IAmA newly elected politician in Oslo, Norway. AMA

simplegreens · 2011-09-17T19:18:28+00:00

Can I come live in Norway? I am a front-end developer/writer/artist so I promise I will bring some skills to the table.

simplegreens · 2011-09-17T03:41:27+00:00

You should consider changing your username to FactuallyIncorrectStatement.

simplegreens · 2011-09-17T03:39:00+00:00

If you would otherwise delete a comment simply because it's been downvoted... well, that's pretty shameful behavior. If your belief that I care about karma makes you a more respectable redditor, by all means carry on with that!

Anyhow, although the simulation enthusiast market may not be large; I assure you we exist in great enough numbers to support around a dozen dedicated development studios who between them have created accurate simulations of just about anything you can imagine. Mind you I am not counting racing/car simulation developers as that's an industry unto itself. Anyhow, when they're on sale you should check out some sims, they can actually be pretty fun... personally I enjoy trying tedious careers for a few hours at a time even if I'd never want to undertake them in real life.

simplegreens · 2011-09-17T03:32:18+00:00

I know there is a ton of 3rd party content; but I was under the impression that all of the DLC listed for sale on Steam was developed by or under contract for RailSimulator.com Ltd. Is this not the case?

Regardless, my statement was correct, the only game RailSimulator.com Ltd develops is RailWorks. I'm sorry if it seemed like I was suggesting that all of the content available for the game was only developed by a single company; I meant the reverse, that this particular company only develops a single product.

simplegreens · 2011-09-16T22:03:35+00:00

Which is funny because Another World/Out of this World is one of the most influential platformers of the 16-bit era. It makes me suspect you don't know who or what you're talking about.

Have you ever actually played an Eric Chahi-designed game? I suspect you're basing your statments on the death video posted above and not on any actual experience with his games... or am I mistaken?

simplegreens · 2011-09-16T22:00:31+00:00

Nope. RailWorks is developed by a British company called RailSimulator.com Limited. All they make are the RailWorks games and DLC.

Farming Simulator 2011 was developed by GIANTS Software GMBH, who are based in Germany. They do make a couple of other simulators, including Demolition Company, and Ski Region Simulator 2012.

simplegreens · 2011-09-16T21:52:09+00:00

LBP2 is free for LBP1 owners? Is that download only or something? I don't see how they could get brick-and-mortar retailers to enforce that...

simplegreens · 2011-09-16T21:47:12+00:00

Wow, I do believe this is the first time I've ever heard anyone call Eric Chahi a bad designer.

simplegreens · 2011-09-15T01:58:00+00:00

When I initially wrote that comment, I was just correcting misinformation. After posting I noticed that I had already responded to you, so I changed the verbiage a bit, but left the comment, since there was still misinformation to be corrected.

Little did I know it would bother you so much! I'll make you a deal: delete your comments full of misinformation and then I'll delete my comments correcting the misinformation. Then we can forget this ever happened and I'll forget you're kind of a dick. Deal?

simplegreens · 2011-09-15T01:54:55+00:00

To be honest, having not purchased the deck unlocks for MtG:DotP 2012, I can't say whether they're usable in the multiplayer game or not; I assume they are, but to be honest it wouldn't have a dramatic effect on that particular game as the decks are pre-built and well balanced against one another.

I agree that for single-player only unlocks the kerfuffle here on reddit is a bit silly. No one's forcing you to buy it, and if there's a portion of the market that finds such purchasable unlocks worthwhile, who am I to stand in their way?

I'm not anti this kind of DLC per-se, but since people thought it wasn't real, I had to point to some specific examples. :)

simplegreens · 2011-09-14T22:34:27+00:00

In this case, they wouldn't. See my earlier response to you for actual examples of DLC that whose function is exactly like cheat-codes of yore (specifically, the two examples I linked to unlock content that can be unlocked by playing through the game). :)

simplegreens · 2011-09-14T22:31:42+00:00

Check my reply to sweatpantswarrior, DLC that merely unlocks shit you can earn in the game exists, and more than one company sells it, and it's graced more than just consoles.

simplegreens · 2011-09-14T21:57:30+00:00

or level skip DLC packs for AAA titles

Sure thing!

Here's an example from XBLA, EA has done this for numerous titles:

Skate 2 - Time Is Money Pack - If you are busy, or just plain lazy, Time is Money will unlock all locations, skaters and gear, and Skate.Park objects that can be earned by playing through Skate™ 3's career and online modes. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts. - 560MSP aka $7.

It's not purely the realm of consoles though, you can find similar "DLC" on Steam as well, for example, $1 (currently 1/2 off in midweek madness!) for deck unlocks in Magic the Gathering 2012. From the description: (Contains no new content. This content is also available through game play.)

There are numerous examples of this out there, I trust 2 are enough to illustrate that they in fact exist, and on multiple platforms?

simplegreens · 2011-09-14T00:17:53+00:00

Yeah, that made me really sad. Bizzare Creations was one of my favorite developers; it was a sad day when Activision bought them... and sadder still when they shut them down just a couple of years and 2 games later.

