It's a common and accepted notion. Monolithic publisher empire-corporations swallow independent developers, strip them of their merit and force them to mass-produce substandard variations on their profitable IPs. Yet these megapublishers seem to make vast profits and are by all accounts generally successful. Since they seem to spend all their money on acquiring (and subsequently destroying) indie developers, how can this be? What black magic or tax dodge are they employing?

The most well known example of this thinking (and the company I expect sprang into the minds of almost everyone reading the previous paragraph) is Electronic Arts. Personally, I'm still harbouring a grudge over their dismantling of Westwood, the studio behind the Command and Conquer series. I viewed their recent acquisition of popular RPG developers Bioware with alarm. Despite this, EA seems the perfect place to begin questioning the Evil Monolithic Megacorp concept.

If this view is correct, EA is using an irreparably faulty business model, and is kept afloat only by the mindless sheep who keep buying their games year-on-year because EA tells them to. It is their fault for keeping this Spawn of Satan afloat, and soon EA will own the entire world and we'll all be forced to play nothing but Sims: Clown Outfits IV, Battlefield: Snowball Conflict and Need for Speed: Slightly Different Cars Since the Last One.

We must all boycott this devil company! Use the collective power of keeping our money to put them out of business for good! But wait! What's this... A revitalised C&C series, Spore, Battlefield games not simply being cardboard cut-outs of previous games, Mass Effect for PC and the Half Life Episodes published under EA's name... Oh, well. They'll probably all be rubbish anyway.

Sarcasm aside, the view of EA and other such companies being black holes of creativity, serving only to suck the life out of our games is fundamentally flawed. It's true that their influence has had a negative effect on some games and has destroyed some good studios, but it's equally true that they have contributed to the gaming world. God knows I never thought I'd find myself defending this company or this business model, but I am sick and tired of the endless, unreasoning hatred. EA is not a black hole of doom. I don't believe it's a net benefit to the gaming industry - that's an opinion, by the way - but it has it's moments. If you disagree with some of its practices or with the quality of some of its products (as I do), the solution is not to somehow destroy the corporation. This is a goal that is unrealistic, and almost childish in its intention. If you hate all a publisher's games, don't buy any of them. That's fine. If you're like me, there will be good quality games that you will want. Buy them! The solution is not to avoid everything from a publisher, but to avoid impulse buying. Read a review. Talk to a friend. Carefully avoid buying low-quality games while continuing to purchase those good-quality titles which have had a sufficiently long development cycle.

Large corporations generally are run for profit. If a corporation sees one line of games performing poorly, and another line (hopefully in our scenario the high end games) selling well, this is what will motivate their commissioning decisions in the future. Send a well reasoned and concise e-mail or letter to a company telling them why you don't appreciate certain decisions and why you believe a different course of action would be better. Make no mistake, your individual action will very likely not have any effect - I don't expect a summons to the CEOs office, asking to discuss my ideas for his business. Our power is not in individual action, but in mass. The more well-reasoned (and not spammy or abusive) arguments they get, the more seriously they will take the idea that they are upsetting some of their client base. The more people buy the high quality products and avoid the poor ones, the more clearly they will understand.

And please, for God's sake, stop the senseless hatred, you'll achieve nothing. Stop spamming message boards with "ea sux lol", because no-one will pay you any attention and you'll achieve nothing. Stop boycotting good games that you'd normally buy if they didn't have the EA logo on them. You won't put them out of business, you won't encourage them to improve and you've accomplished nothing!

The path to positive change isn't exactly easy. We have the power to make it happen if we'll just be about it with reason and patience instead of anger and fear. Are you afraid of the Big Bad Megacorp? I'm not.

-PsyW

As a resident of the UK, I have had it with articles and editorials on how video games are destroying our youth and are responsible for every single crime committed since 1985. I had assumed that such was the case with all media, but it seems like journalistic idiocy is a British trait. For example, the Telegraph's rail against insufficient censorship (all games should be banned!), and the unknown UK newspaper advertising for people who have been turned to crime by games (because I'm sure EVERYONE on this site has some kind of drug-addled criminal past). Even the normally impartial BBC managed to infuriate me a few years back in their coverage of the 2006 E3. They made up for their normal standard coverage by writing one of the most terribly biased 'news' articles I have ever had the displeasure of reading.

