I've got a P4 2.8Ghz, 1GB DDR, Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB. Doom 3 on high quality @ 1024x768 gave me 35 FPS in an empty corridor, 25-30 if something happened. Shifting down to 800x600 @ medium quality helped tremendously, putting my FPS in the 40 ranges consistently.

Maybe my system isn't tweaked properly, or maybe ATI's OpenGL driver really does suck. I've never had a stability issue, just an in-game performance issue. Anyone have a nice tweak guide to link to?

Can't wait for this. Marty O'Donnel is one of two American game composers (the other being Jeremy Soule, who you'll recall from Secret of Evermore and Total Annihilation) that I like. I'll be sure to buy this soundtrack, and the upcoming second one.

I find it funny that they are doing this in multiple stages...

I don't know, I think it's the smart and obvious thing to do.

So, we've got models, textures, sounds & music, and maps. Sounds like there's just one more load left--the engine.

I think ATI's saving the 5.0 label for January, when their completely re-written OGL driver is completed.

But how is the 28th iteration of Mario / Starfox / Zelda innovative??

If you'd play them, you'd know. There's a difference between "new IP" and "new gameplay."

And for what it's worth, we are all PC Gamers, and yet don't possess the console-racism that you folks here do. Go figure.

Hey, don't lump me in with them... proud console player since the NES days here.
This comment was edited on Oct 14, 22:04.

As far as gaming goes, Nintendo has 2x more innovation and creativity up it's sleeve than MS and Sony combined. I don't see that changing anytime soon either.

This might have something to do with the fact that Sony doesn't have in-house developers, and Microsoft limits its involvement with gaming. Nintendo is forced to put out as many first-party games as it can--what else do they have besides?

I agree that Nintendo games are great, but the quality of Nintendo's games wasn't the point I was taking issue with in my reply.

I wouldn't mind WW2 games if they each handled different aspects. We need to see new scenarios. SAS in North Africa can satisfy developers' fetish for vehicle chase scenes. Patton's miniature quagmire in Lorraine would be a nice assault scenario. And how about the Pacific theater, eh? We get nothing from there--and I know, there's a Medal of Honor game about the Pacific theater. It's just one title in a sea of Europe-focused WW2 games.

A nice idea for a change... let us play as the Germans! The game could start off with six or eight German levels involving the invasion of France, and the subsequent invasion of the USSR. After the requisite Stalingrad stage, insert a Kasserine Pass level, and then the focus would shift to the Brits: you could start those SAS/North Africa levels. Toss in a stage playing as a tanker under Patton, and you're done with North Africa. Two levels in Sicily--one for the landing, one for the drive to Messina. Jump back to the Commies, you retake some cities (I'm not too familiar with the eastern front, sorry.) Then you have D-Day, focusing on the Americans up until Operation Market-Garden, where you get one American level and one British level (joint operation.) Then a couple of Lorraine levels. Then some "Russians in Poland" stages. Then Patton crossing the Rhine, then the Russians taking Berlin.

Of course, this isn't going to happen. Sigh.

Nintendo is one of the originals !

Uh, I hate to burst your fanboy bubble, but Nintendo is only in it for the money as well--in fact, Nintendo is "worse" than Sony and Microsoft, considering that most of Nintendo's revenue comes from the gaming industry.

With that said, I think I need to pick up Paper Mario 2. Though I wish I could play the N64 version again...

why ?? why again ?? as the PC version of pt1 came out, the game was like 1 year old... and now again ?? great marketing Majesco...

Because the game has a bunch of small bugs, so they're going to fix them for the PC version. This is good, not bad.

All you guys thinking of downloading this Halo 2 leak... it's PAL, it's in French, and it's illegal. In baseball, they call that three strikes.

Just wait for the actual release.

Late comment, and I doubt anyone will read this, but hey.

DS only plays DS and GBA games. There is no GB/GBC compatibility. Not a big deal, IMO--there are already over 500 GBA games, and at some point you have to push developers to use your new product's capabilities.

GBA will still be available as the bargain bin entry option, and for those who need GB/GBC support.

Yes, but America goes nuts over a nipple flash on television or swearing.

We Americans get slightly upset over nipple flashes or swearing on shows where young kids are watching... you know, like the Super Bowl. You know, it's popular to blame parents for not properly monitoring their kids (filtering their media exposure, for example). But when parents do their job and get outraged at inappropriate content being shown to their kids, what happens? Those same advocates of parental responsibility turn around and go "What's the big deal? It's a nipple!"

