Llyranor

I guess Morgie was right. I guess the PS3 does have this year's GOTY.

I'll test your mods and rip them to shreds if you want.

Well, at least you got to play the greatest game ever made already.

Dude, chill. How else could Nick appreciate Nightshade's secret PS3 game?

Currently replaying Oblivion. Probably the greatest game of all time next to Fallout 3. My character is pretty stealth-focused, with skills in Sneak, Security, Light Armour, Blade, and a couple other ones I forget. My goal in this game is to join the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood. I've known for quite some time that I need to kill an innocent to get into the latter, but so far I haven't found anyone worthy enough (until today!). There's a few snotty NPCs I considered slaughtering in their sleep, but I knew I wouldn't get much satisfaction in that. So I went on a journey. If I was to become a murderer, I wanted my act to mean something. I wanted it to be symbolic. After a while of having nothing to Hades off to, it became apparent to me that Oblivion suffers from a terrible lack of attractive female NPCs. So I promised myself that the moment I met one, she would be my mark, my tribute to the Dark Brotherhood. I found her in Burma. For many days I watched her. Each morning I would enter the inn, take a seat, and enjoy some breakfast. Whenever I felt brave enough, I would look away from my companion and take a peek at her. She was quite social, my Lyra. Like a little butterfly, hovering from table to table and exchanging the latest news. For instance, did you know that the Fighters Guild was recruiting? I didn't, until I met Lyra. I only spoke to her once, the last day of her life. She didn't seem to like me very much. I gave her a lot of money, and then she liked me more. Her smile made me happy - but was she only smiling because I had lined her pockets with gold? If so, she was a prostitute. My heart was broken. I made a decision that the **** would die that very night. I stepped outside into the cold, frosty air and loitered around for a few hours. When nightfall finally came, I stole away to the stables and quickly retrieved my horse. If something went wrong, I would need a quick exit. I tied Glueboy to a tree just outside the city walls and went back inside. Lyra was still at work and her door was locked. I considered breaking in and waiting in a closet, but something told me that was the wrong way to go about things. Late in the evening, my darling Lyra finally left the inn and went home. I followed. I waited for an hour or two, not wanting to catch her undressing or within earshot of my breakin. The undressing would come later. Five lockpicks later, I was inside. Her house was immaculate, just like her. I crept around the first floor and took a flowerpot. I decided I would put it on her grave. I listened to the ringing from the church down the road. It was midnight. In the gloom of her house, I sat down and ate her leftovers. After I was done, I snuck upstairs and found her sleeping on the grandest bed I had seen to that point. She was beautiful. I stripped off my clothing and sat down across from her, mesmerized by the delicate movement of her bosom as she breathed her last breaths. After a little while I began to lose track of time. Before long, she began to stir. Realzing this was my chance, I removed my dagger and struck her with it. How she fought! She staggered to the bottom of the stairs and ran toward the front door. I couldn't have that! I drained her stamina with my Greater Power and she fell to the ground. Moments later she was dead. Beside myself with passion, I began to undress her, exposing long, regal limbs. After making love to her, I thought she felt a little cold. Trying to warm her up, I dragged her body to the fireplace. And then I ate her.

The campaign was great fun 4p, and these some pretty neat moments where everything around was completely chaotic, especially when vehicles were involved. And while some levels were very very good, there were a few who still showed some pretty mediocre level design. It's like Bungie kept the Library as a tradition. Anyhow, as much as I love H3, wouldn't recommend it singleplayer to anyone. Then again, I wouldn't recommend ANY singleplayer FPS,

Except when it's a masterpiece like MGS4!!!!

yeah man you could have died from deep vain thrombosis

Didn't they mention using A Song of Ice and Fire as inspiration? I'm not getting the vibe.

With all these talks about the 3 JBs in previews and such, why doesn't Mike Thornjerk actually have those initials? I mean, MT? That's as generic as it gets! It's not like it would have been complicated. Here's a gazillion examples: Josh Bawyer, Jorian Butt, James Bauer. This thing practically writes itself. Honestly, Obsidian. Unlimited ammo? Forcing dual-wielding UZIs? Not allowing dual-wielding robots dual-wielding rocket launchers? Forcing a male character? Forcing stupid initials like MT? What next? Forced party members? No actual ending? LOL j/k I know you wouldn't stoop that low. PS. I'm not kidding about changing the name to Jorian Butt.

That's what I said. And Carth was an interesting, well developed character.

ROFL Hey, if you're going to say that, I'm going to have to argue that Carth was an interesting, well developed character.

Role-Player, you'll have to see how the NWN2 toolset works before committing to it. It can be a pain, depending on what your priorities are. Work on your design docs, and make your scripting/dialogue via NWN1 in the meantime.

