| The Road |
[May. 4th, 2009|01:10 pm] |
I learned this lesson a long time ago, when playing an old computer game called Populous. In retrospect it taught me a great deal. I used to enjoy playing the game, until the computer got "stupid" It appeared to get stuck, and truth to tell, damn near wiped me out, It volcanoed me until the mountains hit the roof, but the game didn't end since I still had one hut. Surrounded by boulders I was hemmed in, (he couldn't attack) so I set the behaviour of the hut to "accumulate" so that there was one man pacing about outside, and as a new one spawned very minute or so it just merged with the pacer. This went on for hours. The computer, following it's only directive kept up with the volcanoes. I was however, determined I was not going to lose. At some point in what was probably a glitch, my pacing man, was jumped by the force of a volcano onto the rocks, "with one bound Jimmy was free."
Thus it was the man walked down from the mountain, and singlehandedly went to every computer owned building in turn and took it over. I nominated the pacing man the leader and set all buildings to accumulate. He walked around personally and even though the computer got somewhat desperate towards the end, sending in knights, en mass, my man was implacable. I never played the game the same way again. Humans I noticed play populous in a very specific way. You could only build on flat ground, so the game was one of making flat ground then building on it.
So in playing the game against other humans I would find out where it was they were flattening land, and then earthquake it. A low power drain miracle, do three of those on the trot, and it would really mess up the land. Humans would then retaliate. Unlike them, if they earthquaked me, (though often they'd escalate and volcano if they could) I would ignore the disruption and go elsewhere, and set what remained of my huts on that patch to accumulate. To be honest with you, harassing people was the most fun, because you were playing back to back, (pre-internet) you see the emotion on their faces. Once I had a man that was "big enough" and I had enough power, I'd do the modern day equivalent of cluster bombing, only with volcanoes, right in the middle of their green and flat population center; you only needed five or six in a checker pattern to really screw up a map. Then I'd send in a few knights, on random attack, and steer my Goliath around personally, knowing I had plenty of time as they were busy flattening land I'd just volcanoed.
Truth to tell, that in playing like the computer I was able to sweep all before me, as people were expecting to play against another human, not a smart computer, but it also took all the joy out of playing other humans, even after I explained how I did it, it became about winning and not about playing.
Why this sudden reminiscence? Because after that I stopped playing against humans and came up with a slogan "attitude beats technique" Which is mirrored in this rather discursive article by Malcolm Gladwell, in the New Yorker, entitled: Why David beats Goliath. Who knew that Basketball could be so interesting :)
HT Paul Kredosky |
|
|
| Getting the message |
[Mar. 30th, 2009|08:55 am] |
I was looking forward to Spore, in fact the reason I bought the components I did for this PC, and didn't wait a few months for the i7 "Nehalem" was because of the release deadline for Spore. So on the day I bought the "galactic" edition, and the book, and went home happy. Then, as is my usual MO, prior to installing the game I went online to check out the reviews, looked for any patches etc. It was only then that I discovered the DRM, so Spore, in it's large box, sits unloved, (and uninstalled) on the floor somewhere, in fact after a quick rummage I can't even find it. I suspect it's buried under the avalanche of FT's behind me. Needless to say it caused an outcry, and was probably responsible for the record setting piracy rate for Spore. Which depending who you listened to at the time reached into the millions, while EA themselves in a bid to downplay the significance claimed it was "only" 500,000, Which is kind of amusing when you consider that DRM (invasive and insidious as it is) was used to prevent piracy of their big name IP brands.
It really pissed me off. So much so that I refused to install Spore on principle, and I've religiously checked all subsequent games I've bought for DRM and online activation. If I find any case that says it requires internet access and isn't clear why, it stays on the shelf. I bought a couple of games recently, Empire Total War & Dawn of War II, and while they do contain online activation, they do it via Steam. Which I'm OK with for two reasons:
1) Steam is a service, it has value add.
2) You need only activate once and then you can turn it off.
