shiftymagician

" So, will the Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade version work if I'm running WIndows XP SP3? My parent's new computer is running Vista, so I know theirs will work, but I'm not sure about mine. "

I think to truly pass judgement on any of these you really need to know the key differences between the three as they work in different ways:

The wii motion plus allows 1-to-1 motion in a 3d space using accelerometers and its ability to calculate how and where you moved.  But at not time does it record your actual body's position, just the controller.  This means that programmers have to make calculated guesses to your relative body position.  Due to the difficulty of making hardcore games on this controller (though few seems to be successful at it like the Conduit), this is generally a controller more suited for mainstream audiences.

The ps3 is a more advanced version of the motion plus, and it has the benefit of utilising more than 1 controller to do advanced functions, like actually simulating archery for example.  It also uses accelerometers like the wii to determine where the controller is at 3d space.  The point of the colour changes in the controller is to add another layer of complexity for developers to use, like changing the controller ball red to cast fire magic in an oblivion-esque game.  This design is a more practical approach for games made for the hardcore audience.  Do note that like the wii, body positions are also not calculated, but as there will be two motion devices working at once, and not just 1, it will be more complicated for mainstream audiences.  Oh and it seems the eye toy used was mainly for those object overlays for mainstream audiences.  That will be fun should they act upon it, but for most games, it won't be used as much.

The Natal is the most advanced of the three, as it can actually determine the position of the player's body itself reguardless of body type, and requires no controller.  It makes use of 1 camera for calculating body positions, and another for the area around the player (i believe it's 2), and a built in mic.  Voice recognition is not a feature of the hardware really but it will be available as an update patch for the 360 to install the voice recognition software.  The problem with natal is not if it really works, as this technology has existed for a while now as microsoft made deals with a company who had the tech already, but on how effective it is in mainstream and hardcore games.  It will be a treat for any mainstream idea like golf, soccer (not actual soccer running games), basic racing and anything with a simple control scheme.  Hardcore games are an entirely different matter, as you wouldn't want to fake run with a plastic gun and mimic reloading, shooting, grenade throwing etc in an fps.  With no buttons, there is greater chance for delayed reactions in reaction-sensitive moments, and for games built up to use button controllers so well, transitions will be nearly impossible for at least the near future.  However this technology is a leap forward though and I love that we have gotten this far, but this device is more just for the mainstream for now.

With the basic functionality of all three laid out, and on how I play, I'd rather the PS3 motion controller concept, as the buttons are still present, and you still get 1-to-1 motion in a virtual 3d space.  And the capability of using both controllers that respond in the game in 3d space, make it a better choice than the wii controller, as reguardless of the motion controller, the nunchuck end is still untraceable by the sensors and have no accelerometers.  Natal is a whole different playing field when it comes to potential uses, but in the end it will take a lot of time before I see myself playing an rpg, rts or fps with that thing (though human breakout will be fun).

But i think all the consoles missed the potential mark on what would be an awesome motion design - just mix the natal with a simplified control scheme like the wii or BoS, so that buttons are there to trigger things, like gun triggers or acceleration, whilst leaving the body itself as a control for player movement and interaction.  This will only work though if they set up the 360 to make player 1 use more than 1 control interface at the same time, and I don't think their current software or hardware can achieve this for now.  What do you think of this idea?

Honestly I wouldn't have minded having only Japanese voices in the game.  It's mainly just me nitpicking here but I always had an issue where the voices don't sync very well with the mouth movements when dubbed in English, and more often than not the voices are terrible in comparison.  Sure I can agree with the some of you that generally Japanese acting can sound like high pitch anime-based squeals from time to time but one thing is clear - they are clearly more passionate about portraying their characters in the right way more than english voice dubbers.  There are exceptions to this at times but unfortunately they are in the minority.

Anyways happy to see the gameplay looking more involving and nice to know how far they evolve the genre from seeing both sides standing there until their time bars are full to something that makes the action more fluid.

I'm a fan of both SC2 and DoW but i tend to lean more to DoW mainly because I like the series more (does not mean that SC2 is an inferior game).  Oh and I don't want to pay for a game 3 times for the full experience (silly move in my opinion tho they will still make a lot of money simply because the fans let them really).  Also, I'm more of a diablo person when it comes to blizzard games hehehe.

"youstolemykill said:

"Ya go with Intel. I don`t know what you use your computer for, but 1TB might be a little much. Might want to use that money for a better vid card. You could probably get a better card for roughly the same price as the card you have one you list. Just go for a ATI 4870. Since it looks like you willing to spend some money. About $240ish."

I will be using the PC for Video productions and gaming. Thanks for the advice."

"mracoon said:

"I always knew Germany censored games"

Publishers censor games. To increase sales. Because German law makes sure that violent games don't get into the hands of minors."

Try AVIdemux (google it should be on first page).  It can read your DVD files and extract the video and save it as an AVI format in various codec formats like Divx (assuming you have them installed on your computer as well).  I forgot how to use it tho a little searching and reading should help you with it.  Reply back if you need anymore help.

I like topics like these where people's practices and morals are challenged, so I'll throw my 2 cents in.

As we all know, PC gaming is not great these days even though there are still some great PC games coming out every year.  Now I am a mixed bag when it comes to "Should I pirate or not".  Based solely on the law, they say "Don't do it" and more or less that is fair.  But what isn't fair is the lack of demos for games in general today, or having to purchase or preorder said games or other games just to get a demo or even a beta of a game you want.  The whole "Try before you buy" trend seems to have reduced a lot as well as some people have said, where we cannot try a lot of games to see if we want them or not. Some are not phased by this, mainly due to the fact that either they are very knowledgable about the games themselves beforehand, or have a lot of money to spend. This is not the case with a lot of people worldwide however.

Regardless of what medium it's available in, developers should put an effort into providing a demo for every standard full price game.  Exceptions can be made for cheaper games because they are usually smaller in content and you pretty much know what you'll get with them most of the time.  But when forking over money equivalent to a full priced game wherever in the world, consumers want reassurance that it aint garbage.  Due to the lack of reassurance, people often head to pirate the games themselves in order to try it out (especially in PC games so they know if they can even run it properly or not.  People didn't expect GTA4 to be so full of bugs now).  In that sense the developers are to blame and piracy is their just punishment. But...

...this could only hold true if not for the sin the cautios consumer had commited at the same time.  If they tried it out and chose to buy it after all, no worries. But if they try to cheat this and then play the whole single-player portion for free (multi-player is usually unavailable for pirated games) and repeat this offense on many other games.  So in this context the offending consumers are to blame.

Unfortunately I don't have an answer for this like everyone else (If I did, I'd make a lot of money selling the method as the whole industry seriously needs a solution), but hopefully you can understand my reasoning for why piracy can be seen as a good alternative to a demo when the developers fail to reassure the consumer, whilst piracy can be bad when consumers abuse this major exploit that collectively hurts the industry.  I just hope developers someday offer a lot more demos, as I'm not buying starcraft 2 as a whole unless they can prove to me that a whole full-price game's worth of just 1 faction single-player campaign can be fun, as multiplayer is just an extra.  And before people say "but developers do have demos, like that crysis demo and the WoW trial and..." let it be clear that im talking about developers in a "collective" fashion, and not pointing at just the main players of the gaming industry.  I would love to hear any feedback but be mature about it please?