Useless gaming news & chatter

[Rendakor]

Does it work if I don't have it on Steam? No idea where my CD(s?) went but IIRC I played Arcanum before Steam was a thing.

[Lucas]

Like I said, the download link IS the complete game, no need to have the original one (physical edition or any digital one from GOG or Steam) on the hard drive.

[MahrinSkel]

"Russian modders"? I suggest dropping your hard drive in a vat of acid. Actually, the whole computer might be a writeoff.

--Dave

[HaemishM]

What you mean, tovarisch? Russian modders is happy good time Joe A#1 go Yankees!

[Zetor]

After like 5 years of nothing since COH was shut down, NCSoft finally has some news about the IP! It's what the market wants, it's new and unique, it's... Statesman as a character in their MOBA

fuck

[HaemishM]

I didn't even know they had a MOBA.

[Rendakor]

Wow, that's fucking stupid.

[schild]

Wut

[Merusk]

I didn't even know they had a MOBA.

They don't, it's just going into closed beta now. The whole thing is a hilarious note on just how out of touch NCSoft remains with their market.

[HaemishM]

Welcome to 2 years ago, when everyone tried and failed to do a MOBA to compete with LOL and only Steam and Blizzard managed to make it moderately successful? 

[rattran]

NCSoft late to the party is shocking. I'll be even more shocked when they cancel it right before openBeta as unfun uninspiring shifest clone.

[Ironwood]

So, you upgrade all your flashpoints to level 70 veteran versions, removing the 'normal' modes and then you put in 'story modes' which are like normal modes, but not for all of them ?

And the upshot is I wander into a level 17 flashpoint and it's level 70 and we don't have the CC skills yet to even handle it and we die.

So we have to wait till 70, or later anyway, to do that one, even tho it's how we should progress.  And the next one with story mode is 29.  Sure, fast levelling means that's a minute away, but Come The Fuck On.

It's 2017 and games companies still shit the bed.

Swotor, by the way.   

[apocrypha]

Dunno if this is worth it's own thread. Starcraft Remastered announced. From the looks of it, the exact same game in high res.

[Ironwood]

Why ?

[Kail]

Dunno if this is worth it's own thread. Starcraft Remastered announced. From the looks of it, the exact same game in high res.

So, StarCraft 2, basically.

[apocrypha]

Why ?

$?

That and Blizzard have now gone so far down the "iterate not innovate" path that they can't even help cannibalising their own IPs.

[El Gallo]

Also, SC2 never caught on as an esport in Korea like SC1 did.

[Rendakor]

I'll probably buy it. SC:BW was great; SC2 not so much.

[Sir T]

So they are releasing SC with SC2 graphics?

Meh.

[Maledict]

So they are releasing SC with SC2 graphics?

Meh.

You didn't read the announcement did you? ;-)

No, it's not SC with SC2 graphics. It's SC with SC graphics, turned hi-def. They are remastered versions of the original sprites, and are nothing at all like the graphics from SC2.

This is probably the most faithful remaster ever of a game I think - it is so perfectly replicating starcraft, but better.

[schild]

It's what they should've done with Diablo 2.

Fucking assholes.

[Kail]

This is probably the most faithful remaster ever of a game I think - it is so perfectly replicating starcraft, but better.

The new Lucasarts adventure remasters (Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle etc.) seemed to handle that pretty well: here's the new hi-res game, but if you hit this button you can instantly switch back to the low res original if you want.

This one... I'm still on the fence about.  Hi res sprites, fine, sure.  But start talking about "revised dialogue" and new "comic book interludes" to give the story a "fresh coat of paint" and suddenly I'm getting nervous.  More and newer is not always better when it comes to storytelling.

[schild]

yeah

i really get my panties in a twist when they fuck with the non-gameplay portions of competitive strategy games

what are you going on about

[Fabricated]

It's what they should've done with Diablo 2.

Fucking assholes.

An HD re-release of Diablo 2 would probably cannibalize Diablo 3. I think Blizzard has realized that Starcraft 2 was stillborn as a competitive title and at this point is never going to take off.

