Sites like Gamespot have the user rankings and reviews to go along with the editorial reviews (which, compared to drivel sites like IGN are fantastic). I find it great to go through and read not only the glowing player reviews but also the downright slamming ones. On more than one occasion I've played a game where the minority of players said it sucked -- and found my thoughts right in line with theirs after trying it out. I'm not saying this is the way to go for all games, but it's good to read the negatives.
For editorial reviews, I head straight to Game Rankings or GameTab. They're great at showing all the editorials out there and averaging the scores. I usually find the averages are a more faithful indicator than the 100% fanboy review at the top of the pile.
I know, stupid question, but an honest one. I'm curious WHY 64-bit is so damn important, and I'm sure others still haven't clued in. Anyone care to post a nice explanation or links or something. Thanks.
Games like Unreal and Quake have me reloading my lasers once ever like 20 shots. This sucker can be tactically used for over 60 days before needing a new power cell. Man won't that be cool... our sixth future Gulf War in 2025 will look like that scene in Moonraker where the assault team from a space shuttle tries to take the station.
Heh, I agree there are lots of really good mods to download and play. The toolet has a hefty learning curve, that's for sure. My first few attempts were (lets not sugar coat it) pathetic. After playing around with the toolset and looking at some downloaded mods seeing what they've done, you can get pretty good at coming up with the basic framework of a fun adventure. Besides which, using the GM tools, if your map looks a little boring you can just ambush the party with a bunch of nasties.:)
Yes of course server vault's the better of the two, but at least if you run the server yourselves you're not at the mercy of some kiddie somewhere in the world who'll just pull the plug on the server and your characters disappear. That's about my only issue with online play.
Having played NWN to death on the Wintel platform, just a helpful hint to some. Playing multiplayer on public servers which allow client-side characters to be imported, I find, is utterly boring and pointless. It's WAY more fun to go old school and get you and a group of your buddies with the software together on your own server and play. For best results, obviously you'll want to come up with your own maps and adventures, something the packaged toolset is absofuckinglutely fantastic at doing.
The reason I speak out against these kinds of public servers is that, first and foremost, you'll be playing against the biggest most idiotic cheaters ever. That and nine times out of ten it's just the servers admin fucking around and killing everyone because he's made his character into a dragon. So play with your buddies, you'll have a more enjoyable experience and it's easier to track a cheater down and punch him in the face.
This is very true. Even if you're not a D&D type guy (and really, who on/. isn't), the game will eat away at all available free time you might have. Couple that with the near-infinite replayability of the thing and you've got something worth getting (even if you gotta buy the Windows CD for the data).
A quick check of the NWN modules section on Bioware's site shows over 2000 player created ones. Carry on then. I don't anticipate I will be seeing you around here much from now on.:)
No mention of which titles will be affected, but Arista is the home of Santana, Whitney Houston, Pink, TLC and Kenny G.
So like this is actually a GOOD thing for the music industry as a whole! The less exposure we give these primates the better. Protect it so much we can't even listen to it, I say.:)
If given the choice between playing on a managed server (overseen by said central authority) and an unmanaged one, MOST gamers would pick the first. Anyone who'd pick the second either just want to play private games with their buddies or aren't worth playing with at all.:)
*sigh* Not a car analogy. I'm just going to pretend you didn't go there at all.
Quite honestly if one of your employees wants to make it so nobody in your company can print it's easier to go over and unplug it. They have access to the printer, as well as other more sensitive areas of your network as well. I mean jeeze, they have LOGINS. Do they need to hack to cause problems? No.
I don't see that at all. I'm seeing them owning up to a shoddy product being shoddy, and suggesting people utilize one of the other layers of defense they should be utilizing. And in reality, if they were utilizing them effectively they wouldn't need to worry about this particular problem anyway.
I almost hesitate to draw a parallel, but look at XBox Live. There we have a system of centrally managing not only user information but problem user reporting. Maybe they weren't being innovative in their idea, but at least they implemented it. Might be a step in the right direction for gaming as a whole.
Ignoring all the anti-american bullshit in your message, I will agree with you that cheating indeed did utterly ruin Counter-strike. In my opinion though, it's only the really shitty skill-less players that cheat, not the good ones. There ARE good CS players out there, but it's hard to pick them out of the pack of cheating losers.
What happens if a program that's "approved" by them suddenly is the victim of an attack, backdoor, or other security issue? Can some blame then be put on MS for having stamped the big OK on the product?
Indeed, but it does it without you having to figure that out. THAT's where Windows' strength is. A total computer newbie can go out and buy a PC off a store shelf and use it within minutes of figuring out how to turn it on. Products can be shipped with five step instructions on installations, where each individual step isn't in reality a dozen smaller steps they assume you know already.
I'm not slagging Linux (at least I'm not TRYING to), I think it's awesome. But until it has that mass market appeal and usability, it'll never make gains in that sector. Remember, not everyone who uses a computer actually knows what they're doing.:)
It really makes me wonder what they were thinking at Apple back then, making the machines so expensive rather than trying to take over the market when they had such a lead. It boggles the mind.
I think you answered your own question with that one.:) They were out to make money, plain and simple. Sure they could have dominated, look at the mid 80's. At its core, the mid 80's was all about making it big as fast as you can. Nobody really had much in the way of long-term plans other than that.
I know of this issue, I've experienced it. It IS definitely retarded, but you know what? It's a single problem in a system that otherwise isn't as bad as the majority of/. users will have people believe. To be honest, the masses aren't ready for Linux yet. It's not as intuitive for the average user who goes to a store, buys a computer and uses it to surf the net. Sure they've made it easier to install and work with, but the second someone has to install a program and comes up with a dependency issue the question marks come bubbling up from their heads.
