Zero Punctuation: Next Gen Buyer's Guide

[tikalal]

What I'm getting from this is "backwards compatibility and emulation is actually a lot more feasible than we've been led to believe." Is that accurate?

Mostly, though outside of DosBox 386 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80386] semi-emulation I am actually not talking about emulation. At all.

Let me put it this way: The "uncore" parts responsible for input/output, video compositing/recording and system memory interface are custom, but the central and graphics processors [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_(microarchitecture)] are parts (technically die masks) straight from AMD's catalogue. In fact, they are available in ordinary desktops and laptops right now. When Sony said "super charged PC architecture" they meant it. Well, maybe not so much the super-charged part... anyways

Essentially, if any of [a href=http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&Subcategory=32&N=100006740 600165139 600451679 600451669&IsNodeId=1&IsPowerSearch=1]these laptops[/a] can run an old game, be it directly in Windows or running under DosBox, there is very little stopping Microsoft from allowing the game to run on Xbox One. A little more is stopping Sony from running old windows games because the OS they made for the PS4 has the same foundation (BSD Unix) as Apple, but iirc there should already be a DosBox port to BSD Unix.

Interesting. So instead of emulating old console games on the Xbone/PS4, they can do a negligible amount of work on the PC versions of those same old games and run them on the new consoles.

I like where this is going.

I've always wanted game companies to tastefully remaster their best old games and update them for newer systems for a fair price. They never seem to have the foresight or the direct, shareholder-friendly financial incentive to do so, but as things converge it seems more hopeful.

I've been frustrated with the lack of quality games from the games industry for a few years now. When I look back at games I used to play, there's usually some great, unique experience they had that games just don't have today. There are so many great old games that just need a little bit of work on the UI and tech side to get them current again.

While the increase in technology has done a lot for games, the ultimate factor of quality comes from the artists making the game and the environment they made it in. It seems outrageous to me that the most valuable, lighting-in-a-bottle gems are being left behind.

 

[Your Fearless Captain]

Oh, and as someone who lives in a country...100x less murders than America

I looked this up and for that to be possible you would have to live in either Monaco or Palau both of which have a murder rate of 0. It's unlikely that you live in either but it is possible.

Lol, you got me. Deservedly so, since you actually bothered to fact check. I certainly didn't, hence the hyperbolic figure. Nonetheless, we have [a whole lot] less.

When I was Googling murder rates I was pretty surprised at far they had gone done. In the 90s several countries had rates well over 100, which is insane considering the current rate in the U.S. is around 4. Now though, the highest is Honduras with a rate of 91.6, which is 22 higher then #2, El Salvador.

That makes me wonder if there was some massive murder spree that some gang went on, or maybe tons of people emigrated out of the country or it really is that much more violent then the rest of the world. Interestingly, San Pedro Sula, a city in Honduras, has a murder rate of 158, which is a lot closer too the #2 city, Juaraz, Mexico. Mexico has a relatively low murder rate so that makes me think that in Honduras the violence is widespread where as in Mexico it's mainly in cities and alone drug trafficking routes.

Unrelated to Honduras but still related to murder rates, is the top fifty cities by murder rate only 5 are outside of North and South America, those being 4 in South Africa and 1 in Iraq. This speaks a lot about the kind of crimes by committed in the more violent places of the world. The fact that Mexico is 26 in murder rate but has 5 of the top 10 most violent cities on the planet says that the majority or the murders are in cities were as in most African countries with high murder rates it's far more widespread. The same for the America. New Orleans has the highest rate in the country with 57, that's 14x higher then the average of the country.

I'm going to stop because this is really rambley and I don't want to edit it down to something readable.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Actually, I read a couple articles detailing how the current gen of consoles are holding back what they can really do with games and there are a lot of devs that are quoted with saying how excited they are for the next gen.

Funny. I recall industry figureheads claiming the same exact thing about the previous generation (PS2/Xbox/Gamecube era), and that generation had even more variety in games and genres than the last one (PS3/360/Wii).

So forgive me if I'm not buying into this "we could do more than just graphics!" business again, because a lot of what worked mechanically in that generation was made dumber and shinier this recent generation.

Nah, trust me. I've seen a detailed list on all of the exclusives that are coming out for the One and they all look pretty awesome.

What list?
Nothing personal, but I'll trust something I can evaluate for myself over the word of a random person on the internet.

Also, have you seen this game? [http://www.lichdom.com/index.html] It's not an exclusive for any system but man, it looks amazing and it's just indie.

Well...that was a random plug but...Ok?

I know that it's tempting to be cynical but you'll be a lot happier if you also consider the good things as well as the bad.

I really try to not be so cynical, but damn does this business make it difficult.
Right now, I really have more reasons to avoid next gen consoles, than to even look at them.

 

[Nouw]

Well the WiiU has more games if that counts for anything.

 

[Enizer]

A repost?
I thought you better then this?
what the hell?

 

[Jennacide]

This is basically the same results I came to. I wanted to get a PS4 originally, and may someday when they fix the current problem I have with it: there is nothing I want to goddam play. So I took the $600 I set aside for a PS4 and some games and build a brand new computer that makes the new consoles look childish in comparison. =|

At least Nintendo has been getting things right with the 3DS, five exceptionally good games this year (FE: Awakening, Pokemon X, Dual Destinies, Weegee's Mansion, New Leaf), and they slapped SE with enough sense to localize Bravely Default to the rest of the world.

 

[Dragonbums]

he seems to have ignored the steambox

This whole thing is a repost from like 3 months ago or something.

 

[Bitcoon]

Okay, so it's a repost.
You'd think he comment a bit on the video, or add or change something... SOMETHING to update this to the current state of things. I mean, a lot of what he said is now fairly irrelevant, though he's still pretty right on that "don't" conclusion. I was hoping to see something there where he added something to it or changed it somehow to reflect all the change that's happened. The consoles are all out now. The Wii U has a few genuinely worthwhile games on it. Kinect isn't mandatory.

 

[C14N]

No need for the repost, we can accept that maybe Yahtzee can get Christmas day off, it's not like he's never missed a week. Besides, this one seems very dated by now.