[Kail]

Apologies if this has been brought up elsewhere, but I didn't see it.

Sounds like The Secret World is being relaunched as Secret World Legends.  Allegedly they're making the game combat more "action RPG" like and it's going free to play.  The "MMO" tag is a bit iffy at this point, too... I'm not positive but the quotes I've seen paint it more in the vein of something like Diablo, a mostly single player experience or small group co-op.

[Fabricated]

So they're completely scrapping the original MMO to relaunch it? I thought this was some parallel product or something.

[jth]

So they're completely scrapping the original MMO to relaunch it? I thought this was some parallel product or something.

It's a parallel product, kind of. They have said in interviews that the original TSW will stay playable as is for those who own it but no more updates coming, which I guess means it will be kept on minimal life support until they feel they can kill it off without pissing off too many people.

[Falconeer]

To be honest, The Secret World, which really was a cool game, always worked better as a huge and wonderful co-op adventure game. While it sucks not to feel in a shared world anymore, the atmosphere of the quests was such that having other people jumping around in the areas you were carefully investigating a murder never felt particularly right. This could be an awesome re-release.

[Xanthippe]

A new Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in the works?

The news was reported via Liam Robertson’s excellent Patreon page, in which he uncovers details on abandoned and upcoming videogames.

In a Patreon exclusive podcast, via NeoGAF, Robertson reveals that BioWare Austin are now focused on creating Star Wars games.

“I’ve learned now that [BioWare Austin is] pretty much now exclusively working on Star Wars games and they’re going to be doing that for the indefinite future,” he said. “What they’re currently working on right now - and I have this on good authority - is a sort of remake/revival of Knights of the Old Republic.”

However, the state of the game isn’t known. It’s unclear if the scope has expanded or not.

“I don’t know when this is set to come out, but it has been in development for a little while now,” he explained. “I don’t really know how that game’ll end up. I’ve heard that it isn’t exactly a remake anymore, but it started as a remake/revival. Now it’s kind of going from that blueprint in sort of its own original thing. I guess we’ll see what that turns out to be, but they are prototyping it right now.”

[schild]

BioWare Austin still exists?

[Rasix]

Yah. I won't get excited for this until it's out and verified by multiple trusted sources that it's not garbage. Cynical nostalgia farming has become somewhat of a sore spot for me. 

If the official press release says four planets, open world, Revan, or HK-47: be afraid.

[HaemishM]

An open world KOTOR would be horrible. That game was the epitome of "the tunnel" type of gaming done right.

[Velorath]

BioWare Austin still exists?

Minus guys like Vogel and Walton who left right around when SWTOR launched which I'm sure was for the best. In fact as mentioned in the ME:A thread they even got Drew Karpyshyn back a couple years ago (he was lead writer on KOTOR and the first two ME games and left for a few years not too long after SWTOR's launch I think).  James Ohlen who was lead design on the Baldur's Gate games, KOTOR, Jade Empire, and one of the Leads on Dragon Age is still there as well. They were working on that Shadow Realms game for a while which ended up getting canceled, presumably to focus on this if it ends up being true.

[schild]

BioWare Austin still exists?

Minus guys like Vogel and Walton who left right around when SWTOR launched which I'm sure was for the best. In fact as mentioned in the ME:A thread they even got Drew Karpyshyn back a couple years ago (he was lead writer on KOTOR and the first two ME games and left for a few years not too long after SWTOR's launch I think).  James Ohlen who was lead design on the Baldur's Gate games, KOTOR, Jade Empire, and one of the Leads on Dragon Age is still there as well. They were working on that Shadow Realms game for a while which ended up getting canceled, presumably to focus on this if it ends up being true.

That's great and all, but EA has a strict policy against making good games.

[Velorath]

Their output in the last several years hasn't been particularly noteworthy that's true. People seemed to like Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 well enough but those aren't generally the kind of games I play. That said, if they announced a new Fight Night or Skate I'd probably be unjustifiably optimistic about them.