J.E. Sawyer

Gauntlet certainly won't be as hard as NG. I just wanted to reject the idea that real-time with pause and turn-based combat systems are for the sophisticated intelligentsia of gaming and action games were for mouth-breathing grunts.

Ninja Gaiden is generally regarded as an extremely difficult action game. All of the moves are button combos that vary based on weapon type. Button mashing will pretty much get you killed. If people don't like action games, that's perfectly fine. I just have to sigh when people elevate RPGs to some elite plateau floating above other genres of games.

Please play through Ninja Gaiden's first level on Normal Difficulty and then return here to tell me of "button mashing".

I think using D&D 3.5 as the stand-in example for all modern RPGs is kind of silly. While I have plenty of problems with 3.XE, I certainly prefer modern versions to 2nd Ed. I don't role-play any more or less in either system, so my choices are purely based on what I like in the mechanics.

Exactly why do you think the quest is poorly designed? 1) The quest is green for a character even when every creature in the instance is grey to the same character. 2) Van Cleef will summon mobs even after he's dead. 3) Van Cleef's body is set to decay extremely rapidly, even if no one has looted his body. If you die during the fight with Van Cleef, you will not get his head.

The individual levels aren't very large, and to keep load times low, saves are at the beginning of levels only. To be honest, we aren't shooting for any particular rating, though it definitely has some mature (lower case m) elements in it.

This game is designed for adults.

You always play one character. In the story mode, each phase of the game has a pair of characters. You play one and the other can either be played by a friend or will "pop in" for story moments.

The gameplay is more similar to a fighting game than an RPG. Traditional staples like trips, juggles, launches, grabbing/throwing, counterattacking, dodging and evading make up the core action. Every character is the "master" of one style of weapon and can develop two additional styles. It's more Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden than Dark Alliance or Champions of Norrath. The video at the Gamespot site should give you an idea of how the characters move and react. Every character has a full personality and background that are used constantly in dialogues and cutscenes throughout the story mode of the game. The warrior isn't just some dude you project the personality of your choice onto. He is A

Not really similar in any significant way.

That quest is extremely poorly designed and I wish Blizzard would fix the decay time on Van Cleef's body.

The first Baldur's Gate. And yes, extremely.

Well, regardless of the text, I hope we can all agree that Count Chocula sounds more frightening than Count Dooku by a factor of about one hundred thousand. Count Dooku. Why would anyone possibly think that's a good name for a serious villain?

Dave Maldonado.

Different classes not only have different roles, but are designed for different types of players. The paladin is very easy to play. I didn't know that when I picked the class; I just like role-playing them. Warlocks, on the other hand, require a lot of micromanagement in combat. Also, here are some laffo shots from WoW: A spirit polymorphed this dwarf hunter into a sheep. He ran into the fireplace to get away from her, then transformed back into a dwarf and couldn't get out. My guildmate and I joined three other people who were attempting to kill Eliza near Raven Hill Cemetary. They didn't wait for us. P'zowned one day before they disabled Alliance vs. Horde duelling.

Humorously enough, those system were referred to as "d6 Systems".

In some of the campaigns I played in, I would make the most unbalanced character possible just to see how out-of-whack the system could get. GURPS, Palladium, and L5R all made it laughably easy.

Seal of the Crusader is by far the best paladin seal. Seal of Righteousness stinks. Seal of Rage is kind of pointless considering you could just give a fellow party member a Blessing of Sanctuary. Seal of Command is -- eh. So is Seal of Light. When I attack without Seal of the Crusader, I have a pretty modest DPS. As soon as I turn that seal on, my DPS skyrockets. Toning it down certainly isn't going to kill the class. Paladins are ultra-tanks. They don't need to be damage masters on top of that.

I played a little L5R and thought it was pretty fun. I made a Unicorn shugenja from the Moto family. I shamelessly powergamed him by taking Alternate School: Phoenix, giving him a starting Void of 4. His name was Moto Arif, but after blowing up a Scorpion bushi he was (out of character) called "Moto Explodo".

World of Warcraft.

I try to use ambient stuff since music playing devices can't yet read my mind and know when the really big dramatic moments are going to arrive. For my Fallout pen and paper games, I use the Fallout soundtracks, Aphex Twin, and the Funeral Songs album.

I like Ars Magica, Over the Edge, and Delta Green. Otherwise, I mostly run my own systems.

Are you talking about GTA: San Andreas? That's certainly not all you do in that game, not even in the first half hour of gameplay. You can do more in GTA: SA than you can do in just about any RPG I can think of. And you often have more freedom while doing those things.

I've heard both that it will be backwards-compatible and that it will not be. In either case, he's talking about buying a console now. For the price of the next generation of systems, he could buy any two consoles now -- or any console and a large number of games. And he wouldn't have to wait six to twelve months.

Sure they will. Keep in mind that Sony stopped making the original Playstation last year. Between retailers keeping big names in stock and the ease of using something like Ebay for other titles, there's no reason why you couldn't have a huge game library for a small amount of money.