However, it would appear that EA, (unscrupulous, money grubbing bastards that they are) has finally gotten the message. As those who know me will tell you, I'm a big fan of the Sims. So I've been looking forward to the Sims 3, and EA have just announced this:
The game will have disc-based copy protection – there is a Serial Code just like The Sims 2. To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed.
We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future.
There's nothing like being magnanimous in defeat :) Like many others however, I'll be checking reviews ahead of time, "just in case" but it would appear I may actually get to play this one. Cheers EA! |
|
|
| Playing the game. |
[Dec. 30th, 2008|07:10 pm] |
I was up later than I should have been last night, I was attempting to install City Life 2008 edition, which according to the blurb on the box, and indeed the date on the box, is a cracking little city building game of recent vintage. I'm quite partial to building stuff, especially as I grow older, so I figured that I'd install it and have a fiddle.
The install went smoothly enough, and then as is my habit I instantly went looking for patches; I found none; but I did find plenty of other "stuff" including the official forums, littered as they were with people who couldn't get the game running and people saying "it works fine for me" nothing out of the ordinary there. Though for some odd reason my serial number was on the front page of the official site. I even found a page that dealt with most of the startup issues, etc. Then I found Wikipedia, (who incidentally, need your money.) It was upon reading the Wikipedia page that my heart sank, because it said that it was "protected" by "StarForce". To most people this will mean nothing, but those of us who know of it, know of it by reputation. It could best be described as one of the most pernicious and malign pieces of DRM software in existence. For which the only real answer is to reinstall Windows.
"I say we take off and nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure"
Like I said, it has a well deserved reputation.
At that point I had to make a decision, I figured I may be able to ditch StarForce and use a crack, failing that I'd just have to uninstall the game and repair/reinstall Windows. There I caught my first break, since the official StarForce removal tool told me it wasn't installed, and subsequent checks in places where mere mortals fear to tread, (Windows kernel device drivers) showed no sign of it's malign influence either. Phew!
At that point, sans patch, and in a lighter mood, I figured it may be safe to start the game, see what it was like. I clicked the desktop icon, it put up a tiny banner for all of a second, that closed, and then, nothing. "Not even an electronic sausage". I tried again, same result. Hmmm.
I went back to Wikipedia, they recommended an application designed to get around problems with low-end video cards, given that I have the graphics card equivalent of a modern supercar I figured this wasn't going to be a problem, but even so, I loaded the software, it loaded the game. The banner appeared and remained on screen, I waited, and waited, and then I waited some more. Checks of the O/S and the process itself proved all was well, and it was indeed doing nothing. So I stopped the program, and killed the stuck process, and then I uninstalled the game and went to bed.
Life's too short, and I know when I've been played. |
|
|
| A boy and his dog |
[Oct. 27th, 2008|07:31 pm] |
I read another review of Fable 2 yesterday, one that said it was the sort of game you thought about when you weren't playing. Indeed it is, and as I sat on the bog, (too much information :) I pondered why it was that this game works and others of a similar genre do not. Certainly the game world is a lot prettier with decent graphical assets, etc. and it functions well, (at least so far) as a coherent whole. More than anything else however I think what sets it apart from other games is agency, in the sense that many other games seem setup to deny you just that, a very good example of this is the truly dire "Bullet Witch" A shooter on rails, which although it took place on a 3D plane could well have been 2D for all the difference it would have made. In a sense it's an unfair comparison, a crisp and shiny apple to a mouldy orange, but game mechanic wise they are not entirely dissimilar.
On the surface the lack of "grind", or any sense of punishment for failure would seem to deny you the impetus to continue playing, even the sense of tension of walking around a corner and being surprised is removed by having the dog growl to warn you of approaching enemies, etc. In practise however it seems that being able to do almost anything, even without censure, leads you to test the boundaries, and provides a far greater sense of agency than does tight scripting, obsessive repetition and micro management. It's really quite a revelation. |
|
|
| It's the little things |
[Oct. 25th, 2008|10:41 pm] |
So I read the review, and it said:
Inclusive and often thought-provoking, this is a daring portrait of a game-world with all the failure cut out, and it's hard not to love a game that loves you so much in return. Fable II will charm you, thrill you, and leave you very, very happy.
