Monte Carlo

Well, I'm buying it and some of you might remember that I didn't really like the original Fallout very much. FO2 was good, I'll grant you. But... Tactics. Tactics was great. In fact, why doesn't somebody make a Fallout Tactics game with some Jagged Alliance-style character overlays and just make the Greatest Game Evar?

It comes with a SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme card. I didn't order the speakers as I have my own much nicer ones already. I was wondering about the one versus two videocard issue, but was persuaded by sales guy. I'm not playing hours of networked FPS, just want to occasionally enjoy top-end games. For example, I suspect Dragon Age will be a bit of a hawg but I'm anticipating running it on full pelt on this rig. Cheers MC

Why are they spending billions on high-tech warships when the primary threat appears to be Iranian speedboats with forward mounted machineguns?

"After sixteen years in the army, he was catapulted to the rank of corporal" (Woody Allen - Take the Money and Run) My recent family's military history started out reasonably well - My Grandfather was an army dispatch rider in WW2, won a medal for driving through a minefield in N. Africa (why didn't he just drive around it?). Then he fought in Italy, got home in 1946 after five years without coming home. Then it went downhill with my father - He was a National Serviceman in the 1950's. In the UK, National Service was conscription, which lasted until 1962 or 1963 IIRC. My father was an army truck driver, but he deserted. The military cops couldn't be bothered to come for him, presumably having done a quick piece of analysis around his net contribution to the British army. In the end he ended up handing himself in at a police station and was put in charge of an ageing army fire engine. My contribution was little better - I went to the recruitment office. My test scores were so low that when I asked if I could fly helicopters they replied that they wouldn't trust me to fuel one, let alone fly one. Eventually I ended up as a bayonet technician (infantry) in the reserves for five years. We would go to Germany every autumn, dig trenches and wait for the Russians. Or make rude signs at the East German border guards. Or shout very loudly into the little telephones they have at the back of tanks at 0200 to p*ss the crews off. During the first Gulf War we weren't mobilized, which we were all very annoyed about because we were in our early twenties and knew no better. I ended up doing something entirely different but enjoyed every moment of my contact with the military. So enjoy the Navy, and Godspeed Calax. I'm sure you will. Cheers MC

UPDATE: In the end, having done my research and speaking with my bank manager I've decided on the preposterously named but rather powerful Chillblaster-Angry-Sounding-Macho-Rig-thingie: SPECIFICATIONS: 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 overclocked to 3.4GHz, 4GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM, Asus Rampage Formula Republic of Gamers motherboard, 1GB Nvidia GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics, 750GB Samsung Spinpoint HD753LJ hard disk, Samsung DVD writer, 20in Samsung SyncMaster TFT, Saitek Eclipse II keyboard, Razer DiamondBack mouse, Creative T7900 7.1 speakers, 2 x PCI-E 16x, 2 x PCI-E 1x, 2 x PCI, 8 x USB, 2 x DVI-I, 1 x HDMI, 2 x FireWire, eSATA, Gigabit Ethernet, S/PDIF, PS/2, Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit, 2yr RTB warranty. ^ I'm not sure what this means, but apparently it's very, very fast and I will be able to hack into the Death Star and the NSA and stuff on it. I've made my order and customised it a bit - nothing drastic. I have to say, the telephone support was very good, the guy was very patient with a novice such as myself and even helped me save some money on my order by guiding me through my customisation options. I will be playing this Crysis game everybody is talking about, although Fallout 3 and the new Total War game are the ones that I'm really gearing up for. I will post a review, and my Dell (worth about UK

^ Improved Faldorn is in fact just dull, in the end I edit my druid to level 40 or something and just hit her with Devas / Elemental Lords. Which is just plain wrong. OTOH, Kuriosan the Acid Kensai is loads of fun once you get it. He looks indestructible but there is an inherent weakness - figure it out and you can take him down and earn one of the most munchkin magic swords ever to grace a mod.

I can't put them in order, they were all extremely good fun in different ways at different times. However, my rule of thumb is simply the sheer amount of time put into playing them and enjoying myself: Jagged Alliance 2 Baldurs Gate 1 / TotSC/ BG2 / ToB Icewind Dale Close Combat: 3&4 (Eastern Front / Normandy) Medieval Total War Medieval Total War 2 / Kingdoms Dungeon Keeper X-Com - Enemy Unknown Fallout: Tactics (I am an army of one - so sue me) Doom 2 (the only FPS I have ever loved!) MC

Most 'Games Journalism' is a contradiction in terms. Pointlessly overpaid fanbois with ironic facial hair kidding themselves that they are actually writing for a living instead of performing a quasi-parasitical PR role for the industry.

^ That's a fair point. However, IE games are eminently re-playable, and mods simply service that reality. I find the vanilla versions too easy. Having said that, I find some of the mods too hard, i.e I've never beaten Improved Firkraag.

