MDK2
Neverwinter Nights and expansions
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Jade Empire PC
Mass Effect PC
Mass Effect 2-3
Dragon Age 1-3
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Anthem

I could have sworn that there were different colored lightsabers in semi-cannon material (all the extended universe stuff is licensed and authorized so I consider it semi-cannon) prior to the prequels. Dark Forces II for example, and the extended universe books (Mara Jade). By Knights of the Old Republic (which did indeed come after the prequels) multi colored lightsabers were a bit more common...

The explanation of the color is from the crystals that make up the lightsaber (Lea's is red so it isn't side alignment, then again her kid...), and during the official universe time frame the empire controlled the crystals more which limited the colors out there... but that is more of a retcon...

Still interesting to hear how and why we got a new color in the official universe.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'star wars' to 'star wars, trailer, old republic, game' - edited by Sagemind

If a living Prothean isn't "HIGHLY significant" to the story, then someone dropped the ball. The direction Bioware has been going in quality recently is a factor. Dragon Age 2 was a half-hearted sequel that had a "B-Team" quality to it. The Old Republic is just as disappointing as the movie prequels. So yes, this blatant money grab has absolutely compounded my lack of faith in ME3 being a good game.

As for Origin, EA lost my trust in providing a good service back with EA Downloader and its limited time to download. Let's not forget their several online game servers that it has shut-off.>> ^CrushBug:

>> ^HugeJerk:
However, ME3 is looking like it will be a total let down. Requiring their online service for the PC version, tacking DLC onto everything remotely associated with the series (Figurines and Art Books), as well as having day-one DLC that costs $10 and unlocks a character that should be HIGHLY significant to the storyline. If the demo for ME3 is any indication, they've dropped the ball on bothering to animate facial expressions as well.

There is a lot of misinformation around these items. Much like Steam, the Origin service can be run in offline mode, so you don't need to be online to play, except for the initial game activation, just like ME2, so not much has changed there.
The DLC thing has been confusing. Those physical goods do not include main game, singleplayer DLC. What is included is a multiplayer-only unlock. A little bit of free microcontent as a "reward" for buying and registering your ME3 physical statue and such. None of these items are for main game. The $870 comment is an overstatement and misleading.
We have had DLC available on the first day for our past 3 games. You are assuming that it is "HIGHLY significant", but you can play and complete the game with or without it, much like Kasumi from ME2. The only decision you have to make, is it worth your $10. If you don't think so, then don't purchase it. Wait for some reviews or talk to trusted friends that have it and get their opinion. Don't let the Omnidirectional Internet Rage Machine guide you .
And regardless of the above, what it comes down to is the story. If you enjoyed the story in Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2, then Mass Effect 3 is going to blow your mind. It is simply the finest story-based game we have released. If you are invested in your Mass Effect characters and companions like I am (~255 hour played in ME2 over 8 playthroughs) then everything is there for you. All those stories and conflicts across the galaxy from the past 2 games all come to a head while your are dealing with the Reaper invasion. Half-way through the game, I was an emotional wreck. So much had happened. I was so thrilled to go off and do a side quest of pure combat, just to blow off some steam.
If you are unsure about the game, try the demo or wait for the reviews. If you like the Mass Effect world and games, then this is the game you have been waiting for.
Keelah Se'lai

>> ^Drax:

>> ^Unsung_Hero:
I only buy games Yahtzee recommends.
...I own 2 games <img class="smiley" src="http://videosift.com/cdm/emoticon/frown.gif">

You gotta admit, Silent Hill 2 IS pretty good though...


Dually noted.

Going back and playing that game seems more terrifying than what I remember... It might have something to do with the graphics and the inability to see the creatures stalking me.

>> ^Unsung_Hero:

I only buy games Yahtzee recommends.
...I own 2 games <img class="smiley" src="http://videosift.com/cdm/emoticon/frown.gif">


You gotta admit, Silent Hill 2 IS pretty good though...

Yes I can, watch: Star Wars Old Republic sucks



(I've played exactly 0% of this game)>> ^Shepppard:

>> ^spoco2:
Again with someone getting shitty at Yahtzee for 'reviewing' a game unfavourably that they enjoy.
He doesn't really do REVIEWS, he's doing critiques, and ones for laffs, not for actual, deep searching into the soul of a game and recommending whether you play it or not.