They gave it 10/10 and having played the game for a while (I have vouchers :) I can understand why. It's funny. It's a game you can't lose. You can't die. You can't even get lost. But the truly great thing about that is that you can just go "off road" and explore, see the world. Then follow the trail back to your destination. It's such a simple idea you wonder why nobody else thought of it before. Then of course there is the dog, who's a bit stupid, and managed to get stuck in a wall already, but I like him anyway. His name's Bill. Good name for a dog.
Seriously, go try it, it's amazing. |
|
|
| Games! |
[Oct. 5th, 2008|11:12 am] |
Lots of them!
We get vouchers at work, which you can spend at a department store, normally the most excitement to be had is in perusing the small kitchen appliances dept. Which is why I usually decamp to the Cafe, while she looks at clothings.
Yesterday we went into London, to go to the biggest store in the country, prime real estate on multiple floors. Stuffed to the gunwales with a broader selection of the same merchandise. It has several Cafe's, but on the 4th floor, besides the accursed Sony hole, there was a computer games unit, and well, I have vouchers.. :)
So it is I have 10 games in 7 boxes, and a slightly dog eared version of the GTAIV guide book. Including 2 version of the force unleashed. One for the 360, the other for the Wii, since with the Wiimote you get a lightsabre.
Given that I can now trade vouchers for games, (Genius!) I may have to do it more often. Not that this means I'm any closer to installing Spore but I can wait.
Finally, the man that brought so much mirth to so many, has met with a timely demise. It is indeed Game Over for Jack Thompson. That said he's unphased by the announcement. In return he plans to sue the Florida supreme court:
The timing of this disbarment transparently reveals its motivation: This past Friday Thompson filed a federal civil rights action against The Bar, the Supreme Court, and all seven of its Justices. This rush to disbarment is in retribution for the filing of that federal suit. With enemies this foolish, Thompson needs only the loyal friends he has.
This should be fun. |
|
|
| zen, and the art of fan service. |
[May. 9th, 2008|07:18 pm] |
There is a Zen like quality to the original DOAXVB, a purity of spirit. Bump, Set, Spike! With no dubious line calls, no time outs, and only one rule. It's one of the few games where Johnny Death was happy to simply watch me play, (as opposed to the other way around) one point at a time, back and forth. Real edge of the seat stuff, with comments like, of "You jammy bastard. I've no idea how you got that back over the net." Compared to that, the fact that the protagonists were the girls of the DOA universe, dressed in a range of swimsuits, from modest to skimpy, with matching accessories, was simply icing on the cake. The fact that there were numerous gravure cut scenes of them wandering dreamily or actively across white sand beaches, etc. Doubly so.
As a consequence, the sequel DOAX2 was a heavy disappointment, not least because the volleyball game was actually worse, lacking, as it did, much of the nuanced subtlety of the earlier game, while adding over the top "breast physics", and pointless extras like water bike racing. Where it truly scored however was in "fan service" that curiously Japanese phenomenon, where creators of Anime characters pander to the desires of their fan base, by placing their creations in overtly sexual situations and clothing, often completely out of context, for no other reason than they can. DOAX2 excelled at this because not only was the opening cinematic appropriately gratuitous, the gravure sequences were greatly expanded too, but it differed in one key aspect, it gave you a camera.
In normal play this was not immediately useful, since it was difficult to use, (though you could upgrade to a 'state of the art' camera with autofocus later) but also because of the relatively demure starting swimsuits most characters wear, with the object of getting your favourite girl into your chosen swimsuit. Volleyball and item collection aside, this formed the bulk of the gameplay in both games.
At this point, enter stage left the wiley hacker.
This is not the first time the fan base has risen to the challenge of getting the girls out of their suits. However it was the addition of new outfits, and even new characters into the game, with increasingly sophisticated and easy to use tools that saw Tecmo, who's team ninja created the game, move against the community it had spawned. They shut down the website, and sued anyone who'd uploaded unauthorised content.
