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SotSS

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Posts posted by SotSS

  1. For games like online FPS', just let people host and moderate their own servers. Some people/clans might abuse their mod powers and ban people unjustly, sure, but going all the way back to Tribes in '99, I've never played a game with dedicated servers and mods where it wasn't a piece of cake to find at least a couple of servers with good mods who would keep the morons out and let everyone else play.

    In a game like DotA where there aren't really "servers" but individual game sessions, game replays can used to prove that someone is, say, team-killing, or doing other less-than-desirable behavior. Add in the ability to record audio for those times when someone is constantly shouting racial slurs, and give the ability to copy chat logs, and you can take all this information to the forums or send it to mods and there you have proof that player YooABitch is a dickwad.

  2. Every bad experience I've ever had in an online game that I can remember in some amount of detail involved someone over the age of 20.

    On the flip side, my friend's younger brother and his friends all started playing online regularly on the Xbox 360 around 12 and they're all good team players who don't "teabag" or talk shit on the mic.

    Based on this, I really can't say that I care about their age; I simply observe and base my opinions entirely on their actions. Adults are no different.

  3. I feel somewhat inclined to point out that this sounds like every other "I'm completely and totally innocent in every way and they just pushed me around and did mean and nasty shit because they're evil so I want some money" lawsuits, and how a not-so-insignificant portion of those turn out to be either partially or completely bullshit with the perfectly-innocent being exposed as lying sacks of horse vomit... but fuck, this is Activision. It's probably true.

    The bastards.

  4. A better example might be FF13 itself though - while it returned to a more traditional battle system, it changed up exploration and game progression, and as a result its sales AND fan reception are both suffering.

    Seems like a pretty consistent message from many fans; try to change and we'll reject it.

    With a lot of games that try to be "innovative" and fail, the complaints I've seen aren't merely "they changed things; boooooo." Usually there are specific criticism regarding the nature of the changes and why they're aren't good. A few examples from gamefaqs regarding the Gambit system in FF13, for example:

    First of all, they did away with the random encounters and separate battle scenes a la Final Fantasy XI. While this works in a situation where you only control one character, trying to control three fundamentally breaks the battle system in XII. There is simply too much control required in the game to make the battle system work. In boss battles where there is a lot of damage being dealt and status effects thrown around often, you need to be able to control all three characters. There are two ways of doing this. A) Put the game on wait mode so it pauses whenever you're in a menu and manually control each character; this method is agonizingly slow. B) Use the gambit system, which is broken in and of itself.

    The gambit system is the answer to having to manually control each character in a real-time situation. It allows you to set conditions and reactions for each character. For instance, you can set a certain character to cast Cure if any party member's health falls below a certain percentage. While a decent theory on paper, it breaks down in practice. First of all, you have a maximum of about ten or so gambit slots, most of which you have to purchase off the license board (a whole other story) before they are available. This becomes a problem when you try and have one character do all your healing. You simply don't have enough gambit slots to set up all the healing and status-curing gambits you need, thus forcing you to manually control characters anyway.

    At first, I had lots of fun. I like the old turn-based, but I was totally open to a new way. Final Fantasy is all about experimenting with new battle systems and ways to level up, and if you have been playing for any number of years you get used to the changes. The real-time in 12 was much more enjoyable than, say, in the chaotic X-2, where so much is happening you can barely think straight. But soon, cracks start to show in the system, and first being Gambits. As others have mentioned here, Gambits set up an AI that's too simplistic. For instance, I can set it up that Penelo always "Steal" as her first move. But I can't stop her from not stealing if the enemy has been shown to possess nothing, nor can I have her only Steal once. She will continue to Steal until I tell her not to.
    And examples like this are all over. They aren't complaining simply because it's different and being different is bad, but because they believe the system has some real flaws. You may or may not agree with those criticisms, of course, but the point is that there is much more than "the combat is different from FF7; waaah waah" or some such, and I've seen this with a lot of "innovative" games; the complaints are often not simply "it's different, therefore it isn't good" but more specific criticisms and comments regarding what doesn't work and, often, what works well/what would make the system better (which doesn't send the message of "difference = bad" but "this new system is broken/horribly flawed; fix some of these problems and we'll embrace these changes with open arms.")
  5. Aside from a few problems like long wait times to get into a multiplayer game and some lag, I thought the demo was pretty fun. The full game would have to fuck something up bad to make me not get it.

