GreasyDogMeat

I wanted to believe that X-Files: I Want to Believe would be a good movie (HAR HAR). I knew going in that it would be a monster of the week, but I was hoping for something more epic. Boils down to a psychic priest and a back woods operation. Chris Carter had 6 years to write a killer movie and he writes a bad episode of the week stretched out into an hour and half movie.

Has a D&D crpg game EVER had a good trailer? Baldur's Gate, Planescape Torment etc all had meh trailers too. By the way, does anyone know what those lizard like creatures are in the trailer that are using weapons? Some new type of lizardfolk?

It was about 5 or 6 years ago that I discovered the Quest for Glory series and I greatly enjoyed playing through the whole series. I had played old Sierra adventure games growing up... so yeah, I think if someone enjoys adventure games they could definitely enjoy the Quest for Glory series now. The combination of RPG elements and three classes (with the 4th Paladin class unlocked in Trial by Fire if you complete certain quests) make it the most replayable adventure game I've ever seen. As for playing the first game, you may just want to 'test the waters' with this Trial by Fire remake, and if you enjoy it then I would definitely recommend getting the first game. The advantage is that you can bring your character with all the skills you learned from the first game over to the second. The stories are fairly self-contained, though they do have numerous recurring characters and villains, so there are a few advantages to playing the first game... first.

Heh, I know what you mean about getting stuck in the pre-internet days. Took me over TWO years of off and on playing to beat Space Quest & King's Quest II. I got held up for ages because of phrasing in Space Quest. Was in a small space ship outside of a large alien ship and I wanted to get from my small ship to the alien ship. I typed 'Put Jetpack On'... and it came back with a 'does not compute' type error. Eventually I figured out I needed to type 'Put On Jetpack' instead of 'Put Jetpack On'. I don't even remember how many months I wasted replaying the game thinking I had missed something along the way until I used the correct phrasing.

The Quest for Glory games http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Glory were some of the most unique adventure games ever created, combining RPG elements with classic adventure gaming. A few years ago I discovered this series (I wish I had played them at the time of their release) and I had a blast playing through them all. The first two games in the series used a typing interface, like many other old Sierra adventure games (King's, Space, Police Quests). The original Quest for Glory received a VGA remake and update to point and click style, though Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire unfortunately never received a remake. Well, thats about to change. http://www.agdinteractive.com/ I'm in the process of playing the VGA remake in preparation of transferring my character into QfG 2. I think QfG 1 has to have one of the greatest adventure game deaths ever: Death by fairies. DANCE! DANCE!!

-Storm of Zehir: I'd be sold if it was nothing but extra tilesets, monsters, placeables and textures. That the game looks like it has a sweet campaign with new features is just a bonus. I used to be interested in MoW, but the ridiculous delay means the only way I'm getting it is if its released with SoZ or it comes out on a disc in some sort of premium module package. I think Atari is trying to set a record of longest and most pointless delay of a game release. Only way of topping this is if a game ends up being delayed for a year because they can't decide on what box art to use. -Call of Duty 5: World at War: A few reasons I'm excited about CoD 5. 1: A return to WWII. I just don't find modern combat as interesting as WWII. Plus it likely means a removal of the absolute lame 'noob' junk added to CoD 4 like helicopters and other cheap tricks. 2: Jack Bauer is in it. 3: Its not developed by Infinity Ward. I think they've been taking progressivly more and more drugs as they've developed sequels. They went from the perfection of CoD 1 + UO to thinking regenerating health was a good idea and the removal of numerous things that made CoD 1 awesome, to implementing aimbot helicopters in multiplayer for CoD 4. While Treyarch might make some bad decisions, I can't imagine them doing any worse than IW has with it's own franchise. 4: COOP!!!!! I am gonna be SOOOO PO'd if it doesn't make it to the PC version. http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36745.html -Rage, Wolfenstein & Doom 5: I think the closest to release is Wolfenstein. I've always enjoyed id's games and these latest look very interesting. -Resident Evil 5: The trailer(s) blew my mind, and I REALLY hope it doesn't take long to port to PC. That and its ported by almost any other company than Ubisoft, who were so lazy they couldn't even change the button ques to PC keyboard commands, instead displaying console controller buttons during the prompts. I'm considering: -The Witcher Enhanced Edition: I'm generally not a fan of action RPGs and from what I saw of the demo I disliked the Witcher's combat system, but I really respect that they would spend so much time fixing problems with their game and re-releasing it for free to those who already bought it. I'd love to see NwN 2 get an Enhanced Edition in the same manner.

I played with the latest patch as well as a few fan hacks to improve the speed of the game. I really don't think I could have stuck with it without the speed hack. Luckily the only bugs I ran into were a few very minor side quests not being transferred to completed. Other than that it was a stable, if grind-tastic experience.

