[QUOTE="snared04"]Sorry, if they're going to involve themselves in poor business practices, I'll do whatever it takes to protect my time and money. If they'd have better return policies and/or release demos, it might be a different situation, but I'm afraid neither of those things are happening at the moment. Sucks for them.Planeforger

That's nice in principle, but can you honestly say that you've gone on to immediately buy every single pirated game that you played for more than 10 minutes?

I'm betting that the vast (vast!) majority of pirates do not.

Actually I don't know that I can name a big pirating group (i.e. RELOADED, SKidROW, etc.) that doesn't say on their NFO files "pay for games and support the developers.". Yeah, you're right in assuming that some people are merely out there for free items, but at the same time I would call video game companies extremely unscrupulous in their dealings with people. Raise your hand if you're happy about DRM's for instance.

And like I said, I could go in and buy a book and bring it back for a refund -on that note I could go in, read through the first chapter without paying for anything-you can't do that with a video game. That's what demos are supposed to be for.

You can test drive a car.

You don't have to pay for a new house before you walk through it for the first time, before you get it inspected to make sure everything checks out, etc.

Almost every piece of merchandise or ownable anything in the world has some kind of demo or return policy... except video games. Even other types of computer software, like a Windows OS or Microsoft office allows you a free trial period. If video game companies have been having serious issues with pirating, then they have no one to blame but themselves. Everyone has been burned by a %@%#y game or ones that just plain don't work on their system, or require an inordinate amount of work to get working properly, etc. Video game companies and retailers don't want to deal with refunds and piracy? I think consumers don't want to deal with shoddy coding and refund policies that favor everyone but themselves. The market will, and has, found a way to balance things out.

Admitting to piracy on these forums is not good. Especially if a mod sees this or somebody reports it ( not me though ) It would be nice if they released demos for games. I've been bitten by both critic and user reviews before. Where are the demos ?!!!!OgreB

Did I say I pirated anything?

[QUOTE="funkyzoom"]

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"] Might be fine to try the game, but it still counts towards the pirated rate numbers unfortunately. I still don't agree, he should rely more on reviews and player critics.FelipeInside

Reviews aren't always helpful. Even if a thousand people like it, there is no guarantee that YOU will like it. It all comes down to personal preference. For example, although Bioshock received rave reviews and everyone praised it, I personally didn't like it at all. In fact, for some reason playing the game even for a few minutes gave me a splitting headache. I'm glad I tried it for an hour before buying, because I never liked it and never bought it. I agree that even trying a game counts towards piracy, but that's better compared to losing your money over a game you can't enjoy. I often try games before buying them. The only developer whose games I buy without trying is Valve, because I know very well that all games they make will surely be terrific.

You're being purposefully obtuse to the part where in the list of:

-Games

-Movies at a theater

-Books

Games are the only thing you can't get your money back for, at least on the PC. If I go to a theater, and walk out after 10 minutes of a movie, they'll refund my movie. I can go to Barnes and Noble, buy a book, bring it back the next day and get all my money back, no questions asked. Game companies and software retailers, on the other hand, are in the habit of treating every single customer like a criminal. Buy a game, and no matter what you do, once it has been opened, you're not getting anything back. Not even if it legitimately DOES NOT WORK on your computer. Sorry, if they're going to involve themselves in poor business practices, I'll do whatever it takes to protect my time and money. If they'd have better return policies and/or release demos, it might be a different situation, but I'm afraid neither of those things are happening at the moment. Sucks for them.

Anyone that's interested in Diablo III and the beta that's going on right now:

I have my Diablofans.com beta blog here:

http://www.diablofans.com/index.php?app=blog&module=manage

Several articles about impressions of the gameplay mechanics, classes, etc from the perspective of a long time Diablo and Diablo II veteran. Also have quite a few gameplay videos up. Check them out, and enjoy.

The PC is where devs can make their names in their chosen field. Despite the "consolisation" of Crysis 2, Crytek carved out a name for themselves as designers of exceptionally good looking games. Blizzard have revolutionised and brought the RTS genre forward with the very different WC3 and the storytelling of Starcraft (compared to others where characters were nothing more than mission briefs).

You'll see a lot of them stick around since there is profit to be made. The PC gaming market maybe smaller, but you can shift a bigger proportion of games to customers thanks to cheaper prices and those profits aren't shared with Microsoft or Sony.

LordRork

Err.. because Blizzard's mostly known for RTS games....? Diablo pretty much put them on the map, and now they're a household name because of WoW, neither of which are RTS games.

Valve
Blizzard
CD Projekt RED
id Software
Bethesda

But who knows what will happen. 9 months ago I would never in a million years have expected Crytek to start selling PC gamers short but well, look what happened.

broken_bass_bin

That's pretty much all you need in that list. Don't forget Bioware either, even though I'm not a huge fan, and THQ, though I am a big fan.

Most of the stuff you mentioned is availible, including full loot lists, where to find/farm all of the MI items, stat formulas, skill calculators, and just about anything else you want to know. Regarding the Throny Maul, the very first result from a google result returned: http://www.titanquest.net/tq-forum/threads/12695-Good-place-to-look-for-quot-Thorny-Maul-quot There is also a spreadsheet out there that has all of the drop tables for all of the bosses. https://rs165tl2.rapidshare.com/#!download|165tl|49302788|TQ-Boss-Drop-v0.3.xls|39|R~0Renevent42

Yeah, that's actually the thread I mentioned, and if you look through it, there's no definite answers to be found :\ I'll give these other links a try though, I appreciate the references.

It's a real pity that this game didn't make it as big as it really should have. Those who play it almost always love it, and I believe that it is, hands down, the highest quality action RPG game made since Diablo II.

I still enjoy playing it from time to time, both solo and with friends, but every time I go back to it I am always dissapointed with the lack of documentation on the game.

You can find an item compendium floating around on a few sites, but pretty much everything else is undocumented.

There are many, many stats, and modifiers that aren't clearly explained within the game that you can't really get a clear answer on via wiki pages, there are no boss loot drop tables to be had, nothing. I was looking for one of the most commonly recognized items yesterday, the Thorny Maul, and the absolute best search result I found still had no definite answers on its possible locations, every from people who had found it.

Makes me sad :\ I hope THQ does a better job of explaining some of these things, or making the information available at least, with its upcoming game in this venue.

I enjoyed it, but is there anyway to play just a regular custom game without time limits? All the preset campaigns seem really short, unless I'm missing something.

hey! i just started playing half life oppoosing force. im wondering how long it is? thanks guys

jettpack

It's pretty comparable to the length of the original Half Life game. I'd say 15-20 hours if you've never played it before, though it can be done in a lot less if you know where you're going and what you're doing the whole way through.

Also, imo, a lot more fun than the original with the added weaponry and enemies.