lbgsloan

Reply to Lay-Offs At Firaxis in PC Gaming Sins Forums

These companies get what they pay for. Employees that know they're going to be canned after the project are not going to put much effort into things. I think C&C4 is a pretty good example of quality suffering in this regard. The managers can try to hide the layoffs of course, but if it keeps happening so consistantly it's not hard for the low ranking employees to know their fates after the bulk of the work is done. Disposabel employees may be good for the bottom li

Reply to Multiplayer fees in online gaming? in PC Gaming Sins Forums

On the subject on MMOs; I don't like MMOs, but I can understand charging a monthly fee for a game that gets regular content and balance patches. I actually think the 'free to play' games that use microtransactions are far bigger scum; these games tend to seem playable initially, but you quickly realize that to get anywhere after the beginner areas you're basically required to pay. With microtransactions they are very often more expensive to play in the end than a monthy fee game,

Reply to Am I The Only One Who Can't Stand Bioware? in PC Gaming Sins Forums

I tend to agree that ME is a 3rd person shooter with some minor RPG elements. And if that's what you want, it does it pretty well I suppose. I went into it expecting a careful blend of the two, and so was not impressed. ME2 looks fantastic and the gameplay looked much smoother than ME1 from what I've seen. But it's not a RPG anymore, and should not be billed as such. It's a cinematic shooter where you have some control over the dialogue. Which is why I al

Reply to Community Balance Mod - Capships in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote who="Darvin3" reply="10" id="2677155"]I'm leaning towards a combination of 2 and 3, but I'm still open to experimentation and different ideas. I feel there are lots of ways to approach this problem, and it's a matter of trying different combinations to find what works best.[/quote] I'm with this myself. It's partially a problem of easy to FF units having too high modifiers against caps, and partially a problem of caps just not being very tough for their importance i

Reply to Am I The Only One Who Can't Stand Bioware? in PC Gaming Sins Forums

I generally enjoyed Dragon Age. It was a step down from the Bioware of old, but still a step up from the usual crap that passes for RPGs these days. I didn't play through it more than once, but it was fun and interesting for that one playthrough. Mass Effect on the other hand I don't get. I finally got around to playing part 1 when it dropped to $10 on sale, and I honestly can't believe it was getting 90s across the board from critics. The rolepl

Reply to M.U.L.E Remake with Online Multiplayer in PC Gaming Sins Forums

I remember this from years ago. Tried it single player and the AI cheats so hard it's painful. They can do a bazillion actions per turn, get blatantly better production, and psychicly predict events. One turn all the AI changed all their production to food for some reason. I was baffled...until an event that turn hit that increased all food production! Unless I'm mistaken and the events are actually fixed, that's going a little too far.

Reply to OnLive is Live, Anyone Try it yet? in PC Gaming Sins Forums

I don't really get it myself. If you shop around, you can assemble a pretty respectable gaming PC for under $1000 that will run anything out there better than Onlive. And unlike Onlive you get to keep whatever games you pay for, your computer can do far more than play games, and you're not limited to Onlive's very small game selection. It might be more expensive up front for the PC, but you get a lot more for your money and don't have to keep paying. You could probably

Reply to Master of Orion 3: My first experience summarized in 1 word: Horrible! in PC Gaming Sins Forums

[quote who="joasoze" reply="1" id="2669765"]You must love self punishment. I rate MOO III as the biggest dissapointment in gaming history by far....[/quote]\ Well, strategy game history anyway. I was so close to running out and buying it day 1, but held off to wait for more reviews before deciding. Best gaming decision I ever made. Galactic Civilizations 2 was very good, but still can't match the magic MOO2 pulled off to call it the spiritual success

Reply to Amazing Steam Sales Going on in PC Gaming Sins Forums

[quote who="Sinon" reply="56" id="2666825"]Rather than sales on games nobody needs, Impulse should work on the availability of their titles. It just drives me mad when I see a game on Impulse which I want to buy, but can't because of stupid regional restrictions. Steam has The Witcher on sale and I'm tempted to buy it, not because it's just 5€ cheaper than on Impulse, but just because it's available on Steam, while Impulse locks me out. Best example: The THQ bundle on Impulse. Available

Reply to Amazing Steam Sales Going on in PC Gaming Sins Forums

[quote who="DeCypher00" reply="47" id="2666750"] Look at these: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/cj62t/so_i_just_got_a_call_from_the_fraud_detection/ http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/cing3/steam_is_on_a_sale_rampage_everything_really/ http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/ck7p3/steam_sale_day_6_commandos_collection_team/ Skim over some of the top comments. We are all working adults, who have a bit of money, and like to play games. I'm not

Reply to Still playing? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote who="lbgsloan" reply="23" id="2666030"]The only problem there is that like was said earlier, two or three patches aren't going to fix all the major and minor issues in Sins. It would likely need a patch every week or two for 3-4 months to get all the units and techs at a generally agreed level of balance. I suppose the community could beta-test the patches and then once we hit an agreed upon final we could ask Stardock to make it official. Make it an optional download

Reply to Amazing Steam Sales Going on in PC Gaming Sins Forums

The THQ pack on Steam sadly blows away the Impulse one. Impulse has SupCom 1 and its expansion, but Steam throws in DoW2 and its expansion and Saint's Row 2. I know there's nothing Impulse can do about that one since DoW2 is a steam exclusive, but you'd think they'd lower the price since the value is not on par. I'd probably go for it if I didn't already have CoH and DoW 1. But yeah, Impulse desperately needs to fire back here.

