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Last October had a similar thing in Japan going on... and as far as I know nothing changed significantly. It's hilarious to see the US trying to pass such stupid-ass legislations... but hey, we had some fun with SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and whatnot. I doubt it's going to make a dent.

Man, ubisoft is the worst of the worst. When a cracked version performs better and has higher stability than the real "legit" product, you know something's got to be wrong. As for steam, it's understandable that games that rely on mainly online elements don't give a shit about offline mode - but there are games that screw you up anyway even when it makes no sense, being a single player experience. Even then, offline mode is mostly useless - if I have no internet handy (network problems fffffff) I wouldn't be able to authenticate, meaning no games. (At least it was like this before, correct me if I'm wrong) I dunno about you guys, but I hate being always connected to things. I don't want to chat while playing single player games, I hate achievements and other gamification elements in websites, and I don't want people knowing what I play, when I do it, and how I do it. It's just intrusive for me. Hence I mostly have the steam integrator thing off (besides it performs very badly on Wine). Good thing Carpe Fulgur's localized games are not only on Steam. The other providers offer fully drm free versions. But this is quite an exception, almost everything's on Steam nowadays. But hey, it could be worse... Much, much, much worse. A friend of mine recently had his account hacked... It was not an easy thing to get it back. Therefore, I have to give it to Valve - they're not that bad. But they need to know that not everyone in the world has 24/7 excellent internet connections.

Sounds like a rather bad network issue. Does the same thing happen if DLing something like, say, mp3 files or something?

@iLT: Kickstarter is indeed an interesting and useful tool, but not only for games. There are projects like BioCurious and Kirby Ferguson's documentary "This is not a conspiracy theory", which gathered quite a lot of support. This deal with games started with Double Fine's kickstarter, which grew ridiculously and absurdly fast (the only thing that comes to mind that managed to be faster, but not bigger is Oatmeal's two indiegogo projects). I'm hyped as fuck for DF's upcoming new game. I recently backed up the Pier Solar ports project, which is quite interesting. I do like KS, but there's also a few bad sides to this. After DF's success, there has been a flux of devs with a rather sloppy modus operandi. It's inevitable, as not-so-spirited people with money in mind instead of creativity will try to cash in on the craze. That been said, just be wary of what you do support on platforms such as KS. @Caelistas: Valve's project sounds interesting - and apparently it will run linux. I hope this shifts weight towards linux for games... That'd be awesome. By the way, what do you people think about nvidia's "Shield"? It's just... weird imo. As for pirating, there will always be a way as long as the analog hole exists. The industry is guilty for promoting this anyway! With all their hugeass hard drives and super awesome cameras/microphones, you can record anything This is good. Unless we fuse with machines, then we're fucked. Imagine having DRM on your own brain lol ---------------------------------- Ranting again, whee I've played a few recent and not-so-recent games lately. I had fun with most of them, including RE5 and the two main Dead Space titles. I also played several Generic Shooter titles, but none of them made any long term impact - I don't plan on revisiting these soon. They're not bad games though - RE5 on bro-op is quite fun. There are still good games around - but they're not as memorable. Maybe it's because we're all used to the same elements, who knows... On the other hand, I loved Carpe Fulgur's localized titles - Recettear and Fortune Summoners to be precise. Simple games, but quite addictive and just plain fun. When you play games such as this, you notice something special. It's like the game serves as a bridge between you and the developer. The experience - be it through graphics, music or story engages you and in the end it leaves a lasting effect. References, gameplay elements, the design... These combine and make the game have a personality of sorts. The indie developers are able to do this. But so called "mainstream" titles are only concentrated on profit - and it's noticeable - no personality, just monotony. When you see a developer claiming stuff such as: ...then you know it's just another title of those. It's like real vegetables versus "organic" ones that feel like plastic and have no taste at all. These endless sequels only follow a base model *cough*shooteverythingonsight*cough* and add superflous new things on every release. Wow, 3 new weapons. Fun. Remember when games managed to instill those feelings after being cleared? Feelings that last even until today? I can watch the Chrono Trigger ending credits on Youtube and instantly relive all those great moments while listening to awesome music. You might call it nostalgia glasses, but I'm sure that the experience of remembering titles such as FFVI, CT, or Silent Hill 2 will outclass any sort of "nostalgia" people might have 10 years from now for their Call Of Duty: Modern Ops 8 Remastered Edition Reflex. Who knows, maybe those people in the future will not even be able to play their old games because the whole infrastructure used by them will be gone. In the meantime, we will all be able to dust off our carefully preserved SNES and put a cartridge in, then have a blast from the past. OK, enough ranting once again - I'm off to play some Chrono Trigger :> On a side note, PS2 production has stopped. Good night sweet prince. I still have a shitton of ps2 games left to play, so it's not over yet!

