Slowtrain

Buy more RAM, Di! It's cheap as dirt compared to what it once cost.

No, I haven't. In fact, I've been a bit ambivalent about whether or not to try it. Reviews are rather mixed, and I've heard that it's definitely a "guy" game, since women in the game world are only there to insult or have sex with. That would annoy me. Also, I've heard there were performance issues. Some say that it really requires 2 gig of RAM (I only have 1 gig), has horrendous loading times, impossible frame rates, etc. You have any problems like that? Yes, its most definitely a guy game in that sense. No question. Although not in the same league as Bloodlines. But it doesn't really get in the way of the game since most of that guy stuff is sorta off to the side as little mini-quests with no payoff except sex with somebody (not even token XP) so you can pretty much take it or leave it. Sometimes you get the option as sex for payment instead of money, but money is so scarce that it is really is a no-brainer to always take the cash. And Geralt, the player character, absolutely doesn't have to be played like a **** if you don't want to. A lot of the dialouge interaction is fairly thoughtful. I consider it all several cuts above what I am used to seeing in crpgs as far as story and dialogue goes for the most part. Performance would be something to consider certainly. I do have 2 gigs of RAM and a pretty high spec system and run the game at 1280*1024 with everything maxed except AA which is off. I definitely drop some frames in some of the big areas with a lot of NPCS ropaming around. However, it runs better for me than exterior Oblivion does at 1024*768 with not all options maxed. The last patch helped a great deal with loading times and seemed to smooth out some issues. The game itself is fairly bug-free for me. Given the scarcity of PC crpgs on the market I would definitely recommend giving it a try if you feel like you can risk $50 on the chance that it might not run very well on your system.

HGL is a real stinker. The only thing that is remotely fun about the game is finding new armour, but that wears off after 20min. Even die hard Diablo fans dont like HLG. Its repetitive in the extreme. And ugly, character faces are just flat surfaces with face textures painted on them like in the late 90s That's not good news since I bought this game a couple months ago but stil haven't played it yet. Does not give me HOPE. gah.

ANother quiet Witcher's night out ...in the Vizima cemetary:

I had always thought it was a simple fight game... kind of like "arena wars" or something. Fair enough, there's a lot of fighting... martial arts (choose a style!), weapon (sword or staff), and even magic if you like it (fire or ice). I found the fighting actually fun as I learned to roll away, block, do backflips, etc. You don't have an inventory as such, so you don't run around looking for armor or spiffy weapons or pawnable stuff, so it's not particularly Diabloest at all. It is quite linear, though, and the reason is because it tells a very deep and (for me) engrossing story. I hadn't expected that, nor had I expected the plot twist that made me spit coffee on my keyboard! You also take on a motley crew of companions (you can only take one at a time, but can switch on the fly) with interesting backstories and personalities. All in all, I thought it great fun. The combat was more fun for me than combat usually is (although the flying mini-games made me nuts!), the companions were a hoot, and the story really sucked me in, since for me a great story is the key to a really enjoyable RPG. Obviously, not everyone liked JE... but I did. Edit: just saw your last post. Yep, lots of dialogue, lots of choices on whether to be good (Open Palm), not-so-good (Closed Fist), treat your companions kindly or not, romances if you want, the usual fun stuff. Bright and colorful, fun Chinese-style music, an Easter Egg place where you can earn more of your "skills". No real blood and guts all over the monitor, but a fun romp all the same. (That's not to say there weren't some gut-wrenching scenes and personal loss in the story; there was plenty of emotional impact) Hi Di! Thanks for the great post. I appreciate the info. I may give it a spin when I am done with The Witcher. Have you played The Witcher yet, Di?

The Witcher is fabulous. If someone says it is a grade-b crpg, then I want to know what is they're grade A. My guess is Oblivion. I hearby dedicate all pointy-ears references to Kaftan.

It's built off of rock-paper-scissors. You've got weak fast attacks that beat strong attacks, strong attacks that beat blocking, and blocking, which beats the weak fast attacks. In real-time, at first it's somewhat exciting and fresh, but after about an hour or two, you realize how incredibly simple it all is. You just spam weak attacks until they block, at which point you throw a strong attack. They add in "support styles", which are the same as normal attacks except instead of doing damage they debilitate the enemy, but the spamming element stays the same. Is there dialouge and stuff? If so is it like Diablo's "dialogue" or something closer to The Witcher or Fallout? Beyond combat what else is there in the game? have you never played a BioWare game or have you've been sleeping under a rock since 2005? JE is essentially Kotor in a Pseudo-chinese setting, and it contains everything a normal BW game does; romance, quests, etc. It's like youre asking if Crysis has guns. Have you ever slept under a rock? No? Well, then mock not what ye donst understand, knave. As long as the rock isn't too heavy, it's rather nice. And no, I haven't plaed a bioware game since BG2, which was well prior to 2005. So up yours baby!

