"Can anyone tell me why this isn't called Grand Theft Auto: VI or Grand Theft Auto: Metropolis?"

Not sure, but probably because this is this first major engine upgrade I think.

I enjoyed Bioshock, but I think a sequel could use fewer Big Daddy fights and less repetitive gameplay. As far as the environments, voice-acting, an writing goes Bioshock was spectacular -- I did feel like each level just offered more of the same after a while -- same goals, same enemies... It got a little bit boring further in.

I loved Duke3D and I even loved Shadow Warrior and I've been looking forward to Duke Forever for 10 years now. I will definitely buy it when it comes out.

The point I was bringing up had nothing to do with the dev time, but with George Broussard's arrogance. It is arrogant to claim that you create the most original characters in the business, when your most famous character is a 2-dimensional action movie stereotype whose dialogue is lifted from other properties. That was all that I was saying. A pop-culture reference is only a "reference" when it actually references pop culture -- otherwise it's just just stealing and reeks of unoriginality.

George can brag all he wants about how great his games are, because they ARE great. But the character of Duke (at least in Duke3D) was anything but original and there are loads of creators who have taken the time to craft original dialogue and not brag about it.

This comment was edited on Dec 20, 18:25.

Was that a dig at me? Hope not. I've never played Starcraft or WoW...

I'm just wondering if they've spent any of the last 10 years writing new quips for Duke, or if they're just going to steal them from the "Evil Dead" movies, "They Live", and "Dirty Harry" again.

I only say this because I remember George bragging (8 years ago?) that 3D Realms creates the most original characters in the business. What horseshit.

I'll still be buying the game.

I FINALLY got Gears of War to run. The problem I'm having now is that I shelled out $50 for a game that's just really boring. I only got about 15 minutes into the game and I have almost no desire to keep playing. Sure it looks great, but this is what my friends with XBoxes were drooling over? Does the game get much better or is it more of the same the whole way through?

(Sorry, I know this is a Crysis thread...)

I'm still fuzzy on the cross-platform answer. Will we be able to play people who are playing on Xboxes?

Fine: I read the NY Times on a daily basis. I read the Guardian UK, I read CNN.com (which I won't defend but it's a place to go to for breaking news), I read the BBCs page, and when I travel abroad I watch Al-Jazeera (have fun with that). I also try to read conservative blogs -- I used to read Tacitus every day -- to get a balanced opinion. I read George Will's column because even though his opinions make my blood boil he is able to articulate well. I abhor blogs like DailyKos even though I'm a liberal at heart because blogs like that just preach to the choir. I also have a pretty large bookshelf filled with nonpartisan nonfiction.

So fuck you, Zephalephelah. I'm a person who has made up his own mind about current issues and my opinion is different from yours. I guess that makes me a idiot, eh? So I'm one of the "sheeple" because I think you're a pretentious dick who doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. You asked for where I get my information and I've told you. So suck it.

Stop thinking you have everyone pegged and stop making gross generalizations about everyone else in the world or you will find it to be a very lonely place.

I have plenty of friends in the world -- many are conservatives, war supporters, and even Bush supporters (God forgive them), and I respect each and every one of their opinions precisely because they don't phrase their arguments the way YOU do. I respect that they believe that their way of thinking is for the greater good, and they respect my opinions in return.

Your problem is that you keep trying to paint everyone around you as some sort of lesser idiot, but you only make yourself look like a bigger one in return.

Peace. I am out of this thread.

The foreign is still media, isn't it? And the foreign media that I read doesn't shed much favorable light on the U.S. -- so which foreign media are you reading exactly? Stop calling the kettle black and grow the fuck up.

Listen, all you have done in your posts is make sweeping generalizations of people, calling them "sheeple", "morons", and "pathetic", simply because they hold opinions different from yours. I'm an educated, well-informed, well-read and well-traveled person and I'm more than willing to listen to arguments that run contrary to mine. But if you are attempting to sound bright in any of your posts, you simply aren't. You're only making yourself sound like a pretentious dick by shouting insults at people.

