Yeah they already have that crap with games like Battlefield, luckily I could care less about multiplayer.

Yep I regret my choice this gen too, I only went with 360 cause PS3 was a ridiculous $600 at the time.


This would however be a great opportunity for Sony to once again be the undisputed king of console gaming, as I guarantee this move would piss tons of gamers off, myself included.

You speak like the only thing that matters in the gaming industry is the next AAA title. Why did you bring up the Modern Warfare angle but ignore my Rockband example for DLC?

Consider the popularity of casual gaming through browsers, social networking sites, tablets, and phones. Sure it might not be 'hardcore', but it's kind of impossible to deny the success of that market or the fact that they do produce games. How much does it cost to get Farmville? Is it really $60? I used $50 as an example of how it's easier to convince a lot of people to buy a small thing for cheap than it is to convince people to buy a big thing for a lot.

As for the Free to Play model just about every MMO out there besides World of Warcraft and the new Star Wars game don't charge monthly fees anymore. Not only did they get rid of the financial entry barrier and monthly subscriptions, some have even turned around to proclaim increased revenue greater than they ever had while operating with the classic 'pay first' model.

Again, are you actually paying attention to the industry or just to your particular niche preference?

I think expansion content (known nowadays as DLC) is great in principle, but was understandably manipulated beyond recognition by big business. For example, Roller Coaster Tycoon's "Corkscrew Follies" and "Loopy Landscapes" each doubled the content of the original game and were entirely worth the expansion price. Like mr dave mentioned, there are plenty of publishers/devs still making worthwhile and fairly priced expansion content (lots of indie games come to mind), but when it comes to "AAA" titles you can almost be sure the expansions are going to be a ripoff. Publishers know that their huge fanbases will gobble them right up.

I'm perfectly fine with the Rock Band DLC. I have no interest in those music games, but if you think it's worth the money then I'm sure it is. I think I've said it 2 or 3 times already, but I'll repeat it again to be clear: DLC has potential and can be awesome when it's worth the price (Shivering Isles, GTA IV expansions come to mind). It's when they rip you off (and on Xbox, at least, this seems to be the majority of cases) that DLC makes me mad. I'm pretty sure we're on the same page with that.

Which is what I was referring to with the $60 base games you pay for. I fail to see how it's a 'free to play model' whether you're paying $60 upfront, or $10 a month.

You seem to be grossly misunderstanding my words.

That's fair but I don't get where DLC rips anyone off. It's a product offered to the public like anything else. You make the claims you don't care about multiplayer or anything besides the base core experience of a game. So why get upset about a facet of the industry that exists solely to expand multiplayer or core experience. It's not like you need to buy DLC in order to finish the main game.

As for free to play that is EXACTLY as it sounds. You go to whatever webpage, create an account, download the launcher, download the game, then play. As much as you want, as often as you want. For no additional cost besides what it normally costs you to check this website. Games like...

Team Fortress2
City of Heroes
Dungeons and Dragons Online
Lord of The Rings Online
Everquest
Age of Conan
Hellgate London
Champions Online
DC Universe

And that's just off the top of my head, any one of those. Free. That's not to say there aren't different levels of service for people with free accounts vs. people with premium accounts but the fact remains, the core game and access to the core game has now started shifting to being free. Every single title in that list has made the announcement that they noticed both an increase in players and an increase in revenue after switching to a free2play model. They make more money off micro-transactions than they did from monthly subscription fees.

The new Mechwarrior and Splinter Cell (or maybe it was Ghost Recon) have also been announced as being F2P releases when they launch later this year.

Really though, outside the AAA / 'hardcore' gamer demographic, there really aren't that many games being launched at $60. Especially not when you factor in mobile and casual gaming into that mix. The next gen consoles are not where it's at for the industry, whoever bridges the gap between casual / portable market and the next gen is. The WiiU is interesting but I really think Nintendo dropped the ball with the original presentation and arbitrary 1 tablet per console limitation.

