Random Thoughts & Topics v2

[KingPK]

Stuntman Ignition isn't bad.

 

[bps21]

Yeah it's pretty decent...until you get obsessed with not breaking a combo chain for the whole scene and when you mess up near the very end for the hundredth time you throw it into the corner of the room and leave it there for 3 years.

...

As an example.

 

[fazzle]

Stuntman Ignition isn't bad.

it isn't FUN either though it's...basically what bps described.

 

[KingPK]

Picked up Hitman Absolution this week. I know some Hitman fans recoiled in horror at the "dumbing down" of the gameplay, but I'm enjoying it. Anyone that plays Purist mode is a crazy person.

 

[bps21]

Yeah I loved it. I had a blast replaying levels and it was one of the games that I picked up every achievement on over the course of playing without getting distracted by other games in between. Which is rare.

 

[vivisectvi]

Ditto.

 

[Smues]

The new Sim City requires a constant internet connection and SHOCKINGLY people have been having a lot of problems and there's been several server outages. But no it's not about DRM it's about making a better gameplaying experience for the user!

 

[Haws Bah Gawd]

Naturally!

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

The new Sim City requires a constant internet connection and SHOCKINGLY people have been having a lot of problems and there's been several server outages. But no it's not about DRM it's about making a better gameplaying experience for the user!

Put a police station around it.

 

[muzzington]

The new Sim City requires a constant internet connection and SHOCKINGLY people have been having a lot of problems and there's been several server outages. But no it's not about DRM it's about making a better gameplaying experience for the user!

 

[vivisectvi]

 

[vivisectvi]

Damsel in Distress: Part 1 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games

Admittedly, I had no idea that Mario 2 wasn't even originally a Mario game. Or maybe I did and I forgot.. still. Also, good point about the newer Wii/Wii U Mario games.. TWO Toads? Peach's floating ability would come in really handy in those clusterfucky games.

 

[Smues]

The Sim City launch has been such a clusterfuck EA will give people who bought it a free game later on. Apologize for the DRM? Nah of course not, but I guess at least it's something. Blizzard certainly didn't do that. It is too bad because by all accounts the game itself is excellent.

 

[vivisectvi]

Yeah I really want to play it but I can't bring myself to spend money on it. SNES version 4life!

 

[KingPK]

Plague Inc. is a bitch when it gets to creating a Bacteria. It seems either I spread it too fast and it's cured before I can make it deadly or some random country like Madagascar never gets infected.

 

[Damaramu]

It'd be nice if these huge clusterfucks from EA and Blizzard would make them realize that having the game connected to the internet at all times is not a good idea, but probably not.

 

[vivisectvi]

It's one thing if it were a completely multiplayer game.. But why even have the "private" mode if it has to be online? I don't get their logic with that.

 

[vivisectvi]

Some interesting stats from Neilsen..

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/14/nielsen-ps3-sees-biggest-year-over-year-growth-in-streaming-an/

In 2012, PlayStation 3 owners spent 23 percent of their time with the console streaming video-on-demand services like Netflix and Hulu Plus, according to the data-minded folks over at statistical aggregation station Nielsen. This is up nearly 10 percent from the amount that PS3s were used for that purpose in 2011. The surveyed time spent using the PS3 as a DVD/Blu-ray player dropped by four percent over the last year.

The information comes from a survey conducted between October of 2011 and October of the following year, which asertained how console owners aged 13 and over used their gaming devices. The resulting infographic, seen in full here, breaks it down.

The survey also tracked the amount of time that each console spent playing games online and offline, with the Xbox 360 seeing the most online performance (33 percent of time spent playing games) and the Wii experiencing the least at 11 percent.

 

[Smues]

EA and Maxis continue to claim that SimCity needs to be online because the server do all kinds of wondrous things, but hackers have pretty much proven that to be false and have gotten the game to run pretty much flawlessly offline. DRM fail.

 

[muzzington]

The Sim A.I is also no where a s sophisticated as they claim it to be. Sims don't even have the same job or house every day, they just go into the nearest empty one.

Luckily there's a new Civ 5 Expansion called Brave New World coming out which introduces up to 9(!) new civs and works on Culture, Trade and Diplomacy in depth.

 

[AnonymousBroccoli]

A little strange that after releasing the original game, and then Game of the Year, and then almost immediately after Gold... they're still going to put out more content. Is Civ V: Platinum going to be due out at Christmas?

Though in the middle of writing that, it occurs to me that Dawn of War kind of did something similar. They did vanilla, GotY, Gold, Platinum, and Complete, as well as individual expansion SKUs. Granted, that was largely before the digital era of PC games.

 

[Master Thrasher]

Target is having a buy two get the third game free sale this week. I know MLB The Show will be one of them for me.

 

[muzzington]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4ex1I4SFZs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=W3ozPQZ95sM#!

 

[Kageho]

Okay... Etrian Odyssey IV is hard... I just got killed in the first dungeon. Fought this "tough" baddie (or so the game tells me) thinking that since I'm on Casual that it wouldn't be that bad.

Yeah, let's just say game said "ha!" and butchered me without mercy.

 

[vivisectvi]

First time I've seen one of those "retro" consoles support GBA games.. cool! Controller looks awful, though..

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/24/retron-5-console-plays-nes-snes-genesis-gba-and-famicom-su/

 

[Kageho]

Yoichi Wada has quit Square Enix. Should I be gleefully happy that maybe games won't take 6 years and a day to come out?

 

[vivisectvi]

EA: DRM is a failed dead-end strategy

http://www.gamespot.com/events/gdc-2013/story.html?sid=6406094

Digital rights management (DRM) is a broken system, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau told GamesIndustry International this week at the Game Developers Conference.

"DRM is a failed, dead-end strategy; it's not a viable strategy for the gaming business," Gibeau said.

The EA executive's comments came in response to a question about whether or not SimCity's always-online mandate was actually a form of DRM. Gibeau insisted this is not the case.

"That's not the reality; I was involved in all the meetings. DRM was never even brought up once," he said. "For the folks who have conspiracy theories about evil suits at EA forcing DRM down the throats of Maxis, that's not the case at all."

SimCity launched earlier this month amid server woes that made the game unplayable for some. The city-building game went on to sell over 1.1 million copies during its first two weeks, marking the best start in franchise history.

You can read the full article here.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-03-27-ea-drm-is-a-failed-dead-end-strategy

 

[Kageho]

He's right. What EA does isn't DRM. At least in the form of what we know as DRM. But this always online bullshit isn't viable either. No one has an always online connection. Mostly, sure. But always? Hell, no.

 

[Smues]

Hackers have proven that if you change one line of code to remove the 20 minutes online timeout the game plays just fine offline. It's totally DRM.

 

[Kageho]

It really was one line of code? Well, fuck'em then.