etherfiend • Comments

• This is how Xbox One game trade-ins will work, apparently

• etherfiend 24/05/2013

  I think that's two different scenarios. This is only way it makes sense for a 2nd hand market to exist and MS to go to the effort of hooking up with retailers in the first place for a 2nd hand model...when the registering component could be used to eliminate 2nd hand games altogether.
  
  Scenario 1:
  You lend your game to a friend. As the game is still 'registered' with you they pay £35 to activate it and play it. You can then play the game when they hand it back.
  
  Scenario 2:
  You trade the game in. It gets removed from your account and the shop can resell at their choice of cost. You obviously cannot play that game any more. As the game is not registered to an account then the purchase price is the activation fee, there is no additional fixed cost.
  
  Of course, as usual, nothing at this stage is concrete and we won't actually know the truth (inc costs) until near/on launch and someone attempts a trade in (buts let's pretend that isn't the case and wheel out article after article of heresay) Reply +11

• Microsoft: Xbox isn't a gaming console

• etherfiend 17/01/2011

  MS have been trying for years to crack the 'home entertainment experience', firstly with PCs, then media centres and now the Xbox and fair props to them this is the closest they have got. However they should also be wary that the 'wider demographic' probably wont spend as much time with the units, as much money on the products and associated services and be very mindful of the audience/demographic that got it to where it is today. Don't desert the core gamer audience or you will sound a death knell for your next generation of kit.
  
  Appealing to something for everyone is great, but to say it 'isn't a gaming console' was a poorly written line. 'Isn't JUST a gaming console' would have been so much more appropriate.
  
  /2 cents. Reply +26

• Microsoft to relaunch Steam rival

• etherfiend 22/10/2010

  How many of those 30million Steam users are there out of choice though? I've got an account purely because DoW2 and Total War: Empire required Steam activation, if it wasn't shoe-horned on I'd have never bothered with it.
  
  I see why people love it, but for me, personally, it's just one more annoyance before I can get to play my game.
  
  I'm glad MS are giving it a stab, apart from Stardock I haven't come across any others that even come close to competing with Steam. I'd love to have the choice to choose who gets my 'digital activation' rather than one vendor forced upon me. Having said that this isn't something that will bring me back to PC gaming, the console is just too convenient.
  *Prepares for a negaton blast from Steam evangelists* Reply 0

• Blitz predicts digital-only PS4/Xbox 720

• etherfiend 21/10/2010

  They'll have to ship with massive hard drives then as I couldn't even get close to 25% of my games collection installed and I'll be damned if I want to incur the wrath of the ISP for breaking download limits and/or waiting for a couple of hours for 4gb to download before I can play it. I agree with Sony's Mr Hirai on this one. Reply +14

• Sony: PS3 now the "de facto" purchase

• etherfiend 19/08/2010

  Anyone buying a console at this stage in its lifecycle is probably:
  - coming of console age where the parent's Wii is not enough
  - buying a second console
  - finally getting around to buying one (for whatever reason)
  
  Apart from buying a second console I'm fairly sure the purchase would mostly now be governed by the 'what my mates have' factor. If Jonny Twizzle's mates all had 360s he'd probably buy a 360 if he had waited this long to get a console. Likewise if they had PS3s with the much smaller price gap now present it'd be a PS3 that little Jonny would buy instead. Reply +5

• Dark Star One - first 15 minutes

• etherfiend 24/06/2010

  Out now...Play.com says tomorrow and my order hasn't even been changed from Pre-order status...very unusual - some sort of supply issue? Reply 0

• Gears of War 3

• etherfiend 17/06/2010

  A couple of rounds of horde and then exacting revenge in beast mode. Can't wait. Reply +1

• Red Dead Redemption

• etherfiend 15/06/2010

  Indeed, San Andreas was the worst outing in the GTA franchise. GTA3 and Vice city were great and I enjoyed those, San Andreas and IV were just missing something. Reply 0

• DarkStar One: Broken Alliance

• etherfiend 03/06/2010

  Loved it on PC, used to be a big fan of all the Elite/Wing Commander/Freespace/X-BTF, even to a lesser extent the Newtonian I-War (although that control system was insane).
  
  About time something like this popped up on a console (I refuse to acknowledge Project Sylpheed as it was truly terrible)...I await with baited breath. Reply 0

• Red Dead Redemption Multiplayer

• etherfiend 01/06/2010

  Obviously connected to different sessions than I. Trying to clear out bandit hideouts only to get repeatedly hounded by a large posse or almost obsessive compulsive need by some to repeatedly kill players even when they tried to run or not fight back. When piping up in global chat about this I was swiftly reprimanded by the usual twaddle & smack talk I associate with FPS players, then told to go play on a private session if that was howI felt. Well I would have except in its infinite wisdom Rockstar decided to make most mp achievements public only, so not it isn't like I had a choice if I wanted to get some g's out of it too. Some sort of PvP flag/toggle should at least have been implemented for those such as myself who have little interest in pot-shotting passing players and just want to Free Roam for those challenges.
  
