Keyrock

Trying out the Mount & Blade: Warband demo. I can't even really begin to play the game. I'm all for games not holding your hand but this game explains exactly nothing to you. For example: How the **** do you dismount? I've been trying different keys, looking through the control options and... nothing. I'm thinking of just trying the original Mount & Blade demo because that (hopefully) doesn't have horses... Wait, it's called Mount & Blade, so it almost certainly has horses. *sigh* Edit: Okay, figured it out. I wish it had been a bit more intuitive than "look at your feet and press 'F'", but at least I know what to do now. Other than giving you no direction whatsoever (which is not necessarily a bad thing, but they should explain some of the basics at least) the game seems pretty cool.

I wonder if the barbers in Witcher 3 can change your beard as well as your hair. Snidely Whiplash, anyone? Hmm, what about Fu Manchu Geralt?

I have 100% confidence in CD Projekt RED, they've yet to do me wrong. If anyone can pull off great personal storytelling in an open world, they can. This game is going to be awesome. Plus, I'm really digging bearded Geralt.

I have to honest, I have an issue with the marketing of this type of game on KS. If someone says the game will be bare-bones when it reaches its target then why should I support it . Set the right target to make the game playable and enjoyable. I see this almost as a type of blackmail because most fans of this game will feel obligated to commit more money On the other hand, there's the whole "how much can you reasonably expect to garner" factor. Small, relatively unknown studios like this don't have the recognition of Obsidian Entertainment, or Tim Schafer, or Brian Fargo, thus they can't reasonably expect to be able to raise something like half a million. Due to the nature of Kickstarter, if they don't reach the funding goal then they get nothing. With that in mind, it seems perfectly reasonable to set the funding goal at the bare minimum to release the game at all, while adding stretch goals/hoping for more funding to make the game bigger/better/more fleshed out. I'm keeping an eye on this particular KS since a Zelda-like with a more robust RPG system sounds pretty freakin' awesome to me. If they confirm a Linux version (they've said they are looking into it but can't commit 100% as of yet) then I'll jump on board. I'm fairly confident it will make it, though not by much.

That is really cool and well deserved. Well done, A. Backer. Well done, indeed.

I think it's "wi-di-kay"?

When I look at it I think "Woo-dissa".

The Orlan is so... furry, so very furry. Me likey. Leaning toward Priest of Berath for my first character right now. Obviously very subject to change.

While in some ways I do think that some stretch goals are tantamount to dangling a carrot in front of prospective investors, many, if not most, of the goals I've seen seem like reasonable additions/expansions that could be achieved with a higher level of funding. Putting something tangible at a certain stretch goal level is, in my opinion, a more persuasive way to entice potential investors rather than just saying "extra funding will go toward game development". You need to add some window dressing to make things look more attractive to people, that's just a fact of business. For me, the bottom line is: Does all the money raised go toward making the best game possible? If the answer is "yes" then I consider the team making the project to be faithfully delivering on their promises to the best of their ability, and my trust has not been broken. The fact of the matter is that more funding means the ability to hire more talent and/or for longer periods of time, and the ability to license and use more tools/technology/IP.

Companions should comprise a full spectrum of personalities from stubborn and unyielding to naive and pliable to everything in between (well, not everything, there is a limited number of companions). As such, some companions should be easier to influence than others, while others still may be completely impossible to corrupt (or redeem). By that same token, certain companions, depending on their personality and motives, should actively be trying to manipulate the player character.

I'm well into Phantasy Star II now, though likely not even 20% of the way through the game. It sports the archaic interface that's pretty much the polar opposite of user friendly that I remember from those olden times, and has all the hallmarks of games from those days like grinding and dizzying labyrinth dungeons. Despite this, I'm enjoying my journey so far.

Spells make a huge difference in combat, remember that certain combat spells are not area of effect so there won't be a risk to harming party members. Finally if I am not mistaken you can disable the option where area of effect spells hurt your party. I believe one of the (lower) difficulty settings disables friendly fire. I always play on "Hardcore D&D" so I always have to watch out for friendly fire. Wise use of spells during and before combat make all the difference in the game. The difference between a "vanilla" party and one heavily buffed when entering combat is staggering. For me "Haste" seems to be the most important spell in the game. Obviously, each encounter can play out very differently, but having a hastened party can be the difference between being thoroughly debilitated by enemy casters and ripping those casters to shreds before they have a chance to do much of anything. If you can get your melee characters to the casters quick enough, they don't stand a chance.

