Pop

Almost forgot

Never underestimate the consumer's desire for cheese, is what I always say.

Thanks for subbing for me. Wait, what? Oh, I see what you're saying.

I'll keep that in mind.

Obsidian is not in the Shenmue business. Rockstar couldn't pull that off in 5 years. Obsidian will never do it.

I haven't decided what case / power source I'm going to use. I'm thinking quad core because I've got the money and I want this computer to last some time into the future, when games do utilize that tech.

They do genetic profiling at birth, and only those predestined for greatness are allowed a name that would result in the initials JB. It's true! Joey Buttafuoco

They do genetic profiling at birth, and only those predestined for greatness are allowed a name that would result in the initials JB. It's true! Joey Buttafuoco

They do genetic profiling at birth, and only those predestined for greatness are allowed a name that would result in the initials JB. It's true! Joey Buttafuoco

So I'm building a computer. It's my first time actually building a computer, I've had various prefabs that I've modified over the years, but it seems like I'm always finding myself on the low end of the spectrum, processor-wise. I plan on spending around $1,000, give or take 400. These are prospective things I've been looking at. If anybody knows of something better that could easily replace any of these, or see a conflict I'm cluelessly overlooking, do tell. Here's what I'm thinking thus far (I looked for it all on newegg) - MSI P7N Diamond LGA 775 Motherboard Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2-4 orders of 2 gigs RAM Probably an adequate 22" monitor From there, all I need to buy is an adequate power source and some cooling. I plan on having this built by the end of April. I'm contemplating saving up an extra $600 and getting a Core 2 Extreme, which would kick up the Ghz to 3.0 on all four cores.

That's one way of looking at it, I guess, but I think "freshness" has nothing to do with it. I like the way the AV Club put it. Obsessive collecting is the name of the game. While I can make up all the crap I want for a Pen and Paper game, Magic just isn't the same when you're using proxies. You'll probably hear the same complaints about it that you'd hear from WoWers who sweat out for an awesome weapon only for it to become common and thus passe within the span of a few weeks. Magic is an extreme example of that "freshness" being an incredible moneypit. I know "pro" players who will blow hundreds of dollars at tournaments because the "official rules" get slightly altered and their decks are rendered useless. There's something to be said for a game you can sink only about $300 into and have it last for 10 years or more.

So is he supervising AP stuff?

It appears MCA is in the same boat Josh helmed with NWN2, yes. We'll just have to see how much of a problem Holmes' departure will spell for AP. For NWN2, Ferret (that was his name, right?) splitting caused a whole lot of cut content.

Uh, considering this game takes place over the entire earth, it's not going to be streaming. Unless you speed up time and show the plane flying over its course, which is really just a needlessly fancy "loading..." screen.

They do genetic profiling at birth, and only those predestined for greatness are allowed a name that would result in the initials JB. It's true! Joey Buttafuoco

You couldn't do that in 2, the radios were nanite things.

They do genetic profiling at birth, and only those predestined for greatness are allowed a name that would result in the initials JB. It's true! Joey Buttafuoco

The load times for Bloodlines were okay if you had capable RAM. The difference between 1 and 2 gigs was pretty staggering.

FFVII happened to come along at a certain time in my generation's life, such that a relatively small group of people consider just about the best thing ever because it was a formative gaming experience (with me, it was either Full Throttle, Civ 2 or Rise of the Triad) but it seems like the more level-headed gamers tend to think it's merely good. Some even claim it's the demarcation between FF's golden age (which would be, I don't know, 3-6) and its decline into so much melodrama.

So AP's been in development for almost a year and a half. Another 6 months or so to wrap it up, maybe 3 or 4 months for testing, and you'd fit comfortably into that timetable. So don't be surprised if we see some delays down the road.

It's pretty obvious that this game won't be open-world. It takes place on several continents, after all. The "biggest" we should expect would be something along the lines of Bloodlines, ie multiple sidequests within a "hub" area, and main quests taking place in these areas or in their own special locations (secret hideouts, etc.) Considering the game is espionage-based, it wouldn't make sense to have open worlds, anyway. You wouldn't want to call attention to yourself by doing all the things you'd expect to do in an open world.

You mean awesome. No, I mean outdated. Even the Broccolis implicitly acknowledged this by retooling the franchise in a way that, like it or not, was heavily indebted to the fantasy-averse Bourne franchise. When I say "Bond" I mean "invisible cars, suitcase helipacks, laser watches, volcano hideouts and martinis". All of that, while still retaining some charm, is outdated, and would ill fit into a halfway-serious real world RPG.

Aliens is scheduled for Fall '09, and AP is scheduled for Spring '09. So yes. But you never know with game development.