Yeah - I think the lack of a standard HDD was a big mistake as well - it would be awfully nice for developers to be able to count on the HDD - there is a big performance hit by not being able to count on it. Simple to fix though - just allow games that require it and drop the price of the 20 gig HDD to $60 USD. Doesn't seem like MS is willing to do that though.
I loved Gears but with all the games coming out this year I think we have to wait until sometime in December before we can really start narrowing it down. The fact that there are so many games coming out is what I think is cool - 2008 is looking like an amazing year - far better than 2007 (both platforms have what appear to be some great games coming and a bunch of cross-platform games are looking great)!
The Zune is never going to play really complex games (maybe it can do simpler DS level games, maybe not) but I was just looking for something that would be highly portable and have some decent casual games for when I am heading home on the train - brain dead from working 12 hours. This seems like it fits the bill nicely. The ability to inlude a fair amount of music (probably all of my CDs that I listen to on a regular basis) is a bonus.
My thought was that hand-helds are poor for most games so I would just like a casual game or two. But I didn't like the DS that much because there is no room for music. So this makes the Zune look a lot more attractive to me - think I will take the plunge.
First - I think this game helps level the advantage that the PS3 had up to now on the releases for 2008. Some may still say the PS3 has a better line up but the difference is no longer significant IMO. If MS can just fix the reliability once and for all it will be in great shape.
On a more global note - wow - what a time to be a gamer. There are so many good looking games coming out that it is hard to believe it - exclusives, cross-platform games, etc. Doesn't really matter...
One of the problems with procedural generation of art is that you have to deal with lighting and shadows and in the past it has been computationally expensive to do good lighting in real time. If this geomerics works as promised then both the PS3 and 360 should see a substantial improvement. And I understand this works with Epic's engine so there is a potential for a substantial improvement in lighting.
Still, it will be the next generation before enough power is available to...
I think MS is trying to only sell quality products in 2008 (don't blame those that are cynical about MS quality after the first two years) and therefore have a shortage, just like at launch. As the production for the improved designs gets more streamlined we will see less supply issues.
It seems that the failures relate to the original products that are failing. I wouldn't be surprised to see a real failure rate of close to 100 percent for the first set of consoles if the console is being used by a hard-core gamer that regularly plays games for extended periods of time. In that respect, the high cost meant that a lot of the people that first bought the 360 don't play for long hours at a time because they are too busy doing other things. But the people that do play long ho...
First, I have a launch + 3 month XBOX 360 and it is still working great for me (I keep it well ventilated).
When I read this I first thought that it is obvious the failure rate will go up over time because all machines will fail so the failure if played long enough will be 100 percent for the xbox 360. The real question is the MTF. For the initial models it is pretty fing low. MS released a design that was unreliable and in heavy game playing would fail because there was i...
RPGs are still doing okay (Witcher has sold well) but in general PC gaming has gone more casual - part because the vast majority of PC simply lack the power to play games. This is the fault of Dell and all the other manufactures - they have sold crappy machines with stupid specifications that are poorly matched. Sure I want a blazing fast CPU with a POS GPU.[/end sarcasm] So the PC market is actually rather small compared to what it should be when it comes to PCs with GPUs that can actuall...
but you have to wonder at the logic of the statement:
"With such a huge medium (Blu-Ray) to load from, it only makes sense to put the repetitive files and cut scenes on the hard drive for faster access."
The whole idea behind the Bluray medium is that you don't need to install the files on the HDD - that is what PCs have to do because they use a DVD drive with limited space. And cut scenes are easy to download from the optical disk. So I am not impres...
is the least like a PC.
1) While you can use keyboard, the dualshock based controller is the main user interface - so this is not closer than the 360 or the Wii (Wii is probably the closest because the wand is similar to a mouse).
2) Computational power - you have minimal general purpose processing power but tons of number crunching power on the PS3. The other systems are more PC like in that you more general processing power but less number crunching power (rel...
It will have bluray - if anything. Personally I think the next gen console (the 720/PS4 if you will) will be powerful enough to do procedural generation of art and real time lighting with shadows, thus greatly reducing the cost and time spent creating games. So bluray may be included because that is the format that won the movie format war but I could see DVD still being used because you wont need that much space (or just downloading the software and getting rid of the optical drive all tog...
The architecture of the PS3 is what is being referred to in the above quote - the entire paragraph is as follows:
"The argument has come up that the same game (Devil May Cry 4) does not require the use of the hard drive on other systems. This may be true but bear in mind that the Playstation 3 is a completely different beast. It is more similar to a PC than to its fellow console brethren. With such a huge medium (Blu-Ray) to load from, it only makes sense to put the repeti...
I read it - sounded completely contrived. I would bet a lot of money that those predictions will not happen. A related article on the PS3 on the same web site said this:
"This may be true but bear in mind that the Playstation 3 is a completely different beast. It is more similar to a PC than to its fellow console brethren."
Everyone knows that this is false - the PS3 is the least like a PC of all the consoles. So in summary, this article is flame bai...
Apparently, when you redownload the stuff you can only play it while logged into Live (because the DRM requires the original serial number or the login information). To my way of thinking, this is a simple matter - simply reassociate the DRM with the new serial number and delete the old serial number from the system. Don't know why it is such a big deal.
Anyway - the moral of the story is that if you are going to link your hardware to DRM - the hardware better be rock solid...
Then game data could be saved to the HDD and one of the cpus could be freed up from needing to decompress the data coming off the DVD (plus it would make that whole bluray gives more space thing completely irrelevant).
But I will wait to see if MS is crafty enough to do this - it would allow a nice performance boost but then you have to include the HDD that makes it more difficult to drop the price of the Arcade. Maybe just give the Arcade 2 or 4 gigs of flash memory to store ...
A preview is supposed to be based on playing an early version of a game - this article seems to be just a discussion about the game. Is it just me or do these article just seem like advertising?
But the PC still has a chance to make one more push - if the PC can reach the point where ray tracing and procedural generation of graphics is possible then it might enjoy a brief resurgence. But it will be brief - gaming on a large screen TV is the way to go.
From a linquistic standpoint, I thought I should state the obvious:
"For PS3" does not mean "Exclusively for PS3." I know all the reasons why PS3 fans say it should stay exclusive and I am not arguing otherwise but I personally am suprised it only said "For..." and not "Exclusively For..."
Maybe it means something and maybe it doesn't but I was surprised so I thought I would mention it. Anyway - it is definitely coming to...