Starwars

I guess it's more of a personal shame than anything, but parts of how big the industry is getting has me getting rather shameful at being a gamer at times. Like the awards and all that. I just watched a Best Story of the year segment on gametrailers, and I just think it's all so very stupid. No, these scripts aren't good... Heavy Rain isn't a good story, it doesn't feature good writing or believable characters. And what makes it worse is that it's a type of game that many gamers will proudly hold up as an example in the "videogames can be art!" discussion. While I think there are games that feel more and more mature, there are also equal amounts of games that are just plain crap that are claimed to be mature. And so we have characters like Miranda in ME2 (which is a game I kinda like though) where the camera is constantly shoved up her butt, or characters like Madison in Heavy Rain whose sole purpose in the game is to be victimized. I still seems like such an incredibly immature business. I don't mind this so much in itself (because it *is* a young industry) but when people point to blatant crap and praise it as being "mature storytelling" or whatever, it makes me bury me gamerface in my hands.

Gave up on most of the gifting this year (just the parents who I bought some books for that I know they wanted), and it took a lot of stress away from the holiday for me. Giving up the gifting worked very well among the people I know, and just having the basic cheer and wishing each other Merry Christmas made it feel like a very warm holiday this time around. Hope it's something we can keep up for coming years. For most of today, I've been at my parent's house and we've had a bunch of relatives over. Merry times were had, good food was eaten. Had a few too many different drinks (beer, wine, gl

I've seen a lot of people point out that some of what the IGN preview mentions as bugs, is actually not bugs at all. Just the reviewer mistakenly pointing it out as bugs because he apparently didn't pay enough attention to what's going on. Not sure if that's true or what it is. I don't really want to delve into spoilers if I can avoid it.

I think we'll see some harsher words from some of the EU mags/sites in particular, they seem to be generally more open to oppose PC titles going the way of the consoles and so forth even if DS always seemed to be a very lite game to me (though I never played them so...). Time will tell I suppose. Though I do think it's high time we get some more info on this.

Well, writing is one thing that seems to vary a lot in how people appreciate it. There were people that hated the writing in AP, there were plenty of people who preferred the companions in the NWN2 OC compared to MotB, people who felt that New Vegas was lacking in good characters compared to Fallout 3 etc etc. That said, it will be interesting to see how all the story stuff is tackled in the game since it seems like it'll be a lighter game on that than other OEI games.

Think it's one of those things were Obsidian is under the looking glass a bit more than other companies because the KOTOR2 cut content took on such epic and mythical proportions on the internet, I guess much due to the first (unfinished) restoration project and that it would somehow transform an ohmygod horrendously broken game into a shining gem of Torment-like awesomeness. Then, when you play the restoration mod, you kinda realize that yeah... A lot of this (not everything though!) was probably cut for a pretty good reason. I think the importance of a lot of it is extremely exaggerated. Some of the ending stuff in particular would've been very nice to have, but for the most part I think the game plays much better in its released form. Alpha Protocol is probably "worse" in terms of its development seeing as how it seems to have re-written and re-started in the middle of development which is of course troublesome. The bit about making Mike's performance flatter is a bit hard to judge I think. The performance is good now as far as I'm concerned and I'm absolutely not convinced that it would be better from the player's perspective if Thorton showed more emotion or whatever. Even though this is a cinematic game and Mike has a character and voice, I still like to retain some ownership of that and having the performance being too emotional could easily be a way to break that. Probably a tough part of the game to get right when we're talking about a RPG (especially as choice-heavy as AP), but that has the "omg cinematix" thing going for it. But from Gilman's point of view, it would obviously be more interesting to do more with the character. It's a shame he kinda puts it down though because AP is one of the best-acted games there is IMO. And to think that a game like Heavy Rain was praised for stuff like acting, writing and plot. It's hilariously sad.

Yep, Raul is meant to be in one of the buildings on top of Black Mountain. He's pretty cool, the stories he tell are great "anecdotes" from the time just after the war. I kinda felt that was a welcome touch since we're getting further and further away from the "world is destroyed" feel of the first Fallout. It was nice hearing something from the time around the more immediate post-apocalypse.

I still haven't brought him along on any of my playthroughs... I dunno, his whole demeanor just rubs me the wrong way though I'm sure his story motivates it. ... But, I'm pretty sure I'd prefer him to Carth. By *a lot*. I'm not sure what companion I like the most so far. I've brought them all along except for Boone and Lily. I think I like Cass the most just for the sake of the awesome wasteland companionship feel, she's just fun to have around. Veronica probably had my favorite quest though, that was really well done.

No. The only way to be quiet when using the Assault Rifle is using subsonic rounds. I started up another playthrough of New Vegas. Gonna bring along ED-E and someone else, possibly Cass, this time around.

I believe he is a focus tester which is slightly different. /nitpick

I thought the DA graphics were just fine, and it looked pretty great at times from the top-down perspective. The direction of the visuals was a bit lacking though. But... They've been harping about "finding a visual style" for DA2 to give it a more unique feel and all that, but I just think it looks even blander than DA1. I really don't "get it" I suppose. It looks extremely boring and drab.

