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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

#31

Post by ritchiea »

sanxiyn wrote: post #29
vertex-four wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find games with friends to be substantially less fun when people have to be handicapped. When I win, it feels like it's because of the handicap, not because I did anything right.

I find this phenomenon very interesting. I mean, obviously, you won because you did right things. You would have lost if you didn't. By definition, handicap should be set so that you have an even chance of winning. This may be a cultural thing? In Go, handicap is a normal part of the game and everybody (but see below) is fine with using it. In Chess, people seem to detest handicap and insist on even game. I live in S…

The chess/go difference in accepting handicaps may be due to chess's culture of memorization & opening study. Also since in chess all the pieces begin the game on the board (rather than players alternating placing stones) if you it's hard to reconcile that any deviation from the standard game (e.g. removing pieces as a handicap) "doesn't look like chess."

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

#32

Post by [deleted] »

Xylakant wrote: post #28
nkozyra wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone would argue the PS3 is the perfect party console, either. I bought the PS3 and Wii around the same time and obviously the "party console" prize went to the latter - particularly early on it seemed like every third time I put a game in there was 15 minutes of firmware and software updates.

It's not like the Wii never needed any firmware updates either.

[deleted]

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

#33

Post by nkozyra »

Xylakant wrote: post #28
nkozyra wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone would argue the PS3 is the perfect party console, either. I bought the PS3 and Wii around the same time and obviously the "party console" prize went to the latter - particularly early on it seemed like every third time I put a game in there was 15 minutes of firmware and software updates.

It's not like the Wii never needed any firmware updates either.

Well I certainly didn't say that. But they were less frequent than the PS3 and generally much smaller/faster.

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

#34

Post by srs0001 »

nkozyra wrote: post #20
Xylakant wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if I let my PS3 in the box for about a year and then try to play a quick round of some casual game downloaded from the store, I'll have to go through the same ordeal. If it's used daily, then not. It's a function of how often you use your console.

I don't think anyone would argue the PS3 is the perfect party console, either. I bought the PS3 and Wii around the same time and obviously the "party console" prize went to the latter - particularly early on it seemed like every third time I put a game in there was 15 minutes of firmware and software updates.

Slightly off-topic, but if you're looking for a good party console I'd recommend a GameCube. You can buy a used one and a few controllers for about $100. There are a ton of great local multiplayer games: Smash Bros, F-Zero, Def Jam, Mario Kart, Blitz 20-02. Plus, no need for updates.

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

#35

Post by brador »

dpeck wrote: post #15
everyone wrote: post #4

I wish people would stop using the term 'AAA' . Its meaningless imo as any other members from the implied scale (AAA, AAB, AAC, whatever) are never referred to. I find it one of the more annoying americanisms. edit: What people actually mean when they say " an AAA game" is "a game with a very large development budget"

Nitpicky, but generally the scale with something like that is AAA -> AA -> A

It's supposed to be A each for:

1. Graphics & Sound

2. Controls

3. Gameplay

So the game would get a magazine review rating of A,A,A (top in each). Hence, AAA.

Remember, it was coined at a time when those three factors were significant to a gaming experience. Not so much now, but still relevant enough.

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

#37

Post by sanxiyn »

ritchiea wrote: post #31
sanxiyn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this phenomenon very interesting. I mean, obviously, you won because you did right things. You would have lost if you didn't. By definition, handicap should be set so that you have an even chance of winning. This may be a cultural thing? In Go, handicap is a normal part of the game and everybody (but see below) is fine with using it. In Chess, people seem to detest handicap and insist on even game. I live in S…

The chess/go difference in accepting handicaps may be due to chess's culture of memorization & opening study. Also since in chess all the pieces begin the game on the board (rather than players alternating placing stones) if you it's hard to reconcile that any deviation from the standard game (e.g. removing pieces as a handicap) "doesn't look like chess."

Well, handicap also destroys Go's standard opening theory, which is very extensive. (Start with 4-volume Dictionary of Basic Fuseki: while far from comprehensive, it covers basics well.)

But! Handicap is common enough in Go that there is opening theory for handicapped games! This may not apply to Chess directly, but my point is that if handicap is a normal part of the game, you will have opening theory for handicapped games. This is kind of obvious if you think about it.

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

#38

Post by soapdog »

srs0001 wrote: post #34
nkozyra wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone would argue the PS3 is the perfect party console, either. I bought the PS3 and Wii around the same time and obviously the "party console" prize went to the latter - particularly early on it seemed like every third time I put a game in there was 15 minutes of firmware and software updates.

Slightly off-topic, but if you're looking for a good party console I'd recommend a GameCube. You can buy a used one and a few controllers for about $100. There are a ton of great local multiplayer games: Smash Bros, F-Zero, Def Jam, Mario Kart, Blitz 20-02. Plus, no need for updates.

I got my gamecube with two controllers for $20 at Electronic Boutique... recommend+++ :D

$20 folks! There is no arguing there. I play my OUYA more than the GC but they are the two consoles I like the most and I have a ps3....

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

#39

Post by jsnell »

raldi wrote: post #36

Is anyone else finding this article's pale-gray-on-white color scheme very difficult to read?

Yes, but that's color scheme of half the internet these days so you just have to deal with it :-/ I recommend this bookmarklet: https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/zap.html#zap_colors

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

#40

Post by billyhoffman »

hahainternet wrote: post #2

This is exactly how I feel about my Ouya. It sits on the side of my TV stand completely unobtrusively, and if friends come over within 30 seconds we can be playing frantic, immersive games. Not desperately struggling to figure out how we get a second player online without a second xbox live account. It's a shame enough people didn't realise this from the start, but $150 is not a lot of outlay for what I got in return…

Yes. This. Ouya + XMBC is amazing.

While modern $99 "video pucks" like AppleTV, Roku, or Amazon are good streaming clients for NetFlix, etc, they utterly suck at playing files from a local network. Ouya + XMBC is an incredibly option for this use case, now that Boxee is gone.

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