Quietly however, much as the rebels regrouped on Hoth, so it was with the spirit of ninjahacker. As before, hackers extracted game content, often solely to import it in to 3D rendering programs, as mouse so famously said: "She doesn't talk very much, but if you'd like to meet her I can arrange a more personalized milieu" The digital pimps were indeed hard at work.
There were of course rumours, but given the somewhat restrained state of the Xbox360 homebrew scene, I paid it no mind, new games came and went, so a two year old game seemed like old news. That was until somebody gave me a disc yesterday, I figured it for a fake, possibly a DVD wind up, but I went along with it anyway. Since "everyone knows" you can't run unsigned code on a 360, I figured I had little to fear in the way of malicious damage. What I actually got could best be described as "digital crack" Just as "there is no spoon" there are no suits.
At a stroke, the point of the whole game has simply evaporated. What you're left with, are unspoilt beach and jungle locations, places to buy suntan lotion and new film, fully motion captured girls, a camera, and two weeks in which to use them. The rest of the game exists merely as an afterthought. I'd be lieing if I said it wasn't sexually appealing. Since it undoubtedly is. Yet there is something about the transcendent frustration of missing "the perfect shot" that borders on the religious. It's not the shots you get that keep you coming back, it's the trick of the light, and the ephemeral smiles and gestures you missed, from characters loaded with cultural significance and longing, that leave you hungry for more.
Even in "attract mode" it's a revelation to watch, bouncing as it does from overtly sexualised opening cg movie, to extended gravure sequences and back again, all to the background of an upbeat summertime soundtrack, the perfect guilty pleasure. If it had shipped like this out of the box, they would have made a killing, even while the American religious right and Mrs Clinton would have had a field day.
Otaku rocket fuel. The future's already here, it's just not evenly distributed. |
|
|
| Games Journalism |
[Apr. 30th, 2008|06:28 pm] |
The older I get, the more I wish games reviews would grow up. I don't want post-modern crap, or stuff that speaks to what kind of human I am, etc. As is common in reviews of other media. But a move away from Graphics, Sound, Gameplay would be nice, something that instead of talking about the structure of the game, and the technicalities behind it, talks to me about what it feels like to play. One such golden example of this is the New York Times review of GTA IV from which I quote:
It was just another night on the streets of Liberty City, the exhilarating, lusciously dystopian rendition of New York City in 2008 that propels Grand Theft Auto IV, the ambitious new video game to be released on Tuesday for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 systems.
Published by Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto IV is a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun. It calls to mind a rollicking R-rated version of Mad magazine featuring Dave Chappelle and Quentin Tarantino, and sets a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts. It is by far the best game of the series, which made its debut in 1997 and has since sold more than 70 million copies. Grand Theft Auto IV will retail for $60.
Niko Bellic is the player-controlled protagonist this time, and he is one of the most fully realized characters video games have yet produced. A veteran of the Balkan wars and a former human trafficker in the Adriatic, he arrives in Liberty City’s rendition of Brighton Beach at the start of the game to move in with his affable if naïve cousin Roman. Niko expects to find fortune and, just maybe, track down someone who betrayed him long ago. Over the course of the story line he discovers that revenge is not always what one expects.
There is no score. As you would expect from a mainstream newspaper. However, you're not left guessing as to how the reviewer feels about the work in question.
Do I expect the marketing messages that pass as reviews in most of today's adolescent magazines to change? Realistically, no, but somehow I suspect it will get worse, like payola scandals on the radio. Only then can we reasonably expect such reviews to be the norm rather than the exception. |
|
|
| Machinima |
[Apr. 27th, 2008|02:57 pm] |
I was getting into the Beatles, on youtube, when I stumbled on this, which is all the more amazing having been done live:
The same person has Jimmy Hendrix, erstwhile Guitar God, doing "Purple Haze" too, with just a little bit good of Voodoo Child thrown in for good measure.
Bloody amazing what you can do with commodity games software, these days. |
|
|
| A day in the life |
[Apr. 27th, 2008|11:48 am] |
"Chapter one."
"He adored New York City. He idolised it all out of proportion."
Uh, no. Make that
"He romanticised it all out of proportion. To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin."
