Video Game News and Miscellany

I really wish Sony could do something to bring around the vita. It's an amazing machine, it does so much, gamers should want this... But they don't, because Sony is letting it wither on the vine.
The problem is that gamers don't just want a big, fancy system. They want GAMES. And sadly, the PSP just doesn't really have that. Aside from a plethora of great indie games.
 
The Vita is the place to be if you want JRPG games and more niche titles. The problem is the price keeps people like me, who do want those games, away. You can't expect a system supported by 90% Japanese games to still sell for 300+ well after it's been out for what, 3 years?
 
The Vita is the place to be if you want JRPG games and more niche titles. The problem is the price keeps people like me, who do want those games, away. You can't expect a system supported by 90% Japanese games to still sell for 300+ well after it's been out for what, 3 years?
This is me. You know what the Vita is? Half a PS4. Or, four or five of the many games I want that are coming out in the last four months of this year when I already can't afford them all.

And I agree with Raven; it is an amazing machine. It's just not worth it to me.
 
How's the emulation on the Vita?[DOUBLEPOST=1406423943,1406423708][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, Mass Effect 4 news.

Details:
-The Mako is back, they showed video of it, and there are images of it below. It's apparently quite fast now.
-"Building a game about exploring places, so you need a vehicle for that "
-"We learned some things about vehicle frustration"
-They showed off armor renders, viewable below
-"Sounds like the timeline of #MassEffect will be during Shepard's lifetime but won't involve Shepard...hard to tell @GambleMike being cagey!" [Note: Two other tweeters said it sounds like it takes place in another galaxy, though that's not necessarily mutually exclusive with this.]
-"Team reiterates that it is not Shepard's story and that this story one is brand new."
-"no timeline was announced at the panel. Some hints were made but I have to re-listen to the audio."
-"You will see a bit of old with the new (old characters MAY appear) "
-"Competition is critical but cooperation is bigger for us" @GambleMike speaking on multiplayer in #MassEffect / "cooperative MP is bigger for us (than competitive)"
-"Spiritual successor" vibe for the next
-"It's ingrained in us to give players as much choice as possible" - @GambleMike #MassEffect
-"The animation team is now doing stuff we couldn't even dream about before" speaking on Frostbite 3 for #MassEffect
-"it's not called ME 4 damn it! " [I'm going to keep calling it that until they give it a name.]
-No announcements on player race choice of composers when asked
-The internet kept dying for the people livetweeting so there are more details that aren't here
-"I got video of the new #MassEffect Mako in action"
 
Also

"It's ingrained in us to give players as much choice as possible"
No, Bioware. That's not it. It's a matter of kind of choice. I would rather have fewer choices with greater impact. Dragon Age 2 had loads of dialogue choice, but most of them were three different way of saying the same thing. Mass Effect 3, similar principle--our choices had existed, but they didn't matter, because it had the same result.
 
Bioware choice will always be binary.
But the result should at least then be binary. Dragon Age 2, you have a choice to side with the mages or the templars throughout act 3 ... except you still have to fight both of their bosses, and no matter what your relationship with Anders or what you do in the mages vs templars conflict, his actions and attitude are unchanged. My wife had Anders as her relationship ... there was one throwaway line of dialogue difference. If you cut it out, the rest of the scene was the same as always. Hell, if Anders died in your playthrough of Awakening, he's still in Dragon Age 2. That's how little Bioware gave a shit for your choices in DA2.
 
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It wasn't good, it was excellent.
I agree completely. It's the only multiplayer mode I play regularly. I even don't mind playing with random people most of the time, since every class can be effective. Space Marine's co-op Exterminatus mode is okay too but it actually gets a little monotonous - not in the "I'm so good this doesn't present a challenge" sense, but in the "I'm hitting the same three buttons over and over again until I die, then I respawn and repeat," sense. The PVP mode? My average lifespan is about 42 seconds. I haven't tried the co-op mode for Saints Row The Third or IV.

Speaking of ME3 Multiplayer - "Let's Fail!"
 
From the mobile gaming side of things, some potentially troubling-in-the-unintended-consequences news:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...-pricetag-for-f2p-games-with-in-app-purchases
http://mobiledevmemo.com/google-free-to-play-app-economy/

The TL;DR version is that in response to an EU request "for the children", Google will no longer be listing F2P games as "free" games. Now, on the face of it, that seems fine and an attempted fix at the mobile gaming industries troubling practice of calling something that requires hundreds of dollars to play competitively (or at all) "free" just because it doesn't cost anything to download.

However, Google's fix (which the EU commission is apparently happy with) is to do away with saying "free" and getting rid of the "free" category of games and leaving it at that. This is problematic for two reasons:

1) They're not dealing with the actual problem, which is not clearly identifying games (before you get to the in-depth store page for the title) which use IAP instead of ads instead of w/e. There's a big difference between downloading a game that supports itself through IAP it thrusts upon you and a game that just throws a short ad in your face every 10 minutes. Or say, a game which has IAP, but purely of the comestic (no effect on gameplay) kind. So the key information that consumers actually need is actually now even more vague.

2) It looks like Google may be combining the "top paid" and the "top free" lists into a single list, and that's actually a really bad development for the mobile industry. It's true that the bulk of revenue in the industry comes from F2P games, but the games that are really out there pushing the quality of what mobile can be are often paid download games. They have much smaller download numbers, and therefore don't drive as much revenue, but that model is the best fit for finite high-end experiences that are intended to be complete regardless of whether someone spends more. If they combine the lists, then all of those paid games are going to get pushed out of view by the shovelware F2P titles that get lots more downloads because they're free.
 
If someone other than EA offered a service like that, I might be interested, but because it's EA, I'm just wondering what the horrible catch is.
 
Well it's basically PS Plus, but only with EA games. It's Origin all over again, except I doubt we'll see EA games get pulled from PS Plus/PSN since EA likely still rakes in cash from selling there.
 
Right, I just mean that because EA is involved, I'm leery of trusting them until I've ascertained that no one is saying horrible things about something EA failed to mention in their fine print.
 
Right, I just mean that because EA is involved, I'm leery of trusting them until I've ascertained that no one is saying horrible things about something EA failed to mention in their fine print.
Oh, yeah I get that for sure. Plus it sounds like it's a mix of sports and FPS games at first, which I have zero interest in.
 
DA: Inquisition gameplay trailer, focusing on combat.



The combat system doesn't look too dissimilar from the first two games, although the pace seems to be closer to DA2's than DA1's.

Also, is it just me or do those graphics look pretty uninspiring? The other previews looked gorgeous, this just looks... average.
 
While the graphics look great, the combat doesn't though.

It's too fast based and the auto attacks are ridiculous... Especially the mages ... Are they dancing?

It's not horrible though.
 
Interesting mix of 1 and 2 shown off there, but I'm still not totally sold. Usually I like to run my first game as a fighter/warrior and the majority of the video seemed to showcase a mage/thief MC.
 
Interesting mix of 1 and 2 shown off there, but I'm still not totally sold. Usually I like to run my first game as a fighter/warrior and the majority of the video seemed to showcase a mage/thief MC.
When you swing, you gib people!

PRESS ALL YOUR BUTTONS FASTER AND YOU GIB THEM FASTER.
 
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