EpicBattleAxe

The Axe Factor 071: Nut-Sniped

"Viking Brent" Adams — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:01:00 +0000

Fear the thunder, its The Axe Factor! This week, we drool over debut gameplay footage from Assassin’s Creed III, a new combat trailer from Sleeping Dogs, discuss recent word from Ubisoft that console makers are integrating free-to-play and microtransaction capabilities into their Next-Gen Consoles, and disucss our hands-on time with the demo for Spec Ops: The Line, first impressions of Max Payne 3, and a spoiler-laden discussion on The Walking Dead.

This week:

Vote in The Axe Factor Poll:

So, It’s Diablo III Day

"SkinnyAsAnAxeHandle" — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:24:43 +0000

Max Payne 3 is out today, sure, but today will without a doubt go down in history as the day Diablo III arrived. Oh, and perhaps with a slight crash and burn. Within hours of its launch, [handfuls] of gamers were either greeted with Error 37, which means the servers are busy, or Error 3006, which kicks players off the server for equipping a shield to the Templar early in the game.

As of this writing, it is 9AM Eastern, meaning Diablo 3 has been out for just under 12 hours. Many have already put in a bountiful amount of hours into their quest log, while others can’t even get into a server.

So, for those who have either ditched work, school, a final, your significant other, or anything else, and have yet to get in a minute of playtime, what’s your story? For those who have played, OMG WHAT’S IT LIKE?

EpicBattleCry – Skirmish 153: Hawkward

"Viking Brent" Adams — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:51:18 +0000

Look to the skies, its EpicBattleCry! This week, we rap on The Elder Scrolls MMO, EA‘s investment in next-gen consoles, and discuss if the recent analysis of Call of Duty: Black Ops II portends a declining trend for gaming overall. There is no escape, only eclairs!

Comment on the show? Battle Cry for consideration? Just got something epic to share? Hit us back in the comments!

-Audio only download-

Show Notes:
GAUNTLET
Some Elder Scrolls Online Details to Pair With That New Trailer
Report: Avengers: Battle for Earth Coming Courtesy of Ubisoft
Company of Heroes 2 Officially Announced, Coming in Early 2013
EA to Invest $80 Million In Next-Gen Development This Year

TOPIC
Has Gaming Peaked?

BATTLECRIES
Tony – New Diablo Short Film
Brent – Spec Ops: The Line Demo
DK – Top 10 Games You Should Play on NES

PIxel Junk Sale

Cuckoo4CocoaPuffs — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:15:23 +0000

PSA: Huge Anniversary blowout sale on Pixel Junk games (even priced as low as $1.00). Even better FREE multiplayer content for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Map packs and skins are waiting for all of those who want to get back into the game. Go see what exactly you want to pick up over on the PSBlog.

No The Axe Factor This Week (May 8th)

"Viking Brent" Adams — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:34:13 +0000

Hey all, sad news. I’m afraid there will be no episode of The Axe Factor this week. Lorin and I were planning to record today but an urgent situation (non life-threatening) has developed and we unfortunately will not be able to record this week. We’ll have our normally-scheduled episode of EBC on Friday and The Axe Factor should return next week! See you then!

EpicBattleCry – Skirmish 152: Testing My Patience

"Viking Brent" Adams — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:32:47 +0000

Let not your heart be trampled, its EpicBattleCry! This week, 66% of us point and laugh at PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, we discuss Skyrim‘s first expansion, and go around the table to discuss God of War Ascensions recently announced multiplayer and why the industry seems hell-bent on forking MP into SP.

Comment on the show? Battle Cry for consideration? Just got something epic to share? Hit us back in the comments!

-Audio only download-

GAUNTLET

Skyrim Expands With Dawnguard This Summer
Sony’s PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Enters the Arena This Holiday
Call of Duty: Black Ops II Launching November 13; Promises “21st Century Cold War”
Portal 2 Expands with “Perpetual Testing Initiative” in May

TOPIC

God of War Ascension Brings Bloody Multiplayer
Gameplay Footage

BATTLECRIES

Tony – Dead or Alive 5
Daniel – De-Pixelated
Brent – SWTOR Character Xfers coming this summer

Why the Digitalisation of Games is Not So Great

"Bashing Axe" Tim — Fri, 04 May 2012 10:35:35 +0000

We all have heard the great effects of making games more digital. And the arguments are quite good. Supposedly less expenditure for gamers and publishers/developers, being able to play the game faster on release date, less environmental costs (as in no boxes), etc.