Uh... no. Let me start this over.
"Chapter one."
"He was too romantic about Manhattan, as he was about everything else. He thrived on the hustle, bustle of the crowds and the traffic. To him, New York meant beautiful women and street-smart guys who seemed to know all the angles."
Ah, corny. Too corny for a man of my taste. Let me... try and make it more profound.
"Chapter one.
He adored New York City. To him, it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture. The same lack of integrity to cause so many people to take the easy way out was rapidly turning the town of his dreams..."
No. It's gonna be too preachy. I mean, let's face it, I wanna sell some books here.
"Chapter one. He adored New York City, although to him it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture. How hard it was to exist in a society desensitised by drugs, loud music, television, crime, garbage..."
Too angry. I don't wanna be angry.
"Chapter one."
"He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat. "
I love this.
"New York was his town and it always would be."
--Woody Allen - Manhattan.
Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head.
I'd been watching TV back at the flat until late last night, just vegging. Then bed. When I got up, on a whim I decided to walk down to the beach and out onto the pier, watch the sun rise. it didn't disappoint. With the sound of the waves and the gulls in my head I turned and looked back at the city arrayed before me, with the first rays of sun upon it it looked pretty damned majestic. I looked at the sun moving on the water for bit, and then checked out the beach, then I noticed something odd, so I went to investigate. As the first rays turned into the cold light of day I heard a plane pass overhead, looked up and saw the large hulk move slowly across the sky. The odd structure on the beach turned out to be a kids playhouse, with ladders and a slide, etc. Curiosity satisfied I went for a jog along the boardwalk past the bowling alley towards the high rent district.
Good way to start the day really. |
|
|
| Epic |
[Mar. 24th, 2008|11:04 am] |
"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." - Douglas Adams
So it goes with Sins of a Solar Empire. It's a huge game, vast! The first game I played, on a small map, (only 14 planets) I gave up after around 9 hours play as it was looking hopeless. I had several Capital ships and was able to kick the crap out of everything the computer threw at me, but I knew that I was eventually going to lose.
My next game took 14 hours plus, again on a small map, and while there was a slow section some 9 hours or so in, as we traded planets back and forth, I ultimately staged a two pronged attack with two large fleets and wiped him out. Even then, it took some two hours to slowly make my way across the map, and on my first push on what I was to discover later was their homeworld, I lost two Capital ships, such was the nature of the exchanges between us. It's also a mark of the game, that you cannot simply "fire and forget" You have to actively manage your fleet during combat, and that's before you get into the more advanced stuff on later maps, the large ones scale across multiple solar systems, with many planets per system. You could be playing a single game like that for months.
Should you you have the time required to do the game justice, you can pick it up from here since bizarrely it's only available as a digital download in the UK. Be under no illusion however, this is a truly epic game, and one that will consume large chunks of your life if you let it. |
|
|
| issues |
[Jan. 20th, 2008|01:15 am] |
My wife says I'm a saint, it wasn't a compliment, and you though you had problems with women...
So forget your troubles, and get into fancy-pants you know it makes sense.
Unlike women. |
|
|
| Mass Effect |
[Jan. 15th, 2008|11:26 pm] |
Straight out of left field this one:
I know that they all probably assume they have better, much more important, urgent, timely, things to campaign on, but I sure would like to get their individual takes on the new video game that one company is marketing to fifteen year old boys.
It's called "Mass Effect" and it allows its players - universally male no doubt - to engage in the most realistic sex acts ever conceived. One can custom design the shape, form, bodies, race, hair style, breast size of the images they wish to "engage" and then watch in crystal clear, LCD, 54 inch screen, HD clarity as the video game "persons" hump in every form, format, multiple, gender-oriented possibility they can think of.
The objections to such filth should be simple to understand.
Starting with the disgusting idea that one can "create" their own versions of what people look like, removing warts, moles, and bald spots while enhancing - shall we say - the extended features of the game's characters tends to objectify women, sex, and human relationships. Right? We can all agree on this?
