I finally decided to give this MMO a go, but I must say I'm really turned off by the slow download speed. I recently dloaded and installed Vanguard, RIFT and Planetside 2 on a new PC and they completed in a fraction of the time this is taking. Is the craptastic download rate an indication of how lacklustre this game is?

The other question I have is whether or not it's actually f2p. When I created an account it mentioned free play, but I've noticed on the actual SWTOR site that the "free" aspect is very down played. Is all that's free about it a time trial or a low level capped game, or it actually close to a true f2p biz model?

The  other question I have is whether the following species classes combos are worth considering?
Cyborg-Smuggler-Scoundrel (sawbones)
Cyborg-Smuggler-Scoundrel (scrapper)
Twi'lek-Jedi Consular-Sage (Seer)
Twi'lek-Jedi Consular-Shadow (Kinetic Combat)

I haven't played the F2P aspect of this one but from what I understand you can level to 50 and have access to all quest based content. Initially I know they basically hindering F2P players by making you pay for the ability to run, or pilot, teleport, or anything that you would normally want to do. I think they've gone back on some of that but not sure how much.

Also I think you need to pay in to get a pass to do starship pilot missions (boring) or Flashpoints (fun).

So I don't think you should go in to the game with the mindset that you can get to 50 without paying something.

For classes I play a Jedi Sage (Consular) now as my main. I'm primarily built as a healer for a threesome group I play with. I have no problems soloing when it comes to that. The people I play with are both tanks and they typically have problems where they can't take on large groups (4-5) and will typically need me to assist.

Even though I'm a healer I do a fair amount of damage too, so I don't run in to problems when fighting large groups. I also switched my companion from a tank to a pure DPS and we just tear through enemies.

I also have a L45 Bounty Hunter Mercenary which is badass. They are mainly area DPS with some healing and from what I recall they could solo quite easily. I'm not sure what the Scoundrel equivalent was but it should be a blast to play as well.

One other thing to keep in mind is each class has a storyline quest you'll follow throughout. The Bounty Hunter storyline was pretty decent with you taking on a bunch of other Bounty Hunters in a contest. The Consular storyline quests were not too bad and went between tracking down mind controlled jedi to building an alliance to help fight against the Empire - but its slow going and a bunch of those missions were yawn fests. So another thing you might consider when choosing a class.

Will wait till the "slim" versions of these consoles come out. So 2yrs from release at the earliest. By then they should have worked out any major issues that crop up - you know there's gonna be several.

I dunno if this is just a show off demo but any sense of helplessness this game could create seems to be dimished by the fact that weapons/items are everywhere and your guy is a powerhouse on top of it. Will have to wait and see some more on this one.

Lost my first character the other day while trying to rescue our doctor. That a pretty painful, particularly since he died two seconds after I got within swinging distance of him. Gonna have to scout out a newer location to move to as resources around town are somewhat thin. I don't want to start taking cars out to get stuff.

The outpost thing is a bit of a mystery to me. I get that making an outpost at the gun shop brings in ammo. And I would assume a food store would bring in food, construction materials, etc. But I can also make an outpost out of a house. I haven't tried it yet as I wasn't sure what that would do. Would I get a regular shipment of some sort of item or other? Or would it essentially just make a place to drop things off at.

[GMG25-GDSAK-7FPWQ]

you can get Arkham Origins for $37.50 when you use GMG25-GDSAK-7FPWQ.  that code expires 6-14 and will also work on thse games.  Saint Row 4 isn't on that list though.

Ooh, thanks for that. That's a decent price for a new release and I had $3 credit from something else to use.

Just in case nobody noticed... Your firebombs and whatnot do not seem to hurt friendlies...

I had one mission where a bunch of zombies were attacking a fortified house. A bunch of zombies were at the front door trying to get in. And one of the windows near the door one of the NPCs was trying to board up the window. I hopped out a window on the porch and threw a molotav cocktail at that group which burned them up pretty good. But I also got a text warning message that I had injured the NPC and their "trust" had went down.

