I suspect that this will be the moment that people look back on as the moment that Ken Levine started to think he was more clever than he really was.
Or he's just making excuses for the box art because Irrational doesn't really want to pay to change something that most of us are going to look at a handful of times.
@Pro_wrestler Precisely what I was thinking. Their threat reads more like:
"Okay, if you don't stop laying off workers, we're going to take action which will do nothing that will harm the CEOs and will force you to lay off the rest of your workers.
So there."
I was also unaware that Zynga was so vital to the U.S. game market. It makes me feel bad about having never played their games or given them a penny.
Edit:Huh, HTML tags don't seem to be working. Can't put anything it italics
"easy pirating and torrenting"
Given the damage that this is doing to the PC gaming industry, it is curious that you would bring it up as an advantage. For you, maybe. For developers, it is more an advantage to develop on consoles.
"i used to think consoles were sweet until i found out about PC gaming the truth is most people that play consoles have no idea that PC gaming even exists that or they just have no technical knowledge"
Given that I worked IT for 8 years, I would imagine that I'm the exception. I used to keep my PC up to spec all the time. My 3d mark scores might not have been the highest but they were always respectable. However, with the 360, I find that I actually prefer FPS games on there because the 360 controller design is actually the first acceptable substitute. (The Wii controller can be even better as it has demonstrated in a few games but you have to have good manual dexterity to make it work.) I used to refuse to play FPS games on a console but now it is simply a more convienent way to play the games. I don't have to perform major surgery on my system to play it. I don't have to deal with DRM schemes. I can just plop the game in and play it on a console.
Further, I find, with the advent of Vista, that I just don't feel like doing the upgrade dance again. I'm glad that C&C 3 (both GDI/NOD and Red Alert) came out for XP and I really got into Dawn of War. Unreal Tournament 3 (being a big Unreal/UT fan) also was pleasing as, unlike console games, I can easily add new maps and mods to it so that was the one FPS game that I still wouldn't play on a console. However, at this point, Starcraft 2 is what I'm keeping my PC up to spec for. After Starcraft 2, I'm probably just going to let my PC fall behind.
Frankly, a lot of my weariness with PC gaming also comes from the industry. What's left of the PC gaming industry continues it's insane quest to shoot itself in the foot with all manner of DRM schemes and other idiotic ideas which do nothing but drive the honest customers away and I find that I just no longer have the desire to keep up with it or make excuses for it. I don't have anything against PC gaming and I may still be buying new games on it for awhile but I've just hit the point that I don't feel that I'll be missing much anymore. And, for those who say that I will, if you look at the release schedule before the holiday rush, you will see that the release schedule for PC games is becoming more and more anemic. It gets even worse once you eliminate all console-to-PC games. Out of the last 10 PC games that Gamespot reviewed, 5 of those can be found on a console (and 1 is a WoW expansion and I'm not into MMORPGs but that's a personal thing).
You know that E3 is in trouble when Gamespot editors are admitting that the show wasn't so good. As for the show itself, the show can be summed up as: *Microsoft dude comes out on stage* "Final Fantasy 13 is going to be on 360." *PS3 fanboy rage ensues* "We're changing the Xbox Live interface to be both more cluttered and to resemble Nintendo's frontend." *360 fanboy rage ensues* *Microsoft dude leaves the stage and "Sugary" Miyamoto comes out to play Wii music with his "band". Nintendo fanboys are quietly embarrassed.* Seriously, other than those three items, nothing was really shown at E3 and fan reaction proves it. In the past, the boards were abuzz with discussion about the announcements. With this one, those three items were the only things that generated any sort of buzz whatsoever. As I said, the fact that even Gamespot editors are admitting that the show was lackluster displays how badly E3 is doing.
For those asking why we would buy this if we already have one, here is my answer: First off, I wouldn't just buy it. I'm hoping that Gamestop does another of their trade-in deals where you trade your old one in for a new one + 50. I wouldn't buy it outright. As for the reasons, more RAM. Also, some games, despite being made for the PSP, would benefit from playing from my TV. I wouldn't use TV out to play Infected...or even TM: Head-On. However, the upcoming Silent Hill: Origins is a game that I'd rather play with TV-out. (I don't really think horror games played on a portable are effective.) That's my reasoning.
One of the things that I've noticed is the almost constant references to "the Gamestop and/or nerd" crowd and the way that people in both the gaming press and the companies have been looking down their nose at these people. The entire industry has been having a 1+ year disconnect from the actual target audience. I suppose that they can currently afford to. It's not like we'll stop buying the games but the widespread "Rock Star" attitude of these people is still notable.
That aside, I would rate this E3 as "meh". Perhaps the games aren't doing it for me this year. Perhaps it is the shrunken size of the show as opposed to the whole "cirque du soleil" atmosphere of the past. However, including this article, you could count the number of E3 articles that I've looked at with the fingers of one hand.
Should E3 come back next year? At this point, I would say "who cares?". In 2005, I said that E3 has become a dinosaur. Other shows handle individual facets of the whole picture that E3 used to do with far greater efficiency. With the internet as an information source, gamers have all the information at their fingertips and the business side of the gaming industry really doesn't need E3 much anymore. TGS, GDC, and the other conferences pretty much handle any issues that must be handled at a trade show.
Then there's the cost. People have complained about both the hangar location as well as the cost of the booths. A good deal of that is, with the ESA cutting attendance to 1/12 of what it was, they have to pass along the costs to still reap the rewards of their cash cow to someone. When E3 was this big event that EVERYONE in the industry attended, including people who really didn't need to be there (I wondered on the Auto Assault forum why NCsoft even showed up last year.), the cost was more easily spread around. Now the cost is going to be falling on far fewer shoulders.
I don't particularly resent the new E3 but, as I said, I was almost completely apathetic to it this year. Whether that was because of or in spite of the new format, I can honestly say that I wouldn't care one way or another if this marked the end of the E3 era. Quite a few companies seemed to agree with me on this as well given the number who either didn't show up or, in the case of a few, packed up and left before E3 was even over. The very fact that people are asking "Will there be one next year?" (a question that, in previous years, would have had people looking at you as if you lost your mind by asking that question) shows the amount of doubt people have over E3's continued relevance to the future.
I reluctantly agree with Palaric8. Not all of the changes have been good but, in general, I would agree that this game deserves hall of fame status. I would say that the series is overhyped. (This is not the same as overrated.) I suppose that my biggest beef with the game is that I've really gotten sick of hearing about GTA. Since GTA 3 has come out, the GTA series has managed to supplant all other series including MGS and FF in sheer media saturation.
I suspect that the Gamespot editors will be singing a very different tune about the advantages of a smaller E3 when, next year, due to the smaller E3, they see a corresponding drop in people willing to shell out money for Gamespot's E3 coverage.
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