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| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23465 |  Enkidu98 (90) Apr 18, 2011 - 09:40 am » Edited on Apr 18, 2011 - 10:09 am
| My Verdict,
Consoles kill good PC games because they are limited, because their primary users are button mashing moron monkeys and because TV resolutions do not match PC resolutions.
Their only advantage is in Piracy (or lack thereof) but the publishers lose lots of money in the secondary market. Piracy accounts for a very small segment of actual sales in the US etc though. Where piracy is most rampant is outside the states in markets that don't really have a thriving PC Game market anyway.
Publishers need to pull their thumbs out and realise they should develop for the PC, make a great game, then if they want to release for console market, dumb it down.
I'm tired of great games being made worse in their sequels etc as they are made more console accessible.
EDIT TO ADD: Also note, much of the 'piracy' for games I have seen is that people download the no_cd cracks etc because they want to play a game they purchased, without having it thrash their CD/dvd rom drive. Or they pick up a patch that allows them to play without constantly connecting to the internet, etc. So its a legit copy played with 'cracks' so they are not tethered to the online service of the publisher or forced to leave CD's in the CD rom and switch them out when they want to play a different game, etc. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23418 | Enkidu98 (90) Apr 01, 2011 - 11:05 am
| Additionaly it was, in my opinion, very inefficently coded for the graphics etc. My maching isn't bleeding edge beefy but its no slouch (i7 930, GTX 480, 12GB Ram, Win7 Unltimate 64 bit, etc) and this game would peg out my video card for visuals that really weren't that spectacular.
The gameplay was terribly boring. Click to move is stupid... its a mechanic that should have been gotten rid of years and years ago. Customosation was yawnworthy. It really just struck me as a very poorly implemented game that had, at one time, potential fromthe concept but the implementation stunk.
I should have expected that though because it has 'Spore' in the title. I'm still disappointed with that product. Once you determine that your body bits mean bupkiss and how you design your creature means bupkiss it really lost huge amounts of its appeal. I had been mislead by the developers etc into thinking that my input/creature design would actually be important to how the game plays.
I've not uninstalled my beta, but thats because I've been lazy. I should do it here soon. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23384 | Enkidu98 (90) Mar 15, 2011 - 11:15 am
| I'm quite opposed to software piracy. I make no bones about my belief that theft is theft (see comments on other firingsquad articles like the recent 'Minecraft's Founder says Piracy isn't Theft') and so while I am philosophically behind the publishers on this one I am completely opposed to their methods.
Copy Protection that harms or limits legitimate access to purchased software should not be used. As the article's author points out, the Pirates get around the DRM protection and so only the legitimate consumer is left to deal with its crap.
I am not fond of the rootkits and various other things my system might acquire when I instal legitimately purchased software.
I much prefer the method that is becoming more popular now. Requiring an activation of a key on purchase for additional content or for full access to all features (such as online play, etc). Even this though can be troublesome.
I can not presently offer a better alternative but the industry should take a long look at how their practices affect legal purchasers of the product. I'm not going to turn to piracy but I have stopped buying games from some publishers simply because of their DRM views and schemes. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23356 | Enkidu98 (90) Mar 03, 2011 - 12:21 pm
| I disagree with him.
He fails to understand that copy is a word with multiple meanings and intents.
As with all copyrights, there is ownership involved in the original design and production of the copys of a work.
Just because its format makes it incredibly easy to replicate in exact detail, does not make it any less stealing.
IF I were to ake my OWN version of a car I see on the lot. Dedicate a lot of time and effort into replicating the vehicle, I have not stolen it. I have built a replica.
If I create the machinery/tooling to automate the production of these replicas and sell them as if they were the original model of the car I liked, I am stealing from the original manufacture in terms of violating their copyrights.
Just because there is a difference between a mostly physical good and one that is built to be replicated and moved from its storage medium into its active form (isntalling software for instance) does not obviate the ownership of the copyright.
He's wrong. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23349 | Enkidu98 (90) Mar 01, 2011 - 04:51 pm
| Three minutes of just 'walking around' is about 2 minutes and 59 seconds too much.
