Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 10th Dec 2012 23:24 UTC
Confirming the industry's worst-kept secret, Valve CEO Gabe Newell has confirmed Valve is working on its 'Steam Box', a Steam-powered HTPC geared towards console-like gaming. It'll most likely run Linux. "Well certainly our hardware will be a very controlled environment," he told Kotaku. "If you want more flexibility, you can always buy a more general purpose PC. For people who want a more turnkey solution, that's what some people are really gonna want for their living room." Steam has 50 million subscribers, so there's a market here. As a comparison: Xbox Live has 40 million subscribers.
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RE[8]: Comment by shmerl
by JAlexoid on Wed 12th Dec 2012 11:16
in reply to "RE[7]: Comment by shmerl"
Member since:2009-05-19
There is always something wrong with most indie games. It's either they screw up on the story, the game itself is a casual puzzle/brawler(anything casual has issues with drawing you in) or the graphics are pixelated for the sake of being pixelated.
Indie games have gone down hill lately. Gameplay and stories get hit the hardest... Exceptions get through though.
But that is what we should expect with the market being open to more and more people. The average quality drops...
RE[8]: Comment by shmerl
by henderson101 on Wed 12th Dec 2012 12:38
in reply to "RE[7]: Comment by shmerl"
Member since:2006-05-30
Member since:2005-07-06
Looking through my collection I have only a couple Indie-games that I like: The Witcher [...] One thing that all these games have in common is the fact that the story itself is the main selling point.
The Witcher hardly even counts as an Indie game - the people responsible were doing it, on & off, for a ~decade (I have a magazine discussing the game, with first screenshots ...from ~1998). The studio is one of the bigger (if not the biggest) in Poland, done plenty of big localisation projects (really big, prominent titles with lots of text - Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment, such calibre)
Oh, and The Witcher is based on one of more popular in PL fantasy book series, that's where most of the background story comes from.
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 17:26 UTC
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 11:29 UTC
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.More Features »
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Member since:
2006-02-15
Being innovative does not automatically mean high quality or fun to play. Yes, Brain sucks. World of Goo, too, along with SMB, Binding of Isaac, Ludum Dare, FEZ and so on. I just do not find any of those games interesting or able to keep me entertained, and I really hate the trend among Indie-devs where they just ride with cutesy, cartoony graphics or "pixelated" graphics in an effort to look edgy. I don't want innovative or edgy as the only selling point.
Looking through my collection I have only a couple Indie-games that I like: The Witcher, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Deponia 1&2 and The Whispered World. One thing that all these games have in common is the fact that the story itself is the main selling point.