► The Mailbox - December 21, 2011

[sidegate12]

ummmm my hands that big and i'm 5' 10 

[RB13240]

My hands are larger than that by two keys, I can reach over the backspace key. I can still use iphone just fine.....

[ItsJokkul]

i blurt out EPIC in sync with the intro every video

[djlegacy96]

on live is bad 15 mb here and i still notce the time delay

[djlegacy96]

1gb really....

[KingMehXIII]

ever seen (damn you iPad)

[KingMehXIII]

Garrus the most bad ass character I have evervseen

[m4ll0wFTW]

Jesus Christ TB, what are you, a giant?

[MarchingSaxophonist]

@LeapingCarrot Fact 3: Bioware is owned by EA who being a major dick to PC gamers as of late. I personally would appreciate them to not leak into my Bethesda. Nothing against Bioware the studio I love there games just not their publisher.

[Osvath97]

I care about The Elder Scrolls storyline, and so does a lot of peapole I know.

[valdabad]

I LOVE MY LYDIA

[TheRidley21]

@olli349 Indie Game Developers are my favorite people on Earth, and I aspire for that to be my own career path. I love Magicka as well, despite its slow performance on my PC. Don't get me wrong--I understand the limitations that accompany them. But that doesn't change the fact that its a development team's responsibility to take account for perfomance capablity and client compatibility, Indie or not. And as TB points out, to their own benefit.

[BandTiguysChannel]

I CARE ABOUT JI'ZARGO ALOT ACTUALY

[Karimbus1]

Laptops aren't really meant for gaming anyway.

[jamodude56]

@Karimbus1 alienware?

[Zephalier13968]

16:33 lmao

[onecooldan]

Graphics are such a massive portion of a game's development budget that asking them to do anything more means a more expensive game. Creating assets in low and high resolution is more than twice the work of just high resolution.

[hardc0r3gam3r]

I burned 2 Alienware in less than half a year while playing high demanding games on them, so hell I'm not going buy a damn gaming laptop anymore. Get a PC rig with water cooling, much more power and last wayyyyy longer for the same price of a gaming laptop.

One thing you missed out TotalHalibut, large games developers for PC has certain agreements with NVIDIA or AMD to maximize the graphics so that people would buy new graphics cards.

[thisisnotanick]

@hardc0r3gam3r "so that people would buy new graphics cards" Whats your source for this info?

Most GOOD game developers work closely with hardware developers to get as much juice as they can from the different graphic cards. Randomly accusing game developers of running errands for the GFX business is foolish.

[dradone5]

Don't care about the iPhone and other mess that's supposedly good for gaming now. Keep a phone at a phone. How I look at it. Just gonna keep to my laptop, thank you very much.

[Lordzelot666]

I loved Dragon Age 2's gameplay, Idk what is wrong with the fast paced strategy combat. Maybe it's just rogues? Story sucked, but I expected that since they announced DA2.

[RancidLiquidous]

Well you know what they say about having a wide hand span....

[natwat123]

@TotalHalibut I don't know what it is but your just really great to listen to on videos, it might be what type of videos you make or what your talking about. Keep It Up.

[SWEmanque]

I really really thing DICE should have made BF3 run with lower settings for those who want it...

[Aztekninja123]

What the hell is a tilda?

[zeth1800]

@Aztekninja123 idk

[MetalManiac8448]

@Aztekninja123 the tilde is the squiggly line over the tab key and below the escape key

[WhiteMoosey]

@Aztekninja123 Google ftw?

[shadowkontrol]

(laugh) I'm probably taller than him but my hands only reach to the minus.

[bigthangs1212]

bastilla! anyone remember her? :L

[LeapingCarrot]

Fact 1: Bethesda rocks when it comes to world creation, scope, side-quests and combat

Fact 2: Bioware rocks when it comes to main plot, companions, romance/rival options and overall character development.

Now let's combine these to get the best RPG ever.

[Sharkey3331]

@LeapingCarrot Actually Bioware sucks with the romatic stuff and Bethesda is getting better but still not good with combat

what we need is Dark Messiah combat in an Elder Scrolls

[Moosenthusiast]

@LeapingCarrot

yeh but in doing so we'll destroy the entire point of the universe! goodbye real life!

[Bulbaboy]

@LeapingCarrot I'd argue that Bethesda's combat is very bland and uninspired.

[kingofmagnet]

@LeapingCarrot I'd just nerd all over the place :D

[Zaxkcy]

@LeapingCarrot That is like saying, let's invent a type of food, that is the most sweetest, most spicy, most sour food every. It just wouldn't work.