I really wish people could just get over the fact that each OS has its advantages and disadvantages and leave it at that. But you took it a few steps further, implying ignorance existed where in fact there was only a preference. There's a big difference.
Disclaimer: I'm no MS drone, even though I run Windows XP as my primary OS. I *have* run Linux and enjoyed it very much, but for what I use computers for (coding, gaming, etc), Windows was the better choice for me.
Backwards compatability, one of the main selling points on the PS2 when it came out. It lets you use the same design of slot used with the PS1 cards without needing to build in a second slot type for a second card type. I can't see how it would increase the cost per unit of the hardware dramatically to add a second slot type anyway, but that's the above is what I think their reasoning was.
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Vivendi Universal should just put itself up on EBay and let all interested parties duke it out in 10 dollar increments :)
For editorial reviews, I head straight to Game Rankings or GameTab. They're great at showing all the editorials out there and averaging the scores. I usually find the averages are a more faithful indicator than the 100% fanboy review at the top of the pile.
Just my 2c.
I know, stupid question, but an honest one. I'm curious WHY 64-bit is so damn important, and I'm sure others still haven't clued in. Anyone care to post a nice explanation or links or something. Thanks.
Not unless you can harness the power of the Q Continuum and move the cloud wherever you want.
Games like Unreal and Quake have me reloading my lasers once ever like 20 shots. This sucker can be tactically used for over 60 days before needing a new power cell. Man won't that be cool... our sixth future Gulf War in 2025 will look like that scene in Moonraker where the assault team from a space shuttle tries to take the station.
Heh, I agree there are lots of really good mods to download and play. The toolet has a hefty learning curve, that's for sure. My first few attempts were (lets not sugar coat it) pathetic. After playing around with the toolset and looking at some downloaded mods seeing what they've done, you can get pretty good at coming up with the basic framework of a fun adventure. Besides which, using the GM tools, if your map looks a little boring you can just ambush the party with a bunch of nasties. :)
Yes of course server vault's the better of the two, but at least if you run the server yourselves you're not at the mercy of some kiddie somewhere in the world who'll just pull the plug on the server and your characters disappear. That's about my only issue with online play.
The reason I speak out against these kinds of public servers is that, first and foremost, you'll be playing against the biggest most idiotic cheaters ever. That and nine times out of ten it's just the servers admin fucking around and killing everyone because he's made his character into a dragon. So play with your buddies, you'll have a more enjoyable experience and it's easier to track a cheater down and punch him in the face.
Just my 2 gp.
A quick check of the NWN modules section on Bioware's site shows over 2000 player created ones. Carry on then. I don't anticipate I will be seeing you around here much from now on. :)
Because if it was real there'd be like 2000 comments by now. :)
I dunno, I read that and my inner-reading-voice intoned as Comic Store Guy from Simpsons. :)
So like this is actually a GOOD thing for the music industry as a whole! The less exposure we give these primates the better. Protect it so much we can't even listen to it, I say. :)
If given the choice between playing on a managed server (overseen by said central authority) and an unmanaged one, MOST gamers would pick the first. Anyone who'd pick the second either just want to play private games with their buddies or aren't worth playing with at all. :)
Quite honestly if one of your employees wants to make it so nobody in your company can print it's easier to go over and unplug it. They have access to the printer, as well as other more sensitive areas of your network as well. I mean jeeze, they have LOGINS. Do they need to hack to cause problems? No.
I don't see that at all. I'm seeing them owning up to a shoddy product being shoddy, and suggesting people utilize one of the other layers of defense they should be utilizing. And in reality, if they were utilizing them effectively they wouldn't need to worry about this particular problem anyway.
I almost hesitate to draw a parallel, but look at XBox Live. There we have a system of centrally managing not only user information but problem user reporting. Maybe they weren't being innovative in their idea, but at least they implemented it. Might be a step in the right direction for gaming as a whole.
If there's an enterprise level customer out there that doesn't have a firewall blocking unnecessary ports anyway, then let them rot.
Ignoring all the anti-american bullshit in your message, I will agree with you that cheating indeed did utterly ruin Counter-strike. In my opinion though, it's only the really shitty skill-less players that cheat, not the good ones. There ARE good CS players out there, but it's hard to pick them out of the pack of cheating losers.
What happens if a program that's "approved" by them suddenly is the victim of an attack, backdoor, or other security issue? Can some blame then be put on MS for having stamped the big OK on the product?
Reminds me of Office Space, where they bring in the consultants to do firing, but "Remember! Friday is Hawaiian t-shirt day!"
I'm not slagging Linux (at least I'm not TRYING to), I think it's awesome. But until it has that mass market appeal and usability, it'll never make gains in that sector. Remember, not everyone who uses a computer actually knows what they're doing. :)
I think you answered your own question with that one. :) They were out to make money, plain and simple. Sure they could have dominated, look at the mid 80's. At its core, the mid 80's was all about making it big as fast as you can. Nobody really had much in the way of long-term plans other than that.
I really wish people could just get over the fact that each OS has its advantages and disadvantages and leave it at that. But you took it a few steps further, implying ignorance existed where in fact there was only a preference. There's a big difference.
Disclaimer: I'm no MS drone, even though I run Windows XP as my primary OS. I *have* run Linux and enjoyed it very much, but for what I use computers for (coding, gaming, etc), Windows was the better choice for me.
Backwards compatability, one of the main selling points on the PS2 when it came out. It lets you use the same design of slot used with the PS1 cards without needing to build in a second slot type for a second card type. I can't see how it would increase the cost per unit of the hardware dramatically to add a second slot type anyway, but that's the above is what I think their reasoning was.
Some people will do anything to get a backrub by Kirsten Dunst