Morning Discussion

I'm undecided about the continuing trend of using downloadable games (PC, XBLA and PSN) as promotional tools for larger retail releases. Although it's coming to a few high-profile titles soon, like Dead Space 2 and Red Faction: Armageddon, the game that comes to mind that used this strategy is Fable II.

When Fable II: Pub Games was released the title offered players the chance to play a few mini-games featured in the main title for 800MS Points ($10). Not to say that it wasn't fun to play (and cheat) but for a game that carried the (at the time) standard XBLA price, shouldn't it be able to stand on its own, too?

My worry is that these new tie-in titles will also ask the now standard XBLA price ($15), when its primary existence is to push more people toward purchasing a $60 product. I think the concept has a lot of promise and if that games developed offer a good experience I have no issue with putting down the money. However, if its something obviously birthed out of a boardroom meeting, I'd prefer the developers focus on adding more content to the full-priced adventure.

What is your stance on promotional games?

Xav de Matos was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 8, 2010 5:01 AM

    Anyone get some successful Starcraft II games in last night?

    I kept having to download stuff as I tried to find matches, so I gave up quickly since it was late.

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 5:03 AM

      It would download the map and then once it finished would just stay on the create game screen and not do anything. I tried 2 times and just went to bed.

      The fear of playing people on ladder has already returned :(

      • reply
        July 8, 2010 5:05 AM

        that fear should go away once retail hits. there will be so many terrible players to go around that we'll all feel like champs.

        I really wont mind playing in bronze or copper if it means I win more games. Though, Im interested to see how placement will work with only 2 placement matches

        • reply
          July 8, 2010 5:11 AM

          I think it will level the playing field faster.

          I think that it's just for this beta phase though as they really want people to jump right into testing the new changes ASAP. 12 days of beta is a short time :)

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 5:04 AM

      I was too busy pointing and laughing at the Germans next door who were having a big, loud garden party + BBQ and had a huge worldcup shaped bush in their garden.

      I thought Olé would grow old after 50+ times, but guess what, it didn't!

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 5:05 AM

      Undocumented patch changes from TL:

      Creep Tumors take 30 seconds before it can create another Creep Tumor, up from 15. bug?

      lololol posted that:
      Zealot buildtime increased from 33 to 38 and cooldown increased from 23 to 28.
      Reaper buildtime increased from 40 to 45.
      Psi storm cooldown decreased from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds.

      Units get trapped by Force Fields considerably easier it seems (confirm?)

      BUG: Changelings appear red to opponents after morphing to "blend in" with enemy.

      Neural Parasite lasts about 12-ish in-game seconds.

      Roaches can no longer move under Force Fields while burrowed!!!!

      The 2 Roach Warren upgrades, Glial Reconstitution and Tunneling Claws have had their hotkeys swapped. it's now T and G, respectively. argh

      Infested Terrans lasts 30 seconds (up from 20).

      Infested Terran spell can now be cast while Infestor is Burrowed.

      Stalkers can no longer blink up cliffs blocked by rocks without vision, nor are they able to blink across unpassable terrain (i.e. can no longer blink to islands)


      Replays speeds are now Normal-Fast-Faster-x2-x4-x8 (before I think it was Slower, Slow, Normal, Fast, Faster, Faster x3, Faster x6. correct?)


      Cybernetics Core now has a research animation.

      Larvae no longer count as a Unit (doesn't show up in the Unit display tab while watching replays or Observing)

      Overlords (and i'm assuming the other race's dropships) now move to pickup units. Meaning, if you have some unit/s selected then Right-Click an Overlord, both the units and the overlord will meet up to Load, rather than just the unit/s moving, just like SC1.

      Critters now roam the maps.

      Attack Cooldown values listed in tooltips, when mousing over weapons.

      Overlord Generate Creep sound effect seems much quieter

      Overlord speed is back to 100/100

      • reply
        July 8, 2010 5:06 AM

        boo to that stalker change

      • reply
        July 8, 2010 5:07 AM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          July 8, 2010 5:12 AM

          Gaps = unpassable terrain, so no is what I am assuming.

          • reply
            July 8, 2010 5:19 AM

            Actually it looks like there are conflicting reports right now on this. Some people say it can be done on certain islands/terrains but not others. I don't play Protoss so hopefully someone who does can chime in. There are so many undocumented changes people are finding still.

            http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=134701

            • reply
              July 8, 2010 5:20 AM

              I wonder if they just changed the warp distance to be a bit shorter.

              There really werent a ton of maps that you could take advantage of it anyways. as long as I can still warp onto cliffs/platforms that I have vision of then I'm set

              • reply
                July 8, 2010 5:22 AM

                Reading this thread, these patch notes should have really been 4 pages long and not just listing of 3 changes for Zerg balance.

