The only reason the XBox exists is to push the Windows platform into the living room--originally Microsoft offered their platform libraries to Sony and Nintendo and only made the X-Box when both companies refused to ship Windows on their consoles. This is completely false. Microsoft created the trimmed down version of Win2k for the Xbox exclusively. They never made any such offer to Nintendo or Sony.
Minor nitpick- Microsoft DID offer windows to Sega for use on the Dreamcast. Early models of the DC even have a "windows CE" logo on the casing. However from what I understand it was pretty clunky, few developers used it and windows CE was dropped towards the end of the console's lifecycle.
Where besides input devices has vibration been used for feedback?
anyone remember "Operation?"
Re:Christian Backlash? I think not.
on
Spore Is EA's New Ace
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Speaking as a full-on, 100% bible-believing Christian, I very very much would like to play this game. It's a game. It's not the real world. In that way, I see no reason to ban it, or whatever. Now, if the game claimed (which it does not) to represent the exact same structure as creation on Earth, then that's something else.
Why would that be "something else?" As you said this is just a game. Whether or not you agree with what it claims is no reason to ban it. The Bible Game claims that the biblical representation of Genesis is 100% truth and you don't see atheists storming the streets in protest. It's EA's right to make a game that claims whatever they wish, as long as that claim isn't outright slanderous.
are we overrating the importance of halo 3 here? Halo 1 and 2's launches on the original Xbox were totally ignored overseas (Japan isn't keen on FPS) and if halo made any impact on ps2 sales it certainly isnt visible as the ps2 still outsold the Xbox by about 80 million units.
I'd argue the Xbox360 needs another Halo to keep its head above water (how many Xboxes would have been sold with no halo? Odds are they would have been the next jaguar)...but it's not any kind of threat to ps3 sales. Any serious Halo fanboys have already bought the 360 since its a given that Halo 3 IS coming. What the Xbox NEEDS is to get a series that sells well on Ps3 and make it an Xbox exclusive. (GTA..Devil May Cry..Silent Hill...Metal Gear...Final Fantasy...etc)
Actually I WAS attempting to adjust my numbers for inflation, but I was a bit off. If you're going to nitpick, $199 in 1977 is actually $645.75 in 2005.
since I haven't seen a $645 console around lately, I believe my point is still valid. Gaming is still cheaper now than it was in 1977.
Gaming is just as expensive now as it's ever been. The atari 2600 launched at $3-400 in the seventies. SNES carts like FFIII, Chrono Trigger, and The Seventh Saga (which SUCKED) made their debut at 74.99 and STAYED there. The concept of "greatest hits" titles didn't show up until the psx era...the $19.99 game is a VERY new thing, relatively speaking.
In regards to your "flash cart" idea..it's not bad but it's already being done one better. Xbox live arcade has good classic and independent games available for only a couple of bucks. You don't even need the hard drive, you can use the memory card. Nintendo is making their classic library available to download to the built in flash RAM on the Revolution. (prices haven't been announced but come on now, we're talking 15 year old ROM images here.)
combine this with a booming used games market and you have nothing to complain about. There's a good case to be made that 2006 is a cheapass gamer's wet dream.
Have focus groups ever really done anything useful?
Re:Gamecube - premature death?
on
Come the Revolution
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· Score: 2, Insightful
you and your roomies are part of the problem. People who buy the cube tend to do so to pick up nintendo 1st party titles and ignore everything else, leading 3rd party developers to abandon the platform, or only give it token support. Right now there's a serious gap between the release of good software on the cube...5-6 months or more for "A" list titles. That's good if you want to play super smash brothers melee ad nauseum, but bad if you're craving something new.
The average console gamer does NOT love high def fps games. The average PC gamer DOES. Halo sold generally well on the Xbox (about 5 million per title) but it (and most fps'es) have been grossly outsold by the Marios, Maddens, Grand Theft Autos, etc.
Market analysts (non M$) are predicting 5.5 million Xbox360's sold by June and around 12-15 million by the end of the year. Certain PS3 fanboys will buy a PS3 no matter when it is released, but why will the average family buy a PS3 when they have a 360 and a solid collection of games?.
Because the "average family" does NOT have an Xbox360 or a "solid collection of games." IIRC, there are just around 2 million xboxes actually sold so far. In comparison, there are 20 million gamecubes, 20 million Xboxes, and 100 million Ps2's. One would think "the average family" is still quite happy with those.
Add in the facts that their CPU is quite weird and hard to program, and that they'll be last to market in this generation
The Cell is actually much easier to program than the EE on the Ps2 was, and by all accounts the Rev and Ps3 should hit the market at the same time. (the holiday '06 season)/nitpick
I remember friendster...I think I might actually still have a profile there. I also remember myself and my friends leaving the service en masse after chronic outages. Think myspace is down a lot? it had nothing on friendster. If they had bothered to invest in better servers or stop spilling beer on them or whatever they might not have had their entire marketshare taken away by Myspace like they did.
