ZehDon

The problem with Steamworks is that it requires the running of the Steam Store Client in order to authenticate. It doesn't make games exclusive to Steam, albeit this is happening due to publishing deals, it makes it unreasonable for other Digitial Services to sell them. If you buy a Steamworks titles from Direct2Drive and run it, it will launch the Steam Client and you'll be required to create a Steam Account. Then, you'll be presented with the Steam Store directly on y

[quote who="markieness" reply="24" id="2806254"]A little part of the gaming industry was scared away with the invention of 3d. It ocasionaly comes out of hiding, but not for long. Hard to say what exactly the part is, but its one of the best parts.[/quote] A common misconception. The simple, horrible truth is that the transition from Sprites to Polygons transformed the gaming industry in one very importanting way: scope, and boy is scope expensive. Making a 2D

Microsoft is looking at different avenues with the PC Gaming scene. PC Gaming is no longer the focus of the industry and won't be again. This is simple evolution. One of the better things of recent years from Microsoft is the continual development of the XNA Framework, promoting independant developers and assisting them with tech that works on both the Xbox 360 and the PC Platform and handles a lot of the crap that trips up most aspiring developers. I feel th

I read a very interesting article on Cracked.com this morning that presented an idea I've been toying with for some time now. The concept is FARTS - an amusing acronym if I ever saw one - that stands for Forced ARTifical Scarcity. We see this active in every day life; digitial goods. Essentially, a product in unlimited supply has no value, and digitial products have an unlimit

Consoles and PC Gamess appeal to different markets. Consoles are for people who don't like to mess around; they just want the games! PCs are for people who don't mind tinkering, or who actually enjoy tinkering. Consoles being so successful is a product of the ease of development and the controlled environment; I can make a PC Game and pour hundreds of thousands of man hours into making it work on as many PCs as possible, or I can make a game for the Xbox 360 and Playsta

[quote who="wilebill" reply="29" id="2806194"]...Then too there is Kotick and Activision to think about. I never did buy StarCraft 2. Thought at first I might someday, but probably not.[/quote] This is something that's dividing the Diablo III community down the line: buying it supports Activision Blizzard's stance that customers will pay any price and should be taken advantage of at every opportunity. Is anyone here not going to buy it because of Activision Blizzard's involvem

PC Games are far more complex today then they were even a mere five years ago. Go back as far as ten years, and the games today look like advanced Alien Technology in comparison to what was around at the time. This step in complexity is why companies like to licence third party engines, such as the Unreal Engine 3 or the Source Engine. They're proven pieces of technology that remove the issue most developers have. Brad's talked about before: Elemental is using a brand

[quote who="Darvin3" reply="5" id="2805486"]...Class-wise, I'm hoping for a "Knight in Shining Armour" for the fifth class. The barbarian is nice and all, but the dual-weilding savage with spiked armour doesn't have the same appeal as a glistening knight in platemail with a trusty sword and shield.[/quote] The common belief is that we'll see a generic "Archer" class, as there isn't a class at current that is Bow-focused. After the excitment-killing reveals of the "Wizard", "W

With Blizzcon right around the corner, the Diablo III community is gearing up for what they are hoping is a release of new information, and hopefully a release window. A lot about Diablo III is still unknown, with only vague details given to the community via the offical Battle.net forums. The fifth and final class is yet to be anounced, the 'End Game' content - said to justify the lowered level cap of 60 - hasn't been discussed at all and of course the widespread concern for the

I was directed to this by a friend of mine, who noted that it's getting some serious attention now. It's apparently a Blog by a current EA Games employee commenting on the state of Mythic, now titled Bioware Mythic, and details some of the issues that lead to Warhammer Online eventually failing, despite over a million sales in its opening month. It's an incredibly interesting read and paints a damning image of EA Games management.&n

Well, it appears all is not well at Valve , and Icefrog is apparently not leading Valve in a good direction. [quote]...What upsets me most, and the ultimate reason I am writing this, is that any ethical company would have dropped Abdul (Icefrog) right here and reconsidered their options. We are not doing that, and instead are pushing ahead with full force. Sorry guys, but the truth has to come out sooner or later...[/quote]<

Between Demigod, Heroes of Newearth and Leagure of Legends, I think this niche genre is kind of ... saturated. I trust Valve will make it work, and add their usual spices, however I have to ask: how many of these games do people need in such a short period of time? Heroes of Newearth is, for all purposes, what DotA fans were clamoring for.

