Video Game News and Miscellany

figmentPez

Staff member
Steam Remote Downloads Now Available Online

In short, you can now tell your home PC to download a Steam game from your web browser or the Steam mobile app. I'm not sure how useful this would be, but it's kind of interesting to think that you could purchase a game (or decide to replay an old one) while you're out, and come home to find it mostly installed.
 
THQ continues its tailspin: W40K: Dark Millenium Online is now a single player game, 118 employees laid off.

I feel bad for all the people who lost their jobs yet I am ashamed to admit that when I saw that headline my first thought was "Oh man...the ONE MMO I was looking FORWARD TO!" >.<
May be a bit late to the party here, but I, for one, just want to say that I can't feel bad about this. It'd be a shame if Runic went under with them, but THQ can go crawl into a corner and die. I'm sure there were good people in there, but as a publisher, they were horrible. Shut down quite a few developers, pulled the plug on supprot for brand new games because launch day sales were under expected results; single-handedly responsible for no patches past the expansion for Titan's Quest and for there never being an TQ 2.... I hope the people in THQ who know/care about games find employment enlsewhere in the sector, and the people responsible for the executive decisions end up walking behind the garbage truck. It'll probably be the other way around, of course...
 
S

SeraRelm

How could any game developer just shit all over the industry like that?!

Ok, I'm sick of looking up logos, you get the idea...
 
Oh, absolutely, true. I wouldn't mind EA, Ubisoft, Activision going down in flames either. The others have at least some redeeming qualities, usually outside of their publishing branch.
"Old" Blizzard, Valve up to a point, and quite a few others have shown in the past that it *is* possible to be a regular moneygrubbing corporation and be a publisher. It's just too bad most of the modern-day big publishers seem to be of the opinion that the customers are there to serve them, instead of the other way 'round. The same is true in, for example, the branch I work in. Service providing companies are there to provide a service. Once they think the customer is there to keep them afloat, it all goes downhill. We pride ourselves on being slightly more expensive but offering far superior service...Unfortunately it's absolutely not true. We just sh*t on our customers and tell them to like it. No wonder we're going down too. We buy up all the little ones we can, and ater about 6 months, each time, over 60% of their customers have left for some competing company...Which, more likely than not, we'll buy out soon enough too.
 
The funny thing is that he's games aren't bad, they just don't have half the stuff he says they will at the start...

Man needs to learn to keep his mouth shut...
 
Sometimes getting Atlus's newsletter is a bad thing, because I hear about awesome games I can't afford.

Gungnir just came out, a PSP tactical RPG. It looks like a great one and supposedly has a deep system/story, unlike FF Tactics Advance. I try to be more discerning with these types of titles--much as I love the subgenre, I don't want to get suckered into shit like Vanguard Bandits (not to be confused with Vandal Hearts, which was a blast even though very simple). Also waiting on the reviews for Pokemon Conquest for this reason.

Not that it matters much, because again, can't afford games right now. Wheee! I tried getting my wife to agree to sell the Xbox 360 (which we bought with my money) but she's all "I want to play Mass Effect again someday" (knowing her, this will be in three years) or "I want to play Lost Odyssey when I actually have money". Great.

About the only thing I can do is use PSN points... I have enough. I was kind of planning to use it on HD Shadow of the Colossus. Don't know what to do now.

I should probably just finish Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together before getting any more of this type of game, honestly.
 
Nintendo sometiems does magical things. And sometimes they bet on completely the wrong horse. Just like Apple, in a way, yes. Finding a cool new gadget/aspect of an already existing thing and making it into something new/better, awesome. See the iPod, iPhone, Gameboy, Nintendo DS (somewhat).
And sometimes you get the 3DS (who the @$$ ever thought that would sell? A portable console with a "special effect" that can't be used on the go (becausr the 3D is too finnicky) and most people don't even want/care about/like (because 3D continues to be a technology being shoved down people's throats but I've heard precious few people saying they demand it/want it strongly/like it - and sales of the 3DS, pretty much all 3D-tvs and so on say the same - it's just not what modern day consumers are looking for. Maybe in a few years.).
I'll call it now: the next version of the XBox will be able to work synced up with the MS Surface and have it double as a controller. If they're smart, they'll allow any type of pad (including i) to act as controller. It could work as a gimmick for some games. I can even see it working well for the Wii target audience. But not in this way, with a controller that sort of looks like a pad, but isn't. That's just...weak.
 
They're halfway there - and I personally think it's clever. The latest update to the Xbox Live iPhone app started introducing features that are pushing the app into remote control territory, which I think is brilliant.
 

fade

Staff member
I'm watching Nintendo stock for the WiiU release. You guys don't care much for the WiiU, but all the parents will be shouting "Shut up and take my money".
 
You guys don't care much for the WiiU, but all the parents will be shouting "Shut up and take my money".
Bully for them. It's still looking like a shit system, and if they want to be idiots and throw money away, that's their right.
 
And sometimes you get the 3DS (who the @$$ ever thought that would sell? A portable console with a "special effect" that can't be used on the go (becausr the 3D is too finnicky) and most people don't even want/care about/like (because 3D continues to be a technology being shoved down people's throats but I've heard precious few people saying they demand it/want it strongly/like it - and sales of the 3DS, pretty much all 3D-tvs and so on say the same - it's just not what modern day consumers are looking for. Maybe in a few years.).
You sure about that? Almost double the sales of the orignal DS in it's first year, with also about double the releases and game sales, and you're using it as a example of poor performance? The @$$ that thought it would sell seems to be right.

Bully for them. It's still looking like a shit system, and if they want to be idiots and throw money away, that's their right.
I think there's still too many unknowns at the moment to have definite feelings about it, so I'm still cautiously optimistic.
 
The 3DS underperformed giving Nintendo it's first loss financially in a year they've ever had. It required a drastic cut in price to perform.

I don't know about the Wii-U as Nintendo is being nothing but confusing about it. Most people think it's just a Wii add-on and I'm still skeptical on it being cheap enough to be popular. Old people already own a Wii and no games. I don't think they're going to be as willing to buy a follow-up they think is just an add-on.
 
The 3DS underperformed giving Nintendo it's first loss financially in a year they've ever had. It required a drastic cut in price to perform.
Which doesn't change that it is performing. It had a weak opening, yes, but the fact that it's sales are now outpacing what the DS had (which has been humorously described as printing money) means that, unlike what Bubble said, modern-day consumers are looking for it and buying it.
 

fade

Staff member
Bully for them. It's still looking like a shit system, and if they want to be idiots and throw money away, that's their right.
But my point is I don't care. I'm not buying one, but I'm willing to bet actual dollars on the market that parents will. Nintendo and WB are my two stocks to watch right now, because there is no way WB is going to let the Avengers go unchallenged.
 
Bully for them. It's still looking like a shit system, and if they want to be idiots and throw money away, that's their right.
There are no specs out except that it will use a dual core processor... premature much.

Then again it is a console... :rimshot:
 
I don't think parents will be lining up to get it unless Nintendo starts making it clear this is a new system, because the controller continues to look like a Wii accessory. And the article made a good point--they need something to grab attention the way Wii Sports did.

From a gamer standpoint though, I see no point in getting one. It looks poorly thought-out, like the 3DS. I worry for Nintendo and it's too bad I won't be playing the next series of their first-party titles.

On a related note, got rid of the Wii today and I'll be picking up the Gamecube from my mom's house this weekend, since that's all I've been using the Wii as.
 
Top