"Team America: World Police" = Puppet oral sex goes against grain for US censors
http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1320095,00.html so it looks like you do!

Do you even understand what the MPAA is? It's an industry-created agency. It's not a government bureau. They didn't censor Team America. They (NOT THE GOVERNMENT) simply gave it a content rating based on, of all things, its content. Had the puppet sex scene been left in, the film would've been rated NC-17. So the scene was removed, the film gets rated R, and the scene gets tossed in on the DVD.

Absolutely no censorship took place. The government did not say, "Hey North Park guys, or whatever that damn show is called! NO PUPPET SEX!" The government had no hand in this.

You probably mean a legal PC-port for Halo 2.

I mean a port, period. If such a feat you describe (a hacker porting Halo 2 on his own) was possible, we wouldn't have waited as long for the original Halo--and we sure as hell would be able to bump the mouse sensitivity in that game up past 10.

How can the Xbox announce a limited edition of Halo 2? The Xbox is just a console. Of course, if it could make its own announcements, then it's got yet another feature over Gamecube and PS2. But isn't it odd how the console generates its own news? Of course, a more viable alternative is that Microsoft put out the announcement, and not the Xbox. You never see a headline that says "PlayStation 2 today announced the release date for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," or "GameCube announces Metroid Prime 2." Dumb, dumb reporters.

Some things in this thread I'd like to reply to:

-Bungie has already confirmed that they've changed their level design philosophy, and the reptitive levels are gone.
-Co-op on XBL is a rumor. Bungie hasn't said anything about it.
-You guys who were neutral on Halo should give Halo 2 a try. It's a more expansive game, and some of the common "wtf is this?" features are gone (like the repetitive corridors.)
-IIRC, there won't be a PC port of Halo 2. Ever.

No problems with SP2 here.

Personally, I think the technology media over-reported what little problems SP2 does have.

I'm sure it does, but this is more than a subtitling effort. They're turning audio cues--say, the sudden appearance of three zombies--into visual cues by displaying on-screen where the sounds are coming from. At least, that's what I'm getting out of it. It's a great idea.

Have you actually compared the PSP to the DS, or are you just going fanboy on us? I suspect the latter. In which screenshots does Metroid Prime Hunters look good? And in which screenshots do your unnamed PSP games look better? About all we've seen is Metal Gear Acid, and that game cheats using fixed camera angles and sparse texture work to put more detail into the characters, fooling you into thinking it looks great.

This is the first generation of 3D-capable handhelds and you're already bitching about graphics. If you want eye candy that bad, load up Far Cry, Doom 3, CS:S, HL2 screenshots, or any number of console games.

Translation of the "regular users" in that article: "What? We have to actually consider security? NOOOOOOOOOO! We'd rather not use the Internet at all!" Good riddance, then. More bandwidth for CS:S.

However, that doesn't change the fact that the majority of the games will be played on console-TVs/computers.

I agree with most of your post, but this line stuck out. The Game Boy has a larger market share than you think. Its AAA games consistently hit the top ten sales lists, and it's been so successful over the past 15 years that Nintendo, in the face of the Virtual Boy flop, the N64's second-place market share, and the GameCube's stunting in the PS2's shadow, has no debt and a cash storage of about $4 billion. They've never been in the red for as long as they've been a publically traded company, and the recent exchange rates have only increased their earnings (there was a link here a couple of days ago about that.)

My prediction is that next-gen console development will become easier, thanks to off-the shelf components, like pre-fabbed engines, standardized APIs (I cite OpenGL on PS3 and DirectX on XBox2 again), licensed physics engines, etc. However, development time itself will be slightly longer--maybe a couple of months. Without OGL/DX/etc, we could be talking another year of development. But if it's easier to get to the shiny new features, and easier to implement them, then you're looking at drastically reduced dev time.

I'm sure the publishers would love to bump game prices up regardless, but then the ones who do will be out-maneuvered by the ones who'll say, "Hey, we keep the gamer in mind. We're not raising prices."

Wow,somebody who actually mentions/knows about Radiant Silvergun.That was on kick-ass game,its a legend on the Saturn.BTW goes away mostly for no less than 150-200$ on ebay...

Yep, and the odd part is, it's worth every penny.

I got my copy in a trade deal... and now that I'm thinking of selling my Saturn, I still don't want to give the game up. I'm secretly holding out for the announcement of a port or a Treasure compilation collection, or something. But of course, if a port gets announced, it won't sell for as high as it does. Catch-22s...