Humanoid

Finally managed to wrangle together four people for the full Monaco experience. Arguably the most fun in gaming I've had this year.

Fundamentally yes, but some of the origin stories, ironically perhaps, serve to undermine that by removing any reason for you to stay. i.e. they do the exact same thing complained about in Kirkwall, except it's done in the prologue instead of the second act.

So this is Fallout: Mojave Moon?

^ I asked myself the same question repeatedly throughout DA1 though.

It wasn't until midway through the game that I realised I could move into melee and swing as a single action instead of having to do them separately. No luxury of being able to control angle of attack that way though, but at least the guy could get in three swings per round. There are some 'huh' aspects in how the special abilities are balanced though - e.g. shotguns get to do damage and cause -1 AP with the Kneecap ability, the melee equivalent, Pommel Strike, does no damage (let alone splash damage) for the same cost and at greater risk. And you need three ranks in the skill instead of one... yeah. Shaman seem interesting, but their summoning items are expensive single-use consumables that could potentially disappear in a single round. As much as the dialogue options of Charisma appeal, I'm a bit wary of that.

Turned him into my healer (what's with the "last damage taken" healing mechanic anyway?) and aim buff bot (actually that's another complaint of mine - keeping up these short duration buffs is nothing but busywork and doesn't really add to the game). That said, he was at least more useful than the random hired adept I took on an earlier mission, who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Given that for most missions, I rolled with a couple of AoE guns and an AoEing mage though, melee didn't really fit my strategy, so on my next playthrough I'll give it a proper chance.

Finished too. Happy. Think I might replay it within a week or two. Only major bug that impacted gameplay was that the music tended to hitch and get all choppy at times (moving the game to my SSD - love the portability of no install process by the way - made no difference). Annoying, but it goes away in 10 seconds or so. My classless character ended up a pretty standard, SMG-wielding deadeye, with some moderate decing skills (i.e. I let the always-provided NPC deckers tackle the Matrix stuff) and a bunch of points dumped into charisma but without any real spellcasting (well, picked up enough to be able to haste myself but that's it). Plenty of wasted points to be sure, but still ended up as lethal in combat as the NPCs, so being a bit adventurous isn't completely screwing yourself. I'll say the implementation of the Matrix, in that it's mandatory in places and the consequent assignment of a Decker NPC every time one is coming up is a bit of an unfortunate design decision. All it basically means is if you play one, you can drop the NPC for one a bit more effective in combat (since the NPC ones are hopeless). It's not an *option*, it's just another level in the game like the Fade was in DA1. Non-spoilerish campaign comments were that it was effectively enough plotted, but I have some issues with the pacing. A lot of the combat is back-loaded, which is a bit unfortunate for those who had grown to enjoy the sparse and fairly short encounters early on. The final level turned into a bit of a slog - not quite Deep Roads level of tedium, but still a bit repetitive for my tastes. And given the mission structure, if you forget to regularly check the vendors when you're in the quest hub, you might find yourself hobbled for the next segment. Difficulty is generally fine - early on I was concerned that normal difficulty seemed a bit of a cakewalk, but by midgame it's a solid challenge: I think my final party wipe count was three. In the end, it's a game that reflects its origins and the way it was made. It's obvious where the corners are cut and where the wallpaper has been applied, but I'm confident enough it's the missteps will be learning ones. As an early project I do very much believe they overshot a fair bit on the reward fulfilment costs (I mean, $65 got international shipping on a T-shirt), and as much as I love my feelies, I love bigger games more. Onwards and upwards. Finally I'll say it again: I'm very very happy with the decision to drop the loot system. I didn't miss it one bit, and it'd have been nothing but padding out the game length. I'd be happy if this became the norm for the future. Shedding that baggage I might call the best feature of the game. EDIT: Oh, one more thing, not sure if a flaw or a bug. I had an issue where my player character could equip an ESP but couldn't use it. I had no points in ESP control, but then that skill description does not specify that it is required, and the ESP when purchased didn't have any red requirements listed either (which would have prevented me from equipping it in the first place).

If they had the 220v/110v switches on the PSU, they probably were.

