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At 10/16/13 08:11 AM, Nithael wrote:

Thats the thing, EA IS trying to force players to buy their games by attempting to get monopoly on the gaming market.

Except that it's not, considering that there are a good amount of developers with other publishers, and even indie developers who make games and DLC all the time. Even with EA's amount of wealth and influence, there are many who don't do business with EA in the first place, so the monopoly argument is nothing more than a cheap strawman.

Why else has EA been doing their best to buyout everyone they possibly can?

Just because some developers do business with EA doesn't mean they are bought out by them. Most of the studios has bought out were either small time studios that went unnoticed, or were on the verge of collapse. Quit assuming that EA is the only major American publisher out there.

The reason people are bashing them for the sequels they make is the fact that almost every sequel that has come out of EA during this era has done little but disappoint, when considering the huge jumps in technology we have gained these past years, the progress in game design should be infathomable.

You know that much of that criticism is nothing more than subjective criticism that is largely used by people who aren't fans of sports games in the first place. You can't just simply judge a series like Madden as a whole, especially when there is only so much they can do with an offical sports license. As for the lack of progress in game design, you must either live under a rock, or are completely don't understand how much technology that they use in the games, and how expensive said technolgy is. Do people ever think about any of this, or do they even care? I think I have found the answer here.

It seems like much of the media is now opposed to the name Redskins, but no one has dared to offer them any sort of new nickname to the team. Plus, you would more or less be whitewashing 80+ years of the franchise just to apologize to a small minority {of a minority group} of people who are either irrelevant, or who are content in living in a place that is about as worse as Haiti, and do fuck-all about it. If anything, they should profit off of that name like Florida State does with the Seminoles nickname, then maybe then, you'll get the respectability that you piss and moan about.

Seriously, I don't care if you have a personal problem with the name Redskins, but that still doesn't give you the right to tell a billion dollar franchise what to do with their name, especially when they don't want it changed in the first place.

At 10/15/13 09:09 PM, JRob wrote: Try not watching overrated animes for starters.

On a personal level, I do agree that anime like Bleach and Naruto are overrated to an extent, especially with the empty filler arcs, and rather predictable plot devices. But in the bigger picture, subjective words like overrated are thrown around so casually, it's lost most of its sting, because it {unintentionally} is going to create interest for an anime, sort of like free advertising.

For example: I think that Evangelion is a very overrated anime that has a plot that is too heavily reliant upon exotic symbolism, character gambits, and they essentially tanked the last 2 episodes, the latter due to extensive budget cuts.

At 10/15/13 03:38 PM, Idiot-Finder wrote: You can say that.

That honestly suprises me that people would consider the 2003 version to be more superior than the Brotherhood adaptation, whichwere much more faithful to the manga. Of course, in all fairness, the original was very good in it's own right, especially if you didn't read the manga beforehand, and even non anime fans gave it some high praise.

That said, looking at both of them, it's not hard to see the various improvements with the Brotherhood adaptation compared to the 2003 version. I don't know if it's the nostalgia tint in their glasses, or they happen to live Envy so much, (despite being an unlikeable prick in both versions, and even worse in the original) but it's hard to fathom why anyone would dismiss the newer, more faithful to the source, and overall better version of the original show, which was still pretty good in it's own right.

At 10/14/13 11:41 PM, Natick wrote: i have contributed to this topic. everything i have said so far is a relevant response. i even listed a game ea made 20 years that i actually give a lot of praise to. i'm just not being a defensive arse about one of the most greedy companies in this country and ragging out anyone who doesn't like being fucked as a consumer for being "hipster idiot"

Now you have, but before you're simply trying to be a smartass and dodging the point. I know that people voted EA to be the worst company in America, but I simply disagree with that considering that many oil companies and banks are a lot worse than EA, but it seems like we just don't care about those guys anymore. The funniest thing is that you say that EA is fucking over the consumer, when they have the option of not buying the games and DLC in the first place.

I'm not going to try attempting to defend their business practices, all I'm doing is simply stating that their track record of making games {either as a publisher or developer} is a lot better than people want to give credit towards, but don't because of who they are.

:(last time i checked, hipster tends to go against the norm and the norm in this case is that most people who know enough about ea hate ea so if you want to call anyone a hipster, look in the mirror, friend-o).

