alanschu

I'd say much more than than half of the attendees at a game in Edmonton know exactly where the puck is.

And looks like you are asuming that CrashGirl is the only person in the world who likes to do that things... So when you finished Deus Ex, the thing that stood out for you was the enticing gameplay aspect of managing your health in the game? Listen, I'm not saying that it can't contribute to how much FUN you get out of it. If you like the challenge of knowing you have 1 HP left and you haven't saved your game for an hour, then that's great. But don't go making it into something more than it is. It makes the game more challenging and difficult. There is no way it's the "key aspect" of Deus Ex gameplay. You don't look on the back of the box at read "Fantastic Health Management System" under the features list.

You pick it up; you put it in your inventory; you click on it to use it; you can spend skill points to make it go further. Just like multitools. Its a resource. The most important one. The one every character needs. Some need less; some need more; but they all need it. You can't finish the game without it. It's a difficulty mechanic, plain and simple. Player health exists simply to provide challenge for the player. Stating that you can't finish the game without it doesn't make health preservation and recovery a "key aspect" of the game whatsoever. Irrelevant. Health exists to provide difficulty and challenge for the game. This couldn't be more blatantly obvious given that the difficulty levels do just this. All the difficulty levels in Deus Ex do is modify how much damage the player takes. Nothing changes the fact, regardless of whether or not you have previous experience with the game, the game is not designed around restoring and preserving health. You would be the VERY FIRST PERSON I have EVER seen that says "Man, I love Deus Ex because of the way it's health system works." The first person to tell me that the most memorable gameplay experience they have of Deus Ex (or any game) is restoring your health. It doesn't matter if it's extraordinarily unlikely that someone playing the game for the first time doesn't take damage. The FACT still remains...you can beat the game without taking ANY damage. How can a game that has health recovery (resource allocation) as THE key aspect of it's entire gameplay even allow you to play through it without having the player actually have to deal with it's key aspect, and most important part in your words, of its entire gameplay. How can something that is not even required, be the most important part of the game?

EXACTLY! Which is why it was stupid for you to ask what the difference was between the two.. Please can the "stupid" references, alan. I haven't called anybody stupid or referenced their opinions as being such, so there is no need for you to do so. Because it was ridiculous for you to ask a question you clearly already felt there was an answer to. I'm not calling you stupid. I said the question was. I stand by my original statement. I ask stupid questions and make stupid statements all the time too. I don't feel I'm stupid though. Health isn't a resource. It's a difficulty mechanic, to create challenge. It is impossible to complete Deus ex without gathering something some or all of the following: multitools, lockpicks, and weapons/ammunition. It is possible to complete Deus Ex never, EVER needing to acquire health. Collecting health packs would only be a key aspect of Deus Ex if it was required for you to restore your health. It's not.

EXACTLY! Which is why it was stupid for you to ask what the difference was between the two. But then, I guess Thief's key gameplay element is hunting for health (which you said earlier wasn't the case). I guess the key gameplay element in Doom is hunting for health. In fact, it seems as though ANY game that features health and a way to restore it...the key gameplay element is looking for health, since if you run out of health the game ends! I don't know how games can even exist that don't have health packs, with it being such a key element of games like Deus Ex. This argument is weak. The fact that the game ends when you run out of health, is precisely why FORCING a player to WASTE TIME hunting for medkits is BAD in a game like Deus Ex (which is probably why they are so abundant in Deus Ex, along with other very accessible ways of replenishing your health such as the medbots or the augmentation). It's be significantly worse to give multitools for free. Because it makes the decisions that you make about your character's development inconsequential. Why put points into electronics if you have unlimited multitools. Seriously this argument is just absurd. Might as well say that giving people unlimited ammunition is less worse than free health. Health is not key aspect of the gameplay of a game like Deus Ex. Health exists for difficulty. Especially in a game like Dues Ex, where the differences between the difficulty levels are, in fact, how much damage you take. Your multitools aren't more efficient on easier difficult levels. You still need the same skill in computers in order to be able to take control of the turret defenses linked to a computer console, regardless of the difficulty level. The really entertaining aspect is that, in Deus Ex 3, you're an AUGMENTED HUMAN BEING. Rationalizing regenerating health is EASY to do in this context. And you can still have improvements in a "medicine" skill that would improve the regeneration rate of your character. Giving people health for free isn't bad for gameplay. It's bad for difficulty. If you honestly think that getting health for free is worse than essentially having infinite ammo (re: multitools, lockpicks, **** like that) at affecting gameplay in a game like Deus Ex, then I don't know what to say. If you don't like the free health because it makes the game too easy, then fine. At least say that rather than trying to make the issue seem bigger and more important by making stretching remarks about how it's "the key aspect" of gameplay. I'd be a bit more lenient about it, if Deus Ex was actually a game centered around survival like System Shock 2. But it's not.

L4D doesn't use encounter boxes at all. It does have predefined encounters at some of the choke points, but there is very little "triggers" in L4D. Things can be predicted based on the locations set up for some creatures like the tank, but that's just a characteristic of the "AI director." The tank doesn't spawn because of a trigger, nor does he start attacking you because of a trigger. He starts attacking you because of the AI detecting LOS on the group, or a reaction to something that the group does (i.e. hitting it with a molotov). In fact the only thing that could really be considered a predictable occurrence is the tank locations, which are predefined at various points throughout the levels. The positions of zombies and spawn points of the special zombies are entirely randomly generated.

