It's limited to Europe which tells me there's something about some law there requiring Nintendo to provide some sort of universal restriction or consideration for the children.
There's no such universal laws. Some of the less developed countries, like Germany, have pretty backwards views on anything invented after the 1940s, but Sony and Microsoft get around that by restricting material unsuitable for such countries in those countries only. They sure as hell don't punish the entire region because some third world country has stupid laws.
If this (being the restricted access) is still there in a week or two I will join everyone in flipping the fuck out. As it stands: I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt that someone didn't do a check for Parental Controls when developing the web page built into the eShop.
Speaking of the Windows RT game that made like 80 bucks:
NPD research published some horrible news for Microsoft (MSFT) this week:
Despite releasing an entirely new operating system on October 22 of this year, WindowsPC sales shrank 21 percent between 10/21 and 11/17 versus the same period last year.
Windows 8 tablet sales during that period were "almost nonexistent" — just 1 percent of all Windows 8 sales.
Yikes. Oh, and remember the version of Surface that will actually run Windows 8 and 7 stuff? It starts at $899. Meanwhile you can get an iPad mini for $329.
Something's gone horribly wrong at Microsoft.
I wasn't expecting Playstation Random Words No Really We're Not Smash Bros. to do well, but less than 80K? Jesus.
Then again it got a Metacritic score of 76, which in the era of game inflation is fairly meh, plus it was released on a console largely clustered around the hardcore, who as a group don't go for crazy cartoony stuff.
And adding insult to injury a minor patch designed to nerf one of the characters managed to break the game.
So no Bioshock Vita? Are there any more reasonably high-profile third-party games coming to Vita?
The Suface Pro wasn't ever designed to compete with tablets, and especially not with the Ipad Mini, so using that as an example doesn't work.
It's meant to compete against other ultrabooks, so if you want an apple product to compare it to, it would be the Macbook Air. and on that front it's pricing and specs are very competitive.
...aside from the fact that you can buy a decent laptop that runs the full version of Windows 8 and all the legacy stuff AND has a keyboard for $500 nowadays.
Someone should let the industry know that ultrabooks are officially dead, now that laptops are a thing.
Speaking of the Windows RT game that made like 80 bucks:
NPD research published some horrible news for Microsoft (MSFT) this week:
Despite releasing an entirely new operating system on October 22 of this year, WindowsPC sales shrank 21 percent between 10/21 and 11/17 versus the same period last year.
Windows 8 tablet sales during that period were "almost nonexistent" — just 1 percent of all Windows 8 sales.
Yikes. Oh, and remember the version of Surface that will actually run Windows 8 and 7 stuff? It starts at $899. Meanwhile you can get an iPad mini for $329.
Something's gone horribly wrong at Microsoft.
I wasn't expecting Playstation Random Words No Really We're Not Smash Bros. to do well, but less than 80K? Jesus.
Then again it got a Metacritic score of 76, which in the era of game inflation is fairly meh, plus it was released on a console largely clustered around the hardcore, who as a group don't go for crazy cartoony stuff.
And adding insult to injury a minor patch designed to nerf one of the characters managed to break the game.
So no Bioshock Vita? Are there any more reasonably high-profile third-party games coming to Vita?
The Suface Pro wasn't ever designed to compete with tablets, and especially not with the Ipad Mini, so using that as an example doesn't work.
It's meant to compete against other ultrabooks, so if you want an apple product to compare it to, it would be the Macbook Air. and on that front it's pricing and specs are very competitive.
...aside from the fact that you can buy a decent laptop that runs the full version of Windows 8 and all the legacy stuff AND has a keyboard for $500 nowadays.
Someone should let the industry know that ultrabooks are officially dead, now that laptops are a thing.
I'm reading the NPD thread over the WiiU software numbers at GAF , one guy who has access to the final numbers says the difference between MarioU and #2 ZombieU is a "gulf". Says the numbers are sad and pretty troubling. He can't give the total obviuosly but states he doesn't think anyone can come close to guessing how bad it is.
Guessing we can expect a ZombieU port to 360/PS3 sooner rather than later (unless it's already announced?)
Analyst house IHS iSuppli has slashed its forecast for Ultrabook sales by more than half for this year, and the outlook for 2013 could hardly be described as rosy, as well.
Earlier in the year, iSuppli predicted that 22 million of the svelte laptops would ship by the end of 2012, but it's now cut that forecast to 10.3 million. It's hedging its bets even further by saying the platform will need a lot of sales in the last quarter to meet even that new target. iSuppli's Ultrabook sales estimate for 2013 has also fallen, from 61 to 44 million units.
"So far, the PC industry has failed to create the kind of buzz and excitement among consumers that is required to propel ultrabooks into the mainstream," said Craig Stice, senior principal analyst for compute platforms at IHS in an emailed statement.
"This is especially a problem amid all the hype surrounding media tablets and smartphones," he writes. "When combined with other factors, including prohibitively high pricing, this means that ultrabook sales will not meet expectations in 2012."
