Timewaster's Guide Archive
Games => Video Games => Topic started by: Entsuropi on September 15, 2004, 01:37:53 PM
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Games are much more antipation friendly than books.
I've got 4 games on preorder right now.
Dawn of War is the 40k game, and it comes out in, oh, 10 days. It is a really fast and fun RTS, closer to starcraft than anything else. With squads, upgrading weapons and awesome graphics, its a very good game. I beta'd it, if anyone wants screenies let me know.
http://www.relic.com/product/dawnofwar/index.php
Evil Genius is Dungeon Keeper, Doctor Evil style. You build a evil lair, plan your doomsday device, and capture and taunt secret agents. Rawr. Out on the 1st of October.
Website: http://www.howevilareyou.com/
Rome : Total War is, well, Shogun with romans. With great 3d graphics and things like cities having all their improvements during sieges that you can have artillery destroy (good for spiting the defenders if you are losing as the attackers) and with it being during my favourite time period, I'm happy. Out on the 1st of October.
http://www.totalwar.com/community/rome.htm
Finally, there is Nexus: The Jupiter Incident. It's a space strategy game, where you control 1 - 6 capital ships and do things like assign targets to each individual gun, allocate power etc. It looks gorgeous - their claim of 'Movie picture quality' is not idle boasting. Best of all, it has good mod support so there should be the usual bevy of Star Trek, Star Wars and Babylon 5 mods. I should see if I can convince anyone to make a Battlefleet Gothic mod. Out on the 1st of October.
http://www.nexusthegame.com/
As you can see, the 1st of October is a good day to be a gamer.
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I'm gonna go all out fanboy with Star Wars Battlegrounds :)
I may check out Sims 2 but won't really have time for it with my nightly crime fighting ;)
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I just found a link to this preview on Gamefaqs, but after reading it, I'm really looking forward to this game. Sprig, have you heard anything about this one?
http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/shinmegamitenseinocture/preview_6107534.html
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hey, what's not to love? There's a nearly naked angel in a decidely bondage mode.
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That's UXB's sister.
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Only that it just got awared a mature rateing for adult theams and such. The game is about fighting the Devil and his minions. Though that article is about all I've read about it.
Games I've waiting for
Elder Scrolls 4 (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/theelderscrollsivoblivion/index.html?q=elder+scrolls)
FF 7 spin off game for the PS2 (http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/09/15/news_6107494.html)
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Devil May Cry 3
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I'm kinda looking forward to sly cooper 2, the first one was really fun
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Oy, how could I forget Fable? Looks great so far!
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Gabe just thrased Fable for being a horrible game. Seams everything we were promiesed with Fable actualy isn't in the game. It's a standard linear hack and slash game with little originality. Sad, I was looking forward to this game, it's a good thing we have the PA guys to actauly give us honest views on games.
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I'm really looking forward to The Bard's Tale. I've been deprived of a funny RPG to play since I beat Fallout 2 for the hundredth or so time a year or so ago.
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I am looking foward to Halo 2, The new GTA, and the new Final Fantasy game I read about.
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Call of Duty: United Offensive. Killer. And another game I just made up.
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Katamari Demashi comes out today, I'm excited because my husband will stop talking about it all the time and start playing it instead.
Perhaps Spriggan could also tell me what the title means....
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Well that's an odd title.
Katamari is a clump, wad, lump of something (like dirt for example) and Damashi is to decieve I think. Damaru is the verb decieve. Maybe I should find the Ji for this to dubble check.
edit: Well Namco's site lists it at Katamari Damacy, so I can assume that Damacy is the name of the character, and he's a clump of something.
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I was looking forward to Fable before Gabe trashed it. Now I'll give it a rent.
I'm really looking forward to Halo 2 and plan on reinitiating my XBOX Live connection when I get back to the states. It'll be hard to beat Splinter Cell: Pandora Tommorow for awesome multiplayer, but I think Halo 2 can pull it off.
Other than that, I'm not really holding my breath for anything. Jade Empire and KOTOR 2 should rule when they come out.
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Update: Well gamespot says the title translates to "Clump of souls". Dama can be soul tho the Ji rarely uses that reading, actualy i'd say spirit since a lot of words that use that Ji are usealy in refrecene to ghosts and spirits. Why they have the "cy" at the end sure is a mystery, that's what threw me off.
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WTH are you talking about?
