Apparently a former (I am SO glad it's former) Canadian defense minister thinks secret alien technology being withheld from the people should be used to end global warming. If that doesn't sound that bad, read it AGAIN, and if it STILL doesn't sound that bad, perhaps the total lack of any evidence of secret alien technology might tell you something. If you think "well of course there's no evidence, because the government is hiding it all!", return your brain because you aren't using it correctly.
Or, it could be titled 'Why Fallout Fans Are So Angry And Why They Have A Right To Be'. :)
Seriously though, this long three-part article is a very interesting read. The Fallout fan community is well known for being very angry at ... well, a lot of things, but particularly anything that threatens their idea of what an ideal Fallout game is, and this article does a great job of both reviewing the history of why things got to where they ended up and what they think about the attitudes and situation. Of course, it is written by a longtime member of the best known hardcore Fallout fansite, so it is not exactly impartial, but I don't think anyone outside the community could have done anywhere near this good a job of reviewing the whole situation... in addition to just this case, the article covers issues of developer-fanbase relations and many other issues.
Seriously, read it. It's very well done and quite interesting.
Quote:SAN JOSE, Calif. and FOSTER CITY, Calif., March 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Immersion Corporation, (Nasdaq: IMMR - News), a leading developer and licensor of touch feedback technology, and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) today announced the companies have agreed to conclude their patent litigation at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and have entered into a new business agreement to explore the inclusion of Immersion technology in PlayStation® format products.
"We are pleased to have put this litigation behind us," said Immersion CEO Victor Viegas. "Our new business agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment is specifically intended to enable advanced vibration capability for the benefit of the PlayStation gaming community. We are happy to provide our technology in this regard and hope to make technical proposals very soon with respect to use of our technology in the PlayStation products."
Immersion will receive the amount of the judgment entered by the District Court, which includes damages, pre-judgment interest, costs, and interest, in addition to retaining compulsory license fees ordered by the District Court which were already paid. Terms of the business agreement between the parties provide SCE with certain new rights with respect to Immersion's patent portfolio. Additional financial terms are not being disclosed. The conclusion of this litigation and the agreement will have no material impact on Sony's consolidated earnings forecast announced on January 30, 2007.
"We look forward to exploring with Immersion exciting new ways to bring the largest and best range of gameplay experiences to our customers," said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group Chief Operating Officer, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "We are very excited about our new partnership with Immersion and the potential for new and innovative products incorporating their technologies."
SIXAXIS DUAL SHOCK coming soon? Sony obviously finally realized that they were losing the case and inevitably would eventually have to pay Immersion a lot of money, and decided to just get it over with now instead of later... this also avoids that little 'pulling lots of PS2 games and systems off of the shelf' issue too, I'd imagine.
In the course of watching all four seasons of Futurama, for some reason totally unknown to me, Disc One of Season Four stopped working. I don't know... it used to work, but its not scratched... when I put it into the player, a red light comes on saying "Last Memory", and "NO PLAY" comes up. Whats Last Memory mean? There's a Last Memory button on the DVD remote, but when I press it, nothing happens. This happens to no other DVD I've ever had.
and click the "Files" tab.
There's loads of music on the share point! anything you name it! Over 8 Gigs!
Soon I'm going to add a bigger hard drive and get Ryan's 17 Gig collection on there as well!
Feel free to contribute or just use it for remote linking! I don't mind! When you add a file it becomes available immediately! Just search for the file name and click on the link to get the remote linking URL!
Apparently the online mode will have it's servers shut down soon. This is very annoying as it's one of the main reasons I bought Subsistance, but I suppose I can understand. Really though, this is why console games need to allow one to punch in the IP address of a custom fan made server. When official service stops, an online search away and you've found someone willing to host games for free on their own server. This can't happen with this game though. It only connects to it's own specific server. Annoying... Yes, PC games often have self limits as well, like Blizzard's battle.net, and it's annoying to an extent, but a much lesser one because of the magic of game hacks. Short of modding my PS2 to allow the execution of some custom program that bootstraps MGS3S to run on a custom server, I'm out of luck. My PS2 runs great though, and I really don't want to take any chances, or spend any money, doing anything to it's innards that might get it mad at me. I know I'm running on borrowed accuracy with those lasers and their infamous reputation...
