piethief100 • Comments

• Mocapped dogs, exponential polygons and a mysterious apocalypse: Infinity Ward's next-gen Call of Duty: Ghosts

• piethief100 21/05/2013

  Dynamic multiplayer levels? I have a feeling that this will be ignored by players if they are player driven events. Springing environmental traps will simply detract from the fast pace of action which is COD's forte. I doubt players will sneak around to set these traps, rather than go in guns blaring.
  
  Frankly, we know COD isn't the game to play if you favour the subtle approach, and I say that, I'm sad to admit, as a rather avid COD multiplayer fan. Reply 0

• PlayStation Diablo 3 may not connect to Battle.net at all

• piethief100 26/02/2013

  How can a port have less features yet become a more attractive purchase as a result? Reply +65

• North Korean propaganda film featuring Call of Duty footage has been pulled from YouTube

• piethief100 06/02/2013

  Why on earth is a Canon camera featured so prominently at the beginning? Is there product placement in propaganda films now? Reply +14

• The War Z has been removed from sale on Steam

• piethief100 19/12/2012

  @melnificent I can't believe I'm turning into a Valve fanboi, I never thought I would be here when my activation to Empire Total War caused so many problems, but Valve didn't individually pass this title. As the publisher had previously released a game through Steam, their new game didn't have to go through the usual review process. Reply +5

• piethief100 19/12/2012

  Goodness Valve. I didn't expect that, but it's a classy move on their part.
  
  And to think, if only so many people hadn't "misread" the description we wouldn't be here. Reply +17

• UK government's cultural test for video games revealed

• piethief100 11/12/2012

  @ChadSexington There are exemptions to such directives. Don't make me dig out my law textbooks, please!, to get the exact ruling, but I broadly know that you can exempt yourself on the grounds on preservation of national culture, something this falls slap bang into.
  
  Also, I believe the French have a near identical scheme that this legislation was based upon.
  
  It's a similar principle to saying that only UK citizens (and Irish, but let's forget the historical factors for a sec) can join the British Army. Reply +1

• Surface with Windows 8 Pro priced at $899 for the 64GB version

• piethief100 29/11/2012

  Oh goodness.
  
  I was hoping this would be a reasonable price, but I could buy an entire gaming laptop for that price.
  
  I shudder to think what the rumoured gaming Surface's price point will be. Reply +2

• GOG adds Windows 8 support, 90 per cent of titles compatible

• piethief100 26/11/2012

  @MattEvansC3 Ahh I'm not the only one then? So much scepticism about W8, and I've found it rather good - once you get used to it. Startup times are incredible. Reply +1

• Skyrim Dragonborn DLC confirmed, out 4th December

• piethief100 05/11/2012

  Hmm... it doesn't look as enthralling as The Shivering Isles, but all those Morrowind style textures should be fantastic for the modding community. Reply +8

• Call of Duty and Guitar Hero offline due to Hurricane Sandy

• piethief100 31/10/2012

  How is it, that some people seem surprised that a gaming website is exploiting a gaming angle on this story?! This is a gaming news website after all.
  
  I don't browse this site to find out about East Coast situation, in the same way that I don't expect it to keep be abreast of the slaughter in Syria, the 20 people just gunned down in Nigeria or the 25 people who have died at a wedding in Saudi Arabia.
  
  All these stories, including the hurricane, are tragic, but this simply is not the place you should come to get coverage of these events. Reply +2

• Face-Off: XCOM: Enemy Unknown

• piethief100 15/10/2012

  I do love these articles EG, and you seem to be pushing out a lot of them recently. Keep it up! Reply +1

• Face-Off: Dishonored

• piethief100 09/10/2012

  @Clash From the Steam Subscriber Agreement:
  
  A. Payment Authorization
  You agree that you will not use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on game content, to purchase at pricing not applicable to your geography, or for any other purpose. If you do this, we may terminate your access to your Account.
  
  And a quote from a valve employee (not a mod, but an employee) regarding the legality of early unlocking "No. That would be a violation of the SSA."
  
  To be clear, I'm not going out of my way to be a smart ass intent on winning an argument (I don't have to - being a smart ass just comes naturally to me ;)), but it's important that you let people know that there could well be consequences to doing this. Should they then decide to do it anyway, good luck to then. There's no reason we shouldn't get a worldwide release anyway nowadays. As I've said before, it's preposterous that pirates are now freely playing the game, whilst paying EU customers are still waiting. Reply +4

• piethief100 09/10/2012

  @Goodfella It is possible... but I don't think Valve are naive enough to think it a coincidence when somebody pops up in America, and plays a game 3 days earlier than they would have been able to had they still been located in their purchasing region.
  
  If you're going to do it, make sure you get the game unlocked, then jam Steam into offline mode. Certainly don't switch between connecting to Steam with and without Spotflux running
  
  I assure you people have been banned for fiddling around with region release dates - just Google the Steam forums and see for yourself. With far, far too many games for my own good in my Steam library, I simply cannot afford to take the risk of a Steam ban.
  
  The real question should be, why on earth can players in the EU not play this until Friday, whilst pirates can already download and play this from The Pirate Bay?
  
