Things, wonderous and numerous
Lots to talk about so let's get right to it.
- Riddick the game and movie kick tons of ass. Phyxie has alredy said a lot on the two subjects, so I won't get into things too much, but basically, I agree with him. A couple of things though, first, about the movie. I liked everything but thought that the casting of the main bad guy wasn't quite right. The guy seemed too old. I know, for the mythology, he had to be that old, and maybe it was just the actor they used, but it seemed odd for him to be whupping Riddick's ass, despite his special powers. Second, whoever decided that they should give one of the movie's main villains an uber-mullet should be fired immediately. With his MegaMullet and his suit of armor, he looked like Billy Ray Cyrus at a Renaissance Faire. Now for the game. I loved it, except for the inane saving system. Why you wouldn't take advantage of the hard drive to let players save anywhere is beyond me, but OK, you didn't. Here's my question: if you can save in my profile the fact that I have a certain pack of cigarettes, why can't you save in the same profile the fact that I completed the mission that got me the pack? It makes no sense. Minor points, I know, but annoying nonetheless.
- Father's Day was good with my wonderful wife doing all sorts of things such as grocery shopping and child bathing so that I didn't have to. A real keeper, that wife is. She bought me this extremely cool thermometer (the one at the top of the page) which will allow me to remotely monitor both my smoker and the massive cuts of meat I'm smoking. This will also allow me to do overnight cooks as I can set the alarm to wake up should the smoker temperature drop too low. Mmmmmm, brisket for breakfast.
- Word from Microsoft is that the next Xbox will be out in 2005, at least a year before the PS3 and that it won't be backward compatible. Just one of these facts is kind of odd, but taken together it seems just plain stupid. First, the release date. I can see why they want to come out early, so that they can get a head start on Sony and have a nice established base of users before the PS3 comes out. That's all well and good, but only if you're coming out when your current console is on it's way out. Let's say that the Xbox2 comes out for the 2005 holiday season, Halo 2 will be a little over a year old. I know many, many people that still play the original Halo today, exclusively might I add, and it's over 2 years old. In 2005, there will still be plenty of people willing to develop games and plenty of people willing to buy games for the original Xbox. Coming out in 2005 means that developers will have to start developing for this console very soon, and not develop for other platforms. A multi-platform port is one thing, but a cross-generational port is something entirely different. If you're a developer and you have to choose between developing for the PS2, with it's install base of roughly 37 billion people, and the Xbox2, a platform you know nothing about, install base being one of the biggest unknowns, where are you going to put your time in money? Plus, if we look at some of the Xbox heavy hitters, your Bungie's, your Bioware's, your Rare's (included based on past reputation), they're all developing games to be done in November 2004 - Feb 2005 time frame. Now, maybe they're big enough to also be developing for the Xbox2 and we just don't know about it, but how likely is it, given how much time, money and resources are necessary to make a triple-A title these days? A year's head start won't mean dick if you don't have good games for people to play.
This brings me to the backwards compatibility part. From a hardware perspective, I can see it not being feasible, but Jesus Christ, you're going to put Halo 2 out and then expect people to buy a console a year later that won't let them play it? What mythical, magical creatures are you expecting to buy this new console? Let's not forget that in this last generation, the Dreamcast had the distinction of being first to market. "The what?" you ask. Exactly. I mean, I don't give a shit, as I'll be buying the console that has the games I want, and if the Xbox2 comes out with like one good game to it's name, you know, like when the Xbox came out, I'll steer clear. That don`t confront me, long as I get my money next Friday.
- I was all sorts of giddy when Creative came out with a firmware update that allowed me to shuffle amongst all of the tracks on my mp3 player (all 4500 of them). Alas, this giddiness quickly dissipated when I realized that the queue for said shuffling was only 200 songs or so. Here I thought that my player just really, really liked Springsteen's "The River" and Snoop's "Paid Tha Cost To Be Tha Boss". After visiting some Nomad forums I have been able to circumvent the problem. I now have a playlist on my player that is a shuffled list of all 4844 songs on my player. Song 83 is "Corduroy" from PJ's "Vitalogy" for those of you keeping track at home. I'm hearing songs I didn't even know I had, and finding some I'm happy to get rid of as well, therby opening up room for other, newer songs. Bliss. Absolute bliss.
- Finally, everyone who had a hard time telling Phyxie and Dallas apart due to their equally bald, gleaming heads in the motorcycle pictures raise your hands. That's what I thought.
