Assassins, Bullies, and Messiahs

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Assassins, Bullies, and Messiahs

Posted by Zonk on Friday September 1, 2006 @04:59AM from the oh-my dept.

Some interesting news for a few upcoming game titles. Firstly (to no one's surprise), Assassin's Creed is coming to the 360. It will also be available for the PC. Secondly, Valve and Ubisoft have announced that Dark Messiah is coming to Steam when it releases in October. Chris Grant's commentary: "Ubisoft is acknowledging the demand for digitally distributed AAA content and using the largest platform they can find to promote it. We're still waiting on government-distributed protein pills and personal submarines, but the third pillar of our future vision is now realized." Finally, Rockstar appears to have partially bowed to public pressure over their 'Bully' title. In Europe, at least, Bully is now known as Canis Canem Edit, which means 'Dog Eat Dog' in Latin. To which I respond: Semper Ubi Sub Ubi.

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What does it mean? by IHSW · 2006-09-01 05:04 · Score: 5, Informative

Semper ubi sub ubi is a pun based on the English gloss of a malformed Latin phrase: "always where under where." The motto is used as a joke by Latin students and others to mean "always wear underwear."

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semper_ubi_sub_ubi
1. Re:What does it mean? by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-01 07:39 · Score: 0
  
  Mod parent "-1, wikipedia karma whore"
Nil ubi sub ubi. by Tackhead · 2006-09-01 05:16 · Score: 1

> Semper ubi sub ubi is a pun based on the English gloss of a malformed Latin phrase: "always where under where." The motto is used as a joke by Latin students and others to mean "always wear underwear."
Nil ubi sub ubi would be more appropriate for a Rockstar game. After all, the game also has a "Hot Coffee" rap video. Goes something like magnae clunes mihi placent, nec possum de hac re mentiri. (Large buttocks are pleasing to me, nor am I able to lie concerning this matter!)
Why do people use steam? by dduardo · 2006-09-01 05:22 · Score: 1

What you are essentially doing is renting the game at retail price. You can't even resell the game without paying a $10 transfer fee. Culture is going out the window if we buy into this junk. Imagine having kids 15 to 20 years down the road and waiting to show them the games, music, videos you used to enjoy. You won't be able to because the content is locked.

Copyright is limited, but DRM is forever.
1. Re:Why do people use steam? by Thansal · 2006-09-01 05:38 · Score: 1
  
  Simple answer? ease. I live in NYC, in are middle-of-no-where-Queens, and it is a pain to get out on release day to buy a new game, so I generaly have to roder it online. Now give me that chance to order it online and have it as soon as I download it (or instantly if it is preloaded) then sign me up! Yes, I bought HL2 and HL2 Ep1 via steam. And if you honestly think you are going to want to sell the game to some one else then create a new steam account and purchase it there! I personaly have 2 steam accounts, my old one that has my original WON version of HL/OpFor/etc etc activated on it, and my new one with HL2/HL2Ep1 on it (I could have even made a 3rd for Ep1 if I wanted to).
  
  --
  Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
2. Re:Why do people use steam? by AcidLacedPenguiN · 2006-09-01 06:16 · Score: 1
  
  actually as long as steam still exists in some form you can continue to play the games. They let you make backups of all software you've purchased, they also keep track of what you've boughten. If my hdd goes kaput, as long as I remember my login/password they'll let me download the game again. I can also manage to get some games that either cannot be purchased in physical form, or are a bitch to find now.
  As far as reselling goes, it does really suck, but I could imagine you could add $10 to what you were going to charge the guy/gal. . .
  I guess I'm saying that steam could be a lot tighter, so be happy about that.
  
  --
  disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
3. Re:Why do people use steam? by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-01 08:19 · Score: 0
  
  Copyright is limited, but DRM is forever
  
  Copyright: Life of author + 70 years http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap3.html
  
  Life of a CDr: a few years, to a few decades, to possibly a few hundred years http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-R
  
  Life of a removable storage media drive: 20 years (est. Think 5 1/4" floppies.)
  
  Life of a game console: about 15 years (playstation)
  
  For practical purposes, copyright is forever too. Unless you plan on passing your Donkey Kong cartridge down to your great grand children...
  