The environs look awesome there and the way the story is presented here, sounds like it could be pretty interesting. The... ghosts/holograms/whatever shooting psionic bursts are pretty eeeh though. Still, very intriguing. Too bad there's the whole Xbox only thing going for it right now.

The Sniper Rifle shoots way faster than the Hunting Rifle.

I think you've put one too many party hats on the poor guy... He's finally snapped.

The Fallouts were never about having a strong story (or narrative) though. It's always been barebones, leaving more room for the player to create the story through affecting the wasteland and so forth. That's what's nice about it, not being forced into non-interactive situations all the time.

It's a great little game I think, very fun to play. I just hope they've fixed and improved the AI a bit so there'll be a challenge involved.

Looking at the GECK and mods, it appears there was originally plan for an alliance between House and the BoS but I honestly think it makes more *sense* to not have that. Like House says, it's not likely that the BoS would accept House's own particular high-techs for very long. That said, I think it's a bit of a shame that we have to deal with the BoS for the three main factions, and aside from possibly the NCR (and even then it's pretty likely, given the pre-requisites for a truce), we have to destroy them. Again, given their presence it makes sense but sadly it kinda takes the replayability down a bit for the main quest. Same with the Boomers I think? How did you think Explosives worked out all in all? I haven't tried it yet.

The first game is the one that really sets them up and features them fairly heavily in its "original iteration" so to speak. I enjoyed how they were portrayed in NV but it's hard to really "connect" with them so to speak since the fact remains that it's a small outpost that is representative of the faction but is still... well, cut off from the main faction. You don't really get to "dig into the faction", just this small outpost. I always found the East Brotherhood to swallow in terms of how they supposedly trekked all across a dangerous post-apoc country while they were previously shown off as being very isolated and hestitant to even thoroughly explore the areas around them. One can make the argument that, oh, things change and so forth. But think I the main interesting point about the Brotherhood is that they could be a potentially very powerful player in the wasteland but they essentially doom themselves by how isolationist they are, and how hard it is for them to really get moving. I always thought it'd be a nice destiny for them to sort of just "fade away" into the wasteland, as a result of their own actions (or lack of actions) rather. And I really didn't like that the Lyon's part of it seems to basically be more of a version of the Followers, except with vast resources. I think it's gonna take a big writing effort to make East Coast Brotherhood an interesting faction if they decide to revisit them for upcoming games. I think OEI did a good job in that sense when it comes to the Mojave chapter, because it really feels like they're struggling despite their extraordinary equipment. NCR managed to beat them back because they have been active in bolstering their numbers while the Brotherhood, while well trained, simply can't stand against the numbers.

Of course, I have a scale where the amount of tears of blood I shed depends on the validity of a rumour! Just the very mention of it has already made me shed one.

http://loudmouthedgamers.com/blog/2010/12/...-entertainment/ Bring your scoops of salt and be sure to take them people. But could it be true? EDIT: Saw it mentioned in one of the threads, looks like this is a day or two old! I need to work on my Internet-fu. Also, Now that I actually read it properly, I guess this Crystal Ball thing sounds like it's pure speculation without any basis at all?

Just finished a replay of the game and Heck blowing Scarlet away with his shotgun near the end was some ace stuff. Heck, a god among men indeed.

Karl Sanders - Dreaming through the Eyes of Serpents Karl Sanders is best known for being the main force behind the death metal band Nile (excellent band) but has also released two solo albums. Saurian Meditation and Saurian Exorcisms. These are sorta ambient albums, with a darker touch to them (especially the Exorcisms). And they are bloody fantastic. Saurian Meditation is my favorite but the second is great as well. Highly recommended.

I think they did well on portraying the NCR as a fairly believable organization. They have "good" values and good folks in it but there's a lot of problems still. Perhaps one problem with the faction is that the Courier can really solve so many of the problems. This is standard in RPGs of course, but it does make the flaws of the NCR fade into the background a bit. But I mean, there are many occasions where they're portrayed as flawed. The bureacracy and corruption of the higher-ups, the fact that new recruits barely get any training and bad equipment, communication problems, some moral debauchery on the Strip and perhaps even worse in Nipton. The fact that it's aggressively expanding, taking over territory, all for the goal of acquiring resources. Some of the stuff they have you do in the main quest. I think the only way they can be viewed as *good* is when juxtaposed directly against the Legion. Like others say, I think the main problem is really that we only see the warfront of the Legion, only the bad and brutal side, only speak with people who even sound evil. Any positive notes are very vague. I liked that the Legion is portrayed as being brutal in how they conduct their wars but what about areas they already control? We only know that they are "safe" but how are things conducted? I think the information presented on the Legion in the game just isn't enough for a character who isn't a psychopath to side with them.

I thought the gameplay was alright as soon as you accepted the linearity of it. But the real winner is definitely the atmosphere which I think is about the best I've seen in terms of post-apocalyptic games. It's very oppressive stuff, I'll never forget heading up into Moscow for the first time. For 7.50, I'd definitely say it's worth it.

It's also likely that parts of the modders will be split over F3 and NV, seeing as how it's pretty likely that the games share a large part of their audience. Oblivion seems to have both games beat though. While F3 has many many mods, Oblivion seemed to be the king of custom content.