Labadal

Beat LOTR: War in the North. It's a decent game in co-op, but I still think it has been one of the biggest personal disappointments for me this gen. I hadn't read much about the game other than it was developed by Snowblind. I liked their previous games despite being unbalanced, but WitN felt uninspired. Not enough skills to choose from and they wereboring on top of that. Loot was also boring, and I hated the way Aragorn sounded in this game. It's not that I dislike the game, but I was hoping it would have been more like the Champions Norrath or Dark Alliance games. My brother felt pretty much the same.

Not a joke? Haha, you crazy. i was browsing the site and saw it has been improved. (90% of my time spent here is from my phone.)

And that's probably just modelling, you still have to have someone UV it, texture it, create the materials, animate it and get it working in game while being bug free. Adding wear and tear to cars is even more work, if you want to actually have the car take physical damage those are extra pieces you have to create and hook up. It's a long process, but the truth is a game like GT5 wouldn't sell well at all if the art wasn't at that standard. It is true the graphics are a big part of the GT games, but the time spent on graphics sounds crazy to me. No wonder costs are rising. I wish there were more mid sized studios that could exist in this industry, but I've lost count of how many studios have been closed down this gen. I also believe publishers should take some of the blame.

I thought it had been available for a while? I've had it on my wishlist for some time.

I know that's kind of the dominant mindset, and I'm hardly an expert myself, but from what I understand high-poly models are already generated and then simplified during production and a lot of stuff like baking lights is going to become outdated next-gen to be replaced with stuff that can be iterated faster, which could potentially bring the costs down. I say potentially because I imagine big productions will keep costing more, partly because of mismanagement and inefficiencies, partly because of marketing, partly because of the need to make blockbuster games even more like blockbuster movies. I'm not really sure how it all works either. I can just use an example that sounded crazy to me: A car modeler for Gran Turismo 5 could spend up to 40 hours on a single car. That sounds crazy if you ask me. I'm not saying there shouldn't be a focus on graphics, but I do think that not all studios should have such a big focus on amazing graphics. Some studios can't afford it, especially if they have to spend too much time on 3D models and textures. For other studios it might not even cost them unrealistic amounts of money to implement top of the line graphics if they have a good engine built or have grat programmers. I'll use NWN2+Expansions as an example: It might not look good for a lot of people, but I'd take an rpg with the same or slightly better graphics if it meant I would get a party based rpg again.

I'll be happy if we get to see more gameplay at CC.

The focus on better graphics is slowly killing the industry. Next gen costs will be crazy.

Maybe he's only there when one is online.

I own the EU version.

You buy equipment from stores and get some from completing side quests. I don't remember if monsters drops equipment, but I think they only drop money, materials and potions. There's a crafting system, but it's basic. Combine existing weapons/armours with materials to improve them. Early on, you can only combine equipment with one matetial, later on, you'll get stuff that can combine more than once. Once combined, you can't undo the crafting. Battles are ok. It was frustratingly challenging at the start of the game, but with two characters, it isn't so bad. Some early fights were very unbalanced, and it felt like grinding was the only option (on hard + adventuresome). The AI isn't very smart, so there isn't much need for strategy. Maybe the poor AI is why they throw so many enemies at you. (You need to use straegey because of the amount of enemies per battle, not because of the AI.) You move your characters like usually do in Japanese srpgs, but positioning, like flanking opponents, backstabbing and frontal assaults does not matter. There are no counter attacks in the game, no % chance to hit success. I feel like a sequel could improve a lot of things. The most annoying thing is that only characters that land killing blows get skill points (rainbow pearls). I think there is an upcoming demo, but I'm not sure. I'd advise against getting it for $15. I'm a PS+ subscriber, so I got it at a discounted price.

Are you playing on hard? I am. The game is incredibly grindy in the beginningI section, Icould barely survive fights with 2 monsters. Grinding was basically my only option* to survive two battles in a row. It's not well balanced and battles take a long time to finish. There are other complaints I could talk about, yet I know I'll finish the game. *There is another option. There is an NPC in the first village that will allow you to buy rainbow pearls (used to upgrade skills) for real money. Not a chance in hell I do it, but the option is there.

Just a note about this game being a grind fest.

Going to sleep at 4am on a Monday proved to be a very bad move. We were a bunch of guys playing cards and we were supposed to stop playing at 12am. Things didn't exactly go according to plans. Pizza was delivered to my front door at about 12am. Naturally, refreshements were a must, we would have it no other way. Eating pizza that late means there is no way you can go to sleep, so we said that 1am was the time to stop playing. Thing is: refreshements requires snacks, and refreshements, and snacks means we'll start talking a lot and not actually play much. At 3am I told them all it was time to go home. I was in the lead, so naturally, they would have none of it. Less talking, more playing, but by the time we were done, most of us would only get 3 hours sleep. Woke up today and felt like a zombie. Funny thing is that I feel more sorry for two of the other guys, since they had a 12 hour worday to look forward to. When I get home, I'll have to see if there are any refreshements left. Might help me sleep for an hour or two.

I expect it to be bad, but you never know. The themes of the games could make for an interesting movie, maybe.

It's basically Civ in space.

I'll get to it when I get the chance.

Infernal Affairs. I do like Matt Damon, Leo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholsom, but do think Infernal Affairs was slightly better than The Departed.

The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three. I really enjoyed this one, but I can see why a lot of people dislike King. His writing style isn't for everyone. He likes to take his time before getting to the point. I personally like his books, but I've often been told my taste in books isn't the best. Going to start "Rides a dread legion" before I continue with the Dark Tower books.

Playing DE:The Missing Link, because it was only

Voice acting works, but some games could benefit from no voice acting. Wasteland 2, Dead state and Shadow Run doesn't need VA. I'd rather see lots of choice given to the player. It all depends on budget. The Elder Scrolls games does not suffer from having VA, because they have a big budget. (Insert joke about one voice actor casting 5642265 characters.)

Only if you let me translate it into Swedish.

Passed the 50 hour mark in NWN2.

I liked "It" and "The Shining" the most, although I did (still do) enjoy reading most of his books.

They want it on more platforms than PS3, but are focusing on that version first.

American Reunion. Better than the last few American Pie movies. Started watching South Park epsiodes. An episode was about bullying in school and it was amusing. The second episode was about zip lining and it was the worst SP episode I have seen.