I'm pretty sure Riley was employing the device known as "sarcasm" to make a point about Funcom's decision to stop doing offline PC games (I think).

This really sucks. As much as I liked the concept and design of Anarchy Online, the actual game had a lot of problems, and I never play it.

But TLJ and Dreamfall were brilliant, and I think Funcom has the ability to create true masterpieces in the adventure genre (which is great considering how stagnant it is).

I hope somehow this decision can be reversed, because I really think these games are Funcom's strength.

How does this effect that whole "Dreamfall Episodes" thing? Maybe by doing episodic content they have more control over it or something,?

Yeah, I'm all for this actually. Given the amount of time between TLJ and Dreamfall, I had been worried about how long it would take to get the next "chapter" in the story. I like the idea of episodic content here because it would mean being able to get more more often, rather than having to wait 5-7 years or whatever.

I noticed that the Star Trek Legacy strategy guide came out last week; you can thumb through it to get some sense of what the gameplay, etc. is like before it comes out.

fethers

Generally speaking, it seems like a lot of the complaints seem to center around the gameplay being non-existent, puzzles too easy, the combat not being very interesting, etc. Honestly, none of this matters a whole lot to me. As far as The Longest Journey goes, I primarily remember the "game" aspects of it for being kind of nonsensical (I definitely had to look up solutions to a few of the puzzles, because they seemed to be completely random). I loved the Longest Journey though for the characters, the dialogue, the music and the general atmosphere and worlds it created. And while I may not remember the specific details of solving a particular puzzle, etc. the Longest Journey is still a game I remember fondly for the things like story, characters and music..... it sounds like whatever complaints there are about Dreamfall, it is top-notch in regards to these areas (although there have been references to the ending leaving a lot of loose-ends..... but I've also heard of people refer to this whole thing being a trilogy, so is it safe to assume that this was done with the assumption there would be a third game in the series as well), so I will gladly buy it and enjoy it.

I'd be curious to hear the reference to this whole "it's ok as long as you delete it within 24 hours" thing. I've always thought that was more one of those little "safeguards" warez distributors put in their stuff to try and add some legitimacy to what they were doing (i.e. implying that the main purpose of piracy is just as a "try before you buy" method). I have a pretty hard time believing that there's actually something codified in copyright law that legitimizes the "24 hour window" where digital piracy is OK.

Man, I cannot wait. If it's even a fraction as good as TLJ, it should still be a masterpiece. I really enjoyed TLJ at the time, but the longer it's been since it came out, the more I realize that it wasn't just a great adventure game for that time period, but one of the all time great adventure games. Absolutely cannot wait to return to this gameworld (and the new worlds) of Dreamfall.....

I just noticed that Tribes 2 is no longer available for download from FilePlanet (I had remembered before when they were giving it away as part of the promotion for T:V). Does anyone know if there is still a way to get it for free (I know that there are bargain CD jewelcase releases around, but I'm not sure I want to buy it).

I am just curious, are there still Tribes 1 and Tribes 2 servers around with a number of people playing on them? I remember when T1 and T2 were made available for free...... I'd love to download them and try them out again if people are still playing them. Or has everyone moved on to newer games?

What the hell does the quality of Dungeon Siege (an entirely different genre of game) have to do with whether we should expect to be disappointed in Supreme Commander? It seems like you could logically point to the fact that Chris Taylor clearly knows what he's doing with RTS's, and people who liked TA a lot have no reason NOT to be looking forward to Supreme Commander, even if they didn't like DS. I can't think of any other situation where this logic would make sense. Say that you have a favorite writer who specializes in mysteries, and his mystery books have always been excellent; then he writes a sci-fi book that you don't like. And then you hear he has a new mystery coming out; logically speaking, you'd still have every reason to expect something very good out of him.

To be fair, even though most consumers especially didn't even know what Pentium meant (as a brand name instead of 586), I think Intel probably did realize that as a brand name it was getting long in the tooth and meaningless. You can only do so many things to the Pentium name (Pentium Pro, Pentium D, Pentium M, etc.).

Btw, I haven't read much about this game, but I find it interesting that they do make a point there about "choosing wisely", whether you'll "break the law" or "be the law". Now, my instincts tell me that this is just some mumbo-jumbo to try and make the subject matter more palatable (it seems like a lot of games try to have it both ways by having the main character be some sort of undercover officer who thus gets to do a lot of slimey stuff, but is still a "good guy")..... but if it actually does stick to that and show the consequences of breaking the law, it strikes me that this is actually probably something that moralists would endorse.

So every game is a simulator training kids to do whatever the game is about? Thus, any game where you are living out subject matter that would not be acceptable in real life should be regulated? Give me a break. And if you want to talk about games that teach kids to devalue life, how about all the war action games and all the killing that is done there? Of course war action games don't train kids one way or the other; they let you play out the role of someone in an actual war. It's as harmless as when kids in the 50's would play cowboys and indians together. Or should that have been regulated to?

Any word on the price? I'm assuming quite a bit (I remember on slashdot there was some speculation this thing would have to be hugely expensive given the number of individual OLEDs it was using).

TLJ is actually still not too difficult to find..... and pretty cheap. I've seen it at local CompUSAs for around $10-20. I still do highly recommend it..... just has an excellent story, great characters, beautiful art and music, etc.

Yup....... so glad this is finally coming out. TLJ was a game I really enjoyed when I first played it......... but the more time passes, the more I realize that it wasn't just a great game for the time, but one of my favorite games of all time. So I can't wait for Dreamfall.

Coming out with an expansion and then announcing the next day that they were working on major game changes that would change how the game played in it's entirity? That's called bait and switch and it's illegal.

Wait, I don't get it. How is that bait and switch though? Bait and switch is a pretty specific term, and I'm not sure how it applies here. The classic example of "bait and switch" is when a store runs an ad for some product with a really great price to get people to come into the store, even though they don't have any of the product being advertised.... or at least a very limited supply (this being the "bait"), and they then try and pawn some other product on the customer instead (this being the "switch"). I.e. "Oh, you came in to buy that $700 32 inch HDTV? Damn, we just ran out. But here, why don't you buy this great $1100 32 HDTV? It's better, trust me!".

This is the second time I've seen someone mention Space Rangers 2; can you recommend a place to buy it? Or is there a demo? It sounds pretty cool, but I haven't been able to find a place to buy it.

Yup, it was one of the earliest games from Ambrosia Software: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/maelstrom/ - a modern port of it for OS X, Windows and Linux was done by someone else: http://www.devolution.com/~slouken/Maelstrom/index.html