Monte Carlo

Hello. I grew up on a diet of action movies, mainly set during WW2. My childhood revolved around Clint Eastwood's Lt. Schaeffer silently hosing down a gazillion Nazis with an MP40, Gregory Peck garroting SS men on Greek Mountains and Donald Sutherland driving the Sherman tank armed with paint rounds. A bit later, it was The Wild Geese or A Bridge Too Far and as we hit the 1980's I naturally loved brain-dead action movies (of which Arnie was clearly the Meister, culminating in Jesse Ventura's hopelessly camp but cool mini-gun wielding merc in Predator). Nothing, apart from perhaps jello-wrestling with Angelina Jolie and Scarlett Johannsen, makes me happier than beer, pizza and a night in with action movie DVDs (last marathon involved The Dirty Dozen, followed by Ronin (naturally, Ronin aspires to higher-quality Euro-thriller status but is actually also a brain dead actioner. Not that there's anything at all wrong with that, of course). So, I actually fainted when I read about The Expendables.... check it out. Jason Statham is a worthy addition to the Hollywood action hero hall of fame, and of course he's British too so it's nice to see one of our own up there with the big boys. Naturally, I'm looking forward to Inglourious Basterds and adore Tarantino, but this is the film he should be making. And it's not released until 2010, filming starting in March. Please join me in this thread to share your love of the braindead action movie genre. Please post suggestions as to how this film could be even better. For example, love interests / cars / firearms and one-liners. Cheers MC

And now, JA2 The Movie - I give you, The Expendables...

Fair point, and I really liked Silent Storm. Unfortunately, I loved the corny 1980's action movie setting even more. OK, I love everything about JA2, it's as near perfect as a PC game can get in my humble. I'm amazed nobody has made an updated console version, because (whisper it), JA2 could work perfectly well as a console title. Hey, I played XCOM on the original Playstation with a PS mouse, after all. Cheers MC

I'm wondering if there's a Dante's Inferno graphic novel out there. Because that could be cool.

There's two ways of looking at it - 1 (Optimism) Hey, pop culture references classics - mebbe The Kids will dig it and read the original. Huzzah! 2 (Realism) The Kids will think that Dante was a cyborg-commando-assassin I suppose it's like hoping that too much GTA will make kids want to read Crime & Punishment. Problem is, video games don't make kids want to read. My generation came to computer games as a secondary diversion from reading (after all, there was only so much pong you could play before your eyes bled, and arcade games like Galaxians were just too expensive) whereas too many of today's kids are exposed to computer games in lieu of books in the first place. Oh well. I like the game Maria started - howabout The Canterbury Tales using the Assassin's Creed engine? Jeff 'Iceman' Chaucer is a katana-wielding 12th century assassin, slaying an assortment of medieval archetypes. Cheers MC

Furthermore, it's clearly time for a Hemingway version of computer Scrabble where you win bonus points for very. Pithy. Sentences. Naturally, it would be turn-based with extra points for words evocative of booze-laden, self-imposed exile in hot places and (naturally) bull-fighting. I'd also chance my arm on marketing a Court of the Sun King game, using the FIFA 2009 Soccer Manager engine. Use your points to skilfully choose the cream of the French aristocracy and play off against rival families in a game of sarcasm, nepotism and brioche. Careful though... Too many Musketeers does not a revolution postpone! The Dangerous Liaisons expansion pack, however, pixellates Uma Thurman's butt to satisfy the Moral Majority. Cheers MC

From that review, I can see me tabbing my way through the 'cinematic dialogue cut-scenes' with a righteous fury. Like the writer (correctly) identified - the gameplay is the guts of the thing - the camera, party control, urge to loot, look at tactical options... play the thing goddamit. Not watch fakespeare-laden cutscenes. At least on the important stuff, DA continues to show promise. The toolset and the promise of future content still makes me keep the faith as I have hopes for a fairly crunchy mod community gathering around the game. Cheers MC

Many thanks for providing us with Forum Quote of the Week

*spews tea at the monitor* I suppose you all think mocking the illiterate person is funny?