The developer (Troika) apparently had plans for a follow on based upon Against the Giants modules, but that fell through. The initial release of ToEE was rushed out and was horribly buggy, which led to poor sales. It was also released incomplete (especially the ending), although I understand the Co8 team has addressed most of that now. Personally I enjoyed the game system; I just didn't find the game itself all that rewarding. Same here. I found ToEE to be rather... well, boring. There just wasn't anything exciting in that game. It's for the most part just one long slog through a dungeon.

I find some of the towns and areas are kind of barebones and really lacking in content and quests, suggesting the Piranha Bytes planned to put more the game but couldn't because of time constraints. I find the content mod and quest packet fill those in nicely. But to each his own.

DoW II is an absolute blast. I like Retribution even better. The story isn't as tight, a necessary evil as it needs to be vague enough to fit with any faction, but you can use whatever faction/race you want, and let's face it, playing as Orks >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> playing as Space Marines. WAAAAAAGH!

Elanee is always the first companion I kick out of my crew as soon as I have more companions than spots available. She's absolutely insufferable. I hate her so much that I don't ever even bother doing her personal quest because I can't stand her aggressively annoying personality. She's useful to have around from a purely tactical standpoint because she can heal and she has AoE spells that don't friendly fire, by it's just not worth it to have to put up with her.

I too always had trouble finishing NWN2OC. I could never do it straight through. The game REALLY drags through the middle section. It's best, in my opinion, to take a break for a while, play a couple of other things, then come back to it refreshed. That's what I did when I finished it up a couple of months ago: I had started the game almost a year ago, got to somewhere toward the end of Act 2, stopped playing it for months, came back, then finished it up. It worked like a charm. As for the party AI, even with the myriad of options available, it's nearly unplayable with party AI turned on. I HAVE TO play the game in puppet mode, micromanaging my party, otherwise I'll get slaughtered when my companions keep making boneheaded decisions. and obliterating my party with friendly fire.

Gothic 3 was a bloody mess when released, but with the community patch, quest packet, and content mod, it's a really good game. Are you using the content mod & quest packet too or just the community patch?

I'm definitely interested just because it's completely different than what I usually play and because it's chill. I loved Osmos (completely different type of game) for the fact that it was so chill. The fact that they're making a Linux version makes it very likely that I will pick this up in the future. On a side note, what about Smokey and the Bandit: The RPG? "Eastbound and down loaded up and truckin' we're gonna do what they say can't be done..."

Hang in there. I had the same reaction. The first 4 levels are not Sam-like at all. In fact, they downright suck, for the most part. After that though, the game turns into the wide open fragging mayhem that is a true Sam game. Just persevere through the first few levels of mediocrity and you'll be splattering ungodly amounts of monsters while enemies charge you left and right and projectiles come at you relentlessly in no time.

Neeshka Tali'Zorah vas Normandy Morte Lily Gar

Scooped up the Megadrive Classics 5 bundle yesterday for a cool buck and a half. There's like 10 games in there but I got it primarily for Phantasy Star 2, 3, & 4. I love the entire series dearly with 4 being my favorite, but I want to play them in order, despite the fact that 3 kind of, sort of doesn't chronologically fit, but whatever. So I'm currently playing Phantasy Star 2. **** yeah, old school!

How DARE you, sir. I am an aumaua, thank you very much. I'm REALLY liking the unified attack system and how it will be used for both physical attacks and magic. I do have one question, though: Will there be fumbles/critical spell failures? Maybe possibly in Expert Mode or as a separate selectable option?

Serious Sam 3: BFE - Really fun, but brutally difficult. Still, fighting a gazillion enemies all at once while heavy metal music is playing and **** is blowing up left and right is pretty freakin' rad.

I'm liking the sound of that. Just a few different types for specific damage types I think would be plenty. For example: Slashing - cut off limbs Bludgeoning - crush head down to neck Piercing - Impale completely through torso Firearm - Blow a visible hole completely through target Fire - Incinerate to ashes (FO: NV laser style) Cold - Freeze solid and shatter Electricity - Convulse wildly while coursing with electricity Acid - Melt down to puddle (FO: NV plasma style) Poison - Choke and gag, convulsing, and collapse obviously, I'm just spitballing of the top of my head here.