Monte Carlo

Yes, a friend of mine has an Amex he pays off every month and gets airmiles on, he flies for free all the time. Me? I'm like a reformed boozer who has to be manhandled past a liquor store when it comes to credit cards. I'm just better off without. Stuff I've done with credit cards: * Turned left when I got on an areoplane (quite a few times) * Bought fifteen friends dinner in a swanky restaurant on a whim * Decided that a case of champagne would be a nice treat... because it was Friday * Upgraded every hire car I've ever hired to one with a convertible roof, this one got me every time I know, I'm a wastrel. So now I'm reformed I'm zealous about being sensible with money and the bonfire of the credit cards was step one. I've no regrets, though Cheers MC

This is my third years sans credit cards. I used to have three, usually maxed out. And I don't miss them at all. I feel astonishingly virtuous, in fact I have about 75p credit on one of them. That's right - the credit card company owes me money. Hahahahahahaa!!! OK, I have a reasonably paid job but I also have a family so it's not like I'm rich. But I'm richer for not having a bloody credit card. My secret? If I can't afford something I either save for it or don't buy it. Radical, huh... it's taken me most of my life to work that one out. Discuss.

Am still playing Company of Heroes, mainly online and can't really see that changing until Dragon Age is released (which for me is 6th November). Company of Heroes is the game to which all others aspire, and I am living a more wholesome, manly life by playing it. When will some of you lot join me online for some WW2 akshun? Cheers MC

I work at CERN and currently I'm messing around with the Higg's Boson, which I've captured in my coffee flask. All this stuff about CERN sabotaging itself from the future is rubbish, OK we've got a couple of Arch-Demons cooped up in the washrooms but it goes with the territory. Top that, alanschu games developer person.

Just a quick observation.... Here in the UK there are a load of TV adverts for FO:3 GotY edition. Which is amazing, I mean straight console titles make TV ads frequently here (Brutal Legend is all over the place) but Fallout? Bethseda have successfully mainstreamed Fallout. Cheers MC

^ Unless I'm very much mistaken, Shale seems to be VO'd by Sean Pertwee. Which is a good thing, BTW.

^ Mainly because resting was so darn easy. Scenario = get out of the dungeon after a massive battle - low hp, lots of loot in the bag, just levelled up. Random encounter - you get whipped. Personally, a lot of the time I'd be happy to take that one on the chin to get on with the game.

I'm not a Deekin-hater. In fact, that and the death + loss of XP mechanic are probably the only two things in NWN1 I didn't hate.

Y'see I agree with the point about saving per se, but I also like choice... choose to re-load and play the battle or choose to take a loot / XP loss. In almost every CRPG I've played there are times where I'd happily do both. I think a lot of players would be the same. Cheers MC

What game was it that gave you an XP or gold penalty every time you died? I liked that idea.

I think Slowtrain hit the nail on the head: This is Bioware. Love their games or hate their games, scaling and difficulty is their bread and butter even if it has been at the casual end of the market of late. Played Ascension / Redemption by Dave Gaider? Before the budding David Gemmell schtick, there was a guy who knews how to write a challenging series of tactical battles. The other issue is, what's wrong with 'Casual' as a game setting. Answer = NOTHING. What's wrong with 'Hardcore / Needs to get out more often' as a game setting? NOTHING. What's the argument, there isn't one? I'm in the hardcore camp, admittedly, but I only get bent out of shape when the 'Casual' side of the house wail about how 'Screensaver' should be the default setting of all games. I'm currently playing lots of Company of Heroes. Online. And getting my ass kicked by spammers, smurfs and pros (funny how your gaming vocab expands online!). Guess what? I love the difficulty, I love learning how the works and I love getting better. Conversely, I'm rubbish at FPS games, but see the appeal. Crysis? Hell, I'd play that on casual mode all day along with your Far Cry and HALO. Couldn't care less what anybody else thinks. Cheers MC

^ People should stop bitching about 'difficulty' via the revolutionary new Options / Settings / Difficulty facility, a feature of computer games since, well, Day One.

My favourite let's-remind-you-how-you-play mechanic was the "Re-rolling stats counter" in ToEE. Let's have a how many times you die counter in DA so you can post it up on the DA social networking thingie.

