Monte Carlo

^ NWN2 is one of the only games I can remember whereby an XP gave the original such a drastic graphics overhaul. I'm playing SoZ at the minute and it looks great. Cheers MC

^ Piracy is being used as an excuse to make all us submit to registration / marketing / data harvesting opportunities. When I buy a game I only want to buy the data transfered onto the disc without any necessity to go online whatsoever. I don't want any other relationship with any other third party unless I choose to do so. Another example: I was in the apple store the other day. A guy asks me for my email address so he can send me an e-receipt and help save the polar bears by not printing out a tiny square of paper. Who, in the name of assorted deities, are they trying to kid? Cheers MC

Ain't touching Empires until they de-Steam it. You have to submit to Steam / online activation to play it, which is my line in the sand. Cheers MC

I make all wizards, whatever system I'm using, combat auxiliaries. Invariably I spend a few feats on archery / martial weapons skills so that they can plink away at the baddies if (a) their spells run out or (b) the enemy doesn't deserve the spell power wasting on them. DA, as I understand it, gives mages a staff that allows them to dish out consistent low-level ranged damage. Fine, I've no problems with that. Cheers MC

^ actually, they've got a brunette too. Never clicked on it, what is it?

Problem with JA2, from a gun-nut POV, is that it's dated. No G36, M4 modular systems, SiG / HK series pistols or Minimi LMG (Ok, that's been around since forever). Somebody needs to do a nerdy gun freak update mod. Cheers MC

^ Look at how pen and paper RPGs have managed spellcasting over the years and you'll see that they are virtually identical to how computer games have looked at them, even after you've taken away the obvious legacy issues of PnP RPGs > CRPGs. That is to say, how to manage a modal, as opposed to passive, power? Mana and cooldown timers are, to my mind, as valid as Vancian D&D 'Fire and Forget' system. The D&D system is idiosyncratic, for sure, but it's still pretty viable (as for choosing the right spells in advance... imagine your D&D wizard is a fragile fighter-bomber: choose the right weapons package for the target and listen to the bloody briefing!). A barbarian, with 'Rage' ability can only use it 'x' times a day, right? Where, really, is the difference with a wizard using a magic missile? FWIW, I like the sorcerer spellcasting model as employed in 3E D&D, for me it strikes the right balance between mana and classic Vancian D&D. Other systems? RuneQuest - best pen and paper fantasy RPG ever written, period. Uses a mana based system based on a primary characteristic called POWER (on a 3-18 range). Use a spell - lose POWER. This weakens other abilities like combat and hit points over time... the answer? Hoarding POWER crystals, matrixes and other storage devices that put off the moment you have to use your own innate power source / mana. It really works, especially when power storage devices are rare and extremely expensive. Want to cast a really sexy, enemy-melting piece of magic... choose wisely and take a big power hit. Want to cast minor buffs / hexes / curses - no problem. Of course, this was a fairly low magic setting where even relatively powerful wizards knew their way around a couple of weapons and would wear some armour, a bit like classic Celtic mythos druids. Of all my numerous criticisms of DA:O, what I've seen how it handles the magic system ain't one of them. It seems fit for purpose for balancing the classes and how the game world setting approaches magic as a phenomena, you can't ask for much more than that. Cheers MC

BG1, Coran was my favourite NPC, I know they're not deep or anything but sometimes less is more. BG2 I really liked Edwin, OK he's a pantomime villain but amusing. Admittedly, he's also an arcane howitzer, which doesn't hurt either. I also liked Minsc, I know he's a bit of a love / hate NPC for a lot of people but he made me chuckle, the whole Boo thing didn't get old for me for a long time. I find myself unmoved by most of the NWN2 NPCs save Sand and Bishop. In JA2 I always took Grunty along, he was cheap and his German accent was strangely comforting in an old war comic kinda way (Achtung Himmel!). Currently playing Mysteries of Westgate, I'm growing on Mantides the Fallen Paladin, he's a sympathetic character. Cheers MC

^ No, it's Frasier. Seriously. British sitcom? Spaced and Black Books.

