Hmm. so dilemma of sorts. have an amazon gift card for 25 bucks. was originally thinking I would use it on portal 2 since I had just finished the first. Then i realized hey Brink is coming out soon and it is also a steam works game. maybe i should use it on that and actually get in on the front end of a mega multiplayer game before people stop playing. though i did that with MNC and people stopped playing almost right away.
I think i am leaning towards Brink since I would imagine Portal 2 would end up reduced a lot sooner than Brink would.
I was hoping that amazon would have one of those bonus buck type things that would give me money for buying brink, but its only a bonus item thing now. boo-urns
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
Hmm. so dilemma of sorts. have an amazon gift card for 25 bucks. was originally thinking I would use it on portal 2 since I had just finished the first. Then i realized hey Brink is coming out soon and it is also a steam works game. maybe i should use it on that and actually get in on the front end of a mega multiplayer game before people stop playing. though i did that with MNC and people stopped playing almost right away.
I think i am leaning towards Brink since I would imagine Portal 2 would end up reduced a lot sooner than Brink would.
I was hoping that amazon would have one of those bonus buck type things that would give me money for buying brink, but its only a bonus item thing now. boo-urns
Yeah. Be wary of that one thing right there. I pre-ordered ETQW, Splash Damages last game. It still burns (I like the game) that the community just disintegrated practically over night. It's one of the reasons I'm extremely wary of Brink. The fact that SD doesn't have a solid player base ravenous for a new game, and are doing so much experimental stuff makes the game risky to pre-order in my opinion. Also, there is an almost complete absence of any kind of hard information and media about the PC version. That alone is enough to make me cautious.
on the other hand, Dead Space 2 multiplayer is still fairly vibrant if you play at the right times.
being a lurker is addictive as hell.
yes, i'm bitter that there hasn't been a weekend sale.
Actually, I just recently picked it up on the cheap in-store. But I'm on the PC and in the UK, so I'm not sure how well that fits in with your constant constant constant campaigning. :P
on the other hand, Dead Space 2 multiplayer is still fairly vibrant if you play at the right times.
being a lurker is addictive as hell.
yes, i'm bitter that there hasn't been a weekend sale.
Actually, I just recently picked it up on the cheap in-store. But I'm on the PC and in the UK, so I'm not sure how well that fits in with your constant constant constant campaigning. :P
WOO!
let me know when you want to try out the multi, i'll show you the ropes.
curly haired boy on
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
I WAS going to finally start playing Dawn of War II, but when the game launched it would have me update Games for Windows Live and restart the game, only for it to require another update and restart once the game booted up again. I did it again, another update/restart required. I quit trying after that and just gave up on the idea of playing.
Why do developers continue to use this awful service again?
I WAS going to finally start playing Dawn of War II, but when the game launched it would have me update Games for Windows Live and restart the game, only for it to require another update and restart once the game booted up again. I did it again, another update/restart required. I quit trying after that and just gave up on the idea of playing.
Why do developers continue to use this awful service again?
Some of them have stopped. DoW 2 Retribution is Steamworks.
in the case of DoW 2 - they don't. The latest stand-alone expansion is steamworks instead of GFWL
That's great to hear.
It's pretty telling that re-writing the multiplayer architecture and splitting the multiplayer playerbase whilst we're half-way through the series was considered the best case scenario, compared to simply leaving GFWL in there.
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Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
I WAS going to finally start playing Dawn of War II, but when the game launched it would have me update Games for Windows Live and restart the game, only for it to require another update and restart once the game booted up again. I did it again, another update/restart required. I quit trying after that and just gave up on the idea of playing.
Why do developers continue to use this awful service again?
If it's the same problem I'm thinking of, trying using Windows Update to update GFWL.
Does anyone play it? I've always been a little intrigued but buying small multiplayer games that I don't have much time to play is always a gamble, because I might get in the mood to play a round or two and nobody will be on line.
