ZehDon

[quote who="tesb" reply="7" id="2678451"]...a shallow game... as of now the beta is not particularly deep and it lacks unique playstyles. i am not worried about bugs or missing graphics or even lack of content (i enjoy playing on cloth map more) but different and unique game mechanics...[/quote] You're making the mistake of incorrectly identifying the lack of features for a lack of completion. For example, the Tactical Battle system has been completed for quite some tim

[quote quoting="post"]...I think only now the game shapes itself into something that actually could be called beta, but still lots of things are missing or not working, so I am not sure if it can be called beta, it is still more like late alpha...[/quote] I'm guessing you didn't read all of Frogboy's posts? He's been basically saying that the Beta program for Elemental is their Alpha, and that by normal standards what we have doesn't constitute a Beta. As Frogboy has been say

... So, I then tried to reinstall it from an installer downloaded directly from the Impulse site and that was considered "corrupt" and it asked me to find a new file. I wanted to blame myself (virus?) but was suspicious b/c my puter is on lockdown... Are all downloads, even those not completed through Impulse, becoming corrupted? Have you tried downloading other files from other sites? ...It updated by itself to the most recent version of Impulse

Then they'll be selling other Steamwork enabled games, which means Valve have one less reason to remove the client requirement for Steamworks. Might as well just send ol' Gabe Newell to their customers' houses to download and install Steam for them.

Keep in mind, what we have in the Beta is only a small fraction of the build Stardock have, and likely a lot of the present bugs/crashes/glitches are already fixed. We're getting tactical battles this week, and with that I suspect we'll see a host of stability improvements for the stuff added in Beta 3. As the old programming slogan goes: " Programs are never finished, they're meerly in stages of 'less broken' and if its not broken, it doesn't have enough features. "&n

When the research breakthrough screen comes up to allow you to select the breakthough you'd like, it displays what that breakthrough unlocks, and what it leads to. If you click on any of the icons it brings up its data screen. Now, when I click the 'X' in the top right to close this screen, the sound effect for the screen closing (page turning sounds) plays however the screen doesn't close. If I click the 'X' again, my game crashes. This appears to happen only by doing

I get this as well. What resolutions are you both using? I'm using 1360x768. I've noticed visible seems else where in background images.

[quote who="Tridus" reply="46" id="2676287"]Blizzard has cancelled this plan.[/quote] I read that this morning, and it's great to see the almost entirely negative reaction was listened to. Making the feature optional is the best of both worlds. I'll see how Starcraft II plays out post-launch before deciding if I'm back on board with Blizzard.

[quote who="-RAISTLIN-" reply="3" id="2675520"]The only thing that bothers me about bioware as a whole is they havent changed the formula at all, and I’d like to see something fresh from them. I’m not sure its fair to criticise their fantasy stories as derivative, since virtually all fantasy is. But I can certainly see your point. I still really enjoyed dragon age, because I thought the gameplay was fun. Story was meh. The opposite for ME2, where I thought the characters were fant

[quote who="wilebill" reply="46" id="2675467"]...SC2 prices for the basic game should fall rapidly, so a good deal on the game plus a free mod from Brother Laz might turn out well.[/quote] Doubtful. Activision are publishing, and the other recent monster they've published, Modern Warfare 2, is still sitting at it's launch price.

[quote who="ZehDon" reply="36" id="2674637"]..I'd say it's replication rather than intergration; sending their customers to Facebook only makes financial sense if they have a deal with Facebook for a slice of the advertising revenue...[/quote] I should've done some more extensive Googling before posting , it seems.&n

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="42" id="2674672"]...It's a lot more feasible to conclude that Blizzard saw how popular social networks and the features they provide have gotten and decided to hop on the train, rather than Kotick coming along and whispering sweet things in their ears to make them do things they didn't want to do.[/quote] I'd like to agree with you, however that's simply taking the situation at face value and thinking everything is simply geared to providing a better experie

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="37" id="2674648"]...Which is largely irrelevant as by all accounts save more unproven speculation, Blizzard is still independent. Just like there's absolutely 0 indication that Blizzard had anything to do with the merger, there's 0 indication that Kotick/Activision Blizzard had anything to do with RealID, Facebook integration, or anything Starcraft 2 related. [/quote] If you're unable to see the writing on the wall, then I'm afraid I can't ma

