Mr. GOH!

Man, I'm way behind and taking a screenshot right now is less than convenient. Best Cutscenes: Red Dead Favorite villain: Jon Irenicus Favorite Protagonist: Prussia in Empire:Total War and Victoria II. For a person I liked Nike Bellic. Favorite gaming wallpaper: I detest marketing bullshit as my wallpaper and really prefer nature photographs, but I did have this as my wallpaper for two years:

Ethan's right. Used sales represent a part of the market that's willing to buy game X from Company Y at a lower price than the market value for a new game. It's money the publisher could get a taste of, theoretically. It's revenue the publisher should actively chase, whether it be in dubiois DLC schemes, online passes, or creativity in setting price. I think it's clear that EA is pursuing a mixed startegy in this regard. Online passes and day-1 DLC represent value lost to used customers without paying a fee directly to the publisher. You may also have noticed that EA games tend to come down in price much more quickly. This is likely to depress used prices further as well as secure sales from customers who are willing to pay a few bucks more for a new copy of a month-old game. I'd be interested in knowing how EA accomplishes this when retailers are increasingly trying to get a piece of the used game market themselves.

Lisa Foiles is a "celebrity" columnist and thus probably avoids some of the more onerous aspects of Gawker editorial policy generally, and Kotaku editorial policy specifically. That is, she doesn't sit in on the editorial meetings and her "celebrity" and status as a non-staff contributor affords her some independence from Kotaku groupthink.

From a publisher perspective, there's not a huge amount of difference between the two. Well, there should be. Used sales are demonstrable lost revenue; used buyers actually pay for their games, just at a lower price.

Metonymy. I prefer synecdoche, myself. In response to HotChop's point: if they get to use the editorial "we," then they get to be all lumped together when we bitch about them.

I'm curious as to how many pirates buy such DLC. My guess is few, if any. I suspect such policies are far more targeted at the used game market than pirates.

I think that if you can find a cracked version you could download without also distributing the data (like a torrent would) you'd be in the clear, legally.

I actually don't think Kotaku or Gawker are paid for their shilling. I just think their editorial policy is to be as un-snarky and enthusiastic as possible about new and upcoming things that are 'in-theme' for a given Gawker blog. That's why 90% of preview articles seem glowing. It's part and parcel with gawker's abandonment of snark. So now we get these milquetoast criticisms and glowing reviews of bullshit. It's like the writers are fed feelgood drugs before trying games or peripherals out for the first time. It's sorta sickening.

Ashcraft kinda-sorta summarizes the latest round of filings in the GeoHot PS3 hacking case. The long and short of it is that Sony wants the case to be heard in California where SCEA is headquartered and GeoHot wants the case to be heard in New Jersey, where he lives. So there's an argument about whether California courts have jurisdiction. Ashcraft, though, seems to think that GeoHot lives in Northern California, which is stupefying. If GeoHot lived in CA, the courts would automatically have jurisdiction because, hey, he'd b a citizen of the state. It's sort of a key piece of info. True, the Ars Technica article Ashcraft cribbed from does a poor job of identifying where GeoHot is from, but the most cursory google-based research would have established where GeoHot's residence.

First season was better. They've cut back on the more esoteric references this season in favor of more obvious jokes, unfortunately, but it's still a riot.

FPS's have no real replayability in my book. I haven't ever played one that was neat enough to be worth playing more than maybe twice. And then I usually just replay the cool bits because most don't feature much persistence from level to level.

Games I've completed more than 5 times? Fallout, Fallout 2, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 and Throne of Bhaal, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII, Deus Ex, Fallout 3, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale I & II, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle, Diablo 2, Final Fight 1 & 2, maybe Half-life, Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2.

I saw Sucker Punch this weekend, and it is awful. It truly celebrates the death of the mind and character. And if you're a member of the "Durr hurr, I just see it for purty splosions and girlflesh!" crowd, the CGI gets progressively worse and the action progressively stale as the movie goes on. And there isn't much "girlflesh" at all. So it's not even worth your time. I do suggest that those with a fascination with epic failure go see it; it's a prime example of a C-grade intellect (writer/director Zack Snyder) trying (pretending?) to be an A-grade thinker while still appealing to the crowd who thinks the Transformers movies are great cinema. I do think Sucker Punch would make an interesting double feature with Inception, as both explore narrative in modern blockbuster movies in similar but distinct ways.

Oddly, it's not quite like that. I mean, the movie is pretty terrible for a host of reasons, but it's not, erm, sexy enough to be a real 13 year old boy's fantasy. I mean, the movie seems to take place in worlds constructed to be the fantasies of 13 year old boys, but the film's perspective is a bit different.

I saw Win Win this weekend. A quirky dramedy about a small town lawyer/high school wrestling coach played by Paul Giamatti. It wasn't great or anything, but very watchable and one of the rare modern comedies that isn't focused on middle aged men acting like 12 year old boys.

Indeed. The Zen is strong in this game.

Because when power supplies fail it's a big fucking hassle so folks are sure to go onto newegg and complain, especially since people expect them to work without much trouble. That's my guess, anyway.

I feel like a girlie man with my meager 14 hours played. And that's mostly multiplayer. Also: 55 hours in a week?! And NOT a member of the TAY clan? Badmin, that is the very definition of a SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!

Go to the TAY steam group page (also our clan page; join up with our clan in the game newcomers!). You can see how many hours we've all played. Ranking up involves doing the avatar multiplayer mode. Just do automatches and take territory to gain experience and rank up.

The mod improves the Realm Divide event making it so your strongest allies remain your allies while everyone else turns on you, makes it much more manageable. I thought I joined the TAY clan...maybe I didn't, I think there were some problems with the multiplayer servers when I went to check it out. I'm done for the night now but I'll check it out tomorrow. You, me, and MalciiousH are the only members. To every other TAY member who owns Shogun 2 and who has not yet joined the TAY clan: what a SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!

So I see all these new Shogun 2 players. Has anyone joined the TAY clan, though? Just pick the Steam group as your clan and begin fighting for the honor and glory of TAY!

Join the TAY clan! Help spread the glory!