Quite simply the platform is overpriced, undersold, and no one – outside of Intel – appears very excited about it. iSuppli's latest figures look very optimistic, with Q4 sales needing to outpace all Ultrabook sales for the rest of the year combined to make the reduced targets. The analyst's figures for 2013 look even more pie-in-the-sky to this El Reg hack.
Guessing we can expect a ZombieU port to 360/PS3 sooner rather than later (unless it's already announced?)
It seems highly unlikely. Without the Gamepad, the game would be noticeably worse and delayed ports usually don't sell all that well even in the best of cases.
Plus the game probably did better in Europe where it was a bundle option. And well, it's not like there's a ton of Wii U software options at the moment - I expect it'll have a pretty good sales life as more people buy the system.
The 5 events that shook the video game industry in 2012
When 38 Studios imploded
When the doctors left the building (Bioware)
When the world hurled money at the little console that could (Ouya)
When #1reasonwhy made us all angry (women in the industry speak out about their frustrations on Twitter, i.e. 1 reason why they don't feel comfortable working where they are)
When professionals screamed for blood (this one probably needs explanation:)
This year's E3 was a weird one for us -- as you may have read previously -- but one particular moment sticks out, and is something we're still talking about.
During Sony's big annual press conference, with cameras rolling and the internet livestreaming and major media documenting what's new in the video game industry, we were all shown several minutes of gameplay of Naughty Dog's upcoming adventure game The Last of Us. It's an impressive game that, frankly, looks like it'll be great.
However, at the end of the demonstration, our protagonist -- who, granted, has been defending himself from enemies who would see him dead -- points a shotgun straight at a guy's face who literally begs for his life before being blown to pieces.
And in the crowded room full of video game professionals, the audience erupted in applause. I saw some people stand up in excitement. One guy threw punches at the air, unable to contain his joy at having seen this.
It remains to be seen if this moment is going to have any impact on the rest of the industry, but I think Gamasutra changed at that moment. All of us were frankly bored and a bit disgusted by the endless extreme violence we were seeing at the show earlier that day, but that moment really turned us off of triple-A video games for a while.
Here we are in an industry creating some of the most beautiful works of art that have ever been seen, literally redefining how humans interact with the very world they live in, and this is how we're represented at the largest trade show of the year?
Was it an overreaction? Maybe. But looking back over everything we wrote in 2012, I can't help but notice subtle changes to the way we covered this industry starting from that moment. We've been returning big publisher PR phone calls just a little bit less often, for better or for worse, and have retrenched a bit to focus more on what makes games great, as opposed to what games are selling the most.
Glad I wasn't the only one weirded out by the bloodlust as Sony's keynote. Between the Last of Us demo and then all the crazy shit that went on in the God of War video, it all got cheered on big by the audience.
Glad I wasn't the only one weirded out by the bloodlust as Sony's keynote. Between the Last of Us demo and then all the crazy shit that went on in the God of War video, it all got cheered on big by the audience.
If anything I kind of roll my eyes at it. Not like games suddenly got violent.
I mean not saying the reaction wasn't weird but it seems like a strange time to take a stand on it.
Guessing we can expect a ZombieU port to 360/PS3 sooner rather than later (unless it's already announced?)
It seems highly unlikely. Without the Gamepad, the game would be noticeably worse and delayed ports usually don't sell all that well even in the best of cases.
Plus the game probably did better in Europe where it was a bundle option. And well, it's not like there's a ton of Wii U software options at the moment - I expect it'll have a pretty good sales life as more people buy the system.
It's actually possible with the 360 and Smartglass. Is it likely to happen? No.
I can't see Ubisoft putting the effort into such a port unless Microsoft actually allows iPad's and Android tablets to use it as initially promised. There just isn't enough of an install base for Surface tablet's to support the cost of the port.
Glad I wasn't the only one weirded out by the bloodlust as Sony's keynote. Between the Last of Us demo and then all the crazy shit that went on in the God of War video, it all got cheered on big by the audience.
If anything I kind of roll my eyes at it. Not like games suddenly got violent.
I mean not saying the reaction wasn't weird but it seems like a strange time to take a stand on it.
You're conflating the issue. I'm not complaining about the violence; I'm complaining about the reaction to the violence.
Like, take the Last of Us video: shooting a dude begging for his life should be shocking and offputting (or at least that's how I think it should feel, and how it did feel to me.) It's not something I think you should be going "Woo!" about.
Glad I wasn't the only one weirded out by the bloodlust as Sony's keynote. Between the Last of Us demo and then all the crazy shit that went on in the God of War video, it all got cheered on big by the audience.
It's the conflation of the two that's especially odd. God of War is aimed directly at eliciting that feeling, while The Last of Us is (from what I've gathered) hoping to undercut that same violence lusting. It felt like a crowd cheering during the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan.