Yay, another game which glorifies crime and which will become readily available to ten year olds. I'm hardly a censorious person, but GTA troubles me.

^ Torgal can be cheesed. 1. He is susceptible to repeated cloudkills (about twenty!). I know, it's wrong, but I've done it. 2. When he does attack he fixates on one character. Haste that character and let the rest of your party put the smackdown on him. 3. Yes, a melee heavy party has a much easier time with him. I usually have at least three full-on tanks in my custom built parties. 3a. In fact, if you do make your own party, try four-six fighter-types. It is a bit of a rollercoaster because some fights are extremely easy, others (i.e. high level with lots of mages) extremely hard. In fact, this type of game is the only one where I've developed a Wizardslayer and been glad to have him around. My party of four was - PC - Human Barbarian (two handed swords) Dwarf Berserker (slashing weapons / 1 H swords) Half Orc Wizardslayer (D/W hammers / maces / flails) Elf single-classed fighter maxed out profs in bows and melee profs in lesser-used 2H weapons (spears and halberds) Finished the whole trilogy but was tough. Cheers MC

^ ^ ^ ^ That's why the game really needs all those mods to keep you on your toes - smarter liches / pit fiends etc can ruin your day and (for example) improved Torgal makes the D'Arnise Keep a proper challenge. Only problem with Tactics is the Monty-Haul levels of loot left behind by the parties that attack you. I was wandering around with 3-4 million GP, giving it away to temples to atone for my "Cloudkill-in-a-tavern" moments.

Apparently you get a free T-shirt. The chicks will love it. Mrs. Monte Carlo has told me that I need to grow up. Then I showed her a couple of customised Alienware rigs (y'now, day-glo green covered in flames and stuff) and she calmed down because the CFJ actually looks quite dull.

You need BGTuTu, this is not really negotiable. As well as Tactics, Ascension (etc). Just go to Pocket Plane Group and enjoy. I now play this game one of two ways: 1. Icewind Dale Style - i.e. I make all the characters (multiplayer game cut-and-pasted into my single player folder) and therefore get to try out strange party combos. You miss out on a lot of NPC stuff, but hey, you know all that already. 2. Core party style - i.e. main player character, one romance character and Imoen (i.e. core plot character). And I really hate Imoen. You can pick up other NPCs occasionally as and when you need them, but this is quite an interesting challenge. The last time I did it I made Imoen a sorcerer (there's a little mod out there that let's you switch NPC classes), Jaheira and PC Fighter / Thief. Perfectly balanced party, you're only really missing the powerful insta-chunk undead turning you get with a good or neutral aligned cleric. Daystar helps re-balance this. BG1/TotSC/BG2/ToB, all insanely modded with BGTuTu is a permanent feature of every computer I've owned for as and when each of the games has come out (ten years or since BG1?).

This is the bit I don't get, perhaps a marketing / industry person can enlighten me: Information technology has revolutionised leisure. I live in London in the early 21st Century, and trust me, it's getting a bit like Bladerunner. OK, we don't have androids or floating police cars (not yet) but on the tube train I stand next to an Estonian punk rocker with a Japanese girlfriend dressed like Xena-goes-Goth or something. They are both playing computer games on their Nintendo hand-helds. He's playing some shoot 'em up, she's playing su doku and some brain-training thing. Between them they have i-phones, gaming consoles and a laptop. William Gibson would feel completely validated. My point is everyone is different, and IT and the internet allows everyone to do the different things they enjoy. There must be a zillion micro-markets... for example my three year old plays simple online games themed around his favourite cartoon characters (actually I quite like the Go Diego Go! Aztec pyramid Tetris-clone). Yet.... yet computer games, dominated by the 500lb gorilla that is the console market, are all turning into the same gooey mush. I find this dichotomy a bit depressing. Sport, racing cars or improbably-muscled avatars wielding comedy guns. I suppose it must be development costs. Until technology allows developers to become like dead-tree book publishers and set up independent, profitable niche businesses catering for older gamers, as per the excellent post about the "gaming baby-boomers" (I'm almost forty and therefore older than most of you lot), I think we are stuck where we are. Having said that, Baby-Boomers can buy all their creaky 60's and 70's favourites digitally remastered and refreshed. Wouldn't it be great if they could do that with computer games? After all, CA looked at Medieval TW and said "that game is so great, now we've got better technology let's make it all over again - just even better!" And, lo! A hit game was given unto us. Also, I honestly think that most of the developers I've conversed with over the years are like writers / authors - not actually greedy people - if they could make a reasonably decent living doing and creating the games they loved then they'd be happy. Hopefully more powerful internet access will allow us to download more mainstream games and see more originality. One last word: piracy. Pirates are killing PC gaming. Theft is theft is theft. Until it stops, lots of the things we'd like to see won't happen. You are, literally, taking the food out of creative people's mouths.... not necessarily the big corporate sharks of popular myth who will always overpay themselves anyway. Cheers MC

