I remember when I first got Xbox live, bomber an live was all I played.

Daily Gaming News:
1) According to EA, the addition of micro-transactions in Dead Space 3 was the start of a larger plan for all games developed and published by the company to contain micro-transactions.
http://www.destructoid.com/ea-plans-...--247138.phtml

2) According to Masahiro Sakurai, a recent arm injury he sustained might cause the development of the next Smash Bros game to be delayed soon. He is currently having serious problems using a keyboard and controller.
http://www.destructoid.com/sakurai-s...t-247178.phtml

3) A recent trademark by Square Enix could indicate either a new game in the Deus Ex series might be in development soon or reveal the official name for the upcoming Deus Ex film.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/squa...s-ex-trademark

4) 343 Industries teases the future of the Halo series might involve more non-FPS games and less focus on Master Chief in order to develop new arcs in the series storyline.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...-master-chief/

What the hell is a micro-transaction anyhow? Paying for stuff in-game with real money without having to go to the PSN/Xbox Live store?

For the most part, yes. It's more for free to play games like Planetside 2, Dust 514 though, not for games you pay 60 bucks for. Hope this "idea" completely fails, but I know it won't, people are lazy and will pay to unlock something rather than actually playing the game to unlock it.

There's no future guesswork. It's succeeded.

Anybody here getting Sim City next week?

I'd love to but the combination of Securom (which puts me off a game, instantly) and my PC being unable to handle modern games makes it a no for me :(.
Wish they'd release the game on Wii U or something. Not a watered down or gimmick version. An identical version to the PC.

Loved the beta, but EA are trying to charge out of the ass for it.

They've made the always-online stuff kind of make sense, so I'm not fussed with that like I am with Ubi stuff. But £45 is hilarious.

EDIT: Just seen it for £30. Chanting that I'm going to Amsterdam to stop me impulse buying.

More reveals on March 4th, apparently.

I think they missed an opportunity by not having the game be about Assassins in the 80s punk scene, but that's me.

An AC game where you play as Billy Idol would actually be pretty great.

Still waiting on the eventual modern setting AC which will cross over with Splinter Cell somehow.

Was just thinking "Modern day AC = stealth FPS/TPS game"

:y:

It looks fun, but I don't want other people in my SimCity.

You can turn that off and just have a private one.

Daily Gaming News:
1) Sony announces Grand Turismo 6 will only be developed for the PS3 and won't have a PS4 version.
http://www.destructoid.com/gran-turi...--247302.phtml

2) Capcom rumored to be showcasing about nine games with two of the games being previously unannounced projects during next month's PAX East expo.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...s-at-pax-east/

3) Avalanche Studios once again teasing their next project could be Just Cause 3 after their CEO released a new teaser image. Another rumor stated these images might be related to a possible Mad Max game instead.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/rumo...e-just-cause-3

4) Sony has sold another headquarters building with this time their Tokyo HQ building being sold for around $1.2 billion. The sale is part of a current plan by Sony to generate massive amounts of cash to help offset their massive debts and financial losses from the past several years.
http://www.destructoid.com/sony-sell...n-247286.phtml

Who the fuck thinks Avalanche is making a Mad Max game rather than Just Cause 3? Who actually? What the fuck.

While I always thought and still think Cliffy B a hack; his latest rant is both 'epic' and parallel to my own rants about gamers. He's still a pretentious frog but for a week or so I'll consider him my brother.

Bunch of rumors the past few years hinting they might be developing the game after Just Cause 2 was done. Would be based around the 3rd film I think and not the cancelled 4th film since someone else is actually making that into a game.

Considering he's all over the place, I'm not sure what particularly you agree with there. However, the beginning (first several paragraphs) is utterly retarded, and even I feel the need to point out the obvious about Steam v Origin to him.

I can't believe you're that retarded, Kal. I really can't. This is "epic" only in the sense that it's long and in desperate need of editing.

Much like LotR, really.

There is a Mad Max remake in post production slated for a 2014 release.

