Wow. Sixty-two inches. I can only imagine how poor a game would look even at 1080p on such an unnecessarily huge screen. 1280x1024 on a 17" CRT or 1600x1200 on a 19" is several orders of magnitude more crisp. These resolutions have been feasible for gaming on the PC for many years now. Overpriced and overrated HDTV is still lagging behind and is only truly impressive to the PC ignorant, though I'm sure it's nice for movies. But you weren't talking about movies.
And on that note, joysticks are for flight games. But I can't recall seeing any for sale to play the stellar Ace Combat series with on PS1/2. I always had to use a gamepad because that's all you get. We tend to use gamepads over here in "PC gamer Bizarro World" for games that are appropriate for such devices (a foreign concept, I know). These devices have been available since at least 1997, by the way, and dual analog PS2 clones from Logitech and others have been around for years as well and are indistinguishable from the originals. However, the number of games, even on consoles, that are optimally played with a gamepad are far less than the PC ignorant would imagine. Any game that involves aiming feels more like you're trying to control a 9 year old girl scout who's overdosed on cough medicine while she's attempting to perform brain surgery, using a gamepad. At least in games without cheesy autoaim nonsense which ruins the whole deal anyway. I played through MOH Frontline on PS2 (and Rising Sun), neither of which had that 'feature', and several other FPS/TPS on it and previous consoles, and it always felt wrong, even before I had the experience of doing it the right way. The mouse is simply the most realistic and logical method available of portraying a non-inebriated adult (who's not a gun-o-phobe) holding a weapon and acquiring targets. Rockstar really nailed it in the area of control for the PC versions of GTA III & up, allowing the use of mouse/keyboard for on-foot/aiming and gamepad for driving. Other clueless console porting devs should pay attention. So in essence, it is the consoles that limit your input options, and many other options as well by design. Only the PC has consistently offered the right tool for the right job (I'd put TM here in parentheses, but that seems pretty lame to me).
Homosexuality...natural??? What a twisted view of reality. It's a choice. It's not something one has no control over. You don't screw corpses or molest children and call it natural, or do you? Where would you decide to draw a line on justifying your behavior? How long will it be until something even more outrageous is the next issue people will demand to be treated equally over? How many years would it take to degenerate to such a level? Go back 50 years and imagine trying this current trendy argument. This should give us some idea at the rate of degeneration.
The thing that always stands out to me is how most homosexuals drone on and on about the fact that they are homosexual. As if they need to justify it even to themselves, or are looking for validation from others. As if repeating something enough times will cause everyone to eventually agree that there's nothing wrong with any sort of behavior. And they will. Most people will fall for anything, given time and enough propaganda (see Nazis).
While I'd have really liked a 40+ hour HL2, I wouldn't have liked the extra 2-3 years it would've taken to get it that long. Or the price we'd have to pay for those extra years of developement/cost of hiring double the employees to get the work done in less time. This is the biggest barrier I see with complex modern games filling 30GB or more (with real gameplay, not CG crap). Of course they'll be more expensive, whether they take 6 years to develop or 2.
I never played F355 Challenge, but did play most of the others. For all the racing games that came out on DC, most actually weren't very good. My favorite racer was Test Drive V-Rally. It got everything right, as opposed to the pitifully done Sega Rally 2, which had the misfortune of being programmed for WinCE rather than directly to the hardware. The strength of consoles lies in not having to go through an OS first. Sega GT could've at least matched Gran Turismo (and custom building your own car was a great idea), but they botched the most important thing: handling. Daytona USA looked good, but the handling was just stupid, horrifically bad even for an arcade racer. Aside from some cheap AI behavior and frustrating difficulty, Vanishing Point was pretty fun. Speed Devils was also good, but much better (sharp) on the PC in its original form, Speed Busters. SF Rush 2049 was generally hailed as great, but I thought it was crap, just like all the other Rush games. Metropolis Street Racer, the predecessor to the XBox Project Gotham games, was alright with it's "kudos" for stylish driving novelty. Demolition Racer: No Exit was one of the ugliest DC games ever created (worse even than the stutterific Sega Rally 2), but it was at least smooth and somewhat fun if you'd played all the other good racing games. Lastly, 4x4 Evo was just too slow and floaty to be a fun racer. Accurately portrayed, but a poor idea to begin with.
It isn't this game or any previous game this or any other developer has made. When I'm standing in the game isle of my local Mega-Lo-Mart and see yet another mother or grandmother buying little Timmy (who's maybe 10) whatever game he wants without bothering to even look at the ESRB rating, it's very clear where the problem lies. The last time I saw this, I felt the need to speak up, so I went over and asked the woman if she knew that this title was rated M, and what that meant. She shrugged and said something to the effect that it's just a game and he plays games. If I'd had the presence of mind I should have, I would have asked her if she also buys little Timmy Hustler magazines simply because they're magazines and he reads magazines.