Were you among the "sheeple" when the majority of the people were for the war at the onset on the basis of propaganda and lies, or did the masses only become "sheeple" when they realized what a futile endeavor Iraq really is? Enlighten us, man. You're obviously smarter than the rest of us, right?

Listen, learn how to frame an argument and curb the insults and perhaps someone might actually listen to what you have to say. I am more than ready to listen, believe me. Just stop sounding like you're getting your arguments from the bumper of whatever Humvee you're sitting behind in traffic.

EDIT: You don't win an argument by throwing a tantrum and shouting "You are pathetic!" What fucking grade are you in, man?

This comment was edited on Sep 5, 20:48.

Zephalephelah, you argue like a six-year-old. If you're aiming to change people's minds, your level of discourse will get you nowhere. Scream at a brick wall until it's naptime -- it will be more productive. And if you aren't getting YOUR info from the media, then where is it coming from? The government? The military?

3,000 deaths is not high for a war, granted. But you are only counting American lives -- try counting the Iraqi deaths and the irreparable damage we've done to Iraq. On top of that, this war will be a blemish on our standing in the world for decades to come and our credibility has been shattered by the ineptitude of this administration who chose a unilateral path and did so with nothing but hubris and lies.

So go ahead and scream "morons" until you are blue in the face. See how many arguments you win that way and how many opinions you sway to your side.

Or better yet, enlist! If things are going as well as you claim, I wouldn't worry too much. After all, only 3000 Americans have died. That's an acceptable number for a war we should have never started, isn't it?

This comment was edited on Sep 5, 19:05.

Whenever anyone invokes WW2 or Hitler when speaking about our endeavors in Afghanistan or Iraq, our leaders, or the despots we deposed they immediately lose my attention -- whether they're for the war or against it. It's a lame, childish comparison.

I need this game NOW.

Yeah man, I remember it taking an hour or so to get through that race, but I played through the whole game without applying the patch, too. Enough people complained about the difficulty of that level that I'm sure they won't repeat the same mistake twice. They were at least good enough to provide a patch for it.

Graphics and gameplay are important, sure, but what really made Mafia stand apart was the storytelling. That game felt epic. They had the best writers, best score, voice acting I'd ever found in a game. It was the most cinematic game I'd ever played. I wouldn't care if they used the same old engine and dated graphics again.

I've waited for this announcement during every E3 for the past several years. Had lost hope it'd ever happen.

Mafia was a work of art on so many levels. Some of the best storytelling in any game, ever.

Well, there's often the oddball client who wants me to check things on Mac IE5 which is almost a decade old. I also chose the MacBook because I like using Final Cut and GarageBand. I'm not a big fan of the OS, but it's hard to beat Apple's hardware design. It's a beautiful machine, and since they came out with Boot Camp, it's pretty cool to have the best of both worlds in one package. But honestly, I use it as a Windows machine 95% of the time.

I'm a web developer, and got sick of testing on two machines, so I bought a Macbook Pro last month to use as my primary computer. I loaded it with Boot Camp and Vista and use it as a Windows machine primarily. Hell, runs games great (the games that actually run on Vista anyway). I couldn't give a rat's ass if people start making games for Mac again. I'm havin a hoot running PC games on my Mac. Mac gamers should just suck it up and make a Windows partition on their drives.

This comment was edited on Jun 13, 22:00.

I bought this off of Direct2Drive yesterday, and feel a little let-down. The game looks great, and the level design is fun, but it really has the worst enemy AI I have ever seen in any game ever. I'm going to keep playing because the puzzle/climbing/exploring elements are all really fun and almost on par with "Legend" but any time an animal turns up the game looks like it was programmed by a third grader. It really makes the game seem like crap whenever an enemy appears (they get stuck behind trees; if you stand on a rock, they just keep running in place; they can't navigate a room, etc)

Gotta say: I've been looking forward to this game for a few months. Really eager to read some reviews.

Gotcha.

Peace out.