alanschu

I only delete them if I need to make room for new ones. It's all about the minimal amounts of effort.

Holy crap (w00t) Someone needs to learn to organize. " <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It is organized. I know what's there It's a habit of just putting everything on my desktop, since it means that I have less difficulty in finding it...especially for software downloads. Though I have recently started downloading into a "downloads" folder, as I'm running out of real estate. It works nice because, for instance, to play Hearts of Iron 2 I just have to hit 'H' and hit enter. Oh, and I only count 96 icons!

I hadn't heard of Final Fantasy until FF2/4, and that was because a friend of mine had it :"> Errr, that wasn't really what I was trying to address. Though you do bring up a good point (sort of...I thought about it while reading this block) that I am overlooking the fact that most people have much more console experience than PC controller I experience. I only weakly touched on this, and it probably deserves more forefront. Though the concern I was trying to bring up is with respect to your interest in the game type. From my own experiences, I love WW2 strategy games, and when Hearts of Iron 2 came out, I gobbled it up. It doesn't have the best interface, but I was willing to learn it to the point where I have zero problems doing what I want to do with it. The fact that I'm a WW2 buff and the idea of building giant PanzerArmees to US Supercarriers sold it for me. I actually liked Star Wars: Rebellion, in spite of its horrid interface because it was a strategy game, set in a Universe I enjoy. It provided me the opportunity to build huge fleets of Star Destroyers, and even a Death Star, which was fun for me. Which is an issue I hadn't thought about for occidental RPGs today. In order to make truly significant impact, people are going to have to know about these games. A large license can help, as KOTOR is pretty big. Though even Microsoft seemed hesitant to market the crap out of Jade Empire (and I don't consider MS to be particularly frugal in the advertising department). This I concur with. It is why I support, even through their troubles, online distribution methods such as Steam. Anything to cut out "middlemen" helps smaller developers get much more for their money.

I imagine it's an MP game?

You asked for it.

Any system that adheres adamantly to strict guidelines in order to determine the value of something, without compromise, is equally as laughable. Categorization in and of itself tends to be weak and misrepresenting. Fair enough, you can "rate" stuff with certain genre archetypes, but the situation becomes moot when genres evolve, or when (as is the current case) games no longer cleanly fall into a genre. For instance, playing through Deus Ex rating it as an RPG, or as an FPS, will likely result in a poor rating for both, despite the fact that it's an excellent game. When you adhere to your categorization as strictly as you do, then it is taking up too much of your focus. Just play a game for what it is, rather than worrying about what type of category it is in. Because it seems as though that dominates your entire experience of the game. In the end, why does it really matter if a game rates particularly well as a CRPG, if it is still a good game (in that it provides excellent entertainment)?

The thing about Square I find is that they are infatuated with killer FMV graphics.

I've heard little more than bad things about Boiling Point. It looked ambitious, and most people I know have acknowledged that, but on the whole felt the game was pretty poor.

So it's a variant of VX then? In other words it's made up? Thanks, you did all my work for me. EDIT: Try Googling CentoxVX for information on the nerve gas agent used in 24. Here's a list of what I found:

They did. Though they did so with little competition. I don't know if I would consider Morrowind as really being an appropriate (or promising) game type for creating inroads for CRPG games. KOTOR moreso, but in comparison the Bioware followup Jade Empire, I'm skeptical as to how effective it was. Granted you aren't saying that it will happen quickly. I never played the games. Keep in mind you also like these types of games, and would not find a poorer interface to be as much of an obstacle. I know I can play a game like Europa Univeralis 2/Hearts of Iron 2 which really don't have very good interfaces, but because I love the type of game I can look past the bizarre design decision they made with their interface. All it did was mean it took me longer to learn how to play the game effectively. If you're trying to create a new market though, the interface needs to be rock solid. Fair enough. Perhaps. Though given the speculative nature of our whole discussion, is it safe to assume that the ultimate failures of these games (lets face it, they certainly didn't spawn a plethora of occidental RPGs onto the market, so I'm going to assume that they didn't sell well) is due simply because the console market didn't prefer them? Though to be honest, I wouldn't consider the Gold Box games to be much of an achievement either. I didn't like them much when I was a kid, and I still don't like them much now. Which Gold Box games actually made the cut on to the Genesis? A game like Eye of the Beholder is quite a bit different in how it plays compared to Pool of Radiance. How true are they as well? I never felt the console Ultimas were particularly faithful to the Ultima franchise. Which isn't too surprising. Games like Torment didn't bring in the capital necessary. Speaking from a position of bias, I didn't think that Dune II on the Genesis was handled "no problem." And after I played it on the PC, I could not go back to the Genesis version. I guess it can work if people don't know any better. After all, there are people that claim controllers are perfectly fine for FPS games. I don't disagree, those big license games require big money to begin with. And if they are anything but a big seller, then it will have negative consequences. You'll definitely have to have people make "adventurous" products to test the waters, but given all the information you've posted regarding the Sega Genesis...it sounds like they already have. The problem is compounded now that even "risk" games still require mountains of actual capital to make. Testing uncharted waters with millions of dollars increases the risk that much more. Yeah, I suppose it can be said that I'm sort of giving up. I don't necessarily think it's impossible, just exceptionally improbable. I don't think occidental RPGs will disappear, because there's always a market for them. But it would require quite a cultural shift as whole (most of which entirely outside of control of game developers) to affect the demand for RPG games. The root of the problem is more cultural IMO, and not just differences between console/PC, because even the occidental RPGs that exist for the PC are already a niche market. For every Torment sold, many more Quakes, World of Warcrafts, and whatnots get sold.