  So.... How long is that in Computer Years?
4. Re:Why do people use steam? by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-02 04:12 · Score: 0
  
  Very good point mate..
Can someone explain Steam to me? by syrinx · 2006-09-01 06:11 · Score: 2, Interesting

The first I heard of "Steam" was when Half-Life 2 came out. I never bought HL2 (not into FPS), and so my association with Steam was "something that came with HL2 that nobody liked". Now I'm reading about various games "coming out on Steam" or something, and so I've been trying to figure out what it is. Apparently you download games on it, which sounds pretty good (although in the old days we used something called "FTP" to download things), and then whenever you want to play your game that you purchased, you have to connect to Steam? How is this a good idea? What if you don't have net access when you want to play? Am I misunderstanding it?

--
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
1. Re:Can someone explain Steam to me? by Brothernone · 2006-09-01 07:04 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Steam is an on-line contenet dilivery service. You downlaod and play games through steam. Each person is assigned a sepcific ID taht keeps track of what games you've purchased. If your local copy is deleted, steam knows that you have payed for the game, and simply lets you redownload it. Steam does not need to be connected to the interenet to play. Your games that are used through steam cannot be accessed any other way. If you use the icon to open say HL2 or CSS it will open steam, then launch the game. Many third party titles and mods are available via steam. Steam is a free service and does not directly cost. That said, I like the service and don't experience the lag and latency most people seem to complain about. I do however don't like the fact it's almost impossible to get information about teh games from steam itself. A lot of people like to use the terms Valve/Steam interchangably.
  
  --
  He whom you called four-eyes yesterday, you call Sir tomorrow.
2. Re:Can someone explain Steam to me? by Thansal · 2006-09-01 07:31 · Score: 1
  
  Basicly Steam replaced WON a few years back. WON was Valve's old server for listing servers. Steam does these things: 1) List servers for Valve Games 2) Chat system (the friends system worked, then stoped, and is now aparently back, think kinda like XBL system) 3) Content distribution platform (be it automaticly pushing out patches, making demos/videos avaliable at good speeds, or downloading a new game) 4) Store 5) Anti pirac 1 and 2 are non enteties as far as the Steam love/hate goes number 3 is a good thing as far as I can see in any way shape or form (they provide a quick and easy way to auto update, update in the background, preload, and all other things at good rates, that seem to auto throttle when you are doing other things). If you are woried about them loading stuff just disable that. 4 and 5 are the problems. (Disclaimer: I LIKE STEAM!) 4 you see people going off on it b/c you buy stuff at full retail price with out getting a CD/book/what ever(not ture on HL2 actualy, you could but differnt verssions, and the one with the comprable retail price came with extra goodies, and you could also buy a striped down version). Personaly I jsut say, if you odn't like it don't buy it, get it from the store. 5 you see the big problems with. You buy a game and it is now locked to an account (way aroudn this), you can't trade it to a friend/sell it on EBay. If steam goes away, you are SOL (not ture). If you bought the hard copy you still had to activate on Steam (I can only see this being a problem to some poor shmoe on 56K). Once you have registered a product, you can then make back ups, you can set steam to play off line (google it). If you think you might want to trade/ebay then I suggest you start a new accoutn for each steam game you buy (not that hard). All in all, Steam is a decent system. I am a loyal valve fanboy and thus don't try t opirate their stuff, and thus have never had any problems.
  
  --
  Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
3. Re:Can someone explain Steam to me? by grumbel · 2006-09-01 08:19 · Score: 1
  
  Can someone explain Steam to me?
  
  Think of it as something like an apt-get for games, just with some added stuff for copy-protection and payment.
4. Re:Can someone explain Steam to me? by JimmehAH · 2006-09-01 09:01 · Score: 1
  
  What if you don't have net access when you want to play?
  
  Provided you've logged in once and set Steam to log you in automatically, you can play single player games (and maybe LAN, I'm not sure) offline.
Fun with latin by Alzheimers · 2006-09-01 06:18 · Score: 1

Vidi, Vici, Veni.
1. Re:Fun with latin by Edward+Teach · 2006-09-01 07:47 · Score: 1
  
  More commonly said as "Veni, vidi, vici". (note: Latin typically does not use much punctuation and in most cases it does not matter what order in which you put the words; however, "it sounds better this way" and, of course, it is the way Ceasar said it.)
  
  Message sent to the Roman Senate by Gaius Julius Cesar about his victory in the Battle of Zela. "I came, I saw, I conquered"
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veni,_vidi,_vici
  
  --
  
  Setting his threshold to 5, Sparky eliminated most of the trolls on /.
2. Re:Fun with latin by wed128 · 2006-09-01 08:32 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  I think the joke went over your head. He reorded it to "I saw, i conquered, i came". A little innuendo there.
3. Re:Fun with latin by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-01 09:09 · Score: 0
  
  hi, you missed the joke, kthx bye
4. Re:Fun with latin by Edward+Teach · 2006-09-01 10:41 · Score: 1
  
  Whoosh. Yep, right over.
  
