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| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17225 |  Spino (9) Sep 05, 2007 - 11:09 am
| I don't wanna flame, troll or beat an undead horse but the Warhammer Fantasy property has been around for 25 years. The Warhammer mmo is staying quite true to the franchise in terms of its look and feel. It's a well known fact in the industry that Blizzard copied (or rathered 'borrowed') from the Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40K properties to make their Warcraft and Starcraft franchises when they couldn't secure the Warhammer license from GamesWorkshop.
Seriously now, I'm no fanboi and I tell you no lies. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=4244 | Spino (9) Jun 22, 2007 - 10:25 am » Edited on Jun 22, 2007 - 10:29 am
| Wow, Sam Jackson. $5 says he delivers most of his lines in his trademark 'angry street talkin' negro' mode that he uses in virtually every movie he's ever been in. Sorry about the politically incorrect remark but Sam's body of work reminds me of Deniro's or Walken's...
Anyway I'm just thrilled to see Hollyweird making more 'creative' casting decisions. Now that Sam Jackson is on board I'm hoping they get Jet Li or Jackie Chan to play Jim Rhodes.
But hey, Jon Favreau is directing! With a resume that sports heavyweight director driven action movies like Elf and Zathura you know Iron Man is going to get the respect he deserves...
/sarcasm Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=15366 | Spino (9) May 07, 2007 - 09:18 am
| Good call on this one. Now that WC3 is quite aged and WoW has 'settled' into the market releasing SC2 would make the most sense. Given Blizzard's track record for milking its brands down to the bones it's easy to see why they would want to avoid stealing mmo thunder away from WoW, its biggest cash cow right now.
The one thing to watch out for is to see whether the release of Mythic's Warhammer: Age of Reckoning mmo affects WoW'w subscription base. If WAR manages to successfully bleed a fair percentage of WoW's players away (especially those of the pvp persuasion or players tired of raiding with their lvl 70 toons) then Blizzard might break with its internal calendar and plan a SC mmo release earlier than usual. The mmo market for the next few years should be quite interesting.
On the other hand sci-fi and fantasy rpg'ers seem to be cut from a different cloth. Truth be told the mmo market is starved for a truly well designed and interesting sci-fi mmo right now. Starcraft already has the name brand recognition and even if a SC based mmo is just another pve grind and raiding beast like WoW people will eat it up.
I'm glad Blizzard isn't releasing a SC mmo anytime soon. There's a Warhammer 40K mmo currently in the works and I'd hate to see it released in the shadow of a SC mmo that has already hit the market. I'm not one of those looney GW fanatics but the WH40K universe really is more fun, original and grittier than the Starcraft universe which, when it comes down to it, is essentially a dumbed down 40K clone. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=15364 | Spino (9) May 07, 2007 - 08:54 am » Edited on May 07, 2007 - 09:06 am
| HL2EP1 was a helluva game? Wtf are you smoking? HL2EP1 was 6 hours' worth of the same old crap for $20. Talk about milking a name brand for the sake of sales. Hey HL fans, here's a bowl of premium dogs--t called EP1, doesn't it look tasty? Mmmmmm, hey it's HL so it just HAS to be good! EP1 was fine... for a mini-expansion that should have cost no more than $10. Even the Great Satan of game publishers (a/k/a EA) had the courtesy to charge less than $20 for those direct download mini-expansions for BF2. Calling EP1 a helluva game is like calling the SW crapquels a superlative cinematic experience.
Everyone is looking forward to EP2 because of Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Valve should take as much time as it needs to debug and tweak those two games because that's what everyone is going to be raving about for year or so after their release. TF2 is shaping up to be the next big deal in online shooters and Portal is a revolutionary step forward for a genre that is in dire need of new blood.
Man, I'd hate to think EP2 is the reason for these delays. Methinks Valve is simply testing TF2 like mad to get the class balance and level designs just right. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=15118 | Spino (9) Apr 18, 2007 - 10:11 am
| Yes but you're using Cho as a common example of firearm abuse. The problem with Cho is that he's a spectacular example of those quiet wildcards that require certain stimuli before committing to a killing spree. Let's face it, you'll never stop oddities like Cho from going postal on innocents unless you enact state sponsored eugenics and psychological screening programs. I suppose those of your ideological persuasion could implement those measures after you've take away the guns, knives, video games, sporks and pointy sticks. That just might work but there's always the risk someone might get smothered with a fluffy pillow...
Fine, take away guns but you're still left with intent to commit premeditated murder. So in a world without firearms what if Cho decided to spend a few weeks prepping dozens of pipe bombs instead? Chucking them in dorms and classrooms might not have the desired effect so what if he set them off at a game, rally or party where there are sure to be lots of casualties? Cho's actions were not so impulsive, he clearly planned this massacre out beforehand as per his chaining up of the building exits so people couldn't escape. What's to keep him from waiting a bit longer in order to make a pipe bomb scenario work? Last I checked pipe bombs are highly illegal and yet any joe can make them in his basement using an internet recipe and materials purchased from a local hardware shop. What happens when some manic-depressive kids (i.e. the Columbine killers) decide to make a slew of those and set them off in a really crowded area? What will you do then, vote to ban ammonia & metal pipes? Lobby Google and Yahoo to censor their websearch engines? How about legislation that renders it illegal to publish any material that provides instructions of the creation of such devices or on a more relevant note, websites that provide instructions on the creation of zip guns and other homemade firearms? Bravo, you've not only trashed the second amendment but the first one as well.
