Calax

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/vie...1528-Heavy-Rain ha HA! You all fail! I R TEH VICTOR!

Quite true. Instead you pay 30 quid on 6 DIFFERENT high-end AAA games that are on discount on Steam, and save yourself the hassle worrying about any Ubisoft games until they are actually worth giving a **** about (i.e. when they have realistic DRM scheme). Well, in one particular situation (Battlefield 2) the standard DRM is being pulled (I think it was starforce?) in the steam patch later this week.

Currently they're seeded 11th on the "east" brackets http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/rea...-vs-11-Obsidian Up against Sucker Punch studios.

well, one of the customers did kinda cry about it the fact that I shut the demo unit on her husband, but then she was taking advantage of our trade in policy and was an all around angry person. The asst manager (who yelled at me) cares more about keeping customers happy than overall business which can be both good and bad. Yes, we want people to have a good experiance, but we also need em to follow the rules about purchases and our hours...

http://kotaku.com/5494261/star-wars-stripp...-again/gallery/ they have R2, Jabba, and c3p0 too.

Got yelled at at work on sunday for being a tad bit of a jerk to some customers... because I was doing things like "Sorry, gotta flick this off, we're closed" and then shutting off the demo units/open sign while somebody was playing... 10 minutes after we closed. We close at six on sunday, it was pokemon release day (yay... ) and we're trying to get customers out of the place as fast as we can but people JUST KEPT COMING IN(!). We finally got everyone out after I started guarding the door at 6:20. Fortunatly the Store manager (the guy who told me off was assistant) told me today that I'm allowed to do that, I could have used more tact, but after the store technically closes you get more leeway.

Well, if you do it from orbit how do you know they're still there? Children do understand the correlation of cause and consequence, you just need to make it clear to them. If my mother told me "Stay quiet or I will bust your skull" that's a perfect example of stating the consequence. The problem is that the brats believe that they will get away with it because they are kids. Oh, and don't blame the parents is not their fault that they spawned the devil's child. Actually this ties into more of the "nature v nurture" debate. The children could possibly have still been ok, even if predisposed to "evil" if their parents had done something. Not saying it would have happened inevitably but there's always the chance, but that's under the assumption that they did nothing.

I'm trying to play FFXIII but the TV is taken... so I'm trying to figure out if I wanna play Project Origin or Vegas 2.

Actually, that was partially some of the soldiers families that yelled too. And Hero Worship says that they have to abide by the families of soldiers.

Alan, most of my problem with the "successful franchise" thing is that they're saying they're the most successful franchise in the industry, and while yes, the two games did sell phenomenally well, I don't think they've managed to get the sheer number of units moved as Final Fantasy, Warcraft, Battlefield, Command and Conquer, Guitar Hero and probably medal of honor (although that last one is probably dubious). I say this because each of these series have a VERY large library of games that've been around longer than CoD. No, we don't know the metric they're using for success but I'd suggest that for the most part any metric they use is going to use they're on paper beaten by another franchise (critically Blizzards games, in terms of overall units Final Fantasy, initial money making guitar hero etc). Now, outside of the specific gaming culture probably the only two that anyone could even NAME would be warcraft and guitar hero/rockband (people might not know the difference between those) simply because of their effects on pop culture. Ok, maybe "Most units sold within one single release" they could get props, but I'm willing to bet that'll be beaten by a multiplatform release in the near future (Halo:Reach maybe?) I'm willing to bet that MW2 ended up closing off a portion of the "dedicated fanbase of millions" that they mentioned because most people find the story loonier than the old guy who woke me up yelling incoherently when I was in an acute psych ward in chicago, and their obvious lack of polish that they used to be fairly famous for (0 beta testing? really guys?). As to the complaint, that felt more like a blatant "woe is us" pr stunt than an actual document. Admittedly I'm running off of stereotypes where Legal documents are supposed to be fairly dry and convey exactly what's going on, with very little personality. And as was mentioned before, we have little evidence of what's being said thus far. I've said multiple times that we don't know the extent of the contract mentioned by West and Zamp. But I highly doubt that any company would take a subsidiary saying "We don't feel like doing the project you want us to. We're gonna do our own project." very well. Particularly after it critically fell short of their previous work, and the multiplayer is buggier than an ant colony, to the point where most of the more competitive teams in FPS, and those who just wanna boot up the game and have fun, are moving to battlefield because the game has less bugs and exploiters who only want to earn points for the leaderboard system. In this months gameinformer one of the guys at IW stated that they'd probably impliment something similar to the subscription service found in WoW simply so that they could keep fixes and patches coming for MW3. And yes, Blizzard is back in china at least with Burning Crusade. I don't know about Wrath of the Lich King.

