I love hearing how bad World of Warcraft is from people who've never played it. The ignorant cliches spewing from your mouth keep my soul toasty on this chilly autumn morn.

And why is it worth blizzard's soul and creative spirit, oh enlightened one? I remember there was once a time when they made well thought out and fun games...then came the dark ages of repetitive quests, terrible pvp, further ripping off tolkien (the lich king? Seriously?) and sucking from the teat of wealth with such vigor that was previously reserved for EA and activision. And I found the experience dull and average. So I moved back to rpg's that dont wreak of unimaginative garbage. Otherwise, entertaining comment. If I had not have tried the damned thing, I would have had to back down.

Okay first of all the Lich King was from Warcraft III. At least get your facts straight.

Secondly, the case of 'Ripping of Tolkein' could be made of at least three quarters of Western Fantasy. Blizzard actually play with the cliches of western fantasy and twist more than enough shit around to keep the world vibrant and interesting. Also, for the record, there are far greater superficial similarites between LOTR and WoW than The Lich King. Which you might know about if you, you know, knew what you were talking about.

The storyline of World of Warcraft is also far more involved and intricate than it ever was in Warcraft II and III and builds on an impressive legacy to give pretty much the most rounded fantasy world I've seen. I play WoW for the story and I came back to WoW after a two year absence for exatly that.

Now, there are (Or rather: Were) huge problems with the way WoW plays. These are mostly gone. PVP is still shit, but that's mainly to do with the idiots who play it (And frankly if I wanted to play a PVP game I'd join Quake Live) and Blizzard as a game company learns from their mistakes and continually tries to better their product. Boring repetetive quests simply don't exist anymore outside of a slim layer of content that's escaped being updated since 2006 and the game is now highly storyline involved, rich, fast paced and fun to play.

Also, for the record the worst of WoW was before the Activision Blizzard merger, and the game has become a lot lot better since then. So yeah. You do not know what the fuck you are talking about.

By the way, don't post like that. It's not nearly as clever as you think it is.

Starcraft ripped off 40K lol

I never said warcraft before hand was all that imaginitave either. Dont put words in my mouth. And my issues with them lie more in their inability to support their other games or create new concepts. And I do not find myself clever in the slightest. In fact between self loathing and general lack of self confidence, I find my last few posts terribly written and as repetitive as the game I am slamming. But it is good to know that things have been fixed. Great, now they should do something new that doesnt become vaporware. And yes, most fantasy is derived from tolkien, and therefore norse mythology and such, but warcraft still comes off as uninspired and tacky. And yes it did rip off 40K, but anything with space marines does as well. lol

You say Blizzard sold off their creativity. You've said that you don't like Starcraft or Diablo, so what on earth was I supposed to infer?

This is the internet. I'm a tremendously nice guy, but for the love of God don't bring up your personal hangups in the middle of an argument. I'm giving you that advice free as a fellow Dr Who/Firefly/Evangelion fan and open bisexual.

You're going to have to expand on this point or we're at an impass. Before you do I suggest bringing yourself up to date on current Warcraft lore (Spoiler: There's a lot of it and I own all the novels) because whilst in a perfect world your opinion would be just as valid as mine, this isn't a perfect world and I'm damn sure I know more about the universe than you do.

Thrall should have ended up with Jaina.

Eh, fuck it. Im too tired to continue this argument. And as for the lore, Im sure its quite interesting. Anyway, My point about them losing their imagination and artistic soul is that old warcraft, which I enjoyed, had a charming yet dark feel to it. Not the cartoony commercial work it has become.They build their world for cash and popularity now. Its like how star wars became a cluster fuck. and as for starcraft 2...Just a terribly dissappointing sequel. Im not trying to continue the argument-just elaborate on what went wrong. Oh, and you missed a particularly imaginitave creation of theirs: Lost Vikings.

Nah, old Warcraft was just Warhammer with names switched, it took Blizz til 3 to actually start writing their own new stuff.

Which happened to be the last game from them I liked. But seriously-am I the only one who remembers lost vikings? lol

Oh, don't even get me started.

40k is a lovingly made ripoff of pretty much every gothic sci-fi that preceded it, and space marines had a good few outings before Games Workshop.

That said, I argue that after ripping off from a sufficient number of sources a fiction gains its own being, a bit like a piece of space debris gaining mass until it becomes its own body*. But at that point people seem to tell me to shut up.

Rumours fly around all the time that Blizzard were originally going to make Warhammer licenced games, then GW pulled out.

This is officially recognised bullshit. Both parties have denied it long enough. It was still a ripoff though. Starcraft... I think that just managed to nudge over the blurry line between 'plagarism' and 'heavy inspiration'.

Interesting fact: Warhammer invented green Orcs. Before they were all red-raw pink or ruddy, filthy brown. There even used to be a Citadel paint called 'Orc Brown'. Then some group of Warhammer hobbyists ran out of brown paint, and the rest is history...

EDIT: *I just realised this may be a subconscious Space Hulk reference.

Essentially I think you're correct, but there's still a line to be drawn when an inspiration becomes plagiarism.

Look at that Limbo of the Lost game. Or don't.

