Forza 2 kicks the crap out of Gran Turismo games, that much is for sure. I'm all for a good racing sim with smart driver AI and a strong physics model. But that has nothing to do with the pacing of the game (I can certainly rip music to the HD, you're right about that). I'm not particularly bad at racing games, and I don't have that much free time on my hands so I don't like having to race enough to reach level 30+ or whatever just so I can pick up a Murcielago.
It's a setup that clearly works ok for some people and not for others, and it has jack to do with it being a fantastic racing sim. I kind of wish they'd done something different altogether, maybe, in terms of gameplay or pacing because I just don't enjoy a lot of the cars that I'm stuck with during the first 20+ XP levels.
Well they do want to hold on to it, just less than a 360. Also I prefer to buy new stuff like this, and I hate buying things from friends:-/ Meh, it's really not something I considered an option because of the way I am.
It's called *scaling to hardware.* Make it run on old stuff, and look decent on newer stuff. Simple formula, and some dev houses are good at it. Others simply keep the requirements just as low as Blizzard does yet still manage far better graphics (Guild Wars, for instance).
Don't make excuses when there really aren't any to make. You can cater to a broad range of hardware if you put in the effort. Blizzard doesn't *need* to from a business perspective, but I wouldn't be bothered if they tried.
Absolutely. Compared to Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo is a joke in just about every way. FM does what GT does, only much better. I still have beef with the "no music" thing, because I can hear engines just fine in racers that *do* have music, and 10+ lap races on tracks I've seen a million times, well, I start to zone out on those if there's no music. And then I forget to turn, and then I smash into a wall, etc. ^^
Meh, sometimes "polish" can take a backseat to more titles and more content, depending on the kind of game it is. Something like a Final Fantasy or Elder Scrolls game, I'm cool with having it take as long as it "needs to." Games like a Gears sequel using the same engine, or a racing game, and for that matter a Smash game, I just want something "new" to play soon enough. And 7 years later is just not "soon enough" for me.
But not all delays are admirable in this sense. They can be due to poor resource management, they can be due to not enough work being spent on the game earlier on, etc. Unless Smash Bros Brawl, when released, turns out to match Oblivion or FFXII in scope and polish, the wait time by fans will hardly be justified.
If you consider Bethesda Softworks an "XBox FPS developer" then you never had an idea of what a CRPG was to begin with. So don't worry, you won't notice a thing.
To begin, I'll echo the biggest disappointment as being the Wii's lack of anything good from companies not named Nintendo. A number of my friends are regretting the purchase of the Wii because of this reason, wishing they'd bought a 360 instead. Surely having both is best but I certainly haven't felt so much of the same sentiment from 360 owners I know.
Anyway, my disappointments: 1) Smash Bros Brawl being delayed until next year. Mr. Iwata personally told me that he was hoping to make this game a release title for the "Revolution" (this was in 2005). We're now more than a year overdue, and for something like Smash that really doesn't imply 6.5 solid years of development time. They were simply slow to start on it.
2) Lack of availability of the Wii. I'm not used to having to put so much work into acquiring a $250 piece of technology one year after its initial release; my mornings are usually quite busy. As a result I still don't have one.
3) FFXII: Revenant Wings (DS). I expected much better than what it turned out to be. Even looking at videos of the game on IGN didn't quite get across the abysmal pacing and unbelievable lack of variety in this game. Its supposed depth doesn't amount to anything in practice.
4) Mario 3v3 Hoops (DS). I think this came out in 2007. If not then nevermind. Anyway this game is a giant turd.
5) ArenaNet slowly turning Guild Wars into a grindfest. The one MMORPG that let me play PVE at my leisure and not "fall behind" decided that it's a much better idea to just go into WoW me-too mode rather than stick with the original tenet of skill over time played. The Eye of the North expansion released this year completed the transformation.
6) Bioware going to EA, Blizzard merging with Activision. Let's just say that these *cannot possibly be good things* considering Bioware and Blizzard haven't exactly been in need of an improvement in any way. (Well, Blizzard graphically perhaps but Activision doesn't help there.)
7) Forza Motorsport 2. Great racing engine, cool graphics, good customization, good online mode. But... what is with no music during races? Or having to play your ass off to unlock even the ability to *purchase* a lot of the cars? This isn't supposed to be a 100-hour RPG, it's a freaking racing game. Nobody wants to spend days driving cars they don't like to get at cars they do; there's no storyline or change in gameplay to keep you interested in the meantime. Seems the developers forgot they were making a *game* rather than a training sim for racing teams to study tracks.
