FF-XIV Beta
I was lucky enough today to get accepted into the public beta of Finaly Fantasy 14 Online but using the official download would mean a mind-numbing slow, 24 hour long download at 1-30Kb/s.
Luckily, I found a mirror of the required patch files and mirrored it myself: http://ffxiv.lifetimeblood.info/. 
Feel free to spread the link: http://bit.ly/90NmTD 
Screenshots, videos and my impressions of the game will follow in a few days.
Have we really become 2nd class citizens?
(From a thread on the Steam Community Forums)
[...] games that for some reason get made on PC for a console.. then get ported over onto PC with all the crap that we hate about console games still intact.. Why? Are they trying to force us over to the days when PC’s and Consoles will play eachother online in multiplayer and realize that a mouse and keyboard crushes a controller every time so we need to be trained into using controllers and living with arbitrary, limited console controls??
That sucks..
All you’re seeing is the natural progression of the game industry. 10 years or so ago, games were made and sold by people who were passionate and dedicated to games. Now, in the present day what you are seeing is the result of the “business type” realizing the game industry as profitable and weaseling their way into the game development companies and trying to make $$ and on top of all the latest BS marketing trends.
Most of the real gamers are going underground and indie. Better yet, learn how to make your own games and release them for free. The game industry now is ♥♥♥♥, all thanks to greed and a dwindling passion for the end product.
And the best quote for last:
The last real game made for the PC was Crysis. The next will be Starcraft 2. What will happen is, there will be a shift in the gaming industry and the PC will end up with a few high end, dedicated and passionate developers that control 99% of PC based gaming. All the other companies will make exclusively for consoles.
Or, things will just fall flat and go exclusively to consoles, in which case I will cease playing games and take up gardening.
Consoles are sub par trash with inferior parts, inferior graphics and inferior support. Good luck trying to convince anyone with a console otherwise though.
Sounds like a plan! More coming later..
RT: Another view of game piracy
Re-blogged from http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/Another-view-of-game-piracy:
Why are PC games really losing sales?
[...] it’s easier for these developers to point their fingers at pirates than to face the real problem: that their games are not fun on PC. The games in question are usually designed for consoles, with the desktop port as an afterthought. This means they are not fun to play with a mouse and keyboard, and don’t work well on PC hardware. Their field of view is designed to be viewed from a distant couch instead of a nearby monitor, and their gameplay is simplified to compensate for this tunnel vision.
~Signed!
Also check out Wolfire’s Humble Indie Bundle, a pay-what-you-want offer for 5 games (which seperately bought may cost as much as $80). I got mine for $12,50, quite a fair price. 
Der neueste Ubisoft ShitBull
A PERMANENT INTERNET CONNECTION AND CREATION OF A UBISOFT ACCOUNT ARE REQUIRED TO PLAY THIS VIDEO GAME AT ALL TIMES AND TO UNLOCK EXCLUSIVE CONTENT. SUCH CONTENT MAY ONLY BE UNLOCKED ONE SINGLE TIME WITH A UNIQUE KEY. YOU MUST BE AT LEAST 13 TO CREATE A UBISOFT ACCOUNT WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT. UBISOFT MAY CANCEL ACCESS TO ONLINE FEATURES UPON A 30-DAY PRIOR NOTICE
Ubisoft’s neuester Kopierschutz verlangt vom Spieler während des Spielens durchgängig Online zu sein, sonst wird man ohne Quicksave (wenn man glück hat mit Checkpoint) ins Hauptmenü zurückgeworfen. Sehr schön erklärt in diesem Artikel.
Weiss ja net was die sich dabei gedacht haben oO…
Mechwarrior: Living Legends
Da der neue offizielle Mechwarrior Teil wohl eher floppt als toppt hab ich mir mal die Mod “Mechwarrior: Living Legends“ für Crysis angeschaut.
Die Jungs haben das letzte Jahr lang super-hart gearbeitet um uns zum 26. Dezember eine erste Betaversion auf den Tisch zu legen. Und ich finds klasse (abgesehen von den haufen an Bugs) 
Spielerisch, hab ich das Gefühl, hab ich noch viel zu lernen. Zum Beispiel die ganzen Waffennamen.. (Wer hier weis was ein ELRM10 ist, oder ein CERLBL oder CMPL ?)
Grafisch ist das ganze schon sehr aufwendig und die Maps sind schon teilweise unglaublich innovative.
Zum Beispiel diese hier:

Man befindet sich auf einem grossen Asteroid in einem Asteroidenfeld. Tagsüber ist es sehr hell und heiss, die Mechs können weniger schiesen und müssen länger auf Abkühlung der Waffen warten.
Nachts hingegen ist es < 50°C kalt sodass die Cockpit Fenster befrieren und stock-duster, Nachtsichtgerät ist ein Muss in dieser Phase.

Ganz schlechtes Karma: Interne Munitionsexplosion (unten)

Diese und weitere Screenshots gibts in voller 1920×1200 Auflösung, sowie ein paar (sehr) kurze Videoclips hier.




