing treadmill attachment that let you actually do all the walking and running etc in games then I would definitely buy one (though games would need a headset too to really be able to work with it, then you could add rumble and gradient capability to the treadmill, etc), even if it cost a thousand pounds - it would be a lot more fun than a normal treadmill or going for a jog etc. Then there would be no need for artificial limits to a character's ability to sprint in games like GTA etc. Games could be true RPGs where you improve your own health and skill rather than some arbitrary numbers for your character's stats. In beat'em'ups you wouldn't have to get pissed off that a character takes so long to break a combo sequence or throw a kick etc because it would be all your own movements. Obviously unhealthy or disabled people wouldn't quite like that idea so much, but they could still use conventional control methods.
Wii Sports comes with the Wii - it shouldn't count. Likewise Wii Play always comes with a new controller so shouldn't count either, don't think either of them are sold separately (what would be the point?).
As for the rest, that's all valid. And note that Gran Turismo 5: Prologue is about half the price of a normal game, so it won't make so much profit. Would be interesting to see how many the real GT 5 sells.
it will hopefully be a shot in the arm for the platform if AAA titles look a lot better on the PC (or even has some good exclusives that just aren't possible on the consoles)
PC versions of games pretty much always look better than their console counterparts if you have good hardware, even if the only reason is a better resolution and/or framerate. Now that all consoles are networked and have decent storage space (though not all as standard yet, Xbox a HDD is optional, Wii I'm not sure how much space it has but it probably isn't more than 8GB or so.. PS3s are guaranteed to have a minimum of 20GB, though I upgraded mine from 40 to 320).
So I don't see what you could do on a PC that you can't do on a console these days. With all the funky control systems coming out for consoles, I'd actually say it's going to be the other way round for a few years - there isn't a standard 3D motion control system for PCs, so any game developer would also have to develop their own input system. Perhaps a few developers will band together and create some kind of motion controller standard so that PCs can play catch-up. MS are bound to release their system for Windows versions of their games anyway..
But the SCART or component cables that the Wii outputs through can't actually support that high a resolution (AFAIK, may be wrong), so it is the responsibility of the display itself to do any smoothing/upscaling. The Wii could do some anti-aliasing, but not actual 'upscaling' unless it has an HDMI connection.
The six-axis controller is fine as long as you don't expect it to be another Wii-mote. It works well in games like LittleBigPlanet, fl0w and Flower. Some games still work better on a controller with a lot of buttons, and motion sensing is a nice option to be able to enable if you want to use it. Most of the time I don't, but flow and flower were both designed with the sensor in mind and work very well. As for LittleBigPlanet, well if you've played it you'll understand how it's just a nice extra to have :)
Actually I also thought they screwed up the Wii Sports Golf, but I knew that it was probably the software rather than the hardware, because the rest of the Wii Sports games all have pretty good controls IMO.
Within the company there are departments that I like, and departments that I prefer to avoid.. when it comes to Sony or any company in fact, there are probably parts to like and parts to avoid. With Sony I like their games consoles, TVs and I liked the AIBO - everything else I'm not so fussed about.
The PS 1 and 2 may have had a lot of crap games, but they also had many, many good games. With my PS3 I must have spent far more time using it as a PVR and media player than as a games console.. but I still have some great games for it and hope that someone will use this motion controller setup to finally make some decent action game controls - I WANT MY LIGHTSABRE DUELS!! And I don't mean with a similarly crappy control system to Red Steel, I mean full motion sensing controls where I have to learn and use proper sword fighting techniques to win on the harder difficulties in a similar way that I had to practice my drumming for a couple of months before I fully completed Rock Band on expert.
most of the internet would be adult-only.
I'm pretty sure it is, and has been for over a decade..
I was just being silly, I know rockets are self-propelled..
