Random Gaming Talk Thread

[Raban]

I wanna get a CoD-type online FPS but I can't decide between MW1, 2, Black Ops or Bad Company 2. I haven't played the multiplayer for any of them. It seems like BC2 would be the best deal since it's the cheapest on Steam, just $20. But I'm not so sure on it since I hated BF2 (clips ). Anyone wanna help me out here?

[Raban]

Seriously? Keep in mind I'm playing on the PC here. It's just $60 for a fucking Treyarch game makes me smh.

[magus]

did you guys know that ghost & goblins online got announced?

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[Raban]

Online?

EDIT: Looks fantastic, but the graphics are a little dated for this gen. Any idea what systems? Is the online portion just about co-op?

[iconoclast]

It's developed in Korea, so it's most likely going to be a bad MMO. Or it will be a single player game that plays like a bad MMO. That's all Korea knows how to make. That and DJ MAX.

[Mr. Gundam]

Bleach Soul Ignition (PS3) - Sony finally bringing the fighting series to the PS3. Good news for people more Japafaggy than me, I guess.

Wish there was a 360 version but if this hit America, I'll buy it.

The PSP and PS2 versions never made it over, so I'm kinda doubting this one will.

[cool breeze]

I thought the PS2 games came over but checking Gamestop, it seems they didn't.  Weirder is that the only Bleach games in America are for Nintendo consoles (DS and Wii).  Naruto games get released on everything, including the many PSP games.

The PS2 arena fighter games were pretty fun.  If it is a continuation of those, I'd prefer that to the PSP fighting games.

[ferrarimanf355]

Does Burnout Revenge still work online? I just got a sudden urge to play it.

The Xbox 360 version? I don't know, but I do have the X360 version, and I've been playing it a bit over the past few weeks. Wanna play? 

[ferrarimanf355]

I'm posting this here and in the Outside Link Thread. SMB3 fans annihilated. Icon startselect and send demi some cock pics.
Super Mario World is Miyamoto's favorite Mario game.

Miyamoto

I loved it, too. 

[Raban]

I'm posting this here and in the Outside Link Thread. SMB3 fans annihilated. Icon startselect and send demi some cock pics.
Super Mario World is Miyamoto's favorite Mario game.

Miyamoto

I loved it, too. 

Seriously, I'm not shitting on SMB3, but to assume it's superior to SMW is mind-blowing.

[maxy]

War is coming

‘We will refuse to sell Steam games’ blast High Street giants; Digital distributors losing customers to giant rival

The world's biggest digital distribution platform for games is under attack.

MCV understands that key retailers will drop titles that integrate the popular Steam service as fears mount that the service has a ‘monopoly’ on the download market.

Insiders say Steam, run by US studio Valve, serves a massive 80 per cent of the PC download sector. And retailers preparing their own rival platforms don’t want that share to grow any more.

Some of the biggest PC games – such as Call of Duty and Fallout – use Steam. But retailers are concerned that selling games with the tech built-in pushes users towards only buying games via Valve going forward.

At least two major retailers will demand that publishers remove Steam from their games – or they will not sell them in any form.


“If we have a digital service, then I don’t want to start selling a rival in-store,” said the digital boss at one of the biggest UK games retailers.

“Publishers are creating a monster ­– we are telling suppliers to stop using Steam in their games.”

The head of sales at a big-name digital service provider agreed: “At the moment the big digital distributors need to stock games with Steam. But the power resides with bricks and mortar retailers, they can refuse to stock these titles. Publishers are hesitant, but retail must put pressure on them.”

Gaikai CEO David Perry told MCV Steam could become the games-equivilent of iTunes, where it dictates the terms of the market, not the other way around: “Steam has made it so easy for everyone and they have lots of users. But how long do you wait before you take control of your own digital strategy? Like with iTunes, at some point it’s going to be too late.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/41746/Retail-threatens-Steam-ban

[archie4208]

demi was right.  Steam is malware that is killing the industry.  :'(

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

SMW is much better than SMB3.  It isn't even close.