It's built off of rock-paper-scissors. You've got weak fast attacks that beat strong attacks, strong attacks that beat blocking, and blocking, which beats the weak fast attacks. In real-time, at first it's somewhat exciting and fresh, but after about an hour or two, you realize how incredibly simple it all is. You just spam weak attacks until they block, at which point you throw a strong attack. They add in "support styles", which are the same as normal attacks except instead of doing damage they debilitate the enemy, but the spamming element stays the same. Is there dialouge and stuff? If so is it like Diablo's "dialogue" or something closer to The Witcher or Fallout? Beyond combat what else is there in the game?

Fallout 2 seemed to have be mostly a lot of stuff that the devs thought were funny all flung together and mixed up then spit out. I thought it was a pretty sad follow up to a game like Fallout. Course, I never actually finished out. COurse that was because I thought it was prety silly and not very interesting. So that's a bit of chicker vs egg thing there so what can you do. Some things are like that. Bioshock, for example, more recently.

What is the gameplay of Jade Empire like? For some reason, I have always thought of it as very Diablo-esque and so never even considered playing it. I don't own a console, I never really paid much attention to it, other than make some odd association with Diablo/Dungeon Siege-style gameplay.

You certainly have every right to not want a game with elves. I would never argue that. My counter point to your statement though would be that a good designer (or a good DM for that matter) could make a game about elves the most interesting and fascinating game you've ever played. By saying you are sick of elves, I would argue, that you are really saying you are sick of reptitive and unimaginitive game design rehashing the exact same things that have been doen countless times before. And yes, I agree with that. But changing to scifi as your crpg genre of choice isn't going to suddenly redefine crpg game design. The exact same failures will just be transposed into a new set of genre trappings with essentially the same preditcable end result.

I'm not saying I would only want to eat beans for years on end. That would be quite dumb if there were other choices, I agree totally. My only point is that any ruleset, any monster, any skill, any class, any spell, can be made more or less interesting depending on the job the designer(s) does. Compare Spector's Deus Ex with Smith's Invisible War. Two similar conceptual gameworlds given two different treatments by two different designers with vastly different results.

It has nothing to do with some innate problem with beans themselves. It has to do with how they are prepared. You could live for a long lifetime on beans and be very happy, though gassy, if you had a creative chef working for you. Beans can do anything. Beans == Fantasy.

This is akin to advising you to stop reading the forum if you don't like someone's posts. Not constructive, greatly overused and simply illogical. Not really. It's more like tactful way of pointing out that simply stating a preference for X isn't a good basis for commencing a debate on the value of X.

So totally true, KB! Now instead of fantasy drivel we get scifi drivel! Sweet. Happily, I like drivel so its a win/win for me.

I agree that it would be nice to see more options in the types of crpgs released. As Krezzie points out, variety is what keeps things interesting. But again, talking fantasy crpgs: the difference between The Witcher and Oblivion is pretty ginormous and to say that they are repeating the same fantasy aspects between the two of them is just downright silly. OK, they both have swords. SO yeah, they must be identical.

Kaftan, it appears most of your criticisms are about game design. The only thing that limits fantasy crpgs are the designers behind it. It also appears you don't like fantasy in general. WHich is fine. I don't like sports. But just because I don't like sports doesn't mean that the genre of sports games sucks. It just means I shouldn't play sports games. Or deer hunting games. Or driving games. WHich I don't.

Meh. The Witcher proves there is plenty of life left in the fantasy genre for crpgs. A good game is a good game regardless of genre. A bad sf game is still a bad game.

He must have been stunned when you hit him.

It is a tough fight, no other way to describe it. And its not made any easier by the fact you have to click through all those cutscenes each time you reload it.

The Beast is a tough battle. I've replayed it a bunch of times looking for a trick and haven't really found one. SOme general thoughts on the battle:

Wait, you mean steak doesn't come right out of the cow pre-packaged in shrinkwrap and styrofoam?

Would you even want to live in a world without antibiotics and stuff (and no medkits or health potions either!). I wouldn't. And the human race would decend into total barbarism and savagery pretty quickly. The veneer of our civilization is pretty thin.

You don't. I use fast styles almost exculsively. Hitting the little bouncing guys with a honking big swing can be pretty difficult though, if you want to go the other way instead.