Phazon88

The power of the consumer - copy protection in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

Another case of the customer knows best. Recently you may have heard about how a intrusive form of copy protection was going to be included with Mass Effect and Spore that constantly connected to the internet (at the rate of every 10 days) just to check your serial was valid (with no check = no play). There was a huge uproar as a consequence, with many potential buyers saying that they would just simply not buy their title (or even pirate it on purpose) just to get rid of this major i

Reply to Erathoniel's Daily Feature 2 in Misc Stardock Forums

Who said there was anything wrong with gamers using JU? I've been doing that the whole time and even got a featured article that was game-related (in the form of my developer diaries for my World in Conflict mod). :)

Reply to Why Do Some People Balk at Paying for Software? in Personal Computing Stardock Forums

I think its because few people actually understand what actually goes on behind the scenes in order to develop a piece of marketable software. It is a time-consuming process and to scoff at the idea of someone charging for a piece of software they created that had a significant amount of effort put into it is just silly.

Reply to Please slam my game in GalCiv Journals JoeUser Forums

[quote]I just have one thing I'd like changed right away. The planetary assault screen. I might be flamed, but I think I liked the older version better than the TA one. The new one doesn't really do anything for me. I'm sorry, and don't mean to offend, but the new screen is boring. There is very little going on to see other than the colored bar graphs. I liked seeing the little soldiers and war machines duking it out. I kinda miss that.[/quote] The only thing I don't really like

Reply to Realmod v1.0 developer diary 2 (7/5/08) in Game Developers Stardock Forums

Before someone comments on the fact my title date differs from the site publish date, don't forget the fact that my timezone is +10 GMT. ;P

Reply to Please slam my game in GalCiv Journals Stardock Forums

1. The new-found aggressiveness of the AI in regards to espionage needs to be tweaked a little. 2. Please fix the dialog boxes when being asked if you would like to build a starbase over a resource, they seem to appear more than once asking you to accept or decline (if the prompt to build starbase over resource option is ticked). 3. Apparently there's a tech missing for the Korx (the first economy one) if I recall correctly from what I read on the forums. 4. Please updat

Realmod v1.0 developer diary 2 (7/5/08) in Game Developers JoeUser Forums

As the more attentive might notice, I have changed the version number of my mod from v0.3 to v1.0. This was a decision I made a while back (but I forgot my self-decided version change before writing the previous developer diary :LOL:). Reason for the version change was simply because to reflect the fact that my mod releases aren't really beta (they are throughly tested for skirmish / online use) with the only potential beta area being the single-player campaign which is untested. Als

Reply to TPM: Europe support in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

Wait a minute, I thought The Political Machine 2008 was based on US politics only? :) I had no idea it included other parts of the world. I would so get this if Australia was included. :D

Reply to FrogBlog: May 2008 in GalCiv Journals Stardock Forums

[quote who="Frogboy" comment="7"]Soon. It's all the issues we have to type in. But hopefuly this next week. This week besides coding I've got a ton of vistiors coming in to meet with us and I don't like releasing betas unless I've personally played what's goign up quite a bit. I didn't get to play the "gold" version of Twilight before it went up (our server backend was having problems) and I'm regretting it.[/quote] Hehe, I'm glad one of the liberties I can

Reply to I am working on the issues... in GalCiv Journals Stardock Forums

You're a hard worker aren't you Brad? ;) Between this, further polish on Twilight of the Arnor, contributing to the development of the 1.1 Sins of a Solar Empire patch not to mention actually running Stardock as a company as well as your fatherly duties to your family...I will think twice before complaining about being busy. :LOL:

Reply to FrogBlog: May 2008 in GalCiv Journals Stardock Forums

The Political Machine is looking good. Looks very polished. The Impulse beta is going great too, I used it to purchase Twilight of the Arnor and it was a great experience. :D As for that pink desktop, my girlfriend would probably like it. :P

Reply to Mario Kart Wii: Day 1 Impressions in Gaming Stardock Forums

I'd give anything for the ability to play ranked games with a more basic set of items (ie- Mario Kart 64 era items including how they operated and their probability of being collected). I am starting to get really annoyed with the global attack powers, they are twice as annoying now because there is now two of them and not only is there two but they make you drop your items (and when you are first having an item on hand such as a banana or a shell makes a big difference in d

Reply to DiRT + X360 controller for windows = awesome fun in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

Copy protection being ... Starforce? While I don't like copy protection in general I can't say I've had any issues with Starforce as much as the other protection methods out there. They are all equally annoying (especially when you have / play as wide a variety of games as I like to). As for the multiplayer I couldn't really care much about that. I just bought it for the SP and for quick romps around the tracks. The AI is pretty decent so that helps too.