A lot of the EA hate does come from hipsters, most likely as a feeble attempt to stick it to the man and stray from the norm. Most gamers with any sort of creditability would avoid the politics and drama of the game industry and judge the company by what they publish or develop, and yet we shove a lot of that aside because of their greediness and their business practices.

stuff

I never said that I will fully defend them on their bad behavior, but it's not like they haven't dealt with the controversy before, and attempt to fix the problem at hand. Some, like the so-called "sexist and ageist" Dead Space 2 ads, was not a big deal at all, and if anything was an attempt to lampoon soccermoms who bitch at video game violence, and was not meant to be taken seriously.

because you are wrong. ea releases good games in the sense that they're run-of-the-mill, ordinary and compatible (if you take out the drm and microtransactions) but aren't ambitious, innovative, or even fun when you keep getting the same damn thing each year but with slight gameplay additions and a fancier coat of paint.

Way to use subjectives to make your argument. I have a hard time imagining that games like Dragon Age, Mass Effect or Dead Space not being innovative or creative in their own ways, much less fun. Maybe it's different tastes for different people, and I'll acknowledge that point, but when you throw buzzwords like innovation and fun, suddenly you're making a blanket statement about something that isn't fully the case.

This is why I use the hipster argument, most people who use that same argument that you're making are being either disingenous or simply love it to stick it to the man because they're not making the games that they want. Frankly, I find that kind of reasoning to be a weak cop-out at best, and hypocritical at worst.

if you want to eat wall-paper paste for breakfast, lunch and dinner, then fine by me but don't bullshit me and attempt to get me to forgive the shady and outright idiotic business practices these people engage in just because it's triple-a publishing.

When have I ever said that I defended their business practices? Never. All I'm saying that the games themselves are much better than people want to ever give credit towards, and we as gamers should judge them more so by what they produce and not for all of the politics that goes on. People seem to forget that no one is forcing anyone to buy EA's games or DLC in the first place, and if they're fans of the games that EA has, then why should anyone bash them for this then?

I'm getting rather tired of stating this point over and over again, so I'm not going to waste any more time arguing my points to anyone else.

At 10/14/13 07:24 PM, Natick wrote: projecting corporate apologism ftw, eh?

Are you going to actually contribute anything to the thread, or are you just keep continuing to make smart-ass comments that are irrelevant to the topic?

At 10/14/13 12:54 PM, Jin wrote: Those, and games they've developed themselves - aka all the recycled sports games - are the only things that should be considered when judging the company

Way to dismiss all of the other games that they either published or devleoped. I'll give you that their in studio company is rather shaky at times, but if you're going to judge any game company lile EA, then you have to take in account all of the other developers too, considering that they are in their umbrella as well.

Within that context, EA fucked up badly. And if one can dismiss these mistakes as minute then there's no description better than being corporate apologist, or one who suffers heavily from cognitive dissonance.

I never said that they were perfect, but they have either solved a lot of those problems, or they're not really as big as some people make them out to be. You and Natick sound like those idiot hipsters who hate EA, because they are so big, and aren't making that you and 6 others are complaining about. They don't owe anyone anything, and anyone with half a brain and aren't biased would know that you judge a company on the games they publish/develop, not the silly politics and cheap talk that seems to be dime a dozen in the gaming community, much less here.

At 10/14/13 08:25 AM, Natick wrote: lol, corporate apologism

This really has nothing to do with apologizing to a corporation. This is about whether EA is a good publisher/developer, and it's fairly obvious that the answer is yes, because of their track record on games. The problem is that people overmangify their faults, and base their view purely on them, and that's wrong, and you know it.

EA may have their faults, but the track record of games overshadows all of them, and yet, few people seem to care about this.

At 10/13/13 03:39 PM, JayTheWiz wrote: Depends, who goes in if they pull Peyton? Even in 2 quarters I expect Peyton to put up AT LEAST 21 points, and at most 35. The Jags might get a FG if they are lucky. I'm assuming the Broncos will also pull some defensive starters too, so by the time it's over I could see the Jags having 10 points.

