Be Excellent To Each Other

I have never owned a PlayStation before.

The issue with that is 'bring your save game across' , so if you are playing an adventure game and are actually at the end of level boss thats exactly what it does need rather than the first level so it would need to be dynamic which I would think could be hard to do



Xbox360 disks are up to around 7 or 8 gig (i remember the Doc posting stuff about it a while ago) , the Xbox One uses a blue ray so those are 50 or 60 gig , some PS3 games do use up the whole capacity.

I know Chinny did his poll of what consoles we have now but I was thinking of doing a similar one to ask what consoles *have you owned in the past* - the problem is that the vote system only allows something like 30 entries so a lot would need to be chopped out

I think this is he defining generation to determine

A) if games journalists will ever be journalists.

B) if gamers addiction to games will ever brake against how shit hey get treated.

And

C) if I'll keep buying consoles.

This news is all just fucking awful. And I've no faith in gamers or journalists.

But.... you gotta have faith.

You just have to hope that the game doesn't decide that you need to download the 10 minute opening hi-def video before you can start playing

There has been plenty of weak reporting. But there's been some great stuff too. I think some writers realise that this is their chance to be of some real use.

Some of the links i've posted have been quite hard hitting - I also really think its interesting that before this announcement Microsoft had 1-on-1's scheduled for a lot of the gaming press next week during / after E3 - just before they posted this 'clarification' they canceled them all.

Quotes of articles covering it so far today (stolen from somewhere else)

I like this quote from the VG24x7 piece above :

Yeah. Your both right. I just hope they keep it up.

RPS had that brilliant article about how silence worked for EA in pushing sim city. I suspect Microsoft will try that here. Journalists must relentless pressure this. And not let it die.

But stay silent then dangle managed 'exclusives' that jet some corruptible dick to a hotel somewhere hot and MS can shift the debate where hey want it.

I'm surprised to hear this because there's simply no way to guarantee that you'll always have the resources you need to play the game at a given point as it's contingent on so many factors (speed of you internet connection, speed with which you're progressing through the game and, as someone mentioned, what point in the game a given save file will plonk you at). And that's not to even speak to games with free roaming worlds (how do prioritise the download of resources when a player can approach the game randomly?) or the idea of your net connection conking out partway through the download while you carry on playing. These are nightmare problems to solve for developers surely, and the idea of even having to design an error that says something like, "Sorry, not enough of your game has downloaded yet for you to open this door. Please come back later when we've buffered some more textures!" is such horrific a customer experience that if it was me I wouldn't even risk it. If they can make it work then fair play to them and I'd be interested to know how they're solving those problems if anyone knows?

Do a different poll by generation. Then merge it all in the results.

Being able to play some games without having to wait for a 50gb download > not being able to do that.

It's not like they're forcing you to start before the download is complete.

Sony have not yet confirmed it but one other way would be GaiKai (so play the game streaming) - a recent PS3 game (cant remember which) allowed you to start playing while the game was still downloading (so it only grabbed enough textures / engine etc to allow a start) which might be enough for Sony to cover what they have said they are doing but I cant see how it works for Microsoft unless it really is they need to download the whole thing ?

I don't really understand that attitude because it pretty much excuses anything a company fails to deliver by implying it's somehow the consumer's fault for wanting to make use of a feature. "That thing doesn't work as well as we said it would when we asked for you money? Well, y'know, no one's forcing you to use it that way."

The only example I saw for PS4 was that the game would be requiring the engine and first level be loaded before it can start, and it would then download the next level while you play it.

It's probably easier in sandbox games, you just make sure you use a small number of assets in the opening area. Repeating concrete, tarmac, glass textures, a couple of basic NPC models, download high-res landscape for the immediate vicinity, low-res adjacent, skeletal for skyline. It'll be sub-optimal, but that never did stop Rockstar taking over the world with the horrendous pop-in and texturing in GTA3.

And don't be daft with that argument, this is "play now and maybe suffer occasional delays, or just wait a bit you impatient shit" not "fuck you we have your money!"

Edit: That comes later when they release the new version and turn the server off.

That's not a great solution I feel because it means you're actually constraining the design of games purely so they'll work in a certain physical situation. Games design should be driven by what makes a fun game, not to service one of MS' feature bullet points (which itself was only dreamt up to justify a separate DRM decision). That would all be very odd.

I'm arguing companies should only advertise features of a product that they can actually pull off and knowingly doing otherwise is shitty; I'm not sure what you think I'm saying?

That's what sandbox games *do*; they still stream, just from DVD/BD/HDD. There simply isn't enough RAM in a console to load full res models and textures all at once.

Well, yes, but there's a pretty big difference between "streaming resources that will always 100% definitely be available because they're on the HDD or optical disc that's physically connected to the console" and "streaming resources from the internet that might not actually even have turned up yet". And the difference is 'whether your game is actually playable or not'.

A few of the MMO clients allow you to start playing well before the download is finished.

