MagnaCentipede

So much Disney cloning these days.

TF2 knocked off Incredibles.
BFH knocked off Hercules.

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Zephyr

And what does Disney have that video game companies want to emulate?

Answer: Wide demographics and appeal.

Perfect Business strategy.

-Zephyr

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You were once like the newbie who needed a hand from above and TacticalGamer gave you it.

You owe the newbie who comes after you that same outstretched hand from above on your honor as a Tactical Gamer.

Tactics at TG come from trust and friendship, not meticulous detail and rigid discipline.

Everyone should be assumed mature until proven otherwise.

We are no clan.
We are not a single game.
We are mature, intelligent, and cooperative individuals.
We are TacticalGamer, a community above and beyond its name.

BleedingKnee

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. EA did mention they want to keep the hardcore players. And Dice is making it after all. (I know, I know snowball in hell and all that).

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aka LousyBackup

Long Bow

The existing Battlefield games are fairly deep; you have to be pretty good or you’ll die pretty quick,” Mr. Florin said Friday in a telephone interview from Geneva. “Now we’ve toned down the difficulty, shortened each game session to 10 or 15 minutes and made the visual style more cartoony.”


WHAT!!? Have they never heard of ArmA? BF is not to technical. The fact you actually have to read one or two pages of a manual is now considered a huge obsticale for gamers? Please don't tell me that with a wider demographic, meaning more mature players, they feel the need to cater to the 13 year old boys more?

Ok I actually do have some hope for this though. If it is a big revenue increase perhaps money will find its way into some development of more hardcore games. Thus sell the crap to the masses and use the revenue to develope the more intricat games for the more advanced gamer.

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westyfield

Most gamers can't actually read.

Just read the manual when the game is installing, I like games with big instruction manuals, helps me learn the controls faster and mostly provides a bit of backstory to the game (Halo).

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|TG-irr| westyfield

Thanks Oldirti for this sig!
Xfire: westyfield
Ikariam- Westopia, Quosios [18:35] (S). Colonies: Westyville, Nytios [18:29] (M), Westropolis, Tasetia [15:33] (CG).
Irregular since Sept 15th, 2007

War.mongeR1

I was annoyed when I read the part that said "it is meant to provide a simpler, more accessible entertainment experience than the relatively complex earlier Battlefield games." So they're gonna dummy down the game? I sure hope that this will just be a spin-off of the BF series and NOT a replacement.

If EA really wants to make the game more accessible to other players, they need to go the way of Blizzard or Valve and make a game that can run on everyone's computers (being widely scalable), and not require 20 Gigawatts of CPU power and the latest DirectX card as a minimum to play. Hell, if they'd come out with something as archaic graphically as BF1942, but just as refreshing and fun to play, I'd be all over it!

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"Common sense is not so common." -Voltaire

Relmar

Ok, I have good news.

I read this somewhere else and I'm passing it along here.
Battlefield Heroes is NOT Battlefield 3.
It is merely a bastard child of the series.
Battlefield 3 is still coming out.

http://forums.gamestrafe.com/network...d-company.html

Exploding_Silver

3 part interview
site is german
video intro is in german, then the interview talking is in english
http://www.pcgames.de/aid,629100/Int...s-Entwicklern/

EDIT

• 3rd person gameplay, not 1st person gameplay !
• achievement system (badges/pins) is a mission system ie choose mission, join the game with that mission in mind, eg kill 15 with pistol and immediatly get reward eg a new hat immediatly. eg badges gets gimics (I think thats how it works)
• character progression is kills = tickets = rank = new guns (I think thats how it works)
• minitransactions is not to buy a super gun directly, but things like buy double your points for a weekend, so can rank up faster, plus buy clothes etc.
• The promise is you will never have to pay to compete
• match making in servers ie new people only play with other new people and mid range with mid range etc
• They are deliberatly programming in crazy moments eg plane kills infantry by clipping them with wing, eg driving off cliff in jeep to crush enemy infantry below
• three character classes; (1) light - commando sneaky around type and laying trap eg spec ops/sniper (2) medium - soldier, good all rounder, has ability to see enemy locations to a degree (3) heavy - gunner, big guns/explosions,
• been developing for a year, 25-30 people team
• open beta in summer 2008, but not buggy, a fully featured game (they say) no ability to do minitransactions in beta

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UnDeaD77

New video - http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/51545

HD version - http://www.gametrailers.com/player/31297.html


I still think it looks pretty fun.

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Steeler

I don't understand the taxonomy of this "casual gamer" that all the publishers seem to be hunting, or why they think a series of non-zero micropayments that incrementally increase your in-game firepower will appeal to this elusive breed.

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Long Bow

I can tottally see people paying money to have the most uber kit loadout. People hack and cheat to accomplish this so why not pay money to do it legit? I for one don't like the idea that money buys you an advantage over another player (outside of computer hardware I guess). If for example COD4 with it unlocks etc. was to proceed as it does currently but there was an option to purchase the highest rank I can see people doing it. I would have no problem with it since I could in theory play to achieve it or choose to short cut it with money, but in the end both routes would give you the same equipment etc.

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Steeler

I'm not saying that people aren't willing to pay for in-game stuff that maximizes their ability to play, I just don't know what class of people they expect to attract that aren't already buying the $50 box off the shelf.

I also don't see BF Heroes allowing you to achieve these unlocks through normal play - that would undermine the micropayment business model.

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=Sarc=

Small payments seem like a good deal and like a small fee for an hour of fun. People don't have much time to play games or are able to play for long periods of time. I consider myself a casual gamer only because I play a few hours a week. I still like all the hardcore type games but I just want something simple and fun to play for a little bit each night as a way to unwind.

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JO Guides & Tutorials
Team Element - It's who you game with.

Uranium - 235

People are dumb.

People are EXTREMELY STUPID.

People are so god damn moronic it's unbelievable.

THAT'S why.

People won't pay $180 for, say, a video game. "That's too much money!"

However, if you break that $180 into tiny fragment, suddenly they think it's a good deal, when in fact it's still $180.

Selling a reskin over Xbox Live for $4 is a colossal ripoff, seeing as how that's both a ridiculously huge amount in regards to the amount of content it gives you, and the fact that the internet is CLOGGED with free reskins of anything and everything in any game ever made, but people BUY IT UP.

Because $4 doesn't SEEM like much. Or the next time you pay $4. Or the next time. Or the time after that. Or another time. You can easily spend another $50 on 'micropayments' and have almost no real content to show for it.

Xbox Live and Battlefield Heroes are going to prey on these people who are complete financial idiots.

It's the same reason people buy crap on credit so readily, when they can't afford it - just because your TV costs only$90 a month for two years (including interest) doesn't mean it somehow costs LESS than the $1800 it'd have only cost you if you bought it outright.

On one hand, it angers me to see corporations getting rich out of abusing idiots like this, but on the other hand, they ARE idiots, and you know what they say about a fool and their money. But on the third phantom hand, I *DO* wish the people who fall into these scams would more often spend themselves into financial ruin so I could laugh at their expense and point out what fools they were.

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ScratchMonkey

The really sad thing is that our government then bails out these fools. It's primary job seems to be combating evolution, allowing (even encouraging) the dimwitted to survive and breed. One theory is that it's a conspiracy of the rich to breed drones for labor, but I think it's just the normal bread and circuses that comes with democracy and allows people to vote themselves benefits they didn't earn.

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Sig