GunFox

Yeah I have to agree. I love when games have stuff to unlock through doing neat things. The best being stuff that you can use in-game or stuff that shows up in subsequent playthroughs. Concept art is generally pretty meh, but it is still infinitely better than achievements. This isn't the 1980's. I'm not pumping quarters into a machine aiming for the high score. I want more tangible rewards for exceptional actions. Plus games for windows live promotes DLC. And DLC for 99% of the developers translates into "lets cut cool stuff out and then make you pay extra for it later". Or fallout 3's "lets release DLC that doesn't actually fit into the universe at all". I mean mothership zeta, REALLY guys? It was a corridor shooter. Saints Row 2 does DLC right. They had a general idea of what they wanted to release ahead of time, but they also listened to the community and actually tossed in a bunch of the mess that they wanted. While I do not advocate blindly listening to the fans, taking a few ideas here and there and giving them what they want isn't a bad idea.

If you have problems, you can probably hook it up to your monitor and roll that way. Generally getting sound functioning will require some doing, but at worst the equipment necessary is usually pretty cheap. I used to have all my consoles hooked up to my monitor so I could watch TV and game.

You're right, it would've been more persuasive if I lied and said it was me. Has it occurred to you that when "everyone" knows somebody who's had a problem, it might be a legitimate problem? Or that they're full of **** and pissed at the DRM and were making a holy crusade against it. I've yet to see anything beyond anecdotes of the multitude of evil things that Starforce allegedly did to people's computers, yet it was pretty much discounted as being the sole reason for any problems for anyone's computer, and games that it was attached to. A lot of hoopla when CGW mentioned that it could run in PIO mode for an extended period of time, and suddenly everyone knew someone that was suddenly able to confirm that their optical drive broke because it was in PIO mode for too long, and hence it was Starforce's fault. I'm not sure how they were able to confirm this after the drive died, but it seems the entire world is more technologically apt than I am. The same way that "everyone" knows someone that ate a chicken burger from a fast food restaurant that had a tumor in it, etc. etc. It's almost become urban legend it was so frequent, yet never really to anyone that happened to be talking. Three completely separate computers, two being desktop tower machines, one being a laptop, all had complete optical drive failures within 1 month of installing codename panzers. All different brand drives, all were quality drives (for the time), and one of the machines wasn't even in the same house as the other two. Replaced the optical drives in all of them at no small cost as well as reformatted. All optical drives worked fine until they were upgraded or the machine was mothballed. Also note that it was the third copy of the disc I had. Seeing as the first two were completely useless and refused to install. Had to go back and exchange them. Again, wasn't the drives failing, the problem was a common one.

Lol, no. No ****, Sherlock. We know it's legal. It doesn't make it right or any less problematic. It isn't an issue when you have people directly selling games to each other. As that happens at a relatively reasonable rate. The problem occurs when you have major institutions issuing trade in policies so it happens in massive numbers. My point was that neither act supplies money to the developer. Not which one was legal. You know those limited activations which have been cropping up lately? They have nothing to do with piracy and everything to do with games being resold. So instead of getting a product you can install an infinite number of times, you are getting one with a 3 or 5 install limit. The problem directly affects every consumer on the PC purchasing these games.

Except for when they get so out of hand that they start frying high end optical drives. Starforce ruined at least three optical drives I've owned. Thankfully they wound up causing so many problems for developers and publishers that they've largely been dropped and the current software has been scaled way back. Of course now you have securom trying some of the same crap starforce did. Multiple checks while a game is playing and slow intentional degradation of gameplay if it starts failing checks. So if your optical drive or disc isn't PERFECT it will happily ruin your game for you and make you think it's your system crapping out. Good luck with that. Basically any modern remotely effective disc based copy protection is so invasive that it literally has to become a rootkit and hook it's way into your operating system and many core DLL's. Effectively punishing the people who legally bought the game by invading portions of their machine and decreasing system stability notably. Just have your game activate online with a unique CD key and register it to a specific name/account. That is enough to keep joe shmoe from handing someone else his disk AND keeps gamestop from pawning your product several times (As they lack the account name the key is attached to) without annoying things like limited activations. Which is the real problem here. Unless there is some odd deal worked out, there isn't a whole lot of difference between purchasing a used copy of a game and pirating it. Neither one supports the publisher or the developer. Which are the two groups that actually matter. (Exception to the rule: Old games no longer in print.) Granted even that has its issues. Like if the servers go down or the company goes out of business. There would have to be a steam-esq policy of distributing unlocked copies in the event of a company failure. It's just overall a mean situation, but I can't see any other realistic solution to the problem.

