Monte Carlo

NWN2 - Mysteries of Westgate NWN2 - SoZ Company of Heroes Anthology (sucker for WW2 RTS and love the music / high production values) --- I'm thinking of picking up Titan Quest and the XP for peanuts, apparently a perfectly decent Diablo-esque H&S with nice visuals. Anybody here played it? Cheers MC

^ I had a mouse for my PS1 many years ago, used to play C&C Red Alert and X-Com using it. I was strange at first, I ended up with a hardback book on my lap as an ersatz mouse-mat, but it wasn't too bad. Playing those games with a PS controller was lame. Cheers MC

^ It's a bit like your dad dancing at a wedding.

I played Quantum of Solace on the Wii and it was a turgid camel puke of a game. And that was with the Wii 9mm attachment. Wii is for drunken Wii fit antics and karaoke games. Cheers MC

It would be very easy for you to take this the wrong way, so please don't... but I'm not inclined to take anyone connected to Bio's word on this. Not after NWN1. You are in an impossible position, I wouldn't expect you to be critical of the product but for that reason alone I prefer to hear from independent third parties like the guy who wrote the Game Banshee review. Like I say, it's nothing personal. Cheers MC

The developers started talking about the gambit-like system about two year ago. I mean, it has come up several times on the BioWare forums and a few articles I've read, but... Combat is boring. Mechanics are boring. I try to provide you guys with interesting stuff. I never imagined someone would want to hear about combat slots and AI scripts. I feel a bit guilty now. It was a very good article though. I knew a bunch of it in general, but the little details were nice. I know, it's a bummer when the customers want burgers after you went to all that trouble to make Caesar Salad with the wholemeal croutons You know that there's a fair chunk of us here who come from the wargaming end of the spectrum, not the story-and-romance end, and the gambit system (as you call it) is easily one of the most interesting and impressive features I've learnt about. I make no apologies for not closely following the Bio forums (North Korea meets High School Musical), I can't stand yet another romance thread and the Stepford Fans. This type of feature should be up on the official website (where I get my info, quel horreur!) in forty point font. Now I know about it I am duly impressed and interested. Cheers MC

I actually wonder if you're onto something there, I like it...

^ And on that website DA gets a UK '18' rating, the same as the GTA games.

You're right, the pound is toast.

Hmmm, at Game the Dragon Age CE is UK

^ C'mon, no friendly fire? Or friendly fire at 50%? Bah

Sorry, forgot to add...

^ Sure, people are still playing online Starcraft, right? The reason I ask the question is that it's a mysterious area of gaming for me but I'd like to try. The only game I ever really played online was NWN1 which was surprisingly good fun. Cheers MC

This is all good stuff, thanks. I'd got myself into a place where it was going to be the 360, but seeing as my PC is a pretty good gaming machine I'm now thinking PS3. I agree that Wii is genius for people who don't normally play games and a bit of a laugh. If I were to get one it would be a quick browse for a used one on ebay and I'd only hook it up now and then. This console is for games, the sprog is only little but he already loves them. Please keep the advice / debate going as I'm still open to suggestions. Cheers MC

I am buying MC Junior a console for Xmas. Obviously, this is a thinly-disguised ruse for me to buy myself a console. Therefore the sky is the limit with regards to accessories, games and peripherals. What is the considered opinion of the forum as I am utterly unsighted on PS3 versus Xbox 360 (etc). Am also buying a new flat-screen TV to replace the Victorian telly in my sitting room - any particularly good suggestions vis-a-vis console / gaming compatibility also welcomed. Many thanks in advance for any advice, warnings or recommendations. Cheers MC

Quite a simple question, the floor is open to all games with a multiplayer, co-op or MMORPG. I know it's a big, diverse area and there's a bit of apples and oranges comparison, but if you were to play a 'puter game with friends which one would it be? I generally respect the judgement of forum members here for their good taste, so the results should be interesting. Let the discussion begin. Cheers MC

^ It just helps people decide - it's like thrillers or spy novels. They get divided up into military thrillers, techno thrillers, espionage, political thrillers.... even if they're not a perfect fit. There's a country mile between Clancy and Le Carre and a quick sub-category helps orientate where you are.

Fantasy has always had legitimate sub-categories, ask anyone here who enjoys mainstream fantasy novels. Just a few categories that spring to mind are high (heroic) fantasy, low fantasy, fantasy horror (Cthulu), pulp / heroic fantasy (for me this is where Conan sits, proudly) and (straight outta the 70's and my favourite) science fantasy. By the time you've thrown in gothic fantasy (vampires 'n' stuff), steampunk and some other stuff out there in the geekosphere there's a whole lot of fantasy. I agree that fantasy doesn't necessarily involve a bloke in plate attacking a dragon with a sword. Far from it. Cheers MC

Actually, I'm inclined to agree with your assessment, but many others don't see it that way. There's a cnsiderable body of PC gamers who love games that push their hyper-pimped gaming rigs to exhaustion and reward them with spectacular graphics. Crysis is definitely one of those, and I've seen it played on a top-end machine. It really does look great, and for that reason it might drop into a classic niche of it's own. L4D, OTOH, really does refresh coop shooters and deserves to be remembered. Again, it's not really my bag, but you can see why it shines. Cheers MC

Pop, although I don't think that there's an official High-Fantasy-O-Meter, if there was the FR would make it explode. Magical portals, epic heroes, dragons around every corner, quasi-medieval memes of chivalry and monarchy, hot elf chicks, Elminster in a pointy hat, exotic locales loosely based on R/W historical cultures, enchanted swords, evil gods, dungeons under every hill, barn and tree? That's a pretty standard definition of high fantasy. From what we've seen of Dragon Age we can turn the High Fantasy volume down significantly, but some of the key elements are present. Now, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with high fantasy (the FR can become quite tongue-in-cheek in the right hands, and it's a bit of a laugh) it's just that it's a bit over-egged in CRPGs. I think that Bio didn't want to scare the horses for understandable commercial reasons and went with a pretty vanilla setting, just with lots of blood to differentiate it. Maybe Dave Gaider's sneaking lots of stuff under the radar using vanilla fantasy as top cover, we'll see. Cheers MC

Yeah, I remember some of the original concept art and it almost had a bleak, Conan-esque type feel to it. But like the man says, that was ages ago and stuff changes. DA is high fantasy, maybe not as campy as the Forgotten Realms, but still identifiably high-ish fantasy.

I think the 'New Classics' will reflect developments in co-op play and graphics that gamers nowadays put a premium on. Left4Dead (co-op) and Crysis (graphics) ain't exactly my cup of tea but I can see why people will remember them fondly as classics. The CRPG cupboard is pretty much bare as far as modern classics are concerned, apart from MMORPGs, but I don't play those so I can't comment. Cheers MC

I have.