I'll tell you why "optional" Kinect sucks for Halo fans.
Features have to have allocated memory and CPU resources, just like they have to have allocated dev time. Whether its "optional" to use or not, is immaterial.
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Kinect takes 10% of the Xenon CPU at 30 Hz. That's 30% of a single core, at a 30 Hz game framerate. It also takes a few MB of memory.
Kinect is taking a ...
30fps is the standard. Going higher is just for bragging rights, when your game doesn't have enough visual features to justify 30fps at whatever rez it runs at, and needs to dig for something "cool" for journalists to comment on, in their review.
Like CoD, which is 60Hz, but at 1024x600, rather than 1280x720. That's only about 2/3rds of the pixels of 720p, so if BF3 is GPU bound, it's very likely (not 100%, but likely), that rendering at the same rez a...
Actually SOCOM used to be the only online shooter game the PS2 had. It was never even close to Halo, or even PC shooters, with regards to popularity.
That's really all it had going for it. The modern SOCOM actually is a good game, and its a laugh that "SOCOM vets" hate on it... for being good. lol.
The PS2 to PS3 transition was during a time of substantial hardware improvement, whereas the current generation of consoles is still not very far behind the PC hardware that you could safely fit in a livingroom box and sell for under $500.
We're at the end of a fabrication era here -- nanotech is a pretty fair ways off. As an example -- look at the number of transistors in the PS2 CPU (~10M) compared to the number in the PS3's Cell (~230M). 23x as much!
They must be talking about the power supply, with the wattage redux, because the PS3 only uses about 80-130W when its on, and it only reaches that 130W range when its busy doing heavy lifting (like streaming and upscaling a DVD).
Still, to reduce the power supply limit by 30W almost certainly implies that the chips have been reduced from the 45nm CPU and 40nm GPU in the 2500 models to, most likely, 32nm CPUs and 40nm GPUs.
That said, I am so getting one, if t...
It's folly to think that MS is going to release a "10x more powerful" console, given their current target demographics, and the "rumor" that Nintendo is releasing a console that is only "1.5x" as powerful as the PS3/360.
The XBox 1080 will likely be about 2.5x as powerful as the 360.. enough to do 1080p gaming, run Kinect 2.0 without a CPU hitch, and keep costs down. It has to be cheap enough for the masses, because the masses is who MS want...
Anyone who believes KZ3 and SOCOM 4 were "unfinished" at launch have, obviously, never played them. They were both extremely polished at launch -- I know, because I *did* play them at launch. The patches are simply responses to user feedback.
How anyone can complain about that is beyond me. The spoiled gamer is really a remarkable animal. You guys must be like 15 years old, or somehow have gone through life completely ignorant of the amount of human effort it ta...
The Wii U has the potential to be powerful.
Given that it's using the Power 7 series, it could be really fast... but I would wager that, in order to keep heat down in that tiny case, it will be woefully underclocked, until the process size can be reduced to 32nm or less (IBM has stated that the current chip dies are 45nm).
Such a plan actually perfectly compliments the Nintendo paradigm. Release a console, then release a minor upgrade 2 years later, rins...
You realize that changes and patches take like 2 months to get through the quality assurance pipeline, and to hit PSN, right?
Have you even bothered to download the latest patch for SOCOM 4? You know, the one that would have been the first actual response to beta feedback?
Understanding how these things work is critical to posing a valid complaint about them.
People love to exclude the keyboard, mouse, and OS and when they "build a custom gaming rig for under X $$$", or the coffee table you'd need to set up to use those things (in the livingroom) without a monitor and computer desk as well.
It's pretty tiresome to hear PC fanboys go on and on about how cheap a "good" gaming PC is, when its basically BS, unless you plan on scavenging components from an old PC, pirating a copy of Windows ("re-using&q...
Explain the "logic" behind terrorism, cyber or otherwise, and you'll probably be able to answer your own question.
Some reports stated that the devkits shipped to devs were underclocked, and that's the reason the demos were unimpressive.
You don't want to display a side-by-side with an existing game series if you can't compare to games already out, in that series. Hopefully, for Nintendo, the end results will be better.
At least there's no lag on an iPad. There's no controls either, and that sucks, but at least there's no lag.
I don't think the Vita and 3DS have anything to worry about.
Keep in mind that, while its small, this must be pics of an early devkit. Devkits actually tend to be slightly larger than production models (they usually have 2x the main RAM, and a lot more ports, like extra USB and ethernet).
The eventual unit will probably look similar, but actually be even smaller.
...and yeah, it doesn't look like its going to be clocked very high, just based on the amount of room/vents it has.
Microsoft has shown an obvious inclination to reach out to the "casual" crowd, via Kinect, as of late.
That said, it seems obvious, to me, that next gen MS will do their best to keep the price down and appeal to casuals. Sony on the other hand, has fully embraced the hardcore as of late with the Vita, and all the hardcore Move games demonstrating where they want such tech to go.
The next XBox will be mildly more powerful than the Wii U -- it may ve...
Yes, 1600p gaming ...for only $1500 (for a rig capable of that), an extra air conditioner for your livingroom, a small table for your new livingroom rig, and a wireless kb and mouse on your new coffee table in front of your couch. Oh, and a few courses in using Windows, and fiddling with graphics settings on PC games.
Sorry, I couldn't resist. There are lots of reasons console gaming is more popular than PC gaming, you know. I love PC gaming too, but... there's a r...
Don't expect marvels from the Wii U, folks. Even if it has a bit of extra GPU muscle, 3rd party devs are not going to put extra effort into making "better" games for the Wii U until it has a well-established userbase.
In other words, by the time making games that use 2x (or 3x) as much memory, and slightly more powerful GPUs is worthwhile, Nintendo's competition will have moved on, as well.
The only serious advantage you can expect from the...
The controller image, if its meant to be useful outside of a mere copy of the screen, would need to be rendered into a separate buffer. Thus it would burn additional GPU fill muscle. It's entirely possible that the screen will rarely have any interesting shaders, etc. (inventory screens rarely do?), so it'd be wrong to assume that a large amount of *texturing* muscle will be utilized on the controller.. although it could be, depending on what the developer wants or needs. It will c...
50% more powerful?
Lets assume that means GPU fillrate, at the least.
720p = 921.6K pixels @ 30fps
720p + 50% = 1382.4K pixels @ 30fps
1080p = 2073.6K pixels @ 30fps (i.e. needs to be +120% over PS3)
Of course, the Wii U also needs to render an image to the controller as well...
540p controller image = additional 518.4K pixels.
from above: (Wii U fill) 1382.4K @ 30fps - (Wii U tablet requireme...
To those who disagreed, enjoy your ignorance. It can't last forever. =)