alanschu

I likely didn't play the game enough. Having said that, I can say that I like no-win situations. Or at the very least, decisions that force you to make a sacrifice. The easiest situation to illustrate is being in a situation where two lives that you care about are at steak, but you can only save one. But I wouldn't even mind if it was not possible to save either.

Fair enough. I would attribute it more to the style of game design however. Doom 3 wanted to shock you and make you jump at times, but I would still consider it an action game rather than a scary game.

I don't remember little dots in Jagged Alliance 2, but that engine IS the Silent Storm engine. It doesn't appear to really be modified in any way with respect to its interface. Silent Storm was a sweet game....I just didn't like the way it ultimately ended up in terms of story.

I can see your point. Many games that I see as being "typical" CRPGs are the Gold Box games like Eye of the Beholder and whatnot.

Graphics alone don't make a game scary. Especially seeing as it's the unseen enemy that scares me more than the seen enemy.

If previous experience is required to make something good, then how does anything new become good?

Which I think goes back to people maintaining static definitions of the genre they like. Is this unwillingness to change a good thing? It's beliefs like this that kept decent party interaction out of western CRPGs for as long as there were.

To be honest, it's not THAT big of a deal though. Usually when there's badguys I'm not too concerned with accurate portrayal of shadows on their bodies

Here's hoping for career years from Ryan Smyth, Chris Pronger, Mike Peca, Radek Dvorak, Marty Reasoner, Raffi Torres, Alexei Semenov, Jason Smith, Igor Ulanov, Steve Staios, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Shawn Horcoff, and Ales Hemsky. It's not too much to ask! Oh what they hey throw big Georges in there too!

Gah, I need to see it before I can comment!!>!?#$1111

Is there any place where I could see Bertuzzi's attack? It's been so long I don't remember the details.

Silly numbers man....everyone knows everyone is 14/f/cali

Was hoping for more news today, but the paper was pretty blah...not that there was much to report aside from Gretzky and Bertuzzi. I wonder if this means Reasoner for Handzus is out of the question The signing of Dan Smith is a little more curious. Not that he's expensive...but he hasn't played in the NHL since 2000. He is the captain of the roadrunners though. Perhaps they keep him down there to help the younger players?

The yellow on black is a bad combination.

Nah, it's possible to only be looking forward to it with recent news.

I'm curious what your background is on AI. Particularly ones that let you state specific things such as "FPU performance in AI is a moot subject, as the bulk, and in most cases ALL of the AI is done using logic." I'm also curious....how would you define logic in AI?

You might need to pick the feat that makes one of your crossclass skills a class skill, but you will have skill points out the wazoo. That was the first build I had made, and probably my most enjoyable.

I'd attribute that more to greed/smart business. Ignoring the big market would be rather silly. Having said that, ignoring the market of fans that like western RPGs would be equally silly.

I guess the next question is why mention it if you don't think it's going to happen? When you mention the situation, it gives credence to the idea that you think it's a possibility.

I remember a sweet video that had people doing Prince of Persia type stuff with Eminems "Lose Yourself" playing as the soundtrack. It was pretty sweet, and made me think maybe Prince of Persia wasn't as unrealistice as I thought

I've beaten Hell Knights with chainsaws.

Translation: So you don't care in the foreseeable future that the only RPGs around are Final Fantasy-style RPGS. Obviously, PC RPGS with strong narrative and character interaction don't fall into that characterization. Ok, I'm not getting things here. I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not. I don't feel that a PC RPG with a strong narrative and character interaction would fall into "Final Fantasy-style RPGs" just like I don't consider KOTOR to be a Final Fantasy-style RPG. Or Morrowind. Or Neverwinter Nights. Nor do I expect Dragon Age, Neverwinter Nights 2, or anything else to be a part of that category. I wouldn't like that. Fortunately, I have yet to see any indication of that actually happening. PC RPGs developing party interactions does not equal an assimilation of the RPG world into Final Fantasy games. Daggerfall.. was *bad* in this regard. Was their 2nd and 3rd game just as bad? Furthermore, did their first three games have large development costs? There's sooooooooo much behind the scenes that we don't possibly know. And I don't see Bioware going out of business any time soon. Nor do I follow the plethora of smaller console RPG developers to know whether or not they are all successful or not. EDIT: Fixed my horrible UBB quoting skills.