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Katamari Demashi comes out today, I'm excited because my husband will stop talking about it all the time and start playing it instead.
Perhaps Spriggan could also tell me what the title means....
That, I'm assuming. Y'know, if you READ the threads instead of just mocking us in self-satisfied aloofness, you'd know these things.
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Ok ok, for some reason I thought page 2 was page 1. I mean, under that context, Sprig's post would be kinda confusing, right?
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I admit nothing!
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Ok, so we picked up Katamari Damashi, and it should be on the list of "Disturbing things found on the PS2".
Seriously, trippy, like the whole Boo-bah thing. The intro looks like it was done for Monty Python's Flying Circus.
I think the Japanese do a lot more drugs than they admit to the rest of the world.
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Has anyone heard anything about the Star Wars Battlefront game? It looks pretty cool, but I am curious as to whether it is a multiplayer, a single player, and/or what characters you can play as and when.
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Tycho and Gabe don't like it, and that's the only opinion I've heard. I don't keep up since I always use such old hardware. From what I can gleen, it's multiplayer, but I don't know about what chars.
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I've read PAs comments and IGNs review. Basically it seems to be a Battlefield 1942 with starwars. Problems include moronic AI, maps that are too small feeling for the aircraft, and maps that require you to follow set paths to achieve victory, as opposed to actual fighting determining the winner.
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odd, gamespot liked it and said that about half the maps suffer from the limited paths and the other half (like Hoth) are realy open and allow you to do a lot. I'm tempted to get it, but only for the multiplayer since there seams not much point to the single player, though there is a coop mode that lets you do the campains with a few friends.
It's all standard troopers too, no Jedi or the like, it's basicaly like wolfenstine or Battlefield 1942 with the "classes", so sniper, heavy weapons ect.
http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/919278.asp
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forgot about the new MK game. the last MK game was realy good, probaly the best one since the first one, so I'm hopeing this is just as good.
http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/919922.asp
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Actually you get superunits. Like darth vader etc. But i bet they suck and get stepped on by the ATAT's.
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There are major characters in the game but you don't get to control them. I haven't had a chance to play around with Battlefront a whole lot yet and I've never played BF1942. So I don't really have anything similar to compare it to.
The game does offer a single player campaign spanning different eras. And there's also 'instant action" where you can just pick a rotation of maps and play all day.
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Thanks, that allows me a little better idea of what to expect.
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I still can't believe what they did to Stromtroopers and Rodians in that game!
They made it so your aim means nothing with a Stormtrooper! You blast can go any random direction!
And if you hop into a Rodian, be prepared for frustration. Even at the closest range they have a 85% miss chance.
Man, there's such a thing as emulating the movies, but this is ridiculous!!!!
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I was kind of perturbed that the AT-ATs automatically stop when they get into an Ewok ambush zone.
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Rodians? I haven't come across any yet and have gotten to Hoth in single player. Also I haven't seen any difference between stormies and their rebel counterparts.
Unless of course you're playing the version based on the new DVDs?
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You have to unlock the rodians.
On the intro screen hit up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start.
That will unlock the 'Jabba' army of Rodians, Twi'leks, and WeeQuay.
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Somehow I don't think that will fly on my PC...maybe after I finish the Rebellion era.
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The game is ok so far on one person. I thought that the new SW game would be something more, but so far it is not.
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Isn't that code the same one used way back in the day of Contra to get 99 lives? Come one, where has the originality gone?
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You miss the joke. that code is the Konami code which was featured in over a dozen Konami games. Hence the idea that it may be used here.
I liked it in the game Parodius, where the code would only work if you turned the controller upside down and did it by feel.
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I think it was best used in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, which would have been an impossible game without the code.
And thanks for getting the joke, Jam.
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Are you sure that the codes works. The reason I ask is that I can't get Jabba's army of Rodians, Twi'leks, and WeeQuay to unlock on my PS2.
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I believe that the PS2 version requires you to hold the controller upside down. There are more of those "flipped" games out there than you think.
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Throwing out a post that seemed appropriate for this thread.
I am looking forward to an RTS that allows me to customize the AI that controls my troops. I want one that gives me huge flexibility in how my men react to each other, to the enemy, and to the terrain. I won't go into detail on the kinds of things I want to be able to control because it would take too long.
Is there already a game out there that allows one to do this that I don't know about? The closest I've ever seen is "Myth: The Fallen Lords" and all it let me do was pick from a set of about 6 formations my guys could form themselves into and remember hot keys for specific groups of guys.
