Ombrenuit

Well as for whether or not this business practice is illegal, I don't believe they're doing anything illegal. You can ship a product that fails 30% of the time if you want, but it isn't going to help your business. And as for the government stepping it, I'd rather they not. I don't really advocate the government regulating everything under the sun. Things will balance themselves out--its the law of economics.

Oh you're in business too? I just transfered into the business college this term.

Considering people are free to replace their Xbox's or get them repaired per Microsoft (for free, am I correct?), I'm fairly certain (considering the conglomerate Microsoft is), they have their bases covered on this one and it will get thrown out of court.

Firstly, I really want to praise the team's efforts. This was a really exciting demo to play and I really enjoyed it. However, I feel like there are some things not addressed yet in terms of criticism. I don't mean for this to sound too negative. I just want everything addressed from a player's perspective. Some frustrations: - It's very difficult to blackjack. It feels like the reach is so short, I have to run into the guy to manage it. - Sword slashes at random. I really loved the thief sword system where you knew where the sword was going to go. And also you got a heavy attack by holding the attack button and a side swing by moving side to side while slashing. I actually knew where the sword was going. - Walking is painfully slow. Everything is slow. Much slower than the thief game's default. Creep is also proportionally too slow as well. - The side-to-side (swager) movement feels really unnatural when you move (noticed much more crawling than anything else). You don't notice this when you walk normally, why put it in the game? It's distracting. - I feel like there is a Thief 3 trapping here when it comes to bow animations. It just feels like the animation is too long. I can't put my finger on it specifically, it just feels unnaturally long and awkward. Some praises: - The menu is outstanding. I really love it, especially the music/atmosphere/etc. - Rope arrows have a great feel to them. - I really like the way notes work. - And I also realize that this was still a working pre-beta demo! A lot of what I mentioned is still being tweaked. I'm really eagerly anticipating the mod. Take everything I said with a grain of salt. I just want to be as harsh as I can be only to make this a highly enjoyable mod.

For the release, I'm expecting a 30% more expensive collector's edition including but not limited to: fancy box, thief figurine, lucky penny, beanbag blackjack, "Certified Taffer" license, and a cleverly hidden quote scroll.

Its a very difficult mod. I'm not sure if its to my liking. I wouldn't exactly call it scary, and in all the games I played in the the survivers just barracaded a room and camped it. Which isn't exactly what I would call fun for either side.... Disappointed I don't have UT. I absolutely love infiltration multi-player.

Thief 3 is evidently buggy as hell on a 360.

Although one positive thing to mention is the success of a certain game, Assassin's Creed. No, game play wise the Thief series share essentially two things: hoods and setting. However, I did find some things very interesting when I read about this game--things I knew Thief 3 was trying to do. Firstly, the fully explorable living and breathing--not to mention enormous--city environments was something Thief 3 wanted to accomplish seemlessly, but unfortunately just could not due to the limitations of the engine. The success of this game could possibly sway executives to attempt a fourth Thief, but this will undoubtedly create both pros and cons. Pro: Likely, the setting will remain the same. Medieval games are selling--and the only reason why they possibly want to change it is to ride the success of Splinter Cell. Cons: And a very big one here. Console games are selling, and because Assassin's Creed was multi-platform, Thief 4 would probably follow in its footsteps. Also there's no telling how else they'll bastardize the license. They could turn the game into a Hitman-esque romp with burglary involved, not to mention make it strictly third person. But I agree, Eidos will half-ass anything it touches.

Glad I bought Doom 3 anticipating this release one day. Keep up the great work guys.

Happy Holidays everyone

I think giving a guard a heart attack would be one of the funniest moments in video game history heh. Maybe there should be a scripted event like that in a fan mission heh

Makes you wonder where all those skeletons came from...

