But they also had an excellent bundled product, making them worthwhile.
Which is why I think this will fail. I mean, Guitar Hero wasn't really A "periphreal" game, it was a game that was only minorly more expensive and came with a guitar controller. It happened to be a really popular game, which then other games were made to be compatable with the controller (eventually). Wii Fit has the same approach. It's a game first, and a controller second. Sony's approach is totally backwards for a Non-standard controller. All of the games are called "Sports Champions" and "Shooter" and "Shovelware", which does not bode well for a REASON to buy this controller. You must create a game that makes a reason for your controller to exist, not vice versa when you're controller isn't packaged with your system.
According to Joystiq, when they interviewed Bioware, Cerebus Network would not be the only way to access DLC. It's a Content portal to get some free dlc. Bioware indicated that Major content DLC could still be bought separately from Cerebus. I personally am all for "Here, have free stuff for buying the game new", while that is totally different from "sorry, Half of your game will disappear when you buy this used".
Perhaps if sony took away something like character customization in multiplayer, that would be much better. Removing gameplay entirely is a jerk move.
So, what you're saying, is that it's ok as long as sony puts a sticker on the box that says "New copies include FREE code for online play! A $20 value!".
A few thoughts, as someone who did an early college program my senior year:
1. This seems like a cost saving measure, and if so, is a bad idea. The only way this program would be beneficial is if you paid for those 2 years of CC. I wouldn't count on it.
2. My Half-college/half-highschool senior year was fantastic, and was pivotal in deciding what I wanted to do for a living and who I became as a balanced adult. It was a smooth transition between the two worlds, while allowing me to make new friends in college while still being able to keep in touch with my friends still in HS.
3. On the other hand, Why are we pushing for these kids to get through college faster anyway? From the sounds of the political discourse, we're talking about increasing retirement age and getting kids into the workforce sooner. Most kids aren't going to know what they want to even go to college for at 16, even the smart kids haven't decided what specifically they want to do. A part of me thinks we should pay these 16 year olds for graduating early, give them a grant to either go to extended college or travel internationally or something. Getting kids into college faster to get into the workforce faster shouldn't be the endgame.
4. It seems if we just paid High School teachers in Junior and Senior years more cash, so that their skill set isn't as huge of a gap, all students would be served better. Our HS technical teachers are usually paid 1/3 to 1/6th as much as their public sector counterparts, this is a huge problem.
It's not just the mining though, it's the Power usage too. From this site (which seems to be a pro-coal lobbyists group website, but the numbers are similar to other sites) says that 90% of Utah's power comes from coal.
Utah's Lawmakers are cheap, corrupt beings. Here is a story about a legislator pusing for a nuclear power plant that he has a direct stake in. Hell, they even built an Office in the Capitol building for Lobbyists.
What I think is probably going to happen is every Warner label artist, other than "Major" established bands (and possibly cultural phenomenons/one hit wonders) will never get off the ground.
I'm not a big torrent guy, and my wife only watches what is either on Hulu or gets caught by our DVR. Unless there are rave reviews for some show on cable, we don't see it, and don't care to take the time to find it. Music has become very similiar in its form of transmission. If I hear about a band directly from a friend that turns out to be a band I like, i'll go out of my way to find the band, but I would say 90% of the bands I find is through Last.fm and similar streaming venues. Warner now will not have access to the 90% zone of new music for me, which is about the dumbest move I could see a music label make at this juncture in the music industry.
Game makers would NEVER allow this. Renting a game for 5 pounds? LOL Surely you jest
Blockbuster/Hollywood Video/Gamefly is on the phone, they'd like a word with you.
At least if PSN/XBL allowed for "rentals", There wouldn't be the needs to allow a middleman like Blockbuster to skim some off of the top. It's actually a good idea, but it would probably be a $5-10 per game for a limited time rental, rather than a monthly pass.
Holy crap. No wonder only major releases have demos on PSN. I got my PS3 at christmas, and i'm always shocked at how few of the Downloadable games actually have demos. I'm fairly interested in several downloadable games, and I was baffled that demos were not offered, because i'm not paying $15-20 for a game that could suck. Now I know why the demo space of PSN is so lacking.
NG1 was great at balancing difficulty, without being cheap. It never felt cheap (other than a single section of the game where you had to jump like a maniac to stop from being frozen by attacks of ghostfish), and it really is a great example for how to do difficult games without being cheap.
NG2, not so much. It was more frustrating due to bad camera angles, cheap enemy tactics, and broken balance.
