Zoraptor

Given it's Epic Baltimore it's as likely to be Bulletstorm: Life on the Killing Streets or Gears of The Wire And given 38s apparent business acumen I'd suggest 'Unreal Reckoning' would be more appropriate.

It's not in any way similar to a HB or kickstarter title, it's a self proclaimed traditional AAA high (well, relative to kickstarter class) budget game on an engine that runs on PC360- not even PS3- and almost certainly with system requirements far beyond a kickstarter class game. It'd be nice if they made a Linux version (hell, make a PS3 one too for that matter) but I wouldn't get any hope up for it. The only real positive is they have done some work with OpenGL before via Witcher 1 though that was an entirely different engine.

Ultimas and Wing Commanders for $3? Yes please. I think I'll hang off getting Privateer and the earlier WCs until their expansions arrive though since I've still got their CDs somewhere. And I'll soon have expunged the stain of never having played a mainline Ultima.

Given the structure of the indie bundles it's entirely plausible that the publishers don't get any money anyway; but Bastion isn't an indie either for that matter (Ubisoft = publisher), and I'm pretty sure Limbo was published by MS (via XBLA) first as well.

Gave the Game of Thrones mod for CK2 a try. It really really illustrates how much the base game needs the old rivalry and friendship mechanics back since it ended up with some literally impossible circumstances happening (Ned Stark as Aerys' Hand, hmm...) as well as some rather unlikely things- Tyrion Lannister, Hand of the King to Robert Baratheon, married to 'Anya' Stark while well known Machiavellian sociopath Catelyn Tully-Stark has murdered her way to the Kingship of the Riverlands and her son to the prince consortship of the Vale. Her grandson would be king of Vale/ North/ Riverlands in a few years. There are also a few continuity/ mechanics issues like Robert and Lyanna popping out babies while the war is still raging and she is canonically off with Poetic Dragon Boy having been 'kidnapped'. The war of the Usurper/ Robellion works very well mechanically though, got one Rob victory and one Aerys one when Rob got captured in battle, and there is a huge amount of detail and accuracy in the character set ups- played as the Manderlys and got a persistent relationship gain with the Starks, the Brackens and Blackwoods hate each other, pretty much all the characters are in even if some choices are a bit questionable (like Ashara Dayne being depressed no doubt due to her supposedly killing herself) etc etc. The main problem at the moment is that as soon as the Robellion finishes nothing much seemed to happen in either of the run throughs I tried, as without friendships/ rivalries, specific events, much in the way of achievable claims, no White Walkers and without the stuff that drives a lot of issues in the base game either (religion/ crusades etc) there's a huge amount of inertia. Whereas in baseline CK2 you'll regularly have pages of current wars going on for most of the time post Robellion there were one or two minor ducal wars and that was that. I'll say this though, it has literally the most potential for awesome I have seen in any mod ever.

Volourn's subconscious comes up with great ideas.

I'm sure the "creature of meat and bone" will be able to "pant and sweat" while "running through her corridors".

CDP have bought the rights to System Shock, as that was the only way to get the games onto GOG. That promo pic is from their System Shock prequel. Either that or it's a Young Ones licenced game that they've relocated fifty years in the future.

Hmm. There could be motivation for Cedric to do something based on what happens with Roche's path in Flotsam- iirc the pregnant girl in the Commander's house is actually the lost love he mentions in passing and that could be used as motivation. Of course that would require a rewrite, and would probably end up with Cedric just becoming Iorveth Mk II anyway.

Oddly enough the 'West' didn't give a rat's secondary fundamental orifice about mass rape, murder and torture on a far greater scale in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Rwanda, Somalia etc etc. How many dead in Congo and hardly a peep for the whole time, let alone any action? Countries talk morality when it's in their best interests and to get their populations to go along with whatever their geopolitical aims are. That's true for China, Russia, the US and its proxies, everyone; the Chinese and Russians just dress it up in a different form of morality, that of the doctrine of non-intervention. Which isn't appealing to westerners who've been conditioned to respond to a different set of stimuli- but only in selected cases and situations of course. The why was asked for, and got the answer. Don't like it? The only solution is to go back to 6372 BC, get yourself appointed God and redesign human nature so we're capable as a collective (or even as an individual in most cases) of putting moral considerations above economic, political or practical ones, that's the only thing that'll 'fix' it.

The Russians and Chinese don't want another US proxy in the area, Russia doesn't want to lose its military base, and the west utterly asterisked the pooch for intervention by its treatment of Libya where it turned a theoretically even handed protect civilians mandate into "Regime change here we go- we'll protect civilians on one side, other side please feel free to level Sirte while we help you out because those civilians don't count!". Might as well ask why the west doesn't knock over the government in Bahrain despite it being a despotic dictatorship that likes to imprison and torture doctors for treating injured protesters and relies on foreign mercenaries (Saudi army) to prop itself up- it's against their national interests, would likely result in a more pro Iran country right on SA's doorstep and bye bye large US naval base in Manama; human rights/ freeeeeeedom considerations are secondary, end of story.

Dunno really, there's usually blame on both sides but I don't know about the balance. Activision belatedly paying out bonuses suggests they were being withheld and later realised their position was untenable, and the treatment of the general IW staff around the time was dreadful and probably would have been criminal if done by an individual rather than a multi-billion dollar company. Then again I'm pretty much always going to back a developer over a publisher on this sort of thing since it is clear that IW were delivering a good product (even if I don't personally like it it sold like hotcakes) that should have been rewarded commensurately. As a casual observer I'd laugh, loudly, if Activision actually lost Modern Warfare to W&Z since it's the flagship Activision Yearly Iteration Franchise game but I suspect that claim is just leverage.

