SomTervo

Yeah he meant the dichotomy between changing a system to be more essential but possibly more simple, i.e. the dichotomy of steamlining something potentially making it 'dumbed down'. From what I heard the changes to Diablo III's systems sounded objectively good. That's actually a pretty big argument for the whole medium right now; what with high-roller AAA titles being super streamlined and selling well, with more complex titles not doing so great but being more meaningful and deep.

Damn straight, dean. Especially when the whole thing causes lag if you're playing by yourself. That's just fucking (and I hate using this word) retarded. Really, really stupid, beyond belief. If you're playing single-player, a game loaded on your computer, with no required outside net connection to any servers or people, there should not be lag. It should just be running smooth off your hard drive. It's not even fair enough if there is server-side processing; surely it wouldn't have been difficult to put this code into the game itself if the code is already written!

I understand Assassin's Creed isn't a very apt comparison. But I imagine, like the previous Diablos, that the singleplayer portion of Diablo 3 is just as significant as the multiplayer portion; the multiplayer mode just giving the added benefit of having more than one person playing it. In singleplayer it must be as big and detailed as the multiplayer; just as good to get lost in and have a great time in. The gameplay, world, and loot is surely also the same over both modes? I know of a few people who genuinely would only get Diablo 3 to play the singleplayer; and that's probably what I'd do if I had it, mostly, too. And if you only want to play singleplayer, there's no justification for having to be online the whole time either. That's fair if this is old discussion. I haven't really paid any attention to the game until now, so I'm new to it. Re: the actual game, it would be great to hear how they've made improvements over D2. Actually, I'm specifically interested in how they made the addictive point 'n' click combat translate into a 3D engine. Animations with more frames and more angles, etc. How mobile is the 3D camera, btw? Just as mobile as the D2 one, or is it more zoomable/scrollable.

I really don't understand their justification for the singleplayer portion having to be always-online. As far as I'm concerned, there is no justification for it. It's just like Ubisoft's always-on DRM for Assassin's Creed etc. Especially considering their pedigree of being super PC-player-base-friendly. Like Diablo II was incredible for just sharing with friends and not needing any commitments DRM wise. This is all as someone who'd like to play or own the game, but really isn't that bothered. As a bystander, it still seems utterly ridiculous. P.S. Is there any sort of optional offline mode? Like in Steam how you can set certain games (or however it works) to be playable offline, but you have to activate them whilst connected to t'internet. Like, if you're taking your computer somewhere without a connection, you could play it. Because that can happen, contrary to Blizzard's beliefs.

It's definitely worth a go. Your general running speed is fine, but if you sprint, he does fling his arms about (though it is a frantic 'shit I'm fucking going' move).

I always turn aim assist off in every game, including every console shooter, and I never have any problems. Honestly. You might miss a little bit more in tense situations more than you would on KWASD, but not that much more. Also, it's from joystiq, but hey:

Sniper Elite V2 had that... But isn't this just the sprinting animation? Which is meant to be your guy throwing him into a sprint (usually before jumping). The general running animation looks fine?

Maybe. It's a tough one. (I agree about not knocking it till we've tried it.) It does sound like it's more cutsceney, which is ridiculously shit. I think the GTA games (after the 2D top down ones) were all impeccably written. Really well observed and the dialogue is incredibly flowing. The gameplay is a bit allovertheplace, that's true (just replaying San Andreas, and while it's still fucking amazing in narrative and general gameplay, the combat is... Ugh), especially in the earlier games. Whenever I listen to the comicscenes in MP2 I actually get moments of profound nostalgia too, where I do also feel that Lake's writing really can't be mimicked. It's just brilliant; even his use of metaphor and symbolism. Absolutely insane. I'm looking forward to analysing Houser's writing to that extent, but yeah... He probably really can't get it.

Let's be honest, the scripts were hardly GTA and RDR's strongest points. ... But they were far from the weakest? The scripts in those games are still amazing. The overall stories are often questionable, because they're so epic and expansive, but the actual dialogue and meaning behind the dialogue is always great. I'm still pretty confident that Houser, after examining MP1 and 2's script heavily, will be able to pull off a good Max Payne tone. It won't be Sam Lake, obviously, but it shouldn't be far off. It's mostly a pity that it's doing all of this through so much cutscene... In-game cutscenes were always very basic scene-setters in Max Payne, the comics did the brunt of dialogue. If they've changed that...

