Nonek

I wonder is open world an evolution of rpg design? Is success like the utterly humdrum Skyrims lets pretend quasi simulation a sign of quality? I played an open world very deeply simulated rpg a quarter century ago, so that hardly seems like something radically new and daring. I'd say an example of an rpg evolved and iterated quite successfully was the Dead Money dlc for New Vegas, it built gameplay and mechanics around the narrative and used one to reinforce the other in a very seamless manner, unfortunately I can't see it catching on as tired WoW mechanics, loot recycling, trash mob grinding, and Elder Scroll "gameplay" cycles seem to be more in vogue. An old game like Stalker or Gothic might be something to look at as well, but once again hardly an evolution considering their age.

As an occasional w40k player I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with the hundreds of d6 I own, and the dozens i've lost when they've fallen off tables and disappeared to Nuffle knows where.

Now that i'm comfortably retired and have the benefit of hindsight i'm thinking of labelling my entire working life as a mentally impairing condition. As well as fatherhood. Marriage. Bank accounts, etcetera.

I will not cry!

I do prefer that form of acting myself, DeNiro in the Mission for instance when he stiffly states to his fiancee, "And me you do not love?" He screams hurt, rage and betrayal with just a little stiffness and intonation. Mr Gosling still leaves me cold however.

Exactly. Mr Gosling may be a personal matter, he has always left me cold in every role i've seen him in, a male equivalent of Jennifer Lawrence if you will. Whereas I found Mr Ford quite appealing even when playing it Bogart in the original, he had a certain likeable boyishness that still glimmers in his eyes even now. Edit: Just one of the reasons why I let him live in the denouement atop the Bradbury.

I've recently been enjoying the first three missions of Ancestors Legacy, a Dark Age set RTS that reminds one somewhat of Company of Heroes, and a little bit of Warrior Kings. For a beta it's in extremely good condition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb-Pg1P7OxI

Blade Runner 2049, i'm afraid to say that apart from the visuals I was just not very impressed, though the young hologram lady was rather...bracing. In my humble opinion it needed Vangelis desperately, some draconian editing and plotting improvements at an early stage, an antagonist as strong as Mr Batty, and probably most importantly less of a charisma vacuum in the lead role.

I'm of the masculine persuasion, I own a gas testing kit and its never gone off merely due to my presence so if i'm toxic it's not airborne. I also regularly give blood and no one has yet been poisoned by it so i'm calling poppy**** on the whole toxicity label.

Once one has played the Legacy of Kain series the voice acting in most other titles seems half hearted at best in comparison, so silence becomes preferable.

Tyranny. I started the conquest section but had to stop as i'm not sure what my Fatebinders remit is exactly, is there anywhere this is explained in detail, as a loyal servant of Kyros I neither want to overstep my authority or tread on his Archon's toes. I surely cannot be acting as a general or be trusted with decisions that will decide the fate of the campaign in the Tiers, from what I understand my responsibilities lie in a more oversight focused capacity?

Oddly enough I cannot remember the security measures during the troubles being anywhere near as draconian as those in place now, despite the far more effective nature of the terrorists of that period. I'm at a loss as to how exactly our nanny state developed truth be told.

I trust you and yours were unaffected by the atrocity Mr Jazz? Personally I believe a little security in life and good governance before the fact might have done something to avert this, it is depressing to see what has become of some areas of our inner cities, virtual no go areas where industry has almost entirely disappeared. On a recent trip to Mrs Nonek's home city she was shocked by how various areas of her youth had withered away, trash gathered in the streets, children ran riot, business and homes were boarded up. A grim prospect indeed. Of course we have always had ghettoes, of our own people before immigration, but usually in the north that drove them to communism and socialism which made a nice balance against the mercantile interests of the south, and they were and are a somewhat different animal.

Young men and women are being born and raised in ghettoes, where there are very few prospects, little police presence, very little funding is allocated from local councils, and the native population is not integrating with them (or the other way around,) in such circumstances it does not take a social engineer to see that trouble will arise. Personally I believe as I have stated before that this stems from no infrastructure being prepared for the increased immigration that Britain has experienced, self pity, a political system that seeks good soundbites and good reactions in the short term at the cost of long term stability, and of course the press demonising one side or another depending on their agenda with no thought as to the consequences. Also the issue of a new wave of immigration cannot be ignored, young Eastern European professionals who speak and write excellent English, are usually extremely driven workers, and share certain cultural similarities with the native population are challenging the precvious generation of immigrants, not directly but by their mere existence. Thus we see radicalisation given a helping hand. Of course none of these excuse cowardly acts of terrorism against innocents, but the government might look at their policies and spare a little thought for what future they are crafting. We've made a good move towards freedom in escaping the oppression of Brussels, now should be the time that we look towards making Britain all it can be, with a mind towards the past but both eyes on our future, and a hand firmly on the tiller.

