The proper course of action is for you to spend a little less time gaming and a little more time doing group activities with your family. Then you can enjoy your uninterrupted game time.
Why can't this be a family activity ? My Girlfriend and 5 year old son play Wii games together all the time. Sure I sometimes want to play games she isn't interested in or is inappropriate for my 5 year old, but we have a good time Playing Wii Party, Wii Sports Resort and the "Just Dance" games together as a family.
I have a PC and LOVE Steam. Hell, I probably have all (or close) to all 38 of the games available on Steam Linux (thank you Humble Bundles), but I have to ask... what is the actual value add to having a Dedicated "SteamBox" in the living room running linux ? Near as I can tell, it's more expensive than the PC I have, I lose access to most of may game library and about 98% of their store so... why wouldn't I just plug my Win7 pc into the living room with an HDMI cable and call it a day ?
The whole idea of the traditional protest is that people had to stand in a particular area to create problems for wherever they were standing. The limiting factor is that it requires people's time.
Having a fleet of computers continually access a site does not occupy people's time, but rather is an automated process, which is not a form of individual protest..
Isn't this what the filibuster has become ? If they can't be bothered to actively take the floor and present their case in person than why should we ?
Yup. Which is why the we should refuse to buy these types of games, otherwise more get made. The ONLY always online games that make any sense is MMOs, everything else should at least have an offline mode for single player.
Yup. To me 2012 was a great year in Retro-Gaming; I've been buying older games for cheap and having a great time. I got something like 15 "new to me" games off the last steam sales and didn't crack the $60 (for all of them combined). If it was a good game 2-3 years ago, it's probably still a good game and all patched up.
When's the last time you were off line for any significant amount of time?
Every time I travel for work on an Airplane. I'm generally in the air for a few hours alone, offline and with my laptop. I personally won't buy a game that doesn't have an offline mode for this reason.
I agree. The netbook was nothing but a quick bait and switch by manufacturers that wanted to make a quick buck off of the recession. The image of a business person using a netbook is just that. Users of netbooks were people with little money looking for a new toy, and nothing more.
They aren't a desktop replacement. Normal laptops can be, but netbooks aren't (although I have stretched one to it, with a 24" monitor and keyboard.... worked alright, slightly underpowered but not terribly so for simple work). They never were intended to be. They were intended to be super light-weight, super small, super mobile, and have long battery life with decent specs. For portable web use, nothing was better. But the original netbooks, for simple web usage, email browsing, and light document editing? Incredibly useful.
Sysadmin here and I have a Netbook connected to a 26" 1920x1200 monitor and it works great. The only issue I have is when I need it to run Video on that screen then is sucks... but yes... My little EeePC has been wonderful. It Runs XP SP3, gets 7 hours on Battery in my experience, when I need to connect to work it's fine for VPN / RDP and when I need to connect directly to a router switch, etc... Putty works just fine. Also since it's my personal laptop and not a company owned one I do some gaming on it. Not much current but pretty much anything from 2003 or earlier runs like a dream. Max Payne 1/2, C&C Generals, Starcraft1, Quake or Doom 1-3, etc...
You CAN do a lot with these devices you just have to use them as intended (or level set your expectations).
There's 36 listings now if you search the steam store by OS = Linux.
Valve is porting the source Engine and those games over to Linux and have got really good FPS on L4D2, but so far only TF2 is on there now. There's also ~ 100 or so games that were in the Humble Bundles that had both linux clients and Steam codes so I figure those are likely the next up.
Also there's ~ 800 titles under the MAC section which... if nothing else can't have a DirectX dependency so... "up to MAYBE 1000 games" ? based on the current selection ? Realistically from just the Humble Bundles and Valve internal support you're probably looking at a little over 100 titles in the next year.
With flash memory dirt cheap and hdd even cheaper I'd say I'm surprised they went skimpy on the storage except it's nintendo so I'm not surprised at all. With consoles as old as they are is it really that hard to imagine not having one concession?
