Hurlshort

ET:QW shouldn't even be compared to the BF games, but to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. I thought W:ET was a lot better than BF1942. I played the Quake Wars demo, and it seems much faster than the BF series to me. I should give it another go, but I'm the kind of player who likes to find a good sniping spot and pick players off one by one. I find that's incredibly hard to do in many of the faster paced shooters.

It could be that you just don't like that type of game. Or maybe anything you don't like is terrible, my apologies. BF1942, BF2, and BF2142 are three of the best games I've ever played.

Actually I think Mass Effect is expected to be near Oblivion-numbers in order to be successful.

It's great to have that conviction, Sand, and I know you aren't alone. Unfortunately for your cause, there aren't enough willing to boycott EA to make any real impact on their financial success.

Hades, would you never buy an EA developed game, or an EA published game? EA getting the NFL exclusive rights is interesting. I was pretty bummed that they boxed out the competition, but then I remembered that Sierra used to make a great football game that really didn't need any NFL players or teams to be awesome. Front Page Sports Football was a great football game because of the gameplay and deep statistical roots. It let you design your own leagues easily. I think 2k sports and other groups are failing more due to lack of creativity and execution than a lack of an NFL deal. EA does let their sports titles get stagnant while rushing a new one out every year, but every few years they manage a pretty impressive overhaul. (although they've neglected the PC too much). This years iteration of hockey and football titles on the next-gen platforms (at least the 360) have been incredible, better than they've been in a long time. Agan, I think it's way too early to be doom and gloomy. EA has been making better decisions in the last couple years, they've improved faltering franchises and have a few non-traditional titles in the works. Bioware and Pandemic are both powerful development houses, and I doubt they'd embrace a deal that would let them get pushed around.

So...Americans are better at rebelling against authority?

EA published Valve's Orange Box, at least the one I picked up yesterday.

Really? It seems pretty smart to me. Most consumers don't care who publishes a title, so EA buys developers who are already going in a "new" direction and, viola, EA is publishing different titles in a new direction.

Eh, it's not bad to bring attention to environmental awareness, even if the science isn't perfect in his movie. Whether it's political or not, I'd rather us go overboard on protecting the earth than vice versa.

TF2. I'm terrible. Seriously bad. I don't know what it is. I'm decent at the Battlefield games, but something about these faster paced games makes me super sucky. I got killed pretty much all over the place. I also like Pyro, although I'm not sure how to finish folks off. I'll light a few people up, but they'll shoot me while they are burning. I also can't seem to figure out the spy game. I got a decent headshot as a sniper, but things are still moving too fast for me to get many good shots off. I guess I just need to practice. I also installed MotB, but I'm playing through the main campaign first as a blade guy (whatever the knife/kukri prestige class is) to see if I can finish it first. I've never played Half-Life 2, so I'll probably play through that and hope it improves my FPS skills.

Does that say Jack Black is starring in the game? Tim Shafer is one of the few folks who knows how to use humor in videogames well. Psychonauts made me nauseous, but I still played it quite a bit just for the comedy gold.

Huh? Have they started to cure cancer lately? Companies aren't 'evil' or 'good' in the world of business, unless they have something illegal as their main agenda. Anyhoo, maybe they have changed their business model on how to deal with developers and given them more space for their creativity, but sure DICE hasn't been up to much 'diverse' since 2004. Wow, you take me so seriously. It was just a lame joke. I really don't see this affecting Pandemic and Bioware in a negative way at all because they are both vibrant profitable companies. The companies EA killed were already running downhill at full speed, EA just milked what they could before they died. Westwood and Origin were in deep doodoo before EA bought them out. This is a very different business deal. It's also quite funny that I hear people clamoring for a KotOR 3 all the time. Bioware seems to refuse to get stuck churning out sequels. If EA really does get heavyhanded, you can look forward to a constant stream of sequels. But again, I don't see that happening, Bioware has enough weight to choose its own projects. In fact, EA needs Bioware and Pandemic much more than they need EA. So in essence, they hold the upper hand. And what's with all the complaining about Bioware's recent titles? Jeez, a few folks dislike Jade Empire and suddenly Bioware is no longer a good development studio. Bunch of fickle folks in this room. Anyways, I was reading the San Jose Mercury today, and they had this story with a picture of a Big Daddy and a claim that "Bioware produces RPG's like Bioshock". Awesome

Eh, EA as an evil entity is soooooooo 2 years ago.

