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The shock of playing the Ouya, one year later

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Re: The shock of playing the Ouya, one year later

#131

Post by nl »

baby wrote: post #60
lhnz wrote: post #7

The problem with calling it the perfect "party gaming" console is that it completely doesn't work for that when "it took me almost an hour to update the firmware and configure the 4 controllers." I'm not saying that to hurt OUYA, I'm just saying that if they want to find this niche they should focus some effort on fixing that. Edit: I'm not implying that other consoles are better fitted to this. I'm implying that eng…

This is a huge problem with new consoles I find. I don't remember having to update my N64 every time I wanted to play it. But my PS3? Every time I want to play I have to spend like 30 minutes in downloading and installing an update. Every single time. I don't play that often but still do play from times to times and I haven't had a clean launch for years.

This is a problem Samsung has replicated with their SmartTVs. Turn on SmartHub, and 30% of the time it insists on an update. Then randomly sometimes it updates in the background with a popup notification when it is done.

Useful platform, but really annoying in that regard.

Re: The shock of playing the Ouya, one year later

#132

Post by sp332 »

dpcan wrote: post #121
sp332 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a note, every game in the Ouya store has a free trial or some kind of free mode. You can download every game & start playing it right away, then choose to pay to unlock the rest of it later. Of course some games are completely free, but they're generally not very polished.

That's exactly the problem. When I bought the Wii U for my kids, if they got to the end of the new Super Mario world and I had to go pay $N.NN to unlock the rest I'd have a really bad taste in my mouth. What about at least including a couple awesome titles with the console? They are all around $1 to $10 (ish) right? Heck you could include 4 A-list titles where I only get ONE with a major console. Just saying... nobod…

The Wii U costs $300 and includes 2 games. The Ouya costs $100 and comes with no games. So pretend the Ouya costs $200 and comes with $100 in store credit - it's still $100 cheaper.

Re: The shock of playing the Ouya, one year later

#133

Post by jiggy2011 »

derefr wrote: post #130
georgemcbay wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed completely. I joked that the U in "Wii U" stood for "update" because the amount of forced modal updates required to every part of the system was almost comical when the system was new. I've also got the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4 and all are basically the same... if I haven't turned it on in a couple weeks it is nearly guaranteed I'll have to sit through a couple-hundred megabyte update or two (for the OS…

You'd think somebody would learn from Microsoft's long, hard struggle with Windows Update, and make consoles do the same thing Windows now does: download the update in the background at low priority while the console is on , then install it when you shut the console off . (And, for added effect, make the console actually look and sound like it has powered off while the updates are still installing. Windows 8 does thi…

I think the problem with that approach is that if you want to play online then everyone needs to be running the same client version.

Re: The shock of playing the Ouya, one year later

#134

Post by andybak »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #71
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been having a lot of success with the Chromecast lately. The more I think about it, the less I want an intelligent TV or yet another device (which needs updates and config) and controller (which needs its batteries replaced and fished out of the couch cushions) attached to it. A dumb receiver like the Chromecast seems to be the superior solution. I have no shortage of smart devices, I don't need another. I just…

Agreed. I don't want a smart TV or a media-player box, I want a smartphone/tablet/PC and the ability to easily get its content onto a TV. And if you're inclined to tinker, the Chromecast is a ton of fun: it's actually running a full browser engine, and you can send it a page to view. That page can then use things like WebRTC streaming.

Two things I would like to put forward in counterpoint:

1. Communal browsing of content - you sometimes want to browse available content on the big screen so everyone can join in. That means menus and UIs on the TV not the device

2. Controls with physical buttons have two advantages. A well-designed remote is much easier to learn and use without needing to look at it. Secondly - games controlled via a touchscreen when you're actually looking at the TV are a fairly unpleasant experience.

I do want a smart TV with a physical controller. I also want Chromecast/Airplay etc. Different beasts.

Re: The shock of playing the Ouya, one year later

#135

Post by MichaelGG »

jonny_eh wrote: post #76
kevingadd wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may have been true at launch, but it is false now: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/213775/Ouya_ditching_prob... Just another ill-fated and ill-considered promise from the Ouya staffers. Unfortunate; I liked it on principle.

