Gizmo

I prefer physical media. Sites like Steam & even GOG update their installers at will; and then you can't get the previous version. I have seen digital downloads where the installer had steeper requirements than the game—and so would not install on the game's intended platform; (Farcry comes first to mind, but there are several others). Other times, I've seen software that took a turn for the worse, and it was good that I had the physical media installer—that they cannot retrofit like they can with the online digital installer. I still have the Fallout original (US) Fallout CD; and so my version still has the Mutant Army invasion; and of course... it's unsullied by the Bethesda logo and content changes.

GOG, almost exclusively... I have used Humble in the past; and sometimes that gave Steam keys. I don't like having Steam installed, it's essentially nanny-ware. For years I had to have it to use the New Vegas CE, and Bloodlines, but now that GOG sells both, so that's no longer the case. **Now I just wish GOG would get Disciples 3 and its expansion titles into their library, so I won't need Steam at all.

Floydian slip?

This is exactly right. I worked on a large 3D mod for Grimrock; a nine story dungeon; comparable to the base game. This mod took 22 of us over a year to make: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=241880858 https://www.nexusmods.com/grimrock/mods/368/? There was a core team of around five of us that totally debugged and optimized the entire mod, room by room, as needed. The project leader really did the most work; he scored the music, and did the cutscene, and mapped out all of the areas left vacant by those that had space reserved, but that had dropped out of the project. Aside from my own room, I did general testing and debugging, and made optimized 3D models and textures, and sound effects for a few dungeon-wide features (architecture and props). I added usable ladders to the engine for our mod; a thing absent in the base game. It took a wide variety of skills for our group; none of us had them all. One of our mod-members designed several custom tools for the game; a model editor, an icon editor, and later an animated FBX converter that would produce game-ready files.

Not really; it plays like a shooter; instead of like Fallout. If it actually played (fully) like these mock-ups imply... then I'd be hyped.... incredibly hyped. I would actually buy, and play FO4 with that mod in effect. That will never happen otherwise.

Vanity.

Are characters whose players (instead) bought the benefits of experience, branded as such? *Also: How long before the industry catches on that they can sell Steam achievements?

It's about the closest thing we will get to a (real) DungeonKeeper 3.

The Matrix curse all over again... eh? I haven't seen Wick 2. (Of course... It's not the Matrix Curse... It's the Bill & Ted curse that afflicted the Matrix.)

Do you mean game or game-world?

Sounds like I should buy the game before any mandatory patches; ones that make the game more accessible to the mainstream.

I still have my Fallout box, and Planescape box. I might have the BG2 box, but it might have been tossed for water (hurricane) damage. (I still have the boxed sets for Dune II, Curse of the Azure Bonds, and Eye of the Beholder. )

UnrestIt's a refreshing kind of lite RPG. It has a fantasy India setting. It's not about elves and warriors. You start the game as a young girl facing an arranged marriage. Later in the game you play the tense role of a non-human ambassador, trying to make an alliance with a human kingdom. The game is mostly conversation. SporeStart the game as a cell, develop into an animal; further develop into a tribe; then a city... eventually space travel. MachenariumA point & click adventure about a robot city, where the main character (Josef) is trying to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend. Cute, well drawn —almost certainly hand drawn. Mostly simple logic puzzles. Broken SwordAnother point & click; reminiscent of Lucas Arts adventures; and a very good one.

I hope it wasn't a 'Pay what you want' deal. So I stop buying Humble Bundle too now; and better get anything on my account that I haven't downloaded yet; books mostly.

Ignore the subject matter, and watch Breaking Bad; it's too good of a series to miss; in the very least watch the pilot episode; (and the rest will surely follow).

