Gorth

Start of old thread End of old thread Nothing much. A bit of work, a bit of house cleaning, a bit of gaming and then ended the day with making myself comfortable on the couch with a glass of old Cognac and the remote(s) for a couple of hours (watching Silent Hill on DVD)

I don't know about this, man. While action-driven games may not be your cup of tea, there isn't necessarily a stupid design decision behind them. I mean, I love story-driven games as much as anyone else, but sometimes I'm in the mood for just some good ol' hack & slash. Of course, if the game is marketed as something else... I suppose it makes sense in a game like, say Painkiller? Since that is in many way an extension of ye olde arcade machines. Progress through level, shoot anything that moves. Kill Alien Mothership/Other Baddie at end. Level completed. It is however (IMHO) a mechanism that screams "Please Insert Coin and Select Number of players"

A few. Most them have already been mentioned. Level scaling: Way to go in the way of making you feel like you accomplish absolutely nothing in the game. Grind, grind, grind, Boss Fight. Grind, grind, grind, Boss Fight. Grind, grind, grind, Boss Fight...: Yes, that was very funny in Invaders and Galaxians. Not in the 21st century. Mini Games: If developers feel they need to waste resources on these, please at least make them optional and inconsequential. Breaking your own rules: This goes for enemies and the tricks they pull on you. Breaking your own rules II: Constantly respawning enemies (includes enemies that spawns in physically impossible locations, because you already killed them all). It smells of lack of imagination and ruins suspension of disbelief just as much as all of the above. Romances: Arghhh!... I think that belongs under "minigames" One foot tall rocks that are impossible to climb over: See "suspension of disbelief" Just a few of my favourite pet peeves

I am trying very hard to imagine you with an Edwardian Pipe and a Monocle at the same time. Kind of a scary image actually

Why not The Shadow of Death? I was sort of a late comer to the HoMM games. I found one expansion in the store when I bought it, didn't find Shadow of Death. Edit: Not being able to find the second expansion for BF1942 is the also the reason for only having one there...

Still working on it... I guess I wanted to take my time and enjoy the games (i.e. actually play them) as I slowly fill up my PC with what I got in the cupboard. Currently installed: BG1 + TotSC, BG2 + ToB, IWD, Fallout Tactics, Sid Meier's Pirates!, War in Russia, Nethack, Kotor1&2, Europa Universalis III & NWN2 + MotB. (not counting the default Windows games) On my to-do list is Fallout 1&2, IWD2, PST, VMBL, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Tombraider: Legends, Master of Orion 2, HoMM III + Armageddons Blade, Messiah, JA2, BF1942 + Road to Rome, BF Vietnam, Heavy Metal FAKK, Painkiller... and quite a few more oldies that I want to see if I can make to run. Edit: That makes for 11 currently installed, not counting expansions for games.

Putting in an on-line order for a "Creative PCI EXPRESS X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series [22C-XFITFC]" and two "Samsung 500GB 'HD502IJ' HDD - SATA II 7200rpm" to set up in a 1TB RAID 0 (no idea what HDP is, they claim that the HDD is 20% faster). I plan on reusing my old 5.1 speakers for the sound card for a while. One, because they are decent and Two, because I wouldn't know how to fit 7.1 speakers into my office anyway. Through some clever shelf and furniture arrangement, nobody is tripping over the speaker cables as it it It still leaves me with the headache of deciding on a gfx card and a monitor. I am probabling going for the Sapphire HD4870X2 ATI card, but I want to wait until the first production runs have been passed over the counter. Somebody might also finish and bring a watercooling solution to the market for it in the meantime.

*Sneaking around, taking notes in his little black book*

Eek!... *faints* >_

There are days where I more happy than usual to live down under. What would they call those great lakes it creates anyway? The Swiss Sea? The CERN Basin? They don't expect anything fun to happen until it reaches maximum power anyway, which should be in a about a months time. Just sit down and enjoy the humm of the things, as they gradually turn up the volume. When it hits critical mass, we'll knows >_

How can you go through life without ever having played JA2?!? >_

I am fairly sure that, if I hate the game enough, that would be the least of it's problems. Problem is, if I don't play the game, how can I hate it for all the proper reasons? What a conundrum >_

Age of Empires was maybe the one and only RTS game that I actually found to be fun to play >_

They violate the EULA. The EULA is not legally binding. Depends on which country you live in In the US it looks like it is (free registration required). Since software is protected by copyright, you sort of need the EULA to grant you permission to use it (and the conditions under which permission is given), otherwise you would rarely be able to install a piece of software on your computer (legally) in the first place. If you do not accept the EULA as a valid legal contract, you also don't accept the right granted to use the copyrighted software. Plague or cholera? There are days where I do think investing in a console might be have been a good idea for gaming. It does look like it saves some headaches and hassles... Somebody please tell me that Sega uses less draconion DRM's? Please?!? >_

Danes must have superior beer recipes

What, you mean mentats, buffout and jet weren't real drugs?!?

Lets just get to the best bits right away. Ok, so I've never played Half-Life, but JA2 beats the rest in sheer fun, combatwise. It even makes the x-coms pale by comparison I think there are two types of fun combat, the one where you need to commit all your grey cells to win and the one where you need all your adrenaline glands to win. Stalker would fall in the latter category for me. I found combat quite challenging (almost frustratingly difficult at times). Bloodlines combat was nice. Not bad, but not really either/or either, or?... Combat was functional. It was there, served a purpose, but it wasn't the reason you played/enjoyed the game. I have to play ToEE too some day. It's been gathering dust ever since I picked it up from a bargain bin.

Yeah, the rhetoric should probably be toned down a bit before this thread gets pruned. I hope a couple of guys here see reason and come to the same conclusion... otherwise this volunteer "fireman" has to do work again

Well, it sure sounds like somebody is still alive on the internet. I assume we aren't all dead yet?

http://kotaku.com/5046552/amazon-reviewers...y-to-spores-drm Go consumer power! I would take amazon "reviews" with a grain of salt. You don't have to buy the game to leave a review there... I feel sorry for the developers being trapped between EA and pirates. Makes you wonder why they even bother doing PC games these days.

It even had some moderately interesting boss fights (says the guy who hates boss fights) Edit: I found some of the later outdoor sequences quite breathtaking too, especially the harbour/industrial area... Edit2: The end level is the most surreal level I've run across so far. Truly spooky.

That was not really what I needed to hear

This thread is some seriousy fun reading...

I wonder what the rating would be for a game where you get to run around and smash baby strollers?