Vargras

I don't see why not. There's far worse topics that have been posted.

That's what I really liked about the unlock system in BF2142. Each class could choose anything, really. You didn't have a single, "final" weapon for the class, but rather had two different weapons, and both had a unique purpose. Like the Engineer class could either get an anti-tank rifle, or an anti-air rocket launcher. Could you still use the anti-tank rifle on aircraft, or the anti-air rocket launcher on tanks? Sure, but it wasn't as effective. None of the unlocks were really replaced either - they all had uses.

You get the best of both worlds in ME3. Weapon stats are visible once more.

Well, the Borealis will definitely be involved, and that's stuck in the ice up in the Arctic. Means the water is either gonna be transparent or murky.

Valve knows how big the Half-Life franchise is, and they know fans want the next part. They've been awful hush-hush about it, and considering all of their other major franchises have gotten updates or will be getting updates, all that's left to take care of is Half-Life. Honestly, I won't be surprised if they bust out a brand new engine for it. They might use a beefed up version of Source, but a new engine wouldn't surprise me either. I sure hope they bust out a whole new engine, but as this does look to be more of a continuation of the episodic content rather than a full length Half-Life 3 I would be pleasantly surprised if that happened. This "weaponizer" thing sounds like it could warrant a new engine, though, just like the Gravity Gun and Source. If anything hints at a possible new engine, it's the weaponizer_liquid line. Liquids are notoriously difficult to properly render on computers. They either don't look right, or they don't behave right.

Valve knows how big the Half-Life franchise is, and they know fans want the next part. They've been awful hush-hush about it, and considering all of their other major franchises have gotten updates or will be getting updates, all that's left to take care of is Half-Life. Honestly, I won't be surprised if they bust out a brand new engine for it. They might use a beefed up version of Source, but a new engine wouldn't surprise me either.

From: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/09/19/dota-2-game-leak-hints-at-half-life-episode-three.aspx

From what I've seen, some of the conversations in DX:HR are actually slightly randomized. For instance, So walkthroughs for some of the conversations actually won't work for everyone. Also, I actually LIKE that I can "fail" conversations. I like that I have to actually pay attention and tell the other person what they want to hear.

I like FPSes - somewhat. There's some I like (Mass Effect series, TF2, Killing Floor, Space Marine), and some I detest (CoD and BF. In my defense, I loved BF2 and 2142, but all the Bad Company stuff is awful). You could classify Deus Ex as a RPG/FPS I suppose, but the best parts of that game involved not shooting at all. I think most FPSes are called dumb or simplistic because... well, they are. In campaigns, it's essentially going from Point A to Point B and killing enemies that spawn at pre-determined spots. In multiplayer, it's fulfilling a single objective, like "get more points/kills than the other team" or "take this thing from the other guys", and TF2 largely seems like the only one to have broken out of that, if only because of how mod-friendly it can be. Try finding prophunt or dodgeball in another game. But that's actually okay! That's what makes them so accessible to so many people. If you've played one shooter, you've essentially played them all - you might miss some of the little tricks specific to each game, but for the most part, you already know what you're doing.

Does Counter-Strike count as having unlocks?

Gears might be the better shooter, but don't even say it had the better story. Some of the characters were much better written than the others, with Jacob being a glaring example of just how bland the writing can be. The writing may have been shoddy in some places, but overall, I still highly enjoyed it and thought it was worth the time invested. "Greatest RPG of all time" is an opinion. Not everyone will agree with it. Some people may feel, for example, that Half-Life is the greatest game of all time. Others may disagree and think Halo is the greatest game of all time. At the end of the day, neither of them are wrong, because neither side sees themselves as being "incorrect". Back on topic, games keep getting "RPG-ified" because the leveling aspect of things creates a time sink and a bit of an incentive to keep playing.

I've reported so many people for feeding/unskilled player lately. Had a 2 and 12 Morgana tell me that if everyone had followed his directions, we would have won - except the other team had 3-4 levels on us, so it would have done fuck-all anyways. He was pretty terrible.

If it was in-game, and the team did nothing to make it fit in the with DX:HR atmosphere, I'd be pissed. But it's a tiny little bar at the load screens, so I'm not. Life goes on. See how easy that was?

Get out of my status updates.

A charmander in Red. Unfortunately, my cart was horribly broken (if you turned the power off, it wiped the save, so I never progressed very far in it). Aside from that, probably Pikachu in Yellow.