They can always add their online service later - in say the PS3.1 or whatever. Blu-Ray spec issues? Add it in PS3.2. They just need to be in the marketplace with a new product.
Unfortunately the console market doesn't work this way. Add ons to consoles ALWAYS perform poorly and have slow adoption rates. The Ps2 didn't gain an online adapter until around the time the Xbox made it's debut. Microsoft's online offering is FAR better integrated into the system and had a better adoption rate because every Xbox out there had the ability to be online enabled by default.
The story is the same with the hard drive. The add on Ps2 hard drive was a dismal failure..few bought it, few companies supported it, and compatability was outright dropped from the unit in later revisions. And this is on what is arguably the most successful selling console of all time with a 100 million user install base. If the Ps2 wants to implement online and blu-ray compatability successfully, they need to be done RIGHT, and done AT launch.
2) DRM - nobody wants to *PAY EXTRA* for less control. If you want BluRay to succeed, give the players away for $25 - (meaning cheaper than a standalone DVD-ROM drive current cost).
Didn't people pay for less control when switching from VHS to DVD? not only couldnt you copy them for several years till CSS was broken, but you couldnt even run it through a VCR if your TV lacked composite inputs. (because of macrovision)
Zelda as a franchise is still a heavy hitter, but It hasn't had nearly as many big releases for current consoles as Mario (Mario Sunshine, Mario Party, Mario Tennis, Mario Strikers, Mario and Luigi, ad nauseum) Grand Theft Auto (GTAIII, Vice City, San Andreas), Madden (2000-2006) etc.
Other than 4 swords (which was just a blip on the radar, really) we've only had the wind waker this generation, since Twilight princess keeps getting pushed back.
I'd hate to be a wet blanket, but you could attribute any of those things to something "family friendly" like say...AOL or Yahoo VERY easily.
for instance-
In February, a 14-year-old New Jersey girl was found dead in a dumpster after arranging a meeting with a stranger on AOL.
- A 15-year-old California girl was abducted in December and found murdered in January. Her AOL profile page included personal contact information and lots of activity.
- Hartford, Connecticut officials are investigating eight sexual assault cases after teenage girls met men on Yahoo.
- In Lafayette, Louisiana four teen girls were sexually assaulted by a local pervert who found them on Prodigy/Compuserve/Fark.com/Livejournal/Slashdot.. ..
Cases like this are a risk that's been around since the invention of the chat room or even the personals page or "party lines" that were around before the internet even existed. Plenty of stupid young teens use those too. Getting all excited over myspace because of things that existed long before it was a twinkle in Tom's eye is the wrong response here.
The segaCD and the 32x don't fit into console "generations" for good reason- they weren't consoles. Both were add ons to a prior console (the genesis) and were incapable of running without it. Add ons have always done terribly in the console world going back as far as the Intellision Keyboard and the NES Disk Drive, so it's no surprise they tanked.
The Dreamcast was a direct competitor to the Ps2, being sold at the same time with similar hardware specs. There's no reason to lump it into the same generation as the N64 which came out 3 years prior and was all but dead by the time of the ps2 launch.
So not only are they doing an "X meets Y" crossover that's never quite as good as either of the standalones, they're taking things from multiple Final Fantasy Games. Cool though it might be, I'm pretty sure no Final Fantasy fan wants to see Cloud fight Kefka. It's just not natural.
IIRC, taking things from multiple final fantasy games and making something new worked out phenomenally well for them in Kingdom hearts, which I love to death, and Kingdom Hearts II which is getting stellar reviews overseas and is eagerly anticipated here. If this sees a US release here I'll be the first to pick up a PSP. (though the suikoden I and II and Valkyrie Profile Rereleases almost did it for me anyway.)
Maybe it's just age, but I can tell you, I do not enjoy games as I once did. My Personnal opinion is that games have just gotten boring, sans a few diamonds in the rough (Resident Evil 4 GBC, Ridge Racer PSP).
If you find that "games have just gotten boring" you may simply be outgrowing the hobby. There's as much good stuff as there's ever been. (And did you just cite Resident Evil 4 on Game Boy Color?!) If you were gaming around the time of the console crash of 1984, 99% of the titles were pure crap. Chase the Chuckwagon? Kool Aid Man, the game?, Custer's revenge? ET? the 2600 Version of Pac Man?
Game quality went up substantially in the NES Era thanks to the "seal of approval" but the ratio of good games to crap has remained essentially the same. For every Super mario 2 or Legend of Zelda there were at least 10 or 15 "yo, Noids", "Mighty Bomb Jacks", or "street fighter 2010's" littering up the shelves. No one remembers the crap titles though..because they were crap.
