Aristes

I didn't read the preview, but I did read the initial link. My only wish is that Obsidian would get out of the Bioware's shadow. I haven't played Mass Effect. I've toyed with the idea several times, but never did. I'm not buying Alpha Protocol because it's a good Mass Effect clone. I'm buying it because it looks like a good modern day spy RPG, which seems to be sorely lacking in today's market. Well, that rant aside, I am looking forward to AP. If the Mass Effect association helps it sell well, and if I enjoy it, I guess I don't have any right to complain.

Wasted a few solid hours on Fallout 2. Gotta love it, but I'll miss that time. Going to bed now but up at 9am in order to try to wrest my sleep schedule back in order.

Instead of doing what I should have been doing, I played Fallout 2 tonight. It was truly a masterpiece, but folks complaining about the bugs in Fallout 3 really should remember the crazy assed bugs that plagued Fallout 1 and 2. Fallout 2 is still one of my favorites though. Favorite of the Fallout series for sure. Currently, I found the GECK and now I'm going to tie up loose ends before I pick up the main quest line again. I've Even without trying, I'm nowhere near the end of the game and I'm already stacked with cash, arms, and ammunition. Once again, this is something that Fallout 3 detractors seem to misremember. Except for outrageous critical hits, you can pretty much shrugg off most things during the middle of the game. ...And I fail to see how a super easy game is any worse than an easy game except for the odd moments when you someone randomly hits you with a few hundred points of damage. Hell, my party just took on a group of super mutants armed with lasers and gattling guns and THEN took on a group of deathclaws. And THEN the caravan wouldn't leave with us so I wasted all that time. Eh, who needs 2000 bucks anyhow? Chump change. I can't even find anyone with enough cash to buy all my phat loot. All that said, playing Fallout 2 again reminds me of why it's been such a favorite of mine over the years. I like Fallout 3, but I would really love to have another game like Fallout 1/2 again. Just wonderful.

Boo, you lunatic, your sig is almost as long as your rants. Hell, your sig *is* one of your rants. Plus, I've never played Mass Effect, but I'm sure you could have found an actual screenie that would have demonstrated your point. I'm not certain that anything in the game was really quite as bad as that. Oh, and I appreciated the BG series and KotOR quite a bit. I even got my money's worth out of NWN. I did finish it and enjoy it after all. That's pretty damned good if you ask me.

I don't think that Bioware should feel compelled out of some sense of political correctness to include homosexual romances. I don't think that Bioware should feel compelled out of some sense of political correctness to refrain from homosexual romances. If their artistic vision encourages them to include homsexual romances, so be it. If their personal morals prevent them from including homosexual romances, so be it. If their marketing team decides that including or excluding homosexual romances, so be it. However, as a fan, I disagree with the notion of other fans trying to prevent homosexual romances in the game. It doesn't harm non-homosexuals in any way to have them included. I can better understand folks clamoring for what they want rather than preventing others from getting what they want. A lot of folks want romances. Cool. Some of those folks will be homosexual. Cool. Homosexual folks who want romances in the game will undoubtedly want homosexual romances. It's really Bioware's decision. Since they've made the decision to include them, I don't think it's much of an issue any more. I actually hate the idea of romances in the game whereas I couldn't care less whether they're romances or not. I think the trees for including romances are more complex, although by how much I'm not certain. It must entail some effort on the part of the design team because dealing with dialogue and CnC always entails some work and extra writing. However, Bioware must think they have the resources and I don't know that including same sex romances will be that much of an additional effort. Romances themselves might be, but since these games have all be going more and more towards an influence system, it just seems to me that it would fold into the same effort.

I simply don't understand why they wouldn't include same sex romances. There is probably a large group of folks who would be disgruntled by the option, but the vast majority of them would never know. Hell, Dragon Age will probably never even register on their radar. Of the folks who will play Dragon Age, it probably wouldn't be a problem for the vast majority of them. I hate anything that polices the player. Once they're investing in developing romances in the first place, what difference does it make if they provide same sex romances? The fact that it's a point of discussion is offensive in and of itself because the message to someone who happens to be homosexual is that your sexual preference is so abhorrent to so many people that they cannot even entertain the idea of acknowledging that homosexual relationships exist in a game. And homosexual relationships exists. Gay and lesbian folks are not asking for something that is not part of every community. I know others have already said what I've said here. Just take this post as an affirmation of their position.