It's true that I could just as easily ignore it all since it doesn't affect me directly. DLC is obviously not a ripoff to anyone who buys it and is satisfied with it and I don't claim to speak for anyone but myself. But there's no denying that developers go where the money goes, so you get a bunch of people buying MW3 and suddenly the market's going to be flooded with COD ripoff's trying to break off a piece of the customer base. Meanwhile an incredible game like Dark Souls gets a tiny fraction of the sales COD gets, discouraging other developers from making a game of similar depth and detail. So I could just ignore it, but it doesn't change that I don't like the direction that the game industry is headed, and their "nickel-and-dime"ing of customers these days.

Ah ok, it's true that outside of console gaming, I don't pay much attention to the gaming industry so I wouldn't know too much about these free to play games and I consider iphone games and stuff an entirely different industry personally. I'm envious now though that I don't have a good gaming build PC. :banghead:

Dark souls, it really is an infuriatingly difficult game, I've died so many times at the second boss I've managed to buy everything off the local merchant.

Did you play Demon's Souls? I got about half way into that but Dark Souls is supposedly harder. Is it harder?

I wish. :(

Stupid ****ing 360 :finger:

No, I will most definitely be getting it now though. As frustrating as the game manages to be I'm in love with it, every corner I need to change my approach, bum rushing just gets you dead and the feeling of finally working out a successful tactic makes it all worthwhile. I'm going from Slamming people with morning stars to sticking them with a rapier before they land a blow in the same battle just get to the next campfire before running low on health.

just got:-

Vampyre Darkstalkers collection
Red Faction
Test Drive : Eve of Destruction
Wipeout : Pulse
Worms 3 and 4

the Darkstalkers is probably my third fave PS2 2D beat 'em up after Arcana Heart and Marvel vs Capcom 2

That's fair, sorry if I was super harsh in trying to get you to expand your perspective a bit ;)

The issue you detail with DLC and direction happens everywhere though. Hell it happens with music all the time, great bands go hungry while garbage pop gets celebrated. Again, I find it hard to fault the developers, they're just trying to make a living like the rest of us (like blaming Katy Perry's session musicians for her crap). Considering the amount of time and money involved in creating a AAA title it's reasonable to expect that whatever corporate venture capitalist funding the project is going to want a safe return on their investment. You claim you don't like getting nickel and dimed by the industry, that's fair, but what about the industry not wanting to get nickel and dimed by every hardcore gamer that demands absolute satisfaction in relation to their product every time for the least amount of money (if they even bother paying for the product in the first place)?

The game industry doesn't exist to provide gamers with new creative experiences, it exists to turn a profit. Then again the shift to where video games became something to complete (to reach a 'the end' screen) rather than something to play (to beat the last high score) practically begged the industry to adapt to churning out product and reaping revenue.

Personally I also thought Demon's Souls was crap and haven't bother checking out Dark Souls but whatever floats your boat. You might also be pleasantly surprised with how many of those F2P MMO games still run on old machines, might not be running in 1080p HD but whatever.:yeah:

Finally killed the Taurus demon and now I'm getting my ass handed to me by a butterfly, WTF game!

I'm actually in love with Dark Souls. I've spent more time on it than I have with Skyrim. I'm taking mine back today, because I found a local GameStop with a collector's edition copy.

I actually bought the guide book for it yesterday (I've already finished the game).
Dark Souls is one of the most rewarding games I've ever played, in the sense that "Holy ****, I've been stuck here for hours, and I FINALLY killed this boss enemy. Huzzah!"

I've read about that game, they say its very good but also very demanding.

On my second play through of Fallout 3.
****, I've missed this beautiful post apocalyptic world. So much so, I opted to skip college today and just venture the vast wasteland.

I've been trying to accomplish the same recently.

I made the mistake of getting Fallout3 for the PC when it first came out. Back then I'd have issues with Games for Windows Live and crashes, etc.

So I played it on PS3.

Now I've got a hankering for more post apocalyptic goodness (New Vegas just didn't grab me) and I'm trying to get it going again. Now I get Securom timeout errors because my system can't validate the disc quick enough to run the effing launcher.

3 years later I've never made it to Rivet City on the actual copy of the game I paid for.

