Archive for the ‘Links’ Category
Dragon Age!
This is just an early writeup, but damn if Dragon Age isn’t an amazing RPG so far. Unless I run into some bullshit of Oblivion levels, this game will be the RPG of this year and next. I’m that enamored.
I only played yesterday and this morning, but I had to drag myself to bed at 2am and snuck in some time before work this morning. The engine is pretty damn amazing, much better than your usual "Loading…" every five feet that Bioware normally does (even though it does indeed of some loading still). The combat is hard, but very fun so far. That pretty much describes the game, hard but fun.
My only complaints so far are that the characters faces don’t match the emotion happening in the game. The story is nothing new, but well imagined…except when big things happen, the NPCs faces just can’t manage to keep up at all. That said, the roleplaying is pretty cool and the dialogue is endless as you want it to be.
Oh, and the usual, we’re giving you 10 different NPCs that are all badass…and you can only use three of them at once. Nah nah! /me kicks Bioware in the shins.
What Would Matt Do: Play. Play and play and play. This may well be the best RPG Bioware has ever released. As a huge fan of Bioware PRGs, that’s a pretty big statement.
P.S. – EA, you didn’t include the Stone Prisoner card in my box. You had better respond to the email I sent and make it right. I know you guys don’t always think so, but customer service is important. That is all.
UPDATE: I finally got in touch with an EA support representative and after checking my account, they enabled the missing Stone Prisoner content. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but go EA! They were actually helpful and nice. /me is stunned.
“We’re CCP! We march on fearlessly!”
Indeed they do.
What Would Matt Do: Well, I guess I’d really like to play the game that they make that doesn’t require me to a good book to read…when they make that game, let me know. Until then, I’ll agree, HARDEN THE FUCK UP!
Wii update 4.2 may brick your console. Is it worth it?
From /. games:
Now, Nintendo has pushed a boot2 update to all Wii users, and the results are what was expected: users are reporting bricks after installing 4.2 on unmodified consoles. Nintendo is currently attempting to censor posts and remove references to homebrew. It is worth noting that the new boot2 does not attempt to block anything or offer any additional protection or functionality. Its sole purpose is to simply replace current versions which may or may not have been modified with BootMii. Another interesting tidbit is that Nintendo is not believed to have any method to repair this kind of brick at a factory, short of replacing the entire motherboard."
So in their haste to combat those .01% Wii users (my guesstimate of homebrew users), they are releasing code that could brick a Wii AND they may not have anyway other than sending in the system to get it fixed?
Why is it all right for regular users to suffer to combat a very small percentage of the users that do things with their console that Nintendo doesn’t approve of? We all know, even Nintendo knows, that you can’t stop piracy/homebrew/etc with mere software updates. The pirates are crafty and will just release a new version of their software. So why does Nintendo spend so much time working against them, at the expense of their bigger customer base?
I don’t know. I hope Nintendo knows. Because this is irresponsible at best.
What Would Matt Do: Wonder why Nintendo is so headstrong to get pirates when they represent such a small part of their console owners… I mean, I know companies don’t like it when people steal their shit. That’s a given. But is this course worth it? What next, Nintendo will start releasing updates that make your promise you’re not a pirate before you use console? Because that’s about how effective these updates are, except regular paying customers are also being hit with the flack.
Fastest way to make stop buying games from your company, start supporting Glenn Beck.
I just saw this link being passed around by Game Politics. It’s simple, short and really gets the point across:
it looks like Stardock CEO Brad Wardell has taken the boycott a step further. According to the Angry Bear blog, Wardell has announced on his Facebook page that he is now boycotting UPS because they pulled their ads from Fox. He said Stardock does "a non-trivial amount of shipping with UPS" and if they did not change their position, he was taking Stardock’s business to FedEx.
The point? Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock, makers of great games like Galactic Civ, publisher of Demigod, and developer of upcoming Elemental is now supporting a seriously insane man.
The main point? I’m no longer advocating nor supporting anything Stardock is involved with. Sadly enough.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m for each to their own, but when you take it from your opinion to your company line, that changes things. For instance, I have a mechanic who I’ve been with for years now. One of the most honest, good mechanics I’ve ever met (Trust me, it’s hard to find a good mechanic) who also is a serious republican and a huge supporter of McCain. But at no point did he make me start supporting his views, donating to his charities, or stop using companies because they didn’t agree with his views.
If you can’t get have separation between your radically awful ideas and your company, then I can no longer support you or your activities. Maybe every company should be polliticially driven and advocate for their guys and their ideas…but until recently, Stardock wasn’t, even though Brad Wardell was.
That has changed and so has my opinion of the company. So, with that, I won’t be buying any more Stardock games. Plain and simple.
What Would Matt Do: I’ll stop anticipating Elemental and stop caring what else Stardock does. A very sad day in gaming.
I’m tired of being so negative, but CCP is really making me angry!
I haven’t been posting as much, as you may or may not have noticed. That isn’t so much because I haven’t wanted to, but more because I wanted to shift the focus of the site. Mainly just from the angry tone to a more mindful one. It is what it is.
That said, fuck CCP. How dare they try to make me break my no MMOs on the console rule. Much less my general lack of interest in FPS (CoD4 and any FPS you can play coop exluded…of course) games on the console. How are they doing it? By do something not many in the industry are even aware you can do, trying something different. That’s right, they are going to attempt a new idea. They will take an FPS with RTS attributes and tie it into their already existing MMO. They claim the following:
The team-based game has the player "fighting in a massive war" on existing planets in the EVE Online universe, and is a standalone MMO title, "but is also connected to EVE," according to the CCP boss.
In fact, when Dust 514 launches, the map of EVE, currently divined only by player structures owned in the PC game, will also take into account infantry successes and failures within the console game. Players in the PC MMO can "fund mercenaries and give them goals" in the console title.
CCP’s Petursson hope that "these communities will meld over time," expecting specific Dust 514 corporations to start with, but eventually social structures that bridge across the two. He quipped of the new game and the relationship between the two titles: "While the fleet does the flying, the infantry does the dying."
As I’m reading The Prince even (four books all about the future of humans and the military exploits of one John Christian Falkenburg. It’s a history of the universe created in The Mote In God’s Eye, another must read. The Prince is a great read if you like military and sci fi. Also does a very interesting and greatly detailed look at future and social issues), so I’m already in sci-fi military mood. What a bunch of complete shits to try something so interesting, one MMO linked to another, with the second being the land battles of the first (at least in theory), that I’m going to have to pay serious attention and maybe break my own personal rules on console gaming.
God, I can’t stand these CCP bastards.
What Would Matt Do: So that better, right?