Monte Carlo

You know it's true.

Sounds like we have a clear case of unfair generalising! So it's not "kids these days" becoming unable or unwilling to master relatively complex rulesets. Looks to me like WotC is solely to blame for driving it to the ground, in their effort to force their ****ing miniatures down everyone's throats, in their effort to make it appealing to the widest possible audience. I wasn't suggesting the kids couldn't / wouldn't get complex rulesets. To the contrary, I know they can. Re. WotC and minis = totally agreed.

Alanschu's point about us not thinking big is disingenuous. Does anyone, honestly, think that a developer given the Star Trek licence to play with would be allowed to craft a deep, rich CRPG that allowed the player to have much fun as a Klingon or Romulan as it would a pointy-eared Star Fleet tech officer? Would they hell. It would be all set 'phasers to stun', running around the deck to simulate explosions, 'tha engines'll nae tek it cap'n' and the inevitabel tribute to Tribbles. Not to mention the countless hours spent getting the 'swishing' noise the doors make just so, much to the delight of the utter hordes of canon-obsessed trekkies such a title would attract. :: Yawn :: Honestly, Star Trek as a gaming franchise has got more baggage than Paris Hilton on a private jet. Anything else. Anything. 80's cheese Galactica for chrissakes, with Dirk Benedict in a plastic space fighter. Cheers MC

It really is a case of video killed the radio star. Pen & Paper gaming was dying. PC games rescued it, and to a certain extent needed it. A lot of gamers came back to PnP as a result of the Gold box or IE games (I played PnP with quite a few of them) and now PnP has to ape the relative simplicity of MMOs.... ergo 4E. It's insulting and patronizing - "Da Kidz" can only understand simple rules, have no time for complexity etc. Computer gaming irrevocably changed the way people approached PnP gaming. Two things I noticed immediately was what I called "Baldur's Gating" i.e. immediately resting after any combat encounter to recharge spells / hit points etc just like in BG. The other was a twitchy expectation of fast-levelling. Nothing wrong with this - it's what they expected from D&D after being introduced to it on the 'puter is all. 4E seems to me to be the ultimate manifestation of this - unfortunately it is characterless, pointless sludge. 3E was the apogee of the game, RIP Dungeons and Dragons. Cheers MC

Mass Effect says hi.(without the cool part) Let me re-phrase that. OTOH, there is easily scope for a classic space-opera type CRPG that references everything cool in science fiction that isn't made by Bioware. Cheers MC

Zombie word association: "Cherry" "Mwooaaahhh..." "Sofa" "Mwooaahhh...." "Comfort" "Mwoooahhh!" "Hamburger" "MWARGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!" *looks at clipboard* "Well, you're absolutely fine for a zombie of your age and level of decomposition, that'll be five hundred pounds please."

I say no. Sorry. Hey, I like Star Trek as much as the next fairweather sci-fi enthusiast. However, I also see Star Fleet, in a tin foil hat kinda way, as a soulless, socialistic, humourless organisation that I don't really want to be part of in a sixty-odd hour game. Personally, I'd rather be a Klingon (let's face it, the Klingons are vikings, they cut about in their dragon-boats being savage. That's cool), and simply blow up spaceships full of tight-sweater wearing, smug, goody-two-shoes Star Fleetians. OTOH, there is easily scope for a classic space-opera type CRPG that references everything cool in science fiction. So, with respect, I vote for an original IP. Cheers MC

About 90% of the Bio board forum members, for whom it is the pivotal lynchpin of the entire game.

WoW has Mister T and Ozzy Osbourne doing TV ads for it, which is cool. Not cool enough for me to try it out myself, but cool nonetheless. MMOs = fail. NWN3 is of marginal interest to me, but in the little online gaming I did with NWN it was kinda fun. Cheers MC

Jagged Alliance - The Jagged Edge. The Russian VO and written English is so dreadful I didn't know where to start. It's like a really, really bad mod. Anyway, I decided to think out of the box, so I put on some camouflage paint, drank a half-litre of supermarket vodka straight out of the freezer and put on a Metallica album. And y'know what? The Jagged Edge is utterly awesome. Or, in Jagged Edge-speak - Teh Jeggzed Eadege uz AWeSoME!!!

Etiquette requires that I label this one SPOILERS...