[dyl2210]

@LeapingCarrot the combat is quite literally swing swing swing it's not that impressive it's simple and bland

[LeapingCarrot]

@dyl2210 The combat is great in other aspects. For example, using bows often increase your skill with the bow. The fact that skills improve based on your use of that particular weapon, magic, armor and so on is really great in my opinion.You can basically approach an enemy with anything you could think of in the fantasy genre, and you're not at all tied to a pre-set class. Sure, swinging the sword over and over again can be very bland, but then why choose to do so?

[LeapingCarrot]

@LeapingCarrot That's NOT to say the combat is perfect of course, it's definitely not. But I think the combat is "simple" only if you choose to play simple. Still, the combat could be much improved upon, and I believe Bethesda will do just that :)

[dyl2210]

@LeapingCarrot you make a good point i do agree on that side of notion sorry i underlooked the whole combat style as you said it is pretty cool how you go in with what style you like and you level that up rather then say it be split upon 10 different skills making more grind but i don't know how you mean that i can make it less bland like i said all i found with the game was swing swing magic magic it wasn't taht fast paced enough for me to swing magic range ect it just felt slow

[Zantillia]

@LeapingCarrot Very true. One thing I love the most about Bioware is how funny and deep each character is. This shines in the party banters for both Dragon Age Origins and 2. However, the lack of dialogue readily available with your party in 2 was a huge turn off for me. I loved taking time to talk with my party between dungeons, slowly work on their approval to get them to tell me more. Unlike 2 which had pre-assigned times in which you could talk to them. I hope that system is not used in 3.

[zearsocom]

@LeapingCarrot yeah then lets put it on a blizzard budget and a valve developmental time frame... and we might just have the next baldurs gate XD

[yersimapestis]

@LeapingCarrot or possibly the worst.

[bcmin12]

@LeapingCarrot I agree with everything except for the combat, I think the Skyrim's combat (as well as most Bethesda games) just doens't feel as satisfying as Bioware games, though I do love both companies to bits!

[DarrensCouch]

I had my Playstation chipped, it was awesome.

[TheRidley21]

The game you are playing there, is a game in which the developers have seemingly made little effort to optimize performance. I was really excited about it when I saw your WTF Is video featuring magicka, and then found it 60% off in the Steam Holiday Sale. I picked it up, and then was struck by the spec. demands that it required, but had no REASON to require. I am extremely frustrated by this problem...why in the HELL do PC game devlopers not engineer optimal performance in their own games?

[olli349]

@TheRidley21 Magicka was first developed by like 4 persons, try doing better with such resources.

[Lakaen]

TB man, i love Oblivion and Skyrim's storyline!

[TolHydra]

right it can't be worse than dragon age 2..

[Kmaster02]

Sometimes I touch biscuits erotically and pretend they're you.

[coolmitchg]

Visit my channel, i dare you!

[TobyBetts]

I always just ignored the onlive advert on here becasue it annoyed the hell out of me but I didn't realise quite how incredible it is, if it does what TB says it does and to a good enough standard on my iPad then I think this could go huge and make whovever invented this a hell of a lot of many, a large majority I expect, of mine :D

[basejump8]

Merry Christmas to you guys, too :)

[AsgardProductionsSE]

Merry Christmas TB :)

[MrOddsAgainst]

To any who say the storyline of Skyrim is amazing, play the last quest

[KuramaZeyurai]

@MrOddsAgainst agreed

[felathar1985]

@MrOddsAgainst TB is really biased when it comes to Skyrim. He stated he played 2 hours... and he is giving an opinon on a game he didn't play. He's that stupid XD Skyrim main plot is decent. The final quest is really really good and it shows what the story is gonna be.

[zeth1800]

@felathar1985 thats why he used oblivion stupid

[Antiunfunktasticize]

People only like Morrigan 'cause she's hot.

[lad1230]

Wow tb u sure have huge hands

[theweirdofrom]

I don't care if you don't put out a mailbox over christmas, everyone should take a break

[naruto0589]

MAC IS NOT FOR GAEM?! OH NOES! i wonder who really doesn't know that macs ≠ gaming computers...

[francez123456789]

WHATS YOUR STEAM? :O

[toneoyay1]

Your handspan can't seriously be from tilde to the + near backspace (assuming the US tilde key). That's MASSIVE.

[ncrikku]

@toneoyay1 maybe he measured from pinky to thumb with an open hand.

