Spider

Considering the team is something like five people I think they're doing ok. TQ was awesome and I have very high hopes for Grim Dawn. Anticipate it much more than I do D3.

Nope

I don't think it feels like a PR piece. Maybe in the context, but not in and of itself. I can see how a regular user could think of something like that since the whole "project $10" has been targeting the used market from the get go.

What is wrong with that quote? I also think it's a "respectable reason" to buy DA2 new instead of used. The Warhound is awesome.

I've borrowed this from a friend and have been playing for a few days. I didn't want to like the game, because I hate the changes they made for the PC version, but I'll be damned if I don't find it''s quite fun after all. I do hate the new camera though. It's awful, especially when a character you're selecting is smashed up against a wall, then it's just moronic. Being able to zoom out further would have been nice, but that I can live without. But I really, really want a detachable camera. I play on nightmare and getting AOE effects right is essential. With the current camera, that can be quite tricky. Hell, I'd settle for AoE aiming that doesn't snap to characters when closing in on them. I want to always aim at the ground, thank you very much. Anyway, combat is fun and definitely requires tactics. I play on nightmare and it can sometimes be. Some fights I've had to play way too many times to get through them. The first Ogre for instance. Some fights I've only been able to get through with some cheesy kiting, but as my party has leveled up and gained better equipment, those fights are now reduced to a minimum. So combat is definitely still tactical, it's just that the camera adds a bit of frustration to it. Know what else adds frustration? Interrupts. Not being able to fight back is pretty much a sucky game mechanic. If I'd be able to get the same effects on my enemies, that's be fine, but it seems like interrupts mostly affect my party (and lower level enemies, but not enemy spellcasters I think). Writing is standard Bio. I like the narrative structure though, but haven't gotten far enough to see it really in action, am only in chapter 1. But now I'm just waiting for my ordered copy to arrive so I can get the free goodies that comes with a new purchase.

What would be interesting to know though, is how well Chaos Theory sold on the PC compared to other games released at the same time with similar console sales.

I thought that was console only? On PC isn't friendly fire on at all difficulties above normal? I did play DA:O on nightmare though, so that's what I'd like to do here as well.

Start as any character and that is what you play as. You can have the others as your companion, but you won't control them.

I have played the demo now as well. Here are some thoughts: The base of the combat was actually pretty fun. The animations are dramatic and the feel of it all is pretty cool (playing as a Rogue). That being said, the camera was atrocious. For starters, since it's locked on your character, whenever you use something like backstab, it jumps around a bit and finding your character gets confusing. The same is true when you take control over another character. Second, the zoom level made it really hard to get a grasp of what was going on in the battlefield. The main problem with all this is that it felt like controlling your companions felt like a chore in this game. It was confusing at best and really annoying at worst. Now this doesn't have to be a bad thing, since I played through both Mass Effects without ever issuing orders (almost anyway), but here I imagine it could be. For instance, the difficulty level was much too easy, which means upping the difficulty. That turns on friendly fire, and all of a sudden I'm not sure I like my companions very much anymore. AOE spells look kinda scary at least. But if the game is not challenging I'm not interesting. I didn't mind the new graphics style, it fit the new feel of the game better than the old style would. All in all, the demo delivered a better game experience than I thought, but worse than I would have liked. An unlockable camera would have helped me a lot (even if the zoom levels stayed the same), even if only unlocked during combat. As it is, I'm awaiting opinions from players who have the full game, because this wasn't enough to convince me to get the game, at least not at full price.

Funny. Wouldn't that apply to the magazine as well? I have yet to see the anti-piracy corps even comment on that. You mean wouldn't it be illegal for the magazine to distribute the demo in the first place? It would if they didn't have permission, but I'm assuming they do. Yeah... the problem with IP is that it's so ****ty a concept that analogies using real-world things tend to be flimsy at best. There's a very real reason why jaywalking is illegal (potential property and/or personal damage, traffic disruptions...). What's the potential harm that downloading an illegal copy of a freely-distributed demo can do? Honest question. Lower sales for the magazine counting on it as a draw in? That's about it I suppose. Note, I am not arguing the morality in this case. I think downloading the demo is harmless enough and shouldn't be considered a problem. I was just pointing out that it is illegal in most western countries. Now, if the law is right is a whole other issue.

