More to hate about the new Ghost in the Shell

The story is set in 2029, why the hell are they now running around with Microsoft Surface tablets running Windows 8 ?

Yep, product placement, forgetting the fact that the major has more processing and memory in her cybernetics than all the worlds current surface products combined.

There is a humours advert for the surface featuring the Major and her crew stealing information using a surface tablet. Not only does it show how slow the tablet is at downloading, it makes a mockery of a cyberspace world where the characters suddenly have to carry around this device to download data.

Anyway just another reasion why I will not be getting the new Ghost in the Shell.

Arma ]I[ gone beta

Arma 3 went beta this week and while I haven't had a chance to really check it out this video covers it nicely:

Guild Wars 2: Sky Pirates of Tyria

HONEYDEWYEAYEA

The original was funny, this is just fantastic !

Watch_dogs Multiplayer Video

I don't like the way it broadcasts to the player when you have been hacked, but it looks miles better than the assassins creed multi player as it takes place in the game world.

Dragon Age III Inquisition name change

Its now known as Dragon Age: Inquisition

Quick, we need to make sure no one links it to part II otherwise no one will want it !!!!!

 I will not touch it, because contrary to what Bioware believe, I don't buy their games because of story. Bioware story's are some of the worst repeated plots in RPG history. Reason I felt Dragon Age 1 was good was because it offered a interesting top down tactical RPG. Dragon Age 2 was a 3rd person pile of crap.

So unless Dragon Age III shows me something of strong tactical RPG game play, I am not going to touch it. I am also going to refuse to call it Dragon Age: Inquisition, its the III part in the series and you can't pretend that part II never existed !. Even though I wish I could.

Guildwars 2: Dragon bash ends soon - Sky Pirates of Tyria next

I need a breather, Southsun Cove, Bashing dragons, now Sky Pirates !

The living story contunines and keeps getting better.

• New Story Dungeon: Aetherblade Retreat – June 25-July 9

  Find the hidden entrance to the Aetherblade base and take the fight to the pirates! It’ll take skill, courage, and no small measure of agility to battle your way to the Aetherblade Captain and First Mate.
  

• Developer Livestream – June 24 at 12PM PDT

  Take an inside look at the Sky Pirates of Tyria release with ArenaNet devs during the preview livestream on our Twitch channel on Monday, June 24 at 12PM PDT.
  

• New Guild Wars Novel: Sea of Sorrows – Available June 25

  We’re proud to announce Sea of Sorrows, the third original Guild Wars novel by Ree Soesbee! Sea of Sorrows follows the thrilling adventures of young Cobiah Marriner, founder of the reborn city of Lion’s Arch.
  Buy the Book >
  

• Sea of Sorrows Scavenger Hunt—Begins June 25

  In this new permanent content, retrace the steps of Cobiah Marriner. Twelve plaques have been set up to honor the history of the city and its founder. You can find clues to the plaques’ locations in Sea of Sorrows. Complete the scavenger hunt to earn five skill points.
  

• Aetherblade “Not So Secret” Jumping Puzzle – Begins July 1

  Introducing a new, permanent jumping puzzle! An Aetherblade airship is hidden inside a holographic mountain – find your way in, fight with the pirates inside, and prove your prowess using a pair of hard-to-find diving goggles.
  

And monicals cause since EvE Online, you can't have a MMO without monicals !
No word if they cost $75 yet

XBone 180

Microsoft have done a 180 on there always online DRM:

    So, today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360. Here is what that means:

        An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.
        Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.

    In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console -- there will be no regional restrictions.

    These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.

This is a good thing for XBone users but its something that shouldn't be celebrated because it shouldn't have happened in the first place. Like govements, Microsoft tried to sneak this under a 'cloud' of hype but most people saw though it.

What I really don't get is those people who are now disappointed about the dropping of features when dropping DRM. You people need to get YOUR HEAD CHECKED. Stop bending over for these corporate entities, you are the reasion horse armor DLC & online check DRM even exisits. Microsoft is still looking for for the publishers and not the consumers and they are going to screw you over in some other way with DRM.

Xbone end of life

People are asking, what will happen to our games when the Xbtwo comes out. Major Nelson, that guy who was in the army or something had this to say:

I'll just say this: We haven't even started this generation, so it's kind of early to talk about the end of the generation. That's certainly something we would not do. That's not the way the system is designed. It's designed for flexibility. But let's get the system out there first.

That's not a very clear answer. I had the same concerns for steam nearly 10 years ago, what will happen if steam goes bust ?

It took a very long time until I finally brought something on steam but now days its local retail shops I worry about not Steam or online digital shops.

Microsoft would be left with two options, ether keep the service running so people can play their old games, or release a patch which removes the online requirement. At this point most of the multiplayer titles would have shut down. Its just another thing to think about and while they saying its something they would not do, I also get the impression its something they aren't even thinking about. As its a consumer concern not a corporate concern.

Saints Row 3 / 4 To get modding support

This will be very interesting, maybe they looked at Skyrim.

To me, modding is a lost source of income, it is a gamble and it depends on your community if its going to work but games like Skyrim sales life has been extended due to the modding community.

Publishers don't see this, they think modding steal sales from DLC. Adding mod support makes you honest. Because you can't just release the same game with 12 new levels and slap 2014 on the end because the mod makers will do a better job with the original release. Same goes for DLC, you crap out horse armor and your community will mock you.

Publishers instead have to put out a reason for people to buy the DLC. The easiest way to do that is to make it extend the engine in some way for modders to use.

I can only imagine how popular Battlefield 3 would have been if it had a map editor, user run servers and mod support. I know one thing, I would have played it longer than 30 mins that's for sure.

New Ghost in the Shell looks: Terriable

Japan seems to be doing terriable animation these days.
I should be excited, but I am not.

