@dakmanzero
i can never count how many times i wish i was close enough to rip your guts out.
first, Darkie, the cursing routine above was in jest, not from exasperation. i said my opinion and everyone is entitled to say theirs and that simple fact i respect. so you're wrong to say i'm angry on any account except if i was psych-evaluated by you from a distance without me being a party to it (huh? ). unlike you, i say my piece on the grounds of personal opinion; not echoing what others say in blogs. the thrust of my argument is: the future of gaming lies in superior graphical abilities (havent we been here b4?) as in the way developers will utilize console power to tightly integrate grafx into the overall gameplay/storyline. all the stuff we used to take for granted, what we used to call eyecandy or cosmetics may soon find a more integral role to the whole experience. like i said games are a visual experience: the more real a game appears graphically, and the more that realism plays a central role, the more immersed gamers would be. we have passed the stage during the whole evolutionary period in which our imaginations alone would suffice to fill in reality gaps. games are getting closer and closer to movie territory in terms of plot, mechanics, story, voice acting, etc. so isnt it logical that the next extension is presentation? presentation that brings games closer to the reality we see in movies? that is the aspiration of devs: blurring the line betweeen cinema and games. heck, i know alot of people who appreciated the matrix simply because it was game-like, not because of the premise that we're all Duracell until we wake up.
the thrust of this is that the console that has the most power stands to be the winner. devs are still struggling with all the power before them, and its too soon to judge the winner of the current gen war simply because some of the games we see are graphically below our expectations of the reality threshold. when ps one came out most of the games were as crap as the ones on the saturn; but because the playstation had better hardware architecture and chipset (RISC, etc) it won the war later when devs starting churning out games that seem beyond our expectations (MGS, RE2, FF7, Parasite Eve, Dino Crisis etc).
okay, simply comparing what is happening now with what happened to the N64 is false comparison: our expectations now are a far cry different from our expectations then. as hollywood and the whole CGI culture open our eyes to new wonders of fantastical creations and possibilities so also do we consciously or uncosciously raise the bar of our expectations as far as games are concerned. visually.
in essence: the ps3 is not premature: it is right on time. by the time every last watt of horse power has been flogged from x360 devs have become familiar with how to reallly unleash the power of The Cell. then we will see what gaming should've been like.
so dont judge now, it's too early. even sales figures dont always tell the whole story of what will come to be. remember the original xbox sold poorly at take off.

as for the wii: look, making over a Game Cube and adorning it with fancy barbells as controllers does not define next gen. those pads may immerse you physically ( i doubt it) and give you some workout but it really doesnt do much to draw you in visually. and remeber games, as i said, are primarily a visual experience. so weak grafx+silly pads=a fad that'll pass. mark my words. that concept wont last more than 18months. let's wager.

AAC. okay, i was wrong to say it was apple proprietary. but AAC format songs encoded with apple's proprietary DRM downloaded from the iTunes portal is Apple's intellectual property. and that is monopolizing. Craetive Labs dont have a music store, TI dont, neither do tons of other makers. but i stand to be corrected.

i hate ipod cos in my humble opinion it sux. simple. my opinion.

@ Neo,

the future of gaming lies in graphical display? Puhleeeze! The future of gaming lies in being innovative, not the former!!!

so introducing never-before-seen semblance of reality isnt innovation? the CELL isnt innovation in gaming? only new-fangled joypads pass for innovation? are we using the same english here?

Say no more say no more, guys

I dont really care about all this,but i fully agree with darkmanzero.The PS3 is heading for a down fall.its all hapennin again.Like it happened with Sega and Nintendo. But umm dis nintendos new pad its going to make playing games with chicks real fun (u know)

Neoteny:

so introducing never-before-seen semblance of reality isnt innovation? the CELL isnt innovation in gaming? only new-fangled joypads pass for innovation? are we using the same english here?

