its still not true hd. all these 600p or sub 600p games in the so called hd gen when games like quake 2 were hd years ago

imprezawrx500

If I recall correctly, GTA4 360 was indeed in 720p. Gears was, too.

wait, did you play Tribes? the shield pack did the recovering shield - it linked your energy pack to a shield, which slowly recovered energy as your bar refilled. otherwise your health didn't regen, exactly like halo's health/shield mechanic. it's just that nobody really bothered to use it, because energy/repair packs were so much more useful in Tribes' gameplay paradigm. ditto for grenades... they were bound to the G key, and hitting it would (without switching away from your weapon) instantly throw a sticky grenade that functioned exactly like Halo's plasma grenades. melee, yeah.. that fell to mods, but in terms of functionality it was something that had been around since some of the oldest post-Doom PC FPS and had fallen out of favor with devs (i.e. Duke Nukem 3D's boot attack). melee in Tribes was pretty much useless though, as everybody was moving way, way, way too fast... like trying to to Mongoose-only melee or something in Halo 3.Makari

holy heck, you're right. I forgot all about the shield pack. You're absolutely right. As for the grenades, that's why I mentioned the "triad" specifically - the inclusion of all three is important.

Frankly, I've seen Halo as a bit of an integrator. It didn't really create a revolution in a specific mechanic - more like dozens upon dozens of evolutions of different ones, along with small innovations - that overall created the ambient for one of the most important revolutions in shooter history.

I believe we're back to the argument of Quality of Implementation. Just like dual-analogs, Halo was not the absolute first to do this. It was the implementation that managed to become the reference in the genre, and it's impact is still felt.

I'm not arguing that Halo was the first to do most of what it did, only that it was the one that sparked a long part of one of the major trends in shooter design.

And yes, I played tribes. Loved the game. It was too long ago, to be honest, and I never really got into mods, which kinda put me on the sidelines. Long live the Diamond Sword!

In recent news, Andy Griffiths, director of consumer electronics at Samsung UK told Pocket-lint in an interview that he has recently purchased a new brain, seeing as his old one was prone to pure stupidity.

elbow2k

Why, because your pet format is doomed according to him?

I love me some Blu-Rays, but I'm not getting al rosy about them. It's very likely that it will be a stopgap measure, especially if standards change in the future. A new format that builds upon the next generation of HD products (which is what Griffith is talking about) could concievably be superior and more cost-effective, and better integrated to consumer electronics.

I'm not sure he's right (five years is more than enough to get sufficient consumer momentum to establish it as the de facto standard), nor that I believe he's right. Just noting the guy might have a good point - and that stupid a is more likely accurare representation of the insulter than the insultee.

[QUOTE="flatline711"]

With the way XBL is intergrated, I think it's worth the fee. With XBL, I feel connected with my friends online. With PSN not so much but again it does that have that free online. So I'd say they're pretty much even for me

IronBass

I said it wrong. Of course it is worth those $50/year (I play online almost every day). The right question:

At a cost of $50, do those features make XBL more atractive than a free PSN?

For me, the answer is yes.

Frankly, PSN has a really, really long way to go. It's great that it's free, but that's mainly because I wouldn't be willing to pay for what it offers.

Well, console charts arent always so rosy, aren't they?

Both consoles and PC libraries have their good and less good games.

IgGy621985

I know. I'm not trying to put down PC gaming or tout console superiority over the unwashed masses of hermits or anything like that. I was a PC gamer for most of my life until I changed to consoles mainly to keep up with the games most of my friends play,

I'm just calling out Frozzik's incoherent rambling.

**SNIP** ** SNIP** spydersvenom7

I did read it, I'm just saving space by cutting the quote.

- The 360, taking into account the newest pricedrop, has dropped the price by the same amount as the PS3, even though it's a year older. It has even dropped in price much slower than the PS2, which says something. If anything, they should have dropped the price faster.

- While it's true that the Xbox wasn't supported very well, it got some games well after the 360 was released, and Xbox Live is still active for all original xbox users, with the exception of EA, but that's because EA wanted to keep their own servers. It's true that the product was discontinued quickly after the 360, but as usual, that has to do with market conditions - nobody was buying the 360, either.

This does not mean that the 360 will suffer the same fate. The Xbox died because it never reached critical mass. If the 360 manages a good show, and keeps a decent market that won't immediately jump to the PS2, then it will receive continued support.

If the PS2 had the same performance as the Xbox had, Sony would have cut the cord just as quickly. Heck, the current status of the PS2 would have been much worse had both MS and Sony released at a single $300 pricepoint back then

- That Sony has not said anything about the PS4 is meaningless, they're working on it. All manufacturers must start thinking about the next gen as soon as they release the current one. What, do you think making a console takes 10-15 minutes before lunch break(must resist 360 reliability joke)?

- For a game to be made, devkits are not necessary throughout all the process. The first stages don't even need much programming, and in the middle you can get by with a target spec sheet. Ask Sony devs about this. Them PS3 final devkits weren't too early in the shipping. That, and "readying Halo 4 for next gen" can mean anything from "we're already in alpha" to "we've decided to start preproduction at a set date".

For a game to be made, it takes a long time. Especially for a new, unknown system.

As it goes, Chances are that the next Xbox will drop around 2011-2012... which would make the 360 last as long as the PS2 did, and more than what the PS1 did before the next gen dropped on them.

[QUOTE="Grive"]

(and you might wish to check PC sales...)

IgGy621985

Yeah, I mean, they're bigger than all consoles combined.

I actually meant the huge amount of casual and poor titles in the sales charts. I'm sorry, I should have specified that.

My point was based on rebbuting Frozzik's claims that PC gamers were so superior to lowly consolites because they did not fall for marketing or anything like that, and would never waste money on thrash.

Considering the current sales charts on the PC, that statement clearly landed a foot in his mouth.

Resident Evil no longer has anything to do with the survival/horror subgenre, it is now a pure action game.InsaneBasura

You played it? cool.

Any specific pointers you could give us?

I never believe the "reaching potential" posts, since nobody is really certain their code is the most efficient way to do something - there is always the possibility of a Carmack or a Sweeney getting another stroke of genius and making either a more efficient algorythm or designing a better way to fool us into making it seem more complex. Much like how Carmack managed to do curved surfaces in Q3, or what bump mapping has done.

However, I'll bite: So with current understanding, the peak will be reached somewhere in 2010?

Alright, I can live with that. I'm expecting an announcement of the new xbox somewhere around that time, with a release in late 2011 or 2012. I do believe that once you reach the performance peak there is still room for graphical improvement through "deceptive" methods, so I'd expect the absolutely best looking game to drop around 2011, if Fergusson is right.

Having the console run at it's peak for a year or so before hitting the next generation? Sounds like a decent sort of plan to me.

Good, if tension depends on limiting your ability to freely move, then the game's design has failed miserably, beyond all hope.

So I find these are good news. Either the game will be a good horror game, or the game will be a good action game.