Diogo Ribeiro

(With apologies to metadigitial) So I accepted mkreku's suggestion (though I'm not sure he even remembers it) and am going to purchase Resident Evil 4 for the Gamecube. I'm also going to get Psychonauts for PC, and Koji Korimoto's Memories on DVD. I might order something else but am not sure at the moment. Most of what I want is still too expensive, and the genre I'm into right now - action adventure - doesn't seem to be particularly prominent or good either on the PC or Cube.

From what I remember, Planescape was a setting where phylosophical discourse, the questioning of one's nature and other such matters weighed much more than the standard combat and errand boy antics of other D&D settings (although I'm sure this would vary wildly depending on whatever Dungeon/Game Master was running the game). To me, it seems that enforcing this perspective would be the best way to rekindle Torment's best elements - to have players mostly advance in the game by rewarding (and in some cases enforcing) actual roleplaying as opposed to mass PMs asking for specific characters in mob hunting jaunts. These could tie in with specific DM-created and run quests, story arcs and could cross over with specific setting elements - plane travelling, factions and so on. Eventually, player actions could also tie into an everchanging major story arc (as it did in the official last days of the setting itself, with PCs siding with the Lady of Pain to end the Faction Wars). Other elements such as combat and questing needn't be necessarily removed, but the twist is to remember gamers of the setting's motto ("Belief if power") and run with it. Of course, just how many people would sign up for a MMORPG where the core gameplay revolved much around roleplaying as opposed to looking at hot elf boobs and clicking mad at gobs of Vorpal Bunnies of Absurd Experience Amount +45?

Registering myself at dozens of forums just so I can get happy birthday messages from someone, even if they're automated.

There's all kinds of fluff in videogames that aren't particularly memorable but still add to the game itself. Some vignettes in ToEE were relevant to the gameworld although they were obviously poorly written and handled. The Arcanum Backgrounds didn't add anything memorable to the game but dictated how the game was experienced.

They were more hit and miss, I think. The Chaotic Evil vignette was pretty lousy, what with the party just killing things at random and then going off to Hommlet to tell the priest that... They killed at random. However, others seemed to connect more to the story such as the alignment which had the party search for Elven royalty (which you do find later in the temple). But yes, it could have been much better.

The Housemartins - The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death

Considering we're talking about Bioware I don't find that too surprising. The suggested simplistic nature of the game's several elements isn't much of a problem... Unless they plan on touting it as yet another revolutionary and deep roleplaying experience in the lines of great groundbreaking classics such as... You get the picture. It may sound stupid but gigantic creature battles is something I'm keen on. We don't get to see it often in western themed CRPGs, or games period, in the same scale as japanese games. Targetting multiple body parts or engaging in something in the style of Shadow of the Colossus is something that I'd enjoy watching being used in the overly formulaic nature of CRPG combat.

A Dragon Age thread not started by Volourn? *GASP!* All men proceed to battle stations!!!

Best two PC gamepads I've found are the original MS Sidewinder, and the Logitech Dual Action (which is the one I currently have). The Logitech pad is the one I'd recommend, since it's ergonomic enough and those who play on a PS2 will feel right at home since it's basically the same design minus the vibration. As for the timing issue, I don't know what else to say. I recall having issues like those some time ago but it's been a while since I've experienced them again. It's been a pretty smooth ride for me. And we'll have to see how that whole functionality bit goes. Many maybes at this point.

@kirottu and kumquat: Wii points. Unless the ROMs had been hacked or tampered with previously (ie, hacker groups inserting their own advertising intros and trainers into the games themselves, or translation groups releasing translated ROMs with warped headers), most of the time lag or timing issues came down to emulator compatibility. Eventually improvements to the emulators allowed many games to be run better - close to, or at their original speeds. Additionally other things such as full emulation of specific cartridge chipsets (such as those found in Megaman X2 and X3) or effects have been dealt with. Problem is that while these games are basically overpriced digital copies of original carts which don't seem to take advantage of their new target platform. With ZSNES you not only get a perfect SRAM emulation, you also get things like save stating, movie options, fastforward and rewinding, screen resolutions, great video modes, image capture, and ocasional online play (depending on title).

Sim City was nice but I wouldn't choose it as a launch title. Super Mario World and F-Zero would have been a better pairing. Problem is that these classics are basically overpriced ROM images. The main advantage between a barebones digital version and a retail version is that the later is official, runs no risk of having been internally modified, and is neatly packaged. I loves me my videogame boxes. Considering that, at least in the US, there are still some places where you can get these retail versions for a similar or sometimes inferior price, Nintendo just seems greedy. I'm also willing to bet none of those old games, or a vast majority, will use the Wii's hardware in particular the Wiimote (sp?). What I'd like to see are special or themed packs that contained goodies. Say, all Mario platformers with pictures of boxes, ads, sketches and similar stuff. Like digital collector's editions.

How is the pizza's customization?

From Gamespot: I suspect the initial titles are there to give a feel for what may come and as such can't really bring out the big guns yet, but there are some pretty mediocre games there. And others just don't merit being re-released considering there are already better versions out there even if you consider nostalgia.

^Great moment, that. I had a hard time finding Resident Evil scary. I tried but cheap thrills such as the Dobermans in the corridor (RE1) or the many zombie arms in the precint (RE2) only make me jump the first time, and they're as banal as any other similar tactics. I already knew something was going to happen (ie, cramped quarters, suspicious camera angles, complete silence), and when the game is making its best to show you something will happen, it isn't scary. I found a much subtler, unsettling moment in RE2 when a Licker is crawling outside the precint's walls and is briefly seen through a room's window.

Oh. Well, that explains it.

Are you talking about a lead pipe, or is this some kind of clothing I don't know about?

They didn't had necessarily more to say but they did have more important things to say. Concise, direct speech is a better way of handling character diversity than to give the vast majority of gameworld riff-raff the same wikibased hyperlink system. That's part of the problem, assuming that every character must have something to say or that they should be asked about everything. Making information centralized and in the hands of a select few characters per location is more than enough, like Fallout did. Either that, or sprinkle information across NPCs so as to give players a sense that each NPC is embebbed into the local culture but that each one has different perceptions and experiences from it. Look at Baldur's Gate 2, some areas had handfulls of NPCs strolling around each with their own account of the area they were in.

Bethesda doesn't have writing skills, just copy and paste skills.

A rubber chicken on my shoulder.

Quite right; however, I'd pass up on any official mod that could just as easilly slipped into the finished product. Even if it's dirt cheap, I wouldn't spend money in official lacklustre content when I could get free and quality fanmade mods instead.

Trying to find some incentive (read: mad skillz) to do something interesting with Adventure Game Studio.

Hades? That you?

Randomization insofar as character creation is concerned doesn't have that much merit, other than being a quicker way to conjure some character type. Not much beyond that. The issue with being totally or partially in control of creation isn't really important: an oddball character which you wouldn't normally play can be created manually just like a character you'd devise from scratch. You can very well 'handicap' your character either way, and you can very well roleplay a character you didn't make or didn't like, give or take the obvious differing levels of success and enjoyment while doing so. Everybody could still roleplay some aspects of the Nameless One to a certain extent and within the confines of the character's own previously established motives and persona.

Do they ever do anything remotely interesting with the characters and their mythologies or is it just like a glorified Freedom Force mod?

Arcade Fire - Funeral Morphine - The Night Deftones - White Pony Joe Henry - Tiny Voices Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads The Clash - Sandinista! The Smiths - collage, mostly the best known singles Sigur R