Pool of Radiance series: -Pool of Radiance 88' -Hillsfar 89' (A mini-game spin off, but you can still export characters from Pool of Radiance into Hillsfar, improve them and then move on to...) -Curse of the Azure Bonds 89' -Secret of the Silver Blades 90' -Pools of Darkness 91' (Epic end to the classic series. Ruins of Myth Drannor pales in comparison in scope and story) -Pool of Radiance 2: Ruins of Myth Drannor 01' (Forgot the '2', but yeah, Ruins of Myth Drannor = Pool of Radiance 2. Kind of an odd naming system as Ruins is actually the 6th game in the series)

I FINALLY beat Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. I was hoping all the negative feedback about the game was due to glitches in the initial game, but it really is a mind numbing grindfest. The only reason I forced myself through it was because I had decided to play the entire Pool of Radiance series, from the first game in 88' through Hillsfar and the other Gold Box sequels all the way to RoMD. The game has two huge flaws: 1: Repetitive combat. By the time I finished the game I think I must have killed every Orc, Zombie and Gargoyle in Faerun. Theres only about a dozen different enemy types, many of which feature throughout the game as the same damn encounter over and over. 2: The blandest dungeon I've ever seen. Even worse, Eight MASSIVE levels of the same damned dungeon design and rooms. Only way to tell if a room is a barracks, a dungeon or a kitchen is if the DM tells you. Its sad when the 88' original had more varied locales than the 2002 sequel. On the positive: I did enjoy the exterior sections. Really reminded me of the Infinity Engine games with hand painted backgrounds and more interesting encounters. Also, while I've heard complaints about the slow combat, I found a hack online that allowed me to speed up the game or slow it down so I could zip through enemy turns quickly. I can really imagine how mind numbingly tedious it would be if you had to watch a zombie shamble towards you from across the screen... then the next and the next and... I've moved on to the Dragonlance games. I managed to beat Heroes of the Lance and I've moved on to Dragons of Flame. Having a hell of a time finding the entrance to the fort Pax Tharksas (sp?) though. Once I finish Dragons of Flame I'll move on to the third and final game in the Lance trilogy Shadow Sorcerer, then play the two stand-alone Dragonlance games War of the Lance & DragonStrike and finish off with the Krynn trilogy.

Much depends on the setting and what one is trying to establish in terms of atmosphere. The wholly stark and ambient tracks of Fallout, for instance, wouldn't work particularly well in high fantasy, I don't think. The forgotten realms with it's hoity toity wizards and fey folk demand an orchestra. With Respighi's "Pines of the Appian Way" you approach Rome, damn it, not Gator's Creek Georgia... The music has to match the setting. An example: Troika's Temple of Elemental Evil. Though it had some high quality, ambient tracks they sounded sort of futuristic and Bladerunnerish to me, which lent an odd feeling to the entire game. And, not to make another doh statement, such statements abounding on these boards, but you can't go wrong with Morgan if ambient is what you're looking for. Don't understand why Bethesda, and Obsidian for that matter, keep dicking around and don't give the guy gigs. I think you are absolutly right about the ToEE music, with the exception of the Homlet music, which fit perfectly IMHO. I REALLY loved the town music, and would just have the party stand around listening to it. The battle music, on the other hand, did have a futuristic sound.

I eagerly await the release of the rat-brain robo cleaner. I only see one flaw... don't leave cheese out. PS. I JUST watched Ratatouille. Poor Remy.

I think graphics of that level will be worth the collapse of society.

Well, I'm sure the gaming industry will find tricks and programs to make it more cost effective. Its kind of like the Diablo 1 CGI intros... extremly impressive for their time but now far surpassed by actual in-game graphics.

yeah, okay, except that's not a model per se so much as super-duper motion capture of a woman's head. impressive but not the same thing. Its still awesome and shows what may be what video game characters will look like in the future. Thats the first CGI human that completly fooled me into thinking it was real video. I remember a video game producer saying that photo realistic characters may be possible in about ten years... and this has me thinking it might be true.

IF that face is CG, its the most impressive CG face I've ever seen! I would love to see it in actual motion.

How did the book end anyway? Agree about most books being better than the movies... except Stephen King's The Running Man. Book was SO different from the movie... in a good way.

I meant realistic in the sense of a tragedy where a person was so close to rescue but didn't make it. I know it wasn't quite the same but it basically had the exact same vibe as many tragic events I've read of. I agree it was lame. At that point in the movie I didn't care all that much if they made it or not so atleast I got a chuckle out of it.