@ Maria: Thanks, that all makes sense. Like I say, as the gaming market changes I suspect this type of content will happen. I imagine it would work better in some genres rather than others. As for Hell kitty's point about immense popularity of Bioware's romances, I'll admit to being totally baffled about the appeal. I just am, I find them risible and unappealing. As long as they are (a) optional and (b) not detracting significant resources from crunchy content then I can co-exist with them. I'm at the point in my life where I know what I like and will lobby for it given the chance. Am certainly no social conservative, but I find a lot of sexual content and themes in popular culture dull. I appreciate that this issue is different from one of relationships - for example I'm sure there's room for a meaningful, platonic relationship in a CRPG too. As it is, the issue is just too off the radar for me personally. Cheers MC

Are people, honestly, asking for a romance simulator CRPG? In real-life, most people have romances. However, very few people in real-life cast spells, command vast armies, fight dragons, storm the beaches of Normandy, become axe-wielding barbarians, run crime syndicates, fly spacecraft... Do you get my drift? For me, this is not a million miles away from asking "why can't you enjoy a four course meal in a CRPG?" or "Why can't my character have a scented bath with candles while reading a book?" in a CRPG. It's stuff you can do in your home prior to starting your 'puter. I'm not being sexist, but I'd like to ask the female gamers if their expectations of thematic content are radically different from the guys? Am genuinely interested. Maybe in time, as gaming becomes even more mainstream than it already is, games that concentrate on relationships will find a niche but credible market. As it is, I don't think the core demographic is ready for what is being mooted here. To reiterate - I want to build empires, fight battles, create powerful characters and have fun. Romance doesn't figure. I am almost certainly in the majority. Cheers MC

:: sigh ::

Let's face it, it is largely American. There's nothing especially pejorative about that because the SEX = BAD / VIOLENCE = OK thing is a Western phenomenon. And where are the vast majority of games and movies made? America. Duh. Having said that, in Europe there isn't the Bible Belt / boycott Walmart thing going on. Well, not yet. Personally, I couldn't care less if I never saw a nipple in a video game, or anything stronger. There's enough sex in just about every other facet of Western popular culture, games are actually a refreshing break from it as far as I'm concerned. Cheers MC

^ I can't imagine that it's not on NWN Vault. Cheers MC

It's not the lack of the 'Human Commoner' origin that bothers me, it's the comparative lack of choice. That is to say I'm forced to choose one of six backgrounds that pretty much define my character for me, and then whatever happens I become a Grey Warden so I'm funnelled into two significant character development boxes by the all-seeing eye, Dave Gaider. It's typical Bioware spoon-feeding. Hopefully you'll be able to dump the origin story baggage fairly quickly and move on to do your own thing. Elves as the 'underdogs' might be a new one, but the archetypal Legolas ranger is still there. To be fair, knife-wielding Bunny Boiler elf chick looks a bit more original (except for the aforementioned Braveheart rip-off). Do Bioware think that their player's minds will, literally, melt if there wasn't an elven archer or a surly dwarf warrior in their game? Cheers MC

Are there only the six origin stories, or are there a load more? It's just that none of them really do it for me. And the crazy elf chick one looks like a rip-off of the first ten minutes of 'Braveheart.' Cheers MC

^ Many thanks. Personally, I like the NWN2 engine for dungeon-crawling (camera issues aside). BG has some great dungeons, I'm looking forward to see what Durlag's Tower will end up like. Are they planning to import the original BG music? I hope so. Icewind Dale / IWD2 using the SoZ build-your-own party and overland features would be pretty cool using the NWN2 engine. Cheers MC

Mkreku, I think 'Master Chief' is a real US military NCO rank of some description. I'm sure the Americans here can help us out. As for there being only 7/12/whatever stories, it's a superficially attractive idea. Then you read, say, Necronomicon by Neal Stephenson and you realise it simply isn't the case. Cheers MC

Has anyone played the demo? What's it like/ I checked out the screen shots and thought "whoa, that's not Imoen!*" Big problem if you're trying to make such an iconic game - everyone has an idea of how the NPCs should look. *Not that this is a biggie for me, I always get her squished by the Ogre in the wilderness area where you find the abandoned merchant caravan, then move on.

