Monte Carlo

A patch a month would be nice. *looks at calendar*

You don't give feedback, you just slavishly agree with everything the developers do and snipe at people who don't.

It's the backdrop for something else.

Just thought I'd fix that for you.

I've had some nice PMs from people and am grateful. Will respond. I take Gromnir's point - English Catholicism for example is complex and is rooted in ancient prejudices and sectarianism that saw Anti-Catholicism enshrined in law for hundreds of years. Latin American Catholicism has a history of both liberation theology and ultra-conservatism. French Catholics helped Nazis flee justice for their own arcane reasons. Italian Catholics harboured Jews and sheltered them from the camps. Is a complex picture. What I'm seeking to understand is, I hope, slightly more universal and (crucially) not one-dimensional. The scenario I will posit is one where I want a gut impression from a Catholic or someone steeped in the culture of that faith - is what I'm saying utterly ludicrous and / or offensive or is there anything I've missed. I'm also going to take a punt at predicting at what global Catholicism is going to be like in 'x' amount of years time afyer 'y' series of events. The response might be 'yeah, I see that... but." That's the bit I'm interested in, TBH.

Nep the buying of the game isn't the issue, the impact is do I invest a hundred hours plus of my life in it?

I think I'll speak to a priest eventually, I have a few things I need to get off my chest.

Vol might say that but I wouldn't. Why would Dave G lie? I just think he sees a distinction around Bio / EA that the rest of us don't.

^ I suggest Volourn speaketh the truth on this one.

Hi Leferd. I've done my book-reading and basics. Now I want to talk to a real person. I might just wander into a church and harass a priest but want a willing compliant victim first.

Hi. Are there any practising Catholics on the forum? Ideally you'd be a regular church-goer with an interest in church hierarchies and even politics. Maybe you'd had some religious instruction above and beyond that of a layman? Maybe you have a friend or relative that matches this description. If so I'd like your help. I'm writing a piece of speculative fiction which features elements of Catholicism. I want to get this right, not only because of my rampant OCD, but also because I know how offensive it is when people play fast and loose with faith in books and movies. Am I writing a hagiography about Catholics? No. Am I writing a hatchet piece with the usual clichés and tropes around the Church? No. Disclaimer - I'm an atheist with no axe to grind, and definitely not of the Dawkinsian tradition. I simply want to run a few ideas by someone with an instinctive feel for what would come across as bogus or offensive. PM me if you know anyone who'd like to help, it will involve not a lot of work, just some email conversations probably and of course they'll get a mention in any published work. Cheers MC

Agreed, Tale. There's a bunch of stuff here I hate... dIALoG WEeL, emo wannabe GoT NPCs and some of the visuals (look at those NPC ports) but man I utterly love that whole war table thing and mission structure. The top-down combat looks neat. It's a real fifty-fifty. We'll see what people say, there's enough people here who I trust to help me decide one way or the other. Edit - plus it has combat XP. OMG DEGENERATE GAMEPLAYE ALERTE!!!

Using awful industry jargon I've picked up from Relic, I wonder if Bio / EA sees this as a 'Games as a Service' platform? It looks like it to me. Oh and the PS4 version will be purdier, driving another stake into the hearts of the Xbone untermensch. I really didn't want to buy this but am big enough to accept that I might...

Um...ok. The Eye-gouger lair in NWN2? That doesn't tell us anything, Except maybe it demonstrates how off the mark your arguments are. NWN2 is a ridiculously story-heavy game, and interestingly, this still doesn't prevent its combat from sucking ass in almost every way imaginable. Eliminate 90% of NWN2's combat, and nothing changes. Check Bioware. They're getting there. The Dragon Age Series comes to mind. Again, Everything is a drama. And that causes Narrative fatigue. I tried doing another playthrough of DA:O a few months ago. I got about Halfway through then quit. not because the combat bored me (it didn't. it's the best thing about the game), but because I entered Orzammar and immediately remembered the thick, syrupy drama the player must endure to get through that giant section of the game. I then put the game down and fired up BG1 for no reason but to head out to the wilderness and start killing hobgoblins and wolves for the light hearted fun of it. You're my brother by a different mother.

That's so badly wrong I don't even know where to start. The fact that there's 'too much' immediately suggests a negative. You can have too much ice cream or pizza or beer... all of that will make you feel sick. A story is like the porridge in the three bears, you can have too much, too little and (that elusive) 'just right.' If your preference is a sadomasochistic level of story then good luck to you but it doesn't mean you're right. In a game this is critical - look at Diablo for example. You can take the story or leave it. If you care about the lore of Sanctuary then wow, there's stacks of it. If you want to kill demons and click on books for XP you can do that too. The story is efficacious for the type of game it seeks to be. On the other end of the axis is Torment. Not my cup of tea, but lots of people here rave about it. For some people that's the ideal level of story and it works for the type of game MCA set out to make. Do you see where I'm going here? Like the porridge in the Three Bears POE needs to be broadly in the middle of these. It needs to engage but not smother, elicit interest but not demand herculean commitment to understanding the lore (unless you feel the need to). So yes, you can have too much story. You really, really can.

I love Diablo. Your snobbery doesn't really advance your argument, though.

So an xtreme Storytymer hates dungeon-crawling. Next.

the dudes at Nuclear Snail do great PA cosplay.

For Woldan...

Sundays are not the apocalypse unless you run out of beer.

The Road - read the book haven't seen the movie. Yeah, it's wrist-slashing stuff. Another thought - does Warhammer 40K exist in the PA continuum?

^ So, basically, about three or four years from now?

It would still be boring, turn-based and with depressing music.

I've never seen Jericho. What's the skinny?

I think the most obvious answer there is possibly 2nd Ed AD&D Darksun. Sort of. Edit - GEEK NINJA'D