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Very Hot Topic (More than 100 Replies) Game Thread! (Read 238848 times)
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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #240 - Apr 10th, 2009 at 10:34am
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Between battles, the story: Dave Arneson has passed on

The joy of role-playing comes from the ability to do anything you want. The dungeon master can only put a situation in front of you, and it's his job to deal with your creative decisions to get through—or around—those obstacles. This is something Dave Arneson knew very early on. This is the man who helped create Dungeons and Dragons, and he has died of cancer.

We know how Arneson dealt with history lessons in college, and it's telling. "We created the Continental Congress and because I knew things the teacher didn't share with the students we ended up not having the Continental Congress, Delaware rejoined the Empire and New York and New Hampshire were at war," he told GameSpy. "Anyway, (laughs) I was accused by my professor of perverting his exercises… and well, it was true I did, and he was mad at me. The same thing happened with the French Revolution, and he accused me of introducing these random events that were of no historical interest at all."

We should be continually happy that so many bright students aren't dimmed by their teachers. Arneson understood that these things were of historical interest; history stands on the edge of knife, and a few different decisions one way or the other and the world would be a completely different place... we only forget that because we're comforted by putting historical events in a neat order. Arneson wanted to get into the heads of these people and play "what-if."

Arneson understood that real stories came from what happened between the battles. Remember that Dungeons and Dragons came from wargaming; it just filled in the blanks after each war, the epic struggles that made up the majority of gaming at that time. "In our own games we got tired of taking the town, or the hill. So we started thinking about other objectives in a scenario, and to do that we had to give our Generals personality... We found that by doing that players started to identify with them. So, we'd role-play diplomacy and how they'd act out there on the battlefield."

Why a fantasy setting? It cut down on players arguing on what was historically accurate. Why dungeons? Because it was easy to set up on a grid and you had finite space to work in. Much easier for everyone involved. This is yet another example of the limitations of gaming leading to breakthroughs, and Arneson's love of social gaming and imagination helped to steer the ship where it needed to go. What we love about Dungeons and Dragons comes from Arneson's intuitive ability to make gaming stimulating and intriguing, even with no battlefield in sight.

While he left TSR in 1975 after a falling out with Gary Gygax, he continued to work on his Blackmoor games, but his name remained tied to the game that made him famous. "So what's my involvement? I do all the conventions. I talk about it. I use it for my classes. I think I've still had a lot of influence on rules in spite of not being officially involved but it was not until Third Edition came about and they involved me in the playtesting that I again had any direct involvement in D&D."

Arneson died Tuesday night, after a long bout with cancer. He is survived by his wife and daughter. His name may not have been as well-known as Gary Gygax's, but his influence still touched every aspect of both table-top role-playing and video gaming. He helped to create an entire world and industry by asking the simplest of questions: what are these characters doing when they're not fighting?

Get out your classic rule books. Invite some friends over. Keep a chair empty for a fallen friend, and play for a few hours. Not online, in person. Order a pizza. Buy your kids a rule book and some dice. Remember Dave Arneson, a man who wasn't satisfied with the game when his parents brought home an Avalon Hill title. When he began changing the rules, he began changing the world. We'll miss you, Dave.


First Gary, now Dave.  The world is an emptier place without them.

-b0b
(...rolls a d20 in salute.)
  

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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #241 - Apr 21st, 2009 at 9:39pm
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Left 4 Dead PC DLC Out Now
April 21, 2009, 2:45 pm - Valve - Product Update

The Left 4 Dead Survival Pack is now available for the PC and Xbox 360, free of charge to all owners of the game. The full change list for the PC release is below. In addition, both the retail and Steam versions of the game (PC and 360) are now available for a special price. Check Steam and local retailers for pricing details. For more information about L4D, please visit www.l4d.com


Survival Mode
New gameplay Mode
16 maps including Last Stand
Leaderboards
7 new achievements