Don't let nostalgia lie to you! The ratio of good games to total shit has remained essentially unchanged since the mid 80s.
We all know that Sony tosses as many titles at it's system as humanly possible, while only the rare few stick. Nintendo refuses to move "outside the box" and keeps pumping out Nintendo franchise title after franchise title with no real innovation. Xbox is just basically select PS2 titles and Halo.
Sony doesn't make 90% of the games produced for it's system- they're not "tossing as many titles as possible at the system" because they don't make them...It's mostly third parties. You can't really blame Capcom, Konami, EA, Ubisoft, etc for wanting to produce a title for the system which has had far and away the largest market share for two generations. Nintendo is the LAST company you'd want to accuse of not being innovative. They've taken some pretty crazy risks with both software and hardware over the years and when successful everyone else is quick to copy them. The Xbox has done a decent job of not turning into a port system- there's a good amount of exclusive titles and quality content like ninja gaiden, Bioware's offerings, Panzer Dragoon orta...etc.
difference between this and the Sony rootkit is that they're not even trying to hide it. It's part of the spec. Use a "cracked" player and they'll revoke the license to not just your player, but ALL crackable players of that model, turning them into little more than expensive bricks. Since the DMCA says it's now illegal to circumvent this type of copy protection (i.e. "cracking" the player) you better believe they'll get away with it too.
one of the fun features of AACS allows it to revoke/disable the keys of any "hacked" players. The minute that hack is common knowledge, your player is now worthless. (probably via hidden firmware updates in new discs, like Ps2 games have been known to do)
Slashdot Mirror
anyone remember "Operation?"
Why would that be "something else?" As you said this is just a game. Whether or not you agree with what it claims is no reason to ban it. The Bible Game claims that the biblical representation of Genesis is 100% truth and you don't see atheists storming the streets in protest. It's EA's right to make a game that claims whatever they wish, as long as that claim isn't outright slanderous.
are we overrating the importance of halo 3 here? Halo 1 and 2's launches on the original Xbox were totally ignored overseas (Japan isn't keen on FPS) and if halo made any impact on ps2 sales it certainly isnt visible as the ps2 still outsold the Xbox by about 80 million units.
I'd argue the Xbox360 needs another Halo to keep its head above water (how many Xboxes would have been sold with no halo? Odds are they would have been the next jaguar)...but it's not any kind of threat to ps3 sales. Any serious Halo fanboys have already bought the 360 since its a given that Halo 3 IS coming. What the Xbox NEEDS is to get a series that sells well on Ps3 and make it an Xbox exclusive. (GTA..Devil May Cry..Silent Hill...Metal Gear...Final Fantasy...etc)
Actually I WAS attempting to adjust my numbers for inflation, but I was a bit off. If you're going to nitpick, $199 in 1977 is actually $645.75 in 2005.
since I haven't seen a $645 console around lately, I believe my point is still valid. Gaming is still cheaper now than it was in 1977.
Gaming is just as expensive now as it's ever been. The atari 2600 launched at $3-400 in the seventies. SNES carts like FFIII, Chrono Trigger, and The Seventh Saga (which SUCKED) made their debut at 74.99 and STAYED there. The concept of "greatest hits" titles didn't show up until the psx era...the $19.99 game is a VERY new thing, relatively speaking.
In regards to your "flash cart" idea..it's not bad but it's already being done one better. Xbox live arcade has good classic and independent games available for only a couple of bucks. You don't even need the hard drive, you can use the memory card. Nintendo is making their classic library available to download to the built in flash RAM on the Revolution. (prices haven't been announced but come on now, we're talking 15 year old ROM images here.)
combine this with a booming used games market and you have nothing to complain about. There's a good case to be made that 2006 is a cheapass gamer's wet dream.
you and your roomies are part of the problem. People who buy the cube tend to do so to pick up nintendo 1st party titles and ignore everything else, leading 3rd party developers to abandon the platform, or only give it token support. Right now there's a serious gap between the release of good software on the cube...5-6 months or more for "A" list titles. That's good if you want to play super smash brothers melee ad nauseum, but bad if you're craving something new.
The average console gamer does NOT love high def fps games. The average PC gamer DOES. Halo sold generally well on the Xbox (about 5 million per title) but it (and most fps'es) have been grossly outsold by the Marios, Maddens, Grand Theft Autos, etc.
Because the "average family" does NOT have an Xbox360 or a "solid collection of games." IIRC, there are just around 2 million xboxes actually sold so far. In comparison, there are 20 million gamecubes, 20 million Xboxes, and 100 million Ps2's. One would think "the average family" is still quite happy with those.
Killer 7 was not only multiplatform but IIRC, also fairly poorly reviewed.
