Raise your axes, raise your glasses, its time for another edition of EpicBattleCry! In this week’s Skirmish we banter on Enslaved, which now has a release date, prepare for Red Dead Redemption‘s own zombie apocalypse, reflect on the announcement of Dragon Age 2, and discuss the Blizzard Real ID fiasco from last week.
With the release late last week of Blacklight: Tango Down, and plenty of chatter in the EBA Forums on the subject, we sit down to talk about wether or not gamers are ready to give up discs in favor of Downloadable Games. Services like Steam are doing well on the PC, but are console gamers onboard with DLG?
The Battle Cry of the Week goes to the devs behind Super Stardust HD for making everything better (in 2d or 3d), Microsoft‘s (and Valve‘s) Summer Sales, the beginning of beta testing for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and John Marston, for being quite the character.
If you’ve got a comment on the show, sound off below, if you’ve got a Battle Cry you want to share, click here and sound off on the latest topic-started post! Stay sharp.
The early bird gets the worm.
Pwntastic show fellas! Entertaining as usual and always good to hear like-minded adults discuss everything gaming related.
Yeah! Going to listening right now! \m/
There is a lot too say..
For me it would have been Starcraft or Diablo, but I’d have to go for Half-Life because the … time … between the squeals
Also the games are not out yet to be judged …
When your dealing with sequels, for them to reach epic historical proportion they need to have:
1) Epic story and gameplay, basically the game presentation has to be solid and must stand out from a crowd (especially in our days!). A regular theoretical physicist fighting a alien invasion stalked by a guy in a blue suit wielding a suitcase would stand out fairly well.
2) GOOD TIMING between releases! (Unless your Blizzard then this dose not apply because they usually reject reality and replace it with there own) You don’t want to kill the hype of the franchise but you don’t wana milk it to death (COD)! For a proper franchise I’d say about 2-4 years would be fine.
Wall of text ahead explaining why time is important:
Take GranT5 its been so long in development that a lot of modern racing game have been released in this 5 years. FM, Dirt, Shift and so on, even if the games didn’t stand out or reached epic proportion they inevitably raised the consumer expectation bar (visual fidelity, game mechanics, phyx …) That’s probably the reason it got delayed from last year to now, because Forza and other games raised the bar and probably forced them to up the ante a little more. So now it feels like the hype is not as high as it could have been 2 years ago and that will have a direct impact on sales.
On the other hand you have Blizzard and the flagship example Starcraft 2, its been so long in development that if your a Starcraft fan and your not from Korea or play starcraft from time to time your probably left with the memory of pure awesomeness. But because games have progressed so much in the past years they had to seriously jack up the bar, they got real actors (Tricia Helfer :p) and other gimmicks, typical for major game releases this days (C&C had some too failed tho because they disbanded westwood and the gameplay suxed), gimmicks that really don’t yank my chains regarding the overall purchase decision. The thing that they did get right nullifying the 2′nd rule (besides the fact that its blizzard quality control were talking about) is the fact they stuck to the old school “2D” feel of the game that made it what it is “easy to get into and play, but brutal to be good at” and while I am for innovation some core things are best left untouched.
A more prime example would be Diablo 3. How will it fair up against all the epiness that BioWare has released so far, they really managed to integrate a full workings and pleasant 3D experience with unique complex NEW mechanics (epic interaction) intro there RPG’s. Will the old school hack and slash RPG mechanics sand up to the new Mass Effect stile games? For me kinda but I would prefer the best of both worlds … maybe Activ-Blizzard can be replaced with Bio-Blizzard, then we could have Diabo’s Masscraft of Neverwinter Age :p
Great episode! Rasca and me, as usual enjoyed your show!
..and yeah, Raiden is a bitch, sorry fanboys. lol
SWTOR needs to be on Mac. Just ask Valve. And I am looking forward to Dragon Age 2 after seeing the screen shots.
I’d just like to make a comment that even though I think RDR’s DLC sounds cool, I think that Daniel and anybody who uses the excuse of “it’s optional” should reconsider what they’re proposing. Saying something is ok because it’s optional is just illogical. How does something being optional make it a good product? I hear it a lot of PS+. People are like “stop complaining, it’s optional.” But being optional doesn’t excuse it from being stupid. It’s like stop complaining about how much your life sucks, it’s optional. Maybe I’m just being a total idiot, but I don’t think “it’s optional” is a valid excuse for sucking.
Nice work on the video during the Raiden discussion.
Sequels. I think they are most important when it comes to refining the gameplay experience. It’s a chance for the dev to further bake what worked from the first one and cut out the crap that didn’t, and maybe experiment a little more on the side.