WARNING
As far as I know, their authentication servers are as dead as disco. Meaning you can't register your game.
in the case of DoW 2 - they don't. The latest stand-alone expansion is steamworks instead of GFWL
That's great to hear.
It's pretty telling that re-writing the multiplayer architecture and splitting the multiplayer playerbase whilst we're half-way through the series was considered the best case scenario, compared to simply leaving GFWL in there.
Didn't Relic split the CoH playerbase with the latest expansion as well?
No, the CoH playerbase isn't split with Tales of Valor. Although ToV has some 'operations' play modes that are only for Tales of Valor gamers, but no one plays those operations. Standard skirmish is same as before.
Are you talking of Company of Heroes: Online (now defunct)?
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
I WAS going to finally start playing Dawn of War II, but when the game launched it would have me update Games for Windows Live and restart the game, only for it to require another update and restart once the game booted up again. I did it again, another update/restart required. I quit trying after that and just gave up on the idea of playing.
Why do developers continue to use this awful service again?
Download the client and install it outside of the game. Be sure to grab the 3.2 and 3.4 updates linked on the bottom of that page.
If you're going to buy Arma I strongly recommend buying Combined Operations, which is a bundle of the base game and its expansion, Operation Arrowhead. Most servers you'll find are running CO these days because OA adds a lot of functionality to the game and is required by most of the mods that people use.
Also holy shit Arma is awesome do I need to post a rant about it again?
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
edited April 2011
I bought it based on one of those rants, fully intending to play it
And like most things I buy and fully intend to play, I haven't yet
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
edited April 2011
That's all good Yod. But I'm gonna wait to get Operation Arrowhead. A better price is just down the road yonder.
If you're going to buy Arma I strongly recommend buying Combined Operations, which is a bundle of the base game and its expansion, Operation Arrowhead. Most servers you'll find are running CO these days because OA adds a lot of functionality to the game and is required by most of the mods that people use.
Also holy shit Arma is awesome do I need to post a rant about it again?
Is combined operations just the two bundled together because here in the UK it's cheaper to buy them separately than together here in the UK.
So I finally received my Portal 2 poster from the Valve store today, and just my luck, they sent me the wrong one. I still love Valve, but this really saddens me because I was looking forward to hanging it up as soon as I got it. Hopefully anyone else who purchased something Portal 2 related got the right thing.
Have you ever played Call of Duty and gotten frustrated with the complete lack of teamwork, said 'fuck this I'm gonna play Battlefield', and moved on?
Then as you're playing Battlefield you say to yourself 'wait a second this makes no goddamn sense how do the Americans keep spawning tanks out of nowhere? why do they somehow get 500 respawns? why don't they just field a company of marines?'
Arma is the game for you. It is built on the core engine used in an infantry simulator that the military uses for training. It is extremely realistic, including things like weapon ballistics (you have to adjust your fire depending on range, and knowing how makes you effective with your SAW at 300m+ and your Barrett at 1km+), sound (if you shoot a guy a mile away with a .50-cal, he gets hit before anyone hears anything, and his buddies hear the sound of the bullet about a second before they hear the sound of the rifle), equipment (nightvision gets blinded by explosions and bright lights, the backblast from an AT4 can kill you, etc) and many more.
It is at its heart a team-based multiplayer game. The vast majority of people I think play it in co-op settings but the only difference between vs and co-op is which sides have human players. A typical mission that I have played in will have a set number of player slots, say two fire teams of 4 and a squad leader element for 10 guys. The game starts with each player 'slotting' into one of those roles such as fireteam leader, automatic rifleman, medic, etc. These roles are sorta like classes but primarily they define what equipment you start with. Once everyone is slotted you move to the briefing screen where the team leader will jot down notes on the map.
Oh wait I guess I should talk about the map. Here is an example. Each of the small squares on that map is 100m across and you can travel everywhere you can see, though individual missions can be set to restrict the available areas.
