Calax

Just wanna say, working on your birthday in the grill at McD's SUCKS. Particularly when the AC is shot and all you really have is a fan that blows air out the windows.

I'm asking this because I recently replayed FEAR2 on a whim and then went running around on wikipedia and the webz trying to figure out exactly why it didn't measure up (at all) to the original. Mainly it has to do with a distinct lack of well designed horror in the game. And one thing I've learned is that the Lead Designer on a game can make a MASSIVE difference. Another example of decay that appears to be due (in part) to the lead designer would be God of War. David Jaffe was the lead on GoW1 which was fantastic. But then things went kinda... nuts in the sequels as Kratos went from being a somewhat tragic figure into somebody who you couldn't even relate too, and the stories he went through were more and more... hackneyed in favor of "Does this seem awesome?" So right now my list of Designers I follow ends up as Patrice Desilets Hideo Kojima David Jaffe Gabe Newell J.E. Sawyer Chris Avellone

Playing through FEAR 2 again. Also ran across this on youtube. What... the.........

>.> Still 13 hours to go for me

Wow, that was stupid even being intended as a zing. YEAH! HE FORGOT JOBS!

The story would actually be pretty good if it had time to get working. It's written by the guy who did Red Dawn and has several references to that movie. Big thing that people hated was that THQ made it so if you bought new you got a multiplayer code for online play, but if you got used you had to pay for the multiplayer.

Apparently you chose the wrong example.

Most of what I've heard comes down to "It's SHORT and doesn't give the game a chance to really show off".

Uh, Breasts, and the fact that they're swollen as they are on all human females, are a very specific evolutionary reaction because they were shown to be attractive to males as a sign of increased fertility. So, no, the media doesn't build up a desire for breasts within me, nature did. That said, I don't personally ascribe to bigger=better in terms of le bust as the media would want from me. I'd prefer a chest that looks like it suits the woman and feels nice rather than something that should be used as a floatation device and you can use as such when you're with her. And why is it Women are always the ones who are crying about being objectified? I mean come ON! http://www.mimifroufrou.com/scentedsalaman...lein-Man-Ad.jpg http://www.yournextgift.com/images/2007/05...ear_for_men.jpg Sorry about the fact the song is TERRIBLE but it is there for the fact that basically she's singing "Shut up and get naked so I can ride you, but DON'T SAY A THING!"

And yet she can't effect the fact that I find a good pair of breasts to be attractive and that most of the styles out today are there to emphasize those assets and her rear assets.

Funny thing about beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder not some specific persons version of how somebody should look or act.

Well, if you only voice those who are major characters and leave a lot of the incidental dialogue as text, you may be able to set up simple triggers based on the advancement of the plot where you go from no-name to saint. Or even if it's voiced just one or two lines extra for each shopkeeper and generic would work WONDERS (assuming you set it up so that NPC's recognized you)

Been digging through a NWN2 "Let's Play" http://lparchive.org/Neverwinter-Nights-2/Update%2046/ That page has a mention of what I'm talking about during the negotiations with hostage takers And the page before has interspersed between the play by play a discussion on the monomyth etc.

I think it's more the handlebar style ears rather than just pointy ones.

Oye, don't give my bipolar ammunition!

Except the Assassins in the game aren't the ones from history I never did run across a line of "You are a god".

Another good example of a player character being significant would be the first Assassins Creed game. Everyone within the brotherhood knows who you are, and either respects or hates you for that fact and Altiars attitude. Also, as a caveat, AC2 was one of the few games that had the player as a public figure of consequence, but it was out of place. I've mentioned this a few times, but Assassins are supposed to be blades in the crowd, a random knife that finds itself embedded within the back of their target. NOT somebody who is very public about his actions, well known, and openly spouts (with a neon sign eight miles high, and a megaphone) that "I AM AN ASSASSIN! SO WAS MY FAMILY!"

Except before FFXI you didn't see to many elves with those ears

May also be from FFXI's Elvaans (not kidding)

Maybe in part because Tech Support for 3rd party devs to UE3 was pathetic (according to Epic's own documents). For more information see the court case that Silicon Knights brought against Epic over the issue.

Should had said something about it before then a cameo was an effective way to give a tip of the hat to the first ME, make you feel as you have grown from the first game, and stroke your ego without going so far out of their way that the main story isn't affected. That said; Lair of the Shadow Broker was great because it lacked much of this. Shadow Broker rocked I give you that. But the thing about the cameos is that what they were was tipping their hat... to something that'd had TREMENDOUS effect on the galaxy. The replacement of the Council, and the Rachni bits were probably the most annoying parts of that. Added on top is the dollop of "Nobody believes you because you don't have anything but circumstantial proof, therefor it doesn't count!" and it feels like they might as well have just named this "Mass Effect: Redo!"

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2011/0...gamers-piracy/1

God I hate having to get up so early for work.

First of all, abbreviate. Second, my point about your point about Mass Effect is that everyone does worship you. The whole game is filled with cameos from the most unlikely and unnecessary (I really didn't need to see Helena Blake again) characters who's only purpose is to kiss the ground in which you walk on. Not to mention your companions; specially the romances, that treat you as a god sent no matter what you do.(sans Samara, but she was cool) Yes, but my point was that having these as JUST cameos made the impact you had previously much lighter. I understand that if they were to do much more would have been insanity from a design standpoint but... So? The best of writers can take an old story and write it so it feels new. To be technical there are only what, 6(?) stories in existance? And yet we have a thousand different takes, some good, some bad, on each of them. Except apparently this one. I keep coming back to it becuase it exemplifies what I'm trying to get more of. It has the character feeling like they're mattering within the world, and it doesn't start them at zero money, without a single thing to their name. Just by doing that and showing the relationships between the various characters within his family and their retainers, the game deserves props.

So you're going to keep asking for the exact same formula used in every single "epic tale" to be used again and again? I'm not sitting here asking for you to start at level 40 and move to level 80 while your enemies start at level 2 and run up to 100 or whatever. But it's getting tiring of every game having the same origins for their protagonist, and sending them through VERY similar trials before turning them loose on a game world that doesn't care what they are. My point about Mass Effect was that the devs designed a game in which your character is supposed to be a superstar who's back from the dead (why didn't some loony run up and worship him again?), and yet everyone still treats you as if you're just random monkey number seven. The only real effect your "stardom" has is that you endorse places for minor discounts, otherwise your feats and sense of accomplishment are undercut in the name of making the game have similar trials and tribulations as the previous one. Which brings us back to my original point: Most game player characters are (in the name of dramatic tension and challenge) automatically started at rags with nothing behind them and no real forms of hope for that insurmoutable task before them, and the world they're in doesn't know or care that they're the chosen one or whatever because of whatever catastrophe or minor inconvenience caused you to become the destitute adventurer you are at the start of the game. And yet, Suikoden manages to pull off the "epic journey" while still making your NPC seem to matter by inserting the hours long prologue where you're shown to be the political tool of your family, and of little more importance than a ceremonial ornament. Then the Coup occurs and you're running for your life with little more than yourself, your personal bodyguard (who's the same age and slightly more combat adept than you) and your Aunt as your party. That's where the version of the hero's story you're so in love with begins. But this also allows for the writer to put weight behind the PC's position within the world, people recognize him and either shelter him or rat him out based on how they feel towards the new regime. And people do this simply because of who you are, not because you killed the slime in their basement.