Makes sense, but you have points in there I didn't know, which seems to be the publisher's problem. Most people aren't going to know that e-books cost more to make than a printed book. It's so counterintuitive to think that the analogue version is cheaper than a digital version, that this is really a marketing problem. The temporary appeal of digital versions of books without a common format and without assurance that your book will still be readable on the next generation of e-readers seems to be a big issue with me to.
Also, if digitial versions of books aren't getting you new customers, something is wrong.
From someone outside the industry, Macmillan's job needs to be educating the public on why a book, that no longer needs to be printed, and distribution costs have been cut 10-50 fold, why are these books still as expensive?
I'm still confused on why I can get a CD at my local music store for $10, when online it's the same price. I know there's a bunch of front end costs in there, but you've cut out almost all of the physical costs, why isn't the book cheaper? Especially when you're locked into a proprietary DRM laiden format, and cannot pass the book off to anyone else? Electronic books are Less valuable, and should be priced as such.
If by "openness" you mean "time spent driving vast expanses with nothing to see" then yes, it is more linear. If you can go somewhere, there is a reason for it. There is much less of wandering around, either driving between 2 points on a planet, or backtracking across the G*D* citadel for the 5th time to do a fetch quest.
There is so much Game here, i'm happy to throw out a little bit of open-world feel.
Re:I actually kind of miss the old combat system
on
Review: Mass Effect 2
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Pressing Up on the D-pad tells your teammates to attack a certain enemy. You can still tell them where to take cover and what power to use.
Grenades are gone in favor of heavy weapons. This comes in the form of Grenade launchers, Rocket launchers, and other Weapons that I don't want to spoil. As someone who never used grenades in ME1, ME2's response of Heavy weapons is much better deployed and much friendlier to use.
Getting rid of health packs is something I cheer. There was nothing worse than getting to a point where you had no health packs, low health, and were stuck in an area where you couldn't get any more health packs, stuck on a hard battle. Now, instead of such a situation being impossible to pass, is now just hard, but you can do it.
Sniper rifles are also better handled in this game. While being more powerful and faster, the limited ammo keeps you from solely relying on them.
My only complaint about the changes to the RPG elements is the lack of "create your own character with your own choice of powers", I understand they do this for balance reasons, but it still could have been done. None of the base classes were exactly what I was looking for, but it's definately a minor complaint, nothing big.
Your enjoyment of this game will increase greatly if you play ME 1 first. it's kinda like watching Serenity without seeing Firefly first. While an enjoyable experience, some of the most emotionally engaging moments won't have the same resonance. There are too many callbacks in the second game that the context will be sorely lacking without plaing the first game. They explain the story fairly well, but the story, I would argue, isn't the most important part. It's the development and interaction with other characters that makes the story so good, and without knowing the characters from the first game, the story, while well realized and fleshed out, won't be nearly as good.
It's worth going through the first game, but if you have limited time, only focus on the missions in your Journal. Most of the planitary exploration gets tedious and can burn you out on the game. I'm planning on going through the game again (even though i'm still on my first playthrough) and i'll probably go through ME1 first with a new character, to start from the beginning.
No, they are headquartered in Minnesota, but they do have facilities there, along with california, minnesota, utah, virginia,... you get the idea.
So, no money for NASA unless ATK gets a big fat juicy contract.
Or it could be that they are basing ARES-I on 20 years of engineering data, rather than starting from scratch to make a new human-flight rated rocket, which is no small proposition.
Geeze, if you're gonna get all conspiracy theorist you could at least get the basics right.
Barely. It takes years and years of overindulging on pot and alcohol to cause any sort of permanent mental or physical damage. Most people who use these items on a regular basis, without abusing them, can live a full healthy life, with minor side-effects.
Heroin does damage at a much faster rate, and then chemically created drugs, such as meth and ex- can be deadly/permanent damage the first use.
You equating alcohol with heroin in harmlessness and addiction seems to show what america's "Drugs are bad, mmmkay" policy is doing to letting people know exactly what they are getting into.
Nice Link, which explained that they turned down the Free GM food because they would lose 50% of the market they export to by having GM food (European Union) and feared the so called "terminator" seeds that give no seeds for replanting.
I'm not a GM food reactionary, I just think that as a policy, the only thing we can do to fix these sort of safety problems is regulate the safety of GM foods, regardless of what genes are modified.