I haven't tried half of those games, but in Resistance you can't even turn off the auto-aim, the enemies are both heavily scripted and incredibly dumb and the maps feel very linear (of course in almost all games progress is linear, but not all games make it feel so contrived).. it reminded me of the Unreal 1 and Halo 1 single player modes (not good at all). I don't see how anyone who has ever played stuff like Deus Ex, Half-Life/Counter-Strike/Day of Defeat/Opposing Force would consider something like R:FoM a 'good' game? Is it perhaps just the fact it was one of the first multiplayer FPSes on PS3 that has made it popular? I only tried the multiplayer very briefly with friends - we got bored within 5 minutes and went back to Rock Band.. the single player I played through the first 3 or 4 levels but don't feel any urge to complete it. Maybe it's just me but I get bored quickly with games where you have to pummel laser blast upon frickin laser blast into enemies rather than just being able to take them out with one well aimed shot at the head (and vice versa, I chose to play Deus Ex on 'realistic' mode for example).
And just out of interest did you ever play No One Lives Forever? I had completely forgotten about it until thinking back on all the FPSes I've played over the years.. most popular FPSes for the last say 4 years still seem to be the same old WWII team based/whatever rehash (though I admit the first Battlefield game I ever played was a demo of Bad Company, and I bought it straight away because it is a good game), no originality whatsoever. Another example is The Darkness, you can pick it up dirt cheap but all the customer reviews for it on Amazon were very positive, so I bought it and lo and behold it is a good fun game with an original take on the FPS, yet it seems to have been overlooked by the masses.
They needed something to calibrate the trebuchet with before launching the actual rocket, of course.
I'm sure I've seen that comment somewhere before
I agree with that, it's much more noticeable when something is wrong than when it's right :)
The GH background could definitely do with some anti-aliasing, Rock Band does it much better - and that's just Rock Band 1. I've not seen Rock Band 2, and probably won't until I live somewhere where the neighbours aren't bothered by my incessant drumming!
Another car analogy is: people need to get a license before they can drive. They might be able to get a car and drive around and avoid killing themselves or someone else due to a lack of knowledge of rules of the road, but they are significantly more likely to have an accident if they haven't been trained and don't know any rules. If you crash your car due to a lack of knowledge and/or experience, you can't blame the manufacturer. Neither do you expect to be able to be able to crash into walls and come away mysteriously unscathed.
Even if the computer hardware is in good condition and the software is 100% secure from exploits, people can and WILL still enter in their password just so that they can see some titties, or fall for the idea that "your computer has a virus!" and install a fake spyware cleaner app etc. Unless the device itself is heavily restricted in its intended uses and will simply not let you install any more software, including plugins (which isn't a bad idea at all for a browsing and messaging device), it can be compromised.
If computer viruses could easily and directly kill people in the same way that a car can, then nobody would be allowed to use a computer without a license.
If it was an actual known problem for that model and Ford didn't do a recall, then of course. But it's more likely someone cut your brake lines, or you didn't get the pads replaced and wore through the brake discs, in which case it's the users fault for not checking their brakes before driving off, and keeping their car well maintained.
Well, murder, rape, war, bent politicians, celebrity news etc are all pretty cliched too but the media outlets insist on reporting on them day after day.. and that's why I am not interested in most so called "news". Slashdot is usually fairly interesting, and this is in idle at least.
Ah, I see. I've never even heard of it.
That method is a tad slow. If you increase the number of cheerleaders then I think you may be onto something though. And I think a simple king sized bed would prove more efficient and comfortable than a bouncy castle when it comes to marathon sessions of procreation.
A stereotype is a stereotype whether it's true or false, so "whoosh" to you too, Sir A.C. You and all your similarly ignorant kin.
Being a nerd doesn't make you superior to anyone else
I don't know, aren't "nerdy" types are usually classified as nerds simply because they are more intelligent and prefer mental pursuits rather than physical ones? They of course are not superior in every way, but I suspect the average nerd will have a higher IQ than the average non-nerd.