I think there's a sufficient amount of people who find it debilitating to warrant the ability to adjust the FOV for first-person shooters. It seems to sit on a similar level to avoiding epilepsy-inducing flashing and including provisions for deaf players.
Keep complaining and maybe eventually someone who controls industry regulations will take interest.
Yeah, seriously. I think I've actually had more hassle with this generation of consoles than I've had with my Windows 7 PC. Uncharted 2 freezing up after a well hard gun battle really pissed me off the other week even, and the 360's hardware quality seems comparable to a PC built from the worst components available.
The consoles do a good job of making such hassle a bit more accessible, though. Patching and installation is very simple and foolproof, which is something Windows should seek to incorporate. Steam does a good job of this, but as many games don't rely on it they have to have their own built-in patching systems of wildly varying quality, etc. Maybe Windows should just integrate its new-ish 'Games' interface with Steam? 
I think consoles and PCs will inevitably cease to become distinct pieces of equipment. There're already so many parallels between the two and people do so many similar things on them that they're already becoming very indistinguishable, and people aren't going to want to indefinitely buy several things that all do the same jobs. Now HD TVs have made using PCs on the big screen more feasible, you'll probably find more people wanting one device to do it all beneath their TV.
Something I've realised this year is that my gaming HTPC under my TV which I have a wireless 360 controller set up with is practically barely different to my PS3 or 360. It's just a platform I launch games from and potentially do some other stuff on, and those other things I can pretty much do on all three (browse Facebook, watch videos, view pictures, buy stuff). A lot of people don't even use their PC for much more than that.
I don't know if it'll be magical gaming cloud systems — the feasibility of which seems impossible to me at the moment considering you'd still need the equivalent hardware of one 360/PS3 per person using it in some datacentre somewhere — that spells the end of consoles, but I think as an individual piece of equipment someone buys just for gaming they will meet their end.
It's not like consoles are even insert and play any more — this generation has considerably reduced the 'consoles are simple and do one thing' aspect. As I said before, when it comes to turning one on and playing a game it literally takes the same time and effort whether it's my gaming HTPC, 360, or PS3.
Neither will die, but they'll both be in one device. It's a bit like how you might use regular Windows 7 on a desk, but when it's plugged into your TV you might have it flick straight into Media Center mode instead — a similar concept may apply for consoles. Sounds a bit like OnLive but without the streaming shit. 
Excellent, thanks I got the invite. 
If anyone can send a Wave invite to google.com ('at') ryanjohnwilliams.com that'd be awesome. 
No, looks really interesting though! I'd be delighted to have an invite if you were so inclined. [Blocked Image: http://serve.ryanjohnwilliams.com/images/heart.gif]
Heh, I misread yours as 'Mordor' for a moment then Chris. The place that one does not simply put mail into...
I think Windows hate has kind of died down a bit as more people have tried OS X and Linux distros and realise they don't actually like them that much after all — they realise that Windows does do what it does pretty well.
However, for some people OS X is preferable because it suits their needs better. After all, not everyone needs games or multimedia software. In fact, for a lot of people Facebook and music are pretty much all their computers are used for! Something like OS X is ideal for such people, kind of comparable to the iPhone versus any number of dedicated PDAs or miscellaneous smart phones. Very slick, do the job well, and have excellent user interfaces that appeal to the most and least technically savvy of users alike.
I think the whole 'one OS for everything' thing will kind of die down with time, and instead we'll find them becoming more specialised towards certain types of people. For example something like Chrome OS could become the standard OS for netbooks (it's clearly not meant to be a desktop OS, which isn't surprising seeing as it's coming from Google), just like Android could become the standard OS for mobile phones.
One thing worth highlighting at this point is that Chrome OS is based on Linux.
It has no software support whatsoever from what I understand. Everything including the OS itself is delivered via the web browser interface.
According to Google it's not designed for proper desktop use at all, instead to be used on netbooks and stuff like that. I read earlier it'll only run on specific (netbook) hardware too, so you can't just install it on any machine you like.
Power users are most probably going to hate it, but casual users who primarily use their laptops for browsing the web, using online applications, etc will most probably be fine with it. It seems more comparable to an iPhone on steroids, like an ultra PDA. I guess that's what a netbook is anyway though.
Er, what? Okay, but what I just said about Maxis not necessarily being worth keeping at its full-strength size still stands. When you're suffering massive financial losses — largely caused by supporting original IP and gamers not fucking buying the games, I might add — you're obviously going to downsize parts of the company not performing, no matter how loved they are.
EA gave Maxis all the goodwill in the world with Spore, and it ended up being a bit shit. Creators of The Sims or not (bearing in mind that part of Maxis is now a separate studio), they're subject to the same rules that govern all businesses in the world — if they don't supply products that people demand, they lose their opportunity to do so.
I mostly blame gamers nowadays. Every time publishers have lent massive support to original IP, they end up underselling and/or being total flops. There's a cemetery of amazing games that didn't sell well, and the 'publisher didn't market it properly' excuse only goes so far.
