I'm just going to spit this thing out that I've been meaning to write for awhile now:

The theoretical limits of the PS3 and the 360's computational power is very similar. The power of nVidia's RSX graphics chipset is offset by the horribly weak per-thread performance of the Cell CPU.

In terms of how powerful the consoles are, they're just about the same, only the 360 can near reach that limit, given a year or two more, because the software development tools provided are far superior to what developers are provided for working with the other consoles. The PS3, on the other hand, will take much, much longer to reach their theoretical limit, and to top it all off, it's not even much of a difference.

Let's ignore the performance aspects, for a minute. Purely in terms of market placement, and nothing else, the 360 is now where the PS2 used to be, and the PS3 is where the Xbox used to be.

Now, let's mind the performance aspects again. The PS2 was the most popular gaming console, yet because it was such a woefully weak console and had a terrible development environment, it allowed the Xbox to gain ground on it in the market... A lot of ground. Xbox was vastly more powerful, easier to code for, and had a framework for online play. These attracted developers into making games for the Xbox. It never overthrew the PS2, but it managed to establish itself for how it stands today.

Today, the situation is reversed for the new consoles and the performance difference is almost naught between the new "PS2" (360) and "Xbox" (PS3).

The 360 is the more popular console (Wii aside), and the PS3 finds itself in the same spot the old Xbox was in, 2nd place. (3rd, but I said Wii aside :P)

The thing is, this time, the "PS2" has no real weakness against the "Xbox"; They have a great coding environment, easier to maximize the hardware potential, full disposal of development resources, and their hardware isn't much weaker than the competition.

Also, there is this thing about the 360 not getting off to a good a start as the PS3. Hardware problems.

I seem to recall the same when the PS2 when it came out. Hardware problems galore. The Xbox wasn't racing to the line, they released a much more stable machine, but they still never beat the PS2.

It's a winning strategy, to get to the market first. They did it with the PS2 and, boy is it working.

But Sony is still there, they aren't going anywhere.
Once again soon, we shall see a brand new dance, a new generation of consoles will be developed, announced, then released. Then we get to watch all over again.

PS3 is a dirt-cheap Blu-Ray player, however. The other points are moot, since anything else the PS3 can do, the 360 can handle it better. Soon, maybe even that currently exclusive feature of the PS3 be might be just another thing the 360 does as well.

If you have money to spare, It's a good choice, the PS3. You get a game console, and a Blu-ray player, for only a slight premium.

Bottom line: Get a PS3. Doesn't matter ether way, the 360 has already won.

My pet mouse died today. I'm feeling bad because I have absolutely no clue what happened. She seemed fine just a few hours ago. There was nothing wrong that I could tell.

I can't help that feel it was my fault somehow. I feel terrible.

Oh, well.

It isn't fair.

Strange it is, that we can never really be certain what awaits beyond the realm of the living.

Good people are good people, and always find peace in life.

It isn't fair.

The living will never truly know what comes after, but that should be never be our concern.

Life is given to us, by whatever force you choose to believe, for us to experience and make the most out of it.

We live our lives the best we can, always remembering to help others do the same.

It isn't fair.

He's gone. Nothing can change that.

The universe refuses to stop.

Refuses to mark the passing of a kind soul from this world.

But we stop.

We mark the passing of his soul.

Because we know that, sometimes, it just isn't fair.

Rest well, Reu.

----

For Reuben Kee
1984-2007

I updated to the latest version of forceware for Windows Xp SP2 (163.71 WHQL) the same way I always have, (uninstall, restart, run cleaner software in safemode, restart, install new drivers, restart) but this time, when I enable the tray icon that I love so much, then this is what I see:

(Click for a larger picture)

I looked around, and this is what I found: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=241321&highlight=%22tray+icon%22

I don't really think this is an issue, but I miss my AA control. :(

Any Ideas?

Enough already! I've proven my point and you all have taken massive dosages of FAIL!

http://forum.iahgames.com/ge/showthread.php?p=146866&posted=1#post146866

Quote:Originally Posted by drussx 
hmm sorry for replying to this goner, but one point I find strange is that, since you find GE "has no value", why would you "play so much that that you'll give them money for the account you invested the one thing you can't get back: Time." ? 

Goodbye and so long

Damnit.

Like I said, they hope you play so much that you're willing to pay for the characters you spent so much time on. That is the main hook of all MMORPGs. How would you react if somebody just deleted your character for no reason? You would not be too happy about that, would you?

That's the point I'm trying to make here.

I think what you are trying to say is "If the game sucks so much, why did you play it so much?", but seeing as how you are illiterate, you didn't quite manage to say it, but I get it.

I played it because one of my friends told me it was what he was playing. So I joined in just to be able to play with him, since I so rarely get to see him anymore.

There is also the bonus that I was able to cover the game and give my impressions on it, and one can hardly give impressions on a game that he didn't play extensively, whether or not one did enjoy it. I've dropped many accounts and a few of them I even feel sorry for abandoning, seeing as how some of the games are entertaining.

But not this one.

And once again, I clarify that this game blows.