Tried going back to CKII and try out Wiz's mod. Got bored very quickly, same old issues. Somewhat baffled as to why I like the original so much and now find the sequel to be quite so tepid and unremarkable. Have been slowly going through StalkerSOC over the past couple of weeks, just completed X18. I think the game goes up in my estimation every time I play it which considering how much I liked it originally is really saying something. It's got more sheer atmosphere than a year's worth of standard titles.

Edmonton = 'old' Bioware, Mass Effect/ Dragon Age and the ilk You're thinking of EA Ireland.

May 30th, at their conference is the date for an important announcement so that may be the new IP reveal. Or it could be PS3 version of TW2, or an expansion, or TW3, in increasing order of likeliness.

In all seriousness, there are forum posters I trust more than Pachter when it comes to games industry analysis. No confirmation so far as I am aware, no. There is minor precedent- Karpyshyn went from ME to TOR- but sufficient to suspend or significantly slow DA3's development? That would require dozens of transfers. If DA3 has been delayed, which is believable, I'd suspect that synchronising it with the NextBox/ PS4 is actually the reason.

I'm sure no company with any regard for its employees really wants/plans to let them go once a project is finished, but there are plans and then there is reality. The majority of projects result in some layoffs once they're completed, that is the reality. I'd also note that it is bad for morale if you're saying "yeah, once we ship we'll be firing a bunch of our employees". We don't actually know who has gone, so far as I am aware (beyond the community manager?). If they're stripping out the core team it would be a sign of Trouble, if it's just a few it may be natural attrition or more minor and rational cuts. As I said the whole TOR thing is a bit confusing at the moment as you supposedly have firings- but almost simultaneously people from Edmonton getting shifted onto it. Which is a bit... counterintuitive.

Oh, it won't be only QA and testers, for sure. It is exceeding likely that some designers and more core types have gone too. No business likes having people sitting around twiddling their thumbs and that is to an extent inevitable after any project of the scope of a large MMO wraps as it's very unlikely you will have enough extra work for everyone involved in the principle design to be involved with unless you're immediately starting work on a new project, and even a full on expansion would require more limited resources than the core development.

That did get mentioned for ME1, though it obviously was not a huge concern given its review scores. I do really dislike bullet spray complaints though, especially when they're dressed up in realism arguments since it's actually very easy to miss what you're aiming at but lots of people seem to think bullets = lazors!!! in real life and always go straight and flat, direct and directly for what you aim at.

The carve up of Czechoslovakia- under the aegis of the UK, inventor of the concentration camp, and with Poland (and Hungary, for virumor) getting a forgotten chunk of the spoils- would be equally as good. Doesn't quite go to the same narrative, though.

It won't be profitable yet. Most of the Doom predictors are probably going by the (utterly ludicrous) $400 million estimates for cost. If it could hold a million subscribers for a year it would almost certainly have a decent worthwhile profit by that point. While I'm not really actively following the game it is fair to say that the negative spin has been pretty consistently inconsistent. (Part of) DA3 team allegedly moved to help TOR = Doom, people fired off TOR (almost certainly QA/ technical support people, given that they're always most in demand at title launch and demand for them drops off heavily once initial issues are sorted) also = Doom. Lots of arm waving about a 25% drop off when other titles like Age of Conan had ~90% drop offs over a similar time period. It's not a WoW killer to be sure, but anyone who expected that had unrealistic expectations. WoW is most definitively the exception, not the rule.

If they have DLC plans they'd probably do any voice work for that at the same time, so they aren't necessarily all related to a redone ending.

Strewth. WL2 only exists because of EA 1) They published the original 2) They didn't IP squat (as most other publishers would do) once they decided they weren't going to use it but sold the rights to BF/ inXile Passing up 90 days of royalty free sales for the sake of some nebulous eCred would have been stupid and, again, it's not like it's using 'Originworks' and there's going to be any obligation whatsoever to buy from or use Origin.

Big companies always do negative stuff, but EA hasn't done anything particularly egregious- perhaps excluding some of its server shutdowns though I'm unclear how many people play Sports Franchise Iteration Year Number multiplayer once it's superceded. They're a favourite whipping boy because of the accumulated ills of Bioware (Jade Empire and the NWN OC suggests the herp was strong in Bioware even pre EA), spyware FUD and OMG being mean to GabeN!!! I might even register WL2 on Origin if they do it that way, though it would be after making sure I had it DRM free as well. That's a zero loss proposition for everyone. It is pretty ludicrous seeing so many people going purple faced over WL2/ Origin when No Steam No Sale (Steamholm Syndrome?) types demand steam keys and would be appalled if it were not available there. If it's just another place to buy it, or register it, then nobody should really care.

A million seems a reasonable estimate for KoA. But even if EA weren't distributing it and taking a cut that would be in the ballpark (ohoho) of $20 million in revenue. Fine, except apparently they're burning through 4 mill a month in expenses. Given that EA was the distributor their cut might be only half that. It does look rather like mismanagement and if the MMO is really still a full year away there was no way KoA could have saved them unless it sold in the ~5 million range, which would be hopelessly optimistic for a new IP from a relatively unknown studio.