I like that they aren't in the hard drive business and allow you to use your own USB 2.0 Hard Drive (and they support capacities up to 2 TB.).
partially because their systems are so weak relative to other consoles and PC gaming. People who have both a PS3 and a Wii are generally going to buy the PS3 version of a game, with the result that a lot of games don't get ported to Wii.
Though the Wii was a lot less powerful than either the 360 or the PS3 (meaning many games didn't get ported at all) that isn't the case with the Wii U. Call of Duty for Example is Activision has found little difficulty in porting their PS3 / 360 games over to the Wii U and getting them running better. Example Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Runs 1080p60 native on the Wii U, but 720p on the PS3 / 360. So if you're strictly basing it off of graphics, the Wii U is the best bet.
Though I love that Steam is on Linux now with a few dozen games, it's the SALES that keep me on Windows. I play online with a regular have a group of friends, and quite often there's a Steam sale that's 75% off (or more) and you end up getting a 4 pack of a game for $15 or less and we all throw down.
Since most of these are Windows only I'd have to keep a Windows partition if nothing else for these game nights.
Can you actually explain what the advantages are of having that extra 10% ? Once you go above 60 FPS you don't get the "stutter" and are actually rendering duplicate frames. So what is the Net gain of additional frames especially if your monitor (60 hz, or 120 hz) can't display them ?
The main reason I'm not excited about the Wii U is because none of the launch titles interest me. Sure the new Super Mario Bros game is nice, but I'm not buying a whole new console just for that. I'm sure I'll get one eventually, but at the moment I have such a backlog of games for my current-gen systems that I don't need to run out and buy another. There's just not enough of a 'wow factor' to make me grab one on launch day.
Agreed. I LOVE Nintendo games myself and am thrilled you have backwords compatibility with pretty much everything that doesn't use the GC ports, but as of right now I'm waiting for more games. I think the price is fair and they'll get my dollars at some point (once we have an HD Metroid, F-zero, Zelda / Mario / Smash Bros ) but for me to buy in I really need at least 3 games available I NEED to play before I make the jump.
The Wii does have a Netflix client (hulu+ also). I do however understand if you don't want to tell your wife that if you're using it for leverage to get an upgrade.:)
It has more memory (about twice as much, if you remove the 1 GB reserved for the system) and a more modern and faster GPU than the PS360 but the CPU is lacking even compared to that of the 360.
Do you have a source for the CPU ? I never found anything that stated how fast it is and how many cores only that it's an IBM PowerPC chip (which isn't surprising since the Gamecube, Wii and X-Box 360 all use some derivative of that).
As for RAM keep in mind MS and Sony reserve memory for their systems as well, they just don't tell us how much.
PS3 has 256 MB of System RAM and 256 MB of GPU RAM.
X-Box 360 has 512 MB of RAM that can be used for Either.
Wii U has 2 GB of system RAM / half dedicated to games only. the other half to OS and GPU.
Butthurt Xbox360 and PS3 owners spreading FUD about the new Nintendo system now that they have to comment about how gameplay is more important than graphics, or dumbass writers who will say anything to have people read their articles?
Do we even know the specifications of the Wii U's GPU to make such comparisons?
The Wii U being "As powerful as the PS3 / 360" is FUD. It's more powerful and really that isn't hard to do on a budget, considering those consoles are both over 6 years old. One other telling factor is if you notice the 3rd party games that are multiform COD, AC3, etc... are running natively at 1080p60 on Wii U and not on the PS3 / 360. This is also with first generation non-optimized code for the Wii U, pretty safe to say it IS more powerful than it's Current gen rivals.
People aren't more hyped because the console is as powerful as current gen consoles but costs more.
Then why are 3rd party games running at 1080p60 instead of 720p30 like they are on the PS3 / 360 ?
The special controller is crazy expensive and you are only going to get one per system.