I feel exactly the same way as the person who started the thread. Computer role-playing games are more or less dead, I too never finished NWN2 and found NWN pointless. Toolsets? Pah. I pay developers to make games - I don't have the time myself. The reason that older games feel more immersive is that for me they actually capture the spirit of tabletop gaming. For example, JA2 or the IE games look like you are moving miniatures on a diorama. And, as TOEE proved, you can make that look great too (shame about the rest of the game). I completely understand the pressure to provide spectacular graphics - I like eye-candy too (Medieval TW2 with all the options maxed out is beautiful to watch - the graphics are definitely part of the appeal). However, a good game is a good game. Chess is a great game played with pieces carved out of plasticene as much as if it's played on a computer with amazing graphics. These older games had this in abundance. I know, nostalgia ain't what it used to be, but as yet another WW2 themed FPS with amazing Tiger Tanks and realistic recoil from Tommy Guns gets released I just yearn for a game that allows for a bit of immersion, quirkiness and (gasp) micro-managment. Seriously, when Dungeon Siege came out all the people on this forum correctly identified that it was actually a very expensive screensaver. A few years on, it now looks like a masterpiece of interactivity compared to some of the dreck I avoid in the games shop. I am now an elderly grognard. I know. For me, only the Total War series is flying the flag of innovative, immersive gaming. A lot of CRPGs are now simply screensavers or The Sims with swords. Cheers MC

My personal view is that there is a stereotype that the Scots are rock hard, occasionally small and wiry in stature and refreshingly plain-speaking. This has morphed into the classic Tolkein-esque take on the fantastical race of dwarves. Nordic / Scandic myth is also linked to the East coast of Scotland (as well as the Northeast of England). Dwarves feature in that folklore too. I also suspect that, as an infantry officer in the First World War, Tolkein observed Scottish infantry regiments on the Western Front. Speaking as an Englishman, Scottish soldiers have a hard-won reputation as being extremely tough and aggressive in combat. I wonder if this influenced his take on Gimli (etc). Maybe a Tolkein mentat can enlighten us. Cheers MC

At the moment, the Chillblast Fusion Juggernaut (ha ha ha!) is beginning to have the edge over the Dell. Some tec-savvy friends are quite impressed with the system specs and price and suggest that I'll enjoy at least three years top-end gaming from it. Apparently, Crysis runs very smoothly on it. I'm not a FPS fan, but allegedly this game is a notorious systems hawg. Can anybody suggest any custom options that I should go for, as the rig is slightly under budget? I'm thinking of 64 bit Vista. Lastly, will I be able to play old IE games on Vista? Does it have a compatability function like XP? Cheers MC

The Vista issue is interesting - almost all off-the-shelf top end machines come with Vista Premium, except for one of the very expensive Dells which is still running on XP which seems to validate Krezack's point. Does anybody have a view on either of the two systems I linked to? I would appreciate a view. Hint - will be playing Fallout 3 with everything maxed out and want it to run as smooth as a smooth thing covered in olive oil. As for Apples - hmmm that's a religion, not a piece of IT hardware. I'll stick to PCs. Many thanks for the replies, MC

DN, although I of course covet an Alienware rig, I have to ask myself am I really getting more bangs for my buck compared to these other machines? My experience of Dell customer service has been positive, no problems there. Also, Vista? 32 or 64 bit. Discuss. MC

Alternatively, what about this one? Chilllblast Fusion Juggernaut Of course, the issue here is how do I ask for a "Chillblast Fusion Juggernaut" over the phone and keep a straight face? MC

In essence, what is required is a snowy, cartoony-guys-with-axes IWD "Team Fortress" mod for awesome multiplayer akshun. Bagsy the Scottish dwarf. MC

Hello. Apologies for not posting for so long, I was abducted by pirates and have only recently escaped. I am now covered in tattoos and speak in an unconvincing West Country accent. I digress. My trusty Dell XPS is now 3.5 years old and struggling to keep up with simple functions like not crashing on the hour, every hour. Don't get me wrong, I've had good service out of it but it is time to upgrade. My rationale is that I like to spend a bit on a new rig to future proof it. I am a busy person with kids - I do not have the time to tinker with computers when I could be gaming. I have only a cursory knowledge of IT so I am looking for a pretty vanilla, off-the-shelf product in the region of UK

IWD2 comes with a load of pre-generated parties created by the developers. They're very good, try one out. My evil party was only four strong: Sorcerer, Barbarian/Fighter, Cleric of Mask and Ranger/Rogue. With a sorcerer it's almost easy, for more of a challenge swap him out for a vanilla wizard. My good party was (Aasimar) paladin, rogue, fighter 4 / bard 'X', barbarian and druid. No problems whatsoever. Cheers MC

The game will be half finished. Tim will blame the publishers who, in turn, will blame Tim. Rinse and repeat. Whyohwhyohwhy are people still making MMOs? WHY? Of course, I'm not the target audience but I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than play one.