Tigranes

It is.

Some say that after the vat incident several years ago, the being that we formerly knew as Eldar was made badder, stronger, and ever more elusive. Popped by recently, though. It will be interesting to see, for example, whether and how major religions (= in this location, Christianity in general) survived the apocalypse and its immediate aftermath.

Looked more fun than most FPS I've seen previewed for a long time actually. These kind of FPS should just capitalise on high adrenaline high speed rampages with cool but simple things you can do and a lot of style. Also looked like, true to a forever-developed game, there were a lot more detailed animations and 'unique' touches (like the big garage door coming down on a monster and the monster getting flattened, and the door shutters also being ruined).

It's out of the spoiler forum now, so perhaps deserves a bump. I'll give my picks soon.

Well that was amazing. Forgetting Manson and all that for now, if you just look at the in-game content it seems to show: 1) Sex scene is pure crap and designed purely to indulge; there is no excuse about 'character development' or anything. 2) For me 0:26 exemplifies the problem; the bit where the guy in the armour raises his arms in a wide shot while making that speech. What you see is that when DA's not doing its cutscenes with all those movie zoom ups the visuals really fall flat - okay, so you're going to go 'dark heroic epic' route, but you're holding that speech in a room that holds as much atmosphere as a ladies' sewing club? 3) So okay, big battles in tactical RPGs? Great. But uh, how exactly will DA's combat system not become a slodgefest with that particular kind of LOTR-battles? Now, without forgetting Manson and all that; 1) Does this really work? I'm powerfully interested, so kudos to DA for letting me see it in action.

Hey, I'm guilty of that, and I have an excuse - half my co-workers are quiet types and the other half won't stop whining about the bloody work. Swore myself off TV a long time ago, though. These days I find a couple hours of internet is all I need unless I'm actually doing something with the computer (which, in fact, I do a lot of). Couldn't make me give up the mp3 player for the life of me though. Only thing that makes me cut down is fears for the ears.

Korean names usually constitute a single syllable for your surname (such as Kim, Lee, Choi or Park) then two syllables for your given name. There is also, especially in older days, a tradition of using a common syllable in your given name for brothers (so Ji-Sung, Ji-Dong, Ji-Won and Ji-Wook for a family of four, for instance). Koreans continue to use transliterated versions of Chinese letters for their names, as well, to give some meaning (so my given name Sun-ha equates to letters for 'Good' and 'Summer', which... okay, so I guess it means jack all). The last decade or so has seen some come up with more 'creative' names though, such as one that could be translated as Kim Seven Bright Shining Stars In The Night Sky (and yes it's just as unwieldy in Korean). I seem to remember that one such 'unique' child committed suicide as a result of bullying regarding the name, though I can't recall it with any confidence to suggest it actually happened. I'll dig up a few interesting ones when I'm at work tomorrow, there are some crazy names in the media out there.

As with any major upgrade I see no reason not to wait for at least the first service pack, and until issues are known. I'm just glad they are still supporting XP (I think).

Yeah, it was really famous (a Pullitzer even? though I might be confusing that with the naked Vietnamese child one), but grah. I've sifted through hundreds of disgusting pics and I still can't find it. I just know a lot more about what human bodies look partially blown up, now.

Christophe Heral is back on board? Awesome. BGE's gameplay was always a decent, unobtrusive adventure game that wasn't too easy or too hard - really the selling points for me was the atmosphere (visuals, sound, dialogue, etc) + a pretty good story. If they can do that again I'm game.

I think, actually, that it's a testament to 3D Realms' amazing accounting / negotiation ability that they've been able to survive for so long.

Really? I've seen quite a few discussions about how FO's TB combat could be boring as hell, how it lacked the tactical complexity and sophistication to make it a truly great combat game, how the problems with exit grids and turn times in large battles hurt the gameplay, so on and so forth. I'd have thought it was a widely accepted fact by now that while FO's combat could be darn fun at times, it was also quite very flawed.

Mkreku and Nightshade will probably get drunk and light blowtorches.

I'm pretty sure it's Vietnam or post-Vietnam. It wasn't one of those old b&w photos and the soldier uniform, I am pretty sure, is the modern 'guerilla' green stuff. Zero degree frontal view, head to toe of a soldier. Soldier's not looking down crying at the dead child or anything like that, just looks straight ahead. That was what made it so powerful. Trying to think of more details but...

