Raithe

Just the fighters don't have the quite so obviously mysterious/weird talents that mages do.. hell, even Rogues get that short-range teleport provided by Backstab... and the whole infinite supply of Miasmic Jars to throw around. It's all about coming up with pseudo-rationale for amazing effects from skills. Besides, part of the balance between magic-users and non-magic users in rpg's has traditionally been the balance of at lower-levels the wizarding types don't have many spells and get their clocks cleaned if they get caught in melee. They don't get mega-death-dealery until the higher levels. So supposedly the balance is in the trouble of getting them to those levels..when compared with the sword-choppy-slashey-murder style of the warrior types who tend to get the benefits at earlier levels and start to lose out as you get higher..

Heh, for the way out nostalgia hit.. I was listening to the soundtrack to the old Buck Rogers in the 25th Century show.. Very mellow..

Some games do cry out for replay value. I mean I've replayed Deus Ex, Vampire Bloodlines, Hitman and a bunch of others multiple times over the years... Then there are a few other games (generally the rpg ones) where although the main storyline is always the same, you get some quite different content on the journey through that story depending on certain choices. Which can push me to try replaying them to see just how much of a different feel it is to play as another class/sex/race etc. Although then if I don't really notice much difference I might not actually push myself to finish those playthroughs.. Of course, I go through batches where I don't pick up any new games for ages, and then a bunch might come out in a short time-frame that make me pre-order or pick them up straight away.

One thing I did notice last night.. when you picked up a new skill, the Tactics would automatically generate some rules for the new skill. Which works nicely compared to how DA:O didn't recognise it unless you went in and created them yourself.

The rogues backstab seemed quite smart in a silly way. The whole "teleport" behind whoever you're fighting so you're right at their back... Was also a useful way to avoid the Ogre's smashing attacks. So if the rest of the Rogue skills have that similar vein and mean you don't have to spend large amounts of time maneuvering your way around the battlefield to being able to use skills ala Origins.. I can see how that might make Rogues a touch more adaptable.

On the upside, some of the different touches on what is the "legendary" story and what's the "realistic" story look like it could be a touch interesting. It did partially tweak my sense of humour that in the legendary version, the sister has tremendous bosoms, but when its the real version she's actually more of a normal phsyical body. You could just imagine this dwarven rogue having a few drinks and adding those sorts of exagerated elements in.

Ah I hadn't realised it was out for the pc yet either.. Hm, so is it worth the

I think the key trouble to the demo.. is that it doesn't show anything off except the combat. And that's not even much of combat.. or at least you get the "legendary start up fight" then the "realistic start up fight" when you haven't got any real skills. Then the sequence it jumps to Isabella gives you a few more levels..but again, doesn't really show you much of the advanced mixup of skills and how they interact. The combat does seem to be a bit more frenetic and fast paced then da:o..but from the demo it looks like its just the same style, just done at a faster pace (if that makes sense) Which makes me wonder if it'll partially deal with the "grindy" feel that origins had.. you might have to kill the same amount of enemies..but the slicker/faster way you go through them might not make it feel like quite such a task. You don't really get to see much of the dialogue happen.. I mean there's a couple of short sentences between the family, another brief conversation when you meet a couple fleeing the blight..and then talking to flemeth which is a bit longer. But you don't really see any consequences of conversation. It's pretty much all fluffy conversation. I've got to admit I did get a bit annoyed at the laggy way that "loading..." would appear before cutscenes..and even during them at various points. I'm hoping that's just due to it being a demo rather then a full game..but it's a bit jarring when it has to spend 5 or 10 seconds paused in a cutscene to load the next portion. And I'm running on a fairly decent rig...

Unfortunately.. not a sundial. The nicely done stone bird bath.. which at the time was rather frozen under that snow.

Well Simon Pegg was on it the other week, and made the comment that while he was on set filming for MI4, Tom Cruise is still talking about Top Gear... Well the shot during winter (so you'll have to imagine the snow away..) and add about another 8 feet on the right hand side... So its about 90 ft by 45 ft roughly... or about 27.5 meters by 13.7 meters (depending on your branch of imperial/metric)

Did some jogging around the garden whilst listening my way through James Bond theme songs on my ipod to get some fresh air.. Then caught the last episode of Top Gear since I'd missed it the other night.. Amber Heard as the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" produced some amusing conversation with Clarkson. But it does make you wonder what all these american film stars think of the self-described "pokey motoring show on beeb2" now that they're starting to turn up on it.. I mean it was one thing when the americans stars were the ones who spent large amounts of time in the UK because they liked it, and might get the Top Gear culture... Now it's spreading beyond that.

Kind of had one of those weekends where I've felt totally meh and unfocused. Overslept by about 4 hours yesterday and I still felt shattered and bleary as I went though the afternoon. Apart from a few conversations with family haven't actually talked to anybody this weekend. Mostly tried reading various things rather then anything specific... got aimlessly sidelined reading some of the Warhammer 40k rpg books.. Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader & Deathwatch...

To totally throw the angle of the thread.. Haven't you heard? They usually blame it on the european colonialism and exploitation of the past few centuries....

Tucker & Dale vs Evil... Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine as two happy go-lucky hillbillies on vacation at their "fixer-upper fishing cabin in the woods".. and the group of preppy college kids who mistake them for in-bred, chainsaw wielding killers. Every time the kids try to "defend" themselves from the oblivious hillbillies various accidents happen to kill one of the kids off in a bizarely cliche manner. It actually manages to make that jokey premise last without dragging and while its a touch silly, it's never actually stupid. It's one that I see becoming a cult classic. I'm definitely going to grab the dvd for my library when I can.

Had a fairly chill saturday. After about 2-3 weeks without playing any computer games I actually sat down and got a couple of hours of borderlands in...

It's something I'm thinking of avoiding until I actually play the game.. since it has the potential to spoil some in-game story I imagine...

Grey Roger for the warmup and Helmuth of Boskone for the win!

Heh, I like that they've felt a need to put out this:

It looks like it might be interesting... but .. sighs... like Red Dead Redemption its not being released on the pc. Dang it.

I always remember first reading Bram Stoker's Dracula as a kid and finding myself terrified by Harker's descent into madness.. and then no film version has really managed to carry that across. Which has always disapointed me on a certain level.

Or representations of Comic Villains in other media? I mean, John Shea's representation of Lex Luthor in the old "Lois and Clark" was downright spot on for the stylish and smart Evil Mastermind. Definitely pulled off the whole magnificent bastard idea quite a few times. While Gene Hackman's version was .. amusing for a movie, but an amazingly bad rendition of Luthor.

Woke up from some very weird-assed dreams, but feeling a lot better then the last two days. So it's been a bit of a catchup morning on all the things I haven't been dealing with...

Well Magneto has moved to a fairly complex layer of motives these days. No longer just that whole.. one shot "i hate normals to protect mutants" rage and reverse racism. A lot of where he seems to come from is understandable. It's not like you can really empathise the Evil Villainy of types like the Joker or Judge Death. Alien or insane villains might be scary at a certain level.. but the villains you can understand, that you could sort of recognise what might lead you into that behaviour.... I'm not saying Magneto is the greatest, but I can see why he ranks up there.

A lot of the villains peak with their initial presentation. You have a good idea, a certain panache.. but then once that introduction is over and past, they settle into rather average gumbo position rather then full blown classic evil villain type. Although I half expected to see Unicron on that list somewhere..

And once again Fox News goes on a rampage.. Bulletstorm Worst Game for Kids! Don't you just love misquoted and false statistics, and that parents allow their kids to buy games with Mature ratings but its the game companies fault for making the game that's the issue.. Selective Quoting