The Nintendo franchises are ripe with examples, some good, some kinda meh. For instance, I have yet to play a bad SMario game or Metroid. They either add to or update the proven mechanics. Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if the Starfox crew had to fight on foot. No assholes, they need to keep their furry asses inside armored death machines, on hostile planets or in enemy space!
That probably did not come across the way you would have liked it to. Your analogies are a bit off the mark. Either way I could not disagree with you more. At least you have the “option” to post your opinion.
cant remember if brent has said this one already but he should do a star wars theme thing like HELLO MY STORM TROOPERS OF SERVITUDE MY JEDI’S OF JUSTICERY or just justice, AND MY REBELS OF REVENGE
Hello my Sabertooth slashers, my wolverine excavators how are you chillen while killen.
My battle cry goes out to the sonic franchise because I believe they have the best squeals. Sonic 2 created many of the main stays in the series and gave us tails. Sonic Adventure 2 was such a good game even though the console it was on died it still came out, The game boy advance versions where great. Even though many of sonic attempts to jump to 3D kind of sucked sega Hasn’t forced a failed game play mechanic they try to create a new sonic game. Their squeals are so good that ones coming out 16 years after the last one.
The downloadable game concept does not sound too promising because games like MGS4 and Uncharted that claim to use up to 50GB [50,000MB] of storage on the blu-ray disc will be a b***h to download. For it to be feasible, games will have to have a set limit on how big they can be. Probably not more than 15GB. The fastest download speed I have seen or heard of is between 1-3 Megabytes per second. That means you have to wait for 5 hours to download epic sized games. Maybe when DLG becomes mainstream, devs will be able to compress games into smaller sizes [and not compromise quality] or the world will be able to download data in gigabytes per second.
I’m split on the idea of sequels. I find in a lot of cases, the original games are the best and the sequels just either go over the top and lose touch with what made the original game so great. Take the Call of Duty Franchise for example. The best game in that franchise is Call of Duty 2. The campaign was much easier to get emotionally attached to because many people, like myself, have grandfathers who actually were at some of those battles, and the multiplayer actually had a skill gap (HOLY SHIT A GAME THAT TOOK SKILL!!!). Infinity ward (I’m not including treyarch because the only thing they can do right is zombies) lost touch of this and tried to make their sequels more mainstream. Call of Duty 4′s multiplayer shrunk the skill gap (Spray and pray FTW) and Modern Warfare 2′s multiplayer is even worse. The campaigns on both of those games were also sub-par.
In other cases, a game is so terrible that it is not really worthy of a sequel. Take Crackdown. Who the fuck at Bungie studios said “Hey! Crackdown was such a great game! Let’s make another one!!!” Seriously, the only reason that game sold copies was because of the halo 3 beta (another disappointing sequel.)
But in rare cases, a badass game gets some even more badass sequels. My favorite sequels are the Super Smash Bros. games. The first game was so solid! My friends and I would play that game for hours. Then melee came out and made it even better and brawl is just obnoxiously fun. My friends and I always have an amazing time with Brawl. It is so fast paced and fun and pretty much every game we have to pause it because we are all laughing too hard to hold the damn controller. Each game addressed the few issues of the game preceding it making Brawl one fucking bad ass game.
DK … I really like you and your sense of humor … and it’s fine that you don’t own a gaming PC, but, please, don’t feed the “OMG A GAMING PC COSTS 100000$” trolls, cause thats just BS and really annoying.
That pissed me off too.
My thoughts for Digital Distribution: To start off, I will list what I think the positives are for Digital Distribution – particularly as it pertains to Video Games. The following is what I believe are the positives:
1. More money will be going into the hands of the developers. It’s certainly not cheap to print hundreds of thousands to millions of copies of games – and I use the term print lightly because unlike books, you have to factor in the disc(s), the case, the booklets, and the inserts. Plus, chains like Gamestop would no longer be able to take a share of the profit. All of that money that developers would save from Digital Distribution would most likely have the following benefits:
More developers staying in business.
More funding for the actual development of the games (which means higher quality).
More funding for advertising (lack of advertising has been the downfall of many great games).
More innovation and originality since the games would be less of a investment / gamble, thus developers would feel more comfortable going outside of the realm of what is guaranteed to sell (look at current downloadable titles for example).
Potential lower prices for consumers since the developers (and publishers – if they would even be needed anymore) would be spending so much less on getting the games into our hands.
2. This is a personal one for me since I’m a little OCD, but with digital distribution, gamers would no longer have to worry about scratched, damaged, or all around faulty copies of games. I would say that at least 80% of the disc-based games out there have scratches and smudges all over them because most people seem to be negligent (or clumsy) with their games. Usually this is only a concern for someone buying used, but new copies can also be faulty (bad print). Speaking of buying used…
3. No more having to worry about games that you want to buy / play going out of print and becoming rare. Anyone who has tried to shop for retro games that they missed for some reason or another can relate to how sometimes certain games will cost an insane amount of money (at least if you want to find a copy in great condition) because it went out of print. With digital distribution, this wouldn’t be an issue.