Just bought Dark Souls. Holy **** is that game hard! I was stuck in the first part of the Undead Burg for about 3 hours last night before I finally got past the Taurus Demon, although the majority of that time was spent trying to defeat the Dark Knight. It's really ****ing hard. Does it get any easier as you progress?

It doesn't get easier, but if you're patient, you get used to how the game works. You get much better at the game, and do better on the tough parts.


I've started Soul Calibur V. I've been playing an unhealthy amount of it.

So I finally got into the beta. Too bad it's DOTA2 and not D3.

nope, it seems to get to the point where all the creatures just need to look at you and you're dead. I've got five paths to go through and I've hit a brick wall with all of them, but I haven't really put any points into my def yet which is going to take some grinding.

Hell, I'd let you play mine if Blizzard weren't known for unceremoniously locking down the accounts of account-sharers

http://wolfservers.com/wp-content/up...ost-Colony.jpg

http://theplayvault.com/wp/wp-conten...raria-logo.jpg

two of my favorite games of 2011

I just got access to the Diablo 3 beta.

I think I'm in love. I played 4/5 classes and loved all of them.

http://admintell.napco.com/ee/images...te_wii_box.jpg

Fun games(s) but I can't help wishing that all of them pushed the aesthetics as far into the abstract as Void does. The world needs more visually unique video games.

Finally got through Binding of Isaac with the last unlockable character :)

http://venturebeat.files.wordpress.c...11/isaac-2.jpg

It's an indie action game which is a little bit like Zelda with a heavy gore/dark religious theme. It was made by the makers of Meat Boy and is available through Steam.

It's one of my favourites from 2011 with addictive gameplay and lots of unlockables. No playthrough is the same and I'm still getting new items and stuff every time I play, even though I've spent 36 hours in there so far.

Everyone should check it out :)

If you get 20,000 souls you can unlock the sealed door in the Darkroot Gardens which makes it incredibly easy to level. Inside the sealed door are a bunch of really powerful human enemies, but with a little glitch you can get them all to jump off a cliff. You can get 7,000 souls in about 2 minutes, so it's definitely worth saving up for.

Anyone have any tips on how to beat the hydra? So far it's killed me with projectiles every time but once that I tried to get close to it. It's a pain in the ass to put it simply.

I've picked off all but one of them with my halberd, I can out maneuver the last one but he always manages to one shot me :( I'll have to have a look at that

I can't make it down the ladder to be honest.....

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ent_Hill_2.jpg

It's been about a year since I last played it, although I'm playing it on PC and not PS2.

http://theplayvault.com/wp/wp-conten...raria-logo.jpg

Since I can't afford a decent computer, I thought I'd give this a try. It's fun tunneling through and exploring, anyone else play terraria? It seems like a lot of fun to create a world and have all sorts of stupid adventures.

it's the best in the series, IMHO

Uncharted 3. Aw yeah.
The online multiplayer is great. I wish there were more maps and game-types, though.

To be literal, I'm playing Miniclip's 8 Ball multiplayer pool and checking MB while the other player takes his/her turn. But on my PS3 I'm playing a racing game called Pure. It's really fun, I would say that sober, it is a 7/10 but hammered it's a 10/10.

yeah, i've got over 60 hours into it. it's alot of fun, but there's alot that they don't tell you that you'd have to go to the game's wiki to find out about. that and the inventory management is TERRIBLE.

but other than that it's really great.

I gave up video games for new years :/

Got back into Minecraft. Why? Cause I heard they added cats to the game. **** yeah, cats.

You're doing it wrong.

Also, I just got an HDTV. For free.
I'm happy.

Also, the first thing I did with it wasn't try out all of my awesome games that I thought looked good in SD. It was this and facebook.

Lol. I'm doing it wrong.



I've still been playing Soul Calibur V. It's the most fun I've had with a SC game since the first and second ones.

I was always more of a Tekken fan personally*














*This post brought to you by a self-professed Playstation fanboy

The last Tekken I played was 2, and I enjoyed it. The first Soul Calibur has always been my favorite 3D Fighter, though.

Soul Calibur ftw

not to say Tekken is bad