So I haven't tried using fire attacks with any of the NPCs at my camp when I bring them on missions.

Another good day of scavenging although its getting a lot more deadlier. The zombie hoards are pretty prevalent now where they're really damaging my cars when I go out. Did a few more missions including one where I had to prepare a house for zombie invasion. I got plenty of food and medicine for my stronghold but I'm having a difficult time finding materials. But did have enough to build a workshop.

Haven't lost anyone yet but it seems like each time I go out on a mission or two I have to switch to my other character. I did find when you switch characters that other character does rest and heal - although slowly.

Seeing and taking on different zombie types now. The game seems to ramp up pretty quickly. Great stuff though. Having a lot of fun.

Anyone know how to sleep in the game? My character is tired and has lost some stamina but can't get in any of the beds.

So far loving the game though. Scavaging at night is tense, especially when you see "infestation" and "zombie hoard" on the mini-maps close by. Controls are not as terrible as I thought and the game looks pretty decent. Just how to do some things in the game are a bit unclear.

So a 2D free-to-play strategy RPG?  My excitement diminished quite a bit between reading the thread title and the details.   

this.

But it's got Billing help for those who do not salmon play time. And you know people I think want to see fetters billing would be many, but I want you to peace of mind.

Changed your mind about the F2P?

Add the Omni: Move and you got the full experience.

To be fair to the Omni the thought of jogging through Skyrim for your workout is pretty damn cool.

[Avail 6/7]

coming this month to instant watch

Avail 6/7

Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection (2012) – Comedy

Avail 6/12

Reincarnated (2012) – Documentary

Silent Hill: Revelation (2012) – Horror

Avail 6/17

The Bay (2012) – Horror

Avail 6/20

Katy Perry: Part of Me (2012) – Documentary

Avail 6/22

Family Weekend (2013) – Comedy

The Avengers (2012) – Action & Adventure

I'll check out Silent Hill,i already have The Avengers,not that bothered about the rest

The Bay wasn't a terrible shaky-cam flick but it wasn't great either. Which makes it perfect for Netflix. Will also catch the Silent Hill sequel which is supposed to be terrible but oh well. And The Avengers since I've only saw it the once in theaters.

Recently started watching A Gifted Man. Basically a gifted brain surgeon runs in to his ex-wife one night. They spend some time together. And then the next day he finds out his ex had died a few weeks ago.

The pilot for the show is pretty great. It keeps moving, the characters are pretty strong, and the setup is intriguing as well. But not sure what happened between the pilot and the actual show as there were some major changes. The show basically went from a heavy drama to a light drama with some comedic overtones. The main character is hardly anything like the one in the pilot and there are some additonal weak characters thrown in to supplement the show. Basically it turns in to Ghost Whisperer. Which for me sucks but my wife is eating it up - 12 more episodes to go.

The pilots worth checking out, it's also directed by Jonathan Demme, but the rest of the show I dunno if I can recommend that.

6-4


$3.74, Complete pack is $4.99

Actually a pretty decent game. I did end up getting sick of it and stopped playing before completing it but probably sunk a good 10+ hours in to it.

I'm all over State of Decay (Xbla)

just saw that.  dammit, I don't need it out this week... delay it until August!!!!

Yeah that looks like it could be a very fun game. The IGN videos I watched showed it lacked a bit of polish in some of the controls, animation, camera but the fun factor on this one seems high. Dangit, I didn't want to buy any more MS Points.

Hoth is so boring, same with Tatoine I barely spent time on either of those. For some reason I had no problems leveling up and was quickly out leveling worlds before completing all the story missions.

I was also picking up a lot of these 25% experience boost for 1hr items. If you have those might try using them. Or see if you can buy them on the auction house. And probably want to head back to, or go to, Quesh. Better looking world as is.

One other thing too is if you complete all the world quests there's usually "bonus mission" questions from that same world you can do. Just gotta find where they start - typically back at the space port of the world.

