Monte Carlo

^ 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.

^ Fallout Tactics = Love the Sherman tank. A lot.

That's my entire point: CRPG combat often boils down to squad-level tactics using weapons designed for large units. Of course, small unit skirmishes have always been a feature of warfare but the preferred personal weapon of the warrior throughout history, give or take an exception or two, has been a three foot long piece of sharp metal of some description and a shield. Crossbows? Great in fifty man lines, useless in a six man ruckus. Polearms? Fabulous when you're two hundred deep facing cavalry, useless in a building fighting the evil humanoid du jour. Flamberge / Zweihander / Claymore? Great for hacking through stacks of armoured footmen in the middle of a field, useless in a 10 x 10 room. I could go on. Tunnel-rat dungeon combat would involve short swords, poleaxes, daggers, stilettos, misericords, kamas, maces, warhammers and other compact, nasty, brutish melee weapons. The other large weapons are there to add flavour and echo the knight-in-shining-armour meme. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but when you start thinking about your character armed with a crossbow and a halberd in a dungeon....

Absolutely, in armies. I'm sure someone can enlighten us about the Papal decree banning them because they made it possible for a lowly peasant to take out a high-born knight clad in thousands of florins worth of Milanese plate. But we're talking about small unit tactics. Where they are pretty useless as a missile weapon.

^ That's a good call, crafting in lots of games seems to turn into answering a question nobody actually asked.

^ I'm not sure about crafting. As for crossbows, actually when you think about it they're useless in a small unit context, a bit like black powder weapons. You fire them as an opening volley then... that's it, you ain't ever going to get the opportunity to use it again in any meaningful way. Let's hope you hit that target! An archer can plink happily away as long as he's got arrows and some guys keeping melee fighters away from him. Like I said, it's all about Rate of Fire. In a big unit, as in a long line of trained Genoese hiding behind the palise? Yep, crossbows make a lot of sense, but a CRPG is invariably small unit tactics. I'd make crossbows (a) really slow to load but (b) powerful. Characters would have to use them tactically, i.e. an opening and carefully planned salvo then dump them and go to melee combat. But that's just me. Cheers MC

Even I won't beat up on them for the bowstring animations - a lot of resources for very limited returns visually. Mind you, to nock an arrow on one of those bows you'd need inch thick tungsten rope anyhoo

BTW, watched the Blind Guardian in-game concert you posted, I laughed initially but actually it was cool. Very reminiscent of Number of the Beast era Iron Maiden

^ That's a shame, I'm not really a spell-casting enthusiast as a main PC. Except for clerics. I like the Fallen Paladin guy and the half-elf not-quite-Annah NPCs but the cleric was so irritating it hurt. Two out of three ain't bad, as Meatloaf used to warble. Thanks for the Druid suggestion though, hadn't thought of it and I quite like them as you can make a pretty cool melee-orientated druid. :: Ponders crazily gimped Druid - Swashbuckler build ::

^ Marilyn Manson is far too dark and gritty for Dragon Age, although he'd make an excellent prestige class.

Um, first, I meant those two "acerbic episodes" you just had about the weapons Second, if you really just said that because you have been a member here for 5 years you are somehow above me, I think I have to go outside and laugh. Hard. Go and walk into a bar, sit in the pub bore's favourite chair he's been sat in since forever and start telling him to calm down. Get over yourself.

^ Yep, longbow = approx 6'. However, they were relatively thin, cut across the heart of a Southern European wood (typically Yew from Sicily or some other sunny place) from one piece of wood. When not in use they were unstrung. Arrows were hand-crafter from silk and goose feathers with a variety of heads based on the killing task (bodkins for armour). I'm always surprised that arrows are so cheap in RPGs, realism notwithstanding. The RoF of longbowmen was agreeably high - the 5000 odd archers at Agincourt allegedly achieved 75,000 arrows a minute. This was their real advantage - the crossbow had better range and penetration but was painfully slow. Cheers MC

Hi, Got this yesterday and rolled up a character (Rog3/Ftr5 with spear specialisation / monkey-grip going for a gladiator type vibe) and met 3 NPCs (the female cleric got booted ASAP, which is rare because I'm a tart for keeping useful characters even if they are annoying, and I do like a good undead-spattering cleric). There was one encounter (SPOILER) with the spider dude that I couldn't beat and the levelling up looks agreeably slow. So, I'm going to re-start, we all do it. Don't spoil me, but what character builds did others use and enjoy? Looking at it superficially, it does look rogue-based so I'm thinking a swashbuckling type character. Cheers MC

I don't rant, I am agreeably acerbic. I will spare you another acerbic episode because you joined about five minutes ago and presumably have better things to do than read all my old posts