Izuno

Still TBD.   Really want to go this year.

Sorry for bump, but thanks again for the replies.  I did some digging about the pricing issues of retail vs. digital, and it does indeed support the obvious concern that often you can get a better price with a physical good then through a digital...which is what we have all been scratching our heads at for a few years now on console.  

A few years ago we did an analysis of pricing of digital vita games vs. their retail counterparts. Comparing PSN pricing vs. Gamestop and Amazon in the US market showed totally inconsistent pricing where the digital was often higher than the retail, and sometimes on recent product.  We extended this out for PS3 games and found the same problem.

Now, looking at PS4 (and XB1) online stores vs. retail and Amazon, the pricing between PSN and XBL vs. Gamestop for most new and non-used games is actually very consistent right now. Amazon is typically where you find the deals but there is shipping typically unless you are a Prime member.

An odd example, take last year's Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag. As of right now: 

Amazon:

GameStop:

PSN Store (on the webiste, not through your PS4)

Sorry for the huge screencaps.

Notice how ACIV isn't even showing up in the listing on the PS website?

Of course when I access the PS Store on my PS4 you can buy ACIV for $49.99.

This is just ONE example but to the people complaining about this issue, you are right to complain because this is very, very consistent.  To be fair, it has improved from the even worse pricing disparities of the past, but in my opinion it is still somewhat broken.

Meanwhile...anyone try PS Now?  I got a sub code from Sony to test it out. I'll I can say is that Last of Us in singleplayer is legit on the service, but I haven't tried much else yet, much less any MP games.....but that's another thread...

Let me check through our databases on pricing off XBL and PSN vs. Gamestop etc.  All the comments are spot on so far so please keep them coming.  Also, geographic differences are really important, too. 

So...I'm really curious about what people think about buying large games from PSN/XBL etc. onto their consoles directly, rather than getting a disc.  Given this issue impacts all of us in the industry one way or another (i.e., directly or indirectly)...

Keep in mind, i'm not talking about digital only games that you cannot buy in the form of a disc from a store or Amazon etc.  In other words, I mean Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Forza, Halo, Last of Us, etc.

- Have you done it? Are you doing it? Are you planning on it?

- if yes, How's that working out for you?

- if no, why not?

Some obvious concerns/questions:

- not everyone has broadband due to where the live

- not everyone who has broadband has good quality of broadband

- even if you have "good" quality broadband, does downloading of big games to consoles work about as well as it does for Steam/Battle.net/Origin etc. to your PC?  Better/worse?

Edit: I'm asking because given where things are going it's a good time to update this conversation and see where people are at compared to the bits and pieces of this discussion scattered through old threads here.

Honestly, I looked at the photo's and I don't see why it's worth 70 million. It has no personality and no identity when you look at it from outside. I've seen far more impressive houses for a lot less money. Besides, like Vilham said, build your own thing. Man, I would build me house with an arcade hall, theater, game room and a fucking underground bat cave.

 It's not the house. It's the land its on.  And the absurd celebrity mark up value on top of that.

If you like that you're going to love this:

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/12/breaking_minecraft_creator_snatches_bonkers_bev_hills_megamansion_from_beyonce_and_jayz_for_70mm.php

Holy shit!!!

I'm still waiting for Gran Turismo on PS4.

And PSV.

Le sigh....

I'm sold.

And yes the points above are totally valid about U1, U2 and U3.  For a cover/shooter with traversing this looks great. I suppose it if were all mountain jungles I might tire of it as Thrik said, but meh I'm still going to get this one.

This movie looks absolutely horrible.

Ignore Inquisition for now and play Origins, you won't really do yourself and favours playing the 3rd in the series before the first.

Yeah came to that conclusion last night so gonna wait on DAI.  Thanks all for the input.

FWIW:

I started building my own PCs before some mapcorians were born.  Always been a PC / windows guy.

In July 2006 all the laptops seemed like shit so I bought a Macbook Pro (MBP).  Ran bootcamp with WinXP. Hardware lasted 4 years....it was glorious.

In Nov 2010 I bought another MBP to replace the 2006 version.  Bootcamp again...with WinXP again. Amazing results

In Nov 2014 (about 4 weeks ago) I bought a retina-MBP (rMBP)...bootcamp again but now with Windows 7.  

http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro?product=MGXC2LL/A&step=config#

Got the 2.8 ghz option.  Also bought an external optical drive to install Win7 OEM (64bit) from a disc. (use whatever PC OS you want).  

Then you get both Mac and Windows. Windows under bootcamp, imo, runs better than parallels or whatever other stuff people use to switch.  However, I don't need the Mac side...I need the windows side for various database software I code in...and then the entire reason Microsoft has not gone out of business: Excel.  the Mac version of Excel is nerfed and you can't code VB in it like you can on the windows version.  I run a ton of optimization and data processing code through Excel hooked up to mySQL databases through homebrew web protocols that is simply not possible in Mac Excel.   If it weren't for that I might be a Mac OS user...but then there is the broader selection of games on windows through Steam and shitzles.

Just my 2 cents.  Good luck!

DA:O $10 on steam...guess that answers that question.  But can get DA:I for 25% off (PS4/Xbone/etc) on Amazon right now ("Cybermonday" deal)...

So I loved Mass Effect 2 and 3...enjoyed Star Wars ToR (for 30 days then bailed) and the old KOTOR games.  Should I go for this game?  I'm more of a "shooter" gamer but I also enjoy open world beat-downs like Arkham City.  Never touched a DA game before.

This thread!!!

