Akrid

@august said:

If you fight Havelock on low chaos you at least get this little bit of business:

See, that's cool as hell. But any sane thinking person does what they've been trained to do the entire game and just chokes the dude out instead of just walking up to him.

@Grimmy616 said:

I will try to make it as well

GOIN OUT WITH A BANG

You don't even have Battlefield.

@Swoxx said:

I'd also like to thank everyone who joined us on the server and to the members of the PC Gaming Hub in general, you guys make the work we put in worth it!

Oh yeah, that too!!

@Eribuster said:

Ah, we had a good run. I assume it will mostly be vanilla maps to accommodate the most players?

Yeah, it'll be vanilla.

@Patchcoat said:

@Akrid: Ahh, sorry to hear that. I've been a member of the clan since day one and have always tried to join up with you guys on scheduled runs. We've had some pretty good games and the server made those awesome BF3 TNTs possible. But yeah, a big shout-out to you, @Rolyatkcinmai,@AhmadMetallicand all of the other duders who kept the whole shebang going... it will be missed.

Thanks man, I've appreciated your support of the server over the past 12 months. Had a lot of fun playing with you!

The low chaos ending was frustrating and had very little pay-off. I know a boss battle would have definitely been a bad idea, but maybe a little puzzle, like when you need to get the key from Daud. Instead, it was just me tearing through a series of some of the easiest guard patrols in the game on the way up to the tower and then just being plain confused that there seemed to be no apparent closure at the top. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the game otherwise.

The characters themselves aren't exactly fleshed out, but that comes with the territory in a way. Anything you learn about the characters is learned moments before you take 'em out, and that's an aspect that I actually really enjoy in a stealth game. It creates an interesting perspective of impartiality.

Aside from the targets, Havelock was pretty 2-dimensional, but Pendleton was an interesting guy. I also think the characters are represented appropriately given the fact that the game takes place over only a number of days. Not exactly enough time for every person in the pub to become best buds with you and show the true depth of their character.

As far as the world is concerned, I felt I learnt exactly the amount I'd want to learn - just under being overly expository, just over being bare bones.

That's right - the Giant Bomb Official Server for BF3 will finally meet it's end this month on the 25th - exactly 1 year since the launch of BF3. It's been a long road. LAVs were flipped, knife-fights were had, stand-offs were screwed up, the GB hub was founded, but unfortunately the game has passed it's vogue in the eyes of the Giant Bomb community, and so it's time for it to come to a close. Much thanks to @Rolyatkcinmai for bankrolling the server for so long and @AhmadMetallic for doing such a stellar job managing the server. And of course, so much thanks as well to those who have donated to keep the server up and running over it's year-long lifespan.

Events for the upcoming expansions will still be scheduled on the Hub steam group, however, we will not have the privilege of having a server at our disposal.

But enough eulogy - we've still got a bit left in us!

This Saturday, 5PM EST (10PM GMT). The password to the server will be: Basketball

We'll all be hopping on the server for one last chance to get in a game full to the brim of friendly duders!

If you would like to be reminded of this info, join the GB PC Gaming Hub steam group and we'll notify you through Steam on Saturday.

It's the 16th and it's not even marked on the coming soon list on Steam. What's the dealio?

I don't see how it's particularly immature for that Joystiq writer to want to have more mature experiences through games, no matter how foolish the concept of something like a Harriet Tubman game may be. I know that a game attempting to depict a modicum of peace and non-violence goes against what video-games are generally suited for, and that such a game would have a hard time being actually fun. That doesn't change the fact that I wish more mature experiences could happen in games. I mean, films that depict that sort of thing aren't necessarily fun, but they're intellectually stimulating. Why can't we have games that aim for the same thing? What I'm saying is, there is room for games that err to the side of telling a very specific and meaningful story, like a movie or book, while still wielding the merits it gets from being a game.

I.E., Heavy Rain. Now, that game has a lot of problems that prevent it from being what it should be, but you tidy your virtual characters' goddamn house in that game and feed your son dinner, and it's awesome because it offers a true feeling of humanity. There's no dissonance, because the game shows you (and doesn't just tell you) that this dad is a normal dad. You're not playing as Master Sergeant Major Minor, you're playing a fucking dude. Executed more effectively then in this particular instance, that's a very powerful thing to instill.

Not to mention, games are only now getting away from the idea that they're totally immature to the public eye. Now, you and I both know that there's something far more mature beyond a lot of these games that have you stabbing, shooting, and mutilating people. Dishonoured has you cutting throats every minute, but there's a fantastic and beautiful universe beneath it. I'm not saying that games should change in order to appease the naysayers, but there is room for games that are mature and complex through and through. I agree that one of games' greatest strengths in story telling is the chance to be truly immersive, but that fact certainly shouldn't prevent it from trying to immerse you in certain more mundane experiences. Chastising those who want something a little more from games achieves nothing in the end except closing your mind to games tackling certain subjects.

It may turn out to be not necessarily a bad thing, you're right, but in any case it is not something EA intentionally tried to foster. That makes me doubt that they're really prepared to attempt to exploit the situation back into a positive, profitable position. I'm sure EA is really cursing themselves for handling this so poorly more then anything at this point.

And you say good PR - it would be good PR if they said something like "Hey, come make a new account and you get like 15 free games". Instead, they just fucked up royally. That is definitely not good PR. At worst, it's presenting the image that it's totally fine to exploit them because they are such a bad company. At best, it's a mediocre gesture of sheepish good-will.

Surprisingly well made! Pretty hard though. Good luck with your kickstarter.