4. This may sound like a Hippie reason, but I think it’s the most valid reason on this list. Reason number four is that the environment will benefit greatly from digital distribution. Just think about how much Paper and Plastic will be saved (you just have to imagine how much is actually used in the millions and millions of video games out there).
Now that I have the positives out of the way, here come the negatives. The biggest reason I distrust Digital Distribution at this time is because of the companies who will be offering the service (Sony, Microsoft, Apple, and to a lesser extent: Valve), and the lack of confidence that they make me feel in believing that any given piece of digital content that I’ve purchased belongs to me – or that it will even be available to me for as long as I want it.
So all of those are digital distribution services that I currently use. As you can see, I’m not really using one for movies, and that’s because I’m not interested in a rental service (which is what they all currently feel like), and I’m waiting for one service to come along where I feel confident that once I purchase a movie, it will be mine forever. Just to be clear, I feel the same way about the services I’m currently using for music and games – especially content from PSN Plus which will only be accessible as long as you keep subscribing each year.
You might wonder why I feel a lack of confidence in these services, and luckily for you I’ll explain why.
Piracy – or to be more specific, the limitations we have as a result of piracy. I am not sure about accounts for Steam and XBL, but accounts for the PSN and iTunes can only be activated a certain amount of times on new systems / PCs. Logically I assume that once those activations are used up (who knows, maybe you’ll have to buy a bunch of new systems over the years), your account is lost – along with all of the content you purchased that is tied to that account. At least with PSN you can deactivate an account from a system if you plan on buying a new one (thus setting the counter back to one activation lower), whereas with iTunes, you better plan on keeping the same PC for the rest of your life if you’re on your last activation and you want to keep your purchased music. There’s also the issue of not being able to deactive an account if your system dies all together.
Forgotten purchases? Once again, this is mostly about PSN and iTunes. A lot of tracks that I purchased from iTunes are simply not showing up in my purchase history – and the same is true for a lot of videos that I purchased from the PSN store. Is this going to be a common problem with digital distribution? If so, count me out – especially when it will come to the big-bucks purchases.
Services being shut down. As we’ve seen with the original Xbox, these online / digital services don’t last forever. Now, I never owned an original Xbox so I don’t know if XBL was as prominent a feature on that system as it is on the Xbox 360, but with current gen consoles we have a heavy emphasis on online functionality and digital distribution – particularly with games that need to be heavily patched all of the time, and DLC that can sometimes make up a lot or even a majority of the game (examples: Red Dead Redemption and Borderlands).
The reasons for services being shut down can be many. The biggest ones I can think of are that there are simply not enough people using the service anymore, or maybe the company goes out of business. Take Sega, for example. Let’s say that the Dreamcast had offered digital distribution. I can only imagine that anyone who purchased all of their games on the Dreamcast would no longer be able to re-download and play them if for some reason they had to get a new system. That thought worries me greatly, and I can only hope that digital distribution services like the ones we’re seeing from XBL and PSN will either always allow you to access your purchase history for that console so that you can re-download all of your games and content (also necessary patches so that the game isn’t broken), or that your content will move from console to console (example: all of my virtual console games will be available for me to download free of charge on the next Nintendo system).
There has simply been no guarantee or statement from any of the companies about how they will handle our digital content as new systems and services arrive – which, again, makes me feel like current Digital Distribution is nothing more than a rental service. I do not feel like purchasing one more piece of content because of this, but that’s hard to do with such a heavy emphasis on DLC this time around. I can tell you that trying to game on current gen consoles ten years from now will be a much different experience than with your other retro consoles (I imagine it won’t be much of an issue with the 360, since they will most likely all be broken without new consoles being made).
I have to say that the service I have the most faith in at this point is Steam. I have not noticed any account activation limit (could be wrong, though), and I also like was said in this podcast, Steam will actually refund the customer if a game they purchased is no longer available to redownload from their store anymore (due to legal issues and whatnot) – which is also another concern with digital distribution (games being taken away for legal issues).
You may think that I’m thinking too far ahead, but with how many games I buy and how much digital content I purchase, it definitely worries me to think that I might have to spend hundreds (and probably thousands) because of losing everything I purchased / having to repurchase all of that content again.
To sum up: I’m all for the idea of Digital Distribution… as long as the companies currently offering me this digital content will make it their duty to make it so that I will always have access to it (as long as they’re still in business, of course). Ideally the content would always be tied to our accounts from console to console (keeping basic online functionality for current systems so that we could re-download our purchase history and get necessary patches for games to work properly would also work – but unlike our other retro consoles, I doubt these ones will stand the test of time).