The game I'm envisioning would have many unit types, all of which could be programmed by the player to react how he wanted to lots of different stimulus. The challenge in playing would be to find a set of SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) that worked well in a variety of environments and against different opponents.
The challenge in coding such a game would probably be figuring out how to keep it simple enough to be humanly possible to code but complex enough that there would not be a set of SOPs that turned out to be the best and won in every case.
Anyone know of such a game? Any game developers out there who want to make one?
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see, what you want to do is join the national guard and go fight a real war.
wait.
nm.
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Yes, exactly. Why can't they code that into a game? Then I wouldn't have all these adrenalin rush withdrawal symptoms and I could avenge my friends with digital mayhem.
As it is now I have to live a super secret double life and get my rushes by leaving strange things on people's doorsteps.
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But seriously, what is standing in the way of this kind of game?
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Well there are probaly several things
1) the cost. The video game industry is in a rut right now, games have become so expensive to make, some cost as much as movies (ie 20-30 million), and no company wants to finiance any game that is to risky or strays away from the norm.
2) Time. There are massive deadlines and pressure on companies now, due to #1, most games only have a year or so to get finished, and the more things like that you've added the longer it takes.
3) Complexity. There have been several RTS games that try and make terrain matter and units react to them, but they've all sucked. AI controls aren't easy either, if you do see anything like that the best you'd get is: If unit a meets unit c have unit a do x. Designers learned that people don't like to know how to program to beable to take advantage or game features (which the AI controls would have to be). Also the more AI features you include the higher the min requirements for the game, which would mean less people could play it and thus buy it.
4) Demand. RTS games just aren't as popular right now as they were a few years ago, they'll come back. Anything that got green lit right now wouldn't have the funds or time to make a good, complex RTS game like you want.
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Well, that was a good answer. I say curses.
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I actually think what I'm looking for could be accomplished fairly easily now that I've thought about it. Now, I've never programmed a game before or even done any really difficult programming but it seems to me that a lot of the variables that would provide the if parts of most of the then statements are things that most RTSs I've played already keep track of as a matter of course, like how far away is any given unit from another unit or is the unit stepping onto grass or onto a tree, the unit's health, etc...
Of course this would, like you said, require a bit of simple programming to take full advantage of but if the default settings made for pretty normal gameplay, like Starcraft say, then the programming is not a barrier to entry but just an added bonus for the hardcore.
This doesn't really answer any of your objections it just demonstrates that I really want a game like this to come out.
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Well if there is demand for that type of game it'll get made.
Also a not on what you just said, the more things you have the computer check every second (actualy most check several times a second) the more prossessor power it requires, you may not think it takes a lot but they all add up. Add graphics, music and all the other things and you could have a massive memory eating game there. Of course the better the programmer the less memory it would take.
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So has anyone picked up Dawn of War yet?
It's on my list once I get back stateside...if my comp can run it (I think it can).
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Well, yeah. Could you imagine me NOT pre-ordering it? :P Only problem is the 1.1 patch destroyed my ability to play online, so if you want games we will have to do direct connect with unpatched copies :(
It's pretty damn sweet though. I should review it.
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Lord of the Rings; the Third age looks good. I completly forgot about this game until Gabe mentioned it the other day. I've got too much on my plate right now for how little I play video games right now, but maybe I'll use christmass money (if I get any) to pick it up in January.
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Is this game only on GameCube? It looks so dang cool. I hope it will come out on xbox.
I was really bummed to hear that GTA San Andreas is only going to be on PS2... oh well, at least I'll be able to get Halo2 when that comes out.
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Na, it'll be on all 3 consoles and PC Moredew.
And the new GTA will come out on the XBox, but just like all the others it'll be on the PS2 first, expect it by June at the lastest.
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Sweeeeeet! Now I have two more games to look forward to playing. The hard thing will be to convince the wife to let me buy them, play them, and enjoy them
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Amen Brother MoreDew! You are preaching to the choir here.
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At least your siblings didn’t tell you that you aren’t allowed to by that game due to that the fact that my birthday and X-mass are coming up. They want to be able to buy me gifts so I am not allow anymore to buy my toy. It really sucks cause the new GTA game rock.
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Halo 2 tomorrow!