You can't critique something you've played literally less than 10% of.
Seriously, I'm not generally one of the people who get pissed off at his reviews. However, when 90% of what he's saying is very obviously wrong, I have a problem with that. People take his "Critiques" seriously, and if he doesn't like it, people don't play it. So when he makes an unfavourable "critique" about something based on non-existent things, yeah, I get a tad upset.

In reply to this comment by Shepppard:
You can't critique something you've played literally less than 10% of.

Seriously, I'm not generally one of the people who get pissed off at his reviews. However, when 90% of what he's saying is very obviously wrong, I have a problem with that. [...]


Imagine me as a back then Eve Online nerd when he did his review of that playing the game like a single player :-)

For the record- I still enjoy his videos.

TLDR: I feeeel your paaaaaaaain.

Your video, Zero Punctuation: Star Wars: The Old Republic, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Yahtzee doesn't do reviews or critiques. He does comedy. I've stopped looking at it as anything more than that.>> ^spoco2:

Again with someone getting shitty at Yahtzee for 'reviewing' a game unfavourably that they enjoy.
He doesn't really do REVIEWS, he's doing critiques, and ones for laffs, not for actual, deep searching into the soul of a game and recommending whether you play it or not.

>> ^spoco2:

Again with someone getting shitty at Yahtzee for 'reviewing' a game unfavourably that they enjoy.
He doesn't really do REVIEWS, he's doing critiques, and ones for laffs, not for actual, deep searching into the soul of a game and recommending whether you play it or not.


You can't critique something you've played literally less than 10% of.

Seriously, I'm not generally one of the people who get pissed off at his reviews. However, when 90% of what he's saying is very obviously wrong, I have a problem with that. People take his "Critiques" seriously, and if he doesn't like it, people don't play it. So when he makes an unfavourable "critique" about something based on non-existent things, yeah, I get a tad upset.

>> ^gwiz665:

Ultimately, the service they would provide would be content before any of the knock offs. Plenty of companies have tried to make knockoffs of wow, some even with otherwise very compelling universes in the baggage (lord of the rings online, warhammer online), but no one has come close yet. Star Wars the Old Republic might, but I doubt it. A rose by any other name is still WoW. And right now they have a critical mass of users, which is all they need. They could shit in a shoebox and call it Mist of Pandaria and millions will buy it on the release day.

Sure, there exists private servers of Wow at this point too, and some people like to play on them, but for me? I wouldn't even want to. There's no challenge when everything is possible.

I think we're talking about different things. Here you're describing people making "knock offs" of WoW by actually trying to independently create a new game from scratch without directly copying any artwork or code from WoW, but still kinda looks and feels and plays like WoW.

I'm talking about firing up the DVD-burner, and making a 100% exact copy of WoW. If that were legal, people would do it. In other words, the "private server" thing. Right now they're mostly script kiddies diddling themselves with Legendary items, because if they tried to actually replicate the WoW-server service and charge money for it, they'd be forced to shut down, and probably get thrown in jail too.

If that constraint weren't there, I'm sure you'd see an explosion of "competitors" for WoW "service". And I'm sure the market would explode with all kinds of people trying to differentiate themselves on service and price, but I'm sure the competition would force the average price well below what Blizzard's charging.

And that's the rub -- without being able to hold a monopoly over the monthly service charge, or even be able to demand $40 for the expansions, would Blizzard even bother with a Mists of Pandaria expansion?

I do think we could make things a lot better if they'd stop extending the time limit on things going into the public domain. Any content older than 10 years should be public domain, period.

Ultimately, the service they would provide would be content before any of the knock offs. Plenty of companies have tried to make knockoffs of wow, some even with otherwise very compelling universes in the baggage (lord of the rings online, warhammer online), but no one has come close yet. Star Wars the Old Republic might, but I doubt it. A rose by any other name is still WoW. And right now they have a critical mass of users, which is all they need. They could shit in a shoebox and call it Mist of Pandaria and millions will buy it on the release day.

Sure, there exists private servers of Wow at this point too, and some people like to play on them, but for me? I wouldn't even want to. There's no challenge when everything is possible. I'm certain that even if a joint effort between developers of all sorts banded together to copy and create an MMO like wow, it would likely be crap, because they have no other incentive to make it than "because we can". Design decisions based on that are not good - look at linux. Even Mozilla is a company nowadays. A command structure is essential in creating a massive work of art in a reasonable time.

