Mortim

Woah woah woah! Isn't this jumping the gun?

There's scant enough detail about the intrusion. The only official details are about what 'could' have happened which, whilst a real enough risk to take action on doesn't provide much in the way of tangible evidence to take Sony to task over.

I'm not defending them here, in fact in my line of work I understand all too well why prior warning should have been given from Sony days before it eventually was, but that's about all that can be can concluded at the moment.

Until further information is revealed regarding details of the intrusion it's impossible to say who, if anyone, is at fault here. This could be a case of employee negligence or crime of the century stuff for all we know. A certain law firm is no doubt picking up a lot of press at the moment, but my common-sense indicator tells me to wait for all of the facts before seeking legal action.

That 'Shoulder to Shoulder' poster in the final image seems to be promoting a lot more than it does at first glance...

I've no idea what Star Ruler is, don't believe I've ever come across anything produced by Blind Mind Studios, and being chained to the UK (no doubt for some heinous crime committed in a past-life) I've never shopped at Gamestop.

Yet I still can't help nodding approvingly at this decision. If the Gamestop-effect does turn out to be as bad as people reckon it will be, then it's nice to see that there are still developers out there still interested in delivering the very best they can, even if that means taking tremendous risk to do so.

Haven't seen the film yet, but had that unshakeable impression that at least twenty minutes of the film was going to be spent violently banging my head against a brick wall in response to every mis-interepreted technological term or plot mechanic used *cough*Eagle Eye*cough*.

Glad to see that doesn't appear to be the case. The concept seems to be interesting enough to work. I think for it to have real depth though, I would personally have the focus on not just the players memory of an action and its outcome, but on a accumulated knowledge of a persons motives or likely reactions at the character level. So you can sweet-talk your way into somewhere because you've gradually built up enough information to 'press all the right buttons'.

Or have the whole game timed, to reset the clock every 30-60mins. Certain scenarios can be started at precise times, and will take place differently depending on how you've changed the setting.

As far as puzzle/mystery gaming goes, the very mechanic of constantly living the same time segment holds a lot of potential.

For the mildly uncultured and utterly lazy such as myself. The song is:

'New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down - LCD Soundsystem'

This information will have no doubt saved people precious time just clicking on the Youtube link, or say, listening to the first few seconds of the song and working it out themselves.

You're welcome all the same.

I love the concept. I'm already taken in by the pretty stunning screens. I just hope the gameplay feels varied and the creation feels as fluid and as limitless as some of the earlier Sim City-style games.

Is it wrong that my default position on this is to drive Mother Nature from the planet just so that I can live out my fantasy of being Industrial Vizier of a desolate factory-laden land of soulless productivity?

@OmegaIXIUltima

I'm in the same boat (I'll pay for that pun later no doubt). I feel guilty not picking up one of the few truly steampunk games available on the market and have hovered over the buy button a number of times before recalling some nagging negative reviews.

I'm sure one drunken night on the Mac App Store will change that in due course, and I'll happily oblige with any constructive comments/criticism as necessary.

@The Scout

If you went to bed. You were doing it wrong.

EvE's persistent universe got the better of me after a number of years. It became more and more essential that I was there when it needed me, and not the other way around.

This is no slight on the game though. Just an example of how pure the concept of EvE Online's constant, risk-driven world is. The community is second-to-none and the constant developments it goes through are constantly treading new ground.

I'm hoping to take the plunge and wade back in, refreshed from my hiatus. Perhaps an official mobile app or two will make the transition back to 0.0 a little less daunting...

@Dalrint

GAME occasionally has offers that can be exploited in much the same 'legal, but perhaps not ethical' manner and are obliged to abide by the terms and conditions they themselves set.

The run-up to the last DS launch was a good example of GAME opening themselves to such dubious tactics within the market. They offered a £2.50 trade-in value (Policy was read differently dependent on store manager) for ANY DS game to bolster the amount of pre-owned software they had to offer.

Needless to say there's an awful lot of already pre-owned software available for less than that, and reports came in that people racked up quite a bit on their loyalty cards before it was all over.

I suppose GAME are just as open to legally playing the market any way the can as much as your average budding consumer is. For much the same reason.

The Telltale guys are awesome. Consistently improving and surprising.

Their latest accomplishment? Using the words 'Special Forum Access' in a pre-order bonus and rather than reducing me to fits of giggles, actually making me send money their way sooner.