Funnily enough, a great deal of 'uber hardcore Fallout fans lolz' actually advocated a wait-and-see approach when the game was announced in 2004. Of course there were some going IT HAS TO BE TURN BASED/ISOMETRIC/ETC (and the funniest bit was how this specific kernel would differ between individuals) OR WE WILL BURN YOUR BABIES, but there was a lot of reasonable expectation and desire for communication. Obviously it didn't pan out so well.

But just because its the one thing that can be quantified doesn't mean it should be shoehorned into doing things that it cannot do, i.e. becoming a general measure of quality.

Loosen up people. Despite all evidences to the contrary, it's quite probable that none of the people here are retarded. yo mkreku: Personally, I like isometric and whatnot, but I agree that a first person real time Fallout (even without VATS) could well have been a great Fallout game. I just think Beth screwed up with both setting and story. If Fallout 2 had been made in first person real time 3D I would have still called it a great Fallout game, for instance. That's not an opinion everyone shares, but just sayin'... maybe, y'know, some people had problems with FO3 because of what it was, not because they were projecting impossible things or on a crusade or hate or whatever.

He wasn't referring to 'most people' out of 'all gamers' mkreku. Woops?

So I'm doing something, and I need a photo. I remember that it was very famous, in fact 'iconic'. It was a frontal, full-body shot of a soldier, possibly American, holding a dead, naked black child in his arms. My memory keeps saying "no it was an ASTRONAUT not a soldier", but who knows why the hell it's doing that. It's not much, but it was just that famous, the simple, 'understated' photograph of holding that limp dead child in his arms. So... anyone?

You will find that I'm pretty much the same, actually.

I was discussing my postgrad with my prof, and he said, "take solace in the fact that men greater than you have failed in their endeavours.... like Arsene Wenger!" He, naturally, remembered I'm an Arsenal fan. I've nearly decided to refuse the offer of admission from NYU and couple of other places because I can't afford it. Instead I'm going to do a Masters here in half the time it should take while working at my current job (media analysis), then make the jump. Screw nationality, I'm going to go to the best school in the world (in my degree) for my PhD and that's that.

Dammit, I missed the mud-wrestling. I always miss the fun stuff. I wrote a short paper on NMA, so I read a huge amount of those forums. I also love the original Fallouts and think Beth's FO3 predictably failed to provide a proper Fallout (whether it was a good game or not being entirely a different matter). That said, I am pretty sure I don't really understand 'what constitutes Fallout' or 'what a proper Falout should be' that is advocated by many of the regulars and/or prominent members there. (Since, y'know, NMA ain't one hivemind - another common logical failure.) I'd still say that it's bollocks to argue that the 'hardcore fans can never be pleased'. It's way too late so I won't elaborate (even though making unsupported general sweepings when Gromnir is around is like shooting myself in the kneecaps), but primarily, these 'hardcore fans' or 'Beth bashers' or whatever category people like to invent is not primarily based around opposing everything new, everything Bethesda, or whatever. It's not really an identity based around an opposition. There is a clear kernel in the centre and I think it's very possible for Obsidian or whoever to make a new Fallout, at this point in time, even with all the convoluted history of that franchise, that satisfies that primary sentiment of what Fallout is. Obviously you can't make a game that satisfies that completely, but uh, that's redundant. That's like saying you can't make a perfect (or perfectly archetypical) RPG. Without breaking it down to pointless unanswerable nitpicking (like what is Fallout exactly, what exact threshold and border do you have to reach and hoops you have to jump to be a 'true' Fallout, what exactly is the general consensus of FO fans or NMA or whoever).... yes you can make another 'true' Fallout, it's not a forlorn or pointless hope. No, Beth's FO3 wasn't one - not because of some baseless hatred and denial of everything new/Beth that people are afflicted with. Geez, I mean, really? I hope I'm not blamed for beginning an amazing flame war.

The Codex is the only thing he truly loves. Really.

Ubisoft would probably sue them if they did that. "It's our terminally retarded plot device, damnit."

But then, 'training' systems where you have to find specific NPCs or whatnot and fulfill such in-world requirements to obtain the more powerful or wacky abilities has always been a very successful trope in RPGs, no? From the 'Jump through hoops then locate the geographical anomaly' and 'do the right thing at the right time' of Final Fantasies to strategically placed 'experts' in the Elder Scrolls. I don't know. Perhaps only I enjoyed those. Certainly made the world a more interesting place for me, and would fit in well in Fallout - lost, isolated and/or esoteric knowledge/ability, that is.