What about the knife fight? That is essentially the final boss in the game, and it's a pretty cool sequence.

Class action lawsuits in the gaming world are usually stupid, but in this case I agree. This is the kind of thing consumers should never have to accept. Just remember that this will have a wider effect on the industry if it succeeds. Those early trailers for games like Half-Life and Killzone 2 that impressed everyone? Yeah, they would never happen again (which is good in the case of Killzone).

Xbox Infinite? That's actually quite clever. 360 is a circle after all, so what do you get if you have two circles? The infinity symbol.

Are you sure?

Yes, I'm sure. I believe it's even in their FAQ. The game is officially launched now, even though they call it an open beta.

Considering how they unashamedly flaunted homosexuality in The Ballad of Gay Tony (which was awesome), another type of thing that doesn't typically sell well, I suspect they'll get around to it eventually. I suspect much of the reason we're seeing male protagonists in these games is because it's so much harder for most people to imagine a woman doing the kind of things you do in these games.

Ah login queues! My old nemesis, how I've missed thee! #13,626 I've now been sitting in a queue for 30+ minutes. I realize its day one of a new title but sorry after 15 years of historical data to work from queues of this magnitude are unacceptable. Mybe I'll give the game another go in a week or so but too many other games to play to sit and wait for hours to login.

It's a display bug. The queues aren't anywhere near that size. They are working on fixing that as well. I believe this is the first time the queue has ever come into effect with this game, so it's the first time anyone got a chance to see it in action and check whether or not it truly worked. The queue didn't even appear during the stress test hour in beta weekend 3.

Anyone have some good foundry missions to try?

Just use the Foundry browser. However, here's a tip: The quests at the top of the list may not at all be the ones with the best reviews. The catalog prioritizes quests with a combination of a high rating and plenty of plays, but it won't prioritize a quest that has just one of those two. Instead of looking at the relative position in the list, just scroll down (and maybe even way down. There are some real gems down there) and look for the star symbols. Those are the actual average review score. Pick the ones that seem to have the most stars and whose descriptions match what you want to play. Currently the quests at the top are heavily skewed towards ultra-hard group content. Also, one of my quests is among the two topmost quests in the list right now since it's featured. That means the developers consider these missions to be good representations of the Foundry's capabilities, so they may be worth looking into. More quests will be featured over time.

The Hero-level Founders get to move to the front of the queue, so that's probably what you're seeing. Don't worry though. This is launch day. If there's one day when you should expect to see a queue, it's today. This is the first time I've seen one yet.

Also, there's no queue for the Foundry if anyone wants to dabble with that. You need a level 15 character first though, unless you're a Hero-level Founder (or published a quest in the closed beta).

Just got San Andreas to prepare myself for this. Looks sweet.  What's always confused me about the titles though is the naming and numbering. San Andreas is technically the 5th game in the series, but isn't counted as part of the main series while being one of the more popular titles, but how do they dictate the main series? I mean, what sets them apart from the rest aside from the numbering? Is there a recurring storyline that runs through the numbered titles? Is it mainly when there are big graphical updates?

AFAIK, the 2D titles are their own chronology, the GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas are separate, and GTA 4 and 5 take place in another new chronology. While these things take place in similar settings, they aren't the same universes. In other words, the events of San Andreas didn't happen, or won't happen, in the world of GTA 5.

They're having some issues right now, but they're working on resolving them. They're posting updates as they happen in this thread.

I'm spending some time in the Foundry, working on my third quest, while this resolves. Turns out A Hidden Blade got featured again today and a patch was released that multiplied the maximum tips by 5, which I'm certainly noticing. I've probably earned more than 20k Astral Diamonds today on my Foundry content alone.

I don't know if you noticed, but I played your adventure, and it's certainly merited that you get the astral diamonds - well done!

I noticed. Thanks! Just started working on the third quest in the campaign when the servers went down for maintenance. I've got a pretty clear idea of how it's going to work, and I can't wait to make it.

Definitely! If one of the two consoles has awesome exclusives at launch and the other doesn't, that could become a decisive factor right there. I'm sure Microsoft has a few aces up their sleeve for their presentation, and I'm eager to see what they've come up with.

They're having some issues right now, but they're working on resolving them. They're posting updates as they happen in this thread.

I'm spending some time in the Foundry, working on my third quest, while this resolves. Turns out A Hidden Blade got featured again today and a patch was released that multiplied the maximum tips by 5, which I'm certainly noticing. I've probably earned more than 20k Astral Diamonds today on my Foundry content alone.