And it's being designed so you only have to use 1 to play the games.
Online play is poorly supported, you can't go out and purchase all of the old school Nintendo games through an online market for the system (like literally everyone who games wants to),
?? The Wii-shop from the Wii carries over to the Wii U and you can port over all your downloaded games from the Wii to the Wii U. Seriously there's hundreds of games (including most old school nintendo games) that you can download.
and the system itself doesn't have as rich a supported application set as the PS3 and the Xbox360.
Probably not right away, but they are launching with: Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, Universal remote control, and a browser. What other applications are on PS3 / 360 that you feel you'd miss ?
Why can't they just roll up every post SP1 update and call it SP2 ? Seriously they could even do it as they End of Life a system like creating a NT SP7 or Windows 2000 SP5 (and sometime in 2014 an XP SP4) So you can install and say:
"OK you have every patch ever released for the system in 1 pack, if your problem still exists there is no MS patch available."
Makes Sense, I know of a Machine shop that runs metal punch machines with Windows 3.1 software. (not even 3.11) because the software actually does everything those machine presses are actually capable of, so there's no reason to network them or upgrade them.
Like people who do the bluetooth headset thing while walking down the street don't look like tools as it is. Let's just throw in hand gestures for good measure! Yay society!
I have an Italian Friend who does this all the time anyway, he simply can't talk without gesturing so slapping a bracelet on his wrist would only make him "look less crazy" while walking down the street miming his calls over Bluetooth.
Wake me up when one has successfully passed NHTSA crash saftey tests.
If they were smart they'd partner with someone to make the Fiat-500 or the Ford Fiesta air-powered versions. This is a wheel not worth reinventing, to some degree literally.
If they were smart they'd redesign it to only have 3 wheels (2 in the front, 1 in the back). In the US it would qualify as a motorcycle and not need to pass any of the NHTSA crash saftey tests.
Slashdot Mirror
The proper course of action is for you to spend a little less time gaming and a little more time doing group activities with your family. Then you can enjoy your uninterrupted game time.
Why can't this be a family activity ? My Girlfriend and 5 year old son play Wii games together all the time. Sure I sometimes want to play games she isn't interested in or is inappropriate for my 5 year old, but we have a good time Playing Wii Party, Wii Sports Resort and the "Just Dance" games together as a family.
I have a PC and LOVE Steam. Hell, I probably have all (or close) to all 38 of the games available on Steam Linux (thank you Humble Bundles), but I have to ask... what is the actual value add to having a Dedicated "SteamBox" in the living room running linux ? Near as I can tell, it's more expensive than the PC I have, I lose access to most of may game library and about 98% of their store so ... why wouldn't I just plug my Win7 pc into the living room with an HDMI cable and call it a day ?
The whole idea of the traditional protest is that people had to stand in a particular area to create problems for wherever they were standing. The limiting factor is that it requires people's time. Having a fleet of computers continually access a site does not occupy people's time, but rather is an automated process, which is not a form of individual protest..
Isn't this what the filibuster has become ? If they can't be bothered to actively take the floor and present their case in person than why should we ?
Yup. Which is why the we should refuse to buy these types of games, otherwise more get made. The ONLY always online games that make any sense is MMOs, everything else should at least have an offline mode for single player.
Yup. To me 2012 was a great year in Retro-Gaming; I've been buying older games for cheap and having a great time. I got something like 15 "new to me" games off the last steam sales and didn't crack the $60 (for all of them combined). If it was a good game 2-3 years ago, it's probably still a good game and all patched up.
When's the last time you were off line for any significant amount of time?
Every time I travel for work on an Airplane. I'm generally in the air for a few hours alone, offline and with my laptop. I personally won't buy a game that doesn't have an offline mode for this reason.
I agree. The netbook was nothing but a quick bait and switch by manufacturers that wanted to make a quick buck off of the recession. The image of a business person using a netbook is just that. Users of netbooks were people with little money looking for a new toy, and nothing more.
