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SoilMan's Profile
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Username:  SoilMan
Joined:  24 Jun 2009
$poons:  0.80
Total posts:  25 [Show all]
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SoilMan's Recent Forum Posts
@Bigboss
I know it isn't ideal but playing with a 360 pad on PC makes the experience much more enjoyable. I don't really need the precision of a mouse for the game so lounging back with a pad works well. That said interface mods should be out soonish. As always, TES modders outdo Bethesda!

As to the game looking like vomit... I think the artistic direction transcends the relatively low res texture work. Much nicer than Oblivion and for some reason I just can't shake flashbacks to LOTR The Two Towers. All that tundra just looks like it needs some Rohirrim.
Frozencry wrote
If that's what next gen games are going to look like then colour me massively disappointed and unhappy. There are games now that look far better than that.
No current console games can run at that framerate, with that sort of poly count/AA, animation, draw distance, LOD etc. I think that the early next gen games will be the same sort of cross-gen games we saw on the current consoles, i.e. HD upscaled (hopefully full HD this time), better frame rates, higher poly counts.
Who else thinks that sometime next year we will hear that the "not actual gameplay footage" is actual game play footage for the next gen systems coming out in 2013?
Yeah that Quakecon pack is so good I just spasmed on the floor when I saw how many awesome games just appeared in my Steam account for $67! Off to go and blast Hexan II, take that demonic chicken.
Disappointed there was no random Top Gun reference in this preview. So I guess I have to add my own:

"Too close for missiles, switching to guns!"

Love that preorder deal too. More of it thanks publishers.
@ Passa

I don't think anyone here is being anymore self-righteous than if some bugger cut infront of you on the road (I use my verbal road rage as a good surrogate for acceptible levels of vitriol in polite society).

I think we can probably all agree that something has to be done about piracy and that it should involve some level of carrot and stick. I like Benza's idea of encouraging legit purchases through additional content, but in terms of deterents for copywrite infringement -- I don't think anyone (especially the industry) has a good answer for that yet.

@ Passa

Not knowing the legal side of things, but is a letter serving a fee really equivalent to extortion -- isn't that just seeking to recoup loses for product/services that haven't been settled legally?
Windburn wrote
I'm sure Benza wasn't offended, I honestly just wanted to point out the absurdity of trying to establish any sort of quantification of losses under those terms. It's impossible without every single pirate coming forward, expressing their intentions, and not lying in doing so.
Yeah, my apologies. I don't frequent these boards enough to know the intricacies of people's relationships here. I was probably out of line posting that, but I had just been in a meeting with arseholes ridiculing people unnecessarily and I vented. Cheers
Benza wrote
I agree with most of what you said but this bit
I'm not saying that PC games per se can't turn a profit, just that the exclusives struggle. I'm ignoring the obvious demographic differences between console and PC gamers, but as you say we are both speculating and these no doubt have a role in the decline of PC games.

Though, solely working off the fact that if nVidia and ATI can bother releasing gaming graphics cards then there is clearly a unique market present in PC land. The fact that we don't see a developer boasting that they are making a game utilising this market suggests that there is a problem i.e. piracy.

Otherwise the capitalist principle of making a profit in every market available with the offset of reasonable risk would hold true -- clearly the level of risk is too high.
Windburn wrote
Are you starting to sound ridiculous to yourself too, or is it just to everyone else
Hey mate, no need to get nasty. I'm enjoying this debate without the insults, so let's not start a shit fight
Benza wrote
People arn't developing exclusives cause cutting out a significant portion of your potential customer base is a stupid thing to do.
I agree, unless there is a potential for a specific medium to provide a specific market that can't be reached in cross-platform games, e.g. motion control games. The PC always has been a unique platform (being the cutting edge of games technology) allowing developers to do things on it that aren't possible on other platforms (e.g. Crysis, Unreal, Quake, Falcon x.0, etc.). But currently, I suggest, that few developers are taking up this market (re the above point on PC hardware) because of the inability to turn a profit due to prolific piracy.
Benza wrote
Intention to permanently deprive - defined at s.73(12) as treating property as it belongs to the accused, rather than the owner.
Fair point, I should have stated I was speaking philosophically and without knowledge of the law. Cheers for clarifying that though.


