The Midagedgamer Report for August 31, 2012
This Week...
Unreal on a Tablet! New DLC for Orcs Must Die 2!,
Gargantuan Power Supplies and GameStop's out to steal your gaming memories...
We're still in the summer doldrums and I'm still
sweating. With Borderlands 2 and the new Armored Kill DLC for BF3 still a few
weeks away, there's just not that much very exciting but we'll give it a go
anyway.
This week Nvidia showed off a demo of the Unreal 3 engine
running on a Windows RT tablet. The
Tablet was reportedly Tegra 3 based and showed off the capabilities of the engine
on the platform. The intent of the new
version of the engine was to showcase the portability between PC, console and
tablet thus reducing development time.
This ties in with my commentary a few weeks back about console hardware
moving closer to PC's and the effect it would have on game development.
While impressive the real test of engine portability will
come from the expectations of current gamers.
For one thing a tablet doesn't offer the control or accuracy of PC
controls in an FPS title. Anything more
than moving the character around is a challenge on a tablet. So it remains to be seen if developers will
try to be innovative and upgrade the control interface on tablets or just dumb
down the other platforms to match them.
Well imagine my surprise when upon opening my Steam client
Wednesday night I found a 1.1 GB download for Ocrs Must Die 2. Apparently this is related to the new DLC for
the game called "Orcs Must Die! 2 - Fire and Water
Booster Pack". The DLC promises:
(from the Steam Page)
Three all-new levels!, Three additional Endless Mode conversions,
Three new traps – Web Spinner, Floor Portal, and the deadly Dart Spitter, Two
new elemental enemies bring devious new tricks to the battlefield, New
“Trapless” skull award!
It's available on Steam for $4.99.
In yet another case of Me Too...
2K games has announced 4 DLC packs for
Borderlands 2 available by summer 2013 for XBOX360, PS3 and PC. For just $30 you can purchase a "season
pass" that gets you all four DLC packs (normally $9.99 per) for the price of three.
Two things...
First, I'm getting tired of the whole
"premium club" thing at least Battlefield 3 had at one DLC pack out
before they came out with their Premium subscription. They actually expect you
to pay up front for something I won't get for a year and by then may not want!
Second, The game's not even out yet,
costs $60 and NOW you admit that you purposely left stuff out??
This game's not happening for me till a
Steam sale sometime around 2014...
Seems the slimeballs show up as soon as a game goes live
these days. Apparently players of
NicSofts new Fantasy MMORPG, Guild Wars 2, are receiving bogus password reset
emails in an attempt to hijack legitimate user's accounts. NicSoft has responded by contacting users
urging them to ignore the emails.
Apparently there have also been issues with server lag and server
outages for in-game player emails.
Ok, You know how I feel about overpriced "special
edition" games that offer little more than old copies of the previous
version, crappy kitsch and DLC packages.
This one, however, actually seems like a fair deal. For $180 you can get the Black Ops 2 limited
edition "Care Package" that of course includes the game itself,
special DLC AND a MQ-27 Dragonfire
quadrocopter drone. Yes, that's right,
you get a nifty remote controlled quadarcopter in the package wrapped up in a
big old plastic suitcase. No word if it
does anything but fly around but it's still a neat toy. Sorry PC guys, This one's for Xbox360 and PS3
only. At least you can FEEL like you're
getting something worth the $180 bucks this bundle will set you back.
In hardware news....
Corsair has released its newAX1200i. It's a 1200Watt 80plus Platinum certified
power supply ready to trip the breakers in your electrical box. What's interesting is that this is the first
power supply I've seen that you can manage as well as monitor. I mean really, when's the last time you
needed a driver for your power supply?
Corsair calls this a digital power supply because it uses a
Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to actively control power settings. With the included Digital link dongle and
software you can actively monitor every aspect of the power supply (note the
software only works on Vista and above).
You also have the ability to independently configure every output so you
can give a little amperage boost to the ports fueling your Quad SLI setup.
That's all well and good and at $350, not a bad deal for the
hardcore Overclocker or gamer.
Of course I have to question the need. In a world ever more concerned about all
things green it's hard not to chuckle at a power supply rated at 1200Watts of
output getting a platinum 80 Plus certification. Even the hardware test sites have trouble
loading down such a behemoth for testing.
Yes I know, 80 plus is a measure of efficiency at load but
when you've got a power supply with an output that makes a portable generator
jealous you have to wonder.
There's plenty of other culprits out there as well. from
1000 to 1500Watts. I even own an older
1000W power supply from PC Power and cooling that I used for a few years but
these days anything over 750Watts is probably a waste.
I suppose my issue with these monsters is that it's an
indication that we may be going the wrong direction when it comes to power
efficiency. 5 years ago we could tax a
1000W power supply with a AMD X2 CPU and a couple of 8800GTX's in SLI. Now a 750W can handle a Core I7 and a pair of
GTX680's in SLI with room to spare.
I guess there's a market, but not in my house....
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Cases-and-Cooling/Corsair-AX1200i-Digital-ATX-1200W-Power-Supply-Review
In our dropping like flies department.
All you fans of Paragon's superhero MMO City of Heroes
should start planning your funeral parties now.
Nicsoft, parent of Paragon Studios, has shut down operations effective immediately
and plans to slowly decommission City of Heroes with the final gasp set for the
end of the year. Yeah, I always get
canned on Fridays too...
As a consequence of the closure some 80 Paragon employees
have been shown the door. Not without a
truly heartfelt sentiment, however,
from Nicsoft community manager Andy Belford ,
"To any potential studios looking to grow your team; hire
these people. You won't regret it."
Yes their future employers may not but you have to wonder if
Nicsoft did. After all they're the ones
who shut off the lights and kicked them out the door...
As one of the earlier challengers to the MMO monster World
of Warcraft, it's possible that we're
seeing the first of many canaries in the coal mine for subscription MMO's.
And in the department of how can GameStop screw gamers even
more...
Seems GameStop is interested in getting into the vintage
game market. They're mulling over adding
a vintage game store to their online website.
In a quote from CEO Paul Raines to Polygon,
"If
you go to eBay and look at all of the gaming stuff that's on there, it's
unbelievable. Collector's stuff. We've got to be in that business. We will
be."
Apparently
the online and brick and mortar retailer isn't satisfied with overpriced
pre-orders and pittance game buybacks.
Now they want to control the market for your classic 2600 and Nintendo
titles too. Raines sees vintage games as
a new market to be conquered and exploited. For Raines it's more a marketing
tool than a venue for a cherished collectible.
Why am I
so opposed to this? Because everything GameStop
touches seems to go to crap. Catalyst
for this latest marketing gimmick came from Raines' browsing vintage games on EBay. So in effect individual Ebay and Craigslist
sellers would be in competition with a huge corporate entity with unlimited
resources.
That's either going to drop asking prices to
the floor if GameStop achieves any volume or artificially inflate prices beyond
reason as EBay sellers rush to cash in.
With GameStop's
history you know they'll buy low and sell high so don't think you're going to
be getting top dollar for your vintage copy of Atari 2600 Basketball.
I almost
wonder if this is a double edged sword. GameStop
knows that DRM is getting worse with new titles which may cause a spike in
popularity of older titles that aren't so afflicted. GameStop could then cash in on the "DRM
rebellion" while also controlling and potentially removing the supply of
older titles. Artificially limit supply
and demand goes up along with the price.
This could
be a good thing and I acknowledge the possibility but with GameStop involved I
doubt it.
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