cronicler

Thank you for your confidence. True I am at best an amateur writer with only a few long campaigns in my resume but I do read. Being cliche doesn't mean automatically being bad (at least not always, look at Dresden Files for example) but can you seriously argue that current generation of games have good stories? Nearly all of them are recycled to death materials or copy pasta sequels. Anyway back to topic; as Slowtrain mentioned above, most of the promises and dev. explanations really remind me of IW. (I agree that) I am biased but it doesn't change the fact that besides good graphics (which IW didn't even have) we have nothing substential but pr talk.

Sure it isn't enough to make it a bland and cliche story alone but coupled with the usual "lets not take unnecessary risks" aproach , "stay within the modern(?) acceptance of violence", "cardboard 2-d characters (out of a 24 seasion)" and other usual cliches like "mindless sex sells" I think they manage to smother any spark of creativity. Also let's not forget the game for maximum playerbase / lowest common denominator too

I think no modern AAA title developer can create a better story and world than old DX (can't gamble much, publisher pressure, anti-game/anti-adult/"pc" pressure and so on). Still a decent story with good gameplay would be nice. Who knows maybe it would be moddable...

Bwahahahahaa yes that is true. Can you imagine anyone having the cojones to put the fema / Statue of Liberty storyline in a modern game? I really hate Politically Correctness. (And no, please don't confuse being a decent human and being a politically correct lapdog)

Need mor coffee... Sorry for the confusion, I think I skipped a pharagraph Anyway, I know it is too early to tell but IW tried this too and they ended up cutting too much and making the system bland and boring. Skils are the repesentitive of basic stats/rpg computations to the player while the augs are the superpowers if you will. They might make a decent combined system but I fear they will (again) have too little of both sides like IW...

1upt (unit per tile) is a drastic and (I have to admit a bit) unrealistic move but I think it was needed from gameplay perspective. After the initial city boom period the game usually stumbled on stacks of doom going this way and that way, cleaning the map (or continent). From a realistic point of view, until 1600s most nations (except a handful of militaristic nations like romans, chinese,maybe ottomans after Janissaries) didn't even have standing armies or real national armies until 1800-1900s. Throughout the history most of the fighting was done by militias, feudal levies and warrior castes. So I am not really bothered by low number of regular units (and city militias defending cities.) If I am not mistaken even US, after its war with England had to reduce its army to 7 infantry divisions and 4 artillery divisions (with 1 to 3 theoratical militia "divisions" per state) and 0 cavallary or dragoon divisions due to expenses. This was with 22 or 24 states' combined treasury mind you.

Actually I think it will. Its like making a game about wizards and making the "spells" boring (for gameplay/fun purposes) or making them "pistol spell", "smg spell", "underslug grenade spell" and so on. DX's main appeal (to me) was/is the ability to mix and match different things in your arsenal and apply them to the paths to get unexpected results. Then there is the dead horse of Player skill vs Avatar skill issue. If my Alt-ego has only basic hero level abilities (the ability to handle, operate and not break any object or weapon you get your hands upon) then I want to game to emulate this. Give me a basic skill level a bit worse than straight FPS to star with (as I am the hero, I am supposed to be a trained agent/terrorist/outlaw/cop/whatever) then let my next levels take me to dead-eye level with trickshot abilities or vats like targetted shots or something. The fact that it hasn't been done yet can't mean it is that hard to do... (I havent played AP yet so can't comment on that game)

I know this will sound weird but I actually wanted to use vats. I was playing as a lightning fingered pistolero despite not being one in FPSs so I was happy to have it at the beginning. After 100th ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssslooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww-mooooooooooooooooooo death animation and stopping a couple of rockets in my first Mutant fight around lvl 6 or so, I dropped it completely. Later I tried to mod it using existing mods but the best I could get was something like %10 (instead of 90) dr and %8 slow mo (instead of 85 or so)

Personally I would have preferred a mix of both systems with a cliche but useful "clean slate due to previously suffered injuries and surgeries" start. Have basic augs and skills based on them, upgrade augs that you purchase/find/steal let you do special (powered) moves and add passive effects to existing skills. A trim and reshape instead of D:IW's steamlining... Then again what do I know of game design besides my own preferences....