Benza wrote
I'm sure it has nothing to do with more people owning consoles then dedicated gaming rig pcs and the price associated with both
Just about any PC over a grand bought in the last 3 years will run all of the multi-platform games because of the technology lock that consoles inherantly have.

Benza wrote
Name the PS3 only games that charted last year, or the 360 only games that charted last year. There arn't that many if you count them individually and not just as 'console' games.
No, that is the point, I specifically differentiated based on console vs. PC on the basis of ease to pirate software. And there are many console only games that have charted.

An interesting question, there is still a very profitable market for mid to high end PC gaming hardware, so where are all the games these people are playing coming from? They sure as hell aren't buying Crysis legitimately, or Crytek wouldn't have complained and gone multi-platform.
Karai Pantsu wrote
My point is this - Piracy hasn't killed gaming, not even PC gaming, even though that's all we've been hearing for the last ~10 years or more.
Hmm, and that would be why PC gamers so rarely get exclusives? The only way developers get money from PC release is becasue consoles are the lead development and PCs get the (often lazy) port.

Name as many PC only chart games of the last year you can.

I only have the Total War, Civ5, WoW,, Torchlight Sims3 (kinda) and Starcraft. That's pretty meagre for the most powerful and arguable most widely distributed games playing device in homes.

Although PC gaming isn't dead and never will be, it is certainly stymied by the amount of profit that can be made from it and will always run second place to the more pirating robust consoles.
Benza wrote
Getting the content you pay for isn't a reward, it's a business transaction.
And getting that content without paying for it is theft. Until that business transaction is carried out that content is still legally the property of the developer/publisher. I agree that not all the people who pirate that content would have bought the game, but to say that what they is doing isn't stealing is flagrantly wrong.

Yes, there is a massive difference between actual and potential sales. However, regardless of whether that sale is made or not pirates are playing content that is not legally their's as no business transaction has taken place -- they are getting to use a developer's property for free, hence the illegality.

It doesn't matter about sales or potential sales anymore, it is about the illegal activity.
Camm wrote
Is it me or does all unreal games look slightly off; like theres something wrong with the post filtering or something that makes it look 'not just right'
Yep. Though I'm not sure if it is the Unreal engine that is the issue or the personal tastes of the artists, but for me it is the colour palete just not gelling with the scenes. Always looks like a Pan's Labyrinth shot but doesn't have the context of the movie so just looks 'off'.
People aren't stupid in any sense, it's just that people who aren't gamers like different forms of electronic entertainment to us. Kinect has some of the few games that my wife has been interested in on the 360. I think Kinect being used in games that I would play typically would probably suck and fail to add anything over a traditional controller, but as an alternative entertainment device for non-gamers I think MS is onto a winner.

We can probably all admit that the Wii has only sold as well as it has thanks to Wiisports and Wiifit and if Kinect can offer an improved version of these it will sell well. Think about the appeal to a non-gamer of fitness routines coaching to correct your technique without without having to leave your home or pay a trainer -- I think that would appeal to many a people outside of gaming circles.
Also agree with Jason. Huzzah for fence jumping! Maybe with our government filtering our internet we can look forward to Google withdrawing from Australia and the introduction of the government search engine Kruddle.au
Hahaha - and Zarnoss clears the room with the reality check! Awesome, mate. But I am only so vocal today because I a bored to tears over my research paper and needed something to vent over. Though I must admit your problems sound a little on the "Mel Gibson from Conspiracy Theory" side of life. But wait he was right in the end of that tedious movie...
JackSlack, the point in the discussion paper is true but at no point does it ever raise the actual isssue the paper is addressing - i.e. games. The introduction of an R rating will still never allow pornographic games to be released (and rightly so), thus the argument that R games will also be viewed in appropriately is taken vastly out of context.
Totally agree, Jason. Unfortunately the government still has to represent the stupid and irresponsible (the fact some of our elected government representatives are there because of them doesn't help). Its sad that these people are so vocal in decrying everyone who is to blame and that the rest of us who make useful, coherant arguments are relegated somewhat. Yay for the quirks of democracy.

