Originally Posted by Mooby Apples and oranges. Although for what it's worth I recognize my tastes diverge quite a bit from the majority of posters here so I take opinions with a grain of salt.

You're telling me.

Part of me wants to buy that Sega pack to legitimize my rom collection but I've paid for these games so many times over the years. Is that Sega pack good in any way?

And Sine Mora is still terrible no matter how many times I try to convince myself to like it. And if you tell me it's because I don't like shumps I will strangle you.

Originally Posted by RollingSkull And Sine Mora is still terrible no matter how many times I try to convince myself to like it. And if you tell me it's because I don't like shumps I will strangle you.

You don't like shmups that don't star female anime characters.

Originally Posted by Eldredpe You don't like shmups that don't star female anime characters.

No strangulation. For you, sodomy.

Originally Posted by SeymourGams If only someone was to do that...

Originally Posted by utopianmachine

It's a pity that it wasn't really Skyrim.

How awesome is playing Deus Ex on my laptop and couch in front of my new self-installed wood burning stove?

SO AWESOME!

Originally Posted by RollingSkull No strangulation. For you, sodomy.

Why not both?

You have to wonder how many people are going to buy Earth 2160 as the daily deal when it was just in the Groupees bundle. Or still is, for a matter of fact. Even if it's in the second level...

I always wonder why they time things like that.

Originally Posted by pantsattack How awesome is playing Deus Ex on my laptop and couch in front of my new self-installed wood burning stove? SO AWESOME!

Is that part of a bundle somewhere?

Green Man Gaming perhaps?

I'm sorry, I'm not seeing any sales on wood-burning stove. That's a Steam code, though, right?

Originally Posted by Idiotekque You have to wonder how many people are going to buy Earth 2160 as the daily deal when it was just in the Groupees bundle. Or still is, for a matter of fact. Even if it's in the second level... I always wonder why they time things like that.

Perhaps it helps drive bundle sales? If someone wants Earth 2160 and is then pointed in the direction of the groupees bundles, they are likely to buy it. I imagine it doesn't hurt combined sales, anyway.

Originally Posted by Eldredpe Perhaps it helps drive bundle sales? If someone wants Earth 2160 and is then pointed in the direction of the groupees bundles, they are likely to buy it. I imagine it doesn't hurt combined sales, anyway.

I really don't know. In one of the Groupees bundles, Kaptain Brawe was included, and then suddenly the publisher said "Woops, we're running a $5 sale on Kaptain Brawe on Steam on the second day of your bundle, so we changed our mind and aren't giving you anymore Steam keys."

It SEEMS like having the game in a bundle is going to hurt any sales on Steam. And I can imagine the publisher is getting a larger cut from a Steam sale rather than a Groupees sale. While one has a part of the money going to Steam, the other has part of the money going to Groupees, charity, and probably Steam as well if it's a Steam key.

But I'm clueless to business side of it. Just seems odd.

Originally Posted by Eldredpe Is that part of a bundle somewhere? Green Man Gaming perhaps? I'm sorry, I'm not seeing any sales on wood-burning stove. That's a Steam code, though, right?

Definitely not on sale, but it was build-my-own-bundle.

i bit on afterfall inasanity. i'll post up impressions later lol

Originally Posted by snakemaster2389 i bit on afterfall inasanity. i'll post up impressions later lol

please do, very interested in that game

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Random question: Does anyone remember a TV show from maybe around 1990? It was sci-fi, good guys bad guys stuff, robots and small space ships (think X-wing). The main hook though was characters and various enemy turrets had metallic iridescent panels on them that you could shoot as the show played. So if you had the toy of the space fighter it doubled as a pistol and when you took enough shots from enemies on TV (!) it would eject your pilot.

It was a pretty cool concept and I'd love to know what it was. Double Fine's Autonomous project brought this to mind.

Originally Posted by pantsattack Random question: Does anyone remember a TV show from maybe around 1990? It was sci-fi, good guys bad guys stuff, robots and small space ships (think X-wing). The main hook though was characters and various enemy turrets had metallic iridescent panels on them that you could shoot as the show played. So if you had the toy of the space fighter it doubled as a pistol and when you took enough shots from enemies on TV (!) it would eject your pilot. It was a pretty cool concept and I'd love to know what it was.

Captain Power, I believe.

Originally Posted by Motoki IGN and G4 and all of those guys factor into Metacritic and I see people going 'I was going to buy that game but it had a low metacritic score' all the time. They don't have to be a well read and well followed or trusted site to have a direct effect on game sales. All they have to do is get Metacritic to recognize them as "professional". Also note that the professional score is the ONLY one Metacritic number that populates to Steam. So even if most of the users hated a game if the 'professionals' get bought off love it then that is the number that will populate to Steam and that will make the game look like a masterpiece. Too bad Dragon Age 2 isn't on Steam anymore because that is one of the most glaring examples of the huge disconnect the professional and user scores on Metacritic can have.

