Humodour

I like Josh and how he makes games. He's got a unique approach. He's not always correct in practice, but I generally tend to identify with his ideals for how games should be made. Wish he'd be a bit more positive about the game, though - unless he truly didn't enjoy it. And I'm not yet sure what his stance on cheese and balance is. I get the feeling he's vehemently opposed to cheese... which isn't so good, IMHO. Sure balance is important, but oft-times people focus on it to the detriment of enjoyment of things like gameplay. There was nothing cooler in IWD1/BG1&2/PS:T/D2 than finding that magic item that was just a bit too powerful for your level, but not gamebreakingly (and it's strength would diminish as your power increased anyway). Similar for spells and such (the druid's spike growth or thorn spay in IWD, or the mage's Mordenkainen's sword). Hell, even in Fallout when you a gun to early it's that little bit more fun for a while. Well that was off-topic.

HL2 ep 1 was grand. I was adventuring the whole way instead of running around feeling like it was a chore (see HL2) and when I hit the end boss I was like "ooooh cool... that's what HL2 should have been like". HL1, Opp Force and HL2: Ep 1 are my favourites in the series thus far. Hmm just read Wikipedia and it said Episde 2 is developed by a different team. I'll probably be dissapointed Ep 2, since the Episode one team actually managed to capture the old HL.

To be fair, Microsoft does fund a lot of "blue sky" research. Okay, it might be capitalistically prudent to buy-out any fantastic new idea that might conceivably become a threat in the future, but they are still funding some interesting stuff. (For example, did you know Microsoft have an enormous Linux division? Big and well funded.) Big, well-funded and closed source, I imagine.

My favourite languages: Machine/Assembly (There's just something awesome about having absolute control over the machine - especially when you can embed it in C) Haskell (The purest functional language around, and a joy for maths majors like me!) C++ (For practical stuff) Java (Some fun things to do in jaba and it is a relatively 'neat' language) Python (Just learning this, but seems VERY powerful and uses whitespace instead of punctuation, like Haskell) I use Bloodshed Dev C++ for a lot of stuff on windows (even non C stuff). I am too lazy to install Crimson Editor. On Linux I use Kate - an awesome editor. I haven't really done much practical stuff yet. I'm in my second year of Computer Science/Applied Maths at the Australian National University. Mostly focusing on Software/Hardware interaction, distributed systems and computation (algorithms for solving maths problems, often using linear algebra, mainly). Even so, I actually just want to be a graphics programmer. P.S.: Perl sucks. Go Python!

Yeah I bought one copy because I am normal.

How rare.

Dammit. Been on that forum for 5 minutes and already I feel like calling them all ****ing retards.

I think I'll have the Imperial March at my wedding when she's coming down the isle.

Was Arcanum anything like Fallout? I'm tempted to play it. Have the CDs here.

How are ultima underworlds or the tes series different from this? They aren't, which is why they're shooters too. You use the keyboard to move, the mouse to look around and it's in first person, it's a goddamn FPS, just deal with it man. Bloodlines is in 3rd person. Does that mean it is an RPG?

I HEAVE A SIGH OF INDIGNATION.

I just bought the 70$ DVD pack for NWN1 + Xpacks, BG1 and 2 + xpacks, IWD1 and 2 + xpacks. I'm such a sucker. Shame it didn't include PS:T... although I have the 2-disc ISOs of that already... not to mention the 4 discs version physically.

Every time a Fallout fanboy complains, god kills a kitten.

Cheer up, buddy. But really an exchange of opinions is usually like "I think so and so" not "Such and such is the truth and you are wrong"... which would be an argument.

I'm replaying BG2+ToB. After that it'll be IWD2. Then perhaps FO2... depends if I have found an ISO for disc one of IWD1 or not. Bloody scratched disc.

I bet FO3 will be better than you guys think.

Indeed. I'd like to see more like it. It reminds me of Deus Ex in its general well-roundedness.

Nice one. You know as well as I do that was on the BIS/IPLY boards and those died long ago. Suffice to say you haven't changed a bit in like 7 years.

If you don't like it. Just. Don't. Play. It. If it doesn't fit my criteria for a modern Fallout game, I won't. You said that about NWN1 and IWD2.

This is what threads devolve to when Volourn starts losing his side of the argument. And Visceris, after all these years, I still have the urge to punch you when you say Deus Ex isn't an RPG. But I personally loved Vampire: TM. Weak ending but it was very enjoyable. I think it pulled off the FPS-RPG thing quite well. Close to Deus Ex in that regard.

It's because Sniper requires a luck roll on each hit to determine if it's a critical or not. Actual critical chance isn't a factor. And I'm guessing that with burst weapons, a luck roll is made for every bullet that hits (iirc, at least you roll to hit for each bullet fired). So then at least one should get the crit. Yep you roll for each bullet. Which is why you should never use armour piercing rounds in burst weapons. Dammit, I feel like playing FO 2 again. Might just if I can't fix the scratch on this IWD1 CD.

Well said, mkreku.

Yes I did. It reminded me a bit of Icewind Dale and BG1. The NPC's were more like something from BG then random characters with a generic fed ex quest attached, the story was more interesting and max level smaller; you didn't have extra filler gunk to get you up to level 20. It wasn't the best, but it was a fun romp and certainly had more attention to detail then the OC. Then again I'm a sucker for ancient ruins and lost civilisations (and when the OC went there was about the only time I found it fun). The way they treated the whole desther-aribeth situation in the OC was rubbish. It forced the player to accept a an explantion of events which wasn't at all logical and should have had multiple possible outcomes. Further it was just plain unecessary; put in simply to have a motivation for Aribeth's fall (which I'll add still felt very contrived - I didn't really empathise with her). You'll excuse me if I'm ragging on NWN but I've been replaying BG1 and 2 lately and my opinions are well-founded: NWN OC is the lowest point in Bioware's CRPG history. Oh and BTW, KOTOR > NWN.

It's true. What are the chances of Bethesda licensing FO out to other companies, such as Obsid?

You're kidding me. Anybody who calls NWN1 polished is bat**** insane. The OC was one of the most boring I've ever played in a game (it rivalled your average FPS). The henchman were exactly that; nothing deep or immersive about them. There was no sense of strategy at all - just point and click. The environment you played in was completely uninteractive and the graphics were worse than BG2 - at least that had handmade art even if it was pixelated. Not to mention the side-quests were boring as hell and very unimaginative. The two expansions were a lot better but they still paled in comparison to, say, BG, IWD or Torment. Now I haven't played NWN2 yet but from what I hear it'll be just up my alley; assuming I turn puppet mode on, install all the patches and don't play it till the xpack is out.