User Information - Will

Beamer wrote on Dec 19, 2012, 16:31: Do the execs want to get paid for doing a good job here? Yes. Yes they do. But they're not dumb enough to take money out of the coffers when they're struggling to stay alive at a time that they know that being bought out will mean even more money for them. And yet, thats pretty much exactly what the Caen bros did with Interplay's corpse. Essentially, they got more in bonuses than fallout online got in dev funds during the years they pretended to do something with it, so they wouldn't forfeit the IP to beth per the contract. I checked Interplay's financial statements for those years, and that was pretty obvious. If they had instead used all that money to do actual substantial development, they might have had a leg to stand on and keep the MMO IP, and perhaps even get it released and made money off of it. Now I doubt anything like that will happen with THQ, but my point is, greed can be very stupid and outweigh any logical thought.

36.

Re: Steam Stops Selling The War Z

Dec 19, 2012, 19:05

News Comments > Project GODUS Multiplayer Trailer

Jivaro wrote on Dec 19, 2012, 17:33: This story just gets weirder... I mean, I am not even sure this is true or if it is just "piling on"...but still...wow... It would be easy enough to see if its true. Someone with the game, start it up and see if the image is whats shown in that story. If it is, then its plagiarism.

26.

Re: Project GODUS Multiplayer Trailer

Dec 19, 2012, 16:38

ASeven wrote on Dec 19, 2012, 16:05: Ah well, hope this game turns out to be a good Populous homage because if it's another game full of hot air as Peter's last games were I can see this breaking Peter's reputation down to a non recoverable state. If its not there already, why would a failure of that make it go there? Besides, all he has to do is release an unfinished product, and he can say he shipped a product to kickstarter backers.

16.

Re: Steam Stops Selling The War Z

Dec 19, 2012, 16:22

Trevellian wrote on Dec 19, 2012, 16:16: I guarantee a majority of the people who bought it on Steam are clueless and simply thought it was the Day Z Standalone client as well. That could well be. If you look at movies, there's a few companies that frequently release some titles similar to big sellers (often on DVD while actual movie is in theatre), to try and cash in on some of that. Those movies are usually always rated very poorly. There's even a page on wiki about such practices, "mockbusters" they are called. For instance, right now I believe "Age of Hobbits" is out on DVD. Previous examples include "Transmorphers" "alien vs hunter" "Snakes on a train" etc. 1AngryGamer wrote on Dec 19, 2012, 16:17: Forbes http://tinyurl.com/brgejvd Whatever you were trying to do there, it really got screwed up. The preview shows what link its trying to go to: http://tinyurl.com/preview.php?num=brgejvd I think you meant this fixed link This comment was edited on Dec 19, 2012, 16:28.

13.

Re: Steam Stops Selling The War Z

Dec 19, 2012, 16:16

Turns out that just like greenlight where they did no checking of the entries (initially leading to things like porn and other people's games on greenlight, and games ppl wanted sequels to), they also do no checking of steam's store page descriptions. Thats probably the worst part of this, now everyone knows that, and someone could promise the moon on a greenlight game, and get it approved and put all sorts of fake things on the steam store page and sell it. If they word it a little more carefully than this guy, they might even get away with it. Like if they put in a little disclaimer in fine print at the bottom about all the features being "planned" and not actual.

10.

Re: Steam Stops Selling The War Z

Dec 19, 2012, 16:07

News Comments > Project GODUS Multiplayer Trailer

Protip valve: It wouldn't hurt to contract out some minimum wage temp workers to play games that are going to appear on your store page for at least an hour, see if they are a total buggy mess with none of the features that they claim on the store page in place. This comment was edited on Dec 19, 2012, 16:16.

17.

Re: Project GODUS Multiplayer Trailer

Dec 19, 2012, 14:43

News Comments > Project GODUS Prototype Footage

Christ Roberts is also pushing this GODUS thing on his star citizen kickstarter. Ugh. That gives me ton's of hope for Star Citizen... Not. I only backed star citizen because a $30 slot opened up. Despite all my reservations, I still have some hope for star citizen. I'm not going to back this thing, I might get it when it comes out, IF it gets good enough reviews.

19.

Re: Project GODUS Prototype Footage

Dec 19, 2012, 13:12

And now Chris Roberts is pushing this game on the star citizen kickstarter. Yeah that gives me real hope for star citizen.

96.