Both the previous Uncharted games were heavily criticized for their final bosses, so Naughty Dog decided to do something different with Uncharted 3. It's all for the better, in my opinion. If a story doesn't need a boss fight, it shouldn't receive one. The only person worth being a "boss" in this game received an appropriate showdown at the end anyway. Bosses is one of the ages old gaming clichés that the industry is luckily taking steps to at least consider before putting it in on reflex.

Note exactly, I consider all of the following AAA games and they're far from shooters.

True, but it's not a lot and it's mostly remnants of franchises that did well early in the 360's life cycle and thus earned the right to keep living. Fable 2 is the most unique and interesting of the bunch (and one of the reasons I bought a 360), but even that franchise turned into a Kinect shooter in the end and made Peter Molyneux leave. *shrug*

Microsoft knows their core customers, and their core customers love shooters, generally speaking. Microsoft is playing it safe, and I can't honestly say I blame them for it. Regardless, I'm more of an eccentric gamer who prefers something a little more original. Shooters used to be one of my absolutely favorite genres about 5-6 years ago, but now I can hardly stand them. The market is filled with one shooter after another. If I want to play that kind of game, I don't need an Xbox to do so.

though this isn't the kind of thing that will convince me to get a next-gen Xbox.

What would?

Exclusive games that really appeal to me. I'm looking for those unique game experiences, some of which we at least got through Xbox Live Arcade early on. Microsoft's approach to AAA-titles with the 360 has been to focus on nothing but shooters, but I'm hoping they'll change their tune and become more appealing to my tastes. So far I haven't really been part of their target audience.

It's not P2W at all. The things you can buy are pretty much only convenience items, such as things that give you a boost in crafting, a faster mount, and so on. All of these things can be obtained through regular play. The game is actually very generous in its F2P solution compared to many other games in that genre. There are currently no restrictions on race and class (with the exception of the 60-day Hero level exclusive Drow race) for example, so you don't have to pay to play the character you really want. We don't know what'll happen when they add more character classes though. You have access to all the game's content without paying anything and without any special grinding. Of course, your playstyle will have to adjust if you're going to buy a mount with gold instead of Astral Diamonds for example, but that's how it is.

Kotaku  I was just coming here to post this.  Looks like MS is dipping thier toes back into the exclusive market

And of course it's a shooter. MS for some reason doesn't ever want to touch any other genre with their AAA muscles. At least it's better than nothing, though this isn't the kind of thing that will convince me to get a next-gen Xbox.

The Open Beta becomes available to everyone today, 8 hours from the time of writing. I'm looking forward to impressions from the non-Founder crowd.

Just so this is clear, there will be no more character wipes. So even though this is called a beta, it's actually just a soft launch for the game.

so,as this is one of my most anticipated Ubisoft games for a long time,i think I may get this for PS4 or Next Box

I've already decided to do that with all the games that are coming out on next-gen consoles. I'd rather wait a few months and get the optimal experience, if I even have to do that.

Norway is the same. We've got a whole bunch of very different dialects, which makes it incredibly hard for foreigners to learn the language. Dialects isn't an American phenomenon.

This is a very different type of MMO from DDO, so a burnout from that game shouldn't be a problem. It doesn't feel like your typical MMO either, though it does fill a lot of the tropes anyway. It's not a WoW-clone.

You might want to mention Neverwinter, which is out for everyone tomorrow.

Enjoyed yours so far Tilt. Ran into one bug where the Golrug or whomever knocked me over a fence and I had to do /killme to get back. Only annoyed by your design where one side would be blocked so I'd have to walk back around, but enjoying the story.

Hmmm, you ended up between the walls and the orc fences? Golhrog never used any such attacks during my playtesting, but that's because I was limited to level 10 characters. I guess I should add some invisible walls to make sure the player can't get behind those. Thanks!

Did one called "Blood and Sand".  I killed a bunch of gladiators with names like Crixus and Crassus, etc. al.  The best part?  I got to the end and couldn't open the cages to 'finish' this horribly unimaginative mission.

To be fair, that quest is a homage to Spartacus and the author makes no secret of it.

The only part I'm not liking so far?  I've got 4 characters I'm trying out and ALL of them get the distinct pleasure of playing the EXACT SAME CONTENT.  Bleh.  Guess SWTOR spoiled me that way....

There are actually a bunch of sidequests that are unique to your class and race that start appearing around level 10 or so, but the majority of the content is indeed the same. That's something the Foundry helps with. I would recommend digging a little deeper in the list of Foundry quests. What you're seeing is that the ones that are there are being sorted by an "adjusted rating". I don't have the exact numbers, but I think this rating matches 50% of the average rating at the beginning, and then as you approach 50-100 ratings it gradually increases until it reaches the actual average. This will probably be less of a problem over time, but right now when everything is new, this means that the quests at the top are having a much higher adjusted rating than the ones at the bottom, even if the latter might be better reviewed. Look at the star ratings. My campaign has almost 4.5 in actual average rating, but the adjusted rating is currently 3.8. It started out at 2.6 or something like that. I'm climbing fast up the lists now since people are suddenly starting to play it in droves.