Been playing the last 2 months. Was starting to get sick of it going in to this 3rd month but just started doing the expansion pack and its actually pretty decent and has me interested again. Still have a few L50 Flashpoints to do and the last part of getting HK-51 as a companion but I figure once I finish those and the expansion I'm done by the end of this month until another expansion.

It's an older game that has been on sale many-a-time. So I suspect whomever wanted the game by now has it and its likely not selling at all outside of sales. So the 90% off makes sense to entice those last few users that had an inkling to trying the game.

That said I loved the original game. It started off a bit slow but then took off. It's very action oriented with a unique combat mechanic where light used as the weapon. The game presents as a free-roam game but its not really. You pretty much go on path that's laid out for you - and that's fine. I also enjoyed the interaction between Alan and his publicist, Arnie I think his name is. At first Arnie is really annoying but over the course of the game you come to understand the friendship the two have and to me it was one of the more memorable gaming companion experiences.

The DLC for the first game isn't all that great. The first one add a neat combat mechanic to it but that's about it. And the second was was basically a rehash of stuff you've done before. Still can't complain too much though as it continued the story.

The American Nightmare stand-alone thing I played through but didn't care for it all that much. It's Alan Wake lite with a story and setting that were not as good as the original game.

The slippery slope thing doesn't bother me at this point. If the the game is nickle and diming you for stupid stuff then people won't buy in to it. Takes care of itself.

For the purchasable slick armour stuff SWTOR does this currently. They have all these neat armor sets you can purchase in the store. But what they also allow is any item you purchase from the store you can put up on the regular auction house. Then players can buy it with the in-game money like they would normal auction house stuff. The pieces usually cost a fortune but usually not out of the realm of purchase if you know how to make money.

For LOTRO you can earn points for completing achievements that allows you to purchase in-store items. Typically just by playing you'll earn enough to buy a few things but if you're doing some serious purchases you'll need to grind. I have no interest in doing the grinding but that's another option that opens the store items to regular players.

So I think these games can be smart about how they approach the store bought vs in-game items. The two real-world examples I listed above sit perfectly fine with me.

I like to have both payment options in the MMO - F2P + Subscription so you can pick and choose which way you want to go. For instance in LOTRO I went exclusively F2P. I did that because it was a game I kept going back to and their F2P model was fantastic the first few years with great deals. But in Star Wars: Old Republic, which I just started playing again, I knew I would grow tired of it in a few months so I went with the subscription model. The bonus with SWTOR subscription (and LOTRO) is that you get points each month to spend in their respective stores.

Offering both models caters to both audiences and hopefully all MMOs offer this.

I also don't care so much about the cosmetic stuff people buy with $$. With SWTOR I've used my monthly allotment of coins to buy vanity stuff on the store and once I get this months allotment I'll be purchasing a ridiculously priced "mount". But if you still want unique mounts or items most of these games offer them via killing monsters, raids, holiday events or whatever which still offers that old school feel.

For me though I have 0 interest of spending as much time I used to trying to get unique items. I'll pay the few bucks if I really want something. But typically don't even bother doing that - nice to have the option though.

John Varley's, Titan, Wizard, Demon trilogy. Only just started getting in to sci-fi when I read this one and it just blew me away. Unfortunately all the other books I read from him have fallen way short of that series.

Yeah it does look a hell of a lot better. Initially it just looked like any generic fantasy MMO which I wasn't too excited about. I like this FPS mode they have there and like the idea that exploration is a big part of it. But it also seems like this might be better as a co-op game rather than a traditonal MMO with a bunch of people running around the world.

My interest in it has gone up though.

aye, its the part right after the first temple where you have to travel to the first city. Level a bit too much, and the spawns there are insane!

Its a wonderful game though - so much to love. The level scaling is just a bit absurd at times, and the treehut city was a bit insane with mob density as well.

Ha, I just got there and recalled it as soon as I saw the road sign and the narrow path. I do remember trying to fight my way through there and it being frusrated. Then I recalled what I did before which was just RUN while in combat. It worked just fine. Monsters started fleeing after 4-5 runs and the path is short to Arnika.

