ShadowPaladin V1.0

Kind of like that game based off Vincent from FVII. Bastila is pretty story bound to make an interesting game with variable outcomes though. Mira on the other hand... :D

Where is the pricing ? Take this as you will(since I'm not saying where I heard it), but your not likely to see it till just before the holidays this year.

I wouldnt call Zelda complex though. And how much trash is there for each good PC game ? If anything it's the expansion of consoles and the former PC devs making games for the, that has led to the largest drop in quality of console games.

Oh just came up with another one. Story battles. You meet the boss and you waste tons of items keeping yourself alive only to discover that you just cant win the battle. In Tales of Symphonia I fought the guy for over two hours (which isnt uncommon for big boss encounters in some games). Did a couple of 100,000's damage to him only to find out that he couldnt be killed. It's not so much the not being able to kill him bit, but rather the waste of money (for items) that titanic battle was, as well as being ultimately pointless. On the other hand if a boss whacks you for 99,999 (thanks a bunch Dark Ixion) then you know full well your not strong enough.

In what other way would you "dumb down" a game ?

Can you name a few ? I was thinking of the big names BG/IWD PST FO etc. Not one of which captures the horror of seeing the expert sphere grid for the first time

If that is the case why do console RPGs have such complex game mechanics ? PC RPGs were never complex, nothing much has changed in that respect.

NwN wasnt full VO. Unless the name is recorded in advance , it cant be used simple as that.

The "Stop stop we ran out of virgins" made me laugh

One of the problems with VO is the inability to refer to a character by name (if that choice is left to the player). Either you do it by title, so your best friends are calling you The Exile for the whole game. Or everyone is calling you "you know who" since they dont know what you were called in the prequel. Or you do it by a selection from a known list (like an expanded version of the Fable system for example being called Arse Face) everyone would then refer to you as such in VO. Naming of the protagonist in a VO game dosnt really work as a consequence. Which is why most of them come with names these days (like Varn).

Sometimes living in this world is like living in a house full of children. Still havnt seen the cartoons if someone could direct me to a link that would be great.

Ditto AI control is a group of individuals, not a party. You only have to look at how a very solid group of EQ players works together to see just how far removed AI control is.

Those used to annoy me too. Although only Shin Megami has an encounter rate that I would call annoying now. That game was only bearable because I happened to breed a demon which would lower the rate from every couple of steps. There are a couple of reasons why they no longer annoy me. Even to the point of sticking a lure bracer on to up the rate. I played Xnenosaga recently and that has monsters that appear on screen (rather than random) and the game just didnt have the same level of tension since you could wander around without any fear of being jumped. The other reason is that from a purely RPG perspective random encounters are much more in character. While you can influence (or even eliminate them) when characters and monsters meet it's down to statistics and not cheaply sniping them from under the FOW (like in BG or IWD). The added danger , as well as the emphasis on preparing (like buying enough potions) and not using all your magic points in the first encounter make them far more interesting. As well as those tense moments when your on your last legs and desperate to see a save point. It's a feeling you dont get in RPGs with critters on the map.

What do you mean by random encounters ?

I fell asleep playing it (somewhere in the prison level). If your refering to HOTU. It started off well enough but I resented that the only way they could pull of the story was to turn you into yet another chosen one.

All three from Lunar:Dragon Song. 1. Running consuming hp's. Granted if HP is stamina it makes sense, but crawling around is still annoying. 2. Choosing between items and experience.... It's just annoying period. 3. Not being able to target individual monsters !!!! Either Jian does a 3 kick attack on a monster with 1 hp left, or everyone attacks a different monster meaning that everything is alive to counter attack you.

Once I lose track of the time slot other things tend to crop up. Of course it will inevitably be repeated anyway so I'm not that bothered realy. Bones is a bit like a "sexy" version of CSI. Having a sunday repeat slot makes it easy to catch.

I used to watch it, but lost track of it after the first series. Only thing I watch at the moment is Bones. I will probably catch the reruns of BSG at some point.

Depends on the animal. It's a bit like tagging your kids I guess. For parents its peace of mind , but for older kids it's like having someone looking over your shoulder. Ironically, if your not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to fear. But it means you cant tell your folks your off to the library and then go over your mates house. Or cut class to play footie over the park. Since few of us are paragons of virtue these "security measures" are always going to annoy people.

You get used to it pretty quick. Although a camera in the bathroom or bedroom would be a step too far... The cost alone would make it a non starter I expect. These things are not exactly cheap.

Remakes are generally not that worthwhile. Either the changes are minimal (in order to stay true to the original) or the original gets lost in the remake. PST isnt really the sort of game that benifits greatly from technology anyway. I suppose if you were to do it for another system, like the handheld FF games, that would be a reason otherwise cant see the point.

Which cut scene/FMV or sequence is your favourite and why ? Mine would still have to be the song 1000 words in FFX-2. That and in the context of the build up of events prior to it, just brings it all together.

Lunar Genisis on the DS. Just finished playing the Final Fantasy series back to back too over the last couple of months.

Not sure about life changing. But FFX certainly changed my gaming habbits completely.

Dosnt explain what was clearly happening though. The tank was driving around with zero armour and half or more of the green health bar missing.