The over the top violence and action thing can still be done right (Saint's Row is blowing my mind in a great way right now) but so much of the industry is made up of pursuing aggression and 'badass' moments in a serious context that it is getting kind of boring. That's not to doomsay, because there's a lot more diversity in the industry as a whole right now, but I agree with their remarks regarding AAA games. Murder murder murder, cheer cheer cheer isn't just weird from an overly analytical moral standpoint now. It's also increasingly stale.
Glad I wasn't the only one weirded out by the bloodlust as Sony's keynote. Between the Last of Us demo and then all the crazy shit that went on in the God of War video, it all got cheered on big by the audience.
It's the conflation of the two that's especially odd. God of War is aimed directly at eliciting that feeling, while The Last of Us is (from what I've gathered) hoping to undercut that same violence lusting. It felt like a crowd cheering during the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan.
The over the top violence and action thing can still be done right (Saint's Row is blowing my mind in a great way right now) but so much of the industry is made up of pursuing aggression and 'badass' moments in a serious context that it is getting kind of boring. That's not to doomsay, because there's a lot more diversity in the industry as a whole right now, but I agree with their remarks regarding AAA games. Murder murder murder, cheer cheer cheer isn't just weird from an overly analytical moral standpoint now. It's also increasingly stale.
I always felt the applause eruption was for the sudden and dramatic end to an amazing demonstration. It literally ended with the gunshot, a blank screen, and then the games title and people went bananas.
+3
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
Glad I wasn't the only one weirded out by the bloodlust as Sony's keynote. Between the Last of Us demo and then all the crazy shit that went on in the God of War video, it all got cheered on big by the audience.
If anything I kind of roll my eyes at it. Not like games suddenly got violent.
I mean not saying the reaction wasn't weird but it seems like a strange time to take a stand on it.
You're conflating the issue. I'm not complaining about the violence; I'm complaining about the reaction to the violence.
Like, take the Last of Us video: shooting a dude begging for his life should be shocking and offputting (or at least that's how I think it should feel, and how it did feel to me.) It's not something I think you should be going "Woo!" about.
More "Oh shit! " and less "Awesome! "
And my problem is that people point the finger at that event but I didn't see many asking or even thinking about why you would get a reaction like that in the first place.
In general, I feel it just shows off the lack of self-reflection that is prevalent in the industry.
And though I feel that its good that people are finally looking inward, don't feel like they're going all that deep.
Dragkonias on
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
The way that the Last of Us trailer ended didn't have me going, "Fuck yeah, that was rad" because a dude was being shot in the face. It was just the overall trailer coming to that point and ending with a pretty traditional "cut to black before heinous act is shown." If they make that kind of moment in the game uncensored 100%, it's going to be awkward as shit to play.
As for the issue of the guy begging for his life, he was trying to kill you just prior and suddenly begs for life. Am I supposed to feel sympathetic for a (would-be) murderer? Yes actually. But luckily this is a video game and I can cut loose.
There is something to be said about looking into why we (meaning gamers in general) find it so easy to just switch off whatever morality we have and just go whole hog to the dark side like we were playing a BioWare game.
'Hi, kid! Nice lollipop you got there. And now that it's in my possession, it won't get dirty as I kick you into that mud pit over there.'
A room full of people cheering for the execution of a 'person', even if they were an enemy, should require a bit more thought than 'Who gives a shit, it's just a game!'
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
I think it's a mastery of separating reality from fantasy. In reality I restrain myself because there's real consequences to what's happening. In fantasy, I can act on the things I suppress.
Unless we find out that every incarnation in every playthrough / replay of NPCs in games do in fact have souls, living tortured brief experiences to die.
Well as other people have pointed out, the cheering perhaps wasn't necessarily for that one specific moment. But for a tense, impressive demonstration with a powerful finish.
Speaking of the Windows RT game that made like 80 bucks:
NPD research published some horrible news for Microsoft (MSFT) this week:
Despite releasing an entirely new operating system on October 22 of this year, WindowsPC sales shrank 21 percent between 10/21 and 11/17 versus the same period last year.
Windows 8 tablet sales during that period were "almost nonexistent" — just 1 percent of all Windows 8 sales.
Yikes. Oh, and remember the version of Surface that will actually run Windows 8 and 7 stuff? It starts at $899. Meanwhile you can get an iPad mini for $329.
Something's gone horribly wrong at Microsoft.
I wasn't expecting Playstation Random Words No Really We're Not Smash Bros. to do well, but less than 80K? Jesus.
Then again it got a Metacritic score of 76, which in the era of game inflation is fairly meh, plus it was released on a console largely clustered around the hardcore, who as a group don't go for crazy cartoony stuff.
And adding insult to injury a minor patch designed to nerf one of the characters managed to break the game.
So no Bioshock Vita? Are there any more reasonably high-profile third-party games coming to Vita?
The Suface Pro wasn't ever designed to compete with tablets, and especially not with the Ipad Mini, so using that as an example doesn't work.
