Monte Carlo

I like the whole Starship Troopers schtick. Weaklings who cant hack fighting giant bugs on strange alien planets shouldn't be allowed to vote.

I love Game of Thrones. Everything about it. Even that weird chick who gives birth to ghouls occasionally. And Charles Dance owns the entire thing, why not just make a movie with him and Peter Dinklage? Have no intention of reading the books, don't want it spoiling my enjoyment of the TV series

I spend about £2000 on a rig. I keep it for three years, upgrading it or selling it. Then again, I am fabulously wealthy.

This is what happens when you ban beer.

Which is in August. It even has Jesse Ventura looking nails.

Oh, and the list... Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 / Throne of Bhaal Medieval Total War 1 & 2 Rome Total War IceWind Dale 1 & 2 Fallout: New Vegas (still haven't finished, and TBH I don't want to because then IT'S OVER! This game is an extraordinary achievement as I'm not really a FO fan) Company of Heroes (duh) Diablo 2 XCom Jagged Alliance 2 Doom

Rather than provide a list, maybe I can try to list the themes and values that make me obsess over a game. All of the games I love have character and soul. I feel like the person who designed it knew me and what I liked. This is the 'X' factor that defies forensic examination, what some cultures call sympatico. The vast majority of these games have great art direction. Not necessarily eye-candy, but certainly a style of its own that is distinct and easy to look at over long periods. Music and sound. Easily the Cinderella of gaming, but one of the most important. Where would IceWind Dale be without the Kuldahar theme? Or Baldur's Gate without that absurdly bombastic but cool drum-laden homage to Conan? Or the VO from Company of Heroes, with your squads emoting pathos and humour in equal measure? Gameplay that equally rewards but punishes is important. Games that are a b1tch to master, but are bountiful in pleasure once you start to learn. JA2 and XCom fall into this category. Games that aren't afraid to say 'learn me.' Games with depth that isn't obviously apparent, the way that diplomatic units have multiple synergies in the Total War series for example, things that reveal themselves the more you delve. Games that allow you to do cool stuff *the way you want* are also likely to make me obsessive. Are there other factors? Sure. But having gamed for most of my life maybe only a dozen titles hit all of these sweet spots for me. Perhaps just under a quarter of them came from, or in close consultation with, the folks who work at Obsidian, one of the reasons I'm here. Cheers MC

^ trololololo!!!

Hmmm. I want to play this on my 1920 x 1200 Asus ProArt monitor and on my 15" MX15 laptop.

What's deeplinking?

1. I really enjoy seeing everybody's ideas and mock-ups, even the ones I don't prefer. 2. The more I think about it, with regards to options, the more I come to the conclusion that the colour scheme is the only thing I'd genuinely like to be able to choose. You spend a lot of time looking at the GUI on a RPG... for me fifty plus hours of looking at brown sludge will actually get me down. At least let us change the skin, or like you can with forum appearance options. 3. Although I too have faith in the developers, I also had faith in Relic. When we played the closed beta for CoH2, the fan base was united in their loathing of the GUI. The developers, OTOH, thought it was fab. We are still lumbered with it. I now understand that the GUI is a crucial piece of coding / programming that can FUBAR all sorts of things due to the way it interacts with other functions so changing it is a big deal. So it is crucial that not only the developers show it to us now, but canvass and TAKE NOTICE because when one is settled on, it's toothpaste that's difficult to put back in the tube. Edit: I liked Dragon Age Origins, I think that despite it's flaws it's still the best thing Bio has done since BG2. Anyhoo... look at the unobtrusive, easy to use GUI. I played three full games of this and although the GUI is pretty neutral, it certainly got the job done. Of course, inventory and skills tabs were awful but the vanilla on-screen combat UI was fine.

That's why i always prefer when the devs don't take our opinions seriously. Trying to please your audience is backwards. You should be making the game YOU as a dev wants to make, and have the audience form around that game, not the game formed around the audience preference since there isn't a consencous of what makes a good game among people. That is Bioware's biggest problem in my opinion. They have listened to their audience way too much. But in kickstarted games that can't work since we paid for the game already, and deserve to know what is being made with our money. But as you see noone can agree in anything. So, in my opinion, the devs should always make the choice that is closer to IE (thats what we paid for anyway, so if someone complain about that his complains are invalid), and only stray for that model if THEY genuinely believe that what they want to change would make for a better game for the people who liked the IE games. Hey, in which case let's just close the forums now and obediently wait to be spoon-fed the game we backed.

Analogy Tyme 1960's Mini.... 2013 Mini... Still a Mini, right? Capiche?

I'm not thrilled with the UI either. When I first glanced at it I thought it was ToEE portraits (eeeewwwwwww) and the old IWD2 UI plonked in there as a place-holder. Also, brown / sludge coloured UI is depressing. Why not glam stone / granite BG1 style but with a modern twist? Like the dude said a few pages back, retro feel, 2014 design / production values please.

I think its cool that I can be like a romantic underground rebel by not buying a new NaziBoxOne.

^ What drowsy said, plus games like Rome TW2 are still being made, ironically published by Sega, the new saviour of the PC RTS genre (whoda thunk it?).

Wow, who on earth would have this ugly piece of NaziWare in their house?

TL;DR But, seriously, what you are trying to say is that AAA big-budget dreck is dead on the PC, and in it's place is a thriving microcosm of smaller games clustered around the digital versions of cottage industries. What's not to like?

It sounds fresh and interesting, but looks like a free browser game. I'm out.

I'm hardly the most technically-minded person on the forum, but computing power is accelerating so fast that *some* of the distinctions between console and PC are becoming blurred. I'm sure, eventually, some gaming consoles will outperform a lot of entry-level gaming PCs. So perhaps the argument is based on an increasingly redundant premise.

^ Have you read 'Best Served Cold?'

How can PC gaming be dead? I've got forty-odd games in my Steam library. I've got CoH2 coming out next month and Rome TW2 in the autumn. PE is out next year on the PC only. I've got enough games on my PC to keep me happy. Sorry to sound a bit simplistic, but how can PC gaming be dead when I play lots of games I like on, er, my PC?

Panzer Grenadier unit advancing past shattered, burning village, "Lebensraum? Who'd want to live here?" "I've got snow in my pants" is making me laugh a lot too.

That's not quite true, D3 is as much about your equipment as your build. But there are a few 'golden bullet' builds, yes. As for Van Helsing, I've tried a melee and a ranged character (there is also a magic-based build). You can have a character that combines all of the disciplines too, they all seem viable. I like the melee build a lot, personally.

Yes, I've got Grim Dawn as a must have buy. Van Helsing is growing on me, Lady Katarina (the foxy Russian ghost) is a pretty cool NPC. She's like a more customised Diablo 3 companion, and has some funny lines. If you want to make a melee dude you can make her ranged, and vice versa. There is a lot of content in the game, as I said for the money (if you like ARPGs) it's a steal.