LadyCrimson

Oh, all right...since it's a stress beta for free and I still have a bnet account from when I played WoW (not touched for 2 years, heh). At least I can judge those early levels for myself. ...it's doing the Updating setup files routine now. And yeah, I heard a lot of ppl were having problems getting on for a while. It's a stress test for a wildly anticipated title. Tho it does make you wonder if release size/number of servers will be up to the task. I remember when D2 was released...couldn't get on half the time for ages felt like.

Think I'm getting close to done with Botanicula. The first 1/3 was wonderful...art-wise, humor, cutenees. sound effects and music. then you hit this "town" (in a manner of speaking) area and it starts to feel a bit too random/tedious. Still some great stuff/humor in there, but I spent a couple hours being stuck on a couple of the huts/rooms, running around clicking everything, looking for some part that would let me collect what I needed. Then the area after that, similar thing. Now I'm stuck at the halfway point in some almost all-black levels. Time for a break. The puzzles aren't terribly puzzly, with most being more of an item hunt with random clicking around to figure out how to activate things. Some of it's just random click until you find the right order for something. They're puzzles of a type, but not exactly mind-bending/thinking man sort, if you know what I mean. Controls are simple (mouse clicks) but occasionally trying to control movement of an object w/the cursor movement feels wonky/lagged/buggy. Slighty better if you're in windowed mode. Those quibbles aside, still a fun and artistic game....and for $10 I have no complaints. So far I'd give the first third of the game 9/10 and the latter two thirds maybe 6.5-7/10.

I have got to get off my butt and go buy a different SB audio card...this one has that funky thing where it doesn't record internal sound in most program use (no 'what u hear'). Fraps works fine (it's own recorder/format?) but nothing else does. Annoying when I can't use Fraps, haha. Spent the afternoon playing games and enjoying the sunny day. It's almost hot in my office/gaming room! Roast beef for dinner then...uh...more video gaming! Most don't notice when I change either, but that's because I usually try to get ones that look very similar to my old ones. heh

Eh, I was impatient, bought GoG's version. Loving the game so far. All the cute sound effects, humorous little bits and pieces, artwork, everything. Except now I'm stuck trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do in one spot (creature who spits out various bubbles+black bat-like thingie). Adorable game.

Nope, haven't bought it yet. I noticed that GoG's version doesn't include the full soundtrack, either, which is a bummer because I normally like to support GoG. But I don't understand the charity bundle thing... (edit: oh...nvm...I'm dense...got it.) ...bah. I need PayPal, Amazon, or Google to pay. No likey. Can I remove the CC info from Google after I've added it, or do they have it forever.

That sort of thing happens to me all the time with certain things, like TV's. Usually it's because I bring it home and I hate the color tones once it's in my house, or something. Or the stand is garbage, or whatever. Today I sat in the sun, petting a cat. It's quite meditative. But now it's time to do a store run. Me:Anything you need, dear? Hubs:Coffee, I'm out of coffee. Me:Nothing else? Hubs:The question was what do I need.

Ah. That sounds slightly better. Perhaps what he meant (the person I heard from) was more that the increase in the beta levels wasn't more/better than just picking the highest dps weapon you could lay your hands on. He went thru the beta w/all classes using nothing but "white" items because the blue/other items were all worse than the whites he found. Again, when you reach high/max levels, which you can't in the beta, very large primary stat bonus on an item may play more of a role then. The Diablo's, for me, were very much about the building of the chr. from the very beginning...not reaching the end/max level. I'd often get bored long before max level and start over because that initial struggle was more fun. I'm doubting that D3 will be like that. But won't really know until we get more data/opinions from the full game.

