deanb

Kickstarter is more than just gamers. And as noted this wasn't exactly funded by purely gamers (it's not much of a game anyway last I played of it).

And other Tolkieny works here http://breathing2004.deviantart.com/gallery/30260599 There is a temptation to use Xmas pennies to get myself a print.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/01/08/code-heros-buggy-kickstarter-has-backers-preparing-to-draw-lega/ Maybe something to keep an eye on. Could affect future crowd funding endeavours. Though it could be easily resolved with better communication, it doesn't strike me as a case of running with the cash.

If it's anything like Uncharted 2 it's just short snippets of the levels modified for being played by 2-4 players. The main campaign is still wholly SP. Wandering the desert would be less dramatic if it was four of you

Think of it like the Windows Logo Program/Certification Process. Like you see these stickers on various desktops and laptops around the place. Instead you'll see: And likely built around HTPC-style cases instead of your usual desktop tower since it'll be made for living room use. By the sounds of it there will likely be some grading of the devices too (bit like the Windows Experience Index) with the talk of "good, better, best", and it seems Valve will be setting the Gold standard with "Best". Devices like the Nvidia Shield running the "Grid" tech being "Good" (which implies that this whole "steambox" thing isn't solely PCs). And then random PCs being "better" in the middle. To be fair going off the interview with The Verge, even Valve don't have much of a solid idea of what they're aiming for, and what they're aiming for is definitely not anything as simple as a single console-like Steam powered PC.

http://www.indieroyale.com/ The current Indie Royale is worth it pretty much just for Defense Grid. Though I've heard alright things of the other games.

That would be in the interview, and tl;dr that I linked/wrote up

So benefits are raising faster than the average wage (benefits were raised with inflation) so they've now decided to cap benefits to raising only 1% until 2016. Because the problem was with this stop-gap system that fills in where wages don't, and not maybe the fact that average salaries are not raising with inflation. So you have people that are earning less that they should, who top up their less than stellar earnings from part-time jobs and NMW positions and short term contracts with benefits which are now going to be less than they used to be too. So if you're earning more than average, then you're fine and dandy, but if you're not, you're now even more fucked than you were when you were just earning less than average. There are on average around 25 or so applicants for every job opening, which maybe implies that the reason people aren't in work, or full time work even, isn't because they're all "work shy" and thus should be squeezed until they become productive non-"work shy" people, but maybe because there's not enough jobs around to employ everyone. Which'd maybe be resolved if Gov't had put in systems to let big companies fill positions for free with the aid of JCP.

Who is "We?" Also http://www.theverge....uture-of-gaming Interview with Gabe. So basically they seem to be going for a multi-pronged apporaoch (Also known as "throw it at the wall and see what sticks) with streaming ("Grid"), Steam on your PC, Steam on PCs made/dictated by Valve(with Linux), Steam on OEM PCs, Steam on Big Picture, and Steam on mobiles. So yeah my suggestion of them having a reference model/levelling system is looking to be pretty likely, especially with the "Good, better, best" thing he was talking of. They've tried with motion gaming, not found much use for it (there's actually the Move pack you can get on PS3 for Portal 2, as well as the original levls for PC with the Razer..something or other). Seems to be potential plans for a sort of ...Steam Store SDK or whatever, let anyone make their own "Steam store". Though might be as simple as an expansion of Greenlight and recommendations maybe? Throw out "Deans Store" with like all these kinds of games I'd suggest. Or they really want like say Grainger Games to make a PC distribution client built around Steam. Dunno, maybe he's just musing still, they do that alot. Oh in other news: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/08/valve-ben-krasnow-steambox/ No Steambox in 2013 apparently. Which given Valve time and the fact that this XiS company only got their "Piston" stuff down in September last year did really make it seem a bit quick to have something out early 2013 as some blogs previously claimed. It'd play it safe, let them see what MS and Sony do in June and respond in kind.

I guess on one hand it's lucky I don't have $1000 spare to spend. On the other more important hand why don't I have $1000 to spend on an absurdly silly GPU?!?!

http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/8/3851740/steam-box-inches-closer-to-reality-CES-gabe-newell And this is also supposedly a Steambox. Looks a much more traditional HTPC design (and it's the one actually in Valves booth as opposed to the one by the guy who bumped into Polygon hinting at having a steambox with the Kickstarter for a $1000 imaginary spec PC*). Seems we're still going to be waiting on word of what will eventually be a "Steambox" and it'll ultimately best to only read it when it hits this spot right here. *I also looked into 1TB SSDs and they've got a price point of around $1500+. NewEgg doesn't even sell them(but google suggests they once did)

http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=74180 On Jan 10th DUST 514 will shift over to Tranquillity, the main server cluster that EVE runs on.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/08/aig-considers-suing-government-for-bailing-it-out-world-implodes-in-on-itself/ AIG might sue the US gov't for the US gov't bailing them out.

