Yea that part just really bewilders me. It really looks like ass, and is quite ancient in every other way... yet reviewers and gamers across the net continue to suck the source engine's cock.
I don't understand it.
I swear I heard some PC GAMER editors claim Episode 2 looked as good as COD4 or Crysis...
The game looked like ass. The only things the engine still does exceptionally well at this stage are the character models and character facial animations. Everything else sucks about that engine... yet the valve pole is polished by fanboys every day.
What I also don't understand is all the extreme fanboyistic loyalty, that Valve generates. The fanboys aren't able to hear anything negative about the company... I don't even mean the level of hate Que used to dish out... I just mean normal criticism. You say anything you don't like about a Valve game on a PC gaming forum, and a hundred fanboys will jump at you.
And any of the low points about Valve/STEAM are automatically turned into positives. I once said, "Well, I don't mind STEAM, but I still like the extras I get when I buy from retail."
Among the tons of replies I received, there was one something along the lines of, "Well, think of all the good Valve is doing for the environment by cutting down the need for paper!"
Another time I questioned the fact that Valve wasn't pricing its games lower despite saving lots of money by eliminating retail, and someone replied, "Well, if you are going to pay full price, would you rather it goes to an brick and mortar store? Or a great company like Valve???" This was the same guy who had been talking about lower prices because of digital downloading.
I was dumbfounded. I actually came to realize that the Valve fanboys were worse than the Nintendo fanboys... which is quite an achievement for them.
I guess these guys see Valve as one of the last heroes of their platform... which is why to them, when Valve poops, it isn't shit... it is chocolate!
I hate to say it, but it is a similar thing with Stardock -- though not nearly as severe.
Stardock comes out with the most self serving statements, and the fanboys keep eating them up since they see Stardock as a champion for their cause.
It reminds me of my university, Brock. They were medium sized, so they'd wear that like a badge of honor. At every instance, Brock Univ. would market the fact that since they were smaller than the bigwigs, they provided a really personal experience....bla bla bla... they talked about it at every instance... it was nauseating... as if they were smaller by choice.
Guess what? At first opportunity, Brock University exploded in terms of growth. Now they are pretty big and obviously never cared for being smaller.
I am sure that as soon as Stardock gets the opportunity, it will grab the chance to become a massive profit earning entity.
Whenever they come out with self congratulatory statements, they always tout at least one characteristic of theirs as positive, when it is anything but, and has nothing to do with anything... yet it has everything to do with them.... and the fanboys eat it up.
For example, that bill of rights stuff had certain points that gamers wouldn't really give a rat's ass about... yet those points were on the list because they suited Stardock. Some of those points actually made me laugh out loud, because they were features of Stardock that made no sense and felt totally out of place on that list.
I believe that Stardock doesn't really give a shit about gamers -- well not as much as they claim to -- and much of their anti DRM hype is basically a marketing strategy. They are basically pretending to be one of us, and I've already started to notice with some features of Impulse, that Stardock's convictions are only as good as they... as a company... need them to be.
