Zero Punctuation: Killzone: Shadow Fall
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
Pretty obvious why Yahtzee is suddenly banging so hard on the "backwards compatibility" drum: he bought a gaming PC. Of course it's silly to expect backwards compatibility from a new console when previous consoles didn't offer the same (or did so in only limited fashion). But we're not comparing these consoles to previous consoles. We're comparing them to current gaming PCs. Once you've taken the plunge and gotten on board with PC gaming, you start to recognize the consoles for what they really are: petty closed gardens designed to limit consumer access while lining the pockets of major corporations who contribute virtually nothing to actual gaming. It's going to take some serious and exclusive killer apps to justify the purchase of these next-gen consoles, and they're going to rightfully receive a ton of flak until that happens.
The Owl offered some interesting stuff, but it was still basically bog standard FPS fare (your bullets being glowy bolts does not change that you're using the same Pistol/SMG/AR/Sniper as every other game) with a few robots sprinkled in.
Ah yes, backwards compatibility. The PS2 really did spoil everyone there with that one. This grand gigantic problem that is only a problem for people who have had every predecessor console since the dawn of time; have had a large collection of games for each of those; and actually still dig out more then a few of those on rare occasion to do anything with. Along with the ever-perpetuated myth that PC is some magical utopia of fairy-dust powered automatic compatibility, and said efforts don't involve having secondary OSes running inside your main OS, and still having to tinker with half the settings before the game works properly; Or the alternative of paying a team of engineeers like GOG to make a version that will run relatively trouble free on your new PC. I've played on PCs for over 20 years now, alongside various members of the Nintendo and Sony lineages, and know well enough how incredibly hard some of the old favorites have been to get working at a minimal level, nevermind trying to get full features going.
Yeah, the launch lineups been a little lackluster, with the main draw on both sides probably being the last-gen ported forward title in Black Flag. It was clearly hurt by Watch Dogs holding back as well. Then again, Nintendo's the only ones that have really had some major lineups at launch in the past. Thats probably chalked up to their heavy first party development, as getting developers and publishers to go all out on a title for an unproven console is a dubious standard at best. Its also further hindered in the era of internet hypes and internet leaks alongside, as they released Dev kits late in the game to have truly impressive titles tooled for launch.
Ah yes, backwards compatibility. The PS2 really did spoil everyone there with that one. This grand gigantic problem that is only a problem for people who have had every predecessor console since the dawn of time; have had a large collection of games for each of those; and actually still dig out more then a few of those on rare occasion to do anything with. Along with the ever-perpetuated myth that PC is some magical utopia of fairy-dust powered automatic compatibility, and said efforts don't involve having secondary OSes running inside your main OS, and still having to tinker with half the settings before the game works properly; Or the alternative of paying a team of engineeers like GOG to make a version that will run relatively trouble free on your new PC. I've played on PCs for over 20 years now, alongside various members of the Nintendo and Sony lineages, and know well enough how incredibly hard some of the old favorites have been to get working at a minimal level, nevermind trying to get full features going.
Yeah, the launch lineups been a little lackluster, with the main draw on both sides probably being the last-gen ported forward title in Black Flag. It was clearly hurt by Watch Dogs holding back as well. Then again, Nintendo's the only ones that have really had some major lineups at launch in the past. Thats probably chalked up to their heavy first party development, as getting developers and publishers to go all out on a title for an unproven console is a dubious standard at best. Its also further hindered in the era of internet hypes and internet leaks alongside, as they released Dev kits late in the game to have truly impressive titles tooled for launch.
Well it had to happen. Yahtzee got drunk again, started feeling sorry for the 'new, but completely underutilized, gen consoles', and put a bag on his head. With a story this devoid of merit, and level design from "How to create FPS levels for Dummies (or EA execs)", this should have earned the usual 'liquid brown' badge that derivative, over-hyped, braincell killers are all stamped with. When he wakes up and chews his arm off to make a dramatic escape (well it is dramatic with that kind of blood loss), I am sure he will be back to normal.
BUT THAT DOESN'T JUSTIFY FORCING US TO BUY A CLUNKY NEW CONSOLE WITH NO BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY.
P.S. Software can emulate *any* hardware, especially since they have the software design specs for said hardware. So the consoles could, but the companies will not. Why? So they can re-release 'upgraded' versions of their classics for use on the new system. What makes it upgraded - it plays on the 'new' system. What did they do to make it work? Well they just recompiled the old code through the new kernel which is 99.9% the same as the old, and fixed one or two lines which threw an error (probably due to a better spell checker).
Total conversion time: 10 minutes. Extra profits per year: $100m. The fact that people are actually arguing legitimately on your behalf: Priceless!
BUT THAT DOESN'T JUSTIFY FORCING US TO BUY A CLUNKY NEW CONSOLE WITH NO BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY.
P.S. Software can emulate *any* hardware, especially since they have the software design specs for said hardware. So the consoles could, but the companies will not. Why? So they can re-release 'upgraded' versions of their classics for use on the new system. What makes it upgraded - it plays on the 'new' system. What did they do to make it work? Well they just recompiled the old code through the new kernel which is 99.9% the same as the old, and fixed one or two lines which threw an error (probably due to a better spell checker).
Total conversion time: 10 minutes. Extra profits per year: $100m. The fact that people are actually arguing legitimately on your behalf: Priceless!
In theory, yes. In practice, it depends.4Aces said:
The vast majority of the time, it takes an order of a magnitude more processing power to emulate a certain piece of hardware than what the hardware being emulated is capable of doing. Frequently accuracy is traded for speed to get decent performance - emulators like ZNES, SNES9x, actually just about every freebie emulator, take a lot of liberty with their "behaviour".
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/accuracy-takes-power-one-mans-3ghz-quest-to-build-a-perfect-snes-emulator/
Oh dear lord, good luck with that one.Thanatos2k said:
The writer/director/producer of Suikoden I, II, III left Konami most of the way into III's development along with most of the team. His most recent endeavor was writing a magic the gathering manga that ended July 27th, 2011.
Suikoden IV & V involved the Suikogaiden team (they made the amazing opening video for III) & what was left of the Suikoden III team.
Since then, Tierkries & Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki (the Japanese only PSP game) have been made by the people left over from the games prior.
Since Tierkries used most of what was left of the original Suikoden team, it's about as close to the original V the series will ever be. To expect another console release (especially based on the luke-warm reception every game since III has had), is rather unlikely.
Though it WOULD be lovely to see a JRPG with the same character depth as Suikoden III (or even V) in this day and age.