Spider

Already has it's own thread.

Does it have to be either or? Titan Quest had the "moving forward through the world feel" and the ability to teleport back to previously visited towns to sell loot. I'm somewhat of a gatherer, so I really want to be able to sell stuff regularly. And somewhere to store stuff I want to keep.

As I said before:if they cut the top down view, my interest in this game is quickly approaching nil. And this from someone who loved both the original game and the expansion. I even bought both Warden's Keep and Return to Ostagar because I liked the gameplay that much and I felt Bio deserved it. But everything I've seen so far is just changing or removing the aspects that made me like the game so much.

I wasn't a great fan of it. I thought it was too short and the lack of multiplayer was a death sentence. I played through the campaign and was left with a feeling of meh. I thought the character system and the skills were kinda boring. The randomized dungeon were nice at first, but then became kinda soulless. No interesting encounters except from a handful of boss fights. It has nothing on Titan Quest for instance.

Unless you really want superhero comics, there's much better stuff out there than anything from Marvel or DC. CrossGen for instance has some brilliant fantasy/sci-fi/detective/samurai/sword & sorcery comic book series, that all form part of one big grand design storyline. Hasn't CrossGen gone out of business though? Not sure if they got to finish their storyline or not (I was never too impressed with their titles myself, they were a bit uneven). But there certainly is a lot of good stuff out there. There is even some brilliant superhero comics out there. Look at Ellis and Millars runs at The Authority for instance. I can also recommend Marvels Ultimate line, especially Ultimate Spider-Man. Brian Michael Bendis is absolutely brilliant and it doesn't carry as much backstory as the originals. Although there is a bit of backstory there now as well since they've been on the market for a while. If you want to go after less mainstream stuff, there is always Preacher and the absolutely amazing Kabuki. All of the above are published by Marvel or DC by the way (although Kabuki was self-published for a long time, only the latest iterations have been under Marvel, and it's still all about David Mack). But any Marvel stuff by Bendis is pretty much guaranteed to be good. And he writes a lot of Marvel's stuff.

If they remove the top down view from the pc, that's another strike against this game. I'm getting more and more skeptical.

If the games work on vista they should work on 7. As for graphics, if your choices are a 260 and a 5850, it's not even close. The 5850 is a much better card.

The ability to pre-load, so you don't get stuck in the release day download queues? On other forum frequent, people who downloaded Alien Swarm immediately when it became active had a real hard time getting decent speeds. This is not unique to this game, and an even bigger problem on bigger releases.

But the lead systems designer worked on TQ. There is hope.

That's how it worked in FO:T. I never had any problems with the size of the maps in tb mode. No fights were particularly tedious. Except when playing hardcore (ni in mission saves) and you had to complete them in one sitting. Because some of them were long.

Know what, you're right. And therein lies the problem. What the gaming industry wants/needs is spare parts (a steady highly profitable revenue stream). What they have is optional extras (add-on sales that may or may not happen depending on the quality of the add-on and the economy/fanaticism of the buyer).

Except I also said DLC doesn't work yet and it's not a clear comparison. The spare parts are already invented. They need to be manufactured, true, but the main cost of productions has already been regained. With DLCs you have to create new product that needs to sell well enough to cover the initial investment before they start turning a profit. They certainly need to sell fewer copies than of a full game, but there is also a signficantly smaller market, albeit a more directly targeted one. If a part in a car breaks down, whoever owns the car will need to get a replacement or get rid of the car. So there's no need for marketing or anything. Just ship parts when they're needed. Storing is the only cost other than production and I odn't know how that works. Spare parts equals patches you have to pay for. A patch is issued to correct flaws in the design, spare parts are sold due to normal wear and tear. So while a patch is a 100% loss from a production stand point (goodwill doesn't count here), spare parts certainly aren't. I'd say patches are more similar to the warranty issued with a new car, which is also a complete loss for the manufacturer, but needed for the goodwill it brings (and because I don't think anyone would buy something like a car without one). In the end, it doesn't matter if the analogy holds up or not (and it wasn't really meant as an analogy in the first place, just an example), the point still stands. If the gaming industry needs to increase their profit margins, they need alternate reveneue streams, not to go after the gaming infrastructure.

While I agree that the analogy is flawed, I don't agree with the reason. Ease of copy would have it's effect on pricing, not second hand sales. It's flawed because the car industry already has a functional alternate revenue stream that doesn't care if a car is sold or resold - spare parts. From what I understand, their profit margin there is significantly higher than on a new car. I suppose this is what DLC is trying to mimic, but as it's still in it's infancy, it's nowhere there yet. That being said, the reasoning in that article was awful. Second hand sales is what keeps specialized game stores afloat and without them I think first hand sales would lower dramatically. Not to mention all those who turn in a game in order to buy a new one.

And I consider $50 a very fair price for a game that costs millions to develop. The problem is that in Euroland, the games are €50 which is more akin to $65, while in stores the physical copies sell for less (what would be $50 or somewhat lower even). It's not the price itself that is the problem, but that digital games cost more at launch than their physical counterparts.

