Messages

76

General Gaming / Re: If you could only play one genre

« on: February 07, 2013, 10:06:18 PM »

There are arguments to be made either way. At least in games with developer-provided mod tools and SDKs, you could say the game was designed by the developer to allow for those experiences, and therefore they should be included. It raises the question of at what point the game ceases to be made by the developer.

Starcraft 2 is like that.  In fact, there is an entire section for fan made maps and games inside SC2 itself.  It's technically part of the game even though the final product you play wasn't all created directly by the developers.

More and more games are going that route. The Steam Workshop, for example, has opened up a lot of mods to more casual players as well. I'm not entirely in favor of the move, but it does have its merits.

77

General Gaming / Re: If you could only play one genre

« on: February 07, 2013, 02:52:49 PM »

Or you could view it as a company relying on its fan to do the creative work for them instead of coming up with their own ideas.

You could, but then you'd be wrong.

Nothing extends the lifespan of a game better than a well supported fan community. Most of the games that I end up playing past the intended 20-40 hours are designed specifically to allow community interaction. I still routinely load up Quake III Arena because of one mod and a slew of custom maps. The tools are already there, so why not clean them up a bit and release them to the public? Short term profits may suffer since you won't be able to milk people for DLC and yearly sequels, but long term sales will be steady, if not exponential. If you're really lucky, someone will make Day Z for your game, allowing it to sell more than it ever did on its own.

78

General Gaming / Re: If you could only play one genre

« on: February 06, 2013, 10:30:34 PM »

Alien Swarm started as Unreal (3?) mod.

Dota2 is it's own thing.

Aliena Swarm was an Unreal Tournamnet 2004 mod originally. It was completely reworked for the Source engine and released by Valve a few years back. For that matter, DotA started out as a Warcraft III mod. Team Fortress was a Quake mode, Counter-Strike was a Half-Life mod, etc. Valve has a good eye when it comes to cherry-picking the community. They seem to partner up with Tripwire Interactive as lot as well, who have made a career of pushing older Unreal Tournament 2004 mods into the retail space, such as Red Orchestra, Killing Floor, and The Ball. In an industry that is doing everything it can to kill its own fanfare in favor of DLC and micro-transactions, it's nice to see Valve take the stance it so often does.

79

Movies & TV / Re: New Movies/TV Shows we should keep an eye out for!

« on: February 06, 2013, 01:52:05 PM »

The problem with the Captain American film was that it didn't really go anywhere. It had a fun setup, but then was nothing but battle montages for the entire second half. It all felt pretty weak once Cap liberated that first base. It didn't help that the Red Skull was woefully underdeveloped, despite the maniacal joy that Hugo Weaving played him with.

Sadly, Cap was largely useless in the Avengers. He should be the moral center of the team, commanding leadership through respect. His powers pale in comparison to many of his teammates, and only appear worse off in the air-battles that ensued in the film. He ended up being about as useless as Black Widow and Hawkeye, despite being a much more important character.

Captain American, as a character, really excelled in the Civil War arc. The scaled down, guerrilla tactics allowed his super soldier powers to shine. Likewise, his attributes as an honorable and respectable leader came through when given the chance to fight against a truly evil and tyrannical force: the American government.

80

General Gaming / Re: If you could only play one genre

« on: February 06, 2013, 01:47:03 PM »

I could probably go for quite a while on just Valve titles, actually.

81

Movies & TV / Re: New Movies/TV Shows we should keep an eye out for!

« on: February 05, 2013, 02:33:56 PM »

Hm, I really like the idea of Planet Hulk leading into a World War Hulk inspired Avengers film. I can't say I'm really all that thrilled about Ant Man (and Wasp) being seriously pursued though. I'd much rather see Doctor Strange, Vision, or the Scarlet Witch. There are others characters that I'd personally love to see, but I think their stories would be difficult to work around, like: Namor, Black Panther, and Luke Cage.

82

General Gaming / Re: Who is in New York and wants to do be a BIG BIG favor? :D

« on: February 05, 2013, 02:25:38 PM »

Can't view, FakeBook account required.

83

General Gaming / Re: If you could only play one genre

« on: February 05, 2013, 02:24:54 PM »

Minecraft is all the "genre" I need.

84

Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: February 01, 2013, 12:58:27 PM »

Patrick Stewart a better Mister Freeze

Yes!

85

General Gaming / Re: What is your most recent gaming purchase?

« on: January 31, 2013, 11:01:04 PM »

Just picked up the second edition of Pandemic as well as Small World with a gift card I had.

Pandemic is the same great game as it has always been. It's just a little nicer looking now. I can't wait for the second edition of "On the Brink" to come out, as well as the all-new "In the Lab" expansion.

Small World hasn't really grabbed me yet. It doesn't seem to involve very many meaningful decisions. It plays a lot like Risk, but without all of the neat plastic figures. I'll withhold final judgement until I have a few more play-throughs under my belt.

86

NWR Forums Discord / Re: Morari, you're my forever girl

« on: January 29, 2013, 12:17:21 PM »

Don't you feel the same for me?

I am also my favorite girl! You're pretty nice yourself, though.

87

General Chat / Re: What NWR Member Do You Want To Meet?

« on: January 28, 2013, 01:40:21 PM »

We need to set a date, Oblivion. A light dinner, a movie, and maybe a few drinks?

