Video Games

grathan said:

I actually bought an xbox just to compare live. It wasn't much better. The game compensates for lag. For example, I once spent 2 months playing tethered through my cell phone's 3g internet and it didn't affect my ability to mow down people in this game. Now if they create the new game which doesn't favor people who lag because of this money being spent to upgrade servers then that is another thing altogether.

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I'm surprised that you found no difference from what you get with live and what you get with ps3. As far as favoritism that's just speculation. Even Sony admits that their service was lacking compared to live. Don't get me wrong I'm a Sony fan boy. To each their own. I say that small monthly fee is worth it if it makes the overall experience better.

That's fine. Just don't pile it on the backs of multiplayers. I liked it when it was optional. I guess they are projected to go from 200 million to 1.2 billion in profits.

What will they do with this money? Improve games? NO! they signed a deal with Viacom to bring Spongebob to the PS4. MS signed a deal with the NFL so stats can flash on the screen when you watch football on your gaming console.

grathan said:

That's fine. Just don't pile it on the backs of multiplayers. I liked it when it was optional. I guess they are projected to go from 200 million to 1.2 billion in profits.

What will they do with this money? Improve games? NO! they signed a deal with Viacom to bring Spongebob to the PS4. MS signed a deal with the NFL so stats can flash on the screen when you watch football on your gaming console.

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To be honest I have no idea what it costs to run a network such as live or psn. I for one don't mind a 4 dollar or so a month fee if it brings a better experience.Time will tell I guess.

grathan said:

That's fine. Just don't pile it on the backs of multiplayers. I liked it when it was optional. I guess they are projected to go from 200 million to 1.2 billion in profits.

What will they do with this money? Improve games? NO! they signed a deal with Viacom to bring Spongebob to the PS4. MS signed a deal with the NFL so stats can flash on the screen when you watch football on your gaming console.

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Is it possible that they will be using the money to host dedicated game servers rather than rely on clients (ie individual players' consoles) to host games?

That would easily justify the cost IMO. When you're playing a multiplayer PC game (I'll use Counter-Strike as an example), all the servers that are even halfway decent are dedicated. Meaning they are servers that are set up (usually with a hosting company) for the sole purpose of providing a permanent server to host other players, without also running a client or needing to process graphics.

Thing is, you may not notice it, but individual people have to pay to host these dedicated servers on their own initiative. A single, high quality, hosted server with plenty of player slots, open to the public (ie not password-protected) can easily cost into the triple digits. Per MONTH. So decent multiplayer PC games generally rely on people willing to pay a hefty monthly fee to provide other players with a quality gaming environment. (This is also largely why MMOs generally require a subscription: to cover the ongoing server hosting costs since they can't simply rely on users to do the hosting).

With consoles it tends to work differently and people don't generally pay to host their own dedicated servers. As far as I'm aware, the vast majority of online PS3 game servers are simply temporarily hosted by someone that happens to be playing at that very moment (and when they leave, the game automatically switches hosts to someone else). This means the servers are also concurrently doing the work of processing the video and gameplay for that player in addition to all the server-side processing, and all this hosted on a residential connection of questionable quality.

So a nominal monthly fee to provide the quality experience of dedicated servers on quality commercial bandwidth *without* relying on a small proportion of individuals to bear the (significant) cost for everyone else to enjoy the benefits would be more than worth it, IMO.

Oh my, The Last of Us is amazing.

Swarley88 said:

Oh my, The Last of Us is amazing.

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That's what I've been saying! Xboxers in particular react very dismissively towards it (and I DO have a 360 myself), but I seriously deem The Last of Us to be the best game of the current console generation.

emjay said:

That's what I've been saying! Xboxers in particular react very dismissively towards it (and I DO have a 360 myself), but I seriously deem The Last of Us to be the best game of the current console generation.

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I have a 360 and PS3. The Last of Us is just great though. I can't stop playing.

I have yet to hop online and play though (just got this game Friday ).

Swarley88 said:

I have a 360 and PS3. The Last of Us is just great though. I can't stop playing.

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Definitely the one game people need to play if they play even just one game this year. And I'm not even much a fan of zombie stuff.

What's your PSN name, if you don't mind sharing?

emjay said:

Definitely the one game people need to play if they play even just one game this year. And I'm not even much a fan of zombie stuff.