Diablo 3 is better example, though the gap has closed, 88 to 3.8. DA2 is 82 to 4.2. Disparity of 10% is often interesting.

I'm still puzzled (and full of nerd-rage) over the fact that Torchlight 2 hasn't been listed in the "Current PC Games" column on the right side while they list less significant "indie" games, e.g. Krater or Tiny & Big.

I probably find metacritic more useful than most, but it's probably because of my reading skillz. Read a high, mid, and low rated review to get a bigger picture, so the same for a few user comments. I also tend to like to read reviews on theguardian.co.uk or reghardware.com (part of theregister.com) to get a review outside the "games journalism industrial complex."

Originally Posted by asheskitty Diablo 3 is better example, though the gap has closed, 88 to 3.8. DA2 is 82 to 4.2. Disparity of 10% is often interesting. I'm still puzzled (and full of nerd-rage) over the fact that Torchlight 2 hasn't been listed in the "Current PC Games" column on the right side while they list less significant "indie" games, e.g. Krater or Tiny & Big. I probably find metacritic more useful than most, but it's probably because of my reading skillz. Read a high, mid, and low rated review to get a bigger picture, so the same for a few user comments. I also tend to like to read reviews on theguardian.co.uk or reghardware.com (part of theregister.com) to get a review outside the "games journalism industrial complex."

I honestly think that Diablo 3 is a worse example because a large portion of the audience wasn't complaining about gameplay, but rather down-rating massively based on DRM and the presence of the RMAH. Neither of which I honestly give a shit about.

I understand that the game was also disappointing for many based on its gameplay, but the user score wouldn't have been NEARLY that low had it been based on reasonable people giving scores that properly reflected their feelings of the game (guessing it would have been in the 5-7 range then) rather than knee-jerk 0-point ratings based on some of Blizzard's dumb moves surrounding it.

Originally Posted by Eldredpe I honestly think that Diablo 3 is a worse example because a large portion of the audience wasn't complaining about gameplay, but rather down-rating massively based on DRM and the presence of the RMAH. Neither of which I honestly give a shit about. I understand that the game was also disappointing for many based on its gameplay, but the user score wouldn't have been NEARLY that low had it been based on reasonable people giving scores that properly reflected their feelings of the game (guessing it would have been in the 5-7 range then) rather than knee-jerk 0-point ratings based on some of Blizzard's dumb moves surrounding it.

In terms of actual opinion, I agree. I was just highlighting point-split. Actually early bulk of user downrating was due to ing ridiculous server download that people couldn't play during. It's not like they'd have gained any experience with that in 7.5 years of running WoW servers. The RMAH didn't go live for over a month, iirc.

Originally Posted by Eldredpe That's not a problem with game reviews, it's an issue with aggregates.

But the aggregates are based on reviews and so many sites, especially Steam since they don't allow user reviews period, are leaning way too heavily on Metacritic. As far as I am concerned it's still a problem with the reviews and also in which ones metacritics deems worthy and 'professional'.

Personally, I think in this day and age with as networked and connected as we are the idea of a 'professional' review when it comes to games seems very silly to me. I don't think those people's opinion's should carry any more weight than anyone else's, especially since I find many of them to be ill informed and they also never bother to revisit when game updates are done.

Originally Posted by asheskitty Diablo 3 is better example, though the gap has closed, 88 to 3.8. DA2 is 82 to 4.2. Disparity of 10% is often interesting. I'm still puzzled (and full of nerd-rage) over the fact that Torchlight 2 hasn't been listed in the "Current PC Games" column on the right side while they list less significant "indie" games, e.g. Krater or Tiny & Big. I probably find metacritic more useful than most, but it's probably because of my reading skillz. Read a high, mid, and low rated review to get a bigger picture, so the same for a few user comments. I also tend to like to read reviews on theguardian.co.uk or reghardware.com (part of theregister.com) to get a review outside the "games journalism industrial complex."

I do that too but most people don't. They don't even venture off the Steam page. They just go 'Oh low metacritic number?' PASS or 'Oh high metacritic number?' BUY.

*Edit: Replied before I saw Eldredpe's post; we essentially said the same thing.

But really on the D3 most of that I think is just a huge backlash on the always online DRM. If you took that piece of it out I think the user reviews would be MUCH higher. The game itself is not terrible.

Dragon Age 2 on the other hand, most of that was a backlash about the game itself both in that it was nothing like the original as you might expect a sequel to be, and simply on it's own shortcomings which were many.

Originally Posted by janlazer Captain Power, I believe.

Yes, thanks!