New Games on the Horizon (the video game thread)

Unbundling the kinect eh? I might give it a look once there are some more games.

Looks like it will be $399 with no KINECT. I have KINECT on my 360 it sucks even my kids got tired of it.

Anyone playing ESO? (Elder Scrolls Online) I just can't see myself paying $60 for a game and then having to pay a subscription fee.

DRave. I don't know anything about ESO, however, I've played a lot of MMO's over the years. Starting with Everquest back in the late 90's, then WOW in college. I get nervous if a game like that does NOT have a monthly fee. In order for a game like that to be succesful it requires constant tuning, content, and significant infrastructure to run smoothly. It depends on the type of player you are. In college, WOW was ~10 a month... probably saved me about 300+ a month because it was cheap entertainment!

That said, Guildwars 2 did a great job for a single purchase.

As one of the few PC gamers in the thread here are my current games:
DOTA 2 - Pretty fun game, and free to play (microtransactions). Their yearly big tournament is coming up. The prize pool for the pro players sitting at about 6 Million bucks. Pretty nice pay day for playing a video game. That said... I've actually really enjoyed watching the professional matches. It's a fairly fun spectator sport. Last year Public in Tenleytown streamed the final match live and the place was packed.

Diablo III - If you played it upon release and lost interest... consider picking it up again. There has been an expansion which adds a lot of good content. Even without it, they reworked big things about the game and made it much more enjoyable.

Hearthstone - It's a card type game where you get cards, build decks, and take turns with other players. Great game for playing on your laptop while someone else is watching TV you're not really interested in. It's free to play and hopes you'll buy cards/etc to support it, but it's not necessary to be competitive. It's like a less-nerdy Magic the Gathering. Lots of strategy, pretty fun.

Looks like it will be $399 with no KINECT. I have KINECT on my 360 it sucks even my kids got tired of it.

I was over the whole motion gaming thing after a few days with the Wii.

It's a smart move by Microsoft. I'm still torn over which system to get, and since I couldn't care less about the Kinect, it's got my attention.

I was over the whole motion gaming thing after a few days with the Wii.

Agreed. Have to hand it to Nintendo though they struck while the iron was hot and and were rewarded handsomely for it. Its kind of funny the reactions you get when people are debating last generation and you tell them that the Wii outsold both the PS3 and 360 by ~20 million units each.

Personally I have great respect for the way Nintendo handles a lot of their IPs in that they wait until they think they have a good game rather then making come hell or high water annual releases.

With that said Nintendo is one of the most evil companies out there in the first world in terms of throwing around lawsuits for any and everything rivaling even the likes of Apple.

Nintendo launch mass lawsuit against R4 | bit-gamer.net (http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2008/07/29/nintendo-launch-mass-lawsuit-against-r4/1)

Nintendo Sues Modding Business Over Sale of Game-Copying Devices (http://kotaku.com/nintendo-sues-modding-business-over-sale-of-game-copyin-1056893159)

Court dismisses lawsuit against Nintendo after patents invalidated | Polygon (http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/19/5732598/nintendo-patent-victory-wall-wireless)

Report: Nintendo settles lawsuit alleging ROM chip patent infringement | Polygon (http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/6/5686868/nintendo-lawsuit-settles-rom-chip-patent-creative-integrated-systems)

Ironically Nintendo has been scared of piracy even dating before the internet went commercial. In fact its dictated the design of every home console since. For starters both the NES and SNES featured controlled chips that could only be supplied by Nintendo. In fact Nintendos micromanagement of 3rd party developers allowed Sega and eventually Sony to emerge as competitors. The biggest blow up was a chip shortage during the NES era which led to the control chips being rationed.

Most of you probably remember seeing this somewhere
http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/6/5686868/nintendo-lawsuit-settles-rom-chip-patent-creative-integrated-systems

When disc based games were about to become the thing during the 32 bit era Nintendo ultimately decided that CD's were to easy to copy and choose to stick with $70 MSRP cartridge based games.

Then during the PS2 era when Nintendo finally decided to make disc based games they choose to design the Gamecube with miniture disc which they believed in theory would help protect them against piracy. (Ironically today the Gamecube/Wii emulator Dolphin is considered among the best in post PS1 console emulation.) Just like Dreamcast, Nintendo fell victim to PS2 being the most affordable DVD player in the market for a decent part of the early 2000's.

Part of the reason Nintendo then choose to go with the Wii was they knew while certainly possible, the motion based gaming controls would be a pain to duplicate.

Then of course the WiiU with the tablet based controller was also deemed as a speed bump against piracy.

So in conclusion kids Nintendo is the Apple of the Video Game industry. Now what did I come in this thread to say.

Oh yeah, if you like story based games try out Walking Dead Season 2 (and 1 for that matter) as well as Season 1 of the Wolf Among Us. Personally I still have trouble wrapping my head around it but Telltale seems to have quietly emerged as one of the better developers in the industry today.

It's a smart move by Microsoft. I'm still torn over which system to get, and since I couldn't care less about the Kinect, it's got my attention.