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See I'm lucky, my parents and siblings (with the exception of EUOL) won't buy me video games, they buy me clothes and things that "normal people" would want, like a bed, mini fridge, ect. So I do my clothes shopping at christmass and six months later at my B-day, then spend all my money that I would buying things like that on games. It's actualy a pretty good deal, since I'd rather be spending my money on good off stuff anyway.
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Halo 2 tommrow??? Tonight, brother :)
I'm picking it up at midnight.
Yes, I know I'm a huge dork for it, but I have tommorow morning off so I took that as a sign.
My XBOX Live gamertag is "Eye Tyrant" if you're on, btw.
I'm starting a clan for RPG.net. You're welcome to join.
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I'm starting a clan for RPG.net. You're welcome to join.
on that note, todays PA
http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2004/20041108l.jpg
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Pleasington, I hate you. Some would call it envy, but I call it hate. I have to go to school tomorrow, and even if I didnt, I cant drive, so I couldnt get it tonight anyway. As for the offer to join your clan, that would be awesome if I played on XBOX Live, but I dont have it. Maybe someday.
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If you have the connection its pretty easy to get a free 2 month trial in the package with all Live Enabled games. So that should help if money is an issue. If its your connection then there's no help for that...
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Dang, you're lucky. My wife would kill me if I even thought of buying that game before Christmas. It's a no win situation for me. First she'll tell me to wait for christmas to see if I'll get the game, which I know for a fact that I will not get the game. She doesn't like me playing video games because she feels like I ignore her (which may be true...)and second, when I try to buy the game after Christmas, she'll tell me that I can't buy it because we won't have any money because of the presents that we bought.
Moral of the story: Wives and video games don't mix. Brothers, learn from my mistakes.
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Well, Halo 2 is pretty awesome so far. Granted I'm only on the second stage, but you can tell Bungie learned from the feedback from the first game. I'm pretty impressed, plus the opening sees the (extremely surprising) return of one of my favorite minor characters from last game.
Trying to play on Live tonight was tough. Since only a handful of folks actually have the game, the wait for matching was long. I did get in one game though, in which I took third. Really awesome level design.
So, I'm impressed. Let's hope it keeps up. I'm not looking forward to the "ending" though. That seems to be every reviewer's main complaint.
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I've never been closer to actually buying an Xbox. Halo 2 and LotR: Third Age are so very, very tempting.
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Dew, does she keep track of what you're playing? I've found that my wife can't identify most of the games I play. buy it, and then if by some weird chance you DO get it for Christmas, return the new copy.
ok, yeah, that's a little deceptive. But you gotta timewaste SOMEHOW.
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Hehe, you've never met Dew's wife. She's a computer programmer (at least that was what she was doing a while ago if my memory serves me), she knows the difference between games.
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well... grovelling is always an option.
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Don’t take offence to what I’m saying MorDew. You wife need to chill out and take some thing. I don’t care what it but something. You are with her right now even after all that has happen you are with her and you still love her and she your wife. It is a game and it’s your time to enjoy your alone time. She needs to understand that you have your together time and then you have your alone time. At least my woman gets that right now. I have my time and she has her time. I think I would go crazy more than I am if I had to spend 24-7 with my girl. There only so much crap I can take.
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No, my wife doesn't understand my alone time. She thinks that I am wasting my alone time by playing video games....uh, that's why I play! I can't pull of playing a new game in front of her because she'll spot it right away and then get on my case about it. If I ask her if I can play she'll ask, "so, what am I supposed to do while you're playing?" Don't know, don't care. Find a hobby.
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HA HA HA. I would have said something along of the line of where my dinner or go read a book.
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yeah I could say "go fix my dinner" but then the shizzle would really hit the fan.
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Wow, and she use to sit there and watch you play games. You're right she needs a hobby, or you can try what Gabe did and ask her to play with you.
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yeah, she used to sit there and watch-- while we were engaged! Once we were married, boy did that change. I could ask her to play, but that would be futile because (1) she doesn't like the same games as I do, and (2) when we do play a game, she always accuses me of taking all the gold, or gaining all the experience or ruining the fun for her. It's a no-win situation.
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:-/
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And people wonder why I'm not married.
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Since the other Halo 2 thread is a spoiler I thought I'd post this here, $100 million (http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/11/09/news_6112817.html) opening for Halo 2? looks like it, there were about $78 million in presales alone.
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Im not looking on the spoiler thread as I'm not that far into the game yet.
