I took the liberty (read: made the mistake) of re-activating my Champions account about a week ago.
I don't hate the game, but I don't consider the notion of having to pay by the month to play it to be a particularly good deal.
One of the main problems I have is that I'm just not a champion. One of my mains is a hero based on the Hulk. Built like a brick shithouse, blue/green skin colour, ripped like a mofo. Some kind of experiment gone wrong.
The travel power I chose for him is way cool. You activate it, and then your jumps are super jumps. I'm talking about being able to jump over buildings. I can cover ground faster than a hero with flight, and when I land, it leaves a crater in the ground.
When I move about the city, I get people come up to me to say thanks. I repelled an Alien attack, and they're grateful. It's not uncommon to walk past pedestrians making sweet comments, and if I click on someone on the phone, they pop out a "oh my god, you won't believe who's right here" to whoever they're talking to.
So what's the problem, you ask? Just about any random group of thugs just chilling on top of a skyscraper can kick my arse. Without breaking out a sweat.
So yeah, it's an ok game, but you're no hero. I'm not asking to be Superman, for fuck's sake, but then, I'm not getting killed by Lex Luthor, either.
Another problem I have is with the powers. You see, they're just about all the same. You can shoot fire out of your mouth, ice out of your hands, or electricity from out of your chest. The point is that the abilities are damned near identical, it's just different methods of delivery.
I kinda like my hulk-a-like, but after having experimented with many different power sets, my favourite is munitions. This stinks, because my idea of a superhero is not a guy running around with guns. But there you have it. So I'm having the most fun playing the skill set that feels the least like actually being a superhero.
A lot of the travel powers are pretty cool, but ultimately, I don't think it's a whole lot better than City of Heroes. I think I should have re-activated my account with that game, instead.
I don't hate the game, but I don't consider the notion of having to pay by the month to play it to be a particularly good deal.
One of the main problems I have is that I'm just not a champion. One of my mains is a hero based on the Hulk. Built like a brick shithouse, blue/green skin colour, ripped like a mofo. Some kind of experiment gone wrong.
The travel power I chose for him is way cool. You activate it, and then your jumps are super jumps. I'm talking about being able to jump over buildings. I can cover ground faster than a hero with flight, and when I land, it leaves a crater in the ground.
When I move about the city, I get people come up to me to say thanks. I repelled an Alien attack, and they're grateful. It's not uncommon to walk past pedestrians making sweet comments, and if I click on someone on the phone, they pop out a "oh my god, you won't believe who's right here" to whoever they're talking to.
So what's the problem, you ask? Just about any random group of thugs just chilling on top of a skyscraper can kick my arse. Without breaking out a sweat.
So yeah, it's an ok game, but you're no hero. I'm not asking to be Superman, for fuck's sake, but then, I'm not getting killed by Lex Luthor, either.
Another problem I have is with the powers. You see, they're just about all the same. You can shoot fire out of your mouth, ice out of your hands, or electricity from out of your chest. The point is that the abilities are damned near identical, it's just different methods of delivery.
I kinda like my hulk-a-like, but after having experimented with many different power sets, my favourite is munitions. This stinks, because my idea of a superhero is not a guy running around with guns. But there you have it. So I'm having the most fun playing the skill set that feels the least like actually being a superhero.
A lot of the travel powers are pretty cool, but ultimately, I don't think it's a whole lot better than City of Heroes. I think I should have re-activated my account with that game, instead.
Guys, guys, guys... it feels like it's been ages.
So hey, here's a video of my having modded the Fatboy II experimental from Supreme Commander 2:
It's fun modding and all, but I dunno. I can't really do advanced stuff like adding new units, but the existing setup can easily be modified. Making stuff bigger, more hitpoints, changing weapon sounds and projectile types, damage values... that kinda stuff isn't difficult atall. Change a text file here, insert it into a packed file there, and you're ready to rock and roll.
I rather like the thought of doing a mod to the game that skirmish players like myself might get a kick out of. The idea would be to deliberately buff the UEF faction so that it would take 3-4 players of either of the other two factions teamed up to drop them.
Their tanks would be bigger, their planes would be faster, and their experimentals would be beefier. A lot.
Kinda like in Star Trek when you're the Federation, fighting the Borg. You're not meant to be able to take em 1 on 1.