Turns out, the game was much closer than it really should have. Jacksonville played hard enough to give Denver a scare through most of the game, and we have a MJD sighting, who really needs to get out of there soon. Frankly, the Broncos secondary is a potential Achilles heel, considering that they do give up a ton of yards and points as well, even against bad teams like the Cowboys. This is starting to remind me of those Indy teams who are so good on offense, yet had bad to abysmal defences that constantly screwed Peyton over and over again.

That said, I do expect both Denver and Kansas City to be undefeated when they meet in Mile High.

EA has been (and still are) one of the best publishers/developers today, politics be damned. They have a lot of good developers like Bioware and Dice, which haven't produced many clunkers, if at all, and a lot of people enjoy the various yearly sports games such as Madden and FIFA, so they must know what they're doing. Are they greedy to an extent? Yes they are, but I hardly think that should matter at all, considering EA's track record of good games over a long period of time.

The Ouya is a secondary console at best, and there really isn't any quality games that is worth getting on the Ouya that you can't get anywhere else, I wouldn't go near this console, even at $99.

At 10/12/13 09:01 PM, LittleWashu wrote: But in all honestly it was one of the few shows that was for kids.

Let me play devil's advocate on this part. While I can't deny that 4Kids butchered the anime that they got their hands on, the anime that they have gotten while they were dubbing anime was primarily made for a children's audience in Japan, and cultural differences aside, there was a possibility that they could've edit it somewhat without screwing up the story. {i.e Sanji's cigarette smoking} The fact that they didn't do this pretty much sealed their reputation in the anime distribution game, and all of their cultural whitewashing didn't help matters any, as they could've explained it all in a subtle way.

Part of the reason why 4Kids gets so much justifiable hate is the edit butchering and horrible dubs, but another reason is their refusal to produce an uncut set with those franchises for the older audiences who have the purchasing power. Take the cultural differences aside, Most Shonen Jump anime is viewed by many different age groups in Japan, and there really shouldn't much of a difference in America.

About time I give this thread a meaningful bump.

From a pure neutral perspective, The Michigan-Penn State game might be the best game of the whole year, but sadly I do feel like this game was essentially tarnished by a mixture in ascending order, bad kicking when it mattered most, turnovers and not cashing on said turnovers, and horrible officiating, especially with the phantom pass interference in the 5OT. Shame it had to end the way it did with the refs not putting the flag away and simply let them have the benefit of the doubt.

While I can say that Michigan didn't deserve to win this game, considering all of the high-wire finishes they had during this season, if ever there was a case of highway robbery by the refs, there would be some credence. {Sadly, an all too common occurrence with college refs the last 10 years or so.}

Considering that the 360 was released in late 2005, and it's a western made console that didn't suck, it's not much of a surprise that that the 360 is more sucessful in America, and throughout much of the world for that matter. The sales gap in Europe is probably not as big as it is in America, or in Japan for the PS3/Wii, but American sales of the 360 more than covers the difference overall. (If you don't conut the Wii)

Somehow, I feel kind of nostalgic talking about 4Kids hypothetically getting the licensing rights to anime and butchering the dub, reminds me of 2006 {or earlier} all over again. In all seriousness though, if they ever did get their hands on either show, it would be severely edited and whitewashed up the wazoo, not to mention the rather horrible voice acting that would accompany it, other than maybe Dan Green, who's decent at his own right.

Of course, it's all a hypothetical at this point, considering that 4Kids is basically out of the anime licensing game, and the only one that they do have is Yu-Gi-Oh, and the rest are either kiddy stuff to begin with or western animation {that isn't Winx} that surprisingly isn't half-bad. Al Khan basically turned from a pariah in the anime industry, to completely falling off the radar in a matter of a couple of years, mostly due to companies like Funimation and Viz.

At 10/10/13 05:57 PM, Xenomit wrote: No, the jury found him guilty. He was then acquitted of the charges by the judge.

I hate to use this argument considering it doesn't tell the full story, but simply put, scoreboard. The jury charged him of second-degree murder and manslaughter, but found him not guilty on both counts. Once again, scoreboard.

People like me? You mean the people who don't just let ignorant bliss flow over them and just go with whatever the incredibly flawed court system goes with? Everything about his story made no sense, he had a history of being violent, he could have had dozens of other non-lethal weapons that would have incapacitated the teenager who somehow managed to pull him out of his truck and scratch his head on the ground, the jury found him guilty but the judge was like "nah fuck that", it's complete bullshit.

