RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS!

[Guest Slinky]

Space Hulk!

 

Awesome! I just hope they keep the game as merciless, brutal, scary and BADASS as Space Hulk should be.

 

Overbright colors and hand holding do not belong in space hulk, you hear me devs?!

[Lord of Lost Socks]

You'll find no support on this forum, people in here are fanatical apologists of everything copyright related. They'll probably ban you or something if you keep posting about this.

 

Yeah we are weird like that, we believe people should actually pay for things they don't own and they want to utilize or benefit from. Like games for example

 

So, you actually consider it alright that publishers can remove anything relating to their games at whim? Even commentary that does not show any of the copyrighted material?

[Morgoth]

Let me proudly present you: METAL GEAR WHALE: UNICORN EATER

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kTpLt1MAkVI

Edited December 10, 2012 by Morgoth

[Spider]

Space Hulk!

 

Turn based, emulating the board game.

[Serrano]

Here's another Space Hulk article written by a far less lazy writer than Alec Meer . And also what Spider said.

Edited December 10, 2012 by Serrano

[Zoraptor]

Instead of a console licencing fee they have the 30% purchase cut (which is actually a lot higher, at least for full priced games).

 

That's not equivalent to the licencing fee, or instead of one, unless you think the store you buy games for your PS3 from is actually a charity.

No, it's the same to all practical purposes. Most of the trad console market's sales are still retail, hence the console makers monetise retail by charging per sale. All of steam's sales are digital, hence they monetise the digital side, the only practical difference is (semi) fixed costings vs a percentage cut. If that or having two people taking a cut at retail are differences then there's a difference too between me buying locally and internationally, or method of payment. If I buy via credit card they get a slice of the purchase price as well DD/ retail vendor/ other, and if I buy something in USD then there's currency conversion andor foreign transaction fees. None of which change the cuts that valve andor console maker get in the slightest.

[AwesomeOcelot]

Instead of a console licencing fee they have the 30% purchase cut (which is actually a lot higher, at least for full priced games).

 

That's not equivalent to the licencing fee, or instead of one, unless you think the store you buy games for your PS3 from is actually a charity.

No, it's the same to all practical purposes. Most of the trad console market's sales are still retail, hence the console makers monetise retail by charging per sale. All of steam's sales are digital, hence they monetise the digital side, the only practical difference is (semi) fixed costings vs a percentage cut. If that or having two people taking a cut at retail are differences then there's a difference too between me buying locally and internationally, or method of payment. If I buy via credit card they get a slice of the purchase price as well DD/ retail vendor/ other, and if I buy something in USD then there's currency conversion andor foreign transaction fees. None of which change the cuts that valve andor console maker get in the slightest.

 

Valve do not charge a license fee when a game uses Steam but is sold somewhere else including retail. They're not the same thing, stores take a cut from sales, whether that's retail or digital. Valve does not charge a license fee for using its platform. You're trying to suggest that just because two things cost money, they're the same, which is ridiculous. A license to use a platform is different than store charges. A charge for currency conversion is not the same as a charge for using a store, both are different to a credit processing charge.

 

Your argument is: 1. Console makers and Valve are exactly the same, they both try to make money. 2 Having to pay for licenses and not having licenses is the same because you still get charged by the store in either instance. Well done, that's brilliant, give yourself a clap.

[Mamoulian War]

It'll run the same software your PC does?

 

controlled environment = console

 

whatever OS it will run...

 

...

 

If you're curious how it's different from, say, the XBOX 360 and the PS3, I suppose the answer would be "it depends." The PS3 and 360 are very different to develop for, and even then you can't just take code compiled for the 360 and expect it to run natively on the PC. A "PC console" would literally be a console that can just as well take the PC game that you're playing in your desktop, and still run it. Or perhaps more appropriately, a game developed for the "PC console" runs on your PC with no extra work required. As a PC gamer, this doesn't sound appealing to you?

 

...

 

 

No not at all, if the only option to get your games is Steam...

[alanschu]

No not at all, if the only option to get your games is Steam...

 

That doesn't have to be a requirement though. It might be.

