Drowsy Emperor

I remember that race... It practically broke the game

Weird. I have one Razer mouse that uses Synapse but I don't even use it. As soon as you set the settings on the mouse the way you like them you don't even need to install the drivers because it remembers everything and works as soon as you plug it in. That use of Synapse was pretty good. Otherwise the program itself is slow and a bit buggy. Honestly, after quite a bit of experience with Razer and Logitech gamer mice, the more expensive models (as in more expensive than the Logitech MX518 or the cheapest Razer equivalent) are a waste of money, because all the added DPI doesn't make any difference the sensors already being more than sensitive enough.

I wanted to play the Witcher 2 but my PC can't run it decently and all my friends said it wasn't as interesting as the first one. Plus, I think Persona 3 and FFXII were the final nails in the coffin of my experience with the RPG genre. I feel like screaming at the prospect of an hour or more of boring fights before the next story morsel, of spending 30+ hours grinding and 5-10 hours experiencing the story (which is likely to be on the level of an average hollywood movie at best). Really, its no wonder the genre is practically dead.

Oh well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Really no one knows just how far the WiiU can be pushed at this point - just compare release titles for the PS3/XB and the latest games.

Well I didn't hate it, but I was pretty indifferent to it. It didn't seem to be a game made for the same crowd as FFX, which is strange, considering its a sequel.

I'm reading similar things but I find them hard to believe. Nintendo might have an approach that goes more towards innovation (or gimmicks) than hardware power but they aren't that thick, to put the equivalent of a 7 year old cpu into a new console. There seems to be a lot of deliberate misinformation around, probably organized by the competition. Specifically, the weak CPU claim came from the developer of Metro: Last Light and here is their clarification: http://gonintendo.co...story&id=191294 Regardless, isn't the Batman game and the new CoD running at 1080p without issues and looking as good or better than the PS3/XB version? I think the WiiU uses half the power of the Xbox360, and that may be why the CPU isn't as powerful as we'd expect, the CPU is also said to be out-of-order, where the Xbox360's is in order execution, which makes it harder to code for, especially in terms of gameplay, but you get better performance in the things that don't need out of order execution. I could find only rumours about 1080p on Arkham City and a few other games. I expect Trine 2 and Rayman Legends to be 1080p. Nintendo games are 720p, and I think that's most telling. Reviewers of the game have said the image they're seeing is not as crisp as 1080p. Eurogamer did comparisons screenshots of WiiU, PS3, Xbox360, and PC, and only the PC was 1080p. I would have expected a console released this year to be 1080p across the board, that's what I assumed it would be early in the year, but now I'll be surprised. Maybe it also has something to do with the tablet that the WiiU has. I'm going to need to see it for myself, or have a trusted source take it apart before I'll be confident it's rendering these games in 1080p and not just upscaling 720p. *shurg* who knows It all comes down to games anyway, horsepower is all well and good but if the games suck its all for nothing. And on the other hand if the games are good, gamers will gobble it up regardless. I simply find it strange that they would put something so outdated in a console they want to use to reclaim (or at least participate in) the core market. With the Wii they were doing their own thing and the hardware in the console was irrelevant for their purposes. It was also, after all the cheapest console by far. WiiU is more expensive, more core gamer oriented (judging by the traditional controllers) - and you can't justify that without the hardware to back it up...

I'm reading similar things but I find them hard to believe. Nintendo might have an approach that goes more towards innovation (or gimmicks) than hardware power but they aren't that thick, to put the equivalent of a 7 year old cpu into a new console. There seems to be a lot of deliberate misinformation around, probably organized by the competition. Specifically, the weak CPU claim came from the developer of Metro: Last Light and here is their clarification: http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=191294 Regardless, isn't the Batman game and the new CoD running at 1080p without issues and looking as good or better than the PS3/XB version?