The whole cloud thing is a load of bull. Even though I do enjoy having games on Steam, I hope we don't head to a future like the one Ivan posted. The whole always online thing sucks hard anyway - also go check the internet speeds thread. Look at the horrible speeds some people have. Not everyone has grade A internet, and that would be the first problem. Online gaming connections makes sense (hell, it's "online" after all) - a server has to control the main data flow and prevent cheating. But having to authenticate (and sometimes keep a connection alive) in order to play a single player game? Fuck that. It also raises the question about permanence. Anyone can go fire up an Atari 2600 and play some River Raid right now, hooking it to a TV preferably with an adapter that bypasses that little control box. Likewise, I can go connect my Mega Drive and play some Sonic 3 or Pier Solar right now. I have tons of carts stored, waiting to be played. With all this digital distribution going on, the game isn't really yours. You license a copy, which doesn't even exist physically. Want to sell an old game to a friend? Well fuck you. Want to play your game in a place with no decent internet? Well fuck you. What would happen if ended up badly? (I'm amazed sony managed to recover so nicely from the PS Notwork fiasco) All those games, gone. Unless they release a way to DL and bypass authentication before they go poof. DRM is also bull - remember those legit ubisoft customers unable to play their games due to a failure in the auth server? Meanwhile pirates didn't even notice anything. Digital distribution sounds cool because getting stuff shipped over here is a pain - but when the DL speed is so bad that having a product shipped is faster... And to wrap it up, I do not want any single piece of my information stored somewhere where it can be subject to snooping. I don't know if you like it, but for me... the whole "cloud" is one thing I do not want to use at all. If the future becomes this bleak... I'll just stick to my old consoles. To answer the title's question: I think game consoles will stick around for a bit more. But forget about playing if you have no internet. Systems will become expensive paperweights as soon as your connection fucks up. ------------------------------- On a separate note: OK, rant over. Sorry for the wall of text. I hope the future of gaming is something we can enjoy, not something that the devs or government can fuck up at their whim.

About the save files: Some games keep a database file (unlocked CGs, etc) and separate game progress files (usually named in increasing fashion such as .s01, .s02 and so on). Make sure you back up any and all small files residing in the game data directory... I've had the same thing happen to me with several titles. I enjoyed DC2, we'll see about this one.

3, definitely (subsistence edition to be precise). Excellent story, several improvements (3D free camera mainly), and nothing unnerving like in the previous title (although that one has I NEED SCISSORS! 61!) Also SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE EAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTEEEEEEERRRRRRRR- (you should check the mgs3 comic dubs in youtube if you haven't yet).

Holy crap that's bad - reminds of the 0.3 Mb DL / 0.2 Mb UL usb modem I used a loooooong time ago... FUCK YEAH *high fives*

Holy shit Avenger, that's an amazing DL speed. Most cases I've seen sadly have really crappy UL speeds, which doesn't help when wanting to seed things :\ Flash is fucking up on my installation, so I'll just wing it: My DL is ~3 Mbits and UL is 1.5 Mbits generally. @Ryu: Any noticeable differences in your connection since TIGO bought Cablevision?

I find it hard to decide between Period and Quartett as my fav Littlewitch VN. Period switches to a more standard ADV style losing some points, but has more characters. Quartett on the other hand has outstanding presentation and dynamism, not to mention the amazing music... This title definitely shows how Littlewitch's Floating Frame Director engine can heavily enrich the experience. It's also pretty damn stable and smooth, even inside a virtual machine - another plus. I'm sure you were wanting to put in your list of music examples, this one is the best track IMO - the first time I heard it, I had this odd tingly feeling in my head - it's that good. :> Makes me want to pick up a violin and practice... Been years since I last played an instrument though :\ Quartett rounds up to a solid 9/10 for me. The voice issue you mentioned is a bit unnerving, but I managed to find a "speed sweet spot" after opening the config menu several times, and it was all a smooth sail from there on.

No recuerdo bien quién es... creo que era (spoilers) En fin, es así - solo un .nsa debes copiar. Ahora, cuando salga MGQ parte 3, probablemente sean dos los archivos a copiar: arc.nsa de parte 1, y arc1.nsa de parte 2 (creo que así era el nombre del segundo nsa). Siguiendo este patrón, probablemente "arc2.nsa" sería el nsa principal de la parte 3.