/nopc Although I've never had a problem free aiming in this style on consoles (without aim assist) in any game. Hopefully this won't be an issue. The focus on action shit isn't great, though... I'm hoping the narration will save it from just being mindless CoD shit. Dan Houser wrote it, afterall...

Why Although, TBH, MP1 and 2 weren't exactly easy without aim assist. You had to be pretty spot on. I'm replaying MP2 and I still miss shittons, it just makes it even more 'in the zone'y when you headshot folk.

Yeah there's a big emphasis on lighting, which is pretty important as a gameplay mechanic, so it generally looks good, and some of the textures are nice, specifically the damage models on the big enemies. But the animations are definitely Japanese clunky RPG ones; this is the pedigree of Resi 4-5 and DMC after all (not that DMC had bad animations). it has those stuttering moments after hitting bad guys and very little smooth fluid transitions between animations. But this doesn't seem to detract from the gameplay, so I'm happy.

I think so but I had that shit turned off. All HUD turned off. It's fucking epic.

Re: Monarchy I don't generally support it because a lot of money is pumped into that archaic system which would be incredibly useful elsewhere. However, I do actually kinda like dem characters. Queen's gotta cool head. Charles is a legend. Love the Harwill bros. Plus Kate is a babe.

Yeah the night time thing is for real, if you go back a page you'll see I had a fun time experiencing that. I recommend playing the demo again and just avoiding the shit out of the griffin until it's dark, then trying to beat it. Becomes a whole other ballgame, man. Like a tactical survival horror. So awesome. Doesn't take that long either, must just be a few minutes to get properly dark. And it is really properly dark. Like the screen's pitch black and you can only see your tiny area of light. So great.

Just an interesting factoid. Very interesting. And surreal if it's someone you've known since you were both five years old. But really pretty on-topic; I think she plays it to a ridiculous extent, so chances are if you guys play much you'll slip onto a server she's on at some point.

One of my best friends (who incidentally just became a girl) is in a clan which is in the top 5 teams in the world. Name's probably Nilocy if you ever encounter... Her. Good character. And evidently good at the game. If I ever get a good enough machine, I'll be on there.

They're doing great! Nearly halfway. That sounds awesome. Looking back at your old 2011 reply, Kanji's comment; it's easy to play Carmageddon and just label it as wasteware. It's one of those games where you really have to not give a shit and just enjoy the chaos. Replaying it as many times as you can was key. If you played to win you'd probably lose. I learnt that from the demo, playing it over and over. Then playing the game and playing it over and over.

I think Dragon's Dogma is going to do the visibility stuff best. Looks fucking unreal darkwise. Becomes an actual survival horror game... Re: Assassin's Creed III, the series is an action adventure series primarily; stealth and atmosphere are very much secondary. I think when it's night it'll mostly mean different AI and world behaviour. Not anything to do with visibility. The fact that it's colder will probably make more difference, especially in the game's winter modes. Oh yeah, what does everyone think of the summer/ winter paradigm? I think that's awesome.

Yeah, how it worked was that the game had a Day/Night cycle, but whenever you did a mission, in the ancestors memory that mission was at a specific time of day and weather, so if you started a mission which was set at a different time of day from what you're at currently, the sun would whip around (or down) immediately, which was cool as shit, so the scene would fit how it originally happened. EDIT: I guess if they keep it the same for III (which they probably will because it's a good system), you would get that quality of reduced visibility etc. when you're free roaming, but in actual missions the developers will have control over how the visibility will be affected.

I hated the mobile phone augmented reality shit. In a film that was pretty grounded, that was just mental. I don't even see The Dark Knight as a great Batman film, certainly not a great superhero film. It's a great crime film. You know, like a crime thriller, like The Godfather or something like that. It's mostly about gangsters and the law and politics. Batman is basically a minor character. Batman Begins, however, is the best Batman movie ever created. I still don't think it's perfect, far from it, but it's the only movie to 'get' what the BMan is about.

When I get it it'll be on 360. Have both, though. Prefer the flow on 360.

They suck balls. Byline: what was the sting for Avengers? I.e. the post-credits snippet. I just want to know, had to leave quick after seeing it.

Hacker is fucking awesome. Like sci-fi electro-urban hip hop. lol My analogy was that it's like the tribal gritty tunes played at the dirty savage nightclubs in a post-Apocalypse. Think I said that in a status. And you replied. Anyway.