I like it.  A definite improvement if you liked COD4.  I only got 10% into the first level before my old COD4 buddies harassed me into playing online.  Neat stuff so far, though.  From what little I saw though, there is no realism in the game, because I watched a white man beating a black man at basketball on the base.

Neat stuff so far, though.  From what little I saw though, there is no realism in the game, because I watched a white man beating a black man at basketball on the base.

Dude, that caught me off guard and I laughed so hard I almost cried ...
NICE!!!

Don't care.

Where is Starcraft 2?

Pending Battle.Net updates.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/59856

Dont care, where's Duke Nukem Forever?

Huh, bitches?

Never.

I got MW2 on Friday and I have a shit load of work to do today because I've done nothing but play that game for the last 48 hours.

I bought it at a Target and the guy was like "Oh you want the PC version?  I'll have someone go get it out of the back we don't have any up front here."  Like I was buying goat porn or something.  Meanwhile he sold like 7 copies of the XBOX360 version while I was standing there for 5 minutes.  This game must have sold a billion copies this weekend.

It runs pretty good on the PC, I'm happy with the Steam integration.  If my university internet didn't so routinely suck balls I would be having even more fun.

I have mostly been playing Riot Shield/Shotgun with Sticky Grenades.  I lead pushes for my buddies and block 100s of bullets while shield slamming people's faces in.  It's a blast.

Whats the min ( real world min not the developers idea on min ) spec for it ?

I bought Dragon Age and spent 15 hours yesterday playing that game instead of coming into work to get some stuff done & earn overtime dollars.

Whats the min ( real world min not the developers idea on min ) spec for it ?

The specs are pretty weak, i'm surprised how well it runs on my system considering my video card is not top of the line.

The specs are pretty weak, i'm surprised how well it runs on my system considering my video card is not top of the line.

It is a line-for-line port from the 360 version.  The PC version is treated like goat porn because so few people are actually going to purchase it, comparatively.

We're entering a dark age of PC computing, where the publishers believe piracy is rampant on the platform.  They're only releasing games where they'll have maximum control over the content, which is a real shame.

It's not a secret, if you want to sell a PC Game, it has to have a multi-player and that multi-player system has to sync up with your central servers somehow.

If you are trying to sell a single player game on PC you might as well not even bother because everyone on the planet will pirate it.

I only play PC for multi-player games and I buy all the multi-player games I play (mostly because they have authentication so you can't pirate them).

If you build a MP game without authentication you are asking to get pirated.

Blizzard built an MP authentication system with Battle.net in 1997.  To say that now in 2009, a full PC games developer is not capable of making a MP authentication system is absurd.  Valve has it with Steam, Blizzard has it with Battle.net, and most other developers now are just latching on to Steam to do what they can't (apparently?).  MW2 requires steam authentication, it shocks me that it is the first non-Valve FPS game I've seen that requires it.

...most other developers now are just latching on to Steam to do what they can't (apparently?).

Valve has finally lowered the cost of entry to a respectable level (from a publisher's point of view).  They've also managed to spread the FUD enough about piracy to make publishers afraid to do anything without something like Steam.  So, Steam becomes a logical choice.

However, even WITH piracy, the fact is that games for PCs can and do make plenty of money to be profitable - IF the content is worth the expense.  Where we are right now, the big publishers are happier with the safe bet of yearly releases on FRANCHISE 20XX.

is it illegal to release non-multiplayer games that require an online certification to play?

is it illegal to release non-multiplayer games that require an online certification to play?

Nope - that happens quite a lot.

But also happening quite a lot is the release of patches for the game (by 3rd parties) which deactivate or redirect those checks to someplace else.

Wont they just require the game (bug) patches to re-authenticate ?

Two biggest recent single player examples:

Spore and GTA4

Both had massive DRM features and sync up and all that.  People cracked them before they even released in stores and published the full game, minus the publisher limitations, online.

If your game is SP and only requires syncing up to play, people can crack the game and just disable the part where it syncs up.

If your game is MP, it requires syncing up every single time you log on to play the core game (MP).

Wont they just require the game (bug) patches to re-authenticate ?

So you re-crack the patches.  Duh.

But what if the game is made to warp ? umm, how to explain...

No two installs patch the exactly the same way and this sync part 'moves'.

There has to be some way to frustrate the crackers.

Not really.