Late to the party; I just watched Tim Cain's 7 Mistakes talk. I liked it (the whole thing), though I'm not too keen on some of his mentioned "mistakes" as being mistakes, but I won't doubt (and certainly won't dispute) his change in design preference, or his observations on player reactions to game systems. (That'd be silly of me ) *But I'd rather the numbers, no guaranteed hits, and actual random random; (indefinite miss streaks and all). I wonder if anyone (or how many dozens) mentioned to him that the Witcher sequel asked those many questions because he didn't have the previous two saved games that store the answers to them... The game seeks to match the history of the Player's Geralt, by the way that the previous games concluded; what decisions were made. Answering at random (instead of with a save), just chooses one of the past options—and its effects. **I recommend playing Witcher 1 though, it's very different from W2 & W3; and can play closer to NwN (not surprisingly)...but with better combat. There are a several sad parallels between W1 and what happened with its sequels, as with Fallout and its own most recent sequels. (Like Fallout, the first Witcher is my favorite, and most preferred of its series.)

An interesting curiosity: http://www.indieretronews.com/2017/10/the-shadows-of-sergoth-dungeon-crawler.html How many here have ever seen an Amstrad?

Finally! Someone else who sees!

This one makes no sense, unless it's philosophical; (which is not implausible given the class motivation). I would hope that the designers do not restrict the mage-slayer from benefiting from administered potions. Remember the A-Team, and that they got 'BA' to fly anyway—despite intense and risky objection on his part. Upshot being that if potions can be administered to revive injured comrades, it should work on the mage-slayer class. If it's important to concept, then the mage-slayer could be mad as hell about it, and maybe suffer a temporary performance penalty; or perhaps a risk for leaving the party. Agreed. I think it's ridiculous. Did no one there ever watch Kung-Fu~the series? The monks would think anyone an idiot to allow themselves to be injured. Equally ridiculous; to the point of absurdity. Silly (egregious reaching)...even if 'too far' means not in line-of-sight; nutty person if it means more than X number of paces apart. This is dumb. It's saying that the character performs in a more focused and controlled manner—after serious trauma; (when they'd be wincing and shaking from it).

At some point someone will finally get around to licensing either phonetic character (voice) libraries, or extremely good middleware—which might include the former as part of itself... And then we can have games where the budget allows for a few consummate voice artists being employed for key principle roles, and use of the library/middleware employed for the bulk remainder of the generic roles. Tom Baker was hired years ago to make such a library for British Telecom; they used it for text-2-speech over the phone. At least one person used it to make a Tom Baker cover of "Video Killed The Radio Star", by the Buggles. (Probably by sending themselves spoken text messages, and recording them).

The only use I've had for trackball mice, is in situations laking the room for a conventional mouse; trackballs don't move their base, and don't need a mousepad. I've never found them useful in drawing or illustration software, nor for use in 3D modeling. It is not always practical (or at least it can be very awkward) to hold a finger button (as 'opposable' to a button pressed with the thumb) while moving the ball; and if you then add in that you are making an arced stroke with (without benefit of a software French-Curve assist)... it becomes neigh impossible to draw with accurate lines using a trackball.

I was told that it took their artists over a week to get an animation working using Bethesda's full kit.

What exactly are those; (is there an official requirement list)? I got the impression long ago that the AAA label meant merely the approximate amount of money they planned to sink into the project... (with any measure of quality being an incidental side effect that hopefully comes of hiring good talent and letting them work unfettered—that doesn't imply that they must hire qualified talent to be AAA though). Is 'AAA' one of those "I dunno how to quantify it, but I know it when I see it" sort of deals? I know I've seen some pretty disappointing games labeled AAA in recent years. Or is AAA code for 'targeted only at the mass consumer market'; (and all of the negative design connotations that comes with that)?

Enjoy the original... Witcher 2 & 3 dropped almost everything I liked about the series' style & gameplay. That doesn't mean to imply that W2 & w3 are bad, it just means they could almost pass for a modern Golden Axe sequel instead of Witcher sequels. Witcher 1 was superb. Also Geralt doesn't look or behave like the same person in either sequel; different face, and a lost sense of pragmatism. ____ **Well what do you know... They actually made a modernized sequel to Golden Axe: