Diogo Ribeiro

I totally roleplayed Squall's angst.

Old Llyr suggested me to acquire two games, Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday and Soldiers: Heroes of World War II. I'm currently trying to play Soldiers, but I'm finding out the hard way I suck. Soldiers is a classy game. The engine is very fluid and features very interactive environments, with great animations, has several fun interaction possibilities, allows players to shift from automated to direct control of any unit, and there are multiple ways to go across levels. But it's kicking my groin hard. It's got to be the hardest game I've played on account of the seemingly impossible odds of each mission. Of the four available campaigns - which follow a Russian, British, American and German perspective - I've only tried the first missions of the British and Russian campaigns. It was only after a 5 hour stint of frantic loading and saving that I managed to get through the first level of the British campaign. On the Easy difficulty setting. I don't mind a challenge, I actually enjoy it. I also appreciate games which require a fair to high degree of patience to be played, or else I wouldn't be investing in games like this or Hidden and Dangerous 2. But when your very first mission is to control one single character and send him to an enemy encampment and: Destroy search lights; Deal with armed guards; Deal with batteries; Scuttle a patrol boat; Off any resistance you encounter to allow the rest of the team (which is only comprised of 2 other soldiers) to reach the shore, and said resistance includes:Armed guards, both patrolling and reserves in nearby barracks or bunkers; Watchtowers with guards using automatic fire, stationary machine guns Half tracks; and cannons You immediately know Llyranor has to be a gaming god to proceed without much hassle. Or he expertly handles the interface. Or both. This isn't some firstperson shooter or anything, it's a thirdperson realtime strategy game so imagine controlling one weak unit against all these others in that framework. The other mission I couldn't get through in the Russian campaign also pitted you against unsurmountable odds. You have to wade through German troops in a town called Chepel and liberate it with a small force. If this was Hidden and Dangerous or Commandos, you'd get an idea of how the odds would be. Now imagine the odds in those games and multiply them. By ten. You'll have two infantry units, one tank with four infrantry units, and a small vehicule with a mounted weapon and controlled by two additional units. Sounds fair, until you notice the enemy has like 100+ infantry, more than a handful of 88mm antitank guns, and like ten tanks. And there's a minefield of sorts there as well. When you factor in that even in Easy mode the difficulty is high and that you have to switch across these few units to fight against all of that, you're in for a challenge. And from what I gather pretty much every level is like that. I feel your stares Llyranor, and I'll make you eat that grin of yours when you read this. I can't even imagine how Doomsday is going to be.

I'll answer that by making a small list of advantages Space Rangers 2 has over Freelancer. You're not forced to follow the main storyline. You can follow it or not. You have the ability to block scanners from detecting your cargo. You can have a fleet, based on your leadership skill and funds. You can explore uncharted planets with probes. You can also somewhat customize how the probes will scour for information. Your dealings with other races aren't as easilly reversible as faction dealing in Freelancer. If you considerably pissed off some planet's inhabitants or government you wmay be arrested next time you land on it. That is, if you're not blown away by ships scouring for you when you're in the vicinity. There are more than kill missions, or not so subtle variations thereof, available to you in planets. 5 races and five classes. Character skills you can develop. You can fight the story's main baddies in your ship and in a Mechwarrior-styled RTS subgame on planet surfaces. The gameworld is actually dynamic. Supply and demand is actually factored in, so you can forget about getting rich easilly by buying and selling out static priced goods. Some quests are text-based, more akin to adventure games. These are based on several things that happen to you - like getting arrested - and can have all sorts of outcomes depending on what you do. The only thing that's unfortunately missing is boarding other ships but that's what Escape Velocity: Nova is there for.

You could also choose hair color for characters. And which weapon you'd kill orcs with. And when to uninstall.

I'm telling you there are some titles out there which have a much more engaging experience than Freelancer ever managed to provide from a singleplayer perspective. Space Rangers 2 is pretty much one of those games.

Microsoft only wishes they could make something as good.

Just came back from watching Spike Lee's Inside Man. Very good movie with solid direction, well worth seeing.

There was also this homosexual officer who wouldn't fall for April's smooth talking, and there was Burns Flipper who besides having some of the best comedy lines in the game was also a walking (hovering) reservoir of suggestive ones. April: Can I help you with anything? Burns Flipper: Thanks toots but no, the will to do that disappeared along with the legs. Or something similar, been a long time since I played it.

I always hoped April would Oh well, the rest of the game was worth it.

Chill. It's not like I'm that important that you'd need to apologize so profusely. No harm done.

I didn't know I had any sort of honor to begin with. Though I suspect I do look like a brat - Llyr's and Nick's picture is mine, only edited to look more manly because we know eyepatches and moustaches are all about manliness - I am not a real pirate because I only pirate games but don't use an eyepatch.

So I'll be a midget or were the cats gigantic?

For what it's worth, I wanted to express my regret and give heartfelt apologies for not having participated on this Friday's session. I'll be trying to join it next week, if all is well with Eldar and he manages to cut me in.

Attacking bombed out German convoys in the desert in Hidden and Dangerous 2. Defending the B

How many European outfits promised something like that and managed to deliver? Oh right.

Most people are acting like third graders about the name It's not like other weird names haven't been used before in all sorts of things, including gaming. I mean, Game Boy? Play Station? N Gage? It's not like Xbox 360 isn't trying to be all revolutionary but it ends up suggesting they've gone and done a 360

You already are. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hades doesn't count.

GET TO DA CHOPPA!

...Just how long until the roleplaying session and what do I need besides my robe and wizard hat? >_>

This, my friend, is mystary!!! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> They're hunting for orcs with pointy sticks to see the fear in their eyes so they can translate it properly into firstperson 3D.

I didn't know you liked Baley that way. Me, I just prefer him raw.

Best game ever.

That's quite revolutionary. The concept itself sounds really interesting but as we know implementation can turn out to be terrible. Kind of like my parent's plans to have a child. Were they surprised!