:: Shrugs :: Mkreku, I'm not a computer graphics / animation mentat. Sure, I don't like ugly games but I'm not expecting everything to look like Crysis, either. DA:O looks like a classic CRPG with decent-enough graphics. If it's stable with good performance then as far as I'm concerned it could actually be a hell of a lot uglier. So no biggie for me, and I suspect many others. As for death, I completely agree with Killian. In BG2 I fought a number of key battles where I was down to single figure hit points and my last healing potion (Demogorgon springs to mind) plus I lost a treasured NPC who had been chunked - no prospect of raise dead. The choice was mine - pick up his kit, sell it and move on or re-play that battle again and see if I could do it without losing any party members. I moved on, it was actually a bit of a wrench after that amount of investment in the character. It was, however, rewarding because it provided an extra challenge. And, for people who don't like playing that way, there's the difficulty slider (which is better than Easy / Core / Hard because it's scaleable). I accept that I might be in a minority here, but I would appreciate having a permanent death option, or the option to switch on death penalties such as those proposed by CrashGirl. Cheers MC

I'd love to see BG/BG2/ToB remade for NWN2, using the SoZ overland map. Having said that, if I was modding it I'd end up (a) putting in all the mod stuff and NPCs I like from PPG and G3 and (b) tinkering with all the stuff I didn't like about the originals. So it would look very different from the vanilla version. Cheers MC

I like that video a lot, it gave me an excellent idea of what to expect. The combat looks reassuringly old-school and I like the interface. The character movement icons around their feet are a bit clunky, but that's just me being picky. Full control of the whole party is very important to me, and for that decision alone I remain impressed with DA:Origins, not least because a lot of gamers absolutely hate it so it's counter-fashionable. I'd have liked to see one of the fighter characters using a ranged weapon, I'm sure we'll see that later, as well as a lightly-armuored rogue type character. Did anybody else get the feeling that the female wizard's spell-slinging was strangely reminiscent of Gauntlet? This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I spent most of 1987 down the pub playing Gauntlet with friends. Cheers MC

Many thanks for all your helpful and informative replies, especially Moatilliatta. The reaon I want something tangible is because I'm old (er) and still find it difficult to get my head around buying something online that I can't touch or hold. My son's generation will find this, quite naturally, a ludicrous notion. I'm still wary of actually using my credit card details online and only do it once or twice a year. I tried the Atari site today. It was, not to put too fine a point on it, rubbish. Wouldn't let me log in. I'm a choosy customer: Atari, don't make me work when I'm trying to spend money with you. Will check out the other sites. Mods, feel free to lock the thread and save bandwidth, my question has been answered fully and comprehensively. Cheers MC

Well, perhaps not. I've never bought a whole big ol' game online before, and am considering doing it. I'm not as IT literate as you lot, so how does it work? Can I burn a copy so I actually have something tangible? What if the download is interrupted? Etc. I've got a pretty vanilla wireless broadband internet connection - any issues there? Please don't move this to the tech forum. It's scary, and full of people who talk in 1's and 0's. Cheers MC

Hmmm, not visually. For a 2D isometric game FO:T is pretty good-looking, especially the environments and vehicles. JA2, and I love it JA2, is extremely ugly by comparison. I wasn't thinking in this day and age that any big commercial outfit would pick up an engine as dated as FO:T. Just wondered if it would be feasible for skilled modders to MacGuyver it. Cheers MC