"im sick of the hate on EA"

I bet this fuckwad is trying to get a job.

The retard fight between Steam and Origin aside, his main thesis is the culture of gamers feeling like companies are doing anything different than McDonalds running Happy Meal commercials during Saturday morning cartoons.

But yeah it could have been shorter. Sure.

Fuck that, he's been much more entertaining not making another shit game.

Yeah, except they kinda are and that's the problem.

I know gamers are generally man-children with no real-world experience, but this guy has had a job and ostensibly lived outside his mom's basement. He really should know better. He's making this stance at a time where game manufacturers are fighting for special snowflake privileges above and beyond what other industries have.

Hell, first sale doctrine alone would make your Cliffs Notes version of his point sound stupid.

Actually, McDonalds is a pretty shitty example, too. While they are profit driven, they're also pretty up-front about their actions.

The whole "companies are supposed to make money" is the sort of mouth-breathing shit I'd expect from James Steele or Sarah Palin.

Well they are, but don't let that be some end-all conclusion of mine. I do know of the bullshit they get into, but I don't pretend I have no choice but to be victimized. In SFxT I am against DLC Gems because of what that means to the metagame. I have never purchased DLC Gems. Capcom doesn't get my money. Unfortunately, for all the posturing people made over the deal, they are starting to spread like wildfire. I've run into a few players using them. Similar elements will be back in future Capcom fighters, I assume.

And that's it right there; companies do shady things, but people buy them anyway. If your biggest complainers are a small cabal of players while the rest are fine and dandy spending money on you, what would YOU honestly do? So it's not some 'companies exist to make money' for me, it's how gamers forgot about how much power they have. We killed Turok. We killed Siphon Filter. We killed the new Medal of Honor. We didn't like them so we killed them with our wallets.

Nobody sees it that way, though.

I've been enjoying Skyrim on PS3 lately, but started to wonder, do you think they'll release it again on the next consoles in ultra-high-res? Kind of to match it to how it looks on high-end PCs at the moment. It'd be like a GOTY package or something with all the DLC, and the load times reduced to nothing.

Doubt it.

They're probably too busy preparing FallOut 4 for the next gen systems.

Damn shame about the franchises you named, all were great IMO. Too many people stuck on the "annual blockbusters" now, like CoD, and what will be Battlefield and apparently Assassins Creed too.

Sad that Medal of Honor was killed, that was the first WW II shooter I had ever played.

Turok 2 and Goldeneye had a big hand in making love FPS games, before it got way crowded anyway.

I don't think gamers killed Turok, I think every game since the N64 games being bad killed it.

Games being bad doesn't factor as much as sales. There's a lot of bad games that are still kicking because somehow they convinced people to keep buying it. Conversely, there's some great games that are commercial flops - signing their death warrant. Sales are the end all, even beyond quality of the game.

Daily Gaming News:
1) LucasArts currently rumored to have delayed the development of Star Wars 1313 and now very likely to miss its planned late 2013 release window.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...wars-1313.aspx

2) According to an accidental leak by Ubisoft themselves, Assassin's Creed 4 is expected to be released on October 29, 2013 and will also include the next Xbox and PS4 as platforms for the game.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...-gen-consoles/

3) GameFly announces they have laid off roughly 15% of their staff as part of their current plan to put a greater focus on providing digital distribution services.
http://www.destructoid.com/gamefly-l...e-247348.phtml

4) As part of EA's plan for more micro-transactions in their games, the iOS/Android free-to-play game of Real Racing 3 contains roughly $500 worth of paying content. The game was also discovered to be very restrictive to play to the point it semi-forces money to be spent in order to make the game playable.
http://www.destructoid.com/real-raci...s-247411.phtml

RIP Real Racing 3. Deal with the devil and all that.

Or if you're Angry Joe, both.

Hate that guy, thought maybe I should watch an entire video to be sure.

I game him a shot because he's so well-liked by the CA crew and everything, but he's shit. Admittedly, I do watch the occasional video where I think he's going to lose his shit. As a (completely retarded) Capcom fanboy, he will suck their dicks and then complain that they screwed him again.