 

The fact is you're creating code natively to run on the PC. So unless Steam/Valve requires all other distributions to also use Steam (something we don't know), what it means is that the idea of porting it over is a non-issue since time to create the port isn't required.

 

 

Imagine being able to make something for the XBox 360 (and the install base that is has), and doing no work at all to release a PC version.

[AwesomeOcelot]

I hope that Valve won't lock down the software and force Steam usage, but I can't see them not locking it down at all. I think you will be able to install your own Linux distro, and run Steam plus anything you want on that, I think that's also how the OUYA will work. Valve see this as an expansion of the Steam platform, they don't see themselves as a hardware company, it's only a means to an end to get PCs and Steam into the living room. Valve will defend this by saying others will be following them, and there will be a choice of platforms for PC gaming in the living room.

Edited December 10, 2012 by AwesomeOcelot

[Mamoulian War]

alan, if the "SteamBox" will not require Steam as only distribution for games, it would be miracle, but the step in the right direction and then I would be thinking very hard about purchasing the "box". Because then for me, it would have more positives than negatives.

 

In any other scenario Ouya, would suits my needs more...

Edited December 10, 2012 by Mamoulian War

[Humanoid]

Random example of Steam getting in my way now - I've been playing a self-modded (using both Resource Hacker and Toolboks) XCOM classic run, and am staying in offline mode to prevent Steam autofixing/patching it (I don't need or want the Slingshot hotfix patch). I want to try the Football Manager 13 demo, but am unable to do so because I need to log-in to "complete installation." Yeah, relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, I can log in once, get everything in line, then go offline again and re-mod XCOM, but still, it's something I wouldn't have to do if they weren't both Steamworks games.

[alanschu]

alan, if the "SteamBox" will not require Steam as only distribution for games, it would be miracle, but the step in the right direction and then I would be thinking very hard about purchasing the "box". Because then for me, it would have more positives than negatives.

 

I'm not even talking about the SteamBox.

 

I'm talking about games released for the PC. In order to release a game for the SteamBox, as well as PC, is entirely possible, with a minimal amount of effort. Even if SteamBox has Steam requirements up the wazoo, that doesn't mean that a developer absolutely cannot release the game for standard PC.

Edited December 11, 2012 by alanschu

[alanschu]

Random example of Steam getting in my way now - I've been playing a self-modded (using both Resource Hacker and Toolboks) XCOM classic run, and am staying in offline mode to prevent Steam autofixing/patching it (I don't need or want the Slingshot hotfix patch). I want to try the Football Manager 13 demo, but am unable to do so because I need to log-in to "complete installation." Yeah, relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, I can log in once, get everything in line, then go offline again and re-mod XCOM, but still, it's something I wouldn't have to do if they weren't both Steamworks games.

 

I don't mod too often, but what happens if you tell XCOM to not update automatically?

[AwesomeOcelot]

Random example of Steam getting in my way now - I've been playing a self-modded (using both Resource Hacker and Toolboks) XCOM classic run, and am staying in offline mode to prevent Steam autofixing/patching it (I don't need or want the Slingshot hotfix patch). I want to try the Football Manager 13 demo, but am unable to do so because I need to log-in to "complete installation." Yeah, relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, I can log in once, get everything in line, then go offline again and re-mod XCOM, but still, it's something I wouldn't have to do if they weren't both Steamworks games.

 

I don't mod too often, but what happens if you tell XCOM to not update automatically?

 

You can play modded games on Steam by doing that, selecting "do not automaticall update this game" from the drop down menu, I have done this several times. If an official update gets released Steam ignores your settings and will update which will likely break the mod.

[Humanoid]

Exactly that, there is an official update, a hotfix - the Slingshot DLC introduced a bug which made existing ironman games unable to be loaded if you install the DLC - which updates the game regardless of whether you have the DLC or not (tested by logging in on my laptop).

 

 

(It's made worse because the GPU on my laptop has essentially failed, so I can't try the game, or any 3D games in general, on my laptop either. But I don't want to get a new laptop until Haswell mid-next-year, blah.)

Edited December 11, 2012 by Humanoid

[Deraldin]

Exactly that, there is an official update, a hotfix - the Slingshot DLC introduced a bug which made existing ironman games unable to be loaded if you install the DLC - which updates the game regardless of whether you have the DLC or not (tested by logging in on my laptop).