To close out, I’d like to comment on an issue that I didn’t find room for anywhere else:
One issue that ties into all of this is that apparently a lot of PS3 games, both disc and download, aren’t even playable without having a connection the PSN (see APOCALYPS3 for more details). They weren’t multiplayer only games, either. Can someone explain to me what the hell is up with that? I don’t like the idea of purchasing games like MAG because they would become unplayable and useless once the servers are down (no singleplayer campaign), but apparently this will be the case with a lot of singleplayer games, as well, as far as Sony is concerned…
Thanks for reading.
Also, I forgot to add that I hear a lot of stories of people getting their accounts banned for no reason (whether that’s true or not is not the focus). If an account is banned or hacked, then I guess the gamer that used that account can say goodbye to his or her entire collection for that system (if digital distribution is the norm).
the episode was awesome guys i laughed too loud at work.
i couldn’t stop. DK i totally understand you man i always make thses jokes and my friend is like Brent just cant get enough.
THIS IS all about market research. I think , Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and all the publishers should pay you guys something, cause simply if they need to know what is the right thing to do just get in the pit and they will understand what the gamers what.
keep them coming 19 weeks more till the 100th episode …
Respect Elders of AXE
founders of the pit
rulers of the industry
I’ve got a battle cry about digital distribution, in that it will hurt economies, and the games industry.
1. If there are no hard copies of games, then there’s going to be no point of GameStop and other game outlets because all they will have to sell is a console, so there will be less jobs in these stores making more unemployed
2. If there is no disc /packaging to make then there be more people will lose jobs as there won’t be anything for them to make
3. I’m on minimum wage, I can afford maybe 1 or 2 games in every pay packet (a month), when it comes to October/November when a million games come out, I can’t afford all the games I want, so I have to trade in my old game towards new ones. If companies only go digital and charge full price for titles, I’ll be buying less games. So companies won’t be getting as much money.
4. I like to buy hard copies to look at read the manual, or in special edition cases look at the art books or having something cool like the LP (vinyl) that came with bioshock 2 collector’s edition (good game by the way)
5. If the industry all go digital, then it be losing a customer and I’ll play my old retro consoles from now on only, woohoo more dreamcast play time
nathan: i dont think anybody would read that:)
anyways, great show as always, thanks guys
@DK: Sorry DK, but you seem to know as little as Shane from GT when it comes to PCs.
You can go ahead and now and buy a good tower for 500-600. Then in two or three years you should consider upgrading the GPU, 200 at most. Then two to three years from then, whether it needs just a GPU upgrade or a CPU upgrade all depends on what you started with and what games demand. Looking at games right now, all you’ll need is a new GPU.
So in the span of more than five years you’ll be paying under a grand. That’s not expensive to play games in a higher quality than the consoles.
FYI: Building a PC that’s better than a console costs 300-400 bucks.
As for the RealID shit, I stand by what I say, but I also know there are a lot of dickheads out there that if they’re insulted will be sending shit to my house and signing me up for crap etc and I don’t want that.
I wanna know why they can release a Dragon Age game every year, but it takes them 3 to release a Mass Effect.
because mass effect doesn’t suck
I remain fully sceptic about any form of digital distribution ultimately benefitting the consumer outright.
Alas it will no doubt be used to exploit the consumer. Lets be honest the FULL costs saved will not be passed on to the purchaser.
Ya I agree, but DK has a mac and that’s a bazillion times more expensive then a gaming pc, in fact with the money he spend on the mac he could feed Africa not only his children! or if your not a tech savvy get a proper Alienware laptop that can eat up macs and games
@ClanPsi
You do realize that there are 2 different teams at Bioware, right? And that making a game that involves all of the player choices is a little bit more involving than making a first game, plus DA:O came out in 09.
@WormyThePenalTapeworm
Congrats on proving the Axe Lords wrong, when you are ready to come back and say “Sorry, guys, I’m an idiot” we will be waiting.
Another fine show, gents. Stay classy!
@AttackOfTheThumbs:
Building your own PC is the most affordable route, if you have the time and knowledge to do so. A guy like DK, who has two and a half kids, a job that’s got him running around, and limited PC knowledge, lacks those resources.
Unless DK knows a savvy guy who could build a PC for him, he’d have to pay to get it built, at which point he’ll definitely be spending more than $300-$400. Granted, it still won’t be the mondo bucks he’s speculating, but it still might be more than he’s willing to spend.
Personally, I think he’d be better off just getting it custom shopped. The last two PCs I’ve owned were built piecemeal, and they were nothing but headaches. Sure, I saved money on the rigs themselves, but I lost money on the time spent trying to pinpoint and fix problems.
