gbrading

Ubisoft's PC support has been very bad for a long while (remember, their Chief Executive said 95% of PC players were pirates). I'm not surprised they might be following in EA's footsteps and forcing people onto their little bit of software and off Steam. Nonetheless, it is irritating for the consumer who wants to have all their games in one place. Steam's authority must be challenged of course, but only through games sales, and Green Man Gaming and Humble Bundle do this very well. Uplay and Origin will always be surplus to requirements.

Mr. Carpenter is always a good sport.

The letterboxing is purely and entirely a technical choice, I don't buy any aesthetic arguments (because personally, I think letterboxing makes stuff look like it was made in 1965). If it were aesthetic, it wouldn't be possible to do what you can do in the PC version: To run the game at a higher FPS and remove the letterboxing. Understandably Bethesda don't recommend doing this because the performance tanks (because they couldn't be bothered to make a 60 FPS fullscreen PC port). The Order: 1886 is going to do the exact same thing, for the exact same reasons.

Arguments for low framerates and letterboxing usually talk about making the game more cinematic or film-like, crucially missing one massively important point: It's a bloody game. We're not watching a film, we're playing a game, we want to swing the camera around to see everything. If it were a film I wouldn't need to twist my vision to see what was happening.

What you say on the Internet matters, and a surprisingly high number of people need to come to terms with that. The ongoing controversy is testament to that.

It'll be done when it's done. So long as it's got a kicking soundtrack I'm sure no one will mind.

We were in the same Heat Signature and Nuclear Throne talks and I didn't realize! If I'd known you were there I would have said hi! :)

Oh my goodness you could tell Letterman was like "why the hell am I doing this?!"

These days I just log into Origin to grab the current free game, play some Peggle (original) then log out again. When BioWare get around to their Mass Effect sequel I'm sure it'll be Origin exclusive, sadly.

There's nothing overly terrible about Origin these days, it's just its a pointless bit of software. One of the good things was I was able to use some old game discs for things like SimCity 4 to use the game codes to redeem digital versions.

Who the hell would spend $150 extra for a peripheral that still doesn't work as intended?

Piracy is and always remains theft. The developer in this instance, all credit to them, had the right to flip out at that guy, and their restraint is commendable. But piracy of games (and of films) not only damages video game developers but the players themselves. It makes publishers like Ubisoft create draconian-DRM systems; it makes their CEO say "93-5% of PC players are probably pirates" and it allows those who want to make closed, controlled systems such as the Xbox One and the PS4 all the more enticing. The "I'm poor" excuse doesn't wash, with the massive amount of free-to-play titles, and regular as clockwork sales where games are routinely sold for the cost of a sandwich.

I might even go so far as to say if you're a pirate, only logical to assume you hate video games, because you are doing absolutely nothing to support them and everything to harm them.