Having said that, character design in Japanese games is much worse.

I think you're saying something different from what you mean. What you mean is that character design in Japanese games is less appealing to you. It's not arbitrarily worse than that in shooter games, as Gratch was pointing out.

Of course! Anything else would be kind of stupid of me to assume. :p

Still, I think the general Japanese approach to character design is so horrible that it's approaching fact territory. I guess this is the time to mention that I can't stand anime either, for much of the same reasons (and the fact that 90% of Japanese storytelling is about science (evil!) vs nature (good!)).

Probably good news for the republican party too. Means they won't have to deal with her bullshit in public again.

Woohoo, another Japanese game where you control a bunch of kids who aren't old enough to buy a beer even if they add their ages together. Consider me surprised.

No wait, consider me out!

This stuff cracks me up.  I'm going to start dropping into all the FPS game threads and saying "Wooo, another space marine/WW II shooter with ridiculous macho men and chicks in skimpy clothing.  Consider me surprised." and see how quickly I get flamed.  

You do that. I'll be right there next to you saying the same thing. Character design in games is generally pretty bad these days.

Having said that, character design in Japanese games is much worse. It reflects the common Japanese stereotype of trying hard not to be different and just repeating what worked before. It's so bad that I got pleasantly surprised that the new Castlevania game actually features a protagonist that looks like he's about 40, with a European look and without being overly macho. I didn't know the Japanese even knew what that looked like. :p

The times where I've been in a two-man captain-only team, we've felt invincible.

Woohoo, another Japanese game where you control a bunch of kids who aren't old enough to buy a beer even if they add their ages together. Consider me surprised.

No wait, consider me out!

The second town was a 70 MB download. Not 3 GB. Unless the person who wrote the quote likes to exaggerate enough to ruin their own arguments, the reviewer version of the game was different.

[needed]

This almost makes sense-except when you consider the quotation of the 4th post where it is stated that a 3GB update was needed to be installed in order to play.

Have you asked any of those of us who play Sims 3 if we had to download that update? I didn't. What's going on here is probably a form of copy protection used for review copies of the game. By making them jump through this hoop, you complicate any leaking to the warez scene, hopefully delaying a pirated release enough that the legal version gets out first.

[Spoiler]

well i'm gonna call it a day with this as well,on about mission 25 and its just getting fucking ridiculous,its the one where you have to 'protect' the blood pump thing and bring out that Elizabeth Greene out into the open(so the mission objective says)

wave after wave after wave of those monsters keep attacking the blood pump,then two of those tentacle things start throwing cars at it,while more waves keep on attacking,and to top to off the Blackwatch are shooting at you as well,after about 40 minutes of repeating and repeating i thought fuck it,i've had enough

Spoiler for Hiden:

I found that one to be quite easy once I realized I could pull off my devastators with little to no negative effects on the vehicle I was protecting. When the final wave (two supreme hunters and two tentacles) attacked, I did two tendril devastators (can't remember its exact name right now) which killed the hunters and let me focus on the tentacles. At that point the battle was a breeze. The boss afterwards, on the other hand, is an exercise in patience.

7.8 million to thieves and parasites that steal other people's hard work. I hope that sentence from a month ago or so sticks to these bastards.

I doubt they'll see much if it- most of it's probably going towards the fine and legal costs.

They're not even seeing that. It's all supposedly going to an internet fund to promote the kinds of ideas the Pirate Bay represented.

Hmm, I though all Pirates! were greedy booty loving malcontents hell bent on nefarious plots to bury gold?  Anyone know exactly what kinds of idea they represented?

I'm not really sure what their plans are, but I would suspect they'll be focusing on making new ways to exchange information online anonymously.

7.8 million to thieves and parasites that steal other people's hard work. I hope that sentence from a month ago or so sticks to these bastards.

I doubt they'll see much if it- most of it's probably going towards the fine and legal costs.

They're not even seeing that. It's all supposedly going to an internet fund to promote the kinds of ideas the Pirate Bay represented.

You dont dare hackers,  the whole point of being a hacker is basically the challenge.  Why offer them one?

It's not a challenge for the crackers. In fact, it's so rudimentary and boring (read: not glorious) that they probably won't bother. Your thinking isn't exactly the same as the pirates'.

I feel like the two sides of this argument are discussing two completely different things. The people who are against this way of dealing with piracy keep stating that games will eventually be released incomplete, requiring a download to get the whole experience. Of course this won't happen. Don't be silly!

What's happening is that more companies offer something extra for the game, something that will extend or increase your enjoyment of the game without crippling it by not being present. Once again, The Sims 3 is a good example of how this is going to be approached. The game box contains the entire game. Nothing is missing. You could have nothing but that box and still keep playing the game for ages. If you register your game though, you get access to a whole new city to place your sims in, which adds value on top of the already solid game. You also get a bit of free money to use on the Sims store, which adds even more value. Is the game a demo because these things weren't included in the box? Of course not!

as I said - Stardock model, and it works damn well for them. Brad has previously stated re his Galciv II, that his latest versions werent cracked at all. I doubt that any money is lost on this model

Yeah. The pirate scene is all about the "glory" of being first to release the big new games, applications and movies. Once someone has released a fully working version, they all lose interest and move on to the next thing. There is no glory in releasing DLC and patches.