Well I suppose that's because the game came out months ago. It shouldn't ever have been an issue to begin with and was terribly shortsighted. I'm glad pressure on 2K prompted a decent compromise, however.
Article wasn't coming up; I went by the summary. Anyway, a 2% increase in expenditure for a week is still pretty miserable and to say it's "better than nothing" is pretty sarcastic.
Okay, really, am I the only one who understood what the "2%" in the study referred to? It wasn't 2% of some nebulous daily exercise regimen. It was 2% of the calories burned playing 360 for an hour. If playing the 360 burned 100% of the calories burned while playing 360, then playing the Wii burned 102%. That's what it means. So, to say "2% is better than 0%" in this case is VERY STUPID. If 2% of the calories burned playing 360 for an hour is enough to IN ANY WAY adjust an exercise regimen, then that exercise regimen is not a healthy one.
It's 2% of the Xbox routine, man!! If you think the 2% is significant, then that Xbox routine must be a hell of a workout. Good grief, this isn't rocket science.
The PC version of the game was only allowed to have 2 activations at any given time. Fun anti-user nonsense, that is. If anyone could pressure the publisher into giving up on such BS, I would hope it's the developer. Gamers definitely can't.
That said, this was a good read. And the Gamecock thing was indeed confusing during the show. I remember watching it and not understanding why they went up there with the Bioshock devs, but it turned out they were just acting like the idiots they are. Bummer to have them steal the spotlight like that.
A 2% increase over playing the 360 is better than nothing? Yeah the way having 2 pennies in your pocket is better than being flat broke. A far cry from it? Please.
Using the Wii to get exercise is one thing. It requires playing particular games in a particular fashion; not something I wager the test subjects did in this study. But playing it in such a fashion that you burn 2% more calories than playing the 360 is *not* exercise. You can probably do better if you play any game while tapping your feet to the in-game music. To defend the Wii in this case and say that 2% is better than 0% is just silly.
Real good math there! A *2% increase from playing 360* is a 2% workout? Okay...
Also, "2% of a daily workout" would be insignificant and about as useful as 0%. Seriously. If you have an exercise regimen and one day you replace your 360 with a Wii, it doesn't mean you should adjust your exercie regimen.
When I read the headline, I interpreted "Macs" as being "Big Macs" (from McD's) and was like "oh, hmm 'beef up' security, I get it...." It took me a couple of seconds to realize what it actually meant.
Face it, we're geeks, are faces weren't exactly pretty to begin with, it's not like we have much to loose if we get hit there once or twice... Speak for yourself buddy, I'm a studly geek.
I love how "compilation CDs" can "only exist in the dreams of a music fan" because like hell will they ever actually give music fans something they dream of having. Hell now, that's something only filthy PIRATES do!
Yeah, they really convinced me, I'm buying ringtones from now on, people.
Almost all cities are bad in rush hour. With Cols it's bad in the morning coming *into* the city and bad around 4-5:30 coming *out* of it. The worst is probably the ramp from 315 onto 270.
What I find funny is how many rubberneckers there are, though. There could be an accident *on the other side* of the freeway, across a concrete barrier, and my side will still be going at 5 mph because everyone is slowing down to look at what is happening. I can't stand that.
I don't know what Silicon Valley is like on the freeway...
.. But IT IS TRUE that you do not need a "non-standard" controller to make immersive controls. Mario 64, Wind Waker, Ninja Gaiden, God of War, etc. there is a long list of games that demonstrates this. The OP's comment was more of a compliment to God of War 2 than a stab at Nintendo.
The Wiimote is, for the record, a fantastic idea.. for shooters. For platformers, racing games, fighting games, RPGs, etc. there is nothing more inherently immersive about it than a standard controller without motion sensitivity or spatial awareness. Which is why games of those genres that seek to incorporate the Wiimote's uniqueness into their UI often become gimmicky.
...would be to use a media player that can open text documents. Naturally this is not at all like reading a book (whereas Kindle is *a lot* like reading a book), but you can listen to music on the device while you read, which for portability does have its serious advantages, especially in a car or on a plane. I have a Cowon A2 for this, but there may be better options if you only need text + music.
For what it's worth, from what friends whose tech-savviness I trust have told me, the Kindle is quite cool and if you're seriously after such a device, it is the best out there at the moment. But almost everyone agrees that the price right now is a bit steep and it makes a lot of sense to wait a bit for it to drop and a slightly reworked version to hit shelves (maybe better button design, etc. -- whatever other issues users have complained about in this regard).
