ShadowPaladin V1.0

Thats a toughie since PC's are not the primary unit used to play CD's even though they can. Although It's probably been passed by legal analysts beforehand and buried somewhere deep in the small print it's not the sort of thing that should be done in secret. That would depend on how likely it was to effect an "innocent user" at the end of the day people are not going to want to bring themselves attention in that way unless they are a paragon of virtue.

Any of the good Xbox ones you can also get on the PC. Gamecube has some good ones, but they are few in number unless you get a GBA player. You could play the RPGs released on the PS2 for about a year (thats how many there are) plus if you dont mind retrogaming (which it dosnt look like you do) then you can play all the PS RPGs as well on top of that on the same machine. With a few exceptions they are all quite cheap to pick up used.

I expect it will catch on. Like any anti piracy measure it's not designed to irradicate it. Rather it's a deterent to people who only have a certain level of knowledge. Even though music is overpriced. It still dosnt give anyone the right to steal it, any more than walking into a store and lifting the CD off the shelf.

I disagree , although games are becoming more and more similiar. Then again for 20 odd years people have been using a gamepad and adapting after using a keyboard/mouse , not something a lot of people can do overnight. I'd pin your hopes on people buying the revolution in large numbers since it's the only console that emphasis gameplay innovation and fun over graphics.

Best of luck with that one. According to Nintendo there will be no screenshots of any revolution games. Gears of War is impressive in 1080 as would most things. However most games wont run it and you wont get it without a deluxe 360 and a HD TV so it's definately worth pointing that out.

You can buy every console of a generation brand new and you still wouldnt reach what it would cost you for an equivelent PC. Or what it would cost in upgrades over a 5 year period to keep one top of the line.

The thing I noticed while looking around was this. They are a lot better at taking console screenshots these days.

Actually while the game is fun (although this is the first time I've known the story) a more "realistic" surgery game using the same principle would be more my tastes. You could have called this one Phoenix Wright:Ace Doctor

It's not easy being a doctor! A profession constantly on the move, it demands confidence, deftness of touch, sharp reflexes, superhuman concentration, relationship skills, bomb-defusal knowledge... Well, here it does. This obviously isn't a surgery simulation, so the devs have had to edit the practical tools down to a set of ten, and the demands down to a set of stylus-driven challenges. Managing to convey the above requirements under such constraints is quite a feat, and Trauma Center deserves credit for it. Advertisement Adopting the mantle of Dr Stiles, a young doctor at Hope Hospital, you're quickly thrown into the OR. "Let's begin the operation!" he blurts with Phoenix Wrightian mania. During the initial section of the game, you're hand-held through touch-screen surgeries by departing nurse Mary on the top-screen, who teaches you the basics of making incisions, delivering injections, applying gel, suturing (stitching), handling forceps, applying artificial membranes and doing all of that while maintaining a patient's vital signs. This sets the tone for what follows. With Mary gone, you botch your first big op - ignoring advice from her saucy replacement with the big doe eyes - and so you set out to make up for it. Which you do with aplomb. After demonstrating incredible concentration in a life-saving surgery, your superiors inform you that you have a special gift, the Healing Touch. Think of it as Bullet Time for doctors - by drawing a five-pointed star you can act in slow motion for as long as your special-points bank holds up. Applying this talent to conquer an unknown virus that swims around a young girl's vital organs like a slash-happy fish, you become a target for Caduceus - an organisation that fights bio-terrorism. You join the fight against this new virus, GUILT, and its many strains. Meet GUILT. Yes, it's an acronym. It's too silly to explain. You face various surgeries throughout the game's episodes - all with preset parameters, areas to focus, and outcomes that feed the ongoing story, so you can't, for example, accidentally sever someone's legs during a winning surgery and then have to explain yourself afterwards. Pity! Each patient presents a new combination of tumours, internal lacerations and GUILT strains, spawning various cuts, small and deep, and other ailments. You have to disinfect, stitch, cut and remove, patch up and use things like a magnifying tool to concentrate on certain areas, or an ultrasound to locate moving targets. Through in-game tutorials you quickly gain a grasp of how to tackle each situation using the various tools available through icons on either side of the screen, and thankfully your assistant is always on hand to shout at you if you're doing the wrong thing, which rarely has that much negative effect anyway. Speed's much more of an issue. As you proceed, a story's told through manga-style cells on the top-screen with dialogue bubbles as each of the various doctors and key staff pitch in and provide commentary and intrigue. The plot's occasionally amusing, manages to toss in bits of jargon without confusing the novice (so, all of us), and even touches on issues like euthanasia, bio terrorism, and the pressure doctors are forced to work under (complete with the inevitable senior surgeon who'll "never operate again"). Even so, it's hard to take it all too seriously - the quirky characters and sanitised presentation are comparable to Phoenix Wright's, though not quite so engaging or memorable. Yes Nurse Ratched. Having successfully distilled modern medicine into a formula that's one part Holby City and three parts flamboyant anime, however, Trauma Center goes and lets itself down in other areas. For example, each time you retry an operation, you have to click through all the dialogue again, and you have to repeat the initial easier phase of the operation to return to the bit that killed the patient. There are also occasions where it's necessary to zoom in and out of different areas repeatedly, and the game's reluctance to acknowledge your stylus gestures are a relatively benign contaminant next to the cancerous frustration of discovering your input's not being accepted around the outer edge of the screen while zoomed. Worse, while the general difficulty of some surgeries can be forgiven for being quite exacting, some are often hideously out of synch with the general curve - and potential showstoppers. In a couple of cases I had to create strategies that involved manipulating the mechanics by continually pausing, or tackling multiple tumours by getting them to a transitional stage I knew to be harmless and moving onto the next without actually dealing with everything at the appropriate time. Even with the Healing Touch, some surgeries are going to take hours of trial and error to complete. Each op is time-limited, which becomes a bitch later on. You should avoid the temptation to apply medical-style thinking to that. This is a game where we expose creatures with a stylus and then chase them with a laser beam, defuse bombs with medical knowledge, and speed up our reactions by thumbing pentagrams. It is fair for it to demand quicker and quicker reactions and strategic thinking, but too often you feel like you're being arbitrarily funnelled toward failure. Just as annoying, you can't apply what you've learned on second attempts, and the game's mechanics feel like they're failing you rather than the other way round. For the patient (ha!), the single-player mode consists of several chapters, each comprising numerous surgeries. The level of variation is fair, including the occasional departure for a logic puzzle, or a mid-air operation where you have to worry about turbulence. Beyond that there's a Challenge mode. The idea here is to tackle previous surgeries again and achieve higher rankings, but as with the rest of the game it can be hard to understand why your efforts are being rated so poorly. Easily the most frustrating thing about Trauma Center is that it isn't just a failed experiment. It's a good idea, well measured and put together. Its problems are spiking difficulty and mechanical obstinacy. In a genre of one or two, that might be forgivable, but the truth is that DS owners can be better served - by Phoenix Wright in the story-driven stakes, and by whatever falls of the shelf when you kick it in the reactions race. You'll definitely need confidence, deftness of touch, sharp reflexes and superhuman concentration if you're planning to scrub up here, and it never! Gets! Any! Easier! 7/10

