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MacMichael

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Posts posted by MacMichael

  1. I've played through most of the Prologue, but I'm holding off until I finish up the first one, so I have a save to import. But since I also decided that the Witcher 2 would be a great excuse to put some money into computer, I have a new video card on the way early next week and an AMD quad core to replace my dual core, whose install didn't go as planned. Turns out my current, older board is happy with all the AM2+ quad cores, except the one I bought. So, things have been in pieces while I figure out how to solve this issue. Guess I needed a reminder of why I build complete systems rather than upgrading bit by bit.

  2. Just starting Chapter 3 in the Witcher. Played through most, I think, of the Prologue of the Witcher 2, but I'm putting off seriously getting into it until my new video card arrives next week. Also been playing Brink which, after being a little worried seeing that first D review, I've been enjoying. Have a friend that I've been working through the Campaign missions with in co-op.

  3. GoG.com's facebook page has information on a price increase for The Witcher 2 in Australia that's happening tomorrow. In the comments they also mention their Fair-price policy, so you get credit at GoG.com because of the price difference. Also, they mention it will be the censored version that you'll get if you live there, but that modder's should have an easy time fixing that.

    GOG.com - DRM-free classic PC games. Cheap.

    To all Australian gamers! You have 17 hours to preorder The Witcher 2 on GOG.com for the original price of $42.27 AUD! On Friday, May 6 at 1500 GMT, due to licensing reasons we're going to adjust the price for Australian market and charge $62.99 AUD for the preorder and $69.99 AUD for the full price. The preorder on GOG.com isn't forcing you to pay for the game instantly.

     

    To preorder go to http://www.gog.com/tw2

     

    GOG.com - DRM-free classic PC games. Cheap.

    ‎@Cameron - Unfortunately we can't give the discount but we'll be giving $26 USD store credit to spend at GOG.com as our 'Fair Price Package' to match the price in USD.

  4. I'm also wondering how they crammed so much into the game when other similar games don't offer nearly as many features. They must have cut on something....

    The manual. It's a pretty complicated game to learn.

     

    Right, the manual, too. If you get a physical copy, pull out the keyboard commands and throw the rest in the trash, it won't help.

     

    Edit: This on the other hand, will.

    http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=162408

  5. If you're looking for places they cut, the story, as mentioned, is mostly ignorable. And I have a friend that won't play it because of the autopilot AI. Autopilot AI is basically, fly from point A to point B. Oh, an object in our way, turn away at an angle, fly a little, try to resume, oh, an object in our way, turn away at an angle, fly a little, repeat until you're clear of the object. I personally think I works well enough, considering stations and ships and asteroids can go away and new ones can be placed, since the universe is dynamic. But he won't touch it. They also cut in the QA. When their products ship, they surpass Obsidian for issues, but they're great about patching, and in those patches, adding additional content as well. At this point, you shouldn't have any significant issues. They also strip out the DRM about a year to a year and a half after release with all their games.

     

    I personally had a save with a time played marked at 30 days. And I'm not the sort that leaves the game running to let my freighters and stations earn money while I sleep. It's worth checking out if you want a space sim. It's very open as to how you can play. I haven't tried X2, but I've played both X3:R and X3:TC. TC seems to be quicker in making money and earn rank with the different races to purchase their capital ships if speed for play is an issue. In that X3:R playthrough, the 30 day one, I still hadn't picked up a destroyer or carrier. Though I tended to go mostly for the combat than focusing on my trade empire.

  6. "Cowboy Bebop is good in spite of its animation. 100% of anime animation sucks. 99% of the stories and characters suck. Let the flaming begin!"

     

    I simply forgot an added word. I'd define anime as the whole package... all the anime tropes etc. Yeah, not all of them contain every element. Part of what made Bebop good was that a character didn't get upset and have a squigly line appear over their head followed by their already large eyes going titanic saucer plate sized when angry with flailing limbs etc.

     

    The animation for me is just... horrendous. Bebop would come on and I'd see the animation and I'd say **** this and change the channel. I finally caved to all the positive things said about and actually watched an episode and enjoyed it in spite of it's animation... and the spiky hair on... Spike. The whole sci-fi space cowboys/bounty hunters really appealed to me. I became more open minded about anime, giving other shows a chance but they were all horrible.

