LadyCrimson

Me: I need a car battery again. Hubs: Could call AAA and they'll come out and bring you one. Me: And how much is that? Hubs: $99 Me: And how much if we walk into a store to buy one? Hubs: Maybe $50-70. Me: So why should I call AAA again? Hubs: .....

Yup....which is why I'm not very fussed over whether I think every detail of the concept art is super awesome. I've actually liked most of it so far, in a general kind of way. It's just nice to see some kind of interpretation of character, so early. I'm confident it'll all look fine in the final product. It's better even in that color group concept piece, imo. Just how old is he supposed to be, anyway, I wonder? 50ish? 60ish?

I've used the term myself at times, but I'm curious what others think a "melee mage/caster" means ... if you're going for melee, you're probably not tossing the fireballs and freezing hailstorms. So then do you mean, will you have enough defensive spells where you can safely whack people with a staff instead? If you're going to use a shield/mace, with an armor spell and a fire dmg to weapon and such, what makes that different from, say, a cleric? Or are we talking about summoning magical swords?

I'm fine when you click on a merchant or a quest NPC and a dialogue window popup box with their mug in it in a corner pops up, or whatever. I just don't want to feel like every time I click on someone to "speak" to them, or every time my companions decide they want to have a chat, that I'm tossed into/stuck in some special window.

@jivex5k - the purple cape ... This thread has been a great cure for Monday.

I don't like the idea of little portraits next to the text dialogue. For one thing, it (often) takes up too much extra space. For another, it's repetitive to see the same pictures for every line of dialogue. Even if they had a set of several different ones (angry, sad, smiling, bloody-injured) it's still repetitive and distracting. And often kinda corny. [ smiling ] is less annoying, imo...if, indeed, one must have such descriptive giveaways in the first place. When there is no voice work to gather emotional cues from, sometimes I'd rather they just do a good job of set-up and writing, so I get a sense that the npc is annoyed or whatever from that alone, without needing any "cues" to lead me. (edit: easier said than done much of the time, I know)

I like Monks, and Forton's ok. My main issue is the balding head feels out of proportion or something, it does look odd. Too tall of forehead perhaps. Can't beat that, but I was staring at his face, and what it actually reminds me of is:

Because I'd like to give them to low level chrs. (or more specifically, their pets) sometimes. They don't drop frequently enough for it to be reliable to always get a certain spell. 6 low level chrs. and I've had the lvl1 dmg. reflection spell drop once. Yes, I know, it's twinking, but that's what I do in these games sometimes. Shared stash and all. Heh.

That's been my take on things. The fixed perspective is in, but everything around that seems to be open for new possibilities, if they also fit in with the mechanics and gameplay aesthetic aspects they do want to keep (and time, and budget...). I'm definitely hoping for AI and UI improvements, like most people here, I think, too.

The Walking Dead

Heh, I haven't tried those yet. I like the healing pulse robot and summons in general, tho. A vendor opened up in Act2 who sells scroll-spells, but they're only higher level ones. Can you ever buy the lower-level spells or are they only drops?

I'd probably fail to save anyone because I'd be too busy drinking in the bar and gambling to try to increase my meager supply of gold coins to even notice the fire. .... wat?

Torchlight2 - The genie main story quest in late Act2 is great for getting some gear and clvl's. I could repeat that one area over and over without having to save/quit/reload the game. You level so fast ... my Outlander is lvl36 now, and the pace never feels like it slows down much. Current gear, my ferret pet has almost 3 times as much health as I do. Have tried the other 3 classes up to at least lvl24 now, and the Outlander is still my fave. Oddly, I like the guns in the game more than the non-gun weapons/magic. Just love being a badass gunslinger. Never used to be that into guns in fantasy games, even action ones. I blame Borderlands1.

I can't keep it all straight either. Since we're talking IE games I made an assumption you meant the pulling to divide and conquer. But I think it can mean a fair number of things, depending on who you talk to. Possibly most commonly used to refer to tactics of avoiding damage during combat in some form of hit and run maneuvering. eg, not standing still to duke it out.

I like kiting, or "pulling" enemies one at a time...sometimes. I would rather not see that option be entirely eliminated. Not saying it should be doable in every single combat instance...but like with all things, there should be options and variety. If every combat scenario had them calling out for buddies, then eventually that would get predictably boring (to me) too.

They've changed it since the "countdown" period ... and far as we know, might change it again once the game is given an actual name ... so the point is kind of moot anyway.