In any case, not only is it cool to be the big bad boys, spanking the AIs, but it would also be fun teaming up with others to drop them.
I need some variety like that, because these days everything's about being as balanced as possible, and that's really starting to bore me.
So hey, here's a video of my having modded the Fatboy II experimental from Supreme Commander 2:
It's fun modding and all, but I dunno. I can't really do advanced stuff like adding new units, but the existing setup can easily be modified. Making stuff bigger, more hitpoints, changing weapon sounds and projectile types, damage values... that kinda stuff isn't difficult atall. Change a text file here, insert it into a packed file there, and you're ready to rock and roll.
I rather like the thought of doing a mod to the game that skirmish players like myself might get a kick out of. The idea would be to deliberately buff the UEF faction so that it would take 3-4 players of either of the other two factions teamed up to drop them.
Their tanks would be bigger, their planes would be faster, and their experimentals would be beefier. A lot.
Kinda like in Star Trek when you're the Federation, fighting the Borg. You're not meant to be able to take em 1 on 1.
In any case, not only is it cool to be the big bad boys, spanking the AIs, but it would also be fun teaming up with others to drop them.
I need some variety like that, because these days everything's about being as balanced as possible, and that's really starting to bore me.
Thought I'd up some footage from a game of the original Supreme Commander I had earlier today:
Yeah it's a good game, this one. It could've just a bit more support from Gas Powered Games, maybe some polish, new units released etc, but it's still a really good RTS.
I did like the changes made with the FA expansion, but I do wish they'd have fixed that bloody slowdown bug when you're playing games with AIs on large maps.
That said, I'm off to play some more. Maybe I'll go look around for a unit pack first :)
Yeah it's a good game, this one. It could've just a bit more support from Gas Powered Games, maybe some polish, new units released etc, but it's still a really good RTS.
I did like the changes made with the FA expansion, but I do wish they'd have fixed that bloody slowdown bug when you're playing games with AIs on large maps.
That said, I'm off to play some more. Maybe I'll go look around for a unit pack first :)
I'd planned on upping a great new video of Supreme Commander 2 to Youtube tonight, but unfortunately, I couldn't have a game enjoyable enough to warrant the effort.
It came recommended on the GPG forums that if you disable the nukes while playing with AIs, they get a lot more versatile with their attacks. What with having noticed their tendency to just resort to nuking my base much of the time, it sounded really quite exciting.
So I thought I'd setup a 4vs4 with nukes disabled on Setons (me and 3 hard vs 2 cheating and 2 hard), and end up having a great time. Unfortunately, they just spam air units instead. Like, no kidding (I just played again specifically to time the fucking thing), just a fraction inside of 1 minute and 25 seconds into the game, my commander had already been bombed. That's less than 85 seconds from game start to impact.
And it only gets worse.
It wouldn't be so bad if anti-air defenses were actually worth a damn, but they're not. UEF air fighters, AA turrets, mobile AA ground units, they all do terrible damage against the very targets they're designed to take down. In the game I timed just then, it took a half dozen UEF fighters of mine a good 15-20 seconds to drop two enemy gunships that were laying down a constant stream of fire all over my commander.
What... the... fuck??? Who's the nuthead in charge of balancing this shit?!
Gas Powered Games, for fuck's sake. I want to like them, really I do. God knows I've tried, I bought both Dungeon Siege games, both Supreme Commander games, and I'm even subscribed to them on Youtube.
But Christ, without either decent software or decent support, you're going down fellas. It's only a matter of time.
It came recommended on the GPG forums that if you disable the nukes while playing with AIs, they get a lot more versatile with their attacks. What with having noticed their tendency to just resort to nuking my base much of the time, it sounded really quite exciting.
So I thought I'd setup a 4vs4 with nukes disabled on Setons (me and 3 hard vs 2 cheating and 2 hard), and end up having a great time. Unfortunately, they just spam air units instead. Like, no kidding (I just played again specifically to time the fucking thing), just a fraction inside of 1 minute and 25 seconds into the game, my commander had already been bombed. That's less than 85 seconds from game start to impact.
And it only gets worse.
It wouldn't be so bad if anti-air defenses were actually worth a damn, but they're not. UEF air fighters, AA turrets, mobile AA ground units, they all do terrible damage against the very targets they're designed to take down. In the game I timed just then, it took a half dozen UEF fighters of mine a good 15-20 seconds to drop two enemy gunships that were laying down a constant stream of fire all over my commander.
