1 yay, everything worked and I didn't destroy margins

2 First?

3 helloooo?

4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LBasxQ9Nyc

Lets organize a Union and get some of that
Sweet , Sweet Guvment Money....

5 The blonde is hooah

6 What can I say people, last week was really damn quite for news

7 Look at those blue eyes.

8 Look at those blue eyes.

Posted by: Vic at March 03, 2013 03:26 PM (53z96)

the Cathrine cosplayer or the gif?

9 Cats cosplay
http://www.cosplay.com/photo/2997390/

10 The blond chick with the pillow.

11 Art, I'll take Air Shuttle Disasters for $40.

12 Hmm. Heart of the Swarm launches on my birthday and BlizzCon opens on my wedding anniversary.

Ya think maybe Blizzard is trying to tell me something?

13

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at March 03, 2013 03:29 PM (Eg4wq)

A decent Misty

14 Cosplayer from Italy.  She is absolutely gorgeous.
http://www.cosplay.com/photo/3355077/

15 There needs to be an occasional post for the older morons. Topics could be


Why every place we walked as kids was uphill

How Mannix changed television

Comfortable slippers

The invention of the Slurpee

Because a real lawnmower doesn't have an engine, dammit

16 15 Jones in CO,

we call that the ONT...heh

17 Let's see, books, gaming, Jap chicks



GUN THREAD??

18 See!!! Sequestration kicks in!!! Instead of cheerleaders we gets foreign bims and badly sexxed Japanese cartoon girlies! I wants me money back!

19

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at March 03, 2013 03:32 PM (Eg4wq)

Hmm Misaki

20 mallfly you will like the foreign bims and Japanese cartoons.  Or no soup for you!  Oh wait there is no soup anyway due to Sequester.  Never mind.

21 12 Hmm. Heart of the Swarm launches on my birthday and BlizzCon opens on my wedding anniversary.

Ya think maybe Blizzard is trying to tell me something?

Posted by: Assault Citizen Anachronda at March 03, 2013 03:31 PM (1c58W)

 

Well your birthday is certainly to happen on that day.  No guarrantee that Heart of the Swarm actually will.

22 Apparently my first draft wasn't "acceptable"...
Too much tits and not enough ass? Good. I'm glad there's some quality control around here on the weekends.

23 Misaki?

24 ok, the oriental Woman is pretty hot. I dunno about the blond, though. Ukranian Barbie wanna-bes give me hives.
Also, how come the busty one on the right loses the g string but not the bra? We need an extended play version of that.

25 Well your birthday is certainly to happen on that day. No guarrantee that Heart of the Swarm actually will.

Posted by: buzzion at March 03, 2013 03:34 PM (GULKT)

been done for awhile now, last four months have mainly been balancing. Hope it rejuvenates the esport scene since everyone has been losing money lately (to the point of the IPL closing up shop)

26 Isn't the new Sim City game coming out this week also? Seems important enough to get a mention.

27

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at March 03, 2013 03:35 PM (Eg4wq)

Photo of her dressed up as Misaki Ayuzawa

28 re 20: well, in that case can I have some more?

29 Isn't the new Sim City game coming out this week also? Seems important enough to get a mention.

Posted by: Drew in Mo at March 03, 2013 03:38 PM (cGlgB)

yep, on Tuesday

30 Also, how come the busty one on the right loses the g string but not the bra?


Sequestration got it.

31 and yeah, I probably should have mentioned it

32 New Sim City game?  Can we manage the city like the Democrats have?

33 So, they're releasing "Requiem for a Dream" in cartoon format?

34 Thanks for that info The Dude.  Another series not heard of.  I just she and the costume were gorgeous.

35 Please, sir, may I have some more Misaki ho?

36

Ok,

 

This Wii U thing.

I'm crying bullshit on a few things.  First of all, if their theory is accurate it means that the first few months then the numbers were completely oversold, because people who bought the damned thing never actually opened it and just returned it this month.

 

Secondly, the dipshit couldn'' figure this out and simply average the months from November until now to show the "true sales" using his wacked out model.

Third, it's not a real NPD conspiracy theory unless it invokes "amazon doesn't count" as a reason to jusify why it's favorite console is sucking it up.

4th, even 100k units in a month so close to launch is "the shitz."  So yeah.

5th: WiiU still overpriced/underpowered for what it is.

37 Anyway, since the first "Uncharted" is the best game I've ever played on a Playstation, and since it had ripped off the good bits of "Tomb Raider" - I haven't really got a complaint with the new "Tomb Raider" taking some stuff back from "Uncharted".

38

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at March 03, 2013 03:42 PM (QTHTd)

heh, it's the Senran Kagura anime. The show is quite a bit of fun. Can watch it on Hulu/Funimation

39 http://www.cosplay.com/photo/3129548/

40 New Sim City game? Can we manage the city like the Democrats have?

That will be under the Disaster menu.

41 Gun thread up

42 Hate the Sim City commercials.  Its got one of the douchebags from Workaholics as the mayor.

43 Ok I was threatened that I would regret not posting on the gaming thread.

Serious you guys,  I don't want any trouble you guys....