Let's not discuss Europe shall we? When it comes to individual liberties modern Europe doesn't score too highly on the self expression meter. Attempting to deny the holocaust will get you instant jailtime in Germany. Immigrants are confronted with the proverbial glass ceiling if they decide to move to France. Britain sports the most surveillance cameras out of any industrialized nation and is flirting with the idea of national ID cards and a national DNA database for newborns. All this in spite of a lack of guns and an ever increasing violent crime rate, especially in France and the UK.
Sure, the average European is much safer from big bad firearms but they're also at far greater risk of living in the kind of society that sends civil rights loving liberals screaming into the night.
I'd much rather take a look at countries like Canada and Switzerland where firearms are quite prevalent and yet gun violence is remarkably low. Even Michael Moore in his infamous 'Bowling for Columbine' was puzzled over the stark contrast in violent crime between Canada and the United States. The cliche 'guns don't kill people, people kill people' holds true no matter how you badly you spin the contrary argument.
The biggest problem I have with the anti-gun crowd is how easily they dismiss the fact that firearms are inextricably linked to the Second Amendment. There's a very good reason why the founding fathers made it the SECOND amendment and not the 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc. The right to arm and protect oneself in the face of tyranny and/or individual actions intent on depriving you of your rights is deemed to be second only to the right to express oneself and worship freely. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=15118 | Spino (9) Apr 18, 2007 - 08:18 am
| Geez, one never grows tired of hearing all the post-war generation kiddies and their anti-gun rants. I blame it on those 'very special' episodes of Fresh Prince and Saved by the Bell.
Had the thought ever occured to the anti-gun crowd that if guns were to be completely banned in the US it would have almost no effect on the violent crime rate? Or for that matter, the number of violent crimes that involve firearms?
DRUGS are illegal in the US; pot, cocaine, heroine, meth, etc. And thanks to some seriously draconian drug laws if you're caught in possession of a small amount or worse, selling said narcotics you can expect a really hefty sentence. And yet, shock and horror, drugs are EVERYWHERE in this country and are either grown here or imported by the thousands of tons every year.
Draconian gun laws won't prevent people who want to own and use them from getting them, especially criminals. Ban guns in the US and they'll simply be another illegal material that will be smuggled across our borders by the tons.
It's a simple question of supply and demand. If someone (i.e. a criminal or introverted psycho like Cho) really wants a gun they will be able to get one. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=4007 | Spino (9) Apr 10, 2007 - 11:09 am
| This video is just more typical America bashing by the European press. Naturally they're only going to give airtime to the ignorant and spectacularly stupid, it makes for better ratings. What's more entertaining, educated people giving correct answers or stupid, ignorant fools demonstrating their lack of IQ and/or knowledge?
No offense to the overly sensitive anti-American/pro-European crowd here but it's been shown (especially in the UK) that our European cousins are just as ignorant as Americans when it comes to facts geographical, historical etc. Plebs are plebs no matter where you go.
And asdfqwerty, read some reputable history books because the Allied victory in WW1 was by no means a forgone conclusion before America entered the war. Without America's assistance the Allies would have, at BEST, gained a draw or a marginal victory over the Central Powers. Thanks to the Russian revolution and the armistice between Germany/Austria & Soviet Russia in 1918 ALL of Germany's troops stationed on the Eastern front were transferred to the Western front where they proceeded to make huge territorial gains against the Allies. Happy coincidence that America's troop contributions swelled shortly after and helped turn the tide. America's contribution in WW1 was not nearly as overwhelming as it was in WW2 but it WAS critical to the Allied victory. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/4762/63 | Spino (9) Feb 09, 2007 - 09:28 am » Edited on Feb 09, 2007 - 09:29 am
| Yes, it is very worrisome, at least to gamers, that Mythic allowed itself to be bought out by the Great Satan of video game publishers. On the other hand I'm sure Mythic's top officers were crying all the way to the bank after the buyout.
The fact that Warhammer Fantasy (or Warhammer anything for that matter) resembles Blizzard's Warcraft/Starcraft/WoW universe is no coincidence. The truth of the matter is that Blizzard 'borrowed' heavily from the WH universe to make its Warcraft and Starcraft properties, not the other way around. Take a good look at Games Workshop's numerous WH properties and you'll see that WH:AoR isn't so much a WoW copycat but is really is keeping true to the look of the WH universe. However, this won't matter a bit in the mind of the average gamer but please give credit where credit's due. FYI, I am not one of those fanatical WH figure painting uber-geeks.
Alot is riding on this mmo (which are obscenely expensive to develop and run) so it is entirely possible that EA won't be interfering with Mythic's handling of AoR given their track record with DAoC... (insert sarcastic remark)
Even if EA does run WH:AoR into the ground it is not all doom and gloom for WH fans. THQ and Relic are currently developing a rpg and mmo and many people surmise that one or both of those games will be set in the WH40K universe (THQ currently has the rights to make WH40K games). THQ & Relic did a bang up job with the Dawn of War & Company of Heroes games so I see no reason why Relic couldn't crank out a quality mmo... after all, Blizzard proved to everyone they were more than just a RTS developer when they made WoW. Flag this | Edit this post |
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