OUYA engineer here (not PR). Developers kept telling us that requiring a free component was discouraging them from publishing. Since we changed our stance on that issue we've received a large influx of new and awesome games. So while it might not seem ideal from a gamer's perspective at first, the availability of a lot more games is pretty nice.

What is their rationale? I saw one rant on Reddit where the dev was angry that OUYA forced him to give away his work for free and people would just play a demo then never pay. Are they all like that? As I understood, the technical implementation is fairly straightforward, right?

Re: The shock of playing the Ouya, one year later

#136

Post by barbs »

rexf wrote: post #64
baby wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a huge problem with new consoles I find. I don't remember having to update my N64 every time I wanted to play it. But my PS3? Every time I want to play I have to spend like 30 minutes in downloading and installing an update. Every single time. I don't play that often but still do play from times to times and I haven't had a clean launch for years.

I have the same problem with my gaming PC. When I boot it up, I have numerous updates for Windows, Steam, games, etc.

Windows updates are the worst. Once it decided to restart to install updates right in the middle of a dota game.

I now run linux mint on my gaming rig, so that's never a problem

Re: The shock of playing the Ouya, one year later

#137

Post by ekianjo »

baby wrote: post #60
lhnz wrote: post #7

The problem with calling it the perfect "party gaming" console is that it completely doesn't work for that when "it took me almost an hour to update the firmware and configure the 4 controllers." I'm not saying that to hurt OUYA, I'm just saying that if they want to find this niche they should focus some effort on fixing that. Edit: I'm not implying that other consoles are better fitted to this. I'm implying that eng…

This is a huge problem with new consoles I find. I don't remember having to update my N64 every time I wanted to play it. But my PS3? Every time I want to play I have to spend like 30 minutes in downloading and installing an update. Every single time. I don't play that often but still do play from times to times and I haven't had a clean launch for years.

I have the same (shitty) experience with the PS3 (a little less with the Xbox 360 and somehow updates seem faster on that one). This is basically pushing me away from consoles which were supposed to be "plug and play" in the first place. The best thing is just to put these consoles offlines so that you cannot technically update anything at all. Some newer games may complain about the need of a new firmware, though...

Re: The shock of playing the Ouya, one year later

#138

Post by ekianjo »

derefr wrote: post #130
georgemcbay wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed completely. I joked that the U in "Wii U" stood for "update" because the amount of forced modal updates required to every part of the system was almost comical when the system was new. I've also got the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4 and all are basically the same... if I haven't turned it on in a couple weeks it is nearly guaranteed I'll have to sit through a couple-hundred megabyte update or two (for the OS…

You'd think somebody would learn from Microsoft's long, hard struggle with Windows Update, and make consoles do the same thing Windows now does: download the update in the background at low priority while the console is on , then install it when you shut the console off . (And, for added effect, make the console actually look and sound like it has powered off while the updates are still installing. Windows 8 does thi…

> then install it when you shut the console off.

I seriously hate that on my laptop. I want to switch off and be on my way and suddenly Windows tells me it needs to install an update before shutting off. Seriously wtf! This is the kind of things that drives me to Linux, where I know that when I click Shut down, the system will be off in 20 seconds.

Re: The shock of playing the Ouya, one year later

#140

Post by nightski »

ekianjo wrote: post #138
derefr wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd think somebody would learn from Microsoft's long, hard struggle with Windows Update, and make consoles do the same thing Windows now does: download the update in the background at low priority while the console is on , then install it when you shut the console off . (And, for added effect, make the console actually look and sound like it has powered off while the updates are still installing. Windows 8 does thi…

> then install it when you shut the console off. I seriously hate that on my laptop. I want to switch off and be on my way and suddenly Windows tells me it needs to install an update before shutting off. Seriously wtf! This is the kind of things that drives me to Linux, where I know that when I click Shut down, the system will be off in 20 seconds.

Why not just close the lid & put it to sleep? You really shut down every time you move somewhere with your laptop?
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