David

Although Skyrim's first DLC, Dawnguard, hit the Xbox 360 in June and the PC in early August, PS3 users are still without even a tentative release date. As the weeks have worn on, PS3 gamers have become increasingly disgruntled with the poor communication and handling of the situation by Bethesda (Skyrim's developer).Following the announcement that Hearthfire will be released on the 360 September 4th, tempers flared as PS3 users flocked to leave angry remarks regarding the situation on Bethesda's blog and forums. Following the quickly increasing amount of consumer backlash, Peter Hines of Bethesda released a statement via twitter: Microsoft's exclusivity agreement with Bethesda guarantees a one-month early-release on the 360 for Skyrim's first two DLC packs. Dawnguard's exclusivity ended July 26th, and Hearthfire's will end October 4th. Should more DLC be released, Bethesda will be legally able (though not obligated) to release it concurrently on all systems.Click here to view the article

Well, I will note that I've really moved away from having the site depend on the forums. The main page is getting most of the attention now, probably at the expense of forum activity. Your guides/threads are still getting views though, there's just less posting.

Yes, the core is the same. You hit upon the issue with the paragraph above this statement, though, with the Skyrim example. I'm just going to agree to disagree with the TES thing since it's kind of off topic and debating it further won't go anywhere, but the point you were trying to make with it is basically my answer to what I quoted (and more, but I'll add that below). I understand what you're saying, but in a game like RuneScape your achievement (for most players) is directly related to what other players have accomplished. Hence the highscores. Yes, they don't matter to the casual players, but the fact of the matter is that in the context of RuneScape having people buy in-game accomplishments (while rewarding to them) IS in fact diminishing the accomplishment of other players who have earned it fairly. To use the Bill of Rights as an example, U.S. citizens have access to many rights as long as they don't infringe on the rights of others. Maybe an extreme example, but it pretty much boils down to the same thing. It comes back to consistency. I know you never said it was a hardcore game, I was just disagreeing with you. You're not even half-way to level 99 in RuneScape until level 92 (I'm sad I know this, wasted brain space), and to get to 99 Magic have to cast Wind Strike over 1.7 million times. I'm not familiar with FFXI, but RuneScape is at least in the game when it comes to time consuming endeavors. All I was saying is that in itself makes it "hardcore" in my book, yours may be different (which is fair). First of all, I have no idea why you defined elitist and noob; I know what they mean. What I didn't understand is why this is coming up or what it really has to do with the situation. Yes, some veterans hate change and everything. That doesn't change the fact that many of the changes that aren't related to the core gameplay have been ridiculous in many eyes for reasons stated earlier in this thread. I already tried to explain that I'm no "elitist" RuneScape player. I don't even play anymore, "noobs" are definitely already on my level. Squeel of Fortune. Ninja Gaiden, at least, has relatively new installments. Either way the age wasn't really relevant to the point I was trying to make.One thing I will say is that all these games (including the TES games earlier) are all SINGLE player games. No one cares if you cheat or get things "unfairly" in these games because it's all based on YOUR single experience. This isn't really applicable to RS's situation at all since people buying stats does hurt the sense of accomplishment of other players.

I don't see how this relates at all. I disagree that Skyrim is a worse game, though that's definitely subjective anyways. I'm not saying that time equals skill or any of that, in fact those who played RS with me know that I consistently hated on the game because there was no "skill" involved as much as a life-consuming grind session. I don't disagree with you there, with the exception to the fact being that RuneScape is a game where thousands of hours don't get you very far. Most players in the clan have 80-100+ days invested and aren't even particularly high leveled. Giving skills and items away for free isn't putting incentive on anything. In fact, it's taking AWAY incentive to actually play the game because there's no reason to actually play it. You said earlier that... RuneScape is a hardcore game. The time investment required to accomplish anything is immense. Sure, people can, do, and should play it casually. That doesn't mean that it isn't targeted towards hardcode gamers. Just because something isn't complex doesn't mean it's not hardcore; the time investment RuneScape requires is probably higher than any other mainstream game out there. What else could make it more hardcore than that? Where does this "elitist" thing come from? Is it "elitist" that I'm pointing out that changes Jagex have made have led to a much, much worse user experience for EVERYONE (who likes being forced to stare at ads)? When there is an issue, people call it out, the developer takes the hint, and hopefully things improve. The whole notion that I'm just trying to "lock out the noobs" is ridiculous. I'm what, level 100 with like 20m experience?No where did I say advertising was horrible game design, or at least didn't mean to relate the two. The rest of the paragraph seems right in line with what I was saying. People want to (and should) be rewarded for playing the game. How is buying 200k RC experience with real money playing? That's the whole issue I have with SF. I was even more confused when you mentioned those games, because they are some of the most rewarding games of this generation. Are you saying buying in-game achievements or getting an assist-aided Wii game victory is rewarding, as opposed to struggling to beat harder games? The reward is that much greater in my opinion. I apologize if I sound condenscending, I'm just wondering what you meant with this paragraph. I should add that I'm just glad to have someone to argue with around here because it's been slow lately, and harbor no ill feelings. I agree completely, people are always stupidly upset before any updates. People were even mad about the GE, which was probably the greatest idea of all time. I will say, though, that those annoyed at having to "learn something new," while probably a valid complaint, really doesn't have anything to do with my game design/SF/ad complaints.

I've already given up on Dawnguard. Unless it's $10 or less I'm not buying it. I completely understand that they had an exclusivity agreement and respect that, but the complete silence regarding the situation and ignoring an entire userbase? The whole thing has become a joke. The communication is just horrible, and they're losing a lot of money because of it.As far as Hearthfire is concerned, I plan to adopt Babette. If it's ever released on the PS3.