This is a rant, but I have to get it out. So I've played through Half Life 2. Enjoyed it. Actually I enjoyed it a lot. There wasn't anything more thrilling than cruising down the highway, skidding into challenging gunfights with Big Brother's soldiers in shoddy coastline housing or laying siege on military bases. Sure it wasn't realistic. But hell, we all played this game so we could be a Rambo with a PhD. Episode One wasn't bad too--a fun time waster, but didn't really do much to extend the lasting impression Half Life 2 left. So then here comes episode two. Sure, the first two incarnations weren't exactly non-linear. They were very linear. But I need some word to distinguish that with exactly how linear episode two is. Suddenly each room is a fucking puzzle. But we're not talking the kind that tickles your brain out of the usual game-playing coma. We're not even talking disguised puzzles that fit into the environment. We're talking about the same god damn puzzles you solved in the first game and episode one. And every room is an excuse to extend "game play" with another one. So I'm in a mine where evidently the miners thought it would be apt to create an obstacle for every exit. Yeah, we're talking the revenge of the broken elevators from hell. Jesus, I can't think of one elevator in episode two that has worked so far. I'll come out strait: I play this game to shoot some evil-ass soldiers in the head. Its that simple. I don't want to throw barrels at zombies, ant-ligers, and all that shit. I don't want to sit around scripted dialogues with Alex telling me how she wants to blow my e-peen because I'm so damn sexy climbing through airducts to get the next fucking elevator working. I want gun down Civil Protection. But I really lost it when it came to this new boss called the "Guardian". Cool sounding name right? Guess what, it's the exact same thing as an ant guard, only it glows. Oh shiny! And there's another exception to. When you first meet it evidently it can't die. For some reason the Vortigon you're with tells you not to kill it. But when that fucking thing is charging at me, do you think I have a death wish? No I'm going to fucking unload... But that's not in the script. In fact the Valve hand of God came down and swatted my bullets out of the air as they left my gun. I was completely out of ammo. So I go through the whole on-rails scene of pulse-pounding running away. Wow that was a blast! Then I fix another elevator and move onto the next level. Did I mention this whole time my Vortigon ally stuck behind, sitting on that damn broken elevator while I did all the work? Get used to it, because that's about all he fucking does. However thats not the end of the Guardian. We're finally outside. I've fixed all the elevators and in this valley the comes charging through a boarded up mine shaft along with a second ant-liger guard. So now for undisclosed gay-ass reasons, the Vortigon is occupied and Alex can't help out. Taking out the first ant guard isn't a problem so much--just like the previous games. The problem is the guardian. Who takes all my ammo, recently stocked up. And all the explosive barrels in the area. And about three dozen head-long crashes into a cliff-side to kill on hard. That's what I absolutely can't stand in first person shooters like this. I'm having a great time duking it out with foot soldiers and suddenly that's not enough. Instead of having a mildly tactical game, they throw some "unstoppable, epic" monster at you. I can't understate it enough, this boss took forever to kill on hard. And it wasn't a challenge--it was an exercise in side-stepping in front of a rock. And after this do I get a pat on the back? No. I'm at 20 health, no ammo, and I get another fucking elevator to fix while I get to dodge scripted boulders coming off the cliff side for no apparent reason. I fix the damn thing and do I finally get to have some fun? No, Valve expects to win me over with some flattery about how manly I am and then flat out orders me to go solve more puzzles now that I've polished off a boss. The conversation is as follows: Vortigon: "The Freeman is very attractive / charismatic / intelligent for killing that Guardian. I mean that motherfucker must have had ten times the hit points a regular guard has! Sorry we were both otherwise occupied--now go fetch the car over yonder. Get to it!" Alex: "I want to blow you Gordon." Gordon: "Wow that was fucking persuasive guys. And let me guess, you guys are going to be completely useless yet again. Awesome. Fuck this."

Oddity you'd make a great gangster heh.

Very interesting. I think most people are content to live lives simply because its convenient at the time. Hell, I can't say I have definite reasons other than those that aren't completely selfish and little: my own happiness, which itself is a biologically programmed. Is there a sort of meaning to happiness when you can simply trigger it at the end of a pill, a drink, a needle? Not that I think that is right, I'd rather be unhappy than have an empty happiness. But even that is a search--what kind of happiness isn't petty, selfish, self-congratulatory? I think a billion other people have almost identical thoughts and lives because its convenient to. Best to coast through life, soak up the happiness we can. And to keep that happiness, we have to make ourselves feel good about it. At the end of life, you lived a great and wonderful happy life if you can congratulate yourself with what a bang-up job you did. It makes me wonder everyone's reasons for getting up in the morning. Is it because they can't sleep anymore? They've got work to endure that oftentimes they hate, but it seems socially acceptable to do. And well, society gives them permission to live by sacrificing themselves on the altar of some rich bureaucrat currently enjoying a scotch and hitting the golf course. Maybe its to win the love of their girlfriend so they can feel wanted through sex? When that one doesn't work out, we move onto the next. But regardless, is this some kind of anger towards life, others? Anger itself is rooted in fear, as all negative feelings are. It begs to question, how afraid am I if life is a vapid wasteland?

I guess what Subjective Effect is saying nicely is no one cares what you personally like Macsen. I'm not going to make a thread in off-topic about my favorite foods.

Haha. Or a magic vacuum. [M] aid Mode Activated

Chess. Reversi.

I'm taking Japanese at the moment; currently on my second year. I'd really like to take Korean. My major is in international business.

No need for gel either! Your body's all natural stomach acid molds your hair into any of the latest styles!

LOL. That's absolutely repulsive.

She only knew the guy online for a month. If she killed herself over someone she had known over the internet for a month, I feel like there are some more serious issues going on here.

I heard a lot of people complaining that the AI was not even as intelligent as Far Cry.

I definitely wouldn't feel so cheated if they had made a quality product instead of rushing the production. Essentially their entire marketing campaign was, "We're former Blizzard employees! This is essentially Diablo 3! Buy our game!" Talk about riding your former company's coat-tails. They blatantly used Blizzard and Diablo's success to sell copies of this game.