melkathi

Sounds a lot like the books. There Artyom doesn't get to do anything but follow other people around either. That man never has to make a single decission...

Yes, that seems to be a hellbug monarch. The primary weak spot is its belly. Though the tail, under the proper circumstances can reveal weak spots as well.

Interesting read.Thanks.

*grumble* strategy games used to be the one thing that hadn't been corrupted by consoles *grumble grumble* Next thing you know, they'll turn adventure games into interactive stories with quick time events... oh! wait, they already did...

Exactly. Part of the criticism I made earlier in this thread You can never truly sneak up on them, as their exact position will be determined the moment you enter LOS and, through their free move, will be in relation to your position. You could spend a lot of time circline part of your squad around, so that running to cover from your spotter, will cause them to run into the line of fire of your waiting squadies. But you will pretty much always need one person to draw the aliens' attention. There deffinitly is no putting down landmines in the patrol path of a supermutant guard, as you could do in Fallout Tactics

Yeah, Psycho Pete's fashion sense...

WARNING: This post may include quite a few Defiance Screenshots. I got this new outfit. I really liked moving away from the hot-pants. Not that I truly mind skimpy shorts on an attractive woman, but I really enjoyed this more covered up look (my character pointing a gun at Rynn from the tv series) : And since you usually see your character from behind, I had this nice get-up that was so not sexualizing women. How mature of me. Then I saw my character in a cutscene from the front: Is that the most ridiculous bra ever? *sigh* "Oh well!" I said to myself and made to spawn my quad so I could drive off: Seriously? That is where it spawns my ride? It actually rotated my character by 90 degrees after I hit the button so it could go out of its way to spawn the quad there? So some random screenshots: Running out of the radius of a crystal's explosion OR every game needs an abundance of lense flare: My favourid antagonist so far in this game: Idiot raiders and Dark Matter: The calm before the boss fight:

Indeed. Quite an interesting sale.

I think it's the reason why I am so looking forward to Numenera and far less to Project Eternity. Numenera sounds a bit fresher.

The one time, charge use issue is an old one though. We tried to explain it to them during the Champions Online beta many moons ago before there ever was Perfect World involvement or a cash shop.

Some of the ideas from Allods online, coupled with Obsidian writing, would make for an awesome single player open world exploration RPG with randomly generated maps. You'd get one of those flying ships, with which you could explore and visit randomly generated islands. You could trade between islands. And at the same time you'd be able to eplore an interesting, well written story with great npcs created by Obsidian. Kinda like Planescape Torment meets Spelljammer. But noone ever makes the things I like

And its the tiny differences that dictate whether you get to start in a HBO show or not

If you had a dragon familiar you'd be Daenerys Targaryen

I throw a tactical scanner. The scanner reveals three mutons who get a cut-scene of growling and posing for the camera, then scatter and run out of LOS and behind cover. Of course it was the sniper who threw the thing, so her/his turn is basially over as he/she can't reposition and shoot now, having performed one action already. So there goes the ambush. Of course I could have my assault person rush out and shoo one of the mutons out of cover... and be left in the open (but of course with improved defense). That is of course if the Mutons did not run in a way that makes the flush out shot flush them into fog of war. As I said though. I believe it has tactics. I don't think they are a result of a great tactics game though, rather that of restrictions and flashy game design. All I got to see while playing was moving carefully and slowly down the map"so as to trigger alien to spawn in as small numbers as possible at a given moment and each time, followed by using the various abilities of the soldiers to defeat the spawn and move on to where I expect the next group of aliens to spawn.