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="32" id="2674220"]Strictly speaking, Blizzard's parent company merged with Activision. Blizzard didn't exactly have much of a say in the matter.[/quote] While that is true, the Director's of Blizzard hold quite a bit of power within the Vivendi 'family', and hold quite large a stake in the company as a result; Blizzard's parent company is now called 'Activision Blizzard' not 'Activision Vivendi' for example. The exact dealings struck will neve

After following this development, I think it's reached the pinacle. A concise write up can be found here . Anyone who doubts the authenticity of this event is welcome to read the thread on the offical World of Warcra

Ah, and you're quite right, too, that's exactly the game I was rambling about. Nice to see. Strange that I missed that piece of news, I must be going blind in my old age :(

Valve hired those guys, and they helped make 'Portal', didn't they? As far as I am aware, and I could be quite wrong here, Valve have not hired the people responsible for the creation of that game. I'm not saying they've stolen it out-right, however the concepts are quire similiar. I can't quite recall what it was called... it was available at the same time as 'Dyson' was and featured entirely cell-shaded levels, played from the first person.

[quote who="DoomBringer90" reply="8" id="2673610"]Well, as VALVe is the sole company working on it, I don't see any problem with them making it a steam exclusive, just as I don't have a problem with Stardock making their products Impulse exclusive...[/quote] Exactly. I, for one, am looking forward to Portal 2. Some of its so-called 'new features' were the selling point of an independant game I played a while ago, involving using a paint gun to na

[quote who="MarvinKosh" reply="53" id="2673161"]...Okay, so there are no towns in FF13, but they are essentially just texture-expensive item malls in some cases...[/quote] Agreed, however what the towns also created was a sense of place - a world, in which other people lived. Talking to these NPCs, regardless of their one-line of repeated dialogue, creates a connection with the world. Considering how all FFs eventually devolve into "Kill the bad guy, save the world" at some p

Personally, I don't think Bioware quite understand what 'Dark Fantasy' means. Scantily clad women and blood on your characters doesn't make a bevy of RPG cliches instantly fresh and appealing. Dragon Age was a great game, it just wasn't the game it promised to be.

We exist in a world where the legal rights of the copyright holder exceed the legal rights of those who wish to experience the copyrighted material. The artist, the art and the audience are irrelevant. All that matters is that the copyright holder is paid their demanded price to allow you to experience their copyrighted material in the manner you're told to experience it in. All else is

[quote who="k10w3" reply="48" id="2671963"]That's not free...[/quote] To the end user, it's entirely free in every regard. I have to pay nothing for the free-to-air Television channels. I also don't have to pay anything for access to free-to-air Radio stations. They are, without exception, free. [quote who="k10w3" reply="48" id="2671963"]...That's paid for by advertising by big corporate interests, so watching "free" television is actually indoctrin

[quote who="MadDeez" reply="42" id="2671874"]you mean game manufacturers are already charging fees for access to online servers? good. there are always fees associated with purchases. if it stops piracy, i'm all for it.[/quote] Piracy by its very nature avoids all fees and costs associated with digital material. Adding more fees simply increases the amount of money pirates save by pirating. Of course, private servers for games range far and wide. A simple Google se

Well, it's good to finally see some action being taken against piracy, unfortunately - as I'm sure we all expected - it's for all the wrong reasons by all the wrong people. Instead of the Government Agencies acting to enforce the law and send a message, they're simply acting to appease campaign contributors and large scale Copyright holders. Most such Actions taken in court, for example suing someone, are for the recovery of damages. A company's disr

[quote who="VeryAngryDwarf" reply="24" id="2653836"]They aren't doing that - you're jumping to conclusions without watching the linked footage or reading any of the recent interviews, it would seem.[/quote] I've been following Civ V closely enough, although I will admit after the annoucement of a Steam exclusive I stopped chasing down every piece of information available. From what we have available, they're stream-lining the experience to make the game more accessible. Part