It's meant to compete against other ultrabooks, so if you want an apple product to compare it to, it would be the Macbook Air. and on that front it's pricing and specs are very competitive.
...aside from the fact that you can buy a decent laptop that runs the full version of Windows 8 and all the legacy stuff AND has a keyboard for $500 nowadays.
Someone should let the industry know that ultrabooks are officially dead, now that laptops are a thing.
...ultrabooks are just expensive laptops. In fact the whole "ultrabook" thing was just a marketing term coined by Intel.
If the Surface Pro is competing with ultrabooks, they're also competing with laptops.
To this day, I don't know why anyone would buy a Macbook Air with the possible exception of showing it off. But I work in an office.
Then again, in the scale of the worldwide computer market, practically no one does, so your theory might work. It certainly holds better than the claim it's just an overpriced iPad Mini with a 1080p screen and the ability to run legacy software, because no one actually uses either of those functions.
I think it's a mastery of separating reality from fantasy. In reality I restrain myself because there's real consequences to what's happening. In fantasy, I can act on the things I suppress.
Unless we find out that every incarnation in every playthrough / replay of NPCs in games do in fact have souls, living tortured brief experiences to die.
'Mastery'? What kind of mothergoosery is that shit? I don't agonnise over life or death choices in game, but I'm not going to shut off my morality every time I play just because it's possible.
But hey, I appreciate you making me sound like I'm defective because I think this sort of thing is fucking grotesque.
Speaking of the Windows RT game that made like 80 bucks:
NPD research published some horrible news for Microsoft (MSFT) this week:
Despite releasing an entirely new operating system on October 22 of this year, WindowsPC sales shrank 21 percent between 10/21 and 11/17 versus the same period last year.
Windows 8 tablet sales during that period were "almost nonexistent" — just 1 percent of all Windows 8 sales.
Yikes. Oh, and remember the version of Surface that will actually run Windows 8 and 7 stuff? It starts at $899. Meanwhile you can get an iPad mini for $329.
Something's gone horribly wrong at Microsoft.
I wasn't expecting Playstation Random Words No Really We're Not Smash Bros. to do well, but less than 80K? Jesus.
Then again it got a Metacritic score of 76, which in the era of game inflation is fairly meh, plus it was released on a console largely clustered around the hardcore, who as a group don't go for crazy cartoony stuff.
And adding insult to injury a minor patch designed to nerf one of the characters managed to break the game.
So no Bioshock Vita? Are there any more reasonably high-profile third-party games coming to Vita?
The Suface Pro wasn't ever designed to compete with tablets, and especially not with the Ipad Mini, so using that as an example doesn't work.
It's meant to compete against other ultrabooks, so if you want an apple product to compare it to, it would be the Macbook Air. and on that front it's pricing and specs are very competitive.
...aside from the fact that you can buy a decent laptop that runs the full version of Windows 8 and all the legacy stuff AND has a keyboard for $500 nowadays.
Someone should let the industry know that ultrabooks are officially dead, now that laptops are a thing.
...ultrabooks are just expensive laptops. In fact the whole "ultrabook" thing was just a marketing term coined by Intel.
If the Surface Pro is competing with ultrabooks, they're also competing with laptops.
To this day, I don't know why anyone would buy a Macbook Air with the possible exception of showing it off. But I work in an office.
Then again, in the scale of the worldwide computer market, practically no one does, so your theory might work. It certainly holds better than the claim it's just an overpriced iPad Mini with a 1080p screen and the ability to run legacy software, because no one actually uses either of those functions.
Because people who are on the road a lot want a lightweight notebook with good battery life? The "ultrabook" moniker was a construct by Intel, that's true, but it was created specifically to go head to head with the Air.
Speaking of the Windows RT game that made like 80 bucks:
NPD research published some horrible news for Microsoft (MSFT) this week:
Despite releasing an entirely new operating system on October 22 of this year, WindowsPC sales shrank 21 percent between 10/21 and 11/17 versus the same period last year.
Windows 8 tablet sales during that period were "almost nonexistent" — just 1 percent of all Windows 8 sales.
Yikes. Oh, and remember the version of Surface that will actually run Windows 8 and 7 stuff? It starts at $899. Meanwhile you can get an iPad mini for $329.
Something's gone horribly wrong at Microsoft.
I wasn't expecting Playstation Random Words No Really We're Not Smash Bros. to do well, but less than 80K? Jesus.
Then again it got a Metacritic score of 76, which in the era of game inflation is fairly meh, plus it was released on a console largely clustered around the hardcore, who as a group don't go for crazy cartoony stuff.
And adding insult to injury a minor patch designed to nerf one of the characters managed to break the game.
So no Bioshock Vita? Are there any more reasonably high-profile third-party games coming to Vita?
The Suface Pro wasn't ever designed to compete with tablets, and especially not with the Ipad Mini, so using that as an example doesn't work.
