GAMING THREAD aka holy fuck, l.a. noire = ^_^

[Goose]

All things considered, I actually don't think Blizzard's auction house for Diablo 3 is the worst idea, and it sounds like its going to be implemented well.  First of all, there's a listing fee, so you can't just throw your entire haul up there willy nilly without paying out the nose for it.  Secondly, Blizzard doesn't take a percentage of the sale, but a flat rate when something sells, meaning they don't care how much your item sells for, if it does at all.  Thirdly, you can't buy items that are outside your characters abilities or level range, so you can't spend a bunch of dough to equip a level 2 character with armor you wouldn't get until you're level 60.  Finally, Blizzard isn't going to be putting items on the auction block, so anything up there is found by players in game, and nobody is forced to use it at all.  As long as that system stays in place, I really don't have a problem with it.

To be perfectly frank, the same thing happened in Diablo 2, just it was a black market on eBay where you could easily get screwed or swindled.  This destroys the black market that would've popped up anyways.

Unfortunately, in order to implement a system like this, you have to be sure that the players didn't cheat in order to get the items they're placing up for auction, which means verifying the game code before they're allowed to play, thus the always-online requirement.  That's what sucks to me.  Personally, I'd like to see an offline ability, and tie it in with the fact that if you play offline you're barred from the auction house and other online services.  Blizzard isn't giving that option, and that fucking blows.

[Static]

Unfortunately that is the new business model and I am afraid with physical media disappearing, it will be here to stay.  8(  What you will hear next to justify it will be the "this is how we keep the $50-$60 price point.  It is also giving you freedom to choose how you want to play the game."  Get ready for it.   

You're absolutely right, unfortunately I'm just another impotent consumer pissing and moaning about it.  I often wonder about the grey areas of buying gmaes that you have to pay more money for unlocks later despite the data being on your disc, especially now that the UK is looking at reforming it's copyright laws towards allowing the copying discs etc and ownership of the product even to the point where permission will no longer need to be saught to parody or cover music artists songs.

[Static]

All things considered, I actually don't think Blizzard's auction house for Diablo 3 is the worst idea, and it sounds like its going to be implemented well.  First of all, there's a listing fee, so you can't just throw your entire haul up there willy nilly without paying out the nose for it.  Secondly, Blizzard doesn't take a percentage of the sale, but a flat rate when something sells, meaning they don't care how much your item sells for, if it does at all.  Thirdly, you can't buy items that are outside your characters abilities or level range, so you can't spend a bunch of dough to equip a level 2 character with armor you wouldn't get until you're level 60.  Finally, Blizzard isn't going to be putting items on the auction block, so anything up there is found by players in game, and nobody is forced to use it at all.  As long as that system stays in place, I really don't have a problem with it.

That part I fully understand as well.  In theory it's not a bad idea because it should be giving more control to the player.  However, regardless of what you try and put into place, you will always find money farmers en masse plowing away to make RL money.  It won't stop it when they can be mining items and filling the AH themselves, and you end up paying them and not a regular player.  I'm sure at least some of us have seen how an online games' economy can be set and destroyed by farmers - I recall one christmas period when I was still playing FFXI, one of the main gil selling companies ran a huge sale on gil and it destroyed the economy for several months because so many people bought it and the gil became worthless as prices of coveted and HQ items sky rocketed.  When the money finally went back to something more normal, the AH prices didn't.  I don't blame them (Blizzard) for that because people will find ways to make money no matter what and I'm sure you'll still find items on ebay.  It's really not an easy thing to tackle.

Unfortunately, in order to implement a system like this, you have to be sure that the players didn't cheat in order to get the items they're placing up for auction, which means verifying the game code before they're allowed to play, thus the always-online requirement.  That's what sucks to me.  Personally, I'd like to see an offline ability, and tie it in with the fact that if you play offline you're barred from the auction house and other online services.  Blizzard isn't giving that option, and that fucking blows.

That's the worst part of it, but games are more and more resorting to online verification and penalising you if you don't have an internet connection.  Capcom implemented an offline plan for the Street Fighter IV series (I can't speak for consoles because I don't own one) where if you couldn't establish a connection with GFWL, most of the cast were unselectable.  It would constantly revert back to this if your connection dropped at any point.  Naturally this pissed people off and even Capcom admitted it was a huge mistake and so made it that you wouldn't get any achievements if you were offline.  Blizzard completely writing off the possibility of an offline option is just a huge amount of suck.