Reply to Still playing? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

The only problem there is that like was said earlier, two or three patches aren't going to fix all the major and minor issues in Sins. It would likely need a patch every week or two for 3-4 months to get all the units and techs at a generally agreed level of balance. I suppose the community could beta-test the patches and then once we hit an agreed upon final we could ask Stardock to make it official. Make it an optional download stressing that it's a community patch, but pr

Reply to Still playing? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I haven't played Sins in months due to the state of balance. There's only so many times you can play against carrier cap rushes and LRM/bomber spam before you lose interest in multiplayer. The AI just doesn't put up enough of a fight for single player to be a viable alternative, and the bugs (particularly the AI not bidding on other AIs issue) and poor balance in regards to pirates have been ignored. All in all, it's up to the community to keep the game alive and interesting

Reply to Holy ^%$# This Might be Awesome!!! in PC Gaming Sins Forums

All MTG games end up being terrible because in the end, all everyone wants is a version of the full CCG with a single player component for offline play. Of course, that will never happen due to the same reason there will never be a Warhammer 40k game that mirrors the tabletop gameplay. I used to use Magic Workstation to play for free years ago, but it seems like it's no longer freeware anymore.

Reply to Developer acting like 5 year old... in PC Gaming Sins Forums

All arguing about the ban being just or not aside, multiplayer access being tied to forum access is alarming. Basically, they (and I refer to all companies who do this) are/have created an atmosphere where their customers are afraid to post any negative feedback on their official forums. Forum bans can certainly been deserved if someone is being excessively hostile, but a forum ban should be only that; a ban from the forums. They should not be able to touch your game access

Reply to Star Trek Online? in PC Gaming Sins Forums

Except that it's a shadow of what it could have been, and I'm not talking about the gameplay. This thing should have been a perpetual motion machine of money for years and years like WoW, but I haven't heard a single person who bought it say they'd go back to it. The way thing are going, it will likely be dead in a year unless it gets console ports.

Reply to Sol Survivor - Worth a $10 Look in PC Gaming Sins Forums

I was looking at this a potential time waster, and I have the same concern as Tridus. Does that mean Impulse buyers can't play with Steam buyers?

Reply to Star Trek Online? in PC Gaming Sins Forums

Half the patch notes are usually additions to the cash shop. It honestly blows my mind why people even bother playing a game with a triple cost. You have an upfront cost, monthly fee, AND microtransactions. And from I've heard of Cryptic, they don't put in trivial junk to their cash shop like shiny mounts, they make you pay cash for respecs (and constantly mess with the balance via patches so respeccing is unavoidable). I s

Reply to rather indepth phase missle examination. in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

It's not scramble bombers, it's bombers in general at the moment. Nerf scramble bombers without addressing the power of bomber spam, and you'll simply have everyone shift back to spamming Advent carrier caps. Phase missiles don't need a nerf, but they do need to removed as a weapon type for some of the Visari units in order for others to see some use. IMO switch fighters and flak to pulse weapons (also add a third tier of pulse weapon research) and switch bombers to wave.&nb

Reply to PC Gamer Magazine for just $5 in PC Gaming Sins Forums

They're still alive? It stopped appearing on store shelves around here about 6 months ago, so I assumed they had finally given up. I liked them as they had an anti-DRM stance, but I still don't really understand why they haven't given up and moved entirely online. It's like the CCG magazines; I can get more up to date information online, and I can get differing views on that information. Reviews for products that are often a month or two old by the time the magazine hi

Reply to Blizzard Now a Business Unit of Activision and Morhaime No Longer in Charge in PC Gaming Sins Forums

I am completely shocked Activision made these moves shortly before the SC2 release. Can't wait to see $15 DLC map packs for SC2. And suddenly the $60 x 3 cost scheme for SC2 makes sense. Oh well, guess I'll be taking an extended break from the RTS genre then. And I assume this means Diablo 3 will have a monthly fee to play this time around now.

Reply to Scratch Civ V off my buy list. in PC Gaming Sins Forums

Stepping back from the Steamworks shitstorm for a second; now that there's more info on the game I can't say I like the direction it's going in anyway. Some confirmed changes: -Resources aren't infinite anymore. Have horses? Great, you can make X calvary units, that's it. Need more than that? Guess you'll have to beg. -Devs have outright said it will be easier to play diplomatically than through conquest. -No tech trading! Want to play wa

Reply to Steam has disappointed me for the last time in PC Gaming Sins Forums

Isn't that 90% MW2's fault, and not Steam though? You sometimes get Steam disconnects too of course, but it seems most of the issues are due to the lack of dedicated servers. And anti-cheating programs are hilarious. Any sort of cheat is going to be written to work around the most common anti-cheat programs, making it as useless as most DRM schemes and Windows Defender.

Reply to Starcraft II Balance in PC Gaming Sins Forums

[quote who="Myles" reply="101" id="2613567"]Here is a link to a explanation of the patch changes from Blizzard. I personally didn't think it was that big of a buff. What I personally find crazy is Blizzard's definition of a moving shot. There has been a relatively large clamor by top players for Blizzard to implement better 'moving shot' mechanics where you can fire then move away very quickly, and if timed right, fire and move off before coming to a complete stop from before attac