It's kinda scary to think that they're probably going to drop to half their peak number, in that that number would still be, in terms of revenue, orders of magnitude larger than any other game out there. But yeah, Cataclysm is the common marker for the start of the descent, and that holds personally true for me as well, I vastly scaled back my responsibilities at that point, entering a semi-retired state for my final year of playing.

Put in a few hours tonight, but have wrapped out for now. It's a good game, probably a very good game, but not quite a "grab you by the lapels and pull you in" level of good - or at least not yet. I use my patented "how late am I playing this game on the day of acquisition" scale, and it rates a 1am. (On invitation I was also happy enough to take a break about an hour in to get some multiplayer Monaco in) If that sounds like damning with faint praise, it isn't meant to be - it's something I'd recommend to anyone (and have given away my extra copies coupled with that recommendation), and overall I'd say it hit my window of expectation, given the source material and the resourcing, smack bang in the middle. Haven't played enough to put in a big picture review, but a running commentary of sorts: put in in a spoiler tag because of the nature of running commentaries, but nothing explicitly spoilerish (and also because of the secondary reason of it being rather long-winded). Played the DRM-free version for what it's worth.

I don't know the slightest thing about the ruleset, but I'm diving in anyway with a custom/null class. Hopefully I won't flop too badly....

I'd have named him Iron Bull.

Here it's 3am, basically maximising the amount of time I have to wait before playing it: too late to play it before sleep, so it'll have to wait for basically an entire workday cycle.

I went for rechargeable AAs from the get-go, but I don't use it for much (my XBox generally isn't for gaming, and until last week, the only PC game I preferred a gamepad for was Sleeping Dogs), so it's hard to get a gauge on longevity. Plus I got the glittery Eneloop batteries, they're so pretty (and bloody good).

MS make both wired and wireless versions. Naturally the latter can pair easily with the XB360, but requires an receiver to work with a PC (though they sell them bundled with the gamepad in the "for PC" branded packs). Further, there is an option to either use 2xAA batteries or a rechargeable proprietary battery pack with it.

Couple hours of two-player Monaco. All the gameplay videos I've watched prior have been the full four players, so I wasn't sure how well it'd play with fewer, but it worked pretty well. Didn't want to be reliant on the Lookout, so tried a few different pairs, resulting in some pretty chaotic gameplay whenever neither of us played Lookout, or to a lesser extent, Gentleman. Still, some classes do feel like a luxury that's far less viable without a full party.

Yep, that's the recommended setup. It works pretty naturally, I use freelook pretty liberally while driving, and while it's, as stated, just about essential at intersections, it becomes pretty natural in a more general sence in time and you end up looking left while turning left, etc. There are additional camera modes, such as the usual chase cam and overhead cams, which makes parking significantly easier - but I choose to use the first-person camera exclusively. You can look directly behind with freelook only outside the driver side window (as if you're really just sticking your head out the window), otherwise you'll only be looking around the cabin - no looking out the passenger-side.

I'll add a note that setting up a decent control scheme is pretty critical to enjoying the game. It's hard to get a feel for anything with the keyboard, obviously, and I'd suggest a gamepad with analogue sticks as a minimum. Ideally you'd split the steering axis from the brake/accelerate axis: pushing a stick/D-pad in the upper-right position for hours on end doesn't play well. My personal setup for now is an XBox360 gamepad (I have a wheel, but it's a gameport model from the 90s which won't work under Win7). I use the left stick for steering, the right stick for free-look (critical when trying to pull out of a driveway), shoulder buttons for up/down shifting (I play in "real automatic" mode, so it's just reverse/neutral/drive), and the analogue shoulder triggers for brake/accelerate. Various other buttons for left/right indicators, wipers, headlights, and horn. There's a cruise control feature but I choose not to use it for now. The god-king controller for the game would naturally be the Logitech G27, which is specifically supported, and is required for the ultra-hardcore true H-shifter manual driving.

Haven't seen the option, no. But the time compression being directly proportional to the world compression, that's really not surprising. But once you have your own truck, you can go out and drive in your own free time without a delivery to make (and without a trailer if you like), which more or less fulfils that function: drive from Glasgow to Prague in one session if you like - it'll take a number of hours in-game - just remember to refuel and take the occasional nap.