You may be wondering what this has to do with the US presidential election, so did I, read on:
I hear the libertarian Ron Paul's answer already, "Government has no business censoring freedom of expression." Figures, he's a libertarian.
The really strange thing is, he's also a republican, not a "godless commie" Democrat. I'm fairly sure that Microsoft, should it have a political affiliation would also be fairly "pro business" Republican too. It's so far out of left field as to be a characature of an opinion. You can find the full text here.
More to the point it's not true, I've played through the game twice as a female and I'm going through a third time as a man, just to see if the romance sub-plot is any different as a man, The human female target "isn't that kind of girl" she believes in God. You find this out as you play through.
It's not that I don't think that Microsoft aren't capable of creating such a game, or even that people wouldn't buy it. Hell, if it did even 10% of what's stated above I'd be hunched over the controller right now. If anything I'm disappointed, he's obviously playing a different game to me, that or I'm really missing something. Perhaps there is a hidden dungeon somewhere on the Normandy. Have I missed a quest somewhere? Where do I find the Sex Planet?
Seriously, most of the male faces are big on the chisled, grisled and scared motif. Manly men, men who don't have time to bleed. In fact were it not for the make up, you could say the same about the women too. Mine also has a big nose and too much eye make-up. I'd like to tell you that she has a great arse, but in full heavy combat armour, suitable for kicking the shit out of heavily armed robots and mercenaries, it's not something you get to see much of, and not for lack of trying let me tell you. If I were to nail anything, then the teenage alien with the tight fitting light armour and the full face mask would be my choice. (getting her out of her encounter suit would be more of a challenge.) But you don't get that lucky. You can have the scholarly blue alien, the female God bothering tank, or the buff but vaguely useless male love interest, (only if you're female.)
It's not like there isn't a sex scene, there is, but you're not in control, and you can't even see that much. if you have the "film grain" setting on, you see even less. In one other scene, provided you're acting macho, as opposed to being a boy scout, you get to see a hand, it's blue. You actually see more in "the Sims" and you get to say who, where and when.
I want to play the "Mass Effect" he's talking about, but widely acclaimed masterpiece that it is, the game I played just isn't it. Disappointing, but true. |
|
|
| Give that man a gold star |
[Dec. 12th, 2007|09:08 am] |
By George I think he actually gets it.
For the games publishers, a strong press with the confidence of the public behind it is also important. As that confidence is eroded, more and more readers will turn to blog sites or social networking sites for their information, and such a diaspora will make building hype or profile for key products expensive, difficult, and massively risky. Professional games publications are not, and should not be, tame - if they were, they would be useless to consumers - but their professional nature certainly means that they're a lot easier to work with than a myriad of blogs, journals and social networking sites.
...
Sometimes, though, publications don't have the backbone to sit out the sulking. I can't say whether this is what happened to Jeff Gerstmann - but I can say this. It happens. It happens too often - and it needs to stop happening. In a world where trailers can be found readily on YouTube, demos can be downloaded from Xbox Live and friend recommendations come readily through Facebook, the one asset which journalists and publications alike must guard preciously is the trust and confidence of their readers, or they risk losing not just the occasional advertising campaign - but their entire reason for existing. |
|
|
| Out of it |
[Dec. 12th, 2007|01:00 am] |
While I continue to play games, and indeed, buy games magazines, I've not been reading games websites for a while now. The last remaining vestige of that was my somewhat haphazard blog entries on my gamespot Account I stopped paying after they fucked me about, I seem to recall I was actually trying to resub, but was unable to do so and followed a trail to a dead link, the response I got back was less than satisfactory so I told them to stuff it.
For some reason they still send me the paid member emails, but that's a different matter.
Today I learned that "the face of Gamespot" Jeff Gerstmann was fired over what could best be described as "editorial differences" (since we're unlikely to ever find out the real reason) He was actually fired last month, which shows you just how out of touch I've become. I have to say it did come as quite a shock at the time, nor if the scuttlebutt making the rounds is true, did the editorial staff know anything about it. They just locked him out of his office and ushered him from the building. Needless to say the rest of the staff are more than a little gun shy and are facing the integrity hit that comes from the whiff of payola covering the whole affair. Not on Gerstmann's side I hasten to add.