So back to the map briefing. The team leader (or anyone else really) can set down notes on the map such as 'RP ALPHA' 'EGRESS HERE' 'EVAC POINT' etc to tell the team where they need to go. You can lay down dots on the roads to indicate a plan of movement, arrows to indicate ambush positions, anything really. The TL then gives a briefing of his plan and makes sure everyone knows who their FTL is etc.
Then you go, someone fires a shot off early alerting the enemy to your location, you sprint like hell to the chopper and someone flies it into a tree while you're running away. This is the best part really because it's so goddamn hilarious to just fail utterly.
The missions can be extremely complicated or very simple. One favorite of mine starts the team off at night after they have all bailed out of a chopper. You spawn in a random location in a zone about 1km across, usually it'll be on a forested hill. You play it on the mode that doesn't give you a GPS so you need to orient yourself using your map (to find the tallest hill and coordinate them to their map positions a la real life orienteering with a compass) and the burning wreckage of the chopper. Then each player needs to reach a rendezvous point so they can link up with the rest of the team. Then the team needs to move west to an enemy outpost where they can steal a chopper and make a break for it. Meanwhile the enemy is patrolling the woods and, if you engage with unsilenced weapons (you have one silenced MP5 among you) they track you down and try to take you out. So you're moving through the woods, in the dark, unsure if the guy you see at the top of the hill is an enemy or a friendly, unsure if you're walking right into an enemy patrol. You sneak up to the base and designate the AA targets so that your air support can take them out with AGMs, followed by taking out the tank and APCs wandering around. You lay down a base of fire to support the pilot running to the chopper and getting it going and then bug the fuck out.
The game has a massive variety of weapons and vehicles. There is an 'armory' mode where you can try them out as the game randomly spawns objectives for you, so you can get a clue about flying a Little Bird and how it's different from flying a Blackhawk. And I'm talking absurd variety, like differences in barrel lengths of M4 variants having an impact on your range adjustments.
The game is also extremely moddable. At its most basic this means you can build missions with a very versatile scripting ability, letting you build whole campaigns with real plot and a lot of set-piece and randomly-generated battles. But also you can add new units and weapons and factions (and people have, boy howdy) and also change the way the rules work. For instance most people who are into realism run a mod called Advanced Combat Environment that adds a ton of shit and is somewhat similar to Project Reality for BF2. I could list a ton of things but here's a few and a video: working bipods, earplugs, medical system, backpacks, adjustable range settings for arcing weapons like mortars and grenade launchers, FLIR systems for aircraft, UAVs, really cool stuff. Not everything is perfect but in total it really adds to the experience. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLTfvS5FFTI&feature=related
Another mod that the group I play with uses is called ACRE, don't remember what it stands for but it's a radio mod. What it does is take you off of the problematic-but-easy 'everyone on the team is in the same vent channel' method that is pretty traditional but obviously gets in the way of things. It's a mod for Arma and a plugin for Teamspeak 3 that makes it so that you have two ways of communicating: via equippable radios (that you can change the frequencies for, equip more than one, and they behave realistically including maximum range and interference from buildings and hills) and 'direct sound' like used in Socom 3 where you just talk and anyone nearby can hear you, including the enemy. Everyone sits in the same TS channel and the plugin sets it up so you only hear what is broadcast on your radio frequency. It's a bit of a hassle but is so amazing when it works that I can't imagine playing without it now.
So basically that is it. It's a very realistic game for those of us who like very realistic things, but it's not so overdone with realism that you can't play at all. It supports TrackIR and FreeTrack, multiple monitor setups, and any controller inputs you happen to have including joysticks or 360 controllers or whatever. NaS I think flies with TrackIR and a HOTAS setup that I'm just insanely jealous of. We used to have a PA group that played and had hilarious shenanigans all the fucking time and I'd really like to get that going again.
Posts
I think i am leaning towards Brink since I would imagine Portal 2 would end up reduced a lot sooner than Brink would.