There are four types of intellectual properties in any entertainment franchise, be it movies or games (etc). (A) (being the most common) - wildly popular but awful commercial, lowest-common-denominator tat. This can be quite good fun now and then, but it doesn't change what it is. (B) - Niche, too-cool-for-it's-own-good underground stuff. © - Mainstream stuff that, like a reasonably successful soup, uses a bit of every ingredient. (D) - The rarest and most holy, the IP that is of (B) but crosses over successfully into ©. Nightshape, instead of mingling amongst the peons from his aerie on the M4 tech corridor, should get back to his pod and start figuring some (D) style options. Cheers MC

^ I feel your pain. Having said that, the combat looks reasonable. I too have some reservations, but I doubt it'll be a melee screen-saver like some other Bio games.

It's like two bald men fighting over a comb.

off-topic If every purchaser of Dragon Age would recieve the same treatment, then Dragon Age would also be remembered as the game that no one pirated. Every single copy played was bought. Think of the deliverer as a female, in chainmail bikini *Ka-ching!* /off-topic You, sir, are a genius.

I only watched the first minute or so, very excited German chap opens the Media-Kit DA pack. It appears to be wrapped in a swatch of parchment bound with a leather cord. This is a map of Ferelden. Inside is a comedy plastic box cunningly disguised as an Epic Tome of POWA. Inside is... ... a mystery 'cos I got bored at this point. Then again, for a media freebie it did look very nice. The journo had a minor Geekgasm. Cheers MC

I know it's difficult, and I'm as guilty as the next guy with a Barratt Light Fifty and a high marksmanship score, but you don't have to use cheese tactics. As for the mooks lining up to be shot - well it is a homage to cheesy 80's action movies

I love JA2, it's in my top three all time games. If they made a console game out of it I wouldn't have thrombosis. OK, I'd be unlikely to play it but so what? Thing is, and as others have hinted, what is Jagged Alliance without the strategy map and the tactics? It's any number of generic merc games with a cheesy 80's action movie theme. Fallout is different - it's such a fully fleshed-out world with a unique style. Although I'm hardly of the Fallout taleban, I can see why people want to protect it. Imagine MT:W2 without the strategy map. It just ain't right, is it? It's like taking the burger out of a Big Mac and insisting that it's still a Big Mac. As for RTwP... I've never seen a real-time game plausibly capture the tactical level use of firearms in a squad level game. Hey, I'd love to see a developer try and succeed, I'm sure there is a way.

Fallout isn't a good example. Their hardcore fanbase is, in my view, utterly unique and completely incapable of being satisfied. Unless FO3 was going to be a turn-based, old-skool CRPG. Designed by a bloke on a leash in their basement. Maybe an imperfect but more apt comparison would be the (rabid) fanbases of franchises such as Dr. Who and Star Trek. The people refreshing those IPs with new movies and TV series did a pretty good job of winning over and then using them as a viral marketing tool (in the old days we called it word-of-mouth). So, it must be very tempting for games developers to throw a hissy fit when their old customers don't like their new offerings. But, before, tears dribbling down their little cheeks, they blast their fanbase out of the airlock like Ripley cuddling her cat, maybe they want to consider if it's possible to utilize them as an asset. It must be extremely tempting for Bioware (for example) to get royally pi$$ed off with the hate. But it's chicken-and-egg... how did Bioware get where it is. Hey, I'm sure a scorched earth strategy will turn over a whole new generation of adoring, Bio-engineered fan-drones, but then again it might not. Bio understands this, ergo it's online community and odd let-me-tell-you-about-how-many-Genlocks-I-killed-today Facebook thing. Cheers MC

^ yes, a severe lack of decent beards (unless you are a dwarf) but my human has the most splendid walrus moustache ever. Like the goofy in-game portrait options, I hope you can do that with the NPCs too. It's these small things that make all the difference, especially when GUI (Gaming Under the Influence).

^ Yeah, I think this is all about letting folks make avatars for that social networking thingie that I personally have no interest in. Still, it was a good idea to release it, it saves me an hour making silly faces when I get the full game

Let's face it, this is just a face-generator. At least it's a decent one.

Yeah, I was expecting to see the inventory screen, maybe, and some items / equipment. Oh well, I wasn't expecting a great deal but the character generation system is quite, ahem, simplified.