I don't know why you're arguing with me on the advertisements. I've already said I understand they need to make money, and how they've always done so in much better fashion in the past. The issue is with the direction they've taken the game; a direction that's led them to alienate such a large percentage of their userbase that they've had to introduce things like SF to increase the revenue they've lost. Is it their choice to use methods like aggressive in-game advertising and real world money? Yes, it is. It's also my choice as a (former, for the reasons stated) paying member/player to quit, and I know I'm not alone. You say there are still achievements, and you are correct. It's not that there aren't achievements, it's what they've done to them; one example being RuneCrafting. RC used to be a skill that equated to about 15k experience per hour. Now? You can probably get about 200k without much effort or stats, and that's not even factoring in things like SF. The result? Thousands of players who invested literally thousands of hours of their lives for this "achievement" instantly lost most of what their achievement was worth as soon as that skill update hit. You bring up the fact that "not everyone has the time" for such things. You completely hit the nail on the head, and that's precisely why it's... Well, was... Such a great achievement in the first place. Why should everyone suddenly be getting things for free? Taking away any sense of accomplishment is certainly not bringing people back to a game that's based 100% on dull grinding. Now, back to the RC example, because I know someone will bring it up... Was that change needed? Probably. But now we've come full circle to the original problem I brought up - there is no consistency to anything Jagex does. It's horrible game designing, and they compound one mistake with dozens upon dozens of others. Case in point? Several years ago Jagex had the same video advertising (albeit out of the game). They ended up having to remove it due to severe user backlash.

Are you serious? I know web advertising; RuneScape had a 728x90 leaderboard above the F2P game for years. I'm not complaining about advertising or a company making a proft, I'm complaining that they've implemented an extremely intrusive ad system that literally forces you to watch an advertisement for 30 seconds within the game. If that doesn't seem like a long time, stare at a watch for 30 straight seconds. Between that and the squeal of fortune gimmick Jagex has sold out their whole achievement oriented gameplay.

Some people just shit rainbows.

You're pretty damn fast. Thanks for showing me, got the new one up - http://eldersouls.com/_/skyrim/hearthfire-official-build-homes-and-more-r68

It seems like having the forum index removed from being the home page has affected it. Any suggestions on making navigation easier, if that's the problem?

Editor's Note: If you're looking for information on how or where to buy land/property in Hearthfire, try this guide. Bethesda dropped a bombshell earlier today by announcing that not only is Hearthfire real, it's going to be released on Xbox Live in under a week on September 4th. Yeah, we didn't see that coming either. The announcement revealed that Hearthfire will offer players the following abilities... [*]Purchase (and defend) property. [*]Build your own home/complex from the ground up. [*]Ability to use drafting tables and carpenter's workbenches to make furnishings. [*]Hire stewards to run your affairs. [*]Adopt children into your home. But be warned, you have to raise them! The DLC will reportedly cost 400 Microsoft Points; that's $5.00 if you're a normal person and not a Microsoft suit. An official promotional video was posted alongside the announcement. http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gXwNVpDmfo Meanwhile, PS3 owners still have yet to have any official announcement concerning Dawnguard's PS3 release date. However, Skyrim Patch 1.7 (released in July on the 360) was officially available in Europe on August 28th.Click here to view the article

If you're unaware, Jagex now has you watch a 30 second advertisement every time you log in if you're F2P. It's absolutely awful. If I still played I would quit instantly.I know RuneScape players have been complaining about Jagex's incompetence for years tongue-in-cheek, but I think now we can finally face the facts. RuneScape is just irrefutably complete garbage at this point. I don't know why anyone would play such a game when the developer has resorted to complete bullshit and sold out game achievements (you know, the entire reason you play) completely by introducing the ability to buy everything in-game with real cash.GG RuneScape. On the bright side I've rid myself of dealing with the train wreck developer that is Jagex. By the way, Jagex, protip: don't spend ten years developing a game on a platform that was dead when you started and then wonder why everyone gives your game shit.

Jagex peruses the TRR forums to find new ideas for their scams. They don't know we just come up with them sarcastically.

Maybe they can finally start the PS3 Dawnguard count-down.

Place has been pretty slow as far as forum members.

I know this is a late reply, but I just went through it all again while I was updating the articles.I think you should provide more evidence as to why Blake can't be Robin other than there's no canon for it. You're right, of course, but new canon has to be created at some point and this IS Nolan's own universe.The article seemed to be taking the belief that John Blake was just a reference to Robin instead of Nolan trying to actually put the character into the movie. I could be wrong, of course, but if that's the case it should be explicitly stated at the end or somewhere else (I may have edited it in when I thought there were strong hints to it, not positive).I also noticed that you said there was no canon for Robin to become Batman, but right after that you list "Dick Grayson (first Robin)" as becoming Batman. As someone who is not very familiar with the comics I was very confused because it seemed to contradict what you just said.I think at the end of the day Blake was just Nolan's take on Robin's character in his own universe.

It's pretty likely Sony and Microsoft will both launch them in 2013. It's definitely time for new consoles, the technology in them at this point is outdone by smartphones (an exaggeration, yes, but not by as much as many think).

Kotaku reported earlier that during a GameStop manager's conference, a PDP representative slipped up and mentioned a November 18th release date for the Wii U. The report failed to mention whether or not said representative is still employed, but did add that the rep quicky changed the subject once it was realized what had been said.PDP and Nintendo have refused to confirm or deny any planned release date for the console.Following the Wii U's original announcement, it has been recognized for its unique "GamePad" controller and built-in controller screen. It was also announced that the Wii U won't be compatible with DVD's or Blu-Rays.Click here to view the article

What's the point if you need to have the PC version anyway?

Opened again - looking for applicants to the content team and Video Game Deals Moderator.