44 Ok,

This Wii U thing.
I'm crying bullshit on a few things. First of all, if their theory is accurate it means that the first few months then the numbers were completely oversold, because people who bought the damned thing never actually opened it and just returned it this month.

Secondly, the dipshit couldn'' figure this out and simply average the months from November until now to show the "true sales" using his wacked out model.
Third, it's not a real NPD conspiracy theory unless it invokes "amazon doesn't count" as a reason to jusify why it's favorite console is sucking it up.
4th, even 100k units in a month so close to launch is "the shitz." So yeah.
5th: WiiU still overpriced/underpowered for what it is.

Posted by: tsrblke at March 03, 2013 03:43 PM (GaqMa)

Like I said, dumb theory but I'm surprised you took it as positive spin for Nintendo as if true, that is on a different level of horrible than just selling 57k

45 I don't get why these "next generation" consoles are going with last generation PC components. At least it will make PC gaming better for the future, since all the console game developers will be working in that native format.

46 39 http://www.cosplay.com/photo/3129548/

Meh. Needs to be in 3D so it's obvious that she's trying to poke my eye out with a pointed stick.

47 Rapunzel from Tangled
http://www.cosplay.com/photo/3355521/

48 I don't get why these "next generation" consoles are going with last generation PC components. At least it will make PC gaming better for the future, since all the console game developers will be working in that native format.

Posted by: Synnerman at March 03, 2013 03:46 PM (0Bdlg)

because every system uses somewhat old hardware in every generation outside of last year with 360 using a GPU that was newer than what was on the shelves and Sony going with the Cell stuff which I think was the only thing to actually use the Cell at the time

49 Like I said, dumb theory but I'm surprised you took it as positive spin for Nintendo as if true, that is on a different level of horrible than just selling 57k

Posted by: The Dude at March 03, 2013 03:46 PM (vJdyz)

 

 

 

 

I don't follow, the only reason to spin this as "some weird way NPD does the calculations" is because otherwise Nintendo is coming in 3rd again, for a new release system.

That's bad news for Nintendo.   So what would fanboys (and possibly Nintendo) do to offset that news? Claim the numbers are rigged/false/somehow off.

But the spin is so logically inconsistent, it burns my brain.

50 because every system uses somewhat old hardware in every generation outside of last year with 360 using a GPU that was newer than what was on the shelves and Sony going with the Cell stuff which I think was the only thing to actually use the Cell at the time

Posted by: The Dude at March 03, 2013 03:50 PM (vJdyz)

 

 

I'd argue cell backfired horribly as well.

 

I'm inclined to believe a few things in this area.

1) Consoles need to be cheap-ish.  Old parts help this.

2) You can milk more power from a console for various reasons, so old parts matter less.  (note that, I didn't say "not at all" I said less.)

3) Old parts are going to be at least somewhat tested meaning they're less likely to totally screw you over.  (The RROD had less to do with the actual parts MS used, and more to do with the fact that MS didn't pay enough attention to the heat coming off them, which was known, and thus stupid of them.)

51 I don't follow, the only reason to spin this as "some weird way NPD does the calculations" is because otherwise Nintendo is coming in 3rd again, for a new release system.That's bad news for Nintendo. So what would fanboys (and possibly Nintendo) do to offset that news? Claim the numbers are rigged/false/somehow off.But the spin is so logically inconsistent, it burns my brain.

Posted by: tsrblke at March 03, 2013 03:54 PM (GaqMa)

it not selling is better than people not only not wanting it but returning it in droves

52 Some gaming cosplay
http://www.cosplay.com/photo/3354871/

53

Posted by: tsrblke at March 03, 2013 03:56 PM (GaqMa)

bingo on everything and the CELL was a complete waste of money on BOM for Sony

54

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at March 03, 2013 03:59 PM (Eg4wq)

actually met that girl before, quite nice

55 The Dude, you were at KatsuCon?  I seem to have fallen behind the times when it comes to anime and manga.

56 The Dude, you were at KatsuCon? I seem to have fallen behind the times when it comes to anime and manga.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at March 03, 2013 04:04 PM (Eg4wq)

oh no, I met her at a con in Chicago

57 Anime Central?  They are in May and its looking grim for them guest wise.

58 Anime Central? They are in May and its looking grim for them guest wise.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at March 03, 2013 04:06 PM (Eg4wq)

yep, went last year with my friend and his daughter

59 and talking of anime, big thumbs up for the Discotek release of Mad Bull 34. For a b series, it's the best it will ever look and the OAVs still pack a punch

60 Never been to ACen.  Supposed to be going to A-kon.  But AWA is getting my attention due to having as guests: Iwata - Gan-chan and Yuu Asakawa - Motoko from Love Hina.

61 I picked up GT5 this week from NewEgg for $13 so I'd finally have a proper console racing game.  Once I got past the ~3 hour installation (!) I've been enjoying it quite a bit.

62 I picked up GT5 this week from NewEgg for $13 so I'd finally have a proper console racing game. Once I got past the ~3 hour installation (!) I've been enjoying it quite a bit.