And we saw what happened with Halo between 2 and 3 and odst... $310 millions the first day on US and U.K sales alone. Five days later $510 millions worldwide. As of January 18th over 1 billion revenue in sales. Oh; and those are just the numbers for MW2. # 1 entertainment industry in the world: Gaming!! Not movies with blue treehuggers. Even those numbers don't beat WoW... Which earns (every month) 100 million (more, I used 11 million as the subscriber number instead of 11.5) for acti-blizz. Which over the course of a single year beats MW2 without actually releasing anything. Assuming that every person picks up a copy of Cataclysm on one day, that's 460 million. I think that they only count sales not payed subscriptions. Note:"Most successful" is exactly what they said, in the industry. They aren't in the top 5.

... Before you even try to believe this I send you here

That's a bit harsh. It is a very strong multiplayer shooter that has introduced a leveling system to keep people interested longer than a few rounds. It might not be the best shooter out there, but it was the first to really capture the treadmill design of an MMO in a FPS game, and they reaped the rewards from that. Actually, Most competative groups decried MW2 becuase it didn't allow dedicated servers, and was RIDDLED with bugs to the point where I think that they were saying that MW3 would probably have a paid subscription to play it's MP so that they could keep patching the game.

The reason that people disliked 12 was because the battle system was basically "program the AI and fall asleep" and you could basically make a party of tanks.

$310 millions the first day on US and U.K sales alone. Five days later $510 millions worldwide. As of January 18th over 1 billion revenue in sales. Oh; and those are just the numbers for MW2. # 1 entertainment industry in the world: Gaming!! Not movies with blue treehuggers. Even those numbers don't beat WoW... Which earns (every month) 100 million (more, I used 11 million as the subscriber number instead of 11.5) for acti-blizz. Which over the course of a single year beats MW2 without actually releasing anything. Assuming that every person picks up a copy of Cataclysm on one day, that's 460 million.

I don't use it, but in general I think the armory bases it off general item level and stats, while Rawr throws in stat weights and item budget. Also I'd guess Armory says that something with a lot of haste is better than something with armor pen for a fury warrior (which is completely false). And how can people put FFX-2 above ANYTHING!? HOW!?

flip 8 and 7 and you've got my vote. 8's plot is knotted and insane as hell (requiring a fan band-aid to make sense of it. Jury is still out on 13 but it's looking AWESOME. Probably ahead of 10 for me. The battle system is similar to 12 (don't run away) in that you're only controlling one character, and the others are AI. However, instead of having to basically make the AI out of scrap like in 12 and hten fall asleep during the fights, each character can be a "role". Offense, tank, combo-king, healer, buffbot. Actually for the most part they can be more than one role, but in fights they only play one role at a time. Part of the strategy is deciding if you wanna switch your groups overall dynamic from everyone being combo gods into the standard trifecta of tank/damage/heals. Mainly you try to get as many hits in off the bat as possible so you can knock them off balance thus making you do like 200% damage. You don't have to worry about MP bars (that I've seen yet anyway) so it's less about managing resources and more about balancing incoming damage with your life pool. It takes a bit of getting used to but it really starts to work once you get it. Also the leveling up system is very similar to 10 in that you've got the whole sphere grid thing that you choose which way you're going, but not everything is blocked off. Haven't played with it much so don't have a complete picture of it. If there's one gripe I have it's that for the most part I feel like they haven't really explained the world that well. There's Pulse, Cocoon, the fal-Cei, the l-Cei, three different militarys... I think they're gonna explain more as you get further into it, but still.

The perspective swapping has (for me) stopped after you hit the next location (when you have all your characters together). Technically Lightning is your party lead, but you don't hear what's in her head, more you hear whats in vaneilles head. Vanielle seems to enjoy having her accent change every five seconds however.

Maybe activision isn't trying to make this a titanic deal and will actually hold off their findings till the trial? I'm assuming based on one or two articles I've seen that technically the money was supposed to come in at the start of May this year, so saying "They didn't pay me" doesn't seem right given that they didn't pay anyone, and won't for at least 2 months. I'm just getting frustrated because people are assuming that Activision is the evil guys in all this because they're the big bad corporation (who've had PR problems before), and act like west and Zamp are little angels who should have the support from everyone. I admit, right now I'm anti-west and zamp, partially because I feel that they weren't loyal, partially because I think they're despicable for the way that they're trying to drum up support through the pr stunt called a complaint, and in doing so are telling outright falsehoods. But I'm not saying Activision was totally right either, just that I feel that they're probably not guilty of have the garbage leveled at them. As to the MoU which West and Zamp are touting, I have yet to see any evidence that this was anywhere BUT verbal. Which means that there is no record of what exactly anyone said and thus you can't really enforce it. If you see any firm evidence that what West and Zampanella are saying happened, the Mou being written and that it said that once they got MW2 done they could do what they wanted for a bit, and that ONLY they had access to MW's line, then Activision is probably in the wrong. But until then I'm not gonna treat that very well (particularly after seeing their lofty claims about how awesome their product is). I don't know the exact numbers, but I seriously doubt modern warfare is the most successful thing in all entertainment combined. How much did Avatar take in? How much money is WoW earning for blizzard right now? How much has the starcraft and Diablo lines earned blizzard? How much has Final Fantasy earned Square? Or Kingdom Hearts earned square and Disney? Launch? Possibly, but Launches mean little overall, and I'm fairly sure that people know it right off the bat.

