Veracity • Comments

• Saturday Soapbox: Hollow Worlds - Looking for "Look At"

• Veracity 11/11/2012

  @SvennoJ Games already do that. Mirror's Edge had a whole mini-story (mostly gags) about a disgruntled employee on monitors in the Evil Factory of Evil.
  
  > no shooter would be improved
  System Shock or, as noted by KDR_11k, Metroid Prime did alright with it, didn't they? Reply +1

• EA predicts a free-to-play-only future

• Veracity 20/06/2012

  @drhickman1983 Thinking in terms of "unlocking the full game" doesn't cover the whole F2P picture. It's analogous to piecemeal DLC, and there's certainly "free" games that're doing that with vanity upgrades and the ability to pay to avoid doing anything unpleasant like playing the game. But a highly desirable situation for publishers is to have you buying consumables, so there's no end point you're working towards, you just keep paying as long as you keep playing. Stealth subscription, I guess.
  
  A lot of games have buyable randomized stuff that might give you some really neat pretend shiny thing, but probably won't. How that isn't subject to gambling legislation I don't know, but this stuff is probably carefully formulated so that it isn't. If you really have a strong aversion to the idea, though, trying to whip up some think-of-the-children outrage about minors gambling in the regular press might help hurt its public image. Reply +1

• Okami HD coming to PlayStation 3 this Autumn

• Veracity 20/06/2012

  @Architect_z because the player character in Okami is the sun.
  
  Don't see the point of this beyond the obvious (extraordinary reputation, bugger all sales, might as well try yet again with a cheap-to-do port). It made such a virtue of the original platform's limitations I don't think it'll gain anything from four times the pixels. You could always use pcsx2 to preview roughly what it'll look like if you're undecided, I guess. Reply 0

• The Binding of Isaac sold 700,000 copies

• Veracity 20/06/2012

  @uninspiredcup They can't. The version of Flash it's in can't do it, and they can't update to a later version because the software they use to package it as a self-contained executable with steam-O-cheeve integration wouldn't support it. Something like that, anyway. This is a major reason existing owners should be keen to see it get consolified, since it'd increase the chance of it getting rewritten in something less repulsively awful, much as VVVVVV did, though that didn't need it so badly - BoI's lack of access to your GPU is also why the current version has atrocious performance, more or less regardless of what you're running it on.
  
  Meanwhile, just use xpadder or joy2key like everyone else. xpadder does profile auto-loading so you can configure once and forget about it, though I think you still have to toss a fiver at it for a version that supports that. Various free things can do the same, though I don't think joy2key is one of them. Reply 0

• Saturday Soapbox: Bring On The Next Generation

• Veracity 17/12/2011

  So you want something novel, though I'm not too clear what, and the way you'd like to get it is from new shinies (toys and pixels) that'll only make blockbuster publishers more risk-averse? What about an XBox 720 or PS4 will stop the charts being dominated by games with a 3 or a 4 at the end of their title?
  
  You'd probably be better off just concentrating less on "triple A" games (and thanks for including a definition-for-the-moment, given no two buggers seem able to agree what it actually means). They aren't particularly important unless you own shares in the lumbering behemoths that fund them. Oh, or it's your job to keep up with their doings. Sorry, carry on. Reply +1

• id Software on always-on internet debate

• Veracity 10/08/2011

  He really should've gone with "true fans". Not sure he absolutely maximized the opportunity to come off as an out-of-touch, condescending twat who should never be allowed within fifty paces of a press pass, there. Reply +4

• Notch: is Bethesda doing a Langdell?

• Veracity 08/08/2011

  @Slipstream: they can't license Mojang to use it (for a derisory fee or otherwise) unless Mojang withdraws its application for a trademark that overlaps with and potentially obsoletes one they hold and have been actively using for years.
  
