Monte Carlo

The Spartans had the right idea.

In the UK we have a saying for a game like this: 'Marmite' Marmite is a beefy yeast extract spread that tends to polarize opinion - people either love it or hate it, there's nothing inbetween. Am wondering if this is Bio's first marmite game!

No... ninjas were crafted from a block of stellar awesomeness and had jobs like flipping out and killing people. Get your facts straight.

I wasn't dissing Ron, after all I like Sons of Anarchy a helluva lot. It's just axomatic that any movie project such as this will be graced by the Ronmeister at some point.

oh, and of course Ron Perlman is in it!

So hot on the heels of my Bladerunner thread is the chance for some uber-geekrage about the remake of Conan the Barbarian. Now, okie dokie, CtB ain't Bladerunner. It's a campy swords and sorcery cult classic much beloved of fantasy fans of a certain age (coming home from the pub on a Friday night with eight pints on board and finding this on a late night movie channel is one of life's small pleasures). Check out the trailer I've not been following the film, haven't a clue who the male lead is, and this 'teaser' shows the best part of bugger all... what do you guys think. Let the GeekRage begin!

I see lots of talking about choices and consequences. This made me think about the whole C&C paradigm. For me, the tactical experience and character management is choices and consequences - I make choice 'A' about classes, weapons, skills and equipment and the consequence is that part 'B' of the game plays differently. Obviously, this is different from plotting and character interaction, which is also an important part of a CRPG but for some it's the most important thing. Fair enough. It just seems to me that one is being pared down at the expense of the other. In terms of content, C&C is a often a cut-scene with regards to plot. Characters / skills / abilities / loot is real content... maybe that's part of the issue.

IIRC that was with regards to Spore? A court said that they couldn't use SecuROM without declaring it. SecuROM is a freaking virus / spyware PoS.

Thanks for that Pop, well-written, considered and cogent.

Tigs, the less-than-stellar reception this game is getting, for a Bioware title, means that this was a PR disaster and was all over the gaming-specific internet today. Bioware have gone from kuddly kanadians to jack-booted corporate robocops in the space of eighteen months

^ You've nailed most of the issues for me, the crippler though is the general sense of direction. Origins marked a move in the right direction, it was tantalizingly close to suggesting that the next one would mark another move in the right direction (for gamers like me, anyhow). Instead you've got EA, rush-job, lowest-common denominator, action-orientated stuff with the trademark Bio game-as-novel schtick (one of my least favourite traits anyhow). So even at bargain bin prices this is a no-show for me. If DA:O had been an action-y console title too this would be no biggie, but imperfect as it was it was still a solid CRPG.

For someone who found Oblivion virtually unplayable, I thought the Skyrim trailer actually looked quite good.

Get the f*** out of here. That guy can't be real. No, seriously, criticism is in fact a compliment in BioWorld because it means people have been 'challenged.' The internet has looked at DA2 and, by and large (certainly compared to Origins) gone.... meh.

So this is the reply the dude who posted the anti-EA comment got: So if some Bio fanboi doesn't like a forum comment they can report the post to EA and get you locked out of your game? Wow. I'm terminating my Bioware social account. Will never post there again, will never buy another Bioware product. Bioware, shame on you.

Thanks

Please, Vol, find an example of me being as rude as that to another forumite. Please.

Will someone, finally, sanction the troll? We abide by the moderator warnings, he doesn't, nothing happens.

Bull. I know it's Volourn but... still. Now I liked Dragon Age: Origins. It has a richer combat system than the Infinity Engine games, I'll grant you that. But that's it. But... There are more spells, magic items, unique artefacts, monster types, potions, class combos and stuff in the IE games, especially the BG trilogy. Look at the historic playthrough threads for the IE games and see the numerous different ways of solving key encounters versus the more limited (Bio would say 'focussed') Dragon Age rules (which are quite opaque and tough to understand, from the people who mock 'THACO') and character options. Period.

Not going too O/T but, seriously, does anybody here actually take any notice of reviews? As long as the review is well-written, cogent and amusing I don't really care if it's fanboi central or a complete hatchet job. I'll play the demo and make my own mind up. Edit: The only exception to this rule is, ironically, peer-generated reviews on forums like this - I've got a good idea of what the author likes and dislikes, it's like a recommendation from a friend.

I found Origins pretty stable but yeah, even that had long-ish loading screen times.

Reply to the point.

Our data-mining is showing us that a significant number of gamers are quitting after 70 minutes, this is a 10% improvement on DA:O. For DA3 we hope to get console FPS fans up to the two-hour mark.

^ Wrath, this type of heretical thinking is clouding your judgement. Asset re-cycling is a key part of the dark, mature, edgy and innovative next-gen RPG experience. It's the game we wanted to make. For you. Saying otherwise is just negative and plain-headed.

^ Vive La France!

1. The Well of Souls was in Raiders of the Lost Ark 2. Gnomes = fail 3. Fomorious Hughes? More fail. More vanilla nonsense confirmed. Monte says no.