As to why people are willing to pay more for WoW than this game is pretty clear: Entertainment value. There really is just so much to do in games like WoW. They have made a damn good game.

http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart1.html

Clearly, you don't know what you're talking about.

Quit trying to make me look stupid. I've been monitoring the gaming industry for a long time. (since 1998)

EDIT: Say what you want about how good your game is, but do not question the validity of my statements.

I fire more salvos at you!:

Quote:Originally Posted by ampuge123 
Does some gamers of Ge dont know how to read?!?!

Almost all of us has already seen the box, 180 gametime+30,000 cash shop points already told us what business model it will be! Why the hell would they put up a 180 day gametime if it will be F2P. Think people think! Dont say that it is sneak attack by iah if you have enough common sense in your mind you would already know what it will be like when you saw the box. Geez

Announcements/Press Releases are the bread and butter of what people know for certain. If the information on the box hit websites like Gamespot, then that counts as such, even if the company has not made a formal announcement.

But it didn't.

They had decided to lead people on, hinting, despite the boxes, that it could still go F2p. Whether or not it would make sense, is beside the point.

Honestly, I don't really see what the people are willing to pay for in this sub-par, poor excuse of a commercial game.

Quote:Originally Posted by Redeemer 
Lotsa selfish people out there. As I didn't have time to read all the posts, I just wanna sum it all up. Who is gonna pay for the extensive servers? Hosting a website itself costs about 40 USD at least.

Imagine hosting up to thousands of players at once. Where do you think that money comes from? The Sky? All games are considered as a luxury commodity and you don't have to consider it as a necessity in order to survive. Money do not grow on trees and no companies in this world would work for nothing spare non-profit companies.

It is only through money, you get entertainment. I would like to say kudos to IAH for implementing P2P actually, for actually implementing P2P. Keeps bots out. One post argues of this point. You actually say that more bots will appear? Well, that's where we as players report this, where they will get banned. This way, bots cannot get back in easily as they would lose out in terms of real money to play this game. There isn't a syndicate at work here.

I support the game as it brings out lots of fun, which brings back memories of WOW. I wouldn't think WOW would be fun without the professionalism of the customer service, or the new interesting updates, which I doubt will happen if the game were to be a F2P game.

All in all, this concludes my argument. For a more simplified version, to those players who would like to support IAH in GE, then have fun, and hopefully me meet IN game, and to those who refuse to accept the P2P, find another game where it would be F2P and bring your bot friends with ya and leave us in peace.

That only makes sense if there is mass appeal and actual quality in the title, which I fail to find in this one.

And a separate post I put afterwards:

I want to clarify one last thing:

I'm angry- no, wait- I'm very angry. The fact that people still do this.

I know it's normal practice: They bait you with open-betas and possibilities of free-play, hoping you play so much that that you'll give them money for the account you invested the one thing you can't get back: Time.

It's normal. Even WoW had open beta. But the one thing a stand up, class act like Blizzard, Bungie and all the other companies out there that make REAL games never do, is drag people into something like an open beta for MONTHS at a time.

This is my last post in this forum. Respond and retaliate, I honestly don't care, because you're all being loyal and defensive for something that won't last, and has no value.

D3k, out.

Again, I saved screenies and will upload them, because I set out to offend, and fully expect my wonderful posts deleted.

Delightful!

This is my response to the announcement.

Copypasta of my forum post:

Don't kid yourselves. Making a game P2p does NOT lessen the number of botters.

If anything, there would be MORE botters, as people will want to bot because they're paying for game time now and, let's face it, patrol mode isn't as fast as botting.

Not to mention there will be more farmers who will have a market to sell to now, compared to before where they were looking at people who would not spend money for the game.

Don't think that this will improve the game in the long run.

I am hereby abandoning my account till further notice. No more shall I waste time on such an entertainment that is hardly entertaining.

This game has just turned mediocre...not that it was anything more to begin with.

Also, spare me the marketspeak. "Hybrid Model"? Who are you kidding??
Pay to Play means just that; if you don't pay, you don't play. Throwing your little extras on top is like adding spices to a bad dish, it doesn't change people's minds.

I wish when people have something to say or announce, they just say what they mean, and not try to make it sound like what it's not.

A screenie, for posterity:

The following I'm about to write says some pretty harsh things about this game. If you want to see some of the features of the game, go here, but I will not bother posting those things on my blog, as it is purely marketing and amounts to nothing more than a sales pitch.

Here are the things I did NOT say on my forum post:

Granado Espada is boring, repetitive, slow, lacks personality and personalization makes it feel like your characters aren't really "yours". Shortage of excitement and challenge makes this a really hard game to keep playing, which is very bad for GE, considering the whole point of MMORPG's is to keep players playing.

Level progression boils down to nothing more than leaving your characters sitting at a spot in "Patrol Mode" while you sleep or leave the house. "Patrol Mode" commands your characters to stupidly attack nearby and approaching monsters.

It's not as effective as searching and attacking monsters yourself, but it's certainly less you have to endure.