  My only initial thought on this was that Mojang should be able to afford better legal advice, but amid the predictable internet outrage from people with no idea what they're talking about I've seen it said Sweden's considerably more likely than average to rule in Mojang's favour. No idea whether that's accurate, but possibly they're just being a bit provincial. Reply +1

• Origin of War

• Veracity 18/06/2011

  Isn't this just part of the more aggressive EA stance Riccitiello's been on about to keep shareholders amused? I think it's a non-issue.
  
  I already have an Origin account, iirc because EADM was the only place to buy Mirror's Edge DLC. So does anyone who's played more or less any recent EA game with DLC or some online component. The client's less intrusive than Steam as a store app - you don't need it running for phone-home authentication, though that could change with new releases - and has even occasionally managed to put anything up at a reasonable price. You can register EA serials on it for download access from physical copies and from other digital retailers.
  
  They haven't even pulled all their games from Steam. At most, they'll probably make a handful of things big enough to get away with it exclusive, and why wouldn't they? About fragmentation, just how many publishers have anything resembling the clout to pull exclusivity shenanigans? Blizzard already does it. Ubisoft has some digital guff or other of its own, but no one uses it or cares. Microsoft is still somehow managing to convince developers to cripple their games with GfWL, but their PC marketplace is a failure. 1c sells its games directly, for heaven's sake, as do half or more of the independents on Steam - you might want Steam for the exposure, but throwing up at least a basic direct option that hands you more of the money from people willing to use it is just sensible. I don't see the impending fragmentation of the market. EA can talk big, but it'll always cave and put titles on Steam if it's set to lose a lot of money, otherwise. Reply +1

• This Dirt 3 racing seat costs £490

• Veracity 31/05/2011

  Surely the bumper cars at the fair are realistic, being real?
  
  If your waist measures more than 42" you should probably save the money for a heart transplant. Reply +5

• No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise

• Veracity 18/05/2011

  That is the definitive box quote.
  
  "Give them a show with lots of flash in it/and the reaction will be passionate" is a more excruciating rhyme than "Shakespearos". Less stupid, though, I suppose. Reply 0

• Valve: "Jerks" should pay extra for games

• Veracity 17/05/2011

  @beep: gamersgate does that. Not a permanent discount, just a loyalty card thing. Don't know of any other DD outlets that've tried it, though I know some of those quaint shelf-based retailers have.
  
  The vast majority of stuff on Steam doesn't have one price, though. I don't mean the regional variation bugbear. Video games mostly depreciate at an absurd rate. Maybe more true in conventional retail, but Steam seems to do nearly the same thing with its ever more frequent temporary reductions on almost everything. Reply +1

• Retrospective: Sonic the Hedgehog

• Veracity 02/05/2011

  That has to be the first reference to "Crystal Maze chic" in anything, ever. I salute this development, even if it's probably also the last. Reply +2

• Retrospective: Mirror's Edge

• Veracity 10/04/2011

  Bestest game ever where you play a terrorist, and bestest on the latest batch of TV boxes.
  
  I'd probably buy a sequel if it just fixed the more questionable physics and not much else (cool as double jumping always is, I'm pretty sure Faith shouldn't be able to do it). Still, almost hope it stays indefinitely shelved because there's too many ways it could easily go horribly wrong. Reply 0

• No Silver Lining

• Veracity 09/04/2011

  Agree that thin client delivery hasn't done much to convince end users why they're supposed to want it. There are already perfectly reasonable cheap alternatives to playing expensive PC games, the most obvious being a cheap PC, and consoles aren't really expensive, in the first place (the games are).
  
  I don't think not being an anti-piracy magic bullet is really a problem, though. You don't need to migrate everyone to your piracy proof platform to make it appealing, just some people. And it doesn't even need to impact piracy significantly, just to convince publishers that it might, arguably much like most existing DRM. Reply 0

• Dreamcast Collection

• Veracity 01/04/2011

  I bought Crazy Taxi when it turned up on Steam. I don't think the soundtrack substitution's the end of the world - this sort of licensing issue with old games isn't all that uncommon, and you can fudge a manual fix if it upsets you from a nostalgic point of view. It is symptomatic of the overall "not even trying" attitude, though. The port's complete and utter arse, really, that special depth of arse that makes you wish it were possible to delete games from your Steam list entirely so they don't offend you by their mere presence when you go to launch something that isn't terrible. Reply +1