What... the... fuck??? Who's the nuthead in charge of balancing this shit?!
Gas Powered Games, for fuck's sake. I want to like them, really I do. God knows I've tried, I bought both Dungeon Siege games, both Supreme Commander games, and I'm even subscribed to them on Youtube.
But Christ, without either decent software or decent support, you're going down fellas. It's only a matter of time.
I had a chance to play the Starcraft 2 beta lately.
I went in with a bucketload of enthusiasm - because hey, it is Blizzard, after all - and I was expecting to just be having the greatest time with it.
I'll be honest with you now though, it feels just like they've just slapped a coat of 1080p paint over the original. Despite having either changed or replaced most of the units, the feeling is much the same. A little too much.
That might be good enough for many of you, but I came away completely uninspired. I haven't been this disappointed since Transformers 2.
I'll still buy it when it comes out, but then, I bought the Blu-ray of Transformers 2 when it came out, too. Not because it's worth watching, unfortunately, but just to be able to say I've got it.
Oh yeah, and I was going to upload a couple of Terran gameplay videos, but I really do need faster internet for that kinda thing, because it taking a good 2 hours per video blows just a little too much.
I went in with a bucketload of enthusiasm - because hey, it is Blizzard, after all - and I was expecting to just be having the greatest time with it.
I'll be honest with you now though, it feels just like they've just slapped a coat of 1080p paint over the original. Despite having either changed or replaced most of the units, the feeling is much the same. A little too much.
That might be good enough for many of you, but I came away completely uninspired. I haven't been this disappointed since Transformers 2.
I'll still buy it when it comes out, but then, I bought the Blu-ray of Transformers 2 when it came out, too. Not because it's worth watching, unfortunately, but just to be able to say I've got it.
Oh yeah, and I was going to upload a couple of Terran gameplay videos, but I really do need faster internet for that kinda thing, because it taking a good 2 hours per video blows just a little too much.
I thought I'd give Battlefield: Bad Company 2 multiplayer a go. Turns out it wasn't the best idea.
A quick google search for any servers my local isp might've setup led me to some "3FL servers". There were five of them, four of which were full to the brim, 35/35 players. The last one was empty, and as it turns out, I was about to find out why.
I connected, chose a class (assault all the way), and was parachuting down to my side's base. I got into a tank, and fired off a couple of shots that sounded sick (thanks Mr. Subwoofer, you're the greatest). It'll even drop trees if the impact lands near it, awesome.
So I'm like, bring it on boys. I drive a bit further...
... and the game CTDs. It says punkbuster failed to init, or some such crap. I'll be damned if I didn't fire it right back up, and the same bloody thing happened.
I googled again, some guy recommended a fix. Downloaded, placed in appropriate directory, fired up again, same problem.
The error message keeps saying to go to the support section of their website and grab the latest setup file. So I go there, do that, run it, add the game, install the latest update, close it, fire the game back up... and it happens yet again.
Can I have the last 45 minutes of my life back yet?
A quick google search for any servers my local isp might've setup led me to some "3FL servers". There were five of them, four of which were full to the brim, 35/35 players. The last one was empty, and as it turns out, I was about to find out why.
I connected, chose a class (assault all the way), and was parachuting down to my side's base. I got into a tank, and fired off a couple of shots that sounded sick (thanks Mr. Subwoofer, you're the greatest). It'll even drop trees if the impact lands near it, awesome.
So I'm like, bring it on boys. I drive a bit further...
... and the game CTDs. It says punkbuster failed to init, or some such crap. I'll be damned if I didn't fire it right back up, and the same bloody thing happened.
I googled again, some guy recommended a fix. Downloaded, placed in appropriate directory, fired up again, same problem.
The error message keeps saying to go to the support section of their website and grab the latest setup file. So I go there, do that, run it, add the game, install the latest update, close it, fire the game back up... and it happens yet again.
Can I have the last 45 minutes of my life back yet?
Ok, so I'm first figuring out what I'm going to put here, and honestly, I did have a lot of bad stuff written about the new Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I lamented the fact you can no longer create your own server with bots, and that, if you want to be able to create a server at all, you have to actually rent one from one of their "trusted partners".