He's the worst member of TGS imo.

Now I wanna see if I could any notable spazz outs.

Weekend News Edition
 

According to a recent rumor, Yu Suzuki might considering using Kickstarter to help fund a potential Shemue 3 project.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...ckstarter.aspx

That is so sad.

I had fun with Shenmue xD

I need to protect my honor! but first it's time to pet this kitty, go to the arcade, drive a forklift, go on a date, eat, give the kitty a new box b/c now it's raining and then I can mebbe do some training

Watched Game Grumps play Shenmue and, even with the comedy commentery, I still thought the game looked pretty dull.

I'm sure, at the time of release, it was amazing but it doesn't look like it held up.

Shenmue is an unrecognized successor to a lot of stuff we see all the time in games, particular open-world sandbox games with varying degrees of side activities to do outside of the main narrative.

Really, though, people wanna finish the damn story.

Latest blog makes a case for why Battlefield 3 handled DLC and microtransactions better than many franchises this console generation. Thanks for reading/skimming.

Daily Gaming News:
1) Update to Square Enix trademarking a new Deus Ex name as it was revealed to be for the upcoming film from CBS Films.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/upda...rademark-movie

2) According to a new trailer released by Epic Games, Gears of War Judgement will contain an unlockable campaign called "Aftermath" and deals with what Cole and Bard were doing at the end of Gear of War 3.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...led-aftermath/

3) According to reports, co-founder Jason West has left Respawn Entertainment with the unofficial reason being related to family issues. West and Vince Zampella were the co-founders of Infinity Ward before their split with Activision a few years ago.
http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/ja...ment/1100-4594

Retarded, a wait time to play a single player game. Good job EA.

Yeah fuck perpetually online games.

That is really bad.

I'm waiting for this kind of thing to completely infect console gaming aswell.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/H9VClRhU404?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

It's not a single player game.

Yes there is an option to play a single player game, unconnected to other players cities, but you need to be online even for that.

Jesus Christ at that fat guy though.

Which makes it a multiplayer game that you're choosing to play alone - like playing solo in an MMO.

Looking at the reviews, solo seems the only way I'd play it because the cities are so tiny that I'd want to build up the entire region by myself.

Hate the design decision anyway. Have to be online even with a solo region because the server is doing some of the calculation. Then cities have to be tiny so the game will run on some old mans PC. I'm betting the server does so little on a private game that a server emulator comes out soon.

I wouldn't be surprised if cooperative play was required for topping the challenge leaderboards, but otherwise, yeah, I don't want to particularly play with other people. Except for the global market thingy.

Once the launch problems are sorted out, my boyfriend and I are going to work on a region together. And wow, there are a lot of launch problems. It reminds me of when WoW launched.

These Sim City bugs are getting hilarious now. This poor dude just had this happen and because there's no terraforming, he's essentially boned

http://i.imgur.com/CbRnT9p.jpg

From what I've heard, the launch of Sim City has been a disaster.

EA have tweeted that if you can't get on a server, try a different one!

Which would be great and all, but if you've started a city, you can't transfer it over to a different server. It stays on the same one.

Jesus, that guys voice is ridiculous.

I sincerely hope this trend of "always online" dies horribly in the worst fire ever. First with Diablo III and now this. If there is EVER an option for "single player" in a game, it should NOT require online connectivity. Otherwise, don't advertise as single player.

Sorry Poit, this isn't a multiplayer game, it is a single player game with the option of co-operative play, like Diablo 3. EA calling it "multiplayer" is just them trying to justify always on DRM.

He's got a point. It's not like this was marketed as a single-player experience.

Maxis Development Team on SimCity (Reddit)". Reddit. March 10, 2012. Wasn't marketed as MP either, simply said it was a "component".

Although the Senior VP at Maxis did say this about the DRM issue Dec 10 (reddit again), 2012:


Because ActiBlizzard proved that always online DRM works well against "bots" hacks, or otherwise non-mentioned piracy/illegal engineering of the software :|

Why is there no terraforming? That's retarded.