Heh.
- Riddick the game and movie kick tons of ass. Phyxie has alredy said a lot on the two subjects, so I won't get into things too much, but basically, I agree with him. A couple of things though, first, about the movie. I liked everything but thought that the casting of the main bad guy wasn't quite right. The guy seemed too old. I know, for the mythology, he had to be that old, and maybe it was just the actor they used, but it seemed odd for him to be whupping Riddick's ass, despite his special powers. Second, whoever decided that they should give one of the movie's main villains an uber-mullet should be fired immediately. With his MegaMullet and his suit of armor, he looked like Billy Ray Cyrus at a Renaissance Faire. Now for the game. I loved it, except for the inane saving system. Why you wouldn't take advantage of the hard drive to let players save anywhere is beyond me, but OK, you didn't. Here's my question: if you can save in my profile the fact that I have a certain pack of cigarettes, why can't you save in the same profile the fact that I completed the mission that got me the pack? It makes no sense. Minor points, I know, but annoying nonetheless.
- Father's Day was good with my wonderful wife doing all sorts of things such as grocery shopping and child bathing so that I didn't have to. A real keeper, that wife is. She bought me this extremely cool thermometer (the one at the top of the page) which will allow me to remotely monitor both my smoker and the massive cuts of meat I'm smoking. This will also allow me to do overnight cooks as I can set the alarm to wake up should the smoker temperature drop too low. Mmmmmm, brisket for breakfast.
- Word from Microsoft is that the next Xbox will be out in 2005, at least a year before the PS3 and that it won't be backward compatible. Just one of these facts is kind of odd, but taken together it seems just plain stupid. First, the release date. I can see why they want to come out early, so that they can get a head start on Sony and have a nice established base of users before the PS3 comes out. That's all well and good, but only if you're coming out when your current console is on it's way out. Let's say that the Xbox2 comes out for the 2005 holiday season, Halo 2 will be a little over a year old. I know many, many people that still play the original Halo today, exclusively might I add, and it's over 2 years old. In 2005, there will still be plenty of people willing to develop games and plenty of people willing to buy games for the original Xbox. Coming out in 2005 means that developers will have to start developing for this console very soon, and not develop for other platforms. A multi-platform port is one thing, but a cross-generational port is something entirely different. If you're a developer and you have to choose between developing for the PS2, with it's install base of roughly 37 billion people, and the Xbox2, a platform you know nothing about, install base being one of the biggest unknowns, where are you going to put your time in money? Plus, if we look at some of the Xbox heavy hitters, your Bungie's, your Bioware's, your Rare's (included based on past reputation), they're all developing games to be done in November 2004 - Feb 2005 time frame. Now, maybe they're big enough to also be developing for the Xbox2 and we just don't know about it, but how likely is it, given how much time, money and resources are necessary to make a triple-A title these days? A year's head start won't mean dick if you don't have good games for people to play.
This brings me to the backwards compatibility part. From a hardware perspective, I can see it not being feasible, but Jesus Christ, you're going to put Halo 2 out and then expect people to buy a console a year later that won't let them play it? What mythical, magical creatures are you expecting to buy this new console? Let's not forget that in this last generation, the Dreamcast had the distinction of being first to market. "The what?" you ask. Exactly. I mean, I don't give a shit, as I'll be buying the console that has the games I want, and if the Xbox2 comes out with like one good game to it's name, you know, like when the Xbox came out, I'll steer clear. That don`t confront me, long as I get my money next Friday.
- I was all sorts of giddy when Creative came out with a firmware update that allowed me to shuffle amongst all of the tracks on my mp3 player (all 4500 of them). Alas, this giddiness quickly dissipated when I realized that the queue for said shuffling was only 200 songs or so. Here I thought that my player just really, really liked Springsteen's "The River" and Snoop's "Paid Tha Cost To Be Tha Boss". After visiting some Nomad forums I have been able to circumvent the problem. I now have a playlist on my player that is a shuffled list of all 4844 songs on my player. Song 83 is "Corduroy" from PJ's "Vitalogy" for those of you keeping track at home. I'm hearing songs I didn't even know I had, and finding some I'm happy to get rid of as well, therby opening up room for other, newer songs. Bliss. Absolute bliss.
- Finally, everyone who had a hard time telling Phyxie and Dallas apart due to their equally bald, gleaming heads in the motorcycle pictures raise your hands. That's what I thought.
Heh.
posted by Brandon at
1:50 PM