[sin]

Limbo is owning me.

[Static]

Human Revolution is amazing

[individualzero]

Speaking of amazing: Space Marine. Especially the multiplayer component. Relic has outdone themselves; not only are they a master of revolutionary RTS titles, they've come up with something that can seriously compete (and probably annihilate) the new Gears of War game.

It combines RPG elements, perks, elements of third person AND first person shooters, and seamlessly integrates melee and ranged combat -- sword-wielding nutcase with a jetpack coming down on you? Boot him in the chest and gun him down! The game is what it should be -- a freakin' blast to play and an excellent addition to the line of 40K titles from THQ .... or any publisher/developer.

Check out these shots of my Chaos Havoc:
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/560918546374274042/8CA384CB7EE4501FF9796F9E8D8CCF2364E03BFD/
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/560918546374292812/EA41F452A20A0CD6F2BE5DFA369074B4B38EDABA/

[Static]

Speaking of amazing: Space Marine. Especially the multiplayer component. Relic has outdone themselves; not only are they a master of revolutionary RTS titles, they've come up with something that can seriously compete (and probably annihilate) the new Gears of War game.

It combines RPG elements, perks, elements of third person AND first person shooters, and seamlessly integrates melee and ranged combat -- sword-wielding nutcase with a jetpack coming down on you? Boot him in the chest and gun him down! The game is what it should be -- a freakin' blast to play and an excellent addition to the line of 40K titles from THQ .... or any publisher/developer.

Check out these shots of my Chaos Havoc:
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/560918546374274042/8CA384CB7EE4501FF9796F9E8D8CCF2364E03BFD/
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/560918546374292812/EA41F452A20A0CD6F2BE5DFA369074B4B38EDABA/

It looks great.  Oddly enough, when the demo was on Steam, I couldn't find it anywhere so I haven't had a chance to play it later.  But I have a lot of fond memories of working at GW and the DoW games were great. 

Zero, can you choose anything other than Chaos or Space Marine? 

[individualzero]

In MP, there's only Space Marines vs. Chaos and I don't think they intend to add things like Orkz or Tau or Eldar to the base game.... but don't quote me on that. There's always DLC and expansion packs.

[Static]

Chaos will do, I'll break out the Black Legion!   I always wanted to play an Eldar Harlequin in one of these games, back in the days of the original Rogue Trader, they were sickeningly frightening in combat and would even make Genestealers look laughable.  I remember years ago in the days of the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, there were plans for an Eldar game similar in style to Skeleton Krew, but it got canned.

[individualzero]

I think you'll be pleased to know that the Black Legion is one of the available 'starter' Legions (i.e. a preset pattern/texture/paint combination)! They look awesome, too.

[Aaron]

I bought Fallout 3 game of the year last night. So It has all the DLC for the game. 20 bucks. So I'm happy with that. My roommate let me borrow his copy of the game a year or so ago. So I played a little, and I'm a huge pack rat... I carry everything worth selling. I haven't installed it, I will Sunday night. (I'm off Monday Tuesday) Then I can nerd out all night. OHHH YA!

[TPD]

yeah i've been meaning to pick up fallout and red dead. man i'm slacking. still got tonnes of games i haven't even finished yet. been so friggin busy lately. and when i'm not busy i'm mostly pro-drumming it up on rockband 3 (thanks for the heads up on that goose-- even if it was months ago-- it's soo friggin' fun in pro-mode!)

also i noticed something i didn't see get mentioned anywhere else, but i bought the pretty hate pack...
sanctified sounds remastered... BUT IT HAS THE OMITTED SAMPLE. it's very faint and buried. but it's totally there. really noticeable when you don't hit any of the drums in that section.

[r00]

if this fan-made video commemorating Mario's 30th anniversary doesn't make you nostalgic, then I hope you wake up from your coma soon.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/09/super-mario-bros-trailer/

[MrMonster]

so the people who made Trials HD on Xbox, have now put out Motoheroz for Wii

and I can't stop playing

so much so that I'm #1 on the leaderboards.

[individualzero]

That's awesome, Monster!











Anyone following The Old Republic still?
http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20110924
Then your saga begins December 20th, 2011.