[Great Rumbler]

War is coming

‘We will refuse to sell Steam games’ blast High Street giants; Digital distributors losing customers to giant rival

The world's biggest digital distribution platform for games is under attack.

MCV understands that key retailers will drop titles that integrate the popular Steam service as fears mount that the service has a ‘monopoly’ on the download market.

Insiders say Steam, run by US studio Valve, serves a massive 80 per cent of the PC download sector. And retailers preparing their own rival platforms don’t want that share to grow any more.

Some of the biggest PC games – such as Call of Duty and Fallout – use Steam. But retailers are concerned that selling games with the tech built-in pushes users towards only buying games via Valve going forward.

At least two major retailers will demand that publishers remove Steam from their games – or they will not sell them in any form.


“If we have a digital service, then I don’t want to start selling a rival in-store,” said the digital boss at one of the biggest UK games retailers.

“Publishers are creating a monster ­– we are telling suppliers to stop using Steam in their games.”

The head of sales at a big-name digital service provider agreed: “At the moment the big digital distributors need to stock games with Steam. But the power resides with bricks and mortar retailers, they can refuse to stock these titles. Publishers are hesitant, but retail must put pressure on them.”

Gaikai CEO David Perry told MCV Steam could become the games-equivilent of iTunes, where it dictates the terms of the market, not the other way around: “Steam has made it so easy for everyone and they have lots of users. But how long do you wait before you take control of your own digital strategy? Like with iTunes, at some point it’s going to be too late.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/41746/Retail-threatens-Steam-ban

AHAHAHAHAHAHA

[archie4208]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-11/viacom-beats-profit-estimates-with-jersey-shore-plans-to-sell-rock-band.html?cmpid=yhoo

Viacom is selling Harmonix.  Welp, that about wraps it up for music games.

[archie4208]

Yep.  Man, I feel bad for the people that invested heavily in their libraries for that game, cuz it's gonna be gone baby gone.

I own over 500 songs.


....:'(

Edit:  I don't know if anyone else followed RB3's development cycle, but there was an aura of insecurity from Harmonix.  It is like they knew their game was destined to flop, but they were trying to keep a stiff upper lip and be as optimistic about it as possible.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Music game popularity has been on the decline since 2007-2008.

I can't believe anyone is surprised.  The music game fad from its beginning was a pump and dump operation.  Now it is time for the dump.

[Stoney Mason]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-11/viacom-beats-profit-estimates-with-jersey-shore-plans-to-sell-rock-band.html?cmpid=yhoo

Viacom is selling Harmonix.  Welp, that about wraps it up for music games.

I just came to post this.

Wow.

I can see a lot of nerds suiciding. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I love Frequency and Amplitude.

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[close]

[chronovore]

Yep.  Man, I feel bad for the people that invested heavily in their libraries for that game, cuz it's gonna be gone baby gone.

I own over 500 songs.


....:'(

Edit:  I don't know if anyone else followed RB3's development cycle, but there was an aura of insecurity from Harmonix.  It is like they knew their game was destined to flop, but they were trying to keep a stiff upper lip and be as optimistic about it as possible.

Really? In what way did you get that vibe?

I'm really enjoying the game; it's the best RB so far, but quality is not enough to warrant success any longer.

[Stoney Mason]

I think we discussed it earlier but there was a very visible growing schism between people who wanted these games to get more and more complex (pro mode) and the more casual audience that just wants fun.

I also sort of think that honestly after awhile you start running out of classic songs that everybody (casuals I mean) want to play.

MS should definitely try to get that Dance Central IP if they can.

[cool breeze]

Even though I always wanted piano in these music games, I am pretty bored of the formula.  If support is really going to be dying out, and especially after reading the new DLC plans, I feel like selling Rock Band 3 isn't a bad idea.

[Stoney Mason]

The Kinect bubble will burst sometime in 2011, I don't think its worth it.

True.

[cool breeze]

Call of Duty seems to be doing just fine!

besides, was Rock Band ever the popular one? I stopped playing Guitar Hero at 3, but I always remember that series dominating rock band in sales.