That wasn’t a huge deal, years ago, when I had all the time in the world, but there’s no way I could deal with that, presently.
I’ve been using a MacBook for the last two years and am way overdue for a new gaming machine. I’m definitely going the custom shop route. Yeah, it’s more money, but at least I’ll be getting a warranty, tech support, and someone more qualified than me building it.
Immense show as usual. My battle cry is for everyone that has bought a game on xbox 360 live using their bank/credit card. I was unaware until last month that as soon as you purchase a game over xbox live with a credit or bank card that xbox automatically takes renewal fees for xbox live gold service. I had been a member for two years and usually used the scratch vouchers to renew so I when I left it one month xbox took £15 out of my £0 account without my consent and cost me bank charges. I e-mailed them and they basically said they will continue to do so until I phone them and ask them please don’t take my money. So I guess my point is the big firms just want you to be their bitch and if you love gaming there is little you can do about it.On a positive note while waiting for EBA skirmish I watched invisible walls and it was devastatingly shit.
Well there was still some sweet ass C action fun
so you got my vote for another great ep again… I wish Brent or Tony could scream it again really fast 
I laughed so hard almost had the chocolate milk come out of my nose!
OMG DUDE!!! your comment is 3 pages in M$ Word (in single space) talk about sounding off O_O!
Another outstanding one guys. That puts the counter at 79/2/0 on the outstanding/good/bad scale.
Apparently, someone just did. And to increase on the surprise: someone agreed with a lot of it. Me. Thanks Nathan, saved me some time
Excellent EP as always, but,
I spent 350$ on hardware for a custom DX10 based system two and a half years ago and not a cent since. Even today I’m able to run benchmark titles such as Crysis at 30-40 FPS. In 6 months to one year I’ll build another one based on DX11 for just as little cash.
The amount one spends on an average Mac is equal to what I spend on PC hardware in 6 year span.
Granted, it does take some knowledge, research and effort to build the best for buck, but bashing PC with the argument that it costs some insane amount of money is baseless.
People spend four times as much on pointless addons such as gadgets, collectors editions and other extremely short lifespan vapor.
Great show!
Raiden is a bitch! There is reason why every person in MGS2 had to grope his groin.
Best sequel comes from Bioware, but it’s not Mass Effect 2, sorry DK.
I’m talking about Biowares greatest game Baldur’s Gate 2.
Baldur’s Gate 2 has epic story, really good gameplay, awesome characters and lots of stuff to do.
NPC interactions between each other is far superior to DA:O or ME series. Your NPC friends can love or hate each other, some will team up while others will mock each other and eventually quit the team or start fighting.
Combat system is like its own strategic game with well balanced classes thanks to D&D 2.0 rules. This added to great music and conversations with great dialog and multiple choices, makes this game god among RPG’s.
Best thing about this game is, after 9 years it still looks great and is better than ever, thanks to all powerful infinity engine and mod community.
PC’s are not that expensive to maintain… ex, 1000$ could last you 3 years if done right……im playing DA on max on a laptop.. acer aspire 8930g……
Alienwares are overpriced. You can build a computer with the same specs for sometimes half the price. Even if you don’t know how to build a computer, you could buy the parts and pay someone to put it together and it would still be cheaper.
No
Thx for the feedback on the PC issue gang. I totally agree with the majority of you that building/maintaining a gaming PC is getting much more reasonable these days, but, as I was pointing out in the show, it personally falls down the priority list for me for various reasons. While I used to play even amounts of PC and console games, I now mostly find myself playing console games. That, plus having to purchase Macs for production purposes, supporting my fam, and simply having a limited amount of gaming time means that I do have to pick and choose my platforms. Don’t get me wrong, I’d LOVE to rock DA:O on a great PC, but at this point, I’d be building a rig, setting aside time, and investing quite a bit (whether $500 or $1,000) to gain access to a handful of games I’d play. I hope everyone knows I appreciate and respect PC gaming and PC gamers even if my circumstances often dictate that I can’t join your ranks. Again, good feedback and thx for checking out the show!
@WormyThePenalTapewormCongrats
Very good piece. You wrote exactly how I feel conflicted about Digital services. I trust Steam, but I dont buy from them. For the rest Im still to much of a phsyical media kind of person, with the exception of music.
Im with you on the environmental side of things, but in my opinion that is still the only real pro. But loads of other services then Steam still price full retail, then why should I buy something via download, while when I buy something in a shop I get the whole package instead of only some file.
