Monte Carlo

"Beer," wrote a wise person who's name escapes me, "is God's way of telling us he loves us." I like beer. In fact, I think I might like it even more than wine and I love wine. A lot. But someone else can start a wine thread because this one is about beer. Although drinking whilst operating machinery is foolish, drinking whilst playing computer games is mandatory. When else would my paladin-led party let off a Cloudkill spell in the Copper Coronet? I love an evening all on my own, a few (OK, a shed-load of) interesting beers in the fridge, and a new PC game to play. For any bloke with a young family this is a rare and precious treat. So please share with me the beer from your corner of the world we should all be trying. And, if you feel like it, why? For your delectation, I urge you all to try Badger Ale's Golden Glory by Dorset-based brewers Hall and Woodhouse (I also recommend their 'Blandford Fly' for the adventurous). When I first saw that Golden Glory had peaches in it I scoffed. Peaches? Bah. Then I tasted it. It is nectar, I'll tell you. And I've drunk about ten gallons of it as a quality assurance measure. I know, I'm selfless. What should I be trying next? Cheers MC

Here's a summary of the last thirty-odd pages: * Yuan-Ti suck / are great / are suggestive of all sorts of sinister neuroses on the part of the developers * The overland map is great / too cartoony / suggestive of a collective loss of tribal memory regarding ancient computer gaming lore by fans * Dinosaurs are cool, except to the people who don't like dinosaurs * There was a chick with wings in MotB who reminded a few people of Fall-from-Grace, neither of whom appear in this XP * Swashbucklers remind people of pirates. Pirates are cool, ergo Swashbucklers are a Good Thing * Party-based mayhem = * Volourn likes Dwarves and anything by Bioware, even old memos about who's turn it is to make the coffee in Dave Gaider's recycle bin. In fact, Volourn would turn that into a dwarf-themed mini-game in KotOR 3. * A guy who just registered wants the game for $15.00 Please carry on.

I'm not an expert, just a layman who likes classical music. So I won't say "try this, try that." What I will say is that classical music is such a ridiculously large genre that you might think about what you like and why (which, with Holst, you're well on the way to doing). Holst is a fairly modern 'classical' composer. I like Pachebel and Vivaldi, find Wagner just a bit too hysterically muscular but love Mozart and Beethoven. OTOH, I find Russian classical music a bit too funereal. And all of these composers span a massive swathe of history. The Renaissance to the turn of the 19th century. My advice is to buy a classical compilation CD or two (they invariably cost pennies) of the classics and use it as a bit of a tasting course, like you'd get in an up-market restaurant. Use that as a recce to see where your taste takes you. Enjoy, because I'm sure you will! Cheers MC

Er, it's the Jedi, isn't it?

NWN2 (Lawful Evil rookie Blackguard, currently smiting orcs in Old Owl well - god I hate it that I can't slay NPCs whenever I feel like it). Blitzkrieg 2 (just really, really good fun) Medieval TW2 (modded, England turn 90-something, just kicked off a war with a rather powerful France with a Baltic-dominating Denmark glowering over my eastern flank) Fallout Tactics? good call, I love it to bits. Shame nobody ever modded it. Cheers MC

I never played Ultima, I didn't get into computer gaming on the PC until the early 90's. And in the early 80's this was the only overland map I was gaming with: Pen & paper overland mapping goodness Would love to see a modder do this with the SoZ tools, complete with the 'A' series modules (Slavers), my all-time favourites. Cheers MC

I think we need another exposition on Darklands, Sawyer. Jagged Alliance is my own personal favourite when it comes to maps. Not beautiful by any stretch of the imagination, but fit for purpose.

Chairborne Piefinders. Not to be confused with Airborne Pathfinders We are an elite unit, sent deep behind enemy lines to identify, search and consume baked goods. It matters not if the enemy favour cakes, pasties, pies, biscuits, cookies or croissants, we will find them and we will eat them. Denying the enemy tasty snacks helps us from a psyops perspective and radically re-shapes the battlespace. We are deployed sitting in specially adapted and camouflaged Lazee-Boy armchairs that optimize our cake-eating capabilities. Motto: Nos venit. Nos saw. Nos perussi a pie. I'm preparing for the demanding Level Alpha Pie-finder classification. This will qualify me to wrangle Krispee Kreem do-nuts and the mysterious North Korean vanilla slice. The fail rate is something like 80%, mainly during "Hell Week" when operators are force-fed very cheap pork pies smothered with chilli sauce. Cheers MC

^ Yes, my mistake, I had it on the Sega Megadrive (which was what it was called in the UK). I had X-com on the PS1, believe it or not. The view was scrolled-out, top down isometric - you could see monsters from a distance and avoid them, which is what reminded me of that map on the demo. Am particularly looking forward to see what modders do with it.

