Gromnir

YOU create a strawman and then complain? HA! we never suggested that gambling were equal useful as weapons skills in fot... because only an idiot or a fo fanboy would expect such from fallout TACTICS. nevertheless, you want exact quotes? fine then... "half of the skill system was useless." your ridiculous denunciation o' fot skills is what prompted our initial response, and is why we yet again, before you try to reinvent what you said, call bs. happy? HA! Good Fun!

Yeah, you are right. Gambling, Speech and Stealing were all useful skills in Tactics, as much as any weapon skill. only a complete fo fanboy would suggest that gambling, ________, and stealing were as useful as weapon skills in fo. and as the game is foTACTICS, only a complete fallout zealot would expect the non-weapon skills to be equal usefulness to the weapon skills. but again, the skills were a holdover from fo. btw, we leave speech blank because as fot were a squad-based tactical strat game there were no speech skill. duh. regardless, there were no genuine non-combat skills in fot, 'cause, it were a combat tactics game. skills such as barter, gamble, steal, repair, and lock pick were in the game to give players who boosted such skills better equipment. outdoorsman were extreme effective for helping to avoid those pesky early deathclaw or supermutant random encounters. etc. is like firing on clay pigeons. HA! Good Fun!

Did I miss something? There's an R4 (p)review of the AoD demo on Gamebanshee done by Eric 'sea' Schwarz which is in parts not so complimentary as the previous one he did two years ago. Some people on fair codexia agree with him, some do not. For some unspecified reason this is significant as opposed to the other 999/1000 times that people on the codex don't agree with each other. AoD is a fairly divisive game on the codex anyway, it has a lot of ardent defenders but it has snipers and detractors too. FOT's biggest failing wasn't that it was a JA2 clone, it was that it was a bad JA2 clone. Too few action points, too many enemies resulted in TB combat being exactly the turgid and stultifying affair that TTON's combat detractors fear, too many characters and too quick real time combat (plus the horrible switch between the two) meant that it was nearly impossible to use tactics properly in real time and you did need to use tactics. aod is only seeming divisive to you because the typical codex groupthink is less pronounced. is not just vol and maybe two other nutters arguing futile. nope, vd cheesed off enough folks that perhaps there is five (*gasp*) folks not buying into the silliness that aod represents we-kid-you-not a "paradigm-shift in rpg development." guess it takes an outsider to recognize. oh, and it is more than a little amusing that fot's biggest failing were not that it were a ja2 clone, but that it were a fallout game. there were absolute nothing wrong with ap allocation, save for twitchy finger folks who wanted to litter the maps with empty shell casings and plasma burns, but fot did has all the major flaws o' fo and fo2... but perhaps less so. at some point small guns became far less useful than energy, so you kinda need plan ahead to allocate points appropriate. yeah, the obsolescence o' weapon skills were less pronounced in fot than in previous fallouts 'cause o' the inclusion o' particular weapons, but it were still an issue. there were a couple traits that were overwhelming superior, which is horrible design-- shoulda' fixed cain's mistake. there were also near essential perks, and useless perks, but they were fo perks. lexx is complete wrong 'bout fot skills, but much like fo, gambling were busted even before the patch. first aid were seeming relegated to multiplayer-only usefulness... and who played fot mp? am gonna concede that as far as we could see, pilot were a complete busted skill. it is indeed true that fot turn-based combat were frequent as soul-numbing as it were in the previous fo games. luckily, Gromnir were/is highly resistant to the Death-By-A-Thousand-Cuts that is fo tb combat. however, the real-time feature were, in point of fact, quite a relief as for ez battles one could simple switch to rt on-the-fly to hasten the otherwise interminable pace of fallout-style combat. nevertheless, for all its fo legacy handicaps, fot managed to be a very good squad-based tactical combat game. as an aside, am playing new xcom, and we note that the most obvious way in which the xcom developers addressed the trapped-in-amber feel o' tb combat were nothing particular profound or insightful. smaller maps is the xcom solution. all other aspects o' tb combat that can makes extreme dull is still present, but compare typical xcom map to (am forgetting the names as it has been so long) mardin(?) or jefferson. HA! Good Fun!

