ViRGE wrote on Sep 6, 2012, 00:23:

Bhruic wrote on Sep 5, 2012, 19:07:

ViRGE wrote on Sep 5, 2012, 18:34:
That's an excellent point. Ubisoft's last experiment with DRM free games was a miserable failure (the sales to BitTorrent piracy ratio was something silly, and that's before casual copying), which is what led to UPlay in the first place.

That's a ridiculous point. While we don't know sales numbers, the idea that the sales-to-piracy numbers went up when they introduced UPlay is asinine. If anything, the piracy numbers went up, and the sales numbers down. That's the reason they are scaling back their efforts - because they obviously didn't work. So claiming that DRM free games were a "miserable failure" is absolutely incorrect.

No, it's not a ridiculous point. I can't remember who wrote the article - maybe Eurogamer or RPS - but they combed through Ubisoft's financial reports and that's exactly what they found. There was every sign that without any DRM paying customers were switching to piracy, which isn't all that surprising. It's the tragedy of the commons in action - why should paying customers pay for anything if the pirates get the same thing for free at the exact same time?

As for whether sales-to-piracy numbers went up when UPlay was introduced, that's equally well-founded. Remember, it took months for UPlay to be correctly cracked, which means no one was able to pirate it.

Rattlehead wrote on Sep 4, 2012, 23:29:
I can't use GMG, my bank lists them under fraudulent websites and thus my credit card rejects it everytime I use it. Sucks, because I want that BL2 deal.

Beamer wrote on Sep 4, 2012, 18:59:

Kitkoan wrote on Sep 4, 2012, 17:47:

PHJF wrote on Sep 4, 2012, 16:56:
CoD sells because of online play, you dolt. Everybody online is on equal footing.

Because it was made with easy mode. I pointed that out.

Regenerating health, assisted auto-aim, death is more of a bonus to refill on ammo instead of a penalty

These are all on the multiplayer mode. And CoD wasn't the first game to have multiplayer FPS action, many did before it. It was the first to have it all built on easy mode extras though and thats what helped sell it.

Multiplayer isn't easy, though. Most of that autoaim is turned off, and you get people that can regularly go 4:1 K:D and people that regularly go 1:5 K:D. Skill is still very much alive in multiplayer.

As for single player being easy, I'd disagree there, too. Yes, it has easy elements, but then it cheats with unfair elements to balance it out. On the hardest difficulty I had plenty of sections that took me double digit loads to get to the next checkpoint. I would never, ever call it easy, as I found many older PC games much easier (quicksave!) Infinite enemies, 1 hit deaths and a good amount of smoke and darkness outweigh regenerating health and a limited auto-aim (remember, it only autoaimed when you zoomed in, and you had to be motionless to have any accuracy, all of which made you an easy target to infinitely spawning bad guys with incredible accuracy.)

Bhruic wrote on Sep 4, 2012, 22:47:

RailWizard wrote on Sep 4, 2012, 20:48:
No You! I will drop a single name that will shut you up. Robinhood.

If illegally downloading software is helping you feed starving families, then by all means, continue. On the slightly more believable chance that illegally downloading software is just letting you play stuff for free, Robin Hood you aren't.

Jivaro wrote on Sep 4, 2012, 01:15:
@Jerykk: Totally, I wouldn't disagree that this is definitely part of the reason. It is not the only reason though. If it was, Gamestop would go all Hooters style with the uniforms.

Matshock wrote on Sep 4, 2012, 00:54:

Jerykk wrote on Sep 4, 2012, 00:19:
I hope they emphasize texture resolution because that's the only thing the PC versions won't be able to easily fix.

That's what I'm talking about- you can have a 1080P resolution but a 480P texture- the lower res texture just get overdrawn to the display resolution. That can take the jaggies out of the geometry but the surfaces still look blurry/pixelated.

One usually can't fit a full game's worth of X1080 textures into a GB or two of VRAM- you have to stream them from the HDD. Consumer grade optical drives don't have the access speed needed to do it (yet).

Add to that the trend of Gamestop hiring many more women then it used to. At least that is my impression over the last 5 years. The 3 stores in my area went from no women employees being nearly entirely women.

I believe in fair representation and pleasing all of your fanbase (not just the heterosexual white male portion), but I can't stand when shit that doesn't fit is shoehorned into a game for the sake of being politically correct. That wouldn't at all be the case here if female marines were included. It would just make sense.

Matshock wrote on Sep 3, 2012, 22:43:
I bet XBOX 720/ PS4 are 1080P. I bet WII U won't have a hard drive so 1080P would just end up over-scanning the textures anyway.

JohnBirshire wrote on Sep 3, 2012, 21:40:
I have a ton of female gamers who visit my store.

I hope you sell more than video games there, because retail game stores aren't going to exist in about five years. Many PC games, and now the next generation of consoles, are all going to be download only.

PHJF wrote on Sep 3, 2012, 19:55:
I remember when this game was The New Shit everybody was raving about.

Gipson wrote on Sep 3, 2012, 02:04:

Jerykk wrote on Sep 2, 2012, 20:04:

ASeven wrote on Sep 2, 2012, 18:50:
On a semi-related note, I Am Alive seems to have leaked for the PC and it may get the worst port for PC away from RE4 if what I read on related forums is true.

That would be quite a feat, considering that Dark Souls is the second worst port ever. If I Am Alive actually renders at your native resolution and isn't capped at 30 FPS, it's already better than Dark Souls.

Dark Souls is a crappy port but its high up there in the top 10 or 20 on Steam's stats page. i'm playing it for the first time ever and am really into it.

From Software still probably cashed in on this big (and i'm glad they did port it...i wanted to play this but have no console) and got even more profit thanks to Durante's fix.

Tumbler wrote on Sep 2, 2012, 12:29:
Despite this guys commentary this youtube video just got me onboard with this game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8N1vaYpJdo

That looks like a lot of fun. Going to go look for a place to pre-order. (assuming you get instant beta access plus some toys later)

ASeven wrote on Sep 2, 2012, 18:50:
On a semi-related note, I Am Alive seems to have leaked for the PC and it may get the worst port for PC away from RE4 if what I read on related forums is true.

Rhett wrote on Sep 1, 2012, 03:21:

Jerykk wrote on Aug 31, 2012, 23:10:

Rhett wrote on Aug 31, 2012, 13:57:
$50? Really?

TFD has all the best games on it, and it's only $20. I would NOT pay $30 for Red Alert 3 + C&C 3 (and I won't even mention that other terrible piece of shit they tacked on).

I hope you're referring to C&C4, because Generals: Zero Hour is the best C&C game yet.

Zero Hour/Generals are on The First Decade, so no, they're not on my "shit-list". =P C&C 3 + RA3 + C&C 4 are, however. (C&C 3 had its moments though)