There are 9 maps, but the big maps are basically split into 2 and 4 map-sized combat areas.
There are really more like (3 + 6 + 12) == 21 basically 64-player maps, where you can meander off to "another game" if you're into wandering off.
The big games end up with all the platoon map areas concentrated in one area, so it becomes a super intense, actual 256 player battle, but for much of the game, its a bunch of 64-player maps. Anyone who tells y...
Once you get into MAG, you will not go back to other FPS shooters.
Everything else is... I dunno... empty and boring now?
The PSP is the one, and only, handheld to have ever survived decently up against a Nintendo Handheld -- not only that, but against the most successful handheld Nintendo ever created, the DS.
Sony makes money on the PSP, hence they sell it. There is room for a competitor to Nintendo, and no-one else has stepped up to the plate, at least not with a serious offering.
If there was no money in it, Apple wouldn't be trying to wedge the iPhone into the gaming s...
It works differently than previous techs. Not calling it new tech would be akin to not calling HDTVs new tech when they came out, because SD TVs existed, or not calling Blu-Ray new tech, because DVD exists.
A theme seems pretty evident, to me, at least.
At the GDC conference, the Sony presenters stated outright that the Move controls in S4 were brand new. If the rest of the game was pre-alpha -- I'd say the Move controls were in "prototype" stage. On top of that, most of the media professionals who have looked at it thusfar seem to think its pretty good... and they play games for a living.
It shouldn't be judged until its ready. It'll be interesting to see if its changed at all, come E3.
Including everything but the kitchen sink will make the PSP2 fall into the same price range as the PS3 did, when it launched -- i.e. too much.
Sony doesn't profit enough on the original PSP to start making more expensive hardware just yet. The PSP still has 2x the horsepower and memory of the DSi, and I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't pretty much on par with the 3DS.
If they do anything, they'll make a touchscreen version of the PSP Go, wh...
The Zune HD has about the same resolution as the PSP, actually.
It can upscale and send out a 720p signal to a TV, I believe, but that's not really "HD gaming".
Halo's plot is sorta slapped together and jumbled. There's a war, because the factions in it like to fight stuff. There are 3 factions.. okay eventually there are 4... One of the factions wants to blow everything up, because they are religious freakazoids, another faction just wants to eat everything in its path, another one is just there to provide the main protagonist with a backstory, and the last one is just thrown in for some extra gameplay variety.
There's...
(double post)
Hallmark, here's why X360 games are sub-HD, but yet often run with less tearing:
A) You can't get 2x 720p framebuffers into the eDRAM of the Xenos and still do AA.
B) Running at a lower resolution is less taxing on the GPU's pixel output, thus.. it produces a steadier framerate, resulting in less tearing.
I'd wager that this game would have no tearing at all, V'synced at around 640p on either system, because they'd always be ru...
Sure... too bad games are not "real world computing" -- i.e. MS Office and IE.
For the price, which is critical to game consoles, the Cell beats the socks off the i7. Absolutely destroys it, even. For gaming, the i7 is literally a waste of silicon, relative to the Cell.
My point is that making a console is all about price for performance. When it comes to running single apps, like games, in a MT environment, the Cell hardly even has any competiti...
We're talking 2013 or 2014 at a bare minimum for the next gen. Probably more like 2015.
Remember that consoles have to be made cheaply enough such that consumers will purchase it. You can bet Sony and MS won't be shooting for the $500-$600 price point this next time around.
It's gonna be a long while before a decently significant upgrade to the PS3 rolls in at a mere $400 or so. The PS3 version of the Cell (i.e. 6 usable SPUs, not 7 or 8) has d...
The Go is an awesome handheld. It's one, and only, flaw, is its price. The library comprises a huge percentage of PSP titles, old and new, and a good number of PS1 classics -- many of them way, way cheaper than you can ever find at retail. The fact that FF7:CC isn't in it, is only a big deal to a select few.
I still don't understand why people complain about it. You buy a system for the software that's on it -- FF7:CC was out LONG before the Go, and it has...
Why don't you sell your Go, hatchimatchi? That way you can stop whining about what many others consider the finest handheld ever made.
The PS3 is the more restrictive architecture, really. If you write your code to work in a very modular, parallel, cache-coherent fashion, like the PS3 requires, chances are you're writing a better 360 game as well.
I'm going to stick my neck out there and say that its certainly plausible that 360 games could benefit from having engine architectures that work well on the more constrained, but faster if you harness it, architecture of the PS3.
There's a game included in the Move + Eye bundle, iirc. I would guess there will be several such bundles, with different games. If you throw a good game in there, the price becomes much more reasonable sounding.
As during the PS2 era, Japanese publishers focused on the Japanese market, for obvious reasons.
The PS3 will be lucky enough to see some of those games make it to NA and Europe, just as the PS2 was, in its day.
8 of those titles must already have established themselves as popular Western franchises, or they wouldn't be coming to the 360 at all.
E3 is a show for the media -- actually for the gaming media, in particular. The gaming media is relatively hardcore, really.
Natal is not aimed at the hardcore.. or at least it doesn't seem to be. MS is, IMO, being pretty foolish to reserve Natal showing for an event which the blue ocean press won't deem all that important. The best way to get to those folks is to reveal early, and give them time.
I actually saw a preview of the Move in Good Housek...
...it must be some sort of serious money-sponge.
World of HaloCraft?
...only about 80 million consoles have been sold thusfar this gen, as far as core gamers are concerned. 70M PS3s and 360s, and about 10M Wiis. The rest of the Wiis are owned by the Blue Ocean, who don't really matter to the gaming community, because they don't share the same interests. The attach rates of core games on the Wii go a long way to demonstrate that this is, indeed, the case.
I don't mean to offend Nintendo fans, but including the Wii in the "co...