What's your PSN name, if you don't mind sharing?

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I totally agree. Great story line so far and great graphics. A really pretty world for it being overruned by infected freaks.

MrJerb is the psn.

The 17th is coming up fast! Soon I will have no life outside of GTA 5. Unfortunately I don't have enough space on my 360 relic.

Krovitz said:

The 17th is coming up fast! Soon I will have no life outside of GTA 5. Unfortunately I don't have enough space on my 360 relic.

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I'm right there with you Krovitz, I can't wait for GTA V!

As do I. My time is just getting invested into the Last of Us and Gta comes barging in. Its going to be like a divorce settlement. Maybe Gta gets the week and the Last of Us gets weekend and holidays.

GTA V looks great, but I was a bit disappointed by IV... in fact, I didn't even finish it. (The Last of Us, on the other hand, will be one of those VERY rare games - *for me* - that will undoubtedly see multiple playthroughs.)

Vice City and San Andreas were the best games in the series IMO. Hopefully V lives up to the expectations set by those two. From what I can tell about the game so far though, I definitely think it stands a much greater chance than IV did, fortunately.

It's a shame it doesn't look like it'll be coming out on the next gen consoles at all though because I pre-ordered my PS4 on day one and I'd gladly wait the extra month to get it on the superior system.

emjay said:

GTA V looks great, but I was a bit disappointed by IV... in fact, I didn't even finish it. (The Last of Us, on the other hand, will be one of those VERY rare GAMES - *for me* - that will undoubtedly see multiple playthroughs.)

Vice City and San Andreas were the best games in the series IMO. Hopefully V lives up to the expectations set by those two. From what I can tell about the game so far though, I definitely think it stands a much greater chance than IV did, fortunately.

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Good point. I just started dabbling into online for Last of Us. Love playing with the bow.. great online play too.

Vice city was one of the very best Gta's. Really enjoyed playing that game. V looks awesome.

Speaking of the PS4, after the top notch quality of the Uncharted games and the mindblowing experience that is The Last of Us... it's bugging me more than any new console ever has, not knowing what Naughty Dog has in store for it!

Edit: And Vice City was the best GTA hands down. The sheer fun factor in that installment has been unsurpassed by subsequent GTA games.

Vice City Rocked!
I didn't come close to finishing the others; played them for a week tops before quitting.
I will not be pre-ordering GTA V based on past experience with the series.
Maybe it will lure me in when it goes on sale like Red Dead Redemption did; what a great game.

I've been hooked on the Arkham games. Can't wit for Arkham Origins to come out. Plus South Park: Stick of Truth

emjay said:

It's a shame it doesn't look like it'll be coming out on the next gen consoles at all though because I pre-ordered my PS4 on day one and I'd gladly wait the extra month to get it on the superior system.

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I'm not so sure about that...there have been a lot of "slips" by various vendors about GTA V on next-gen platforms. However, if it does come out for next-gen, I wouldn't expect it out of the gate but several months down the line...probably around the same time as the PC version.

weirdboy said:

I'm not so sure about that...there have been a lot of "slips" by various vendors about GTA V on next-gen platforms. However, if it does come out for next-gen, I wouldn't expect it out of the gate but several months down the line...probably around the same time as the PC version.

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At best it'll just be a port though, without taking any advantage of the increased specs.

Saw a neat tidbit yesterday that said V is the most expensive game ever made at 260 million. More than double than that of IV which I also didn't care for, glad to hear I'm not alone.

Needs 8 GB of hard drive space. Jeesh, I wonder what will get deleted this time..

emjay said:

At best it'll just be a port though, without taking any advantage of the increased specs.

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I wouldn't count on that. Some of the early screenshots had a lot higher fidelity than the more recent ones, which leads me to believe they have been using high end PCs throughout the development process, and that they have been downscaling textures, and turning off extra features in the shader pipeline as needed to get things working on current-gen consoles. For next-gen releases they can just pack in the higher resolution textures and turn on more bells & whistles in the shaders.

Hey emjay you going to add me or what? Would love to gain some supplies with you online on The Last of Us?

Any of you guys playing NHL 14 on PS3?

Add me: brewtality-9

SCORE LIMIT REACHER in COD free for all wii reflexive....