It's meant to compete against other ultrabooks, so if you want an apple product to compare it to, it would be the Macbook Air. and on that front it's pricing and specs are very competitive.
...aside from the fact that you can buy a decent laptop that runs the full version of Windows 8 and all the legacy stuff AND has a keyboard for $500 nowadays.
Someone should let the industry know that ultrabooks are officially dead, now that laptops are a thing.
...ultrabooks are just expensive laptops. In fact the whole "ultrabook" thing was just a marketing term coined by Intel.
If the Surface Pro is competing with ultrabooks, they're also competing with laptops.
To this day, I don't know why anyone would buy a Macbook Air with the possible exception of showing it off. But I work in an office.
Then again, in the scale of the worldwide computer market, practically no one does, so your theory might work. It certainly holds better than the claim it's just an overpriced iPad Mini with a 1080p screen and the ability to run legacy software, because no one actually uses either of those functions.
Because people who are on the road a lot want a lightweight notebook with good battery life? The "ultrabook" moniker was a construct by Intel, that's true, but it was created specifically to go head to head with the Air.
Then there is a market for an $899 Surface Pro. Especially if they're looking for something in a smaller tablet (well, 10" versus 11" or 13" I suppose) form that will work with existing hardware (courtesy of USB 3.0).
Speaking of the Windows RT game that made like 80 bucks:
NPD research published some horrible news for Microsoft (MSFT) this week:
Despite releasing an entirely new operating system on October 22 of this year, WindowsPC sales shrank 21 percent between 10/21 and 11/17 versus the same period last year.
Windows 8 tablet sales during that period were "almost nonexistent" — just 1 percent of all Windows 8 sales.
Yikes. Oh, and remember the version of Surface that will actually run Windows 8 and 7 stuff? It starts at $899. Meanwhile you can get an iPad mini for $329.
Something's gone horribly wrong at Microsoft.
I wasn't expecting Playstation Random Words No Really We're Not Smash Bros. to do well, but less than 80K? Jesus.
Then again it got a Metacritic score of 76, which in the era of game inflation is fairly meh, plus it was released on a console largely clustered around the hardcore, who as a group don't go for crazy cartoony stuff.
And adding insult to injury a minor patch designed to nerf one of the characters managed to break the game.
So no Bioshock Vita? Are there any more reasonably high-profile third-party games coming to Vita?
The Suface Pro wasn't ever designed to compete with tablets, and especially not with the Ipad Mini, so using that as an example doesn't work.
It's meant to compete against other ultrabooks, so if you want an apple product to compare it to, it would be the Macbook Air. and on that front it's pricing and specs are very competitive.
...aside from the fact that you can buy a decent laptop that runs the full version of Windows 8 and all the legacy stuff AND has a keyboard for $500 nowadays.
Someone should let the industry know that ultrabooks are officially dead, now that laptops are a thing.
...ultrabooks are just expensive laptops. In fact the whole "ultrabook" thing was just a marketing term coined by Intel.
If the Surface Pro is competing with ultrabooks, they're also competing with laptops.
To this day, I don't know why anyone would buy a Macbook Air with the possible exception of showing it off. But I work in an office.
Then again, in the scale of the worldwide computer market, practically no one does, so your theory might work. It certainly holds better than the claim it's just an overpriced iPad Mini with a 1080p screen and the ability to run legacy software, because no one actually uses either of those functions.
Because people who are on the road a lot want a lightweight notebook with good battery life? The "ultrabook" moniker was a construct by Intel, that's true, but it was created specifically to go head to head with the Air.
Not to mention that it has a solid state hard drive, so it boots up really fast. It really is an amazingly slick piece of hardware. Not good for gaming (no Mac is) but it's great for most everything else, and it'll play enough games to sate the average gamer's appetite so long as they don;t expect it to do well as their sole gaming platform like a PC would.
Speaking of the Windows RT game that made like 80 bucks:
NPD research published some horrible news for Microsoft (MSFT) this week:
Despite releasing an entirely new operating system on October 22 of this year, WindowsPC sales shrank 21 percent between 10/21 and 11/17 versus the same period last year.
Windows 8 tablet sales during that period were "almost nonexistent" — just 1 percent of all Windows 8 sales.
Yikes. Oh, and remember the version of Surface that will actually run Windows 8 and 7 stuff? It starts at $899. Meanwhile you can get an iPad mini for $329.
Something's gone horribly wrong at Microsoft.
I wasn't expecting Playstation Random Words No Really We're Not Smash Bros. to do well, but less than 80K? Jesus.
Then again it got a Metacritic score of 76, which in the era of game inflation is fairly meh, plus it was released on a console largely clustered around the hardcore, who as a group don't go for crazy cartoony stuff.
And adding insult to injury a minor patch designed to nerf one of the characters managed to break the game.
So no Bioshock Vita? Are there any more reasonably high-profile third-party games coming to Vita?
The Suface Pro wasn't ever designed to compete with tablets, and especially not with the Ipad Mini, so using that as an example doesn't work.
