Wrath of Dagon

The way things are going, probably someone who doesn't play BioWare's games. Whenever someone says "hardcore", you have to ask "compared to what?" It's a relative term.

Yes, that's why I specifically said last generation, trying to exclude the older games people consider classics.

Snowblind didn't use that engine, as it was developed by Crystal Dynamics, not by Ion Storm. Thief was a bit better, but still ****. They should have just used the UE 2 as it was, it would have allowed bigger levels. I'm sure Snowblind used the same engine, Crystal Dynamics and Ion Storm both belonged to Eidos. The whole point of Snowblind was to make more of a shooter game using the same engine as IW.

I don't know. WHat generation are we talking about it? I'm not sure what it's contemporaries are. I'm trying to remember what other games I played around the same time, but those years are all rather hazy at this point. IIRC, Thief: Deadly Shadows was released right around that time and was much, much better. I thought DS was actually very similar in quality, but yes, that one even tops IW. The environments were far more beautiful, the setting and story more interesting, and the stealth mechanics much better. But it was more linear, not an RPG, pretty much had only one solution to each level, and stealth was the only really viable mechanic. The generation for me would be the time of the original Xbox, so 2001-2005.

@Calax Well, rationing ammo means there's a possibility you might run out. I never got into that situation because I was careful about using it efficiently. The IW engine wasn't botched, they just didn't polish the game as it should've been. The same engine was used for Thief: DS with good results, except with a lot of glitches still. And they really made it work well in Project Snowblind, which was one of the best looking, smoothest running and having the most characters on-screen games at the time.

I had no problem finding enough ammo on the hardest setting. Obviously you had to use it judiciously, you use the rocket launcher on the Templar Paladins, not on street thugs. That's a very good thing btw.

What would be a better game?

Because people like nothing better than to bitch bitterly whenever things aren't done exactly as they want. Also may be the expectations were too high. Having played it without the pre-conceptions of playing the first game, I can say it was one of the best games of the last generation. Edit: There were multiple ways to complete each quest, several possible game play styles, four distinct endings, and some (though not many) long term consequences. So no C&C compared to modern games?

Any word on when they're planning to divide Poland?

A shame, I would much rather we started moving towards hydrogen and electric cars. Even with this process I imagine the the exhaust still causes massive air pollution. Those would require nuclear power to generate clean electricity, the prospects of that are pretty dim. I don't think burning natural gas derived gasoline would be very polluting, CO2 would be the main concern. It's probably better than burning coal to generate electricity, since with coal all the energy comes from carbon, where with NG and oil you're also burning hydrogen. With electric cars you also have to consider the environmental impact and energy cost of building and replacing all those giant batteries. Probably hydrogen fuel cells are the better solution, but still you need a clean way to generate electricity, and there's no hydrogen infrastructure currently. As far as running out of natural gas, big new deposits are coming on-line all the time in the US and elsewhere, thanks to the new methods of production that have been recently developed, so I don't think it's going to run out any time soon. Probably the small, modular nuclear power plants are the long term solution, or may be if they ever get fusion working, but we'll see. Edit: By new methods of production I mean fracking: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110612/ap_on_...ling_boom_towns

Yes, the esa statistics are completely fake and politically motivated. Sure, if you count minesweeper, bejeweled, facebook etc, they're correct, but they never explain that. $50-$60 games? Not so much.

Gates blasts NATO: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_gates_nato_d...2F0ZXNibGFzdHNu I don't know, isolationism seems pretty appealing just about now.

Anytime the developer says they highlight the choices to skip through the dialog as quickly as possible so you can get to the killing, I know the game isn't for me.

More Medicare shenanigans: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56467.html I have to say I'm with Obama on this one. Actually both parties are bat **** crazy, fighting over the steering wheel while the car goes over the cliff.

343 is an internal Microsoft developer, nothing to do with Bungie. Bungie is now independent, and working for Activision on a shooter MMO.

I just saw the trailer for Halo:CE, I'm super excited, it's the only true Halo. I want to see what they do with Halo 4, I had enough fun with the series that I'm still interested.

May be finally a solution to the oil crisis? Natural gas into gasoline : http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/06/04/...-gold-in-qatar/

UK windpower may be running out of wind: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/wi...ut-of-wind.html

They have no way to replace nuclear, so it's all pink unicorn fantasy our president is so fond of as well.

It's not the final name, genius. But you're right, Skyrim will be the RPG of the decade. Yes, that was dense of me. There is an actual game called Codename: Panzers, hence my confusion.

Yeah, I'm sure Codename Kingdoms will be the RPG of the decade. Just the name alone is brilliant!

Hint to Square: Next time release the demo on the Memorial day weekend, when there's time to play, not in the middle of the work week.

COD is really all about the multiplayer, and you've got to buy the new one every year because all your friends are playing it. It's really brilliant marketing.

Sega just can't afford a huge marketing budget. New IP's are a tough sell in any case, and RPG's are somewhat niche in addition. What's there in AP to appeal to a huge mainstream audience?

Sega's demand wasn't unreasonable, Mass Effect got great reviews with similar shooting mechanics. And the delay was probably because there wasn't much interest in the game (as indicated by pre-orders for one thing), but realistically, there was never going to be. But yes, Sega isn't exactly the tightest run ship in the business, but let's face it, neither is Obsidian.