  --
  
  Setting his threshold to 5, Sparky eliminated most of the trolls on /.
Even non-Latin Students can translate this: by fujiman · 2006-09-01 06:23 · Score: 2, Funny

Osibili si ergo
fortibuses in ero
Nobili demis trux
Vatis enim?
Covsendux!
That was on my 8th grade Latin exam. ;)
1. Re:Even non-Latin Students can translate this: by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-01 09:44 · Score: 0
  
  Gesumheit!
The answer is.... by fujiman · 2006-09-01 06:26 · Score: 3, Informative

Oh see, Billy! See 'er go! Forty busses in a row
No, Billy, them is trucks
What is in 'em?
Cows and Ducks!
Assassin's everywhere! by MojoBox · 2006-09-01 06:40 · Score: 1, Insightful

Assassin's Creed coming to Xbox 360? There goes my only interest in PS3. Assassin's Creed coming to PC? There goes my only interest in Xbox 360. *hugs PC*
1. Re:Assassin's everywhere! by killmenow · 2006-09-01 06:55 · Score: 1
  
  Indeed. I've seen nothing compelling to make me interested in a 360. And now the only compelling game left (thus far) for PS3 is Heavenly Sword. If that'll be available for PC also, I look forward to sticking w/ my plan to purchase a Wii and keep the PS360 market away from my wallet.
2. Re:Assassin's everywhere! by Kazzahdrane · 2006-09-01 18:26 · Score: 1
  
  Indeed - recently I've been thinking about picking up a 360 after new year but it would only be for exclusives and Assassin's Creed on the PC should keep me happy. However, MS will at least get some money from me as when the game comes out I plan to buy a wired 360 pad to play it on my PC.
GAH!!! [pulls out hair] by bersl2 · 2006-09-01 07:16 · Score: 1

It's "Dog eats dog"!
1. Re:GAH!!! [pulls out hair] by Edward+Teach · 2006-09-01 07:54 · Score: 1
  
  Illegitimi Non Carborundum.
  
  --
  
  Setting his threshold to 5, Sparky eliminated most of the trolls on /.
This is clearly wrong, by Trails · 2006-09-01 07:18 · Score: 1

Because the internet is not a Truck...
Well I sure can't... by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-01 08:31 · Score: 0

So what does it mean then?
Dark Messiah's combat... by DittoBox · 2006-09-01 08:37 · Score: 1

...Is exactly what oblivion's combat should've been. That's some awesome video.

--
Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick Two.
OT: Translation Request by The+Angry+Mick · 2006-09-01 08:44 · Score: 1

Anybody know the Latin equivalent of:
All your base are belong to us
?
I have a "Geek of Week" certificate that I use to try and get our staff interested in learning more about their computers. I thought the Latin would be a cute motto to have use in an "official looking" seal.

--
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
1. Re:OT: Translation Request by WilliamSChips · 2006-09-01 08:51 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  In deliberately incorrect Latin, Omne tuum castrum sunt insunt nobis. In correct Latin, Omnia tua castra insunt nobis.
  
  --
  Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
2. Re:OT: Translation Request by The+Angry+Mick · 2006-09-01 09:31 · Score: 1
  
  In deliberately incorrect Latin, Omne tuum castrum sunt insunt nobis.
  
  Thanks a bunch, William! It was the incorrectness of the grammar that was stumping me - I wanted it to be just as bad in Latin as it is in English ;-).
  
  --
  I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
It's the tubes by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-01 08:56 · Score: 0

The trucks go in the tubes . . .
How unfortunate. by Fallingcow · 2006-09-01 09:42 · Score: 2, Interesting

I've been hoping that no other companies would start using Steam. I decided to give them a chance, and didn't jump on the "it's DRMed to hell and you don't really own the game" bandwagon (though I see where they're coming from). I bought HL2. It's fun, and so is Counterstrike:Source, but dicking with Steam is WAY too much work for something that I just want to play every now and then. I occasionally want to play a round or two of CS:S, but since my last format+reinstall, I've just not cared enough about it enough to install Steam. I *know* that, if I could just pop in a CD and install it, I'd have done so months ago, and gotten hours of playing in. Knowing that, I'm beginning to realize how much of the value of a game Steam destroys.

