Monte Carlo

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

I'm playing CoH single-player and it's awesome, how does it pan out in multiplayer?

^ Am quite happy to be cited as the voice of the wargaming end of the spectrum in this conversation. I respect Maria's POV, she's obviously put a great deal of effort into gathering info for us all. It's also natural that she tends to concentrate on areas of CRPGs that interest her. FWIW I appreciate the effort she's put in and have read lots of it and learnt more. You have to remember that D&D started as a wargame, and love it or hate it D&D is the fulcrum for games like Dragon Age. Obviously the genre has moved on and the RPG world ended up consisting of lots of micro-groups who enjoyed various aspects of what gaming had to offer. OK, I ended up camping out in the backwoods of tactical wargaming for thirty years, this plus decent beer gives me a certain perspective that has little interest in the preoccupations of the Bio Forum regulars. The main reason I got back into gaming was the advent of CRPGs where the stylised isometric view reminded me of the classic days of yore, basically an abstract zoomed out view of miniatures on a battle board. It was extremely cool - exactly the sort of gaming I wanted to see on the computer. Things have moved on, and now I have to scroll through soppy cutscenes to get to the next half-decent battle. I also love - character development (skill trees and classes, BTW, not new ways of telling my party I wub them), inventory management, new kit and AI. This is the sort of nuts and bolts that interests me. Don't get me wrong, I like well-developed NPCs, as long as they don't get in the way. I like my NPCs in the same way that some games let me custom paint armoured vehicles. No more, not much less. If DA manages to, in any meaningful way, balance these two ends of the spectrum then I'll be happy. Bioware can do it, they did it with BG1 & BG2. Cheers MC

^ I don't, never really had the chance. Plus, I'm not exaclty an FPS fan and have the hand-eye coordination of a housebrick.

^ All swearing is 'cultural' isn't it? I could point you to Chaucer (The Miller's Tale, to be precise) for the Middle English version of The Worst Swear Word Ever.

I am currently playing Company of Heroes (which, FWIW, is excellent and I recommend it to others here who'd enjoy a very war-movie like WW2 action RTS). Amidst the noise of battle I suddenly heard my American paras swearing. Proper, salty, abusive 'F' word swearing like, er, WW2 paratroopers under fire (other favourite line when flanked "We're Airborne - we're meant to be surrounded!"). It was also a pleasure to play the British campaign and here lots of swearing in Scots accents by scary infantry NCOs, as well as the liberal use of the word W**K*R (mods, this swear word is only really known in Britain and Australia, and in Oz it's akin to the word 'Jerk' and not remotely in the upper echelons of sweariness). It made me smile, I like a good swear word now and then. Which is my point - this is the first time I've ever heard swearing in a computer game that actually felt right. In Grant Theft Auto, for example, it felt a bit like "Look at me! I'm swearing! In a computer game!" So what does the forum think about swearing - not worth the rating issues? Useful to add atmosphere? Offensive? Cool if you have a fantasy game where you make up loads of entirely new cusses and swear words? Over to you, but please, no swearing Cheers MC

A low-fantasy version of Jagged Alliance 2 using a custom-built ruleset.

Smoke a cigarette? Ye Gods, man, do you really want to cast an extended "Summon Politically Correct Kommissar V" spell?

30-40m is rather generous for a standard 9mm SLP I'd say, but that's a geeky argument for another thread Maybe a Gucci .45 or 10mm handgun with a Picatinny rail loaded with peripherals would do that, but by that stage you might well be using an M4 system or similar anyway. I used to be a reasonable pistol shot and I was good to go with a Browning 9mm at 25 meters. Anything beyond that was luck, and modern ballistic armour would afford considerable protection against that. JA2: One of the most awesome, perfectly formed and efficacious computer games ever made, I'm jealous that you've just discovered it. Enjoy. Cheers MC

^ The villain actually does a proper Mwuahahahhahaaa!!! pantomime villain laugh. Obviously, I want to be scathing about this but I'm a sucker for a proper, old-fashioned Mwuahahhahaahaaa!!! laugh. Next line should be: "BEHIND YOU!" Cheers MC

Nothing else can explain the Farmboy character origin.

Er, OK, let's examine the thought process. Developer 1: We've got this origins thing going on - let's write a human one, OK? Developer 2: Sure, after all this is a dark, heroic fantasy. Totally mould-breaking and the spiritual heir to Baldur's Gate! Developer 1: Dude! Let's pop open another diet soda to celebrate! :: Pops open soda and eats Krispy Kreme :: Developer 2: Let's get something completely straight - this has to be a dark, heroic character origin, no cliche or dreary seen-it-all-before drudgery. Developer 1: It's, like, you're reading my mind. :: Devs start tapping away on laptops, ride unicycles, brain-storm on large pieces of paper and play occasionally with large pile of action figures in the Generation Z style :: TWO DAYS LATER Developer 1: Dude, I'm like totally wired about this character origin. Developer 2: I know, I'm going to have to take a two week break to Mexico just to let my brain cool down. Developer 1: I know I shouldn't say it, but we are genius's. Developer 2: Is that the plural of 'Genius?' Developer 1: Geniuii? Developer 2: Whatever, look, here's the script... "You are a young rural farmboy who rises to greatness..." Developer 1: :: SWOONS :: Does anybody else see the deliberate mistake? Cheers MC

When the entire premise of Dragon Age appears to be to join a paramilitary organisation, then persuade other factions to provide you with military support, in order for you to have an epic battle with a slavering horde of evil... then I'd expect combat to be a significant part of the enterprise. I'm sure there a some of you here who'd think it would be cutting edge to beat the Darkspawn via a series of diplomacy checks, or impress them with your crafting skills, or awe them with your romantic exploits (etc). But I'm old fashioned and want to beat the snot out of the enemy, very tactically, with a variety of melee weapons As for that clip posted with more Braveheart cheesiness, yes, every time you get mildly enthusiastic you see the cliche-machine in operation and start planning your hot-key combos to skip cutscenes. As for the 'English' accents of the nobles, trust me they don't even sound very posh. They sound like slightly affluent East Midlands suburban car dealers, not aristocratic rakes. Cheers MC