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Modern Lovecraft, eh? Intriguing. But I thought the whole Cthulu spiel was that all the protagonists are always doomed and powerless to stop whatever malign cosmic forces they encounter. That limits the promise somewhat. *edit - And I'm assuming that game "to be released in 2003" never made it?

As far as "real-world" settings go, I'd like to see some kind of organized crime game, or a law enforcement game, or maybe a "Departed" kind of halfway deal, that's not a linear action game but an open-ended RPG. Like the Godfather game, but less enamored of GTA. I'd like a Metal Gear Solid RPG but word is that MGS is pretty much dead after 4.

I don't know about that. From the time the demo hit and crashed its hosting server, up until Quake's debut, Doom was the Jaws of PC Gaming, its first blockbuster and what everybody thought of when they considered PC gaming at all. It's also the forebear of every other FPS on the list, with maybe the exception of System Shock. It's still fun for me, so the only reason I'd consider dropping it is its age, but then I'd have to drop plenty of other great games, including the #1.

Too true. Honestly I prefer 1 to 2, mainly because I find the 3rd edition ruleset to be a little akward, just in that all the other IE games are 2nd edition. I don't know why that bothers me so much.

So, what are all you whiners playing?

This is actually my secondary forum. My primary is a Nine Inch Nails board I joined when I was a young'un, and my tertiary is a swirling hellhole of a "forum" dedicated to Ministry, that I joined before that. I'd probably just retreat further into ETS (the NIN forum). But quite frankly, losing the Obsidian forums would be the furthest thing from my mind in the event of the company going out of business. I'd be more preoccupied with who would make quality CRPGs in their stead, and where the staff would end up post-dissolution.

Didn't Deekin hammer that last nail into IWD's coffin in NWN2? Kind of a shame, being sent off by such a terrible character. Tsk. But yeah, I liked the FR Northern setting, I'd certainly like to see it more.

I would have put Oregon Trail up there on top. Nothing like slaughtering dozens of animals and just taking one of the buffalo back to camp. It was the only thing remotely resembling fun that you could do in school.

Beat MGS3 again, then graduated to Subsistence, and I'm beating that slowly. Certainly my favorite Metal Gear Solid so far, and I think they'll have a hard time topping it with 4 (although I am curious as to what kind of supernatural superteam of superbaddies they'll cook up) I'm itching to play NWN2 again, but it's hard for me to get too far through the beginning. I'm in a bad way with games these days. BG and BG2 have almost gone the way of the Fallouts, that is, games I love but can't squeeze enjoyment out of playing anymore. That's pretty distressing for me. *edit - So, uh, anybody know of good mods for NWN2?

Every time I play through IWD2 I always get to the end and find out that I ****ed up my team in some way that prevents me from winning, and I don't have the ability to beat the twins. Other than that, it's a fine enough game. I liked the villains, and that's about all I ask from a game these days. It was pretty heavy on combat, though, and since I'm so anal about keeping track of healing potions and such I had some trouble actually enjoying it all that much. Most of the time I just stressed.

It went beyond stupid and straight to crazy when Doom failed to get on. Or any early id game, for that matter. I would have been satisfied with a Wolfenstein 3D.

If the game's good enough, I'll make time. This is sometimes actually good for my schoolwork, as I'll freak out about not having enough time and then finish the assignment when I might have just blown it off at any other time.

People, people, this is IGN. How seriously do you take IGN? How seriously do you take "best of all time" lists? Have you seen "The Definitive 200 albums of all time"? It will melt your brain. This list is kind of like that (but not nearly as painful) But stuff like this is still fun. I'm going to take a guess as to what games they could possibly include in the top 10. Fallout Doom Half-Life Starcraft Command & Conquer Civilization 2 Quake Diablo Baldur's Gate Some of those, and some other games I've never played or never cared to play.

You're really failing this "self-deprecation" thing. You are making fun of yourself, aren't you?

Not decided yet, really, but Denver's going to host the DNC this time around so I'll hopefully be able to discern the dem's real platform and maybe take bets on what promises they intend to break if they win. Not going to vote republican, though, no matter who's running. There was a time in which if there wasn't anybody I liked in the dem camp I'd vote for McCain, but he lost me on the Habeus Corpus thing. Honestly, I don't really believe in the system. My elected representatives do not work for me, so why would I work for them? I might just end up not voting, if Hillary runs.

No, no, Hayden Christiansen is at least as bad as Mark Hamill at his best, laughable at his worst. He didn't do much for Factory Girl, either, and he had to play Bob Dylan. How hard is that? He can barely speak. Back on topic, fantasy is good, and all you naysayers just don't know how to have fun.

nay!

QFT. *edit - But in all fairness, Hayden Christiansen (did I spell that right?) is a truly bad actor.

You know it.

The female characters at least fit in with Miller's style. He loves, loves his violated women. He made catwoman a prostitute, whores are ****ing everywhere in Sin City (and they have strong male Dwight to protect them) And even if Miller didn't originally write all that stuff, by being a producer he at least would have some say over what was written in. But really, when we're talking about the movie, you're right, it has nothing to do with Miller. The movie, not Miller, is reactionary and pro-war. It can be those things without ever touching Bush or his administration. Wrong dude, dude. And if I remember correctly, the Authority eventually got in some trouble for portraying Bush as a coward not long after 9/11, so I'd wager that it's neolib.

I'm not sure about Miller's intentions just yet, but it is out there in the open that the main villain in the movie happens to be a brown-skinned ****, and the hero is an aggressive heterosexual and such a patriot that he defies his democratic government to defend his nation. The hunchback (the weak, malformed hunchback) betrays his country after witnessing the evils of lesbianism and promiscuity, and thinking "hey, that ain't so bad". Frank Miller didn't write the 300 as a pro-Bush piece, obviously, he wrote it before Bush, but he is still quite fond of fascist iconography, of strong, tall white men who stand up against the foreigners when no one else will (think Rambo) and the women who fellate them / get raped / whore themselves out. The compass of the movie is most definitely an American neoconservative one.

Having just beaten Metal Gear Solid 3, I'm itching for MGS4. It's going to be a long 8 months, during which time I'll have to devise a way to snag a Playstation 3.

So does the Scorpion King die at the end of the movie?

Why is that? I believe he's referring to all the rockin' manbods on display. Loincloths and capes, son, all over the place. Makes it kind of funny that the Spartans unironically refer to Athenians as "boy lovers" in the film. It's a movie about soldiers, and there is no greater lover of the male physique than the military, if you catch my drift. And this ain't just any military, it's a Frank Miller military, so rock-hard abs and monstrous biceps are standard issue. I know a lot of girlies who are seeing this solely to experience Gerard Butler naked.

Fun fact: Hayter is also the voice of Solid Snake. It's weird, because I always used to think of Snake as the secret agent alter-ego of Wolverine. The AV Club has a nice little study of the movie (they gave it a C) They describe it as Starship Troopers - the sci-fi + swords and capes - (sense of humor - awareness of own ridiculousness). I liked Starship Troopers, so I'll likely see this, though I expect to be nonplussed, and my movie-going comrade has taken to some heart trouble recently so we might be a little late to the party.