glad to see everyone having fun with various games. There are plenty of older ones to enjoy the most recent titles seem to be rather repetitious in nature and that is another reason i found Skyrim less that the fun i had hoped. The overall feeling of it is dark and depressing, and the main story not as fun as Oblvoin. So i will keep modding both and try to finish others, Stlll have a long way to go in Assasin's Creed Brother hood want to see Venice ...and also need to finish Mafia II and I, and some others. HOpe all are having an nice spring, i am watching more anime than games these days and have to do some art work too.

good luck on the exams Traveller and Hope you are doing ok Stiller. Hang in there.

Might & Magic 8 is done:

Shorter and far easier than 7, but at least it did not fill the world with far too many enemies. They should have upped the amount of damage that enemies would deal, to compensate for their lower number, and the extra party member in your group. 

I purchased Dungeon Siege 3 on a recent sale (85% off, and I have a soft spot for Obsidian, though not Neverwinter Nighst 2), and just started playing it. It seem to be a fun hack & slash game, although the controls feel a bit awkward.

For the record, I did not like Dungeon Siege 1 or 2. They seem to have changed quite a lot in DS3, which might be why people complained so much about the game. 

I purchased Oil Rush for a bargain price, it combines RTS with tower defense.

It looks very pretty, water effects and explosions are gorgeous

Alas the gameplay is dumbed down a lot, you can't control units indepently, one can only select a region to attack.

So basically it's just building as much units as possible, attack and pray everything goes well.

So it's just brainless fun 

That sounds a bit like "Defenders of Ardania", a tower defense game where you also have to build units and attack. If you have played the Defenders of Ardania, would you say that Oil Rush is similar? 

I'm playing Rage and having a ball. It combines my love of Fallout with my love of racing games, so I can switch back and forth between keyboard for gameplay and Xbox gamepad for the racing parts.  It isn't by any means in Fallout's category, but it is fun nonetheless, with great voice acting and lip-sincing.  Graphics are wonderful.

I'm currently playing Tomb Raider: Anniversary, a re-make/re-imaging of the original Tomb Raider, that follows the basic plot of the first game, but with updated graphics, and slightly different levels. As I played the original back in late 96/early 97, I can't say how faithful this game actually is, I never finished the original game, but the re-make is rather good actually. The controls feel tight, and Lara is really agile and moves in a very fluid way, which makes this one of the better 3d platformers that I've played. 

Well, I'm playing Diablo III.  Proceeding slowly because I have another game I'm reviewing.  I'm enjoying it, though!

Still playing Fallout 3, playing one single game for more than a month is a personal record.

Even though i'm on my fifth playthrough, I'm still discovering lots of new locations and quests, which is what i love about bethesda's RPG's 

I'm about to start the classic Ishar series. I'll skip the first game, Crystals of Arborea, as I've heard that it is supposed to be more tedious than fun (plus, there is not supposed to be much in the way of story connection between that game and the later entires).

Hm... This does not look the least bit fishy:

*edit*
Can't say that I'm overly impressed. The game just feels uninvolved. It is possible that the later games in the series are better, but I don't really enjoy the first game. It is not horrible, it is just that there are so many better games out there.  

Hm, I think a certain tank driver should have his licence revoked

Is that Men of War? Great little rts series. I just wish it wasn't so expansive in scope. I have the same problem with Company of Heroes.

They would be such great games if they let you actually focus on the small details of controlling a small squad of soldiers/tanks or whatever, instead of the usual large number and base building aspects.

I was a HUGE fan of Myth back in the day (The RTS by Bungie, who went on to make the super mega popular Halo franchise) and it focused solely on combat and controlling a small army. Because of this focus you had such a fun combat experience and the combat itself was what made the game fun, taking into account terrain (higher elevations provided better line of sight, rain could put out flaming arrows, certain units couldn't cross deep water while others could, etc) and it's popular mp (it was like the Half life of the RTS games back in the late 90's, a TON of mods/conversions, thousands of players, alwyas something to do, even today people still play it online though it's not nearly as large as it was).

Sadly after Myth died off (bungie shut down b.net, focused on consoles and the IP was sold to another company that made a 3rd game but it was so so, then the IP just died since, I believe take2 holds it) there hasn't been a single RTS like that since.

It seems every RTS game has to have the same old same old base building/large unit scale focus. I mean in Company of HEroes, it would be SO much fun imo to just control one little group of men, and wokr your way around the battfield making smart use of tactics/terrain to win the fight, rather then zerging and rushing bases or using the long range artillery stuff. I would love to play MP and have like one person control a few sniper teams, another control paratroopers, then someone eles controlling tanks. Basically it'd work like myth, where before an MP match you "build" your own army with a select number of points. Each unit cost certain points (so bigger/more powerful units cost more points then a smaller unit, so you could chooes to buy lots of the smaller units or just a couple powerful ones, whichever you want).

Sorry kind of went on a rant there, I just want a new Myth really, but even a new rts in that style would make me happy, seems no one else does though.