So this is the guts of Pisten. If this is truly the "Steambox" then Valve can take any comments made against closed systems, coat them in crystal sauce and mint shower gel and shove them up their arse. Cos that ain't fucking standard anything. That ain't #TX anything. The network port and power is on the "graphics card", which likely isn't even a "graphics card" and just the PCB with the video outs on since the steambox is supposedly an APU which'll be under that black heatsink. Also talking of the APU, now I'm home n can look about, decided to look into the 40W thing. The AMD "Trinity" APUs have a TDP of between 65-100W, which mean the CPU on it's own exceeds their 40W PC. http://www.cpu-world...s_Revealed.html They could of course underclock them, which is opposite of what you'd want on a gaming spec PC, or they could go with a laptop spec one http://www.cpu-world...obile_APUs.html Also the GPUs included in these: http://www.videocard...HD 7660D&id=315 - for the 100W ones http://www.videocard...Radeon HD 7660G - for the more mobile ones (and the lower wattage versions fare even less) http://www.videocard... 9600GT&id=1312 - my current, and rather old, dedicated GPU. So I'm unsure on the whole 3 monitor thing and running Crysis 2 and all that stuff they've got planned if Steambox will be rocking and AMD APU. The APUs are not built for gaming, they're built for the shitty Medion PCs and laptops where the most demanding task you'll ask of the GPU is watching a HD movie or browsing Google Earth. edit: Oh new responses. If you're wanting a smaller PC then don't use an ATX based desktop PC, get something ITX based instead. Most are built around Atoms mind, but you can find the odd one here n there that support Core chips.

See the $1000 price point is what makes me question this device. Not sure people are up for working five jobs to afford this. There is supposedly a cheaper device made by them too but I reckon that'll be lacking the 1TB SSD(do they even exist? And under $999?) and other bells and whistles the X7A would like to sport. Also 40W gaming PC? I'd take pause at a 400W PSU on something expecting to run Crysis 2 on one monitor, nevermind across 3.

I imagine the hype to go two ways now. Right down due to the reality of a high-price low-end device built around laptop parts. Or skyrocketing due to a physical existence of a device from Valve. I fear the later. It'll be fun to watch how tjis goes, but unless you'rea bit dumb and/or have no technically inclined friends you're still gonna be better off building your own PC. Heck a store bought ATX box will likely still do you better off. At least you can upgrade those with common parts.

Likely meant the first as there were a lot of games were folks played the prequels. Also I don't think Dex n Excel update their beaten status on here too often. Might hit them up if you're up for it like next week onwards or whatever.

They could have every single one of the 12 trees be different and full of unlimited detail and maintain a nice 60fpm. No typo.

Wait, how many of us are in the fair islands of Britain and have yet to beat this? Cos I know I haven't, and you haven't and I know MasterDex n Excel had been co-oping....

http://uffsite.net/avalon/ A fan made 25th anniversary digital book/magazine/guide thing.

http://pressxordie.com/2013/01/07/great-game-music-of-2012/ So we posted up our tunes of the year.

http://techgage.com/news/ces-2013-kingstons-hyperx-predator-flash-drives-go-to-1tb-yes-1tb/ A 1TB Flash Drive. Probably cost more than it's worth, but it's neat to know the product/tech is out their to do this. Couple years and normal people can own them.

I said I'm surprised they made this when they could have made an Ouya competitor.

Wow I thought that died at least a year back, they re-peddling their shit again? It's perfectly awesome if you just want a non-interactive scene to move around in and don't care for the fact raster based polygon tech is what everyone is using. Also requires vast amounts of memory which isn't much of a common thing. Also compare it with the tech demo of UE4 on the previous page (shifted this to the engine thread btw). You'll notice a lot more interactivity in in UE4 trailer because it has much more flexibility in allowing that, particle systems, physics, and even basic animation is much simpler and less processor intensive on polygon based engine. In medical imagery you don't need the motion and interactivity. Also video game levels tend to have a wide range of variety, whereas the "unlimited detail" engine instances a lot of itself so the landscape is pretty damn dull. Also I'm not even sure who they're aiming for. They'd need cash from investors, and investors will look past a lot of their marketing bullshit. Or they need to get cash from developers buying into their engine, and developers aren't retarded and know what works and why they use polygons and raster based rendering and such. They say in the video on being interested in seeing what game artists will do with it when they put this engine in their hands, but here we are over a year later and they've seemingly never put this tech in the hands of any artists.

The reasonably priced tablet market is a growing sector, and on Tablets half are used for gaming so I guess it might be somewhat decent? Or at least more than might be expected. This isn't going to sell gangbusters and I don't think it's meant to. It's meant to sell enough to entice devs to make games for Tegra(zone) and enough to make manufacturers build Tegra based devices. Android is a mature, and free, platform with plenty of games support for it so it kinda makes sense I guess for a bunch of companies to jump on using it as a basis to build consoles and handhelds around. Surprised Nvidia made a handheld though when they could, as the makers of Tegra, jumped right in with an Ouya-competitor. Especially if you add in all the features this has. Also just remembered:, there is the Wikipad, so this thing is less fugly than it could have been.