I'm looking forward to the game, but not sure I like the combat example showing Geralt rolling around on the ground doing forward somersaults to get into position to strike. This is a very silly combat maneuver and one that would not be attempted in comabt with swords. I am sure the developers were trying to make everything seem 'dynamic' but its overused by a large bit in these clips.
I also do not like the 'kiting' that appears necessary. Turn around, run away, prepapre your ability, turn back, fight, turn around, run away, rinse and repeat. Really? Turn your back to someone in a real swordfight and you're dead.
Then end the video with nearly two more minutes of walking around?
What a waste of bandwidth. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23241 | Enkidu98 (90) Jan 23, 2011 - 07:06 am
| I like what I have read about the new strategy of the game companies to help maintain their communities.
When people 'Rage Quit' it will grow a negative score for them as a player and when they do it frequently enough, then their only pairings/matches will be presented with other rage quitters.
So the dregs of the comunity have to deal with one another. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=4632 | Enkidu98 (90) Nov 26, 2010 - 07:33 am » Edited on Nov 26, 2010 - 07:34 am
| Really?
How would China's territorial expansion into Korea really affect the United States _especially_ when we first made our involvement in the region.
Our own colonialist actions are hardly beneficial to world peace, nor has our nation building efforts resulted in a greater benefit to the citizens of the nation our government is supposed to represent.
I do not dislike Koreans and I am glad for the South Koreans that they have been able to prosper under American protection. That's great for them, and Europe and everywhere else we have a standing military presence that allows the native populations to spend less of their economy on protecting themselves and using that surplus to develop economically and not become consumers of American products but instead exporters to America costing us our own internal stability, economic future, and a host of other issues.
I am not a die-hard isolationist, but our actions globally have had short term benefits for a few, and long term disadvantages for the many who our government is supposed to represent.
So when it comes down to it, I really do not care if Korea is overrun by the Chinese. And any argument about the greater good, protecting the sovereignty of another nation, etc is all just bloviated grandstanding and intensely hypocritical if you aren't supporting those native sovereigns that the US has overrun.
Our global policy has, most often, been designed to benefit a capitalist class. Massive amounts of money have been created and shifted to a tiny minority who continue to unduly influence America's politics to steer it into actions that benefit them while providing very little for the populace. Is our resulting slavery really any different than what the Chinese might enact in Korea were they to 'take over'. (Which I highly doubt they would in this modern world). Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=4632 | Enkidu98 (90) Nov 24, 2010 - 02:10 pm » Edited on Nov 25, 2010 - 06:20 am
| My own read was that this was a push from the Dear Leader to get some credibility for his son so he can pass down his power through his family. The chosen heir does not have a lot of cred with the military so this helps.
Likely it will blow over, once Seoul remembers that while they have the technological advantage they don't have the ability to stop the north from destroying Seoul within minutes of hostilities starting up again.
Any war would be far more painful to the South than it would be to the North as the North has little to lose.
Honestly, I think we should have pulled out of Korea long ago, and shouldn't have been there to begin with. The amount of money we spend yearly on Korea's defense could be far better spent at home insteead of propping up a nation to become a competitor in various high tech and other tech marketplaces.
But we had to stop the communists, or so the convential wisdom of the late 40's and early 50's thought. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=4614 | Enkidu98 (90) Sep 23, 2010 - 10:43 am
| Nevermind the fact broadband providers want to do away with net neutrality, would likely slow data like movies etc (unless you choose to use the service du jour who pays the ISP extra not to have their content throttled....) and are pushing caps on just about everything so they can get away without having adequate hardware to service their paying consumers....
Besides, I like to OWN the content. I like it in a portable format I can put on multiple players, etc.
F*&%^ digital. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23072 | Enkidu98 (90) Sep 21, 2010 - 02:46 pm
| Automobile Manufacturers already do things similar to this. There are quite a few manufacturers who have the same in3/litre motor that have only slightly different 9if at all) mechanicals but whose engine control electronics make one motor provide more power.
Some manufacturers ECU is programmable and if you plug in to a vagcom and tweak values, you can reach more horsepower/torque/performace with the same mechanicals.
If an automobile manufacturer made this an option, I wouldn't be bothered by it. I would rather enjoy it. Maybe when I buy the car I have X amount of money, but knowing later when I have more money I can make my car even better without having to go through a complicated set of hardware changes, I would be happy.
