Diogo Ribeiro

Going away on work, will be back sometime between the end of September and the beginning of October. See ya. Or not. Not that you'd care. Or that I'd care you care. Er... Does anyone care? No, and neither should you. Bye bye oh how I shall miss you all? Let me count the ways blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda and speaking of which links to visit: Bobby Neel Adams Gaping Void Joystiq.com Troikapedia The Escapist This Haunted Land - The Ghosts of Great Britain Morning Glory Comics The Dachau Scrapbook Home of the Underdogs Exitiumpedia American McGee's Personal Weblog Use Firefox and don't forget to tell everyone that Internet Explorer blows chunks. Also, grenades aren't melee weapons, Deus Ex isn't an RPG, Silver Style sucks, and Star Wars isn't science-fiction. So long and thanks for all the bukkake.

Considering it fails to adhere to some of the basic notions of what science fiction entails, I'd hazard a guess that the ones living in Lala Land are those that are adamant in having Star Wars be categorized as such.

Apparently, not so pointless considering you've resorted to using them. Sci-fi tends to deal with both imagined science and technology based on current one as well as its impact on future societies, actually; it doesn't deal exclusively with the former. Many sci-fi works effectively discuss the advances and their impacts on future societies. Cyberpunk expanded on the ideas of cyberculture and cyberspace that existed during the time of its inception (the speed of technological progress, man vs. machine, man and machine, information, among other topics) and the (then) current idea of technology and what was possible. Today cyberpunk finds itself even more validated considering many of the imagined advances found in several works are currently being made in our present time.

Yet, despite sub-genres being a part of larger all-encompassing caregories, they are nonetheless different things. Actually, it's like saying Diablo has RPG elements or is an RPG hybrid, but is not a hardcore RPG. Which is an entirely accurate way of classifying the game based on its differences and similarities to others of its genre, along with other genres as well. I'm not that knowledgeable of Star Trek, but if it does sport future applications of science based on current models, the quality of it is not at stake; only its existence as defining of the genre.

Science fiction primarily deals with the effects of actual science or technology applied in imaginary futures. Not just advanced technology for the its own sake, but future technology based on current premises. There aren't that many elements of Star Wars which would account as being extrapolations of current technology or science; and that it uses a few does not necessarily make the movies sci-fi. For a related example, see your own stance on RPGs and their hybrids: the use of some elements do not account for the same as using all of them. As a genre classification, Star Wars strikes me as being closer to space opera or pulp. Some call it science fantasy even, which would seem apropos as for the most part it seems to create its own universe and rules of science then 'fantasize' about them, rather than pick up on current principles and expand them.

It's actually not.

It doesn't really take much to beat the Eurovision Song Contest.

Overrated: attributing a meaning to human existence. Underrated: shrimp.

Probably old news but then again I always was a slow dimwit. The site for the movie based on Doom, id Software's blah shooter is up and running. In it you can find sections with story, trailers, photos, and downloads. There are very few photos at this point (the Rock is almost in all of them, though), and the site feels more like a placeholder. Still worth a quick look for those that might be interested in the movie, which is slated for an October 21 release in theaters.

Yes but that is usually the case with tile-based. Even Neverwinter Nights, although 3D, lacked a gripping art direction for its tilesets; they were all rather bland and could not hold up to many other CRPGs which used fully rendered 3D backgrounds. There's a compromise between graphical quality and interactivity. While there was much more than could have been done in Arcanum, no doubt, the use of a tile-based system allowed for several interesting things: the destruction of environments and items (doors, windows), manipulation of light sources, seamless navigation trough large maps (the absence of a need to load minute areas because they are all separate, as in Fallout), and individual properties for each tile (sound and resistance). Most, if not all of which weren't exactly possible in Torment, and all other Infinity Engine games for that matter.

I'm not entirely sure of how Sierra handled Arcanum. I heard they weren't very good at it and often damaged it more than helped it, but then again I also listen to voices out of nowhere saying all kinds of things. Arthur Conan Doyle, eat your heart out. As for balance issues, I reckon they were pretty noticeable for those that played the game, reviewers included. All it takes is a couple of posts on a forum or a line in a review to make a good or bad impression. I thought it was a fun twist on the Chosen One principle considering the whole Panarii religion identity crisis and the dubious role of the zepellin survivor.