The pirates are just going to pack up the full version. They have rules about releases you know.

Yes, they do. It needs to be the full version (which these games are), it needs to be fully playable without encountering any issues from copy protection, and it needs to be simple. Those aren't even absolute rules. The only one that REALLY counts is the "be the first group to release it" rule, and this is the one everyone strives for. Cracking patches and DLC is more of an exception than a rule, and it adds a layer of complication for the pirates where the owners of the game would only have to click a button in the interface to get it.

The first time I saw Thomas Jane emerge shirtless from the water in Deep Blue Sea, I nearly jizzed in my pants. 

Wow, I don't think it was necessary to have that described to me.   

Though I'm sure you wouldn't even have blinked if "Thomas Jane" was replaced with "Jessica Alba" or something similar, eh? :p

Demos? Oh come on! Have you tried The Sims 3? Is the base game a demo to you? If so, you must be playing some pretty damn fantastic demos.

At this point in time, we really can't limit everything to be suitable for dialup any more. We're never going to progress that way.

Personally I find the idea of patches and DLC to be a good way to deal with piracy. Hopefully it'll eventually let us get rid of DRM completely in the future.

Speaking of which, is the old campaign compatible at all with the newer version or has it been updated by anybody?

I think most of the old Warhammer campaigns and scenarios have been updated by fans to be compatible with the new edition. The two versions are similar enough that it doesn't cause too many problems converting directly, but you'd have to be careful as some assumptions from the old edition are gone now (such as the naked dwarf syndrome. Good riddance!).

Addendum: I guess it goes without saying, but with the recent popularity of Blood Bowl on these boards it's worth mentioning that while Blood Bowl takes place in the Warhammer universe, it's in a THIRD version of it, completely separate from both WHFRP and WHFB. Confused yet?

Oh... In that case, run directly up to a tower with hammerfist and charge up its attack once to attack at full strength, then follow up with a regular hammerfist attack. That should be enough to take down a tower. That's what I did during that mission. I failed to destroy several towers in time, but when that happened I just ran off to the next one.

Alright, how the hell do I destroy the infected water towers before they blow?

Using the whip is all you need to do. It's completely safe and you can take all the time you need.

That article says pretty much the same things I said, but adds one thing: That certain applications can benefit from 64-bit even with less than 4 GB RAM. Games are not among those, and since we were talking about games, I didn't mention it. Good to have a more detailed explanation though.

Erm, the number of cores and the number of bits aren't related. 

Generally speaking, the only benefit you're going to get from 64-bits is the ability to address more than 4GB of RAM.  Whether or not your quad-core CPU is fully utilized is a different issue entirely.

A 64-bit application would also suffer a performance hit and would use more RAM in the first place, which makes 64-bit little suited to games for the time being. When 32-bit versions of Windows are no longer available it might be a good idea for game developers to go 64-bit. Until then though, it's a waste of time.

I think MS have said that W7 will be the last Windows that supports 32-bit.

I hope this is true. I think it's bullshit game developers aren't making their games 64 bit advantage. wtf is the point of a quad core if i can't use it? Maybe 64 bit takes more to develop I don't know, but I hope this forces the industry to get with the times already and use our hardware.

Heh, 64-bit isn't all that easy to wrap one's head around. Your post is proof of this, as you don't seem to understand what the point of 64-bit is or what it is able to offer you.

Windows 7 is faster, smaller, uses less memory, and is component-based (which means you can uninstall pretty much anything in it that you don't like, up to and including IE). It's also less annoying (pop-ups in the corner have been dealt with and UAC is simpler) and works much better with devices you may plug into it (like cell phones, external HDs, printers, etc).

Is it worth going from Vista 64 to W7 64? Are there any drastic enhancements to how games play? Or how Windows itself runs? In short - is it worth spending the $100 for the upgrade edition (I use the advanced networking features, so the $50 upgrade won't work for me) at the current (reasonable) prices?

Yes, I'd say it's definitely worth it. It's a much more pleasurable experience than Vista ever was, and it's both faster and better looking. It also has a new version of Direct3D (not sure if it's going to get included with Vista). Windows 7 is getting massive praise, even from Mac fanatics.

I thought the movie did a great job of recreating 47's personality (absolutely ruthless, not willing to compromise) without holding back. I didn't think Olyphant was a good casting choice though. Without the beard he just looks too... soft. This was supposed to be Vin Diesel's role, and one he'd fit like a glove. It's nice to hear that they're doing a sequel.

