I wholeheartedly agree. While there certainly were developers back in 96 who were probably in the business purely for money (and conversely, while there certainly are developers today who are in it purely for the enjoyment of videogames), the general trend seems to have shifted from "videogames are meant to be a fun past time" to "videogames are a multi-billion dollar market that we can make $$$ from.

http://www.bsckids.com/wp-content/up...s-wii-logo.jpg
is a lot of fun. i really dig these wii platformers.

Bully: Scholarship Edition
Dragon Age: Origins


I'm currently in love with Dragon Age.

:thumb:


I've been playing Shadow of Chernobyl lately... it's not bad and it's pleasantly reminiscent of Fallout. Gotta love the Russian speech :D

http://www.aussiegamer.com.au/catalo..._A1PCSTALK.jpg

more like the shift went from making games to making 'digital experiences'. it was already a multi-billion dollar industry by the late 90s. Half Life gave everyone in the industry a boner for trying to force grand cinematic / theatrical aspects into their games to 'legitimize' the art form (by leeching off others???).

either way, at this point the industry is a mess. too many people have convinced themselves that a 'game' production has to be on par with a Hollywood production and that's really about as stupid as it sounds. the rise of development conglomerates like EA and Ubisoft have had the exact opposite effect of revitalizing the industry. rather than encouraging talent to shine and releasing fun and innovative NEW games they burn out their people to release the next iteration of a proven franchise before a target sale date established by some suit from the publisher who's likely never actually stepped foot in a development house.



nice. this is another game that i've started up a handful of times but never made it all the way through. i can definitely see the Fallout angle too, in fact, from what i played, i think STALKER does a better job of creating the 'on your own in a post-nuclear area' than the recent Fallout games did. it just lacks the openness of a sandbox game.

I want this game back!!! One of my all time favorites. I never got around to beating it, I just messed around. I'm going to try to get it again so ICANN actually see what the actual story is about.

http://www.robotvsbadger.com/wp-cont...-megadrive.jpg

Pretty much the best sega game ever.

:clap:

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2010. And I'm waiting for the new Mafia II DLC to arrive :)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kRuD6zV4Fq..._eurofront.jpg

Playing this game as a 6 year old was absolutely impossible. Playing this game now as an 18 year old, is still ****ing impossible!

You posted a cover of a CD-i disc. Do you actually play it on CD-i? :)

Nah haha, I always owned it on CD-ROM (back when the CD was fledgling technology). I lost my original copy of it years ago I'm pretty sure and had to get the RealMyst version, which is pretty cool too but can be VERY slow.

I think myst must be pretty easy to find via torrents or such.
Since you (used to) own the original, I also think it's legal to download it ;).

Myst masterpiece edition with win 7 support and so on can be bought from gog.com :)

Myst: Masterpiece Edition - GOG.com

It's cheap too!

Me and a couple of my friends found a CD-i in college a couple of days ago, it was just lying in the corner of a room (which we shouldn't have really been in) with a bunch of old computer equipment. How much are they worth now?

I've played the **** out of this and the Flash version of the game.

So many hours of school wasted on the flash version.

1. Myst rawx
2. This post makes you my favorite person ever. I've been wishing for a place like gog for a while but had no idea it actually existed, so thanks a lot for tippin me off.

If you order from them you'll most likely have to call your bank to approve the first transaction. The company is based in Poland and my bank flagged the charge as a possible fraud case, with someone else using my card, but a quick call sorted it out. It's a pretty decent site, I was really happy to see that they have all the Tex Murphy games, I use to love the shit out of Under A Killing Moon, Pandora Directive, and Tex Murphy: Overseer when I was a kid, it's practically what inspired me to go into law enforcement as an investigator.

Anyhow I am currently replaying this on my brand new (used) Xbox 360

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

One of the three games I have left, I'll have to wait till next week's paycheck to get Fallout: New Vegas and get my Gamefly account back up to catch up on the year and a half of gaming I've missed. This is my third Xbox 360, but hopefully if I take the right precautions, make sure the machine is properly cooled, and sacrifice a virgin every 6 months the console will last more than the other two did.

1. Yes it does.
2. Hears another site worth checking out if that's what you're looking for: Welcome to Steam

@ Loathsome Pete

3 Xbox'es!!!
What do you do to them? How much do you play?

I just got
Fable III
Army Of Two: The 40th Day,
Brutal Legend and
Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II.

What do you think of that mate? I played 1 and loved it. 2 not so much.

ps: I miss Boo Boo

Haven't really played it much. I picked them up, and had to immediately leave for a concert. Once i get more into it, I'll let you know.

A couple of my friends say it's better than 2, but still not as good as 1.

I had the audacity to try and play them, something that Microsoft seems to be against. My first one just died suddenly, and wouldn't you know it but it happened the day after I started a 2 month medical leave from work. I bought it used and without a warranty because I didn't realize just how bad a failure rate the console had til after the fact, but at that point even if I had it had already been a year after purchase. My second 360 I will admit to playing a part in its demise, I left it in a spot that saw a heavy amount of sun, as well as cats who realized how warm the console was, they would sleep on it while I was playing it. Not only that but for a while I was using it as my DVD player as well and apparently that's not good for the laser because with games, the disc only spins at loading screens, but with a DVD it's spinning all the time (or so says the nice lady at Gamespot). Earlier in the year when I got my PS3 I bought a laptop cooling pad that I'm going to use with my 360 and I think I'm going to buy a second fan for the back. Still 3 is a pretty low number, a friend of mine has sent his off to be repaired 9 times in 4 years, and he actually really takes care of it.

