Morgoth

Playing still a bit GTA IV here and there. One of the best blind purchases ever!

I'm sure it broke his heart - literally. Because I prefer a new designer handling the combat. Thankyouverymuch.

Microsoft just doesn't believe in the PC market, as they've demonstrated in the past as well. Ensemble, at it's core, is a PC developer, and they probably wanted to make AoE4 or another PC game getting greenlighted, which Microsoft denied. Consequently, there was fighting and MS just decided to shut them down. Bunch of bastards I say.

Currently none. At peak times, maybe 2-3 max. But mostly, only one, namely the one I'm actively playing. The others have first to be finished, then uninstalled, because I love order and my Harddisks second name is coincidently "order" as well. There must be order dammit!

Big deal, like I care? I'm getting the game if it is good. They better hurry up getting a playable demo out.

Not crazy but....uh, let's put aside insults for a moment. Anyway, the only crazy thing to me is when Piranha first announced Gothic3, they promised that they would make combat their first priority, meaning that they'd first develop G3 as an action-adventure, and then fill in the rest (i.e. the RPG stuff). Look how that turned out. TNH just fights like a dork. Wild, aimless beating with a portion of luck determined the outcome of a battle. Now I really wonder how they're gonna make combat work in Risen. If they screw that one up again, they're not just crazy, but plain and simple dumb!

Hey, isn't that EA's job? Back then, yes. But MS doesn't seem, nor doesn't want to change that. @Tale Didn't know you were at Ensemble. This really sucks.

That's very typical from Microsoft: Buying a studio, cannibalizing it, then shutting it down. Fackeen bastards. I'm sure they wanted Ensemble to turn into a Xbox360 exclusive developer, forcing them to make more Halo Wars games and other unnecessary RTS attempts for the console. The Ensemble execs however thought their future probably in the PC market (they're RTS makers after all!), and thus the studio was shut down. Same with Digital Anvil: A great studio which released a great game (Freelancer, and yes, I loved it), then just shutting it down. FASA, once a great studio, cannibalized, forced to make ****ty games for Vista and X360, then shutting them down. How many studios are left until they get shut down? Ohhh Pete Molyneux, don't you dare to make a PC game or you'll face just the same fate!

Prey felt like a 20th-century Quake clone with Doom3 engine. Some people just like old-skool stuff better... To each it's own!

So, what are we gonna do about it, Bok?

Lorne Lanning, underrated artists and storyteller of Oddworld fame, talks about stuff like the evolving game industry, user-generated nonsense, and his new Oddworld game. Click He also has a CGI movie in the works which he will personally direct, called Citizen Siege, a dark and mature tale about mega-corporism and stuff. There's also a game for Citizen Siege in development, allegedly called "Wage Wars", which shares assets from the CGI film. Plus he still plans a new Oddworld game and film. You can also buy Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exodus now on Steam recently. If these game will sell well enough, we might see a chance seeing Munch and Stranger's Wrath get ported to the PC and released on Steam. So, do your duty and buy these Oddworld games, games where you can make Abe fart by pressing a button. You know you want to!

Hands On @ IGN An overall very positive preview. "Being an entirely single-player experience, Dead Space has the kind of focus that is reminiscent of a game like Bioshock; the team is afforded the time to focus on a handful of key ideas and – at this stage – seemingly get them right, rather than water down the overall quality of the game with unnecessary or unfocussed co-op modes or multiplayer. It's a stance we applaud and we're as keen as you likely are to see if the campaign is truly as good as it's shaping up to be." Although I'm still pissed they couldn't do it in First Person View, I'm nonetheless interested in this eerie, bloody Horror-Sci-Fi game. Hopefully it will stand out enough and doesn't suffocate under a brainless brawlfest experience a'la Resident Evil. Still, I like the setting more than the jolly-quirky-colorful parade that is Bioshock. Probably will pick it up at release.

Actually, this change between intense but short battles in confining spaces, and the "ghost mumbo jumbo" you call it, was quite attracting to me. FEAR had cool action, style, and a healthy portion of eeriness. Sure, no jungles and open spaces like Far Cry, but that's not what FEAR is about. I hope that Monolith/WBI also bought the NOLF name back. Btw, the official release date is February 10th, 2009.

http://www.projectorigincommunity.com/ Just so you don't get confused: The official sequel to the award winning FEAR, previously called "Project Origin", will now be named "FEAR 2: Project Origin". Confusing huh? Anyway, just check out the new website. The game has also been postponed to Q1 2009 btw.

People read too much into this. Just because some Middleware company has some internal PC version running, doesn't mean one is planned to be released. Lucasarts just denied this rumor here.

300 on Blu-Ray. Freggin awesome!

Of course not. But again, Gothic is in Germany as precious as, let's say, the Elder Scrolls in NA.

Did you try sleeping, walking around, sleeping, walking around, etc. until something happened? A few of the critical events are timed to take several in-game weeks and so it can be confusing if you did these later when there is nothing to do in-between the scheduling and the event itself. I know, but I only got to meet that chick in the cafe who always told me to have more sex, and there was that one occasion where I had to meet that perv "You know what bonking means?" in a disco.... Wait. Now I remember. I couldn't progress because I had to decipher this odd image. I was too lazy and frustrated to do that, so I quit. That's what I mean with retarted game design. They better design Culpa 2 with 21th century gamedesign in mind this time...

Gothic 3 sold 500k units in Germany alone. That's quite a cake for a PC exclusive these days.

A miracle this game gets a sequel. Culpa definitely had a lot of potential, which was unfortunately mostly squashed. The gameplay was weak and annoying (walking long distances, hardly any interaction), the puzzles unfun, and most importantly, the story seemed to have holes. I never could finish the game because I couldn't progress. Not because I didn't know what to do, but because there was nothing in the log/map/wherever to advance. On the good side though, some characters were very interesting, the writing pretty good, the music also very charming.. I hope for Culpa2 that they use a new engine, a more refined Art direction, and a bit more clear story progression.

Ah, you just got that right in one sentence. That's what I meant.

I can quite understand why Gothic assembled such a huge fanbase. Back then, in 1999, such open Ultima Ascension like RPGs were quite a deal. But I think these days, the tastes of the Western World fans have a bit progressed, are a bit more elaborate, thanks to further progress in quality in general. So these open-space medieval like Action RPGs where you wander 100s of hours around just aren't that appealing to me anymore, maybe because I tend to play smoother and faster games with more emphasize on story these days. So I'm not so sure about Arcania (Gothic 4) either. If they don't evolve it beyond Gothic3 or Oblivion, I don't see the purpose of getting excited about it anymore. Same for Piranha. If they don't evolve, they surely won't be able to extend their customer base beyond 12 year old pimple-faced Germans. Just sayin'

Isn't it about time to unleash a media storm anyway? Isn't the game supposed to come out in the next 6 months or so? Wake up, SEGA!

I played some 5-7 hours into Gothic 3, in the hope it would get better....but no, it didn't. I just had to accept that G3 was an unfun piece of trash. Gothic 1 was mediocre, Gothic 2 actually quite good, so I'll give Piranha another chance to redeem themselves.

People these days don't want to listen to unpleasent and important matters from their political leaders anymore - they want to hear bold, direct and easily digestable statements. Palin and McCain exactly deliver this very well to the folks. No, it's not my prerogative to judge the American people, or American patrotism, but I really have to wonder if McCains hostile and inconsiderate behaviour really makes American people proud, or can identify with. I kinda liked that John F. Kennedy dude more, actually. :D