I've gotta admit though, if I were part of a clan with mates who all got together and battled it up, it'd probably be the best thing ever. That and, I've actually checked out the prices, and in all fairness, they're very, very reasonable. $30US per month for a 32 slot server that would even be based here in Perth is really not bad atall.
The thing is, I'm just not that sort of gamer anymore. Back in my 20's, I was all about being part of a Quake 1 clan, having clan wars every couple days. We'd connect to a server hosted by a local ISP and go 4 vs 4 against another Perth clan, and it was great.
It's just not how I like to play anymore. These days, I'm more about being able to play privately, or just having a mate or two over and skirmishing against AI. I'm still hardcore, just... casual hardcore :)
This all said, Bad Company 2 does have an excellent single-player campaign, but it's been all Call of Duty-ized, mixing combat in with story-telling. And cutscenes, lots and lots of cutscenes.
I had to drop the in-game res down to 1680x1050 and set the overall graphic quality to low to be able to record video with fraps at 30fps, but it still looks real good, and here's links to a couple of them:
In addition to the feature set that the game has now, if I could set up a private server and play any of the available multiplayer modes on any of the available multiplayer maps with bots, it'd be one of the rare few 9/10 venturai.com games! Without a doubt.
Alas, without those features for which I'm so passionate, and because I really don't have any interest in multiplayer, I can only award it on the single player campaign at present.
7.5/10.
I've gotta admit though, if I were part of a clan with mates who all got together and battled it up, it'd probably be the best thing ever. That and, I've actually checked out the prices, and in all fairness, they're very, very reasonable. $30US per month for a 32 slot server that would even be based here in Perth is really not bad atall.
The thing is, I'm just not that sort of gamer anymore. Back in my 20's, I was all about being part of a Quake 1 clan, having clan wars every couple days. We'd connect to a server hosted by a local ISP and go 4 vs 4 against another Perth clan, and it was great.
It's just not how I like to play anymore. These days, I'm more about being able to play privately, or just having a mate or two over and skirmishing against AI. I'm still hardcore, just... casual hardcore :)
This all said, Bad Company 2 does have an excellent single-player campaign, but it's been all Call of Duty-ized, mixing combat in with story-telling. And cutscenes, lots and lots of cutscenes.
I had to drop the in-game res down to 1680x1050 and set the overall graphic quality to low to be able to record video with fraps at 30fps, but it still looks real good, and here's links to a couple of them:
In addition to the feature set that the game has now, if I could set up a private server and play any of the available multiplayer modes on any of the available multiplayer maps with bots, it'd be one of the rare few 9/10 venturai.com games! Without a doubt.
Alas, without those features for which I'm so passionate, and because I really don't have any interest in multiplayer, I can only award it on the single player campaign at present.
7.5/10.
I caved and bought Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Steam is currently downloading it.
Yeah, I did recently post about Steam overcharging those of us outside of the US, and I did say I wouldn't support the publishers who are engaging in this practice.
I had a weak moment, and while Supreme Commander 2 is fully deserving of the 7/10 I gave it on metacritic, I'm just not motivated enough to play any more right now.
I had a game earlier in which my commander was nuked because my nuke defense silos weren't actually building anti-nuke missiles (micromanagement ftw).
More recently, I experienced a showstopper bug (that's been reported on the GPG forums), in which if you hunker your commander unit down, upgrade the hunker ability and then unhunker, the game locks up.
Brilliant.
It's certainly not a bad game, and when you're in the middle of the action with planes flying overhead and shots going any which way, it just looks fabulous. If they fix the sorts of technical issues that I've been reporting, and perhaps modify queueing so it only takes the resources for each structure when it's about to be built, I'd up that to at least 8/10.
And 8/10, well, that may be a "good" score on an average review site, but here at venturai.com, it's a fucking great score! In all honesty, I'll have maybe only ever given out a handful of 9/10's in my life, and absolutely never a 10/10.
Anyway, at the rate I'm going, tomorrow I'll have a Battlefield: Bad Company 2 video up here :)
Yeah, I did recently post about Steam overcharging those of us outside of the US, and I did say I wouldn't support the publishers who are engaging in this practice.
I had a weak moment, and while Supreme Commander 2 is fully deserving of the 7/10 I gave it on metacritic, I'm just not motivated enough to play any more right now.