I've been eyeing those HL2:Episode 1 boxes at the store, and I'd kind of like to play it. The reason I haven't picked one up and taken it through the checkout? Steam. I don't want to install it again. It's just too damn annoying. I don't know how many other people feel this way, but I'd bet that they've lost a fairly large number of sales--people like me, who'd pick up the game and buy it at the store, don't do it, because Steam makes it feel like the process of purchasing their product is continuous and never-ending, rather than being a 5-minute wait in line at the store that you never have to worry about again. Maybe they're still making more money this way, selling through Steam, in spite of this kind of thing. I don't know, but I hope they're not.

I like the ability to get some mods through Steam. That's about the only thing I've seen in it that I like, but a similar system could be made without most of the other crap, and without making it a requirement to play the game at all.

I fear that, if Steam takes off, it'll offset all of the great things about PC gaming. That may force me to go 100% console. What a dark, dark day that will be. :(

(Not hating on consoles, I like them, but almost all of my top 20 or so gaming experiences have been on the PC, and many would likely not have been possible or not been as great on a console, for a number of reasons)
1. Re:How unfortunate. by AlexMax2742 · 2006-09-02 06:44 · Score: 1
  Wow, sounds like you haven't bothered with steam since the, admitedly rocky, HL2 launch. From a fresh format, this is what I have to "go through" in order to install Half Life 2.
  
  Download Steam. It's less than a meg to download
  
  Wait for it to update. It takes 30 seconds or so on a broadband connection
  
  Look on my games list for the game I want to install and double click on it.
  
  This is really the longest part of the process, where it has to download and install the entire game, and admitedly it does take longer than installing from a CD. However, I just leave Steam open in the background and do other things. Or leave it on overnight and have it install all my games at once. The thing is that nowhere did I have to deal with finding my CD's or fucking with computer-destroying copy protection. I can install and access my games from ANYWHERE, and it's all in one nice self-contained system. It's also led to a few impulse purchases that I would have never considered otherwise, such as Darwinina.
  Try it again. You'll be surprised by how much nicer its gotten.
  --
  I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
2. Re:How unfortunate. by The+Evil+Couch · 2006-09-02 07:09 · Score: 1
  
  I agree. Steam used to be a piece of crap, but has come a LONG way. I recently reinstalled CS:S and DoD:S. I think I averaged around 800KB/s (note the big B) downloading both of them. IIRC, it took about an hour to install both of them. Not quite as fast as installing with a CD, but certainly faster than hopping in the car, driving to and from the nearest game shop and installing it. Plus, it enables me to avoid that scary fireball in the sky.
  
  --
  The World's Worst Webcomic!
3. Re:How unfortunate. by Dark_MadMax666 · 2006-09-04 16:34 · Score: 1
  
  Wow what a bunch of BS and black PR. I bought HL2 at release (and I mainly bought it for CS:S) since then I reinstalled half a dozen times, changed hardware 3 times, changed many hard drives . And never ever I had to reinstall anything. Thats right - on a freshly installed Windows it all took 5 seconds to drage steam icon to desktop in 10 seconds later I could play (provided my games were up to date -case not it took all 2-3 minutes to get updates for last half a year) .
  
  Steam is not perfect,and it hade some major problems at inception - true. Also I don't think Valve did any good job with HL2/CS:S and updates .But that has nothing to do with their delivery system - last 3 years it was working flawlessly for me. Bought couple of other games trough it and will buy Defcon when it comes out -all good experience.
  But I start seriously thinking that all black PR about steam is done by major publishers and retailers ,to curb spread of electronic distributions .Cause they know that will be death of them and their parasitic industry (retail/publishing thats it)
4. Re:How unfortunate. by Fallingcow · 2006-09-04 19:12 · Score: 1
  
  Meh, that was just my experience with it.
  
  I think the worst part was, as I said, the feeling of being in the checkout line never ends. It feels like I am forever in the process of buying the game, even when it's already been paid for. It's bizarre, and not something I've ever experienced before. I definately don't like it.
5. Re:How unfortunate. by Dark_MadMax666 · 2006-09-05 06:46 · Score: 1
  
  I dont get why you get this feeling. -yes it checks your account login/password, but it never asks you to pay for games you already bought. If anything I like this system because I will never have to worry about media for games on steam - I can always redownload them at no fee and no questions asked. And you can play offline just fine ( when I had trouble with my provider I still could play all games no problem).
  
