Then at allow all the hard-core games to require a HDD so you can reduce the need to decompress data being streamed off the HDD - use the processor power for physics or AI or something.
I love the idea that a HDD is required and couldn't agree more that a HDD should have been made standard. That was MS's second biggest mistake (the first being the failure to properly handle the heat).
I liked Diablo but to compare it to Baldur's Gate is wrong - completely different games IMO - the game play was in no way similar. Now, subsequent RPGs have become more action packed ala Diablo so there is no doubt that Diablo had a major influence on games in general. But you cannot compare it to Baldur's Gate.
Still, the trailer and the sample game-play looked great - if I have to I will upgrade my PC for that one. I really would prefer to have it on a console so I don't h...
not much different either - so I haven't really considered the Zeldas after Ocarina of Time to be all that great. They are individually pretty good but when you look at the past games you realize Nintendo hasn't exactly been innovating all that much either. Maybe I am just getting old but I don't feel like playing another Zelda that is just like all the other Zeldas - I would like to see something more. Shame the Wii doesn't have more power - perhaps the next generation will give me more o...
Sandbox games are tricky to pull off - GTA4 provided more story and a lot of people didn't like the loss of freedom to screw around with everything like you could in past titles. Personally I liked the story better but to each his own. grade A
Crackdown - little story but a fun mechanic of running around and getting orbs by jumping on buildings, nice variety in guns (although really only used about 4 or 5) - doing races, etc. grade B+ (not much variety but still fun)
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I didn't like the leveling employeed by Oblivion but still a great game - huge amounts of things to do. If they continue to improve on what they have done Fallout III will be a fantastic game. Otherwise, it will at least be great so definite buy.
The LCD market is pretty competitive and throwing in a $400 console isn't a great way to improve your financial position - seems a little desperate to me. Sony is no doubt hoping that by increasing market penetration they will recoop in the long run - hope it works out for Sony.
Sounds like they are advancing the genre - I just hope they can get the camera right (I hate it when action-type games screw up the camera). Don't try to get too fancy - just make sure I can see what enemies on screen and the walls, trees, etc. don't block my view (unless they are between me and the blade fodder).
I partially agree with you. There is no doubt that parallel cores are the way of the future. The power and heat issues associated with frequency ramping have killed, for the time being at least, attempts to simply go faster. So we are going to go wider and AMD/Nvidia/Intel are all working on ways to do exactly that. But I haven't seen much of anything that suggests in-order instructions are the way of the future. In fact, Nelham, Intel's forthcoming processor, has improved branch predict...
Your comment "What none of you guys grasp is that the Cell isn't just a fluke but a real live technology trend that has graduated beyond the drawing board and needs to be worked with and implemented." doesn't seem correct to me. The cell design is flawed when it comes to general purpose code. It is better suited to number crunching without the need for branchy, out of order instructions, type code. Nothing anyone learns is likely to help that. The Cell is not likely to be a futur...
At least according to Joystiq report:
http://www.joystiq.com/2008...
I just hope S-E delivers the goods - if people wait and the FFXIII game ends up being meh there will be death threats.
For me this is less of an issue - I prefer WRPGs so a JRPG would have to be really good. I might try Lost Odyssey but Blue Dragon was mediocre - IMHO.
Starts a little slow and the combat isn't perfect but the more you do (focusing on the main mission), the more fun you start to have. The one big thing is that the game does a poor job of explaining how to be effective in combat. Once you figure it out things go pretty well.
I am not sure if Spore will be fun or not but the creations are amusing.
MS did not own the IP for the XBOX 1 and therefore was not able to sell it for less as technology matured. This time they do and have stated on a number of occasions that they will. In fact, that is the whole reason for the stupid core - they can get the price really cheap and still make money on it when they eliminate the HDD. So we will be seeing the 360 for a long time. Which is fine, as long as the next gen pops up in 2011 time-frame so I can take advantage of the new tech that can ac...
Of course a new console will come out in about 6 years - the gap between consoles and PCs is already getting pretty large, in three years it will be huge. And once again I will be an early adaoptor. Once again I will be taking a flyer on reliability, limited games, software headaches, etc... And I will only do it once for at least three years, so whomever comes out first (Sony or MS) will get my coin. Of course, the interesting thing will be what Sony and MS decided to throw in their new ...
Waving around a controller is fine for silly and/or simple games that do well on the Wii - but try to use for complex games and you start to have problems. Try to imagine doing something like GTA4 or MGS4 on the Wii - not going to work so well IMO.
Basically, Nintendo took console video games, which had to have a simplified interface compared to the PC version because of the lack of a mouse and keyboard, and further simplified them to something I consider child-like. The only...
You can expect it will move less units then other, more mainstream games. For example, Psychonauts was a great game (expect for the end when the difficulty curve went through the freakin roof) but it move almost no units and didn't even sell that well. So there is no point in worry about the number of units that are being moved - MGS4 will continue to sell as more PS3 are sold because it (if you like that type of game) is a good game.
As the PS3 market grows it makes more and more sense to develop for the PS3 and if you expect to sell any reasonable amount, you have to do a quality game.
I will partially agree with your comment about multi-core - that is certainly the way things are going. Unfortunately Sony chose to do a asymetrical design that is not the way things are going. Therefore, developers (and the software industry) don't gain much by learning how to make the PS3 work.
I am hopeful...
Bluray added an additional $100 to the cost of the PS3 - it is still adding to the cost (not sure what now). What do you get for it? The PS3 player is quieter but it reads data slower so not really that great for games. It really was just to push the Bluray movie standard - which was not ready for prime time and is now just becoming complete with Rev 2.0. The reason I say just pushing bluray is because it is become apparent that the architecture of the PS3 is poor - it can be made to fly ...
MS has done great things for games - they have pushed on-line playing much further than it has been done before. Virtua Fighter online - it was supposed to be impossible. Now, perhaps it is better without the slight lag, but it works.
I am just glad Nintendo and MS have forced Sony to get real and to cut all the arrogance - hopefully the next generation Sony will give the developers something they want instead of just pushing Bluray on everyone.
And people - ...
One of the few games that would cause me to upgrade my PC, if necessary. Cannot wait to hear more!