I've found it pretty promising when it comes to their ideas for Games for Windows. They are basically treating their operating system as a means to pull in more gamers and compatibility between their console system and the OS.
During the presentation they highlighted a few major companies that will provide content to what basically will become an xBox Live center for Windows, stating that Epic Games will contribute the Unreal3 engine for a means for people to create content that will work for both Windows and the 360. Their emphasis of allowing people to create homebrew games is something that Sony and Nintendo lack in general.
I'm also completely stoked that many of the up and coming next gen games are for both the PC and consoles. Moore was eager to show enthusiasm for Bioshock for the 360, but for me as a PC gamer, I'm even more eager to try this game on my own computer. The same applies to other games such as Assassin's Creed which debuted the first ever in-game play through.
I do see only one problem with their entire "Games for Windows" line of ideas and plans, and that is with their online play. Currently with Shadowrun and Halo 2, players are allowed to play online for free against each other. However there seems to be a bit of a bias when it comes to whether or not to allow PC gamers on the same servers as consoles. Halo 2 separates the crowd into two different camps, while Shadowrun allows for both (I believe, I didn't play it long before I figured to turn it back being too boring for my tastes). You still require to pay for a subscribed membership for the logging of achievements, but they may pull a fast one and require a gold membership in order to play online as opposed to us already being allowed to play online for free.
Believe it or not, ESRB does not actually play the games they review. They only watch clips of said games highlighting the key features and what is considered the most harmful to children and their psyche...
Now what I only just learned about ESRB's rating system is that this independent organization does not play the games. Instead they only watch a contemplation of clips from the game highlighting all the key aspects of the game. And in most cases, that would mean every single hardcore aspect of these games will be somewhat skewed with all the non-stop violence being displayed.
I still cannot believe that in the end, even if these sort of games get an AO rating, they are basically banned from attaining the license from the console makers. Its really sad way to be an adult gamer not having the final say as to what I my self play...
"Essentially, procrastinators have less confidence in themselves, less expectancy that they can actually complete a task... Perfectionism is not the culprit. In fact, perfectionists actually procrastinate less, but they worry about it more."
Wait, so instead of just wanting to do something else that is not only more fun, but more worth while means I don't have the confidence to pump out a 5 page essay in under 2 hours? Sure it is...
I DON'T do my work because I know that I CAN do the work, so why do it now?
Pseudo or not, the man may be on to something as he was getting results in the end, although they were small due to scale. Its really exciting stuff to hear that his team was able to actually produce an output similar to what they theorized could work. With proper funding, time, and staff (he had 10 people for 11 years) he may actually produce something that can set into stone that his ideas do indeed work, or not, but that should not stop people find a way so that it can.
I say give the him a budget and ignore the fact that he's old and/or senile. Pass or fail, its still information that can go towards fusion energy which many people view as being only attainable in science fiction stories like Star Trek.
...spent 4 days, almost 96 hours straight, at a local lan cafe playing WoW. His goal was to get from Lv 30ish to Lv 60... But he never made it. Instead he ended up in the hospital due to sleep deprivation, dehydration, and malnuetrition. He came into the hospital pretty much on the verge of death.
He was told never to try that again. And he has yet done so. He finally got to Lv 60 and still plays the game doing nothing but instance dungeons and pvp. His stupid stunt pretty much killed my interest for WoW. There's nothing to really gain at the end game except for a huge e-peen.
I think everyone would agree that estimated amount of game time should be taken off the boxes of games. People have their own style of playing a game. You may be really inept at solving puzzles or playing through it without any regard for side quests. When I play, I play to get everything out of the game. I didn't just spend $50 on a game just to beat it in 5 to 10 hours, I want to have fun. So I spend my time doing everything the game has to offer.
Maybe the guy was taking his time on a side quest, redoing a level to get every secret, or even being ungodly slow when it came to attaining any progress. But to complain about how long you were expecting a game to last due to a box enticement, is sort of taking the quick cop-out to blaming the way you play the game yourself.
I've been playing my PS2 alot lately and after about 2 weeks into a few games that have ample use of a rumble feature, I came to the realization that my controller was not rumbling at all. It is in fact broken, but the controller and the experence, seemed just the same to me as it was during the time I hadn't noticed the rumble feature. Before, some uses of the rumble just seemed to take away from the experience. I used to take my focus away from the game on and the controller itself as the thing would shake in various awkward ways. I seriously do not see a need for a rumble feature.