Here's a Wiz 8 question. It's been so long that I can't remember much about the classes. There are so many to choose from that I'm having a hard time deciding. I want a Monk, I want a Bard, I want a Ninja...
   
I have finally settled on Lord, Samurai, Ranger, Rogue, Mage, and a (Healer)
 
How effective of a healer is a Bishop? I need a dedicated Healer, but the Bishop's Artifacts and Wizardry skills are very tempting in place of the Priest, if I'm not losing too much pure healing in the bargain.

I've never used a Bishop so not sure but there are so many healing potions you'll come across you'll probably be fine. With the Priest I'm barely using the healing potions as is. Your Ranger and Lord will be able to learn a heal spell in a few levels so that can help too.

First 2600 game I bought:

I loved that game. One night I ended up playing it till like 2 or 3 in the morning where I ended up flipping the score. Then kept on playing for like another hour before I realized it was all a bit pointless.

BTW, anyone know what that "Special Pedobear Feature" is mentioned on the bottom of this box? I don't recall noticing that before and can't place what that might refer to in the game.

Pinball Arcade released its new table pack #14: Centaur and Pin*Bot for $5. Word of warning - if you have a iOS device with OS 5.1.1 installed do not download this table pack yet as it will crash out. The comapny submitted an update fixing that issue so hopefully that will be available soon.

Centaur is the highlight for this release. Not sure if the artwork is something HR Giger did but if not its based on his work. It's a black and white playfield with creepy faces, arms, and who knows what on it. It looks pretty stricking, particularly if you use one of the colored balls (the blue ball worked well). This table has a neat multiball mode. You can build up how many balls you want in your multiball, up to 4 extra balls, by hitting the ORBS drop targets. Then when you trigger multiball you can put another ball in play (up to 5) by hitting the ORBS drop targets again. So you can have these long rallys of multiball by resupplying any balls you lost. And its kidna fun getting down to 2 balls and then building back up to 5.

There's other features to the table but that's the main goal that sticks out to me. There's also a creepy voice with some major reverb that talks to you during the game that really sets the tone. Here's a video of the table along with Pin*Bot..

Pin*Bot I haven't played much of yet to get much of an opinion on. But it has a similar mechanic to Bride of Pinbot where to start multiball you need to lock the eye orbits. In this game though you first have to light up all the center targets to open up the faceplate of Pin*Bot to get to the sockets. I managed to do it once but the other games I played were a drainfest. One game I played all three balls drained down the left side before I even had a chance to touch the balls with the flippers. Which probably means nudging is importing.

Which means this update is good because they added a bunch of new tap nudging controls. Instead of that generic nudge you can do a left/right nudge and a center bump. They provided a nice see through overlay where you can see the different nudge zones to tap. It's actually pretty awesome.

From the hint they gave for next months tables it sounds like it will be Champion Pub and Whirlwind. If so that will be a pretty strong pack. Champion Pub is basically a pinball version of Punch Out.

I'll also mention the other pinball app, that should eventually be very good, which is Zaccaria Pinball. These are also real-life tables based off the Italian based company Zaccaria. They're not as complex as the Williams/Bally/Stern tables from that same period but they have their own charm. In the last release they tweaked the physics, for the worse unfortunately, making the tables somewhat unplayable by default. But they also added the ability to customize the physics. So you can change things like playfield degree, ball friction, bumper force and a few other options. Tweaking these allowed for a much more playable experience on the tables. They also added the ability to tweak the graphics so you can change some of the table lighting values or coloring. Its pretty neat to have that much control over the tables.

They've been responsive to any criticism and are tweaking the physics for the next release which is hopefully out soon along with a new table.

First game I got was Video Olympics for the Atari 2600. The box said it had over 50 games on it!!!!



The problem was it was just variations of Pong. And some of those variations had pointless minor alternative variations to make that "50 games" claim. Basically it was terrible and boring and you couldn't even play it solo so had to rely on my sister to play with me and she had little interest. Ugh. Damn if I didn't try to play solo though trying to use two of those knobby paddle controllers.