You move the authentication?  I find it again, probably in less time than it took you to move it and then run it through QA.

This is why major publishers are so afraid of the PC as a distribution channel.

However, some of the smaller houses say "fuck it" and just release w/o DRM.  Save money and time - I feel this is a pretty good idea for those that are not operating on tight margins (ie - the smaller publishers, duh).

Check this article out (for the tldr crowd: estimated 82% piracy on a game with zero DRM):
http://2dboy.com/2008/11/13/90/

And then this one (regarding the same game, but during their anniversary "pay-what-you-want" period):
http://2dboy.com/2009/10/19/birthday-sale-results/

This is more analysis on the data set, but with a few extra days included (same game still):
http://2dboy.com/2009/10/26/pay-what-you-want-birthday-sale-wrap-up/

Interesting read.

So if consoles are locked down with hardware and PC has to be multiplayer to really pay the dev back... is anybody still looking for a way to lock single player so as to make it worth dev'n for PC ?

or will single player PC just be a token part of multi online gaming (for PC).

I bought Dragon Age and spent 15 hours yesterday playing that game instead of coming into work to get some stuff done & earn overtime dollars.

I got a 20 dollar credit for pre-ordering MW2 for some reason, so I used it to snag Dragon Age: Origins for 30 bucks.  Should be here by Wednesday I think.  A friend of mine won't shut the fuck up about it, but he went into critical mass nerd rage when I told him I got it for the 360.

I stopped even considering the PC for gaming over a year ago.  PC games are buggy, and they're always just beyond your machine's specs unless you completely rebuild your system every six months.  And the DRM problems began long before the spike of piracy.  I remember buying games that wouldn't play right because of the buggy DRM, and you'd have to download a crack patch just to play the damn game you bought. 

On the 360 I have my HDTV, the comfort of my couch, and no whacked-out neckbeards with auto-aiming cheat patches.

On the 360 I have my HDTV, the comfort of my couch, and no whacked-out neckbeards with auto-aiming cheat patches.

I doubt Sarah's husband will ever read this thread...

I still say fuck DRM and fuck Steam.
They are tricks and traps that we'll regret when we're older and the source-owners have failed. A game like Doom will be playable by people in the year 2200. A game like Codename: Gordon will not be. For OCD collectors like me, this is unacceptable. When I buy games, I think of my purchase as enriching the worth of my game collection. The only way people can be ambivalent about DRM systems is if they only think of games as short-term diversions and tools for immediate personal satisfaction. Either way, the concept of property ownership in games is being fundamentally reduced. I am saddened by the fact that the gamers themselves are letting it happen by and large without even a complaint.

I'm not offering a better solution it is true, but with the way the current state of affairs is, I have almost completely stopped buying PC games. It sickens me that I am only buying a license to play.

I buy games for the PS3 with the intention of owning the game but also with the knowledge that it's not likely to be something I play for a long period of time. Madden only lasts a year, then I'll probably never play the previous year's version again. Other games I just get bored of.

Movies and music, on the other hand, need to be mine FOREVER.

I bought Dragon Age and spent 15 hours yesterday playing that game instead of coming into work to get some stuff done & earn overtime dollars.

I got a 20 dollar credit for pre-ordering MW2 for some reason, so I used it to snag Dragon Age: Origins for 30 bucks.  Should be here by Wednesday I think.  A friend of mine won't shut the fuck up about it, but he went into critical mass nerd rage when I told him I got it for the 360.

I stopped even considering the PC for gaming over a year ago.  PC games are buggy, and they're always just beyond your machine's specs unless you completely rebuild your system every six months.  And the DRM problems began long before the spike of piracy.  I remember buying games that wouldn't play right because of the buggy DRM, and you'd have to download a crack patch just to play the damn game you bought. 

On the 360 I have my HDTV, the comfort of my couch, and no whacked-out neckbeards with auto-aiming cheat patches.

I bought my old computer back from my brother, which is more than good enough to run most games that are coming out.

I generally find it easier to resist playing computer games, because I can't sit down at the coffee table to eat dinner and pick up a controller and end up playing forever, even if it's just spending 3 hours killing cops in GTA (the aforementioned wasted day on Dragon Age being an obvious, occasional exception).  Usually when I'm at my computer I'm working and only play games as a break.

Damn, I see what you mean, Emp.  Dragon Age is beautiful.  And the gameplay is even really good.