All Hades has done is show how silly classifcations and genre typing are. The fact that he adamantly guides his decisions of games on them is laughable.

How much did the setting help in a game like KOTOR? I'm skeptical as to how popular it would have been had it not been set in the Star Wars universe. As for the consolization of the combat, we've already seen it with Jade Empire.

He's finally accepted that it's a CRPG "

Fair enough, the dialogues and plot could be done either way. I suppose you could argue that that is the most important thing. Though that doesn't make things much better when looking at the situation. I wouldn't say that Morrowind nor KOTOR were shining examples of story elements and dialogue. And I agree, PC RPGs have been lacking in their complexity and whatnot lately as well.

Yeah, that one was the biggest what if. He did answer it with just a "yeah" and if Erwick had his mind elsewhere, it's probably not too big of a stretch to assume that he didn't think much about it. He was obviously expecting Rossler to pick it up. It's the biggest concern I had this season as well. But isn't wholly unreasonable IMO. It isn't like they had a full on conversation

Hehehe, I had noticed that too.

*taps foot eagerly in anticipation*

Yeah, I'm not sure what the name is. I'm fairly certain it was just made up though. I guess Syntox works as well I think it'd be risky to use VX, especially in the manner that they are using it in, as VX was used in The Rock, so some people would already have some sort of idea on how it works.

I don't recall it being called VX gas, but rather Sentox. If it IS VX gas, then the mask is irrelevant and is no more cheesy than him thinking the mask will work. Considering casualties are limited to probably around 10, it's clear that an exceptionally small amount of the gas is actually in the area. Especially if it's VX (which I don't recall it ever being said it is). Logan's character is inconsistent because he is inconsistent. It's the whole point of his character. I learned this by watching him "deal" with the situation in the previous season.

It's one thing to express your opinion. It's another to continuously regurgitate it in a discussion about the game. Hades has repeatedly made simple "I hate Diablo" posts whenever the game comes up. Often times it's not because someone is saying that Diablo is the pinnacle of computer gaming, but just a discussion about the game. It would be more akin to me coming in and saying how I feel AD&D AC is less intuitive than 3rd edition, in response to someone merely commenting on AC.

How much of a speed boost do the Raptor's give?

I think it's a testament to just how little he played the game.

Ah, so you're finally admitting that Diablo is a CRPG? Good for you.

What if it's evolving "

If the hardware is inadequate for a complex RPG environment, how do you make it more attractive to the console gamer? It could be the best game in the world, but if the controls are awkward, it's not going to be an attractive option. IMO, someone is going to have to gamble with a default controller type that makes these game experiences more possible. I'm don't have a huge amount of ideas regarding it though, because I don't really think it will happen....no matter how much I want it to. I think that the Catch-22 has stymied it, and will continue to. The other alternative is for the XBOX 360 to perform really, really well. Even though I found them to still be "simple" RPG games, KOTOR and Morrowind have demonstrated that perhaps we can make a push in through there. But in my opinion, games such as Jade Empire seem to indicate that occidental RPGs are the ones adapting to make themselves work in a console environment. In the end, I doubt the game type that you or I want (the Torment/Fallout type experience) is what the end result will be. Except I had mentioned that, in my opinion, your solution is a weak situation at best. You talked about a squad-based strategy RPG hybrid working. The thing is, that will still require an acceptable control scheme for it to be popular, which will only reinforce that the current control scheme is working. In the end, I don't think it makes much progress at all with respect to getting occidental RPGs on the consoles. At best, it serves to continue to redefine occidental RPGs in the not so positive trend they've been going down. Creating the controller is not the problem. It's getting the controller on the market. And that step has to come first. Creating it is easy. But tons of neat ideas get created in the world. They don't mean anything if it's not economically viable to implement them. Also: If there is sufficient demand for a product, that product will be made And it comes down to developers breaking into the market by creating console RPGs that console gamers would play..That is their job and my hope is that they will be successful It's the catch-22. Which is why, IMO, the market for console occidental RPGs is ****ed. I don't see games such as Oblivion really helping things out that much, and I wonder how well a game such as KOTOR would have done if it didn't have an exceptionally popular license behind it. It's clear we have have a difference in how things are going. I don't see creating RPG-lite games as providing anything more than RPG-lite demand.