What's there to say? You drive a truck around Europe. The game has RPG elements in that you can level up both your driver and gear up your truck. Initially you're just a driver for hire, with no cash and no truck. You take jobs to deliver goods from city A to city B and get paid for it (and gain experience). You're docked cash for damaging the truck and/or cargo, and can be fined for various traffic violations, such as speeding, failure to use headlights at night, etc. When you level up, you can assign points in various categories such as long-distance driving, or valuable/hazardous goods shipping. Not long into the game, with the help of a bank loan, you can purchase your own truck, an entry level model of course, which you can upgrade for cash, or replace. A bit later on you can hire other drivers to drive your other trucks, and before you know it, you're the boss of Europe's biggest freight company. As for realism: Graphically it's quite nice. There's not really all that much to show, granted, since the main view will be of endless expanses of tarmac, but I can't complain. Weather effects are well done, particularly like the rain (which will really make you turn on your wipers, which, yes, is an active feature). The trucks are realistically modelled inside and out, and officially licenced from all the major brands, except Mercedes Benz (who are rebranded as Majestic). The cars you encounter on the road, while not explicitly named, are recognisably real models such as the Mazda 3 and Ford Focus. You won't be able to explore the cities in any real way though, at best it feels like you're entering the outskirts of the major ones, and while you can see some famous landmarks, it's nothing like how cities are modelled in games like GTA - they're mostly represented as towns of maybe a dozen roads. The world is, of course, significantly compressed, somewhere up to 10x time compression outside town, significantly less once you arrive. This feels about right: it places most drives, at least initially, at about the 30-60 minute mark (for say, London to Birmingham and London to Liverpool respectively). Once you progress to longer drives, other elements like sleep (stay awake too long and you'll black out and likely wake up in a ditch and/or with a tree in your windscreen) and refuelling. Road rules as far as I can tell are correct, though I've never driven in Europe (or anywhere really, never driven a car in my life) - in Britain you drive on the left side, as opposed to the rest of continental Europe, road signs show locally-correct symbols and units. There's even a feature where you can tune in to real-life Internet radio for whatever region you're driving in, which adds a nice sense of immersion even if you don't understand a word the DJs say.

I only got a few hours out of Fallout 3, as opposed to the triple digits of New Vegas. I had no particular motivation to do what the game wanted me to do (to be fair, NV had the same problem post-Benny), but perhaps the part that broke me was the game's insistence that, despite the world being a wide-open wasteland, I should have to navigate tunnels to get anywhere important. No thanks.

The main inconvenience with the DirectX thing is that you have to be in online mode to do it - if I forget to launch a game at least once right after I download it, then it won't work in offline mode. Anyway, loots: Surgeon Simulator 2013 Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders Mark of the Ninja Bastion Euro Truck Simulator 2 Dishonored - The Knife Of Dunwall DLC Deus Ex Human Revolution: The Missing Link DLC Also bought Monaco 4-pack from the official site after they price-matched Steam.

I always founds the game to actually be decidedly niche. I remember playing it waaaaaaaay back in the day. I also picked it up off GoG not too long ago, and realized that perhaps I didn't finish it because it simply wasn't my cup of tea. Same, as a kid it was just too fast for me, I couldn't deal with the actiony gameplay it sort of devolved into after the first few levels. And the trains, god, the trains - I might have ragequit the game for good after the umpteenth time being run over by the trains. I still dislike the RTS genre in general these days so the preference has never really gone away. Happy to back this of course, but it's something I'll then ignore until it's released.

It's on a different landmass, and has one new faction, a Saracen doppelganger, added. Biggest gameplay change is probably that it lets you rebel and start your own faction. It also has a combat-only multiplayer mode.

Some random pickups while waiting for Shadowrun Returns, working my way up to my own truck in Euro Truck Simulator, going back to pick up some of the challenge achievements in Surgeon Simulator, finished Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders in a couple sittings, a bit of Theme Hospital nostalgia, and one mission in Dishonored before getting tired of it again (started in October, am now five missions in).