Actually, cute / crazy could be encapsulated by Rose from Two-and-a-Half-Men (favourite sitcom at the Schloss Monte at the moment). Rose is cute and ditzy and wears ankle socks. She is also a talented and shameless stalker with acute dependency issues. I wouldn't leave her anywhere near sharp objects if she hadn't taken her meds, and I wouldn't be surprised if Charlie doesn't keep a Mossberg jungle gun under his piano. Just in case. Cheers MC

Still playing Company of Heroes, which is basically like playing your own version of Saving Private Ryan. I love almost everything about it, especially out-of-control Hanomags veering out of control and exploding after you've machine-gunned them. The mission difficulty is inconsistent - I've just done the para mission taking out the V2 battery (very easy) and now I'm trying to hold a small village from a whole SS Panzer Division with three men and a dog (very tough). It doesn't matter, though, because it's just so much fun. The game and both expansions came in the gold pack for UK

ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Blood-spattered characters are driving me nuts! NUTS I tell you. As for the NPC, hey it's Imoen (again) one of the devs has a thing about redheads. But a thief with archery skills would be useful. already I can see her, the blonde fighter guy and Morrigan being the vanilla, balanced party of choice for lots of people. Me, I like the dog. And the comedy dwarf, I bet he likes beer and wenches. Cheers MC

Huh, I thought Klingon was a little richer. "Geek levels are rising to critical, captain..."

Taste - Check Soul - Debatable Seen it? - Sadly, once or twice. Then again, it ain't aimed at me and I don't think Dragon Age is either.

Buffy is cack. End of.

I'm pretty sure 'Shazbot' was an exclamation from Mork & Mindy.

Ok, I've looked at what we know about the NPCs and predictably my heart sinks when Dave says "I based this character on 'X' from Buffy. Buffy. FFS. So it's me, the Dog and the comedy dwarf. Was ever thus.

^ Mebbe I read it wrong, alternatively the shield combat skill tree could be warrior only. I know I'm not playing D&D, but when I make combat-orientated rogues I like a shield in the inventory for when it's time to tank. Cheers MC

^Yep, one of the interesting things about this title is how, apres-release, will the marketing look retrospectively? Will console players hoover it up in their gazillions because the marketing was aimed so squarely at them? Will they ever use Marilyn Manson ever again? Am prepared to bet five gold pieces and a +1 Mace that the DA2 marekting will be more, er, traditional. I'm sure that the game will be a tremendous commercial success, but on what platform(s)? Cheers MC

There are some interesting points here, as well as some fascinating Nordic swearing trivia that I never thought I'd find out about I've nothing against swearing per se, as long as it's not for the sake of it. In company of Heroes the developers have clearly tried to research swearing in a military context -they're about 70% of the way there which isn't bad for a RTC computer action game IMO. The soldiers swear under pressure, it actually adds to immersion. In Fallout 3 it seemed a bit forced (a bit, "Hey, it's Fallout, right? LETS SWEAR!"). I really like the idea of someone developing new swear words for a fantasy game with a bit of a back story. I remember in the Judge Dredd comics there was a whole new urban argot for the Megacities that included lots of swear words. Cheers MC

^ the entire charm of these threads is the rambling pages of off-topic rambling about medieval medicine and console game noise reduction. On-topic, the weapons skill trees look OK, am wondering how potent they are if you choose to mix and match rather than specialise in one route, maybe alanschu can elaborate? The news that only fighters can carry shields is a bit laden with WTF tablets, but there you go. I like combat-orientated rogues and was hoping to make a melee orientated thief type character, this review makes that look a bit difficult, the rogue looks like a strictly flanking / sneak attack combatant to complement tank fighters. As for archery, not really my bag but it looks interesting, hopefully theres an NPC archer you can develop into the team mage-killer. Cheers MC

I run a fairly chunky gaming machine with two Nvidia 9 series video cards. It's in a nice big box with two fans and it only gets noticably noisy when I run very high end games with all the bells and whistles. Most of the games I play I can't even hear the PC, although it can be a bit F15 when it's booting up. Obviously, most gaming rigs are designed with cooling and noise reduction in mind anyway, well the decent ones are.

Dragon Age: Guitar Hero. You know it makes sense. :: Wyld Stallyns ::

^ Silent Storm is a good shout - bung a resource / strategy overlay over the top of something like that and you're good to go. And, yup, the Mechs ruined it.

I'm surprised that the JA:2 model hasn't been copied - it's got so much going on and lends itself to almost any genre. The resource / strategy overlay lends itself to fantasy or sicence fiction as much as it does R/W settings. Another one I thought of (as I was palying Company of Heroes, my New Favourite Game) was a WW2 themed game where you have to build up your SOE / OSS guys and complete missions not unlike Commandoes but using the JA2 model. The composition of small teams using henchmen is interesting and fun - look how much SirTech squeezed out of the NPC-lite mercs in JA2. Thinking about it, the Total War series uses tactical and strategic overlays, but concentrates on the grand strategy and massive armies. JA2 is it's tactical little brother. A fantasy one would be extremely good fun - instead of taking the SAM sites you liberate, say, the wizard's tower and unlock the ability to craft items or train NPCs in magic. Perhaps the "Summon Ice Cream Van" spell