Slowtrain

Fallout has never been strong in the story department. Making a good story becomes very difficult if you give the player a large amount of freedom to do what they want. Fallout 3 may not have been as strong in the traditional RPG elements as FO1 and FO2, but the story level was pretty similar.

The new XCOM game is... let's say, decent, compared to the original(s). Just like everything else these days it has simplified mechanics and the "core" campaign is a very linear experience, but after years of only having the UFO: Afterwhatever spiritual successors with real time combat it is certainly good enough. Ahh, streamlining. Yes, a potent force for evil to be sure. I will check out Wateland 2. edit: got my reply in the quote.

Hi! Games have been off my radar for a couple years which sometimes happens. But when I saw FO4 had been announced, my interest suddenly went up again. Especially since it turns that it is set as Boston in we all suspected it might be. I live in Boston so I am curious how the game represents the area. I also heard a good XCOM game was released at some point. Which seems astonishing, and somewhat unbelievable, but if true would be fab.

Looks like I may have to buy that new computer for this. That it is set in Boston makes it especially interesting. Hopefully the gameplay doesn't get even more "streamlined" than it was in FO3. Still, I'm very interested in seeing how this turns out.

How do you feel about X3:TC? I spent countless bajoolion hours in X2 and consider it one of the most fab games ever, but still have never got around to either X3 or X3:TC though I have both floating around somewhere. Read the manuals though!

heh. I think I made this exact post about Bioshock relative to System Shock 2. Why must you steal my thunder, sir?

Oddly amused. Will it run on Ubuntu?

Oblivion was so boring that I used to fall asleep whille playiing it and my player character would end up running off a cliff and dying. Happened a bunch of times and then I wised and just went straight to bed. Oblivion went into the coaster pile, so at least in the end it helped keep my drawing surface stain free. Which is something.

I just use the cheapest mouse and keyboard I can find and toss them when they get too battered. works great. Hard part is finding the cheap ones since most stores would rather sell you the uber-expensive stuff. Spending lots of money on stuff you're going to work to death anyway is pointless.

You do the best play threads, tig. I haven't played BG in a look time. looking forward to this. Just curious: do you plan to do a lot of wandering and explore all the maps? Or are you going to follow the story more directly and not wander about so much?

Gsmers have been making that same tired claim for YEARS. Seriously. 20 years ago boards still had those threads filled with "OMG this game is so buggy I'm never buying anther product by them again etc and so forth." and I'm sure a handful have even stood by that. But not enough to have the complaints carry any weight to publisher. Just the fact that enough people would buy a game from Bethesda, a known publisher of buggy games who also doesn't even do a very fixing said bugs, so that they could ship 10 million copies, just shows how dumb gamers are as consumers. I'm not saying it's right or that I agree with it. But that's the way it is. gamers have earned their buggy games by being non-discriminating consumers. Publishers KNOW they can release buggy games and they'll sell anyway. fair enough.

It's a pretty common issue though since I can't single out Bethie. Our beloved obs has far more problems with it then Bethie does, for example. The whole "buggy-game" syndrome is more of a gamer issue than a developer/publisher issue anyway. Gamers are going to buy games at release whether they're buggy or not, then complain afterwards. There's not a huge amount of motivation for developers and publishers to spend a lot of money fixing bugs prior to release -- it's money spent that won't make the game sell any better. If the game sells really well, then you patch.

Bethesda seems to be doing a pretty good job their last couple games of maximizing the value of what they do well and downplaying stuff they're not so good at. Since no developer can do everything well, given the real world limitations in resources for every game, in the end that's about the best you can expect.

I would have choosen MW over any of Bethie's other rpgs as far as bridging the gap between tabletop and crpg. MW is definitely Bethie's high point as far as rich environments and complex story and what not. It may not be their best crpg mechanics-wise, but its defintitely the richest.

That was the only game I was really looking forward to. *waits for the inevitable half-ass STALKER reboot*