Re: Steam Top 10

Dec 19, 2012, 13:11

News Comments > EA Can't Say It Wasn't Warned About SimCity DRM

InBlack wrote on Dec 19, 2012, 06:37: (although it took me a while to figure out where how to fasten the SSD to its drive-bay-thingie heh) You can buy an adapter to do 2.5" into a 3.5" bay, but since there's no moving parts, some people use zip ties or velcro, or just leave it sitting at the bottom of your case.

70.

Re: EA Can't Say It Wasn't Warned About SimCity DRM

Dec 19, 2012, 13:07

News Comments > EA Can't Say It Wasn't Warned About SimCity DRM

Beamer wrote on Dec 19, 2012, 08:40: Also, they will NOT shut down the servers of a game being actively played just because the new version is out. For one, it'd be extremely tricky with this, because they'd be killing single player. No one will buy a next version of a game if the old version magically ceases working. People complain about this regularly, but have we had a single game's single player magically cease working yet, other than ones whose companies have gone out of business (and which are those?) More importantly, EA has only really done the "shut down because a new version is out" with sports games over 2 versions old, not "the next version." Says who? And yes they do. And yes people still buy. And they do it not just to sports games 3 years old. I've seen stuff appear on EA's close down next month list thats barely over a year old. http://www.ea.com/1/service-updates Lets see whats on the list... Sims 2 PC online services shutting down in Jan (thats not 2 versions old, thats the previous version). If they had ever bothered to make the entire sims 2 series in a bundle and put it on a decent sale on steam, I would have bought it, even now. Guess they'd rather shut it down though than "devalue" it with a sale. A couple months ago, they shut down part of Sims 3 on consoles. Interestingly, there's no listing for having shut down Sims original... maybe thats because it was single player and didn't have forced online components? Also they are shutting down madden 11 and fifa 11 and others, both of which are NOT "over" two versions old. They are NOT "3 years old". I think at this moment they are about 2 years old?

35.

Re: EA Can't Say It Wasn't Warned About SimCity DRM

Dec 18, 2012, 14:33

News Comments > EA Can't Say It Wasn't Warned About SimCity DRM

Fion wrote on Dec 18, 2012, 14:21: On SimCityV, it does look significantly simplified. But I'm not entirely sure we've seen all there is to know. What we've seen in demo vids so far has been pretty simplistic. It seems to me that you could finish a modern city in days and when then is left? So I'm reserving judgement on the game. What I see I like, though I wish they'd add more classic SimCity features. Its unlikely. They said they were a small dev team and betting everything on the social interaction (aka always online DRM). They probably don't have the resources to do much extra beyond what you see. Probably because EA figures that its not sims, so it won't be worth investing much into it, since they aren't expecting many sales. Which also means that people can complain or boycott all they want, EA isn't going to care. In fact, probably the ONLY reason EA funded the project was because of the social interaction features. EA figures they want to cash in on some of the casual game category (hence popcap acquisition), so they are doing a test run to see how well a simplified game from an established franchise with social features will work. If it does, they will do lots more stripped down games. So yeah, think simcity lite, simcityville. Edit: Yeah see the response below me, I'm sure thats how it all went down.

13.

Re: EA Can't Say It Wasn't Warned About SimCity DRM

Dec 18, 2012, 12:44

from a dev on the AMA: we put all of our chips down on the city simulation and on city regional play. That's the heart of the game. Regardless of what happens, and how many people complain, they aren't going to be removing the always on DRM (aka regional play), they aren't going to add offline mode. As they've said, they've put all the chips down on that. The entire game is designed around that.

79.

Re: Steam Top 10

Dec 18, 2012, 11:39

News Comments > Project GODUS Prototype Footage

If money is tight, watch front page of slickdeals for SSD sales, thats when you can get the $50 for 120gb price. Also, 5400 green hdds aren't the super slow things of yesteryear anymore. Modern hard drives of whatever RPM are pretty nimble things, simply because of platter density increases. I still wouldn't use one for OS drive though.

11.

Re: Project GODUS Prototype Footage

Dec 18, 2012, 05:37

nin wrote on Dec 17, 2012, 23:06: Could have sworn it was 357K earlier, and now it's 352. Comments section confirms it. Whoops! I wonder if it was a couple big backers to pull out, or a bunch of little ones.

70.

Re: Steam Top 10

Dec 18, 2012, 05:36

Verno wrote on Dec 17, 2012, 14:59: Steam now supports multiple paths for game installs in the official client as well, its kind of hidden in the settings but its there. Only with games that have had the data files redone (the kidna thing that makes you redownload anywhere from 1 meg to multiple gigs to reinstall the game). All other steam games you can't do it with.