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Forza 2 kicks the crap out of Gran Turismo games, that much is for sure. I'm all for a good racing sim with smart driver AI and a strong physics model. But that has nothing to do with the pacing of the game (I can certainly rip music to the HD, you're right about that). I'm not particularly bad at racing games, and I don't have that much free time on my hands so I don't like having to race enough to reach level 30+ or whatever just so I can pick up a Murcielago.
It's a setup that clearly works ok for some people and not for others, and it has jack to do with it being a fantastic racing sim. I kind of wish they'd done something different altogether, maybe, in terms of gameplay or pacing because I just don't enjoy a lot of the cars that I'm stuck with during the first 20+ XP levels.
If I liked football games I'm sure I would. Some games need to be well-made, others just need to be well-designed.
Well they do want to hold on to it, just less than a 360. Also I prefer to buy new stuff like this, and I hate buying things from friends :-/ Meh, it's really not something I considered an option because of the way I am.
It's called *scaling to hardware.* Make it run on old stuff, and look decent on newer stuff. Simple formula, and some dev houses are good at it. Others simply keep the requirements just as low as Blizzard does yet still manage far better graphics (Guild Wars, for instance).
Don't make excuses when there really aren't any to make. You can cater to a broad range of hardware if you put in the effort. Blizzard doesn't *need* to from a business perspective, but I wouldn't be bothered if they tried.
Absolutely. Compared to Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo is a joke in just about every way. FM does what GT does, only much better. I still have beef with the "no music" thing, because I can hear engines just fine in racers that *do* have music, and 10+ lap races on tracks I've seen a million times, well, I start to zone out on those if there's no music. And then I forget to turn, and then I smash into a wall, etc. ^^
Meh, sometimes "polish" can take a backseat to more titles and more content, depending on the kind of game it is. Something like a Final Fantasy or Elder Scrolls game, I'm cool with having it take as long as it "needs to." Games like a Gears sequel using the same engine, or a racing game, and for that matter a Smash game, I just want something "new" to play soon enough. And 7 years later is just not "soon enough" for me.
But not all delays are admirable in this sense. They can be due to poor resource management, they can be due to not enough work being spent on the game earlier on, etc. Unless Smash Bros Brawl, when released, turns out to match Oblivion or FFXII in scope and polish, the wait time by fans will hardly be justified.
If you consider Bethesda Softworks an "XBox FPS developer" then you never had an idea of what a CRPG was to begin with. So don't worry, you won't notice a thing.
It's a PC game rather than a console game I think. Maybe that's the problem.
Hahah, true enough, but that's because my hypothetical sum in this case would be akin to 100% of the exercise you get from playing the Xbox 360. :-)
To begin, I'll echo the biggest disappointment as being the Wii's lack of anything good from companies not named Nintendo. A number of my friends are regretting the purchase of the Wii because of this reason, wishing they'd bought a 360 instead. Surely having both is best but I certainly haven't felt so much of the same sentiment from 360 owners I know.
Anyway, my disappointments:
1) Smash Bros Brawl being delayed until next year. Mr. Iwata personally told me that he was hoping to make this game a release title for the "Revolution" (this was in 2005). We're now more than a year overdue, and for something like Smash that really doesn't imply 6.5 solid years of development time. They were simply slow to start on it.
2) Lack of availability of the Wii. I'm not used to having to put so much work into acquiring a $250 piece of technology one year after its initial release; my mornings are usually quite busy. As a result I still don't have one.
3) FFXII: Revenant Wings (DS). I expected much better than what it turned out to be. Even looking at videos of the game on IGN didn't quite get across the abysmal pacing and unbelievable lack of variety in this game. Its supposed depth doesn't amount to anything in practice.
4) Mario 3v3 Hoops (DS). I think this came out in 2007. If not then nevermind. Anyway this game is a giant turd.
5) ArenaNet slowly turning Guild Wars into a grindfest. The one MMORPG that let me play PVE at my leisure and not "fall behind" decided that it's a much better idea to just go into WoW me-too mode rather than stick with the original tenet of skill over time played. The Eye of the North expansion released this year completed the transformation.
6) Bioware going to EA, Blizzard merging with Activision. Let's just say that these *cannot possibly be good things* considering Bioware and Blizzard haven't exactly been in need of an improvement in any way. (Well, Blizzard graphically perhaps but Activision doesn't help there.)
7) Forza Motorsport 2. Great racing engine, cool graphics, good customization, good online mode. But... what is with no music during races? Or having to play your ass off to unlock even the ability to *purchase* a lot of the cars? This isn't supposed to be a 100-hour RPG, it's a freaking racing game. Nobody wants to spend days driving cars they don't like to get at cars they do; there's no storyline or change in gameplay to keep you interested in the meantime. Seems the developers forgot they were making a *game* rather than a training sim for racing teams to study tracks.