I actually formally complained, something I never do. I should note at this point that the BBC is a public broadcaster, bound by law to provide coverage that is as impartial as possible. Seeing as this article is a thinly-veiled opinionated editorial and not what could be described as impartial coverage my complaint was justified. The BBC's policy is always to reply to complaints if requested.

I never received a reply.

Conversely, I'm not aware of any UK paper providing coverage for the University of Middlesex study indicating that those who play violent games (although is WoW really that violent?) are actually more relaxed. Admittedly, it's not a wide-ranging or definitive study, but you can bet that if the Nursery School of Frisby On The Wreake (population: 3) produced a study saying that games were responsible for both Gulf Wars, it would be plastered all over the damned place.

Video games don't make me want to commit crime. Appalling journalism does...

-PsyW

It's been a while since I last made a post on here. I've been pretty busy lately, and I've only just found the time to start using the site again recently.

Seems like it's been an interesting few months for the gamespot community. At any rate, I'll post something a little longer up soon, once I've worked out where to start.

-PsyW

I must say, I am utterly amazed by VALVe's marketing for the Orange Box at this point. Firstly, they're encouraging preorders with their TF2 beta scheme (it's not really a Beta, but an early launch for pre-orderers on steam) but more impressive even than that is the fact that they are offering to allow all current HL2 and Ep1 owners to give away their existing copies to a friend when they buy the Orange Box (which already includes these games).

Absolutely amazing! People who weren't previously interested in the HL2 universe get a copy of the game and episode one, want to play the next episode and they buy the orange box, pass their copies on and the cycle perpetuates itself. It's very sophisticated marketing although it slightly irritates me that I now have to buy two games I've already got. I now understand why they scrapped the Black Box, but I fear that some people will not feel as tolerant as me of having to buy games they already own.

We'll see how it develops.

-PsyW

EDIT: My calculations place the Orange Box price over steam (in GBP) as £22.14 + tax which is dead cheap for all the stuff you get. Absolute bargain. The problem is, I already HAVE two of the games I'm paying for, which makes it a little bit less good value for money. It doesn't matter how many free gifts you give to my friends, I'm STILL paying for two games I've already paid for.

To be realistic for a second: I'm still going to buy it because I want Episode 2, TF2 and Portal, and this is the only option for getting them. I fear that this may actually cost Valve sales, though, as irritated people who already own HL2 and Ep1 refuse to pay for them twice. This is more cynical than I would have expected from Valve, and I have to say I'm disappointed.

EDIT EDIT: It actually occurs to me that I was expecting to pay £25-30 anyway, just for ep2, TF2 and Portal, and at £26 (inc tax) HL2 and Ep1 are essentially free anyway. So all's well that ends well, I suppose...

I give up!

It's taken me two days to get past the second loadpoint of the bioshock demo, only to find that it crashes near to the end. Complete lock-up in roughly the same place each time.

Apparently, I'm not the only one. There are 40 pages of people on the official forums with the same or similar issues to what I have experienced, and so far the official word from 2k is... nothing. Nothing at all.

It seems rediculous when every other game I've played in my recent memory has worked flawlessly - from Half Life 2 through to C&C3. I have a modern PC that exceeds the minimum requirements, so why should a game demo give me this much trouble? I saw a friend of mine play it through in about 15 minutes, yet it's taken me two days to simply make it crash a bit later.

From what I've seen so far, it's a beautiful, immersive, atmospheric game. However, I see no reason to part with my money for a product that I'm fairly certain won't work, no matter how good it is on the rare occasions where it does.

-PsyW

I did manage to finish DarkStar One, and the review is online now. You can read it either here at gamespot via my profile, or HERE at the New Alliance ComNet. I recommend the ComNet version, as it has better formatting.

