I’m getting kinda fed up with the continual whine of “It’s just the same games, over and over”. Sure thats true if all you’re looking at is the most recent EA game++ thats just been released, but theres some fantastic games out there which are genuinely different and fun. Unfortunately they get left on the shelves by most people as it’s consumers that seem so afraid of taking risks.
[quote=“woogley,post:14,topic:25780”]
That’s true, you easily reach the ~800-900 euro range if you want to play decently. The core, a HD, a memory stick, an extra wireless controller, a VGA cable, 3-5 games… ouch!
As for games I wasn’t that impressed, except for Kameo which was truly amazing. Awesome graphics, unique gameplay and very addictive. I also hear that new boxing game is great too. Another pleasant surprise was the amount of small games freely downloadable through the Live service. There were also many indie games that I’ve already played on the PC.
I personally gave up on PC gaming a couple of years ago. The continous upgrade cycle did it for me. With consoles there’s no worrying about cpu, gpu, … upgrades since the platform stays stable for 4-5 years. Pop in the disc and start playing… It’s a shame though that consoles aren’t really open for homebrew development (the whole PSP firmware mess comes to mind).
[quote=“bleb,post:17,topic:25780”]
I agree that the vast majority of games aren’t really innovating in terms of gameplay, but at least there’s something going on in the console world that seems totally absent in the PC world. All the memorable games I’ve seen/played the last few years have been on consoles (The WarioWare series, Ico + Shadow of the Colossus, Rez, Mercury, Lumines, Resident Evil 4, …) while my PC gaming friends get fps X and rts Y with new and improved graphics.
[quote=“bleb,post:17,topic:25780”]
Couldn’t agree with you more. Wario ware for instance could have been written for an 8-bit console, but it’s incredibly fun to play never the less. Unfortunately sexy graphics seem to be what sells games. I can’t think of any experimental gameplay titles that have been enormous commercial successes.
been playing wario ware a bit my self too have to say it is lots of fun, most of the games in there could have been written for the java 4k competitions 
I have to agree. that game (the GBA version) has actually inspired me to write a clone of “skateboard” for the 4K
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what’s involved in writing a game for XBox Live Arcade? The idea of being able to download “indie” games onto a home console sounds quite intriguing… sort of a missing link between the PC world and the consoles.
(This is a bit off-topic as far as Java’s concerned of course… unless Microsoft hasn’t accidentally left a JVM inside the Xbox360!)
I’m chiefly concerned with the OpenGL driver issue… I’m fairly confident I can get Java running on the Xbox one way or another.
Cas
could there not be something like a LWJGL/jogl native that wraps the opengl calls onto dx?
i’ve often wondered if it was possible with something like GLDirect
http://www.scitechsoft.com/products/ent/gld_home.php
as they have a opengl dll file which maybe be used, donno how feasable it would but it does work with lwjgl natives when i tested it a while back on a old pc, maybe a xbox port of it might work?
GLDirect was the main idea I had but last time I used it it was flaky as hell.
Cas
Sounds like most of you gentlemen feel that it is better to buy a gaming console. So why are the manufacturers (Nvidia, Dell, Intel, ATI, Alienware, Creative, Logitech, Boxx Technologies, Ageia, etc.) putting so much money and time into PC gaming?
The way some of the trade websites are talking, the new Intel chips that coming out in 2007 may give Cell a run for its money. :o
I think these things will run in cycles. You will find that soon the consoles will evolve into PCs anyway and the line will be blurred. Nvidia and ATI are making chips for consoles that ultimately will find there way to PC graphics cards. Creative, Logitiech… they are not doing anything that can’t apply to both consoles and PCs.
Does this mean that the expensive gaming PCs (e.g. Dell XPS, Alienware, etc.) will go out of business because they can’t compete with the new lower priced “XBox PC”, “PS PC” and “Nintendo PC” or will the new “XBox PC”, “PS PC” and “Nintendo PC” become these expensive machines? I do not think the line will be as blurred.
Also consider this. Would I be able to play my XBox games on the Nintendo if they both become PCs?
Just talk. Hell, I have no more insight than anyone else.
Nintendo have a fundamentally different philosophy to XBox and PS. They make toys. There’s a few characteristics of toys which should hopefully prevent them becoming anything like PCs.
Cas
[quote=“jfelrod1960,post:32,topic:25780”]
That is not exactly what I mean. The consoles will not become a replacement for a business computer. But they will get all of the same capabilities that a typical home computer is used for… E.g. they are all now becoming internet enabled and will have browsers and email clients. Once you get a proper browser you can enable access to services powered by AJAX and it some (pathetic) way get access to “office-like” applications from the console. You might remember that the most popular home computer of all time was the Commodore 64 - in many homes it was connected to the television. It had joystick ports and was a very popular video game machine… basically taking over the market of the Atari 2600’s and Colecovisions, etc.
There was a period in the early 1980’s where the video game system was out and the home computer took its place. Those computers where C64s, Atari 400’s and 800’s, Texas Instruments Ti99, Commodore Amiga… around the time of the MAc and Amiga the IBM PC started gaining ground through IBM’s powerful sales force. At the time the morons that were buying the PCs were constantly putting down the Atari and Amiga computers because they had good graphics and sound and were therefor not useful for serious work… The PC became the “standard” computer thus handing Microsoft their monopoly and ruining the computer industry for the foreseeable future
Now with the rise of the consoles (and Apple’s stock price) we will hopefully get some real innovation on the home computer front as web-based applications (likely coming from Google) will reduce the strangle-hold that the PC has on progress in the field of home computing.