59.

Re: Steam Top 10

Dec 17, 2012, 12:46

wtf_man wrote on Dec 17, 2012, 11:01: As a stepping stone, I don't fathom the work of manually moving my games to and from an SSD to a hard drive... especially if it requires re-installation of the game. Thats when windows symbolic junction type links comes in handy. Move a folder, and link to the new place. Nothing will ever know its been moved. Also a way to move steam folders around.

50.

Re: Steam Top 10

Dec 17, 2012, 10:36

Verno wrote on Dec 17, 2012, 09:29: Get a quality PSU at or around 400-500W, Corsair sells rebadged Seasonic PSUs which are outstanding. Again avoid anything OCZ, their PSUs have the highest defect/RMA rates. I agree with this. I have a seasonic, they are awesome.

34.

Re: Steam Top 10

Dec 17, 2012, 05:05

InBlack wrote on Dec 17, 2012, 03:50: Im thinking of diving in and buying a new rig, my girlfriend's daughter is in for a surprise this christmas as she will be inheriting my old rig which is her first desktop and a not too shabby one if I might say so myself. I might as well ask a few questions here: 1. SSD's are they really worth it? They seem too damn expensive ATM and besides RAM is so cheap wouldnt that just be overkill? (Boottimes are not important for me) 2. Im definitely getting the i7 its going to be the most expensive part of the rig, any suggestions so I dont go overkill seeing as its basically going to be obsolete tech next year? 3. Im going to actually keep my old video card and stick it in the new machine as Im happy with it and so far nothing has brought it to its knees. (The really taxing stuff has been on my CPU). Any suggestions on a cheap vid card to replace it in the old rig? (GF's daughter doesnt really game except for the really casual stuff) 4. Powersupply?! How much do I really need? 1) At $50 for a 120gb SSD, its not too expensive IMHO. Don't use it as your main storage, only use it for OS, your programs, and a few favorite games. Get a normal HDD for the rest. 2) Get the cheapest, since it will be overkill for most stuff anyway (unless you have a specific need for more). If you live near a Microcenter, get the CPU from them. They have a habit of selling the CPU's as a loss leader (sometimes $50 less than best price online), to try and get you to buy the other parts from them. Also, consider a i5. Nowadays there's very little difference between them. Cheapest i5 is about $200 vs cheapest i7 of about $300. 3) Watch slickdeals for a sale with rebate, or just hit up newegg for something cheap. $30ish will get a minimally capable video card. 4) Entirely up to you and how much you put into the rig. Whats your current video card? If its a QUALITY power supply, and you dont do things like SLI, its likely you won't need more than 500 watts. Most of those reccomendations for like 750 watt PSUs are because the average 750 watt power supplies suck so bad, then can't go over 500 watts without blowing out. And poor quality power supplies skimp on the load capacity of the 12v line which is the MOST used in your system (mobo, cpu, vid card, etc most of it runs from that nowadays). Most modern systems run under 100 watts when idling, unless they are loaded with expensive stuff. It won't hurt to get a larger PSU, but its better to buy a quality PSU than just randomly picking one that has larger capacity. Quality PSU's also tend to come with good warranties, such as 3 year or 5 year. A common misconception is that the power supply rating is how much it uses. No, it only uses what it needs, the power supply rating is the MAX available to use. If you want to get technical, you can get the TDP figures from CPU and graphics card and easily estimate how much 12v amps you need. For instance, if the CPU is 80 watts TDP (which is an actual example from a i7), then thats 80/12=7A. Then perhaps the GPU is 160 watts TDP (which is an actual example from the geforce 460 fermi), so its 160/12=14A. So you'd need probably a 30A capacity on the 12v line which would be something like a 450 watt quality PSU. Edit: http://www.freeshippingday.com/ Looks like monday a lot of merchants are doing free shipping. This comment was edited on Dec 17, 2012, 05:14.

33.

Re: Steam Top 10

Dec 17, 2012, 04:42

xXBatmanXx wrote on Dec 17, 2012, 04:09: ummm, did you guys notice that Don't Starve is a 2 pack? FYI. I have an extra copy. That would be why I was asking for one earlier I'd like that copy if its still avail, msg me your paypal on steam and I'll send $7 your way.

27.

Re: Steam Top 10

Dec 17, 2012, 01:06