STOP MAKING EXCUSES. Christ, you're simply regurgitating the same spiel that the prosecutors used against him, but the problem is that it was largely circumstantial. While we may never get the crystal clear story in it's entirety, Zimmerman had the right to self-defense with a gun under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" laws, and it's not like Trayvon was completely innocent like the media tried to pull off many times over, in fact he was beating on Zimmerman pretty good, I don't know about you, but that should be more than enough justification to stop someone who was beating you to a pulp, even if you have to kill them.

The people like you who just go with the system are the fucked up ones who would probably let society go to hell.

Not my fault that the system did what it was supposed to do, blame the prosecutors for fucking up the case. The system is not the problem, and the fact that you think it is either tells me that you're retarded enough to truly believe in that garbage, or you're really that blissfully ignorant and only listen to one side of the argument.

No one in the right mind would say that the system is perfect, but it's better than most other places by far, and it did it's job, what the fuck else do you want? I don't see you offering any solutions, so please do tell the world what bullshit you really want to change in our system.

What do you mean? I'm not hung up on anything. I'm talking about it on a forum in my free time when I'm not doing anything else, that doesn't mean I'm "hung up" on anything, leave it to people like you to pretty much say "Shut up I'm right and you're wrong god"

You're still up in arms about it, and the fact that you're talking about this reminds me of sour grapes. Not to mention that you're still in resentment that Zimmerman is not in prison for defending himself, even if it was excessive to an extent.

You should probably do that then, if you're really that pathetic

That was a joke. I knew your dumb ass wouldn't understand that, or perhaps it was a bluff on your part which didn't work.

If his head was bashed into the concrete hard enough for his life to be in any kind of danger, then yes, he would have been disoriented to the point of nearly being knocked out, unless he's got some kind of super-skull that doesn't work the same way literally every other human skull works.

Being hit in the head on the concrete hurts, and you often can't get the feel of a lot of extremities for a small period of time. Why do you think so many football players have a hard time fully getting their bearings straight, much less even get on their feet after a hard hit to the head, even with helmets on? That's not including the fact that Zimmerman was getting beat down, and he has the right to self-defense, excessive as it turned out, but still justifiable.

At 10/10/13 05:47 PM, Sekhem wrote: i think you're really just angry at yourself for being a closet racist

I can tell that we're now throwing the words like racist so casually now, way to raise the bar here, good job chap.

At 10/10/13 05:22 PM, Xenomit wrote: wah wah wah.....

How many times do we have to go over this? He was found NOT GUILTY, if mostly because of a shitty prosecutor and circumstance. Now it just seems like we're all hung up on this when that's not the point at all, and I just can't understand why in the hell people like you can't get over it. Sorry if the verdict didn't go the way you expected, or that Zimmerman didn't get lynched soon after by the ignorant hordes, but it's all over now, and now's the time to get over it and move on.

The way you hang on to resentment like a Confederate widow, makes me want to demolish my house using only my skull as a battering ram in response to your egregious logic.

You know, it's easy to say that America "lost" the war, when that's not exactly the case. After the French shit the bed and left in Vietnam, it basically became a Civil War between North and South Vietnam and when we entered into the war along with other allies as well {people tend to forget that}, we expected South Vietnam to carry their own weight, and they didn't.

The war could've easily been won, but a mix of unpopularity of the war in America and baffling decisions hampered the effort, and we pretty much had to resort to backup plans, most notably "Vietnamization". If you're going to put the blame on anyone, put the blame on South Vietnam's failure to carry their own weight after we left. {in advance, no less}

Who won or lost the war is not the relevent point, especially when the majority of people in Vietnam today weren't even alive when the war was going on, or barely remember it to begin with. Not to mention that the air of capitalism has already went through Vietnam in recent years, so basically for us, it's a draw at best, and a Pyrrhic victory at worst, and most people with legitimate knowledge of the war leans towards the former.

At 10/9/13 08:34 PM, Shibe wrote: I'm making an ass out of myself for not understanding the thread

Fixed.

The fact that you didn't understand that the thread is titled "Fictional Dictatorships" is rather sad on your part. Please go outside and play in traffic.

