Monte Carlo

I make your friend about right, Grom. NWN2 is a greedy sonofabitch with what I am assuming are some esoteric engine quirks. Even my machine doesn't really like the highest resloution with maxed settings, and it's a fairly new, well-maintained Dell XPS gaming rig with all the bells and whistles. Basically, NWN2 is one of those games you have to sit and tweak for a bit to see which bits your 'puter likes and which bits it doesn't. The graphics are better than NWN even on the sucky settings, it just isn't cartoony, the clothing on the character models aren't straight out of a pantomime, and the scenery is nice. And the D&D hardcore rules are quite a lot of fun in combat, it feels a little bit more tactical than NWN1. Have abandoned wife and child to play NWN2 today. This is a good sign, well perhaps not for my family but I don't play games as often as I'd like to anymore so well done Obsidian. Cheers MC

I got it today and am enjoying it. I think it helps that I run a cray-level supercomputer in my underground lair, though. I was expecting groovy art assets, especially item icons, from the Obsidian people and I wasn't disappointed. Furthermore, I have a flaming weapon-type thingie. Yay! Minor criticism? Using the old NWN2 muzak. Seeing how good the IWD/ Planescape etc music was it's a bit of a shame but not the end of the world. It's generic D&D, but hey it's the FR and (as we say in England) "you can't polish a turd." All in all I'm a happy camper, well done the developers by making me say that I've enjoyed a NWN title on a public internet forum. Why wasn't the single-player game as good with the first title? Eh? Cheers MC

Twenty hours isn't very good value for money for a CRPG. Period. However, I might be tempted to play smaller, more focussed multiplay sessions of it. PWs don't bother me. Especially ones that ask you to effectively join a cult to understand the story/ download the hakpaks/ obey the egomaniacal creator's Utter Vision of Gamer Perfection. Nope, a small but perfect adventure with three or four other folks for an hour-and-a-half and back to the character vault for another week. I won't be buying straight away. I'll wait on it. Games Developers hype their projects: it's their job, I don't blame them for it, it doesn't especially trouble me but it doesn't mean that I fall for it.

Barbarian Invasion is probably as good as the Viking XP was for Medieval, but instead of being a pre-cursor game it totally alters the existing game map. I enjoyed it, some of the units are fun and the "horde" system (you just abandon your settlement and wander off en masse) is interesting, if a bit easy (The Huns are just broken). I think it was worth the original price, so a definite bargain bin investment. I loved Rome so much I was just expecting genuinely stellar things from the XP which was probably my own stupid fault.

Played Total Realism to death before the XP was released. It was extremely cool, but a nightmare to uninstall.

I have the following games on the go: Rome Total War: Barbarian Invasion (Playing Roman Eastern Empire). Actually, despite loving TW this XP is mediocre for me. I am awaiting Medieval 2 then I will be truly happy. BG2 ToB: This specific campaign is two years old, I just dip in and out of it. It's modded to hell and I play IWD-style with my own party. It's still good fun. Oblivion: About to give up. It's crap. Sacred: It's just an updated version of Diablo, but hey I liked Diablo.

Just read the Mass Effect site. Looks like every other sci-fi game on console. And why is every Bioware game "revolutionary?" OK, NWN was revolutionary in that it was one of the suckiest single player games ever made, more 1917 than 1789.

That is extremely cool. Seeing as about I get about two hours a week maximum to play games nowadays (kids, job etc) I rather like the idea of utterly ridiculous escapism like that. As compared with when I could waste more time to think about it. If my flying half-ogre Bbn/Ftr 'O Death also gets to kick the snot out of Elminster and gets to do it like they do on the Discovery Channel with Llolth then, hey, I'd buy that for a dollar. I want a parody game. Something that reaches out and hugs our inner-munchkin. Let's call it Flying Half-Ogre Barbarian dual-wielding Vorpal Greatswords. I'll get my coat.

Can't really be bothered to post it, but it's just a big picture of Scarlet Johansen wearing a red dress with a plunging neckline. It's a very morale-boosting image. It certainly beats playing Oblivion.

I can't wait to see what Bethseda does with Fallout 3. In a ghoulish, slowing-down-for-a-fatal-road-accident kind of way.

Why cut them any slack? Gromnir is right about the NPCs. FFS, there's a tiny little NPC in Icewind Dale 2 called Geoffrey who leads some mercenaries you can beat up in the prologue. See? I remember him and his name. They were nothing much, really, but they were more memorable than any one of the wiki-powered automata in Oblivion.

I've been playing it for a couple of days on and off. What can I say? It's an Elder Scrolls game, it plays like "Morrowind Plus." I usually love exploring, but despite the general purdiness of the scenery I'm getting rather bored of it. The random dungeons are better than MW but they're still sort of....er....random. Combat when there are neutrals/ allies present is a nightmare. You always end up hitting them...the twitchy combat is slightly better than MW (like the power attacks) but not vastly better. I do, however, like shield blocking it's a nice tactical touch. The GUI is a console GUI. They quite clearly decided that making an iconic Xbox 360 game was more important than keeping their PC customers happy. The hotkey configs are rotten, makes combat even twitchier. The plot is a typical Bethseda plot, a bit like a quesadilla; thin and slightly cheesy. I sort of dip in and out of it. Overall? Given the utter poverty of the currently turgid CRPG genre it's a solid C+ for me, I boot it up for an hour here and there but it certainly doesn't have that "up all night" gaming quality I remember from The Olden Days. Note: I don't read the gaming press. The inevitable fellatio this game received from the fanbois (which I read about at the Codex) has therefore completely passed me by, suffice it to say it is probably completely undeserved. In conclusion: this game feels, and plays, like a superior modded plug-in for Morrowind (and XPs) with a better graphics package but far, far inferior GUI. Cheers MC

