Monte Carlo

Don't Taks, just don't. You've started a rant. Right, remember in The Good Old Days, when you could leave your party at the dungeon entrance whilst the thief skulked around, did a recce, disarmed traps and back-stabbed a sentry here and there? Then you could move your party forward, totally safe in the knowledge that they would stay exactly where you left them? Fun, wasn't it? Not now, what with progress an' all. Neeshka could have been a really strong NPC, a level clearing death goddess with 8d6 sneak attack and excellent stealth skills. When she issues that Stand Your Ground command, what happens? Everyone follows her, eventually. My party has the discipline of a bunch of untrained conscripts. I don't know, progress, it's great ain't it?

Given the, er, [diplomacy]ease-of-use[/diplomacy] nature of NWN2, you don't really need a balanced party. Or, come to think of it, a party at all. You could probably solo the thing with a gimped Sverfneblin Bard. I will probably POWARGAEME it with four half-orc hack-meisters.

I still don't get the friendly fire issue. You use the right spell for the right situation - i.e. if you are in a tight dungeon corridor you might use buffs on your fighters, area denial spells on doorways then use finesse-based attacks like acid arrows etc. Not expect to be able to fireball everything with impunity. For me, the no friendly-fire thing turns the game into more of a Dungeon Siege type screen-saver, not a D&D game. For example, I was playing the boss-fight at the orc caves in NWN2 OC. The phone went. I thought I paused (except that that I hadn't) and answered it. I came back and of course my party had massacred everything without my intervention whatsoever. That's not a game. That's a screen-saver.

Who mocked you? I merely politely pointed out a difference. Furthermore, hardly anybody here agrees with each other. About anything. Chill out. You know you want to.

Blimey, I just got a flashback to the original trailer for Planescape: Torment, even the brooding music was similar. Even the buildings look heavily influenced by Sigil as seen in PS:T. What do PS:T afficinados think?

So, what you're really saying is that you prefer unlimited power so combat doesn't interrupt the next soppy romance / plot / cookie cutter NPC chatter cutscene? Tactics are and always have been a vital part of CRPGs. Those that avoid this rule are usually less than the sum of parts (I know this forum is stacked full of Planescape fans but PS:T is a case in point). Developers have to satisfy both camps - the gamers like you who prefer to not have to think about how they use their combat abilties and powers, and players like me who love thinking about it and find romances and similar guff secondary distractions. Good games contain enough of each to keep us all happy. Simple, logical dynamics like having to plan a bit about where you can rest and where you throw extremely lethal spells aren't "hard-core." They simply assist (a) gameplay and (b) the suspension of disbelief. Personally, I find the bizarre fact that a fireball thrown into melee only harms your enemies completely irritating. I wish it was an option you could switch on and off. Infinity Engine combat was far more satisfying in this respect. Cheers MC

But will it be real time, turn base, or pause and play? None of the above. Small cardboard counters on a hexagonally-gridded map, rolling six-sided dice. Yes, it's Squad Leader to the death, baby!

But I do.

Except that Guinness isn't beer. It's stout. It's like saying your favourite blend of tea is coffeee.

^ Above typo possibly caused by several pints of Greene King IPA.

Sand, my love, look at the sub-title. To wit, a thread "for everybody that loves beer." Now, where I come from we call that a clue. Although I'm reasonably intrigued as to the provenance of your strange banana-flaovured beer, I'm not sure that this is the thread for you

^ Indeed, a Falstaffian girth is the price we pay for our love of the hop.

Yes, I like Sierra Nevada. Whenever I've gone to the States I've really enjoyed the Microbreweries. Americans are good at making hoppy beer that tastes like ale but tastes good cold. A lot of English beer tastes better a bit warmer. I think some terminology is in order. In the UK we use the generic term beer, but what we really mean is: Lager: The cold fizzy stuff, usually from France, Belgium or Germany. Having said that, I'm currently enjoying Morretti (Italy) and Sagres (Spain). Bitter: what everybody else might call ale, darker beer that isn't necessarily served chilled. My favourite is Fuller's London Pride. Now, I'm getting into the real ale hybrid of cold summer bitters, like Golden Glory that is the best of both worlds. Lastly, Hurlshot's comment about beer complementing food is extremely well made. Can you imagine eating Indian or Thai food without beer? Or Mexican? Lots oF English food goes extremely well with beer (in fact, a lot of the stuff I cook has beer in it too). Cheers MC

"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.