Subject: PC/Gaming Thread

One too look at and one to watch out for.

Picked up OOTP 14. Out of the Park Baseball. Overwhelming is all I can say so far. But that is secondary imho.

They are making Beyond the Sidline Football. American Football. If they put half of what is in OOTP 14, it should be insane.

Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls is out.

Not sure if anyone here likes dungeon crawling for loot, but it might be worth a look.

*disclaimer*
I have been a huge diablo fan ever since the first game came out, and after beating diablo 3 a month or so after it was released, I didn't touch it for like two years. It was missing something that made diablo 2 so awesome/addictive.

The Reaper of Souls expansion is actually pretty good though, and I find myself actually interested in playing it again on occasion.

Worth checking out if you haven't ever played it, or if you were a jaded fan (like me) after the diablo 3 base game was released couple of years ago.

I'm currently awaiting my g.o.g. version of Age of Wonders 3 in the mail. I'll post my thoughts on it in a bit whenever I get into it.

Blizzard has made me so sad. I will not even try anymore Diablo games. Not sure I will ever buy a Blizzard game again. Diablo 3 was such trash. If Blizzard can be like EA,we are in trouble as gamers.

you know. I'm absolutely with you... 100%. I bareeeely gave in and gave d3:ros a chance. I was as big a blizzard hater as there is (and to a large part, still am). I loathe that I can't play d3 offline, and I loathe that the only reason I can't is because of DRM, and I loathe that people who buy it on the console (playstation/xbox) CAN play it offline (when it's a PC FRANCHISE).

But even with all of that, I gave d3:ros another chance because I remembered that some of the most interesting things in d2 (that gave it such replayability in the long run) were things that came out with the expansion pack, and updates.

Think about it. Remember back to the vanilla d2. It was really good, but d2:lod and the regular updates (runewords, ubers, synergies, etc.) is what made it magnificent. Synergies were one of the greatest things EVER (charged bolt increases chain lightning damage, etc.) and that wasn't even in the original game.

I still don't think d3 will ever be as great as d2:lod just because of the way the skill system is (something I highly doubt they can change as much as I'd like to see it changed), but d3:ros is definitely a step in the right direction.

I'm serious.

I don't blame you for not giving them the time of day (or your hard earned cash), but I'm content with my decision to do so (at least for now).

Blizzard has really lost their edge since the Activision merger/buyout in '08. Hearthstone is the only game they've made since then that I've enjoyed, and that's mostly because I've long been looking for a CCG that plays well on the internet (and doesn't cost $Texas to get into).

Or maybe it's related to the rise of Steam, giving Indie devs an easier route to the public which means I've got much better access to the types of games I like to play and am no longer reliant on something good showing up on store shelves. For example, I'm way more excited to play the recently released (free!) expansion to FTL than D3:RoS.

Ya, Steam has coverted me. I still like my collector box editions. But, I will buy the indie games off steam.

Though, after buying Godus a few weeks ago. I will never be part of an early access indie again. Godus, it might be the worst game ever invented in human history. I feel that is being a tad to nice to them to be honest.

I really hope no one who works for 22cans ever works anywhere else in gaming. The game is really that bad, all 22 of their employees need to find a new line of work.

Picked up Euro Truck Simulation 2. A very nice game if anyone wants to take a look. You drive tractor trailers. You can buy garages and hire drivers for your company. The driving is amazingly fun.

I am playing Elder Scrolls Online and I am enjoying it

I'm way past the stage of paying a subscription fee to pay a primarily single-player game with an online chat system. MMOs have gone the wrong direction in solving the EQ-era complaint of not being able to do anything without a group - they've focused so heavily on making the solo experience better, but it will never be as good as a true single-player game, so I'm left wondering why they bothered.

They should have leveraged their strengths and made the grouping experience better, easier to get into, and more varied such that groups of differing abilities can always find something worthwhile and appropriately challenging to do.

the alliance war!!! it is very fun. we go in group to take farms, mines, castle

and we defend our own!!!

the PvE part i agree it is pointless to pay subscription for. first month is free

Why not just play Guild Wars 2 then? The large-scale PVP is mostly the same, (I've seen a lot of people say GW2 does it better, actually) and it has no sub. fee.

"The first month is free!" is just a sneaky marketing tactic as well, preying on good ol' human psychology. The first month is actually the box price ($60 or so right now), because after that month is up, you can't do anything with the base client anymore unless you pay up. There's no offline mode or limited multi-player you can play with that client you paid for. Compare that with a typical multi-player game like an FPS or RTS which includes online access for life, plus the single-player content, as part of the box price.

If they want me to pay $60 for the first month and an ongoing $15 per month after that and completely losing access if I stop giving them money, they had better be offering one hell of a game.

well i paid $40 for earlier access

what destroys mmo im my opinion are the bots/cheats/exploits. As far as i know GW2 has tons of those.

How many single players people actually play after the first month? in fact many sell them after a week when then complete them

Single player games takes from 10 to 40 hours with average of 15-20. that is about a week of game play for a non hardcore player and a couple of days for hardcore players.

And those cost $60!!!

in a average of playing 20 hours a week Id have to buy 4 single player games a month ( $240 ) to match the hours id play online. so $15 isnt expensive for the amount of entertainment.

So, while it is fun to play it is worth, when gets boring, just cut the subscription and move on. the hours played were very worth it.

Now .. the games i want to play but are yet to be released are
the witcher 3
the crew
star citzen
Everquest next

in sure not against subscription. IMO it works better than FTP as they will have ingame currency and give advantage to those who buy stuff.

what i am against is paying for the software when i have to pay subscription. software should be free to download. paid if you want the box, dvds, booklets and etc..

but $40-15 = $25 paid to download the elder scrolls

also when one subscribe, all addons should be free.

I never really got into mmo's. I hate that they basically force you to throw your life/time away on THEIR schedule. Like if you dont log in at "x" time, you miss out on this event. Thats stupid, and I'll never support a game that does that. If I'm paying for a game, I should be able to enjoy it on my own time.

Subscription fees are just another nail in the same coffin for me. I should be able to play when and where I want (and not have to worry about getting charged when I dont play for a while).