Thorton_AP

What are sales like in Australia? This is the type of thing where the costs will go down only when those people decide to stop buying the games at their released price.

They are the publisher for the game.

Hopefully the epic space flying dinoshark with laser beams is still in!

As Enoch states, it's a game victory condition that ultimately doesn't necessitate "Need a huge empire."

Your points were always an attempt to interpret why the game didn't grow on others (i.e. more mainstream/casual gamers) right?

I've done that before, well actually they never gave them to me, that would never have happend with a download. I did go back after I got home, all angry and stuff. Hahaha that's awesome. But yeah, I saw later that Gifted wasn't fully aware of how GoG's system works. No DRM = copy that installer and do what you want. There's no phoning home at all (which is why I thought that crybabies over the GOG "shutdown" over not getting their games is BS. I screamed "NOOOO" because I <3 GOG, not because I needed games that I already downloaded from them!)

IMO, its because having a physical copy gives people a feeling of ownership where a digital copy is at the discretion of the supplier. The faux GoG going out of business and the resultant "what about my games" is a good example of this. If we could somehow "own" the digital version I dont think as many people would be adverse to it. You can own the GoG games. They are DRM free and there's nothing stopping you from copying them to disc or anything like that. While I can understand the concern with respect to Steam or other DD platforms, complaining "what about my games" with Good Old Games is akin to complaining about buying a game at a store and forgetting to take the boxed copy home with you.

The unfortunate thing is that retailers get pissy if publishers sell their game via DD for less than the retail boxed copy. The retailers themselves don't see a DD option as being less valuable (and hence accepting of a lower price point) than their boxed copy. Or the opposite, if you will: They don't believe that the extras in their boxed copy should result in a higher price than a DD option.

Um, yeah I actually did. You know, after I made the post. But you seem to have your mind made up over things already. Next up you should tell me what I'm thinking. Sure. It's always nice to ignore those aspects of the game that shred your arguments and make you look the fool. Ah, so it's realistic because you "think" so? If you think it's realistic for an "untrained" spy selected for an elite super secret organization to be as capable with pistols as I am then you're welcome to your opinion. If you think that it's realistic for Mike to be as inaccurate with his pistols while on the move (and take as long as he does to still line up a shot even with "average" skill), well then I think you're just fooling yourself because you're a fan of the game. An expert with pistols is still going to be able to fire accurately at distance while moving. I know this because I witness it first hand. THis is fine as a game mechanic. I loved it in Deus Ex and Bloodlines too. But it's not realistic. Because you say absurd things all the time. From telling me that I didn't actually read something you said after I made a post (that's mostly just arrogant I guess), to thinking that a game like Alpha Protocol has weapon gameplay that is in some way a representation of actual reality. Too bad Mike has a finite and arbitrary distance at which he can accurately line up and fire his critical hit. Better pray he's not 15.1 meters away, because I can only line up my shots at distances up to 15.0 meters. Especially when it's an accurate reflection of the actual game. This is most certainly a GAME, with several concessions made for the purposes of fun instead of realism. Sorry, weren't you the one saying that Mike's gunplay skills are appropriate because you cannot run around headshotting people (or something)? No, but that doesn't deny that it exists in the game. Simply because you choose to not use a skill, doesn't mean that it does not exist in the game as an active design choice. You can't add skills that let you go invisible and say "we're making a realistic shooter, you just have to actively choose the skills that make it realistic." What you've now done is metagame. If this is the best you can surmise then you have nothing to stand upon. I have no issues with skills like Chain Shot or Shadow Operative being in the game (and I found both of them fun). The fact that they are available and a part of the overall conscious design decision is irrefutable. You want a super-realistic spy experience, I suspect you shouldn't be playing Alpha Protocol (or probably any video game). Of course, call me when you get bored. If you found this game to be a realistic spy experience, then you're welcome to your opinion. Congratulations on metagaming. This doesn't demonstrate that AP is a realistic spy experience, let alone a super-realistic spy experience. It doesn't refute Zoraptor's statement either. I'd say it almost reinforces it.

I really liked the music one http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/vie...Videogame-Music

@Maria - Do you always play the Earth Map? One thing I have really enjoyed with the last two iterations of Civ has been the random map generation. Continents for the win. The game states that the cultural victory requires you to build the utopia project, which you unlock by completing 5 of the policy trees. The cultural requirements for acquiring new policies goes up with more cities. The tooltip for culture explicitly states this.