Article taken from Kotaku, so none of you have to go there yourselves! ----- The next Counter-Strike, the one coming out early next year called Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, won't be called Counter-Strike 2, because that game would be "something different", two of Valve's top people on the new game recently told Kotaku. "A lot of Counter-Strike: GO is taking Counter-Strike: Source and Counter-Strike 1.6 and melding it into a product that every side likes and also expanding the base by putting it out on the consoles," Valve's Chet Faliszek said, referring to the two most popular incarnations of the game. "Whereas Counter-Strike 2, at least internally, we think about as something different." During a recent interview at Valve headquarters in Bellevue, Faliszek and CS: GO project lead Ido Magal let me play Counter-Strike: GO (for an hour) and then helped me narrow in on what the new game is and isn't. It's clear that the new game, which will be released as a downloadable title for PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 early next year, isn't a full-fledged sequel. "Counter-Strike: GO has this kind of objective of homing in," Magal said. "We're taking that competitive experience that's very hard to organize in Counter-Strike: Source... We've taken that and let everyone experience the fun of a five-on-five [game] where everyone is equally matched. The product doesn't span all of Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike is zombie mods and all these different things. This is more narrow." The new GO will feature several classic maps, new weapons and tweaks that range from modified maps to a new casual mode that removes the in-game money restrictions on which weapons and items players can buy. It also will be supported by Valve's in-house match-making, an option that allows Valve to promise a controlled, predictable multiplayer experience for all gamers. GO is being developed in concert with Hidden Path Entertainment, which is located just a couple of blocks from Valve HQ. That team was initially been assigned to work on a straight Xbox Live Arcade port of 2004's Counter-Strike: Source. "We wanted to see what that would look like," Magal said. It looked good. "We realized there was something more there that we could do, something that the community would be interested in," Faliszek said. "And we got excited," Magal added. Valve had expected the 2004 Source version of the game to replace the previous year's 1.6 iteration, itself a successor to a game that had been evolving since the late 90's. But many of 1.6's most ardent fans, including those who played it competitively, as a sport, resisted the Source version. Source "didn't do what we thought it would do, but we weren't disappointed about what it did," Magal said. "We thought Counter-Strike: Source would replaced Counter-Strike 1.6 but instead it generated a community just as large as the 1.6 community on its own." Faliszek called it "an amoeba-like split." GO is supposed to bring those crowds together and rope in console players who have only had an original Xbox version to choose from. Valve also assumes it has lost some computer Counter-Strike gamers who have moved away from PC gaming and wants to reach them on the consoles those gamers may have moved to (fittingly, the PS3 version of the game will even include mouse and keyboard support; and all players on PS3/PC/Mac will be match-made against each other.) The Valve guys describe two of the goals for GO as lowering the skill floor—making it easier for newbies to have fun with game, hence the casual mode—and raising the skill ceiling—making meaningful, subtle changes to maps and mechanics that only pro-level players will notice and appreciate. Valve is not trying to necessarily turn GO into an e-Sport. "That requirement doesn't exist," Magal said. "If it happens, that's nice." They do want to make sure those highest-level players can enjoy GO, though, so Valve is launching a PC beta for the game in October and having what Magal calls an ongoing "dialogue" with hardcore CS players "to fix the things that everyone agrees is an issue." For example: "The way the smoke grenades used to work in Counter-Strike: Source. We changed the rate at which it blooms and dissipates and everyone preferred it." And another example, also from Magal: "The maps Dust and Aztec aren't played competitively at all because they were so imbalanced in Source. We feel very bullish on changing them, so we did. Dust 2 is a wonderfully balanced map that we didn't need to change. We just gave it a visual upgrade." And then there are the Halo and Call of Duty gamers out there, the FPS hordes who may wonder why a new Counter-Strike is at all relevant to them. What's the appeal of CS:GO for that crowd who already have plenty of first-person shooting to do in their favorite series? CS may have sold 25 million copies already (according to Faliszek), but Valve might still have trouble pulling those folks from their beloved franchises. What's a CS have to offer those people? Magal describes the essence and value of CS in one word: skill. "I think where Counter-Strike differentiates itself is what impact skill has on your success." It's the way skill factors into a CS match that makes it feel different from other shooters, Faliszek added. "It's clean. You died because you made the wrong choice." He explained that beginner CS players tend to use lots of grenades, but that veterans don't since it is "super-easy" to kill a player who is holding one. "There's not a lot of spam in there," he said. "There are a lot of clean kills. Most kills are gun kills. And it's about, 'Oh I didn't check that corner before I entered this room. I made the bad choice of trying to defuse the bomb before clearing the area. We rushed around this corner and we got ambushed.' It's always about making those kinds of decisions and not about, ‘Oh man, why did I die? What the hell? That's bullshit kind of thing." "A small difference in skill between two players, the impact of that on the game will be accentuated," Magal said. "My experience in other games is that's not the case." That's what Counter-Strike is: a game of skill. And this is what CS:GO is: an effort to put anyone who has or should play Counter-Strike into the same game. That's a big enough goal but not a grand enough one to merit the name Counter-Strike 2. As we discussed possible names for this new Counter-Strike, I had to ask if they'd considered one other name, one that would be an inside joke for fans of Valve's Half-Life series whose third episodic sequel has been missing in action for years. Did anyone suggest, during those brainstorm sessions, Counter-Strike: Episode Three? "No," was Faliszek's quick reply. Then a quick inhale of breath. This new GO may not be a full-fledged Counter-Strike sequel, but it's no joke. ----- TL;DR - Dust and Aztec are finally getting balanced, there's a casual mode with no money restrictions, and PC/PS3/Mac users will all be grouped into the same match-making pool.

What's the favorite font of anti-aug protestors? Sans-Sarif! *badum-tish*

Finally got my multiplayer footage up. I did rather poorly, but at least you get to see most everything.

You can't QFT your own post.