I think 3D is going to be a good thing for the reason mentioned, but also new technology influences new ways of thinking, so I think this will be quite refreshing to finally see completely new ideas once again. Over the past couple years it seems like developers have just kind of settled in to making what works and not really doing anything too far outside of the box, I’m hoping 3D is just the kick the industry needs to wake it up again and bring to light some inventive games which we haven’t seen for a long time. Like 3D and the motion controllers or not, combined they are going to create an overwhelming possibility for different potential game mechanics.
Also, the Wii may be less impressive from a technical standpoint, but because Nintendo never really matured to the level Sony and Microsoft have they never lost their focus on the gameplay element of games. On the PS3 and the 360 nowadays, it seems like the gameplay comes almost second to storyline which I don’t think is quite the way it should be, but because alot of the games nowadays are so similar in style they kind of depend on a good story to put them over the competition. Now of course I don’t want to see the triple A games with incredible storylines go anywhere, but I wish the big fish that are swimming in a pond with the fish that could eat them alive would just stop trying so hard to compete and just try to do something creative to stand out in a different way, like Nintendo did to be able to stay in the game this time around.
(THQ, and TecmoKoei are a couple of names that come to mind.)
My battle cry for the best sequel goes out to Doom2. Or maybe it should be Quake 2…
But whatever, they’re near the same. They proved you could beat back the horrible evil, with a double barrel shotgun. I mean when the Doom-guy dies and he goes to hell, we all know he’s going to win, as long as he finds himself a double barrel shotgun.
But back to the topic more, Doom 2 got the game right, It had great graphics, and it was scary, well for its time. And the most important part, it was fun. And it was funner then the original, and it didn’t try and throw in a new concept, it was basically the same game, with a bit more. And pain elementals, lots of pain elementals. The series also added the most important weapon to video games, the chainsaw. And the one weapon everyone knows, the BFG. Who doesn’t know what the BFG is.
And people still play Doom2 online, ever heard of Skulltag? 32 man online fun, and its got a fancy invasion mode that every game these days seems to need to have. AND UT2003 got it first SO STOP SAYING GEARS DID!
Great episode my heathens of torture, my minions of debauchery! (that ones for you Brent my Viking lord!)
My Battle Cry this week:
Dragon Age was indeed far far superior on the PC compared to the console version. However, I may be a hardcore PC gamers and I do maintain my PC as much as I can. The game is very optimized and will run on a lot of systems. Yeah it does prefer a quad core to a dual core CPU but still settings can be turned down and it will still look and play better than the console version.
On to the console version why don’t BioWare just make it an optional setting that allows players to plug in a keyboard and a mouse. Both consoles have more than enough USB ports, and most gamers and homes out there has a PC and therefore has a mouse and keyboard. It would make the game play so much better, therefore the console version may not be able to compete with the PC version in terms of graphics but the gameplay is the main thing what matters at the end of the day.
PS/ Blacklight Tango Down sucks really bad. Played the demo on 360 and the graphics are terrible, the UI layout is confusing and a complete mess. I will try it out on PC but damn the game just simply sucks. Just seems like a Unreal Engine mod… actually no I’ve seen better mods by less experienced game designers. Sorry but that’s just my battle cry!
Dark Troopers of damnation, Bothan spys of brutality, for this weeks Battle Cry there is no contender to the greatest sequel to have graced my consoles: Star Wars Battlefront II. This decision doesn’t spawn from the addition of space combat, the inclusion of playable Heroes and Villains, nor the addition of allegiance-specific classes. What I speak of is a concept largely lost in today’s market: Community. With the impersonal and often vulgar interactions created by matchmaking systems on ALL popular titles, the dying breed of player-ran servers created friendships that have lasted 6 years over two console cycles on a game that was still constantly played on the original Xbox until Microsoft pulled the plug. I doubt Call of Duty or Halo could ever claim the same.
And here’s my obligatory frustrated fanboy demand to the powers that be for Battlefront III
Valve understand gamers ^^ Because they are Real Gamers. One simple real reason, whey Steam work so well
@WormyThePenalTapeworm
Don’t worry, the first stage in these things is always denial.
Hey guys i wanna use my battle cry to give a shout out to Glee! And im serious. That show is awesome. Im a grown man. I love beer foot ball (and I mean the American kind) and women but this show is great. Its funny and has great music in it. I also love music so its something i can relate to. I too at first thought it was dumb but i ended up watching an episode and couldnt stop laughing and got hooked. There is nothing wrong with liking entertainment like Glee, it actually takes a mature man, secure with his sexuality to admit that…Just saying
Besides Rachel the lead character is smoking hot and trust me it def earns points with the ladies!!!
What’s up my Doctors of Disembowelment, my Surgeons of Suffering… how art thou ? mha mhuaha… DK, with all due respect mate, your kids must eat like grasshoppers. OK OK I’m not here to talk about how cheap or expensive PC’s are.
