Kreij

Here is some more insight into price hikes. I found the following quote interesting ... quote:While the cost of developing next generation games will undoubtedly be higher than current development costs, the proposed price hike is less to do with development, and more down to a desire among publishers to expand their margins - with the hardware transition apparently seen as a perfect chance to accomplish this by bumping up software prices.Oh, the humanity ! -Kreij

What a total load of crap. What happened to the PWWYKAP system ? That would be the Parents Watch What Your Kids Are Playing system. I am a parent. The rating are worthless if you do not take an active interest in what your children are doing. We do not need the government telling us what is acceptable, we need real parenting. Ok, off my soapbox. -Kreij

Ok, back on the front lines (at home with 56K so the battle front is weak lol) To place the blame solely on the shoulders of Atari ignores the fact that the Devs at Troika are the ones who "made the game". Deadlines or not, there is no excuse for bugs that STOP a game in progress. I don't mean crashes or the other inevitable problems that come with trying to write a game for a miriad of hardware configurations, I mean bugs that a simple choice by a player makes the game unusable. That is the job of the developer, not the producer. Bethsoft : They made a game that was cutting edge in the world of RPGs. True, it was not perfect, and yes it did not have all of the things in it that Daggerfall had, but they were pushing their game to the limits of what RPGs were before. For that I give them credit. I cannot wait to see what they do with the upcoming Oblivion (TES 4) game, and also to see what the soon to be released Cthulhu (sp?) game is like with the "insanity" factor. Similar to SC, this is a company that makes their own rules. Film based movies : You're right. Bleach. Film comanies are killing all the genres. But the indies are not dead and that is why one of the places I look for information is here on the UC boards. If you search on the web for information on SC you will find people who have made it their life's goal to discredit him. Why ? The obvious reason is that they need to get a job. This game and forum is the place I come to learn about UC and also get a fresh perspective on the gaming industry without 4.6 billion posts about total crap. You are correct in stating that the media has now plopped everyone who has even looked at the box of a game in the category of "gamer". However, we know better than that. Who are "we" ? We are the real gamers. We are the ones who do not fall for the hype of the media driven empire. You call it "experience", I call it "discovery". What makes a game great is the ability to have that awesome feeling of something new and exiciting when you "discover" the games depth, plot, and uniqueness. Grognard : You have hit it right on the head. We are Grognard. It is the Gorg's who are here discussing gaming's future. It is the Grog's who will fatten their ranks and determine the outcome of the media's attempts at generic gaming. And in a most respectful voice I remind you of one of the leading Grog's ... Derek Smart. Long live the Grog's. -Kreij

Scriv ... Working on reply ... and coffee.

quote:Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that came from the guys at Troika was pure genious.While their creativity is not in question, their Quality Assurance left a lot to be desired. I bought ToEE when it came out and it was so riddled with game stopping bugs I had to stop playing it. Not to mention the fact that a Fan came out with a patch to fix it before Troika did. Makes for bad PR. quote:The future of Bethesda Softworks is hazy at best.Given that Morrowind was the first game ever to go double-platinum on the Xbox and the world wide PC sales were excellent, I am not sure hazy is the right word. Will be interesting to see how the Cthulhu game does when released. quote:Morrowind was nowhere even remotely near the quality of DaggerfallHow so ? I would really like to hear your opinion on this. I thought Morrowind was much cleaner than Daggerfall. (although it has some bugs too) quote:Bethesda has begun to take a TEEN-rated stance on it's RPGs as wellTEEN-rated = larger market, does it not ? Seems kind of self-defeating to make a 'M' rated game with all the nonsense going on these days with Grand Jury testimonies on violent and mature content. Besides, why should the game company take the hit making it 'M', when all they have to do is release a modding tool and let the modders "strip" away the rating quote:film politics has destroyed gamingHmmm ... most film based games are pretty weak, but the Riddick (Butcher Bay) shooter got stellar reviews, so I am not giving up hope yet. I do, however, hate the trend now where there is a game for every movie released. Bleechk. quote:With that, I hereby denounce myself as a gamer.Pffrft ... There goes my coffee on my keyboard. We know that is impossible to do, Scriv. -Kreij

quote:Usually it's collected through the employer and the employer deducts it from your paycheck.Since this is a municiplity related tax, you can write this amount off on both your federal and state tax returns even if you have to pay this multiple times due to a job change. Keep your receipts. I am not saying that I agree with all of the forms of taxation that our elected officials come up with, but using my money to support fire and rescue operations is one of the least painful of them, as I actually benefit from the cost. Back to topic ... Suing this person for 18 million is just judicial games. I do believe that the person responsible for the event should in some manner be held accountable, but to expect the average "joe" to come up with even 1 million is folly on the part of the courts. Just my 2 cents. -Kreij

quote:So if a resident lives here and recieves any type of income, they want $52.00 of it a year, for Police and Ambulance services.Wolferz .. How do they collect this tax ? -Kreij

Another to add to the list

SC, I sense a lucritive contract for you making combat sims as training tools for the military once they start moving battles into space. Perhaps I have just read "Ender's War" too many times. -Kreij

Hmmm ... let's do some math. Because as computer geeks and UC fans we like math .... Here is a breakdown of 2003 US tax returns. Total Individual Returns filed 130,728,360 Total Estate & Trust Income Tax Returns filed 3,688,043 Total Partnership Returns filed 2,380,618 Total Corporate Returns Filed 5,890,821 Total Estate Tax Returns Filed 91,679 Total Gift Tax Returns Filed 287,456 Total Employment Tax Returns Filed 29,916,033 That's a total of 172,983,010 tax returns filed in 2003. Divide $5 Million dollars that the Army paid for this "training tool" by the number of tax returns and you get .0289 (rounded to thousanths). So equally divided we US people paid almost 3 cents each for this little research project. I am sure that the IRS will allow you to deduct that 3 cents (if you buy the game) off of your 2005 taxes -Kreij

Too easy. Got the first roll wrong, and had the answer by the second. -Kreij

Art mimics life, not the other way around. To blame this game for the actions of a person, is like blaming the news channels for the tsunami. That said, I also think that the GTA series has no socially redeeming qualities whatsoever. Just my 2 cents ... -Kreij

Just another notice that ATI has released the 5.2 version of their Catalyst Drivers. (Use link above)

Atari Axes Two Studios Ok, it is not uncommon for any business to reduce operating expenses when revenue is falling. Here's my issue ... read the last 5 paragraphs. GAH ! Are the quotes by Atari Management even in English ? Here is the translation .. "We are going to hatchet useless management and try to make something that's not total crap." That kind of corporate double-speak BS is why I left a cushy IT job with a fortune 5 company to work for a small family business. Ok, sorry, I'll stop ranting. -Kreij

Dang, I guess that means no Diakatana II, huh ? -Kreij