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melt its way through the polar icecaps on Mars

no no, don`t do it. these things seem to turn out bad these days.

Heres link to my review of Half Life 2. I wrote a review of the Counter-Strike Source beta earlier this year that got posted on the main page (quite a shock.) And yes, this game rocks despite its very wierd ending.

Whoops! bad example. What I meant to say is this is now THIS.

Whoops! bad example. What I meant to say is this is now THIS.

The hyperlinks on the thumbnails in that article lead to the same thumbnails! Erase the "x" in the filename to see the larger image.

aka this is now this.

The hyperlinks on the thumbnails in that article lead to the same thumbnails! Erase the "x" in the filename to see the larger image.

aka this is now this.

True, but relative to other excellent wargames out there Combat Mission has damn good graphics. Another good example in Medieval: Total War. Compared to Max Payne 2, Medieval's graphics suck. Compare it all the other wargames out there with bland graphics, it sucks.

I believe the problem is not super-realistic graphics detracting from the gameplay but rather the resources which are diverted toward the graphics seriously diminish the gameplay and replayability of the game.

Additionally, when going only for realism the artistic merit of the graphics wanes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that a games sole purpose is to be art -- its to be a game thats fun and enjoyable to play, at least as far as I care. Its the art which visually separates one game from another. Take a look at World of Warcraft. The graphics are very stylized and it is recognizable "Warcraft" and not Warhammer. I hope that improved hardware capability will allow artists to push their vision of the world they are creating rather than be required to make a photographic replica of the latest and hottest movie.

(For the record I've mirrored this post on my website here.

Second Life is more like a webhost, where as a MMORPG is like going to the carnival. The pricing structure for Second Life is totally different, you pay by the amount of space you have to build on.

The law could easily play on both sides here. EULA says you can't sell on eBay, you did, now you get fined for braking the EULA. Or the law could toss out the EULA and say you do own the stuff. Quite frankly I don't think this is an issue worth using the court system or tax paying money on. We all know how the internet works. There is always a loophole. Let these for profit game businesses run the game how they like. If they screw it up -- people leave. They can choose to ban people who sell on ebay, or just ignore it. They can go after emulated servers, or they can leave them.

The system is certainly far from perfect. I remember the first days and months UO was released. All the bugs scared me away until several years later. Lineage currently has a huge problem with harvesting from what I understand. It looks like a great MMORPG, but I'll be staying away from that too for a while.

MMORPG are around to make money. If someone spends 40 hours a week playing Everquest, they've got issues. I don't believe that the law should either hinder or allow selling virtual items.

When I run a business I make damn sure that I'm not signing away my rights to a partner or to another company. Webhost wants to own the copyright to my work? Sorry. Maybe they pull some B.S. like certain companys have in switching the EULA without giving me proper notification. If it happens to negatively affect my businesses in a way which I find is worth the legal fees -- then I can sue them. If you want to sue Sony because they deleted you level 50 whatever, then so be it. Maybe you'll win, maybe you'll loose, but your pocket is going to feel quite a bit emptier.

And as I said before, we know there are loopholes -- especially with the internet. Gambling sites banned in the U.S., then they flourish on some tropical island along with their owner. Too much of a pain to host a MMORPG in the U.S., then they are going to move to another country.

For reference I have mirrored this post here

Damn, I wish I could have gotten to this sooner. Warner Brother announced this week that they would be implementing increased royalties for games that do not achieve a certain average-rating by multiple gaming websites and magazines. This has huge implications to developers and gamers. If this works I'm sure it will catch on to all the movie studios with any marketing sense.

I actually wrote an article about this on my gaming website Counterfrag. Here is a direct link.

Damn, I wish I could have gotten to this sooner. Warner Brother announced this week that they would be implementing increased royalties for games that do not achieve a certain average-rating by multiple gaming websites and magazines. This has huge implications to developers and gamers. If this works I'm sure it will catch on to all the movie studios with any marketing sense.

I actually wrote an article about this on my gaming website Counterfrag. Here is a direct link.