The problem does not lie with the developer, the publisher, the retailer or the ESRB. They do their part to follow the rules, it's parents/guardians who circumvent the checks that are in place. Unless we see some common sense laws that deal with the glaring lack of responsibility of the consumer, we can expect to see more of this illogical blame game. Speaking of that particular game, those who like to blame the 'holier-than-thou right-wingers' seem to be conveniently forgetting names like Lieberman and Clinton. Just as many who see the DMCA for what it is are quick to forget who it was sitting in office when it was allowed to be passed into law.
No kiddin. Cherry Pie...WTF?! And here I thought it was ludicrous that Bowie was on the first one. Hey, maybe we'll get lucky and those last 2 unidentified tracks will be from REO Speedwagon and Michael Bolton. I was really looking forward to this sequel, but that tracklist is depressing for the most part. Could be why they didn't want the list made public? I think their decisions are likely influenced to some degree by their ability to procure a proper soundalike vocalist. Though to be honest that really didn't stop them the first time around, except for one song that ended up an instrumental. Of course there's a simple way around that whole problem.
I'm hoping the similar project (free, use whatever songs you want) being worked on for PC will eventually support the GH controller. I'm also just as hopeful that the next revision of GH controller lasts more than 3 months. GH is incredibly fun, but not worth spending $160/yr to play it.
Given all those particular criteria, most of which would be necessary in order for one to seriously consider purchase of the PS3, you have to wonder what percentage of people really qualify. I always bought consoles mereley because I wanted to play games. After having to buy more than one PS2 due to the criminally short lifespan 'merely to play games', I no longer see Sony as a realistically viable choice. They've burned a significant number of customers even before any announcement of the PS3. People (those who have to work and pay for everything) tend to remember these sorts of things, given how rare money trees are.
Clinton (feh) and Lieberman (Aren't there term limits? This guy's been around for WAY too long). The dynamic duo. I've seen very few Democratic politicians over the past 20 years with a lick of common sense. Education and intellect, yes, but the two are often mutually exclusive, unfortunately.
I wouldn't expect the bill to get very far. Many of our representatives have lauded the ESRB over the years. The problem is still as it has always been: time after time, some mother or grandmother buys her 10-year old a GTA game at a store and then is shocked by the age-inappropriate content. It's idiots like these who are mostly the ones complaining that tougher legislation is required, since they can't be bothered to pay any attention. Let the gov't control everything, who needs the burden of having choice? How did so many people get so irresponsible over the years?
The one (only) thing we can all do is contact our representatives when we see something idiotic like this coming.
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So the next (maybe first?) killer app for PS3 will be....Turbotax?? :P
Awesome!!
Wow. Sixty-two inches. I can only imagine how poor a game would look even at 1080p on such an unnecessarily huge screen. 1280x1024 on a 17" CRT or 1600x1200 on a 19" is several orders of magnitude more crisp. These resolutions have been feasible for gaming on the PC for many years now. Overpriced and overrated HDTV is still lagging behind and is only truly impressive to the PC ignorant, though I'm sure it's nice for movies. But you weren't talking about movies.
And on that note, joysticks are for flight games. But I can't recall seeing any for sale to play the stellar Ace Combat series with on PS1/2. I always had to use a gamepad because that's all you get. We tend to use gamepads over here in "PC gamer Bizarro World" for games that are appropriate for such devices (a foreign concept, I know). These devices have been available since at least 1997, by the way, and dual analog PS2 clones from Logitech and others have been around for years as well and are indistinguishable from the originals.
However, the number of games, even on consoles, that are optimally played with a gamepad are far less than the PC ignorant would imagine. Any game that involves aiming feels more like you're trying to control a 9 year old girl scout who's overdosed on cough medicine while she's attempting to perform brain surgery, using a gamepad. At least in games without cheesy autoaim nonsense which ruins the whole deal anyway. I played through MOH Frontline on PS2 (and Rising Sun), neither of which had that 'feature', and several other FPS/TPS on it and previous consoles, and it always felt wrong, even before I had the experience of doing it the right way. The mouse is simply the most realistic and logical method available of portraying a non-inebriated adult (who's not a gun-o-phobe) holding a weapon and acquiring targets. Rockstar really nailed it in the area of control for the PC versions of GTA III & up, allowing the use of mouse/keyboard for on-foot/aiming and gamepad for driving. Other clueless console porting devs should pay attention.
So in essence, it is the consoles that limit your input options, and many other options as well by design. Only the PC has consistently offered the right tool for the right job (I'd put TM here in parentheses, but that seems pretty lame to me).
Homosexuality...natural??? What a twisted view of reality. It's a choice. It's not something one has no control over. You don't screw corpses or molest children and call it natural, or do you? Where would you decide to draw a line on justifying your behavior? How long will it be until something even more outrageous is the next issue people will demand to be treated equally over? How many years would it take to degenerate to such a level? Go back 50 years and imagine trying this current trendy argument. This should give us some idea at the rate of degeneration.