[Stoney Mason]

besides, was Rock Band ever the popular one? I stopped playing Guitar Hero at 3, but I always remember that series dominating rock band in sales.

Beatles Rock Band sold decently.

but yeah, Guitar Hero was probably more popular with the masses and Rockband was more popular with the critics. That's how it broke down. I also think any genre (outside of Nintendo that is) that is based around selling you expensive peripherals on a regular basis is going to have trouble long term.

I also don't want to make it come off as if I'm knocking Harmonix. I think they are great devs. Sad to see it happen to them. Sometimes the best games don't sell the best. That's life. See Amplitude and Frequency.

Like I said I never bought another guitar game after the first guitar hero but Beatles Rockband and Rockband 3 from the outside looking in, tempted me.

[archie4208]

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/708565/Bee-Gees-Coming-To-Rock-Band-3.html?utm_source=g4tv&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=TheFeed

Bee Gees DLC.  Harmonix is stayin alive. 

[maxy]

ZeniMax Media - the company that owns Bethesda, id, Arkane and Tango - has bought another studio: MachineGames.

This developer was formed in 2009 by the founders of Starbreeze - the studio behind the Riddick games (Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena) and comic-book conversion The Darkness.

MachineGames is busy making a new game using the impressive id Tech 5 engine. Bethesda Softworks (not Bethesda Game Studios - the developer part) will publish, but for now all details on the project are held back.

MachineGames CEO Jerk (!) Gustafsson said working with Bethesda and id was a "tremendous opportunity". He labelled his new project a "AAA title" that will "push the game development envelope".

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-11-11-zenimax-buys-machinegames

[Stoney Mason]

They are really trying to make a push to become a big time publisher. Should be interesting to see how it works out.

[Raban]

War is coming

‘We will refuse to sell Steam games’ blast High Street giants; Digital distributors losing customers to giant rival

The world's biggest digital distribution platform for games is under attack.

MCV understands that key retailers will drop titles that integrate the popular Steam service as fears mount that the service has a ‘monopoly’ on the download market.

Insiders say Steam, run by US studio Valve, serves a massive 80 per cent of the PC download sector. And retailers preparing their own rival platforms don’t want that share to grow any more.

Some of the biggest PC games – such as Call of Duty and Fallout – use Steam. But retailers are concerned that selling games with the tech built-in pushes users towards only buying games via Valve going forward.

At least two major retailers will demand that publishers remove Steam from their games – or they will not sell them in any form.


“If we have a digital service, then I don’t want to start selling a rival in-store,” said the digital boss at one of the biggest UK games retailers.

“Publishers are creating a monster ­– we are telling suppliers to stop using Steam in their games.”

The head of sales at a big-name digital service provider agreed: “At the moment the big digital distributors need to stock games with Steam. But the power resides with bricks and mortar retailers, they can refuse to stock these titles. Publishers are hesitant, but retail must put pressure on them.”

Gaikai CEO David Perry told MCV Steam could become the games-equivilent of iTunes, where it dictates the terms of the market, not the other way around: “Steam has made it so easy for everyone and they have lots of users. But how long do you wait before you take control of your own digital strategy? Like with iTunes, at some point it’s going to be too late.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/41746/Retail-threatens-Steam-ban

Sounds like QQing to me.

[EmCeeGrammar]

I think plastic instrument games were too much of a novelty purchase to be sustained in the long run.  I could never get into guitar hero or rock band, because besides the peripherals and presentation, there was nothing separating it from all the countless mile long qte games that came before and after it.  Hopefully this means a return to the more abstract and quirky rhythm games.

[archie4208]

I think plastic instrument games were too much of a novelty purchase to be sustained in the long run.  I could never get into guitar hero or rock band, because besides the peripherals and presentation, there was nothing separating it from all the countless mile long qte games that came before and after it.  Hopefully this means a return to the more abstract and quirky rhythm games.

That have universally bad music.  Hurray. 

[EmCeeGrammar]

I think plastic instrument games were too much of a novelty purchase to be sustained in the long run.  I could never get into guitar hero or rock band, because besides the peripherals and presentation, there was nothing separating it from all the countless mile long qte games that came before and after it.  Hopefully this means a return to the more abstract and quirky rhythm games.