Anyway my shout goes out to multi platformism (is that even a word?). This week one in particular piece of info on Dragon Age 2 caught my attention: Dragon Age 2, or should we call it Dragon Effect 2, appears to be more dynamic and action oriented. Now I’m not judging if this is good or bad, but it got me thinking about what kind of sacrifices in terms of gameplay, and not only graphical quality, a game studio must do in order to support multiple platforms. This may sound retarded but I’m not sure anymore if a game coming out for all platforms is a good thing or not.
Awesome show as usual. Hey DK! just bootcamp that mac man.
I wish developers would understand that games like Dragon Age, and RTS games on console are just not ideal. But at the same time, I wish they would see the opportunity’s that are coming. I think Playstation Move and maybe even Kenect could do alot for this genre, sure it still wont be that mouse and keyboard feel, but beats analog sticks.
What’s up my Conglomerates of Cataclysm, my Entrepreneurs of Evisceration (god I feel dirty, and not just because I went with business theme) Anyway back to business (no pun intended) my battle cry has to do with your week’s theme of sequels. My favorite game sequel would have to be Assassins Creed 2. Assassins Creed 2 was everything that the original should have been and more. They made the lead character more interesting and dynamic. They made the experienced much more varied. I could list all the improvements for paragraphs but the important thing here is that THEY LISTENED TO THEIR FANS. Ubisoft Montreal did not brush all the problems of the original under the table. They admitted that the original was not perfect, they knew it was repetitive, and they did their best to remedy all of that. They listened to what their audience wanted and Ubisoft Montreal delivered and then some. Also it seems like they are not giving up there. Brotherhood looks very intriguing and they are continuing to improve and expand on the Assassins Creed experience.
Im a console gamer and i loved Dragon Age. I played it on Xbox and my roommate played it on PC. I thought it was a great game. Sure it was probably better on PC but it wasnt as bad as people say it is. The only thing i could see that was a disadvantage for consoles was not being able to use area effects to their full potential like you could on PC. But i was still able to beat the game and beat the dragons before my roommate did too..SO idk..its a great game if u dont have a pc def play it on a console.
So my favorite Sequel was Metal Gear Solid 2…I mean come on…All i gotta say is one word…RAIDEN
haha
My BattleCry sequel of choice: I think I’m going to have to go with God of War 3. It’s probably not my favourite – let’s face it, there’s a LOT of sequels out there and I’ve been gaming for a looooong time – but it’s the one I’ve played most recently that’s made a huge impact. I loved the first two games, but the third entry is just so much better on every level. There’s more story, more characters (with voice actors like Malcolm McDowell, Kevin Sorbo and Rip Torn), more INCREDIBLE boss fights and it gave a great ending to the trilogy. No other game can match the level of APM (awesome per minute) of God of War 3, it simply doesn’t let up.
whats up my dudes of destroying, my friars of fornication (a.k.a. f*insert guitar sound here*ing)
my battlecry goes out to downloadable media in europe, first of all most of the time the prices for downloading a full game like modern warfare 2for example, are higher then buying them in a store, wich i find weird, if you download it, all you get is some data, but when you buy it in a store you get the box, disk and booklet.
I’m am tired of being f*insert guitar sound here*ed by the gaming industry in europe.
my idea for downloadable media is that it should be considerably cheaper cause you only get the game and not a physical disk and box.
Just a small note on the topic about posting names in Battle.net- it’s worth pointing out how easy it is to find out information on somebody if you have their name. My roommate is a PI and Process Server… all he needs is a name, even a common one, and there’s at least half a dozen public information sites, not to mention governmental databases on the local, state, or national level.
A resourseful person could find out a lot about another individual given just their real name. Now make that resourseful individual an enraged WoW poster who’s taken it upon his or her self to send someone a message. With a full name they can get phone numbers, work addresses, home addresses, etc. The far less serious side of this is now when 12 year old Tommy Jackass wants to mouth off to other users like it’s Xbox Live- well now it’s a lot more serious as he can see some reprocussions.
Just food for thought guys.
developers are making a lots of money by making and selling limited editions and collectors editions so me opinion that , the developers and publishers will not give up the hard copies any time soon. i hope not because am a big fan of collectors editions when it comes to games like gow or halo or so .
My best sequel vote would have to go to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. My definition of “sequel” is that it has to involve the same universe, and it has to chronologically take place after the game that came before it. When speaking of a franchise like Mario or Final Fantasy, the games that continue to come out keep making improvements in certain areas, but the lack of contiguous story elements throws them out of the running. Uncharted 2 was an improvement over the first game in almost every way: better visuals, better sound, and better locations. The voice acting remained top-notch, as well as maintaining solid game mechanics overall.