I had a game earlier in which my commander was nuked because my nuke defense silos weren't actually building anti-nuke missiles (micromanagement ftw).
More recently, I experienced a showstopper bug (that's been reported on the GPG forums), in which if you hunker your commander unit down, upgrade the hunker ability and then unhunker, the game locks up.
Brilliant.
It's certainly not a bad game, and when you're in the middle of the action with planes flying overhead and shots going any which way, it just looks fabulous. If they fix the sorts of technical issues that I've been reporting, and perhaps modify queueing so it only takes the resources for each structure when it's about to be built, I'd up that to at least 8/10.
And 8/10, well, that may be a "good" score on an average review site, but here at venturai.com, it's a fucking great score! In all honesty, I'll have maybe only ever given out a handful of 9/10's in my life, and absolutely never a 10/10.
Anyway, at the rate I'm going, tomorrow I'll have a Battlefield: Bad Company 2 video up here :)
Ok, so I've played three skirmish games of Supreme Commander 2 now, and I'm going to post my initial impressions. The first game was against a normal AI, and the second and third both against a normal and a hard teamed up against me.
For starters, the game's definitely a lot more action-oriented. Like it's just really in your face. Everything builds a lot quicker, and there's no tech 1, tech 2 and tech 3 stuff. You research stuff now, and you gain research points by either building research buildings or with combat. You have different categories, like air, navy, land, structures, etc... and you spend the points to unlock things like bonuses and new units.
Yeah, forget almost everything you know about the series, either from Supreme Commander or even Total Annihilation that came so many years ago. The book has been re-written, somewhat substantially. Whether or not you like that, is up to you; I'm not necessarily saying it's good or bad.
You don't have to build mass and power storage now either, what you acquire is yours to keep. This comes with a catch; you have to have the resources now to build anything. It's very much like Command and Conquer now in that respect, and if you don't have the resources available to build that super unit, you won't be able to begin construction until you do.
The new way of doing things makes a big change to how you would use the shift key to queue up commands. If you queue up an engineer to build three anti-air turrets, for example, but you only have enough current resources for two, he's only going to build two, because all the resources for all queued structures are taken straight away. This is something I'd prefer they changed.
Come to think of it, the game is littered with technical issues like this. If you have one engineer assist another, it will only assist with the first structure in a queue, then it goes idle. You can't have engineers assist buildings like factories until after they're built too. Speaking of factories, you can put them on repeat, and they'll auto-pause if you run out of resources, but they won't auto-resume if you have enough resources once again.
These may be minor-sounding issues, but they're serving to make the gameplay a lot more frustrating than it needs to be. There's a lot more micromanagement that's needing to be done now, which feels like one fuck of a giant leap backwards.
I do like the game, don't get me wrong, but I don't know if I like it more than the original. That's not to say that I don't, mind you.
The jury's still out, but if they can fix the sort of issues that I've brought up, that might just win the case for them. I'm not hopeful though, Gas Powered Games make decent enough games, but they're not known for their post-release support. Cross fingers.
Oh yeah, and here's a video demonstrating how the first skirmish game ended:
For starters, the game's definitely a lot more action-oriented. Like it's just really in your face. Everything builds a lot quicker, and there's no tech 1, tech 2 and tech 3 stuff. You research stuff now, and you gain research points by either building research buildings or with combat. You have different categories, like air, navy, land, structures, etc... and you spend the points to unlock things like bonuses and new units.
Yeah, forget almost everything you know about the series, either from Supreme Commander or even Total Annihilation that came so many years ago. The book has been re-written, somewhat substantially. Whether or not you like that, is up to you; I'm not necessarily saying it's good or bad.
You don't have to build mass and power storage now either, what you acquire is yours to keep. This comes with a catch; you have to have the resources now to build anything. It's very much like Command and Conquer now in that respect, and if you don't have the resources available to build that super unit, you won't be able to begin construction until you do.
The new way of doing things makes a big change to how you would use the shift key to queue up commands. If you queue up an engineer to build three anti-air turrets, for example, but you only have enough current resources for two, he's only going to build two, because all the resources for all queued structures are taken straight away. This is something I'd prefer they changed.
