ShadowPaladin V1.0

Jefferson has a kind of immortality. Everyone creates their own game based around those few short insights.Post NwN I dont expect 8 levels would have been widely accepted. Of course with an evocative opening like that the game cant really fail as an immagination exercise.<insert whistful smiley> FO3 didnt sound all that great. The story was a bit of a mish mash of elements from several well known or lesser known movies. The whole total freedom thing sounded a bit far fetched too. Nice theory but the practicalities I seriously doubt. Looking forward to playing XMLII though. First one was good if a little rough around the edges and they really need to sort out the story mode (said that over there already though )

Keeping the publisher happy.

Could you make a good movie from a computer game anyway... It's kinda funny really because Ocean used to make really bad games based on movies.

If you steal a car from an individual who has already bought it yes. If you steal it from the factory then your not depriving anyone of it the factory simply makes another copy like the publisher would.Although the materials are more expensive it's the same process. But your still stealing it. It dosnt belong to you until you pay for it and complete the contract same goes for any product. Couldnt do it because of patenting. You cant simply copy someones invention and then give it away. He would get locked up and or suffer heavy fines. Food isnt an invention (unless you are talking about specfic man made foods) if people want to grow food and then give it away, well thats up to them. If on the other hand you hop over the fence and take an apple off a tree , thats theft (and trespass). No one has a right to entertainment regardless of where they live. Whether or not something is available is irrelevent, its still theft and he's still a thief.

Indeed it did. My KOTOR II should be arriving in a couple of days. Renting ceased to be an option when I "found out" about the suprise trip for valentines week. Good job or I would have ended up paying more in late fee's than the cost of the game. Standards change over time but it's quite common for reviewers to gloss over the faults in games they like and draw attention to faults in games they dont.

It's possible they could use the elements of NwN to make a focused single player game which could be BG III. Because they dont appear as yet to have anything on the cards other than NwN II and thats pretty unusual. Most likely explanation, they are working on something for a next gen console. It's easier to get state secrets than to find that stuff out. Even my wifes brother will only say yes and leave it at that.

It's a Japanese thing. Most of their RPGs work this way, though the Nippon Ichi series seems to take it to the extreme with a 9,999 level cap. It does require some discipline not to take advantage of the system in order to maximise the games enjoyment. But my major objection is that it's not really part of the game. If you for example reach an area at too low a level and you get your arse kicked, game over. Now when you restart the characters dont know they are too level for the area so if you level it's meta gaming rather than roleplaying. Resurection of Dark Dragon had the handy dandy egress spell. So if you were losing you could egress and then whip your army into shape in a very in game way.

The main reason people do it is your not likely to get caught. It's an easy crime which dosnt require the sort of risks that go along with robbing a bank or stealing a car. The laws need to have much harsher penalties for these theives.

It's a stylistic thing. The stories are not at all childish and the games themselves are probably beyond most children. Looks like I'll have to ask my wife to level my characters though. Them vanishing every few turns makes it difficult to play underleveled like you could in Disgaea.

I hate leveling. I've never even reached 99 in any of the FF games. <The Titlist is on the main story path cant really miss him>.

Did you do much leveling up? My wife says it's a requirement, but she said that about Disgaea too. I was breezing along until I got to a castle with a boss with 500+ hp's no one could stick around long enough to damage him. Thats besides him having a skill that can kill a row of characters in one blast.

