LadyCrimson

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?

My main complaint about day/night cycles in games is that they are always too short. I know, you don't want a game-day to actually be real-time 24 hours. But days/nights that last 10 minutes are just ... silly. I don't care if they're scaled relative to the size of the game forest you're marching around in - I still find it irritating to see the sun rise then I march around the forest for 10-15 minutes, and suddenly it's dark. I can (and do) live with it, but ... yeah, it's always annoyed me. Not that this is helpful to your nice topic post. I'm just griping.

We buy parts and put them together. My current PC was about $800 + $200 for a new LCD monitor (my first one of those...) when I put it together a few years ago. Since then I've added more RAM and a very expensive video card, but neither of those things was a "must have" upgrade in order to play any games...I did it because I felt like it. I suspect this PC will last at least a few more years before games I'm personally interested in will start to make me think about upgrading again. But yes, prices and methods are going to vary from place to place/country to country, and whether you buy prebuilt or build your own. All of that. In my opinion, PC gaming rigs are always going to cost more than a console (assuming you only buy one console) but it's nowhere near as huge a gap as some make it out to be, in terms of cost per year (original set-up cost, game costs, whatever other possible peripheral costs).

The occasional pop culture reference as humor/homage/easter egg is fine. Too many and it becomes intrusive. Unless, of course, utter silliness is one of the points of the game (Borderlands, Death Spank). I tend to prefer references in a game that refer more to the game's genre history, however, more than actual "real world" pop references. eg, easter egg reference to another IE game or rpg's in general, vs. a reference to Monty Python's spam sketch or Star Wars meme.

I'm not super informed, no, and I admit that. But I've certainly had periodic times where I think to myself "maybe consoles might appeal to me now" and thus go out and do some research on them and what games are available. eg, I've seen the giant lists of console game titles, look through them, read reviews, look at YouTube vids if any...and so far, nothing sparks my interest. I wasn't saying all console games are sports/shooters ... I did mention FF, I believe. But those types of RPG's don't appear to be my thing. It's true that if I gave them a chance, there's always that small chance I'd change my mind. But people buy stuff based on research and knowing what their own personal likes/dislikes are, and on that, consoles still aren't interesting. For me personally, there's also the issue that I just don't like controllers. I've tried. Played BL2 with controller for months. Tried FNV with one even. It works. I still don't like them. I've repeatedly thought my husband might like a console, however, since he pretty much defines the "sit on the couch/likes controllers" stereotype of gamer, heh, and I think there might be more console games he'd like vs. PC games that cater to kb/mouse, but he still refuses to consider one because he likes the tech control of PC gaming. *shrug* We did buy the original NES back in the day, which, outside of Snake Rattle n Roll, basically ended up as a paperweight. (edit: I also don't like platformers. Even on the PC. Never have.)

Fishing can definitely be a relaxing/meditative activity, even if you're crawling along a muddy streambank looking for the perfect spots all day (vs. sitting in a boat or fly-fishing). Whatever way one fishes, something about it is just peaceful/fun. Shame I don't actually like eating fish. We caught this monstrous catfish once, brought it home in a huge cooler, cooked it up w/some friends and ate it. It was ok, but...yeah, not a fish person. Woke up late, watched some BBC comedy while eating leftover pizza. Surfed the 'net. Currently thinking "what now?" .... being the weekend, I could just nap on the couch repeatedly, but I'm in the mood for something more. Perhaps a visit to the geek-palace known as Fry's.

The definition in most dictionaries (and most "social culture" reference) of romance is romantic love (love affair, keeping "romance" alive re: marriage/love relationships) - something more than pure sex/one night stands/convenient physical gratification - but not necessarily "true love" or "love that = marriage".... you can have a torrid, very sexual love affair that lasts for weeks/months, with emotional stuff coming into play, but where both partners are aware they wouldn't/won't make a good long-term, stable, relationship, even if they wish it was so. Therefore, I see the word "romance" and I think "romantic love." I think a better poll definition would have been "how do you define love?" - love as a single word having a much broader definition (family, friendship, pets, material things).

Perhaps because some of us don't feel like we're missing any "good games?" Shooters aren't generally my thing, and neither are sports games. I've had no interest in the FF series or the other RPG's I've seen for consoles. Console exclusives are rare-ish and most of the time they aren't even games I care about in the first place. All my favorite games and genres are ones that (still) don't/wouldn't work well on consoles. All the little independent games I'm interested in are for PC. I can think of one console exclusive game in all these years that I was slightly interested in, and that was Red Dead Redemption. One "maybe" game isn't enough for me to spend $400+ just to play it. I'd get more use/function from spending $400 on a new camera lens. So why should I waste money, even if I have the money to waste, on something that will end up sitting on a shelf unused? Just because one has money to "throw around" doesn't mean one necessarily throws it around indiscriminately when there's no personal benefit/gain. And I've seen plenty of console "elitists" just as much as I see PC "elitists" - neither platform consists of a group that is exempt from such attitudes. Seems silly to me either way. I like red apples, someone else likes golden apples. They're both apples. Just play.

I remember playing the original Descent many moons ago. Hubs and I would both get all turned around and "lost" because of the directional stuff. It was great fun tho. But I think we both got too dizzy half the time... Never finished it.

So far, consoles still haven't been making enough games that make me want to spend the money to have one. Once in a great while there's a console-only game I might be mildly interested in, but that's a once in a blue moon exception. I'd buy/maintain a PC regardless, and hubs just tosses together PC's to attach to the big TV when he wants it, so for me ... not much incentive/reason to double-up.

I love stuff. Can never have enough stuff. Interesting look at the workload split of game creation, thanks.

MegaMind. It was cute. Might watch the new Spiderman this weekend.