Gizmo

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:

I did not like the "clear the hall of hostiles", then "step through door, and get attacked from behind" game mechanic of the game. Perhaps that is the 'haunted house' aspect that you mean. I bought D00M 3 so that I could try the Ground-Zero Mod. What I would have really liked (and been throughly impressed by) for D00M3 is a developer best-effort attempt to interpret doom wads from 1&2. Such that their code looks at the wad-map and tries to at least mimic the layout using D00M3 assets. Example:

It reminds me of those two guys that bought that Goya print set, because they could; and then scribbled over all of them because it fit with what they wanted to do. _______ I might take a break before starting the "Dark Queen of Krynn". Witcher 3 has been sitting installed but almost unplayed since day one. I don't think I ever left the tutorial grounds. (It was because they ditched almost everything that I loved about the original game, that I lost interest in it fairly quick); I think I will give it a second chance before DQK.

No, but the comparison doesn't really work because they are completely different games. I wouldn't even put them in the same genre. The original was very much a shooter, albeit a creative one for its time. The new one is much more of an action RPG. Aha... so the pattern continues (again). It was the same with Fallout. "No, but the comparison doesn't really work because they are completely different games. I wouldn't even put them in the same genre."

Playing Death Knights of Krynn, and really liking it so far; next up will be Dark Queen of Krynn. Is Prey as good as the original? (Prey)

I'd be down for something like Brutal Legend but focused on one genre (action RPG), rather than several genres mashed into one game with none of them being done particularly well. "In a world... without a name, in a heavy downpour; thought he passed his own shadow, by the backstage door..." Not so foreign to the RPG genre; it could work.

I tried a full beard once; I couldn't stand it. After two weeks I cut it all off.

I totally recall a joke in there somewhere.

So you show up unprepared to explore and it's the developer's fault? Agreed. It also ensures that the player visits Shady Sands...whether in desperation, or even if they avoided it (in character), in favor of heading straight to their given destination—with the hope of finding the chip and returning it promptly. Fallout is the second best RPG that I have played; and the better game of the two.

I have always wanted to try Bard's Tale lol InXile's Bard's Tale is a neat game, but it's an unrelated game that uses the established series name; (because that's all they could license). It shares nothing with the Bard's Tale series; 1, 2, 3, and the upcoming Bard's Tale 4...(which also seems to share very little with Bard's Tale 1, 2, & 3 ) I bought the original CD version of InXile's bard's Tale... though admittedly, it was because they included retail installers for the original BT trilogy.

I have it installed, but I've not played it yet. Is it in an unplayable state? I'd heard fantastic things about it. Played Darksiders Warmastered edition for about 20 minutes—and went back to Champions of Krynn; and will probably play out the whole Krynn series in a row... transfering PCs from one to the next, to the next. Also playing War for the Overworld WFTO. It is indeed about the closest thing we're likely to ever get... to a real Dungeonkeeper 3; but (so far) it lacks the bite & style that DK1 & 2 had. I still like it... I just wish (the original) Bullfrog had worked on it.

Shadow Warrior 2013:Special Edition https://www.humblebundle.com/store/shadow-warrior-special-edition?hmb_campaign=shadowwarrior_freegame_2017&hmb_source=bundle_page&hmb_medium=banner_cross Free (to claim) for another day and a half.

I have Curse & EoB in their boxes... I just never had access to the Dragonlance games, until recently. *I'm still exploring Throtl Keep [Champion of Krynn]. I've been playing the game on Linux[Mint] using the DosBos scaler tv3x. Considering the limitations... It has some really good artwork.

Just started Champions of Krynn—for the very first time; played it through the night, until 7AM. Before that I started Deadspace... and lost interest in 20 minutes. Might start Darksiders:Warmastered Edition next. War for the Overworld & Deserts of Kharak are in the near future; as well as finishing Overlord. It's been raining a lot here lately.

Does anyone here remember the time when there were different teams working on separate versions of the same games for different platforms? Buying the game for Mac was (and is) buying a different product than the game for the PC, or any other platforms the developer chose to support; including consoles. While this line might be blurred with engines that support a per-platform compile, it still takes a lot of work to make each version, and they shouldn't be pressured to include all versions in the purchase of just one. But some companies did this. Bungie did this with Myth 1 & 2. GoG did this to limited extent, by allowing GoG accounts to access any participating titles that were already subscribed to on Steam by the account holder. (A pretty cool thing to do too.) I know that Almost Human Ltd. made their games for PC, and later ported the engine to OSX, and IOS. Certainly they do not owe their PC costumers access to the MAC & Tablet versions without compensating them for the extra work.

This may well spur me into finishing my Enclave Armor mod. (In Sig) Or perhaps even finish adding Scorpitron 2.0 to Old World Blues.