Damn it, Boo, I thought there was another review up!

You know, sometimes you're quite useful. Still a pain.

...And the two poor bastards who are stuck down in the Congo. EDIT: This is in response to Walsh. I feel for the dead driver's loved ones, sure, but think of the two guys from Norway. Hey, Norway is rich. They should just show their muscle. Hire the US to invade. Come to think of it, probably cheaper to pay the Congo. Seriously, 500 Billion bucks is just crazy. That's not chump change for anyone. Hell, the ridiculous stimulous package is less than a trillion.

Yeah, that would be tough. I have a 1k post count and some hundreds here. Most of my posts are in CnC, but I'm sure that I have a substantial number that aren't counted from WoT. My post count is 3.25 per day and I'm not even trying. I actually read more posts than I make by a long shot. If I had something to say, I could easily make that count 10 per day. Hell, that's not even one an hour. So, 10 per day over less than a year, which is approximately how long I've been a member here? I'd have well over 3k 3650 or some such. Now imagine 3 years? Over 10k is simply not unreasonable for someone who invests a lot of time online talking about things. They don't even need to spam. Just participating in some of the threads in CnC and Alpha Protocol would earn you a pretty big post count. If you really wanted to participate in a lot of threads, you could rack up a good 15k post count in a few years. taks probably has at least five or so thousand between other places and WoT, which is where he seems to spend the most time. I enjoy your posts, bro, so I'm not poking fun at you. Just saying that if you find the place interesting and enjoy having a larger pool of participants then you could accumulate a lot of points with alacrity.

Aw, he might dislike us, but I'm fond of him. No same sex romances, though. I'm married. I think the problem is, and here I'm siding with Volourn. Folks equate good gaming experience with better rpg experience, but BG2 was much more of a tactical combat sim than RPG. Like a lot of action RPGs, your primary choices settled on your character stats. I don't think NWN was a very good RPG, but I can see the potential of RPG with a group. At the time, I had folks to play PnP and I actually prefer my RPGs PnP anyhow. I don't think NWN was a better game, but I do think that it tried harder to incorporate RPG elements and I think it was by and large more successful in meaningful RPG than BG2. Then again, I think PS:T was better in terms of letting you define your character than either one and yet some folks go bat**** at the idea because you didn't have the option to choose your starting character in PS:T. RPG in terms of computers can be such a nebulous term.

Well, if you do it carefully and it's feasible without the PC police knocking down your door, you could use nazism. Frankly, Communism and nazism have quite a few things in common. I've never understood the whole idea of calling Republicans nazis and democrats communists. If you want to engage in hyperbole, you could go Democrats communists and Republicans anarchists. Of course, that's unfair to both parties, but probably more accurate and kind of funny in it's own way. Well... some Republicans lend themselves to that assessment. I guess the ones that invest most heavily in the military-industrial complex (so called) pretty much do have some ideological similarities to nazis in the same way that some Democrats have similarities to communism. I'm going to watch an episode of Eureka and then go to bed. Almost done with the whole series and I've completely decided to buy the set. It has JUST enough drama to make you feel for the characters without making me want to claw my eardrums out of my head. The scene with Carter and his daughter where the house starts playing sappy music was sooo funny. "The mood was so touching I thought some musical accompanyment was in order." haha That house would be great as a bachelor pad. Without the daughter tripping under-foot of course.