     

    If you're willing to look past the "animated in Japan" look and could deal with the way they animated Cowboy Bebop, you might try Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex. It had a solid two seasons. It's especially good if you're into worlds like Deus Ex: sci-fi, cybernetic augmentation, and the rest.

  7. Planning on trying out MW:Living Legends later today. Anyone else who's playing it maybe?

     

    I was going to check it out today, after hearing about yesterday, but it seems they've already transitioned over to Crysis Wars, which I don't have yet. So, maybe in a couple weeks. I'm interested in hearing how it is.

  8. Music: I didn't like the main DAO themes at first, but they grew on me overtime. Nothing stood out for me in DA2. The music doesn't get in the way and does it's job. Nothing memorable yet, but it may grow on me.

     

    I keep noticing a bit of music that I remember from ME2. I think they added something to it, but it sounds like it's pulled almost directly from it. I'm finding it a bit annoying since every time I hear it I start thinking ME2, rather than what I'm doing, playing DA2.

     

    Story: I enjoyed it overall but I got the sense that Bio was trying too hard. Yes I understand that sometimes mages go bad and templars can act like tyrants. You don't have to show me with every side quest. Also the story in DA2 foreshadows some interesting things that are going on in the world, with the Grey Wardens, Chantry etc. DA2 seems like gateway into a larger setting/story and I'm interested where Bioware will take it. I really enjoyed the companion sidequests. Like Maria said, most of them don't end the way you think (Merril's especially) and most of them are pretty involved. I think there might be a lot of C&C here and I wonder if based on your choices certain companion quests can end in different ways. It'll be interesting to find out.

     

    During my next playthrough I'll be doing different things to see if there are different outcomes. If so, I will definitely get Alpha Protocol vibes from DA2.

     

    I'm just past the Deep Roads, and I've already come across some significant C&C based on choices surrounding Bethany.

    A friend of mine played through the Deep Roads, where Bethany caught the Blight and he had to kill her. I played through the Deep Roads with Bethany, but also brought Anders, where Bethany caught the Blight but Anders knew where to look for Wardens, thus she's now a Grey Warden. I read earlier in the thread that she ended up in the Circle of Magi for someone, which I assume is what happens when you don't take her.

    It has me excited to see how different things can play out with different parties and decisions.

  9. I finished playing VVVVVV yesterday. What a fantastic little flash game. It's challenging without being frustrating, and the music is fantastic. More people should play it.

     

    I returned to The Witcher, finally finishing chapter 1. I intend on pouring more time into that game in the coming weeks. I have to admit I found the sex scene with Abagail quite inappropriate. I mean, why would they have sex in a cave in front of a group of children when an angry mob just outside wants nothing more than to burn her? It's on those occasions that make me believe that when they say "for mature gamers" they mean "for virgins."

     

    I also started playing Dead Space. I bought it on steam back godknowswhen and I hadn't bothered to play it until now. To my dismay I found out that a) the mouse+keyboard controls are horrid and b) if I enable v-sync the game actually locks itself to 30fps. I solved 1) with an Xbox 360 controller and 2) by playing around with my nvidia control panel. It looks and plays really neat.

     

    I also checked out the beginning levels of F.E.A.R. and have decided to put more time into it once I've finished the other two games I'm playing. It doesn't look bad for something that was released 5 years ago.

     

    I also just started playing Dead Space again. I had started a game awhile back on the 360, when a group of friends and I were getting together for regular gaming sessions, but this time I have it for my PC. Most of my issues with the mouse and keyboard control seems to have been solved by turning the mouse sensitivity way up in game and turning off V-sync in game.

  10. Hey - just saw this and thought I should share..

     

    A free battlefield game is coming, made by the same guys and everything. Look like a rough version of Battlefield Bad Company 2.

     

    I don't usually play multiplayer fps, but I received a beta key and figured I'd try it. Last one I got was for the PS3 version of Dead Space 2, even though I only have a PC. So far, I've been enjoying myself.