Puh-leez. This thread is a gossipy, bitchy confection for sniping, rumour and stuff. Dissection of Dave G's ponderous self-generated fanfic is verboten. Although y'all deserve a medal for reading it. Many thanks. Question - what music, apart from the MM track, would you have used for that trailer? I'm thinking Ride of the Valkyries, but perhaps a rap-metal version.

The Lord of the Rings Third Age mod for MTW2. I'm finding it tough, even on Medium / Hard. Playing as Rohan I just get hordes of orc armies marching all over me. Having said that, as a mod, it's an impressive achievement. Art assets, music etc are excellent. They capture the cinematic LotR battle vibe (the first time you charge your Riders of Rohan heavy cav into five hundred Uruk Hai is pretty special). It's just that it's obviously designed for the hardcore, grind-house TW crowd, of which I am at best a fair-weather member. Cheers MC

Volourn. He is the twisted sports title master, in addition to his CRPG mentat duties. He buys hockey games in multiples of fifty, honestly it dwarfs his Bio loyalty

^ Domino Champion '09 Gin Rummy Master Skittles Manager Elite Darts 'n' Snooker Legends ---

The thing is, nobody wins. CRPG fan sees fairly crude action title marketing... might not buy title. Action / console fan sees beardie-dwarf'n'elf tastic CRPG... might not buy title. Action / console fan has more to lose, because I suspect as others have said there is a reasonably old-skool game lurking in there somewhere *fingers crossed* EA marketing department seems confused about this strange game it has inherited from Canadian fantasy craftsmen. Therefore the orders from the high command for gore, rock muzak and chainmail bikinis* They are trying to sell a muscle truck to folks who want a volvo, and vice versa. Ha ha ha. * There's nothing worng, BTW, with games featuring these things if that's actually what they are.

What were the respective unit sales of BG2 (+ToB) compared to NWN (+ expansions) and Mass Effect? I accept that in, in the context of this discussion, BG2 has iconic importance that might transcend the profitability of the title. OTOH Show Me The Money. Cheers MC

Not personally, I'd like to see something completely new. Magic Eight-Ball tells me, however, that Obsidian will inevitably end up making Dragon Age 2, whereupon they will fix all the dialogue, engine problems and art assets and make it the game the original was meant to be Cheers MC Nonsense. Why would EA outsource Dragon Age 2 to Obsidian. If everything goes well, Obsidian is gonna work on their own fantasy property. Perhaps they continue on that "Seven Dwarfes" game as we speak. Er, it was a joke.

Not personally, I'd like to see something completely new. Magic Eight-Ball tells me, however, that Obsidian will inevitably end up making Dragon Age 2, whereupon they will fix all the dialogue, engine problems and art assets and make it the game the original was meant to be Cheers MC

You can't soar to the skies if you've got the hundred tonne ball of dreck that is 4E chained to your ankle.

The original, pre Bioware, Nevewinter Nights was.... a very early MMO. You could just as easily argue that it's going back to it's roots.

Wow, whoever designed that was drinking absinthe or something... the touching tale of a boy and his feathered-wolf-monster buddy. Who teaches him Barrel-based combat techniques. At the end of the day, it's always back to barrels. They are the comfort prop of the video game designer. Cheers MC

Official thread? I've been busy, sorry I didn't spot that. Nonetheless, there is clearly room for another thread so seasoned Bio watchers can observe the mores of the video gaming industry from afar. And, for the record, I'm not a troll. There's just something about this project that bemuses me more than usual. Cheers MC

Check out the new DA website. It's an epic tale of (and I quote) Violence! LUST! Betrayal! The site is covered in blood, as per the "This is the New Sh*t" trailer, has clear, easy-to-read text for console fans and, if I didn't mention it before, IS COVERED IN BLOOD. It's like Carrie meets Kill Bill meets a documentary about abbatoirs. The LotR imagery has been usurped by quasi-300 style uber-violence. And this is now, unambiguously, an EA joint. It's like a marketing dude in ironic glasses and vintage sneakers turned up in Edmonton and kicked the snot out of the bearded Canadian RPG-lovers. BLOOD! raged Marketing Dude. BLOOD! THERE'S A RECESSION OUT THERE! SHIFT UNITS. OMG BLOOD! And.... LUST. GIMME LUST! "Yes master," whimpered the Biowarians, scurrying around and pixellating more gore and cleavage. Can anybody else wait for October 20th, a free Level-Up Fast Ring +5 and DaRk hEROic FanTAsy? Cheers MC