Thats cool. I'm sure it will get many good games. I'm completely serious. I'm still mulling it over. I'm thinking that considering the improved hardware, Nintendo's realization that they have to cater to the core audience as well and the fact that they have a head start over the competition - that all this will lead to better games for the WiiU than the Wii. I'm attracted to the backwards compatibility to every Nintendo console (through emulation or otherwise) since I never had one. I'm attracted to the price, which isn't much more than a PS3 but is a newer console. Since I'll still have a CRT tv for a while and the original Wii is standard definition I can use that intervening period before I go full HD to play over the best of the Wii games at their optimal resolution, at bargain prices. However, I'm not sure if the WiiU works on a standard def TV, I can't seem to find explicit info about that. The fact is that "hardcore" games in the vein of first or third persion action AAA titles turn me off at this point. They all pander to teenagers so much that I'd much rather relax with the new Super Mario. They will be the main selling points of the new XB and PS so I'm sort of indifferent towards them. Finally there are only 3 games I wan't to play on the PS3. All of them are short titles with no replayability. That's not enough justification to buy it.

The sole exception, if you exclude ETA, 17N, IRA etc... (P)IRA was the only one to have religious connotations, loyalists as well, I'll give you that. Yeah, you're right. Though the point I was trying to make was that Islamic terror is a more credible threat given its scope of operation and widespread support - probably as much as or more of a threat than leftist terrorists were when the USSR was still an ideological force. Those groups you named are (or were) a problem, but, honestly, a very localized one (1-2 countries), with no ambition to go beyond that. While I'm sure that they are plenty of right wing cells and groups with similar mentality as Breivik, I just don't see them uniting and mass murdering european citizens. Breivik act was extreme, even for them.

At the risk of getting ostracized I'll say I'm seriously considering getting the WiiU.

What of it? His act was typical of political terrorism, at least that's how he presented it. There was no religious component. Besides he's one sole exception of a native European terrorist in the last couple of decades (since the Rote Armee Fraktion and other revolutionary leftists in the eighties). The example can't possibly be used to prove a trend, because there's nothing else to back it up. With Islamic terror you can point out a ton of examples so a definite trend is obvious. To those who are saying that education will change the issue. That does not stand, some of the muslim terrorists in Europe were born and raised in european countries, went to european schools - grew up in a completely different society from their parents yet they decided that those societies weren't worth living in (but are worth fighting against).

Interesting, I find the optional content in JRPG's like superbosses boring. The concept of working (for dozens of hours) just to gain the ability to beat a boss who often has no bearing on the story at all is completely alien to me. I almost always abandon a game once the main quest is up if the optional content doesn't expand on the story, world or characters - gameplay challenges just aren't interesting enough.

That wasn't relevant to what he asked - ie. whether a certain nationality was involved. As far as I've been able to find, about 2/3 of terrorist attacks in Denmark (and I'm assuming the world) were political in nature rather than religious, so in that regard it would've been more relevant to point out his ideological stand point. In fact speaking of religion the most prevalent form of terrorism involving it is aimed at opposing branches within the same religion - Sunni and Shiite, Catholic and Protestant.. and yet terrorism is somehow linked to Islam due to one day and some rather pissed off Palestinians (and that's political not religious).. It's quite interesting actually, but a little sad. One generalization I'll make of muslims though, they are horrible at PR... Except chechnyans aren't slavic people. They're basically of the same sort of tribal muslims you get in afghanistan, Khazakstan etc, caucasian asians with a fully muslim identity. If a white orthodox christian russian blew himself up your point would stand - as it is, it just points back to muslims (in your case to a member of a muslim minority from russia).