I've been through an original white Xbox which lasted surprisingly long and an Elite version that got E74 (video card melted) which was repaired for free by M$, though it cut into my playtime by 2.5 weeks. I'd say I've had relatively great luck with Xboxes lol

I just sent my Xbox in for repairs a few days ago. Patiently awaiting its return so that I can start playing Dead Rising again.

Good call on Call of Duty 4 Pete. It's been unanimously decided in my house that that game is by far superior to the other versions. I'm pretty sure somewhere in this house both copies of World at War are being used as coasters or chew toys or something.

I was a big fan of both Fable and Fable II. Fable 3, not so much. I finished the story line in about 6 hours or so. It is probably the easiest game I have ever played. I died once and that was because I stopped to tale a bite out of my sandwich during a battle. The long wait, for not much. The decisions were quite difficult, and I regretted a few, but I was evil by the end, and killed everybody in Albion while listing to Slayer. That was the best part.

If you like Dead Rising, you have to admit that COD WaW zombies is pretty fun.

Yes, I will definitely admit to that. Surely the most fun part of that game.

Not much choice at the moment in what I play, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, The Orange Box, and Grand Theft Auto IV are all the 360 games I have left, I have to wait 'til Monday for the rest of my check to clear so I can start up my Gamefly account again and catch up on some of the games from 2009 and 2010 I've missed. Definitely going to get Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition and Fallout: New Vegas next weekend though if I can find them cheap enough. I never bothered with World at War, I didn't particular care much for CoD3 because it was more of the same from the last one and it wasn't developed by Infinity Ward, the only thing I did like about it was that it had a Canadian army campaign, which was nice to see.

COD had two solid games: 2 and 4. The rest have been money suckers, riding 2/4's coattails.

You're position on a game you haven't played has been made crystal clear.

Anyways, I just got a 360 yesterday and have been playing the hell out of it already. Specifically Black Ops, which I think is definitely worth the hype it's received (even if it's not a major break from MW2, but hey people would complain if it was). The single player story was engaging and awesome, zombies is fun with friends (not as good as WaW though), and the multiplayer is awesome as usual.

After I beat that, I moved on to ODST. Though after getting about halfway through the game and shutting off the console, I realized my progress hadn't been saved. How stupid is the game anyways? It was autosaving throughout and at any point I can pick a single mission and play it, but for some retarded reason I can't continue my file as a whole. Looks like I might be forced to start a new file. :bringit:

In the meantime, it's Assassin's Creed II!

I think the first one definitely earned its stripes, I mean before that your only World War II FPS experience was the Medal of Honor series... Well you also had Battlefield 1942 but that was more strictly a multiplayer game, I can't even remember if it had a single player mode. I played both Medal of Honor: Frontline and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and the original Call of Duty completely wiped the floor with them. Rather than be the lone American soldier who wins the war you actually get to experience different sides of the conflict and you always had AI controlled buddies to help you out, actually making it feel like a combined effort. I will definitely say that the second and fourth really stand out in the series as the major innovators but the original shouldn't be ignored just because it's 7 years old now.

and the original was the first game I played that had aiming down the sight.

I just can't stop complaining! The COD series is such crap! In all fairness, I've played CODs 2, 4, and 6 thoroughly, and 5 limitedly.

I liken it to how this forum views pop music. People who are rather casual about videogames find the COD series fantastic in satisfying their limited desire to play videogames, just are people who are rather casual about music find this as satisfying in their limited desire to listen to music.

People who actually give a damn about videogames see COD for what it is. Or maybe I'm just a blind COD hater. Shmeh

^that's like the artsiest game ever. I really want to get it but I have so many other things to play.....

urgh dilemmas. How are you liking it?

It's awesome, expansive, and completely addicting. I was turned on by a friend who lent me his info so I could play the Alpha version, totally blows the pants off the free version. I'm still getting the hang of things, I've learned how to make tools, doors, torches... all things you need before nightfall if you wanna survive the zombies. You can pretty much do and make whatever you want in this game, you get free reign over your world. Greenhouses, mansions, jack-o-lanterns, lava moats... you can do it all!

I highly suggest picking it up when you get a chance. It's good for an all night gaming binge or if you need something to do for 5 minutes before class.

could have just said - the Call of Duty series is the Nickelback of videogames. whether the fans like it or not, the claim is FAR easier to prove than disprove.

I think it's mostly just a matter of people not digging the hype. Call of Duty : Modern Warfare was, in my opinion, a brilliant game and I honestly didn't think I would have that much fun playing a completely linear war-FPS when I started. No CoD has been as good since, maybe there's some coattail riding, but in no way could I agree that the series sucks. The engine is good, the graphics are fine, the gameplay is smooth, the pace is good and the action is great.

If you hate CoD and think the series stinks, to me that tells me you either haven't played them or you hate them because the hype they cause and the money they spend on marketing. Both translate somewhat to blind hater. I've been tempted to think of the last CoD games a bit like the movie Expendables. It gives you nothing new, but presents an old and tested formula which has been polished to a shine and has a big budget. Like Expendables isn't One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, CoD is not Fallout 3. It's a fun fix. However, the quality of a game like Modern Warfare in the gaming world far surpasses the quality of Expendables in the movie world. With any luck Black Ops does the same and either way, I look forward to it because I know I'll be entertained.

edit :

By the way, Minecraft is completely awesome! I especially like the multiplayer version which is slowly getting there. Beware with large public servers though, they tend to reset their maps every now and then!

Me and my friends from back home have our own server where we build. :)