"Old Gen"...

[sf49steve1]

I'm 31 years old and apparently the PS2 I use is now "Old Gen".

Talk about making people feel old.

SOB

[tjpratt]

31? Hell Iam 58 years old!!

Can you help me with my 2 questions??

Thanx
tjpratt

First of all, what is NEW gen and OLD gen? XBOX and XBOX360??
Second many talk of "sliders" where do you acess "sliders"??

Thanks tjpratt

[YankeePride420]

Well, I'm only 25 but sometimes these kinda things make me feel old. I just got a book of 1982 nostalgia for my birthday...THAT makes me feel old heh.

You have to think...Xbox360 on HDTV? That's just leaps and bounds ahead of a PS2 on a SDTV. I actually stopped playing my PS2 over a year before I bought my 360...it really did just start to bother me how 1990's everything still was.

Dude, you might very well be talking about the PS3 and Xbox360 being "old-gen" in only another 5 or 6 years no matter WHAT MS or Sony tell you. It's been the trend thus far. I'll be the age you are now and you'll still only be in your mid 30's and these 2 systems will be collecting dust. It's crazy if you think about it...

I don't have kids and won't for a while yet but I know a few people my age who do. They'll have teenagers playing the next generation of consoles after the one we're currently in. I think that would totally change my perspective, obviously heh.

[YankeePride420]

31? Hell Iam 58 years old!!

Can you help me with my 2 questions??

Thanx
tjpratt

First of all, what is NEW gen and OLD gen? XBOX and XBOX360??
Second many talk of "sliders" where do you acess "sliders"??

Thanks tjpratt

Hey...my dad's 60 and he was just telling me that he needs to stay away from these things with how good they're getting now. In his 20's/30's he played quite a bit of Atari/Arcade heh.

Anyway...

1) NEW Gen is Xbox360 and PS3. OLD Gen is Xbox and PS2. Throw an HDTV in with your PS3 or Xbox360 for the "true" NEW Gen, as that's where the games have focused themselves already.

2) Sliders can be found in the game settings, under difficulty. Under where you change between Rookie, Pro, All-Star and Legend, those literally "sliding" scales at the bottom are what they're talking about.

Sliders are ages old. We've been using them in sports games since the 90's. Some don't use them, questioning anything they do positive with them because they don't know if it's their skill, or the sliders they've just changed. Example: You get shut out 3 games in a row. You go and turn up your team's hitting contact and power by 20. You win 4 games in a row. See the point? I just like using default settings because of this...as do some others. To be fair, the majority use sliders because they really do give you a "better" game, sooner. You don't grow into the game, you let the game grow around you as you progress and eventually, you're playing all the way up the ladder anyway. It's a sound strategy and can avoid considerable frustration. If you follow me heh. Ultimately, I think we would all like to be playing Legend/Dynamic (conforms itself to you as your skill changes...it really can't get old) at some point in time, but thankfully because this game has long lasting replay value, most are just not ready yet...myself included. Not for a season...too inconsistent. So sliders on the lesser difficulties seem to give people a happy medium. Not that All-Star on a 360 is "easy".

[findinghomer]

nice input on the sliders yankee. i feel the same, however look at it this way, how do we know they developed the game to the right precision? in other words who are they to determine the right sliders, theyre just human like us, they make them up. One reason i dont like messing with them, is if you get too used to your sliders, then play online, you may be way outta your element. but if your not playing online, i think adjust them to give you the most real outcome. for example, i think the default 70 pitch speed is way too fast, by the time i see which way the pitch is coming its too late. i tune down to 60, gives me a more realistic time to look and react (if it does become to easy, ill tune it back up) but then again if i go online and the default is 70, im used to 60 i cant keep up :( so i think its up to what your main focus will be. if you play online ALOT, keep your sliders default, if you dont play online at all, or not much, adjust them around you. (to the point where its challenging, but realistic)

[YankeePride420]

nice input on the sliders yankee. i feel the same, however look at it this way, how do we know they developed the game to the right precision? in other words who are they to determine the right sliders, theyre just human like us, they make them up. One reason i dont like messing with them, is if you get too used to your sliders, then play online, you may be way outta your element. but if your not playing online, i think adjust them to give you the most real outcome. for example, i think the default 70 pitch speed is way too fast, by the time i see which way the pitch is coming its too late. i tune down to 60, gives me a more realistic time to look and react (if it does become to easy, ill tune it back up) but then again if i go online and the default is 70, im used to 60 i cant keep up :( so i think its up to what your main focus will be. if you play online ALOT, keep your sliders default, if you dont play online at all, or not much, adjust them around you. (to the point where its challenging, but realistic)