I was hoping that amazon would have one of those bonus buck type things that would give me money for buying brink, but its only a bonus item thing now. boo-urns
Yeah. Be wary of that one thing right there. I pre-ordered ETQW, Splash Damages last game. It still burns (I like the game) that the community just disintegrated practically over night. It's one of the reasons I'm extremely wary of Brink. The fact that SD doesn't have a solid player base ravenous for a new game, and are doing so much experimental stuff makes the game risky to pre-order in my opinion. Also, there is an almost complete absence of any kind of hard information and media about the PC version. That alone is enough to make me cautious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brvUAPue5TA
Edit: I've not played Portal 2 (Thanks PSN) but the bit of Brink I have played was lots of fun.
being a lurker is addictive as hell.
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
Actually, I just recently picked it up on the cheap in-store. But I'm on the PC and in the UK, so I'm not sure how well that fits in with your constant constant constant campaigning. :P
WOO!
let me know when you want to try out the multi, i'll show you the ropes.
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
that's part of the strategy, though, if you're on the necro side.
your (un?)life is cheap, and spent gladly in the service of slicing up humans. :P
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
Is it any good? It seems real funny and decently structured, but I rarely play modern adventure games
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Why do developers continue to use this awful service again?
Some of them have stopped. DoW 2 Retribution is Steamworks.
That's great to hear.
It's pretty telling that re-writing the multiplayer architecture and splitting the multiplayer playerbase whilst we're half-way through the series was considered the best case scenario, compared to simply leaving GFWL in there.
If it's the same problem I'm thinking of, trying using Windows Update to update GFWL.
WARNING
As far as I know, their authentication servers are as dead as disco. Meaning you can't register your game.
Didn't Relic split the CoH playerbase with the latest expansion as well?
Are you talking of Company of Heroes: Online (now defunct)?
Download the client and install it outside of the game. Be sure to grab the 3.2 and 3.4 updates linked on the bottom of that page.
This takes out a lot of the pain of GFWL.
Also holy shit Arma is awesome do I need to post a rant about it again?
And like most things I buy and fully intend to play, I haven't yet
Lowest price I've seen for it is I think $20.
This. Also how is the multiplayer? Cool dudes to shoot mans with or elitist douche bags?
3DS: 1650-8480-6786
Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
Is combined operations just the two bundled together because here in the UK it's cheaper to buy them separately than together here in the UK.
So I finally received my Portal 2 poster from the Valve store today, and just my luck, they sent me the wrong one. I still love Valve, but this really saddens me because I was looking forward to hanging it up as soon as I got it. Hopefully anyone else who purchased something Portal 2 related got the right thing.
You can buy OA separate from Arma and they will combine just fine. Pretty sure you can get a non-steam version of OA to work as well.
Then as you're playing Battlefield you say to yourself 'wait a second this makes no goddamn sense how do the Americans keep spawning tanks out of nowhere? why do they somehow get 500 respawns? why don't they just field a company of marines?'
Arma is the game for you. It is built on the core engine used in an infantry simulator that the military uses for training. It is extremely realistic, including things like weapon ballistics (you have to adjust your fire depending on range, and knowing how makes you effective with your SAW at 300m+ and your Barrett at 1km+), sound (if you shoot a guy a mile away with a .50-cal, he gets hit before anyone hears anything, and his buddies hear the sound of the bullet about a second before they hear the sound of the rifle), equipment (nightvision gets blinded by explosions and bright lights, the backblast from an AT4 can kill you, etc) and many more.
It is at its heart a team-based multiplayer game. The vast majority of people I think play it in co-op settings but the only difference between vs and co-op is which sides have human players. A typical mission that I have played in will have a set number of player slots, say two fire teams of 4 and a squad leader element for 10 guys. The game starts with each player 'slotting' into one of those roles such as fireteam leader, automatic rifleman, medic, etc. These roles are sorta like classes but primarily they define what equipment you start with. Once everyone is slotted you move to the briefing screen where the team leader will jot down notes on the map.
