Purkake

Yeah, making the respawn/reload make sense in-game hasn't worked out very well so far.(at least not better than just reloading) I wonder why developers feel the need to make the respwning/reloading anything more than what it is - a retry. The idea is that you don't want to die/fail and try to avoid that. No need to sugarcoat what is essentially just a reload.

Make it like AvP2 and I'll be all over that. Except I probably won't play the marine campaign, because it is too scary. I just hope that they won't dumb it down too much for the consoles and give PC the shaft. Probably gonna be better than the Colonial Marines game with quicktime events...

Neither do we. Crazy Americans... The sad part is that we have 9 months of mandatory military training/whatever you call it.

OMG the "nipple lady" looks like Gann from MotB. I approve of the nipples, though. Also, I like the chick on this page, she looks almost like a person.

Is there any reason why one is better than the other? Nah, it can really vary area by area and depends on the service provider. I had DSL for a long while, but when I moved the phone company told me it was going to take weeks to get it hooked up. I called the cable company and they had it running in a few days. Okay, so what's the deal with a lot of people complaining that they only have one service provider in their area? Everyone has phone and apparently also cable. Is the provider the same?

Is there any reason why one is better than the other?

It's better than getting no CRPGs or CRPGs with crappy stories IMO. Unfortunately, we're already getting CRPGs with crappy stories. And we still manage to hail those games for their plots. Such as? And if that's the case, then good combat is not going to save them. Unless we are talking about action RPGs, where story isn't the fun part.

It's better than getting no CRPGs or CRPGs with crappy stories IMO.

Something just hit me about the internet and bandwidth stuff. I realized that most people in US and other places(I imagine) get their internet through the TV cable. I don't have and have never had cable TV(it's not that common here), I used to have the normal TV with the "rabbit ear" antenna and now I have digital TV coming through the phoneline. So I get all my 12Mb through the phone(dsl I guess) line. What's the case in your country/home? It's kinda strange to think that it is so different in the US at least. Does anyone know the reason?

Sure, but without the story it would be Half-Life without the guns. I enjoyed the puzzles, it's the story and presentation that really made it a great game instead of a good one.

I also don't feel the need to have something physical, but I do feel the need not to be dependent on external servers that may go down in the future. That would work if the service did not require an online check when you are installing the game. Unfortunately, as far as I understand it, download services these days require just that, so digital distribution is anathema for me. I understand that other people might not be so concerned with that, but I am and hence I am just not going to use digital distribution unless this issue is fully sorted out. If the company doesn't want to be sued to hell/isn't pure evil they would probably release a patch to remove the online checks. I can understand the concern, though. It is sad that you can't buy games DRM-less, like Good Old Games, but that's just the way it is at the moment. It is no different than having the disc require online activation, unfortunately.

There are a lot of places in Eastern-Europe that use Cyrillic, also it is possible that Valve just chose Russian because it is the largest and probably the easiest to find people who can translate it for you. Interesting observation, though. Portal is great because it is clever, funny and quirky. It has an incredibly minimalistic and distinct art design. Even though it is a puzzle game in it's heart, it manages to tell the story GLaDOS, a lonely and increasingly mad computer AI while not taking itself to seriously. It is very different from most of today's games and it is short and easy enough for anyone to play.

But if your only options are eating cake while suffering cranial intrusion by an electric drill or not eating cake, there is really no good option.

Comparing L4D to Portal is like comparing the zombie version of Monopoly to Tetris with cake. That analogy is perfect. Next up: the theory of general relativity vs a triangle vs a chair leg

Yeah, stay away from the EA Link or whatever it's called. You can redownload your things 6 months for free and if you want to download them after that you will have to pay a small fee. That is stupid compared to what Steam does. I guess I'm from the new generation that doesn't have to have something physical to caress every time I play/watch it. Game boxes haven't been worth buying since the late 90's, it's just a piece of plastic with a smaller piece of plastic inside it and a some paper on a good day. I remember the time when gameboxes came with manuals(bound and actually useful), NOVELS(Rama) and other cool stuff. All the DVD-style boxes do is take up space. If you are worried about the service going down make backup copies, I prefer an external HDD, because they are so cheap these days, but DVDs do the job as well and you can put them into on of those cd-holders that don't take up so much space.

