Monte Carlo

I know it's easy to be negative, which is probably why I am. But this looks spectacularly bad. Why? D&D is flawed, quirky and fun. What it isn't is 'easy to pick up and play' and with Gauntlet style co-op. This product isn't playing to the strengths of the game. Plus it's 4E.

Diablo is all about exploring masive dungeon complexes, playing dress-up dolly with matching armour sets, developing ever-more awesome powers and turning legions of monsters into ketchup. It is also about staying up until 4am against your will because for some reason this silly, grinding, repetitive game is like freaking crack. I love Diablo.

Never played Homeworld. Is it one of those sci-fi empire builders that require you to open an Excel spreadsheet to track your in-game decisions? In any case, Relic haven't even hinted about CoH2, I'm not expecting anything this side of 2013 at the earliest.

So according to your logic, since there will always be crime, the only way to stop it is to lock everyone up. Would that make you feel better? Wait, was that kindergarten reasoning only supposed to be applied on my arguments? Sorry. Alternatively, you could choose to address the entire post rather than selectively.

@ Tig, there is a bit of a dilemma for you here. First, you could always download CoH Online (CoHO) which is free. Or, you can pick up the original game (i.e. CoH, Tales of Valor, Opposing Fronts) for pennies on Steam. The originals have more content and factions although the single player American campaign is also free with CoHO. CoHO is very competitive and uses a micro-transactional model (at the moment I'm dropping about 5

Company of Heroes: Eastern Front a massive mod made by a collection of genius gamers. It's awesome and free.

I will now ask a very difficult question that you right wing nuts will struggle with (apparently), but here goes: why does he break into your house and steal your stuff? Remove the incentive and he won't. Amazing, isn't it? You are clearly a utopian, and therefore a fantasist, which doesn't really help your argument. Go out and give all your stuff away if it makes you feel better. There will always be crime. Sometimes more and sometimes less, remarkably the more criminals you lock up the more acquisitive crime goes down. Unless a third party (i.e. the State) intervenes to deal with those who damage the community they live in then you end up with vigilantism. I'm sure you wouldn't want that. Am I a flinty-hearted SOB who'd lock 'em up and throw away the key? Nope, I think there is a big place for rehabilitation within the criminal justice system. There is also a big place for punishment. Carrot and stick. There's too much carrot and the moment. And criminals know it.

Career criminals laugh their heads off at hand-wringing liberals like you. They actually despise you, but make all the right noises when you're in earshot. The simple truth, so simple that supposedly educated people struggle to grasp it, is that when incarcerated the criminal is unable to break into your house and steal your stuff. Amazing, isn't it? If some thieving recidivist wants to make a career out of stealing stuff from others, even if it is because he needs to put junk in his arm, then he should expect to spend a significant amount of time in prison. Screw him. Personally I'm more interested in the victims of the oxygen-thief. The victims are the people the bleeding hearts aren't very interested in, no radical crediblity there. Would it be because most of the hand-wringers are middle-class, self-despising leftists who think property is theft (until they get mugged themselves, of course).

Seriously, I hope they make timed dialogue response optional and / or via player controlled timer. What about dyslexic people? It's hardly an uncommon condition and this could seriously FUBAR a game for them.

They also said that NWN1 would be an immersive single-player experience 'right out of the box.' What's the phrase? Ah, r00fles!

We might as well say it anyway: DA:O was too old-skool, too darn complicated what with all those tactical choices an' all. The gaming media are hopelessly biased towards console / twitch-gaming and talk down any title that isn't completely tailored to the slack-jawed casual gaming crowd.

Did I say something to upset you...? Now you'll never know! *manic laughter* I do. Wow Nepenthe, you are even more evil than I hitherto suspected.

Hmmm a really big subject, an interesting propostion and whoah the thread is de-railed! Your point only answers fifty percent of why Hitler ordered Op. Barbarossa (mainly because it was conceived before the start of the war). Sure, it played a part in the rationale, but early Nazi military successes in the West should also be compared to the utterly parlous, near-medieval state of the Soviet military in 1941. I can't put my hand on my heart and say it was a gamble I wouldn't have taken (modern example - a brace of armoured divisions, utterly outnumbered on paper, invade and conquer a large country with a massive army through a combination of technlogical superiority, a professional army and air superiority - yes I'm talking about Iraq in 2003). The ideological zeal / Lebensraum aspect of Hitler's decision-making is more of a useful factor in why the Nazis invaded the USSR. He was genuinely convinced that the untermensch would roll over. This was the flame which military success in the low countries tipped a bucket-full of petrol over. Cheers MC

:: Shrugs :: The game mechanics in Diablo are like the plot in a porn movie - sort of superfluously necessary but not what you're concentrating on. The game still looks awesome and the core attribute changes make sense, probably more to people who are really interested in maths. Bring it on Blizzard, we know it will rock.

The British army overturned it's ban on homosexuality almost ten years ago with no perceptible impact on unit cohesion and effectiveness. The thing that did impact on unit cohesion and effectiveness was the Labour government's obsession with human rights law, health and safety, budget allocation to defence and a cavalier attitude to foreign policy (q.v. Afghanistan). Women serve in every capacity in the British army, with distinction, except for the infantry and cavalry. This, like GD points out using his experiences in the USMC, is as it should be.

^ I've heard not one genuinely libertarian sentiment from him, and his allies seem to be the usual leftie suspects. Thanks for the quick lecture, I had no idea of what a libertarian was.

^ To you maybe there are similar games, for me the differences are profound enough to make the comparisons valid. Bio games are now FPS (ME) or console-action games with a novel bolted on. BG / BG 2 and the Black Isle games are completely different.

All-black combat units were only used towards the end of WW2, led by white officers who were extremely racist. Even by the standards of the time (I'm not a revisionist). The results were mixed but subsequent events showed that there was no reason why soldiers of any ethnicity couldn't work in integrated combat units. OTOH, the British and French armies, with long histories of Empire used all-black or Asian combat units who performed with distinction. Then again, different cultural and social issues. With Gay soldiers integration is easier. A gay soldier will look much like a straight one. If, on a two-way range you are worried about someone's sexual preferences then you need to sort your head out. There are better things to be getting on with. In any case, gay soldiers have existed in every army since time immemorial, covertly tolerated by a sensible chain of command. Now there need be nothing covert about it. I take Guard Dog's view and largely agree with it, twenty years ago this would be harder. But we are where we are. The biggie, however, is female combat troops. This won't work, there you go I've opened up a new front on the equality war. The British army has just kicked it into the long grass for another ten years.

Could have fooled me. DA2 is the quintessence of fast-food rpg-lite gaming. Say Relic stopped making great RTS games and started making dating sims? Or Blizzard decided to make FPS games? Does it start making more sense now with regards to perspective? I see where you're coming from, but the point surely is that they did make BG and BG2. It's like saying why are people upset about Robert De Nero making 'Righteous Kill' just because he was in Taxi Driver and Raging Bull?

I'm sure there were lots of people who had similar arguments about letting blacks into the military. The organization will adapt and be no worse off for it. ^ He shoots, he scores. Precisely.

Yeah, those Spartans couldn't fight for ****, could they?

They adore him. :: Projectile Vomits :: That's it, I'm out of here. It is Twilight. It's disappeared down a vortex of emo wierdness.

I respect your opinion but frankly disagree. This type of civility has no future on the internet.

We've got the Olympics in the summer of 2012 here in London, which I have absolutely no interest in whatsoever*, so that release date works for me. *Unless hacking, slashing, fighting in tunnels and l00t gathering become olympic sports.