... is as if you don't even realize what you says/admit. regardless o' game strengths or weakness, codex and nma folks is somehow able to genuine like or dislike a game based on wacky preconceived notions? ok. and identify that one or two people don't get swallowed up by the group-think is hardly compelling neither as outside o' some cults, it is near impossible to get universal consensus on even the least contentious o' issues. a ja2 wannabe? *chuckle* lord knows why that would be surprising given it were called fallout TACTICS and marketed as a squad-based tactical strategy game with role-play elements... ain't even gonna get started on your "skills" comment. that one is funny. HA! Good Fun!

isn't boone simply kivan from bg... but with a beret? perhaps a bit more character development from boone? with boone you is 'posed to waste some old lady to get vengeance for his honey-bunny. kivan is hunting ogres who messed up his wedded bliss. the characters is functional interchangeable. sure, you get a couple more quests with boone, but both is mumbly/grumbly snipers who lost their girls and became damaged... am given to understand that women groove on the damaged anti-hero schmaltz, but we might be misinformed. HA! Good Fun!

*chuckle* so it seems "your" hate list has changed a bit in the past few years. keep in mind that Gromnir were around when fot were released, and we got an earful o' the nma and codexian nonsense regarding that game. were only a smidgen less rabid than the fallout: brotherhood of steel... fallout? as an aside, am finding similar amusement at how many/most codexians react to the new gamebansee review of age of decadence beta. a year ago the reviewer in question were being thanked by vd and getting called "insightful." a not so glowing review later by the same guy results in codexians calling the reviewer a doofus... and much worse. truth-to-tell, we likes codex and nma. is kinda like the onion, but the "writers" don't know they is being funny. HA! Good Fun!

up to the robot portion of the game, fot is an excellent squad-based tactical combat game. folks at codex and nma get their collective panties in such a twist over deathclaws with fur (gasp!) and other sins 'gainst fallout canon that they can't see fot's many strengths. too bad. HA! Good Fun!

ad&d is horrible. only thing worse in d&d rules history were the original white box... although white box had the advantage of being less complete. all ad&d were was the accumulated tournament and house rules that developed for d&d, but vomited out into book form and labeled "official." harsh? not harsh enough. most common pnp groups we sees nowadays is-- pathfinder d&d 3.5 d&d 4th d&d pre-d20 always amuses us when we see "old skool" d&d gaming sessions being run. the nostalgia of ad&d eludes us, and Gromnir actually played d&d and ad&d before they were the subject o' rosy-hued retrospection. HA! Good Fun! ps d&d next looks like a return to 3.5. hopefully next don't make the same mistakes with prestige classes that 3.5 did.

not as good as arcanum? not as good a movie as Howard the Duck? not as good a car as the amc pacer? not as good a bridge as the 1940 tacoma narrows? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw no doubt all the aforementioned impressed folks when they were ideas on paper, but they failed miserable at the execution part o' development. likewise, arcanum were most engaging and compelling Before we played it. a game that can't measure up to arcanum? doomed. HA! Good Fun!

RPGcodex has plenty of great things to say about it! that would be a first. is never really a point in reading codex feedback as you know ahead o' time what the feedback will be based on who developed a game. poseurs at codex spend considerable wasted effort defending their chosen developers such that they becomes emotionally invested. is one o' the unfortunate drawbacks o' aggressive debate. HA! Good Fun!

mature themes: all of you who complained about how [insert developer here] relied on tired, trite and/or juvenile content in [insert AAA game here] will prefer Pillows of Eternity. *shrug* is similar puffery as "dark & gritty," "epic," and "new and improved." developer says, "mature themes" w/o giving context is meaningless... which should come as no surprise seeing as how chrisA mentioned in a recent interview that a PR firm put together the pitch video being addressed. Pillory of Infamy-- now with 20% more cleaning power! HA! Good Fun!

hand-placed loot is Less likely to result in wacky bad/good results. somebody brought up iwd as a model for random, yes? sadly, iwd represents one o' the biggest issues we got with random-- developer fail. josh actually threw feargus under the bus in regards to the iwd loot tables. odd as it sounds, josh admitted that feargus were one o' the contributors to the loot tables, and it were feargus who went all monty haul with great swords that did electrical damage and had a 25% chance to stun on every hit... just as an example. iwd were a relative linear dungeon crawl, and while it were fair-sized, it weren't considered a particular large game. nevertheless, the loot tables for iwd were large. am not envious o' the developer who gets stuck with creating such loot tables as it is gonna be an extreme dull job. is unlikely any single developer gots time or mental fortitude to develop interesting back-stories for every minor drop in the game. so we gets not only dull loot, but, 'cause developer is being conscious o' incrementally improving the loots, we inevitable get over-powered loot. the black isle/obsidian loot tables has always out-paced the game difficulty. kotor2 had similar randomness as iwd, and the only reason the insane power o' the drops were less noteworthy is 'cause the crafting system were even more busted... players could make uber gear by midpoint of the game. hand-placed loot helps save the developers from themselves. is much easier to make five unique and balanced items than it is to try and make twenty such items. help the developers help themselves and request hand-placed. HA! Good Fun!