It's meant to compete against other ultrabooks, so if you want an apple product to compare it to, it would be the Macbook Air. and on that front it's pricing and specs are very competitive.
...aside from the fact that you can buy a decent laptop that runs the full version of Windows 8 and all the legacy stuff AND has a keyboard for $500 nowadays.
Someone should let the industry know that ultrabooks are officially dead, now that laptops are a thing.
...ultrabooks are just expensive laptops. In fact the whole "ultrabook" thing was just a marketing term coined by Intel.
If the Surface Pro is competing with ultrabooks, they're also competing with laptops.
To this day, I don't know why anyone would buy a Macbook Air with the possible exception of showing it off. But I work in an office.
Then again, in the scale of the worldwide computer market, practically no one does, so your theory might work. It certainly holds better than the claim it's just an overpriced iPad Mini with a 1080p screen and the ability to run legacy software, because no one actually uses either of those functions.
Because people who are on the road a lot want a lightweight notebook with good battery life? The "ultrabook" moniker was a construct by Intel, that's true, but it was created specifically to go head to head with the Air.
Not to mention that it has a solid state hard drive, so it boots up really fast. It really is an amazingly slick piece of hardware. Not good for gaming (no Mac is) but it's great for most everything else, and it'll play enough games to sate the average gamer's appetite so long as they don;t expect it to do well as their sole gaming platform like a PC would.
There are Macs that function adequately for gaming. They just happen to rely on a cornerstone of dual-boot and copies of Windows operating systems.
I think it's a mastery of separating reality from fantasy. In reality I restrain myself because there's real consequences to what's happening. In fantasy, I can act on the things I suppress.
Unless we find out that every incarnation in every playthrough / replay of NPCs in games do in fact have souls, living tortured brief experiences to die.
The thing that strikes me as most strange is that people playing games almost always approach them in the same way that audiences do action movies. A character can kill hundreds of people and still be the hero because of the context that it's being viewed in. Yet when you watch a more dramatic, serious movie or read a decent piece of fiction, killing is generally not a minor event. Your opinions of a character are changed by the morals that they operate on and the actions that they take in relation to others. For whatever reason this is hard to transfer to video games.
Somehow the act of 'being' the viewpoint character actually seems to reduce the significance of the morality we ascribe to fictional beings. It's a weird thematic application of the RPG trope that if it doesn't happen in a cutscene (ie out of your control) it doesn't matter. I'm not sure if that's because of some weird quirk of human nature or the fact that mindless slaughter has been a part of gaming for so long.
Additionally, I can't claim to know how you specifically operate, but I'm always bothered by the 'acting on suppressed fantasies' explanation for in-game carnage. The majority of human beings aren't walking around holding back a desire to wreak havoc on the population of a city, even in a subconscious way. Admittedly, we generally love to break shit, but that's a couple steps away from simulating shooting up a village. Personally, the feelings I got from casually violent games when I played them on the regular were nothing like the feelings I've felt in actual violent situations. It's not a release of any sort so much as a complete absence of emotional connection (though this has changed over the years, and as a result I'm less comfortable with playing that sort of game). I'm not ascribing some sort of sociopathic tendencies to completely divorcing games from reality (obviously it's a better choice than the inverse), but it does trouble me when it's a commonly accepted part of the industry.
Since everyone debating this issue wants to keep ignoring it, ill say it once more for those who said it above.
If you think they were all cheering just because a dude was about to get his head blown off, I would say you're further past dead wrong than I can measure.
Is it so wrong to cheer when you see an amazing demo for a game that looks amazing, from a company known for making amazing games? I mean really. Does it have to be that everyone in that room is a sociopath heathen that wants to destroy other living beings?
mastrius on
"You're like a kitten! A kitten who doesn't speak Japanese." ~ Juliet Starling
I wasn't referring specifically to that trailer in this case, if you're talking about me, but all the same: That wasn't the context the video was being offered in. I really don't want to go dig up the full conference right now, but the reaction wasn't drawn around the fact that the game looked amazing. It was an extremely quiet demo with pretty tepid audience response up until the headshot begging scene. I'm not saying everybody in the room is a frothing murder goblin, but it was a very odd, and pretty obviously visceral, reaction.
The discussion being had isn't based entirely around that demo either. It's a focal point for the broader discussion, not the crux of the argument.
The Last of Us. Is that the game with the same basic premise as every other first person shooter on the market, except it's supposed to be emotional significant for some reason?
I think it's a mastery of separating reality from fantasy. In reality I restrain myself because there's real consequences to what's happening. In fantasy, I can act on the things I suppress.
Unless we find out that every incarnation in every playthrough / replay of NPCs in games do in fact have souls, living tortured brief experiences to die.
'Mastery'? What kind of mothergoosery is that shit? I don't agonnise over life or death choices in game, but I'm not going to shut off my morality every time I play just because it's possible.
