Posts by Izuno

  • PC : Halo 2 gamers face Vista upgrade

    Quote from IR

    personally i think its a compleet sell wagon, forcing people interested in the game without an xBox to buy a new expensive OS that just cant do that much more then your current, halo2 is never going to use dx10 features to the max, and it doesnt have to its just to get people buy the new OS, nice stratigy but its a compleet and utter scame and it kinda pisses me off that companies are doing this.

    well...yeah.

  • PC : Halo 2 gamers face Vista upgrade

    Interesting strategy. Gamers are both cutting edge and risk adverse. While we like to try out new technology and a bunch of us will flock to Vista when it comes out, many more of us will be wary of anything Microsoft V 1.0, and Vista is 1.0 of their new OS technology.

    Looking back (and I've said this before in mapcore)

    Iteration 1 of MS Windows - 16 bit

    - Windows 1.0 -

    Oh how it sucked. Barely ran, crashed all the time. Not easy to use.

    - Windows 2.0 -

    Better than 1.0, but still had major stability problems.

    - Windows 3.0 and 3.1 etc -

    Finally 16 bit windows were "stable" enough to actually use, but still, it sucked. You could network it, as obtuse as that was... (So this is version 3 of iteration 1, and the best of iteration 1.)

    Iteration 2 of MS Windows - 32 bit

    - Windows 95 -

    Wow a real interface! Still glorfied DOS shell, but it worked...but still crashed all the time. Better features than Windows 3.1...

    - Windows 98 -

    The mainstay of gamers for a while. Still had problems, but a big improvement. Windows Millienium was under this era, what a piece of crap but nothing else needs to be said about that.

    - Windows XP -

    We're all using this now. Sure, it still has problems, but it is a lot better than 98 for average gamer and it is the most overall stable of the mass market consumer PC OSs. (So this is version 3 of iteration 2, and the best of iteration 2.)

    Iteration 3 of MS Windows - 64 bit

    - Windows Vista -

    Version 1 of iteration 3....I'm sure it's going to be visually and conceptually very very cool. It will do great stuff, and will probably be more stable than Windows 95, but it's going to have major problems, especially with all the new 64 apps that will have to be written.

    So the rule of 3 with Microsoft is recursive.

  • Oh that wacky EA

    lol...non-complete clauses are often bullshit. You have a right to work. People in this industry move in and out and around all the time. It's pretty hard to deny people the right to work, especially if you have specialized talents like game programming/art/design. So I agree with EA on that point.

    As for laying off 5% of the work force...

    Interesting that they laid off staff from studios all over. That implies that it was not a single project that was completed or folded, but rather EA was looking for ways to simply cut production cost across the board. So they thinned things out all over the company. Or it implies that a certain function within their studio system was trimmed and possibily centralized. I'm guessing it was really a cost issue.

  • Oscar Nominees

    i'm behind on seeing the oscar nominated movies...but seeing Munich finally this weekend.

    Comments:

    1. Constant Gardener, while well done, had structure problems. Best thing about it was Rachel Weisz for sure. HOpe she gets it

    2. It used to be the big blockbuster often got nominated for best picture. Given the last 15years of bigbudget action/scifi/whatever movies that do well in $$$ but otherwise have inconsistent acting quality, inconsistent writing quality (Star Wars ep 1-3, King Kong, Matrix movies, Jurassic Park movies...) the Academy no longer feels obligated to nominate the big movie of the year for best picture. LotR was a recent exception.

    3. Fletch, remember that fads go through the production studios...Walk the Line coming out year after Ray reminds me of the 90s when Deep Impact and Armaggeadon (sp?) came out at around the same time. There are other examples I can't think of, but you are alluding to common Hollywood type thinking. I'm sure Joaquin Phoenix is making some nice bank...good for him. Hey, he did a good job in the movie which was about as good as a portral of the real man as Val Kilmer did of Jim Morrison. Except Jim Morrison was portrayed as drunk or high in just about every single scene in the movie.

    Oh...still rambling here....

    4. Watch Ebert and Roperts worst movies of 2005 show that was on recently. Gives you some perspective on the quality of the top films.

  • Stalker is dead? [updated]

    Quote from Bic-B@ll

    what does that mean?stop leaving us in suspense

    no suspense. Just recall the history. in 2004 it was supposed to ship in 2004. In 2005 it was supposed to ship in 2005. Unpredictable things happened in both years. Now in 2006 we all hope it will actually ship. Given it is still January 2006, a lot can happen between now and Dec 31, 2006. So....we'll see what happens.

  • Stalker is dead? [updated]

    Ugh...been dreading this thread.

    Guys, I'm not going to drag you through the details of my life the past year, but let's just say that I'm not working on Stalker in any capacity and I have absolutely no information to share on the subject.

    Personally, I think Stalker could be a classic. Do I know when it's going to be released? No. Can I get an update for Mapcore? No. I'm not on the project, though sometimes I wish I still was.

    But I will say this: the part where GSC talks about most of the game engine being undocumented, not a surprise. Can another developer finish it? Maybe the leetest, most cocky group of programmers outside of GSC could attempt to figure it out, but in reality, it would probably eat up their giant egos and leave them crying--no begging--for death before the end.

    So will it ever ship? Fuck if I know.