Just because something is on the 'silicon' already doesn;t mean you paid for it. You bought a certain level of performance. Thats what you get. That is why the chip is cheaper. If it allows them to lower prices across the board because they do not need as many chip designs and thus they can focus on raising yields by perfecting just once chip design and enabling/disabling portions of that design based upon the price you pay for the processor.. more power to them.
And again, since I can buy budget,but increase my performance as my budget allows... makes me a happy consumer.
Certainly I understand that the cost of the silicon is the same and so they are making a profit by charging more for the same piece of silicon with different performance levels. I don't have an issue with that.
My bet is that the pricing pressure would push the overall price to the consumer down. Simply because their cost per die is lower.
I can see why it bothers some people. I just don't agree with them that it is a big deal. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23072 | Enkidu98 (90) Sep 21, 2010 - 08:43 am
| If they started pulling this with ALL their processors, it may be considered a really crappy thing. Especially if prices weren;t lowered across the board.
Instead though these are preconfigured machines, with a lower pricetag to begin with and processors that aren't exactly performance oriented.
Allowing the consumer to increase the performance of their product with a simple key isn't really a terrible idea. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23031 | Enkidu98 (90) Aug 28, 2010 - 06:14 am
| Yeah, I didn't want to get into it that deep because otherwise I write novels masquerading as replies. ;)
But the fact that the information for Awakenings is so inconsistent within itself is quite annoying.
Sure if you just click through the dialogue quickly, igore the manuals and presented backstory its fun, but some of us still like the RPG parts too. So try to be consistent is all. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23031 | Enkidu98 (90) Aug 26, 2010 - 02:14 pm
| I'm somewhat annoyed by the continuity issues and mixups in the very basic story they have been making with the DLC as they add it to DA:O/A.
For example. If you earn rewards that transfer into Awakenings, how do you explain this? Because chronologically Awakenings is supposed to occur BEFORE Witch Hunt. Its the same thing with the Leiliana DLC, there were some pretty big changes made in the story we got from DA:O and the DLC's version. Certainly some of that could be chalked up to Leiliana not being entirely honest but then that would make Leiliana's behaviour in the romance line and when you turn her more 'good' instead of 'hardening' her etc.
You would think the developers would be fans enough of their own product they could keep these things straight? Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23029 | Enkidu98 (90) Aug 26, 2010 - 02:10 pm
| Let us just ignore the fact the game was 'leaked' by retailers selling it before the official street date.
The CD that comes in the box requires significant patching and even after the patching, there are still significant problems and issues.
This means, that they sent out as 'gold' a version of the game that was not complete. This incomplete version is what they intended people to buy from the shelves.
What if they hadn't been able to get their first round of patches done in time? Etc.
What was shipped, was incomplete. They don;t deserve a free pass because of their name, who Brad is, what not. You can't rail about a Gamers Bill of Rights and then violate one of the primary pieces of that BoR. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23029 | Enkidu98 (90) Aug 25, 2010 - 12:53 pm
| This seems like a completely fair criticism and were I into this genre and these games I would very much appreciate getting this sort of review rather than the fluff I tend to see.
Game reviewers are in a tough place. If they are too harsh, they cease getting access to games to review, if they are too puffy then they aren;t doing the people buying the games and reading reviews any favours.
In this case, it seems like a very egitimate review and statement to make and I am glad they made it despite how it might affect their bottom line (advertisers) and future access to review.
As has been mentioned, if someone writes a 'Gamers Bill of Rights' and then violates one of the tenants they put forth, they are derserving of this harsh criticism.
I buy a game to play and I want it to play and be complete out of the box. Paying full price for a game that will not be finished for months is unacceptable. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=4602 | Enkidu98 (90) Aug 25, 2010 - 07:54 am
| Sure, if you want a nation of tradesmen who unthinkingly buy into 'Tournament Theory' and support a status quo that is inimical to their own success and well being.
Besides, you may want to look into the success rates of a liberal arts eduction vs a strict 'business' education or maybe ponder on how the greatest minds in history were those who were not specialised and had a broad wealth of knowledge on which to draw from when approaching problems. Flag this | Edit this post |
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