I've found digital DRM to be infinitely less intrusive. Rather than using my optical drives as a form of hardware dongle, they just activate once online and are done. Disc checks are just ridiculous. I was buying games and having to exchange them two or three times because the CD/DVD check was so grueling that even the real discs weren't passing the muster. Or I'd have to use no CD cracks just to get games I owned to work. <3 online distribution.

Almost nobody I've seen in the past 4 states I've lived in keeps any serious stock of PC games on the shelf anymore. And Gamestop/EB is primarily a pawnshop these days. I refuse to purchase from them. If for no other reason than if they offer me a "protection plan" for my game or ask if I want to buy the used version one more time, I might shoot the guy behind the counter. Video game industry traitors, they are.

Clive Barker's undying was amusingly scary for the first half of the game. The latter half was basically there to make up for being scared for the first half. GREAT game. And yes, System shock 2 was very scary and no, they were not doom era graphics. More like half life 1 graphics.

"Twitter: For when you are too lazy to radio in that sitrep"

So I assume that you cannot elect to use civilian clothing over body armor in order to prevent average civilians from growing suspicious of your presence? Hm, based on the footage I'd say there must be some draw of the standard clothing over tactical gear. There would be an abnormally large variety of civilian clothes if they served no real purpose. I know that heavier tactical gear will make you less stealthy (I assume due to decreased mobility and increased noise generation that comes with having something like a ceramic plate strapped to your chest), but are there other aspects to stealth in terms of what you wear? I mean technically actual spies rely almost entirely on the social camouflage aspect of clothing, and while obviously this game isn't aiming for realistic spies (And rightfully so. Real spy work is tedious and boring much of the time.), I'd be surprised if it wasn't there in some part.

Well the issue isn't so much the cost for the military as it is the logistics. It's hard to get non standard parts much of the time. Even for the special forces units. Though for police departments the costs can be extremely prohibitive. It is one of several reasons why SWAT teams in the United States have largely mothballed their MP-5's in favor of AR-15 type rifles. It's also why you don't really see PSG-1 sniper rifles in service with virtually anyone. It costs as much as some cars at 10-12K USD per unit. Even the military doesn't use them due to their extreme weight (18 lbs. The military version of the rifle is the MSG-90.).

Yes, the MP-5 is a well designed SMG that has gained a great deal of popularity. It remains extremely expensive. The lack of need for magazine interchangeability and weapon optics has prevented the proprietary portion of H&K's products from being an issue. H&K makes good firearms, they just do so using non standardized equipment and then charge a large sum of money for them. Look at the G36, it is a great battle rifle. But it uses proprietary magazines. There is absolutely ZERO reason that the G36 should not also be compatible with the STANAG magazines. It already uses the 5.56 NATO caliber, why not the mags? They even can both use the beta C-mags. Furthermore it uses integral optics and only after years of pressure did it mount 1913 rails. Special operations likes the MP5SD really more than anything. The MP5SD sports the neat integral suppressor that doesn't require subsonic ammunition (As the suppressor naturally decreased muzzle velocity enough to drop it below the sound barrier), making it easy to get the ammunition through standard logistics routes. Other than that, the SMG is unremarkable and requires annoyingly specialized parts. I imagine if they could do the same with the Colt 635, they would jump at the opportunity due to the increased part compatibility on hand and equal, if not superior, performance in the field. I own two USP's (USP fullsized, and a USP compact tactical) among a whole host of other firearms. They are heavy, overly complex, and over sized. The compact tactical weighs significantly more than my full sized Kimber Custom Covert II 1911 model and doesn't shoot anywhere near as well. US SWAT agencies and special forces units are often given a choice on their personal sidearms within caliber restrictions. They consistently prefer glocks, sigs, or 1911 models(springfield and kimber being popular). The DA/SA trigger just doesn't warrant the massive increase in weight and the decrease in reliability.

Hopefully they have some 1911 pistol variant. And zero USP's or the MK 23. Nobody worth their salt willing uses USP's. Frankly nobody on a limited budget would use anything made by H&K. You can get better firearms for a fraction of the cost. Blackmarket or not. Even assuming you did wind up with an H&K, it would still be a terrible choice because everything on them is proprietary. All your attachments would need adapters.