Humodour

I don't get it.

He was talking about NOLF, not Deus Ex, but I minorly agree. I personally consider NOLF enough RPG to classify as an RPG-FPS hybrid. On the other end of the scale is System Shock 2, which I also classify as an FPS-RPG hybrid, but for different reasons (more stat and combat choice than role-playing choice). You can definitely say that Deus Ex is more of an RPG in both senses, though - combat/stat choice AND role-playing choice, and thus relative to Deus Ex, NOLF's role-playing was more minor. But then, take the Diablos. By the above logic, they are no more RPGs than System Shock 2 was. I personally think that makes a lot of sense, and I'd classify them both as RPGs, but others will disagree.

"As of 2005, women [in Israel] are allowed to serve in 83% of all positions in the military, including Shipboard Navy Service (except submarines), and Artillery. Combat roles are voluntary for women." Also of note is that openly gay people are treated exactly like straight people in the IDF. This is not true in America, where openly gay people are not allowed in the military (it was on Obama's agenda of things to change, but given the current world situation I'd say it has a low priority). Edit: I'm ambivalent about women in combat roles. I can see merit in both the for and against cases (e.g. an all-male front line removes distractions, and there's no soldier shortage currently, so no need to add women).

Reason: "if it ain't broke don't fix it" + misguided chivalry.

As somebody said earlier, it actually does - it helps you immerse yourself in the character (and thus play the role more comfortably and realistically, at least for me). But that's with choice in mind. As in "more choice means more roles available to the player to follow" but sometimes devs don't want choice, they want to enforce a certain role or roles (e.g. Planescape: Torment, or Deus Ex). In this sense, FPS games are still roleplaying games, they just lack the ability for you to dictate the role you play. I would say that generally disqualifies them as RPGs though - that term basically necessitates some level of choice in the role you play, which Torment and Deus Ex still offered.

It almost makes me want to go to Israel... If I wasn't afraid of being blown up that is. This. Pretty sure Israeli women are part of the reserves, BTW. They don't fight head-to-head normally, but are still trained in front-line combat in case of emergency. I'll have to check later.

I don't know about the rest of Israeli girls, but if they're as beautiful as their counterparts in the military... man, EVERY SINGLE female Israeli soldier I've seen has been smoking hot. I'm not sure if these are actual soldiers, or only models put into uniforms for a nice photoshooting. And if they're actual soldiers, then I'd like to know if they're in the infantry on the front, or desk writers for commando HQ. Either way, some look okay-ish, some are actually ugly. But hey, different tastes and all... I didn't click the link. I was just referring to Israeli soldiers I've seen in general.

Suppose, and this is purely hypothetical, that one was creating a 2D pre-rendered game engine. What would be the best way to create/acquire assets to populate that engine with to create a game world? This includes things like the mouse pointer, the interface, the monsters, the NPCs, the items, the items on the ground, the floors, the trees, etc. Ideally the source would be non-proprietary and allow said assets to be packaged with the game and sold for no or minimal royalties. I'm a 20 year old uni student who can barely draw stick figures, so I have no hope of both coding a game engine, thinking up dialogue and plot, and also creating reasonably playable game art by myself. Here's what I've made so far (still adding more). It's just placeholder, and whilst not stick-figure level shocking, required a few hours to create from drawing, cropping photos, etc (I got bored). Click to enlarge. Also, and this is less important, but still a goal, what would be my best bet for audio creation? Weapon sounds, character voices, ambient music, etc. Again, ideally non-proprietary stuff because I'm a uni bum who's just starting out. I have a feeling the answer to all this is "make friends with artists", but I figured I'd pop the question anyway to see if anybody has some insights I missed. Interesting note: the gun in the main hand is actually an air gun version of the Desert Eagle, made from engineering plastics.

I don't know about the rest of Israeli girls, but if they're as beautiful as their counterparts in the military... man, EVERY SINGLE female Israeli soldier I've seen has been smoking hot.

Mmm. Australia sent thousands of troops, as did America and Britain. Our commitment obviously isn't as large as America and Britain's, but it's still formidable. I'm pretty sure Poland did similar. I fully support the Afghanistan peacekeeping effort. I'm still unsure about Iraq; I obviously support our forces, but the intentions for the invasion were misplaced, and there are worse brutal dictatorships in the world. Though that's not really an excuse for inaction, either, in my mind - I guess history will be the arbiter here.

It's a common terrorist tactic in the Middle East to fire from or near hospitals, schools and churches so that the enemy either a) won't fight back, or b) you can cry bloody murder when it does, to help your propaganda war. On another note, Turkey's ministers just unofficially said they would be sending a peacekeeping force to Gaza to stop Hamas. That's probably the first bright idea I've heard about the Israel-Palestine situation in a long while (Turkey is a non-Western 98% Muslim country, but lives next to, or in, Europe, and is a stable democracy - a perfect third party). I'd like to see the look on Arab and Iranian faces when Hamas starts trying to murder Turkish soldiers, too.

I, too, wanna be a girl.