Combat Strength compared to Microfibrial Muscle Synthetic Heart compared to Power Recirculator Energy Shield compared to Regeneration These look good on paper but in-game they are either cost ineffective or redunant. Then there are the resistance and support augs (Balistic, Enviromental, Emp and Aqualung, ADS) that might be useful for a rambo player but I think if you look around a bit and think ahead, you can just stockpile enough disposable gear to skimp on those too

Damn... . Rest in Peace mate. And Condolances to his family and friends.

Tbh, I'm still not convinced. Sure the old game's skill and Aug progression was suboptimal; No passive aug effects, Minimal combat skill effects, problematic support skill effects due to non-interactive usage of skills and limited-time based gear (And some useless augs), but I still wish they had gone for building up the existing system instead of cutting it (trim or cut? we shall see if it will be as bad as DX:IW).

WorstUsernameEver: No I wasn't talking about the character creation screen. Sure that could have been better too (with decent base heads to start your work from) but my main problem is the randomly created npcs in the game like nameless soldiers, raiders and so on. Most of the hostile no name npcs in FO:3 were ugly (or went downhill from there).

Lets see, at this point the bad/weak points that I can see are: -bad graphics ( which actually doesn't bother me), -unreliable/horrible face-generator, -doubts about the Voice-Over, -doubts about the bugs. -The first one is leftover from the engine itself so with a 2 year cycle (18 months of development more or less) there isn't much Obs can do other than tweaking the models. -The second one is also Beth's gift to Obs as that thing is more or less leftover from Oblivion. I hope Obs were able to tweak the base algorthims a bit to produce better results but so far there has been no info on this. -VO is another sore point. Usually not the story Npcs but the random/filler npcs. I really hope Obs has/had some budget (and disc space) to hire some unknown actors to have a wide range of voices instead of 5 - 10 different voices for the whole goon army. -Bugs... To be honest Obs doesn't have a good record on their debugging. On top of that, open world games are notoriously hard to debug and they were handled a huge buggy mess as a base too. I really hope they will be able to control the game and at least ship it without game stopping bugs. Little ones can be fixed later but major ones are going to be killer for this game. Mr Sawyer, is there any clarification you can give us about the Voice Overs? Like a rough count of different voices you hired/are using for generic v-o?

I don't get this. The trailer is about a bunch of brainsuckers (X-Com Apo) kicking unprepared agent butt and a Monolith (Probably somekind of drone) teleporting to the terror site to cleanse the area. A first (or early) contact scenario for X-Com in other words. Why are people so negative about it? The gameplay isn't too bad, the envirolments are destructable (not flashy explosive kind but more realistic fire based stuff), the enemies are "alien" and even a bit different from the usual palette (cyborgs, ripley's alien, greys), the map is not too bad (as a 50's suburban neighbourhood) Sure it is not THE X-Com but as far as spin-offs go this one seems decent.