The interface is problematic, cumbersome and very obstructive. One of issues that really stands out is that pressing escape on your keyboard does not bring up the main menu as you'd expect, but instead hides important game-control bars on screen. You'll eventually be deprived of control when you need it the most, and it becomes a source of frustration. You eventually get around to stop pressing escape and going to the menu button with your cursor, but it's still something that should not be an issue in the first place, nor is it something you have to 'train' yourself to do. 

There are also issues with the audio. The soundtrack, although very nice at first, gets annoying after awhile. So annoying, in fact, that simply turning down the music volume will not help. I found myself turning off the music altogether. Problems don't stop with just the background music. The sound effects give swings, shots and spells a sense of impact and force, but the lack of variety also makes that aspect of the game repetitive.

Overall, this is one game that isn't even worth playing for free, much less paying for.

Good riddance.

Yeah, for some reason, I just started playing the game once more.

If I remember correctly, the last time I REALLY played the game was back in 2003.

There's just something about the game that makes it really hard to stop playing it.

Anyway, if any of you guys would like to join me, I'm playing on Freeworlds 24/7 USA Server (Mod required), and on 24/7 Freelancer Roleplay LV (Mod optional).

I should really work posting here more often.

I searched for a fix, and couldn't find one. I figured it out, so I thought I might share:

Msfeedssync exe sometimes does not sync IE7's RSS feeds. This is because the "FeedsStore.feedsdb-ms" file is corrupt. Simply remove the offending file, and all is well again.

The file is located under [%userprofile% -> Local Settings -> Application Data -> Microsoft -> Feeds]

After you delete the file, open your IE7 feed view, right-click and select "Refresh All"

Man, I missed a whole month of feeds...

I'm guessing there is something for me to write about, but I've got nothing right now.

I should update this place, so I'll write an update about how there hasn't been an update for quite awhile.

Wow. There hasn't been an update in quite awhile, eh?

I just came from a computer shop today, and they had a computer running Vista Home Premium as a demo unit. I gave it a spin, and just went "Whoa."

I know always see the videos and screenshots posted all over the place on the web, and I've always thought they looked so cool and was worth an upgrade already, but it's quite something else when you actually USE it!

Now, I was quite willing to upgrade to Vista already, but now? I NEED it...badly!

But, I can't afford it just yet. :'(

Can't really say anything good enough that would do it justice.

Well done, Vista Team, well done.

I just found out that multisession DVDs are unsupported...this was a problem form me, because by that by the time I read about it, I had already burned quite a large amount of data to several multisession DVDs!

After doing quite a bit of digging, I was unable to see a fix from Microsoft for this issue in Windows XP SP2 (don't really know if Vista supports this, but I'll be sure to try when I upgrade :D)

So, with no solution there, I searched the rest of the web (including the Neowin.net forums, among other sites)

After pouring through tons of sites, I finally found something interesting at velocityreviews.com forums. It seems that somebody had a very useful response to a person with the same issue:

You can try ISOBuster (http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster.htm) to get
your data back. If it works, let me know.

(please note that the quote above is a direct copypasta from the forum, and the link might not be valid anymore. Here is the direct link: http://www.isobuster.com/)

What luck! I was just about to try the app the today! So I installed it and tried to see if I could extract the files already on the disc.

It worked like a charm.

(Yes, I'm still using XP in the screenshot)

So, for all of you out there with Multisession DVDs you can't read: here's something that will help :)

David3k has a radio station thanks to MediaMaster.com.

Click here to listen. The link should launch your default media player.

http://two.xthost.info/D3kblog/Ofunniku%20Radio.m3...

"Jack Thompson, the over acting lawyer who likes to make gamers Hulk smash angry (but not violence angry) took to the air waves literally minutes after the horrendous Virginia Tech massacre and started his usual "blame video games" nonsense. If any of you have seen or listened to Mr. Thompson and his rants over the past few days, you would realize very quickly that the man is just out to make people scared, and of course to make gamers upset. He blames the Virginia Tech shootings on what else, Counter-Strike. Even though authorities (and indeed his own roommates) have said that no games were found and that he was never seen playing games, Mr. Thompson continues his push that games especially Counter-Strike are the cause for the terrible shootings." -Todd Tanner @ Neowin.net

Here is the link to the Main article: http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=39630

Hrm...does Jack Thompson have anything to do with Conservapedia, by any chance?

Dear Reader,

Ofunniku does not comment on rumors and speculation. Please confirm the source of your information and check our recent announcements for more information.

Thank you,
oE|David3k

I'm sorry for the lack of updates, but things are not going too well for me so far this year.

It's starting to look bad. I'm hoping that this isn't going to keep up for much longer.

I'll write here when I can.

Yepps, they're already at episode 90.

 Here it is:

http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/archive/episode.php?id...

Yeah, another redist, but it's ok. Simple enough to install.

Vista users are reporting a huge boost in performance though, while XP users are only getting a slight improvement.

Download Page:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?Fa...

What really caught my eye was on the download page itself:

Click on the Image to see the larger version.

Haha! Classic! 

I just wanted a cleaner look. Fits the rest of my desktop now.

Just re-installed it again, and I wanna start practicing already. I'm gonna be jumping servers or join a few practice matches if Tommy and the guys are gonna have one.

I'm so exited! I can't wait to try out my new hardware.