He's just being a troll. He does that sometimes (often). lol. You don't need a license to develop programmes (including games) for the Mac. Spider: Compared to porting it to 2 or 3 different consoles? Far less. I don't know the figures of porting costs, so let me just give you an incomplete list of games that have Mac and Linux versions instead? Mac (mainly big names, RPGs, and games I like): KOTOR 1 IWD 1 NOLF 2 Freedom Force 1 Jade Empire World of Warcraft Spore EVE Online Age of Empires 1, 2, and 3 AvP 1 and 2 Baldur's Gate 1, 2, and ToB Battlefield 1942 Black & White Call of Duty 1, 2, and 4 Civilisation 2, 3, and 4 Command & Conquer 1 and 2 Descent 1 Deus Ex 1 Diablo 1, 2, and 3 (Yes, Diablo 3) Doom 1, 2, and 3 Dungeon Siege 1 Fallout 1 and 2 Giants: Citizen Kabuto Halo 1 HoMM 3, 4, and 5 Hexen 1 and 2 Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Max Payne Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 (but not MotB or SoZ? Smart, Obsidian. A hacker showed that the Windows version of MotB works fine with some slight fiddling, so it was clearly laziness on Obsidian's part ) Prey Quake 1, 2, 3, 4, and Wars Return to Castle Wolfenstein All the Sims Starcraft The Jedi Knight series System Shock 1 Total Annihilation All Unreal Tournaments The Warcraft Series Worms Armageddon Linux games (as for Mac, an incomplete list, though definitely smaller): Doom 3 Quake 1, 2, 3, 4, and Wars Return to Castle Wolfenstein The Unreal Tournament series EVE Online Come on, Obsidian. What's the go?

I have no idea where you got notion that AP would be a NOLF clone.

I don't think US prisons are anything any decent, civilised country should be aspiring to.

Not to derail the thread Morgoth, but generally the person making dubious claims has the burden of proof (i.e. you). I mean your statement is already rather nonsensical because we clearly saw character development in NOLF1, but not only that, character development does not an RPG make. Look at the persistent undercurrents of moral greyness in NOLF1 for another well-done RPG aspect of NOLF - if you actually bothered to stop and listen to people or read what you saw, you really started to get the feeling that the bad guys weren't at all black and white, they were real people with families and dreams. And you were killing them because they got in your way. Now the game didn't really push that theme the way, say, Deus Ex 1 did, but it was certainly there and could easily have been developed further (offering more diplomatic or non-lethal options, and alternate pathways for example). Moreover, I can name a bunch of campy/silly RPGs: Torment, Fallout, Anachronox.

But that's the point - campiness doesn't really allow to develop a character outside of being campy. [citation needed]

I found out how to fix it: reformat and install Windows XP hi.

So, what games released in 2008 were worth buying? They don't need to be 90% epic hits, just fun and entertaining (read: above average). A small description would be nice. PC only. You can list console titles if you want, just make sure you clearly mark them as such in your post. Cheers.

Bull**** detected.

No One Lives Forever 1 showed me that you can still have an awesome spy game (with as many RPG elements as you want) without needing Deus Ex's gothic atmosphere. So while I loved Deus Ex 1, I'm confident they can pull off their own unique (not necessarily dark, gothic, or serious) atmosphere for AP and still make a great game. That doesn't mean they will, but they've got a good chance. They just need to make sure they market AP as a serious game (even if it isn't). Otherwise they'll suffer the same problems NOLF1 and Torment did: appearing too weird to people who've never played them. Honestly, the cover art of PS:T made me almost not buy it, and the cover art for NOLF1 is the reason I only got round to playing it in 2008 (long after it stopped making revenue I suspect).

I fully support the (reasonably) level-headed and democratic Palestinians of the West Bank, and thus (obviously) the Palestinian right to self-determination. What I don't support is an Iranian-backed terrorist organisation deliberately attacking its neighbour to prevent any peace settlement being made. Hamas can burn. The scale of the loss of life is deplorable, but it's also a miracle that the Gaza casualties have been 75% Hamas militia so far. Would that Israeli had the resources and time to assassinate or jail Hamas hard-liners one by one without any loss of civilian life, but alas, that's not an option. I don't pretend to know the answer, but I do know what's not the answer: sticking your head in the sand and hoping the guys with guns and bombs will go away (a.k.a. blind pacifism).

Well said, Walsingham. taks's adamant opposition to fairly obvious and simple facts puzzles me, as does his persistent desire to belittle those who don't take his word as gospel.

Well they have some competition again. Russia just passed a law authorising their military to station warships at various countries (100 or so) around the world "in case a something goes wrong or a situation flares up". Don't get me wrong, I'd like America to have some competition for status as 'world police' - I'd just prefer it be, say, Europe, instead of a corrupt Russia that's slowly reverting back to totalitarianism and agitating for Cold War 2.0.

Want more game sales? Support Linux and Mac. The stats he uses have changed since he last checked (basically non-Windows market share has doubled), but the basic logic is simple and elegant: Linux and Mac users are far more likely to buy computer games, but possibly more importantly, they are extremely strong word of mouth advertisers and faithful fans. 90% of users might use Windows, but if only 5% of them buy computer games, let alone your computer games, what're you left with? But just suppose your Windows market share is 5% - while a quarter of Mac and Linux users also buy your games, that's 50% more sales than if you had of supported Windows alone (just ignoring the word of mouth benefits). It's certainly not obvious why game companies don't support Max and Linux in today's environment, and you need only look at the graph linked to above to see why this argument will simply get stronger in future.