[sleyermeister]

@toneoyay1 mine goes from tilde to - near backspace

[Tortanus02]

@toneoyay1 My hands that big...then again I am also a 6'7 300lb scotsman

[Cr0no]

@toneoyay1 My hands are that big and I'm 5'10" 150lb - unlike my gigantic scottish friend there

[dyl2210]

@toneoyay1 i can do that pretty easily i'm 19 6" 180lb Australian

[MrHALOprince]

Skyrim's storyline is important, just because you don't care to even play through the smallest percentage of it doesn't mean it's any less valuable...

[Failedmylife]

Thanks TB wish you happy holidays and a great new year!

[Failedmylife]

I hope Bioware is listening to this, If they put some thought into TB's ideas I sure as hell would play it, and i know a lot of my friend would as well.

[TyronMakeka]

Marry christmas TB cya :D

[spencegame]

My friend got a new alienware and he brought it with him to school. I heard his laptop running on the other side of the room, and I asked him what he was doing. He said I'm playing Battlefield 3.

[toaklanoa]

TB play magicka w/ the yogscast again!

[spikegilfer1997]

DA:2 was doomed to fail wuth a two year development cycle

DA:O had a 6 year development cycle 3 softcore 3 hardcore 160 i believe or so

[Nexxion]

Merry Christmas TB! Hope you get plenty of choco chip bricky wickies and knittedy wittedy sheepity sleepities!

[NotFPSFanboy]

If Bioware wants to learn how to craft and engaging sandbox narrative then they need to look at New Vegas. It had better characters than any Bioware game I had played, a more engaging narrative that actually was affected by player choice, better level design and actual cohesion between decisions you made and ways you played. Bioware hasn't lost their touch, they never had it. DA2's combat might have been fun if it didn't undermine the themes of the game and jettison all variety out the window.

[dropsforahotstone]

a usb drive in your phone/a use pyramid... there u r u can play like a real pc.. lol ...soon. i heared Hard-drives get more expansiv coz problems in Thailand... there r the most harddrives from...

[dropsforahotstone]

refill coolliquid, solder clean & stuff

[dropsforahotstone]

every laptop need a controll all ~2-3 years from a pro .. 40 € for excate looking and ur pc will run way smoother? 130€ total, was ok.

[dropsforahotstone]

every one of u has to do heal spells.. every 3th cast? but choose the place different (in that 3er circle) too bring the nessacary randomness

yeah, the running is not allways nessecary... places which u can visit more often and witch are randomized would be nice...

yes Origin was also in ger pretty in voice, really good. 5 pickable skill at one time.. round wasd & more positioning and a jump pls, a jump! and excater targeting would be nice.. like hittin´ the leg he limp. no open world style

[supersneaky113]

how about thane ? :(

[KamakiKun]

Merry Christmas to you too TB. <3

[Dazznap]

Am I the only one who is over attached to Lydia in Skyrim?

[ThatPinkBeardedGuy]

@Dazznap Haha! Yes! THe only thing people like to do to Lydia is either left in your home in Whiterun or Fus Ro Dah-ed off cliffs!

[mylesmurf]

What kind of laptop do you have?

[LeoMcKitten]

Well TB, you know what they say about big hands...

[tyraarane]

There actually are some good and memorable companions in the TES games...it's just that they're ones done by modders, such as Vilja (Oblivion), or Julan or Constance (Morrowind). Modders have the time and drive to create characters as memorable as Bioware's companions. Bethesda doesn't, because they have the rest of an open world sandbox game to write and program.

[fsdgadfase]

bfbc runs great on my gts 250, but bf3 wont even start.. but if the dice guys would have put in a dx 9 mode and lower texture quality mode in the game it would have worked. and otherwise i would have bought bf 3

[Mallestel]

My taste is just like TB's... Dragon Age (Morrigan!!), Vampire:maquerade (also BG and Planescape for me). I really love open world too, especially TES, but Bioware should stick to tactical-teambased, somewhat linear stories and Bethesda should stick with openworld goodness with TES6.

You could play DA:O as actiony RPG on lower difficulties, while it retained the need for tactics and pausing on nightmare (and even hard).

[fsdgadfase]

@Mallestel yeah the linear bethesta games (brink) where not that good, so open world sould be there goal

[Sigea02]

It's a wipe !!!

[jebred4]

well side storys r nice 2 like the dark brother hood in oblivion was good i got quite interested

[angelofdeath264]

Merry christmas TB take a break we'll see you in the new year

[snipeskier]

I have bigger hands than TB. Win.

[Termzzzz]

Can it wait for a bit? I'm in the middle of some calibrations

[de4ler]

13:50 and TB u remember Crysis 1 not 2 but 1 u must have 4 gards for normal fps

+ this weak i buy for BF 3 GTX 560 and im not surprised the game is not better it is just nicer and i have nVidia 9600 GT for 4 years ( gta 4 21 fps ) ( crysis 2 18 fps ) ( bf 3 17 fps )

lots of games SUX or just not better if this game have frospite 2 or DX 11

[de4ler]

i think laptops gona die .

