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You know, as much as the community really thinks Microsoft screwed up on this, I can't place blame entirely on Microsoft. I have to place blame somewhat on the community.

You see, the "community" have been crying out for a few years that they want "something new", "something different", "something like Steam, but on a console".

Microsoft offered them something new, something different, and something very much like Steam on a console.

And it turns out that what the community wanted was exactly what they have right now, just with slightly better graphics.

The debacle is quite amusing, and even with the 180 from Microsoft, Sony are coming across as the console manufacturers most in-touch with the community. As I see it, I think Microsoft have dated to attempt to innovate (for once), and unfortunately their market research and marketing department has let them down.

My

I think the issue with those that want Steam on a console, or compared Steam to a console forget a key difference. Consoles, just by their very nature are a group thing, whether it's playing on XBL, multiplayer in the same room, taking a console to a friends house to play, or just swapping games around between friends, consoles have always been a social thing. Now, thats not to say Steam isn't, but PC gaming has always been more of a single player, or online multiplayer only event. Sure you had LAN parties, etc back in the day but those were few and far between. And PC games almost as far back as I've owned them (~1999) always had either a serial number or some way to make sure you were the only one who used the disk at that point in time.

The two really are apples and oranges. I'm just glad MS saw the light.

Microsoft decided against the online requirement and you will be able to play with a disc.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/micros ... d=19449001

Star Wars Jedi Knight 2 Jedi Outcast

I'm in a bit of a retro mood tonight. Anyone ever played it?

I picked up an overpriced Last Of Us this morning after work and proceeded to play for the next 6 hours, only getting 3 hours sleep before going back to work. I would normally wait a few months to not pay the full $60 but I can't wait. I'll try to finish it up in the next few weeks and sell it fast anyway.

The graphics and game play are awesome!

It is inline with alot of the modern games though where the game seems to be 50% movie-like scenes and 50% interaction.

To be sure some parts are hard, but you just keep doing them until its over.

I think the days of games where if you do something wrong, it affects your entire game, are over. In that regard games (or at least a majority of them with the movie plots and not sports, racing, etc) to me today are entertaining but not particularly challenging.

Being the cheapskate I am, I only now got my hands on Deus Ex Human Revolution (because it was a freebie in a game magazine) and after a short while I was already hooked. Not gotten far so far but it has brought back a lot of stuff from the original Deus Ex that was missing in Invisible, namely interesting side missions and all the little side info you can find via newspapers/ebooks lying around. Plus obviously way better graphics. Still consider the original one of the best games ever, but DXHR is getting pretty close to DX.

DAL764 wrote:Being the cheapskate I am, I only now got my hands on Deus Ex Human Revolution (because it was a freebie in a game magazine) and after a short while I was already hooked.

Brilliant Game. The soundtrack sticks in my head all the time.

The Last of Us.

Holy smokes. Don't play this game in an empty house in the dark.

IFEMaster wrote:The Last of Us.

Holy smokes. Don't play this game in an empty house in the dark.

I am currently stuck on the monster in the basement when you turn the generator on. He keeps ripping my ##$@ mouth open.

It seriously traumatizes me each time.

Click Click D'oh wrote:Mass Effect 3, quite possibly the most insulting game I've played in a long long time.

I've been staying out of the controversy over the ending of Mass Effect 3 until I could finish it myself and get my own personal perspective on it. ....

WTF?

I just played this. Holy stupid. Really. Also, I "killed all the Quarians," who were, as far as I can tell, the biggest morons in the galaxy.

So ME 3 gave me the "choice" and it led to them dying, which I was very happy with.

So why after I did that were Quarians still everywhere? Including all the dumb cut scenes. Why make a possibility halfway through and then have the game not "get" that I've just slaughtered an entire species?

Really?

And Leviathan. That was cool. Not. Was there any point to it? The Reaper progenitor shows up and then...yeah, that's it. Never hear from him (them?) again.

Oh, and having to play MP to get above 50% readiness? Really?

Well, since this thread has been resurrected.

My current gaming:

Heroes of the Storm
Hearthstone
World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Evolve

IFEMaster wrote:Dragon Age: Inquisition

Do you like it? I didn't.

My current games:

Heroes of Might and Magic III HD
Pillars of Eternity
And TES: Skyrim again, after diving into modding.

And I'm looking forward to GTA V on PC, hope they won't mess it up.

Slightly OT:

I am sometimes asked where and how I got my nickname, "Zak". Which is indeed more than just a nickname to me. When I worked in the gaming industry, I think more people knew me as "Zak" than under my real name. At some point, I even considered taking up "Zak" as my official artist's name on my federal ID card, but had to abandon the thought, as game designers are not being recognized as artists in Germany.