 

 

(It's made worse because the GPU on my laptop has essentially failed, so I can't try the game, or any 3D games in general, on my laptop either. But I don't want to get a new laptop until Haswell mid-next-year, blah.)

 

I think the point was, if just telling XCOM to not update automatically will stop it installing the hotfix, then why not do that instead of going into offline mode and making it impossible to play your demo. Wouldn't that have solved the problem?

Edited December 11, 2012 by Deraldin

[mute688]

I think the point was, if just telling XCOM to not update automatically will stop it installing the hotfix, then why not do that instead of going into offline mode and making it impossible to play your demo. Wouldn't that have solved the problem?

 

I run all steam games with auto update turned off but in many cases steam will not allow the game to run until you run the update. It merely tells you that there is an update required rather than automatically installing it.

[LadyCrimson]

I'd like to mention that if you go "online" with Steam, if you can get into the download view menu and click "pause" on any downloads that automatically start happening, that stops the games from updating. Of course, if the update is very tiny, and your connection speed fast, it may update before you can even click.

 

But if it's bigger, then chances are you'll have time to click pause. And it will stay paused until you check restart, even if you go offline/go back online again later. And yes you can still play the game offline. If paused like that, the directory Steam creates to download the patch will be there, but the files aren't finished downloading, so nothing happens. At least, that's been my experience.

 

But the only failsafe way is to copy the directory of the game you want to preserve elsewhere on your HD, and copy it back over again when you're done doing other stuff online/have gone back offline.

[Zoraptor]

A license to use a platform is different than store charges.

For the steam platform the store and the platform are, by design, one and the same. The steam platform ("steamworks") absolutely and completely requires the steam storefront ("client") to be integrated as well. The only difference is the loss leading for valve is due to software subsidisation rather than MSony's hardware loss leading/ subsidisation.

 

You're trying to suggest that just because two things cost money, they're the same, which is ridiculous

No the difference is that you think the exact method is important while I'm saying they're two similar approaches which lead to the same endpoint, and that the endpoint is far more important than having the exact same method of getting there. As an illustration, what you're arguing is that it is a significant difference whether I catch the bus or drive to get somewhere. While I'm saying that differences in taking the car or the bus are irrelevant as they're both methods of transport with associated, similar, but somewhat differently structured costs but have the exact same purpose- and that the purpose is the most important thing.

 

[in order to release a game for the SteamBox, as well as PC, is entirely possible, with a minimal amount of effort.

The hardware for a steambox sounds like it would be similar, but presumably neither windows nor directx would be available so a porting to openGL and linux would be necessary at least. Certainly it could be easier to port to a nextbox, if it used directx/ win8variant and similar hardware to PCs.

[alanschu]

The hardware for a steambox sounds like it would be similar, but presumably neither windows nor directx would be available so a porting to openGL and linux would be necessary at least. Certainly it could be easier to port to a nextbox, if it used directx/ win8variant and similar hardware to PCs.

 

That's true. But unless the software used by the SteamBox is proprietary, or for some other reason cannot be run on a PC, the idea of bringing it over to the PC is a non-issue. Yes, bringing it over to Windows could pose problems (assuming SteamBox is linux based), but that's a software problem and not a hardware one. Meaning if I get the software setup on my PC, I'd be able to play the games on my PC just fine.

 

The real question is whether or not the backing of someone like Valve would be enough to give Linux PC gaming some real inertia.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

The real question is whether or not the backing of someone like Valve would be enough to give Linux PC gaming some real inertia.

 

My girlfriend and I would both consider switching to Linux, or at least have dedicated Linux boxes in addition to the windows machines, if more games had native support.

[WorstUsernameEver]

I've never had Steam try to update/fix a modded game unless I tell it to check the cache. Sounds like a weird XCOM-related issue.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I've never had Steam try to update/fix a modded game unless I tell it to check the cache. Sounds like a weird XCOM-related issue.

 

It's not, I've had it happen to Bloodlines and several other games myself.

[Morgoth]

In other news: The Secret World drops subscription fee