nope. the cell isn't an innovation for gaming. it's not even an innovation for graphics, as a well specced core 2 duo machine with a geforce 8800 gfx card will pump out better visuals than anything seen on the ps3 till date. resistance: fall of man can't hold a candle to Crysis (still in dev state).
all hail the power of the CELL (sarcasm).
read the buzz on the cell. you'll hear developers talkin about how the cell allows u to render more realistic water and improved physics. so what i wanna ask u is this: since when did leering over smooth ripples or seeing a guy you just shot tumble 'realistically' change gaming?
why do we game? we do it for fun! and i sure had more fun playing Halo 1 on my pc than playing Prey, even though prey had far better graphics. i'm sure most real gamers will agree with me.
the Wii gives you somethign the ps3 can't even hope to do; a new way of playing games. it's not about 'newfangled controllers'. it's about you being more immersed in the game itself, about a fun and novel way to control games.

what this means is that as far as you're concerned, as long as a game has trees with 100000 polygons, it can't be poor.

Daikatana had better graphics than Deus Ex. guess which one is regurlarly listed as one of the worst games ever on pc,

Try it out. the Wii will rock YOU!

@Neo:

Its cool if u think great graphics are the way to go. No problem there. However to set the record straight- remember when we were arguing about the power of ps3 relative to xbox? Isnt it funny that all games released on both platforms were identical? Even on the ps2 vs dreamcast they were not identical. And then theres Gears of war which is better than everything on the ps3.

Devs need time? Maybe. But mario 64 sure looked miles better than all ps1 games. Sonic sure looked better than all NES games. Streetfighter sure looked better han all genesis games. ff7 sure looked better than all saturn games. And all multiplatform xbox games looked better on xbox than ps2 despite ps2 being out for 2 years plus. Somehow i dont think 'devs need time' is valid in this case.

Face it: the cell is overhyped. Core 2 duo's are already outperforming it with all its 'spe's' or whatever. And consoles have always been more defined by their gfaphics cards than their processors. The cell is NOT for bam graphics. thats the RSX. and pc's have already left it in the dust. Look- the ps3 isnt ushering in a new world of graphics. PC's do that, year after year.

The only new console that is really doing anything innovative is wii. And since i love games with bam graphics (like you) I bought a 360 cos it has more games, better games, and better graphics than anything ps3 has put out at the moment. Maybe when killzone comes out we'll change our minds but for now i own a copy of gears of war (YES I DO!!!! EXPRESS DELIVERY FROM YANKEE! BY A CHICK WHO ACTUALLY WAITED IN LINE TO GET IT FOR ME!!! SAY I ROCK! OOOOOOH YEAAH!!!!!!!!) and there is NOTHING on ps3 to touch it!

take that, graphics man!

@ darkman0:

how much did you get the X360 for?

gbade. x:

@ darkman0:

how much did you get the X360 for?

u should be able to get a 360 for like 40k now. lots of guys out there are selling theirs too, cos the games are kinda expensive,
on the other hand i heard that copied x360 games have hit alaba and are being sold for N1500. Nice.

As far as i know however, all this furore about next-gen machines will all come to dust in naija when people see not too much difference on normal Standard Definition TV. if you really wanna game next-gen, get a HDTV. i'm playing Dead Rising on my Xbox360 on a 32 inch Samsung HDTV @ 720p and i keep getting blown away.

@dmz
I will never sell my 360. Never!! Why? I connected my 360 to my laptop (running windows Media center) and i can stream all my movies, music and photos to the console and display in full on the TV. Oh, Boy!! All hail the media center PC,
if u haven't go Media Center Edition, windows media player 11 also does a good job of streaming media to the 360. and even a networking newbie like me was able to get them connected in a minute.

Now say after me: "I have sinned and thus i must send my Gears Of War to texazzpete ASAP, "

<pissed off>
I wonder why everything has to be hard in Nigeria. You want to get a console, you pay 40k, that's apart for money for chipping. You want to experience a game, you can only do that on an HDTV.

It's like these game/tech companies don't give a Bleep about Africa. Then the fucking West would now see Africa as backward or some sh*t like that.

me don tire jo! make all dis consoles go kpafuka!!

I guess it's time Africans start making consoles for Africans!

