Monte Carlo

It was 2000. We really need to have a birthday party for it.

Those of us who predicted that an Obama Presidency would make Jimmy Carter look like FDR were broadly correct, not that I'm gloating or anything.

I just saw somebody on the TV called Nancy Pelosi. She's obviously one of those creepy liberals who talks to the public like they are completely stupid. Yuck. We have a few politicians here from the same stock but happily we voted most of them out of government earlier this year. In other news, Sarah Palin is strangely hot.

Not that I want to lower the tone in a serious political debate or anything, but am I alone in finding Sarah Palin strangely hot?

Go to London. The. Eat. Your. Words.

:: shrugs :: If DA2 was like Origins I'd be buying it, but the action-y direction and fixed protagonist are lines in the sand for me so I'm not buying it. No biggie. There are some other really good games coming out.

I'm getting confused Calax. Are you a soppy leftist or a die-hard macho libertarian? It cannot be both.

I like skirts and I'm manlier than Dolph Lundgren driving a Hummer whilst eating an ultra-rare steak topped with extra hot chilli sauce.

The Deep Roads were a moment of RPG awesomeness, evidence that deep in the soppy emo depths of Bioware still beats the heart of a strapping, virile gamer.

^ That's actually pretty cool.

I've been reading the instruction manual for my Alienware laptop. It's leather-bound with big brushed steel rivets. There's no plot and no characters but apart from that it's pretty cool.

They're shoe-horning yet another 'we love our NPCs so you must too' moment into one of their games. What happened to the kill-annoying-NPCs-and-that's-the-last-of-them principle that kept RPGs fun?

The ludicrous dress-up dolly aspect of FO:NV is completely awesome, I'm spending most of the game looking like an extra from a 1980's German heavy metal video.

Morrigan. Why, Bio, WHY?

LotF does it for free!

Well I've been playing around with character generation and the opening part of the game. Bravo Obz, and well done Sawyer you've made this callsign happy. First I laughed like a drain at all the names for hairstyles and beards. It really is the small things that make me happy sometimes. I also liked the hat-tip to the JA2 character generation questionnaire, I spotted it and it also made me laugh, especially the Rorsach blots. It also references The Dirty Dozen. Thanks for all the tips. Deano, my Ratpack-themed greaser / gambler / killer is roaming the wastelands in a shabby business suit looking for cash, murder and lurrrve.

I'm about to play. What character builds are working for you guys? I want to make a post-apoc, high LUCK, Mississippi-Riverboat-Gambling, Mercenary Assassin, Love-Deity sort of character. what perks and powaz do you recommend?

Who thinks that if Wikileaks had been about in 1944, they'd publish the date and location of D-Day?

I suppose I'll never go to New Zealand, mainly because I can never imagine myself spending that much time on an aircraft. But the tourism ads for the place there show here always strike me that they're a bit bloody pleased with themselves. The Hobbit is actually a British book. It's quite nice that NZ have taken Tolkein to their hearts but, when all's said and done, The Hobbit and LotR has nothing whatsoever to do with the place.

No, this is a person involved in a bizarre bot LARPing thing. I claim my ten dollars.

I am making an Iberian-themed slow-cooked beef stew with chorizo, carrots, cumin, garlic and tomatoes. I'll be eating it in about ten hours with buttery mashed potatoes, green beans and (bizarrely) nachos and guacamole. Am contemplating what to drink with it, probably a dark but cold beer, maybe a Dos Equis Gran Reserva.

Like the man says, that's not a bug, it's a feature!

Hi, good to see you back. Your post has got me pretty excited, as I'm installing it now. The irony isn't lost on me that I've gone from being pretty indifferent about Fallout to being a bit of a fan (I liked FO3 a lot) mainly due to the changes the old-skool fans hated. I'm looking forward to many hours of exploring, it seems from what you are all saying is that Obz have nailed down the sandbox aspect and blended it pretty skilfully into a bigger story. This is what I love about RPGs. I'll let you know what I think.

My bad, i meant Dragon Age, obviously.

Look, to me it's pretty clear - writing for videogames must be very challenging. It's like the three bears' porridge, it needs to be in the middle - interesting enough to retain your interest in the core gameplay but not so dense that it clouds it out, or makes you feel like you are simply a tamagotchi in the writer's personal narrative. And, for me, this is where Bioware is failing because of it's overly narrative style. I know I'm going to get flamed but the gameplay should drive the story, not vice versa. Dave Gaider is writing novels with games bolted on, I want the opposite. I liked DA2 despite the soppy, self-obsessed, overly-detailed NPCs that were forced on you. I also accept that this makes me a minority compared to Bio's fanbase who love all that. This is why I'm not buying anymore of their games, which is cool but I hope one day they'll make a game that's about gameplay, not a narrative screensaver with console-lite combat betwixt chapters.