That have universally bad music.  Hurray. 

But they're actually fun and usually creative.

Hopefully this means a return to the more abstract and quirky rhythm games.

Do people even want to play games like this anymore? And I mean mass-market people.

The Rhythm Heaven/Tengoku game on DS did good worldwide, although Nintendo used celebrities like Beyonce to accomplish that.  If the wii version comes outside of Japan I could see it taking off.

[tiesto]

I think plastic instrument games were too much of a novelty purchase to be sustained in the long run.  I could never get into guitar hero or rock band, because besides the peripherals and presentation, there was nothing separating it from all the countless mile long qte games that came before and after it.  Hopefully this means a return to the more abstract and quirky rhythm games.

That have universally bad music.  Hurray. 

Well, to someone like me who doesn't give a fuck about rock/pop music... most of the American music games have stuff I don't like in it either. (DJ Hero 2 being the obvious exception)

[Great Rumbler]

War is coming

‘We will refuse to sell Steam games’ blast High Street giants; Digital distributors losing customers to giant rival

The world's biggest digital distribution platform for games is under attack.

MCV understands that key retailers will drop titles that integrate the popular Steam service as fears mount that the service has a ‘monopoly’ on the download market.

Insiders say Steam, run by US studio Valve, serves a massive 80 per cent of the PC download sector. And retailers preparing their own rival platforms don’t want that share to grow any more.

Some of the biggest PC games – such as Call of Duty and Fallout – use Steam. But retailers are concerned that selling games with the tech built-in pushes users towards only buying games via Valve going forward.

At least two major retailers will demand that publishers remove Steam from their games – or they will not sell them in any form.


“If we have a digital service, then I don’t want to start selling a rival in-store,” said the digital boss at one of the biggest UK games retailers.

“Publishers are creating a monster ­– we are telling suppliers to stop using Steam in their games.”

The head of sales at a big-name digital service provider agreed: “At the moment the big digital distributors need to stock games with Steam. But the power resides with bricks and mortar retailers, they can refuse to stock these titles. Publishers are hesitant, but retail must put pressure on them.”

Gaikai CEO David Perry told MCV Steam could become the games-equivilent of iTunes, where it dictates the terms of the market, not the other way around: “Steam has made it so easy for everyone and they have lots of users. But how long do you wait before you take control of your own digital strategy? Like with iTunes, at some point it’s going to be too late.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/41746/Retail-threatens-Steam-ban

Sounds like QQing to me.

I really like the quote at the end of that article, because it implies that it ISN'T already too late to compete against Steam. Yeah, good luck, guys. 

[tiesto]

Ultima 4, one of the best PC games ever made, in Flash:

http://www.phipsisoftware.com/ultima4/Ultima4.html

[cool breeze]

[youtube=560,345]4RkJT3ZoWjk[/youtube]
[youtube=560,345]HZ83NGwgapM[/youtube]

You have to give Sony credit for knowing their audience

[Raban]

I really like the quote at the end of that article, because it implies that it ISN'T already too late to compete against Steam. Yeah, good luck, guys. 

It's utter bullshit that not even two years ago digital distribution was being shit on by just about everyone and now that Valve is rolling the dough with Steam other DD companies are whining that they couldn't come up with the idea before Valve did for a universal digital download suite like Steam. This is capitalism at work, people. If these businesses have a problem with it, maybe they should consider communism.

[demi]

I got my Mario toy from Club Nintendo the other day. Surprisingly decent. Much better than some gay ass Mario Hat or download code. I'm gonna put it on my new work desk

[pilonv1]

I really like the quote at the end of that article, because it implies that it ISN'T already too late to compete against Steam. Yeah, good luck, guys. 

"To compete with Steam, we just need to make an a leading online store that has DRM, automatic patching, cloud saves, community/achievement integration and multiplayer aspects in one client. It can't be that hard."

It's like if Microsoft or Sony came out with a motion sensing peripheral three years after the Wii wrapped up that market.