Cutting though the BullCrap: Xbone cloud

Cloud Computing ?

Microsoft is now claiming they will be using cloud computing to:

Game developers can now create persistent worlds that encompass tens or hundreds of thousands of players without taxing any individual console, and those worlds that they built can be lusher and more vibrant than ever before because the cloud persists and is always there, always computing.

Have Microsoft created quantum graphics rendering ? because no amount of ' cloud ' will be able to load assets fast enough unless you start doing some sort of On Live style rendering. Which would also be a waste of time.

What I think they are trying to say is the Xbone can do MMO's

Those worlds can live on in between game sessions

Yes, we call those MMO's or persistent worlds. Also in the past dedicated servers on the PC when there was no such thing as a 'host player' just a server that keeped running 24 hours a day. Usually run by fans of the game, not the money hungry gaming company's.

If one player drops out, that world will continue on and can experience the effects of time, like wear from weather damage, so that when a player comes back into the universe it's actually a slightly evolved place in the same way that our real world evolves a little bit from the time we go to sleep to the time we wake up. Game developers have given us incredibly positive feedback on the crazy different ways that they can use this incredible new cloud power resource.

 This can be done already, in fact it was done decades  ago in Ultima Online but the question is, is this what you want in a single player game ?

This ' cloud ' doesn't justify having the console always connected. Its a load of hype from some suit who has ideas but no clue.

Planetary Annihilation Alpha out today ...... but

They want $89 USD for it, and its a Alpha !

They have got to be utter loonies.

Lets look at the Arma 3 alpha. You buy it for the normal price the game will be relesaed at. This pre-order gives you access to the Alpha and now upcoming Beta then finally the full game on release. Effectively you are testing the game for the devoplers.

Planetary Annihilation has you paying for the right to test, by the sounds of it you are paying more to test it than someone will at release. This is utterly insane. Minecraft was the reverse, it was released cheaper to begin with and as more features were added it went up in price until version 1.0

There excuse is kickstarter, I paid even less to get Star Citizen alpha. beta access !

So yeah, while I was interested in this game, I can wait to see what the final costing is, but I am going to keep a eye on it. If they are going to sell it at AAA prices they better have a AAA currently they have cartoon version of Superme Commander.

Cutting though the BullCrap: Virtual Realms

Blizzard announced Virtal Realms today:

Virtual Realms are sets of realms that are fused together, and will behave exactly as if they were one cohesive realm. Players on the same Virtual Realm will be able to join guilds, access a single Auction House, join arena teams and raids, as well run dungeons or group up to complete quests.

Sounds like a fancy way of saying, Merging servers with out the word merge.

PS4 Amazing features

All Sony had to do is announce that there console was going to work just like all previous consoles and they get a standing ovation with such innovation.

Don't get me wrong, this is great for gamers its just sad that it even had to come to this but at least people aren't letting Microsoft go unpunished with the DRM policy's they are trying to enforce.

Still the PS4 requires a fee ( yearly/monthly ? ) to be able to play online games, this alone makes me not interested in it. As most of these games are Peer 2 peer setups so effectively your paying them the right to host and join games which on the PC was always free.

The Stick of Truth E3

The visuals in this game are some of the best so far, why ? because its accually southpark in game form, not some crazy 3D hybrid. Also it looks so much better than Dragon Age 3.

Dragon age 3

I wondered about posting this or not, but really, its a chance to make fun of Dragon age 2


I love how almost everything from E3 this year says 'Actual game footage' but most of these trailers lack any game play what so ever.

The trailer doesn't contain anything that makes me want to get, play or even try the game. I vaguely recognise characters from Dragon Age 2 but that game was so terrible that I only played less than a hour of it. Then the end part where they show Morrigan or Flemeth or who the hell it is just makes me want to roll around on the floor laughing. The visuals are horrid and the animation is really poor on that character.

To top it off I think I read they are making a open world. In Bioware terms that means a hub with 4 pathways instead of 1.

Wow, I guess Dragon Age 2 has still doing a lot of damage with the way I see Bioware.

Oh yeah Bioware, make sure you add a two awesome buttons, then spout videos on how great it is then sell it as day one DLC.

Witcher 3: Wild Hunt trailer

This is the best thing to come out of E3 so far, of cause microsoft paid good money to have it at there stage. In fact most of there games they showen are coming to the PC. If I was a publisher, I wouldn't lock any exclusivity with the XBone. It seems a bit too much like Windows 8.

Its also coming to the PS4 but why would you touch those locked machines when you can have a DRM FREE version on the PC which supports mod tools and improved graphics ?

Deep Silver Saints Row 4: Price Gouging

I was keen on getting Saints Row 4 after the last trailer, that was until I saw this on Steam, see if you can spot the difference:

The top one is the price that appears if I log in via steam, the bottom on is shown if I look at the steam site without logging in. Basically they are slapping $20 USD onto the price just to sell it to New Zealand.

This isn't steam but the publisher Deep Silver who is Gouging us. Saints Row 3 from THQ didn't have this non-us tax slapped on.

So I will not be buying the game, I will also not be pirating the game as I have just lost all interest at this point but I know it will get pirated a lot more because of this.

Deep Silver aren't the only ones practising this scam on steam. As shown here, only Bohemia Interactive and Sony aren't ripping us off. 2K Games, Bethesda, Sega all should be ashamed of themselves. 

Steam viewed from outside the USA

Steam from inside the USA

Saints Row IV Trailer

This is a new trailer that doesn't feature dubstep, makes the game seem so much better:

Guildwars 2: Dragon Bash Fesitval

In Guildwars 1 it was the Dragon Festival, 200 years on the festival has changed a bit, since the dragons became dicks.