Take a look at Grand Theft Auto IV. Huge budget, massive advertising campaign leading to its release and every website in creation dedicated articles every day to anything remotely connected to GTA IV. It was a critical and financial smash, with some reviewers calling it the future of video games. It has one of the highest Meta-critic scores in histroy, and sold a bucket load of copies on its openeing day. Every single aspect of the game was hailed as perfect. Fas

[quote who="FadedC" reply="9" id="2799094"]Well my understanding is that it is the Holy Grail of modding when it comes to the ability to create all sorts of different types of games that have nothing to do with the original... [/quote] Not really. The maps are limited to 20mb each, removing the modders' ability to go crazy. While you can craft some interesting maps, they are one-shot deals - the FF Battle Mod, for example, isn't an JRPG mod, it's merely a battle mod. As

Fruitdealer, as you're obviously referring to, vastly outplayed his opponent. His Actions Per Minute peaked at around 500, while his opponent peaked at around 280, and his ability to Micro-manage his unit's targets in combat was simply awe-inspiring. While APM is not the definning characteristic nor sole determining factor of victory, being able to do nearly twice as much at the same time as your opponent is probably a good place to start. The fact that the Ze

Excellent changes thus far, can't wait to see what else you guys are planning. Any chance of some information on the first Expansion pack? I think I remember reading that Tactical Battles are getting an over-haul?

[quote quoting="post"]...+ Fixed a divide by zero error in spell damage...[/quote] Couldn't resist.

Blizzard, clearly, are not the same company they once were. After World of Warcraft's success, they've clearly rested on their principles; Starcraft II is the first Blizzard game that even has a debate around it's quality - the rest are all agreed upon 'gems' and 'classics'. It's also the first Blizzard game that isn't a 'World of Warcraft' one since their merger with Activision. It takes a lot of... effort, shall we say, to take one of the all time great PC Gaming

*cough*Frogboy should make a UI Mod*cough*

I tend to agree Nesrie; APB was described to me as Grand Theft Auto IV's multiplayer component with better customisation. It never really made much sense to me, and obviously it didn't make much sense to others. The problem with MMOs, in my opinion, is that most pitches would contain "World of Warcraft" and "even if we only make X% of the revenue...". APB, while trying something different, simply wasn't an MMO, and the subscription fee attached to the game killed i

[quote who="Aractain" reply="4" id="2781365"]Dosn't it really come down to price? If they sell you a £15000 car that was worth £90000 with some of the features 'switched off' that you could 'upgrade' at a later date - is this a bad thing?[/quote] If that was the case, sure. However, it's not. Take software as the prime example. Resident Evil 5 shipped with additional content on the disc that was locked, and they charged full price for the retail version.&nbs

[quote]This new idea is more akin to video games that let you "download" extra weapons and features, when those features were on the disc all along. Still, it's an intriguing business model, and before you unleash your rage in comments, you should know that Intel's just testing it out on this low-end processor in a few select markets for now.[/quote] Caught this article

$30.00 for a downloaded film? I think the Pirates will tear this to shreds in a matter of seconds on principle alone. I see nothing wrong with creating movies from their digital software and selling them online. However, judging from the simply fucking terrible story carved out for Starcraft II and the latest World of Warcraft expansion, and the fact that Activision Blizzard doesn't invest in creativity, I think the 'movies' will be little more than the terrible Anime-t

[Civ 5 Customers] minus [Pre-existing Steam Customers] = [New Valve Customers]. This is the problem I have with the situation. Turning all PC Gamers into Valve customers gives Valve a very powerful position, and considering the history of very powerful Computer Based companies (Microsoft, Activision, EA, etc.) I can't say I'm thrilled.