I remember friendster...I think I might actually still have a profile there. I also remember myself and my friends leaving the service en masse after chronic outages. Think myspace is down a lot? it had nothing on friendster. If they had bothered to invest in better servers or stop spilling beer on them or whatever they might not have had their entire marketshare taken away by Myspace like they did.
Unfortunately the console market doesn't work this way. Add ons to consoles ALWAYS perform poorly and have slow adoption rates. The Ps2 didn't gain an online adapter until around the time the Xbox made it's debut. Microsoft's online offering is FAR better integrated into the system and had a better adoption rate because every Xbox out there had the ability to be online enabled by default.
The story is the same with the hard drive. The add on Ps2 hard drive was a dismal failure..few bought it, few companies supported it, and compatability was outright dropped from the unit in later revisions. And this is on what is arguably the most successful selling console of all time with a 100 million user install base. If the Ps2 wants to implement online and blu-ray compatability successfully, they need to be done RIGHT, and done AT launch.
Zelda as a franchise is still a heavy hitter, but It hasn't had nearly as many big releases for current consoles as Mario (Mario Sunshine, Mario Party, Mario Tennis, Mario Strikers, Mario and Luigi, ad nauseum) Grand Theft Auto (GTAIII, Vice City, San Andreas), Madden (2000-2006) etc.
Other than 4 swords (which was just a blip on the radar, really) we've only had the wind waker this generation, since Twilight princess keeps getting pushed back.
In February, a 14-year-old New Jersey girl was found dead in a dumpster after arranging a meeting with a stranger on AOL.
- A 15-year-old California girl was abducted in December and found murdered in January. Her AOL profile page included personal contact information and lots of activity.
- Hartford, Connecticut officials are investigating eight sexual assault cases after teenage girls met men on Yahoo.
- In Lafayette, Louisiana four teen girls were sexually assaulted by a local pervert who found them on Prodigy/Compuserve/Fark.com/Livejournal/Slashdot.. ..
Cases like this are a risk that's been around since the invention of the chat room or even the personals page or "party lines" that were around before the internet even existed. Plenty of stupid young teens use those too. Getting all excited over myspace because of things that existed long before it was a twinkle in Tom's eye is the wrong response here.
I've gotten plenty of tail off of myspace. the underage girls there are so horny, it's like fishing with dynamite! It's not even fair!
The segaCD and the 32x don't fit into console "generations" for good reason- they weren't consoles. Both were add ons to a prior console (the genesis) and were incapable of running without it. Add ons have always done terribly in the console world going back as far as the Intellision Keyboard and the NES Disk Drive, so it's no surprise they tanked.
The Dreamcast was a direct competitor to the Ps2, being sold at the same time with similar hardware specs. There's no reason to lump it into the same generation as the N64 which came out 3 years prior and was all but dead by the time of the ps2 launch.
If you find that "games have just gotten boring" you may simply be outgrowing the hobby. There's as much good stuff as there's ever been. (And did you just cite Resident Evil 4 on Game Boy Color?!) If you were gaming around the time of the console crash of 1984, 99% of the titles were pure crap. Chase the Chuckwagon? Kool Aid Man, the game?, Custer's revenge? ET? the 2600 Version of Pac Man?
Game quality went up substantially in the NES Era thanks to the "seal of approval" but the ratio of good games to crap has remained essentially the same. For every Super mario 2 or Legend of Zelda there were at least 10 or 15 "yo, Noids", "Mighty Bomb Jacks", or "street fighter 2010's" littering up the shelves. No one remembers the crap titles though..because they were crap. Don't let nostalgia lie to you! The ratio of good games to total shit has remained essentially unchanged since the mid 80s.Sony doesn't make 90% of the games produced for it's system- they're not "tossing as many titles as possible at the system" because they don't make them...It's mostly third parties. You can't really blame Capcom, Konami, EA, Ubisoft, etc for wanting to produce a title for the system which has had far and away the largest market share for two generations. Nintendo is the LAST company you'd want to accuse of not being innovative. They've taken some pretty crazy risks with both software and hardware over the years and when successful everyone else is quick to copy them. The Xbox has done a decent job of not turning into a port system- there's a good amount of exclusive titles and quality content like ninja gaiden, Bioware's offerings, Panzer Dragoon orta...etc.
difference between this and the Sony rootkit is that they're not even trying to hide it. It's part of the spec. Use a "cracked" player and they'll revoke the license to not just your player, but ALL crackable players of that model, turning them into little more than expensive bricks. Since the DMCA says it's now illegal to circumvent this type of copy protection (i.e. "cracking" the player) you better believe they'll get away with it too.
one of the fun features of AACS allows it to revoke/disable the keys of any "hacked" players. The minute that hack is common knowledge, your player is now worthless. (probably via hidden firmware updates in new discs, like Ps2 games have been known to do)