30 effing kills against some stiff competition!

grathan said:

Saw a neat tidbit yesterday that said V is the most expensive game ever made at 260 million. More than double than that of IV which I also didn't care for, glad to hear I'm not alone.

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I'd believe it, though I doubt they'll have any trouble getting all of that back and then some. IV has sold, what, like 25 million copies?

drainbamage said:

I'd believe it, though I doubt they'll have any trouble getting all of that back and then some. IV has sold, what, like 25 million copies?

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I believe GTA IV did $500 million in sales in its first week. Granted, not all of that money goes back to the developer/publisher, but it's fair to say their recouped their development costs very quickly.

For those who haven't done it, there's this thing called Humble Bundle where you pick your price and get games and choose how to distribute money between developers, charity and Humble Bundle as you choose. This one has Fez in it and Fez is so great. I've been playing a good amount and I'm not a fan of playing on my PC.

Anyone playing Borderlands 2 on ps3?

So, what are the odds that someone referrs to the GTA games as a potential cause for this mornings Navy Yard shooting?

Went yesterday and traded in my xbox360, turtle beach headset, wifi adapter and about 6 games. They wouldn't take my 360 as it had a bit of a shudder when the disc tray closed. Apparently it's an indication that it only has a few months to live. They also wouldn't buy the headset because it's outdated. In the end, they bought my hard drive, wires, wifi adapter and games. I walked out with $80 cash.

A bit of a letdown. Was hoping to walk out with a copy of The Last of Us (not in stock at the store) and at least $100 cash.

The $80 goes into my fermentation chest freezer fund. Almost there...

Oh, and I only sold the system because I have a PS3 and haven't touched the xbox in at least 18 months.

DrunkleJon said:

So, what are the odds that someone referrs to the GTA games as a potential cause for this mornings Navy Yard shooting?

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I think games have an opposite effect on violence. Especially in older people who can actually afford guns and ammo.

JohnnyO said:

Went yesterday and traded in my xbox360, turtle beach headset, wifi adapter and about 6 games. They wouldn't take my 360 as it had a bit of a shudder when the disc tray closed. Apparently it's an indication that it only has a few months to live. They also wouldn't buy the headset because it's outdated. In the end, they bought my hard drive, wires, wifi adapter and games. I walked out with $80 cash.

A bit of a letdown. Was hoping to walk out with a copy of The Last of Us (not in stock at the store) and at least $100 cash.

The $80 goes into my fermentation chest freezer fund. Almost there...

Oh, and I only sold the system because I have a PS3 and haven't touched the xbox in at least 18 months.

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Why not sell on ebay?

DrunkleJon said:

So, what are the odds that someone referrs to the GTA games as a potential cause for this mornings Navy Yard shooting?

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Nope. Guy just couldn't wait for Call of Duty: Ghosts any longer.

DrNecropolis said:

Anyone playing Borderlands 2 on ps3?

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I played the first Borderlands on PS3, but I bought Borderlands 2 on PC during the summer steam sale with the season pass.

DrunkleJon said:

So, what are the odds that someone referrs to the GTA games as a potential cause for this mornings Navy Yard shooting?

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Why, did he steal an ambulance and run over several hookers on the way to the facility?

drainbamage said:

Why, did he steal an ambulance and run over several hookers on the way to the facility?

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Could have from what was reported. The media seems to be practicing for tornado season in a trailer park telling everybody what the tornado sounded like. "Well there is a helicopter... oooh they are lowering a basket... looks like someone is in the basket, I wonder if they are one of the injured?" All the time showing said helicopter and saying that there was anywhere from 1-4 assailants depending on which news source you were following.

Sorry. I work in DC, news was on in the room with me. I get a little snarky when the news has a new big story. At least it is not another court case, but I do feel bad for the victims and their families.

No worries, dude, I was being sarcastic too. I'm also in the "violent video games keep me from committing real crimes" camp.

EDIT: Just heard on this morning's news that the shooter was described as a practicing Buddhist but a fan of violent video games. Here we go again.

drainbamage said:

No worries, dude, I was being sarcastic too. I'm also in the "violent video games keep me from committing real crimes" camp.

EDIT: Just heard on this morning's news that the shooter was described as a practicing Buddhist but a fan of violent video games. Here we go again.

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Seems he wasn't very good at one.

Almost done.. started 40 minutes ago..

I love my fast internet..