Vivi22

I haven't taken a close enough look at their financial reports to know how well they may or may not be doing based on them. It's always possible that the 12 month loss was largely due to the down turn in the economy and things may have trended back up for them in the last few months. But as far as why a company would trumpet high revenues while they are actually struggling, safe bet is always on them trying to spin things for investors. Not that it would necessarily work (in fact, it probably wouldn't), but when things are going wrong executives like to try and point out the things that are going right. Their jobs tend to depend on it after all.

Net revenue isn't profit. And I'm not even going to touch a non-GAAP number because they can pretty much calculate that however they want to. Looking at their actual GAAP financial results that they posted as of March 31, they had a profit of only $50 million for the three months ended (not a lot for a company their size) and a loss of $677 million for the 12 months ended March 31. Cash flow was better for those three months, but was also negative for the 12 month period (though there are some big, and presumably, one time things included in that). Now it's all unaudited so grain of salt, and they may not be doing terribly in terms of cash flow, but they didn't make a profit in the last 12 months. And don't throw out a single number like net revenue and imply that everything is necessarily peachy for any company. $1 billion in net revenue wouldn't mean much if your company has another $2 billion in expenses that isn't included in that number, and is bleeding cash.

Where did you get $70 from (unless this is some crack about Gamestop selling used new releases for about $5 less than a new copy)? The online pass is included when you buy the games new. Personally I hate this on the one hand, but agree with supporting developers on the other (anytime the used copy is only $5-10 cheaper than a new copy I'll spend the extra money).

I wasn't trying to say you were. I was simply saying that explaining it in the story doesn't make it okay. I actually have seen people try to excuse it that way which is why I wanted to make the distinction and my thoughts on it clear. I can't speak for Square specifically in this case, but the usual situation in the industry is the other way around. The game will be largely designed or at least have a pretty solid direction before the writer even comes on board. I'm not saying that's definitely the case here, but I would not be surprised in the least if they decided early on that the game wouldn't feature towns and other distractions; before the story was anywhere near finalized. Given that almost every FF ever made has undergone many (sometimes dramatic) story changes during development and the fact that they would need to have at least some idea of what they need the engine to do before they'd even get to the game, it's very possible gameplay design preceded story points here. Regardless, they could have easily written out the method of tracking the characters and altered the conditions in which the main characters are racing against the clock to fit with a more fleshed out world if they wanted to. I'd bet money the decision regarding gameplay came before the story explanations, though we'll never be sure either way. See above, I've seen numerous articles from game writers over the years who talk specifically about the fact that the story often comes last in development within the industry. That certainly flies in the face of the idea that that's not how things work with a lot of companies. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with them trying to break genre conventions. I'm not even trying to argue that a more fleshed out world would make sense in the context of the established story. I'm just saying that I feel they did linearity poorly. Whether they did it to support the plot or wrote the plot to support the design really isn't the issue despite this little back and forth about it.

They can explain it away with any kind of plot details they want, but a bad gameplay idea (or in this case an idea with no gameplay) is still a bad idea. They could have tweaked the story easily to fit a world with more substance and ways for the player to interact with it. Instead they went the other way by using the plot to justify an idea that sees the player having almost no interaction with the areas they visit. And it really is a case of having almost no interaction with the world of FFXIII. At least no meaningful interaction beyond running and fighting. Writing in plot elements to explain it doesn't excuse it.

