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Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:21 pm
by Menolly
OK guys...be truthful with me.
Beorn wants to get GTA4 for Hyperception's Father's Day gift. They are both interested in the game...
Am I going to be seriously unhappy with this purchase? We have never owned nor played any of the previous GTAs.
Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 8:50 pm
by Rigel
If you don't mind dark, gritty stories about drugs, murder, and revenge (not to mention a fair bit of profanity, and the ability to hang out with friends at strip clubs), then it's a much better game than I expected.
Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 10:45 pm
by Menolly
That's what I was afraid of...
I can't keep him an innocent forever...huh?
Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:09 pm
by Rigel
Who, your husband or your son?
Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:35 pm
by The Dreaming
Nav wrote:Kil Tyme wrote:I've been putting off an XBox until they glue a blueray on it, which won't be until 09, I understand. I'm more of a PC gamer anyway, but am getting itchy on the xbox purchase.
Despite reports to the contrary, I'm not convinced we'll see BluRay in the Xbox 360. There are issues regarding the read-speed of BluRay, which would basically make it very difficult for a BluRay drive to handle the 360's current DVD-DL games. Basically DVD has a variable read speed, near the spindle it's 6mb/s but near the outer edge it's close to 16mb/s, which allows the developers to optimise the disc by putting large and frequently used files near the edge to improve loading times. BluRay is a standard 8mb/s across the entire disc, so each and every game relying on that 16mb/s speed will need a software patch in order to run well. This is the reason that PS3 games install a big chunk of data on the console's hard drive, even though the load times aren't any different to the Xbox; the cache of files just makes the comparable.
I think we will see BluRay in an Xbox, but it'll be the next gen one, whatever that's called.
Rigel wrote:So, nobody else posting their gamertags?
Mine is Kenny Carwash.
I am wondering how this is possible? Does the disc actually spin *slower* when its reading the outer edge? One of the weird things about a spinning disc is that at a constant level of RPMs, the outer edge of the disc is spinning MUCH faster than the inner edge. Is it just a matter of increasing the general read speed of blue ray? Cause if thats the case, it's only a matter of time before the technology catches up.
Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 9:09 pm
by Menolly
Rigel wrote:Who, your husband or your son?
...
shhh...
Both...
Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 1:08 pm
by Nav
It's because of how the read heads move across the surface of the disc, see
Constant Angular Velocity and
Constant Linear Velocity. I'm sure technology will increase that read speed, but I think as the limiting factor is on the hardware side I'm not sure how it could be rolled out to current devices. The overall capacity of BluRay is increasing all the time though, as it becomes possible to add more layers to a disc. Hitachi have demonstrated a quad layer 100GB disc and TDK claim to have developed a six layer, 200GB version (why don't you try and fill
that Hideo Kojima).
One of the most interesting developments I've heard of though is from JVC, who are trying to commercialise a three layer disc that has two layers for BluRay and one for standard def DVD, so it can be played in a normal DVD player and then at high def in a BluRay player.