My favorite sequel would definitely have to be Killzone2. It improved on the first game in every way. As the first game had broken AI, Guriella fixed it and made the AI in KZ2 some of the best in gaming (i.e. hit response and taking cover).The campaign, though light on story, was full of huge set piece moments that blew me away and beautifully crafted carnage and wastelands. Online multiplayer in the KZ1 was just your average, run-of-the-mill multiplayer where as the multiplayer in KZ2 was an online gamer’s dream. Combining all the standard game modes into one match was genius and always kept the player on the edge of their seat. Also, being one of the best looking games on the market doesn’t hurt either.
My BattleCry sequel of Choice : Seriously how could this even be a question to ask? The most anticipated Sequel of all Time… Diablo 3! For almost 10 years, people still play Diablo 2 : LOD Online, which is incredible. Blizzard is still patching and reseting Ladders for it and people are coming back for more and they don’t care about it because the game is so addicting. I hope that they will re-create the feel and the atmosphere that made Diablo a big franchise for every Pc Gamers.
Great episode gentlemen! Can’t wait for Dragon Age 2.
My BATTLECRY goes out to Max Payne 2.
If we’re talking sequels, this has to be one of the best. Remedy crafted a game that didn’t only enhance the original, but totally trumped it. It screams “quality” at you the whole way through. A superb noir atmosphere, engrossing story and sublime action still make it one of the best 3rd person shooters ever created.
If you like the genre you owe it to yourself to play this game.
I recommend the PC version which has some fantastic mods available, including a kick ass Kung Fu mod! Check em out at Mod DB
My BattleCry goes out to all the gamers in the world because of the recent appearance of video games in court news. It seems like the government is trying to ban violent video games once again. Obviously, this is completely ridiculous and should never happen because thanks to those video games, we can experience things that we wouldn’t be able to any other way without any consequence and we can let our imaginations go wild. This isn’t something that should be taken away from us as the gamers, nor from the developers that are creating true works of art. So to all you gamers out there: don’t stop supporting video games!
You can sign up on the Gamer Petition here if you like: http://action.theeca.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1781
Source:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29423/ESA_California_Game_Law_Clearly_Unconstitutional.php
Damn thou EBC stop hating on my spelling.
I was blinded by rage when i wrote the damn comment.
Cut me some slack, this isn’t a job application XD
Good show BTW (Thumbs up)
when I buy PC games I’ve pretty much gona All-Digital. last disc-based game I bought is… let’s think here… well AvP but that ties to Steam so it’s disc-less anyways… so is MW2…. WaW was my last disc-based game
Hello My Squad of Sabotage my Inmates of Insanity how art thou!?!? My battlecry for best sequel would have to to be Super Mario Bros. 2 (even though its not the real SMB2) or Zelda 2. This is because those games changed the formula which is good to have in a series unlike a lot of games series where the formula is the same every time with little tweaks here and there.Those games completely changed In SMB2 it was a lot less linear, changed the way to kill enemies and added a puzzle element. Zelda 2 turned Link into a side-scrolling warrior instead of a top down warrior it was incredible. I understand now a days that would take a very long time to overhaul a game to that degree because of programming code, and creating new game engines but I would love to see people branch out and tell a story with many games that have different styles of play.
I found the idea of calling a PC expensive and then getting an apple rather hypocritical.
It’s a really easy matter of just buying the parts individually from say http://www.pricewatch.com and having a knowledgeable friend help you out and build it for you if you can’t do it yourself. You save money…sometimes lots of money…especially if the alternative is the apple computer.
Buying mild-high upgrades every other year can keep you ahead of the tech curve without breaking the wallet…and there’s a lot of free software out there that can make your computer faster and safer.
When you are in the market for a PC DK, see about consulting some friends first…you’d be surprised how many probably have rather current parts just lying around. =P
In the very least they could help you decide what to get…and again if at all possible get the parts individually, because you’re bound to know someone who could build it for you.
I have missed the past 3 weeks because my computer was out of commission, but I am back so I am catching up on EBA. That is why I am responding to this now.
WHAT’S UP MY BROTHERS OF BRUTALITY! MY COMPATRIOTS OF CONTRITURATION! HOW ART THOU?!
I just wanted to say that I do not like the idea of digital distribution taking over. I love having a physical copy of my games, movies and music. Maybe I am old school in this regard, but I want a physical copy. It worries me with music the most. I am a metal head. I love music more than damn near everything. I care deeply about the sound quality of music. MP3s do not have the sound quality of CDs. They never have. They never will. I buy the CD and transfer it to my MP3 player for when I am on the road. At home, I listen to my CDs. Hell, I buy vinyl specifically because I care about sound quality.