  Ultimately I found multiplayer a terrible bore and bereft of many things that I enjoyed about the single player. The impending arrival of co-op missions may make me pick up the game again but having dealt with the single player to 100% completion the game now offers very little appeal. Reply +6

• EA sells off Mass Effect movie rights

• etherfiend 25/05/2010

  I think you probably mean "The Dark Knight" ;) Reply +10

• BT signs exclusive rights to OnLive

• etherfiend 13/05/2010

  Until we see solid pricing around the costs of game rental and subscription to the service its hard to see if it will be worth it. Possibly for PC gamers that are always at the edge of latest graphics cards and CPUs (as over a 3yr period it could well cost them £1000-£2000 in hardware) but any early adopters for consoles will probably still be better off buying hardware & renting games from blockbuster or loveFilm.
  
  I'm keeping myself open to this cloud concept, but surely the more people that hop onto the cloud the more the service will deteriorate? That in turn will lead to more servers and to higher costs, and before you know it personal hardware will be the next big thing! This also relies on 'always on' meaning the same fate for those that use the always on drm without success...I can see a lot of unhappy gamers due to poor broadband infrastructure. Reply +1

• Bleszinski dismisses Gears of War 3 leaks

• etherfiend 06/05/2010

  @metalangel
  
  The whole island being the new HQ for survivors of Jacinto is covered in one of the books released by the writer of the story for Gears 3. Well worth a read. Jacinto's Remnant (iirc) is the name of the book and kicks off immediately following the final cut-scene of GoW2. I wouldn't surprise me if one or two levels were based around that island setting, however the trailer is littered with ashen corpses so that is definitely not on the island because it wasn't razed by the hammer of dawn attacks (afaik - trying to remember as I red the book months ago).
  
  As usual I expect a little hearsay mixed with truth in that leak. It's stll got a long way to go in production yet, so far its too early to know anything but stuff that may end up getting cut from the final release.
  
  *edit - last sentence re-written for readability* Reply 0

• The EGTV Show: The Videogames Election - Episode 1

• etherfiend 05/05/2010

  Really great, can't wait for the next one. A bold new direction and a welcome one EG.
  
  btw...23:12 onwards, anyone else spot the guy walking up the steps that just stops dead in his tracks for a while? Reply +3

• Alan Wake

• etherfiend 05/05/2010

  Bring back 'Ignore poster'. That is all. Reply 0

• Puzzle Quest 2 demo on Facebook

• etherfiend 30/04/2010

  Hopefully a return to form. Galaxtrix and Puzzle Chronicles were both a disappointment and Gyromancer as competition to the crown just failed to impress on any level. I'm in desperate need of something other than PQ, Chime and Peggle to keep me amused when I don't fancy the 'boxed games'. Reply +1

• MS discussing Xbox Live telly channel

• etherfiend 21/04/2010

  It should be, as already suggested any times, as an add-on option for an additional fee. Most people now have freeview, Virgin or Sky and with bandwidth caps on broadband why would you want to risk running afoul of those limits streaming TV when you could watch it on TV or download for a fraction of the bandwidth as an encoded avi/mpeg later? In addition why pay more for a channel when you already pay for other premium TV services.
  
  Also like others here I no longer watch TV, at best I'll grab a cheap dvd box set for a fiver but 99/100 times I'll be playing games as opposed to watching tv. I can't honestly see any positive reasons for having this, especially as it would potentially upset their relationships with Sky/Netflix and probably wouldn't have much in the way of a USP.
  
  If a forced increase on the Gold membership is imposed then I will have to reconsider my options as I do very little 'online' gaming as it is. Maybe it'd be time to finally brush the dust off the PS3 controller and use it for more than a bluray/media player
  
  What could actually work is a seperate sub where you get to 'create a channel' and MS has a repository of shows (much like the zune movies) from its various TV providing partners that you can drag and drop into a playlist. Depending on what was on offer I would maybe consider that, but it'd need to be a monthly sub with no min-period for staying with the service. Reply +1

• First XCOM screenshot revealed

• etherfiend 15/04/2010

  FPS is a huge disappointment, I was rather hoping for something similar to XCOM: Total War - If they had to remove the turnbased (a big mistake anyway imo), then the Total War style would suit it fantastically. Reply 0

• Nier

• etherfiend 25/03/2010

  Hmm combat sounds very much like Star Ocean, not my cup of tea.
  