My totally random guess is that Blizzard is going to try to make D3 a bit like WoW ... by that I mean, where the important aspect to the game will be the END game, and mulitplayer. And of course the probable never ending DLC's/addons to entice people to keep playing with those high level toons. Yeah, that's kind of what I was trying to get across...D2's skills/stats/items allowed for pre-planning of atypical builds on any of the classes. Yes most people would pump certain stats all the time, and there were always the "power" builds that everyone wanted to have at least one of etc, but that's true in any RPG, not just action-RPG's/Diablos. You didn't have to do it that way. I can kind of see/understand Blizzard wanting to get away from the min/max trap of stat allocation, but if they don't replace that with something else - like what you mentioned - character building become too homogenized/there's little reason to replay, once you've tried each class once. imo, of course.

Ah, I think I understand. Some of this (for me) probably boils down the reason why we play games, again. Stuff like lore & politics perse doesn't mean much to me most of the time, but that's a different thing. In terms of place/time settings, I would still like to see more RPG's that are in what you might call "real" settings, with perhaps alternative history changes (like FNV). I'd also like to see more cultures explored/used as the backdrop, hence Edo period. Kind of tired of the futuristic dark urban punk-city look, fantasy forest, etc. Asian, Roman, ancient European (non-medieval/castle) themed/influence settings I would enjoy seeing. You could still have magic and/or oddball stuff in them. There are plenty of magical/monster legends in Asian/other cultures, for example. I might even like something like "Asian culture on a Mars colony" setting. Especially if the RPG was more of a mystery than the save the world theme. Like...something similar to some of the Earth colonies from Asimov's Robot mystery novels (Elijah Bailey)...that sort of setting might be cool. Anyway.... I don't watch enough anime or read enough comics to give a good list of specific examples I like from those sources, I'm afraid.

People made things like melee-mages, high-strength (to carry a shield) for high-block mages, necros based almost entirely on a particular bone spell or poison nova, sword Amazons, "singing Barbarians" 9war cry builds)...builds that were part stat. and part specific gear based. Not all of those were viable through every difficulty, mind you...or at least not in MP, maybe SP. Point was, you could do a whole lotta different things if you felt like it. What I'm hearing is that in D3, your skill damage is based on weapon damage, making stat/other bonuses on the weapons unimportant until much much later. The skills may seem like a bit of chr. customization but nothing like in D2. So....I think D3 will be a very fun ARPG...it just won't have the crazy longevity that D2 had.

I think for most it's less that combat is a "problem" and more that it's repetitive. Even way back when it was repetitive. Would have been nice if they could have found a way to alter that a bit while still retaining the old feel. Taking a break from Grimrock for a few days I think...going to play some Casear3 maps instead. Something less combat oriented for variation. Oh...this weekend I also tried playing FNV on the big TV using a controller. Complete with all my mods. I eventually got used to the xbox controller for Borderlands but for FNV...I think I'll pass. Too bad, would have been nice to play it a little on the huge screen.

No, it's not rude per se, just an opinion, but I guess maybe it's a sore spot with you. Of course settings can be important or influential to a work, I never said they weren't. In reality you often need both things (chrs. + environment) to work well together for it to be a success (imo). I find it rare that a lot of film/game/tv etc. work can stand alone entirely on just one or the other. But between Majek's "Champloo is just Edo period with rap" and your comment, it sounded as tho some kind of atypical variation (eg, "original") of the commonly known settings was taking a higher value place in terms of RPG, and I don't think that's true at all. Also, originally I was taking "setting" to mean more the actual setting - the period, the time, the place, the architecture and perhaps known social structure of said period that the story of the characters is woven through - not so much the story thematic setting (political struggle, moralistic struggle). "Just another castle/serf setting." "Just another city in space setting....." "Just another dull historical period setting" and so on and so forth. While it's true there are some more common settings that may become mundane or whatever to some people, to others those settings are still not necessarily "easily replaceable" just because it's a common/not unusual setting. Does everything have to be chock full of "lore", weird and unusual variations of a theme/setting, in order to be "not replaceable," interesting, or worthy of RPG? I'd much rather have interesting characters that I can relate to than a cool-looking setting, vs. the other way around. Guess that's just me tho?