Meh. The only thing worth buying for Zen is the freeform character slot in Champiosn Online. Besides that... nothing really. Especially nothing that has to do with keys for lockboxes

Not so much skepticism. I think it released just as the EU council presidency was drowning in ECOFIN meetings and Cyprus was knee deep in the dept crisis / money laundering alegations. So i was drowning in work. I absolutely loath the move away from action points and to only letting you do specific things in a specific order (you can move then shoot, but you can't shoot then move (unless you are a heavy with the ability), you can move then reload, but you can't reload then move. Touching your gun for any reason other than carrying it ends your turn after all). I find the need for "tactics" this adds to be the cheap kind: add some arbitrary restrictions forcing the players to work around them. XCOM arguably gives players more toys to play with, with all those nifty abilities to choose from. But I feel I am allowed to do less in the end; the abilities allow me to do what the developer envisioned, not what I want to do. I can't fire my assault rifle in full auto, spray and pray - the character is the wrong class for that, doesn't matter that its a fully automatic weapon. If I want to empty the clip I have to use some sort of supression fire. I wont deal damage anymore, but who would ever think that a clip in an assault rifle, when empited could kill things? At the same time, I can't duck. I can duck, if the context sensitive environment has a glowing little shield symbol. And of course ducking doesn't steady my aim. It's silly considering that in the games where you only have standing stance and kneeling stance, people have been criticising the lack of a prone stance. But with XCOM all shiny and new its ok that there are no stances at all? It is irrelevant in which direction I am facing. There seems to be no friendly fire outside AoE attacks like grenades and rockets. And of course no stray bullets - if a bullet misses the target, it vanishes. I can have overwatch, but it's a la Warhammer 40k: I declare overwatch and then when it triggers I do my attack in my opponent's turn. No "I have that many action points left over and can make a reaction check to fire with them in my opponent's turn" and deffinitly no setting at what threshhold to start shooting (as some tactics games allow you to). But what bothers me the most is the fact that aliens on the map seem to exist in potential only until someone reaches a trigger distance: then they spawn in groups of three and immediatly get a free move. There is no sneaking up on them, there is no setting up a sniper from afar, or using thermal imaging or nightvision or psionic detection. If you know where they are, they get to run for cover during your turn. That's what I could think of off the top of my head. But it results in me personally feeling this game to be closer to DoW2 and even Republic Commandos than older small units tactics games. So I had far less fun than I had with UFO: Enemy Unknown or the UFO trilogy by ALTAR, or UFO: Extraterrestrials or Fallout Tactics. (or even Paradise Cracked and Cops 2170)

Probably going to give up on XCOM. Seriously disliking it.

Still playing Go Home Dinosaurs! Very educational game. I learned why dinosaurs went extinct. They tried to raid the gophers' BBQ. To protect their BBQ, the gophers used giant magnets to pull meteors from space and drop them on the dinosaurs.

"I shall not confront Drowsy Emperor as an enemy, but welcome his cookies as gifts to be cherished." -Gaian acolyte prayer

This quest for enlightenment is just another false god. To which I have to ask: "Will we next create false gods to rule over us?" Sister Miriam Godwinson, "We Must Dissent" Ok, that's stretching it a bit in relevance, but I wanted to show off my ability to quote AC as well

When you still know that its a life you need and not a Phoenix Down, you are fine

Gave it a bit more time. May play through it, but am glad I did not pay full price for it. Most likely I will return to UFO: Extraterrestrials Gold Edition for the true UFO experience. It doesn't have fancy graphics and may be a bit deadlier, but at least gameplay doesn't feel dumbed down for consols (my soldiers can crouch ). In this new XCOM throwing grenades is a pain. I had enemies with jetpacks jump through a solid concrete roof, then land on the roof they jumped through, so they could shoot at me from a higher elevation... It isn't as bad as UFO: Aftermath, which had random maps that i would generate from scratch when you loaded a game, even while on the map - so if you were taking cover behind a house, saved the game to have dinner and loaded afterwards to continue playing, the house would most likely not be there anymore...

Playing "Go Home Dinosaurs!" A fun little tower defence where gophers are trying to protect their BBQ from ravenous hordes of dinosaurs. The pop refrences and terrible puns are priceless. Gopher grunt shoots from his tree stump: "This is my stump. There are many like it, but this one is mine." Gopher with freeze ray: "I see dinos. Get it? Icy dinos?" Though my favourid has to be the laser which is "historically accurate!"

Trying out XCOM. Man is the gameplay terrible... will I have to play a strategy game with a gamepad?

Do you get any knockback attacks? Nothing is as rewarding as sending enemies flying off of buildings