                Protoss has new build times for most of it's early units. Terran has updated build times too. Ultralisk AOE damage nerf is huge too :(

                C'mon Blizzard :(

                • reply
                  July 8, 2010 5:43 AM

                  oh boy

                • reply
                  July 8, 2010 6:01 AM

                  A mess, this is.

                  • reply
                    July 8, 2010 6:12 AM

                    Roaches not being able to burrowed move under FF's is fucking INSANE.

                    • reply
                      July 8, 2010 6:14 AM

                      yea I thought that was kind of silly. I thought it was a step forward allowing units to step over them, but this is just strange

                      • reply
                        July 8, 2010 6:35 AM

                        Ultralisks need to be able to step over zerg units.

                        • reply
                          July 8, 2010 6:43 AM

                          that would be cool if zerg werent giant faggots :(

      • reply
        July 8, 2010 5:22 AM

        critters woot

        • reply
          July 8, 2010 5:22 AM

          they explode when clicking (as normal) but now leave a crater!

      • reply
        July 8, 2010 6:20 AM

        some of these are wtf

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 5:20 AM

      I couldn't get into a game either.

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 5:23 AM

      Nope. Apparently I've used up all of my prepaid playtime.

      • reply
        July 8, 2010 8:13 AM

        Am I the only one that is having trouble connecting to B.NET still? Says my damn pre-paid time has run out? What the shitnuggets is this bullshit fuck

        • reply
          July 8, 2010 8:23 AM

          I had that last night too.. I'll check it again when I get home tonight.

        • reply
          July 8, 2010 8:24 AM

          There is an email address they are telling people to email. It was posted in the thread last night.

          Goldfishjar is having the same problem

          • reply
            July 8, 2010 8:26 AM

            yea now they are saying to not e-mail, and they are workign on a solution.

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 5:26 AM

      Can't find a match. Just sits. Exit the game, reload and it tells me I'm already in queue :(

      • reply
        July 8, 2010 5:27 AM

        Now that battle.net is working across WoW and SC2, you will have to wait for someone to finish raiding as the game cannot load anymore instances :(

      • reply
        July 8, 2010 7:26 AM

        It will be majorly fucked for at least a few days

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 5:27 AM

      So is beta phase 2 only for you phase 1 folks? I thought it was going to be an open beta.

      • reply
        July 8, 2010 5:28 AM

        Looks like (as of right now) they decided to keep it closed still. I wonder if they will open it up for the last week or something. Now is the crucial time they need to be stress testing battle.net load.

        • reply
          July 8, 2010 5:36 AM

          Damn it, I was hoping for some hot sexy SC 2 action, my vacation is over in a week. Argh.

      • reply
        July 8, 2010 4:09 PM

        Probably. I didn't get in, but I still had that SC2 Beta logo when I would log into battle.net.

        Now that logo is gone. :(

      • reply
        July 8, 2010 4:11 PM

        Phase 2 being open was just a rumor. People thought it was going to be a stress test.

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 5:51 AM

      It's been saying "down for maintenance" since I patched yesterday... I want my money back.

      • reply
        July 8, 2010 5:51 AM

        just hit ok and then hit connect. It should allow you to login (unless you are EU)

        • reply
          July 8, 2010 5:52 AM

          EU indeed, no beta for EU at all?

          • reply
            July 8, 2010 5:53 AM

            EU servers are still down. I would imagine they will be up shortly.

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 5:51 AM

      my custom ai wont work anymore.,, i reallly cant play right now!

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 7:31 AM

      manage to create a game and play against cpu earlier !

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 7:32 AM

      I played one game against AI last night but it's been so long since I played I couldn't tell what the changes were. I'm still getting used to using sentries and warp gates.

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 7:33 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 7:37 AM

      So who's going to want to do some 1v1's tonight? Also, would anyone be interested in letting myself and another fellow cast some of their 1v1's tonight?

      • reply
        July 8, 2010 8:31 AM

        I might be up for a game with my extremely rusty skills. You can comment on how fast I die. :)

        • reply
          July 8, 2010 8:42 AM

          Sounds good. Hopefully we can get some others as well. I guess we're going to need another friends list thread here pretty soon.

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 3:53 PM

      is this shit working yet?

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 4:07 PM

      I have -4 placement matches to go, not sure wtf happened.

      All the leagues say I'm 2 placement matches to go, but I've never played 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4.

      • reply
        July 8, 2010 4:12 PM

        this round only 2 it seems. but I played my 2 and it now says 0 to go and i'm not ranked.

    • reply
      July 8, 2010 4:53 PM

      lexicon and I just played a (quite exciting) custom game, so that functionality works at least

Hello, Meet Lola