Hurlshort

It's important to note the difference between Alternate History and Historical Fiction. Alternate history takes a real event or time period, and changes it with something dramatic Historical fiction is usually an actual historical event, but veiwed through the eyes of a fictional character, or even just taking liberties with with a real person and making up dialogue and thought. Where is the Parody category? Mikhael Bulgakov is my favorite writer...Ever.

Ah, I thought Robin Hobb was a she, that's why I put the he/she thing. I don't think Chade died...but now you are making me want to go dig out the series again. He's still an awesome character. Firefly is being released as a movie in September. There's a trailer out there somewhere, and it's pretty awesome looking. Pretty much the whole cast is in on it. Here's a website for it. It's called Serenity.

What game really hooked you and made you a gamer? Mine was The Black Cauldron. I was fairly young, and the Black Cauldron captured my imagination. It was also one of the first adventure games to be playable without typing in commands. The Black Cauldron

Ah, that brings back memories. I didn't even remember Mean Streets, since it was really just a sideways shooter, but I remember loving that game too. Martian Memorandum and Under a Killing Moon were huge games for me. I can't really remember the last two...I think one of them had a lot of video in it. I wonder if that series will ever be revived? Probably not until adventure games resurface. *edit* After looking at the screenshots, it was Mean Streets and Martian Memorandum that were the memorable games for me. They had the classic SCUMM type setup where you walked around looking at stuff. The sidescroller arcade game was Crime Wave, and I think it came out at the same time.

I just loaded up Jagged Alliance 2 and it still looks pretty good. I also got Xcom to run awhile ago and played through quite a few battles. I miss the old adventuring days. Those games were all about 20 hours of pure fun, and Sierra and LucasArts released some real gems. There was a detective one also...he went to Mars, and there was something about Martians...anyone remember it? There were three in the series, I believe, and the first one actually had a cool hovercar flight simulator.

I'm soooooo excited. I'm tivo-ing this and Prison Break.

I also played the trial version of EQ2. It was impressive, but I was quickly bogged down after I left the starter isle. 1. Zones take forever to load, and you travel through them a lot. Also the main cities were very laggy. The lag might be fixed, but there is no reason to even have zone loading. 2. Repetition...combat gets very boring. 3. The quests are often Fedex, uninteresting, and hard to keep straight. Of course, I only played through the quests in Freeport, so maybe after you get through the newbie areas, it gets better. I hope you take to it. Personally I'm waiting until they polish it a bit. The starter island was really misleading for me. It's also supposed to be a more hardcore game than WoW.

Wizards of the Sword Coast is also advising the project. Turbine has a ton of experience with these types of games, so I don't think it's lacking promise, but it does look like it will fall short. It's gotta compete with WoW if it goes MMORPG, and it's gotta compete with NWN if it goes for the DM and pen and paper type experience. It looks like it's aiming for a middle ground between the two, and that's pretty murky territory. The trouble is, the game they seem to want to make needs heavy DM presence to be intriguing.

Movie: The next Evil Dead movie. Sam Raimi has the money now. Bladerunner was another good one. Game: Jagged Alliance 3, done well. Xcom...seriously just remake it with pretty graphics and I'll die happy. Quest for Glory 5...i mean redo this one and release a good finish to the series, frickin Sierra. Books: Most authors write sequels until they die. I'm looking forward to the next Robin Hobb series, and I hope he/she uses some old characters. Brashen and Chade rule.

Eldar, because he helped me quickly when I had questions, and he seems very nice. Not power-trippy (not that other mods are!)

What the heck are you refering to? Did you read any of the posts in this topic...or just stare at the title and decide to revive it?

You say levelling is a small part of the game, and then say that a level 60 guy has spent 10 days levelling... That's 240 hours. How is that a small part of a game? What I'm trying to say is people spend tremendous hours playing these games, and then when they reach the level cap, they complain. You didn't answer any of my questions. Was the journey to level 60 unenjoyable? I also didn't make any claims about the end game. I simply said if I don't enjoy it, I'll start an alt. and focus on him.

I have a serious problem with people who complain about this mythical "end game". It takes a TON of hours to reach level 60. Are those hours somehow painful to you? Are you just going through the motions to get there? Do you expect the game to suddenly get better when you reach 60? Is levelling somehow laborious to you? It's the journey that's important, not the "end game". My paladin is level 45, and he's been a blast the whole way. I've literally played him for the equivalent of 10 days straight. That's a lot of hours, and I have many more before I reach 60. He's hard to kill. But when I reach 60 I won't whine that he's no longer usefull. I had my fun with him. If I really don't like using him at 60, I'll simply start another character, because it's the journey that matters in WoW.

Oddly enough, this is accompanied by the news that Turbine (the DDO developer) just cut off the game Asherons Call 2. I actually played AC2 for about 6 months, but it really lacked the magic of the original Asherons Call. They are shutting it down for good in December.