But hey, I appreciate you making me sound like I'm defective because I think this sort of thing is fucking grotesque.
I think what I said extends to you too, Santa. I'm willing to bet that none of us replicated shit we saw in video games. Because we all understand reality and fantasy being things.
I don't know if it's a morality choice though, because it's a video game. I recognize what the real world implications would be. I give it consideration. If the game gives me a chance to incapacitate the guy in a different manner, I will go for it. But if the action of blowing a dude away in that game is the only means, I'll either put up with it if the rest of the game is worth it or I'll stop if it's too frequent or the game ends up offering me nothing for it.
But at the end of the day, it's programmed events in a video game.
If it makes you feel better I prefer playing good guys in games that give you choices to be bad or not. Because villainy in video games is dumb.
@LoveIsUnity, we do not comprehend the organic fascination of self-poisoning, auditory damage and sexually transmitted disease. Infracted @LoveIsUnity (2 points for 30 days) for "this off-topic crap still not being kosher in the Industry Thread."
I wasn't referring specifically to that trailer in this case, if you're talking about me, but all the same: That wasn't the context the video was being offered in. I really don't want to go dig up the full conference right now, but the reaction wasn't drawn around the fact that the game looked amazing. It was an extremely quiet demo with pretty tepid audience response up until the headshot begging scene. I'm not saying everybody in the room is a frothing murder goblin, but it was a very odd, and pretty obviously visceral, reaction.
The discussion being had isn't based entirely around that demo either. It's a focal point for the broader discussion, not the crux of the argument.
It was quiet because nobody wanted to miss a bit of the awesome demo. They wanted to get perfect footage of it and/or savored it up until the end. It's the same reason people are quiet in movie theaters. If nobody makes noise during a movie I don't consider that a tepid response, I consider that respectful and polite.
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Just seems fucking stupid and counter-productive.
Someone should let the industry know that ultrabooks are officially dead, now that laptops are a thing.
http://www.newegg.com/ultrabooks/?name=Ultrabooks - 0 of them are under $500, therefore not competitive.
...ultrabooks are just expensive laptops. In fact the whole "ultrabook" thing was just a marketing term coined by Intel.
If the Surface Pro is competing with ultrabooks, they're also competing with laptops.
Guessing we can expect a ZombieU port to 360/PS3 sooner rather than later (unless it's already announced?)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/01/isuppli_slashes_ultrabook_estimates/
It seems highly unlikely. Without the Gamepad, the game would be noticeably worse and delayed ports usually don't sell all that well even in the best of cases.
Plus the game probably did better in Europe where it was a bundle option. And well, it's not like there's a ton of Wii U software options at the moment - I expect it'll have a pretty good sales life as more people buy the system.
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is that gonna be the naming convention for wii-u games, throw an uppercase U in there?
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You can read the whole details on Gamasutra if you'd like, but for now:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/182954/The_5_trends_that_defined_the_game_industry_in_2012.php#.UMJfKXf4J8E
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/183134/The_5_events_that_shook_the_video_game_industry_in_2012.php#.UMJfK3f4J8E
Haha. I apologize. Here is the link to the Bungie rumors: misriahsolutions.com/2012/12/03/picturing-destiny/
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
If anything I kind of roll my eyes at it. Not like games suddenly got violent.
I mean not saying the reaction wasn't weird but it seems like a strange time to take a stand on it.
It's actually possible with the 360 and Smartglass. Is it likely to happen? No.
I can't see Ubisoft putting the effort into such a port unless Microsoft actually allows iPad's and Android tablets to use it as initially promised. There just isn't enough of an install base for Surface tablet's to support the cost of the port.
You're conflating the issue. I'm not complaining about the violence; I'm complaining about the reaction to the violence.
Like, take the Last of Us video: shooting a dude begging for his life should be shocking and offputting (or at least that's how I think it should feel, and how it did feel to me.) It's not something I think you should be going "Woo!" about.
More "Oh shit!
It's the conflation of the two that's especially odd. God of War is aimed directly at eliciting that feeling, while The Last of Us is (from what I've gathered) hoping to undercut that same violence lusting. It felt like a crowd cheering during the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan.
The over the top violence and action thing can still be done right (Saint's Row is blowing my mind in a great way right now) but so much of the industry is made up of pursuing aggression and 'badass' moments in a serious context that it is getting kind of boring. That's not to doomsay, because there's a lot more diversity in the industry as a whole right now, but I agree with their remarks regarding AAA games. Murder murder murder, cheer cheer cheer isn't just weird from an overly analytical moral standpoint now. It's also increasingly stale.
Or maybe we're just getting old and jaded.
And my problem is that people point the finger at that event but I didn't see many asking or even thinking about why you would get a reaction like that in the first place.
In general, I feel it just shows off the lack of self-reflection that is prevalent in the industry.
And though I feel that its good that people are finally looking inward, don't feel like they're going all that deep.