For Sony, they may as well continue to forgo the idea of a rumble feature until either 3rd party controllers start doing it for them or Sony themselves come up with a rumble technology not dependant on someone else's patent.
here is a writer who is one of the growing number of players who have "played everything" and see the current outlook for games and their companies future to be dismal. As the old gamer population starts looking back at gaming history, they start saying such historical lines such as: "Remember how simple 'Missle Command' or good ole 'Pong' was?" or even "Games back then was much cheaper then it is today... games these days are going to kill themselves like Sega did..." excluding the fact that they really aren't that much different as when N64 first came out [the first Star Wars game on N64 was $75 including tax]
Now I look at that article and see a man who has nothing left to look forward to. I think I read the same type of article when N64, Ps1, and Dreamcast was in a three way battle. N64 had expensive games and Dreamcast and Ps1 were like the Wii and the 360 today...
A little heads up for the writer to that article: Not every game requires x million dollars to produce and market. There is a potential for the big companies [who usually make crappy games *looks at EA*] to produce games of great gameplay and replay value under a low budget.
Nice to know that they want all of us to realize what the shuttle is doing every step of its journey like something bad is going to happen. I mean really, the anticipation is just nuts...
"This just in, shuttle is to do a barral roll in space for up comming landing... Now watch as the shuttle goes through the atmosphere, drama unfolds in the cockpit as the astronauts try to reassure NASA that everything is okay... Now lets play the landing in slow motion so as to gather info on a leaky brake... Now we will postpone all future flights until the leaky brake fluid is analyzed and tested relentlessly, next flight, 'eventually'..."
I was put off on how great the concept is after watching the Spore presentation and having to sit through an entire speech by Will Wright where "procedurally generated" was uttered by him over 50 times...
It's nice that they have a system that can pretty much think itself out, but please do us all a favor and just say "procedurally generated" and leave it at that
On April 1st there was a big announcement on Blizzard's site about World of Starcraft. It's no longer on the site or the archives however. They did this completewith screenshots too...
The last April Fools joke that I remember comming from them was the new Warcraft 3 playable race, the Pandarian Army
Why/. is running April Fools jokes as news escapes me...
Slashdot Mirror
I've found it pretty promising when it comes to their ideas for Games for Windows. They are basically treating their operating system as a means to pull in more gamers and compatibility between their console system and the OS.
During the presentation they highlighted a few major companies that will provide content to what basically will become an xBox Live center for Windows, stating that Epic Games will contribute the Unreal3 engine for a means for people to create content that will work for both Windows and the 360. Their emphasis of allowing people to create homebrew games is something that Sony and Nintendo lack in general.
I'm also completely stoked that many of the up and coming next gen games are for both the PC and consoles. Moore was eager to show enthusiasm for Bioshock for the 360, but for me as a PC gamer, I'm even more eager to try this game on my own computer. The same applies to other games such as Assassin's Creed which debuted the first ever in-game play through.
I do see only one problem with their entire "Games for Windows" line of ideas and plans, and that is with their online play. Currently with Shadowrun and Halo 2, players are allowed to play online for free against each other. However there seems to be a bit of a bias when it comes to whether or not to allow PC gamers on the same servers as consoles. Halo 2 separates the crowd into two different camps, while Shadowrun allows for both (I believe, I didn't play it long before I figured to turn it back being too boring for my tastes). You still require to pay for a subscribed membership for the logging of achievements, but they may pull a fast one and require a gold membership in order to play online as opposed to us already being allowed to play online for free.
Believe it or not, ESRB does not actually play the games they review. They only watch clips of said games highlighting the key features and what is considered the most harmful to children and their psyche...
Not quite. That is not Take Two's. That is called Dark Sector.
Now this video and the other series of gameplay videos is what they are talking about. Very graphic, and highly awesome.
Now what I only just learned about ESRB's rating system is that this independent organization does not play the games. Instead they only watch a contemplation of clips from the game highlighting all the key aspects of the game. And in most cases, that would mean every single hardcore aspect of these games will be somewhat skewed with all the non-stop violence being displayed.
I still cannot believe that in the end, even if these sort of games get an AO rating, they are basically banned from attaining the license from the console makers. Its really sad way to be an adult gamer not having the final say as to what I my self play...
I think its more along the lines of: "Let them spell out whats wrong, it'll give us an excuse to actually improve on it..."
I think you mean about another 5-10 fps in Oblivion and Neverwinter Nights 2... Now that is an upgrade!
Wait, so instead of just wanting to do something else that is not only more fun, but more worth while means I don't have the confidence to pump out a 5 page essay in under 2 hours? Sure it is...