Hard to say since they are playing their cards so close to their chests. I was reading the Eurogamer forum and a couple of people are getting fed up with the same old stuff so it could be time for a change and Nintendo have been pretty good at capitalising on it. I keep having dreams about how I could use a revolution controller

Just an FYI you do realise those figures are only for active internet users right ? "There were 14 broadband connections per 100 Britons in August, compared with 13 in the US. Sept. 22, 2005". "This August 2005 survey of UK ISPs shows broadband penetration at 55.7% of all online subscriptions, up from 54.3% in July 2005. From National Statistics UK. Note that in light of this and other recent data last month's report appears to report too high a figure for UK broadband penetration". Anyone know if those are accurate because 14.5% for the US seems low.

So ? Really ? Tell that to mister Moore when he was moaning about how the hardware costs of the Xbox and the fact it never took off till the price was slashed etc. No it dosnt. Out of the box means when you take it out of the box it performs that function. Like the PS2 could play DvD out of the box the Xbox could not (unless you bought the unit). Likewise without the cable, no HD out of the box simple as that. You can argue it , but since it's in black and white you wont get far.

Interesting link. I read your post. But since I pretty much agree that HDTV will be held back by cost, didnt really have anything to add I got an earbashing off someone actually about my TV. I was "evil" to spend enough on a luxury item to feed africa for a month or something. Usual charity case stuff.

Is there some part of "out of the box" that you dont comprehend ? It's not supported out of the box unless you have a deluxe model. That is a fact, and thats all there is too it.

Got any sources for that ? Dosnt matter if the price dosnt come down. Not what I said. I said most console users do not use the household TV. Which is backed up by most of the surveys done among regular poeple who own consoles.

- Xbox 360 Standard AV Cable. This connects gamers to the world of Xbox 360, delivering great next-generation graphics and games using standard-definition connections. - Xbox 360 Component HD-AV Cable. This connects gamers to the world of Xbox 360 games and graphics through high-definition and standard-definition connections Sorry looks like your wrong again while the console might be able to do it , it wont unless you have the appropriate cable. I guess they figure anyone who cant afford a deluxe model is too poor to afford a HDTV :ph34r: How is it spin ? I never altered anything , unlike you. The only one guilty of spin here is you.