Overall, I think Halo 2 is an improvement on the original. Especially with the new weapon designs. Now your standard batte rifle is actually a decent weapon instead of being utterly worthless. They've really polished it and it shows.
One thing that completely frustrates me is the multiplayer lobby though. You can't choose a specific gametype you want to play! It's ridiculous. So I can't just say I want to play Assault, I can only pick Team GAme. Super suck!
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I'd heard that Halo 2 was big, but I didn't realize it was 100 Million. I did some quick checking on rottentomatoes, and the only movie of the year to have a bigger opening was Spider-Man 2, with 115 Million (those are weekend numbers, which is different than a single day, but the Halo2 numbers include presales so I'm calling it even).
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Pleasington, none of us are very far into the game yet, so the spoilers thread is just sharing parts of the game that we (dis)liked so far. No spoilers for the story, just stuff elements of the game.
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considering that a video game costs 5-10 times as much as a movie ticket, that means that 5-10 more people went to see spidey that weekend then bought Halo 2 this week. any movie that made $200,000 still beats Halo 2, i think,in terms of viewers.
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Dividing 100 million by 10 still gives 10 million at least. It's not That badly off. Besides, the comparison still isn't fair since many of the copies of Halo 2 are going to households while movies viewed by households get multiple tickets. Even then, it isn't really an accurate way to view things, but it's still probably true that more people enjoyed Spiderman 2 than Halo 2.
It's suddenly amusing that we're comparing two things that are second in a series.
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/me backtracks and re-does his math
it should say 10,000,000. I don't know where that $200,000 came from.
I'm not sure I trust that the number of households that bought Halo 2 that has more than one Halo 2 player living there is that significant.
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oh, and one of you yahoos is giving us a review, right? This isn't something we should skip on for review.
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The important difference is not in number of viewers but in profit. I don't know how much either movie cost to make, but the fact that video games are creeping up into hollywood-size revenue is big news. If it turns out that the video games have a cheaper development cost, thus turning out a much higher profit margin, then we're going to see an increase in big-name investors backing video games in addition to movies.
More money will, presumably, mean better games; but it could also mean stiffer deadlines that don't leave time for full testing, as with World of Warcraft. This is rarely a problem on consoles, however, so it's hard to predict what would happen.
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Video games allready have huge budgets, Capcom has had several with a $10 million budget and so have other companies, it's not that uncommon anymore. Heck I wouldn't be surprised of WoW was close to that too. The high cost of games is one of the reason there are so few that stray away from any norms, its becsaue the investors are too scared of looseing all the money that was invested. It's also casued lots of Japanese companies (square, sega and a few others) to go bankrupt and get bought out by others that didn't go all out. Nintendo, and Capcom are about the only 2 Japanese developers that didn't come apart over the past few years due to looseing lots of money through failed games. Capcom becsaue they had about several big flops, but lots of good games that helped offset the cost, and Nintendo becasue they have a small release scedual and most of their games sell very well.
The high price is also one of the reason so many games feel rushed too, the companies despertly need to get that money back ASAP (like Vivindi) so they end up stabbing themselfs in the foot becsaue then no one buys the game. Of course this dosen't apply to WoW, since I'm sure I'll be the fastest selling MMO game ever.
Back to Halo 2, it looks like it pulled in 121 million in one day! That's a lot of cash. And because we're talking about how much things made. The Shrek 2 DVD generated about $185 million over the weekend in combined DVD and VHS sales. Man, I wish I was a fat annoying Ogre (I've only got the fat and annoying parts), I'd be so rich right now.
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Well, you've also got the fact that you're a MMO as well going for ya. So don't get your hopes up yet.
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I don't consider $10 Million a big budget when comparing games to movies.
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Well, my clan is up and going really well. We're up to about 10 members and people keep rolling in. I just wish more would sign up for our Bungie clan page here:
http://www.bungie.net/fanclub/9635/Group/GroupHome.aspx
I thought the pages would be weak, but they're pretty slick and have their own forum. I'm impressed. Just hope the rest of the clan starts signing up for it.
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I'm guessing that the motto is an inside joke from a forum discussion? Kind of like quoting Spriggan?
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Yep. I wouldn't have chosen it if I had made the group.
A thread a rpg.net a few years ago was mispelled: "My hat of do2 know no limit."
That became a running joke there and even spawned a parody rpg: "D02: Know No Limit"