I DON'T do my work because I know that I CAN do the work, so why do it now?
I see a flaw in this book already.
Pseudo or not, the man may be on to something as he was getting results in the end, although they were small due to scale. Its really exciting stuff to hear that his team was able to actually produce an output similar to what they theorized could work. With proper funding, time, and staff (he had 10 people for 11 years) he may actually produce something that can set into stone that his ideas do indeed work, or not, but that should not stop people find a way so that it can.
I say give the him a budget and ignore the fact that he's old and/or senile. Pass or fail, its still information that can go towards fusion energy which many people view as being only attainable in science fiction stories like Star Trek.
...spent 4 days, almost 96 hours straight, at a local lan cafe playing WoW. His goal was to get from Lv 30ish to Lv 60... But he never made it. Instead he ended up in the hospital due to sleep deprivation, dehydration, and malnuetrition. He came into the hospital pretty much on the verge of death.
He was told never to try that again. And he has yet done so. He finally got to Lv 60 and still plays the game doing nothing but instance dungeons and pvp. His stupid stunt pretty much killed my interest for WoW. There's nothing to really gain at the end game except for a huge e-peen.
I think everyone would agree that estimated amount of game time should be taken off the boxes of games. People have their own style of playing a game. You may be really inept at solving puzzles or playing through it without any regard for side quests. When I play, I play to get everything out of the game. I didn't just spend $50 on a game just to beat it in 5 to 10 hours, I want to have fun. So I spend my time doing everything the game has to offer.
Maybe the guy was taking his time on a side quest, redoing a level to get every secret, or even being ungodly slow when it came to attaining any progress. But to complain about how long you were expecting a game to last due to a box enticement, is sort of taking the quick cop-out to blaming the way you play the game yourself.
I've been playing my PS2 alot lately and after about 2 weeks into a few games that have ample use of a rumble feature, I came to the realization that my controller was not rumbling at all. It is in fact broken, but the controller and the experence, seemed just the same to me as it was during the time I hadn't noticed the rumble feature. Before, some uses of the rumble just seemed to take away from the experience. I used to take my focus away from the game on and the controller itself as the thing would shake in various awkward ways. I seriously do not see a need for a rumble feature.
For Sony, they may as well continue to forgo the idea of a rumble feature until either 3rd party controllers start doing it for them or Sony themselves come up with a rumble technology not dependant on someone else's patent.
getting up
to the first
page of
the actual
charts,
I lost what
the art
icle was about...
here is a writer who is one of the growing number of players who have "played everything" and see the current outlook for games and their companies future to be dismal. As the old gamer population starts looking back at gaming history, they start saying such historical lines such as: "Remember how simple 'Missle Command' or good ole 'Pong' was?" or even "Games back then was much cheaper then it is today... games these days are going to kill themselves like Sega did..." excluding the fact that they really aren't that much different as when N64 first came out [the first Star Wars game on N64 was $75 including tax]
Now I look at that article and see a man who has nothing left to look forward to. I think I read the same type of article when N64, Ps1, and Dreamcast was in a three way battle. N64 had expensive games and Dreamcast and Ps1 were like the Wii and the 360 today...
A little heads up for the writer to that article: Not every game requires x million dollars to produce and market. There is a potential for the big companies [who usually make crappy games *looks at EA*] to produce games of great gameplay and replay value under a low budget.
Nice to know that they want all of us to realize what the shuttle is doing every step of its journey like something bad is going to happen. I mean really, the anticipation is just nuts...
"This just in, shuttle is to do a barral roll in space for up comming landing... Now watch as the shuttle goes through the atmosphere, drama unfolds in the cockpit as the astronauts try to reassure NASA that everything is okay... Now lets play the landing in slow motion so as to gather info on a leaky brake... Now we will postpone all future flights until the leaky brake fluid is analyzed and tested relentlessly, next flight, 'eventually'..."
I was put off on how great the concept is after watching the Spore presentation and having to sit through an entire speech by Will Wright where "procedurally generated" was uttered by him over 50 times...
It's nice that they have a system that can pretty much think itself out, but please do us all a favor and just say "procedurally generated" and leave it at that
Actually the parent is right.
On April 1st there was a big announcement on Blizzard's site about World of Starcraft. It's no longer on the site or the archives however. They did this complete with screenshots too...
The last April Fools joke that I remember comming from them was the new Warcraft 3 playable race, the Pandarian Army
Why /. is running April Fools jokes as news escapes me...