The overland map is strangely reminiscent of Warriors of the Eternal Sun, y'now the ancient D&D console game (I had it for the PS1). Not that it's a bad thing, Warrior's of the Eternal Sun was cool (not least the medieval synthisizer musak).

Hmmm. Good point. At the moment I'm assuming that this demo shows one of the 'origin stories' for the new player (apparently player-chosen backgrounds make a massive difference yadda yadda). Of course, it could be that you choose an origin story but still have to become a Grey Warden or whatever anyway, what we call in my job "a self-licking lollipop." :: shrugs :: Still, I'm loving the gameplay video, the item and spell icons and the whole groove of the thing. I know it's wishful thinking, but I'm getting that BG3 feeling. The screenshots remind me of a bit of love for the IE married with some ToEE action. Which is a good thing. Cheers MC

Hey, any game with swashbuckling pirate (sic) classes can only be a good thing. The dude in red in the top screenie looks a bit piratical, although I hope they introduce a non-magical parrot familiar for complete realism. A "A-harrr me hearties / Walk The Plank / X marks the spot" (etc) sound-set is also essential. Developers please note. I've been supporting you for many years and I think it's payback time.

From the IGN article, DA looks right up my street. And I don't buy the low magic thing either (notice the reference to the magic chest straight off the bat). OTOH, those hard-core RPG campaigns where you spend three years fighting small forest animals and kobolds, only to be awarded the villager's heirloom +1 dagger ain't much fun either. I could care less about graphics, the game looks like BG3 plus what the first NWN should have been.

I couldn't agree more. For example, I like action movies. Y'know, gunfights, car chases etc. The genre is pretty formulaic, but some are still better than others. Why? I'd suggest it's mainly because the people who made it understood the conventions of the genre, how to move the boundaries, understood what the audience wanted. It's why a movie like Bullitt still rocks, it's why the Bourne Ultimatum is such good fun, it's why so many other action movies aren't. Look at Sci-fi. Why is the new Battlestar Galactica so damn good? Because the creators love and understand sci-fi so well they can do what the hell they like with it whilst still recognisably staying within almost every boundary of the genre (spaceships, robots, laser guns). Computer games, I'm going to argue, aren't wildly different. You could make a game in the most vanilla, sub-Tolkien-esque setting (er, maybe the FR) and as long as the gameplay, writing and graphics were right most people would still be happy. Conversely, you could have the most original setting but if those ingredients aren't there... So although I was hoping for a more Dark Ages feel, I'll reserve judgement on the game to writing and gameplay. Both of which, I suspect, will reflect an understanding of, and affection for, the genre. Cheers MC

The tag line is "Loot - Level - Build" which is pretty much manna from heaven as far as I'm concerned games-wise. Thanks for the heads-up, I'll almost certainly be giving it a go. Cheers MC

^ Indeed, 'realistic' character models are a bit bland nowadays. I don't mind stylized, even slightly cartoony.

To be fair, the guy on the right does look like he's got indigestion or something. Although that image isn't representative of the trailer, is it?

Having seen the trailer I think it looks pretty good to me. If there were more decent RTS / strategy games on console I might actually buy one.

Personally I thought it looked great, although the LotR orcs were a bit blatant. Maybe a bit Warhammer. I'll not get too bothered about it until I see screenies of gameplay, complete with GUI etc. One thing that does surprise me is the very high-fantasy medieval look of the armour, weapons and buildings. Maybe it's just me, but I was expecting more of a dark-ages, low-fantasy vibe. More Conan than Knights of the Round Table. I prefer the dark ages look to the gothic knight aesthetic but we'll see I suppose. Cheers MC

I'm thinking that the intern in the marketing department was left on her own for the afternoon. She was drunk and the result was the GENIUS piece of marketing. How have the masochists on the Bioware DA forum taken this massive slice of anti-climatic pie?

