Monte Carlo

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

I am a leviathan of good taste and gaming integrity, and I have an Xbox. In much the same way that, although I am a sartorial giant, I also own a Hawaiian shirt. MC

I've never read a developer diary or interview where the inherent wackiness of the gaming workplace environment isn't mentioned. It's like an institutionalised version of the guy in the office who thinks he's a daring iconoclast for wearing the pair of Homer Simpson socks his son bought him for Christmas. My message to games developers is simple: Get your bloody haircut, wear sensible shoes, stop burning your draft cards, tidy up the office, take less coffee breaks and make better games. Hippies. Tsk. Cheers MC

Thanks for sending me the file, Volourn. I will get started at some point today and will send you my comments via email. Would a Ftr4/Rog4 be suitable because that's what I had in mind? Cheers MC

Send it to me, young Volourn. If you dare. The testing will be..... rigorous. You've been around long enough to have my private email address from the days of yore. If you do not then I'll PM you. I have re-installed NwN, Sou, HotU and updated it today especially. Mwuahahahahaaa!!! Cheers Evil QA MC

Er, not really apparently. I don't think the beta was open, either.

You will find the most comprehensive listing of mods for all IE games here. Courtesy of the extremely useful bastion of IE goodness, The Pocket Plane Group. Cheers MC

I've completed it once before with a level 16 or so party and it was still tough, namely because of my distaste for having arcane spell users in my party. Luckily, I had a backstab-proof barbarian on the team! Anyway, its a great mod that I recommend heartily to anybody looking to put some new lead in the old BG2 pencil. Cheers MC

I still have an uber-modded BG2/ToB lurking on my hard drive with several games I boot up occasionally. Some of the BG2 mods out there are excellent: I can't imagine now playing BG2 without, say, Tactics or Unfinished Business or Ascension. Admittedly, I now play primarily with small parties of characters I've created myself. I currently have a very silly evil party who are working for Bodhi, attempting to take out the insanely powerful "improved Shadow Thieves" which are courtesy of aVENGER'S excellent thief-themed mod. In fact, the only games I've got on the go at the moment are Rome:TW, Medieval: TW, BG2 and I'm thinking of playing HotU one more time. Cheers MC

Yeah, it's an integral part of my homebrew campaign called The World of RARRGGHHH!!! Lots of deep role-playing and, er, axes.

I'm really looking forwards to Dragon Age, although I suspect my current super-rig will need replacing to play it by then. My curious relationship with Bioware's games will, I think, be defined by this title. Let's just say that kooky NPCs, evil betrayer chicks, Fedex quests and schools for adventurers are things that would put me off.

Kaftan, you sound like the sort of person who would benefit from the recommended auto level-up button that you can check. It simply makes an optimal, if slightly vanilla, character build. As for PrCs, an evil barbarian with a few rogue levels would make a pretty nifty assassin. Rage/ Stealth/ Sneak Attack/ Uncloak/ RARRGGHHHH!!!!