Also how do I start crafting?  I am up to level 10 so far.

You'll begin crafting around level 11 or so. You get a quest about it as soon as you qualify.

My dwarven guardian fighter is now up to level 24, with platesmithing at level 7 and leadership at level 3. Lots of fun.

rittchard, that sounds like something that is completely outside of my control. Are you saying that you interacted with the rock, got the appropriate dialog tree, finished it successfully, and the quest never updated?

I read where they did 3 shards for the start to reduce stress/lag etc. and later will combine them into one after things smooth out

Correct. It's a strange thing for Cryptic to do, but I can see their reasoning. Just a question of how long it'll take before the merger happens.

I suspect it's just a precaution. The beta weekends and the launch so far have all been very smooth and free of lag and other server issues, so I don't think there will be any major problems once the floodgates open for real. Still, it's better for them to be safe than sorry.

I'm up to level 12 with my dwarven Guardian Fighter so far. Yeah, I'm a slow player. I love how you can do crafting even while not playing the game by visiting the Neverwinter Gateway website. Lets me improve my character even while at work.

The weapon you get from the Founder's pack is incredibly overpowered btw, but that's just fine. I already played through the early content in the closed betas, so anything that lets me get past it quickly so I can get to the new content is appreciated.

Six ounces sounds about right to me. That's one chicken breast, which when combined with, say, rice and salad, is a satisfying and filling meal. I almost never eat more chicken than that in one sitting. Of course, American serving sizes tend to be considerably larger than their European counterparts.

So, one option costs $499 then, and the other $539. Too bad tons of people are going to see nothing but $299 and think "oh, that's cheap!". Subscriptions are never cheap. It might be easy to say "I would have had Xbox Live anyway", but that's one hell of a thing to assume that you'd want for two years when we don't even know how it will work for the new console, least of all whether or not it will offer ANY advantage over the PS4.

I'm at the Dragon shard.

Thorfin Battlebeard@TiLT42

Today is the day. Just 9 more hours until the floodgates open for the first Founders and the Foundry authors.

A new vision = how we try to keep justifying you pay us for Xbox live Gold.

Yep. 3.00 a month for the best MP service in the world is tough to swallow. 

Oh, has there already been a review of the MP services for PS4 and the new Xbox? Link!

They'll do something similar to Sony's press conference, but they'll have the benefit of being last. This means they'll be able to adjust their message to trump the PS4 in an as optimal way as possible. If they can't do that, by not having convinced people after the conference that the new Xbox will be superior, Microsoft will truly have an uphill battle. I think they'll come through with a good message though. Whether or not it'll appeal to gamers or casuals is too early to say. PS4 went straight for the gamers and stayed there, so it's natural to assume that Microsoft will try to separate themselves by focusing on the casual stuff (multimedia capabilities, most likely), and Microsoft hasn't really focused on gamers for a while anyway.

The assumption is that Sony will have the upper hand by being first. They might decide to be assholes and trump what they expect the Microsoft conference to be about by holding their own reveal just before or just after, showing off their own multimedia features (which they have quite deliberately held back so far, likely because of this exact reason). Then again, it's Sony. They don't always act in a rational, predictable way.

I'd probably spend 90% of my time in the Foundry, and the remaining 10% playing solo, so I can't imagine how I would be useful in a guild.

Exciting! It's also completely hilarious how both Sony and Microsoft have been deliberately not confirming their console before their reveal conference. It's not like they're fooling anyone.

From the email they've sent out:

If you are a Hero of the North, you will be able to play Neverwinter starting April 25th at 9am Pacific.

 If you are a Guardian of Neverwinter, you will be able to play Neverwinter starting April 27th at 9am Pacific.

 Everyone else will be able to play Neverwinter starting on April 30th at 9am Pacific.

I'll be part of the April 25th crowd even though I'm just on the Guardian of Neverwinter level. Foundry beta participation has its perks.

If you want Blu-Ray, I don't think you're going to be able to get around the firmware updates. The format keeps being updated, and to play newer discs you might have to do so as well. The Playstation 3 certainly won't help in that regard.

However,just like Bioshock 2,this is destined by everyone to be not as good as the originals

Bioshock 2 was less liked because it was both uninspired and because the developers didn't really seem to understand the setting (I mean, Big Sister? WTF were they thinking?).

I'm getting in 5 days early in Neverwinter due to my time in the Foundry beta, so I'll be getting that.