There are FFXIII fanboys as hard as that is to believe. I must say though that I wouldn't even be so generous as to say that it had a great battle system or even a decent story. I felt the story spent literally the majority of the game with the characters utterly directionless and making decisions that made little real sense for their backstory and personality just so the writer could get the story to unfold the way they wanted. I also think it has the worst battle system, possibly in the history of the series. Character building was practically non-existent, which wouldn't necessarily be bad if the battle system were engaging and filled with strategy. Instead I flew through the game alternating between three paradigms and mashing auto-battle. The few times I had difficulty it was usually because I was hit by a one hit kill attack I couldn't anticipate and was prepared for when I redid the battle. A system that consists of me making the same three decisions over and over is pretty much devoid of strategy, and it's not even engaging since auto-battle does everything so well which means I'm not even racing against the clock to enter commands. I've never felt so bored by a battle system that tried so hard to convince me it was fast paced. I agree that there's nothing wrong with linearity as a design choice when it's done well. Unfortunately I didn't feel it was done well here at all. Aside from going into the menu to allocate CP there was pretty much nothing to do outside of battle except run along the path. The areas literally served no purpose beyond being story backdrops and moving the player from one battle to another and one cutscene to another. They were empty and sterile, and not the least bit engrossing. I didn't even really enjoy looking at them that much when I realized (quite quickly) that they served no purpose and most of it was little more than wallpaper. Even though most JRPG's are linear, they always provide something to do outside of battle when you're running around, moving from one town to the next, whether it's exploring dungeons for treasure or chatting up the locals in a new town. Or an even better example would be linear shooters like COD which supposedly were inspiration for FFXIII's linearity. Part of why linear levels aren't a bad thing in those games is that they not only let the developer control the pace and the action, but the levels themselves are a part of the gameplay, whether it's just providing the player cover, or ways to flank the enemy. I don't expect everyone to agree with me mind you, but that's pretty much how I felt about everything in this game. I would even go so far as to say it's the worst JRPG I've played in over a decade.

There weren't many times in Mario 64 that you would have absolutely had to play any level 5 times to move on to a different one though. But even if you weren't slightly exaggerating, those levels had so much to explore and so many secrets to find that I always felt it was worth replaying them over and over. I still love popping Mario 64 in the old N64 and playing through it again every few months now. Mario Galaxy wouldn't even let you decide that you didn't want to do a certain star and go off to this other corner of the level instead. It felt very constrained to me, and not at all like what made Mario 64 fun to begin with.

The levels in Galaxy were for the most part far too small. Then when they gave you larger levels, it tended to not really matter because you had to get the stars in the order they told you to, usually because parts of the levels weren't even accessible unless you did. A lot of the fun in Mario 64 was exploring the levels, and even stumbling on stars out of order. Very few levels in 64 required you get any stars in a specific order, whereas I felt like Galaxy was holding my hand for fear that I not be able to find something on my own. Toss in the boring suits (including that god awful spring suit), the occasional level that required the use of motion controls (which I hate), low difficulty curve and a terrible camera system and by the time I had gotten most of the stars in the game I realized I was playing hoping it would get better, not because I was actually enjoying it. And to pre-empt people on the camera thing; yes the pre-set camera angles worked most of the time, but I often found myself wanting to rotate it for a better angle on something and couldn't (and sometimes could somewhat but wouldn't try because Nintendo spent half the game telling me I couldn't control it), especially on the larger levels. The entire game was basically an exercise in frustration. I won't say Mario 64's camera was perfect (it's probably the worst thing about the game), but it worked well enough 99% of the time, and at least I could rotate the damn thing when needed.

Those tend to be the Superman stories I love as well. I like the character in general but I find so many writers have trouble writing him consistently well that I tend to stay away from the monthly stuff. I'm interested to see more on this but can't say I'm overly familiar with Bates work. It's probably colouring my opinion somewhat that the largest body of work he did was during an age of comics that I'm not overly fond of from a writing stand point (not that there weren't some great ideas back then, I just find it hard to get into the way things tended to be written back then). I won't be discounting it out of hand though since I think it's a cool idea and look forward to seeing how it goes. I may check out the reviews before I jump into this one, but it has potential.

Then I can still play Mario 64 and hear the original version of the song, which I still enjoy, despite not being a huge Kondo fan. His stuff suits Mario, but on it's own I don't care for it. But great music just makes for great music. If a game isn't fun to begin with then just buy the soundtrack. Either way though, I hated Mario Sunshine and Galaxy, so despite Nintendo's shameless attempt to make a grab for my sense of Mario 64 nostalgia (and pad the length of the game with as little effort as possible), I won't be touching this one. Maybe if someone I know eventually gets it and I can try it out, but my hopes are not high.

Yeah I did. So what? Since when does music make a platformer fun to play all on its own?

I'd rather just play Mario 64.