But it is not all sunshine. This article will show the some of the major disadvantages of the digitalization of gaming.

The most obvious issue with this system is a quite clear one. You cannot resell your purchased games. This is a substantial drawback in an age where ownership still is very important. I bought an object to have the full use of it. Either to throw it away, burn it, smash it, or resell it. I can still do that with any other physical object. This is not just a drawback against games, but also digital movies, books and so on. But like I said, this is the most obvious one.

Now time for a question. How many of you have read the contract that Valve with Steam, EA with Origin, Sony, Microsoft and so forth have made you sign? If you would read these, your hairs would turn white. What usually is found in these “Agreements” can have such an effect on a consumer, that they are not allowed under law, at the least under European and Dutch law.

Even though they don’t have the term “contract”, due to its size and non-negotiability, Terms of Agreement are sometimes even worse than a regular contract, because they effect so many people at the same time. A term of agreement basically talks about things outside the core of a contract. So, as an example, Terms of Agreement do not talk about price, object of purchase, and so forth, but are written articles that could limit the timeframe you are allowed to return a product, where a trial is being held in case of conflict and so forth.

I encountered the following for example in Steam’s Agreement:

“C. Acceptance/Rejection/Returns
The terms of this Section 3.C do not apply to European Union consumers.”

The rest of the text deals with how someone can ask Valve to fix a game or software that has issues, within 30 days of purchase or receiving. Why are we European Union consumers not allowed to have this? It made me raise my eyebrows; under Dutch law, for example, we have a rule stating that clauses like these in contracts are not legal. We are allowed to return a product under the expected use conduct (paraphrasing of course). This states that when you buy something, you should be able to use it in a normal fashion, and if something is broken, due to no fault of your own, the selling party has to give compensation; either by giving you a new copy, or returning the money, and so forth.

Maybe the worse in the Valve’s agreement is the following:

“12. AMENDMENTS TO THIS AGREEMENT
Valve may amend this Agreement at any time in its sole discretion. As a Subscriber, you agree that Valve may amend the terms of this Agreement. If Valve amends the Agreement, such amendment shall be effective thirty (30) days after your receiving notice of the amended Agreement, either via e-mail or as a notification within the Software. You can view the Agreement at any time at http://www.steampowered.com/. Your failure to cancel your Account thirty (30) days after receiving notification of an amended Agreement will mean that you accept all such amendments. If you don’t agree to the amendments or to any of the terms in this Agreement, your only remedy is to cancel your Account or a particular Subscription.”

So basically, you lose all your games if you disagree with Valve’s terms. Sorry, but I bought those games, and because I disagree with what Valve, as an example, wants in their contract, I lose my games, even my offline games. Three words apply, but I am not going to utter them.

What these few short examples show, at least on a digital gateway side, is that we, at least in Steam terms, are leasing the games. No more ownership.

Why does the game industry think it can act differently than other consumer items?

Other obvious disadvantages of course, are constant internet-connection, risk of exposure by hackers, and so forth.

I know that the digital age is unstoppable, but shouldn’t we adress this radical change in how we purchase our items? I mean, this is not something we should want as consumers, it puts way too much power in the hands of the ones that build the systems. Yes, Valve has great customer perspective at the moment, but that doesn’t last forever.

These contracts are the only truly binding things; not the words from heads of studios, but their legal hand. And, I havent even started to delve into Origin’s Terms of Agreement (and only done preliminary research on this). I am not just looking at the fact that, in general, these companies are using Terms of Agreement, because that is very common and very understandable good-business-practice. What I do question however, is that these specific things should be in the Terms of Agreement, for they, in my perspective, undercut the core of buying a product.

Do you guys ever read the EULA’s that we have all sign, either on consoles (looks at the 360 and the PS3) or have you entirely read what is thrown at us in the EULAs for any PC game? I honestly can say, I haven’t, up until now.

For the full agreement on Steam
and on Origins

The Axe Factor 070: Nothing But Good News

"Viking Brent" Adams — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:43:13 +0000

Buckle up and prepare for acceleration, its The Axe Factor! This week, we sit down with Camouflaj’s Ryan Payton to discuss his studio’s high-profile iOS title Republique, Kickstarter funding, and bringing a AAA experience to iOS. Plus, God of Ascension Multiplayer, Dishonored, and more!