He might object to being buggered by a stranger, perhaps you should just bug him about it?

Yes the differences between Kreia and Ravel are also quite interesting: For instance Kreias brave, lone crusade against the force, and her belief that apathy is death is an almost perfect opposite to Ravels self imposed exile in her prison, where her only desire is to once again puzzle at the only riddle she cannot unravel, and leave the planes to grind against themselves. Ravel almost seems like an after image of Kreia, one who has struggled, lost and accepted their defeat. Perhaps a lesson to the Nameless One that some victories carry too high a price?

I don't really remember anything else. Probably for the best. Edit: Forget the probably.

Heavy Metal springs to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GIiOsuDRFk

I watched until the young chubby lady started singing in a remarkably off key voice, and with extremely poorly crafted lyricism, then I bailed i'm afraid to say. I'm neither interested in her private life, certainly not her musical attempts or anyone who would inflict that on an audience. I always get Bill Nye mixed up with the English actor Mr Nighy.

Interesting, probably doomed to failure and hamfisted anachronisms implemented extremely poorly, see Shannara, but interesting nevertheless. One thing I really think they need to do is get the casting right, Mr Doug ****le bless him was limited by the faux Clint Eastwood accent he was asked to adopt, and as we all know only Clint can do Clint. Go back to the roots of the Noir protagonist that Geralt was born from in the novels and cast accordingly. Personally I think an animated series would be far more effective, with good voice actors and screenwriting, one only has to look at the first and second games flashbacks to see what can be achieved. I really have no idea who could play the almost Falstaff like role of Jaskier, a young Orson Welles with his dimpled cheeks and laughing eyes springs to mind oddly enough. Edit: Really, the language filter now objects to molluscs!

As a father the mere inclusion of a little girl in Revan's cadre made me somewhat uncomfortable, and yet I was not at all troubled by taking along Spark in Ultima 7, maybe a double standard or maybe a response to the differing amounts of combat indulged in per game. I have to agree though that spurring uncomfortable and challenging options (such as Mission's murder) is a far more brave move than Bioware usually indulge in. They were a joke... I always thought almost everything about Kotor 2 was better than the first. I've never heard of Kotor 2 being a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment so that's new to me. I guess I have a modern way of looking at Kotor 1 ans Kotor 2. The first Kotor is like Fallout 3 while Kotor 2 is more like New Vegas. I think that's a safe way to put it anyway. I believe Mr Avellone wanted to explore the character he began developing with Ravel Puzzlewell, and thus began the genesis of Darth Traya, which obviously also bore some elements of Trias the Deva. There are some other themes and mechanics utilised in Torment that crop up in the Sith Lords as well, such as a wound eating away at reality, the odd fascination Mr Avellone has with visual impairment, and the metaphysical link the Exile and his companions share etcetera.

The comparison isn't quite fair in my opinion, Origin were at the top of their game (and the market) when Elizabeth and Abraham acquired them: Underworld was the top dog in almost every aspect. The Black Gate, Serpent Isle and their expansions had refined the Ultima series into something legendary that a quarter century later is still waiting to be matched. Ultima Online was redefining and pioneering the multiplayer model etcetera. Bioware had already begun a steady decline, and the settling into well worn grooves that it still treads to this day: Lifeless cities and hubs with almost no organic interaction or sense of place, such as is seen in Jade Empire and NWNs hubs. A reliance on iterations of the same character archetypes. The one note cheesy, squeeing humour that they still think is amusing. A protagonist who always ends up being a blatant power fantasy, while at the same time not showing anything but a capacity to collect trash and grind mobs. Static, poorly executed cinematics. Narratives that are disjointed and more holy than the Popes socks. Very poor to non existent attempts at thematic relevance and entanglement. In short i'd argue that Origins loss and mismanagement by EA was a tragedy for the industry, whereas Bioware are not and have not been relevant since parts of KotOR and Dragon Age 1, they're no real loss to the genre or industry.

The gentleman controlling North Korea has been courting some gossip lately, i've heard many express the opinion that he's a bad 'un. Some have even hoped that he'll fall ill like his father. I'll get me coat...

More importantly it is Blessed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1zjeYhJs7o

Expeditions: Vikings is looking very polished and improved since my time in the last beta, can't wait to go a Viking on the 27th. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR3-n5QUU3Q I do hope that the game is successful, and hopefully more devs will realise that history and verisimilitude are worth taking advantage of, rather than sticking with the usual idiotic nonsense we have to tolerate in most degenerated games. Edit: Any news on Mr Sawyer's pseudo Darklands pitch?