"Genetically Modified"

Topical. Controversial.  Likely included in script and trailer to just maximize audience reach.  That term alone will get people to literally turn their head to the screen if it is on in the background when someone else is watching.  Trust me....this shit is tested to death in focus groups and panels etc.  Every microsecond in that trailer was engineered (like in every other movie durrr).  

Or they did it for the lulz.

If Jurassic Park were made today by Legendary Films, this is how it would be.

Killing time while a server script runs...so this makes me think of this:

suit #1: "What makes us sound more important than the word 'epic' to use in the name of our company?"

suit #2: "Yeah there is that game developer in North Carolina called 'Epic Studios' or 'Epic Games' or something. They're pretty successful so we can't use 'epic' in the name of our company since we need our own name and identity and shit."

suit #1: "Yeah, bro, totally agree. All I want is that people think of this company as incredibly important, that we, the executives, are incredibly important people.  What's more, uh, epic, than the word 'epic' itself?"

suit #2: "Goddamn that is a totally important point."

suit #1: "It was a question."

suit #2: "...goddamn you are smart. I mean like epic smart."

suit #1: "I got it. We are legends. We are so goddamn smart it's like we're legends."

suit #2: "Epic. That is totally epic thinking, bro."

suit #1: "Fucking dipshit. We are Legends Films!"

suit #2: "That's totally epi--I mean...uh...legendary. That's a legendary idea."

suit #1: "Legendary Films."

suit #2: ".......................................................epic, bro."

suit #1: "Totally epic."

I have a key.  Now just need to download (have to start from scratch since this is a new machine so might let it run overnight...)

what have i done...?

Saw it two nights ago with my wife. While we both really liked the acting and the concept my wife nodded off for a few minutes.  (3 hour movie...she can sleep through anything.)   Even though she stayed awake for almost all of it she still peppered me with questions about wtf was going on in this thing.  

While I really enjoyed the movie, explaining it made me realize Interstellar is kind of Inception to Inception, mainly due to the  

time dilation that turned an hour into 7 years on that planet with the massive tidal waves

and etc.  I understand but when they explained that I realize now that that was one of the times my wife nodded off.  

Otherwise thumbs up.

In related MOBA news, EA cancelled Dawngate.

Notice as of now at http://www.ea.com/dawngate there is no mention of that.

But then http://www.ea.com/news/an-update-on-dawngate

A bit off topic from HotS but still is is related given how hard it is to compete in MOBA now. Very few operators in the space have the resources to compete with LoL and Dota 2. As I have said Blizzard is likely the only one who can really pull something off and EA, in theory, is another given they do at least have money and a lot of smart people but shit, MOBA ain't easy to compete in from a product development perspective.

Actually I think I am okay for now.  I tweaked some settings in Win7 and the external monitor, while not retina, still looks pretty good.  The fundamental problem is the monitor itself (a Samsung TV) just doesn't have enough resolution.  I'm probably going to need to buy something pricey, possibly an Apple display but I've since been reading up on how a lot of people have been getting this to work. 

If I figure anything else out I'll bump this thread.

After many years of devotion to Windows XP I finally upgraded to Windows 7 (64bit Professional).  Since 2006, this is my 3rd macbook pro running Bootcamp.  The last two MBPs lasted 4 years each.  Anyway here are the basic specs on the new laptop:

• 2.8GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.0GHz
• 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
• 512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
• Intel Iris Pro Graphics and NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB of GDDR5 memory

Question:  

The new MBP has retina and the native resolution is 2880x1800 which is nice but goddam the fonts are too small.  So yes I fiddled with them but the real issue is that I use an external monitor that I extend my desktop to that has native resolution of 1920x1080.  (basically it's 1080p)

The external monitor looks fine, except everything is the tiniest bit blurry.  I'm thinking the solution is a 4k monitor and I just increase the font size, along with simply getting a bigger monitor.  Anyone have experience with Bootcamp running secondary monitor on a native retina MBP?  Got a suggestion on monitors how best to do this?

I haven't taken it online on PS4 yet because I'm still afraid of the PS4 2.00 patch and all the horrible things it supposedly does. They fix that yet?

http://kotaku.com/six-days-later-ps4s-v2-00-update-is-still-causing-prob-1654035458

Sorry if that takes us a bit off topic.

So bought it today at Gamestop (PS4).  Got the day zero edition on disc despite having not pre-ordered.  Guess activision stuffed the hell out of the channel though that's not surprising.  Haven't loaded it up yet...waiting for my kids to go the fuck to sleep.  

Yeah, got it as well for PS4. Really in the mood for something like COD right now, good dumb shooter action, probably helps that I skipped Ghosts and that this is getting pretty good reviews~~

Yeah Ghosts totally bummed me out and I didn't bother finishing it (in fact I just rented it).  Sorry to all the good folks at I.W.  I still <3 you!

I'm feeling saucy and since Activision isn't going to send me a free one until maybe mid 2015 f-it i may just buy it.  

Question is...do I buy a disc? Digital DL?  PS4?  XBONE?  Steam?  Probably PS4....

...and I'm thinking disc since back in my day we hiked 3 days uphill, in the snow, with no shoes to get our discs and by gar that's the way we liked it.

Played Frontier Defense tonight (Xbox One) after having not touched the game in a while.  Yep, it's a horde mode but I had fun with it.  I like that it was free...a good gesture from Respawn.  I think this is a long haul franchise for them and to really grow they are going to have to add a single player campaign which I know they had, have been, were, are, will be talking about else implementing.  As much as we kind of disregarded the story in Titanfall there is a lot to work with here...but how the Titans are used in SP is tricky and I'm so tired right now...will leave it at zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......