GTA4 has an Oscar-worthy script!!!111!11

Castle Crashers is now patched.

That depends on whether it'll be full of repetitive battles that play mostly the same, being based mostly on endurance rather than actual tactics in battle.

Better than awful is still awful. In KOTOR's defense, Carth was an interesting, well developed character.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Hearts of Iron series, they are turn-based CRPGs based on an alternative setting of WW2, where werewolves and dinosaurs exist. Your party consists usually of a group of meddling kids tasked with infiltrating the enemy side and sabotage their operations from the inside. Okay, so HoI3 is old news. It's been announced for a few months now, though I haven't really been following its development. Since I got around to reading the dev diaries http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=379311 today, might as well sum them up in one place. Map: - 10,000 provinces (vs 2608 in HoI2) - Especially favorable for continents that had less provinces before (eg. Asia) - This is mainly for combat/maneuvering purposes, rather than politics - More opportunities blitzkrieg, encirclement,etc - 3 sizes (small, med, large), depending on tactical importance (coastal = small; desert = large) Production: - Oil = now crude oil (converted from energy) + fuel (created from crude oil, consumed by units) - Increasing complexity in HoI3 will be mainly in warfare/logistics - IC system for production remains similar to HoI2 - Concept of efficiency for resource extraction and output - Gearing = efficiency in production based on continuously producing said goods on a national level, rather than based on individual production queues - Gearing effiency decays over time unless you keep producing those goods - Producing more of a certain line of goods (eg. naval) means researching naval tech is easier/faster Technology: - HoI1 = too much micromanagement, and no differentiation between nations - HoI2 = tech teams meant each country had its strong points, but this was hard-coded, so limited customization - HoI3 = tech teams are no more, replaced by 'accumulated research knowledge and practical experience' for each particular country (defined at the start) - This will improve or decay depending on how much or how little research you pursue for various fields - So, concept of tech teams is more or less retained, but this will fluctuate depending on what fields the player will want to research - General (eg. aircraft engine) and specific techs (eg. air-launched anti-ship weapons) - For example, you can research tank gun, tank engine, tank armor, tank reliability individually - This allows you to cater to specifics per nation (eg. early British heavy tank = good armor, slow, under-gunned, prone to breakdown) Leadership: - Doing research consumes leadership points (the workforce involved); the more you research certain fields, the fewer points you require - Leadership points also represent sub-divisional officers (you still have named officers for division and up) - Investing leadership points as 'officers' into troops = better troops Land combat: - Move = attack - Movement penalty when fighting (affected by how the battle is going) - Can use small units to delay an opponent - Maximum attack frontage, per attacking province = super-mega stack less effective/efficient - Force-to-space ratio = the more fronts you attack a single province from, the more spread out the defenders have to be - If defending province is not max'ed out ('maximum defense frontage') = force-to-ratio penalty - Therefore, too many units = suboptimal; too few units = penalty - Penalty mainly applies if each attacking province is substantial (not just one unit) - Unit composition, doctrines, terrain all affect frontage - Units in excess of maximum frontage = reserve (might join combat if a combatant drops out) Politics: - HoI2 = event-heavy, too static - HoI3 goal = more dynamic, but focus still on war - Political parties - Party organization = how well an ideology is organized (also affected by espionage) - Concepts such as 'party membership, newspaper editorial stance, the views of opinion formers in the country, campaigners going out trying to convince people to support them' - Ideological group out of power = change for coup d'

Yes, but can you dual-wield giant mechs that are dual-wielding rocket launchers?

You playing the co-op mode?

(yeah, I kind of got bored with EO1 as I got near the end-game and traded it away)

It'd be possible. Selecting actions, selecting targets, all those can be done pretty easily with a properly-designed interface. The main cumbersome part would be movement within battle. I mean, it's still point and click, just using a analog stick instead of a mouse. Minor inconvenience. It's like playing a RTS with a gamepad. Not impossible, just not optimal.

Wrath of "Carth was an interesting, well developed character" is right. Please don't polish the game, Obs. You'd break your loyal fanbase's heart.

If you like dungeon crawlers, Etrian Odyssey 1 and 2 (also Atlus) have pretty old-school gameplay. You even have to draw your own maps. Though it has girly anime art, so not for manly men. (SUCCESS made this game, Atlus is publishing/localizing) Here's a bunch of stuff Japanese trailer Battle video http://www.success-corp.co.jp/software/ds/...system0103.html Dungeon video http://www.success-corp.co.jp/software/ds/...system0101.html Character creation video http://www.success-corp.co.jp/software/ds/...system0201.html Music samples http://www.success-corp.co.jp/software/ds/...wnload_bgm.html (arranged on left, original on right)

It needs to be fixed soon, otherwise Gabrielle will remain angry forever. (aside from renaming the files)