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PandaBear

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PandaBear

1484

Forum Posts

238

Wiki Points

9

Followers

Reviews: 5

User Lists: 0

I've driven a heap of California (I'm from Australia and done two road trips). Highway 1 from San Fran to LA is an incredible drive, and you go through some cool places like Big Sur and those old redwood forests. There's good places to stop too, but I found that in all parts of America the difference of a few blocks is monumental.

Also I've used AirBNB a lot and fully recommend it. You can rent entire apartments or a single room. And you get to stay in cool areas that you may miss on tourist routes.

Also as mentioned above, Yosemite is like a painting it's that pretty.

Vegas is fun. Then it becomes not fun. It's like there's millions and millions spent on make some giant fire-spewing volcano and next to it is a dude injecting heroin with his family (I actually saw that). It's a hell of a town and well worth seeing, but I found the poverty overwhelming at times.

All that said, I've been planning on moving to LA this year. California is brilliant...

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PandaBear

1484

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Reviews: 5

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They can't be trademarked. For example, neither can "look-see" or "fleeting look"

Why can't Quick Look for video game videos be trademarked?

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PandaBear

1484

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Reviews: 5

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@tuxfool said:

@topshelf211: Geez, I hope not. Polygon seems to be the place where fun goes to die.

That's the most succinct way to describe Polygon I have ever heard.

Also, I liked Joystiq. But unless there was a story linked from somewhere else I rarely checked it. I read it everyday for about a year when they're iPhone app worked (until about 18 months ago), then they killed it and said "hey the website works great on mobile", which was half true. That was it for me after that...

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PandaBear

1484

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Reviews: 5

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@fisk0 said:

@pandabear said:

@ch3burashka said:

Looks like there's enough talk for the GB team to record, produce and put up a Quick Look. Now don't you feel silly for your hyperbolic title?

It's like 2 steps down from a "You Won't Believe What Happened Next!" title. Please restrain yourselves, people.

"I knew there was a new RTS coming soon, but nothing could prepare me for what I found out next"

Yeah, people need to stop with the "Why won't anyone talk about this game!" and perhaps say "Here's a game i think is worth knowing about"

But the thing is, this isn't a cool debut game from some unknown developers. It's a game by some of the people who created the RTS genre as we know it, and up until the Quick Look was posted, there hadn't been a single news article or trailer about the game posted on this site, nor any other sites I follow (which admittedly isn't all gaming sites out there, nor even a large percentage of the more popular ones). Even Brad mentioned in the Quick Look that he hadn't heard of the game until the day they sat down to record the video.

I stand by the statement that nobody was talking about the game up until the game's launch. I don't think that's hyberbolic in this case, judging by the amount of people posting here mentioning they hadn't heard of the game before either.

I did a cursory Google search for "grey goo" and only about half of it was related to the game; there's a Gamespot video, an Ars Technica article, but there's not a deluge of coverage, I'll grant you that.

However, I do not have an issue with the existence of the article itself. I had only seen it in the Steam store and wasn't all that intrigued. Thank you for introducing me to the history and personalities behind this game, and why they matter in this case. What I'm concerned with is the cliche'd, hyperbolic and overused attention-grabbing sentence "Why is no one...". I don't want to seem thin-skinned, but it is literally formulated as a passive attack on the reader, calling them out on their lack of knowledge. The reader doesn't come for the information - they come to defend their honor.

@pandabear got it spot-on - the preferable approach would be "Here's a cool game" or "Westwood alums are making a game."

Just to add to this, Grey Goo is a fucking awful name. To me it sounds like a physics-base iPhone puzzle game. Total Annihilation, Command & Conquer, StarCraft (obviously building off the WarCraft name), Age of Empires, Rise of Nations ... I mean I know that you don't judge a book by it's cover, but when you hear one of those other names it sounds like a war game... Grey Goo is evocative of nothing to me.

Also "Westwood alums are making a game." would actually draw me in... I mean out of all the studios I miss those guys are right up there.

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PandaBear

1484

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Reviews: 5

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Looks like there's enough talk for the GB team to record, produce and put up a Quick Look. Now don't you feel silly for your hyperbolic title?

It's like 2 steps down from a "You Won't Believe What Happened Next!" title. Please restrain yourselves, people.

"I knew there was a new RTS coming soon, but nothing could prepare me for what I found out next"

Yeah, people need to stop with the "Why won't anyone talk about this game!" and perhaps say "Here's a game i think is worth knowing about"

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PandaBear

1484

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Reviews: 5

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@lawgamer said:

@michaelbach said:

@pandabear: I don't know if this model has been tried before with MMO's, but the only comparison I can think of is Destiny which is kind of an MMO. You just pay for the game and you have all the content in it. But will then have to pay for any expansions that comes after it. A real free 2 play game will not have the upfront fee and will earn it's money with micro transactions often making the best gear pay for only hence the "play to win" saying.

In their live stream today they were very careful never to say "free 2 play". You could look at it as buying a regular game where you pay 60 bucks and get all the content minus future expansions.

Exactly this. The closest analogy is probably Blizzard games like Diablo with funny money cosmetic transactions included; $60 bucks for the base game, followed by periodic expansions you have to pay for.

The closest MMO comparison is probably LOTRO; you get a base game followed by needing to spend real money to buy funny money that you use to purchase additional content (seriously, how are we not passed having fake currencies with dumb names yet? Don't charge me 50 "crowns/platinum/turbine points," or whatever, just say it's $2.00). A subscription just gets you some small buffs and an allowance of funny money per month.

Hmmm... well I think I am looking at it wrong then. I mean if it has enough content to justify a $60 purchase then the rest is just like ongoing DLC...

I think I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and grab this when it comes out.

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PandaBear

1484

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Reviews: 5

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Tekken. I'm Panda.

Also, as is common these days, my name is in a Kickstarter game (Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure).

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PandaBear

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Reviews: 5

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I think some people are a little confused. It is not free 2 play as you still have to pay $60 USD for the game. There is just not a subscription required (There is still a subscription option called something like ESOplus that gives you the new currency "crowns" every month). You get all the current content and the only things you can buy with microtransactions are "crowns" used for cosmetic only items. No extra powerful armor of weapons can be bought with microtransactions. Also expansions will be available for purchase.

Source: The ESO livestream today where they took questions and clarified the announcement.

I will pick this up for the PS4 for sure.

That's what I don't get though ... that's the free-to-play model with an initial outlay for... what exactly? The Old Republic is straight free to play with expansions you can purchase. This is the same, but what exactly am I buying? Maybe I'm just looking at this all wrong ... it does confuse me though.

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PandaBear

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@pandabear: Eh, but it sort of is. They give you the system, and you have to power it. To be fair, a charger is both cheaper and a one time purchase. Alkaline batteries had to be replaced quickly, especially when playing Pokemon Red and Link's Awakening. This time, I pay $5 once.

I cannot name one other piece of technology that runs on a built-in battery that didn't come with a charging option. AND if the charger is so cheap AND is 100% required for operation put it in the box. You're actually arguing against the consumer and in favour of the cost cutting by big business and I'm not sure why. I'd rather have an extra charger than have to share one between multiple systems.

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PandaBear

1484

Forum Posts

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Reviews: 5

User Lists: 0

#10  Edited By PandaBear

Just pre-ordered the new Zelda 3DS XL and Monster Hunter 3DS XL and will flip them on eBay. It's supply and demand and frankly I had just as much time to buy them as anyone else. I mean I bought one of each, so it's not exactly the crime of the century... I wouldn't buy 100 of them even if I could, that's definitely a shitty thing to do. But one one to sell one, I dunno... whatever.