This week:

What We’re Watching:

God of War Ascension
Multiplayer Gameplay
First Take: Multiplayer Debut
Multiplayer Debut Interview

Dishonored – Steam and Sorcery Interview

Dishonored – Debut Trailer

Portal 2 – Exclusive Creation Trailer

What We’re Reading:

Republique Interview with Ryan Payton

What We’re Playing:

Trials Evolution – Trials Evo – Best Custom Track List
Borderlands
The Walking Dead Ep 1

-Download-

Vote in The Axe Factor Poll:

Nintendo’s new online strategy, DLC policy and Day-1 digital distribution for 3DS/WiiU

"Sagacious Sheath" Rowan — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 03:45:46 +0000

If you’ve been enjoying the new interface for the eShop in the latest update, you might be pleased to know you’ll soon have more to browse through as Nintendo has recently revealed that starting with New Super Mario Bros. 2 coming this August, most Nintendo published (not just first party developed) games for the 3DS will be available as both boxed copies, and digital versions using the Nintendo eShop, at participating retailers, and through the internet using retailer websites.

Retailers will provide you a one-time 16 digit code to redeem on the eShop itself. You won’t be able to share this across multiple devices, though if you’ve been buying digital games for anything but the PS3, that’s standard procedure. Perhaps more importantly, the retailers will be able to set their own prices for digital content, rather than the suggested price Nintendo will use on the eShop themselves.

They also promise that the WiiU will be offering this service from day one, and the article from Joystiq infers the eShop will be available on both 3DS and WiiU. A unified eShop is logical, but regardless this is another step towards a more complete online experience from Nintendo.

Bringing retailers into their digital distribution is a surprising step apart from their major competitors though, and with an all time high of 70% connectivity for 3DS‘ sold in the US and Japan, Nintendo‘s aim seems to be at using retailer’s to maintain good relations with them, while also increasing the visibility of the eShop. It also means that that retailers can continue to sell Nintendo games even if their boxed copies are out of stock, and that users who don’t want to connect their credit cards to an online service (after the major Sony online security breach and the less publicised Xbox live Fifa hack of last year) won’t need to be buying pre-paid cards in rounded up numbers, allowing them to only pay for what they want.

Nintendo has still recognised that this of course is just the start of their online service, saying “Of course, we know that the Nintendo eShop still has room for improvement. However, we have a strong feeling that the foundation for us to deploy our digital businesses has been properly laid out.” They also took time at the end to clarify that this would not involve DLC, saying

“Unfortunately, as some people seem to have a misunderstanding, I would like to once again sum up my comments here. First, we clearly distinguish digital distribution of packaged software from add-on content and, when it comes to making packaged software digitally available, we do not intend to offer any products that the consumers deem incomplete. Second, we sell add-on content so that the consumers can play a software title for even longer and on a deeper level and, when we sell this add-on content, we are making a proposal to consumers to pay for the content our developers have additionally created. In other words, as we have repeatedly confirmed, Nintendo has never conducted and will never conduct what is now widely known (in Japan) as a “gacha-type charging business” (capsule toy vending machine business), which asks consumers to pay money without knowing what kind of item shall emerge as a result of their payment, even if such a business model might temporarily yield high profitability. Nintendo does not believe such a business model can establish long-lasting relationships with our consumers. We hope that everyone understands our policy, and we will continue to make efforts to avoid such misunderstandings as, “the next ‘Animal Crossing’ might be a game which relies upon add-on content sales.”

Check out the source below to view Nintendo’s Financial Results Briefing for this month, or look at the slides shown here and let us know your opinions in the comments below! Are you disappointed to see Nintendo not allowing you to share content or link games to accounts rather than machines? Are you happy to no longer need to dump round fees into a virtual wallet?

Source

Rayman Legends leaked for the Wii U

Cuckoo4CocoaPuffs — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 03:40:04 +0000

There was a leak of news for fans of Rayman Origins with a trailer for the sequel Rayman Legends. It keeps the same graphical style but will add more playable characters, online play, and social gaming (essentially a points per objective system).

It was the reveal of the functionality that will come to the Wii U that was most intriguing. It appears that the Wii U tablet will be able to take a page out of the Skylanders playbook, with peripheral items that affect in game play. Seeing how Ubisoft will incorporate this into the game opens up infinite possibilities for other games to follow.

Watch the trailer below

Via Gamekult