WoW is the most polished MMO on the market by leaps and bounds. Most of the people that complain about it are either not into MMO's games in general, or are hardcore types who blow through content. WoW appeals to the more casual type, and by casual I mean people who don't play the game like it's a full time job. That is why it has like 3.5 million players. Also, I was walking arounf the Undead Capital the other day, and I looked at a corpse hanging on a hook, and the guys eyeball (he only had one) actually twisted and looked directly at me. That's creepy polish.

I just found out Alex Korolyuk has decided to play in Russia next year. He wasn't very well known outside of the SJ Sharks, but he was a very talented player who could occasionally dominate a game. It's too bad, because I thought he'd come of age in the new NHL.

I love WoW. It's an absolutely stunning world, and each race and class has a genuinely unique feel to it. It also has some great quests that tell interesting storylines. I also play a Paladin, he's level 45. I've heard the end game content is tough on a Paladin, but honestly I think they rock. They are the hardest class to kill in the game. They may not do the same damage as the other classes, but that's because they can outlast anyone. Also, try engineering with the paladin if your worried about ranged attacks. Nothing like a mithril bomb to start of a fight. Plot holes bleh, I play to have fun. I also don't play to farm xp of get Phat Lewt. It's a social experience set in a beautiful game world.

I tried to play Dungeon Seige, but was bored rather quickly by the constant hack and slash, and thr lack of a real storyline or character development for your sidekicks. Is DS2 different? Is it less of a wave after wave of enemies experience? Is there no set path that I have to walk, which just happens to go through thousands of enemies? I'd like to hear if it is, because maybe I'll try it.

One of my favorite parts of Xcom was building a base, and then fighting off an alien attack in it. There was a cool customization feel to it. I wouldn't even make defensive structures because I WANTED to be attacked.

I actually never even finished PS:T, so I guess I can't be considered a gaming genius like everyone else here. I played it and enjoyed it, but it didn't trigger any ephinies (sp?) or help me reach some higher form of thinking. I was wrong about IWD, but Baldurs Gate definitely came out before PS:T. I honestly don't think there would have been any PS:T without BG. 1. BG re-invigorated the whole fantasy, D&D setting, opening the door for Planescape. 2. It uses the BG game engine, I believe.

I think they need to try and do a few games based off of good books. Most of my favorite movies are based off well written books. Obviously a game is very different because it's interactive, but it would just be nice to see some really great stories told in games. One of my favorite games was an adventure called "Sanitarium" I just thought it was a great story, and I could actually picture it as a book. PS - Oerwinde, I love your game idea. Kinda strikes me as a Xcom/Jagged Alliance style game, very cool. I think the sci-fi setting could be wonderful too.

It's pretty odd how the Ducks went from fighting for the Stanley cup as a really tight knit team to having a bunch of expensive talent and not being able to make the playoffs. Some people blame Giguerre for not following up his playoff run, but I think they gave away their heart when they let Kariya leave. Ah well, it's a different league this year. I don't think it's a bad idea to try and build a team around Federov, so we'll see. They'll still be Shark bait

I agree with both of you, but remember that game development is much like an ocean. PS:T was a high tide moment, but it didn't last. The ocean receded. But PS:T would never have been possible without the success of Fallout, Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale. They raised the tide. I heppen to think the tide is on the rise. KotOR I and II were successful, NWN has watched the tide lower and rise, and Jade Empire may help push it higher. It really depends on the success of TES: Oblivion and a few other titles...if they do well then we might recapture the RPG height that PS:T was released at. And yeah, money is pretty dang important. It's the moon, and us gamers are the water. Or maybe it's the other way around...

So nobody thinks it's odd that Charlize Theron is playing this role? She seems to be a pretty serious actress to me, and this seems to be a bit of action fluff. Whether it's good or bad action, it just seems to be a pretty far stretch from her Academy Award playing role in "Monster". What's next, Sally Fields in Catwoman 2? Ah well, I guess everyone likes to branch out...and she does look much better than she did in "monster".

Selanne was not impressive in San Jose. Even getting solid minutes and 27 goals, he tended to miss a lot of good chances and score when it mattered least. I really think the "game winning goal" stat category is pretty important, and the fact is Selanne missed some BIG chances in the playoffs (In game 7 againsts the Av's he missed an open net on a wrap around, Sharks lost 1-0.) He'll probably score 20 goals, but he'll also be a hazard defensively. It's like the Ray Sheppard syndrome. Still, 1 million is a good price for him in Anahiem because he will make the fans happy. He is loved in Anahiem, and you probably have a good deal of tickets sold because he's back. Rob Neidermeyer is a pretty solid two-way player. The Ducks lean on him heavily as the guy who can stifle the opponents top line. I don't think they overpaid, but after getting Scott it seems like pure genius on Brian Burke's part.