Keyrock

Rays are still lookin' good for at least a wild card, though they've lost much of their cushion. There are still over 40 games left this season so we're far from deciding anything. The Sawx were on the verge of eliminating the Os from the division race, but this latest stumble has let them back in. I would feel a lot more comfortable with a 2 team race than a 3 team race.

The "Hello, Carol" moment was amazing. I'm so psyched that the final stretch has begun and also sad, because the best show I've ever watched is almost over. The Walt and Hank showdown has begun. **** is about to go down. I think in the end

The Sawx are in the midst of the toughest stretch they have remaining on their schedule, two road trips with a 3 game set against the Yankees at Fenway sandwiched in between. Basically they're spending the vast majority of August on the road. They just came off a rough 4 game set in KC where they lost 3 out of 4 to the scrappy Royals (I can't believe I just wrote that). Luckily, the Rays helped them out by going on a 5 game losing streak so the Sawx actually stretched their lead to 3 games despite the rough series. On the down side, this allowed Baltimore back into the race. Hopefully they make it out of August still in 1st and get Buchholz back for the final push for the division.

There were going to be people crying and moaning no matter what. If they modeled it after VI/VII then there would be people crying that they "ruined" the game by not modeling it after the earlier games. I loved Clouds of Xeen and Darkside of Xeen so I'm happy they set that as their target. If they has set Mandate of Heaven or For Blood and Honor as their target I would have been happy with that too. I'm just happy they're making an old school game.

I'm reading through the core book PDF while waiting to get my hands on the physical book, likely later this week, or sometime next week. Supposedly there is an adventure or two included in the core book (I haven't gotten that far yet), so I'd likely run those first while getting accustomed to the system and setting. I'm down to GM, as I'm likely the only one with a core book right now, though this will likely take a little while to set up. It's a brand spanking new system, and from what I've read it's completely different than any system I have ever used before (granted that's not that long a list), so it's not like setting up a campaign in something that everyone is familiar with, like D&D, or even something that likely only I am familiar with, like Rolemaster. As a coincidence, both Rolemaster and D&D are systems that Monte Cook worked for, but I digress. Back to the cards, I admit I went through my library of Steam games and fired up games just to get the cards. Then I'd Alt+Tab out of the games and surf the web or read the aforementioned PDF, or make myself a sandwich while the games were "playing".

I just sell them whenever I get them, I don't care about levels or badges or backgrounds, cold hard electronic Steam Wallet cash is all I care about. I put them up at a price that's fairly high but also one that I think they will sell at... eventually. I'm in no hurry to sell them, as long as they sell eventually. I'm just out to maximize profit. I've already gotten a game for free and another practically free due to the cards. I have no problem with the cards and feel no guilt for taking advantage of dumbasses, they're there to be taken advantage of.

Here I am riding atop Baxter, the cute little fella on the left is my newest companion, Wolfgang Amadeus Orczart. That's the base skin, who knows what the other skins will look like. LadyC can go dual cat, I can go dual wolf style.

I took advantage of some gorgeous weather and went for the longest bike ride I've been on so far this year. About 30 miles in approximately 2 hours, including 5 significant climbs, at least 3 of which would be categorized climbs in a professional cycling race. Good times.

I'm actually glad they're trying to emulate the older turn-based M&M games, even though, I too really liked VI & VII.

If I get more than one, I'll give you one. The green ones are already pretty cheap...but I haven't bought one yet. Not sure I even want one, really. Seems like just another reskinned version of the basic dog companion, and I don't have an Orc to co-ordinate with one. Curious tho...are there supposed to be blue wolves (rare I assume)? Or just green? Just green as far as I can tell. And yeah, they're nothing special, basically a weaker blue skelly dog.

The Bunker: Wasteland Declassified

If I get more than one, I'll give you one.

It always makes me shake my head seeing how stupid people are. I've seen the Orc Wolf Companion already on sale on AH for a meager price (because no one will pay a good price for it right now). Why would you sell the wolf right now while the event is till running? Why would people buy the wolf when they could get it themselves for free? Why would you sell it right now when the market will be at its most flooded? People just don't understand supply and demand. I'm still holding on to the blue skelly dog I got during the invasion event. I've watched the price on them climb slowly and the supply wither. I'll wait another month or two then sell when mine is nearly the only one left for maximum profit. I'll do the same with the wolf. Dumbasses.

From the text of the update I presume EA actually sold the rights completely ("after getting the game in our hands[..] we plan on distributing it for free [then selling]"). If they were talking about EA as part of the we they probably wouldn't say 'our hands', as it's always been in EA's hands. Might be overthinking it, but EA has sold most of the Wasteland stuff off to InXile prior, rather than licence it. In any case it clearly isn't pure kindness on EA's part that it's happening, but they could have just sat on the rights which is what most companies do. Okay. In any case, it's a smart move by EA rather than the boneheaded spiteful move publishers often do of "the game is making us no money but we'll block any attempt to revive it and potentially make us a few pennies just to be spiteful d-bags". Whatever deal Fargo and EA struck up is likely a lump sum up front of a percentage of Wasteland 1 earnings for a defined period of time. In either case, they make a little bit of money where they would have made zero money otherwise. I'll give EA credit for "doing the right thing" and earning a (likely meager) reward instead of scoffing at said deal and throwing away said (likely meager) reward just to be d-bags.