Slashdot Mirror
Which is why I think this will fail. I mean, Guitar Hero wasn't really A "periphreal" game, it was a game that was only minorly more expensive and came with a guitar controller. It happened to be a really popular game, which then other games were made to be compatable with the controller (eventually). Wii Fit has the same approach. It's a game first, and a controller second. Sony's approach is totally backwards for a Non-standard controller. All of the games are called "Sports Champions" and "Shooter" and "Shovelware", which does not bode well for a REASON to buy this controller. You must create a game that makes a reason for your controller to exist, not vice versa when you're controller isn't packaged with your system.
"relayouted"
My favorite non-word of the day.
Geeze guys, no need to be so pediatric.
According to Joystiq, when they interviewed Bioware, Cerebus Network would not be the only way to access DLC. It's a Content portal to get some free dlc. Bioware indicated that Major content DLC could still be bought separately from Cerebus. I personally am all for "Here, have free stuff for buying the game new", while that is totally different from "sorry, Half of your game will disappear when you buy this used".
Perhaps if sony took away something like character customization in multiplayer, that would be much better. Removing gameplay entirely is a jerk move.
So, what you're saying, is that it's ok as long as sony puts a sticker on the box that says "New copies include FREE code for online play! A $20 value!".
A few thoughts, as someone who did an early college program my senior year:
1. This seems like a cost saving measure, and if so, is a bad idea. The only way this program would be beneficial is if you paid for those 2 years of CC. I wouldn't count on it.
2. My Half-college/half-highschool senior year was fantastic, and was pivotal in deciding what I wanted to do for a living and who I became as a balanced adult. It was a smooth transition between the two worlds, while allowing me to make new friends in college while still being able to keep in touch with my friends still in HS.
3. On the other hand, Why are we pushing for these kids to get through college faster anyway? From the sounds of the political discourse, we're talking about increasing retirement age and getting kids into the workforce sooner. Most kids aren't going to know what they want to even go to college for at 16, even the smart kids haven't decided what specifically they want to do. A part of me thinks we should pay these 16 year olds for graduating early, give them a grant to either go to extended college or travel internationally or something. Getting kids into college faster to get into the workforce faster shouldn't be the endgame.
4. It seems if we just paid High School teachers in Junior and Senior years more cash, so that their skill set isn't as huge of a gap, all students would be served better. Our HS technical teachers are usually paid 1/3 to 1/6th as much as their public sector counterparts, this is a huge problem.
It's not just the mining though, it's the Power usage too. From this site (which seems to be a pro-coal lobbyists group website, but the numbers are similar to other sites) says that 90% of Utah's power comes from coal.
Utah's Lawmakers are cheap, corrupt beings. Here is a story about a legislator pusing for a nuclear power plant that he has a direct stake in. Hell, they even built an Office in the Capitol building for Lobbyists.
People who get viruses are now "victims"? Or are you saying Windows users are "victims"?
/. --- don't answer that.
Nevermind, this is
What I think is probably going to happen is every Warner label artist, other than "Major" established bands (and possibly cultural phenomenons/one hit wonders) will never get off the ground.
I'm not a big torrent guy, and my wife only watches what is either on Hulu or gets caught by our DVR. Unless there are rave reviews for some show on cable, we don't see it, and don't care to take the time to find it. Music has become very similiar in its form of transmission. If I hear about a band directly from a friend that turns out to be a band I like, i'll go out of my way to find the band, but I would say 90% of the bands I find is through Last.fm and similar streaming venues. Warner now will not have access to the 90% zone of new music for me, which is about the dumbest move I could see a music label make at this juncture in the music industry.
"Because, as China has shown, censoring communication is the fastest and easiest way to built trust." Go Iran!
Right! At least that's what all my friends in China say when they e-mail me.
Google is not the ISP. They are laying "open" lines of fiber.
Blockbuster/Hollywood Video/Gamefly is on the phone, they'd like a word with you.
At least if PSN/XBL allowed for "rentals", There wouldn't be the needs to allow a middleman like Blockbuster to skim some off of the top. It's actually a good idea, but it would probably be a $5-10 per game for a limited time rental, rather than a monthly pass.
Holy crap. No wonder only major releases have demos on PSN. I got my PS3 at christmas, and i'm always shocked at how few of the Downloadable games actually have demos. I'm fairly interested in several downloadable games, and I was baffled that demos were not offered, because i'm not paying $15-20 for a game that could suck. Now I know why the demo space of PSN is so lacking.
NG1 was great at balancing difficulty, without being cheap. It never felt cheap (other than a single section of the game where you had to jump like a maniac to stop from being frozen by attacks of ghostfish), and it really is a great example for how to do difficult games without being cheap.
