AgamemnonV2

Bethesda has always had that formula in their game. In Oblivion, enemies have a base level and then it is multiplied depending usually on your own level. The only problem people had with this is that as you became this super-powerful hero with lots of enchanted armor, then bandits started to pop up with mithril and daedric armor and weapons, knocking the stuffing out of you. Also, mudcrabs. Bethesda got the memo that not EVERY enemy should level like that and tweaked it. Ergo, in FO3, there are some specific enemies that always remain difficult fights (i.e. Deathclaws). Gaming tropes that need to go: A game revolves around a beautifully-detailed city. Sometime later, it is destroyed. The end of the game has you coming back to the destroyed and/or pillaged city for the final fight. Prominent developers that LIVE AND BREATHE this trope: Bethesda and Bioware. Something tells me Bethesda and Bioware's old ties extend further than just old employees. Either they use the same writer or both their writers found a book when they worked at Black Isle (or whatever) called "Story Tropes for Dummies." The main point of this trope is always: the people of the major city are conceited, ignorant, etc. and ignore you and your warnings of the impending doom, even when surrounding countrysides are on fire. It's not until the horde is in the city, it's on fire, and people's heads are being put on spikes until the leaders say, "Oh God, they were right!" And even after you save them, they both then like to play the mob role, i.e. the surviving citizens turn into a mob and look for someone to blame. Usually it's you or an integral party member/NPC that you know. Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age: Origins have nearly identical endings. They both have you finish the game in the war-torn city, romping around familiar areas you had fond memories of, and then it has you slay the Big Bad and bring back order. However, the mob forms and says, "Rargh, we need to execute someone!" and rather than feed the mob the leaders give into their demands to execute someone.

I always thought one of the weakest plot points of Mass Effect 2 was shoe-horning a point to have Shepard get a new crew and ship (and that whole "I got better" thing too). 75% of Mass Effect is you playing Dr. Phil for your new crew. Why the hell do we have to do this again? Am I really going to be running around again solving someone's daddy problems while Reapers rip apart the galaxy? "Grr Shepard, I am psychologically compromised because I can't grow a pair and get over some emotional experience in my past!" Where's my Renegade option to slap the shit out of those teammates? I have this sinking feeling that Mass Effect 3 is, again, going to be 25% main story and then 75% having to get your crew's shit together so they don't get you killed. Ugh. Also: What did I say about Cerberus?

How odd, that's what I always call it. Animoo and mango (manga, FYI). Two of my most favorite things.

http://notch.tumblr.com/ 11/11/11 is apparently the Minecraft release date.

Wolves already get wet. Take them in the water and bring them out. And finally, he's bringing back snow. I suppose rain isn't that difficult either when there's a few mods that do that already. Also, apparently they've set a release date for Minecraft, which he plans to announce on his blog soon.

I'm just saying that there's going to be an animoo on Mass Effect before there's the actual blockbuster live-action title. Time is of the essence a mind-controlling maniac once said and there's still no mention of a written script for it. Then filming alone would take at least a year or two. Point is that we're probably not going to see a Mass Effect movie, at the earliest, until 2014, all because someone is sitting on their thumbs wondering if this will turn out like the Doom movie.

I'm surprised you missed that announcement. It was made official in May of 2010. Acquiring the rights is definitely not the same thing as "we're making it now." A lot of popular games have had the rights acquired for live-action movie production but next to nil are actually in production. Remember the Halo movie fiasco? So no, the live-action Mass Effect movie is not in production. It's in limbo currently, not doing anything. Fan wikis, like usual, blow things out of proportion.

So a potential blockbuster title is being churned out into a niche demographic that will never see widespread recognition. Frankly I'm a bit surprised by their decision. There's a big sci-fi movie craze going on (ever since the success of Avatar) and if there was a time for them to ride that wave with Mass Effect it would be now.

