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It's good for what it is, which is a humongous dungeon crawl. Even then, it's not worth playing for the extended amount of time it requires to beat. Even with the various PC mods that break the game's scaled encounter system (I've yet to see one that really works) it's all really easy if you know how to play an FPS. The issue here is calling it an "RPG". Hell, we might as well give next year's award to MGS4.

I Am X - President Trentemoller - Always Something Better Here's un that Meta will probably dig. Buck 65 - $5 Jesus

no, not really. Mikami moved to clover, which was a Capcom owned company... it's like saying you're moving out an apartment complex... then move into the apartment across the hall. He also said he'd decapitate himself if RE4 went to the PS2. Capcom's only real mistake about RE4 was anouncing the port "before" the GC version was released. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Ya ya, that's the one. But will he be working on future REs, is the question?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> And here I had a friend swearing Capcom gave Nintendo RE exclusivity (something which was claimed before but backed out on). <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I believe your friend was right. Some bigwig at Capcom quit in protest when RE4 was ported to the PS2, because of said Nintendo exclusivity. Shame, too. If RE4 had stayed GC exclusive, it would have actually made the GameCube a half-decent choice when considering what console you wanted to buy.

Indeed. I had started my campaign using Fallout PnP 2.0, which was okay for awhile, but as the scope of the game got bigger and more variables were introduced to the gameplay, it became more apparent that the system was more fitted to computers than DMs in a way that I couldn't handle well. After I started the campaign, I learned about SIMPLE, and given that I have a few weeks of vacation break from the game I felt that it would be prudent to "convert" the game to the more PnP-friendly Sawyer treatment. It wouldn't harm the game in any great way, I'd just have to change a few things and remake some characters under the new system. As is the case with any system switch, it's a little disconcerting and disorienting. But I'll probably get my players together and feel it out.

Wow, that's pretty good visual quality for Arcanum my computer can't seem to handle it for some reason. *edit - and by "can't handle", I mean "can't display the visuals without mangling them"

Gah, miniatures. I used to have the 2nd ed. campaign setting box, and I liked its doom-y feel, but I was never able to arrange an adventure in the setting. Seemed to me like Ravenloft could have made a great IE game.

*ahem*

BLIZZARD. I HAVE TO FLY ON SATURDAY YOU MOTHER****ING WEATHER. SPARE ME. Actually, I might be happier if the flight gets snowed in and I don't have to go, since I'm not a big fan of my family and all. But the weather might clear up by then. I don't want to have to deal with DIA, regardless.

Beat the game a second time, this time with a Warlock, and this time doing right most of that which I got wrong the first time, namely

Got the new LCD Soundsystem leak. LCD Soundsystem - North American Scum LCD Soundsystem - Watch the Tapes

I stopped at about the point where the Hell Knights (those are the giant rocket skeletons, right?) come into play. I actually didn't last as long on Prey, but at least Prey had Blue Oyster Cult and simulated card games.

That would make a great game. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Going through NWN2, .

So far as I understand it (from what little I know of Spelljammer) each realm has its own universe, a "crystal sphere" or somesuch. One can physically travel within the spheres, but not between them. But the planar cosmology connects all the realms together. The thing is that it's relatively easy to get to other planes, but it's trickier to get back to where you started from. Going from the planes to the Prime Material could have you ending up just about anywhere, in any setting, which is why planar jaunts make such good adventures. Sigil is the city of Portals, and you could theoretically get anywhere if you have the right portal and the right key, as was outlined in PS:T. Usually not that simple, though. You can also travel between worlds (even places like Dark Sun which aren't accessible by planar travel) by entering the mists at the border of Ravenloft and concentrating on your destination, but there's a 99% chance you'll fail, and probably die in the process.

Seemed a tad overlong to me. And I don't know if "scary" was what they were going for. It was dark, but it was still a full-blooded FPS. The transmissions and chaos that ensued after the (pretty ineffective) initial invasion of the moon base were pretty cool, but after 20 minutes it became the same old thing. That's what they get for taking the original absurd sci-fi + occult fantasy drivel of the original Doom and trying to make it into a "story".

I also hear he's an exceedingly nice dude, not like that... other guy.

Who knew that a discussion of robot's rights would yield a discusssion of "animal rights"? Not me. By the Kantian definition, self-aware robots could very well be given rights. If they have the ability to reason, the ability to reflect on their actions, needs & desires, and a free will (that is, being the innate cause of their actions) then they would be considered "human", for all intents and purposes, and they would be afforded the same rights any other being fitting those criteria would be. As for me, I've got no problem killing and eating a robot or an animal if it tastes good, I want to eat it and it has no moral space, meaning it cannot recognize its own rights nor recognize the rights of others (and therefore be unable to adhere to a Contract). Nor do I have a problem with differentiating between humans and animals, and saying that they are not equal, for that reason.