The first computer game I got was another mistake It was this:



I had a brand spanking new Apple //e and had played LoadRunner before on a friends C64 and figured Championship Load Runner would be even better! But I didn't quite put together that "Championship" meant very difficult. It turned out to be a very frustrating game for a first one. So I went back to the Apple store, yeah they had them back then, and explained the game was too difficult and I wanted to return it. They were actually ok with that reasoning! So I went to look at what games I could swap it with. I was pointing to one of the Wizardry games as I loved fantasy and the box art was cryptically ominous and intruguing. But the sales guy said that was a very difficult game too. So I looked at other fantasy games around and saw Ultima 3. He tried to warn me that it was also difficult but decided to go with it anyways.

It was difficult but I fell in love with that game and the series from that point. Even bought Ultima 4 from that same Apple store when it came out and eventually that Wizardy game which was frustratingly difficult and unforgiving too.

Wiz 8 easier?

Arnika Road - NEVER FORGET! NEVER FORGIVE!

I don't recall that part in the game. Maybe if its that bad I blocked it out.   I imagine I'll recall once I get there.

I put an hour in to the game so far and re-loving it. The controls weren't as difficult to get used to as I was expecting. While the classes are pretty stat heavy its very clear what everything does and what you should focus on for your class. Decided to play with a pretty standard group (Fighter/Lord/Rouge/Priest/Mage/Ranger). Was tempted by the alchemist, engineer, and samurai but figured I'd keep things simple. Will be good playing for the 3-day weekend.

Timecop vs Time Bandits!  

Timecop vs Time Bandits: Hot Tub Time Machine

I do have a question about the Wiz 6 and 7 pack. I never played those, so I'm curious how compelling they are or if they are considered "better" than Wiz 8. I ask because I consider Might and Magic VI better than VIII. I would like to start with the "best" game between Wiz 6, 7, and 8.

I liked Wiz 8 a lot more than the other two and I'm pretty sure that's the only Wizardry game I finished. I recall giving up on Wiz 6 because it was just so damn difficult. And I'm pretty sure in Wiz 7 I got stuck on a puzzle somewhere and said the hell with it. Wiz 8 also serves up a 3D environment where 6/7 are the traditional tile movement with turn based combat. Wiz 8 is a 3D world but if I recall right still turn-based combat.

I think purists for CRPGs will say 6/7 are the better games but both those games are so punishing at times. They are much more difficult than the M&M games, excluding M&M1, if that's what you are used to. I don't recall Wiz 8 ever getting quite the accolades 6/7 got from fans but I loved it. Great graphics for the time, some good puzzles, and the unique universe Wizardry became. Out of the three games I would say 8 would be the easier one to get in to and stick with.

More classic RPG goodness - Wizardry 6,7, and 8 are now available.  Wiz 6 & 7 (and Wiz Gold) are $5.99 together, while Wiz8 is $9.99.

Fantastic! Been pining to play Wiz 8 again for awhile. I seem to have misplaced the 2nd CD for it so couldn't install it last time I looked.

So the season ended and I'm looking forward to the next one if it gets picked up. I can't say it ended with a bang. More of a sputter. But I love the characters, the actors are pretty great overall, there's enough mystery to the town to make it interesting, and the writing is pretty good and they're willing to take risks. So hope it lives on.

I put my finger on why I like the Norma Bates characters so much. Vera Farmiga is channeling another Bates with her performance - Kathy Bates. Norma comes off as a cross between Annie Wilkes, for her Misery craziness, and Dolores Claiborne for her outspoken stubbornness.

As much as I was in the FPS's back then when this came about I didn't even bother playing through the entire Shareware version of it. The crude humor didn't work and there was nothing appealing about the mismash enviroments.

I don't recall the game getting good reviews and honestly the thing I remember most about it is the negative press with the racial slur it used. So why another company would want to dig that license up is beyond me.

Here's a few FPS licenses from that era that would probably get some interest if they made a game off it: Heretic/Hexen, Redneck Rampage, Blood, Witchaven, and hell even Corridor 7.