I've certainly not purchased (or pirated) Crysis 2 despite being a fan of the first game. Crytek has just said or done way too many negative things in regards to PC gamers (like making the beta a console-exclusive) that I really have no interest in their games any longer. So I suppose there's "voting with your wallet" in action. I've still never liked that term, however. How will companies ever learn from their mistakes if the only feedback they get is silence? Anyway, I don't think exclusivity is the answer. Them going multi-platform is just fine--as long as each game the platform is on works as flawless as possible. As I've said, as I haven't played Crysis 2 in any iteration, I can't speak truly on that detail, but if it's anything like the horrid Halo 2 port, then the argument on whether developers shclup their PC ports or not really doesn't have to be made if it's already made for you.

I so want to get into Eve but I just don't like the concept. I like how they moved to some nice-looking character models and how there's talk of "walking around" stations, but there will always be that conscious thing in the back of my mind that lets me know everyone's character is just a clone. : \ Plus they're going to release an FPS that ties with the ongoings of the MMO. And yet what platforms is it being released to? Oh, right. ONLY the Xbox 360 and PS3. Screw you CCP.

I agree. When I first read your comment it got a chuckle out of me. And for the record, they are rather twisty-free. BSGO certainly doesn't try to bill itself as being all that great, so I suppose for a F2P browser-instanced MMO it might be worth looking into if you're a fan of the series. I read up Kotaku's take on it and it sounded like I probably wouldn't be too thrilled with it though.

The Dust game made me forget that I was just supposed to briefly look at your links.

http://armorgames.com/ is another good one.

Truthfully it's the way I usually write. I've been told often it's a signature thing of mine and I should continue to run with it. It's served me well for the most part. Oh, I know the real reasons why they move away from releasing their titles for the PC. The last article I wrote on the subject, specifically "Piracy: the perfect patsy" dealt more with the fact that Crytek has been bemoaning over and over how "PC gaming this, PC gaming that, blah blah blah, we should just move to consoles." Other developers have been playing the Piracy Card as well, just to make up an excuse to the number one reason why some developers stop developing for the PC (which is ultimately risk vs. rewards). Crytek realizes they could be turning perhaps 400% of their profit on Crysis by simply marketing to the Xbox 360 and the PS3. At which point it comes down to the things you mentioned; why bother with a release platform that has a lot of variables to it for working? My issue rises up from developers that don't have the stones to step up and say, "Look, we're not developing for the PC any more because there's more money in consoles." Developers don't do this because they know exactly how it sounds (and they're right if it sounds like they're greedy developers who lose sight to the objective of creating a video game). So every chance they get they try to throw out an excuse. Now, I've invested time and money into my computer just to ensure that I can play said games. So yeah, I'm going to be a little irksome if I see a title like Red Dead Redemption or Halo sticking to console-exclusivity, especially after knowing the roots of both of those companies and how and where those games are developed. If accessibility is the root to all other issues for developing on the PC, then perhaps some developers should learn their lessons by looking at what the market norm is for an every-man's computer. I don't NEED Crysis-level graphics to enjoy a game and the sooner developers realize that the sooner they can stop complaining about accessibility. The PC gaming market is about $11 billion dollars worth and that figure only continues to rise each year. Yeah, maybe a good chunk of it can be attributed to MMOs. Maybe even the whole RMT craze with Facebook games. But when no one is trying to make a real effort to say, "Hey, this is why you want to play this on the PC," then what do they expect the reaction will be from PC gamers? Edit: Ooh, I have a doggie!

I love multiple choice tests. Thankfully every math test I had ever taken had a teacher or professor who insisted that we do them on scantrons. At least then I know I have a 25% of getting the question correct.

Jebas, you folks are crazy. Well, I can save you some trouble: skip Doom 3. All those jokes you hear about it being a 20-hour experience of fumbling around in the dark? They're true. Just Cause 2 and Fallout: New Vegas will depend on your play style. In my case, I had so much fun dicking around in JC2 that I had easily hit 20 hours in that game before I remembered I still hadn't finished the campaign. Currently I've finished 76% of the island. It's crazy how OCD I am about wanting to blow up everything in that game. New Vegas, on the other hand, will last longer if you use mods. And you probably will. Say goodbye to sunlight when you do.

