Any Mass Effect fans?

[hanselthecaretaker]

The sequel is out soon, and is getting stellar reviews. It looks amazing to boot, hands down best character models (just shy of Crysis though), and the level detail has improved as well. Was thinking of trying out the first one when I can find some time.

 

[redsamurai]

have you seen the crysis 2 screen shots? wow!

 

[HAYEZ]

Mass.Effect.2.XBOX360-GLoBAL

already got it downloaded! gonna burn it once i finsih the game im on now

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

have you seen the crysis 2 screen shots? wow!

If they're not the ones of NYC then they're just bullshots. PC forums are grumbling because they equate an NYC setting to pigeon-holing the gameplay to accomodate the consoles (think about it: linear city block design, buildings conveniently blocking certain paths that would otherwise invite exploration, etc.). I kinda agree after the failed Far Cry 2 experiment (all those respawns were the result of having to design the gameworld around limited memory).

Crysis 2 is 99% sure to be yet another victim of consolitis.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Mass.Effect.2.XBOX360-GLoBAL

already got it downloaded! gonna burn it once i finsih the game im on now

And have your account banded a half hour later lol.

 

[redsamurai]

If they're not the ones of NYC then they're just bullshots. PC forums are grumbling because they equate an NYC setting to pigeon-holing the gameplay to accomodate the consoles (think about it: linear city block design, buildings conveniently blocking certain paths that would otherwise invite exploration, etc.). I kinda agree after the failed Far Cry 2 experiment (all those respawns were the result of having to design the gameworld around limited memory).

Crysis 2 is 99% sure to be yet another victim of consolitis.

microsoft is trying to kill PC gaming. Something must be done about this. But if all these developers are going to slave to DX11, what can be done?

 

[chewyxrage]

And have your account banded a half hour later lol.

You don't have to log on to live to play it do ya?

 

[HAYEZ]

And have your account banded a half hour later lol.

fuck going on live...i still have 18 games ive downloaded that i havent even burned yet...ive saved over 1600 in games just this fall...

ill take my money and play offline
and my xbox is banned and i love it!

 

[redsamurai]

you pirates killed the industry, y'all know that right? Only people that can cover the losses are the sony's and MS's that make their scratch off the enforcement of online play. Pretty soon no game anymore will have split screen play.....everything will have to go online unless you're alright playing with yourself forever. And not the good playing yourself either....lol

 

[HAYEZ]

you pirates killed the industry, y'all know that right? Only people that can cover the losses are the sony's and MS's that make their scratch off the enforcement of online play. Pretty soon no game anymore will have split screen play.....everything will have to go online unless you're alright playing with yourself forever. And not the good playing yourself either....lol

lol gameing industry will be just fine...lol piracy makes up a very small percent of gamers..lol

 

[redsamurai]

lol gameing industry will be just fine...lol piracy makes up a very small percent of gamers..lol

I thought so too until I read a credible analysis of what pirating did to the dreamcast. Pirating DC games back then required no modding if I recall correctly. The ps2 was the first console with some semblance of anti pirating schemes.......which of course lasted about 5 months, lol. But still, I see the games industry where the music industry is......nobody wants to put "too much" heart and soul into a project cause they feel they're gonna get ripped. Pirating in the music industry was warranted cause they had been ripping people off for a minute. But the video game industry was still putting out, for the most part, really pure and creative games. IMO, being able to rent games for $4 should make piracy non existent. Rent the game, if you like it....BUY THE FUCKER!! A consumer should realize that when a product is good, you buy it....makes that company do well so they put out more good products. The lone market deviance here is obviously EA, I have no idea how they're still around.. But anyway, small gaming house's need people to buy their shit. Otherwise we'll be stuck with the same people making the same stupid fucking games.

I can honestly say i've never pirated a single fucking game nor would I ever. Music, different story. But not games.The stuff those guys are creating nowadays is unreal and deserves it's reward.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

microsoft is trying to kill PC gaming. Something must be done about this. But if all these developers are going to slave to DX11, what can be done?

It's funny, all the big time multiplat console developers (Epic, Infinity Ward, BioWare, ID, Crytek got their name on PC, and now they're jumping ship to consoles and lowering their standards for creativity and quality in the name of a few extra bucks. Crysis 1 was perfectly profitable even in the face of very few people being able to run it and the piracy that followed. I lol so hard when all these people pirate games for Xbox 360, Microsoft deserves that slap in the face.

Promoting DX11 and making PC game development better and more secure than what it currently is should be their main focus, not Xbox.

To prove this, how many Windows users are there compared to 360 owners again? lol, they're cannibalizing their own market.

 

[redsamurai]

I agree. They should be sifting the PC games market for xbox content for sure. Like how they got epic to streamline far cry 2 down to the xbox. But the high end high content games should still be shooting for PC because that's the platform that gives them the most flexibility. If it does well there, spend the money to code it down so it can run on the lesser console hardware. That's at least how I would run software company. I would showcase my creativity talent on the PC and then the code crunching to get to console. You're dealing with leaps in advancement every 6 months in the PC field. You're stuck for 5+ years in consoles. PC's are where you try out the new techniques. This is why I've always been in favor of consoles having some sort of upgrade bridge 2-3 years into their life cycle.