But maybe the powers that be will listen to 50,000 well argued submissions to the classification public consultation...
Island_Wolf, I agree with your point regarding the potential dodgy-ness of the sample group, but we would need know how the online form was accessed before we write-off the results.

Also, I totally empathise with the lack of non-English speaking information provided by the government - a bit of a lazy effort there. But legally, parents have a duty care to minors under their stead, thus something like the ratings classifications are assumed knowledge for a reasonable adult. As you note, that is a pretty backwards attitude for a multicultural society where ESL is relatively common.
Agreed. But it is an unfortunate malaise of western society that the law (and legislation at large) caters for the lowest common denominator - or as I like to think of it: "If an idiot can think of it and/or do it then the entire population must be protected against it."

However, I truely distaste the moral distinctions made between games and films in regard to ratings. As the ratings classes are, under the law, equal across all forms of visual media, then the impact of the content in a game cannot be considered lesser or greater than that of a film. Thus, the inclusion of an R game rating cannot, within the confines of the current law, be considered differently to that of film. We allow people over 18 to watch R films but we can't let them play games rated identically? Bah! End rant.
All good points, but I think it is more than just confusion about ratings in general (e.g. M and MA) - it is still the whole mentality of games being "kid's things". I really don't think that a large percentage of parents associate the game ratings at the same level as movies.

Do parents have the same concept of GTA4 as they do Underbelly? Would they buy the game over the tv show because the game is "just a game" and is not real life? I think this dichotomy in the perception of ratings is what needs to be addressed first - making people realise that the impact of the game is the same as a movie/tv show of the same rating.

Making the ratings codes the same colours on the boxes is not going to magically address this problem. Especially when games don't have the same range of ratings as movies!
As much as groups like the ACCM shit me to tears, I have to say in this instance I can completely empathise with their intentions.

As Jellyfish noted the anyone who watches the news does not need an introduction to the horrors of terrorism - we cop that every week. The inclusion of a mission that requires you to kill non-combatants does not draw a parallel to the horros depicted within the context of a battlefield (i.e. soldiers fighting soldiers) Qbert.

I personally felt that the non-interactive opening to CoD4 was far more effective at conveying the attrocities of state-endorsed terrorism than shooting an airport full of people. And IW's context is lame - infiltrating a terrorist cell by partaking in terrorism? Come on, intelligence agencies try to stop such things and - ignoring the CIA conspiracy theories on Sep 11 etc. - is pretty unrealistic. The fact that IW have a disclaimer before the mission shows that they feel it will cross people's moral line - thus I wonder about their intentions - immersion in the game world or controversy and media attention for an already over-hyped game?

That this material is available to people under 18 is a sure sign of the need for an R classification - but no doubt groups like ACCM won't reason and would advocate a ban rather than a restriction to people mature enough to deal with such in game actions abstractly. Wasn't sold on MW2 after CoD4's single player left me wanting but this news is turning me even further away from a purchase - the world has enough horrible crap in it for me to want to try and enjoy it in interactive entertainment.

Bah, enough moralising from me - lets hear more people complain about the prospect of not getting MW2 - mloders post was classic.
Boo! No Iron Maiden and no Pantera. And nothing off the British Steel album! Oh well, it is better than anything GH or RB put out.
Benza wrote
The man has proven he knows how to make money in the video game buisness better then anyone, so yeah when he says that his company won't be doing well to support the sony 3, I'm gunna believe him.
Hey mate, you don't think that in this modern (failing) world of global capitalism that CEOs got to the top by telling the truth? I have no doubt this guy is a savvy business man - your point highlights this. But to say that he is successful because he knows what he's saying and he's saying the truth are two very different things.
As a few people have noted this is just very clever corporate spin (shift blame for upcoming poorer than expected profit forecasts to a company/console that is holding you back).

troublemaker wrote
Many CEOs use the media to force their point, even if they don't intend to go through with the threat.
As said, saying that Activision will make good on these threats/warnings/fluff is far too premature. Remember there are likely going to be another 3-5 years of this console cycle so Sony have a lot of time to make up ground. Though no doubt Activision and all other profit-starved third party publishers would like Sony to drop the PS3 price and give them their cashmonies now!