If RE: Revelations was about $20 cheaper I'd probably have gotten it but not at at $50. The pre-purchase unlocks were pretty mediocre too and none of those were enticing to me. But in the end i think they priced this one wrong to appeal to the larger masses.

Will wait for the eventual Steam sale.

I seem to recall that one being bad with a main character that whined more than usual for these games.

If they did 12 I'd be all over that one. I remember liking it but also being burnt out on all the Japanese RPGs by then so only got a few hours in before putting it aside. Think I could manage another JRPG after this several year hiatus.

This latest patch fixed the shadow issue I was having. Even seemed to get a small performance boost so turned SSAO on. Had a little slow down in some areas where a lot of animation was occurring but other than that its been smooth.

Haven't bothered to mess with the FOV setting yet but I'm actually ok with the default.

StiLL with checkpoints....sigh.  According to reviews soMe of them are brutal as well. Wish I knew why this was necessary. NoT a deal breaker for me, just frustrating.

So far they seem pretty reasonable. I had to leave the game unexpectedly and was deep in to a long level. I figured I'd have to play the thing all over again but it put me right at the start of the last room I entered which was just fine.

For me the shadow issues are more annoying than the FOV stuff. I've gotten used to the tight FOV. Other than that technical issue this is a pretty great game.

Yeah that was a pretty good season overall. I even liked a bunch of the early stuff with the Phillip nuttiness and Brandon being such a loose cannon. I was also satisfied with the ending as I think Cochran played a great game compared to those that were left after Malcolm went home.

The Reunion Show was kinda a stinker though. I do miss hearing from the early contestants. I would have liked to hear from Shamar about how he behaved and performed. Or about some of the early contestant strategy plans. And its always fun to hear from the first contestant voted out. They also didn't need to spend time with that little girl who had a crush on Malcolm or Rudy who apparently wants to make it clear he doesn't hang out with "queers". And although I do like seeing Boston Rob having him there to pimp his book was not a good reason - but the short critique about Phillip was fun.

Not sure about the Blood vs Water thing. I'm suspecting its going to be a families thing.

Keep an eye out for starter pack sales. Gamestop has the Mithril Edition starter pack which was the shit. Get a mount, quest packs for several key zones, and 2,000 turbine points to spend quest packs or whatever, all for $10. It looks like that's gone up to $20 now. Still a decent deal. Steam also swaps out different starter packs and puts those on sales from time to time. The current one "Steely Dawn" looks like crap though: An armor set, a quest pack (although a good one), a bunch of XP boosts (useless), and a measly 500 turbine points.

You can also just go the subscription route when you hit a wall with the F2P stuff and you pay like a regular MMO but get 500 Turbine points to spend each month.

I stuck with the F2P route and basically have all content unlocked. I would purchase a bunch of Turbine Points when they went on sale (often) and then buy content when that went on sale (often). Still probably spent over $100 in Turbine points but that's spread over several years so it didn't even sting. I get the sense I'm making out better this way than if I went the subscription route at this point.

But I wouldn't worry about any of this until you hit your wall in the game.

The CD probably won't do you any good as there have been a bunch of updates that you'll probably have to download anyways. So I would just download the client from their website and go at it that way.

There's been graphical updates (DX10 support) and this game does look fantastic. The UI however is archaic and will take a bit of getting used to again - its not always intuitive and doesn't look that great.

I am not sure of the communities health level. On the server I was on (name escapes me) there were people running around but nowhere near the levels that WOW gets. And that was kinda nice as when you quest you weren't waiting for something to spawn and when you came across people on the road or on your destination it was kinda special. The main hub towns are where you will run across most people running around, and when there are the holiday events that's when you'll see large crowds of people. There are plenty of guilds looking to recruit. The one I joined had about 200 members listed but really only about 15-20 people on during peak but off-peak I would typically see 0-3 people.

The game is also free to play and you can get around fine for the first 15 or so levels without paying a cent.

Pinball FX2 with a select one or two packs. Since I have most of the tables on the PS3 and all of them on the iPad will wait for a sale for the non-essentials.