They didn't make it per say, but without them the Portal that we know and love would have probably never happened.

Well, define gameplay. I mean, for the sort of story-telling style Bioware does (and for some reason never wants to fundamentally change), you don't need different gameplay. NWN stuff worked fairly fine, so there's no need for them to treat new waters there. Not that I say that is how it should always be, but the NWN-style gameplay is the least thing that bothers me about DA. Still, Bioware ought to come up with fundamentally (no, not revolutionary) different stuff. I mean, don't they have the urge to make something different for a change? Bioware can keep their RTwP combat system all they want. It worked pretty well in BG1/2. The problem is, regardless of what type of combat system they've been trying for since then (NWN, KOTOR, JE, ME), they've all been dumbed-down drivel. Yeah the tactical aspect of pausing loses it's importance when it is easier to just send everyone rushing out with whatever melee weapon they happen to have.

They did make Portal. I hope that they will give the HL story a fitting and epic finale, it would be sad if they dragged it out like some horrible sci-fi show. It would be cool to see what they can think of next, they certainly have the talent to make another epic series.

Sorry, but Planscape is pretty much as far as you can go from generic. They took common fantasy themes and turned them on their head or removed them completely. There are no swords(save for two), no elves or dwarves, TNO doesn't wear armor, good and evil creatures live together, the steampunkish architecture... I wouldn't call DA generic without having played the story first, but having knights in armor, elves, dwarves, mages and dragons looks pretty generic from a first glance. EDIT: the posters are pretty cool ineed, I like the Alienage(wth?) Elf.

Seems like it. Don't get me wrong, HL2 was OK, but only Ravenholm and Episode 1 came close to matching HL1's motivation/adventurousness and atmosphere. Yeah, it's pretty much Ravenholm every time I go out in the dark. Sometimes I get the urge to chuck circular saw blades around just for the hell of it. Actually it is probably most interesting if you have been to one of the cities that has that kind of architecture, so you can relate. I have gotten too used to the style I guess.

Yeah, I just never really got the "hey I can see my home from here" vibe, but some stuff looks kinda familiar, like the apartments and some of the roofs. Also, Saaremaa is awesome, I used to go there every summer.

If you can zoom out a fair bit then it shouldn't look so bad. It's no worse than Neverwinter Nights 2, right? I can put up with bad animations and graphics if the story is good.

Sorry to burst your bubble but the architecture is nothing like Estonia or even Latvia. It looks mostly Polish and Bulgarian with some Czech stuff thrown in. Estonia and Latvia are a bit too Eastern for that. Also the farmhouses and stuff is also different here and no canals Still the architecture is good and consistent throughout the game and mixing alien with our own gives it an unique look. Much better than just generic sci-fi metal houses.

That's kinda like the make your own story. For me it's not dramatic and good role playing, but "damn I lost Imoen, I kinda liked her" *reload*. Or on a good day I'll drag her body along with me to a cleric and get her resurrected. I guess I'm sad like that, but that's what most people are like AFAIK. I have nothing against them being able to die, though.

heh. I agree, but it does give the concept of party death a entirely new level of sigficance. My guess would be that the devs would argue that it is just a more convenient way of repeatedly quick-loading your last save. You're right. It is. And it led to some pretty dramatic rescues in Jag 2, let me tell you. Nothing worse than being halfway through a tough battle and suddenly have Scope exposed by a break light and shot full of holes. Its actually pretty cool some of the rescues my teams have been able to pull off of critically wounded mercs. In XCom it wasn't such a big deal since the squaddies were all nameless cannon fodder for the most part. Except of course the ones with 60 bravery that you had carefully nurtured for thirty missions. You really like Scope, don't you? I like Raven more Are there actually any other options for death mechanics? Other than dead=dead. Yeah, being able to ditch characters should always be an option. I get way too attached to the characters to let them die, but I can see why some people would prefer it.