Played the Need for Speed: The Run demo today,

It was awful!

I will not be buying this game!

Criterion didnt do it then? Their take on hot pursuit was pure excellence.

I agree there,

I don't think Criterion were in on this one, but if they were, they should be ashamed.

Unlikely, they wouldnt leave the cars. They know what works.

I have. It's okay, not great. I play with Dorian sometimes and it's sort of fun, but...Eh.

Borderlands was a...Snoozefest? Alright. As for the rest of the silly things you've said following this post, thanks for the laughs. Really. I appreciate it.

I'm late, but I'd just like to say that I thought Starcraft II (especially in comparison to the first one) had a terrible storyline.

Considering all you do is shoot the same few enemies with a few element variants and the guns are the usual randomized stats? Yeah, snoozefest. The weak story and repetitive mission structure didnt help either. It was fun as tits for awhile with a friend, but beyond that its mileage is pretty damned low. Hopefully the sequel improves, I love Gearbox...but it was underwhelming after all the buildup. Style and early parts were great though.

Man, I swear the voice-actors for that game weren't even human.

Their voices sound like Nicolas Cage imitators. lol Have any of you played Alan Wake? God this game is amazing.

I bought Mage Gauntlet from the App store just roughly an hour ago. It's really fun and I love the graphical style of it. Only bad thing I can say right now is about the music; the music itself is nice, but it constantly loops which is something I don't really like. Anyways, otherwise it seems to be an awesome game. I recommend it if you have an iOS device.

I'm playing And Yet it Moves at the moment. I acquired it as part of the Humble Indie Bundle #3 and have hardly played it. I just don't see what all of the fuss is about.

The game so far consists of fucking boring jumping challenges that are more frustrating than anything else. It looks funky and does something a bit different, but the level design seems uninspired. It's all thoughtless, too. Nothing has even began to challenge me in terms of thinking. It's all coming to grips with the controls and the game's temperamental attitude towards when to inflict death from gravity.

I'm only 49 minutes in, but I doubt I'm going to play more any time soon.

I'm playing Eric Chahi's classic Heart of Darkness. If only it were as well told as Another World...God those cutscenes were terrible. But as a cinematic platformer, absolutely unrivaled. Unless Ico counts, but only maybe. Well, besides Another World itself-but that's unfair. lol

What about those Oddworld games? I hear that they're pretty good cinematic platformers.

lol Obviously theyre brilliant. Look where I am. But it's barely a comparison. They may both be in the same genre, but theyre world's apart in gameplay.

Another World/Heart of Darkness stress more natural actions and organic puzzle solving, often something simple but unexpected. Oddworld lays out its rules and puzzles openly, just ramping up the difficulty as you move along.(barring secrets, as they are obviously not apart of the curve,lol)the rules are clearly defined.

Where as Eric Chahi's games are more undefined and in some cases never explain that you can do certain things. They are simply too different to really compare and contrast, so I typically do not. But in atmosphere and story, Oddworld beats both. Well, mostly. Another World, though simple, really sucks you in. But I prefer Oddworld's tale. Except Another World's ending. Oh, how I wish ambiguity was more common in game endings.

I've always wanted to play Heart of Darkness.

All I can gather from it is that it was a commercial failure.

It is an amazing, if short, experience. However...it's story is absolutely nonsensical and the cheap fmv's do not contrast well with the beautiful 2D animation during gameplay. But it's an unforgettable gameplay experience. Just be prepared to die. Alot. Gruesomely. lol the E rating is a liar!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYyZfME5XYY
Watch if you wanna see what I mean. Utterly terrifying. That poor kid. All to save his damn dog too,lol.

Heart of Darkness is... meh. I don't know, it didn't do much for me. I was about an hour in and it asked me to change the disc. I was so shocked.

shoving unnecessary fmv's into it with the already complicated animations will fuck disc space. lol

Really, I felt that the game was less about being a challenging platformer and more just letting the game’s style sink in. It has a great art and sound direction.

I’d say stick with it. It’s not a huge game, and I reckon the last couple of worlds will surprise you.

Seeing as I'm doing photography at university, I've been very busy and loving the photo feature on Forza 4, it honestly is like using a proper professional camera.

Now, I've posted a link below showing my photographs, I just hope you can all see them but if you can't, let me know.

http://forzamotorsport.net/en-us/Gal...0SIR%20GENESIS

Nice, though I'll always be a Gran Turismo man.

So you can see the pictures then? :)

Quite well, they look very professional and damned sexy. ;)

I hope to god that is your inner car nerd speaking!

That would make me so happy because then I know that you have good taste :D

I"m no gearhead, but I know a sexy car when I see one. ;)

Name one...

After watching my boyfriend on Dark Souls a few times, I finally decided to have a go at it last night. Apparently I'm doing loads better than him than he did on his first try. Score! But yeah, it's fun and the constant fear of danger is exciting. I look forward to raging at it later.

Is there some sort of collectors edition for that game and if so does your boyfriend own it?

I remember when I was picking up Forza 4 seeing a big black Dark Souls book, I wasn't sure if it was a collectors edition or some sort of strategy guide.