The "interest" in the resource has nothing to do with the overall happiness model. That's simply for "We love the king" day's which increase your growth rate. Depending on the speed of the game you're playing, they tend to last like 10-20 turns. Once it's done, they request another resource you don't already have. For the happiness model, if you get a new luxury resource you get +5 happiness. This will never go away as long as you keep that luxury resource. Pollution in the old games required a stupid amount of micromanagement and I don't miss that at all. Lack of corruption is disappointing though. I liked the incentive for keeping your nation more continuous.

Probably. I considered posting some too

Haha that is a neat idea for the workers. AI build order is definitely bunk. They should probably weight it to 1 per city or so (my not so hard rule of thumb). I'm still playing the bejebus out of the game though hahahahahahahaha

I agree that the difficulty of the game has compromised the overall quality. I still love the game and some of the improvements, but for a challenge I find myself wanting more of Civ 4's challenge. But when I play Civ 4, I wish I had the hexes and style of Civ 5 hahahaha. Hopefully improvements can be made through patches and or expansions. I do have one game going where Rome has conquered pretty much the entire other continent and is beating me in almost everything (as Russia). I'm going to go back to that game and see how it plays out because he appears to have a military force of significance (artillery and infantry).

ROFL

An archer would be able to shoot the trireme too

I don't think happiness affects required food, just extra (i.e. growth rate). Losing the maritime states is a big one for me too. If you're at war and/or there's barbarians nearby (unlikely at 1935) they can prevent tiles from being worked.

Any notable differences between the two?

I didn't see casting time or cool down, but the PC was a fighter. The part I saw looked a great deal like Dynasty Warriors gameplay. Leaked german vid. There's clearly cooldown in the very video you linked!

Some spells had actual cast times with a cast bar, but I don't think that DAO's fireball was one of them. The "cast time" was simply the animation to cast such spell IIRC. Most spells in DAO were like this actually.

I puppet state until I am ready to fully annex. I find burn and replace gamey and only do it if I find the city is in a poor position. I don't think ignoring happiness is a viable strategy. Below 10 happiness your armies no longer fight as effectively, and some of your production and/or income is outright halted (I can't remember the details. I just remember getting it and going "oh god I have to change this now"). I do wish the game would allow you to destroy constructed buildings.

Whatever helps you sleep at night I guess. All this is is a rationalization. You rationalize your piracy by saying you wouldn't have bought it otherwise. I wonder how many times you rationalize that the content isn't really worth paying for it after you've already consumed it in its entirety. Cognitive dissonance is a wonderful thing and human beings jump through hoops. Because you can't afford it all just makes me shake my head. You can't pirate it all either. Must be having a crisis over there eh? People can argue whether or not it helps or hurts. Few people supply the numbers, and the only ones that are really interested in doing so are the industries themselves. So to let themselves sleep at night people will rationalize that they are overstating it, regurgitate that one act of piracy does not mean one lost sale, etc. etc. Since we're talking about being forced to do things though, here's a fact. Because people such as yourself pirate software, legit paying customers are forced to deal with DRM in order to consume their favorite media. I don't care much for the music aspect of things, but as a through and through gamer you can be sure I'm not at all delighted at the hoops I and other legitimate customers need to jump through in response to people such as yourself being "unsure" if they want to buy it. If you don't think the game is worth the $60 when it comes out, try this: wait until the price goes down. Pirating software is purely selfish. And the selfishness of pirates is compromising the industry because now devs and publishers feel compelled to include some sort of DRM. Many feel they no longer get appropriate value specifically because of the game's DRM. Ironically they then use this to justify pirating it themselves. I could go on, but it's getting late. Enjoy trying out your free stuff. People like me will keep footing the bill and suffering for it. EDIT: As a note, I used to pirate software and music too. But I stopped because I realized I was just being a hypocrite and felt I was further compromising the industry. While I dealt with this realization my piracy continually slowed until the last piece of software I pirated. This was Jedi Academy. THe game was okay and fun enough. I wasn't sure about buying it to start, so I wanted to just try it out. I ended up beating the game, and I realized just how difficult it is to knowingly pay for something after realizing that you're likely never going to pick it up again. Went and bought it and I don't even know where the box is any more. I can't even remember the last time I downloaded music illegally. I just use youtube to try it out.

Copious amounts of Civ5

So you do pirate sometimes? Dude, eliciting the admission is so much more fun, 'K? I figured I was