Raithe

Take the Wing Commander film. (please, take it...) But seriously, that wasn't as bad as it gets a rep for... Sure it wasn't as comparable to the games... and really, after the push of the last couple of WC games with the full motion video and the various actors they had starring.. going for a film route didn't quite click the same chemistry. (And there were some quite entertaining "bloopers" from the WC games floating around the web if you can find them). It's the question of how to take something that's been pushed more as an "interactive movie experience game" and then turn it into a strictly standard sci-fi movie...

You have to admit, there are a lot of places where there seems to be frothing teenagers..or at least , people who seem to act as if they're frothing teenagers with attitude... That and the amount of blinding ignorance people seem to show off when they make comments on gametrailers and the like.. It can be very disturbing to realise these people actually seem to mean and believe the astonishing drivel they're writing... (yes, that might be a touch of arrogance on my part.) Gamers are a cross-section like any other "hobby". It's just very simple to stereotype certain extremes and carry it over.

Now I wasn't going to go there Oner...

That's been my planning, I've had a retail on pre-order for awhile. I guess my main puzzle that if you say Steam as is, is a form of DRM, but then most games from Steam also have Steamworks as DRM.. they suggests they have two forms of DRM... Or is that just a warped way of looking at it from the things you've said... I mean, okay, apparently you like Steam, you like Steam's DRM. And you feel offended that a game that's available via Steam doesn't use Steam's usual style of DRM.... That's your point of view and personal preference. Mine is that is seems a very artificial distinction to make, and makes a mountain out of a molehill. So I'm trying to understand it.

Well if they do decide to go with a movie based around Shephard... they might just go with a fem-shep.. Who knows, it could end up with Milla Jovovich starring in one more game adaption...

So you're saying that any company that produces a game that is being sold through a lot of outlets, retail stores, different online stores beyond Steam.. should then put the expense of having multiple DRM's on a game to suit each individual outlet? They produce a game, they put a single DRM to it, then put it out there.. Why should they then have to chop and change it just for one particular form of outlet? Besides, if you consider it a case of double DRM, why don't you just buy a retail copy so you have the disc and all? Or if it has to be a download, why not use one of the online suppliers that's not Steam? Then you won't have to deal with the hassle of Steam as well as the games DRM.... All seem valid options if you feel using the Steam version is "wrong" in some way...

Hm, standard space opera sci-fi.. The "Mass Effect" science to base technology around and to gimmick in a form of "The Force" Green skinned alien girls.. (well, blue mostly, but there was a nod to the green skinned alien girl..) Another universe where every alien species has a specific type of role.. and then humans come along and are the unpredictable jack-of-all-trades type to upset the applecart... Hey, it's no different to the standard fantasy setting being used to come up with lots of different things. It all comes down to whether there can be a decent story and interesting characters using the variations of the standard space opera sci-fi... Throw in a few nods and winks to the games... It could work.

Not a bad trailer... Although I'd have expected them to go with the "For Agent Mike Thorton... There are Always Choices" rather then "Unlimited Possibilities"...

Sorry, yup, I meant Steamworks. Running on about 2 hours sleep and not fully behind the eightball today. Well, to my mind, there's Steam which you run, you log into so they can identify your account and know which method of payment is yours.... and that provides the medium to download the product. Steamworks is the actual DRM that Steam tends to favor and is part and parcel of the needing to activate the game once you've run it. Now me, I'm just going by the fact that they've said "Alpha Protocol does not use Steamworks as a form of DRM". So to me personally, that's not requiring me to suffer through multiple forms of DRM. And Uniloc is basically a one-off thing the first time you install the game.. (well, until you get around to installing it on another computer...or have uninstalled it and later reinstall it) not having to check on it every time you try to run the game.... So you buy the game... you download the game... you have the game install.. you have the activation of that particlar game installation... then you play the game.... I'm just not getting what about that seems terribly difficult compared to so many games with annoying third party DRM's that require some other software running. GTAIV's combination of having to run the "RockStar Social Club" and the "Games for Windows" before you even get the game to start loading...