  I mean I can understand that related to some crap activation system (cough..cough.. windows "genuine advantage") -but steam never ever asked me anything except login/pwd .
6. Re:How unfortunate. by Fallingcow · 2006-09-05 07:30 · Score: 1
  
  It seemed like I could never just *play the game* without making sure that Steam was appeased first. It's gotta check for updates or whatever, then probably download something and install it (I didn't play much after the first few weeks, when I'd finished playing through HL2 twice), and if I cancel it then it'll probably complain and refuse to let me play any games offline 'till I let it finish (and start the updating again if I plug the ethernet cable back in).
  
  Of course, I didn't leave it on all the time, I'd close Steam when I wasn't playing HL2 or CS:S, because I don't like having things in my systray that I'm not using. Maybe if I'd left it up 24/7, it would have had its updating taken care of when I wanted to play. *shrug*
7. Re:How unfortunate. by Dark_MadMax666 · 2006-09-05 07:53 · Score: 1
  
  How it is different from anything else? If anything automatic update checking is a boon .Example -BF2 ,after a long break I want to play it ,but I cant ,because I didnt patch to the latest version. Now I have to manually find the patch ,download it ,install and then find no -cd crack (if its available) -since it will ask me for CD which is long time gone. -Thats a hassle. Steam on the other hand updates everything automatically in less than 5 minutes (usually) and never asks me for CD and I never have a headache of keeping it up to date manually and looking for no-cd patches.
  
  Now if you happen to not have internet connection and want play a game it works just fine (just select offline mode). Steam does not need to be updated if you play offline only ( I played for few days with half a year old steam/games with no prob- I only played single player mode and with bots).
  
  I mean seriously getting patches manually and looking for nocds(or worse- looking for media for 5 year old game) is a lot worse option than steam.Does steam require you to update? -no. Does it require media ? -no. Can it keep everything up to date at your discretion? -yes (you can set to update manually or automatically). Is steam in the tray required for anything except when playing? -NO. There is no single argument against steam in comparison to CDs .
8. Re:How unfortunate. by Fallingcow · 2006-09-05 08:10 · Score: 1
  
  Auto-updating: good for multiplayer games.
  
  Bad for single-player games.
  
  Look, I didn't even realize I hated Steam as much as I do until I was at the store, saw HL2:EP1 on the shelf, and caught myself thinking, "hm, that's probably fun, maybe I should buy it... but wait, then I'd have to install Steam again, and that blows so much that I'm not going to buy this game."
  
  Then, "whoa, I had no idea that I disliked Steam that much. Weird."
Steam is a great idea. by Anonymous Coward · 2006-09-01 11:29 · Score: 0

I have never had any problems that anyone has reported with Steam. For me, the system has been more or less 100% flawless for as long as I've been using it (I have a high six-digit account #.. so not right from the start, but for pretty long). The only people I have ever heard complaining about Steam were guys over IRC, the kind who complain that Steam sucks because *gasp* they actually have to pay for the game to be able to play it. I think that the idea of distributing games over such a system as Steam is going to be the future of the industry and I wholly welcome it.

That's not to say that I like everything about it -- for example, they could charge less for their games than retail (IIRC, I saw HL2 box at Target today for $40.. on Steam, I believe it was listed for $50 the last time I checked; this was a while back though). Of course their excuse is that their publisher mandated that they keep the price the same... but I think that Valve doesn't distribute through Vivendi anymore (is this right?) so in the future things may be different.
Double GAH!!! [pulls out more hair] by bersl2 · 2006-09-01 12:23 · Score: 1

That's not even correct Latin! It should be "Ne spurii te commolant", or something like that.
1. Re:Double GAH!!! [pulls out more hair] by Edward+Teach · 2006-09-01 13:16 · Score: 1
  
  I know. It is mock latin. I figure if an "s" made you pull out your hair, that phrase would send you over the edge. The real phrase should be "Noli nothis permittere te terere." Wikipedia Article
  
  --
  
  Setting his threshold to 5, Sparky eliminated most of the trolls on /.
2. Re:Double GAH!!! [pulls out more hair] by bersl2 · 2006-09-01 18:58 · Score: 1
  
  Noli nothis permittere te terere works too, I suppose. As with any translation, it's not 1:1. I like my selection of "commolo" over "tero", but I see the merits of using the imperative over the subjunctive.
  
  Latin on the Internets: Serious Business. :)
The irony... by LordEd · 2006-09-01 17:56 · Score: 2, Funny

Rockstar has renamed its Bully game due to bullying from the public.