Come to think of it, the game is littered with technical issues like this. If you have one engineer assist another, it will only assist with the first structure in a queue, then it goes idle. You can't have engineers assist buildings like factories until after they're built too. Speaking of factories, you can put them on repeat, and they'll auto-pause if you run out of resources, but they won't auto-resume if you have enough resources once again.
These may be minor-sounding issues, but they're serving to make the gameplay a lot more frustrating than it needs to be. There's a lot more micromanagement that's needing to be done now, which feels like one fuck of a giant leap backwards.
I do like the game, don't get me wrong, but I don't know if I like it more than the original. That's not to say that I don't, mind you.
The jury's still out, but if they can fix the sort of issues that I've brought up, that might just win the case for them. I'm not hopeful though, Gas Powered Games make decent enough games, but they're not known for their post-release support. Cross fingers.
Oh yeah, and here's a video demonstrating how the first skirmish game ended:
This website now serves primarily as my blog.
My focus has always been (and will always be) on pc gaming. I have a 360, Wii and PS3, but gaming on the pc has always been where my heart is. I always buy my games on the pc platform, whenever possible (case in point; the new Aliens Vs Predator).
In advance, I apologise for any potential cynicism, but I've become quite jaded over the years as I've seen the average level of quality take quite a dive. Of course, it may just be that I'm getting older, and it's just not rubbing me the same way anymore. Who knows?
That all said, this coming weekend is going to be Supreme Commander 2 weekend. I should have an update on it out by early next week, and in all likelihood, I'll link a new gameplay video too.
I really hope it doesn't suck. Star Trek Online lasted me a couple weeks (off and on), and Aliens Vs Predator about a week. I can't keep going like this. Really, how hard is it to write a game that'll keep a man's attention for at least a month?
Is that really too much to ask?
My focus has always been (and will always be) on pc gaming. I have a 360, Wii and PS3, but gaming on the pc has always been where my heart is. I always buy my games on the pc platform, whenever possible (case in point; the new Aliens Vs Predator).
In advance, I apologise for any potential cynicism, but I've become quite jaded over the years as I've seen the average level of quality take quite a dive. Of course, it may just be that I'm getting older, and it's just not rubbing me the same way anymore. Who knows?
That all said, this coming weekend is going to be Supreme Commander 2 weekend. I should have an update on it out by early next week, and in all likelihood, I'll link a new gameplay video too.
I really hope it doesn't suck. Star Trek Online lasted me a couple weeks (off and on), and Aliens Vs Predator about a week. I can't keep going like this. Really, how hard is it to write a game that'll keep a man's attention for at least a month?
Is that really too much to ask?
One could argue this should've been assumed, given man's tendency to be greedy, but here's a picture I've just put together demonstrating how us Australian customers are paying more for our games over Steam:
The list on the left side is a capture direct from my Steam app, and the right side is a capture from my having browsed the Steam store via a proxy website (so they'd think I was living in the US of A). And believe it or not, both sets of prices are listed in $USD.
So yeah, let's look at what we've got here; among other differences, that's an extra $30 for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision), Napolean: Total War Imperial Edition (Sega) and Bioshock 2 (2k Games). Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA) is an extra $20, AvP (Sega again) an extra $15, and Warhammer 40k DoW2 Chaos Rising (THQ) an extra $10.
So yeah fellas, what's the deal? You taking the piss or something? Makes me laugh, when I think about it; yeah, piracy is wrong, but this shit is fine. Huh? What, it costs them more having an Australian download the game instead of an American? Of course not.
What a pity. The opportunity was there to do it so right and so well. After all, the goods are non-tangible and the internet makes the delivery. One store, prices listed in US dollars regardless of location, and all the rest of us pay is whatever the going exchange rate is at the time. Brilliant.
But no, as usual, human greed has to go fuck it up once again. Yeah, there's a switch!
Oh, and check out the dates too. Not only does the average Australian have to pay more, he's also got to wait longer before he can play it. The Yanks can start playing Supreme Commander 2 tomorrow (Tuesday March 2nd), but for reasons unknown, I've got to wait until Friday 5th.
That said, I'm grateful Supreme Commander 2 has the same price, and it's nice to see Valve themselves not engaging in this activity. At least there are a couple out there trying to do the right thing. They're the ones who'll be getting all my business from now on.