So Bethesda has added FO3, Oblivion,—and New Vegas to GoG.; and they are all half price at the moment. Said to be DRM free. https://www.gog.com/game/fallout_new_vegas_ultimate_edition https://www.gog.com/game/fallout_3_game_of_the_year_edition https://www.gog.com/game/the_elder_scrolls_iv_oblivion_game_of_the_year_edition_deluxe ___ Edit: **NMA listed this yesterday... so it seems I'm a bit late on the news. **New Vegas, was the the reason Installed Steam, and kept it installed. So it will be interesting now (to me), to see if I don't just uninstall Steam permanently.

In a word... Yuck. I have only seen one RPG that employed skill-level-by-use that wasn't wretched IMO, and that was Lands Of Lore—and even that wasn't great (use of it). Oblivion had level-by-use, and counted the number of times the character jumped, to improve their acrobatics skill... And so everyone hopped from place to place; and from town to town. Level-by-use is terrible with esoteric skills like lock picking, or forging, or animal skinning, or science skill checks. There are not that many chances to use it (sensibly I mean; sure the player can have the character try to pick every lock on every door in every town, but that's not sensible, and not even in character for non-lunatics). Skill by PC level up can imply that they reach their epiphanies on their own time; and that doesn't actually have to be shown in the game. Classes: These are the character's life ambition. It's their vocation and occupation—not their role. The role is who they are. Gandalf is a role, being a wizard is an occupational area of study. Roleplaying is ~what would Gandalf do in this situation; not what would a wizard do; not what would a (magical artillery) support unit do. Classless RPGs can sometimes work, but their characters are often lacking a past, and any clear motivation. TES characters (in the recent ElderScroll games) are all adult infants with no past, no acquaintances, no skills, and seemingly no means of having survived to their present age... It's like they fell out of a hole in the sky one night, and started wandering. Fallout was classless, but all PCs came from the same institution, knew some of the same people, and grew up in the same environment, and ultimately got sent on the same mission to save their family/community. In Fallout you played the fourth (or at least the third) dweller sent on the mission, and you start out with established skills that reflect the character's past interests, and /or aptitudes. It's effectively a class because of the tag skills, and because in that game, stats matter. **Aside: It was interesting to me that every time the PC dies and you make a new character (in Fallout), you are basically playing the next person Jacoren picks to send out.

It certainly did for Westwood, and Bullfrog. Not only that, but IRRC, EA took them off DK3 and set them to work on a Harry Potter game. I think it was the 28 foot naked statue of her that cemented it.

This reminds me of that certain types of fix-it software that once installed, spares no time in pointing out all of the many things it's detected, and/or fixed (or "fixed"), lest the customer doubt the product, and decide to uninstall it, or return it for a refund. Regardless of the internal mechanics that Fallout had, I always interpreted a head shot that did shockingly little damage, as a grazed cheek or a knick to the ear; or some other technically valid hit, but not life threatening. Critical hits were the serious injuries to vital areas, and they were harder to pull off; and thus relatively rare. My gut says to give people more credit... but I cannot disagree —the majority probably doesn't notice the 10%... But I would certainly notice (and not appreciate) for critical hits to be re-imagined as simply a measure of added severity rather than an exceptional shot. The difference is subtle, but if critical hits predictably happen on a schedule, or come of a charged-up ability bar, then they become just another special attack, rather than an unexpected boon of circumstance, or weighted by exceptional character skill.

This seems like it needn't even be shapes at all... At its core it would appear to simply be different states (of being). The attributes could all be shown as circles; coins, metallic ones of tin, copper, bronze, silver, and gold. Where each implies a relative increase in value and quality. *Could be done with gemstones too. But if done with special shapes... I kind of like the idea of —perhaps a dynamic shape that reflects a growing tendency, aptitude, or demeanor. Like a Charisma stat whose shape is getting progressively sharper (abrasive & caustic) as they make decisions and interact with others. (I'd like it if it did that when they walk away from a speaking NPC. ) Perhaps such shapes could be included with the attribute numbers as a signal of the intensity between changes in numeric values. (Like the thresholds in Fallout, that you mentioned)

Tim's number 2 & 3 points would cause me to lose all respect for the game; and stop playing. __ About hiding numbers... 'Eye of the Beholder' defaulted to hidden numbers by using bar-graphs. It had a 'show numbers' option, but it looked ugly; as the UI was clearly designed for the graphs. The problem with graphs is that percentages don't tell you the expected rate of decrease for a given attack. You could be fighting a mob that is pecking away at the PC's hitpoints, when another monster shows up and chips away HALF in one hit. Half the bar can mean anything depending on current max hitpoints; 50% of 20, or 50% 120. Bar graphs (and dynamic icons) are fine, but never hide the numbers. The best part about BG & IWD, was that it showed the rolls. In Heart Of Fury, you could actuially see (and understand!) that the goblins had +29 to damage... and not simply that they could one-shot low level PCs.

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