It's always sad to see names like Maxis and Pandemic affected, but bear in mind The Sims is no longer handled by Maxis, Will Wright is gone, and the only game Maxis has put out since The Sims didn't actually go down that well (although I think its immense hype due to being "from the creator of The Sims" still led to good sales). It's probably not fair to begin to demonise EA for making cuts or closing a studio when you don't really know what kind of internal politics and issues it's facing, and if a massive studio like Maxis isn't pulling its weight then downsizing is inevitable.
We already have a very active thread about this here:
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=14639&start=15
Apologies, but I'll close this one and let you share your thoughts there. 
Quote from Warbybut but i bought brutal legend ... and henry hatsworth in the puzzeling adventure and last year i bought dead space how could this happen ?
There aren't enough of you in the world. Gamers are shit.
Damnit, I'm sure the PC version is the best to play but all my friends have it on the 360. More people need to be cool and play PC games. 
But yeah, pretty mental reviews from looking at MetaCritic. Maybe I should finish Call of Duty 4 at some point.
Holy shit, the REDEEMER has made it into a multiplayer FPS that's meant to be somewhat realistic? Awesome!!!!!
BF2142 was pretty popular for quite a while, it just died off and didn't seem to have the enduring popularity of BF2.
I think really they brought it out too soon, as a lot of what they tried to do (particularly the huge mothership thing) ended up being really rough, and also it played too similarly to BF2 for people to consider it a serious sequel. I guess it was a glorified mod, but it did refine a lot of BF2's gameplay to perfection IMO and took the unlock system from being a novelty to quite a serious mechanic and compelling reason to keep playing.
I think the sci-fi theme didn't help, either — people seem to really dig the modern combat thing. I suspect if BF2 and BF2142 swapped themes, the popularity would be the other way round.
I will mess you up, Rick. 
You have to wonder if he's actually plugged into reality. People like this need shipping off to Antarctica or something so they can't keep distracting the courts from handling real issues.
What're you talking about, Sindwiller? Derek's comment highlights why Steam is pretty much the only one doing things right and why competitors such as D2D are shit.
This is so stupid, I can't imagine what good these folks think will come of it. All they're doing is driving more customers to Steam. Whereas if they sold the darn game, they get to keep the revenue and Valve gets to deal with the activation and such.Its not like Valve is sitting there hoping that MW2 causes them to have more Steam users when given the sheer number of Steam client installs already, my guess is that you'd be hard pressed to find more than a few gamers who didn't already own a Steam activated game.
This is just silly and they’re just shooting themselves in the foot. There are two sides to this. As someone who has games on Digital River, Steam, Gamers Gate, D2D, Game Streamer, Metaboli/GameTap, Real Netoworks (+700 affliliates) etc – but not Impulse (guess why that is), here is my take on what is really going on.
Publishers don’t have to us Steam for distribution. But if you want your games on their marketplace, you have to use it. This is no different from Microsoft enforcing Games For Windows compliance where you can pick and choose how far you want to go – though you have to be in some mandatory compliance regardless.
With Steam, all you need to have games on there, is to use their SteamWorks wrapper. You do NOT have to use their DRM (SteamWorks CEG) as that is optional – just like leaderboards, Stream Cloud, voice chat etc etc. You only have to use the Steamworks wrapper which is mandatory for the game to be authenticated, sales tracked etc. This is why you see some SecuROM games on Steam.
If you want to use the SteamWorks DRM (aka CEG), you have that option too. Must like all ther other SteamWorks stuff you get for free.
On Direct2Drive, Gamers Gate, Real Networks etc – you have a choice of which DRM scheme to use. The most popular being SecuROM. Though some Starforce, Tages and even SafeDisc games are on there. These publishers all have licensed (from Sony DADC, Starforce etc) backend which allows them to authenticate and generate serial numbers. They pay a per unit royalty to Sony, Starforce etc.
Impulse is similar – though imo is sub-par compared to the likes of integrated solutions like Steam, Metaboli/GameTap etc
ALL publishers who want their games on various sites, HAVE to adhere to the standards set by those publishers or they can’t (or won’t) carry your game. e.g. you can’t insist on using SecuRom on a publisher site that does not support it. You have to use what they support or your game won’t be sold there.
Steam games can be sold at ANY publisher site – even on retail discs. What makes this possible is that Valve generates the serial numbers for the product, then gives it to the developer who then hands it over to the publisher who adds it to their server backend so that each purchase is given a unique key. This is how come you see some Steam authenticated games on D2D. When the game is installed, the Steam client downloads it and asks for the key. In this case, the authentication is done by Steam servers, not – for e.g. Direct2Drive Sony DADC licensed servers.
Unlike Steam enabled games, you CANNOT sell ANY other DRM enabled game to other sites in this manner because they would have to setup their own authentication servers (e.g. SecuROM) or rely on a third-party (in this case then DRM developers) for authentication. Steam just makes is easy and seamless. Valve handles the authentication and auto-patching automatically.