That screenshot is from Men of War: Vietnam (the only game in the main Men of War series that I've played), and it actually focuses on just what you say that you want. You have a small team of soldiers that you control (4 for most NVA missions, 6 for most US missions, though there were some where you got a few more soldiers, usually another squad). The blue dots on the minimap are my soldiers, while the green ones are allies. That particular mission was one of the few where you actually had to fight alongside a large force, most others were about small scale operations, making do with what you can find and often fighting against far superior forces, with soldiers that are just as fragile as the enemy soldiers.

I think Soldiers: Heroes of World War 2 (which was the first Men of War game, though it had a different name) does the same thing, though it is so hard that I can't get anywhere in it. 

Hi guys.

Listen, I need a bit of help re Steam.  Apparently, to disable updates I need to log into Steam, and then:

>>Right click on the game, choose Properties.
Click on the Updates tab.
Choose "Do not automatically update this game"
Click close.
Exit Steam.
Relaunch Steam and attempt to play the game.

When I right-click on the game, I get quite a lot of options, but none of them are "properties".  I've given up with Steam support.  Please help, anyone?

[size= x-small]

It's not at the bottom?

CB... I love you.   ^_^

 Somehow it was showing me my games without me having to go into the "library" section.  But i noticed you were in your library, and once i went there, and right-clicked in there, the option showed up for me.  Thanks so much!

..and thanks for having patience with my Steam-klutziness...  

I just noticed that I spent over 2½h playing Warlock: Master of the Arcane. That game is addictive!

Think Civilization meets Age of Wonders 2/3 and Elven Legacy/Fantasy Wars (modified Fantasy Wars engine), in the Majesty setting. Relatively easy to get into, but there is a good amount of content in this game, and I'm loving it.

I've just found out that when you uninstall Steam, it basically uninstalls all your games that needed Steam verification as well. I had disabled Steam earlier because i had hack-patched my Skyrim not to need Steam because i didn't want Steam to keep interfering, and so, when i installed Risen 2 last week from the disc i had bought, it basically must have picked up that i had a 'broken' copy of Steam on my PC, so it simply uninstalled Steam, and all my  Steam games that i previously had installed.

..so when i tried to open Skyrim earlier on, it was just gone!  Completely gone...

That, to me, is so anti-free market and so unethical that I just have no words.  .. I mean, I paid for the game, right? .. so you're telling me that there is no way to play it on a computer that is not online, and if i don't want Steam on my PC.

I mean, I, who paid for these games, have to take this kind of punishment, while people who pirate their games simply don't have to put up with rubbish like that.

No wonder people pirate games, I cannot help thinking...- it was bad enough when Win 7 started blocking one's games because of DRM schemes it didn't agree with, and now this!  It's really untenable...  anyway, at least now I know how to block unwanted updates, thanks - I just really hope that it blocks everything.  I don't believe in applying patches unless i have problems with a game; and it's really been only on rare occasions that i've needed them - Gothic 3 being the glaring exception...

So now I'm having to re-install Skyrim. I just really hope my gamesaves don't smash with the version I have now, in terms of patches applied/not applied...

Argh sorry, I just had to let off steam (ha ha) a bit.  Was really really unhappy about having my stuff uninstalled.  But thank goodness, I've now re-installed Skyrim and the saves are working!    ..so at least I'm happy about that, would have been livid if I'd lost all those hours and hours of gaming...

serves you right!!! How dare you to even think about uninstalling Steam!

Let this be a lesson, never to remove this divine shopping outlet, as a penalty you should buy at least 10 games you don't want, otherwise you'll be banned from steam forever, never be able to play Skyrim again...

ok now seriously, i too don't get why any developers keeps on forcing some kind of DRM on it's customers.

Yet still steam is my N°1 place to buy games, i like the fact that they patch everything automatically, i never had any problems with that.

I'm still pissed off at GG that they sold me a game i cannot play properly because they don't offer a patch (Darkness Within 2)

Look, that's why I like GOG so much. To me, they're tops again.  They always offer latest patches too, and no DRM crap. (Not to mention affordable prices!)

..and you can take their games and put it on a PC that's not even connected on the interentz at all, no problem!  ..just a pity they don't carry the latest games...

Btw, you always used to be able to get any of the latest patches  by just googling for them, and the game's devs would always put patches on the games' official site, no?

Just btw, -I- didn't uninstall my Steam, I'd simply temporarily put the .exe into a different folder.  It was my Risen 2 disc that went and uninstalled my Steam.  So then I had to re-install it again, and then Steam told me i was using a new computer and I couldn't access my account anymore, and it took about a week of emails to their support dept just to access my account again!

Understand why I got a wee bit p'd off?

Oh, and I don't mind DRM at all, as long as my OS accepts it, and as long as it's only once per install that you get checked.  But to have to go through a  DRM check every time you play the game is really just over the top....

Originally Posted By Traveller (9 JUN 2012 2:47am)

Look, that's why I like GOG so much. To me, they're tops again.  They always offer latest patches too, and no DRM crap. (Not to mention affordable prices!)

..and you can take their games and put it on a PC that's not even connected on the interentz at all, no problem!  ..just a pity they don't carry the latest games...