It's funny, all the big time multiplat console developers (Epic, Infinity Ward, BioWare, ID, Crytek got their name on PC, and now they're jumping ship to consoles and lowering their standards for creativity and quality in the name of a few extra bucks. Crysis 1 was perfectly profitable even in the face of very few people being able to run it and the piracy that followed. I lol so hard when all these people pirate games for Xbox 360, Microsoft deserves that slap in the face.

Promoting DX11 and making PC game development better and more secure than what it currently is should be their main focus, not Xbox.

To prove this, how many Windows users are there compared to 360 owners again? lol, they're cannibalizing their own market.

 

[ponyfitness]

The first Mass Effect was great - but WAY too short. I think it could be finished in under 10 hours, which is ridiculous when Fallout and Oblivion take anywhere from 60-80. I bought it and felt really ripped off. I loved it - but I hope the sequel is about 60 hours of play time.

 

[HAYEZ]

well if the ps3 would of got its way there would be no pirating at all...but since its unmoddabel look what happened to it...its a win lose situation...lol
i bought two ps3 in hopes of modding..but with crap games at 60 a pop i sold the ps3 and got a xbox.. if it breaks ill just buy anbother xbox..for the price of 3 games i get a new system

 

[redsamurai]

well if the ps3 would of got its way there would be no pirating at all...but since its unmoddabel look what happened to it...its a win lose situation...lol
i bought two ps3 in hopes of modding..but with crap games at 60 a pop i sold the ps3 and got a xbox.. if it breaks ill just buy anbother xbox..for the price of 3 games i get a new system

so you admit that ps3 games are crap......so you only bought it because you could pirate those crap games? $60 for a good game is not unreasonable. The fact that you can rent them first and see for yourself makes the price fine. God damn, two ps3 must have cost you a fucking arm and a leg dude....when did you buy them? Hope not at $499

 

[HAYEZ]

i bought my first one for 700 the first week it was avail...sold it few months later then bought another one when they were 400 i think it was...sold that one and now im a xbox guy...

ps3 games were good the ones i like..but the variety wasnt there..xbox had a ton of shit avail

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I agree. They should be sifting the PC games market for xbox content for sure. Like how they got epic to streamline far cry 2 down to the xbox. But the high end high content games should still be shooting for PC because that's the platform that gives them the most flexibility. If it does well there, spend the money to code it down so it can run on the lesser console hardware. That's at least how I would run software company. I would showcase my creativity talent on the PC and then the code crunching to get to console. You're dealing with leaps in advancement every 6 months in the PC field. You're stuck for 5+ years in consoles. PC's are where you try out the new techniques. This is why I've always been in favor of consoles having some sort of upgrade bridge 2-3 years into their life cycle.

That'd be cool, but it'd also defeat the purpose of a console unfortunately, as well as confuse the hell out of the masses when they wonder why their game doesn't look as good as the next guy's lol.

Console = durrr durrr plug n play.

 

[redsamurai]

That'd be cool, but it'd also defeat the purpose of a console unfortunately, as well as confuse the hell out of the masses when they wonder why their game doesn't look as good as the next guy's lol.

Console = durrr durrr plug n play.

dude not anymore.....people playing video games today, 95% would easily grasp the concept of an upgrade. Being able to swap GPU's or add a second in crossfire/SLI would be pimp. Newer games would still run on the old configurations just not on "high" settings like the new config. It's done on PC's all the time. Crysis still looks damn good running on medium settings...but put it on full it's ridiculous.

 

[Captain FT]

PC's aren't going anywhere. The one genre a console platform can't replicate is MMORPG's and this is where studios/developers are making tons of money of they can get the game right and pull the audience.

Activision/Blizzard could probably give a shit about someone pirating their software, you still have to authenticate (BattleNet) with them and pay a monthly fee to play which is where they are making their top dollar.

BioWare/LucasArts is getting ready to release Star Wars The Old Republic which will be the only game that will compete with World of Warcraft after it dominated the market since November 2004.

 

[ponyfitness]

PC's aren't going anywhere. The one genre a console platform can't replicate is MMORPG's and this is where studios/developers are making tons of money of they can get the game right and pull the audience.

Activision/Blizzard could probably give a shit about someone pirating their software, you still have to authenticate (BattleNet) with them and pay a monthly fee to play which is where they are making their top dollar.

BioWare/LucasArts is getting ready to release Star Wars The Old Republic which will be the only game that will compete with World of Warcraft after it dominated the market since November 2004.

People keep saying that about other MMOs but nothing has ever been able to put much of a dent in WOW. Aion recently flopped for the most part. The Star Wars one will be competitive if they basically make it like WOW but set in Star Wars land.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

dude not anymore.....people playing video games today, 95% would easily grasp the concept of an upgrade. Being able to swap GPU's or add a second in crossfire/SLI would be pimp. Newer games would still run on the old configurations just not on "high" settings like the new config. It's done on PC's all the time. Crysis still looks damn good running on medium settings...but put it on full it's ridiculous.