I'm somewhere between SirPetrakus & Xard as far as The Mist goes. There were elements I really liked and things I really disliked. 1 & 5) The black people leaving the Super Market. Oh please. You could make a more convincing argument that the movie is racist towards white people as everyone who blindly follows crazy lady is white. Not to mention the crazy lady is white. 2) Military folks leaving their camp. I'm not sure about this one. They may have left the base before the preverbial **** hit the fan and only realized about the outbreak when they were in town. 3 & 4) Agree. I thought the whole side story of crazy lady was completly unnesessary. Isn't the whole plot about aliens from another dimension hiding in the mist cool enough without the lame and cliched HUMANS ARE JUST AS BAD moral lesson? 6) The military guy who gets the blame. First, whats TFU? Second, agreed. Ties in with 3 & 4 and the whole people whipped into a hysteria by the ridiculous crazy lady. 7) One thing I think the movie did do well was the initial reactions to the situation. You may think it odd that some people would go out into the mist, but I'd be pretty sketpical of it to. Then again I've watched enough sci-fi movies that I'd voice my criticism, but wouldn't be the first volunteer to go out. 8 & 9) I actually laughed at the ending... partially because I actually predicted it. I was watching the movie with the group, right after I realized what he had done in the car I said aloud: "Watch, he's going to get out walk 10 feet and find the end of the mist". Well, I was half wrong. He did get out and then the mist blew away. I had lost a lot of the care I had for the group because of some of the ridiculous turns with the crazy lady. The ending may have been, different, but that didn't make it special. Its basically what happens too often in reality where a guy ends up freezing to death a half mile from an aid station or something. Just cause it happens in reality doesn't make it a good ending. 10) I remember Laurie Holden as Maurita Covaruvias (sp?) from the X-Files and I think she died in that. While I do agree with a lot of your complaints, I do think the movie did some very cool creatures and had some excellent suspense moments so I was willing to overlook most of the flaws.

IGN did an article on the last few seasons of X-Files to remind fans of what happened (or blocked out) in preparation for the new movie. http://tv.ign.com/articles/893/893502p1.html Really reminds me of how much the show fell. Pre season six, for me, it was about 8-10 good-excellent episodes to every meh episode, but somewhere around seasons 6-7 the coin flipped and it became 8-10 meh episodes for every good episode. Can't really blame a change in writers or location for the bad episodes either, as many of the original writers were churning out horrendous episodes along with the new writers. IGN also does a top 10 reasons the show rocked. Good reminder on why I loved the show so much seasons 1-5. http://tv.ign.com/articles/891/891953p1.html

Saw the Dark Knight last night. I can really see why it has recieved so many excellent reviews. Heath Ledger's Joker has to be one of the best movie villains I've ever seen. "Want to see a pencil disappear?" As for the X-Files movie: I used to be a HUGE X-Files fan, until about season 6 when the writing and style started a steady decline. I don't know if it was the change of filming location down in California, a change of writers, or having difficulty coming up with new ideas but the monsters of the week started getting ridiculous (puky sweet episode about a man who can control the weather, a giant slug worshipped as the second coming of christ, and a guy who crawls up people's bums and rolls around on a squeaky cart?) and the mythology episodes made as much sense as wearing your underwear in the North Pole. I really don't know if I want to see the new X-Files movie at this point as I've heard/read wildly varying reviews on it.

Tropic Thunder. Looks like the perfect movie to watch after Rambo IV. http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/tropicthunder/hd/

Warriors of the Eternal Sun only came out on Genesis, as far as I know. Didn't really have an overland map, more of simply allowing you to walk about the wilderness, but not zoomed out. Neat game set in Mystara: Hollow World. One similarity it DOES have with SoZ is it had dinosaurs. I think the closest comparison of the SoZ overland map is to Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross (a colorful overland map with enemies visible, no Final Fantasy/Pool of Radiance style instant random encounters) combined with classic D&D video game overland maps (Pool of Radiance, Pools of Darkness where skills were used. I.E. a Ranger could lead the party around the encounter). I personally REALLY like how the overland map has turned out in SoZ.

Its even more racist against white people. Did you see that stereotypical accent on the guy in the openning?? Whats with all the white people you have to shoot in Africa too? Its Africa for Pete's sake! This is outrageous!

Chopper of Leprechaun Femininity Unfortunate: This must be what happened to Edwin in Baldur's Gate 2. State the Disaster: Its bad sir. Beam of Harm: Its what my ship is armed with. Rehearsal Goblin: Every drama class probably has one. Rotten of Mule: I sure bet its rotten. Hand of Unrestrained: Piloted by captain Harry Palm. Permission Cheesy Disastrous Broken: This ship has problems. The Disapointment: Its a disapointment. Focus the Disapointment: Its even more disapointing.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36226.html Damn, I hope this comes to PC. Lots of trailers up on www.gametrailers.com thanks to E3.