While you may have paid only $200 for each previous Nintendo Console, there's a few things to consider:
1) None of their previous systems (except the original NES) included a bundled game at launch 2) None of their previous consoles were backwards compatable with any of their previous systems. 3) Built in Wi-fi, unlike the XBox360 or the Basic PS3. 4) The power consumption on this thing has been cut to signifcantly less than the Gamecube, so you'll probably make up that $50 in utility bills in a fairly reasonable amount of time.
You can't even get a PSP with a bundled game for $250 in most places, so $250 for the Wii is a steal. I'd much rather be paying $250 for this "underpowered" Wii, than I would pay $500 for a powered up version with at least a half dozen features I won't be able to enjoy because like the vast majority of people, I can't justify paying $900+ for a TV just for gaming. Yes, I know there is HD TV out there, but my cable/internet bill is already high enough without buying the premium stuff.
I don't know that I find it disappointing but I can see how some people might, and I don't think this should be labeled as Troll.
I think some people may see this as disappointing because it's a further move towards more restrictive copy protection; restrictive not in the sense that it's harder to crack, but that its more difficult for people with legitimate copies to play. While copy protection is all well and good, requiring an internet connection to play a game isn't always convenient, especially if you like to play while on the go (i.e., sitting in an airport where internet access is $8 an hour). Also, not everyone has broadband at home yet, which is another hindrance to this being a great system. If it maybe it only required you to connect to progress past certain points of the game or after every N hours of gameplay (besides upon initial install) it would be a bit more convenient. Alternatively, the steam service could pass you a keycode which is created upon various parameters, such as your CD-Key, the date/time of the last validation and your IP, and then it could require you to enter this code when not online for the next X days, and then you have to revalidate to get a new updated code after the last one expires.
Personally, I miss the old days of being told to find the page with symbol W and enter word X from line Y of paragraph Z, even if it does keep from finishing EOB2 since I lost the manual.
Uncle Remus and Br'er Rabbit may be locked away in the Disney Vault, but their situation is significantly less dire than that of the thousands of hours of other material which is not being looked after by billionaire benefactors.
So do you think $100M will buy the rights to the supposedly lost original theatrical editions of the Star Wars trilogy?
My assessment of PoxNora
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Check Out PoxNora
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· Score: 5, Informative
I've been playing it off and on for the last couple of weeks, and I agree it's pretty good. Like most collectable card games, there are certain runes which can become a bit unbalancing or just seem a little too powerful, but overall its fairly well balanced. There's a decent mix of strategy and luck invovled. And unlike most collectable games, investing more time into the game probably reaps better results than spending more money.
The biggest difficulty is getting your Champion runes built up. You typically only get a decent amount of rune points if you win the match, and if you end up in a game with someone who already has theirs built up (especially players that were in the beta), you will have a tough time getting anywhere. There is a bit of a trade off to built up units, as they cost more to bring into play, but you can barely even get an attack in with your low cost/low level units, it's not going to matter much.
I think what will help the game most is if they get enough players in the game, and then they can split up game lobbies in a way that maybe you can't use a battlegroup with any Champions over level X in for games in a given room. This will make it easier for new players, or players with new units, to get them built up. The new practice feature they're putting in will be nice too, especially if they let you gain any experience that way (at least to level 2, I hope).
My bad - slight correction after looking into it more. while the page looks like a flash version, it's just a front end for the site. Download it from the downloads page and it includes an Atari 800 emulator which support online play as long as someone volunteers as to the server part of it.
Atari M.U.L.E can be played online at http://atarimule.neotechgaming.com/
Even better, it has online support built in already as long as all users are running the same version. There's a download package with a bunch of utilities for setting it up.
Archon would be pretty sweet, but it seems more likely they would just port the NES version of it. Probably the same for M.U.L.E. and Ultima 3-5, but it would be cool to see both options available.
There's a mess of other E.A. programs for C64 that would be great to see in addition to M.U.L.E. Especially the Adventure Construction Set and the Racing Destruction Set.
One can only hope.
I'd rather play games in HD as well, but unless every PS3 comes with a $1500+ in the box so that I (or most people for that matter) can buy an HD TV to play the games on, SD is more than satisfactory for now, and will continue to be so until HDTV is the de facto standard in every household.