  11. DA:O had FF for most difficulties though, not only for Nightmare. So there was a change.

     

    I think it depended on platform. It had FF for most difficulties on PC, but I think it only had FF for one of them on the consoles.

  12. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the "Kill Everyone" ending is a nuclear holocaust, possibly resulting from a combination of letting too many major criminals/terrorist walk free, and/or deliberately playing the middle and setting up world powers to be at each others' throats by the end. I can dream can't I? I will make Fallout a REALITY!

     

    I'm all for it, as long as I can import my AP save into F:NV. :sweat:

  13. So any updates?

     

    Are the servers working now?

     

    I ended up picking it up on the day it came out in the US. I haven't had any problems connecting to the servers at any point. One night, I did apparently lose connection to the servers, but I barely had time to read the screen before I was back in game. I'm still not sure about the system, but it hasn't given me problems. I'd be more comfortable with it if they announced, and stuck to, a schedule for removing it, rather than just saying they'll do it if it's needed. Kind of like Egosoft does, putting out a no-CD patch, usually with additional free content roughly a year out from release.

  14. I don't see the need repeat the point for the 27th time.

     

    It's obvious that this was not going to work day 1 and a company's PR giving out BS explanations it pretty much standard practice. It might be interesting if they don't fix it in a week or so.

     

    I guess.... but one would have thought they could at least make their explanation consistent. The PR department should be able to at least coordinate a single explanation, no matter how BS it is, unless of course all three explanations are true, which seems rather unlikely.

     

    Actually, the stories make for a neat and tidy progression. The servers go down due to "exceptional demand" which turns out to be "a DoS attack" which necessitates "maintenance." Of course, it could just mean they couldn't figure out how to make it work and have now resorted to poking the servers with sticks, hoping they'll start working on their own, and they just need a cover story, it's hard say.

  15. According to that article the game was not cracked.

     

    As far as I understand there has been cracked version of the game since day one, but ubi claims is not "legit" cracked version since it lacks some extra download content.

     

    What I keep hearing is that while it was cracked the first day, the cracked version hangs or crashed at several points. The first trip into the animus and some story mission. So, the open world can be played, and using some savegames can get around these points, it doesn't let you play all the way through without issue. Supposedly, the game downloads part of the story mission, thus the isues. But I've also heard everything from one end to the other on whether it's cracked or not, so I'm not really sure what to believe about it.

  16. Seems the downtime was an attack, according to Ubi.

     

    Yeah, they would say that, because imagine if it wasn't?

     

    What they say can say a lot. Admitting it's an attack, suggests things would been working fine for the load they expected. They sold what they expected or less. The reason things aren't working is due to outside interference. But it's also admitting a serious weakness that they didn't plan for or didn't find a solution for. It's a partial failure for Ubisoft. The story the other day, that it's simply greater than expected load, could be better than expected sales, meaning one or more of DRM didn't have a significant effect of sales, piracy was defeated so they purchased instead, whatever else you feel like coming up with. Which sounds better? Of course, there's always the possibility that the system was designed so poorly that a gentle breeze could knock it down, in which case, why not stick with the story that lets you say things are going better than expected, instead of the story where they admit they didn't expect what they got?

     

    Still, it's immaterial - their servers should be distributed and hardened against this sort of thing. You don't think sites like Google, Microsoft aren't also the target of this stuff? When was the last time you saw them go down to a DDoS? Indeed, the fact things like these happen should have been one of the top 3 reasons not to go ahead with their blindingly stupid DRM scheme in the first place.

     

    I would suspect that Google and Microsoft, having been targets for far longer, have had time to get their technology and people to a point they don't have this sort of issue. Ubi just hung a giant bulls eye around their neck and said, "Here we are!" Which suggests to me that they probably should have put more time, money and thought into their system.

     

    Fact of the matter is, Ubisoft can't provide the quality level customers expect, so they should never have deployed their scheme in the first place.

     

    While I don't disagree with you, for arguments sake, applying that logic, a great number of games, and many other things for that matter, should have never been released, some of which actually turned out rather well after some post-release work.

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