Lines four and five. Honestly, they sound like they're trying to shoot a wrestling promo. "We made the greatest game in the company, nay, the industry, nay, THE WORLD!" As to the largest launch? EVERYONE remotely connected to the industry KNOWS that that particular point is gonna get blown out of the water by star craft. And it's probably happening now with FFXIII. And they don't even acknowledge that the product they gave out was actually pretty damn mediocre in terms of gameplay and glitches and bugs etc. The story was hairbrained and all over the place, and multiplayer MURDERS anyone trying to play normally, the leaderboards are filled with cheaters etc etc.

I don't remember the specifics but I think that it was during or before the development of MW2. Even so the reached a MoU in which the bonuses and the IP are the bargain. which I'd think would have still been nullified by the fact that they did this, while under exclusive contract to another entity. Meaning that Acti would have grounds to dissolve the contract because the contract had been breached. This wouldn't matter if IW wasn't under another studio, as they could just be hunting for their next project, but *shrugs*. It's being tried as a civil lawsuit but somehow I feel that the demands are on behalf of the whole studio since they were all aggravated on the proceedings that lead them here. It was Actvision who intimidated every employee and scrounge every possible cause to fire West and Zamp. I admit, this is VERY possible, but nothing i've seen mentions how the money would be used. But even so, the production of a game rarely goes into the figures mentioned, and with the way other items have been stated, I'd suggest that Acti probably didn't act how it's been written by West and Zamps lawyers. Also, the complaint specifically mentions ONLY the royalties that West and Zamp were to recieve, not IW as a whole. Also, on the flip side, it was West and Zamp who were trying to intimidate/leverage Acti into basically making them a supported indie studio. Having the ability to set their own schedules and tasks, while working off acti's paybook. They may be seperate industries, but the complaint (in section one) SPECIFICALLY said that they created the most successful franchise in the history of the company AND the industry. Blizzard is still part of the industry. As to the "tears" thing, I don't know how true that is, and I've seen people cite it but never actually link to an article saying that. And the MOU you just don't know a thing about thus far.

Or it may be that this case is unique because West and Zampanella negotiating with other publishers, which is why they could be withholding profits. Or so they could say. wouldn't negotiating with another group be a breach of contract in and of itself thus nullifying the contract? MW2 is one of the best selling games ever; 4.7 millions sold a day after release. I say that billions is not a stretch of reality; and Activision is also owe them a promised bonus. How much of a promised bonus? I mean, they're game developers, and I have yet to see an actual developer running around with ho's in his car that flash cash like movie stars. Also, I'd think a portion of the profits would go to acti, a portion would go to development (which probably is coming out of Acti due to the fact ACTI OWNS IW). Also, exactly how much does it make? I mean, we hear about Blizzard earning billions due to 11 million people paying them 15 bucks a month, but I don't think that one dev team shooting out one game will produce enough revenue that it deserves a billion or two in bonuses. ... I guess that's whats niggling at me. West and Zampella are asking for Billions when they're basically doing this as just themselves. It's not a class action, or anything. I'm feeling like they're saying "Well... we got canned, lets make it as sensational as we can and try to set ourselves up for the rest of our lives!". Now I haven't read the entire complaint, but I see no mention of money the fact that the money is going to the team, just THEM. Even so, they have a strong case and if they lose they have the public's pity. For all that's worth I wouldn't say they have a strong case just yet, I've seen no evidence that what they're saying is true, or that Acti is running around like the Gestapo on it's developers. Saying they have a strong case simply because you dislike some of what Acti's boss has said is ridiculous. What we've seen are complaints and a small court case that feels more like a leveraging tool than anything else. I mean seriously, that lawsuit thing was written by a highschooler, with the flair for over exaggeration. They said that Call of Duty, and Modern Warfare, are the most successful product lines in the industry, and the company. You can argue the company, but industry? What, did they pay 0 attention to the OTHER HALF OF THEIR OWNER'S NAME!? Blizzard has the biggest money maker in the industry. Then there's franchises like GTA, Battlefield (which has officially taken the title of "best recent online multiplayer" from MW2, given MW2's online bugs and inability to stop cheaters), Starcraft, Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Madden... They're over emphasizing their importance in the industry, and asking for stupidly large amounts of money because of it.

It's been that way in both games, in fact your secondary monitor doesn't really scroll in or out either. I just found myself scrolling in and out to get around rather than sliding my screen around (mainly because you'd spend 5 minutes sliding left and right to reach each different battlezone).

Admittedly the story is feeling a bit like a rehash of VII

FFXIII ... *drools before rushing back to play*