Johnny

They were pretty clear about wanting to get the game out this year, earlier on. So yes, it's a delay.

Oh I see, I was misunderstanding you. I apologize. xD

Alpha Protocol and CoH Complete. *sigh* damn you, steam.

Extra Credits has a new epsiode out. It's about professional gaming.

I think you're misunderstanding. They are letting you customize how you play a LOT using a combination of skills, passives and runestones. But you won't have 60 skill points and 500 stat points to allocate in the exactly optimal fashion. It's got the flexibility of the skilltree from D2, but without the overwhelming "oh god where should I put all my points?!" factor and you're never locked into your choices longer than you want to. Dean posted a link to the skill calculator above. I've been playing around with it and I have a few builds in mind for when the game launches, already. @The RPS article: My main gripe with this article is that it overlooks how stable SC2's servers have been since launch (pretty damned close to flawless) compared to how they were in the beta. Otherwise, good information overall. The thing about the "just put an offline mode" in is that Blizzard claims it would make it easier for people to develop hacks for the game. I'm not gonna pretend that I know wether that's their real reason or not, but I can see the claim being true. @The "it's structured like an mmo" thing: I thought this had been obvious for ages?

@Dean: For comparison, someone needs to tell us how big the areas actually are in-game. I'm pretty sure Morrowind is larger in-game than Oblivion, and I know Daggerfall is much much larger.

Believe it or not, there are rules for good storytelling. There are things that make for good stories and bad. There's a reason that Twilight is not considered by human culture to be a good book, and a reason that The Count of Monte Cristo is. Good and bad, within the context of culture, is objective, but fuzzily defined, because culture evolves over time. For instance, The Count of Monte Cristo was considered bad at one point because Dumas was of mixed heritage, and people were racist. Now, like/dislike? That's a different matter. What you like or dislike is entirely subjective and would be impossible for me to prove in any way, shape, or form. I will not endeavor to prove that you like or dislike something, as it's ubsurd. What's good or bad, is, however, fair game. Well, then, because Dragon Age is generally accepted to be good storytelling... Wouldn't that make you wrong?

@GunFlame: I find that, because all games are interactive, even in the most linear games people will manage to find their own playstyle and stick with it wether it's effective or not. No game is truly able to be only experienced one way.

Or is it? Because I can totally prove the former are shit and the latter are not. Already started work on the posts a while ago. I do not feel like I should need to explain why this is bullshit. You can't prove that dragon age and mass effect are shit, because that's subjective opinion.

FPSes are treated as dumb things because Modern Warfare and BFBC2 (Yeah, I said it) are pretty dumb, and that's what most people look at when they talk about FPSes.

Yet I felt that there was more outrage over Assassin's Creed than there was over Diablo 3. Because Blizzard is the best company EVER! Duh! I honestly believe that's the reason. I certainly can't come up with any other reason...other than perhaps because it's Diablo III. Nostalgia can be a powerful thing. That's kind of insulting to those of us who dislike UbiDRM but are more fine with what's happening to Diablo III. I've talked about the reasons why in the Diablo 3 thread here. By comparison the UbiDRM does nothing for me as a consumer and forces me to be connected to ubisoft's servers (which have a history of being less than spotless) for a single-player game.

"Reworked" in blizzard terms usually means it has the same flavor as before but the mechanics are completely different. So, you'll probably get rockets and grenades.

At the trend of differentiating them in general. As for W8... Well, I'll make my own opinion when it comes out. I like that they are integrating tablet functionality into the main OS, for various reasons, and I'm actually quite fine with W8 not catering to me as long as they don't do something like forcing me to use W8 if I want the newest version of DirectX. (Hi Vista!)

the usage of "program" and "app" as separate things.

I am loving this. If all of these rune choices are actually balanced and viable for use in the full game, this is awesome.

@HH: Halo is in the category of "games not taken very seriously as an e-sport." It's a bit of a joke in those terms, really. @Yante: That's a matter of perspective. Pro gaming is far more awe-inspiring to me (and many others I know) than, say, soccer is. Watch the Evo Moment #37 video above, and tell me that the spectators there didn't feel awe at it.

Personally I'm not so sure that "anyone" could become that good. I know gamers who have played "competitive" games all their life that can just not manage to wrap their head around them at all. And if it IS a more even playing field and more people could get that good if they put down an equivalent amount of effort, I would only see that as a good thing. I was never much for that whole athleticism fare anyways. What interests me is good plays, not raw muscle strength. In gaming, these things aren't actually exploits. Well, for the most part. An exploit is when you manage to break the game to do things that weren't intended and aren't balanced. It's not an exploit to rush for the biggest weapon, the game was designed so that you can do that, but you're taking a risk because everyone is gonna watch that spot and try to take you out if you try to grab the weapon. In gaming, the game itself is the referee. It's designed with limitations to the point. And yeah some games have lesser balance. They are generally not taken too seriously as an e-sport, for that specific reason. The ones that are taken seriously are in general very well-made. Yeah, it's different. Different like chess is different to hockey, or any other sport. Doesn't make it NOT a sport. Spawn points are "random" in some games, but in the cases where they are in "serious" games, the game is generally balanced enough with good enough level design that they aren't really a deciding factor. Quite. Most games are not considered serious e-sports. The ones that manage to support an e-sport scene (with a few fluke exceptions) were designed for it from the ground up. It's a significantly different design template than for say recent Call of Duty games where you just throw in a lot of weapons and stuff because in the eye of the public, more is always more.

@Spork: Well, BFBC2 is far from being designed for competitive play anyways. Other FPSes like Quake and Counter-Strike have much more effective ways of spectating. Although, as mentioned, the whole genre has a problem with making it spectatable.

For spectator sports, it's important to make it easy for the spectators to understand the basics of what is going on without being expert at the subject matter. Ideally you should be able to learn a lot about the game just by spectating it. RTSes and fighting games usually do this the best: Action-RTSes (also known as the retarded name MOBA, DotA-likes and Aeon of Strife) are somewhat less good at this, but only requires a short amount of time spent with the game before strategy starts becoming apparent. Dota 2 - International Championship - Grand Final - Highlights FPSes are probably the worst genre for spectator sports because so little of the metagame and why some players are doing well is apparent looking on from outside. Ever try spectating a Quake 3 or Counter-Strike match without knowing much about the game beforehand? It's not a very enlightening experience and ends up being boring for the average viewer.

Yeah people totally don't exploit nuances of non-electronic sports. Totally not. For a more serious response, in those FPSes with weapon pickups, rushing for the powerful weapon is in no way an exploit. Controlling weapon spawns is one of the most important factors of positioning in those kinds of games. It's about as much of an "exploit" as intercepting a pass is.

Probably not, and frankly I'd be very afraid if it was. Every country has their own damn problems to deal with, and America is no different. It is, actually. Not so much because of how many people died as for the events that it in turn caused. Besides, I think you're both underestimating how much american culture the rest of the western world imports.