I think it's less a good will gesture from EA and more a shrewd marketing move. They're not making any money off Wasteland 1 anyway and handing out free copies to the Kickstarter backer can help spread the word about the somewhat forgotten game. Then when it goes for sale on Steam and GOG they may sell some copies. Even if it's only a few copies, that's a few more copies than the zero they would have sold otherwise.

Patch notes say they fixed 'some amount of save corruptions'. http://www.miserymod.com/?p=368 Hmm, I think I'll wait until they fix all the save corruptions. It's so frustrating to do something really hard and noteworthy only to lose all that effort due to a save corruption.

My viewpoint is this. I already have Steam, I don't need yet another service. The whole point of having Steam is having most of my library centralized in one place (2 in my case since I have a bunch of games on GOG also, GOG is a bit different though). Continuing to add more services is counterproductive to centralizing my library. I've already signed my soul over to Valve, I don't need to sign my soul over to Dread Lord EArts, or Ubisoft, or Microsoft. So, I say no to Origin, no to UPlay, no to <horrific Microsoft "service" that shall not be named>. I've taken one step down that slippery slope, I'm not taking any more.

Did they fix the saves corrupting in the latest Misery patch?

You've been able to get it as abandonware for years now, though that may change if they put it up on GOG and Steam. Note: I have no clue as to whether abandonware is legal or not. Edit: Also, more screenshots! I like that locomotive.

Yeah, I mentioned this in the Random Video Game News Thread, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt for this to have its own thread.

Yeah, the goblin with the hard hat on is pretty sweet.

Details about combat in Might & Magic X Nothing unexpected here, but it's good to see progress being made. From a strictly stylistic point of view, I like the look of the interface, even if it does take up a bit more of the screen than I'd like, though, curiously, that bothers me less in a first person view game than in an isometric or overhead view game, for whatever reason.

While still technically BioWare, the Austin studio is effectively a different studio. Outside of lending a hand from time to time, it'd be akin to worrying because DICE is making Battlefield the same time we're making DAI. Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying.

Gender reactivity in Wasteland 2 I actually hope they don't spend too much time trying to make sure that every possible part makeup gets absolutely equal advantages and disadvantages, because then the game will become homogeneous. Certain characters or party makeups should naturally have life be a little bit tougher for them. To use an older Obsidian game as an example, I thought in NWN2 if you, for example made a Grey Orc character (like me), it would have been cool if the game was much harsher toward you for much of it. I mean, most of the game takes place in predominantly human communities, with some elves and dwarves and so on. It would make sense that an Orc would be discriminated against, perhaps even outright attacked, in such a location, but the game barely notices, and beyond a line here and there, there's no difference whatsoever to playing a human or an elf or a halfling. Conversely, an Orc character should gain some advantages when dealing with the Orc tribes in the game, but since that's a relatively small portion of the game, those advantages would likely not be equal to all the disadvantages you would get in Neverwinter or Highcliff or any other predominantly human location, and I would be fine with that, in fact I would want it that way. Anyway, it's great to see projects like this focusing on making a living and breathing, believable world through character interaction and reactivity, rather than focusing on shiny graphics, SPLOSHUNS!, and set pieces, then just glossing over character development and reactivity, like so many big budget games do these days.

We wanted to do 3, because it gives us more time per project. What I meant by "what we wanted to do" was that fan outrage didn't crack an EA skin. I actually had considered emailing Aaryn Flynn suggesting we push to 3 projects to effectively move to 3 year dev cycle, only to have him mention it at the following studio meeting. Are you confusing bi-annual for biennial? Or do I not understand the math for how releasing every 4 months gives you more time per release? However that works out to a 3 year cycle, I am happy to hear. But also very curious as to how. Errr, we wanted to do 3 projects, so that we can roughly release one a year and take 3 years to make each one. I thought it was inferred when people were talking about "annual releases." (which would mean one BioWare game a year) It seems I misunderstood you. EDIT: Yeah. Since in my mind we were talking about "1 release per year" I totally read your "do two releases a year" as simply "work on two projects at once." As long as BioWare has a large enough team that they can work on 3 projects concurrently and not spread themselves too thin, then it sounds like a solid plan. That was my fear when I heard about the turn around time on DA2 following DA:O. My fear was, they're working on ME3, they're working on SWTOR, and now they're also working on DA2, all at the same time? I'm scared the quality will suffer on at least one of these projects. And, well, in my mind, at least, my fears were confirmed.