Video Game News and Miscellany

Necronic

Staff member
Good IP can pull a lot of players pretty fast. WAR had something like 700k users right out of the gate. To be honest I'm surprised that SWTOR didn't pull as many in it's release, as it's more recognizable and unique IP.
 
SWTOR may actually be able to keep around 500k based on it's property alone... but I have a feeling it's going to be more like 300k. If EA actually expects to pull that many people right out of the gate, they are crazy.
They're actually sitting at 1.7M subs right now (they had a ridiculous 85% retention rate, according to their earnings call). They could pull it off.
 
I have a couple friends who are so sure swtor will go free to play, but I don't see it happening. The updates/fixes are coming at a decent rate, and major updates are planned for the next few months already. The downside is normal raids are ridiculously easy (I have yet to try Hard or Nightmare), so I'm not sure how it'll hold up in endgame PvE in the long run. PvP seems to be doing pretty well, though, hell I enjoy it and I've hated PvP since WoW introduced Arenas. The storylines are pretty solid so far, and eventually expansions/patches are supposed to be adding more to each class, with the possibility of new companions as well. It'll be interesting to see where the game goes from here, it might not keep up with WoW's numbers, but then it doesn't have to in order to be successful.
 
The downside is normal raids are ridiculously easy (I have yet to try Hard or Nightmare), so I'm not sure how it'll hold up in endgame PvE in the long run.
Hard is also really, really easy. My guild one-shot 3 of the 10 bosses on hard, killed 4 others within ~3 tries, and are mostly held up by scheduling issues and our ridiculous group composition on finishing it out. It's actually incredibly boring.
 
Yeah from what I understand it's mostly just adding more HP to a boss to make it a bit harder on the enrage timers, but a couple clears of normal gets you the gear to win the DPS race. Apparently Nightmare is tough thanks to an overhanging timer on the whole zone of 2 hours or something like that.
 
We're still working on Eternity Vault here on Rubat Crystal, mostly because the Ancient Pylons are a pain in the ass with their Kamikaze Rakata.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
GOG.com just tweeted "Some say that tomorrow's release is misplaced in time, but it's definitely not noxious;)"

Could this mean that Anachronox is coming to GOG? If so, that's really tempting. I played the demo way back, but never had the cash. I've heard good things about it. I wonder how it's held up.
 
Yeah, I'd buy a HD version. Maybe even setup a game with folks. It's funny since I was speaking of this like a few days ago with Frankie while we played some ME3 MP.

Had no idea for a plan...

90 min to go...
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Atari Reveals Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition for Summer 2012

This image may or may not be real, spoilered for teh huge:
bgannounce.jpg

EDIT: I'm facepalming at how poorly handled this announcement has been. Baldur's Gate is one of the biggest names in RPG history, and they didn't even have press releases to send out to gaming news sites in case their site went down due to massive interest.

Also, Beamdog is some sort of digital distribution platform, and a pretty lousy looking one at that. If this isn't available on other services, I won't even consider it, and I probably won't get it unless I can get it on Steam or GOG.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Also, Beamdog is some sort of digital distribution platform, and a pretty lousy looking one at that. If this isn't available on other services, I won't even consider it, and I probably won't get it unless I can get it on Steam or GOG.
Or demonoid. Just sayin. :twisted:
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Well, this tells me all I want to know about Beamdog:
Beamdog has no Sales.JPG


Not even a 10%-off pre-order promotion. On a day they should know they're going to get traffic, they can't even put a single game on sale? Screw them.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I hope they improve the multiplayer. Make it more like NWN1's multiplayer. Baldur's Gate's multiplayer made whoever was not talking to an npc sit there doing nothing during the conversation, like NWN2 did (which was a huge step backwards).
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Trent Oster ,formerly a Bioware director, now working at Beamdog, has been handling some questions via Twitter. According to him, BGEE will:
- Still use 2nd Edition rules
- Be a Beamdog exlusive (Boo!)
- include Tales of the Sword Coast
- will allow mods
- screenshots coming next week (if the servers survive)
- contain new content
- Baldur's Gate 2 will also get an Enhanced Edition
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I paid full price for BG and TOSC originally, as this was before I had broadband. I know this doesn't entitle me to the enhanced version, but I'd still feel like I was paying twice for the same game...

And wtf is beamdog, never heard of their stupid ass. If it's just a website like GOG or Direct2Drive, then ok... but if it's yet another goddamned "you must keep our gatekeeper client shit open to play your game" like steam or origin, they can go sodomize themselves with a big spiky pineapple.
 
Man are geeks fucking uppity as fuck, already making dumb as shit conclusions that it'll be using 4th edition rules. First, that'll never happen and secondly if it'll happen, it won't be anywhere as bad as your ignorant views will believe it'll be.

No idea who the fuck Beambog is and I don't care for ye another "Steam" competitor.

Also, Atari still touching D&D games? For fucks sakes.

Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to finding out more on the game however and I'm happy it got so much attention, hopefully, someone somewhere will fund a 3rd game.... maybe even give it an ending that goes beyond choosing a color.

lol
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Hello My Future Borderlands 2 PC Player is a love letter to PC gamers on the Borderlands 2 website from Claptrap, the incredibly sincere robotic mascot for the role-playing shooter series. This touts some of the PC-specific features in the upcoming sequel, offering the following summary in conclusion:

  • FOV Slider
  • 100% Mouse Usable Menus/Mouse wheel scrolling
  • PC Specific UI
  • Native Multiplayer Matchmaking
  • Push to Talk
  • Logitech Keyboard Support
  • LAN Support (incluing OFFLINE mod)
  • Control Pad Support
  • Integrated V-Snyc Option
  • Mouse Smoothing Options (can be disabled completely)
  • Cloud Save Support
  • Achievement Support
  • Friends List Support
  • No Port Forwarding required
- From Bluesnews

More
 
Man are geeks fucking uppity as fuck, already making dumb as shit conclusions that it'll be using 4th edition rules. First, that'll never happen and secondly if it'll happen, it won't be anywhere as bad as your ignorant views will believe it'll be.

No idea who the fuck Beambog is and I don't care for ye another "Steam" competitor.

Also, Atari still touching D&D games? For fucks sakes.

Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to finding out more on the game however and I'm happy it got so much attention, hopefully, someone somewhere will fund a 3rd game.... maybe even give it an ending that goes beyond choosing a color.

lol
Start a Kickstarter project for BG3 and email the link to Notch. It'll be funded in a week.
 
Blizz did it because people were using the LAN option to connect to 3rd Party matchmaking services in order to play their pirated copies of the game online, against people. I really can't blame them for it.
 
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