The thing that always stands out to me is how most homosexuals drone on and on about the fact that they are homosexual. As if they need to justify it even to themselves, or are looking for validation from others. As if repeating something enough times will cause everyone to eventually agree that there's nothing wrong with any sort of behavior. And they will. Most people will fall for anything, given time and enough propaganda (see Nazis).
While I'd have really liked a 40+ hour HL2, I wouldn't have liked the extra 2-3 years it would've taken to get it that long. Or the price we'd have to pay for those extra years of developement/cost of hiring double the employees to get the work done in less time. This is the biggest barrier I see with complex modern games filling 30GB or more (with real gameplay, not CG crap). Of course they'll be more expensive, whether they take 6 years to develop or 2.
I never played F355 Challenge, but did play most of the others. For all the racing games that came out on DC, most actually weren't very good. My favorite racer was Test Drive V-Rally. It got everything right, as opposed to the pitifully done Sega Rally 2, which had the misfortune of being programmed for WinCE rather than directly to the hardware. The strength of consoles lies in not having to go through an OS first. Sega GT could've at least matched Gran Turismo (and custom building your own car was a great idea), but they botched the most important thing: handling. Daytona USA looked good, but the handling was just stupid, horrifically bad even for an arcade racer. Aside from some cheap AI behavior and frustrating difficulty, Vanishing Point was pretty fun. Speed Devils was also good, but much better (sharp) on the PC in its original form, Speed Busters. SF Rush 2049 was generally hailed as great, but I thought it was crap, just like all the other Rush games. Metropolis Street Racer, the predecessor to the XBox Project Gotham games, was alright with it's "kudos" for stylish driving novelty. Demolition Racer: No Exit was one of the ugliest DC games ever created (worse even than the stutterific Sega Rally 2), but it was at least smooth and somewhat fun if you'd played all the other good racing games. Lastly, 4x4 Evo was just too slow and floaty to be a fun racer. Accurately portrayed, but a poor idea to begin with.
It isn't this game or any previous game this or any other developer has made. When I'm standing in the game isle of my local Mega-Lo-Mart and see yet another mother or grandmother buying little Timmy (who's maybe 10) whatever game he wants without bothering to even look at the ESRB rating, it's very clear where the problem lies. The last time I saw this, I felt the need to speak up, so I went over and asked the woman if she knew that this title was rated M, and what that meant. She shrugged and said something to the effect that it's just a game and he plays games. If I'd had the presence of mind I should have, I would have asked her if she also buys little Timmy Hustler magazines simply because they're magazines and he reads magazines. The problem does not lie with the developer, the publisher, the retailer or the ESRB. They do their part to follow the rules, it's parents/guardians who circumvent the checks that are in place. Unless we see some common sense laws that deal with the glaring lack of responsibility of the consumer, we can expect to see more of this illogical blame game. Speaking of that particular game, those who like to blame the 'holier-than-thou right-wingers' seem to be conveniently forgetting names like Lieberman and Clinton. Just as many who see the DMCA for what it is are quick to forget who it was sitting in office when it was allowed to be passed into law.
No kiddin. Cherry Pie...WTF?! And here I thought it was ludicrous that Bowie was on the first one. Hey, maybe we'll get lucky and those last 2 unidentified tracks will be from REO Speedwagon and Michael Bolton. I was really looking forward to this sequel, but that tracklist is depressing for the most part. Could be why they didn't want the list made public? I think their decisions are likely influenced to some degree by their ability to procure a proper soundalike vocalist. Though to be honest that really didn't stop them the first time around, except for one song that ended up an instrumental. Of course there's a simple way around that whole problem.
I'm hoping the similar project (free, use whatever songs you want) being worked on for PC will eventually support the GH controller. I'm also just as hopeful that the next revision of GH controller lasts more than 3 months. GH is incredibly fun, but not worth spending $160/yr to play it.
Given all those particular criteria, most of which would be necessary in order for one to seriously consider purchase of the PS3, you have to wonder what percentage of people really qualify.
I always bought consoles mereley because I wanted to play games. After having to buy more than one PS2 due to the criminally short lifespan 'merely to play games', I no longer see Sony as a realistically viable choice. They've burned a significant number of customers even before any announcement of the PS3. People (those who have to work and pay for everything) tend to remember these sorts of things, given how rare money trees are.
Clinton (feh) and Lieberman (Aren't there term limits? This guy's been around for WAY too long). The dynamic duo. I've seen very few Democratic politicians over the past 20 years with a lick of common sense. Education and intellect, yes, but the two are often mutually exclusive, unfortunately. I wouldn't expect the bill to get very far. Many of our representatives have lauded the ESRB over the years. The problem is still as it has always been: time after time, some mother or grandmother buys her 10-year old a GTA game at a store and then is shocked by the age-inappropriate content. It's idiots like these who are mostly the ones complaining that tougher legislation is required, since they can't be bothered to pay any attention. Let the gov't control everything, who needs the burden of having choice? How did so many people get so irresponsible over the years? The one (only) thing we can all do is contact our representatives when we see something idiotic like this coming.