So for baseline Steam use, you only have authentication and auto-patching. Here’s the really kewl thing. Since Steam has a FULL image of the game on their servers, if you wanted to sell direct, all you have to do is give out keys. The end user fires up the Steam client, enters the key and downloads the game. Directly from Valve. In fact, thats how we sell Steam versions of our games through BMT Micro (our store frontend) and Digital River. We populate the dB with keys and give out a Steam key with each purchase. If you have Steam installed, it is a no-brainer. If you don’t, you have a link (in the purchase email) showing you where to download the Steam client from. You install, enter key, download game.
Steam is by far the best scheme to date. And in this Shacknews post*, I explain in detail why Steam remains popular. And why some are rightfully jealous and/or worried.
This about face by Direct2Drive et al – while understandable – is foolish. If they sell a Steam game, THEY get the revenue. NOT Valve. What Valve gets is possibly a new Steam user. And this is just free advertising for them. And given that they have 20m+ Steam users, my guess is that only very few gamers out there don’t already have at least ONE Steam game already installed.
So all they’re doing is saying that they don’t want to continue to support Steam’s continued growth. Well gee, since the genie is out of the bottle, its kinda late for that.
But here is the kicker. With Steam, you get SO MUCH stuff – FOR FREE – that is not even funny. PLUS not only is it all trivial to implement, the royalties that Valve doles out to Steam publishers is on par with what these other sites give out. And THEY have NO added value whatsover – unlike Valve which gives you all this stuff and everything you need to be successful on the platform.
Which is why they’re all worried. They can’t undercut Steam – nor compete – in any, way, shape or form because they were all sleeping at the wheel. The only way they are going to compete is to provide a better service (lol!!), better pricing, games that you can’t get elsewhere. e.g. You can only get Stardock games on Impulse.
So this has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that they no longer want to help increase Steam’s client install base.
IF the publishers want to have their games on D2D, GG etc, they can do a SecuROM build. Obviously they see more value in a single solution (Steam) than in multiple solutions (ALL of which can be cracked on Day One and with ease). This is no different from e.g. Best Buy having the exclusive on something like Crime Craft. That can be either because Best Buy gave out concessions to have the game exclusively or because other retailers didn’t want to carry it.
My guess is that Activision is not going to cave in because while this is only news now, it has probably been brewing for awhile now. Both the online and retail versions of MW2 – like Valve’s own games as well as others (e.g. Killing Floor, Fear 2 etc) use Steam. My guess is that the combined sales of the game on these other services pales compared to Steam. So why bother with the extra work of having different DRM schemes?
From my perspective, the ONLY danger (and concern) that I have about Steam is that Valve gets to choose which games go on there. When you have situations like this MW2 thing happen, small devs like us can’t even pull a stunt like this because if we do – thus alienating our other partners – there is a chance that they won’t carry our games. And if Valve passes on publishing them, we’re farked. Thats the real concern that I see here regarding Steam. e.g. to have a game on D2D, GG etc – all I have to do is contact my a/c manager, give them the details etc. The game goes up.
With Valve, they are more of a traditional publisher in that they get to pick and choose which games they want on there and which they think would do well with their subscribers.
Is this wrong? tbh, I’m not so sure.
I personally ran into this issue a few months back because apparently Valve doesn’t feel that space games do well on the service. Its their service and I trust that they know it better than I do. So I left it at that. After all, my space games are sold everywhere else – so if someone wants those games bad enough, they know where to go. They don’t have to be on Steam to be sold nor to be successful. On Steam – despite their install base – you’re only as successful as your game. Just because its there doesn’t guarantee sucesss. Its not like we’re comparing Walmart to Best Buy which, in those two instances, takes volume into account. With ESD, you don’t have that luxury due to the type of goods being sold.
After all you either want 1000 games on Steam, with 50% crap or you want 500 games on there with 10% crap. Valve still has to foot the bill of those crap games and they don’t ask you the publisher for anything in return.
Unlike retail publishers who can pull non-performing products from the shelf, throw them in the bargin bin, return them to the publisher etc – while issuing chargebacks to the publisher – you can’t do any of that with ESD games. So once your game is on there, thats it. The distributors (e.g. Valve) has to hope that good, bad or ugly, the game sells enough for it to a) pay for the resources it is using up b) pay Valve for hosting it
And with Steam, you get world class tools, real-time reporting, an AMAZING publisher support staff etc.Apart from competent support staff (I can only speak for the services that sell my games), you get more – in terms of publishing tools and such – by going with Steam, than you do elsewhere. It is a one stop shop. And thats why it is powerful and popular all at once.
Think about this for a minute. Paradox Int. a publisher that also owns Gamers Gate. Yet, you can find Paradox games at all the competing sites – including Steam. Same with the likes of EA, Atari etc. Guess why that is.
So them not carrying MW2 because of the Steam client is akin to biting your nose to spite your face. At the end of the day, you lose. And its not even about competition because, quite frankly, none of them have anything to compete with the VAS that Steam offers developers.
Disclaimer: My games on all these services, use different DRM schemes – and so, no Steam. Only our games sold on Steam and through our own web store (powered by BMT Micro and Digital River – who don’t give a rat’s ass either way – as well as the upcoming retail releases) use the Steam version. I’m not stupid.