2 resons .

1 HC players only buy HC laptops whyt epic HW

2 normal people buy some ipad smaller better for working + nvidia make good processors .

[TFisreallycool]

I've been eligible for a phone upgrade from my carrier for a few months now, but I'm staying with my current phone because all of the better phones either have no keyboard, or requires a data package. Friggen hell. (Tilde to Backspace)

[D4reD4vil]

"My hands are gigantic!". Did TB just brag about wang size?



[the1onlynoob]

Am i the only one that liked dragon age 2?

lol

[ThePhatDorf]

@the1onlynoob I liked it quite alot :(

[songofthieves]

Terraria for Christmas?

Awwwww TB how did you know?

[FSRPineapplez]

i rather expected you'd say: "and i'll see you next year"

[powerhousejp]

I have TB's "massive hand" issue; can't stand keyboards with a lack of tactile feedback to begin with, but with anything less than a full size keyboard...yeah, until Apple and the like somehow find a way of stuffing a full-size, physical keyboard on-board those tablets, I'll just stick to constantly upgrading this dinosaur of a laptop...

[Chorkly]

all I'm going to say is whilst you do deserve a break etc etc, something to consider is that when you make criticisms, expand on such so that many people who enjoyed said games can understand your view instead of just disagreeing with it, but that said good series.

[johtis]

British ppl have small hands if his hand is gigantic (from tilde. the button next to 1?, to + next to backspace), I have about normal sized hands and I reach form the button on the left side of the "1" button to backspace easily... And yes, I have the same problem with touch screen phones, whenever I try to type something I just keep pressing like 3 buttons at the same time.

[cartman2dk]

@johtis wow i have a logitech g11 keyboard, cant reach from 1 to backspace:p yet i dont have small hands. i just have a giant ass of a keyboard.:)

[Syko7s]

Garrus, tali, morrigan.... RULE#34 WHERE ARE YOU?

[TheGreatRakatan]

I have to scroll down to the comments and just listen to TB because watching him play is too infuriating

[TrashyPatty]

@TheGreatRakatan

Sucks to be you.

[DaMusique3]

DA:O is one of your favourite cRPGs? Dear god...

BioWare's shit is so delicious!

[tuFFskittlez1]

I cared about skyrim's main storyline :/ but i have to agree with tb on that one!

[spartantebow]

TB I'm happy that you are actually giving yourself time off. You deserve a break and no matter what you do I myself will back your decision. Merry Christmas TB have a good holiday.

[philosophy1996]

TB why are you showing wizards getting murdered over and over again?!?!!

[Hanleyman2]

@philosophy1996 why not?

[MrKokiKosta]

@philosophy1996 Hah! Fool!

Are you blind?

He's showing wizard's getting killed over and over because he wants to hide he's true power that he learned at Hogwarts.

[will3450]

@philosophy1996 tbs raciest and hates sweeds

[Thelondonbadger]

@will3450 Hes got gd reason to, he did get vikin flu twice Lol

[CookieCrumb23]

@philosophy1996 All I see is wizards murdering each other...

[PolarBearGr]

Happy Christmas TB go easy on the jaggerbombs.

 = )

[QYdivided]

~ to _ comfortably.... I'm only 15.... 0_o

[PsykerWolf359]

My hands are huge! D:

[xPulse365]

"Barely put two hours into skyrim"?

Do you not like skyrim?? Or just not had time to play it?

[MeinCraft93]

~ to Backspace... on a $3600 laptop that I -need- to be portable, if laptops stop being produced at some point I'll be pissed. Hate touch screens forever, can't code video, play any of the games I do, draw comfortably, or read or write things at a comfortable size.

Merry Capitalism day.

[Skaughtey]

Wow, I am exactly like the guy in the last email. I have to limit my games to around 2008 and earlier simply because my laptop just cant handle the new games. It sucks so much to have to play starcraft 1 instead 2. As far as MMO, it's WoW instead of Rift or TOR. I love Skyrim but I have to play KotOR. Now I know there are tons of low spec games out there that are just as fun, but still, you get the idea. I wish TB could personally tell every dev what he said in this video.

[pwuint12]

Its not Happy Holidays. Its Merry fucking Christmas.

[SaladxAXsisdlss]

~ to 9

[xxxxkill99]

@SaladxAXsisdlss Same.