• Braben clarifies journo Metacritic idea

• Veracity 17/03/2011

  Who jumped down his throat for "criticizing reviewers"? People said he was talking balls because he's suggesting reviews that land closer to a game's metascore are more correct than those that don't, which is two or three kinds of forehead-smackingly wrong. Aaaand he just did it again ("stand out...look silly"). He should talk about hob nobs more, it's far more endearing. Other gritty roasted porridge is available. Reply +6

• Threat Level

• Veracity 06/03/2011

  The threat of smartphone and online downstream gaming has never been to [blockbuster] games
  
  I don't see why not. It might not seem fair to the people green-lighting the next sequel that'll cost the GDP of Venezuela to produce, but increased availability and visibility of cheap alternatives can undermine their perceived value. Those things can obviously still be profitable and I do take your point in context about more direct comparability, but it's all video games, and if I can keep myself amused with Shatter and Bejeweled until Dragon Age gets knocked down to a tenner with all its horse armour bundled in, why wouldn't I? Reply +1

• Eurogamer presents... GDC After Dusk

• Veracity 06/03/2011

  This was good. Could someone kidnap Mr Teti and post him to Brighton, or wherever you people live? Reply 0

• Beyond Good and Evil HD

• Veracity 11/02/2011

  Propaganda. Does this mean they'll have to put the website back up so you can actually get that disc you needed it for?
  
  If you played this on PC, is an "HD" update actually going to do much for it? Higher-res textures, I guess. It does work on vaguely recent hardware, though as far as I recall it's one of those things you really want to limit to one core, or it'll behave peculiarly. I think I also needed xpadder or its ilk to compensate for it assuming PC folk don't know what controllers are for. Considering how big a deal it is to some people they probably just want to throw money at it in the hope of encouraging a sequel to come out in their lifetime. Reply 0

• Dark Souls almost called Dark Race

• Veracity 08/02/2011

  Slang for what? Where in England? Ok, if they say so. Would that the producers of Epic Mickey had been as assiduous in their research. Reply +3

• Eurogamer.net Podcast #55

• Veracity 08/02/2011

  Vanquish underperforming: it's short, isn't it? That makes a lot of people grumpy about forking over anything approaching RRP. Also, maybe some people don't trust Japan to make a game about shooting men in the head, even with the added bonus of sliding around on bum. But yeah, mostly it's probably just that it's not a sequel to anything. Even Bayonetta was seen by some as the natural heir to Devil May Cry, which probably helped it.
  
  The Sandy Island Games jingle is insanely terrible. Please keep it. Reply +3

• United We Stand?

• Veracity 06/02/2011

  It'd be neat if they'd get together and hash out a mutually acceptable response to that whole mess of publishers thinking they're entitled to a cut of retailers' egregious second-hand disc profits. That's always looked a bit of a "whoever wins, consumers lose" fight to me.
  
  What are the uncontested "problems in education"? I don't mean I think there aren't any, just a bit knee-jerk suspicious when any industry makes claims to that effect. Obviously, they'd like not to have to spend money training their staff, but that doesn't necessarily mean universities should be doing it for them. Reply +1

• Download Games Roundup

• Veracity 04/02/2011

  Trino for £0.00, in an earlier incarnation, and assuming you don't mind creating a login with whatever all-consuming media blob includes Gamespot. Hopefully not churlish linking to that - I think it's a good game easily worth the buy, but it doesn't seem to have an actual demo. Reply -1

• Retrospective: Blinx: The Time Sweeper

• Veracity 23/01/2011

  in the 80's, Shirley? Reply +2

• Eurogamer.net Podcast #33

• Veracity 24/08/2010

  Anyone complaining that this is like trying to hear people mumbling at you from opposite ends of a very long tunnel: set your player's output format to mono and it'll put everything down the middle. Reply 0