I think thats a lot more realistic. Although http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=61491

I doubt it for the following reasons. 1. Highspeed broadband is still a minority thing. Times really havnt changed quickly at all. 2. HDTV's will set you back a shedload more

How do you know ? Good it would save a lot of hassle all around. Sorry again your wrong. For fun, let's break down what Epiphany is writing in the above quote, shall we? "The X360 has the best development tools developers have worked with. Many developers have backed this claim, including John Carmack..." - Epiphany This, I assume, is taken from the QuakeCon where Carmack spoke about developing on the Xbox 360. So what's the real quote then? "Carmack also praised Microsoft's development environment as easily the best of any of the consoles, thanks to the company's background as a software provider. Carmack said the 360, like the original Xbox, is easy to create games for thanks to a solid set of development tools. However, he went on, Sony is promoting the PS3 as offering more of an open environment for development, like the PC - and Carmack can't see Microsoft following suit." -Carmack at QuakeCon Not quite the same, huh? Ok, the Xbox 360 is the easiest to work on of the current consoles, but where's the part about it having the best tools he's worked with? I'd say that's a pretty major detail, wouldn't you? Especially as Epiphany words it, as it sounds as developers in general think this. Epiphany also chose not to include what Carmack said about the PS3, which to me sounds like praise too, although in a different field. (Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=60510 , http://techreport.com/etc/2005q3/carmack-q...on/index.x?pg=1 ) Let's continue on: "...in a recent G4TV interview - in which they continually tried to get him to claim the PS3 was "better"." - Epiphany And the real world equivalent? "On the subject of whether the 360 is superior to the PS3, Carmack described the hardware as "comparable", but conceded: "PS3 is probably marginally more powerful, in terms of raw flops and graphic operations."" - G4tv G4tv asked John if he didn't believe the PS3 was more powerful than the Xbox 360, one time during the interview. Continually tried to make him claim the PS3 was more powerful.. Right. Also (the important part): "He simply looked at them and said developing for a console with better tools is superior than developing for a console that has marginally superior FLOP performance." - Epiphany Notice how Epiphany in this sentence conveniently 'forgets' to add that John Carmack, programming guru of ID Software, thinks the PS3 is more powerful in FLOPS and graphic operations. Not only FLOPS as Epiphany claims (or, as Epiphany calls it, FLOP...). Guess Carmack doesn't see the Xbox 360 GPU (Xenos) as such a groundbreaking feature after all. Of course, this goes against everything Epiphany has been preaching for the last couple of months, which is why he left that vital piece of information about graphics operations out. Guess the PS3 isn't just all about FLOPS after all.. (Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=61352 , http://www.g4tv.com/videos/index.html ) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well up until now the PS3 does support 1080 out of the box. The 360 on the other hand does not. Only the "deluxe" model does. I'd read the above and what your "summarising" quotes lead to before you start tossing around the H word though. And dont forget the board is a made up of individuals and we dont always agree. It's not like there is a board identity.

A lot of people claim that... Really ? I'd put MGS III and Collosus against anything the Xbox can offer. I think significantly is pushing it. It's certainly not ICO to Collosus. Graphics can only go to a certain point then you are limited by other factors. Your not even going to reach the level shown in Gears of War without the appropriate TV. As an example you can have a photrealistic car going around a photorealistic track , but unless you have a feedback steering wheel and pedals, your still not "driving a car". I never said that Gears of War couldnt be improved upon. Only that you sont have the scope of improvement that you had this generation. Any improvements are going to be small ones and if people dont care about the difference between 360 kong and Xbox kong, likely completely irrelevent too. This has nothing to do with Sony it's just a case of realism in graphics can only go so far before you need to look at other factors of immersion.

Probably Nintendo love packing new gadgets along with games like those bongo drums

A Nintendo of Europe executive has stated that the company is staying well out of the scrap over who's got the most powerful next-gen console, and has no plans to start piling in. In an interview with Dutch magazine [N]Gamer, senior director of marketing Jim Merrick is quoted as saying: "Regarding the specifications, we will probably never 'release' this information as we feel that it is largely irrelevant. "While some of our competitors enjoy comparing specifications, it has little or nothing to do with how satisfied the consumers will be with the system and the games once they are released." Advertisement And there was no budging him, either: "I know people are hungry for information on Revolution and we respect and appreciate that, but we don't want to contribute to the cloud of meaningless information that surrounds the next generation systems." What, you mean it's not "a living entertainment experience powered by human energy that revolves around you and makes you at the center of your experience," like Peter Moore's vision of X360, Jim? For shame. Merrick said the development of Revolution instalments in the Zelda, Mario, Metroid Prime and Smash Brothers series is "progressing well", and reaffirmed that not all games will use the "freehand" style remote controller - there's the "classic-style expansion controller" as well, of course. "This option is there for new games that will be created that are most suited to a traditional style of controller. We are not trying to say that the

Like I said no worries I havnt even read it yet

Did you do that ?