So one aspect of the game "the movement of the robots" makes the game "TOTALLY suck"?

That's kind of funny...

This comment was edited on Mar 21, 10:10.

What should have been said instead - what other companies release new patches to an old game like this?

Give them some cred for that at least.

My point is that there is no need for mandatory player accounts or tracking with this type of game. I hope it's optional at most, but I certainly don't trust Activision or any other company to do just what's least intrusive or inconvenient to the customer because they usually don't.

I would really like to know what you think they would do with this information. Please enlighten us with what threats we will face upon release of a game with mandatory player accounts. Sure they get my fake e-mail and my IP, but to link it to me they need more info from my ISP which they wont get without going through the proper authorities, slim chance that will happen. Even if they do get all my info I'm just not paranoid and disillusional enough to really care, I guess thats the difference between us. It's still only a game company.

Riley is awesome. He stirs up debate almost as much as a face off with Derek. Keep it rolling guys, it's quite entertaining when you have nothing to do.

I haven't posted much here but been a long time blue's news reader and everywhere he posts the debate starts heating up. Keep up the good work Riley, you really do know how to twist peoples words like a master! It's never boring at least.

There is a huge difference between that brief IP tracking which only occurs while the user is actually playing on a game server at that moment and a persistant account which cumulatively tracks a user every time he plays the game and what he does while he plays, etc.

Yes, but neither you or me knows if they use it to track playing habits with it or not, at least time spent with the game and/or other things they might be able to extract from it and that was my point.

So you have an account for a game, that stores your username and ip, how many kills and what accuracy you have etc. Does it really matter? Especially if you do not supply them with a "real" e-mail address so that they can't spam you with commercials?

As for why that is a problem I prefer to play randomnly and anonymously when I play online not have to stick to the same character and worry about having to get X amount of points to be able to use certain weapons or abilities. If I wanted to do that, I would play MMO games

As I said, there will be no persistent unlocks of any kind, only skill upgrades during a short campaign that really doesn't alter the game play that much (a tiny bit better accuracy, bigger ammo packs, bigger health packs, charge bar that don't drain as fast etc). If you do like to be as anonymous as possible, do like the rest of us and use a spam mail account if it's required when signing up.

Will the system have us wait when logging in for 5 minutes? Fuck knows, lets see when the game is released without getting paranoid meanwhile. Every game using a cdkey that needs to be validated stores your ip, for a short amount of time at least, but just think about it, THEY MIGHT BE TRACKING YOU RIGHT NOW! OH GOD!

This comment was edited on Jun 19, 12:29.

Damn, registered names again? That's one of the biggest pains in BF2. I suppose we're going to have to put up with some asinine weapon unlock / rank crap as well. Enough with the MMORPG in my FPS, FFS.

Nope, it will only have stats, maybe some medal crap etc. The devs has said that no unlocks or similar will be available, since it breaks the balance of the game. It will have campaigns though, usually played over three maps where you do get skill upgrades but will be reseted after the campaig is finished. Play W:ET if you haven't to see how that works.

This comment was edited on Jun 19, 10:40.

Actually, most of those things (besides bigger maps and vehicles) comes from Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and then Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. Pliers has always been in there, medics, medic packs, ammo packs, mines etc etc. But instead of defibrelators they used syringes in those but I guess that didn't fit in ET:QW. So ET:QW is just a successor to W:ET with bigger maps and vehicles. Sure they might have looked at bf2 for ideas, but not as much as you would think.

Also, if I'm not entirely incorrect, the Wolfenstein IP is older than the BF IP (and no I'm not talking about Wolf3D which is obviously much older).

Secret anwser:

s{Look at the sign a bit closer and you'll now what to do with one of the covers. Just drop it into the machine.}

ok, downloaded it, played it, and yawned. Lost coast is very short, you don't even visit the city in the background and the main part of it feels like a platform game where you'll try not to fall down. HDR is nice and all but nothing that special imo.

So I predict that a few months down the line, BF2 will be marginalised with just as many players as Quake 1 has right now. Well, maybe not that bad, but you get what I mean.

Yeah, right.. *snicker*

It sounds like this is something important and actually a big deal for some of you. I don't get it. You're maybe not allowed to alter the weapon lock on unrated servers. Ok, I can somewhat understand that some thinks this is a big deal, but still, this is a game, does it really matter?

But I do think they should take away the pot from the guy that wrote that since you need to use that kind of shit to understand wtf he means.

"1. Nvidias cards are using reduced percision"

In some cases yes, in others no and the same thing can be said about ATI.

"2. Carmack retooled the ARB2 path to use Cg and folded the Nv30 path into it."

No, he scrapped the nv30 path in favor for the better ARB2 path because Nvidia fixed there drivers to handle it better (see qthe quote below).

"3. Nvidia cards have Ultra shadow"

Taken from toms hardware:
"This feature allows a game developer to specify in what parts of the scene a shadow will be visible and in which it won't, thereby preventing unnecessary calculations. This, in turn, will allow designers to define more complex shadows in other parts of the scene. NVIDIA calls this technique "shadow culling.""

So I fail to see how that would be a disadvantage.. and yes I know what you meant.

"Considering all that And the fact that the GT *is* an Ultra with a slightly lower Clock speed that Nvidia is making NO cahs on at all... ATi is doing pretty darn good."

Where have you got that from, what's your source? And even so, how could that be bad for the consumer?

"Its also Quite humerous that Carmack Had tooled and CHANGED the high Quality path that Nvifia was taking a 50% hit on a year ago so that it uses all their percision hacks for speed.."

Here's a snippet from http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?topic=12006&forum=9:

"1) There is word that you have removed the NV30-specific rendering path
2) The reason for the above is apparently because NVIDIA's drivers have improved to the point where NV3x hardware are running the standard ARB2 path at about equal speed with the NV30-specific path

Could you say if the above is true?

Correct."

That says another thing, but I guess Carmack is just lying because he's bought by Nvidia? pffft.

It would be completely and utterly stupid if any game company would sell themselfs out to a Hardware vendor and by that loosing a big chunk of there possible customers. Going as far as making a deal that involves recommending a special brand is nothing new and happens all the time, crippeling the competition at the same time, I highly doubt it.

Just for the record, I'm not a fanboy. I buy what I consider best at that time and have owned both ATI and Nvidia cards in the past.

This comment was edited on Jul 24, 18:27.