Yantelope

Really what unlocks and level ups do for gamers is provide a sense of reward. It's the same reason why people hunt achievements. A game is more enjoyable if it is constantly rewarding you in little ways rather than only rewarding you for a final completion. For this reason game developers figured out that hiding level up and power ups and unlocks and such things across games tends to make them better reviewed. It's also what they figued out in online shooters. It's more rewarding to play online if you're working toward a new gun or hat rather than to just play for the fun of playing. Rewarding players is a big deal and developers have really zeroed in on that.

Yes, the user review scores will quickly become more meaningless than the star ratings on Amazon. There really should be no system for adding a number with no accompanying text. Additionally you'd think they'd do some sort of account control and ban offending accounts and roll back scores for the floods of negative reviews described above. That's all up to metacritic though. If they want to remain relevant they might want to get working on that. All that being said I think it's bad policy to be promising bonuses based on Metacritic scores. There is so much room for fraudulent activity it seems like a really bad proposition to me.

http://www.giantbomb.com/news/power-to-the-people-until-the-powers-out-of-control/3670/ http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/19/review-score-review/ Two stories just hit. Good timing.

Update, okay, took me a while but I get it now. Hilarious.

That's funny Battra because I'm the exact opposite. I can't play JRPGs or platformers anymore because I feel like they're always the same thing over and over. I know FPS games are the same thing over and over too but for whatever reason I still find them fun. Go figure. Anything that is popular will be criticized and the level of the criticism is directly proportional to the popularity of said thing. Case in point would be Twilight. Nobody cared until the movies came out. I think it has to do a bit with other people discussing things you're uninterested in. The more people talk about Halo around you when you are disinterested in Halo makes you resent Halo all the more.

Oh yeah, I traded my copy of Heavy Rain into amazon for $16. Totally worth it.

I got a used copy of Homefront but there are so many copies of it flying around that CAGs are sharing the online codes they haven't redeemed so I am still able to play online. Suck it online pass.

I started this game last night and it really caught me off guard. So the game opens up with you on a bus riding to who knows where. I've seen this intro many times before in other FPS games so I wasn't immediately impressed. Then I heard a small child screaming. You come around the corner and you see two soldiers one pushing the child back the other aiming his weapon at a young couple. The child continues to scream and the soldier shoves him back. You hear the mom cry out "Try not to think about it honey, look away, look awa......" BAM! BAM! Both the parent crumple to the ground the child lets out screams and sobs as he runs over to the crumpled bodies of his parents as your bus drives away. I've played a lot of games and I don't remember being disturbed before in the way that I was playing Homefront. Maybe I just wasn't prepared for it. Maybe it was that I have a 2 year old daughter now. Life hits me harder now that I'm a parent and seeing kids in traumatic situations really bothers me now in a way it never did before. Maybe it's that I'm sure this scene has played itself out in reality countless times across human history. This small scene kept me up for a bit last night.

RPGs had their turn now FPS get their shot.

Yeah, also, the fact that the 3DS can be had for "like new" for $126 on amazon less than a year after its debut makes me also weary of paying full price for this thing.

Were there ads on the Origin site that you browse for games? Is this another effort to trigger hits onto a site to generate ad revenue? That ad revenue could be huge.

I think the problem is that Sony learned from the PS3. They learned that you make less money with an open system. MS has made tons of money because they're the only ones that can make wireless accessories for the Xbox. Sony probably ran the numbers this way: PS Vita with built in storage 16GB: $300: Fans: "That's too much!" PS VIta with no storage $250 and $50 memory card: Fans: "That's so cheap I can get that!" It's all marketing. I'm willing to bet that they might be gouging on the price of the memory cards to lower the price of the system knowing that most everyone will buy a memory card. That being said I feel like I lied to myself when they said $250. I should have known initial investment would be closer to $400.

One possible solution might be for everyone to try to block or undermine these ads. If we can make it so that the ads aren't getting delivered en masse then perhaps the value of incorporating something like this will be diminished.

What bothers me about the ads is they break the continuity of the gameplay experience. If you're thinking about the game and the story and then ads pop up "BUY STAR WARS!" it really jerks you out of the game world. Deus Ex isn't as irritating as many of the sports games have been for years but I really don't much care for the creep. For years I've been frustrated by the pop up ads in TV shows that block the show and I fear that's where games are headed. Here's the problem with advertising. Irritating people works! You say "I hate these ads!" but they're being noticed and they're effective. Here's a great example. http://consumerist.com/2011/04/walmart-declutters-aisles-per-customer-request-then-loses-185-billion-in-sales.html You may hate the giant bulk stacks in Walmart but you people keep buying stuff off of them. It's the same way with game advertising. Unless there's some sort of negative consumer backlash against certain types of advertising then it will continue.

ha, I have the opposite experience. My PSOne (not a first gen) did last a while but hardly reads discs now. My PS2 stopped reading DVDs because I watched movies on it. My PS3 has been fine so far. I didn't get a PSP but my friend's had some weird pixel issues. That being said. GBA-Replaced by SP 2 years after launch DS- Replaced by DSLite 1.5 years after launch PSP-Replaced by PSPSlim 2 years after launch 3DS- Dual stick relaunch almost certainly imminent Gameboy-Replaced by Gameboy Pocket 7 years after launch-then by Gameboy Color 2 years later Virtual Boy-Discontinued after 9 months.

I remember people making a big deal about this. I found it hilarious though. Supposedly you didn't always have to bend it very much and it'd still do that, I think he forced it a bit for the video's sake. There are always problems with buying consoles at launch though. Either it's obsolete very quickly, the price drops quickly or it overheats/dies quickly.

yes, the price will drop in time. I'm not thinking this is going to make me not get a Vita but it probably does force me to not get one at launch. That's probably not a bad thing though considering how most launch consoles go.

Amazon warehouse deals are usually recalled stock from another store in my experience. I got a "Like New" copy of Alpha Protocol and it had the best buy preorder code inside. I've heard of other people who got copies with KMart stickers on their games. Usually "Like New" comes still shrink wrapped to so I'm always keeping an eye out for those. More info on it at CAG. http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=303172

I expected it too but was secretly hoping the tax wouldn't be so steep. At least with the Memory stick it wasn't a proprietary card specifically for the PSP. I'm not getting all indignant over it and I'm not super surprised but it just prices me out of the market. I'll probably hold on to my change until they have a model with built in storage.