In TQ (don't know about Sacred) the difficulty levels are unlockable, and on a character by character basis at that. So in order to bring a character into epic difficulty that character first needs to complete the game on normal (and same for legendary and epic). So in order to beat the game on the highest difficulty level you'd have to complete the game 3 times. Now with 5 difficulty options, that'd get dull very quick. But this only applies if the unlocked difficulty levels are balanced so that a character not advanced enough will simply be unable to complete them (starting out in Epic in TQ with a level 1 character would just be impossible for instance). If alla difficulty levels are balanced for a starting character, just adding more challenge, then more options are certainly better (given that they all get the time they need to be polished and balanced)

I can't say about german copyright law, but I can say in respect to swedish law. Creating a copy of a work you don't have the rights to is copyright infringement. It doesn't matter what the work is, if you're not allowed to create that copy, you're not. And yes downloading is to create a copy. Making the demo available would also be copyright infringement, but from a different angle. I'm pretty sure US copyright law is similar. That's what the law says. Perosnally I have a hard time being upset by anyone downloading a demo a few days early, but it's still technically against the law in a lot of places.

Depends on your viewpoint. If you're talking about the morality of it all, sure the act itself should be the focus point. If you're talking about the harm it does to the industry, the morality is completely inconsequential. I'm more interested in the harm, because the morality just doesn't matter much. If developers don't make money, they will stop making games. This is a bad thing. Thus as gamers it's in our best interest to assure developers don't stop making games. I don't think anyone disputes this. But when having a discussion where pro-pirates are involved, just saying "piracy is bad" won't accomplish anything. Pro-pirates are apparently fine with their choices and just stuffing dogma down their throats won't help. Instead, arguing why something is bad is more relevant. Point to the effects of piracy, instead to the morality. Unfortunately for this to be effective, there needs to be concrete evidence as to why. Just saying that there is five games pirated for every game sold doesn't really show this is a real problem (as in it cause real harm) for the industry. It indicates that it is, but it doesn't have to be. Afaik Gucci is still doing fine, despite a huge number of knock-offs being sold.

I'm not sure this is true. I think the overlap between paying customers and pirates is fairly large. Someone maybe buys 3-4 games a year and pirates 20. If what you meant to say is "more copies of games are pirated than are sold", then you have a point. The burning question is still how many sales are lost due to piracy. I've still to see a credible answer to that one. In the end though, more sales should equal better games so buying your games is a given.

Don't see how it wouldn't really. You get to try the multiplayer for 1 hour and that's that. Sure, there is the multiple account issue, but how annoying would it be to dl the full game after every hour of play? Anyone going through such lengths to avoid paying for a game is most likely never going to buy it in the first place. True, such a person will put some strain on the steam servers, but with a secondary layer of control (such as an IP check or computer name or mac-adress that kicks in after say 10 downloads) it can be made a lot harder.

He is also talking about flash-games, so I'm guessing some alternative revenue is in play here. Advertising of some sort?

No, that is Corum (another incarnation of the Eternal Champion). Elric is a sorcerer in his own right and can summon demons and elementals without the need for any implants.

Metro 2033

Have you tried taking your save from your desktop to your laptop and tried running them in that installation? If a game loaded from that save crashes on your laptop, you know it's a corrupt save file. If not, maybe you can save it on your laptop and move it back to your desktop to solve your issue (perhaps).

pmp10 did: http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?s=&am...t&p=1082986 (emphasis mine)

I simply refused to sacrifice myself. The brotherhood girl could take that heroic route. Worse part for me though is how she called me out on it. I mean it's not like she volunteered in the first place. The logical way of handling it would be to just draw straws or something. Or send in the ghoul who is standing right behind us... As for the discussion of setting. I'm not from the US and haven't been to either location, but I vastly prefer the setting in new Vegas. I thought fo3 did good and I really liked the game, but the setting felt more like a series of "cool" locations randomly inserted into the map. There was no connection between the different places with a few exceptions. New Vegas has a whole other level of cohesiveness. The different locations really feel like they're part of the same world. I also find a lot of them to be much more interesting than the fo3 ones. Sure, fo3 had more recognizable vistas, but apart from the visuals, there was very little meat to the locations (again with a few exceptions). Or to put it simply, Bethesda is much better at visual story telling, Obsidian are better writers. I prefer well written locations visually interesting ones.

It's done in Vtm: Bloodlines, Star Siege (shudders) and Mass Effect 2. I don't recall there being any backlash in regards to the xp system for any of those games. Especially in Bloodlines it worked fantastically well and I agree that's how RPGs should do it.

Crippled torso gives -1 endurance doesn't it?

Also 69xx. The performance cards will be 6950, 6970 and 6990 according to all info I've seen. They should be released in novemeber, so you won't have to wait that long to upgrade.

What did it have in common with Beneath a Steel Sky? Something as abstract as the feeling of it. Can't put my finger on it. I was mostly thinking of a non-silly adventure game and it was the only one I could think of.