-Holy! they made brainsuckers a frightening foe! Despite being goo, the brainsucker analogs were actually quite nice in 3-D -50s... to be frank I would have liked the "age of future" timeline (watch Queen's song Radio's clip. the usual 50's vision future) but I think it would be bad (gameplay and design) and really uneconomic (processing power) to have a FPS in such a setting. Also the hats werent too bad. I hope the final game won't be keeping the old film like yellowed out pallette. Sure it is different from the modern industrial goo colour pallette but it is still not as good as something more balanced. My guesses: How much control will the player have over X-Com strategy? I am guessing that you will be about the rank of captain which will allow you to nag various departments to concentrate on your needs (and get that whatevergun to be researched/produced a bit faster) but overall you won't probably have solid control over personnel, research and production like the old games. I hope they will be able to get a decent structure for the main story missions. This rank will also allow the player to have some illusion of freedom in missions while (the game) still being able to control the player by tossing him to priority alpha (or one or top or red or whatever) missions when the story needs it. This brings me to the missions. The story missions will be good or bad, that is to be seen (but i do have some hope as the bioshock , despite being a medicore game had superb mission and story structure compared to latest gen). However what will make or break this game will be the random missions. What makes X-Com is the random missions where you scramble to a random location to do stuff. IF, and this is a really big IF, the game manages to offer the player a GOOD random map/mission generator then the game will be ok. (Yes it will have to be that far ahead of other current games). Is it possible to create a random map generator for an FPS game that plays decently? I truly doubt it. Maybe a random missions on a premade maps but even that can have problems as original stalker showed us. We will probably have x spare side mission maps per main story mission. I just hope that there will be enough side maps that I won't have to play the same urban map again and again. Back to our alter Ego; I don't have many hopes in this area but if it was me, I would study the critisisims to games like Bioshock, DeusEx:Invisible War and so on. Too much streamlining makes it easier to produce and play but actually kills the game. I know it is a bit naive of me to hope but I hope the game will have a real character system. An inventory, A paperdoll, skills, traits, (active) abilities And lastly the AI, especially the allied and civilian AIs. Panicked civilians are ok but you should be able to direct them a bit so that after you shout "FBI, this is a raid, please move south" (north, to Amberly Park, whatever), they should get the hell out of dodge. As far as I could see in the video, your AI backups were actually quite useless. It might be the staging but I really hope 2 AI backups will be able to hold their ground against a mindsucker at least. Also the devs are quite closemouthed on the team control topic. I don't get this aspect of modern games at all. Freedom Fighters, a 2003 video game, had you controlling up to 10 (or 12?) fighters in a basic but passable fashion. Since then there has been only a handful of games that had decent squad mechanics, The Thing, Brothers in Arms (and maybe the Mass Effects). I would like to have a decent mechanic but I am not really hopeful at this point.

One ironic part about Greece's problems is Turkiye. From the beginning, we both have been handing a lot of cash to countries like Germany for Paper Tigers. This resulted in having newest generation (locally upgraded export models) tanks and other heavy pieces sitting gathering dust (and eating budget) while our both armies need good mountain infantry and its supports for more realistic and dangerous areas. We both don't trust each other because we know that the moment someone falters, the other will strangle him using the control of Aegean sea. If we both had decent governments, than the issue could have been partially resolved long ago by creating a joint operation to police the region (which would save a lot of cash and headaches) Since our politicians are incapable of taking a longer view than next election (and it is such a patriotic political ploy to use the use the hate instead of more mature choices) I don't have the slightest hope of seeing the general hostility resolved. *On a related note, I would advise to take a grain of salt with each news of crackpot conspiracies coming from our side. We are in the middle of a bloodless civil war right now and if things go as bad as they have been lately, You might start to actively need the protection generated those paper tigers in 5 or so years.

Codex Alera. Despite the creative background, it suffers from too much (and not enoug at the same time) plot, too little time (and pages) and too much interludes. It generally felt a bit "young adult" title with a lot of overlysimplified motivations but in the end, it was an enjoyable series.

* 2000-09-27 - Wizards & Warriors * 2001-10-01 - The Chosen: Well of Souls * 2001-12-04 - Gorasul: The Legacy of the Dragon * 2002-11-15 - Prelude to Darkness * 2003-03-07 - Mistmare * 2003-12-01 - Devil Whiskey * 2005-12-05 - Mourning's Wrath * 2006-19-01 - Aveyond * 2006-04-07 - GODS: Lands of Infinity * 2006-09-26 - Mage Knight: Apocalypse * 2007-04-06 - Loki: Heores of Mythology * 2007-05-09 - Two Worlds * 2007-05-21 - Nethergate: Resurrection * 2007-09-05 - Depths of Peril * 2007-12-27 - Aveyond 2 * 2008-07-30 - The Spirit Engine 2 * 2008-11-03 - Kivi's Underworld * 2009-10-30 - A Farewell to Dragons Damn. I have missed a lot of games....