Versus Changes
2 new versus campaigns
Fixed a case where versus team score would continue to be recalculated after the score panel was displayed
Fixed an issue with recalculating the versus score health bonus for a player when they are rescued from being incapacitated
Fixed being able to start a swing as an infected, then teleport to the survivors and have the claw swing hit a survivor
Fixed a case where teleporting to the survivors would not reset the ability timer
Fixed an exploit where you could load the chamber of a weapon with bullets by holding down the melee key
Fixed a case where it was not possible to join a game while it was in a finale
Fixed a rare case where listen servers would speed up the game over time
Removed convars related to melee fatigue
Fixed a case where infected players would get a respawn time on their initial spawn into a map


Server Changes
Made ms_force_dedicated_server not require cheats
Add a message when queuing a heartbeat
Simplified setting of game mode
Removed convars director_no_human_zombies and director_holdout_mode
Added mp_gamemode [coop,versus,survival]


General
Added lobby join and leave messages


I spent the entire night working on a paper, so this will have to wait until tomorrow.  I'll let you guys know how it goes!


-b0b
(...is psyched!)
  

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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #242 - Apr 22nd, 2009 at 8:00am
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Awwww, I wish I was home to download it!

Hope to try it this weekend though.
  
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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #243 - Apr 24th, 2009 at 4:08pm
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Red Faction: Guerilla demo is out now, worth your time

The demo for Red Faction: Guerilla is out now on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, and it's much better than we were expecting. Go give it a try, and be pleasantly surprised.
By Ben Kuchera | Last updated April 23, 2009 10:39 AM CT


In the Red Faction: Guerrilla demo that is now available for every 360 and PS3 owner—even if you didn't preorder the game—you can take control of a massive walker and use it to simply walk through buildings. It is, very simply, glorious.

For a while, the demo was only available to preorder customers (because who doesn't want to put down money on a game to see if they'd like it) but now the demo is available to everyone, free and clear. I heavily suggest you give it a try. The game wasn't much on my radar before; I found the original merely competent, but in the demo there is a mech, a turret section, and a small area where you can use your throwable explosives to blow up buildings, gas tanks, or people.

Yes, the ability to stick the grenades onto someone's face and watch them run around in a panic before detonation is still there. It's still as good as it ever was.

Watching an enemy take cover, only to blow up that cover and then smack the baddie full on the chest with your hammer, is an experience everyone needs to go through at least once. I won't bore you with other things you can do, leaving you to explore for yourself, but the destruction is wonderful, the physics feel great, and the weapons are satisfying.

This one went from "Eh, I hope to see it at E3" to "give me more NOW" in a matter of minutes. Go give it a download and let us know what you think, or if you pre-ordered and this is old news, feel free to make fun of the rest of us.

Red Faction: Guerrilla will be released on June 9 for the 360 and PS3, and August 25 on the PC.



Interestingly, Red Faction: Guerilla is still showing up on Steam's "Coming Soon" page.  I sincerely hope this game really does appear on Steam in August.

I'm a bit peeved that I have to wait 2½ months longer than the console gamers, though.  I doubt there is any technical reason for the delay, and this is likely a move to lessen the impact caused by piracy.  Any insight, Media Master?


-b0b
(...is going to download the XBox demo tonight!)

  

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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #244 - Apr 24th, 2009 at 5:18pm
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Yea, not at liberty to say anything on that , sorry. I have to check out the demo myself, I've heard mixed feelings from people who tried it. I'm just sad there's no tunneling into the ground anymore. Glass house ftw!
  

"Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other."&&&&John Adams&&
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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #245 - Apr 25th, 2009 at 1:17am
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Yeah, I figured you wouldn't be able to say anything.  Such is the burden of a worthwhile career, eh?

My brother-in-law and I just spent about two hours playing the demo.  It's only a ~15 minute demo, so that should speak volumes!  As usual, I suck balls at console FPS titles, but blowing stuff up in the walking robots was incredibly fun.  As the review I posted earlier posits, throwing sticky bombs on enemies is an absolute riot.

Volition really nailed this one out of the park.  I can't wait until the demo hits the PC, and I hope they don't make us wait until August to get a peek at it!