Oh wait I guess I should talk about the map. Here is an example. Each of the small squares on that map is 100m across and you can travel everywhere you can see, though individual missions can be set to restrict the available areas.
So back to the map briefing. The team leader (or anyone else really) can set down notes on the map such as 'RP ALPHA' 'EGRESS HERE' 'EVAC POINT' etc to tell the team where they need to go. You can lay down dots on the roads to indicate a plan of movement, arrows to indicate ambush positions, anything really. The TL then gives a briefing of his plan and makes sure everyone knows who their FTL is etc.
Then you go, someone fires a shot off early alerting the enemy to your location, you sprint like hell to the chopper and someone flies it into a tree while you're running away. This is the best part really because it's so goddamn hilarious to just fail utterly.
The missions can be extremely complicated or very simple. One favorite of mine starts the team off at night after they have all bailed out of a chopper. You spawn in a random location in a zone about 1km across, usually it'll be on a forested hill. You play it on the mode that doesn't give you a GPS so you need to orient yourself using your map (to find the tallest hill and coordinate them to their map positions a la real life orienteering with a compass) and the burning wreckage of the chopper. Then each player needs to reach a rendezvous point so they can link up with the rest of the team. Then the team needs to move west to an enemy outpost where they can steal a chopper and make a break for it. Meanwhile the enemy is patrolling the woods and, if you engage with unsilenced weapons (you have one silenced MP5 among you) they track you down and try to take you out. So you're moving through the woods, in the dark, unsure if the guy you see at the top of the hill is an enemy or a friendly, unsure if you're walking right into an enemy patrol. You sneak up to the base and designate the AA targets so that your air support can take them out with AGMs, followed by taking out the tank and APCs wandering around. You lay down a base of fire to support the pilot running to the chopper and getting it going and then bug the fuck out.
The game has a massive variety of weapons and vehicles. There is an 'armory' mode where you can try them out as the game randomly spawns objectives for you, so you can get a clue about flying a Little Bird and how it's different from flying a Blackhawk. And I'm talking absurd variety, like differences in barrel lengths of M4 variants having an impact on your range adjustments.
The game is also extremely moddable. At its most basic this means you can build missions with a very versatile scripting ability, letting you build whole campaigns with real plot and a lot of set-piece and randomly-generated battles. But also you can add new units and weapons and factions (and people have, boy howdy) and also change the way the rules work. For instance most people who are into realism run a mod called Advanced Combat Environment that adds a ton of shit and is somewhat similar to Project Reality for BF2. I could list a ton of things but here's a few and a video: working bipods, earplugs, medical system, backpacks, adjustable range settings for arcing weapons like mortars and grenade launchers, FLIR systems for aircraft, UAVs, really cool stuff. Not everything is perfect but in total it really adds to the experience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLTfvS5FFTI&feature=related
Another mod that the group I play with uses is called ACRE, don't remember what it stands for but it's a radio mod. What it does is take you off of the problematic-but-easy 'everyone on the team is in the same vent channel' method that is pretty traditional but obviously gets in the way of things. It's a mod for Arma and a plugin for Teamspeak 3 that makes it so that you have two ways of communicating: via equippable radios (that you can change the frequencies for, equip more than one, and they behave realistically including maximum range and interference from buildings and hills) and 'direct sound' like used in Socom 3 where you just talk and anyone nearby can hear you, including the enemy. Everyone sits in the same TS channel and the plugin sets it up so you only hear what is broadcast on your radio frequency. It's a bit of a hassle but is so amazing when it works that I can't imagine playing without it now.
So basically that is it. It's a very realistic game for those of us who like very realistic things, but it's not so overdone with realism that you can't play at all. It supports TrackIR and FreeTrack, multiple monitor setups, and any controller inputs you happen to have including joysticks or 360 controllers or whatever. NaS I think flies with TrackIR and a HOTAS setup that I'm just insanely jealous of. We used to have a PA group that played and had hilarious shenanigans all the fucking time and I'd really like to get that going again.