I'm sure. It's not so much shocking or unexpected as it is just...disheartening.

Avatar : The Last Airbender, the cartoon series, not the Cameron movie Your point still stands, obviously, but this is a confusion that should always be corrected . Oh....I did it again. My sig gets more apt every year. I tried watching that anime once, because I heard such good things about it. It was a little too...youthful in execution for me, couldn't get into it. But yes, my point still stands.

But chr. driven narratives are all there really are anymore. No setting is really original. It's the story and characters within that setting that give it spark. Game of Thrones would be just another medieval setting with kings and princes if it weren't for the characters and the fact the author likes to kill them off willy nilly, unlike most authors. Avatar's setting isn't original. Far from it. Adding sci-fi space props and CGI humanistic aliens to such a setting does not make it original.

So you haven't seen any cartoons since the 80s, but cartoons have no depth. Watch G.I. Joe Renegades, Young Justice, Justice League Unlimited, Ben 10, Thundercats(new one) etc. Modern Cartoons are made by people who grew up enjoying the ones of the 80s, but try to do it better. Agree with Oerwinde. There are still plenty of "very young" cartoons, to be sure, but there are also plenty of more adult cartoons, anime, and comics. The Walking Dead, for example. Even Superman got the "dark and tormented" treatment a while back. I haven't personally seen many of the modern day versions of my childhood cartoons (like GIJoe/Justice League etc) but...shrug...I figure if they have more adult themes now, that they're just as likely to have RPG potential as something like South Park.

Because the 3 main characters are so awesome. A game based on them doesn't have to follow the actual anime plot y'know...you could base a rpg around those characters that occurs soon after the events in the anime. Or something.

haha....I was just thinking about this the other day. He's like this generation's Michael Biehn.

I'll just leave this here. http://i.imgur.com/vynW8.png

At least this episode had a bit more focus. Tyrion, how I love you. ....I'm considering putting this series on semi-hold tho. That is, wait for a few episodes and watch them all at once via HBO's on-demand. With the type of structure the show has, watching more than one at a time would probably make it click better for me.

Think someone already mentioned it, but I'll say it myself: Samurai Champloo. I love that anime. I also think Slayers would make a good setting for a Diablo clone or something along those lines. Not saying it'd make a good story-rpg (it might, but I doubt it). But with the absurd sense of humor and constant action, I think it could be a fun game.

Yeah, that's where I am. At this point I must admit to myself that I enjoy the puzzles a lot more than the combat. One gog review apparently complained that combat was "based on your WASD Tango Skill," which I think is a rather apt description. At least the puzzle focus means the combat isn't always the focus, tho. I also wish they had varied the tileset a bit more. I realize this is a very low budget etc. game but it wouldn't have taken that much to give it a slightly less generic feel, while still retaining that old skool flavor, I think.

Never Let You Go. Deliberately slow paced, and for the most part a bit emotionally stand-offish, so it takes a bit before I "got into" it. Certainly not a cheery movie, but I liked it a fair amount. The premise isn't anything I haven't seen before in alternate/future reality type writing but I did like the perspective it was told in. It's not a sappy romance, btw...some of the descriptions make it sound like one, but it's not. If this Andrew Garfield is going to be the new Spiderman, I hope he worked out a little, because he is one super-skinny dude. I know Spiderman isn't Hercules but...at any rate, I was impressed with him and I can totally see him as Peter Parker.

Yes, dungeons are randomly generated, last I heard. Above ground the land is static but there are randomly generated different pieces (like you might encounter a cart where it wasn't before). Dungeons more random, but it won't be quite the same sort as in Diablo2, I think.

I still don't like how you can no longer choose where to put your VIT and such. Perhaps there are items down the road that make that less of an irritation. Here's a person doing some recent no-chat/talk LP's of the Wizard and also has one MP vid up. I've come to prefer ppl who don't yak during their LP's. http://www.youtube.com/user/wiqedgaming/videos