You did say "So you don't care if in the foreseeable future the only RPGs around are linear JRPGS" when GoA mentioned he had no preference over playing PC or console. Also, why exactly did Square/Enix merge? Wouldn't that constitute a restructuring as well? As for Bethesda releasing horribly buggy games, I didn't think that Morrowind was that buggy. I've heard horror stories about Daggerfall, but it seems Bethesda got better.....Troika didn't.

I would attribute the fall of BIS to be just as much towards the hidious mismanagment by Interplay. And Troika? Well, what do you expect from a company that released three buggy titles in a row, and then blamed publishers for their woes? Arcanum wasn't too bad, but TOEE from what I hear was pretty messy and Bloodlines wasn't the most solid release I had ever seen either. And regardless, with the fall of BIS we got Obsidian, and they're making NWN2 which from what I gather is not a console RPG either. I also don't think growth of a major "PC RPG" maker should just be limited to building games for the PC. I get the impression that you don't like Bioware making console games because you see it as them being assimilated by the console environment. I see it as being a smart business decision because limiting yourself to a smaller market just makes things more difficult for you. Bioware still has Dragon Age in development, which is an immensely ambitious, PC only project. And has Bethesda made any game that didn't come out for PC? I think the only real "fall" of PC RPG companies goes to the companies that have a static version of what it takes to be a PC RPG. As a result, they didn't evolve and faded away. Even if such things as strong narratives and party interaction were inspired by JRPGS, it doesn't take away from the fact that this has made western RPGs more enjoyable, and should be fully integrated. The way you phrase it seems like the inclusion of such things is foreshadowing for a doom and gloom slippery slope of all games becoming linear JRPGs, when I see the addition of those elements as making PC RPGs stronger and more viable.

New ArchDuke to lead country into 20th Century Archduke Franz FerdinAllan has just performed the rights of passage and takes his seat at the head of the Austro-Hungarian empire. While critics of the regime point out incidents of FerdinAllan being dropped as a baby may deem him unsuitable to lead, most of the country is in a nationwide celebration to honour the ascension. Surely FerdinAllan's excellent wit, and dashing good looks will serve as a suitable icon that represents all that is great and wonderful in Austria! FerdinAllan had a speech moments after his induction: "To the people of Austria, thank you for your kind welcome. It is truly an honour to be given the responsibility of leading this great country into the 20th Century. It is a challenge that I relish, and I forsee a peaceful, and prosperous future for our fine country." The Archduke also commented that first thing on his agenda would be to establish diplomatic channels with his neighbouring countries. He hopes to seek avenues of trade in order to secure the prosperity of all nations in Europe. He has already issued statements to Kaiser Karl Von LowenWiggin III of Germany and King James III of England, "It is regrettable that both of these nations have suffered tragic events with the deaths of Kaiser Willem II and Queen Victoria. However, after speaking with Mr. LowenWiggin and Mr. James, I am happy to see fine leadership taking over." "Make no mistake about it...this move puts Austria on the map," comments an independent analysis. "There's a charm and swagger about Mr. FerdinAllan that should secure our future and accelerate the growth of Austria." Naturally, there will always be some critics to a new regime. Some wonder how well he'll be able to focus on work with the already large number of women throwing themselves at the feet of this fine bachelor. They only expect the problem to worsen as he grows in fame and power. FerdinAllan plans on meeting the leaders in person, with the upcoming months involving a trip to Moscow, down to Constantine, and all the way across the swiss Alps to France and up to England. He mentions some anticipation for the trip, as he has not had much opportunity for seeing the world.