Let's make do with Ayo Opon, Ludo and draft needs no chipping or DVDs

@dmz
Gimme your Gears Of War!! Please do not ignore this post.
President Fox of Mexico saw a post like this and ignored it. 2 days later his dog died.
Janice Green of New Hampshire complied with such a request and she won the lottery.

Please forward this request to any of your other Gears Of War owning buddies and you'll see something happen in your life soon.

@ Christino:

i second that sh*t! Let every muthafucka go back to playing Ayo [this one i love], Ludo and Draft and sh*t like that. I'm tired of the fuckin' West and their life-choking prices on they consoles.

texazzpete:

@dmz
Gimme your Gears Of War!! Please do not ignore this post.
President Fox of Mexico saw a post like this and ignored it. 2 days later his dog died.
Janice Green of New Hampshire complied with such a request and she won the lottery.

Please forward this request to any of your other Gears Of War owning buddies and you'll see something happen in your life soon.

This is the funniest post i've seen today. OMG! reminds me of those yahoo offlines and forwarded mails.

Okay, now mine:
Please send all your "non apple" consoles ,since 2004, to me. If you ignore this post, your true love will run away and your bank account will freeze in 24 hours, if you forward it to 10 fools, you will meet with God in paradise today today. Guess what I did? Your guess is as good as mine

Christino:


This is the funniest post i've seen today. OMG! reminds me of those yahoo offlines and forwarded mails.

Okay, now mine:
Please send all your "non apple" consoles ,since 2004, to me. If you ignore this post, your true love will run away and your bank account will freeze in 24 hours, if you forward it to 10 fools, you will meet with God in paradise today today. Guess what I did? Your guess is as good as mine

Please what if i send you my Atari 2600 console? It's been in mint condition since 1988 and has two great games : Air Battle and Sea Battle. Also, to ensure my true love does not run away, i will send you a free copy of Pacman.

Atari ke, Why you no send those Texas Instrument Terminals with BASIC and Monkey and Bananas?

I said since 2004 !!!

NO family coms, 8-bit or 16-bit consoles pls. anything higher than 32-bit is welcome.

lol! Monkey and bananas, GORILLAS.BAS. one of the games thats responsible for my programming career choice :-)

TP u still get atari 2600? ure hardcore o! I remember river raid- the only 2600 game i could EVER stand! the 2600 was crap by ANY standard, even the other consoles of that time (coleco, vectrex) were 1,000 times better!

My first game machine was a bbc micro, 8-bit, 32k ram. Less powerful than a commodore64 but at the time of release it was BIG IRON and more powerful than EVERYTHING ELSE! it had 3D GAMES! like elite, and scrolling fullcolour games like son of blagger. Oh the old days!!!!!!

you guys will never get your hands on my gears of war! NEVER YOU HEAR! a friend of mine ordered a copy from yankee and it comes in on the 26th, so it shouldnt be too hard to get if u dont mind paying 60 dolls. Maybe wait for the alaba bros to do the business, but beware, chipping 360's is a risk, new games could brick your 360.



TEXASZZPETE TELL ME HOW U GOT THAT 32 INCH HDTV. NOWWWWWW

U must be a fanatic Qbasic programmer, how far, can i see your escapades on Basic?

Meanwhile what kinda prog langs are used for these new games sef? is it Dark Basic or C++ or some other customized gaming language?

Most game programmer job offers ask for proficiency in C++ so thats the most popular language, i guess.

In current times, it may become C# because of XNA

Dunno about the likes of darkbasic, etc but for homebrew games we see a lot of java (mobile phone games, etc), C++ (native mobile phone games) and flash. Not many games asking for a VB runtime, or whatever.

I actually wrote a full-fledged tetris clone in QBASIC! with an extra twist, too. called it 'MATRIS'

^. . .whatever! I said go back to Ayo Opon and Ludo!! No need for all that programming bullshit. Ayo Opon it is!

@ Gbade,

There's ayo opon on PC, it's called Wari.