No.. You're confusing different aspects of Steam. Steam itself, on it's own, is a delivery system to download things. The Steamcraft DRM is a seperate matter. Yes, usually it's used when you download via Steam. But it isn't an automatic part of EVERYTHING that you get from steam. Steamcraft just usually runs in conjunction with Steam downloads, so most people tend to view them as a single thing when they're actually just two things that work together. However, with Alpha Protocol Steamcraft is not used. It doesn't check or require anything from the game to instal or activate. You only use the Steam side of it to download the game. The game solely uses the Uniloc drm as a method of activation.

As has been mentioned in the Sega forum.. and quoted a whole buncha times on various of the AP threads here.. Steam can be used to download the game. It's a medium to download the game. But Steam is not used as a DRM. Steam does not check anything beyond the fact that you have paid for the game. Once you download and install the game .. (which, again.. Steam does not use any DRM to check on) you only have the Uniloc DRM.. 5 activations at any one time across 5 pc's. And a seriously simple and easy way to deactivate them. Even if a computer crashes and you haven't uninstalled it.. you can log onto the website and deactivate it... Or when you next reinstall the game (if you happen to have used all 5 activations) you get a "you've already used 5 activations, do you want to de-activate an old use to activate this install?" option... Simple, clean. Not that invasive. And once again.. Not using Steam DRM

Hey, to throw in the odd idea... does a Mass Effect film have to be about Shephard and the Reapers? Or would it be based more on the idea of Mass Effect as the Universe, rather then that specific story? I seem to recall hearing some interview last year where Bioware talked about Mass Effect as a franchise and possibly doing other things set in the universe... Not just the action-shooter-rpg trilogy set around Shep... Of course, I might be confused and memory hazey......

Some new footage to watch.. but that voiceover.. Talk about reading a script woodenly. That and talking about active abilities as "perks"....

We've spent the last year talking about this game The moments of pause, then a brief amount of publicity in some form causing another major stir.. Repeat every month or so... Now there was the last couple of months, a fair bit of talk, but this week it's all anticipation and waiting to get the game in our hands to try it out and then have something to say about it..

There's something about that music video... I keep finding myself going back to watch it again... it's.... invading my mind..

It's not the heat that's getting to me... it's the damned humidity that's lingering around the coast. It just feels so damn heavy! and oppressive...

At some point I keep meaning to getting back to GTAIV and actually finishing it off... I'd opened up the last island..and then stopped for some reason.. Now it's like 9 months later and I can't quite stir myself to actually return.. Ah well.. Alpha Protocol soon to enjoy delving into in a couple more days..

"We are the Ninja-Pirates.. for we are the Shadows that go 'Aaaarr!' in the night..."

Personally, I was mostly being tongue-in-cheek when I mentioned the horror of their DRM as a reason for their losses. While I know a fair few people (and myself included) who didn't buy AC2 and the latest Splinter Cell purely because of that form of annoying DRM, I do doubt that there was a large majority of people boycotting the product. Especially since the pc game market isn't exactly as huge as the console versions these days... But I do think that the general fuss about the DRM has had an effect on Ubisofts reputation, which can have all sorts of knock-on effects...

I could always understand the deep roads grind fest from a story perspective.. you were headed into the area where hordes of the bad guys lurk, grow and constantly threaten.. it makes sense that as you get deeper you'd be constantly battling them... But from a game perspective..it did get quite annoying as grindfests go.. The swings and balance of story vs gameplay...

Because you can resist anything but temptation?

Nice concept.. adds more inspiration to the urges to spy and sneak and cause general chaos in the game when it arrives..

Having a little replay of Prototype... a little bit of gore and violence can go a long way in the right mood..

It's fairly simple. "Serious Gamers" aren't the customer base most companies use these days. The big market is in the "Casual Gamer" who usually tends more towards the consoles and the "quick n easy" format that's simple to get into. Until the latter half of this decade, the "serious gamer" tended to be a touch more of the traditional nerd/geek or general enthusiast in computer related areas.. And who would quite cheerfully spend hour after hour playing a game. Now it's starting to open up to a whole bunch of other people. The "casual gamer" is the majority of people who buy and play the games, but they don't put in the many hours to establish the sort of skill sets (and yes, there are exceptions of casual gamers having serious natural skill) that the "serious gamers" develop. So games get made with a lot more hand holding and general ease of use compared to ye olde games. Discuss.

Tsk.. a good western game sounds like a certain win. Dang it. I just have to wait for them to get around to that pc version... sigh I could almost pout. But that would be too dangerous on these forums...