I was really bad about putting off stuff I had to do for school as well. Thankfully a lot of my professors were more keen on my delivery than they were on the substance. I remember I winged a speech in my public relations class because I showed up in a chiton and himation (which people kept calling a toga) and simply acted out all the facts of Mycenean Greece. I aced the speech but got points docked because I didn't turn in a written copy. I had to admit that there was none and that the speech was all improv. She waved the docked points then. If only math class worked that way.

I'd really stay away from F2P MMO models. Free 2 Play does not actually mean "free." 10 to 1 it's just free up to a point until you are required to purchase something from the RMT online store. DDO and LotRO are popular on this because (as someone pointed out) they used to be subscription MMOs, so a lot of people are fooled into thinking they are "quality" F2P MMOs. As someone who as played LotRO since its beta and is a lifetime subscriber, let me be the first to ward you away from the game. It's going down the shitter. Anyways, I've two recommendations. First is Castle of the Winds. CotW was a tile-based rogue-like that's actually a bit addictive because (of course) of it's good rogueish nature. Just be sure to close the door when you rest in dungeons or you'll be likely to be raped by a manticore. Right, anyway. The creator has the series up for free on his own site. http://www.exmsft.com/~ricks/ The second is a bit more tricky. MissionForce: CyberStorm. If you're an Earthsiege universe fan, then you probably know CyberStorm was Sierra's short-lived attempted at the strategic aspect of Earthsiege. Now, while the game isn't "free," it was published in '96, both Dynamix and Sierra Entertainment are defunct, and Earthsiege's IP hasn't been touched in seven years. If you're "resourceful" you can find this fun turn-based strategy game that has a level of complexity that will explode your brain. Just be mindful to play the game in compatibility mode. CyberStorm does not like Windows 7.

16 pages late to this party. That's okay, I'm sure I can drum up some interest. For me, piracy is not as straight-forward as people like to think it is. Like all hot issues, there isn't one side to the coin. In this case it seems to be the popular opinion that if you pirate something you have zero excuse to do so and you must burn in the eternal pits of hell. I sort of want to punch the people who think that in the neck, hard. I've written on the subject extensively: http://agdom.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/giving-pc-gamers-the-middle-finger/ http://agdom.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/drm-or-why-publishers-want-you-to-pirate-their-games/ http://agdom.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/pirated-games-work-legitimate-copies-dont/ http://agdom.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/piracy-the-perfect-patsy/ As long as store return policies remain archaic and there's sparsely a demo for a game that accurately gives you a taste of the finished product, then you'll find me saying piracy does have its place in the industry. There is no end-all, however, and even if some Golden Age of gaming comes along and everything is perfect under the sun, someone will still pirate a game just because they don't want to pay for it. Regardless, we shouldn't lump the looky-lous with the cheapskates.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Supreme Commander It's uncanny how I have almost a distinct good memory from each of these games simply because of the music. Jeremy Soule, we salute you.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Guild Wars

Neverwinter Nights

Giants: Citizen Kabuto Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance Dungeon Siege TESIII: Morrowind

I'm a little sad no one has mentioned Jeremy Soule. Dude is America's Nobuo Uematsu. Total Annihilation, Icewind Dale, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Baldur's Gate, Dungeon Siege, Elder Scrolls, Neverwinter Nights, KotOR, Guild Wars, SupCom, and he'll be responsible for Duke Nukem Forever's soundtrack as well. The man is a LEGEND. Seriously. I just kind of shake my head every time someone asks, "Who's a great video game composer?" and the most mentioned man is Nobuo Uematsu. : \ Therefore, I declare this post the Jeremy Soule post. Prepare your virgin ears for awesome. Total Annihilation Icewind Dale Icewind Dale 2