I don't know how I can be any clearer, finding health is the key aspect of a game like Deus Ex, which is about exploring and staying alive. If your character runs out of health nothing else matters. Disagree adamantly. It is not the key aspect of a game like Deus Ex. If I am short on multi-tools, I have other alternatives to deal with the game. If I can't find a medkit and my health is critical, the ONLY alternative is to RELOAD the game and redo parts that I have already done. And to use your absurd argument of "if your character runs out of health nothing else matters," then it applies to Thief as well and you have contradicted yourself that finding health in Thief is a minor thing, because combat is minor. If finding health is THE key aspect of a game like Deus Ex, then I consider that to be a gigantic design flaw. ****ing a player over and FORCING them to reload previous saved games, in a game that prides itself on NOT forcing the player to make specific actions, is completely CONTRARY to a game like Dues Ex. FORCING a player to essentially stop making progress in a game, in the HOPES that he finds a medkit because a fight didn't go particularly well (perhaps a long time ago too). If he doesn't, well, perhaps all that running around and stuff you just did, and all the stuff that you found along the way...you'll have to redo it. Dues Ex is not a game that is about exploring and staying alive. Sorry to burst your bubble. It's entirely possible to play through the game with a minimal amount of exploring whatsoever. Because that's the way the developers wanted it to be. If you're finding yourself with medpack shortages in Deus Ex, while playing a combat oriented character, you are either ridiculously awful at the game, or have intentionally picked skills and augmentations that go AGAINST playing a combat oriented character. Explaining that if you don't improve your skill in medicine the health hunt becomes an actual "key aspect" of Deus Ex is absurd. Because even if you don't improve your medicine skill, if you're playing a combat oriented character you better be picking up skills and augmentations that improve your efficiency at dealing out death, and improve your ability to soak/avoid damage. If you're boosting your lockpicking skills to expert, I question whether or not you're making a combat oriented character.

That would be an issue if the games weren't easy enough to play through by a blindfolded drunk who had never seen a video game in his life. I'd rather watch a movie than play a game where all you do is go from room to room mowing down enemies without worry for ammo, health or tactics. When was the last time you had to actually hunt down a medkit in a game? There's usually so many of them that you could use them as ammunition. Then regenerating health shouldn't be an issue for you.

I *did* respond to your outrage. And then you'd get those agents that blew up when they died. The original Deus Ex has the 'dart handcrossbow.' Possibly the stupidest weapon ever. It was weak, the range was bad, it only worked on organics, and if you tried the non-leather darts, it took five hours for them to die while they ran around alerting everyone around you. Disagree entirely wrt to the crossbow. As nonlethal it is amazing, because it WILL knock them out. I would hide on a ledge or behind a corner, snipe people, and hide until they passed out, rinsing and repeating. I use it a whole heck of a lot for the first few missions.

HOI3 does look pretty sweet!!!

Ah...so we need to disable that pause feature, and become werewolves!

So you're fighting a cyborg/robot army?

because selling for 100% price to 250000 people and then selling for 50% to 1million people is at the end more money... there will always be people willing to pay anything to get the game on day 1... it's just business as usual... Just using their own quote. Obviously there is Day One sales, but Valve games don't exactly depreciate in price all that quickly (not that I care). Just commenting.

The thing I found interesting is that they felt that dropping the price by 75% garnered more money. So why doesn't Valve do that then?

Haha

I think the issue there is that the places that share the links make money through advertisements. They are profiting from the distribution of the TV shows without permission.

Ok good that's usually a good sign (the 1s) haha

Thanks I know I was being facetious.

I asked is taping a show from TV the same as stealing. You said 'Ah, so piracy is okay then.' WTF??? So, you think taping a show from TV is the same as piracy and it's okay?? I wasn't the one that equated recording a show from television (which is okay) with software piracy. By countering Hurlshot's post, which was lambasting pirates, with a question about whether or not recording television (i.e. "copying" television broadcasts) is stealing, you give a strong implication of a perceived implication and connection.

If you aren't equating the two, then what's the point of asking the question when responding, with a quote, about it?

If you ask a friend to record a TV show for you for a couple of weeks from the TV while you go on holidays, is it stealing? Ah, so piracy is okay then. It's the same as recording TV shows.

It's not even because of a perceived lack of talent. It's stupid. Some people started yelling because they felt a DIFFERENT person wasn't being set to frequently enough. Or because someone hit the ball hard and it happened to hit someone on the other other (usually a girl...most of the time that girl doesn't even care and isn't hurt, and it's not like we headhunt). I get told that I'm too competitive, yet I heard the same people always make excuses for why the score was bad. And so forth. It's silly, and instead of talking about things, we decide to yell at people during games.

Then how come I can play a LAN game of NWN without an internet connection?

Yeah pretty much ahaha. Well, I got a response from one person, that basically said "I just want to play volleyball" which is pretty much "I don't want to talk about it."