I dislike crap installed on my computer a lot as well, but I've come to terms with Steam. Yes, it does install additional software on your computer, but it's unintrusive enough to be ignorable. You only need to run Steam when playing and autostart can safely be disabled. Since it's effect on perfomance is so low, it won't affect your gaming experience, at least not provided you have a decent internet connection. Also, you don't have to manually start Steam when starting a game, it will be done whenever you launch a steam game (and you will be automatically logged in). You do have to shut it off manually after you're finished playing though. In return for this inconvenience, you get access to a nice gaming community, easier multiplayer and the ability to go on a shopping spree on the good deals that pop up from time to time. Buying games from steam is a very smooth experience all in all. The main drawback is the price, games on steam are considerably more expensive than in stores, at least new games in Europe. Another slight drawback is that the games will go in your steam folder, no way to have the app installed in folder and the games in another. Or to have games in multiple folders (which can be inconvenient if you run out of space for instance). So yeah, MC, I'd go there. Try it out with the sniper game and if you find out you hate it, just uninstall Steam when you're done with the game and don't get another one.

For me it's more that I don't think cinematic storytelling is really fitting to the type of game DA tried to be. And I liked the game it tried to be, so that's what I want more of. Pushing it further down that road makes me like it less. It's not that I hate the dialogue wheel per se, I just don't think it fits with what I liked about DA. Also, it removes the illusion of control I have over the character. It's not the end of the world, but it is still something that makes me hesitant (because it indicates the game might go further down the cinematic road).

I love the dialog wheel and how nicely it works with a mouse, much better than Alpha Protocol's janky thing. Wasn't referring to the controls though. Just how it fits into the overall game experience. I think the mechanic is a good fit for the ME games, I think it's bad for DA.

This was going to be a day 1 purchase for me. I loved the first one and I feel that the different story approach seems interesting at least. ...then I saw the part about the dialogue wheel. It works in ME and it works in AP. But in Dragon Age? Really? The tactical game play of the first game really doesn't lend itself to cinematic storytelling. The transition between the two always felt jarring to me. So now I'm actually hesitant.

It think it

I haven't seen any information in regards to this. I'm guessing static, since that's how TQ did it, but they are making changes to the engine, so possible this could be one of them. But after digging around for a few minutes in their forum, I found this: So it's a possibility at least, if they can get the technology to work.

I have lots of love for Titan Quest (in my eyes the best hack & slash RPG out there) and the bankruptcy of Iron Lore made me a little sad, because there would be no sequels. But I just found out that some of the people from Iron Lore (including Eric Campanella of BIS fame) has started a new company called Crate and are working on a spiritual successor to Titan Quest. From their website: They have a few screens on their site and I think the look gorgeous. It's very apparent that it's the same engine that was used in TQ, but that's not a bad thing. It will use a similar concept of character progression, with different masteries that you get to pick two from. Five masteries is expected to be in the game from the start, with more potentially being added through DLC. The game is scheduled to release in 2011 and should cost about $20. But for those who want to support the game, it can be pre-ordered now. There are three options, ranging from $20 to $48. Any money they receive through these means will be used to add additional features to the game. So it's not something that's needed to complete the game, it will just make it more interesting/polished/bigger. I'm really excited by this and it seems 2011 will be a great year for action RPGs. With this, DS III and Diablo III all coming out in the next year.

RTwP wasn't really invented when Fallout came out, at least not that I know of. It debuted in Baldur's Gate afaik (at least where RPGs are concerned). Fallout was an attempt to faithfully recreate as much of the table top experience as possible, and pretty much all table top RPGs are turn based after some fashion.

Although to be fair, the comical part was already in Civ 2 (the advisors), so it's not like the series has taken itself too seriously at any point (apart maybe from the first game). Also, I'm not so sure the new combat system will be simpler. The stack of doom system is fairly simple, this could very well lead toa stronger emphasis on strategy. Firaxis has proven to know what they're doing in the past. For instance, the removal of the defense stat in Civ 4 was something I thought would simplify the game too much. But with the addition of promotions and a greater emphasis on terrain bonuses, I certainly don't think combat has become simpler compared to it's predecessor. That being said, I'm not sure I'll like the new combat system, that remains to be seen. but I don't think it will be less complex. I remain hopeful, but a little skeptical.

Local or online co-op multiplayer with two or more player created characters is a must. If that is in the game, this household will buy two copies (for PC) and I think several friends of mine will do the same. Without it, this game will fall off the radar of a lot of people I think.

Brayko was the toughest fight, but when I figured out a decent strategy, it was over in one attempt. But I did need to use my characters skills. Chainshot to the face to start things off, then I planted a incendiary grenade at my location. With the help of Shadow Operative I moved ta another hiding place while Brayko stormed my first location only to get hit by the fire blast. Then it was just a few more shots (or possibly a chain shot) and he was down. I wish more fights in games were like that, actually requiring thought and strategy.