Because in the case you present, your homeowner's insurance would likely cover the cost of whatever was stolen, and the thieves are probably easier to catch - they may leave fingerprints, and you have seen their faces.
You can't get insurance to cover phishing scams, although it seems like it would maybe be partially covered by the FDIC.
People have been burned by HD TV purchases because: A) There's a lack of available HD content, and you generally have to pay extra to get the HD channels from your TV provider and B) The majority of television, which is non-HD, will often look worse on an HD TV than on a standard TV because of the increased screen size and resolution.
The nunchuck can sense motion, but I don't think it senses it the same way as the Wii-mote, and the tether might get in the way of full rhumba posing action.
Plus, the Wii-motes have the internal speakers so they could potentially play the sound of a maraca when you shake it. Maracas themselves have a bit of sound delay, so they would probably sound pretty accurate.
is Samba de Amigo. It's hard to find at any reasonable price for Dreamcast due to the special controllers, but on the Wii they could simply replace the maracas with two Wii-motes. I'd actually be even more interested in a new version with additional songs.
Re:Anyone know if the controller is changing?
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New Guitar Hero 2 Info
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· Score: 2, Informative
There was a period from June through a week or so ago during which it was almost impossible to find just the controller; no retailers had them in stock. However, they have reappeared at many retailers in the last couple of weeks (I just got my replacement at Best Buy a couple of weeks ago).
Even if you can't find it in stores, you can always order directly from Red Octane. I wouldn't expect any controller changes other than the wireless addition.
I totally agree with you. I play DDO on a pretty regular basis, and while it still has its flaws, they have steadily improved the game play in every update, which come out about every 3-4 weeks. They also listen well to player feedback on the forums and have reacted to it, as one of the updates about a month ago improved the already useful interface for players Looking for Group or Looking for More (the one thing I found WoW to be severely lacking, especially for players looking to run the lower level dungeons). Also, whenever a major bug appears, such as a quest becoming uncompletable due to a glitch, they have hotfixed it within a day or two of the issue appearing.
Hopefully they can draw back some of the players that may have seen the beta/initial release and left, because it really is quite fun to play, especially when you get a great party together.
Slashdot Mirror
While you may have paid only $200 for each previous Nintendo Console, there's a few things to consider:
1) None of their previous systems (except the original NES) included a bundled game at launch
2) None of their previous consoles were backwards compatable with any of their previous systems.
3) Built in Wi-fi, unlike the XBox360 or the Basic PS3.
4) The power consumption on this thing has been cut to signifcantly less than the Gamecube, so you'll probably make up that $50 in utility bills in a fairly reasonable amount of time.
You can't even get a PSP with a bundled game for $250 in most places, so $250 for the Wii is a steal. I'd much rather be paying $250 for this "underpowered" Wii, than I would pay $500 for a powered up version with at least a half dozen features I won't be able to enjoy because like the vast majority of people, I can't justify paying $900+ for a TV just for gaming. Yes, I know there is HD TV out there, but my cable/internet bill is already high enough without buying the premium stuff.
I don't know that I find it disappointing but I can see how some people might, and I don't think this should be labeled as Troll.
I think some people may see this as disappointing because it's a further move towards more restrictive copy protection; restrictive not in the sense that it's harder to crack, but that its more difficult for people with legitimate copies to play. While copy protection is all well and good, requiring an internet connection to play a game isn't always convenient, especially if you like to play while on the go (i.e., sitting in an airport where internet access is $8 an hour). Also, not everyone has broadband at home yet, which is another hindrance to this being a great system. If it maybe it only required you to connect to progress past certain points of the game or after every N hours of gameplay (besides upon initial install) it would be a bit more convenient. Alternatively, the steam service could pass you a keycode which is created upon various parameters, such as your CD-Key, the date/time of the last validation and your IP, and then it could require you to enter this code when not online for the next X days, and then you have to revalidate to get a new updated code after the last one expires.
Personally, I miss the old days of being told to find the page with symbol W and enter word X from line Y of paragraph Z, even if it does keep from finishing EOB2 since I lost the manual.
Uncle Remus and Br'er Rabbit may be locked away in the Disney Vault, but their situation is significantly less dire than that of the thousands of hours of other material which is not being looked after by billionaire benefactors.
So do you think $100M will buy the rights to the supposedly lost original theatrical editions of the Star Wars trilogy?