EA has been working pretty hard to right the ship in the last couple years, so I don't see this as a negative at all. You realy think it was better when Microsoft was publishing Bioware's titles? Bioware is a big profitable developer and it's doubtful EA will do much to change that. There are already a couple developers in EA's stable that do very well and don't get much interference from the publisher. Also, I don't know what Daikin is talking about with DICE, they are sticking with a profitable franchise and they do a great job of implementing new concepts in each one. If I remember correctly, they already are at work on a different type of game and EA is supporting that decision.

I only saw a little clip of it. It looks like he just got his stick up too high. If he'd made contact in the chest, would we still have an issue? I don't know, I'll have to look for a better story on it. I miss NHL2night.

Very nice to offer it up Morgoth. Personally, I'm buying the Orange Box today, otherwise I would have deathmatched Pop for it.

Not really. Most companies are very honest about the fact they won't pull in 9 million people. They don't need to though, just getting a few hundred thousand people is more than enough to create solid revenue. Surprisingly few MMO's have shut down over the years.

I think it has something to do with MMO's making some companies a ton of money, and the fact that the revenue continues to flow in, whereas most games are only profitable for a few months after the release. Maybe we should offer to pay Obsidian $10 a month to make excellent single player RPGs. We'd only need about 100,000 people to buy into that idea.

On a side note, Lord of the Rings Online is really reminding me of my years playing AC, and has definitely recaptured the Turbine magic. They are also back to releasing epic updates every couple of months for free. Housing is next.

I'm an American, and I spent last Saturday at a Mosque for Ramadan with 80 of my middle schoolers. They are all Americans too, although i didn't check their papers. Many parents were there too. It was an open house, so there were city council members, Christian clergy, and I think a few Buddhists there as well. The US and Israel are not the Islamic world's biggest problem. The fact that Sunni's and Shi'ites bomb one another is. No Muslim country is going to achieve real economic success until fellow Muslims learn to live side by side in peace, even if there views on Islam differ. But hey, Christianity went through all this for centuries. Christian denominations were at each other's throats, but in the last century it has been relatively quiet.

I got my 10 minutes of play, and I was pretty happy with what I saw. It's not likely to win over many MMO haters, but the game really does offer a fresh take on the genre and it is very professionally done. The ship to ship combat was great, if you ever played Sea Dogs, it's fairly similiar.

I don't get the whole re-envisioning comment. Bethesda has always made their RPG's a certain way, going back to Arena and Daggerfall. They aren't some newbie trying to change the world of RPG's, they've been around a long time and they keep doing what has brought them success. Just because it isn't a formula that you appreciate doesn't mean it's some evil company.

I wouldn't say excellent puzzles, but it is the best Elder Scrolls thing since Redguard. The difficulty isn't insane anymore, so you don't have to metagame the **** out of the system, the story pulls you in, it's visually imaginative, engrossingly crafted and the few characters that are built upon are about a hundred times more interesting than the sorry sods in Oblivion. Yes, it doesn't do away with some of the flaws in the main game, but the additions fortunately overshadow them. You're right, I think I mean the puzzles were more engaging than excellent. They definitely didd a better job with character development.

Roenick countdown: 3 goals to go.

Technically I said more depth that might appeal to you. Every game has some sort of depth. For Hellgate the dpeth lies in the inventory system, and for Half0Life 2 it's probably the physics engine. In Solitaire it's the different card faces you can choose. I prefer the castles.