Weird is an apt word for describing many Japanese games, but in this case it's a very fitting description. For someone familiar with these sorts of strategy RPGs this one pretty much tears up the rulebook. Your character is a sort of medium that can see and talk to spirits. She also has the ability to infuse spirits into a variety of innanimate objects, whereby the spirit takes on some of the objects properties. A spirit confined to a rock will be tough , but slow in both body and mind. Conversely a spirit confined into a plant will be quicker, but weaker and also more vulnerable to fire. Each battle begins with your character (the only one who is alive) on a battlefield with different potential spots where you can confine spirits. Some of these items are more suited to particular spirits than others and you also need to think about your spirits elements as well as any elements on the weapons they carry. Confining a spirit with -50% fire into a -80% tree, not good if you have fire using creatures against you The rest of the bad news is that spirits can only maintain this form for a short period of time. In the case of witches its 3 rounds , the average warrior lasts for 5 and soldiers last the longest though they are very average otherwise. This leaves you not only with an army that needs to be summoned to the field, but also one that wont last the duration in longer battles. Given that your main character is very much on the delicate side you need a very sturdy squad rather than just a few strong characters. Each character comes with basic abilities depending on the class. Other abilities are granted by equiping items (or grafting skills from items). Each skill also has a different stat base. Some are based on attack, others are based on hp's and even speed. Each character class also has a rank for learning abilities. For example fighters are A rank in physical attacks, Valkyries are A rank in special attacks, Witches are A rank in magical spells. (the ranks can be altered by titles). As well as offering potential confining points , every item can also be picked up and used as a weapon. Bash things over the head with flowerpots, smack them around with a full sized tree, use a piece of driwtwood like a bazooka, the variations are insane. Over time each item also charges with mana which releases even more stored up abilities which your blacksmith will be able to release. As well as the more usual purchased weapons like spears , swords and staves. In addition to which, once you add a fusionist to your ranks you can absorb skills from items directly into the spirit, or even absorb other spirits. You can for example absorb a ghoul spirit and take on it's chomp attack , which gives you a handy way for your warriors to heal. Chomp on anything, trees, rocks, even the dead Fushionists can also fuse different items to make them stronger or to give them stats they would not normally have. The combinations are mind boggling and thats before you get to titles.. Recruit a titlist and you can aquire titles to assign to characters, items and even dungeons (more on that later). Titles can add to stats, grant skills, spells and numerous other things (like making fusions more effective). Add a Dungeon Monk to the growing retinue and he will seek out hidden dungeons for you to explore (in gameplay terms he's a random dungeon generator) be warned some of these things are immense. Luckily if you pay him he can extract you from them as well. Anything you kill down in the dungeon has the potential to become part of your growing spirit army... Two more important cogs in the wheel are the Merchant and the Healer. The higher level your merchant is , the better the equipment he sells. The merchant will gain experience whenever you buy something, and on the battlefield as well. Healers keep your army going. Each special skill has a cost and those points can only be regained at the end of a chapter or at the healer. The healer also levels up as you pay for healing and make suprisingly effective fighters as well as being central to keeping everyone else buffed and alive. There are a LOT more classes than this which appear later in the game and if you can find them. The downside of all these options , had to be one didnt there. You can exploit them and make the game rather easy. You also have levels that go into the 1000's if you feel like it so the potential is there to spend hours,days,months leveling up. For comparrison my wifes Disgaea characters were at around level 3000 and mine were only level 70 ish when I finished the story. Phantom Brave has a lot in common with Disgaea when it comes to nutty levels and big numbers.

It's ok I think I saw it more favourably because after NwN Biowares OC didnt set the benchmark very high. I rented it so didnt have any idea what was going to happen so my character was not really suited for a career as a Jedi. Once you know the twist the games a bit ho hum. It might possibly get into my top 10 but only just.

It does actually say lending is prohibited on most DvD's. What it dosnt say is what form that lending would take. Common sense would seem to dictate that the lending involves some kind of finiancial gain. While it may be technically illegal to lend something to someone else it's not likely that anyone would know, or have the powers to enforce.

Looks like the mods are on holiday. There is no justification for stealing games. Thats all there is to it.

FOT in RT was great. You could set characters to overwatch. You could make full use of a wide range of tactics , like advancing under cover fire so the enemy would keep their heads down. Assault troops equipped with grenades and shotguns could storm strongpoints while snipers picked off anything that dared to show its face. Controlling 6 characters in real time took a bit of practice, but it wasnt that difficult. Really just a case of thinking ahead so that everything arrived at the point you wanted it at the same time. TB on the other hand, well slow , dull and with very poorly done AI that could not react outside of it own turn. Remember this ? Walk to a corner switch to TB walk around the corner shoot and then walk back.. Regardless of your personal preference you have still failed to show why a game system as simple as FO (much simpler than D&D for example) needs to run in TB. If the game uses the usual one character and a bunch of hangers on even the most inept and slow thinking gamer should be able to handle that.

There is still nothing in FO's combat system that makes TB a requirement. Or even desirable to any but those who have a strong preference for it.

In AD&D (not 3e) A round is 1 minute long. Each round is split into phases which deterimine when in the round your character acts. 10 rounds make up one turn which makes a turn 10 minutes long.

TB RPGs are kinda dull. Really not enough going on to make them worthwile. You can load them down with pointless options like TOEE did. But all that does is show up how poor the AI is at dealing with them. Take FO , once you pass a certain skill, may as well shoot everything in the eyes. Pain that you have to keep clicking through the targeting menu just to do it. With basically one character under your control making the game TB would be a pointless excercise. The workload just dosnt warrant it. If people cant press a pause button, well they have more to worry about than playing games..

It would be a shame if they made something outdated just because a couple of people dont know when to let go.

Depends what you do. If you rushed through FFVIII then FO I&II might take longer but otherwise FFVIII is a longer game with many more distractions.

Or it may just be crap like he says. It's quite likely given that most games from that area are flawed in some way and if it's being judged on the same scale as a big production it's not going to score highly anyway. Givev this one a whirl. http://eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=57000

He sounds like the movie version of Trioka

FF VIII wasnt one of my favourites but it was still pretty good. It certainly had it's memorable moments like finding the research station in the middle of nowhere.. It also has the coolest vehicle out of any of them, and the worst.. You could probably play both FO's in the time FFVIII takes, and have some time left over. If you have a lot of free time play FF VIII if you only have a day or two , play FO I&II. I find that If I'm enjoying something I like play similiar games until the mood passes.