aeortar

[quote] You can't actually believe that? I mean really.... People pirate because they can, and people complain about DRM because it makes the perfect scapegoat. [/quote] I complain about DRM because it is stupid and punishes me. I've never pirated a single game, but it drives me mad that I get punished for buying a game legally with an inferior product while the pirates get to play a far superior version for free. It's insane, and will only

This is very worrying for me. I like steam, and I've bought plenty of games on it, but it's quickly becoming clear that they're intent on forcing their competitors out of the market with exclusivity deals. The end result of this will be less choice and higher prices for us - the key turning point (which may already have been reached) will be when instead of steam having to offer things to developers/publishers to get their titles on to steam, the roles are reversed and steam are offered thing

[quote] Is microsoft really a monopoly? [/quote] Yes, by all but the strictest definitions. [quote] where is the innovation? [/quote] They spend a fortune on innovation/R&D every year. Their products have improved significantly over the years, as mentioned by others. Innovation can be improving an existing product, it doesn't have to mean creating a completely new one.

[QUOTE] Perhaps a broader question is in order: does anyone know of a monopoly--anywhere in the world in the past 200 years--that has maintained a high level of innovation and change? [/quote] Microsoft

[quote] I'd argue that if you're spending hours each day playing on WoW, there's already something wrong with you *before* you buy the glowing pony. [/quote] Because you're playing on WoW or because you're a gamer? And whichever you meant, how/why? [quote] what happens when they start charging for the latest and greatest gear? People who are willing to shell out the extra cash get an advantage. It forces you to buy something (on top of the game, the expansions, and the mon

What's the issue? If you're spending hours each day playing on WoW, then $25 for something that will enhance your experience may well be decent value. I personally wouldn't pay it (unless I had huge amounts of money to spend) but I can see why others might. I don't get all the WoW hate though. It's a great game - just because you might not like that sort of a game doesn't mean you should hate the game. There are plenty of worthier candidates for hate such as the various DRM schemes us

For a while I'd use 3 review sites, gamespy, ign and gamespot. After a while I realised they weren't very reliable and switched to an average of critics (while reading a few of the reviews in more detail). I've now become even more disillusioned with reviews and I rely on user ratings as much as the professional ones. As to the rating system to use, you need to be able to distinguish between decent-very good games, and a 3 star system doesn't allow that. To get around the '0-59% = don

Although the main $5 offer has ended it's being offered by impulse for $5 if you buy the expansion warband. I haven't played warband but mount and blade has proved one of the best purchases I've made in terms of value of money. So long as you're not put off by the lack of a story (i.e. you make your own story rather than having a specific path laid out for you) it'll prove a very entertaining game. The combat system in it is IMO amazing, and it's open to lots of different styles of play. The

[quote] What would happen if Elemental came out on OnLive and on OnLive only? We wouldn't be able to make Mods because we wouldn't have any of the game's files on our systems. No Files = No Way to Change those Files. Of course it also means no way to copy those files and pass them around on the internet for free, which is the companies goal, but the side effect kills Modding and a bunch of other things too. [/quote] The company that provided support for modders and mods would lik

If only the company needs to purchase amazing hardware rather than every single consumer in order to enjoy the game then it's possible to have much more advanced hardware while still being cost effective, since the cost of that hardware will be spread out over many consumers. Meanwhile the competition among different service providers ensures that they're always looking to improve their hardware so they can offer even better gaming experiences and pull in users. Ultimately if it

[quote] if the end users are no longer buying new hardware, the advances in technology we've been seeing for the last ten or so years will slow to a crawl as the demand for the new hardware dies out. Potentially, we're going to be seeing interesting times ahead [/quote] Couldn't it have the reverse effect? If only the company needs to purchase amazing hardware rather than every single consumer in order to enjoy the game then it's possible to have much more advanced hardware

I dread cloud gaming. All it seems to be is an excuse for ridiculously draconian DRM with virtually no benefit. It's a minor inconvenience for me to copy save game files from one machine to another, and at the moment that seems to be the only actual benefit of cloud gaming.