But some people still call me Zak, also in real life. And it's still my standard screen name until today.

Anyway, the name does have a gaming origin, and many people suspected it came from the immortal classic "Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders". But I was sure I had picked the nick up before I had played that game.

The nick was born out of the necessity of finding a 3-letter nickname, as most highscore lists those days allowed only 3 letter entries.

I did remember that I had seen the name as a graffiti in a game, and I was quite sure it was one of the 3 Last Ninja games on the Commodore 64. But I wasn't sure anymore which one it was. I even played them all for a while a few years ago, on a C64 emulator, but didn't find the graffiti.

So I started wondering if my memory served me right at all, or if maybe it was from a completely different game.

And then I came across a longplay video of The Last Ninja 2 today.

So, here it is. The scene I got my nickname from. Cue the cargo bay pics, but finding this did make me smile.


The video, in case anybody is interested:



The scene in question starts at around 4:20.

Zak wrote:

IFEMaster wrote:Dragon Age: Inquisition

Do you like it? I didn't.

I think it was okay, but it lost a lot of the mojo that made Dragon Age: Origins such a great game.

IFEMaster wrote:

Zak wrote:

IFEMaster wrote:Dragon Age: Inquisition

Do you like it? I didn't.

I think it was okay, but it lost a lot of the mojo that made Dragon Age: Origins such a great game.

Just saw this. No. Got bored pretty quickly but did finish it. Honestly, the amount of weird sexual stuff in their games is a little weird to me, as they do romance so pathetically bad that it makes it all like some sort of half-finished joke.

DA:O was the bomb!

Dragon Age: Inquisition mostly disappointed me because, other than one pop to get an achievement, not a single time did I need to craft a piece of armor or a weapon. I can't even call it a new-gen Skyrim. Utterly boring, underwhelming combat. Never became invested in the storyline. Boss battles were weak and forgettable. The dragon fights were slightly of interest, but after hitting level 15 and using a ranged attack, I blew through each one. And, I know there will never be another Shadowmere, but for the love of god, if I have all of these fantastic looking mounts at my disposal, at least give me a slight sensation of speed when I choose to ride them.

BAB

GTA V is finally out on PC...

Man I miss having separate checking accounts...

I play on the Bone. I'm slightly jealous of the insane mods PC players are going to get.

BAB

Got GTA:V for my PC, runs extremely well - they seem to have done a great job optimising it.

As for DA:I, I actually made use of EA Origin's option to return a game within 24 hours.

Played it for about 6-7 hours. Graphics were nice, but the camera was horrible! And what really killed me was the battles. Cluttered, uninspired and tactics-wise boring to the extreme. Thanks, but no thanks.

I will get GTA V soon. Already played it on the PS3 and loved it. And it looks like the PC version is worth another go.

But I told myself to finish Pillars of Eternity first. Which is absolutely fantastic.

And I may take a look at Skyrim: Enderal at some point. Which is a full-conversion mod that turns Skyrim into an entirely new game, and first reviews (it's still in beta) are enthusiastic.

Also waiting for Might & Magic: Heroes 7, which apparently will be much like HoMM3 (which is good news). And Sword Coast Legends. Great to see that old-school games are seeing a revival, most of the games that were released in the last 2 years did not thrill me at all.

Zak, I still can't wait for Enderal. Hope I can throw them some money, too.

But FWIW, I got my Jane's F-15 up and running again, on Windows 7, almost 100% perfectly! WHOOT! The only issue I have is with the main menu sound...it shuts off after a while, but everything else is great! I even got it to work full with my X52 setup AND TrackIR! How sweet is that?

And to demonstrate it, I flew right up the tailpipe of a B52...it was just to get a screenshot, nothing else. I love how you can name all of your pilots and fly with them throughout the campaign, unless they get KIA/MIA. Guess I'll throw in the names of a few I don't like just to liven it up a bit!

I am not an F-15 pilot.

I love Jane's F-15....haven't played that forever....Wonder if that works on Windows 10...

I meanwhile got Might & Magic: Heroes VII, and love it. Reviews are mixed, to put it mildly, mostly due to the online multiplayer not working properly. I only play the single player campaign and hotseat multiplayer, and both works perfectly fine. The game itself is fantastic.

Not sure yet if I will get Sword Coast Legends. Again, mixed reviews, mostly because of the D&D rules not being adapted properly, and due to the dungeon master mode being mostly useless. But I'd only play the single player campaign, anyway, and that's said to be good. I will probably get it when Steam makes me a good offer.

At the moment, I play Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition. Awesome by Larian to hand that out for free to buyers of the original version. As far as I am concerned, D:OS was the best RPG in recent years, and the Enhanced Edition is even better. Can't wait for D:OS 2.

Next purchase will be Fallout 4, of course.