The list on the left side is a capture direct from my Steam app, and the right side is a capture from my having browsed the Steam store via a proxy website (so they'd think I was living in the US of A). And believe it or not, both sets of prices are listed in $USD.
So yeah, let's look at what we've got here; among other differences, that's an extra $30 for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision), Napolean: Total War Imperial Edition (Sega) and Bioshock 2 (2k Games). Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA) is an extra $20, AvP (Sega again) an extra $15, and Warhammer 40k DoW2 Chaos Rising (THQ) an extra $10.
So yeah fellas, what's the deal? You taking the piss or something? Makes me laugh, when I think about it; yeah, piracy is wrong, but this shit is fine. Huh? What, it costs them more having an Australian download the game instead of an American? Of course not.
What a pity. The opportunity was there to do it so right and so well. After all, the goods are non-tangible and the internet makes the delivery. One store, prices listed in US dollars regardless of location, and all the rest of us pay is whatever the going exchange rate is at the time. Brilliant.
But no, as usual, human greed has to go fuck it up once again. Yeah, there's a switch!
Oh, and check out the dates too. Not only does the average Australian have to pay more, he's also got to wait longer before he can play it. The Yanks can start playing Supreme Commander 2 tomorrow (Tuesday March 2nd), but for reasons unknown, I've got to wait until Friday 5th.
That said, I'm grateful Supreme Commander 2 has the same price, and it's nice to see Valve themselves not engaging in this activity. At least there are a couple out there trying to do the right thing. They're the ones who'll be getting all my business from now on.
I made it to the Commander rank in Star Trek Online before I absolutely positively could not stand playing the game anymore.
If you like repetition and Star Trek, it's the game for you, because believe me, you will do exactly the same thing over and over again.
In the meantime, I picked up the new Aliens Vs Predator for the pc. Here's a video of me playing as the Predator:
There are two more like that on Youtube, if the look of it takes your fancy. It's quite good, but will only really appeal to fans of the franchises. If that's not you I'd steer clear, because the single-player campaigns are relatively short and they dropped the ball (a little) with it's multiplayer. To put a long story short, you can't join games in progress and the community is still waiting (impatiently) for the dedicated server software to be released.
So yeah, speaking of AvP (kinda), I went to the doctor for my physical. He said he needed a semen, stool and a urine sample. I said "gee doc, I'm in a big hurry, can I just leave my underwear?"
Have a good one!
If you like repetition and Star Trek, it's the game for you, because believe me, you will do exactly the same thing over and over again.
In the meantime, I picked up the new Aliens Vs Predator for the pc. Here's a video of me playing as the Predator:
There are two more like that on Youtube, if the look of it takes your fancy. It's quite good, but will only really appeal to fans of the franchises. If that's not you I'd steer clear, because the single-player campaigns are relatively short and they dropped the ball (a little) with it's multiplayer. To put a long story short, you can't join games in progress and the community is still waiting (impatiently) for the dedicated server software to be released.
So yeah, speaking of AvP (kinda), I went to the doctor for my physical. He said he needed a semen, stool and a urine sample. I said "gee doc, I'm in a big hurry, can I just leave my underwear?"
Have a good one!
...is coming. Here's a video of me playing the recently-released demo:
While I think it's fair to say that concerns about the game having been dumbed down for the masses (grumble grumble console users grumble) are somewhat justified, I've still had a lot of fun with this demo.
Another update coming soon...
While I think it's fair to say that concerns about the game having been dumbed down for the masses (grumble grumble console users grumble) are somewhat justified, I've still had a lot of fun with this demo.
Another update coming soon...
If I could sum up STO in 3 words it'd likely be:
SERVER NOT RESPONDING
Ok, so that's a bit harsh, but over the course of a few hours, it's something I did encounter several times.
It's actually not a bad game. you get a quest, warp to a certain area, and investigate. Investigations usually come in several parts, one typically involves some sort of ship combat and the other planetary combat. Hail starfleet, hand in and collect reward, then either head back to Sol to upgrade or do the next quest.
But I like it.
Granted, I only probably like it because it's coated in Star Trek, but hey, that's what they're going for, right?
SERVER NOT RESPONDING
Ok, so that's a bit harsh, but over the course of a few hours, it's something I did encounter several times.