NG2, not so much. It was more frustrating due to bad camera angles, cheap enemy tactics, and broken balance.
Makes sense, but you have points in there I didn't know, which seems to be the publisher's problem. Most people aren't going to know that e-books cost more to make than a printed book. It's so counterintuitive to think that the analogue version is cheaper than a digital version, that this is really a marketing problem. The temporary appeal of digital versions of books without a common format and without assurance that your book will still be readable on the next generation of e-readers seems to be a big issue with me to.
Also, if digitial versions of books aren't getting you new customers, something is wrong.
From someone outside the industry, Macmillan's job needs to be educating the public on why a book, that no longer needs to be printed, and distribution costs have been cut 10-50 fold, why are these books still as expensive?
I'm still confused on why I can get a CD at my local music store for $10, when online it's the same price. I know there's a bunch of front end costs in there, but you've cut out almost all of the physical costs, why isn't the book cheaper? Especially when you're locked into a proprietary DRM laiden format, and cannot pass the book off to anyone else? Electronic books are Less valuable, and should be priced as such.
Airbags would be bad, but Steering columns might be a better application for this.. perhaps.
If by "openness" you mean "time spent driving vast expanses with nothing to see" then yes, it is more linear. If you can go somewhere, there is a reason for it. There is much less of wandering around, either driving between 2 points on a planet, or backtracking across the G*D* citadel for the 5th time to do a fetch quest.
There is so much Game here, i'm happy to throw out a little bit of open-world feel.
Pressing Up on the D-pad tells your teammates to attack a certain enemy. You can still tell them where to take cover and what power to use.
Grenades are gone in favor of heavy weapons. This comes in the form of Grenade launchers, Rocket launchers, and other Weapons that I don't want to spoil. As someone who never used grenades in ME1, ME2's response of Heavy weapons is much better deployed and much friendlier to use.
Getting rid of health packs is something I cheer. There was nothing worse than getting to a point where you had no health packs, low health, and were stuck in an area where you couldn't get any more health packs, stuck on a hard battle. Now, instead of such a situation being impossible to pass, is now just hard, but you can do it.
Sniper rifles are also better handled in this game. While being more powerful and faster, the limited ammo keeps you from solely relying on them.
My only complaint about the changes to the RPG elements is the lack of "create your own character with your own choice of powers", I understand they do this for balance reasons, but it still could have been done. None of the base classes were exactly what I was looking for, but it's definately a minor complaint, nothing big.
Your enjoyment of this game will increase greatly if you play ME 1 first. it's kinda like watching Serenity without seeing Firefly first. While an enjoyable experience, some of the most emotionally engaging moments won't have the same resonance. There are too many callbacks in the second game that the context will be sorely lacking without plaing the first game. They explain the story fairly well, but the story, I would argue, isn't the most important part. It's the development and interaction with other characters that makes the story so good, and without knowing the characters from the first game, the story, while well realized and fleshed out, won't be nearly as good.
It's worth going through the first game, but if you have limited time, only focus on the missions in your Journal. Most of the planitary exploration gets tedious and can burn you out on the game. I'm planning on going through the game again (even though i'm still on my first playthrough) and i'll probably go through ME1 first with a new character, to start from the beginning.
No, they are headquartered in Minnesota, but they do have facilities there, along with california, minnesota, utah, virginia, ... you get the idea.
Or it could be that they are basing ARES-I on 20 years of engineering data, rather than starting from scratch to make a new human-flight rated rocket, which is no small proposition.
Geeze, if you're gonna get all conspiracy theorist you could at least get the basics right.
Barely. It takes years and years of overindulging on pot and alcohol to cause any sort of permanent mental or physical damage. Most people who use these items on a regular basis, without abusing them, can live a full healthy life, with minor side-effects.
Heroin does damage at a much faster rate, and then chemically created drugs, such as meth and ex- can be deadly/permanent damage the first use.
You equating alcohol with heroin in harmlessness and addiction seems to show what america's "Drugs are bad, mmmkay" policy is doing to letting people know exactly what they are getting into.
Nice Link, which explained that they turned down the Free GM food because they would lose 50% of the market they export to by having GM food (European Union) and feared the so called "terminator" seeds that give no seeds for replanting.
I'm not a GM food reactionary, I just think that as a policy, the only thing we can do to fix these sort of safety problems is regulate the safety of GM foods, regardless of what genes are modified.
And the distinction is unnecessary if you just make sure the food is safe for long term use.
The article says that 31 limbs are tracked to within a 4 cm box. So move your hand 1.5". It's that accurate (which isn't great).