It wasn't a HOT AKSHUN TITLE! Unfortunately I suppose the graphics were part of the reasons. While they were no doubt possessing of a good art direction the animations were jerky and special effects were for the most part minimalist. I suspect tile-based graphics also aren't as appealing as fully pre-rendered backgrounds as those used in the Infinity Engine games. I think initial reviews and word of mouth are the main things by which casual gamers go by, and so it's not hard to imagine them flocking over to other games after hearing about the graphics, the bugs on release (inclusing the always fatal savegame corruption) and the poor balance.

That's why it's called RPGDot, not RPGCodex.

True, Ender; and that was no doubt an interesting aspect of it. I suspect that, had the toolset and the online play been thoroughly polished and made just slightly more accessible they could have bolstered Arcanum's appeal.

Mr. Bungle > all.

Manic Street Preachers - Faster

While the books are a good mean to expose and explore the lore of the gameworld and this feature works well in other games as well, I don't think it hardly merits saying they enrich the main quest. Perception of the gameworld, though, I'd agree. It's a pity that it has to be the gamer to go out of his way to make the game challenging instead of playing it how he wants and not stumble upon poor balance.

The Cliff Racers I could tolerate because they would at least give off a sort of warning sign whenever they got close. The minute I heard a certain kind of screech I knew what it meant. I had more problems with other kind of wildlife because I could never hear any sound that would allow me to understand what was going on. I remember being attacked by Alits, Dremoras and Ogrims out of the blue and being given no audio feedback that humanoid-sized or giant creatures were attacking me. It was like "hey that's a nice ruin to explore", then something would suddenly go CHOMP! on my butt. Why I could hear Squibs pouncing around but could not hear something my size make a sound still remains a mystery. At best I had to resort to hearing the combat theme in the background.

I think one of the things Arcanum lacked was the ability to create a handful of characters to accompany the PC trough the game, much like Baldur's Gate allowed for with its multiplayer workaround or like party-based dungeon crawlers allow. It would be a trade-off, of course: unique but premade NPCs vs empty but customizable ones, but it could be worth it. Then again the game was already unbalanced in some situations, I suspect adding something like this would worsen it.

Morrowind can be fun. Exploration plays a large part of it and treking trough the land can be rewarding, wheter you stumble upon some forgotten, Daedric ruin or you just discovered an uncharted location. Wheter you get a thrill from finding new items or have a sense of dread when walking trough strange and foreboding locations, it can be appealing. Problem is doing these things turns out to be frightfully dull because dungeons are largely about entering a place filled with enemies and ransacking them. That's pretty much all there is to the game's dungeons. And once you've seen one, you've seen them all. Had Bethesda invested in keeping Daggerfall's random dungeon generator perhaps the repetition encountered in Morrowind could have been mitigated. And when you're not exploring the land, you're talking to robotic NPCs, or coming to terms with an unsatisfying combat model. It has its merits, but I found it a pretty shallow game underneath the surface.

You'll be enthralled by the vast landspace of the game and will devote some time to explore all the locations. It will not be uncommon for you to find yourself at 3 AM going "just one more dungeon, just one more, then I'll sleep". Then the boredom will set in and you'll realize just how empty and lifeless it can all feel. I'm sure someone can recommend you a handful of mods that do the job Bethesda should have done in the first place, though. Me, I had more games to play in my spare time instead of trying to come up with reasons to play it or justifications for the team.

Good to know someone else likes the game. It's unfortunate the game does not get more love. I was a fan of the when I played gun-oriented characters, though I must also speak of the merits of the following guns: I haven't played many Arcanum mods, but I suggest visiting the Terra Arcanum boards and ask for suggestions (the same forums which hosted the level upgrader).

Playing chess with oneself can be cool. Especially if one is at an age where he knows how to use the pieces for intimate, rather than intelectual and strategical, purposes. In any case I had the game in my sights but it'll take more than a gushing review to make me go for it.

But it would be foolish to award a game objectively and keeping in mind all its positives and negatives, right? Right? Right. How nice of them to know about my tastes before I even do, and to know they will completely overlap any value I would personally attribute to the game. Willkommen to ze Hype und Thought Kontrol Polizei. Ve are ze Enlightned Ones. You are ze sheep.