 

Btw, you always used to be able to get any of the latest patches  by just googling for them, and the game's devs would always put patches on the games' official site, no?

 

Just btw, -I- didn't uninstall my Steam, I'd simply temporarily put the .exe into a different folder.  It was my Risen 2 disc that went and uninstalled my Steam.  So then I had to re-install it again, and then Steam told me i was using a new computer and I couldn't access my account anymore, and it took about a week of emails to their support dept just to access my account again!

 

Understand why I got a wee bit p'd off?

 

Oh, and I don't mind DRM at all, as long as my OS accepts it, and as long as it's only once per install that you get checked.  But to have to go through a  DRM check every time you play the game is really just over the top....

djeez, didn't expect moving the exe would have such consequences, especially if the support is that slow >

Originally Posted By markornikov (9 JUN 2012 2:58am)

 

 

djeez, didn't expect moving the exe would have such consequences, especially if the support is that slow >

 

 

Yip, I didn't think of it at the time either, - I'd actually forgotten that I'd done that.  So let that be a warning to all and sundry! 

At first, when it uninstalled and re-installed Steam, i thought "no big deal'  because  i had previously clicked the option that i didn't want Skyrim to be updated.  so when i tried to start playing Risen 2, and steam gave me a message that i had to re-activate because i was playing from a new computer or browser, i was slightly exasperated, but they sent a code to my e-mail addy, so i still thought not a huge deal..- however, pasting that code didn't log me on to Steam, and i had to go through a correpsondence with Steam which is quite a pain, since you have to create yet another username just for  support purposes...

Oh, and btw, i've just found a reason why it's NOT a good idea to patch unless you have some problem.  In my game, when i want to activate a shout, i simply go to inventory and click on the little "unlock" button at the bottom.  Someone who had patched his game, just complained to me that one of the patches has now put an irritating pop-up there, that EACH TIME pops up and tells you: "Dragon souls are required to unlock shouts. [OK]"

What a pain...

Also, for instance, i was so eager to patch my Witcher 2 game to get the extra content.  ...but i was using a weight cheat, and my last save was just before you enter a large battlefield.  Being overweight in W2 has the consequence that you cannot run, only walk.  So i have to walk my way through this battle field. 

So yeah, I'm not a patch fan even at the best of times...

Originally Posted By markornikov (9 JUN 2012 1:19am)

ok now seriously, i too don't get why any developers keeps on forcing some kind of DRM on it's customers.

Yet still steam is my N°1 place to buy games, i like the fact that they patch everything automatically, i never had any problems with that.

I'm still pissed off at GG that they sold me a game i cannot play properly because they don't offer a patch (Darkness Within 2)

There are plenty of reasons why developers chose to relese their games on steam:
-Kill the second hand market (this is only true for boxed copies)

-Metrics. Steam allows the game to send back information on what weapons you prefer to use, where you die, how fast you do things and so on and so forth. They have actually released a lot of TF2 metrics to the public, and been very open about what information they collect

-Easier to distribute patches when there is only one place to distribute them, and Steam will take all the server load.

-If they have their games as Steam only, then Steam might offer them a better deal (a larger cut on any purchase through steam). This is unconfirmed though.

And yes, some devs don't seem to support their non-steam versions all that well, though it is still relatively rare. Neocore at least had the decency of handing out steam keys to everyone who had purchased the game elsewhere, when they stopped supporting their non-steam versions. 

Perhaps I'm just too used to Steam or something, but it doesn't seem like a big deal to me to have it running. I hav ea ton of games through it, friends I regularly talk through steam friends with, etc so I usually always have it running. It doesn't take a lot of resources, games run with about the same FPS as they normally do through steam as without it.

Seems more of a hassle to try and crack it/run around steam then to simply run through steam like many games that use it do.

I understand if you want to play offline or have the game on a computr that isn't usually on the intrenet (IE a laptop with no internet connection) but normally for a desktop you regularly play your pc games on I don't get why bother going through allt he work to go around steam? As long as it isn't actually casing a problem or messing up anything...

Thorughout the years i've encountered far far worse DRM long before Steam, From Securom, Tages, Cd checking (DURING GAMES, this annoying me so much, especially when it could actually affect your fps and cause lag, IE in Morrowind it did it a lot) Always online drm (IE Ubisoft with Assassins creed revelations/anno) to the old games where you had to read a word from the manual or use those password wheel thingies you'd find in the old D&D style games usually.

Steam is about the least hassle way of doing current DRM, it doesn't require a disc in the drive, doesn't run needless crap (you can turn off steam overlay if you want an dmost other things) and works offline for the times the net goes out.

It is however still DRM, and as such certain games will need to use it if it's the only thing that they use for DRM.

Glad you at least got your Skyrim back to working and the saves weren't lost, that would have really sucked.

As far as patching goes, regarding the Withcer 2 Trav, can't you get the weight mod and install it again? I had this same problem when I upgraded to the EE version as well, out in the middle of the woods and was so overloaded that I couldn't hardly move anywhere. I just found the weight mod and put it back in the folder to install it and it works just like it did now.