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if we see something like this in the future. You'd think it'd start to accompany the console redesigns that have been around for a while now. Hell this might even be something that authorized game stores would do as part of a bundle.

How far the line between console and PC will be allowed to blur though is the question. PC's pioneer the tech that goes into consoles, where it's refined and milked as much as possible to allow the greatest return on that tech, and the cycle keeps continuing. This is why the industry simply needs both consoles and PC's, but also why PC tech hasn't been advancing as fast as it used to. All the big PC devs have jumped on the console wagon to get a bigger piece of the pie.

I enjoy both, but it's a shame how PC gaming is being treated as the ugly duckling lately. I can see why a lot of PC gamers get pissed when guys like Michael Pachter (an "industry analyst") go on gametrailer.com's Bonus Round and say how there's nothing a modern day PC can do that a PS3 can't, and then have the host of the friggin show chime in and say a comparable PC costs $2000!
Misconceptions like that are increasingly thrown around in the gaming world. Sure consoles are more accessible in general than PC, but no way in hell should they be favored to the current extent, especially in media. Also, what you said about games being mostly derivative these days is true twofold:

1. New IP's are often times too risky for most devs to gamble on, especially if they're being touted as "AAA".
2. Multiplats that were once PC exclusive are immediately reduced to half the game they could've been from a creative standpoint, not to mention technical.

There are still some truly exceptional games out there, but in most cases it takes a more discerning consumer than ever now to wade through all the hype and marketing distractions to find them.

 

[ponyfitness]

What would you consider a truly exceptional game that has been released in the past year? Just curious because I'm always looking for great games that are a little off of the beaten track.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

What would you consider a truly exceptional game that has been released in the past year? Just curious because I'm always looking for great games that are a little off of the beaten track.

Depends on what type of game you're looking for. Please note that I'm not saying that AAA stuff with lots of marketing behind it can't be truly exceptional, but just that more often than ever the hype overshadows the actual game. Prime examples of that would be GTA IV and Halo 3. I'm tempted to throw MW2 in this category as well. It was fun, but mindless fun that was more of a rehash than anything groundbreaking. Spec Ops was its only redeeming factor.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

On one end of the spectrum you have a game like Crysis which is truly exceptional for technical reasons. On the other hand you have indy games like Braid and Flower, both of which are truly exceptional in terms of design and innovation. Trine would be another great example there. Everything in between depends on each person's tastes. Half Life 2, Fallout 3, Little Big Planet, MGS4, Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Mass Effect 2 are examples of games one could consider truly exceptional that live up to the hype. Others that were under the radar but are still at that level would be The Witcher and Stalker: SoC, both PC exclusive.

 

[calveless wonder]

I cracked out to the first one for a few days straight. far as beating it in 10-12 hours red....there's probably alot of secrets and stuff you didn't get. i went to all the little planets and did all the side missions

good game, but i don't own a 360 anymore. iMHO i'm very very happy with my ps3. Better graphics, blu-ray, and the game selection has been really really solid.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I cracked out to the first one for a few days straight. far as beating it in 10-12 hours red....there's probably alot of secrets and stuff you didn't get. i went to all the little planets and did all the side missions

good game, but i don't own a 360 anymore. iMHO i'm very very happy with my ps3. Better graphics, blu-ray, and the game selection has been really really solid.

Same here. I'm looking forward to

Feb. 23rd

and

March 16th

 

[HAYEZ]

Same here. I'm looking forward to

Feb. 23rd

and

March 16th

il download both them before there release date and let you know how i like it..lol

 

[calveless wonder]

god of war 3 is fuckin sick.....the demo was insane.i still have to beat god of war 2 (i bought God of war: collection for ps3).





wait, you can download ps3 games?

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Have fun waiting for 40-50 gigs to dl, if a firmware update hasn't first rendered those pirated copies useless lol.

 

[calveless wonder]

Have fun waiting for 40-50 gigs to dl, if a firmware update hasn't first rendered those pirated copies useless lol.

yeah i wasn't going to.

seems like a pain. just didn't know it was possible

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

yeah i wasn't going to.

seems like a pain. just didn't know it was possible

Someone apparently hacked it but the exploit probably will be short lived. I'm sure people will keep trying though.

 

[HAYEZ]

god of war 3 is fuckin sick.....the demo was insane.i still have to beat god of war 2 (i bought God of war: collection for ps3).





wait, you can download ps3 games?

lol no...i figured was for xbox 360 also...lol..just giving them shit lol

 

[HAYEZ]

Have fun waiting for 40-50 gigs to dl, if a firmware update hasn't first rendered those pirated copies useless lol.

can dl that quickly lol
my torrents i just leave on..i have 1.5tb drives filled ne

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

can dl that quickly lol
my torrents i just leave on..i have 1.5tb drives filled ne

Damn and I thought I dl'd a lot lol.

 

[HAYEZ]

Damn and I thought I dl'd a lot lol.

lol i have a issue with downlaoding things...lol..i have over 700 movies ... have another 500gig drive im about to throw on once i fill these last 80 gigs..lol

 

[EnderJE]

I've started playing it right now (having my old character from ME1) and it's pretty good. The continuationof story is believable and the well adapted.