Exactly. With me, I'm just a competitive gamer in general. I don't like playing 4 and 5 different games at once. I play games, find one that I can get hooked on, has a large community, and has long lasting appeal. Once I've done that, I just want to get as good as physically possible at it to be prepared for ANY situation. An online exhibition, league or tournament or a real life exhibition, tournament, league, money game etc. That said, yeah...I just can't mess with the sliders much. None of the games in the situations I've just mentioned will be on anything other than default sliders. So right, if I turned down pitcher speed, I'd be out of my "element" against another person..(you put it perfectly) whereas they would be used to the 70 pitch speed and wouldn't even realize a difference because there would be none for them...only me. Bottom line, I just have come to realize over the years with sports games, especially with these true high tech "sims" coming out like this today, that anyone who is playing daily on the Hardest difficulty settings, without manipulating the sliders to fix something they "just don't think is right", has a significant advantage in head-up play against someone who does not play like that.

So yeah, you read me loud and clear. Even offline, I won't even start up my main season/franchise until I'm ready to play game in and game out on Legend/Dynamic. Why? Because once I start my season I'll never be altering any settings ever again. I could play through 50 seasons and it wouldn't be a problem. The AI is going to automatically tweak my settings over time according to how well (or not well) I'm doing in order to keep the balance realistic. On the flip side, the AI is at it's peak...playing the best baseball it can...realistically. If I win 6 games in a row, I know it's because I won 6 games in a row...not because I just handed myself those wins by changing the sliders. If I lose 15 in a row..I can't cry. Not after winning 6...obviously, nothing is wrong with any "sliders" (last thing I would think of in that situation anyway). Further, if someone asks me "how's your dynasty going...what's your record" and I say "55-17...we're on fire" I don't have to worry about revealing the fact that I'm playing with sliders so radically altered that several aspects of my game and the AI's have been altered to "suit my style of play". Ironically, I've never seen anyone in sports gaming alter the sliders any other way other than to make it ultimately, easier for themselves. The exception would be Madden addicts who would play on All-Madden with the sliders for them all the way down and the AI sliders all the way up. It was silly, unrealistic, the animations became all "stiff" and "jerky" and the gameplay would just look manipulated. But that was fine, as they wouldn't "play" like this..merely use it as a warmup for a half hour or so before going online.

So that's about it. I just always wind up going over this in detail because it is a subject that interests me. I honestly do think that you'll see sliders abolished, as in, not included in games anymore in just a few more years. Eventually, right around the corner, the AI is going to become so good that there should really just be one main setting called "realism". To tell you the truth, they could already do that...the AI is good enough with today's next gen's to provide a true sim experience. Easily. The problem is that they risk losing some sales because the guy who simply, even 8 months after he starts playing, cannot win but maybe 2 or 3 out of every 10 games he plays, is going to go CRAZY insisting that the game isn't good, blah blah blah. Anything but admit that he's just horrid. So that's why they put the sliders in...they (the devs) figure "keep this issue in the consumer's hands...we'll just stay away from it" is a safer solution right now.

[tjpratt]

Great dusscussion on sliders you 2, thanks so much!!

tjpratt

[jmillhimes]

Im 28 and love my xbox.However, I think its time to trade up.Oh by the way xbox peeps....Ive heard that madden and ncaa football are going to be made on ps2 and original xbox this year as well.Dont look for many updates

[findinghomer]

i understand you completely , yankee, however i disagree with one aspect of your post.

"I honestly do think that you'll see sliders abolished, as in, not included in games anymore in just a few more years"

sliders are failry new to gaming, and they were introduced in order for gamers to adjust the game to their liking/ interests. i really doubt this will be dropped, in fact i think its the most genious idea ever!

in the past games would come out with unrealistic results in hitting, maybe fielding pitching , whatever it may be, and boom the game is ruined. now with sliders you have the ability to make those adjustments and make it playable for you.

i remember mlb baseball on ps1 989 sports. i bought it and stopped playing after a few games because it sucked how the ball left the bat unrealisticly fast, along with the delay in the fielding camera angle which made fielding virtually impossible! this wasnt a user skill problem, it was physically impossible sometimes , every hard hit grounder, by the time you saw were it was and was given control of a player it was already in the outfield! it sucked and there was no way to fix that. or on ps2 allstar baseball, every player in the opposing lineup had equal batting abilities, you would give up atleast 1-2 hits per inning. if they made contact it was usually a hit which made for horribly off balanced offense which could not be tuned down. in turn made the game very unrealistic, all though the graphics and animations were good, the gameplay was horrible thus unplayable, but with sliders i could have fixed that. now with that being said if a game came out from the factory with excellent realistic results sure no need for sliders, but whats the chances a game will be perfect ? :)