@ Darkman,

Hope you still program in qb, havent' touched it since 2001. I even wrote 3 tutorials on Qbasic and a self extracting tutorial software with QB. I wrote them tuts in Qbasic, VB and HTML - twas fun cos it was a core course in 100L back then and peeps were disturbing me. I hope i can still write one or two codes, but that tetris is a hell of programming stuff o, you be kolo man then.

yeah well


I'VE GOTTEN MY 60GB PS3!!!!

So that means i've got my 360 and the PS3. however, i think i'll sell it cos i'm not equipped to run both uber consoles at the same time,
in the hacking spirit i'm known for, i'd like to install linux and several linux based emulators onm it, as well as a media player application to handle divx and vcds. then i'll sell. any interested buyers?

@dmz

the 32 inch samsung cost me 220k in PH, complete with wall mount. it's the samsung la32r71b (or la32r17b) model, and it works pretty good with the 360.

for cheaper HDTV gaming, samsung slimfit tv (34 inch model) costs about 130k here (it's a CRT HDTV) and supports 480p, 576p and 1080i. From what i hear, 1080i should deliver the same impact as 720p for the 360.

should be cheaper if you can buy overseas. as always, i promote www.orderbay.com for that kinda shopping.

ok, how much are u willing to sell?

Frankly, all my ps3-crazy friends have decamped to 360-land after seeing GOW! the only customer i can think of for u is a partner in pwc whos kids are bugging him for the console and who seems to think I'd know where to get it. However since the gist now is that ps3's can be easily bought on store shelves, i guess he's better off just buying one himself next time he goes to yankee.

whyen shipping wont shipping costs knock tghe 130grand into 200grand range? in which case isnt it better to just buy the one u got?

meeeen u will enjoy gow sooooo much more than me

220k is about the same price as the LG's over here in ikoyi. I'll pass till december next year. still life in the ole 21-inch sdtv!

@texa if u r thinking about installing linux plz try ubuntu its a wonderful distro

Yeah, i know ubuntu's pretty cool. unfortunately, ubuntu only runs on x86 processor architecture. the ps3 uses a Power PC based Cell Processor. Only distros like Fedora Core 5 and Yellow Dog Linux are specifically written for POwer PC.

Crazy thing i hear is if you install linux on ps3, it looks like shyte on SD Tvs cos of the native 640 x 480 resolution of SD Tvs.


As for the ps3, after the initial buzz, i've decided my xbox 360 suits me just fine. as such, i'll be selling the machine for perhaps 100 - 110k.
Any cries of protest? The PS3 still costs 600 dollars and is still pretty scarce in the open market in yankee.

@dmz

Th e130k quote i gave u for the CRT HDTV is the price in PH. It's being sold in PH for that price, so i guess lagos price should be around 110-120K? makes a nice alternative to other HDTV alternatives.
21 inches? Jeez, that's pretty small.

on the plus side, i'm sorry for nigerians who decide to go all out and buy the ps3 and 360. they'll soon see that SDTV doesn't do their next gen consoles any justice. try play GOW on a HDTV to see what i mean, or u can download the HD trailer from microsoft to see it running at 720p.

Don't be a wet blanket! gimme the GOW. Remember, i know where u live,

of course it will look like nonsense on SDTV- until you lower the res to 640x480. or 800x600 (PAL tvs can handle 800x600 cos they have 525 lines). same thing with windows via tv-out. No biggie.

100k for the ps3 is robbery, dude. thats the alaba price. Better choose a more appropriate price and fling it before it becomes dead weight on your hands!

About the hdtv, i apologise- i thot u were talking about the overseas price. 130k in PH is good enough- if u had mentioned it before i got my laptop i may have gone for it instead! As it were, i just spent 200k on a 17-inch dell core duo with 1gb ram and geforce 7800 256meg dedicated video

Bleep all consoles!!! They are only after to ripp the common man of his hard earned money. Talk about corporate robbery!!

Once again, Bleep all consoles!!!!!!

ubuntu doesn't only support x86 but power pc and check ubuntuforums.org for more info

@DMZ
dude! hand over the gears of war.

Ive got 14grand reserved for halo 3 and halowars but i think i will switch the halo wars for G.O.W.