Posted by: Sandra Fluke's hi-cap assault diaphragm at March 03, 2013 04:27 PM (7xeJQ)

ah, one of the new copies of GT. three hours is real short

63 If you built a console using the most up to date PC innards, the CPU alone would cost more than the target price for the entire box. And much of it would be worthless due to functionality that would contribute little to games.

The reason x86 parts have rarely been used in consoles (besides the original Xbox the only notable attempts was a UK attempt in early 90s that was also noted for having a high configurable controller for simulator different kinds of vehicle controls, presumably in the belief that racing games would be a core focus) is that you cannot get for a reasonable sum an x86 license form Intel that will let you make a custom CPU best suited to a game console. The companies behind MIPS, PowerPC, ARM (and others that have most come and gone, like the Hitachi processor line that was spun off as Renesas) were much hungrier and open to such ventures.

The biggest change Microsoft was able to get out of Intel was to cut the P-III (no, it was not a Celeron; the difference extend beyond just size of L@ cache) L2 cache size to half, as analysis had shown this would have little affect on game performance. To get any serious customization out of Intel, who didn't need the business, you had to commit to buying a volume that would exceed the sales of any console then produced. (AMD hadn't yet become a serious performance competitor to Intel and likely lacked the production capacity to spare for a very low margin product.)

Obviously, both Sony and Microsoft agree that strong multi-threading will have a bigger payoff for their needs than high clock rates. PC game developers took a long time to really get a handle on making good use of quad-core and beyond, largely because whatever they did also had to run well on lesser numbers of cores in the highly variable PC. In a platform like the Xbox 360, where the first machine sold has the exact same functionality as the ten millionth machine sold, you can make the investment without any concern for variance.

1.6 GHz may seem pokey but the typical PC isn't what concerns the console makers. They care solely about getting a lot more out of the new box than the previous box. A current x86 core running at laptop speeds can crank through a lot more code than in-order PPC cores designed nearly a decade old. Add this to getting a lot more full hardware threads and developers on their first project should have no problem exceeding the performance of the old consoles achieved after years of experience optimizing for them. (This is on the CPU side. The greatly increased GPU performance is another given.)

It'll be years after launch before these new machines show their full ability, so they need to make early adopters not feel they've gone backwards. This kind of notable improvement is critical to platform transition and the lack of it is part of why the Wii U is struggling.

The new consoles aren't going to outperform a new and state of the art PC. What they will do is up the ante over their predecessors while delivering a good and immediate out of box experience for consumers who just want it to be good and cannot comprehend or care about the technical details.

64 I don't understand why banging butts together would cause clothes to shred and burst off.

65 #51

A big piece of the RROD puzzle was that the testing system intended to be in place when production started wasn't functioning until many weeks later. This would have told them they had a big problem much sooner and allowed them to react when the number of machines produced was much smaller. But the only option if they weren't going to miss their launch entirely was to go ahead and hope for the best.

Many machines could have been reworked at a certain cost with additional cooling but the nature of the problem would only allow this for a certain number. For much of the affected inventory you could attach a heat sink that filled the whole case without effect because the heat wasn't being moved off the die correctly.

By the time they had the testing system up and running as intended for start of production, millions of machines had already gone to retail. It wasn't unusual for the first run of a console to have a high attrition rate. This happened with both the PS1 and PS2, especially the Japanese launch model of the PS2 with 250 nm chips that were never intended for use beyond pre-production. (180 nm chips were being used by the time of the US launch, making for far better reliability. Mine is strong working fine.) The difference was that Microsoft had no way of knowing just how bad it would be. Avoiding the RROD disaster would have been worth cutting deliveries by half or more but nobody believed the mortality rate would be so high.

Another reason both companies are going with parts that have lesser cooling needs this time around. Sony didn't have a bad defect rate on the PS3 at launch but it did have horrible, horrible yields on the CELL chips and the machines were amazing power hogs. This made the Cell damned expensive beyond its very high development costs for a chip that never delivered much of the promised feature set. The big difference was that taking the hit on chip yield rather than failed consoles in consumer hands made for much less of a PR hit on top of everything else.

The console business is not for the timid.

66 #65

Shockwave causing molecular shearing in the fabrics.

67 Thanks for the gaming thread, guys...why no updates on Eve?

68 I'm glad there's some quality control around here on the weekends. Wait, we have quality control on weekdays? why no updates on Eve? That's usually Zakn's wheelhouse. No Zakn, no Exploding Starship Soap Opera. Unless you want my brief account of Why I Suck At EVE.

69 Ace up

70 Meanwhile, Phoenix Project has a new trailer! http://youtu.be/4T05Z6y72AA

71

Sorry guys,

Faucet repair.

 

If The Dude is still around,

My only counter re: Nintendo would be that people aren't returning it because they think it's bad, rather attempts to corner the market didn't work so the speculators are cashing out while they can still break even.

It's not an awful narrative all things considered. (And note: that's exactly how they tried to spin it. Not "people didn't like this." But rather "speculators cashing out."

72 If you guys haven't already seen it. The Assassin's Creed 4 teaser trailer. http://youtu.be/YMcMph-TW9I