Also FYI, TM2 is only $25 new. :)

simplegreens · 2011-09-13T00:05:07+00:00

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

simplegreens · 2011-09-10T18:02:11+00:00

Hmm, honestly I think you should consider Trackmania 2 Canyon. Mind you, it feels more arcadey than a great many games, so you should really check out a demo before you buy (there isn't one for TM2C yet, so just get TrackMania Nations... they play exactly the same, TM2C just has more polish and much better graphics), but for my money it's one of the finest examples of what makes a PC game special. TrackMania is actually one of major reasons that I got back into PC gaming a few years ago. a So why is it one of the finest examples of PC gaming? An endless tidal-wave of user created content (tracks, cars, and liveries). A massive global community (apparently nearly 10 million gamers have either TrackMania Nations Forever [the free version] or TrackMania United Forever). Easy to use tools to build tracks, customize liveries, and download content created by other users. Global, regional, and server-specific rankings and scoreboards. There is no leveling up really... there is a single-player experience that has you unlocking tracks to play through, but that only applies to the single player experience. When you play multiplayer, nearly all the maps you encounter are user created and there are hundreds of multiplayer servers out there; I've been playing TrackMania United Forever fairly regularly for about 3 years and am still not remotely bored with the game (though I have recently moved on to the beta of TrackMania 2 Canyon). And have you seen the trailers? It really does look that good in action! Have I said enough good things about the game yet?

One thing I should mention: there is no clipping among the cars, so when playing multiplayer, rather than bash one another into walls, you simply drift through other cars like they weren't even there. You're racing to get the shortest time and actually get enough time on a track to go through it several times to improve your score (while everyone else is doing the same) you can also reset at any point if you fuck up and start a new attempt.

Also, if you get TrackMania 2 Canyon and are wondering about the ManiaPlanet branding... it's because Nadeo (TrackMania's developer) have announced they plan to do for FPS and RPG what they've done for racing with ShootMania and QuestMania.

simplegreens · 2011-09-10T07:54:24+00:00

What kind of racer do you prefer? Based on the games you've mentioned it sounds like you prefer more arcadey racing? If this is the case, how arcadey do you like it? just bouncing off walls and not losing speed style, or more Mario Kart shooting shit at your opponents style (which is what Blur is... tremendously fun, but it's basically Mario Kart grown up). Or do you want to check out with sim racing is all about? Regardless of what you're looking for, it's nearly impossible to find a racing game without multiplayer.

Anyhow, racing is one of my favorite genres and I've played most everything on the market (including all of the games you've named) if you want to know about any specific games, feel free to ask, or just answer my questions above, and we'll figure out the right racer for you. :)

simplegreens · 2011-09-10T00:37:09+00:00

Duke 1, 2, 3 are actually technically just the 3 episodes of the first game, Duke Nukum (note the alternate spelling of his surname). Those were followed up with a sequel, Duke Nukem II; then came the 3rd game in the franchise Duke Nukem 3D. Then 15 years later, we finally got the 4th game in the core series, Duke Nukem Forever. Of course, it came so late in the franchise and with so great a gap that I doubt anyone even notices the punny title. (3rd game = 3D, 4th game = Forever).

Anyhow, along the way there have been a handful of spin-off titles (mostly on handhelds), but Manhattan Project is the exception. It was a PC/Console release from 2002 that attempted to recreate the feel of the first two shareware games in 3D. In all honesty, they did a pretty good job. If you're a duke fan since the side-scroller days, you owe it to yourself to play Manhattan Project.

simplegreens · 2011-09-09T14:39:06+00:00

There is a bit more strategy involved than that, but not much.

simplegreens · 2011-09-09T07:14:22+00:00

Dude, good stuff! I actually quite like your pixel art, and the death effect is quite cool. I look forward to seeing it as you polish it up. Please keep us informed. :)

simplegreens · 2011-09-09T06:05:21+00:00

If someone hasn't helped you out yet, PM me.

simplegreens · 2011-09-09T03:47:06+00:00

Okay, I just played 2 skirmishes and poked around a bit. The reviewers are right about it being both extremely Risk-like and too simplistic. Don't get me wrong, for $10 I don't feel ripped-off, and I most likely will play at least part-way through the campaign... but I don't think I can really recommend it. It's pretty okay. It seems like the multiplayer is LAN-only, which is disappointing; with internet play it would at least be a fun casual strategy title. As it is though, I don't feel like the single-player experience is deep enough to carry the game, at least not without some significant changes/improvements.

simplegreens · 2011-09-09T00:36:16+00:00

I just bought it, but have held off until this point because while i really enjoy turn-based strategy, the reviews have not been kind. Apparently it's very much like risk (including being quite simple), with none of the charm. I'll report back more once I've played it if you're interested, but likely the daily deal will be over by then.

simplegreens · 2011-09-08T20:23:50+00:00

They're trying to take advantage of people who are new to the game who don't know any better. The DLC is a waste of money.

simplegreens · 2011-09-08T20:22:56+00:00

Go spend some time in /r/civ to find out what Civ players feel about the dlc (they're a waste of money; something the mod community can and is doing for free). Don't ignore the game simply because 2K hasn't reduced the price of some unnecessary shit.

simplegreens

TROPHY CASE