IndiraLightfoot

Monte Carlo: I (IndiraS) just sent a request to join your glorious ranks. It's pending atm.

Alright, I'm on the European server! So, what do I do, search it, and then add myself? After one hour more, I'm still experimenting with my wizard. I've cranked the difficulty up to Torment level 4 now, and things are getting really tough at times, at least the mini-bosses so far. The paragon levels fly by at that difficulty level, though, like one every 15-20 minutes now. I've even seen new monster placements, including rares and such, so they've scrambled that up quite a bit, at least for Act I. The scoundrel seems to have a few new bark lines to him, which is always nice.

It doesn't get tankier than that! And yeah - the key words this time seem to be fun and freedom.

I've played around in it for but half an hour, and everything is just new, new, new! As I have level 60s of all characters, I decided to give my wizard a go this time. She had to drop exactly everything that she once was (at least she got to keep her beautiful voice, the same actor that was the evilest of evil in Aang: the Last Airbender). I started from the beginning of Act 1, picked Master difficulty and attributed all those paragon points, redid the passives and picked new left and right attack skills. Out she and the scoundrel went, and they met a world of push-over zombies. Soon I found my first yellow, only to realize I needed to configure the settings of my gaming mouse before I went utterly mad. I'll probably crank up the difficulty to Torment next time. I love where all this is going, though. One kind of potion, one kind of crafting mat. My invo is smiling broadly.

This is good news! Our favourite game devs over at Obsidian Entertainment is as safe as safe can be in the US. According to Law Street, Irvine is the safest city in the entire USA! That's a relief! This increases their chances of churning out new masterpieces each year. EDIT: Forgot the link/source: http://lawstreetmedia.com/

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Here's yet another: Truth be told, I think I've always hated trainers in CRPGs.

That's easy! They didn't have TV or any video games back then. Just think of the Egyptians and them sturdy pyramids.

I usually play solo, but I maybe up for that new guild of yours! It's great that D3 gets this big wipe (disguised as 2.0) and gets lots of new stuff to do.

That means "window". Eric: Fantastic update! It was so very funny!!! Now I know that the game is in good hands. Nah! I already knew you were great! As I really like the undead themes in CRPGs, I think those undead stages were interesting. Perchance, they imply a general experience raise as well? This would mean that a skeleton is one mean undead machine should you ever have to fight one! As for unassuming baddies on that dock: Dopplegangers and mimics are always useful monsters.

The Tiger Ace challenge took me three tries. I began using saves in the last one. In all of them, the real hurdle was how to take out those three IS2-tanks (?) at the end. You need to save up points in order to use the 30 s self-repair function. Also, make sure you separate them a bit, so that one of those tanks gets on its own, then blitz in, speed in circles a short while and gun it. Then retreat if needed. Unfortunately, the blitz function eats up the same points that lets you self-repair. In my last try, I lured the three Soviet tanks into my train station trap. that parked train there is perfect for forcing them to line up, and you get protection from it. I shot a bit, then backed away, out of sight. Then I used the parachute flare to spy on where they were going, and always nagged at the loner. In the end, my Tiger was victorious!

Weirdo For me there is no other genre of game that I really want to play. Well, except The Witcher series. But I can never have enough good new "old school" CRPGs to look forward to. I know, "weirdo" is the word! It's not like me at all, but you should see my list. I'll be preoccupied until the year 2017, and by then I'll just pick up Zaharia in a Steam sale for scraps. Cynical, perhaps, but still...

Hmm. After some more looksies, I decided to skip the game, mostly because I realize that when that game comes out I will already be drowning in "classic" CRPGs. I need other kinds of games for a change, especially by then.

This is of course a question about mileage, your CRPG veterancy and playstyle (completionist or not), but BG2 - SoA was about 10-15 hours for the main story and 30-50 for the side quests, adding quite a bit of reloading there. As for BG1 - without the Sword Coast expansion, the numbers would be 6-8 hours for main plot, and 10-20 for side quests. Bear in my mind, that many beginners of those games spent 100-200 hours on them in their first playthroughs. So, my guesstimate: 8-12 hours for main quest arc, and 15-30 for the rest. In total, about 30-40 hours of gameplay for someone who knows their way around CRPGs.

Alright, all your talk about this game sounds like great fun, almost like good old Populous without the gods (except yourself), so now I've bought this too. Let's see how many serfs I get to run down into oblivion.

