manny_c44

Yeah it is good, but I think it's unbalanced gameplay-wise. I think there should be way more options for setting up trade or becoming an Uber-mayor, or a conqueror, or have the political alliances actually mean something. But even the piratey aspects are off-kilter, the combat and dueling are ass-easy (the jab basically beats everything). I think the fact that you basically have to split up your entire fleet when your crew becomes restless is damn foolish, you should be able to selectively pay-off the ones that have been on for a long time and keep the fresh ones and your ships. And what the fuck is up with fighting with one ship? It's pretty dissapointing (unless I'm doing something wrong, am I?) All that said, I still end up playing it for 5 hours straight sometimes, it has that Sid Meier playability.

Yeah, I'm sure the rest of the board is made up of fun-loving animators brimming with ideas . The truth is, Disney after Walt has always been #1 about whoring and #2 about making movies. Each film is a finely crafted marketing ploy, and I doubt Eisner is a large part of that problem.

Blizzard is absolutely great at bringing things to the mainstream, I had two friends who'd never touched a MMOG and were already on the blizzard website oggling at this game months ago. One of them is a very casual gamer, only playing blizzard games and a few other titles, so I'd say the name recognition plays a large role in te fast sales. Plus the huge beta helped create alot of hype for the game.

Just watch this...

Does anyone shop on Christmas? Why would any store stay open? aside maybe from a conveniance store or something along those lines.

Sadly, I get Time, and that article was more of a Christmas shoppers guide, it wasn't a top ten (I only gave it a cursory glance though). Anyway, Pirates! is indeed out and is a huge time waster just like all of Sid's other games.

It's pretty much bullshit to call CSS an extra, Valve explicitly informed the community that it was the multiplayer part of Hl2. Since no game's multiplayer is sold as a stand alone product people have the right to bitch about it. At the same time, I have no idea why they would. CSS seemed complete to me, it is the most fun multiplayer component in a FPS I've played. And I generally loathe them. Kingz: You really want to convert to 3d just to tack on some superfluous action sequences....listen to what you've become!

I was hoping just to get away with a cheeky statement, but I'll explain myself when I have the time later tonight.

Here are some hilarious quotes just in case you guys don't want to read the whole thing: "Jeff Brown, a company spokesman, declined to comment on E.A. Spouse's allegations. Mr. Brown did say that the company was interested in its employees' opinions, as illustrated by its employee survey, conducted every two years. This suggests that it needs to conduct a survey to learn whether a regular routine of 80-hour weeks is popular among the salaried rank and file." "After Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, spent a sabbatical last spring as a researcher at the company, he wrote, "I am 43 and I felt absolutely ancient during my time there." He said the place felt to him like "Logan's Run," the 1976 science fiction movie in which no one is allowed to live past 30 - and he felt even older when he realized that the 20-somethings were too young to know the reference."

Your friend sounds kind of dumb. I'm sure current console games have created an expectancy for bulleted mission objectives and handy color-coordinated compasses among many people, but Half-Life benifits greatly for just assuming the player is competent and doesn't need to have their hand held. Valve went to great lengths to make the gameplay intuitive while leaving the story implied and characters developed within the game's actions; similarly the reasons for your actions can be gained if you're paying attention to the world, they are not being rammed down your throat, and I am quite happy about that.

Agreed. We really don't need the explicit explaiantion for something thats pretty much obvious.

Cock Bouillon cubes?

I agree with your wishes for a more adventurey game, the world was very fleshed out, it would be fun to have a larger story aand the ability to talk with everyone in depth. Its not often that a world is developed enough to create that desire, and usually when it is, its already an adventure game. But I can't really seem to understand the too-much-like Hl1 criticsm. Here you have a game with lots of outside and large inviornments with a gameplay system based around physics. I mean, the weapons are similar...uh, and it has some of the same enemies. I think it innovates in the strictly shooter aspect as much as any other game since HL1.

Nova's great, that and Arrested Development are the only two shows I try to watch every time (every time they're new anyway).

I think the point of their Ai isto not be controlled really. They take cover suprisingly well, its just that their health is the equivalant of a regular enemy soldier. My advice to you is when you get in combat situations (especially Striders--they all die no matter what) forget about them. They're useless in that situation anyway. Right now I'd say its probably the best squad Ai I've ever seen in an FPS, even though they still bunch up in doorways.

Yeah, the combine is the next evolutionary step in man (well, self-imposed step atleast), according to Breen.

Yes but 'Central Europe' looked wierd, thats more like a French thing I would think. Slovenia is probably better than Southern Europe or Eastern climate wise, (former too hot, latter too cold) it gets too hot for me when you even hit Bosnia-Herzogovina, so it is different. Or maybe that was just the drought condition summer heat? Hmmmm I wish I was over ther now. Atleast I'm not in Texas...

Wow it does sound good. You know, as good as a show about laser-toting dinosaurs can get anyway.

No, Sandtraps is pretty far from the end. Atleast 6 or 7 hours I think.

Oh and I agree 100% about the Sci-fi cliche made great by presentation. And I was just completely wowed by this specific part...i actually took this screen by accident when I quick saved.

The Middle Eas...oh wait, I already said one.

You cant upgrade an ATi voucher to one of the special packages. So unless he feels like paying $60 dollars for HL:S he'll probably be playing the old one. My recommendation is to just rip it off the internet.

I find all of these weapons based platformers totally unsatisfying, despite their high reviews. I quite enjoyed the original Jak and Daxter, but these other SCEA platformers they churn out are so...Pixar.

Eastern Europe?