I agree, but I think given this quote... :


... it is safe to say they are living in cloud cuckoo land, so I wouldn't worry too much about what they say!

What? Every Xbox One user will have broadband. How is that cloud cuckoo land?

Self-selecting tautology innit.

Aye, they insist on it, therefore everyone will have it.

Simple.

It isn't the fact that they will have a BB connection that is crazy, it is the fact that they are willing to limit the sales of the product in such a way, therefore we shouldn't be surprised if they are willing to limit it much further by, for example, requiring not just a BB connection, but one of a minimum speed above that which is required to simply play games on line.

The other thing to note is quite how shite I've found live to be recently. Turning on the console and watching a spinning circle for about a minute before eventually reaching the dashboard. Not smooth. Frankly, the less it requires the internet for standard use, the better.

I've seen a minimum speed quoted today but I cant find it on Microsofts pages (1.5mb download speed) which probably knocks people like Chinny out

I think there's a good chance I might run out of popcorn.

You've probably got a day or two to re-stock but this is far from over - E3 stuff next week and expect all those games media people who are not not allowed to talk to Microsoft to ask Sony the same questions and your either going to get :

1) Sony comes out and says they are doing the exact same thing
2) Sony comes out and says they are doing something thats not quite as bad
3) Sony comes out and says they are doing nothing like that

Now given that Sony has previously (in the last few months) been saying like they would never force the console to require the internet , and that they would not place artificial limits on disk games if they change that now - expect another massive storm of people going mental.

If Sony unveil their own methods for preventing 2nd hand sales then expect a period of fanboys from both sides going mad at each other (I really cant believe the people who are so enamored of Microsoft that they are saying its all fine but i'm sure there would be Sony fanboys who would be saying the same thing)

If Sony come out and say some really basic things then they are going to have so much goodwill going into the next generation that I dont see how they could fail - if they at some point at E3 say

1) The PS4 does not need to connect to the internet every X hours
2) You can do what you want with your disk based games / sell them / give them away / whatever
3) The Playstation eye is not required for the system to function and you can simply unplug and never use it if you want

Then there are so many people out there who are going mad right now who will put their money down for a PS4

Just prevented autorenewal of my Xbox Gold. I've been mainly playing my PS3 anyhow, so wasn't planning to renew just yet anyhow, but I guess I should get ready to jump ship.

Please don't fuck this Sony. Stay humble.

Sony?

Every time a company "wins" a generation they arrogant the arse out with their next and try to exploit their user base.

N64, PS3, XBone.

Sony are finically fucked at the minute. Hence they've so far pitched to the consumer massively. The PS3 and PS+ is currently far, far superior to the advert ridden Xbox.

All this talk of second hand games... Does that mean that CEX will be fucked? I hope so. There's a new one opened in town and it stinks! It's only been there two weeks too.

Probably not - they can just get on Microsoft approved list and then they offer you 50p for your brand new game and since you cant sell it anywhere else you'll take it because your the type of person that bought an Xbox one.

Doing away with the 2nd hand market isnt *directly* killing the shops that trade in games , they will still make a profit off them (albeit probably much less) - its about doing away with you having a choice on where to sell it.

Those 'preferred' shops just have the ability to unlink the game from your account.

Why do all CEX shops stink? Do they only employ smelly people?
I know some of clientele are likely to be less bo aware, but how come other shops they frequent don't stink?

Gamestations always stank as well. Especially the one in Hull.

Yes, except the Wii sold more than 360.


People will always want to sell mobile phones they just stole.

Aye, but I don't consider the Wii and competitor in the 360/PS3 arms race - and I'm sure they feel the same way. MS and Sony both want to leverage their other interests via their consoles. Consoles are Trojan Horses for them, whilst Nintendo just makes games for sake of games/profit.

It's like Lush and Subway - they pump essence de nerd through the aircon.

And the WiiU sucks.

QED.

Negative press has spread far beyond games blogs. The Motley Fool: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2 ... unity.aspx

(Also Forbes, Time, the Guardian, ...)

I'm amazed at all the negative press and comments. You'd think that Microsoft had enough time before launch to do something about this, but I don't think they will.

I don't disagree, just feel the vicarious hubris was misplaced

***

In other news, there's a small detail that comes to my mind* each time I click on this thread. It's the use of verbs as nouns. I'm sure it's correct, but a 'reveal' (much like 'send me an invite', or 'that's a good get') just sounds off to me. I know it's commonplace, and I'm not dissing OP, but yeah, I think about it.

Plus, 'revelation' has a more epic feel to it.

***

I now return you to your scheduled thread.





*

I was just about to agree with you there Throughsilver then I realised that I started the thread! Maybe I should change the name? Yeah... Bear with me...

Okay.

The NeoGAF poster, Crazy Buttocks on a Train, has been at it again. Here's a translated version of his posts. Reminder that he or she has an accurate track record of insider info going back to before the 360.

Whoo Mirrors Edge!

Rumoured to be an Xbox One exclusive, mind. Is that an "I'm buying a console" whoo?