Yay! Double post!

Do you guys actually think about what you read? I never said anything about them feeling threatened. Stop putting words in my mouth. Anybody who's taken the time to look into SWTOR knows it's going to be big. It's going to be a force to be reckoned with hence the word threatening. It's not going to turn WoW into a wasteland by stealing it's entire community. That's an absurd way of thinking. However, as I said before, I never said they just pieced the expansion together out of thin air when SWTOR was announced, just that it's a way to keep the fans hooked as another reportedly big MMO is on the horizon.

Raikoh_

Of course, no need to try and turn this around when you simply didn't present your point correctly. Anything an MMO developer does is to keep its player base busy that absolutely makes sense. Do the developers of World of Warcraft know their game is getting boring? That's a subjective statement that isn't backed by actual player numbers, so what you said innitially just doesn't make sense. You said TOR is threatening. To whom? You? Blizzard? Me? To all of those I think the answer is no so again you implied that the game was threatened by the impending launch of the game... which again doesn't make sense (again perhaps the wrong word, but don't pretend you didn't say it).

And Cataclysm has been in developement since before Wrath was launched which means that it wasn't done in response to anything except what fans of the game wants which is what ALL MMO developers do (i.e. keep their player base happy). Trying to link TOR and WoW in any other way than to say they will both be/are successful games is crazy talk.

I have a feeling Blizzard did this Cataclysm thing as a way to keep fans hooked. They're completely changing the face of the game because they know WoW is getting boring and SWTOR is looking pretty threatening.

Raikoh_

Anything Blizzard does in terms of expansions or updates it does to better cater to its own community, NOT because it feels threatened by any future release. Sure some of these games display new and interesting ideas, but MMO history has shown that new MMO launches never kill off long established player bases, so to assume that anything can kill WoW is completely rediculus. Furthermore, WoW has continued to show great strides on building on its successes while eliminating the few weaknesses it has.

Also Galaxies never had such a big player base to begin with, whatever NGE might have done to the player base, The Old Republic is a different beast and I believe it will hugely successful but I don't think that you have to kill WoW in order to carve out your own market and as was mentioned these expansions are in the making for years they aren't suddenly thrown together in response to games that aren't even in beta.

You guys can start putting everyone in different little categories but there is one console game market. Nintendo, Sony and MS are all fighting for the top spot.

dvader654

That's the thing, there might be a segment of the population willing to spend on console gaming as entertainment but the market is hardly one massive lump. In fact this generation has shown that catering to different demographics, diferrent markets even is the way of the future as the console makers focus on what appeals to their target audience.

Sony, MS and Nintendo are all fighting to have the largest installed user base this doesn't mean they are fighting for the same people and in fact the expanding market shows that its impossible to ignore how it is ultimately through appealing to the unique individuals out there that market share can be won. What I am ultimately trying to say that it is by putting people into different categories that these companies figure out what appeals to whom.

[QUOTE="Dutch_Mix"]

So, the new Guild Wars 2 Trailer is amazing!

I seriously think WoW's reign as the MMO champion is about over. Between this and Star Wars: The Old Republic, Blizzard's subscription base is going to take a serious hit.

UpInFlames

Looks awesome. They're keeping it subscription-free, right?

Yes the game will carry on the tradition of only charging for the box as was the case with the original (Eurogamer). World of Warcrafts subscription base is never going to crumble or even take a serious hit, most MMOs keep a steady player base once they plateu, they don't lose it. Though I do think The Old Republic is going to be serious business.

As to that Last Guardian-esque game I remain curious at best, its not like we expect this game to be on par with what Team Ico is making.

MS didnt announce a price cut today during their conference. I see no reason why Nintendo would.

The only reason they arent selling half a million units a month anymore is the current state of the economy. Once it starts to get better, the Wii will be alright. Holiday 2009 is only a couple of months away, and I'm sure it will be the biggest gift item this year as well.

S0lidSnake

Or a saturated market and less AAA titles in the same period compared to last year. Sure the economy doesn't help but lets not use it as an excuse for everything. I've said this before I will say it again, the video game market is effectively split between the different companies, each of the big three have managed to carve out segments for themselves. Honestly I don't think each console impacts the others that much (except maybe the 360 and PS3 since they share a market).

I'd say whatever happens this Holiday period will be 'interesting'. Also I think Sony needs to push awareness of its top tier games if it wants to build on the momentum and effective re-launch of its PS3. We'll see I think Sony is going into this Holiday season stronger than it has since launch with the right price a great redesign and an expanding library of games.

[QUOTE="dvader654"]MS is up tomorrow, wonder what they will have in store.UpInFlames

At the very least, they'll show games. A concept seemingly very foreign to Sony.

Or so you thought. There has to be some confusion though, I can't believe that this was an honest to goodness MS press show. I mean all we got was Fable III. Sure that's not bad but they sure could have pumped the Box a little more in Europe (I mean games, Natal, you name it) for the Holiday season. Maybe all MS people forgot their passes and weren't let into the hall...

Oh and GT5 smexy.

I wasn't skeptical the first time round and I got burned so this time my skeptometer is charged and ready. Mass Effect was a great game, but at the same time it was also a big disappointment - especially if you compare it to Knights of the Old Republic. BioWare promised an epic space saga and did not deliver. The exploration was botched with the Presidium being the only area done right. Everything else was either linear/non-explorative or copy/paste design. Two years is maybe enough for a 10 hour action game, but not for what is supposed to be an RPG of epic proportions. I'd love to be proven wrong, though.

UpInFlames

I see your point and agree. While I personally did not love Mass Effect like some on this board I did enjoy it and think it did a lot of things very well. That being said I do think it wasn't as great or captivating as KOTOR. I guess I am not pumped either way, just 'looking forward' to it, I believe the sequel will be the game the original could have been (if not should have been) and from the little I have seen and heard I think it will be a more polished better executed experience. The copy and paste planet were quite horrible.

On a side note I am so glad we got a PS3 cut and slim, makes me happy, I am curious what the price in the UK will be though (199 pretty please?).

NOW I'm excited. Damn price cut starting tomorrow, Slim available from first week of September and I love the 299 price across the three mayor territories, I applaud Sony and can't wait for September. Also Heavy Rain sounded awesome.

Mass Effect 2 - too much action. Mass Effect disappointed me with its gameworld/universe and seeing as how Mass Effect 2 is coming out so soon, I honestly doubt the sequel is going to offer a truly epic space saga I always hoped for.

UpInFlames

I don't see how 2 years isn't enough to improve what was an already very impressive game, after all from what we know the game was always planned as a trilogy and from what we've seen there is little reason to be skeptical.

IGN also has a live blog of the Sony Press Conferenceif people are looking for a different place to read it. So far nothing fantastically exiciting, really I want to see what the PS3 slim looks like.

Did you ever think that it could be your system? I'm no EA fanboy or anything, but the wife and I play The Sims 3 pretty frequently and we have never had a crash like you are describing. Are your drivers up to date?

LOEAnubis

This is what crossed my mind when I read the post. Also I know you checked the system requirements but did you do it properly, I mean no disrespect when I say this, but when I worked in video game retail I had people come up to me complaining a game would not work on their PC, when asked if they had checked the system requirements they would say 'Well its an XP computer and it has 2GB of RAM'...

Have a look at your graphics drivers, sound drivers and the settings your running the game at (maybe you have the wrong shaders turned on, or textures turned on too high). Overheating could also be forcing the PC and the game to crash if your running at settings that are too high for your machine.