I also finally got through that last C&C3 mission by capturing every production building on the map at the same time before GDI managed to wipe everything out or randomly start shooting my men. The final mission was actually MUCH easier, and simply required a fleet of 75 aircraft and 3 special edition infinate-range Juggernaughts (makes me wonder why GDI doesn't make ALL their juggernaughts with infinate range)...

I also took the time to read the C&C3 book, by prolific sci-fi author Keith R.A. DeCandido. It's short, but it brings out a lot of the background to the conflict. DeCandido seems to have a strange idea about how promotion and ranks work in the military, however. If you're a C&C fan, it's worth a look although it still won't take you as deep as the Halo novels did.

I also finally found time to load up the Bioshock demo, and while it seems incredibly immersive, my game crashes at the second load-point when the bathysphere enters Rapture. Every single time, crash to desktop with the standard windows "bioshock.exe has generated errors and must be closed" message. I'm on up to date drivers, so right now I'm redownloading. My maximum speed is around 90kbps, so it might take a while :roll:

Even so, it's probably much faster to download the bioshock demo again - or even to download the entire game - than it is to try and get the original Command and Conquer for free. I've seen reports of around 5kbps download speeds, and random disconnects during the download. Way to go, EA, release the original C&C as a free game, and then put the files up on the shoddiest server possible :P

-PsyW

I still haven't got through Darkstar One. It started doing odd buggy things like making my entire ship disappear and making all my weapons silent, so I haven't played it for a couple of days. I'll get back into it tonight, I think. It's much longer than I anticipated too, so I guess I'll keep you apprised on that :roll:

So, the obligatory Bioshock comments. I haven't really payed any attention to Bioshock. I've heard good things, but it just wasn't one of the games I was watching, my radar just didn't pick up on it. It seems that I forgot that the Half Life series wasn't something I was watching until after I played it, and the Halo series wasn't one I was watching until I played the X-Box version in a game store... The best games aren't going just fall into my lap, nor are they going to be confined solely to the franchises I already know. So, I'm downloading the demo - 7 hours on my connection, but it's dodgy so probably closer to 12 - and I'll post my impressions up. If I like it, maybe I'll get a copy via Steam (although god only knows how long that will take to download). We'll see, it may actually be cheaper to buy a disk version.

Finally, much discussion of the original Command and Conquer games over at the C&C Union has made me want to go back and play Tiberian Sun again. If I do that, I won't get anything done this week, so I'm trying to avoid it :roll:

I think I'll see if Darkstar One has fixed itself. Maybe that'll curb my TS urges :P

-PsyWarrior

I've been playing my way through Darkstar One recently, a game I didn't get time to finsh when it was new. It's been sitting on my shelf for a while, and I've just got around to re-installing it.

Seems all pretty solid gamplay-wise, but some of the voice acting is so horrific it's actually funny. Seems like they just picked up some bloke off the street to play the main character... :roll:

There's also occasionally a hint of slightly off translation, but like the voice acting it's probably just another symptom of the lack of careful localisation. The voice and scripting certainly aren't the worst I've ever heard, but it's also a far cry from the high standards of Freelancer's story campaign.

I'll get a proper review up once I've worked my way through the game, assuming I don't get stuck on the second from last mission (see previous post for that :P )...

A Tiberian Era war story...

Some time ago, close to its release date, I bought a little game you may have heard of. A strategy game by the name of Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. It's not a bad game, although I was a little bit disappointed with the overall package. The music was mediocre, the strategy seemed somewhat lacking in places, the units said rediculous things that you'd never hear in previous games ("I'm the JUGGERNAUGHT!"), and Skirmish was so fast paced that I couldn't blink for fear of being suddenly overrun by unreasonable numbers of Tripods.

There is one thing than C&C did rather well, though. The single player campaign. I basically bought the game solely for its single player campaign, and I wasn't disappointed. Well... mostly, anyway. See, I like to complete games before writing full reviews of them, and after blasting through the GDI and most of the NOD campaign I was sure that it wouldn't take too long. That is, until Operation: Stiletto.

Operation Stiletto is the second from last NOD mission, and it is of legendary difficulty. I have never encountered a mission like it. The objectives are: 1: Capture both GDI Construction Yards; 2: Capture both Scrin Drone Towers; 3: Destroy or capture all GDI production structures; 4: Destroy or capture all Scrin production structures.

