pmp10

Correct me if I'm wrong but weren't republicans essentially in favor of PRISM? It doesn't seem to me like there is much of a split in political circles.

You don't really have to right to know every detail of software you use. It just needs to fulfill certain requirements.

I think you overestimate the ability to effect things with voting. Frankly I believe that no matter which president US elected PRISM would still happen.

I doubt you will ever get to anyone responsible for these changes or get any documentation. If you need to know what the changes do you'll just have to debug them.

Actually that's only SR3 and open world part of SR2. The series wasn't always like that and it certainly worked when it could strike a proper balance.

It's pretty cute that they still maintain that Syndicate was a strategy game. And I'm not sure why would you try to make successor to the sequel when the original was far more popular.

Because writing drivers and operating systems for the myriad of PC configuration just so your game could have a better access to hardware is realistic. It's not like they would have to write them from scratch, and key manufacturers would be supplying drivers if direct access was such a big deal. You're arguing against yourself, it's not realistic because direct access to hardware is not important. Not really. The benefit of direct access is certainly there. It's just that difficulty of achieving it on PCs is simply staggering. It's the price you have to pay for not-standardized hardware.

The income levels will vary wildly depending on location and so will purchasing power in gaming. So what? Instead of pointless whining, why don't people use Google to convert Rand or Rubles into Dollars and answer the question? Because it's not just the income level that are different but also game prices. 100 euros will on average buy you much more games in Ukraine than in UK. Hence the income question loses validity when taken outside the context of US market.

The income levels will vary wildly depending on location and so will purchasing power in gaming.

Because writing drivers and operating systems for the myriad of PC configuration just so your game could have a better access to hardware is realistic.

Perhaps as made by football hooligans.

Direct comparison of computation power between Consoles and PCs is a pointless effort. Not only are consoles designed to avoid the traditional bottlenecks that hamper PC performance but also allow more direct access to hardware that PC just won't do. Couple that with hardware standardization and you have a far better long-term result than any TFLOP count would indicate.

Next gen heading to always-online. Unsurprisingly publishers will try to push forward where Microsoft failed.

Facts can be manipulated to suit a persons point of view. No. Facts by definition stay the same no matter what your point of view is. You may interpret them however you wish in the larger context but they are something unchangeable.

I hear you, that's probably what happened. I am hoping Steam support will just update my German version with an English one. I am not sure of the logistics but I can't imagine its that hard to do? Since some German versions are specially censored in accordance with local law that may be impossible.

Intresting opinion piece: I’m a little tired of being a murderer I've been having similar reaction of late and have been wondering why. I think it's that technology has progressed to the point where games are so immersive that sheer amount of violence and huge bodycounts hurts the experience.

Seems so. Too bad, I liked Faith's look in the original, not that she looks bad here or anything. The one thing that put me off in that trailer was that it seems that Dice took the route of "we'll fix the horrific combat" rather than "we'll get rid of the combat entirely and let the people do what they really want to do, run". Hopefully with the game being "open world" that will mean every single battle will be avoidable if you're creative and perceptive enough. They are also pushing 'combat always an option'. If anything I would expect that anything but combat will be avoidable.

Polls showed that majority doesn't mind. FWIW they also showed that majority doesn't believe whistle-blowing to be treason.

The general simplification when it came to weapons/moves/combat score and boss fights. The latter got so bad with the pull chains that any form of regular movement was undesirable. Just so I understand what you mean are you saying that using the chain pull strategy made the boss fights too easy? It's not so much that they were easy as shallow. Spamming the same combination of chain pulls allowed you to doge attacks and close distance that would ordinarily require some complex dodging or maneuvering.

The general simplification when it came to weapons/moves/combat score and boss fights. The latter got so bad with the pull chains that any form of regular movement was undesirable.

That sounds extremely unlikely. There are already voices insisting that MS is trying to do a 'tail-end' steam-like business model with Xbox one which should mean cheaper games or at least lower bottom prices. The problem is I don't think anyone trusts MS/publishers to lower prices to a level competitive with used games.

I know you said high profile games, but do you think the recent trend of Kickstarter games being released DRM free on GoG will change this? I really wish Kickstarter could change anything but just don't see that happening. Some people may see it as the start of the new publisher-less golden era of PC gaming. I think it's more of a last minute sell-out of once cherished names and titles before the shop closes doors. Can't say I agree but that issue aside consider this: Steam didn't stop the use of always-online DRM in Diablo 3 and Sim City. The only question now is whether always-online and F2P model are the future of PC gaming.

If you are going to recommend visions of dystopian future I'd say get 'Brave new World' instead. In the future no technologically advanced totalitarianism will need monitoring or repression. It's citizens will simply be incapable of any dissent whether by thought or action.

The only reason steam won out is because there are no high profile DRM-less PC games anymore. If publisher doesn't have their own platform they may as well use steam. It's not a given that the same logic will prevail with consoles as some competition is still happening there.

Learning the habits of potential customers have proven to be very good for business. MS will do it if they think they can get away with it.