religious ambitious ambitious = a$$hole, no? am recalling a time when one didn't feel the need to apologize for being ambitious... or religious. nowadays, those folks who is demonstrably religious is perceived as being one step removed from Ignorant-Bomb-Toting-Fanatic. congratulations ok, is probable just Gromnir, but if we open a piece o' mail and see the word "congratulations," we typical immediate throw in the round file next to our desk. congratulations, you may have just won... congratulations, your good credit... congratulations, you are over forty and have a pulse... am trying to recall the last time we gots a written congrats that weren't accompanied by evil. HA! Good Fun!

packed for our trip to hawaii. gonna stay on kauai for all ten days this time. aloha HA! Good Fun!

and here we thought this were gonna be a tribute/memorial to john lennon that were posted in wrong forum. ... mighta' squeezed out a tear or bit a bad poetry for lennon. HA! Good Fun!

is kinda startling to realize how few games we has purchased in the past couple years. mass effect 3 project eternity pledge torment: numenera pledge ... that is our game list for last couple years... until three weeks ago. vol's 24/7 butt-hurt hemorrhoid howl inspired us to buy bg2:ee. we also picked up a $9.99 bundle of all xcom games up to, but not including, the recent expansion. future games? am knowing some folks involved with wildstar, so we may give it a try. the new dragon age? probably. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

is not all that ironic. am recalling when a current obsidian developer blasted tim cain 'bout similar espoused tb d&d pretensions. the obstinate noted that d&d is a pnp rpg and a person gotta be pretty darn obtuse to ignore the fact that the a pnp gaming group is a far different experience than that of a lone person siting in front o' a computer screen playing a crpg. we voted tb, but all things being equal, we thinks rtwp is more accessible to a larger group o' potential purchasers. am suspecting that very few o' us who prefer tb woulda' done more than grouse a bit if torment were revealed to be a rtwp game. typical codexian rants proclaim how inferior infinity and aurora engine combat were to fallouts... go into rabid tirades 'bout how unplayable bg, ps:t, iwd, bg2, tob, nwn, iwd2, nwn2, & soz were... not to mention the d20 influenced kotor and kotor2. the real irony is the frothy madness that codexians attach to all those games they pirated or purchased and played for total hours equivalent to coursework needed for a freaking phd. the typical tb aficionado plays rtwp games, but there is a significant group o' folks who simple will not play tb.. at least that is what publishers has believed for decades. want irony? tim cain did more to retard the progress of tb gaming than any person we care to mention. That is irony. game industry is extreme reactive. diablo were successful. next Decade sees dozens o' diablo clones. 'course failure is also resulting in overreaction. ps:t failed commercially and it has taken more than 15 years to gets a "sequel" made. toee were supposed to be guaranteed money, with 2 subsequent games based on old-skool d&d modules being planned to follow toee. cain's flop reinforced the possibly misguided notion among publishers that nobody actual wanted top play a tb crpg, even when d&d crpgs were at their most popular. yeah, there were dozens o' things wrong with toee, but if you were a publisher investing millions o' dollars on high-risk games, why take the chance on another tb rpg? tim cain: slayer of turn-based gaming. go figure. HA! Good Fun!

names of peoples and games from genesis post that is unknown to Gromnir: Joel McHale and Geoff Keighley-- vaudeville duo? perhaps a hope and crosby kinda thing? Smosh-- sounds like a garage band Camilla Luddington-- am assuming from context that she is an english model. pictures as laura croft would be less entertaining than seeing what she looked like before teeth were fixed and sans the almost prerequisite b00b job. Vector Monkey-- another garage band? am gonna admit that vector monkey would be a kewl band name. am recalling a Berkeley band during the late 80s called Wood is Good-- funny name. Reggie Fils-Aime-- this name is vague familiar. somehow recollects to Gromnir the business side o' the industry. Rocco and Shawn- the new ren and stimpy? Destiny- from context am guessing it is a game, but it sounds like the name o' a hip-hop singer. Rooster Teeth-- see above regarding smosh and vector monkey. vector monkey is still choice #1 for our new ukalele, steel drum and kazoo band... or angry-red zit. PEWDIEPEW--NO DOUBT BEING ALLCAPS MAKES THIS PERSON/ORGANIZATION KEWLER BY AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE BEYOND OUR KEN. honorable mention: "Another awesome world premiere..." well, if it is awesome, how can we possibly miss it? "awesome" is one o' those strange words that actually has opposite impact from that which is intended. anything being described as awesome, regardless o' how impressive it actually is or is not, inexplicably wilts or shrivels by some amount proportional to awesomeness o' the description. implied or actual exclamation point(s) multiply the deleterious impact o' awesome. am feeling old.. but that is ok 'cause we is awesome... AWESOME! HA! Good Fun!