They aren't a desktop replacement. Normal laptops can be, but netbooks aren't (although I have stretched one to it, with a 24" monitor and keyboard.... worked alright, slightly underpowered but not terribly so for simple work). They never were intended to be. They were intended to be super light-weight, super small, super mobile, and have long battery life with decent specs. For portable web use, nothing was better. But the original netbooks, for simple web usage, email browsing, and light document editing? Incredibly useful.
Sysadmin here and I have a Netbook connected to a 26" 1920x1200 monitor and it works great. The only issue I have is when I need it to run Video on that screen then is sucks... but yes... My little EeePC has been wonderful. It Runs XP SP3, gets 7 hours on Battery in my experience, when I need to connect to work it's fine for VPN / RDP and when I need to connect directly to a router switch, etc... Putty works just fine. Also since it's my personal laptop and not a company owned one I do some gaming on it. Not much current but pretty much anything from 2003 or earlier runs like a dream. Max Payne 1/2, C&C Generals, Starcraft1, Quake or Doom 1-3, etc... You CAN do a lot with these devices you just have to use them as intended (or level set your expectations).
They don't hurt the Avionics they hurt the Pilots.
Also there's ~ 800 titles under the MAC section which ... if nothing else can't have a DirectX dependency so ... "up to MAYBE 1000 games" ? based on the current selection ? Realistically from just the Humble Bundles and Valve internal support you're probably looking at a little over 100 titles in the next year.
With flash memory dirt cheap and hdd even cheaper I'd say I'm surprised they went skimpy on the storage except it's nintendo so I'm not surprised at all. With consoles as old as they are is it really that hard to imagine not having one concession?
I like that they aren't in the hard drive business and allow you to use your own USB 2.0 Hard Drive (and they support capacities up to 2 TB.).
partially because their systems are so weak relative to other consoles and PC gaming. People who have both a PS3 and a Wii are generally going to buy the PS3 version of a game, with the result that a lot of games don't get ported to Wii.
Though the Wii was a lot less powerful than either the 360 or the PS3 (meaning many games didn't get ported at all) that isn't the case with the Wii U. Call of Duty for Example is Activision has found little difficulty in porting their PS3 / 360 games over to the Wii U and getting them running better. Example Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Runs 1080p60 native on the Wii U, but 720p on the PS3 / 360. So if you're strictly basing it off of graphics, the Wii U is the best bet.
Since most of these are Windows only I'd have to keep a Windows partition if nothing else for these game nights.
10 % better than Windows if the numbers at
Windows - 276 fps
Linux - 301.4 fps
Quite an improvement anyhow!
Congratulations to all involved!!!
Can you actually explain what the advantages are of having that extra 10% ? Once you go above 60 FPS you don't get the "stutter" and are actually rendering duplicate frames. So what is the Net gain of additional frames especially if your monitor (60 hz, or 120 hz) can't display them ?
The 3DS was by far the worst console launch by Nintendo, possibly even of all game consoles.
Maybe you're too young to remember, but It's going to be VERY hard to beat the Sega Saturn as the "Worst Console Launch of all". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Saturn#North_America
The main reason I'm not excited about the Wii U is because none of the launch titles interest me. Sure the new Super Mario Bros game is nice, but I'm not buying a whole new console just for that. I'm sure I'll get one eventually, but at the moment I have such a backlog of games for my current-gen systems that I don't need to run out and buy another. There's just not enough of a 'wow factor' to make me grab one on launch day.
Agreed. I LOVE Nintendo games myself and am thrilled you have backwords compatibility with pretty much everything that doesn't use the GC ports, but as of right now I'm waiting for more games. I think the price is fair and they'll get my dollars at some point (once we have an HD Metroid, F-zero, Zelda / Mario / Smash Bros ) but for me to buy in I really need at least 3 games available I NEED to play before I make the jump.