I was just making the point that everything requires less skill when you over simplify how to play a class.

I really do enjoy that the only measure of skill you recognize is the ability to point and shoot. I guess Spies who are able to get behind the enemy team and effectively backstab have no skill since they just have to disguise and W+M1. Anyway, I initially read that flare gun update as being for the flamethrower, as in it would crit from the middle to the end of it's range. I'm really glad I re-read that because good god that would be bad.

I wish it was just a medic + another class that can kill the Pyro at close range. I've actually been killed by backpedaling Medics that I ambushed who just managed to react quickly, and they don't go down because I can't damage them fast enough and the afterburn is pretty much useless. Medics really shouldn't be beating many classes 1 on 1, especially when they're taken by surprise. Now sure it doesn't happen all of the time, but it's often enough that there's something wrong. A Medic with a buddy should definitely have a shot, but their best option on their own should be running, not facing the Pyro down.

This pretty much though I haven't been enjoying it much. The Pyro should be first and foremost an ambush and close quarters class. They shouldn't be losing one on one with Medics and Spies and they sure as hell shouldn't be losing to them after managing to ambush them. And since when is it not cool to reward players for ambushing and flanking their opponents? It's not like it's that easy to do all of the time, and the Pyro didn't exactly win that often rushing headlong at most classes before, unless they were a particularly good compression blaster charging a soldier or something. I can see the argument about wanting the Pyro to reward skilled players more, but all people like atmuh are really saying is that flanking your enemy and getting in a position to maximize the damage you do is somehow not a skill. Bullshit. As is, I've probably killed more people with the airblast than by actually setting them on fire since the nerf. It's exceedingly rare that anyone dies from actually being hit by the flamethrower, even when I do completely get the drop on them. So by and large, the Pyro is now substantially less useful for the purpose he was originally designed.

FFIV's gameplay is still pretty brilliant as far as JRPG's go if you ask me. Plenty of strategy, and fairly challenging if you don't go out of your way to power level. Resident Evil on the other hand, well, how could you not think the gameplay aged terribly? The game didn't even have fucking auto-aim. I remember playing through the whole thing, after I had beaten RE2 no less, and I have no fucking clue how I kept from trying to decapitate myself with the CD.

Nope, I just hated the whole thing. It reeked of the writers having no idea what to do with them so let's just kill them for shock value. I'm sorry, but Jin staying with Sun when they have a daughter he's never seen was bull. I could see him not thinking of her and wanting to be with Sun since he was away from her for so long and never even saw his daughter, but her not even telling him to go live and get back to her was crap and lazy writing. God forbid they do the thing that makes sense because they'd have to devote some time to how Jin deals with his wife's death. Maybe if they didn't waste so much time getting going this season they could have given the characters the screen time they deserve.

Good news for my rocket launcher.

Like I said I could be wrong. Maybe I just think I've played more often than I really did since release. Could have sworn I've been averaging at least 4-5 hours a week more or less for the last two years, but I suppose once you're well over the 100 hours mark everything's long since started to run together.

Young whipper snapper? I've had the game since it came out. Mind you, my computer was crap so I stopped playing for months until I got my current one, and even then I can't play a lot, but still. Mind you, only about 51% of my 326 hours is actual playing time. Makes me wonder if it was tracking it properly all of these years, because I should have easily surpassed 150 hours in the last year alone and I've been playing regularly a lot longer than that. Could be wrong though.

Finally crafted my first Soldier hat today. Got myself a Tyrant's Helm. I would have preferred the Killer's Kabuto, but I'm not too bothered since I like pretty much all of the Soldier's hats and the Helm is a nice second for me.Now if only it hadn't taken weeks of idling pre-idle nerf and some waiting since to get one hat.

Of course they're broken. Still kind of cool though. I look forward to getting the gold once they're working.

Well, I don't think I'll be playing TF2 again until either Valve fixes engies being able to build a hundred sentries or people can be kicked/banned again. A half dozen sentries lumped in the pit on the third section of Dustbowl is a lot of things. Fun not being one of them.

Can't wait to grab a copy of Atomic Robo and the sweet FCBD Heroclix figure.