Heh, I just must share this. I just finished my second 2 on 2 match since I restarted my COH2 adventure. The game went on for a good half an hour, and we were behind 200 points. Then, when I started get those Panzer IVs out, things began to turn, and in the end, me and my teammate managed to win with just 3 victory score points left on the clock. We overtook the Russian team on the last little bit of the home stretch. It was a fantastic feeling to pull that off. The stars (victory points on the map) shifted quite a bit at the end. I still suck pretty bad, but I and another guy on the other team were the "noobs". The other two were almost twice as effective as us. Still, the game was extremely exciting!!

Good call! Unfortunately, us over here in Eurasia gets it three days later. There are quite a few companies that set up this North America-Eurasia discrepancy. Why? What's up with that? Is it to lessen the server loads and possible complaints leading to first day-patches? Or is it just good old patriotism?

So, you sneak around in real time, and as soon as you're discovered, turn-based combat ensues? My question stems from the fact that I haven't even played the original Fallout 1 and 2, not even Wasteland 1. Oops, this admission almost qualifies for a post over at the Blasphemy thread.

NOOOO!!! I'll repent, I'll reh-puuunt!!

I did remove the card details. Better safe than sorry. Here's the same list as the OP posted but taken from Greenlight on Steam: Turn-based battles based on our original rules’ system; Narrative and Interpretative non-linearity, allowing the player not only to choose which quest to follow, but also to make choices and solve problems in many different ways; A free-roaming world, Fallout style; A large number of skills and stats to manage, in order to customize your own virtual alter-ego in every small detail; An original setting created from scratch, inspired to late medieval Persia and Arabia, and completely different from the classic fantasy settings; Development of mature themes: slavery, sexuality, racism, theology, philosophy, morality, politics and so on; Five main factions to choose from, each of them deeply characterized and different from the others; Innovative magic system, making mages something more than portable siege weapons; A real time stealth system. One thing I don't get: How can a real time stealth system work with a turn-based game?

And in that very ziggurat, a set of galleries known as S1 forms its bowels, otherwise known as the Tomb of Horrors.

I just snapped an early bird tier just in case and watched the video. Well, its Unity, isometric and Unity. It's like PE so far, hehe. Seriously, though. I like their maps and the lightning, also the music was beautiful. Weirdly enough, the music in the pitch video is eerily similar to Obsidian's for PE: they've just added an Arabian-flavoured theme a bit into it. I've always loved the Al-Qadim and The Horde settings in the Forgotten Realms (D&D) - I've even made a NWN2 mod in it, thus so far it seems very promising, but like Keyrock says, I have no idea if those guys are talented or not. I can only go on what they show us. I like where they are going with weapons, armour, combat stances, and clothing. Hmm, perhaps I have to download that demo.

These are kind words indeed, Bruce! However, I fear that I'm more emotionally driven than knowledge-driven when it comes to games, and that often goes for my comments about them as well. In all honestly, I reckon that Keyrock keeps his cool more and usually has a fairer assessment going than I. I will definitely check this out, though, and get back to y'all when I have formed an opinion. I backed Unrest last year, a CRPG set in an area of traditional India, so this could very well work for me. New settings are sorely needed, I agree wholeheartedly.

After a weekend of pretty heavy theatre of war-playing on my behalf, I thought I would share some reflections on COH2 (once again, mind you: I had never played a RTS-game before, and thus not COH1). Actually, it's more or less all praise. I'm surprised to find that COH2 has the same "one more turn"-addiction that the Civilization series has. You just want to try yet another scenario or have a go in a new match. And even more surprising, even if you play the same scenario or the same maps, each and every playthrough feels quite new and fresh. This is another thing COH2 has in common with good 4X-games, like Civ. And finally, the absolutely best thing with COH2: Losing a game, or failing a mission, actually feels rewarding. There aren't many games I've played in my life where this is true. Losing and learning feels like a true privilege in COH2. In many theatre of war-scenarios, I deliberately (and sometimes non-deliberately, as it all was so darn exciting) disregarded the save button, and it felt perfectly fine. That, in itself, is a fantastic achievement of Relic. And while the learning curve for me in this game is steep, the "fun and excitement"-rewards you reap as you slowly starting to get the hang of things are just immense and lingering. After a special scenario, say, the Tiger Ace challenge, and when you finally get it all right and succeeds (in my case, a very close call), I keep thinking of that match. I go to sleep and have an aftermath, or should I say "after-match" in my head, going through all my decisions and the turn of events. For every micro-decision you make in COH2, you always sacrifice something else. Always! That, I reckon, is pure genius! And I can recommend this game to anyone who wants very varied and very real challenges (with thin slices of random disturbances, results and contingencies to deal with). It's a true treat!

If I f*cked up there, it serves me just right. I actually got Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 when I bought a graphics card like six years ago. I just looked at the cover art, and shrugged: "Another war fps. Not for me." And then I threw it into a drawer. This means I have no idea what kind of game it was.