Review: Final Fantasy VI Advance
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Rating: 9.5/10[indent]Final Fantasy VI Advance is the latest in a series of GBA ports based upon the classic series. Fans of the series are usually divided into one of two massive camps. One considers Final Fantasy VI to be the pinnicle of the franchise, and the rest consider Final Fantasy VII worthy of that honor. Those of the former category will be thrilled to see their choice finally get some attention after the much-hyped Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.
Final Fantasy VI is the tale of a world on the brink of repeating a cataclysmic disaster. Magic is a force that once scoured the world of much life and civilization, after which it nearly vanished. Now, an ambitious emperor seeks to find this power and harness it as a weapon in order to subjugate the world. A large cast of disparate heroes must band together and stand against the emperor before his greed and avarice threaten the very fabric of the world.
Since this is a port, and of a game I have reviewed previously, this review will focus more on the port, than the game from which it was ported. [/indent] Graphics: 8.5 [indent]Practically identical. The only changes are in the text appearance and menu fonts, which are all more streamlined. It also helps that the GBA screen is sharper than a television, and that helped the appearance some. Overall, if you liked it before, no reason not to now. The screen resolution is of course decreased but you probably wouldn't pay attention if I didn't tell you that.
[/indent] Audio: 7.0
[indent]This is where the most complaining comes, from the old-school fans, and it's certainly the only justified complaining. Some of the songs just plain sound funny (Searching for Friends has this weird clicking beat) and some of the sound effects are odd, but not to any real extent. Overall, the quality dropped, though I don't weigh this very heavily because there was no avoiding it, and it could have been handled a lot worse. The music we all knew and loved is still intact.[/indent]
Gameplay: 10.0
[indent]The gameplay has been, more or less, left intact. If you played it thirteen years ago, you'll have no trouble with it now. There are a few, very, very minor slowdown issues, mostly noticed when a large, graphically-complex spell is cast. There is also, allegedly, slowdown when using a chocobo or one of the two airships, but I honestly did not notice it at all. Those sequences seemed just as fluid to me as I remember.
[/indent]Translation: 10.0[indent]Oh boy. If you've ever seen other reviews of this game, you'll have seen no shortage of mincing over the new translation. Well, allow me to editorialize for a moment:
Pity them, laugh at them, but don't take them seriously. Not for one second.
The original Ted Woolsey translation was, to be fair regarding his constraints, unimpressive, and the game screamed for someone to do a decent job. The dialogue now is much, much more coherent and in many cases fleshes the storyline a bit more. Better still, the new translation clarifies several plot points that were confusing and incoherent before. We now, for instance, know that a certain mother was not an idiot who hands over her baby willingly only to regret it five seconds later, but rather the victim of child-snatching, for starters. Can't say too much without ruining things, but you get the idea. In this area, the translation was vital and extremely welcome. The original is a joke in comparison.
Spell names, item names, Monster and Esper names and the like have all been updated either through the original translation or to be more consistent with the ongoing Final Fantasy saga. Some veterans will suffer some momentary confusion, but if you've played the game before, you'll know what the stuff is, and everything has a description to help. Newcomers, of course, won't have any such problems.
Overall, this was the major selling point for me, and I'm incredibly impressed with the results. If one appreciates quality and coherence over silly nostalgia, one too will be impressed.
[/indent]Final Word
[indent]This game has long been one of the games by which an entire franchise, to say nothing of an entire genre, has drawn comparison and with good reason. Anyone who appreciates a good RPG, especially a good RPG made much better, owes it to themselves to hook a copy of this game.[/indent][indent]