88

Movies & TV / Re: Disney buying Lucasfilm, Star Wars 7 in 2015

« on: January 25, 2013, 12:32:07 PM »

Abrams is a terrible director. He'd be great for Star Wars though. Mystical double-speak, meaningless action, no real characters or plot. He's already tried his hardest to pervert Star Trek into exactly what Star Wars already is. Maybe he'll leave real science fiction to the professionals and we can actually have that Worf spin-off that Michael Dorn has been talking about.

89

NWR Forums Discord / Re: Geesh, I'm so ******* old...

« on: January 14, 2013, 12:34:08 PM »

I remember how a computer with a CD drive was something special.

A computer with a CD drive is still pretty rare.

90

General Gaming / Re: What's Your Top Five Most Played Games of 2012?

« on: January 11, 2013, 12:11:46 AM »

Hmm...

1. Minecraft - Probably around 200-300 hours in 2012 alone.
2. Team Fortress 2 - 150 hours.
3. Skyrim - 80 Hours, perhaps more now that I have the DLC and some refreshing mods.
4. Payday: The Heist - 40 hours, give or take.
5. Killing Floor - 30 hours, mostly spent unlocking stuff during the holiday events and getting my last few perks up to level six.
6. Saints Row: The Third - 20 hours, though more to come now that I have all of the DLC to toy around with in co-op.

A lot of these are estimates. I have no real way of tallying Minecraft's playtime outside of averaging my daily/weekly excursions. Likewise, the other games have some playtime logged through Steam, but I often play in Offline Mode so the stats aren't quite right.

91

Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: January 08, 2013, 10:23:01 PM »

Predictable? Absolutely not.

I called both of the "twists" at the end before the first act of the film was even over. It was about as predictable as one can get. Besides, the suspension of disbelief required to watch the film was far too much. I don't expect films to be super realistic, but I do go in assuming that they'll at least adhere to some kind of logic.

92

Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: January 07, 2013, 08:24:10 PM »

The Grey was the worst film I've watched in a long time. It was self absorbed, predictable, and so far outside of the realm of possibility that it was hard to do anything but laugh. Not a single one of the characters was even likable.

93

General Chat / Re: What's with all this "PC versus Smartphone" talk?

« on: January 03, 2013, 12:51:12 PM »

The general public are consumers. They don't want to have to think, so things like tablets are fine for them. They want these walled gardens where all they can do is consume media. They want glorified televisions, existing solely to feed them mediocre content... for a price. The creatives of the world will still utilize actual desktops with real operating systems and true freedom. This isn't just about low-level office productivity either. We're talking all graphic design, video editing, programming, sound mixing, etc.

It's conceivable that some people may forgo traditional computers in favor of their iToys. But really, they're still going to need at least a dock. Research and word processing is pretty painful without a decent sized screen and keyboard. At which point, you're just using a stripped-down, locked-up, gimmicky version of what everyone else is.

If all you ever do is consumer content, then go buy and use your tablets.
If you actually want to create content, then stick with a real computer.
That won't be changing any time soon, if ever.

94

General Chat / Re: What would you do with the Simpsons?

« on: January 03, 2013, 12:43:01 PM »

Popularity = Quality

95

Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: December 31, 2012, 10:49:04 PM »

As for the film itself, oh dear dear dear. Peter Jackson needs people to say no to him sometimes. Many parts were very good but I am sour on the whole product as it hangs together. Yes, too long, to many meaningless, low staes battles. And, Radagast the Brown? Oh my. Just awful.

So it was just like the previous three films? Boring and pointless. Sounds like the fans are getting what they wanted!

96

General Chat / Re: What would you do with the Simpsons?

« on: December 31, 2012, 10:48:04 PM »

Bring back Daria.

97

General Gaming / Re: What is your most recent gaming purchase?

« on: December 29, 2012, 10:55:35 PM »

I picked up Painkiller: Hell and Damnation the other day on Steam, during a Flash Sale for 50% off. I also had a coupon from Alienware for an additional 50% off. The coupon can be acquired here if interested. You have to sign up for an Alienware account, but don't actually have to be dumb enough to own an Alienware.

Anyway... the game is pretty awesome so far. Plot wise, it is a continuation of the previous Painkiller games. It returns us to the original protagonist though, seemingly avoiding many references to any others that have since followed. The odd thing is while this may be a sequel plot-wise, it's a reimagining of the first game (and it's expansion pack) as far as the levels are concerned. Not all of the levels from the original game make an appearance, but most of the truly standout locals do.

What's more, the game feels great. It's fast, it has perfect strafe-jumping physics, the weapons are insanely powerful and over the top. It's what Painkiller has always been. It's almost sad that not having a weapon limit, regenerating health, iron sights, and a bunch of bland weapons are features. There's a reason the original Painkiller was a favorite among professional cyber athletes. Aside from Quake, it doesn't get too much more hardcore.

98

Movies & TV / Re: New Movies/TV Shows we should keep an eye out for!

« on: December 16, 2012, 11:04:19 PM »

Looks to be a prequel to the original film. I'm not too familiar with the book series though, so I'm not sure if it's a further adaptation of one of those or not.

99

Movies & TV / Re: New Movies/TV Shows we should keep an eye out for!

« on: December 16, 2012, 05:55:41 PM »

Well, at least the Iron Man 3 trailer looked alright. Everything else looks to be utter garbage... or strangely ambiguous, like Superman.

100

Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: December 15, 2012, 04:03:19 PM »

Don't forget to watch Open Your Eyes, the Spanish film that Vanilla Sky was based on. It even shares some of the same cast.