Tridus

[quote who="greywar" reply="12" id="2893036"]And you think that the fanboy response here has helped SD or hurt it....? Hmmm... Perhaps the tone of the actual SD employee would serve as a guide? Naw... I am sure that Xia's response generated lots of goodwill from the OP and readers who might have some doubts.[/quote] Nothing really new there. I mean look at World of Warcraft. The single greatest argument against playing it is the behaviour of its biggest fa

[quote who="greywar" reply="101" id="2892658"] I'm honestly way more surprised with the A and B ratings than the D and F ones. There aren't very many and I was shocked that many of the "old guard" that would hang out here post-launch and blame the user, blame their system, or simply call everyone who didn't love the game "liars who don't even own the game" weren't in here giving it 10/10. This should be a wake up call although

[quote who="TheProgress" reply="103" id="2892686"]So in your high school, students would fail a course if they achieved less than 70%? Interesting world you've lived in. I doubt Brad was asking for scores based on how games are weighted according to reviewers like IGN or Gamespot (where I too normally never buy a game that is below 80%). That is an entirely different matter. A rough ranking system relative to letter grades would be: F: below 50%. Failing

[quote who="Lord Xia" reply="6" id="2892295"]They should have never added multiplayer to begin with.[/quote] Considering how it was implemented, I agree. Not doing it at all would have let people who expected half decent MP support when it was offered avoid buying the game.

[quote who="katalist" reply="23" id="2890709"]People actually play the campaign? Thought it was more of a tutorial? Isnt the meat and potatoes of the game in the sandbox mode? Like Dawn Of Discovery and Tropico3[/quote] Campaigns don't have to be like that, though. All three AoW games had lengthy campaigns that basically let you play as nearly everybody and try out a lot of stuff. Sandbox was more fun afterward, but the campaign more then did its job. But they invested more time

No. Wait to see how the expansion turns out first.

[quote who="RogueCaptain" reply="29" id="2889651"]It's mostly due to visual presentation that players come to the conclusion of good vs evil. Why not change the ashy dark land to a different color like a yellow plain? It's all so cliche.[/quote] Yeah, agreed. Here we have people who corrupt the land in an obviously evil and twisted way. I can't possibly imagine why anybody would then conclude that these people are evil. [e digicons]O:)[/e]

[quote who="kenata" reply="22" id="2891544"] Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic has good terrain. It has elevation, it has cover, and it has movement modifiers. Remember though, Age of Wonder: SM is not only the third iteration of the AoW series, but also has an extremely different focus. As someone recently put it, AoW is designed to get you to tactical combat and to make tactical combat as interesting as possible. Fundamentally, AoW is a series of war games, where as Elemental has a war

[quote quoting="post"] I would love to love this game. Why should I buy it now? [/quote] I wouldn't, TBH. I've shelved it and pretty much moved on. It seems unlikely at this point that it'll ever be the game that we thought it'd be. That's not to belittle the effort SD is putting into fixing it, because they should be commended for that... but realistically it has so far to go and so many limitations that are apparently engine related that they're handc

[quote quoting="post"] Would making armor, weapons, and magic interact more complex add depth? With enough added complexity, can the game become "un-min-maxable" and thus more elegant?[/quote] Not really, because AI War accomplishes this by taking away some of the choices that Elemental gives players. Except for the Riot Control Starships, you don't customize ships in AI War. You research some (and research is so limited that it's impossible to get everything unless

[quote who="seanw3" reply="48" id="2891158"]I graded based on modability and DRM. At release: E:WoM- 9 Starcraft- 2 Fallout: NV- 4 Civ V- 7 Today: E:WoM- 9.1 Starcraft- 1 Fallout: NV- 1 Civ V- 8.3 I have to say that while Elemental is at the top of the modding scale, there are alot of editors we still need.[/quote]

[quote who="VicenteC" reply="265" id="2889813"] This is the most biased thing I have read in a long time.[/quote] Of course it is. So is yours. Do you think this is a discussion, or a government fact finding mission? :) [quote]First, for nearly all creators, pricing and size limitations aren't a problem at all. Trial can be 8 minutes or something else, it's up to the creators. The timed trial is the default one so you can save yourself the work of doing a proper demo whil

At Release: Elemental: F Civ V: C- AI War: B (this would be when I got it in fall 2010, since its actually a 2009 game) Recettear: B+ Starcraft 2: A WoW: Cataclysm: A- Mass Effect 2: B- End of 2010: Elemental: D Civ V: C AI War: B Recettear: A- Starcraft 2: A WoW: Cataclysm: A- Mass Effect 2: B- Now: Elemental: D+ (It's unquestio

[quote who="tetleytea" reply="8" id="2890411"]Crossworlds on special today. The whole KB Platinum Edition on sale for eight bucks. I've been waiting for this one for awhile. Hello Princess Amelie.[/quote] Looks like its over now. :(

I've never seen a game other then Starcraft 1 do it in exactly that way. Shame, that was a really fun mode.

