Phosphor

In ROTK, when Sam and Frodo are on the rock at Mount Doom amidst the laval flow, and Frodo says he's glad to be with Sam, "Here, at the end of all things", it hit me like a ton of bricks. It doesn't carry the same impact in repeat viewings however; it's still a good bit, though with a lesser impact. Likewise Sam's last line, "Well, I'm back" (being the last words of the book as well) was very potent the first time, but not so much after a few watchings.

I'm not here as much as I should be. "

I've no problem with a mana-based magic system. But since NWN2 is D&D, and D&D does not use a mana system, NWN2 will not use a mana system for magic.

In no way do I recall FO1 suffering from this, but certainly FO2 did. That said, even what immaturity, triteness and poor writing that was at times present in FO2 comes nowhere near the same degrees present in the BG series, particularly in BG2.

I think I'd match FO1 and BG1 fairly evenly, with either taking precedence depending on my mood. FO2 is definately superior to BG2 however.

They talked about what little they could at the point of the license being acquired, which only makes sense. People would be interested to know what the plans are and so forth. As we saw from the interviews at the time, there wasn't much that could be talked about for a variety of reasons (mostly because it was too early), so it's logical that the game has somewhat faded into the background. I doubt that the most vocal of the FO fanbase has anything to do with why nothing is being said about the game right now. Oblivion is Bethesda's "flagship" game right now, and the one furthest along in development. Once that's done and out, I'm sure FO3 will be getting lots of attention.

Are Malkavians the only clan that really get different dialogue options?

Torment is all about background though, it's the background that drives the story forward. Take the extensive background info out of the game, and there's little to go on. Also, with a game set in the Planescape setting, it's very likely a large number of players may not be familiar with it and so need more info provided in order to make it believable. I loved the game, I never found it over-long or pretentious or tedious. The story and how it played out was extremely immersive, moreso than any other cRPG I've played (and moreso than most p&p games I've played in as well!). Personally speaking, I find story and background to be amongst the most important aspects of an RPG. Combat and item variety are far down the list of important aspects for me. Exploration is certainly up there of course, as it ties very nicely to background and story. As far as the 4 disc and 2 disc versions go, the 4 disc was the original release and the 2 disc a later, budget-priced release. The 2 disc just uses more modern compression technology so it fits on fewer discs, and it comes patched. You have to patch the 4 disc version.

After seeing The Two Towers about a half-dozen times now, Helm's Deep still keeps me on the edge of my seat and filled with dread and despair. I know Rohan will win, but it never seems possible. The film-makers, actors, everyone involved with that episode did such an amazing job of capturing the futility of facing the forces of evil, yet still prevailing; it's something that sets the stage for everything to come after. And yes, I was shedding a few tears at the scene in which Aragorn tells the Hobbits they bow to no-one. When I saw ROTK for the first time, from that point through to the end was pretty much watched with somewhat watery vision

It looks to me like they're working on getting Oblivion well under way. I suspect FO3 is being worked on, albeit quietly.

There are so many brilliant scenes over those three movies, I don't know where to start. I just watched them all together in one sitting a couple of weeks ago. That was really something. Of course I had seen them all numerous times in the theatre, and then on DVD afterwards, but seeing it all as essentially one 13-hour movie was remarkable. Anyways, to the topic at hand... -Theoden's speech at Pelennor for certain. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.. I think I almost fell out of my seat at the theatre at that moment. Just a brilliant, brilliant piece of work from Bernard there. -Pippin's singing for Denethor as Faramir and his soldiers charge into Osgilliath -The lighting of the signal fires, though that loses a lot in moving to the tv screen. In the theatre it was monumentally overwhelming. -The tear that falls down Grima's cheek when he sees Saruman's amassed army. -Theoden's lament at the burial of his son. Again, Bernard turns in a staggering performance there, really capturing the emotion of the scene but also of the entire situation at hand. -The Argoranth statues on the Anduin. The first time I saw that I was stunned and my eyes still open wide there. -At the coronation, when Aragorn tells the Hobbits that they bow to no-one. It's so emotional and perfect. -Theoden yet again - when he's dying at Pelennor, and he says to Eowyn "I know your face..." and his exchange with her there. Beautiful. I could go on. I'm definately a major fan of the films (and the books) and am proudly in the camp of those who vaunt the glory of the trilogy and the workmanship involved. A total fanboy no doubt about it.