NINTENDO FAN

Gee, you make it sound like all killing is equal, and all people are equal. But justice is equal to the equal and unequal to the unequal. Only in the strictly utilitarian mindset are all people equal all the time. All other ethical theories, with the possible exception of perhaps thomism, do not give everyone a blanket of inalienable rights. Reasonable people can recognize that there is a fundamental difference between John Q Public and Slobodan Milosevic. One is a murderer, the other is not. We do not afford the same moral consideration to both. If I support capital punishment for guilty murderers, I'm not making some bull**** "I just know some people deserve to die" conclusion. That they deserve death has nothing to do with what I believe and everything to do with what they've done. The system of law is based on a Contract system. All people are created equal, they all have the same rights by default. They all have a legitimate right and a claim not be harmed or molested. We have to recognize that others have a right not to be killed as well as ourselves But if we take these rights seriously, then we have to enforce them. To this end, if we do not recognize someone's right to not be killed, and we kill him, we violate his right, we break the Contract. We were once protected from being killed. But in refusing another's protection from being killed, we revoke our own protection. When a man murders, he denies his own right to life. If he doesn't like it, if he would rather live, if others would rather him live, if he had a family, tough ****, should've thought of that before he threw it all away. He has removed himself from the realm of innocence. He suffers the consequences of his actions. He has violated one of the most very basic rules by which our society operates, and our society turns on him. If we value our society, we purge the murderer. There are no ifs or buts about it. We're not obligated to kill him, but we've got no obligation to keep him alive, either. Not anymore. Of course, we must take intent into account. Accidental killing or homicidal negligence might not warrant such a harsh punishment, but it certainly deserve some kind of restitution. This is, I believe, one of those cases.

Enchanting is broken in my game. It says "No base weapon or armor to be enchanted found" when I have the item there. It sucks, because I could really use some +5 holy adamantine weapons right now. Balls. *edit - I think I hear Dark_Raven soiling herself. And Darque. And... we'll throw in... um... Walsingham in there too for good measure. The thing is, and maybe this would be reserved for another thread, that the Hotel area (imo the best part of Bloodlines, which had a lot of great parts) was one big huge reference, and I thought Obsidian was trying to get away from blatant stylistic references like that. But if he's on the Alien project (Josh?) then it's a definite upside, because if there's one thing Bloodlines paid out in spades, it was a paranoid atmosphere, and that's exactly what an Alien project really needs.

Oldie but goodie.

HOW DARE YOU SULLY THE AWESOME OF MANOWAR WITH YOUR WORDS 2 METAL 4 U. Ministry - Broken Trentemoller - Take Me Into Your Skin Joanna Newsom - Emily

Exactly. 'cept I was in my sophomore year of high school back then, and had a Tolkien freak for an English teacher. So naturally we read the Two Towers and he got the class (and some people who wanted to ditch their other classes) tickets to see the movie a week before release. It was probably the greatest theater experience I've ever had. The march of the Ents and the anticipatory buildup to Helm's Deep were just insane. I'm d/ling the first season of the Wire, presently.

Any abandoned structure can effectively be a dungeon. My "salvagers" often went on simple fetch quests that were made very complicated by groups and events that interfered with their goals. When a fetch quest involves travel, you can throw almost anything in the way and get some interesting results. I usually had a handful of "random" encounters that I prepared ahead of time and launched on players as the mood/pace demanded it. It worked out pretty well. E.g. the party got a job that involved going to San Francisco to find out what happened to another salvager, a friend of their employer. The "fast route" took them along I-80, east of Sacramento. They could go on the "long route", but they had no idea what nasty stuff was out there. On I-80, they knew what to expect: the 80s. Sure enough, those dum-dums attacked the party and got smacked around pretty badly. Two of the guys were riding on a little SEC-powered motorcycle. One of the party members really wanted it, so he took it with him against the wishes of the others. When they reached Sacramento, they saw that it was a hive of scum and villainy (surprise). The new motorcycle-owning PC decided to hide the motorcycle from view and drive it around the "north side" of Sacramento. Of course, since he had not been to Sac-town before, he did not know that it had been heavily booby-trapped by scumbags. Along the way, his bike hit a mine and blew up. He flew into the dry riverbed and was taken away by scumbags for interrogation. A mini-adventure evolved in which the other PCs made a rescue attempt and wound up blowing away a bunch of dudes.* Outside of the fact that one of the 80s owned a motorcycle, none of the stuff that followed was planned for. I just made sure that I was confident enough in the setting that I could handle the PCs trying to do wacky things like that. * Actually, they got terrified because a guy with a double-barrel shotgun was inside the house and could possible kill any one of them with a good close-range shot. Solution: throw three grenades in the windows and pray. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks, Josh that helps a lot. I get where you're coming from. I need to "expand my mind". Could you tell me about working under SIMPLE? How different is it from 2.0? We'll likely convert here soon. Thanks for keeping your wiki up to date! That's a lifesaver.