A few months ago I tried this mission a couple of times, and failed completely. Recently, I felt the urge to actually complete the game, and find out what happens with Kane's plan. After all, it can't be that difficult, surely?

Fine. It's a challenge, but it's achievable. GDI and the Scrin are both neutral to me until I start firing at them or capturing their buildings, so I position my 4 engineers around the barracks and war factories of the first GDI base. using planning mode I tell them to enter the structure (so I get all four structures at once), and then release them. I immediately churn out 3 tanks and 3 APCs, secure the area and use engineers to capture the other key structures. After about 5 minutes of building up my base, I'm in a position to start producing Mammoths and Firehawks and move on the next GDI base while holding this one. No problem. Suddenly... the screen scrolls involuntarily to one corner of the map to show a collapsing Scrin tower. GDI forces destroyed one of the drone towers. Mission Failed.

Restart. I proceed as before, but after securing the base I produce an airfield, tech centre and 4 firehawks, sending them immediately to assist the Scrin (who I will be attacking myself, soon. Dammit it makes no sense!). The firehawks fail to destroy the Elite GDI attack force, who destroy the drone tower. Mission Failed.

Restart. This time, I secure the area and churn out 10 predator tanks, and send them into battle against GDI. The GDI forces, however, have maximum veterancy and railgun upgrades, and they wipe out my tank platoon without the slightest problem. Then they continue into the Scrin base and wipe it out. Mission Failed.

Restart. This time I produce 8 predators and a tech centre, and sent them on their way. While they proceed across the map, I'm researching the railgun upgrade. Seconds before they encounter the enemy, the railgun upgrade is completed, and they succeed in destroying the GDI attack force! I have only two badly damaged tanks left, but the first drone tower is saved! Now I just need to get an engineer over here - The screen scrolls to the north. GDI forces have destroyed the other drone tower. Mission Failed.

Kane... will not be pleased.

The Scrin are advanced aliens who can travel through space with no problem, but they can't even resist an attack for a few minutes?! How am I supposed to build enough units to defeat two elite GDI attack forces? I can barely defeat one! This is made worse by the fact that GDI starts off with these units, so I have to destroy them to make the mission completable. All the walkthroughs say there's a huge element of luck in this mission. They are right. If you're really lucky, your computer will crash, your disk will break or your mouse will explode, and you won't have to play this mission at all.

Argh... :roll:

Hmm, I thought. It's not an unusual thought for me, with the exception that today, it related to Gamespot. It went something along the lines of this:

Hmm... I have a website to design, a roleplay series to manage, a clan to run and production work to do out in reality. Obviously I need more work to do :roll:

I'll start my Gamespot intertubeslog! (or whatever those young whippersnappers call 'writing stuff and putting it on the internet where no-one will ever see it' these days)

I suppose introducing myself would be a good first step. I'm Fleet Admiral Alexander "PsyWarrior" Webster (it's not my real name, of course, or you'd be able to track me down and kill me). I am, as the title suggests, an Admiral in the New Alliance Starfleet (NAFL), a gaming clan that's currently 'between games' at the moment. As my profile states, I like shooting things (note for police: In a vitual environment only), blowing stuff up (note for counter-terrorists: Only in a virtual environment), preferably in a sci-fi context. Since my organisation is without a game to call our own at this point, we fill our time with an episodic serial forum-based screenplay-format RP called "INV Black Hand", which you can find on the New Alliance ComNet. There's also other RP stuff on there, including a prose format short story which is currently open to contributors.

I expect in the near future, I'll be writing some reviews on the games I've been playing recently for your consumption. Armed Assault definately needs to be talked about, along with a couple of other games which have been out for ages but I haven't got around to reviewing just yet.

Incidentally, please call me PsyWarrior, PsyW, Psy or Warrior, not SCPsyWarrior... The SC is just there because apparently there's some other PsyWarrior around here somewhere who got in before me. If you see him, it's not me (unless it's not on Gamespot, in which case it might be me). My head hurts...

-PsyW