Shino: Probablemente el problema sea con la integración de la parte 1. El error que tienes dice que no encuentra un archivo bmp en un .nsa (archivo que contiene los recursos del juego). La parte 2 viene con un arc.nsa "dummy" que es más pequeño que el verdadero. Debes reemplazarlo: Copia el "arc.nsa" de la carpeta de la Parte 1 a tu carpeta de la Parte 2 (te pedirá reemplazar, dale sí). Luego, desde el menú de extras de la parte 2 selecciona "Part 1 conversion". Asegúrate de sólo reemplazar este .nsa, no toques los otros. Es buena idea que hagas esto con una copia limpia de la carpeta de la parte 2. Después, desde la carpeta save de Parte 1, copia el "gloval.sav" a la carpeta save de la Parte 2. Nota: para que funcione, debiste haber creado el "clear save data" al terminar la parte 1. Si no lo hiciste, carga tu archivo en la parte 1 y selecciona para crear el "clear save". Para finalizar, dentro del menú Extras selecciona "Part 1 SaveImport". Si aún tienes problemas, te puedo mandar mi archivo, que está justo al comienzo de la parte 2. ----------------------------------- (translation) The problem might be related to the part 1 integration. The error you have says that it can't find a bmp file in an .nsa archive (game resource file). Part 2 comes with a "dummy" arc.nsa that is smaller than the real deal. You need to replace it: Copy the arc.nsa file from the part 1 folder to your part 2 folder (it'll ask you about replacing, hit Yes). After that, go to the extras menu in part 2 and select Part 1 Conversion. Do this with only this specific .nsa, don't touch the others. It might be a good idea to do this with a fresh copy of the part 2 folder. Then, copy the gloval.sav file from the /save folder in part 1 to the /save folder in part 2. Note: In order for this to work, you should have a clear save data file created. If you didn't do so, load your file in part 1 and make the clear save. Then finally select Part 1 SaveImport in the extras menu. If you still have issues, I can send you my file that is right at the beginning of part 2.

Rumor? I don't think that we need to label it as such, this is confirmed just like the fact that the sun will rise tomorrow. Sadly, CoD rehashes will keep coming until the shooter genre dies out only to be replaced by something possibly worse. Remember that time when early MW3 PC versions would mention "Modern Warfare 2" in system dialogs? Well, that pretty much already shows what we're going to see whenever this "new" $60 expansion pack-- er, game comes out. :] I enjoyed MW1 because it was a breath of fresh air after WW2 WW2 WW2 WW2 WW2 WW2 WW2 *futuristic space age shooter here* WW2 WW2 WW2, ad nauseam. But now this reached the same point. :\

om nom nom You're welcome. :]

Normally, these messages that ask for disc 2 have two buttons, "Retry" and "Abort installation" or similar. When Daemon Tools mounts the second disc, go back to the installer window and try hitting the retry button - the installer should recognize the new disc and continue. Otherwise, you could try emulating a disc tray cycle (daemon should have the option to "open" and "close" the virtual disc tray), this should wake up the installer, in case there are no buttons to click.

Yeah, having linux will pretty much mean hit-or-miss when it comes to games. Then again, as a compatibility layer Wine can in rare cases improve performance. Locale is a lot easier to work with in wine, luckily - simply setting the variable before running the command will switch the whole locale, so you can run a program in JP locale while running another in US locale. A virtual machine can come in handy - some games work perfect on it but not Wine, some viceversa, and a few work on both. Valve is currently working on getting its flagship games ported, starting with L4D2. They achieved better performance in linux already, so the future might be a bit brighter.

Well, first of all you need to run the program with JP locale so it can properly install. I know the game works if you install the game on windows (it can be a virtual machine), and copy directly the folder to your linux system. To run a wine program with japanese locale, run in terminal: LANG=ja_JP.UTF-8 wine game.exe However, you must have this locale enabled in your system - Here's how to add locales in ubuntu https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Locale/ The specific locale you want to add is ja_JP.UTF-8.

Indeed - Happy Friendship day Ryu. And happy international friendship day, community! :]

@Ryu: Whoa, dengue you say? Shit sucks hard - When I had it last year, I was left pinned on the bed for almost a month... Hope the Period patch is done for the 15th. also lol jast

Now onto playing the additional "The Answer" chapter, Breakthrough. Oh, and it's permanently locked on hard. Have fun. :]

In Persona, you can only have ONE status effect at a time. So for example, if you have poison, you're basically immune to anything else. But yeah, it's all down to pure luck - if your healer gets Charmed, you'd better heal it ASAP: You have a last resort: Use Rush. If you hit triangle, everyone will attack, charmed or not. So wait until the charmed character attacks, then switch off Rush during its turn. Then, simply heal the charmed character on your next turn. And you can't save yourself from Night Queen - it's a guaranteed use in the 13th arcana of the boss.

Hm, Kud Wafter is progressing pretty smoothly. And the finished Period patch is just around the corner now...

If you lose personas due to fusion and whatnot, you can always "revive" them by paying ALL YO YENS at the velvet room.

Academics is a bitch to level up - it's like 3x compared to Charm and Courage. Just keep at it. Also, free extra courage if you're in Tired status at school: Head to infirmary, get courage+ without using up your time.

Er, yeah - there are social links with romantic aspects in them. They don't affect the storyline, though. The main girls' links can be started around at half of the game due to some requirements - careful when SL'ing with them because they can get jealous, and hinder SL progress. There are five SLs of that type, IIRC.