[quote who="Fistalis" reply="18" id="2877205"] Xbox live wasn't the first achievements system.. many pc games and console games had some form of this prior to xbox live.And if you think achievements is a major reason publishers choose steamworks your simply beyond logic. Its a large distribution channel and free drm...[/quote] Xbox Live was the first *integrated* achievement system where you had one account and achievements for every game linked together in a single score. Nobody

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="50" id="2889413"] I agree. I don't see anything wrong with anything Valve has done here. I fail to see how anyone can object to what they're doing. Personally, I only object when people try to tell us what we should do. At the end of the day, my job is to maximize our profits both short term AND long term. Putting Steamworks titles on Impulse where Steam gets bundled is simply dumb in my opinion. Sure, in the short-run, we'd

[quote who="Guest83" reply="53" id="2889529"]But why would publishers want to use Impulse::Reactor for an big AAA title if they can just use Steam? It's already established, far more mature and widely accepted by gamers. I know the (supposed) benefits for the customers, like to not have to install a client/store but why would publishers and developers care? They actually love to have their games as close to Steam (and their 30 million users) as possible.[/quote] Because Reactor can le

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="251" id="2889418"] Actually Steam is winning in the market place by having the best business model. People don't "choose" Steam any more than "the market" chose Windows over OS/2. Steam is winning because you were forced to install it to play games you wanted -- first Valve's games and then third party games that used Steamworks. They gave away Steamworks -- a very smart move. Instead of spending millions on Securom and GameSpy they got that f

[quote who="Heavenfall" reply="258" id="2889456"] I'm in agreement with everything you posted here, but I am getting the feeling you're not agreeing with me. I don't understand what makes our concerns different? If any other company than steam was threatening to become a monopoly, I would be against them too. But now - today - it's steam. Buying games through them should be a last resort for any consumer concerned about the future of pc gaming. Even if it's a near perfect solution today.

[quote who="Fistalis" reply="247" id="2889376"] The disk version of EWOM does not force install impulse.. where are you getting your facts? [/quote] ... it does if you want to update it, which given how unplayably bad the disk version of EWOM was is probably something you want to do. :) Impulse does handle itself less obtrusively then Steam does, which is why I buy games from it over Steam when the option is available. Architecture wise the main disadvantage to how S

[quote who="Melamine" reply="248" id="2889396"] Why do so many people fail to understand the basic premise that Steamworks is anti-competitive bundleware? It forces users to install and run a games store whenever they wish to access purchased titles.[/quote] Probably for the same reason people fail to understand that Steamworks is so popular with developers because it's the best tool on the market to do the jobs they need done. Whining about how Steam is an evil monopoly

[quote who="coreimpulse" reply="243" id="2889364"] That is unless you want to put your game on Steam. Then it's their rules there.[/quote] Just like it's Stardocks rules for what games go on Impulse. Unlike on the 360, I can bypass Steam on my PC if they refuse to sell a game I want to buy. The publishers can also bypass it if they want to. None of that is possible on the consoles. That's why so much of this talk is so ridiculous. Steam is never going to be able to dic

[quote who="VicenteC" reply="239" id="2889352"] You'll be surprised to know you can put a game on the 360 without Microsoft approval, it's called Indie Games, and they are peer-reviewed, not reviewed by MS, in fact, MS employees are forbidden to do peer-review.[/quote] Provided you want to release a game that's under 150MB, sells for 400 MS points or less, has an 8 minute trial period, and can't use XBL's achievements or leaderboards. aka: They meet the rules that Microso

[quote who="scratchthepitch" reply="235" id="2889335"] Let steam take over the console gaming industry - I don't like console games and never play them. But if steam is able to take over pc gaming, we'll likely see pc gaming looking like console gaming with pc game quality and variety going out the window. This is besides the increased costs to the customer and lack of consumer control that steam would institute once they got powerful enough to get away with it.[/quote] Until you