am doubting that is true. what has been obsidian's best games? we has heard various/numerous obsidian folks complain 'bout infinity engine, d&d and star wars, but they soldiered through admirably for many o' those titles. compare to alpha protocol. can list dozens or hundreds of developers and artists that has worked grudgingly on projects. wanna gets a history lesson o' actors, architects, writers, painters and sculptors that were working on projects that they disliked? am even recalling a few athletes who hated their sport, or got to the point they hated their sport, just before they achieved some noteworthy pinnacle. heck, some o' our best work has been for clients we loathed and causes we were indifferent to. am suspecting that game development is no different than any other endeavour. professionals usually sac-up and get the job done, regardless o' their personal feelings. sure, is more than a few candy-arsed milksops who can't do their best work unless they "feel" something for the project, but we suspect they is few and far between in a commercial driven industry such as game development. in this case the developer already has a tb engine with which they is comfortable. am recalling that at least one obsidian developer claimed that the reason torn failed is 'cause the engine they licensed did not work as advertised. get six months away from original projected release date only to realize that your engine purchase were a blunder? use a licensed engine would appear to be having perils. Gromnir is not tech savvy enough to guesstimate how pragmatic it is to try and make wasteland 2 engine into a rtwp, but it sounds like that weren't a viable option. start from scratch and makes a new engine? well now, nothing wrong with that... save for the considerable time and expense needed to realize. for the torment developers to be choosing rtwp woulda' been a bit of a surprise, regardless o' the vote. HA! Good Fun!

I'm having a chronic Civ restart cycle. Start a game of Civ5; play for about 20 turns; decide that this isn't setting up as precisely the flavor of Civ game I feel like playing; go back to the main menu and change something miniscule in the settings; repeat until bedtime. am having just that issue with the new xcom game. am thoroughly enjoying the combat, but the "strategy" aspects has resulted in us virtual restarting the games a half dozen times. got 7 missions deep and realized that our soldier roster gots six heavies and only 1 assault, 1 sniper and 1 support. *grumble* have had similar issues with satellite production and being too slow on alien containment and resource management and whatever. am a big fan o' squad-based tactical combat with rpg elements, but the strategy features never fail to push our ocd button. HA! Good Fun!

bad tb combat can makes a game... painful. for those folks who don't like tb combat, we can understand their ire. tell peoples that torment tb will be different is not gonna help. also, for people who don't like combat at all, rtwp set at minimum difficulty is a viable alternative. am recalling that we were a bit shocked to discover just how many folks played through ps:t and the bgs with minimum combat difficulty. combats were an unavoidable annoyance for more than a handful. that annoyance gets multiplied by a factor o' 10 (at least) if you makes tb. our vote were for tb 'cause we like squad-based tactical combat, but am not surprised that some folks is a little peeved by this design choice. HA! Good Fun!

You should really shell out for the expansion as well Grom, it makes it a much better game and all the extra maps mean that the random missions don't become so repetitive towards the end. we read reviews that claimed the expansion kinda screwed with game balance-- made some stuff far too ez. dunno. will play some significant portion w/o expansion before deciding to invest another $30. am not hard-up for the cash, but is the principle o' the matter. btw, we did a handful o' missions before we discovered that when rookies get promoted, their role assignment is complete random. somehow we ended up with every newbie being a heavy. gotta freaking save right before end o' mission if we wanna have some control over assignments... screwy design choice. HA! Good Fun!

was gonna get xcom: enemy unknown for $9.99... then we saw that there is an amazon deal that offers a bunch o' previous xcom games, xcom: enemy unkown and dlc for the same $9.99. http://www.amazon.com/XCOM-Collection-Online-Game-Code/dp/B00ECHYTKY/ref=pd_ys_sf_s_468642_b2_11_p?ie=UTF8&refRID=1FF9J8S0A0SAP65D3TYA seems like a deal. HA! Good Fun!

if it makes you feel better, consider our observation nothing more than an axiomatic statement. " It is illogical, dumb, ignorant, and not created in reality." irony HA! Good Fun!

hostess foods went out of business and twinkie production stopped. there were a host o' clones that appeared following hostess bankruptcy. am suspecting that some clones coulda' been superior. build a better twinkie? why not? heck, you not even needs make better, right? "a rose by any other name"? nevertheless, how much were the name recognition o' "twinkie," "hostess," and other hostess products worth? go ahead and check. looks up and see how much name value gots. underestimate value o' brand recognition would be foolish in the extreme. HA! Good Fun!