Well I suppose that's because the game came out months ago. It shouldn't ever have been an issue to begin with and was terribly shortsighted. I'm glad pressure on 2K prompted a decent compromise, however.
Article wasn't coming up; I went by the summary. Anyway, a 2% increase in expenditure for a week is still pretty miserable and to say it's "better than nothing" is pretty sarcastic.
Okay, really, am I the only one who understood what the "2%" in the study referred to? It wasn't 2% of some nebulous daily exercise regimen. It was 2% of the calories burned playing 360 for an hour. If playing the 360 burned 100% of the calories burned while playing 360, then playing the Wii burned 102%. That's what it means. So, to say "2% is better than 0%" in this case is VERY STUPID. If 2% of the calories burned playing 360 for an hour is enough to IN ANY WAY adjust an exercise regimen, then that exercise regimen is not a healthy one.
It's 2% of the Xbox routine, man!! If you think the 2% is significant, then that Xbox routine must be a hell of a workout. Good grief, this isn't rocket science.
The PC version of the game was only allowed to have 2 activations at any given time. Fun anti-user nonsense, that is. If anyone could pressure the publisher into giving up on such BS, I would hope it's the developer. Gamers definitely can't.
That said, this was a good read. And the Gamecock thing was indeed confusing during the show. I remember watching it and not understanding why they went up there with the Bioshock devs, but it turned out they were just acting like the idiots they are. Bummer to have them steal the spotlight like that.
A 2% increase over playing the 360 is better than nothing? Yeah the way having 2 pennies in your pocket is better than being flat broke. A far cry from it? Please.
Using the Wii to get exercise is one thing. It requires playing particular games in a particular fashion; not something I wager the test subjects did in this study. But playing it in such a fashion that you burn 2% more calories than playing the 360 is *not* exercise. You can probably do better if you play any game while tapping your feet to the in-game music. To defend the Wii in this case and say that 2% is better than 0% is just silly.
Real good math there! A *2% increase from playing 360* is a 2% workout? Okay...
Also, "2% of a daily workout" would be insignificant and about as useful as 0%. Seriously. If you have an exercise regimen and one day you replace your 360 with a Wii, it doesn't mean you should adjust your exercie regimen.
When I read the headline, I interpreted "Macs" as being "Big Macs" (from McD's) and was like "oh, hmm 'beef up' security, I get it...." It took me a couple of seconds to realize what it actually meant.
I love how "compilation CDs" can "only exist in the dreams of a music fan" because like hell will they ever actually give music fans something they dream of having. Hell now, that's something only filthy PIRATES do!
Yeah, they really convinced me, I'm buying ringtones from now on, people.
No problem, George Bush, much like the universe, is running out of time as well so we really only have 3 of those to worry about.
Almost all cities are bad in rush hour. With Cols it's bad in the morning coming *into* the city and bad around 4-5:30 coming *out* of it. The worst is probably the ramp from 315 onto 270.
What I find funny is how many rubberneckers there are, though. There could be an accident *on the other side* of the freeway, across a concrete barrier, and my side will still be going at 5 mph because everyone is slowing down to look at what is happening. I can't stand that.
I don't know what Silicon Valley is like on the freeway...
.. But IT IS TRUE that you do not need a "non-standard" controller to make immersive controls. Mario 64, Wind Waker, Ninja Gaiden, God of War, etc. there is a long list of games that demonstrates this. The OP's comment was more of a compliment to God of War 2 than a stab at Nintendo.
The Wiimote is, for the record, a fantastic idea.. for shooters. For platformers, racing games, fighting games, RPGs, etc. there is nothing more inherently immersive about it than a standard controller without motion sensitivity or spatial awareness. Which is why games of those genres that seek to incorporate the Wiimote's uniqueness into their UI often become gimmicky.
...would be to use a media player that can open text documents. Naturally this is not at all like reading a book (whereas Kindle is *a lot* like reading a book), but you can listen to music on the device while you read, which for portability does have its serious advantages, especially in a car or on a plane. I have a Cowon A2 for this, but there may be better options if you only need text + music.
For what it's worth, from what friends whose tech-savviness I trust have told me, the Kindle is quite cool and if you're seriously after such a device, it is the best out there at the moment. But almost everyone agrees that the price right now is a bit steep and it makes a lot of sense to wait a bit for it to drop and a slightly reworked version to hit shelves (maybe better button design, etc. -- whatever other issues users have complained about in this regard).