At 10/9/13 01:04 PM, Bikowolf wrote: I'm a videogamer that had the ps 2, i sad that more games are hard to do or are really funny to do.
When the games of ps2 was finished i bougth the xbox 360 ... the games is not the same than ps2, they are easy to do and the 90%, supposing, of videogames are all fps or online games.

Just because you're new here, doesn't mean I'm going to take it easy on you. Your comparisons to the PS2 and Xbox 360 are subjective at best, and are a cop out at worst. Not to mention that the PS2 has been around longer and has a bigger library of games than the 360, so you pretty much tried to skew the argument using the numbers, and you're not doing a good job at doing that. Don't use ignorance as an excuse, especially when you have the ability to research all the games that are available with a simple Google search or sites like GameFAQs.

This is why I despise comparing one generation's of games to another because they were made for a completely different time with a different audience in mind, which skews the subjectivity and enforces the nostalgic beliefs of the fanboys and the ignorant. Never mind all of the massive improvements between each generation of consoles and games as well.

Es:
MW3 will never like Killzone 1,

Different setting, different game. The only thing that they have in common is that they are both FPSs.

Just Cause 2 will never like the 1rst.

Of course it isn't, are you blind? Just Cause 2 is a lot better game than the predecessor, and they were made in the same generation, so that basically nulls that point.

I know that there's games that are hard or funny to do ... but not more that the games of the ps2

You need to take subjectivity out of games and play them for what they are, not for the secondary stuff that most people shouldn't care about. {i.e difficulty, fun, etc.}

Game franchises that have been around for nearly 30 years or so, give or take, are generally going to be rehashes eventually, considering that there is only so much you can do with a particular franchise, and Nintendo has been milking the cow of Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc. for decades, and yet the fans continue to buy those games because they love them.

Here's where the problem lies, and it's not the rehashing or yearly releases of sequels or anything like that. It's the gamers who don't seem to notice this and then bitch about it because their favorite games aren't being made for whatever reason, and when they do get made, they either flop because of poor sales, {or more often, poor marketing} or the game simply sucks ass. What most people here can't understand that marketing plays a big part into this, and it's not as simple as TV and print ads, but rather the target demographic that they're trying to aim for and what expectations they're trying to get. {a lot of games flop partly because they fail to meet expectations}

Another thing is that with established franchises, you most likely know what you're getting when you play the game, so you don't metaphorically flush money down the toilet if a new IP flops. Ultimately, the video gaming industry is just like any other industry, it's a market of trends and consumers, and if they like what some company has to offer, then the sequels will come. I'm not saying that it's a perfect system, but it is rather effective and I wouldn't want to change that just to appease a small group of spoiled gamers.

If you want to change the industry like most of you want to think, then you're either have to create a killer app for a genre that's not an RPG or shooter, or convince a lot of people to not buy those games and possibly alienate them because they like a certain franchise the way it is. While shooters get a lot of attention in the media, {both positively and negatively} there are still a lot of other types of games available if you willing to look, and the problem is that some people aren't willing to do the research and simply bash whoever is on top because of jealousy or inferiority.

At 10/8/13 02:19 PM, KasaKrab wrote: blah blah blah.

I'm not going to defend those actions, but what you're saying is that we should prosecute those that have most likely either been prosecuted by the military themselves, or written off as a unavoidable situation in which force was the only option. Manning had no right to release that video or documents in the first place the way he did, and basically smear everyone in his group and more, and not just the ones who were already tried by the military.

You can't accuse a group of people {or an army} for the actions of a few who screw up, and don't think for one second that the military didn't know about this beforehand and had dealt with whoever was responsible.

There's a lot of people all over the world defending this man.

That may be, but a large amount of those people are either simply ignorant of the fact that he committed a crime and put others at unnecessary risk, or are simply there to bash America for every little mistake like a witty smart ass who asking for a caved in skull, metaphorically speaking. In either case, there is no justification for what Manning did, and the only reason why he isn't completely despised is because of these people and certain segments of the media treating him as some sort of truth martyr. The worst thing about this isn't that he leaked those documents necessarily, it's that he had legal avenues to do so, and was either ignorant of those choices, or simply decided to do what he did in order to stick to the military as some sort of blackmail, like the petty rat that he is.