Reply to On Backstabbers in Misc Stardock Forums

All I can say is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjnvSQuv-H4

Reply to Realmod v0.3 developer diary 1 (5/5/08) in Game Developers JoeUser Forums

Silly me forgot to include a link to information for the mod as well as a download link. Here it is: Forum thread Download link for Realmod v0.2

Reply to Economic changes (not liking it). Am I alone? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Alot of interesting insight here into the tweaked economy of Twilight. I think the tweaks were very well thought out and have benefited the actual gameplay of the game. My favourite tweak so far has been to the increased importance of "tourism" aka territorial holdings. It brings a new facet to the game that wasn't really there before and I have welcomed it with open arms. :)

Realmod v0.3 developer diary 1 (5/5/08) in Game Developers JoeUser Forums

Today marked the first day I spent on furthering development on my mod for World in Conflict for some time. I was forced to put it aside for some time because of university and lack of personal time in general. Now that I have some time to myself again I figured why not dedicate some of that to Realmod once again. <img style="border: 1px solid black; margin: 10px;" src="http://img410.imagesha

Reply to Twilight Feedback! Let us have it! in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

I noticed this the other day, when you have the options set so that you are prompted if you want to build a starbase over a galactic resource the prompt appears twice (you accept the first time, then the prompt will reappear for a second time and after you accept there its fine). Small bug there methinks. :)

Reply to Twilight Feedback! Let us have it! in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

The only real feedback I can offer at this point is its a shame not all improvement icons got the makeover (the Spaceport being the most obvious offender - I know its been confirmed it will be "updated" eventually I hope). Same goes for the textures. The new ones are so nice compared to the old ones, hope some time is devoted to spiffing up the rest of the old textures. ;)

Finally made use of Impulse ... and wow! in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Today marked the day I finally made use of Stardock's new digital distribution system Impulse. I purchased the second expansion pack to Gal Civ 2 and decided rather than using Stardock's website as I have in the past I would do it through Impulse. All I can say was the process was as smooth as can be. Once I got my payment sorted the game was instantly recognised by Impulse and I was able to start downloading it instantly. Even the serial and relevant registration info was autom

Reply to Noire in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Nice, its similar to my XP Noire theme but I love the clear buttons! :D

Want a realistic and more in-depth Company of Heroes experience? in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

As fantastic as Company of Heroes is, one must always be on the lookout for modifications which provide a different or even more fun experience. A squad of fallschrimjager move up the road covered by armour and artillery. <p sty

Reply to Mario Kart Wii: Day 1 Impressions in Gaming JoeUser Forums

Willy guess what, when you play with the wheel you get a wheel symbol next to your name. That means when you beat people online (you don't even have to come first) you can rub it in with that fact. Therefore the wheel presents a challenge in itself with its own victory conditions. ;)

Reply to PC game piracy hurts us all in GalCiv Journals JoeUser Forums

While I don't support piracy in any way, shape or form - it must be said that some developers / publishers are equally criminal at times releasing games that are essentially betas yet charging full price (and to top it off, providing no post-release support). These sorts of game releases really shake some people's faith in purchasing PC games. I'd say it accounts for a small minority of people who pirate but I'd thought I'd mention it nonetheless. PS: Thank god Stardock isn't one of the

Reply to Mario Kart Wii is here! in Gaming JoeUser Forums

Yes friend codes! This game seems to play very well on WFC so I'm eager to challenge anyone to a race or two. ;) I will post mine here when I can be bothered to boot up my Wii tomorrow (its currently 2am here).