I've been playing it off and on for the last couple of weeks, and I agree it's pretty good. Like most collectable card games, there are certain runes which can become a bit unbalancing or just seem a little too powerful, but overall its fairly well balanced. There's a decent mix of strategy and luck invovled. And unlike most collectable games, investing more time into the game probably reaps better results than spending more money.
The biggest difficulty is getting your Champion runes built up. You typically only get a decent amount of rune points if you win the match, and if you end up in a game with someone who already has theirs built up (especially players that were in the beta), you will have a tough time getting anywhere. There is a bit of a trade off to built up units, as they cost more to bring into play, but you can barely even get an attack in with your low cost/low level units, it's not going to matter much.
I think what will help the game most is if they get enough players in the game, and then they can split up game lobbies in a way that maybe you can't use a battlegroup with any Champions over level X in for games in a given room. This will make it easier for new players, or players with new units, to get them built up. The new practice feature they're putting in will be nice too, especially if they let you gain any experience that way (at least to level 2, I hope).
My bad - slight correction after looking into it more. while the page looks like a flash version, it's just a front end for the site. Download it from the downloads page and it includes an Atari 800 emulator which support online play as long as someone volunteers as to the server part of it.
Atari M.U.L.E can be played online at http://atarimule.neotechgaming.com/ Even better, it has online support built in already as long as all users are running the same version. There's a download package with a bunch of utilities for setting it up.
Archon would be pretty sweet, but it seems more likely they would just port the NES version of it. Probably the same for M.U.L.E. and Ultima 3-5, but it would be cool to see both options available.
There's a mess of other E.A. programs for C64 that would be great to see in addition to M.U.L.E. Especially the Adventure Construction Set and the Racing Destruction Set. One can only hope.
I only have some vague memories of playing on my older brothers C64, but I'd like to see the following:
Axe of Rage
Jumpman
Jet Set Willy
Mail-Order Monsters
The Last Ninja
and of course Forbidden Forest
A lot of the best C64 RPGs were already released on NES, so maybe we'll just see the NES versions of those.
I'd rather play games in HD as well, but unless every PS3 comes with a $1500+ in the box so that I (or most people for that matter) can buy an HD TV to play the games on, SD is more than satisfactory for now, and will continue to be so until HDTV is the de facto standard in every household.
Based on your comments, it almost sounds like you already heard the first single from the album which was released weeks ago
Because in the case you present, your homeowner's insurance would likely cover the cost of whatever was stolen, and the thieves are probably easier to catch - they may leave fingerprints, and you have seen their faces.
You can't get insurance to cover phishing scams, although it seems like it would maybe be partially covered by the FDIC.
People have been burned by HD TV purchases because:
A) There's a lack of available HD content, and you generally have to pay extra to get the HD channels from your TV provider and
B) The majority of television, which is non-HD, will often look worse on an HD TV than on a standard TV because of the increased screen size and resolution.
The nunchuck can sense motion, but I don't think it senses it the same way as the Wii-mote, and the tether might get in the way of full rhumba posing action. Plus, the Wii-motes have the internal speakers so they could potentially play the sound of a maraca when you shake it. Maracas themselves have a bit of sound delay, so they would probably sound pretty accurate.
is Samba de Amigo. It's hard to find at any reasonable price for Dreamcast due to the special controllers, but on the Wii they could simply replace the maracas with two Wii-motes. I'd actually be even more interested in a new version with additional songs.
There was a period from June through a week or so ago during which it was almost impossible to find just the controller; no retailers had them in stock. However, they have reappeared at many retailers in the last couple of weeks (I just got my replacement at Best Buy a couple of weeks ago).
Even if you can't find it in stores, you can always order directly from Red Octane. I wouldn't expect any controller changes other than the wireless addition.
I totally agree with you. I play DDO on a pretty regular basis, and while it still has its flaws, they have steadily improved the game play in every update, which come out about every 3-4 weeks. They also listen well to player feedback on the forums and have reacted to it, as one of the updates about a month ago improved the already useful interface for players Looking for Group or Looking for More (the one thing I found WoW to be severely lacking, especially for players looking to run the lower level dungeons). Also, whenever a major bug appears, such as a quest becoming uncompletable due to a glitch, they have hotfixed it within a day or two of the issue appearing. Hopefully they can draw back some of the players that may have seen the beta/initial release and left, because it really is quite fun to play, especially when you get a great party together.