    Also, aside from Pulse Rifle awesomeness, the Alien insta-kill moves are sweeeeeet. Makes playing them a lot more enjoyable.

  6. It's a new game made with the same engine as Fallout 3.

    Well that sucks. I hate the Gamebryo engine, or at least Bethesda's version of it. CTD's, stuttering, memory leaks; bleh.

    And I hope to god that the crappy animations of Morrowind/Oblivion/Fallout 3 will be a thing of the past with NV.

  7. Well, I've been playing like crazy most the day. Awesome, awesome game, but the community from what I've seen so far blows large, herpes-infested donkey cock.

    I've played nothing but non-ranked games with titles like "noobs only, low psr" etc. and I've encountered more people who bitch about the tiniest little mistakes and rage quit the moment someone does something they think isn't the single greatest thing they could have possibly done in a given situation than there are atoms in the universe.

  8. Arsis - Sightless Wisdom

    Autumn Leaves - The Discovery

    Eternal Lies - By the Hands of the Architect

    Shadow - Wings of Flame

    Slumber - Rapture

    Bal-Sagoth - Shackled to the Trilithon of Kutulu

    Be'lakor - Venator

    Dark Tranquillity - Lost to Apathy

    Detonation - Invoking The Impact

    Eucharist - Mirrorworld

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv7NGXvFlwY&feature=related

    Fragments of Unbecoming - Sterling Black Icon

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPNwVb4IpUo&feature=related

    Garden Of Shadows - Shards Of The Sphere

    Insomnium - Down With the Sun

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K003TNG40P8

    Kalmah - Heroes To Us

    Mors Principium Est - Finality

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1t7IX7GalQ

    Ne Obliviscaris - Tapestry Of The Starless Abstract

    Scar Symmetry - Morphogenesis

    Skyfire - Tranquillitys Maze

    The Absence - Riders Of The Plague

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQCyQ7MAZ-c

    Ikuinen Kaamos - Closure

    I think that's enough for now.

  9. I don't get the whole "people complaining that they couldn't find a decent server to play on between all of the cheaters, the insular communities, and huge skill level disparities that the original game's community fractured into" thing.

    Here's how my experience has been with every FPS I've ever played online going back to Tribes in '99 (and note that I've never, EVER been a part of any clan or group of any sort; I've always been just a "join a server and play until I'm bored/need to quit for whatever reason" kind of player): I browse the server list, join a server with low ping and a good population of players, and I join it.

    Roughly 90% of the time that's it: I join, play and have fun. The other 10% of the time is comprised of 1.) me being kicked to make room for a clan member while on a clan hosted server, which I accept and move on to another server which takes me around five seconds to do, 2.) dealing with a cheater/griefer, which usually lasts somewhere around thirty seconds before he is banned (and if he isn't and the cheating becomes a real problem, the 'ol "leave and join another server in less than five seconds" thing comes back into play), or 3.) I discover that the server is full of douche bags, where my old friend "find another server in less than five seconds" comes to visit me yet again.

    COD4 is one of the few multiplayer FPS' I've actually not played save for a few rounds on the 360 at a friends house, so the whole cheaters/insular communities/clans thing could have been a big problem with that game, but I'm inclined to believe that it was more or less unique to COD4 for whatever reason, or else I've just had shittastically good luck.

  10. This is bullcrap. I spent good money on the first game and got so little in return, and now I have to pay with my time and bandwidth just to get something that should have been in the game the whole time? Wtf Valve?

    Gripe. Gripe complain. Whine. Long rant on how money grubbing Valve is. Whine some more.

    I'm going to sign that petition that no one cares about. That'll show 'em.

  11. Awesome. I've been playing this game off and on for the last year or so and it has yet to get old.

    My username is "(V)arine" (I made my account years ago and apparently I thought "(V)arine" was cool at the time... what an idiot I was) and I'll be easily recognizable as either the crazy light armored guy who skis around annoying people with the ELF/Shocklance/Whiteout Grenade combo or the heavily armored guy mortaring your base from 500 miles away with deadly accuracy.

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