Evening Reading

Planetside is a very cool game. Tons of weapons, squad tactics, and tiny nifty touches like forward deployable bases and all sorts of other cool things etc.

The only thing is, Its just not worth what Sony wants.

-The servers are still laggy as fuck (and this isn't just "gee it's beta it's supposed to be laggy" lag, this is "shitty ass servers can't handle what they are trying to cram into them" lag.) hopefully they fix this, but honestly, this is an FPS we are talking about here. In todays day and age anyone with a cable modem+ should have a below 50 ping, no ifs ands or buts about it, I don't give a flying fuck if there are 3000 people on a server, if you can't put 3000 people on a server without providing EVERYONE a 95% lag free environment don't fucking try it, it's a moot point to say justify intense lag for half the player base by saying "Well we have 3000 people on the server" fuck you, get better servers.

-The three sides are basically the same. Yeah there are minor cosmetic changes, but all the buildings look exactly the same, they share many of the exact same vehicles and many of the same weapons. It feels like they changed each sides color, gave each one a couple unique guns, 1 or 2 unique vehicles (which arent even all that unique....ooh This one is SLOW but does a ton of DAMAGE, and this one right here, it shoots FAST but does LITTLE damage) and called it a day.

-The storyline is weak as shit, 3 groups trying to establish their government and get power, yay I really care, why even bother with a story, it's not an RPG.

-The gameplay will eventually get stale, ESPECIALLY when you consider that your going to be paying 10 bucks a month. The game just has no goal rights now, you can't "win", there is no overall feeling of gratification. Sure you can win little battles but what's the point in the grand scheme of things? Nothing. When you log off eventually some other force will roll through and reverse anything you did. Capturing bases with a squad will only be fun for so long, and some type of gratification and sense of accomplishment beyond "Yay I killed 10 guys and captured a base which will be taken back 10 minutes after I log off to have dinner", gratification like Battlefield 1942 where you can completely crush your enemy without a doubt and force the game to completely start over because your team was so damn good.

-Monthly Fee. Okay, I've heard all the arguments for and against, and I just think that trying to get people to pay for an FPS is just fundementally flawed. I know expensive servers cost some money to maintain, and the 10 GM's will have to be paid, but this is hardly enough to justify ANYTHING over 10$, In fact even just 5 dollars a month is pushing it. Basically Sony is charging people for stuff that has already been done before. Sure they changed some graphics, and let there be more players by providing a big server to play on, but that's about it.


-You can't compare the success of MMORPG's to the possible success of MMOFPS's. The thing is, RPG's were traditionally a solo experience. You sit at your computer and play baldurs gate alone, or you sit on your couch with your one controller and play Final Fantasy. When MMORPG's came out it was radical, an RPG with thousands of people instead of just one solitary player, you always met knew people. That interaction is the thing people payed for.

With an FPS, it's all already out there for free. EVERY feature in Planetside has been done by one FPS or Another in the past, maybe not all in the same game, or exactly the same way, but they have all been done before. At the same time, FPS games have ALWAYS been big on interaction, they went from 8 - 16- 30- 60 players at once. I don't know about you guys, but 60 players is MORE then enough to keep me happy. In fact, after my time with Planetside, when playing on a server with 4000 people I RARELY encountered any battle larger then 15 vs 15 people, I have encountered some 100 player battles, but honestly how different is that really from a 60 player battle.

At a certain point the ammount of players becomes pointless, because there is NO WAY one single person will be able to interact or feel the effects of all those players. Sure there are battles raging all over, but who gives a damn? If i'm on the Cyssor continent and we are owning it up and down, I don't care or even know that some other continent is being taken over by another faction. It just doesn't matter, people can only interact with so many people at once, I guess massive FPS games are fundementally flawed, until someone finds a way tie everyone together and make every single tiny piece of land intrinsically valuable. I mean people have to WANT to go and fight for a certain piece of land because it's necessary to win, Planetside trivializes all installation and land by providing a SUPER COMPLEX like the sanctuary....oh look we can't spawn reavers or galaxies on cyssor, minor set back we can spam them left and right in sanctuary, so what if it takes a minute extra?

Maybe the Sanctuary is part of the problem, maybe they should remove it, I don't know. I just know this:

The bottom line **FOR ME** Is that Planetside is going to be fun to play for the next month for free, then I MIGHT buy it and play out the free month and then pay for a month after that. Then i'll be done, I'm 100% sure unless they radically redesign the game in the next 3 weeks before release, which won't happen. Eventually people will realize they are basically paying for the same experience they can get with other FPS's that don't have a monthly fee, and they will quit. If sony is smart they won't give anyone a 1 month pay option, but only allow 1/2/3 year payment plans, so they can take their money now and keep it when people quit their accounts.

feel free to disagree:)

Halo: Combat Evolved PC
Ships on 09/14/2003
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/categories/products/product.asp?pf_id=226588

Halo 2
Ships on 04/01/2004
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/categories/products/product.asp?pf_id=231432

crap...I am now addicted to "Shack'ing"

*sigh*

I have all the warning signs they tell you about.