Microsofts Gaming Division right now is kind of at risk for a Dreamcast like exit from this generation. Though for completely different reasons.

Investors want Microsoft’s new CEO to kill Xbox, Bing and Surface (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/02/05/investors-want-microsofts-new-ceo-to-kill-xbox-bing-and-surface/)

For starters a group of 'activist investors' which honestly sound more like "why aren't you squeezing every last dime out of your customer base investors" HATE the gaming division of Microsoft as it has been viewed as a money pit (http://www.neowin.net/news/report-microsofts-xbox-division-has-lost-nearly-3-billion-in-10-years). They are now part of the board of directors.

Granted PS3 got off to a terrible start last gen and recovered well enough to pull even with the 360 at the end (anyone remember the CEO encouraging people to work harder to afford a PS3 (http://www.joystiq.com/2005/07/06/sony-wants-you-to-earn-that-playstation-3/)) so its certainly not the end of days but unlike Sony, the gaming division has never really been a critical part of Microsoft in terms of business.

Is anybody besides me really into the Dragon Age series? New one coming in the fall, looks impressive. This will be the impetus for me to spring for the PS4:

U5hWjqOXc3g


Commentary from these nerds is excruciating, but if you can stand how annoying they are it's worth getting a close look at characters and gameplay:

r7rwytS-UpI

Is anybody besides me really into the Dragon Age series? New one coming in the fall, looks impressive. This will be the impetus for me to spring for the PS4:

U5hWjqOXc3g


Commentary from these nerds is excruciating, but if you can stand how annoying they are it's worth getting a close look at characters and gameplay:

r7rwytS-UpI

Loved the first Dragon Age, but the second one left me with a very bad taste in my mouth. Despite that I am incredibly excited for Inquisition as it essentially looks like the first DA combined with Skyrim. Only thing that sucks is that same day is the new LOTR game which has the rpg nerd in me excited as well.

Loved the first Dragon Age, but the second one left me with a very bad taste in my mouth. Despite that I am incredibly excited for Inquisition as it essentially looks like the first DA combined with Skyrim. Only thing that sucks is that same day is the new LOTR game which has the rpg nerd in me excited as well.

Interesting because I thought the second was a big upgrade in terms of character depth and game play.

Is anybody besides me really into the Dragon Age series? New one coming in the fall, looks impressive. This will be the impetus for me to spring for the PS4:

U5hWjqOXc3g


Commentary from these nerds is excruciating, but if you can stand how annoying they are it's worth getting a close look at characters and gameplay:

r7rwytS-UpI

I've been slowly working my way through Dragon Age Orgins for about two years now and I've absolutely loved it (current personal record for longest time to beat a game; Final Fantasy IX 13 Years, 2 Months, and 20 days)

For me personally its rare to get into a game thats middle aged/fantasy themed so it usually has to be pretty special to get my attention. Had to stop it for a while as it was kind of difficult for me without cheating (http://youtu.be/Fu4gosgp-cc?t=1m8s) but after learning how to use the terminal/console (http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/920668-dragon-age-origins/cheats) for cheats and installing dozens of mods (http://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/?) I've come to appreciate this game even more.

Heres a pic from modded Dragon Age Orgins game. The character pictured here went from this (http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110204181631/dragonage/images/b/be/Leliana_default.png) to this:
http://i57.tinypic.com/nqd3ib.jpg

With that said I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the Mass Effect 3 ending fiasco (http://forum.bioware.com/topic/295842-broken-promises-regarding-the-mass-effect-3-endings/) and I've heard very few positive things about Dragon Age 2 so I've had little motivation to try it. I am rooting for Bioware because they're just to talented to write off, and to this day Mass Effect 2 is my undisputed favorite game of all time. Not to mention great single player games are kind of like pitchers in baseball, you can never have too many.

In short I am very interested in Dragon Age Inquisition but I can't justify buying a Bioware game going forward until I see enough user reviews that confirm the game being up to par.

The Witcher 3 on the other hand I'll likely buy on Day 1 if for no other reason then CD Protjek Red are basically the video game industries version of Good Guy Greg (http://cheezburger.com/6134967552).
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CD Projekt RED CEO: The Witcher 3 will have no DRM, "zero, zip, nada" | PC Gamer (http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/10/30/cd-projekt-ceo-the-witcher-3-will-have-no-drm-0-zero-zip-nada/)

Witcher 3 won't have paid DLC, CD Projekt 'doesn't believe in it' - CVG US (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/421488/witcher-3-wont-have-paid-dlc-cd-projekt-doesnt-believe-in-it/)

i got nba2k14 a month ago or so ...

i forgot why i never buy basketball games - its get boring quick since each possession is basically the same. its like repeating the same steps every 25 seconds.

is that creed assassin game where it is set in colonials times good?

i feel like i want to get into a game not madden but every time i try a new game (once a year) i get bored with it or its just hard to pick up since i only have a few hours max a week to play a game.