|
|
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=21009 |  Phirewind (894) Nov 14, 2008 - 11:07 am
| | Too bad the demo will be shut off upon launch of the game. Dumbest idea ever. How arrogant is it for Valve to think that they are so important that EVERY gamer EVERYWHERE knows about this game, and has a chance to play the demo before the game's release? Oh, you found out about the game from a friend the day after it came out? Sorry, no demo for you. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=21003 | Phirewind (894) Nov 13, 2008 - 02:44 pm
| Apple: For people who don't like making their own decisions.
I don't see how they could possibly present themselves as a developer-friendly gaming platform, even if the hardware didn't suck. Look at how they handle their application approval. If you build an app for the iPod, not only does it have to be Apple approved, but they are likely to deny that approval if they are developing a competing product, or even INTEND to do so, so the user only has their one option. That sort of mindset won't cut it in the gaming world. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20991 | Phirewind (894) Nov 11, 2008 - 09:48 am
| | My local circuit city has always been a complete waste of time. Possibly once or twice a year something would be on sale at a decent price, but especially in the PC department either they don't have what you're looking for or they don't even know what it is. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20990 | Phirewind (894) Nov 07, 2008 - 10:06 am
| | Perhaps it's just because of things that happened in the background that we don't know about, but all I can remember about RAMBUS is that they took "open-source" memory specifications and patented them for retro-active blackmail, made memory that cost 3x what it was worth, and then tried to sue everybody else out of existence. Maybe, if that's not the case, they should work a bit more on their public image. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20919 | Phirewind (894) Oct 14, 2008 - 08:30 am
| | Exactly. Back in my college days when Doom 2 came out (ugh, I'm old), I think I knew of ONE person in my entire dorm who actually owned it, but EVERYBODY played it. And yet, somehow, id software stayed in business! Probably because as soon as they got jobs, most everybody who got completely hooked on it went and bought their own copy so it was easier to reinstall over and over as they bought new machines. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20925 | Phirewind (894) Oct 14, 2008 - 08:26 am
| | Free and useless is better than cheap and useful? On a 512 MB card, you can't even download ONE demo of a "real" game, and are likely to have your arcade list full in a hurry. $20 for a 20 GB upgrade is by FAR the best deal for Arcade owners. In fact, it makes a $200 Arcade almost a GOOD BUY rather than a complete waste of $200. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20919 | Phirewind (894) Oct 10, 2008 - 09:30 am
| Woohoo, chainsaw battles!
For me, the "fun factor" rank for shooters on the console goes something like this:
1. Call of Duty 4
2. Gears of War
3. Everything else
4. Halo
But that's the mark of someone who likes a mouse and keyboard. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=4495 | Phirewind (894) Oct 07, 2008 - 07:33 am
| Any "proof", you mean other than the Iranian leader saying repeatedly that Israel must be destroyed, wiped off the face of the earth, and that Iran would be proud to be the ones that do it?
As for North Korea, unfortunately there'll probably be a direct line of succession, like father like son. And he's just plain nuts. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=4495 | Phirewind (894) Oct 06, 2008 - 06:41 am » Edited on Oct 06, 2008 - 06:43 am
| Actually, as far as I can tell, Palin is the only person involved in this election who got into politics purposefully to fix a specific problem, and actually did it. Her kid's schools were messed up, and she got so fed up about it she actually did something about it that helped other people. I can't think of anything offhand that Obama, Biden, or even McCain has done that's done as much direct good for the people that put 'em there.
Obama, on the other hand, legislates like a hard-line communist. Even if you don't care about or believe his close personal ties to anti-american radicals, there's one recent quote that pretty much echoes his ideals, when he was talking about raising taxes on "people who have more money than they need".
That scares me, because "need" becomes a subjective line, that is then subject to somebody in the government deciding how much of your money that you actually "need", so that they can have the rest. And with Social Security being bankrupt, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac blowing up at ludicrous speed even 4 years after the "stop before it kills us all" whistle had been blown, and the government-assisted energy crisis, how can anybody possibly think that the government needs MORE power and money? Sorry, I'd rather have complacent capitalism than aggressive communism. That's not "change" that we need.