As for the issue of the guy begging for his life, he was trying to kill you just prior and suddenly begs for life. Am I supposed to feel sympathetic for a (would-be) murderer? Yes actually. But luckily this is a video game and I can cut loose.
'Hi, kid! Nice lollipop you got there. And now that it's in my possession, it won't get dirty as I kick you into that mud pit over there.'
A room full of people cheering for the execution of a 'person', even if they were an enemy, should require a bit more thought than 'Who gives a shit, it's just a game!'
Unless we find out that every incarnation in every playthrough / replay of NPCs in games do in fact have souls, living tortured brief experiences to die.
My Let's Play Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC2go70QLfwGq-hW4nvUqmog
To this day, I don't know why anyone would buy a Macbook Air with the possible exception of showing it off. But I work in an office.
Then again, in the scale of the worldwide computer market, practically no one does, so your theory might work. It certainly holds better than the claim it's just an overpriced iPad Mini with a 1080p screen and the ability to run legacy software, because no one actually uses either of those functions.
'Mastery'? What kind of mothergoosery is that shit? I don't agonnise over life or death choices in game, but I'm not going to shut off my morality every time I play just because it's possible.
But hey, I appreciate you making me sound like I'm defective because I think this sort of thing is fucking grotesque.
Because people who are on the road a lot want a lightweight notebook with good battery life? The "ultrabook" moniker was a construct by Intel, that's true, but it was created specifically to go head to head with the Air.
Then there is a market for an $899 Surface Pro. Especially if they're looking for something in a smaller tablet (well, 10" versus 11" or 13" I suppose) form that will work with existing hardware (courtesy of USB 3.0).
Not to mention that it has a solid state hard drive, so it boots up really fast. It really is an amazingly slick piece of hardware. Not good for gaming (no Mac is) but it's great for most everything else, and it'll play enough games to sate the average gamer's appetite so long as they don;t expect it to do well as their sole gaming platform like a PC would.
There are Macs that function adequately for gaming. They just happen to rely on a cornerstone of dual-boot and copies of Windows operating systems.
The thing that strikes me as most strange is that people playing games almost always approach them in the same way that audiences do action movies. A character can kill hundreds of people and still be the hero because of the context that it's being viewed in. Yet when you watch a more dramatic, serious movie or read a decent piece of fiction, killing is generally not a minor event. Your opinions of a character are changed by the morals that they operate on and the actions that they take in relation to others. For whatever reason this is hard to transfer to video games.
Somehow the act of 'being' the viewpoint character actually seems to reduce the significance of the morality we ascribe to fictional beings. It's a weird thematic application of the RPG trope that if it doesn't happen in a cutscene (ie out of your control) it doesn't matter. I'm not sure if that's because of some weird quirk of human nature or the fact that mindless slaughter has been a part of gaming for so long.
Additionally, I can't claim to know how you specifically operate, but I'm always bothered by the 'acting on suppressed fantasies' explanation for in-game carnage. The majority of human beings aren't walking around holding back a desire to wreak havoc on the population of a city, even in a subconscious way. Admittedly, we generally love to break shit, but that's a couple steps away from simulating shooting up a village. Personally, the feelings I got from casually violent games when I played them on the regular were nothing like the feelings I've felt in actual violent situations. It's not a release of any sort so much as a complete absence of emotional connection (though this has changed over the years, and as a result I'm less comfortable with playing that sort of game). I'm not ascribing some sort of sociopathic tendencies to completely divorcing games from reality (obviously it's a better choice than the inverse), but it does trouble me when it's a commonly accepted part of the industry.
If you think they were all cheering just because a dude was about to get his head blown off, I would say you're further past dead wrong than I can measure.
Is it so wrong to cheer when you see an amazing demo for a game that looks amazing, from a company known for making amazing games? I mean really. Does it have to be that everyone in that room is a sociopath heathen that wants to destroy other living beings?
The discussion being had isn't based entirely around that demo either. It's a focal point for the broader discussion, not the crux of the argument.
I think what I said extends to you too, Santa. I'm willing to bet that none of us replicated shit we saw in video games. Because we all understand reality and fantasy being things.
I don't know if it's a morality choice though, because it's a video game. I recognize what the real world implications would be. I give it consideration. If the game gives me a chance to incapacitate the guy in a different manner, I will go for it. But if the action of blowing a dude away in that game is the only means, I'll either put up with it if the rest of the game is worth it or I'll stop if it's too frequent or the game ends up offering me nothing for it.
But at the end of the day, it's programmed events in a video game.
If it makes you feel better I prefer playing good guys in games that give you choices to be bad or not. Because villainy in video games is dumb.
Infracted @LoveIsUnity (2 points for 30 days) for "this off-topic crap still not being kosher in the Industry Thread."
It was quiet because nobody wanted to miss a bit of the awesome demo. They wanted to get perfect footage of it and/or savored it up until the end. It's the same reason people are quiet in movie theaters. If nobody makes noise during a movie I don't consider that a tepid response, I consider that respectful and polite.