You must think that everything lives under a black and white vacuum, in which it takes someone noble to expose an evil, when in reality that's not even close, and let's not get started with the good intentions that Manning thought he had.

Instead of saying "Shut up! Don't tell secrets! Don't break the law!" Try asking, what are these secrets?

Uh, no. There are some secrets that the public should not know, and for good reason, never mind that he had a legal avenue to do so, especially with congressmen who wants to knock Obama down a peg or two. In case I haven't said it before, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and you can not defend a criminal just because it had good intentions in mind, because of the negative consequences that will follow.

I'm not condoning general law-breaking in any way, but i am encouraging you to find out why he's being attacked before just accepting him as a criminal

HE. BROKE. THE. FUCKING. LAW. Unless you're a lawyer for him, and I'll take it that you're not, then there should be no reason why anyone should defend his actions as some sort of noble gesture. What you're arguing all this time is akin to defending people like Tookie Williams, who was a cold-blooded murderer with the Crips, yet dedicated his prison life to philanthropic works and anti-gang initiatives, hollow as they were.

The Holy Britannian Empire from Code Geass. All of the racist and/or sociopathic tendencies from their leaders aside, it's hard not to admire them from a distance, considering that the rival factions are either incompetent, corrupt or just plain stupid. Uncaring and cruel as they may be, they are far from stupid. {the main characters at least}

The Helghast from Killzone. Like the Britannians, they are sociopaths to an extent, but they're much more dynamic and fun to play as {online} compared to the ISA, who basically come off as generic, incompetent or arguably, just as worse as the Helghast themselves, if not more so.

At 10/7/13 10:43 PM, Smittytheghost wrote: But Church's chicken is god-tier chicken.

Ick.. Church's chicken has got to be some of the worst fried chicken I've ever eaten from, which is probably why it's some of the cheapest chicken out there, only cementing their reputation as a pleb tier fried chicken joint. Give me KFC any day of the week.

At 10/7/13 11:35 PM, ZJ wrote: So, are the Jets actually good this year or has Atlanta just tumbled significantly in terms of quality since losing in the NFC Championship game this year?

I would put much of it on Atlanta falling apart, because they shouldn't be where they are with the talented roster they have, and yet there seems to be something that is holding them back every time. Sucks to be Steven Jackson, who pretty much went through the exact same thing with the Rams, and now is going through it again with the Falcons.

The Jets are still a bad team, but they are respectable with Smith at the helm as compared to Mark Sanchez, though I know their upswing isn't going to last much longer.

I don't think that people really give a shit about the news unless there is something tragic, controversial or bizarre about something, then soon after, all of the talking heads will vent on and on about the event and who's on the right, wash rinse repeat. Between them, they have to put in filler news in that wouldn't constitute the main part of the news, but in some way it's worth mentioning.

Of course, you always have the option of not reading or watching that news in the first place, it's kind of funny how most people don't seem to understand that.

If this were a regular hack and slash game under a different name, then it would've been a passable game on it's own merits, the problem is that the Devil May Cry name {DmC} is on it, and is a reboot of the series that really didn't need one in the first place. It also doesn't help that Capcom is slowly going down the toilet when most of their creative talent left to form Platinum Games, though it seems like they aren't doing too hot themselves either.

If you're a fan of the original {and superior} version of Devil May Cry, then you might want to steer clear of this game. If not, then you most likely get this game cheap and you might get some mild thrills out of it.

At 10/6/13 09:11 PM, Gumburd wrote: One could argue no-ones dumb enough to browse NG BBS while working, but then why is the rule there in the first place - and why is this the only one exempt from it at the moment?

You just answered it yourself, no one does browse NG at work, the NSFW is nothing more than a formality, and it's not really against the rules to have half-naked women on it as compared to a fully naked woman, there's a huge difference in that, and if you don't know that by now, then stop derailing this thread and get out.

At 10/6/13 08:20 PM, Gumburd wrote: Love the NSFW images without warning

Let's not go there, this is a fight you can't win.

It's nice to see that the Bengals defense can beat high powered offensive teams like New England, {albeit not at 100%, but who's counting} though I really do wish the offense pull their weight more, especially with the talent they have on offense. The good news is that they have a rather manageable schedule from here on out, so they should be able to fix their offensive issues.