Is it called Sewers & Dragons? No. It's called Dungeons & Dragons. I rest my case, Volourn. I win. You lose. There was a game called Tunnels and Trolls, but it wasn't set in a subway system. Cheers MC

Coran. You'll bump into him eventually, Elven Ftr/Thf. Played properly he's a level-clearing death god. You'll sit the party near the dungeon entrance and just use him to backstab/ shoot (archery is totally over-powered in BG1) everything. Great fun. I also like Eldoth the Bard. Useless stats, not very powerful but sort of a challenge with a great soundset. I usually finished BG with a thief dual-classed to fighter, Imoen (as a single-classed thief), Coran, Minsc, Dynahier and depending on my mood Eldoth, that Cleric chick or Yeslick. Cheers MC

Most WeiDU mods are compatible, I have all the above plus a few others all simultaneously installed on my BG2/ToB. Having ToB installed can be a compatability issue for some mods. All of those mentioned above are user-friendly, excellently packaged, QA-tested and have readme files to help. Cheers MC

Industry standard: Baldurdash after you've installed the latest Bioware patch. Then in my humble you need to go: Tactics Ease of Use Item Pack (all Wes Weimer) Then Unfinished Business Redemption/ Ascension aVENGER's rogue re-balancing Improved Thief Stronghold Then (NPCs) Kelsey and, perhaps, Soulafein. If you have immacuate taste you will also install the "any class/ any weapon" component from Ashes of Embers for some semi 3E goodness. I'll get flamed but I only use WeiDU mods. Period. I don't care. Pocket Plane and Gibberlings Three remain the best BG2 modding resources on the Net (respect, guys!). Now I am a busier person with a tiny Monte (etc) I only get to game a few hours/week but I still spend an hour or two on my modded BG2 (still Ftr/Thf if anyone is interested). If any CRPG designer is planning on a game half as good anytime soon, please PM me and I'll but it. Until then... Cheers MC

Nothing to say about BF2, just wanted to say hi to Sawyer. How's the Gauntlet game going? Cheers MC

Hello Obsidian Forum Dwellers, it is I, Monte Carlo. I am too busy at the moment to trawl the intaweb searching for gaming news and miscellany. This saddens me, but life's like that sometimes isn't it. Therefore, would a kind soul who is cash-poor but time-rich (my problem, happily, is the opposite) please answer the following questions: 1. What's happening with NWN2? 2. Who's been banned from here recently? 3. What other games on the horizon might catch my eye...any genre or platform? 4. That's it. I know at least one of you will oblige. My gratitude is extended, of course, in advanced. Cheers! MC

This is an interesting question. An obtuse but ingenious developer should try to make the best possible game he could with the ugliest graphics he or she could get away with. Just to see what would happen. As has been pointed out, graphics is part of the process of immersion. Morrowind, for example, had me wandering around enjoying the scenery for about three hours. Then I realised I was playing a bizarre game with a thesaurus instead of NPC dialogue and gave up. Dungeon Siege was like a date with the hottest girl at college, but when you got back for coffee it turns out that she's actually a cleverly-constructed manequin. Immersion without context is utterly meaningless. It's flotation tank gaming. Compare and contrast with the original Diablo; ugly by today's standards but pure gaming crack. Or Jagged Alliance 2, which is still one of my all-time favourite games, lurks on my hard drive and gets played. This is now despite it's graphics because it's that good. I don't know if anyone's played Kings of Dragon Pass (I think that's the title) but that's a quasi-text based story-telling game. It's beautiful, and pretty addictive. It's such an unusual format that it drags you in, using mainly illustrations to show you what's going on. So, personally, I'd play any game that had context. If somebody released a game tomorrow using a ripped version of the Diablo I engine or even Infinity with good plot, characters, depth, and gameplay then I'd pay good money for it and play it (viz. Jeff Vogel). I'm in a minority, but a minority that I suspect is growing. I think a healthy cottage industry akin to the hardcore hex-based PC wargaming scene is there for the taking. Cheers MC

Ha ha ha. Bioware has got so many games "journalists" (in the same way that the guy who puts ketchup on the burgers in Wendy's is a "chef") drooling and fawning that they get all excited when the sum total of their output for E3 is a poster that's almost like the real one! You couldn't make it up. Go, Bio! Go! Cheers MC

That thread looks like Beavis & Butthead's computer science project. Just dumber. Except, of course, the comments about Mars, which are surprisingly prescient.

Will FO3 have the same adult humour as the originals, or are they going to tone it down for XBox 360 etc?

Hmmm. It might be worth getting NWN2 after all. We could form a massive griefing posse of drow-slayers and ride the intaweb on our horsies! Nayyyyy!!!

Correct me if I'm wrong (but I don't think I am), but BG3 isn't Bioware's call. It's an Atari/ WotC call. Granted, it would make sense to give it to Bioware but Atari and WotC aren't often guided by normal, rational decision-making processes. Cheers MC

Bejaysus I hate Star Wars. I really do. So a SW game that has nothing to do with, er, Star Wars gets a big thumbs up from me! Genius! The only game I'd be interested in Anti-Ewok Erstatzkommando, where your imperial stormtroopers engage on ethically questionable "mopping-up" operations against everybody's favourite sci-fi ninja teddy-bears. Mwuahahaahhaaaa!!! Or a Leisure Suit Larry type game in Jabba's den, with Carrie Fisher wearing the metal bikini. Yeah, I'd buy that for a dollar. Cheers MC