[Raban]

I really like the quote at the end of that article, because it implies that it ISN'T already too late to compete against Steam. Yeah, good luck, guys. 

"To compete with Steam, we just need to make an a leading online store that has DRM, automatic patching, cloud saves, community/achievement integration and multiplayer aspects in one client. It can't be that hard."

It's like if Microsoft or Sony came out with a motion sensing peripheral three years after the Wii wrapped up that market.

It's like the whole gen, fuck it, the whole world for the past two or three years has been doing nothing but whining about things not going super special perfect for them.

[pilonv1]

I just like that it's come back to bite them as Oscar said. To say they shat on PC gaming for the last 10 years would  be putting it lightly and now they're crying because they missed the bot.

[Raban]

I just like that it's come back to bite them as Oscar said. To say they shat on PC gaming for the last 10 years would  be putting it lightly and now they're crying because they missed the bot.

Bingo. Fucking babies.

[chronovore]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-11/viacom-beats-profit-estimates-with-jersey-shore-plans-to-sell-rock-band.html?cmpid=yhoo

Viacom is selling Harmonix.  Welp, that about wraps it up for music games.

Wouldn't it be fucking hilarious if Activision bought them?

I think EA or THQ would be the best candidates. EA already has connections with them and THQ is just turning into a really cool publisher that's making a lot of big moves. Whoever buys them really needs to think about doing a RB: Complete where it's all three of the main games and just having that be the sku they offer. Make the game more about being a platform than every year or every two years, doing a sequel that bombs horribly.


Oh man, wouldn't it be fucking crazy if it was Microsoft or even if they just made some bigtime deal for Dance Central exclusivity?

Pretty sure that, just by virtue of the Kinect technology driving it, Dance Central is already an exclusive. You've got gameplay based on whole-body interpretation input. That's not going to be handled well by stick-waving. I guess they could do a scaled down port for DS or PSP, but the user experience for home isn't really achievable without that technology.

I really like the quote at the end of that article, because it implies that it ISN'T already too late to compete against Steam. Yeah, good luck, guys. 

"To compete with Steam, we just need to make an a leading online store that has DRM, automatic patching, cloud saves, community/achievement integration and multiplayer aspects in one client. It can't be that hard."

It's like if Microsoft or Sony came out with a motion sensing peripheral three years after the Wii wrapped up that market.

It's like the whole gen, fuck it, the whole world for the past two or three years has been doing nothing but whining about things not going super special perfect for them.

Yeah, Sony set a bad example the last two generations. The PS was a powerhouse that laid waste to everything else, and the PS2's dominance continued unabated. The Xbox was superior for hardware and ease of development, but the PS2's marketshare meant almost no-one took advantage of its strengths. The DreamCast was stillborn thanks not only to Sega's ability to "snatch failure from the jaws of victory," but also to Sony's brilliantly timed PR interference ("the PS2 will be on store shelves in 6 months" ). The GameCube didn't flourish until its relaunch as the Wii.

This gen, everyone was expecting a clear winner, and thought it was going to be their own special place in the sun for the generation. It's been funny watching Sony's conflagrated hardware design bite it in the ass as they no longer have developers scraping, simpering and throwing dirt on themselves in an attempt to get things to work.

[Rman]

Crazy that Viacom paid 300 million for Harmonix.  Almost a 1/3 of a billion dollars!  What were they thinking?

[Bebpo]

Did rock band not beat guitar hero?  I thought GH died at some point due to RB becoming the bigger name music game and then RB died later on because no one cared about music games anymore.

With all the RB sales I'd figure they would have made all that money back, right?

[pilonv1]

Guitar Hero is much much bigger overseas because after the first game the releases were similar. Rock Band was massively delayed in Europe.

[Rman]

Did rock band not beat guitar hero?  I thought GH died at some point due to RB becoming the bigger name music game and then RB died later on because no one cared about music games anymore.

With all the RB sales I'd figure they would have made all that money back, right?

Rock Band was destroyed by Guitar Hero 3 on all platforms.  Rock Band 2 got its nose ahead of Guitar Hero World Tour just barely on the HD systems, but got hosed by over a million units on the Wii and got hosed bad on the PS2 as well, which meant overall, GHWT sold far more than RB2.  Beatles Rock Band and GH5 were about on par with each other, at least in NA.