Government is good at 2 things: Wasting money, and blowing things up, and we've done quite enough of both already.
p.s. isn't it sad when both Presidential candidates are pitiful enough that it feels like Obama is running against Palin ? Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20893 | Phirewind (894) Oct 02, 2008 - 06:29 am
| | At first I would say that most devs would prefer to never see Cell again, but if it was essentially just multiplied with more cores, the current development efforts could move forward with relatively few hiccups, and it's definitely the only way Sony could justify a PS4 (or Cell itself) after the idiocy that was PS3. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20873 | Phirewind (894) Sep 24, 2008 - 09:20 am
| | Good call by Alienware. Cycles of quality control are common in any industry. One company does good for a long time, then their products start breaking down. Another company with a bad rep gets their crap under control and starts turning out good product. The only way to get to that upswing is for the big guys to refuse crap products, even if they're cheaper. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20874 | Phirewind (894) Sep 24, 2008 - 09:16 am » Edited on Sep 24, 2008 - 09:18 am
| Fry 'em, HARD. I'm sick of these driver-based security systems. I've had one game (Space Rangers 2, was actually supposed to be good) which I NEVER got to install on my own computer because an evil security driver (I think StarForce) wouldn't recognize the legal media. Over the past three years I've had to download pirate hacks for at least half a dozen games I legally owned in order for them to work properly. What does it say about your anti-piracy software when it FORCES your paying customers to break your security in order to play their own copy of a game?
At that point, anti-piracy measures are literally encouraging rampant piracy, because only the pirates can get their software to work! Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20869 | Phirewind (894) Sep 23, 2008 - 11:22 am
| | I think this is a MUCH better option, especially if they can improve the OS's ability to get rid of crap like bloated printer drivers (140 mb download so I can print half a page of text from my laptop to a friend's cheap HP is STUPID) and truly un-install some of the more destructive and pervasive objects, rather than the current "eh, I got rid of some of it, close enough" method. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20867 | Phirewind (894) Sep 22, 2008 - 07:34 am » Edited on Sep 22, 2008 - 07:42 am
| No offense, I'm glad that you learned something that's actually very important, but how could it NOT be "important for these big companies to make a profit"? It's called Capitalism, and it's the very core of what makes America great. If you work hard, and can provide a product or service that other people want, you can profit from it. If you suck at it, you fall on your arse and somebody else comes along and does it better.
Unfortunately, the suckage was so big this time around that the government had to step in to prevent major infrastructure in the financial system from collapsing. Try not to think so much in terms of "big companies" like they're some monster that only exists in an office building you never see. There are a tiny number of big-check idiots, but the rest are "normal" people that have jobs, stocks, and plans to live a decent life. When a local appliance manufacturer shut down, it didn't just affect their 250 employees, it hurt the employees of the plastics plant that fabricated pieces for washing machines, the engines plant that made compressors for refidgerators, etc., and all the restraunts and stores where those employees spent money. And it was all caused because key banking people broke two of the highest rules of good capitalism: Be smart with your own money, and don't expect anybody else to bail you out. Lending $300,000 to someone making $18,000/yr was NOT good capitalism. But, the essence of a living market is that it will rebuild and grow, as intelligent consumers begin to take control again out of necessity. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20832 | Phirewind (894) Sep 10, 2008 - 05:38 am » Edited on Sep 10, 2008 - 05:39 am
| hardly pointless. My desktop gets moved around quite a bit, and I don't use a mousepad 'cause it limits my movement. Some surfaces make my Logitech MX500 jittery and very hard to make small adjustments.
"Goodbye laser. Hello.. um.. fat laser" Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20830 | Phirewind (894) Sep 09, 2008 - 09:52 am » Edited on Sep 09, 2008 - 09:53 am
| | I'm partial to the nVidia line at the moment, a little bit because of Phsyx, but mostly because of CUDA. The CUDA-enabled video compression apps should be showing up fairly soon, as will the plugins for Photoshop. Also, it looks like the BOINC client will soon have stable CUDA clients, so if you're into distributed computing (SETI, LHC, folding@home protein analysis), nVidia is the way to go if you like the idea of running 40x faster than a Core 2 Quad processor alone. If absolutely none of that matters to you at all... eh, it's a tossup. Flag this | Edit this post |
|