I just don't understand someone who gives the reason for not having an 18+ rating as being to protect children. It does the exact opposite - it exposes more children to 18+ games, while at the same time hurting adults by not letting them play some games at all. In fact the only argument I could see for not having an 18+ classification is if you did want it to be more accessable to children, which was the opposite of his professed position. Still, crazy system if you need every

I enjoyed all the C&C games from C&C to C&C3 (although RA3 was a bit underwhelming). I wouldn't have said C&C was amazing, but it was a solid game, and did exactly what I expected it to. To me it just defies belief that they'd take one of (if not the biggest) strategy franchies, and completely ruin it's final instalment like this. I mean they knew what worked, they knew what sold well, all they had to do was do a few tweaks to the existing formula, maybe upgrade the graphics s

First one quite possibly. Second one makes a valid point though - Impulse doesn't have as great a range of titles as steam (although some of the other points do defy logic), while Grizzt sounds like someone who's had a bad experience with Demigod and wasn't well informed as to the reasons behind this. To me they sound like different people though.

[quote] You can't get a competitive game of single player in a strategy game. At this point, AI can't mimic the ability of a human player (without cheating.) There's no point in playing the single player after the campaign unless you're really, really bad [/quote] Numerous things missed though. Yes playing against a human tends to be more challenging without cheating, however against the computer you know what you're getting - you can have a challenging battle without the risk of faci

[quote] You also dont play Supcom in multiplayer? Really stop posting, you making joke out of urself. How can you comment on game who are multiplayer based if you never played it in multiplayer [/quote] Multiplayer based? No. Counterstrike is multiplayer based, where the single player (vs bots) is incidental to the experience. SupCom is single player based with a multiplayer. I've had numerous hours of fun with SupCom and haven't needed to play it multiplayer once. I prefer wo

So long as impulse is clear about what DRM is used I'd much rather they did sell such games - at least then you can buy it if you want, and most importantly you know what you're buying. If they stopped selling games with heavy DRM then it'd be much harder to find out what DRM a game featured for example (you'd be reliant on forum posts etc. which aren't as reliable since DRM schemes can change/be uncertain prior to release).

I'd also recommend the Tex Murphy series (under a killing moon, pandora detective, overseer) which can be got on GOG - they're puzzle/detective based but filled with character+with a strong story, and the graphics are surprisingly good for such an old game (especially for pandora detective+overseer) - you can pick them up at GOG as well

Phew, glad it's only the multi-player. You had me worried it applied to single player as well. A few years ago it would have been obvious that you meant multiplayer, but with all the ridiculous DRM schemes we're seeing now, it is entirely plausible that a company would force you to use their servers to play a game offline (although the fact that it was stardock made me think it most likely it was a multiplayer only thing, as they're one of the few companies left now I can trust to not put rid

[quote] If you think of the PC games coming out this year total, all of them, are you saying you couldn't imagine Elemental being one of the 10 best selling PC games of the year? [/quote] It is possible but it wouldn't be one of the games that comes to mind when I think 'what games are likely to be big sellers this year'. I'm still interested in getting it myself, but I just perceive (rightly or wrongly) it as a bit more of a niche game compared to say a more mass market type one such

[quote] Elemental not in the same company as Civilization 5? What planet you been living on? [/quote] The real one? I would be amazed if elemental comes close to achieving the sales level of a civilization game, or having the same awareness or recognition levels at the moment as the civilization series. It might be a similar type of game, it might gain a better critical reception(+be a better game), but only the most ardent fan would expect it to sell as much as a civi

Yeah got it through steam for $5 - at that price I can afford to take a chance over whether it's a great game or an average one, and I'm not so bothered about it being tied only to steam so much either when it's so cheap.

Sounds interesting - the reviews mostly have it as mediocre-average (largely on it's graphics/presentation), but you read all the user reviews and they rate it as very good. Since I've grown increasingly distrustful of 'official' reviews I decided to go ahead and get it (although I probably won't start playing it for a few weeks - still playing around with dragon age origins).

Wow, sounds great - I never got the chance to play C&C other than the PC demo and the xbox port (which was pretty poor), and it's so long since I played RA now. Already got tiberium sun+firestorm but nice to have a backup incase my cds get scratched or the codes get lost! Must admit I never would have expected this from EA.