-b0b
(...loved it!)
  

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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #246 - Apr 25th, 2009 at 1:31am
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Stalin vs. Martians!

This game looked so darned cool that I just had to pre-order it on Steam today.





On a side note, you can pick up The Orange Box for only $10 on Steam this weekend.  The sale runs through Sunday evening.  If you don't own it already, you owe it to yourself to pick it up!


-b0b
(...is buying a copy for Mere's Steam account for LAN parties.)
  

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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #247 - Apr 26th, 2009 at 5:03pm
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.... is that a monster sized Stalin?!
  

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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #248 - Apr 26th, 2009 at 6:36pm
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I don't know, but I'll find out when it ships on Wednesday!  Full details forthcoming!


-b0b
(...mecha-Stalin!)
  

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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #249 - Apr 27th, 2009 at 12:41pm
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Bioshock movie put on hold due to high budget

Due to concerns over rising costs, production on the Bioshock film has been put on hold. Looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer before we get to see Rapture visualized on the big screen.

By Michael Thompson | Last updated April 27, 2009 11:00 AM CT


The Bioshock movie that was announced a year ago seems to have hit a bit of a snag: it's been put on hiatus due to budget concerns, and everyone involved is working to reduce costs. Unsurprisingly, the Gore Verbinski-directed film was set to have a fairly substantial budget, but Universal started getting nervous when projected cost raised to $160 million. As a result, things are on hold until the finances get sorted out.

Verbinski, who actually passed on directing the next Pirates of the Caribbean to helm the Bioshock adapation, explained the situation to Variety. "We were asked by Universal to move the film outside the U.S. to take advantage of a tax credit," he said, adding, "we are evaluating whether this is something we want to do. In the meantime, the film is in a holding pattern."

The movie has generated a great deal of excitement from fans of the game, particularly because of the combined talent of Gore Verbinski and John Logan. While it's disappointing to hear that the film has been delayed, fans should take heart that the movie itself hasn't actually been canceled. According to Variety, "All parties vow that Bioshock will not become another Halo, the would-be live-action adaptation of the Microsoft game that was cancelled when U and Fox got cold feet over budget fears." If the film does eventually make it through these budget concerns and into theaters, gamers will probably be OK with the delay so long as the final product is better than most of the game-based movies that have been released so far.


At this rate, if the movie does make it into production, it'll be another Doom/Streetfighter/Mortal Kombat catastrophe.


-b0b
(...is sad in his pants.)
  

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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #250 - May 7th, 2009 at 10:02am
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http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/58519

A very reliable source close to Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms today confirmed to Shacknews that the company has been shut down.

The closure came about as a result of funding issues, our source explained, with the shut down said to affect both 3D Realms and the recently resurrected Apogee name. Employees of both entities have already been let go.

Phone calls and e-mails to various 3D Realms veterans have thus far gone unanswered, with publishing partner Take-Two likewise unavailable for comment.


I guess this means we can't bust on Duke Nukem Forever anymore.  Alas, poor 3D Realms, we hardly knew ye!


-b0b
(...super sad frowny face!)
  

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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #251 - May 11th, 2009 at 6:09am
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Another teaser trailer is out for Modern Warfare 2.  It's still looking pretty sexy!


  

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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #252 - May 11th, 2009 at 6:01pm
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Mother of God.

I just spent $32.00 on... *cough*Games for Windows Live*cough*...

I can't stand that darn interface, but I just had to have the Fallout 3 expansion packs.  I'm such a consumer whore.


-b0b
(...somebody hold me.)
  

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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #253 - May 14th, 2009 at 8:09pm
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The first screenshots of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 have been leaked.  Enjoy!

http://www.xboxic.com/news/5283


-b0b
(...wants to see some decent in-game video!)
  

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Re: Game Thread!
Reply #254 - May 17th, 2009 at 7:34pm
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Are you guys as excited about this as I am?  I might have to save up and buy that GTX 285 I've been drooling over when this comes out.


-b0b
(...is still using an 8800 GTS 512.)
  

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