unangbangkay

@joshwent: I'm thinking what happened here is that Patrick and Barry agreed with each other a little too much. Meade's written various apocalyptic screeds about the current state of mobile gaming, so I'm a little bit disappointed that Patrick couldn't at least try to interrogate the premise a little bit. This isn't to say that there isn't a problem with the way developers may feel obligated to do sleazy things to their business models because they perceive it as the "only" way to succeed in the space, but I'm finding the tone of the article to be a little..."patting ourselves on the back".

In this article: Two guys that agree with each other maybe a little too much.

The STOWiki is a reliable resource if you're Federation or Klingon. The updates for Romulan content aren't in yet though.

Protips:

- Any captain career can make ANY ship effective. Don't listen to people who insist that you have to fly a certain ship just because you're a certain career. If you roll Romulan you don't have to worry about that until the endgame, since ship selection is limited.

-It's usually a better idea not to mix too many weapon types (cannons and beams, different energy types). You incur a power penalty. However, just for playing missions you don't need to worry, the content is easy enough.

- Use your pre-endgame levels to experiment with different ship types and styles. Try out escorts, cruisers and science vessels and see how you do

-Tactical team is your friend. Always have Tactical Team I on any ship setup.

How far up the Starbase/Embassy ladder are the Space Neon Lobsters? My main is currently in a fleet but I wouldn't mind switching, as I'm more familiar with the GB community.

• Best Sequence of Events Leading Up to A Late Title Card.
• Best Implementation of Social Network Synergy.
• Most Delicious In-game Consumable Item.
  

" This, coming from a MW2 player. I've played the demo for the first game but never got BC1; and forgotten about how things went. As I recalled, I got slaughtered constantly by tanks and stuff.  So anyways, I was wondering about how I am expected to play this game and what usually happens. I'm thinking about picking this game up and playing it with some buddies (or guys on GB if anyone ever sets things up) and just rolling in as a small knit tight group; or so I think. "

The problem here isn't the uproar (which is ridiculous), but the wholesale dropping of one feature for another, basically switching servers for matchmaking.
 
When you've got servers, you can go to whichever server you choose. Any mod, any rules, any custom maps. With matchmaking, who you end up in a match with is entirely up to Infinity Ward and its math on how it wants to compare your rank with that of others. Furthermore, depriving people of the ability to set up their own, private servers essentially cedes control over ALL of MW2's online content to Infinity Ward. Potentially, that could mean no mods allowed, EVER.
 
Also, there's the question of whether or not matchmaking is superior. Peer-to-peer matchmaking (what happens on consoles and will happen with IWnet) is only as reliable as the host's home connection is, and that's usually not very good. Going matchmaking-only denies players the ability to chose where they play, and to a limited extent, with whom.

I'm not about to let the debate break my decision over whether or not to play MW2 (PC only for me), but I DO know that I don't want to stare at a "finding optimal game" screen for 20 minutes and then drop 5 minutes in after the host ragequits. Don't you people remember what it was like when Gears of War 2 went up? 
 
At least give people the option for both. It CAN'T be that hard. Hell, even Lost Planet 2 uses a "host browser" instead of matchmaking. It's that easy.

Ouch. I feel sorry for Demon's Souls players who care about trophies. Getting a bronze there is like earning a gold or platinum in most other games, challenge-wise.

20Gb install?! Feh, 1Tb portable hard drives  are a quarter the cost of a new 360 HDD these days!
 
Anyway, it's PC all the way on my end. "Spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate" equates to "You're going to want a mouse and spacebar." 
 
Re: Achievement points: If you're that sort of person, there's always the chance that DA will be Games for Windows LIVE enabled. Sucks though it may, it DOES transfer achievements. Plus, if you have a 360, you can even rent the 360 version one day and play through it for double the points!