  Good of Square Enix to be looking at different formulas though, I'm sure a few people will very much look forward to this. Reply 0

• Toy Soldiers

• etherfiend 24/03/2010

  Enjoyable read, I've been playing this game on and off and this review really hits the mark. Reply +1

• EA will test waters with paid-for demos

• etherfiend 23/03/2010

  I'd say that they've already priced themselves out of the market. When you can rent the full game for 7 days for £3.50 (especially with most average games only having around 8-24 hours of gameplay) why would you pay £6 for a lesser version?
  
  Using the prequel analogy its a bit worrying if they then start using the 'demo' as a seperate entity to the main game or even as an intro section but then don't include it in the main release as that would potentially almost require a purchase of the demo.
  
  Personally, I only really see this being a viable testing mechanism for massive multiplayers where instead of requesting beta volunteers you're actually expected to pay for the beta test!
  
  From the little information given in the article so far I cannot see how this would realistically work apart from very specific scenarios such as beta-testing multiplayer game mechanics through 2 or 3 maps. Reply -2

• Natal will require 4 metres of space

• etherfiend 23/03/2010

  @Zomoniac - Glad I wasn't the only one to noitice that. They must mean 'up to 4m' as in all the demos so far they have been way closer than 4m. Reply +11

• Final Fantasy XIII

• etherfiend 23/03/2010

  I said I wouldn't compare it to the FF predecessors, which I didn't, a bit tough to not compare it to anything at all - but appreciate the comments ;) Reply 0

• Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight

• etherfiend 16/03/2010

  I enjoyed C&C3 on the PC, not so much on the 360 and Red Alert 3 was a mess on the 360...forced to play co-op with AI or friend on campaign, no thanks!
  
  This doesn't look like the swansong I'd hoped for from the Tiberium saga. I have to agree with the earlier poster and say Red Alert 2 was the peak of C&C.
  
  Oh, and of course insert the obligatory DRM rant here. I see the publishers are being slow to react to the utter fail that is persistent online DRM...probably some idiot signed a fixed length minimum contract for it's usage... Reply +5

• EEDAR: Are X360 Achievements too hard?

• etherfiend 15/03/2010

  Achievements are tough to balance. You don't want everyone getting 1000 points as it just demeans the system and renders it pointless. There are people like myself who don't really do online multiplayer and thus lose out there and others that prefer to game casually rather than grind it out (oh hello Seriously 2.0 - 100,000 kills GoW2) like an MMO. 24 hours reloading the Brumack level or forever being in a multiplayer lobby...no thanks.
  
  Initially I think a lot of games (especially JRPGs) didn't think through what they were actually asking...levelling all Blue Dragon characters and all the shadows to 99 - well into the 150 hour mark. The problem was exacerbated by the lack of things to do because standard fights were walkovers and 'legendary' monster bosses were too tough (king poo for example).
  
  As time has gone on, Mass Effect & Mass Effect 2 being the perfect example,things have improved. I've generally found achievments for random things (blowing up 8 chickens with a grenade in MW2, etc) remain but the time-sinking achievements are becoming less. With the constant stream of games I think it has dawned that people aren't going to spend hundreds of hours grinding a couple of achievements when they can get loads more (and more fun too) by playing something new, especially when Gamerscores aren't quite the e-peen they were maybe intended to be.
  
  The ME2 achievements are a vast improvement, I've gone through once and I think I've got at least 700 points out of it. I'll have almost all on 2 playthroughs but then the second playthrough is varied and I'll enjoy it unlike second playthroughs of Darksiders and Dead Space where nothing changes but the time taken to kill stuff - no enjoyment there.
  
  I think C&C3 had the worst of the lot where I did all the campaigns on gold yet it never unlocked the lower achievements, so you would have had to play through 3 times - one for each difficulty level...that was plain tedium and idiocy on the part of the achievement implementors. I never did bother going back, just like Dead Space, Conan, Viking, COD4, and so many others where I loved playing through but just once. Like many 'plot twist' films, I rarely want to watch them a second time for a long time, the fun is removed.
  
  Also any game that gives achievments for the hardest difficulty but requires you to unlock by completing on an easier setting makes my list of hatred (Eat Lead, Mass Effect & Dead Space I'm staring at you). At least Eat Lead had a code you could enter to unlock it right off the bat. I have no objection to hardest difficulty achievments, they are often worth striving for but not if you have to jump through hoops to get there. Reply +4