Most importantly and unfortunately, Rock Band, Rock Band 2, and Beatles Rock Band all failed to make a profit.  They lost less each time, but they were still losing money.  Apparently they were losing money on the instruments?  I dunno.

That makes sense especially if early adopters just kept their plastic instruments.

[archie4208]

The major thing that killed Rock Band's profitability was the instruments.  If I recall correctly, Viacom opened several factories to manufacture toy instruments and were painfully clueless for the design and logistics of the whole thing, hence why the first wave of instruments had such shoddy quality and why the game was delayed in Europe for so long.  If MTV had farmed out the instruments to MadCatz (whose reputation was still spotty in 2007, but were on a quality upswing) as they did with RB3, then things might not be as dire for Harmonix right now.

[Bebpo]

So if RB dies, will Activision keep bringing out GH games yearly?  Or is GH dead at this point as well?

[cool breeze]

Tony Hawk Shred was released less than half a month ago.  I don't think Activision will drop Guitar Hero outright, but Neversoft might be moved off for a smaller group to take over.  Maybe they can finally work on Gun 2 now that RDR is a huge success.

[Raban]

Tony Hawk Shred was released less than half a month ago.  I don't think Activision will drop Guitar Hero outright, but Neversoft might be moved off for a smaller group to take over.  Maybe they can finally work on Gun 2 now that RDR is a huge success.

Or a Tony Hawk game that doesn't suck

[archie4208]

Neversoft doesn't work on Guitar Hero anymore.  Vicarious Visions now helms that ship.  Guitar Hero will always have a yearly release, but it will be low key ala Tony Hawk.

[cool breeze]

facts WHATEVER

activision right now right now because there is a PC version of Spider-Man SD exclusive to Walmart coming out in a week or two.  I bought the 360 version for $30 about 3 weeks ago and still haven't gotten around to playing it. stealth PC gaming releases

[ferrarimanf355]

Tony Hawk Shred was released less than half a month ago.  I don't think Activision will drop Guitar Hero outright, but Neversoft might be moved off for a smaller group to take over.  Maybe they can finally work on Gun 2 now that RDR is a huge success.

Has anybody reviewed the new Tony Hawk game, or is everyone staying away this time? Haven't seen shit on IGN, Gamespot, etc. and I need the laugh.

[ferrarimanf355]

ZeniMax Media - the company that owns Bethesda, id, Arkane and Tango - has bought another studio: MachineGames.

This developer was formed in 2009 by the founders of Starbreeze - the studio behind the Riddick games (Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena) and comic-book conversion The Darkness.

MachineGames is busy making a new game using the impressive id Tech 5 engine. Bethesda Softworks (not Bethesda Game Studios - the developer part) will publish, but for now all details on the project are held back.

MachineGames CEO Jerk (!) Gustafsson said working with Bethesda and id was a "tremendous opportunity". He labelled his new project a "AAA title" that will "push the game development envelope".

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-11-11-zenimax-buys-machinegames

Who forms a company and installs a CEO named Jerk?

[Robo]

That's not even the worst part -- his middle name is "(!)"!

[EmCeeGrammar]

for a second I thought that was a dingleberry emoticon thingy

[iconoclast]

http://teamspooky.com/content/?page_id=171 Canada Cup stream (featuring Wong, Daigo, and Mago)

Love me some fightan tournaments. Too bad James Chen and Skisonic aren't on commentary.

[ferrarimanf355]

Dark Void is probably the worst game I have ever played.

You can't say that without explaining why.

[Bebpo]

Dark Void is probably the worst game I have ever played.

Yeah.  I got it for $5 and I couldn't make it past about 80 mins in.  CORRIDOR, SHOOT STUFF, CORRIDOR, SHOOT STUFF, repeat x 10 hours.  Terrible game.

[chronovore]

Dark Void is probably the worst game I have ever played.

It's funny, when I saw you were playing that last night, I was really baffled.