I'm not sure understanding is going to be reached. It's a bit like asking why do I like cherry pie. People can give all kinds of reasons, some of them even plausible technical ones, but in the end it's likely still going to just boil down to ... "because I do." I was talking about RPG's and the 3D explosion with someone else a while back. It's been kind of strange, because at first, I liked 3d for games. It was new. It was cool. But then I began to notice that my interest in a lot of games was shrinking. I'd play a game and be bored, even if I felt like I should be liking the game. But visually they're so generic now. It's akin to the special effects in movies...same thing. The first time I saw that dino in Jurassic Park, awesome. Now every dino in every movie is the same. First time I saw that cave troll in LotR was kinda neat. Then I noticed every giant, big-mouthed, screaming creature in future movies moved its slobbering mouth in the same way as that cave troll. Quite frankly, since the 3D "shiny and more shiny" "polygons are king" or whatever graphic revolution, I've found myself liking RPG's less and less. It's not that they can't be good (and they can certainly be very pretty), but there's something about full 3D worlds that makes me turn off from the actual story/gameplay much of the time. It's fine for more action-oriented titles/shooters but...I dunno, maybe it's just all too distracting, too much motion, too much of my having to fiddle with motion controls vs. the more static top-down point of view. It feels less personal, less inviting, less warm. Does this apply at all to P.E.? I dunno. It's just some thoughts. I don't have any big, logical, technical reasons for still being able to like or want a top-down, fixed perspective 2d visual style - even tho I'm sure there are such reasons. I just do. That said, I'm not against 3D or moving camera etc....but I would love to see top-down, fixed viewpoint games make a bit of a comeback for RPG's, if for no other reason than to give me more variety and choice in visual style and presentation. They could add a few modern tech touches to them, perhaps, while keeping to the basic old style concept.

It seems I'm the only one who liked MW's graphics back in the day. Oh sure, I'd see screens today and go "oh...that's not how I remembered it..." but at the time, I thought they looked great. Not uber, and certainly not "realistic", but I was fairly enthralled. Maybe my 1600x1200 huge CRT screen helped.

To me, mature themes in games means something more along the lines of deeper contemplation of the grey areas (eg, what lies between good and evil, moral and immoral) and how such things can alter and affect someone during the the course of their life. Struggles with decisions that aren't black and white...what do you choose to do. Social issues work if you're hitting some of those grey areas, but if it's just broad "social commentary" - oh look, this town is poor and starving under the tyrant's rule and I must gather them 10 sacks of grain so they can survive the winter - I tend to feel a bit blase about it. Needs to be personalized in some way.

At least they're communicating and being open. Not everyone knows how these things get split up and stuff, already. And hey, those pie-charts are awesome!

I'm still amazed whenever I think that 2005 was actually that many years ago. It's like when I saw "Forrest Gump" on the tv the other night, and noticed its date was 1994. Counted backward and was all "no wai." It's still yesterday to me. I often wonder what some of the forum regulars are up to now, those who no longer seem to visit. Hope they're all doing well. ...woke up, cleaning house, doing laundry. I think I spend half my life cleaning house in some fashion or another...it's these stupid allergies. I have to. Sigh.

I'd prefer not to fight 2hp rats in the cellar, but some R.O.U.S might be ok.

I personally can like the companion tragi-romance or vengence-romance background stories that may lead to a sub-quest. But player-character stuff should, imo, remain oblique/subtle, at most. Slight hints of attraction/banter from other NPC's perhaps, but nothing really resolved/brought out in the open. Leave it to the player's imagination etc. In terms of non-romantic relationships, having companions who at least feel to be a bit more than "follow the leader because I'm programmed that way" automatons is always nice. That falls more under the idea of npc's having more of their own opinions and/or leaving the party if you aren't following some code or method of action that they approve of, tho, and I think there's been a few threads on that here and there as well.

Finally replaced the PSU in my hardly-used XP machine...no more loud, high pitched "whine" when I do turn it on (it started as a barely audible whine a while back, then grew louder and louder over months), yay. But in doing so, I noticed that my Win7 machine is now starting to produce the same little PSU whine. Barely there, so it can wait a bit, but ... argh. Figures. I can't stand electronic "whine" ... even if it doesn't mean anything bad, my ears, my ears. Flour. bulbs, TV's, whatever. I thought us older folk were supposed to lose ability to hear those ranges by now. Would be nice.

Not familiar with the comic stuff....but no, not yet. I believe that Deathstroke is in it, however. And one episode had a chr. called Deadshot. Could be like the Smallville series, where most Arrow enemies show up for an episode or two. And likely altered. I don't have the impression the show is following the comics that closely?