I'm still very worried that this miniseries will never be able to live up to the standards set by BoB simply because this one isn't a true story (only loosely based on actual events, with fictional characters). It's harder to relate to a war movie when you know the particular event you're watching didn't really happen that way in the real world, and that a person you're supposed to care for never existed in the first place.

Well, don't complain that the game is difficult if you don't use the most powerful tools at your disposal.

You can use up to three devastators in a row at max health if you're fully upgraded. It doesn't take long to pull off (about 2 seconds) and once it starts, it can't be interrupted (though you can take damage). You can also execute a single devastator when you're about to die if you have purchased that particular upgrade. If you're having trouble holding two buttons at the same time, try not to use your thumb for it. Use your index- and middle fingers.

[Spoiler]

Razgon:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Come on, don't give up that quickly! Think! What's your most damaging power? It's the Critical Pain Devastator. Use it, and use it often! Save up at least two doses of it for when the timer kicks in, and you should be able to finish him off with about 30 seconds left on the clock.

You can already get full downloadable games on all PSP models from the PSN Store.

Yeah I know that. I was asking mainly because the article linked to above mentions the PSPgo specifically.

I'm interested in this, but only if I can get the downloadable version for my regular PSP 2000. Will downloadable games be locked to the PSPgo?

anyways, its been the plan for quite some time now to let them govern themselves. Funny thing is, everything danish is now bad up there, despite the fact that we pay a LOT of money to them in generel help.

That's because you keep asking them to kiss your royal pinky ring.

Those danish bastards deserve to lose Greenland, considering they stole it from Norway in the first place.

I can see a reduction of about $100 from the current price. Many places are already selling the PS3 at that price level.

Oh? Do tell.

I'm referring to local prices here in Norway. I've seen several PS3 packages sold at that price lately.

Anyone who thinks Sony will reduce the price to $199 needs to take some classes in basic economics.

I can see a reduction of about $100 from the current price. Many places are already selling the PS3 at that price level. The game lineup (both exclusives and non-exclusives) looks way better on the PS3 than the 360 this year, so the positive press from a price reduction combined with the new games could (notice the emphasis) make Sony regain at least some of the lost revenue.

At this point, I honestly think they aren't really trying to win the console war. They're just trying to survive. In the current economy and with the losses Sony has suffered over the past few years, they aren't going to be willing to take massive losses just for the small chance that they'll regain the throne of the console wars this late in the current generation. If you think otherwise, you're way more optimistic than me (and probably deluding yourself, but that's open to debate).

I like the theory that Sony is trying to get rid of the current PS3 stock before introducing a PS3 Lite. It sounds plausible, mostly because it's become a common tactic for consoles recently, and also because this would allow them to reduce price (thanks to reduced manufacturing costs), gain positive momentum in the news, and appear as a very strong underdog with an increasingly solid game library.

i think the parkour implementation should be the de-facto standard for all similar games.  so much better than ass creed's implementation.  here it felt like i was in control of how i scaled a building vs AC was about finding the path lined out by the designers

Oh god, no! The "parkour" implementation in this game was easily the worst part of it. You get stuck in the terrain half the time because the game decides you want to land on something in particular (which you might not even see). A careful estimate is that 9 out of 10 deaths I suffered during my inFAMOUS playthrough were because of the controls (ie. I'd get stuck while trying to flank an enemy/get to cover/run away from combat/etc.).

Have you tried Prototype? Now THAT is how to handle parkour-like movemet in a game like this.

The promised post-release "multiplayer campaign" feature has still not arrived.

Does anyone still believe the devs when they promise this? They've promised us multiplayer campaign in patches ever since Shogun, but they've never delivered.

The whipfist is actually really useful for many things, and was one of the two combat powers I used the most (the other being the blade). It does reasonable damage against single targets, but can also be used (when upgraded) to take out any human foes within a respectable radius in one hit. It also lets you keep your distance in boss fights, something that can be tremendously important. You can just jump around while taking shots at the boss, leaving it hard for it to hit you back since you keep moving at a distance. You can also use it to grab a target at a distance and get it close so you can consume it without having to chase it down. It's a simple way of taking down choppers, either by grabbing them and dragging yourself up to them to be hijacked, or just to destroy them at a distance (takes 1-2 hits). Using the whip, you can keep yourself airborne indefinitely as long as there is a chopper nearby to hijack, and even if you are falling from an exploding chopper you were just sitting in.

There's probably more stuff you can do with it as well, but I either don't remember it or I've never attempted it. The powers in this game are really flexible.

Empty words. Activision knows that if they cut support for the PS3 and the PSP, the only ones that are going to be blamed are themselves, not Sony. Of course, given the rest of the things the company has been doing lately, they might not think public support is a worthwhile concern.

It's just one of their standard threats. They couldn't hit Hawaii even if they wanted to, since their long-distance rockets can't reach that far (yet).