[Malk007]

I'm with you in the Dragon Age case, I really think Dragon Age Origins is an extraordinary RPG and I got REALLY immersed in the story, DA2 barely seemed like the same series.

[RoAoG]

for some reason his explanation of his hands have made me laugh harder than anything else hes said

[dbouya]

3:30 companion development in sw:tor is actually awesome

[Shadowfolds]

Garrus is a bad ass mother fucker

[recreant359]

@Shadowfolds My favorite by far.

[Clermn]

@Shadowfolds He died for me D:<

[1993JMorgan]

my hands can do that, but my fingers are like nitting needles so i can use a touch phone easily... just not my slow samsung galaxy... (don't get a samsung galaxy)

[8ball595]

I didn't like DA:O the story could of be good but...

Firstly Loading screens Broke my immersion which in turn made me not care about the story.

Secondly All the areas i was in had no back story, then were just a place.

Thirdly the story at many points was just "getting to epic moment" lets add long tedious areas with lets battle 2 enemies.

Fourthly I felt only morrigan and alistar had a back story and the rest were just throw in there.

[oxane240]

@8ball595 1. i'm going to ignore this.

2. yes they do have back story but since you stop caring about story at this point you didnt check. 3. going to have to agree here partly, which difficulty did you play on? Since you normally fight at least 5 enemies at a time.

4. Because at this point, you didnt care for story so you didnt try to get to know them? Zevran's life back in his city is hilarious to listen to, so sorry mate but I feel a lot of your issues are a tad unfair.

[Eppa93]

@crazyaxebeaver yep, thats the one :P youst hierd myself a folower from bee and bard i believe for 500 gold and slaougtherd him at the shrine xD

[PullockTwoZero]

Merry Christmas you definitely deserve a break :)

[Welshsico]

I must say I do care very much about my companions in Skyrim........you mess with Lydia and my burdens that she carries, then your going to get a dragon shout to the face my friend......

[smizbe]

minecraft looks terribad but alot of people enjoy it

[Nasirdude123]

Origins was a good game but D2 got steamrolled by bethesda and i doubt DA3 will stand a chance against skyrim.

[aeiluindae]

I have great respect for blizzard with SC2 in terms of keeping reasonable requirements. I was able to play that reasonably well on a laptop that cost me $800 new ($200 of which was probably the premium for the integrated touch screen/wacom pen) when I bought it two years before SC2 came out. I wish more developers did that.

[derhellebarde]

Hey TB! Get a Desire Z. I have large hands as well. works very well :)

[Alphafromthewolfpack]

take a well deserved break John, we'll wait till after new year for MailBox :)

[masturbationation]

Hey! I can reach from Tilde to Plus as well! Come on in, Ladies!

[HighOverlordTopHat]

You taking a break is your gift to your fans.

[admiralgorganzola]

what there doing well in magika they need simon "oh god the bees" lol

[TheJFNewman]

love you TB thank you so much, u make my day all the time, thanks.

[TheHotmud]

Why thank you, I get bored sometimes if you don't upload, happy holidays Tb :D

[FearTheWorm]

What about Garrus? I fucked him. Garrus was so sweet ^_^

Lydia just carries my dragon bones.

[MrDocMinecraft]

@FearTheWorm Lol I killed that bitch. Werewolfed her, ate her corpse, and deficated her all over the street......... MAybe a little to graphic.

[Ianfrogman]

Is one of the magica caracters a 4000000 war hammer thing??

[MrDocMinecraft]

@Ianfrogman I think you mean 40000. You just said 4 million. lmao

[SeargentWhiskeyjack]

@06:01 famous last words

[PromorteD]

I agree completely, I got a mid-ish spec laptop which could run most games, I imagined myself playing games anywhere planes/trains/mcdonalds. In reality, most of the time I was just playing games in bed, burning my legs.

[kar1os81]

i only made it from tilde to the minus sign :D

[chickenmcfuck]

You know what they say about guys with big hands?

They use big gloves..

[ydfysgXnightime]

You should make a WTF Crimecraft Gangwars, its a very underated, small community mmofps with an rpg feel, it's tons of fun and i think you'd like it please check it out!

[NERDcustardAUS]

I7 2600k, Hd6950, 1TB HD, 8GBram search on ebay buy....its $1000 AUD cheap as

[S0hio]

@thewessywes

Can you do it with your middle finger on the L and your Pinky on the A?

That problem with your laptop battery is probably due to the power settings. If you look at your high performance advanced power options, you will see that there are a few settings that, while on battery limit your performance. The minimum processor state for on battery is probably 20%, and if you set it to 100% you will get a lot better performance. The battery life will suffer, though. This w