I actually liked TOEE better than NWN, although it was a toss up. I think both had potential that the design teams didn't achieve. I think I might have bought one of the NWN expansions but since I can't remember it, I might only have thought about it. Likewise, I played MotB. I think MotB was the highlight of the series for me. What I thought at the time was, "this is a great game, but I still see all the things that irritate me about the NWN engine and design." That's why I didn't bother with SoZ. I'm glad that the series is played out and they're going to... some sort of MMORPG or something now? Whatever. Now, the Aurora engine (that's the one for NWN, right?) has morphed into other games, such as the Witcher and KotOR. So what was it about NWN that I just didn't like? Hell, I even played it with friends. I even created a room once and played around with DMing for folks. Just never really took. I enjoyed NWN for what it was, but by the middle of my second run my interests were waning. Considering how often I replay titles and how fast I used to go through them, that's not an A-list title for me. Still nothing argues like success and the NWN franchise was extremely successful, not only for Bioware but also for Obsidian.

Aw crap, is Wolfenstein a 360 only title? I can't use the controler in fps. Serious, my best move would be to run.

Target is critically hit for 0 damage to his eyes, hurting him badly.

At least you appreciate being able to come here and rant about the experience? Right? Good ol' Ramza. I feel the same way about text adventures. Gone completely downhill over the past several years.

OH, maybe I'll look on GoG or something for it. I'm just behind the time, bro.

You know, I was chuckling at his review of Silent Hill 2 when he got into explaining why it was such a great game. I wish I had played it, but unless it comes out on the PC, I doubt I ever will. still a funny review.

Not what I did, but what I'm about to do. Sleep. Good morning!

We didn't answer Walsh because it's common knowledge. The only thing to do is answer his underlying question. The answer is, "yes, they are swivel eyed lunatics." hahaha I need to find that and use it as my sig.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oknLw3hgm7E The world was new beneath a blue umbrella sky

See, this is what I mean. I trust both of you to know more about it than me. Although, quick question, wouldn't that basically mean that they consider having unsanctioned tournaments as somehow the equivalent of piracy, if not by law then in effect? I mean, they must feel that they'd lose revenue if they can't sponsor and control the tournament.

That made me laugh also. Great night tonight. Tigranes, you PhD persuing, Fallout lovin', Korean speaking Aussie bastard! Why don't you hurry up and finish school and make the next Fallout game yourself. I'll help with the license costs. I've got... $20 in my wallet. How much more do you think we'll need? If you ever do, I want to say right now that I'd like an isometric view with turn based combat and a bit of real gritty survival in it. *shrug* or Fallout 3 sandbox style is fine. I'm easy as a two-bit hooker in a twelve dollar whore house. Seriously, as weird as it sounds, I don't trust that I'd make the best decisions. If I had to make them, I would, but I find that my views change so much and that sometimes the things that sound great to me end up sucking so much that I just trust the devs better than myself. It's always so much easier for me to spot things I find irritating or unfun than know for sure what I'll find fun in the end product. Even things that I say I'll hate, like CG's idea of save penalties, I won't if they're done properly. I know I'd find it irritating on it's face, but I can forgive a lot if the title just gives me something. I have rarely seen a critic pan Fallout 3 without agreeing in principle with most of his points. I have always ended up with a different conclusion. I enjoyed FO3. Individual pieces irritated me, but I still had fun. I don't know if that says something good or bad about me. *waits for someone to take advantage of the opening*

Ah. I wasn't sure in the earlier thread. This article was pretty clear. I mean, why worry about LAN and DRM unless the DRM impacts the LAN? Seemed like anti-piracy must be the reason. DRM hasn't hurt me personally, but I know some folks in these parts hate it with a passion.

Considering your sig, I'm not surprised you feel that way. I'm kind of mixed on DRM. If this no-LAN thing is simply a security measure, I think that's too bad, but as I understand it they just didn't want to invest the time or resources to LAN up the game. I know there was somewhat of a community effort to get it in, so this is probably the compromise. I don't mind DRM per se, since I figure it's a company's prerogative to protect their investment. At least there will be something and the WoW expansion, of course, needs no DRM. Hell, they're perfectly happy to have you let someone else use the same disks, last I heard, since you're still subscribing to the service. I've installed the same disks several times between my wife's computer and my desktop and laptop without any problem playing either account.