They make it up by their higher profit first-party games and licensing fees from third-party developers.
and don't forget all the additional controllers / adapters and add-ons they come up with!
The Wii does have a Netflix client (hulu+ also). I do however understand if you don't want to tell your wife that if you're using it for leverage to get an upgrade. :)
And in this economy, cost is king. If they think they are going to be selling new consoles for $400, they are nuts.
Just a nitpick but, in the US it's $300 or $350 if you buy-up to the Black one with NintendoLand.
It has more memory (about twice as much, if you remove the 1 GB reserved for the system) and a more modern and faster GPU than the PS360 but the CPU is lacking even compared to that of the 360.
Do you have a source for the CPU ? I never found anything that stated how fast it is and how many cores only that it's an IBM PowerPC chip (which isn't surprising since the Gamecube, Wii and X-Box 360 all use some derivative of that).
As for RAM keep in mind MS and Sony reserve memory for their systems as well, they just don't tell us how much.
PS3 has 256 MB of System RAM and 256 MB of GPU RAM.
X-Box 360 has 512 MB of RAM that can be used for Either.
Wii U has 2 GB of system RAM / half dedicated to games only. the other half to OS and GPU.
I've read some comments that say the Wii U is "as powerful as an Xbox360/PS3", however I've also read articles that mentioned the Wii U is two generations ahead of the other two consoles... so, which one is it?
Butthurt Xbox360 and PS3 owners spreading FUD about the new Nintendo system now that they have to comment about how gameplay is more important than graphics, or dumbass writers who will say anything to have people read their articles?
Do we even know the specifications of the Wii U's GPU to make such comparisons?
The Wii U being "As powerful as the PS3 / 360" is FUD. It's more powerful and really that isn't hard to do on a budget, considering those consoles are both over 6 years old. One other telling factor is if you notice the 3rd party games that are multiform COD, AC3, etc... are running natively at 1080p60 on Wii U and not on the PS3 / 360. This is also with first generation non-optimized code for the Wii U, pretty safe to say it IS more powerful than it's Current gen rivals.
some specs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_u#Technical_specifications
People aren't more hyped because the console is as powerful as current gen consoles but costs more.
Then why are 3rd party games running at 1080p60 instead of 720p30 like they are on the PS3 / 360 ?
The special controller is crazy expensive and you are only going to get one per system.
And it's being designed so you only have to use 1 to play the games.
Online play is poorly supported, you can't go out and purchase all of the old school Nintendo games through an online market for the system (like literally everyone who games wants to),
?? The Wii-shop from the Wii carries over to the Wii U and you can port over all your downloaded games from the Wii to the Wii U. Seriously there's hundreds of games (including most old school nintendo games) that you can download.
and the system itself doesn't have as rich a supported application set as the PS3 and the Xbox360.
Probably not right away, but they are launching with: Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, Universal remote control, and a browser. What other applications are on PS3 / 360 that you feel you'd miss ?
"OK you have every patch ever released for the system in 1 pack, if your problem still exists there is no MS patch available."
Makes Sense, I know of a Machine shop that runs metal punch machines with Windows 3.1 software. (not even 3.11) because the software actually does everything those machine presses are actually capable of, so there's no reason to network them or upgrade them.
Like people who do the bluetooth headset thing while walking down the street don't look like tools as it is. Let's just throw in hand gestures for good measure! Yay society!
I have an Italian Friend who does this all the time anyway, he simply can't talk without gesturing so slapping a bracelet on his wrist would only make him "look less crazy" while walking down the street miming his calls over Bluetooth.
Wake me up when one has successfully passed NHTSA crash saftey tests.
If they were smart they'd partner with someone to make the Fiat-500 or the Ford Fiesta air-powered versions. This is a wheel not worth reinventing, to some degree literally.
If they were smart they'd redesign it to only have 3 wheels (2 in the front, 1 in the back). In the US it would qualify as a motorcycle and not need to pass any of the NHTSA crash saftey tests.