Making a copy of WoW isn't "just" making a copy of WoW, it's enormous. By the time someone has copied it to the finer details, the game will have moved on to something else; systems change all the time.

A good example of something happening like you say is Vampires: Bloodlines where the community made a huge amount of "community patches" to fix the game, after the developer went bankrupt. I like that, but they could do it because the things they were fixing were straight forward. If they wanted to make entirely new things, who decides which things are good and bad? Like wikipedia, they would need custodians. A private company like Blizzard does not have that problem.

I was certainly a little too broad when I said all intellectual property is bunk. First of all I have a problem with the umbrella term of IP. I don't think it's helpful. Different types of IP have different solutions and problems. Some are more bunk than others. (Wtf is with they way rights to music works? What is it now, 100 years after the artist dies? Crazy.)

Like you I am philosophically on the "you can't own ideas, man"-wagon, but practically I'm more loose with my morals - hell, morals are fluid baby.

I'll say this. I would rather have 50000 people playing my game and 50 people paying for it, than I would have 50 people playing my game and paying for it any day.

>> ^NetRunner:

I think this is the most plausible way I've seen anyone square this circle. I'm just not sure it really holds up to scrutiny.
Philosophically, I'm in the "information isn't property" camp, but I also put food on the table by creating intellectual property.
The confluence of my own philosophical tastes on this topic would be that not only should "making copies" be legalized, it should actually be criminal to withhold any sort of scientific or engineering advance from the broader public, especially for selfish gain.
But, I think that would essentially destroy software companies as we know them. I think Blizzard & WoW would have trouble making the case to people that their service is worth $140/yr. That's especially true in the kind of world in which any content they generate can just be copied by a knockoff service provider just as easily as the original copy of WoW was in the first place.
I have trouble even imagining what sort of service they'd be able to compete on in that world. Uptime? In-game customer service? Best policing of player misbehavior? It can't be bugfixes (copyable), and it can't be content (also copyable).
I think ultimately WoW would have to become something more like an open source project -- the community provides all bugfixes and content gratis. Blizzard ultimately would have to give up any kind of creative or engineering control at that point, and also give up on having a revenue stream of millions of dollars a month, too. They'd just be a glorified hosting company. Companies like Microsoft probably wouldn't even be that.
It'd probably be better for the whole world that way, but not so awesome for incumbents in the industry.
You know, people like you and me.
>> ^gwiz665:
Essentially you couldn't. You would not be able to provide a better service without spending a very very large amount of money and effort into doing it. An MMO is a service, and you have to provide more than just stable servers for it to work, you also have to create new content, bug fixes etc to maintain the integrity of the product.
You can design your way out of it easily. Free to play is one way of doing it, which we have a lot of success with on iOS and the big shots on PC are waking up to as well, finally. Apple in general have their app rejection policy which keeps the most things at bay, but of course there is jailbreaks, which I don't much care for.
I don't have a problem with people copying, although I would of course prefer they give me lots of money. If they corrupt our product however, with map hacks, cheats etc. then it's a much different issue.
I think it's a problem that many different types of media is lumped together under "intellectual property", because I do think things like Art, music etc should be protected from forgeries and that the original artist should be compensated for his time, otherwise we would have no art at all.
The industry is changing to provide a better service still though. Look at music - who buys CDs anymore? We have things like Spotify and Grooveshark who stream just about any music easily supported by commercials.
Any Blizzard game, and all their future games, will need a persistent internet connection, both for piracy issues but also for better service - instant patching, social networking etc. Same with steam.

Well, frankly, I've been playing a lot of Star Wars: The Old Republic! ( o Y o )

How are you and your fuzzies? My kitten is a randy teenager and he's been forcing his amorous attentions on the other cats. He's still too young to neuter, so I spray him with the water bottle.

In reply to this comment by Issykitty:
Heeeeey U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where art thou?

BEWBS!

Miss you!

Finally broke away from WoW after almost 7 years now isn't it? That's incredible...I've been playing an MMO for almost 7 years that's just horrible.

Oh well back to Star Wars the Old Republic