I suspect that it was more of an issue of control, he thinking he was a celebrity of 11 years tenure, his employer expecting that he towed the new party line. It's been called "brand suicide" by a few people, which is probably not too short of the mark.
I could go on, but there is a very good, if wordy write up on the situation from N'Gai Croal over at Newsweek. entitled:
Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers
Which effectively sums up the problem, so I figure I'll have to start doing my own reviews, you will, somewhat ironically, find the rest over at my Gamespot profile. Though I don't recommend you visit. I'll drag them over here in due course.
Stupid self destructive idiots.
I'd like to take credit for that, but it's from the write up above. Like I said, it's good. |
|
|
| Oh dear... |
[Nov. 19th, 2007|01:34 pm] |
It would appear that only a month after dropping the retail price of the PS3, Sony are now halving the price of the PS3 development kits.
Sony says that the price cut is part of its efforts to cooperate with software developers in the hope that they will design more games for the PS3.
Meanwhile, Over at Nintendo:
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." --Mahatma Gandhi
If all you've got is the hope that people will design for your platform, and you have to lower the cost of the development kits to have even that, you're almost out of time. Soon they'll have to give them away, and be happy with "Jemima the pony rides again" and whatever else somebody/anybody, is willing to write for the platform. I can see that going down real well with the Sony faithful.
Won't somebody think of the children?
The irony being of course, that Nintendo did just that, and they'll just have to be satisfied with selling every unit they can ship this Christmas, and given the state of the global economy next year, Sony may not get another chance to sell their expensive DVD player.
Amused? Moi? I should coco :) |
|
|
| Toys! |
[Nov. 18th, 2007|12:23 pm] |
I went trawling through Tottenham Court Road yesterday, looking for one of these. I make no bones about it, it's a toy, and I'm in the grips of tech lust :) I actually saw one in a window last week, and I noted it down and figured I'd check it out later, then late Friday I saw this post and I was like, "Whoa!" Bing! Methinks Apple will have to get with the program before this cannibalises sales of their impending new toy. Should you want a an Eee yourself, try this number: 020 7636 4611, Harp, 237 Tottenham Ct Rd. They're expecting an order Wednesday.
Oh, and the way to deal with shops there is to buy it there and then if you like the price, because it's only going to go up when you come back. Forewarned is forearmed. Counter intuitive I know, but smart. Because if you go back they know you intend to buy and can't get it cheaper elsewhere, so they're free to gouge you.
In other news I just bought the new Mario, from woolies, Amazon prices on the high street, who'd a thunk it. Sadly the same cannot be said for the console, which is now akin to rocking horse droppings. I thought it was mad that CEX were selling one second hand for £295, but I found somebody with them in stock yesterday and the price there? A whopping £340. That's more than an 360 Premium or a 40Gb PS3. Hell for another £10 you can get a 60Gb PS3 Why you'd want a Wii at that price or indeed a PS3 at all is beyond me, but 'tis the season of conspicuous consumption.
Speaking of Sony, they really have to be hurting, now that the Yen/Dollar cross has launched into orbit. The "cheap" Yen made it beneficial to export, now it'll be expensive. Then of course there is the news that must have Sony execs considering the family sword and the honourable way out. What is that news? The fact that they can't even hold their home market. Yup, Xbox 360 outsells PlayStation 3 in Japan is a headline that really has to stick in the craw.
Schadenfreude, better than any drug :) |
|
|
| pwned |
[Nov. 17th, 2007|11:28 pm] |
That's some funny shit :) |
|
|
| Phenomenon |
[Sep. 28th, 2007|01:25 am] |
It's gone one in the morning here, the Sun is upon Asia, and still there are over half a million people online playing Halo 3 in the West.
I'm beginning to get into my stride a little better now, and unlike the marines of old, the current crop are actually worth protecting. That and the Arbiter with a Plasma sword is a thing of truly terrible beauty, it's a joy to watch him work. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
praxis22's journal
good
blah
thoughtful
bouncy
tired
annoyed