metadigital

You seem determined to to write me up as a JRPG fan. I am talking about more than that; by your own admission those stories are very linear. Why does it require an entire re-write of the entire story arc? It just requires all the points on the story arc that are simulataneous (to keep the cartesian analogy going) with the variable minor narrative arc. If Jolee gets the squirts and doesn't want to play anymore because your PC insists on hanging around with HK, then Jolee doesn't participate as a party member for the rest of the game. Or the hostage taken in the last scene of Act 2 can be Jolee (if the PC is LS), or Jolee can take some "relic" from the PC that must be retrieved (LS or DS) to complete the story. Or, if Jolee stays, his child niece is kidnapped (LS). Sure DS narratives are still less options than LS; that is a factor of the alignment: there are less motivations for a DS than there are for a LS, LS players have many more opportunities for ethical dilemmas.

:D <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Quiet in the peanut gallery!

Firsty, you are putting words into my posts. I am discriminating, fact. The availability of options for me to choose has no effect on that. If there is nothing I find satisfatory (as I have already said) I will not just buy anything. Life is too short. Secondly, you sem to be very sure that it is "impossible" to write a connected series of scenes where, in some of them

Why would no-one buy a masterpeice? Grim Fandango is an adventure game. It couldn't be further from an RPG if it tried. I was using the voice-acting, the direction and the high production values as a benchmark. There isn't a good example of what I'm talking about, because I am propounding the next evolutionary step in RPG writing. Truly, you are acting like it is a sisyphean task to write an interconnected story with multiple endings and several minor narrative arcs for the secondary NPCs. It's not, it's just a little bit more complex. It takes more effort, it's not impossible. (I'll leave the quesiton of probability open, as that will only be answered after the future reveals itself to us.)

I didn't like the added jumpy bit in K2. I did try on Telos, but as it was broken (and I didn't know at the time) I became very frustrated and disillusioned.

Pretty lightsaber progress bars.

... especially considering the Swoop Racing was broken!

I see no point in doing anything half-heartedly. I work hard; I play hard. I have excruciatingly high standards for myslef, and I have very high standards for those that I interact with; I do not suffer fools. If I purchase a product from someone, I expect it to be commensurate with the hard-earned cash I have laid out. I am not unrealistic, just discriminating.

I'd tend to call them unrealistic expectations. Unless you actually wrote a KOTOR in the same mold as a JRPG. And while I love JRPGS to bits, its not like there are more than enough coming from Japan so having something different and more open makes for a welcome change of pace. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I see, so unless I am a games developer or publisher, than I haven't really got any right to make judgements? I do not agree with your notion that it takes too much effort to write. It is just writing. Good writing, yes, but that is what compels me to play, and what transforms an ordinary, forgotten-next-season game, into a classic that is remembered indefinitely. I would rather play an old classic firecracker than a new damp sqib. I donated

Pick it up and give it a go, if only to expand your imagination!

Yep, they have confirmed it will be available IRL (can't remember the new publisher, might be Atari ...)

Terry Gilliam is enough to like this film.

A producer, maybe; as a singer Madonna Ciccone is a good dancer.

I was trying to remember who he played, with little success. (And, no, I don't suppose you were meant to laugh.)

Or his offspring tries to climb over some sparks and things.

Apparently it was originally part of the coastal run stage, but was axed due to the publishing deadline. (Then, I expect, they decided to add all the HDR lighting effects, so that it will be more than just a short expansion.) I don't expect it will be very long; it's free, after all, more of a proof-of-concept than a full-blown game. The expansion due out (probably September, after the official divorce with Vivendi takes effect) will be an extension of the plot from the game; battling out of City 17, with support from the Combine, I think, as well as with new nasties chasing (the mutant alien-thingies with diapers, for example). It'll be a decent length, because they'll probably charge for it.

Apart from the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare (which are automatically available for all Desert Island cast-aways), I would insist on Deus Ex and Civ2. An internet co-op game would be a good idea, because then I could communicate with the onliers to gert them to rescue me. Utlima ][ was great, but I would pretty soon get bored now (and I've forgotten all the memory addresses for the items ...)

Indeedy. And the expansion will be fun, too. (I hope it's incldued with my Half-Life 2 purchase, but as long as it's not exorbitant I'll buy it. Okay, I'll buy it anyway. :D)

I think they just tried to do too much with Civ3, without the mastermind of Meier behind them, and then cut the wrong things from the work schedule. Certainly, using the old engine was a mistake. Not that new graphics were needed, far from it (yes, Civ4 is still turn-based and tile-centred, just the zoom moves from planet-wide to inter-city; the beta didn't have a "city screen" at all); it was just the adding of all the extras from Civ2 just wasn't fun gameplay-wise.

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... as the fire of altruistic optimism fades to embers, the cynical inner-Sith takes control of the souls of humans ...

Of all the addictions you can have, caffeine is one of the most controllable, least harmful and most beneficial.

Fight Club had a good premise, but decended into farce when the writer didn't know how to end the story. Pitt was okay in it, but I prefered his performance in Legends of the Fall, if only because we get Anthony Hopkins as well; the two of them produce some excellent perfomances. Sure it was slow, it wasn't an action film: it was a character film. After that, Interview with a Vampire, or even the bit parts in Thelma & Louise and True Romance strike me as demonstrative of his talents.

1. You need to upload the pictures as attachments, either .jpg or .gif formats, and then insert the attachments into the post (it becomes optional once you have added the attachment). 2. Very cute. I love puppies (of all ages). Timber sounds exactly like Rocky, except Rocky is quite smart: he actually plays tag with us (he is very good at hiding

The biggest problem with the JFK conspiracy is that it has been comprehensively disproved, yet most members of the US get their history not from officially-sanctioned sources, like the History Channel, but from people like Oliver Stone, who's primary goal is to create an interesting piece of drama, not an historical re-enactment. (That, and I hate most of what Kevin Costner does.)