If the game mechanics stayed the same (i.e. no engine and limited programming work required), I wouldn't be surprised if a team could make interesting stories every 1-2 years with Infinity Engine (I say this having no idea what challenges the workflow itself presents in terms of tools and whatnot). At what point is "repetition" bad? People say they'd love more IE games. Does this mean that they're okay with the mechanics remaining unchanged and just getting new stories/adventures with the engine? Or would that eventually grow stale and the only reason we want more Infinity Engine style games is because they are not over done? Is it possible to have "Too much BG2/PST?" People want to relive the wonder and novelty they felt while playing those games. The ability of a game to produce that feeling isn't tied to technology but to the vision of its creators, their creative freedom and ability. Its indicative that you chose BG2 and PST. Those games are visionary works. That was apparent even at the time and has only been reinforced since. You can't replicate or force a visionary work, it happens on its own or it doesn't. Icewind Dale and ID2 for example, aren't visionary. They're just decently done games, not groundbreaking in any way. BG1 was a sort of pioneering effort, its value more historical and in setting the stage for what came after. You could churn out ID style adventures on a yearly basis. Whether they'd be any good and how long it would take for people to tire of them is a roll of the dice. I don't think it would take all that long, except for the most fanatical fans. Also, its an uphill battle to make something wondrous by sticking to an already beaten path, because to make an experience unique you have to move away from what the player already knows.

This is more an issue of "They aren't constantly putting out the game I want to play." The way people talk they would love an annual instalment of an Infinity Engine game. I have serious doubts that any creatively significant work can be forced into a perpetual yearly release schedule. Anything and everything would degenerate to repetition at best, garbage at worst.

Of course, its also trashy gun porn with a nice veneer - but that the FPS genre for you.

Hehe, you are in luck, many people share that opinion with you. Call of Duty series has sold millions after all For a reply see Yahtzee's review of Medal of Honor: Warfighter Btw the problem with Call of Duty isn't the game concept itself (after all, most PC gamers loved CoD2 back in the day), its the fact that they're selling the same game for the 15th time.

Now that is just sad Architect. To return to the topic. Less complex gameplay mechanics might be a good thing actually. Maybe not necessarily in Skyrim but in general. I used to think that complexity is something desirable but now I'm slowly changing my mind. After all, the point of the game is to sell you an experience. It stands to reason that much of the stuff role playing games decorate themselves in, like leveling, skill points, endless loot etc. - is just arbitrary rubbish whose only purpose is to be a cog in the game system's mathematical model and give out tangible, visible rewards to the player for "good behavior". What does all that have to do with being a brave warrior, or a sneaky thief? You certainly aren't going to give a credible curve of someone's development from beginner to grandmaster swordsman. That sort of thing takes years in real life. Instead they put in a silly game of numerical optimization (with elements of a reflex game if the game is real time) and call it "role playing". So, now I'm in the camp that things should be kept as simple as possible, stripped of all the math crap and that the experience should be at the forefront of it all.

Eagerly awaiting Primordia (from the same dudes who made Gemini Rue and Resonance).

A character is a resource, in this case a complete and useful one into which substantial money was dumped. Most games are so pathetically low on content due to how much they cost to produce that cutting anything for good would be complete lunacy (from a business perspective). As always, story and immersion have to take a back seat to economic logic.

It came second only to NWN in the RPG mediocrity contest.

Never tried EVE ? GW2 is a different feel from WoW, even Rift had that of sorts. TOR really could have lost VA for the non-class story and be no worse for wear. And the protocol droid could lose his voice as well. I'm talking about the feeling that the game could play itself, but it needs me to grind its numbers the same way people need monkeys in a zoo. To see something swing on a tire for entertainment.

You have a lot of time on your hands apparently

I was going to play these three to the end: Final Fantasy XII Persona 4 Digital Devil Saga 2 and then I'm done with JRPG's for the foreseeable future. Now, I know I'm going to play FFXII to the end because I'm almost there. I'm not sure I can slog through DDS's grind, and am hanging on only due to the promise of a good story. Just spoiled the ending on YT on purpose, and decided that its not worth it. A few nice ideas but in typical anime fashion, all jumbled up. Meh I'm even more skeptical about Persona 4 because out of the 70+ hours that it takes to finish Persona 3 at least 50 were spent on grinding social links, grinding attributes and grinding combat. By the time the game ended I was physically and mentally exhausted. I don't want to go through the same process again for a storyline with a potentially crappy outcome.

Man I still haven't seen an MMO that didn't feel exactly like every other MMO.