Because it is "too violent" and games cause people to go nuts and kill other people.

Seriously, wait a few weeks. The DRM will be found to have been USELESS and there will be some awesome mods (if it even takes that long).

It is actually doing shit on the server, so they'll need to fully emulate that. They still haven't done it for Diablo 3 yet. At least not fully.

Not FULLY, but functional none the less.

Either way, hiding behind DRM as the main reason for required online connectivity is complete bullshit.

Far Cry 3 patch is out, that lets you reset outposts.

Like how MMOs have a multiplayer component?

Is there any evidence to suggest that the multiplayer is just a justification for the DRM?

MMO? What, pray-tell, does MMO stand for? Massive MULTIPLAYER ONLINE. K, do I need to go further, or are you the only one that bought the Sim City MMO?

Also, their justification for DRM is for micro-transactions AND anti-piracy. It has been proven that DRM does NOTHING to combat piracy, especially in titles that have a huge role in the gaming world, like the name "sim City". Bottom line: It doesn't matter WHAT their justification would be for making it always online. It is simple enough to connect an individual user account to said server WHEN they authenticate.

Say, there is a button to click "Multiplayer". THEN the system tries to connect to the server, blah blah blah. The problem THAT brings into play is when the games system files are able to be viewed/deciphered/etc.. That data can then be used for reverse engineering opening the doors for piracy and cheats.

If DRM is to be implemented in a game that has a "single player" mode, it should have zero impact on the user unless they choose to participate in the multiplayer mode.


Sadly, it has become all about the $$$$. That is good, because they need to make money, but not at the cost of alienating the single player user base.

I actually do think this new game is like a SimCity MMO.

You confuse me.

Sorry, instead of :| I will use /sarcasm next time.

And you may think it is an MMO, as many others as well. It was not marketed as an MMO, and was also stated that multiplayer was a PIECE of the entire puzzle, not the puzzle itself.

MMO =/= RTS.

drave's just pissed he didn't read the box before he bought it.

Daily Gaming News:
1) Telltale Games announce Season 2 of The Walking Dead has a release date of Fall 2013 and extra Season 1 content will be released in the near future.
http://www.destructoid.com/the-walki...e-247930.phtml

2) The boss of Valve, Gabe Newell, announces prototype versions of the Steam Box will start to arrive within the next 3 to 4 months and will be available to the public.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...o-four-months/

3) Capcom announces Lost Planet 3's release date has been pushed back with the new date of June 25 for North America and June 28 for Europe.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/lost...troduces-story

4) EA claims they made a mistake by stating all future EA games will contain microstrancations and now are claiming to only mean the feature will be supported but not necessarily used. They did reiterate all mobile games will use the feature because they are all "free-to-play" games.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...-corrects-cfo/

5) Edios Montreal officially debuts Thief 4 with details including the game being a reboot of the series, a planned 2014 release date, and will be released on both PC and next gen consoles.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...-gen-consoles/

Bonus) Some recent speculation and theories involving EA's exclusive partnership with Microsoft for the next Xbox might involve Origin becoming the basis of the next version of XBLA.

Don't like the game :)

I just think it sucks for people that will be affected by the requirement. I actually see Poit's point and how many people will view it the same way as an MMO-esque game.

Hope the last bit about EA/Origin and XBL does not see the light of day.

Heh, I wasn't sure if the :| meant sarcasm or disapproval.

While the multiplayer is indeed just part of the game, it is a heavily-marketed and central part of the game. I mean, when you start playing (after the landing screen), the first thing you see is the interface to join an existing public region.

In a couple days, the post-launch issues will be resolved. Then, hopefully, people will start realizing that the always-online thing does actually have some benefits. For instance, if offline regions were a thing, then there would be people with offline regions complaining that they should be on the leaderboard, but aren't because they weren't online.