An engine that is horrible, A hero that is made out of b movie cliches, a chick that embodies every cliche., extremely limited software.... And yet it is a truly awesome game. It is a game that (despite its very limited resolution and poly count) manages to take you on an andventure in an alien world. By todays standarts, the gameplay is medicore, the graphics are bad, the music is excellent, the voiceovers are superb and the story is passable. Yet it is one of those games that have a soul. A soul yhat will draw you in and get you lost in it's folds screaming for more. Try it. Try Outcast. I Just wish it had survived.

Firstly, I think there hasn't been a truly "new" TB game that had balanced and good Strategic, Tactical and Logistical layers. Old X-Com games (Ufo and TFtD) were beautiful and innovative for their time but their tactical sucked due to interface clunkiness. X-Com Apocalypse had a better handle on tactical and logistical sides but megacity 1 alone was a bit too small. (And no I hated the cheesy RT) JA2 had and probably still has (with 1.13) one of the the best tactical combat; rt untill someone (you or the enemy) spots another). However it's logistics was a mess and Strategically you didn't do much. Among the "second" generation (so to speak) Silent Storm and it's spin offs combined the capabilities from the first gen titles on the tactical layer; Decent interface, good physics, destructable envirolments. Too bad these games didnt have "any" strategic or logistical layer (beyond ammo/medicine/tool trio) The first 2 After* games had nice strategic and logistic layers (base/research/world map actions) and they even improved those a bit with other (regular) earh forces being active participants instead of damsels in distress with being able to solve some of the random missions on their own if you delegated missions to them or if your teams were too far away. However their character development system and the RTwP combat systems sucked big time. And you were limited to an active roster of 10 or so soldiers. No redshirt army in other words. Afterlight (the 3rd game) further refined its Strategic and Logistic layers but it also limited you in some areas (1 pre-located main base, extremely idiotic diplomacy, weird resource system and a truly stupid outpost / territory system). The horrible character system was still there but at least they managed to get the RTwP to feel better. UFO:ET was basically X-Com 1 with newer graphics and interface but despite being the same it wasn't as enjoyable as the old games. Hard to explain. Anyway enough with the TB Squad games. I really hope they rip off from "brothers in arms" games for the new game's squad system. That games squad / tactical order system would be beautiful under X-Com hood.

Yup and they would get sued.

I think he means that thinking, observing the tangos' actions and routines and working your way through them (lethal or non-lethal). If I understand it right, you will be able to pull more "cool" chain moves without the need for extreme fps skills. Yes I know that it might make the game "better" if it is constructed properly (like most other new game abilities) but it feels that somehow instead of an improvement, it will be just another small, pre chewed bite for the "Bite sized" generation of today.

Feels "not right". How did he notice the fighters when looking at the UFO and why are the fighters in close formation if its a chase and a few other little points bug me.

I know it is a very very "very" simplified view to look at things but I believe that for a global nation (any nation that manages to get his head up a bit and try to "act" strategically instead of being ruled by short sighted local politics) (like USA today) the main dictating factor is its (industries) apetite. And most nations lack the local resources to feed their needs. Coupled with the lack of / very limited amounts of production in the late colonial era. I know it is a simplistic but I believe Commonwealth's stomping on Germany after WW1 was the main... supporting and nurturing element that fed the ultra-nationalistic Nazi regime. Stomping on others and leaving them alive always creates more trouble down the road. The modern countries are lucky that Communism was a real threat. If there wasn't someone else to hate, I don't think we (the modern and semi modern civilisation) could have survived. MC: Hunger created by limited resources to feed the nations industry and a fascist, militarist and nationalist outlook was the drive behind Imperial Japan. At least this is what I got from my studies (and no we aren't taught "recent" history in schools. Up to High school that is. I didn't have history in uni.) *Wasn't there a US (multinational?) ambargoe on Imperial Japan in the late 30's? Or am I mistaken? Sorry if that is the case.