  Edit - And btw, if your Steam name happens to be Goodfella, you might want to edit your earlier comments to remove references to the "workaround" Reply +6

• piethief100 09/10/2012

  @NimbusTLD Careful now. Faking your location can get your entire Steam account, including whatever library you have built up, banned. I've seen a few people on the forums hit that.
  
  I might have tried it myself, but now I know the risks you take, I wouldn't personally risk my library for the sake of two days. Reply +1

• Facebook passes 1 billion active users

• piethief100 04/10/2012

  Nope. I don't believe it. Even though the wording is "active" users, there must be a pitfall in the stats. I cannot believe 1 billion people regularly use the service. Reply +4

• Pre-order Football Manager 2013 and play two weeks early

• piethief100 28/09/2012

  @Andy247 25% is fine... but wouldn't 35% off be better?
  
  http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/315446-35-off-FM13-pre-order-extended-offer-) Reply +1

• Assassin's Creed Utopia is a city-building battler

• piethief100 06/09/2012

  You won't have to play Utopia to unlock Assassin's Creed 3's best ending, in other words.

  I lol'd at this.
  
  And @refzem, that isn't in the slightest bit amusing. Reply 0

• Skyrim: Hearthfire DLC allows you to build a house, adopt a child

• piethief100 28/08/2012

  I always loved the build your own house system in Morrowind, and, IMO, no mod has come close to that yet in Skyrim.
  
  Definitely of more interest to me than vampires. Reply +3

• Diablo 3 Starter Edition is now available on Battle.net

• piethief100 15/08/2012

  @GavinUK86 Yep, same here. I've followed the step by step FAQ instructions, but the options they describe just aren't there for me on the account summary page.
  
  I wasn't happy with the £45 price tag on release, and there's certainly no way I'm paying it months after release, so the starter edition would have been a nice way to see what all the complaints were about :) Reply +1

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 multiplayer ditches kill streaks, embraces e-sports, first screenshots

• piethief100 14/08/2012

  @Mugwum Not quite true actually. In MW3, capturing objectives, shooting down helicopters and defusing bombs etc already all count as a kill towards your killstreak.
  
  They're actually offering nothing more than a change of name from killstreak to score streak. The mechanic is already in MW3.
  
  Edit - being as I'm going to be riding the neg wave anyway, I might add that I just cannot believe the snobbery in this comments section. There's a reason COD is the highest grossing gaming franchise, and that's that it does what it sets out to do very well indeed.
  
  It's an arcadey shooter, that's fun to play with friends, and which people ranging from casual to hardcore can play together. Fine, it's not exactly Counter Strike, but hating a game simply because it's popular, as a few people here at least seem to be doing, is as immature as me liking to play it in the first place :) Reply +7

• Ouya Kickstarter ends at over $8.5 million

• piethief100 09/08/2012

  Your "pre-order" link is broken.
  
  As for the console, I'm very sceptical. It's always great for us gamers to be given choice, but I can only imagine it will prove too niche a platform for anything worthwhile to be developed on it. Reply +2

• Final Modern Warfare 3 DLC release date, details

• piethief100 02/08/2012

  @Baban_Iesu It's cheaper than buying the individual DLCs I believe.
  
  I also love the opportunity to play clan ops.
  
  It's worth it for me. You need to answer that question for yourself though :) Reply 0

• The Old Republic producer leaves BioWare

• piethief100 18/07/2012

  @JoeGuy000
  
  I'm not averse to what you say. I really hope Bioware take DA2 and add those things you list for the concluding episode.
  
  I suppose where I disagree, is in thinking that DA2 was a damn good play even without those additions.
  
  Still, how boring would it be if everyone agreed with each other all the time? Reply 0

• piethief100 18/07/2012

  @JoeGuy000
  
  This is all obviously opinion vs opinion, but I must disagree on your DA2 review.
  
  Yes environments were recycled, and different types of enemies were sparse, but having such a solid story made up for that IMO.
  
  Such a small gameworld, served to force you to look towards the characters for variety, and they dealt it in spades. Aveline is almost alone in portraying a realistic, well-rounded woman in a video game.
  
  And in your companions she is not alone. There was such depth to their characterisations, almost to a man. They were so believable. Fenris' experience as a slave, shapes everything he does. His side quests and dialogue aren't just tagged on to the game, but combine to define and explain his current behaviors and attitude. In fact, I could go on and praise almost every single companion in turn.
  
  The excellent writing didn't just stop there. The plot simmered, and ratcheted up the pressure in Kirkwall, to the final, inevitable confrontation between magic and the chantry.
  
  I'm not blinkered in my approach (well, not completely blinkered anyway!). I know DA2 could have been so much more, but I will forever remember the journey of the story, and those whom I embarked on it with, as some of the most compelling writing I've ever experienced in a game.
  
  I could continue to wax lyrical about the artwork, and atmosphere, but being as I'm going to get negged for what I've already written, I'll leave it be! Reply +1

• piethief100 17/07/2012

  Why all the Dragon Age 2 hate? It was doubtless flawed, but contained some of the best characterisations, dialogue and plot lines that I've played in a game.
  
  Now ME3 hate? That I can understand. Hate away. Reply -16