Granted, sandbox regions aren't eligible for leaderboards, so it would be nice if those could be made offline. Or perhaps you could tick a checkbox to say "I want to play offline, and I understand that I won't get achievements or qualify for leaderboards". I wonder how much of a performance hit it would be for the server-side processing to be done locally.

That's exactly it...

It would be LESS taxing on their side of things, more taxing on the user. However, it then comes down to meeting minimum requirements that are printed on the box, since you wouldn't need to worry about being connected.

They are out for any lil $$$ they can get (which is fine, they are a business). If, for example, my ISP was down because the wind blew the wrong way, no game for j0o! Just so many reasons that a user may not have a connection at any given point that could keep them from playing. Or, if EA decides to shut down the servers for the game, you have a neat paperweight :)

I hope it does work well and people enjoy what they paid for. I just hope that this trend does not continue and DEFINITELY hope it does not hit consoles.

If the ISP goes down more than likely your power went down too so you couldn't play anyways.

You've never been on Comcast, I see.

I am on Comcast, so I confer with you here, as much as I may not like it.


Even if the power goes out, one can still wardrive and get on another wireless connection :)

the amusing thing is that this really ought to be the default state.

The other amusing thing is that they're disabling shit like leaderboards, currently, which means the forced online element will have even less meaning to people who aren't intent on playing with others.

It looks like they really screwed the pooch on this one.

I really hate it when the easiest things go overlooked or under-valued. So many issues could be solved if people just cover their bases. Gonna call it the 'Key Hook' effect. Oh you keep losing your keys? Get a key hook for your wall, dumbass.

Good enough name as any for the phenomenon, I suppose.

I mean, seriously, at this point in time who couldn't see this one coming?

EA. And famously Ubisoft once upon a time.

Daily News - SimCity Edition
1) EA pledging to be adding more servers for SimCity over the next couple of days to help alleviate the long queues and connection problems.
http://www.destructoid.com/ea-will-b...s-248029.phtml

2) EA also announces they are disabling non-essential features (achievements, leaderboards, etc) as a temporary way to help reduce server issues for the time being.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/simcity-sadness/

3) Amazon has pulled the game from their store with the official reason being due to EA's servers being too unstable for the game. They will start reselling the game once those issues are fixed.
http://www.destructoid.com/amazon-ha...e-248072.phtml

4) While EA is claiming to offer refunds for the game, people are claiming those refunds ends up generating bans from Origin due to the chargeback being issued.
http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/1...h-origin-bans/
https://twitter.com/OriginInsider/st...83718321590273

What's fucked up is how people will forget the very next month and will not have a problem pre-ordering the next SimCity.

The whole "ban" thing appears to originate (no pun intended) from a gy threatening to stop payment.

Even that seems like dubious grounds for a ban, but it's a lot less stupid than the prior.

Next SimCity? They've probably already pre-ordered whichever the next always online game is. Because pattern recognition? What the fuck is that?

Sim City news edition?

Slow news day or something, Smelly?

Somewhat. There was a lot more notable SimCity news than regular non-thread worthy news that I could find for today.

Probably the biggest non-SimCity news would be EA managing to snag the lead designer of Watch Dogs and Far Cry 3 away from Ubisoft.
http://www.destructoid.com/watch-dog...a-247947.phtml

Whoop-dee-do for EA.

Pretty much can't wait for Japan centric game news come E3 and TGS, and anything from Nintendo.

The leaderboards aren't really important yet, because the first leaderboard challenge doesn't start for another... 12 days, I think?

What I'm more irritated about is the disabling of achievements and cheetah speed.

EA does it again. Sad too, they have some great games, but always fuck up the delivery. The Strike Series on the 32bit systems come to mind (Desert, Jungle and Urban Strike; good delivery, good times)

Exactly. And this sucks because the industry giants will continue with this methodology.

This!

The leaderboards will be useless anyway. There will be massive exploits in order to be at the top, everyone will end up with the same "max" in whatever categories they have, and it will all be for naught anyhoo. But yay anti-drm online only policy, amirite? :shifty:

Football player rants at EA over SimCity.