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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

#61

Post by Osiris »

genericuser wrote: post #52
billyhoffman wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've heard really good things about the Amazon Fire TV + XMBC (Gotham) from multiple sources at this point. Haven't tried it myself admittedly.

That's what I'm doing and it works very well. As a media device, it's the best option I've found. Built-in wireless, fast CPU, lots of RAM, supports Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu, XBMC, Pandora, and more. Roku has more channels available, but doesn't have any options for streaming content over a LAN.

I played a few minutes of Minion Rush on the Amazon Fire TV. It had some laggy moments, certainly not the gaming experience that they claimed it would be.

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

#62

Post by bitwize »

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"

"AAA" is a marketroid term which means at least three things: a good game, a popular game, or a game with a large development and especially marketing budget. To the marketroid, each is coterminous with the other two.

Similar ambiguity exists around "hardcore" which means roughly the intersection of gamers who seek out challenging games, gamers who play competitively online, and gamers who enjoy adult content like sex and violence.

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

#63

Post by vonmoltke »

Pxtl wrote: post #53
Xylakant wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Doesn't the Wii let you postpone firmware updates unless you're trying to play a game/app that demands firmware version X?

Yes. I don't think I have ever been required to install an update, with the exception of the one a couple years ago when Nintendo EOLed some of the default channels.

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

#64

Post by rexf »

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

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

#67

Post by evan_ »

Pxtl wrote: post #53
Xylakant wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Doesn't the Wii let you postpone firmware updates unless you're trying to play a game/app that demands firmware version X?

And iirc they shipped the upgrade on their tent pole first-party games so even if you didn't have your wii hooked up to the internet you could still take advantage of the updates.

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

#68

Post by mst »

sanxiyn wrote: post #37
ritchiea wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 handicappe…

I've always loved handicap systems in any game; if I'm playing a stronger player in a game that doesn't have one, I set my own mental victory bar as 'lose less badly than previously'.

I suspect it's a psychological function of valuing absolute victory over valuing progress in your abilities, and which of the two you consider more important - and while this is entirely subjective, I feel like Go plays better to the latter set of values and Chess to the former.

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

#69

Post by mpyne »

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 can confirm this recommendation. When I bought my Gamecube a decade+ ago I figured it would eventually get donated or sold off as I continued on the console upgrade treadmill.

But everything that has come along since has had the glaring problems noted in this thread, such that I still have my Gamecube, the controllers, games, etc. It always works, when I need it to work.

Now if only Perfect Dark had been released for it...

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

#70

Post by kevingadd »

sp332 wrote: post #55
dpcan wrote: post #44

My take-away from this article was that if every OUYA shipped with a $10-$25 gift card or starting account balance, people would get into it a lot easier, and not box it up after a week. Most consoles ship with full games. If the OUYA is only shipping with free trials, they aren't really competing. Side-note, the home page of their website, what are they thinking? It looks like a stop sign. Or a "come back later". I…

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.

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.

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