I would put forth that a vampire flirting with another vampire should be undertaken in for form of using power, ambition and manipulation rather than trying to ply physical or sexual attraction. Since I'm not playing a character that uses Seduction, I'm not sure what kinds of dialogue one has access to (if any) when using Seduction on another vampire. Do you get Seduction dialogue options when talking with other vampires?

How about we remove the witless poll and just have a discussion?

The Vast: A small community, but with many excellent role-players and a very well-balanced game world. It requires no haks or downloads, and the DMs have made a beautiful, interesting world to explore. It's hard, but not seriously hard, and is definately geared towards low-level and low-magic adventuring. On the downside it can be tricky to find something to do sometimes and the DMs aren't on a whole lot. It's very much a make your own fun kind of place, but there seems to be a never-ending sense of discovery for intrepid players. Earthspur: This is a very hardcore PW, and death is extremely easy to find. The players are great and the world itself is huge with many different starting areas geared towards race and/or class. It uses the CEP and a couple of other small haks, but since most people have the CEP, the downloads needed are not cumbersome. It's a mid to high level server, with a decent amount of magic (though more geared towards conventional methods of dispatching one's foes). The biggest problem with the PW is early level tedium. You really need to be 6th level to have a hope of survival, and getting to that level is quite dull and monotonous. Fortunately, the powers that be there seem to be looking at ways of improving that.

Volourn would be quoting prices in Canadian dollars, and likely figuring in the tax as well. $90 CDN when NWN was first released sounds about right. Atari retailed that thing at a massive price; I often saw it at $79.99 CDN at release. Now, I see the Platinum edition for less than the price of one expansion pack.

I would have to say Master Of Orion III. MOO2 was so great, and there was such potential for MOO3, but the game was such a waste. Even in semi-following the development it sounded good, but the final product was a real let-down. At some point, the developers decided to let the computer handle all the fun stuff, and let the player deal with the monotony. Compounding on the disappointment for me, is that I really like how the game looks and sounds, and the races are quite cool. But it's no fun at all to play.

I'm really liking Bloodlines, and the only "bugs" I've noticed are engine related. The game engine seems like a massive system hog, and I'm not really sure why. Is it just the graphics? They're nice, but I had expected more in terms of game world interaction with the engine. While I'm having a good time with the game, I wonder how much of a difference replaying with a different clan character would have? I don't really get the impression that anything in the game has any clan relevence, which leads me to my biggest complaint about the game. The PC's dialogue. It's terrible. NPCs have some great dialogue, but the options for my character are embarrassing and quite limited. I'm sorry, but my Tremere does not say "Dude, that **** is WACK!" or act like some idiot, dolt or thug. Too often I feel like I'm playing Grand Theft Vampire in terms of dialogue. I also don't see many combat options for replays. And the combat is horrible. Button mashing at it's best. In other areas though, the game is utterly captivating. Wonderful atmosphere, the music (which I thought I'd dislike) fits very well, the voice acting is solid, graphics are great and there's very little gothic melodrama and angst. Some of the missions are truly engrossing, and it looks like Troika had a lot of fun with this. There's some great humour and some real edgy stuff. I'd feel pretty confident in giving it RPG Of The Year overall, though with the caveat that my cRPG experience in 2004 was made up of playing old games, and I don't own a console so I'm looking soley at PC games.

Satire or no, it's the sort of thing that could really make some people angry and/or uncomfortable.

I do find it intriguing that you would consider an animated Hitler avatar when you've got a signature banner glorifying Bush. In any case, I ask that you do not choose the Hitler one. Ask, as in tell.

I split this from Volourn's Bloodlines thread, as this new post came two weeks after the last one in the aforementioned thread, and that thread was very long so "resurrecting" it seemed burdensome. So consider this the newest Bloodlines discussion thread.

I played the demo and it seemed decent, but still struck me as very RTS, which I don't care for. I didn't realise there is a turn-based map aspect. Now, can you build and manage in your cities/provinces in that turn-based segment or do you have to build, manage and war at the same time (like in AoE)? I guess I'm wondering if it's like MTW in that you tend to all empire management aspects (building, spying, moving, managing, etc) in a turn-based environment before going into real-time battle?

Isn't he the one standing to the right of Sam Jackson?

Yes it would. I hate the AoE gameplay, but it's a proven success so there you go. If AoE was turn-based, it'd probably be my favourite strategy game, but wouldn't sell.

We had tons of snow at Christmas but just had a big thaw (and my basement is soaked) but now it's starting to get colder again. I hope for more snow and a long winter!