-ass hurting from sitting in front of the machien for hours on end reading shackposts.
-Shack posting withdrawls when away
-Saying LOL alot
-Girlfriend hates me
-Who just grabbed my ass?

Carson Palmer is going to be the biggest bust in football history.

I love this shit, coalition forces store ammunitions in a civilian area, it explodes and kills civilians - and the death of the civilians is somehow not the coalition forces fault...

ShackNFL LIVE DRAFT COVERAGE

irc.enterthegame.com #shacknfl

Shoutcast will be available

If anyone likes Pearl Jam and wants to hear something cool check reply.

Probably old, but I don't care.
This is the most amazing 71 kb of data ever:
http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=/demos/groups/aardbei/ptct-final.zip&fileinfo

download and run to be Shock and Awed. Can someone tell me how they can get minutes of audio into 71 kb please? :/

Seven and I just finished Baldur's Gate : Dark Alliance. Took us just over 1 day.

Fun game. Anyone else here played/finished it?

So, I bought my GF tickets to see Elton John and Billy Joel in concert in Toronto for Valentine's day. She loves both of those people and has been counting down the days to see them...

Thanks to the WHO, I have one cranky GF on my hands.

can anyone recomdend some good games that might run on MAME?
sorry if this is a rules violation... looking for some names of shootem up games like raiden project

Regarding the lame ATI bug with the Half-Life menu.

Any workarounds other than downgrading to the Catalyst 3.1's?

werd is up.. times 2 (look quick before Steve fixes it)

Regarding this

http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?id=7334463

Police came at about 1130 and didn't seem to concerned and said that chances of seeing it again in one piece are about 2 million to 1, ducs are hot items at the chop shops. The insurance agent is coming out today and he said I should have a check in hand by next week. Its not even really the money its the feeling of violation. Oh well I move into my new house in a few months with a nice big garage I can lock up, so I will probbaly wait till then to get a new bike. Thanks for the shackmsgs they were appreciated.

RRRRR

whats a good cure for the cough?

hey guys is it just me or did all the planetside servers juist get renamed?

This is one of the best strongbad shorts yet!

http://www.homestarrunner.com/whatsinthebag.html

.

Aw man... has this happened to anyone else?
I started goin Commando for about 2 weeks now that the weather is warmer, and my balls have dropped by about an inch! Looks kinda funny now.
o_O indeed!

I want to admire the coolness of those that have supported the Shack.

And yet, I cannot.

Those little lightning bolts just don't show up for me.

If I clear the cache, I see them for a bit, then they go away again.

Help Me Obiwan!

As I said earlier in werd, I converted the Matrix Reloaded trailer into Divx, Quicktime was annoying me that I couldnt watch it in full-screen. Thanks m0nkz for hosting the file.

http://monkeyshouse.squabble.org/Files/matrix_reloaded_divx504.avi (51mb - Divx 5.04 or higher required)

grr for popups.

Just thought i'd share
http://www.albrektsson.net/screenshot3.jpg

is ikaragua for gamecube any good?

What is the keyboard shortcut in windows XP to see the clock? I have it hidden currently...

OUTCAST HELP

I've reinstalled the game using the Outcast Patch. Everything works fine except the audio tracks won't play. It says "bad audio tracks" at startup. There's nothing wrong with the CD, though.

Oh, and is it possible to go over the 512x384 resolution limit?

anyone remember the url for the doom3 website? the one with just a logo or something..

That stupid clock popup was the last straw; I started using MyIE2. I like it, but I have 2 questions: how do I get my Google toolbar back, and is there any way to have Javascript commands work? I have a shortcut in my Favorites that restores my window size in case some asshat site sets it to fullscreen, but it doesn't work under MyIE2. Any way to make "javascript:resizeTo(820,1100)" work in MyIE2?

I'm so glad... the Cheat is not dead, the Cheat is not dead... *clap clap*

What movie should I watch?

LoTR

SW:E2

the pop-up clock is a regular banner ad (im not on a pc)

bwahahahah! http://www.wherearemypants.com/images/storyimages/michael_moore_nude.jpg
It isn't what you think. Its a parody on that Dixie chicks Entertainment Weekly Cover.

Anyone up for some early morning/idle afternoon BF1942 on ashkie's?

http://www.squadgames.com/ladder_network/ladder.php?ladderid=71&cid=2113
21st Stealth Squadron - DC Clan I am in.
UNF We kick ass. Even though I didn't play the last two matches. :(