My two copper pieces. A long time ago, on the Bio forums, I had the occasional minor online spat with Dave Gaider over NWN. He was always polite, fought his corner and knew what he wanted to do. Furthermore, he authored some very decent BG2/ToB mod content in his own time for the fans. He loves the genre. Despite my numerous problems with Bioware (I haven't bought anything of theirs since KotOR for the XBox, and I hated that a bunch), I actually think Dragon Age is going to be worth the price of admission. Why? Well, I think Gaider is Bioware's conscience. Whilst Greg and Ray happily took the route they took (more power to their elbows, BTW, I might not enjoy the product but I admire their success), I envison Dave sat on their shoulder whispering "you are only human" and imploring them to keep the magic alive and remember what got them to where they are now. It's like going to a gig where your favourite band understand how important it is to play, masterfully, all those old tunes as well as the new ones. Perhaps it is the case that, down in the broom cupboard, Bioware let Crazy Dave tinker away at his meisterwerk, safe in the knowledge that the latest no-brainer console dreck will fund any loss. As for the DA forum, well Gaider kinda scotches every mainstream request from fans. Which is good. It sounds like it's grim, low-magic, Fafhrd and Grey Mouser style fantasy (which I like. A lot). I suspect the game might slosh over into too-much-damn-background territory and disappear up it's own arse a bit. But I have no doubt that it's all being done with love and good intentions. And it will be interesting. So good luck to Bioware and Dave. I look forward, with interest, to see what will happen. I can only wonder what engine they've got, though, and what this game will look like. It must look better than the re-mastered NWN2 with the Betrayer improvements, at least. In any case, I'll be buying it just to see what on earth almost five years of development produces! Cheers MC

I, too, love IWD (and the sequel). I'll wait for the NPC expansion to be released and do IWD/HoW & TotL as a refreshing blast from the past. My first (good-aligned) party was: Paladin (leader / charismatic spokesman) Dwarf Fighter (Tank) Elf Fighter / Thief (Archer) Half Elf Cleric Human Bard (Archer / Item identifier / Backup spellcaster... you've gotta have a bard, right?) Elf Wizard Pretty vanilla, but it was fun. My wacky, equally fun evil party was: Chaotic evil Bard Lawful Evil Fighter dual-classed to cleric at level 3 Neutral Evil Thief / Mage Chaotic Evil Human Fighter (two-handed weapons) Chaotic Evil Gnome Thief If I were going for a party with only four members I agree with whoever said four single-class characters. Ironically, yes it is easier with four characters. They level faster, you still get the same loot to spend on kit and it's easier to plan combat in those tight dungeon areas.

True Neutral Human Bard/Rogue (3rd/3rd Level) Ability Scores: Strength- 12 Dexterity- 10 Constitution- 15 Intelligence- 15 Wisdom- 15 Charisma- 14 Dunno how they got there, but, hey.

China's consumerism will continue apace, seeing even more acute price rises for staple commodities, especially foodstuffs. Western food will become increasingly modish in the next five years. The hitherto dairy-light Chinese diet will embrace cheese, yoghurt and probably even tiramisu, which is good news if you are a dairy farmer. Bad news if you like tiramisu. The EU will start to fray at the edges, like a big messy carpet you never really wanted in the first place. Turkey will join, brilliant news for Euro-sceptics as the project will finally become meaningless (er, not least because 75% of Turkey isn't in Europe). Europe will tentatively embrace small government whilst, ironically, America will tentatively dip it's toe into slightly bigger government . The politics of oil will mean that the West will finally get serious about an alternative. The Market will provide, and the resulting collapse of oil prices will destabilise the House of Saud with consequences for the region probably best explained by some policy wonk better qualified than I. Lastly, turn-based isometric computer games will become retro-cool, leading to a rash of superbly executed CRPGs. OK, the pollution-free superfuel prediction is more likely, but a man can dream.

^ I'm loving the dynamic environment - bashing down walls and stuff. I also liked the barbarian leaping into the middle of the bad guys with a grunt. Kudos to the developers - it looks like D2 only better. Sorry, but I don't see the graphics as cartoony as Warcraft. Am looking forward to hours on mindless hack'n'slash fun. Cheers MC