It's actually not a bad game. you get a quest, warp to a certain area, and investigate. Investigations usually come in several parts, one typically involves some sort of ship combat and the other planetary combat. Hail starfleet, hand in and collect reward, then either head back to Sol to upgrade or do the next quest.
But I like it.
Granted, I only probably like it because it's coated in Star Trek, but hey, that's what they're going for, right?
Just uploaded a demo showcasing the new Seaton SubMersive subwoofer. You can thank Steam for this; it's not like I'm busy playing Star Trek Online or anything:
A few hours ago I caved, and purchased Star Trek Online on Steam. My bad.
I've always loved Star Trek, despite finding it hypocritical that a species of our selfish volatility would do a show in which we're the peaceful explorers of the galaxy, surrounded by the aggressive, warmongering types.
Oh the irony.
It's academic, at any rate, because Steam is reporting that "your purchase is still being processed", and I can't do anything with it. No, it won't even let me start downloading the client files.
I can log into my bank's internet banking though, and I see the transaction for it listed, clear as day.
Money I wish I could get back, truth be told.
I've always loved Star Trek, despite finding it hypocritical that a species of our selfish volatility would do a show in which we're the peaceful explorers of the galaxy, surrounded by the aggressive, warmongering types.
Oh the irony.
It's academic, at any rate, because Steam is reporting that "your purchase is still being processed", and I can't do anything with it. No, it won't even let me start downloading the client files.
I can log into my bank's internet banking though, and I see the transaction for it listed, clear as day.
Money I wish I could get back, truth be told.
A SubMersive page has been created, showing pictures of the official subwoofer of venturai.com!
The SubMersive (pictured repeatedly) can dish out some serious bass. It is manufactured by a company named Seaton Sound, and it sports dual 15" drivers in a sealed enclosure.
Onto other matters, and the template has been modified slightly. There's now no annoying search/news page that was always showing up on the right side of each page.
The page for Return to Antonica has been deleted, as the mod is no longer in development.
I'm trying to make more of this website. It still sucks, I know. Website design just isn't my forte.
The SubMersive (pictured repeatedly) can dish out some serious bass. It is manufactured by a company named Seaton Sound, and it sports dual 15" drivers in a sealed enclosure.
Onto other matters, and the template has been modified slightly. There's now no annoying search/news page that was always showing up on the right side of each page.
The page for Return to Antonica has been deleted, as the mod is no longer in development.
I'm trying to make more of this website. It still sucks, I know. Website design just isn't my forte.
The VQuest-3X modification has also been updated to support the new codemaker engine. This mod is also now fully playable with Warcraft 3 v1.24, and it also includes the changes made since the old v0.80 beta.
As before, this update can be downloaded from the downloads section of the website.
Enjoy!
As before, this update can be downloaded from the downloads section of the website.
Enjoy!
VQuest v3.92 has been released and is available from the download section.
The codemaker program used to generate hero codes has been upgraded to the version compatible with the new v1.24 of Warcraft 3 (as it was what was causing the problem with the map not loading).
While the same settings for that program have been used, your existing hero codes are not guaranteed to work with this new version. We recommend testing your codes as soon as is possible.
Enjoy!
The codemaker program used to generate hero codes has been upgraded to the version compatible with the new v1.24 of Warcraft 3 (as it was what was causing the problem with the map not loading).
While the same settings for that program have been used, your existing hero codes are not guaranteed to work with this new version. We recommend testing your codes as soon as is possible.
Enjoy!
Venturai.com is just about ready to go!
VQuest and VQuest-3X pages have been created. There are pictures in the VQuest page, and the two gameplay demonstration videos released for the VQuest-3X modification are in the VQuest-3X page.
The downloads page has been created, listing the current versions for both VQuest and VQuest-3X. Older archives are also available.
The VQuest forums have been created and are available at:
http://www.venturai.com/vquest/
This time, admin authorisation will be required for all forum registrations before accounts will be able to post.
VQuest and VQuest-3X pages have been created. There are pictures in the VQuest page, and the two gameplay demonstration videos released for the VQuest-3X modification are in the VQuest-3X page.
The downloads page has been created, listing the current versions for both VQuest and VQuest-3X. Older archives are also available.
The VQuest forums have been created and are available at:
http://www.venturai.com/vquest/
This time, admin authorisation will be required for all forum registrations before accounts will be able to post.