Cantousent

I'm just surprised so many people hate Bethesda on this board. I mean, I wasn't a huge Boringwind fan, but I thought the game had some solid ideas. From what I've heard, the devs took some of those complaints to heart in crafting Oblivion. The fact that they don't have us fighting some stupid teradactyl every other foot on a HUGE map makes me a believer right away.

Tough one. I play FPSs the most, but RPGs are probably my favorite. Some of my favorite moments have come from Adventure games, so that's on the list. I guess, if I had to make a command decision, I'd go with RPGs. After all, that's why I'm hanging out on a message board sponsored by an RPG developer.

I've never played System Shock, but I've played quite the assortment of FPSs. DOOM is still my favorite. Of course, I played it when it was first available, so I had the full impact of the game. It was monumentally important to the genre, a fact so obvious it surprises me when folks try to downplay the role DOOM played in advancing gaming. Even now, some fool will put DOOM on some all time over-rated games list. *shrug* nothing captures more ire than success. For the record, however, even doom 3 had more suspense, better enemies, and a cooler story than F.E.A.R. I liked FEAR, but it just didn't make me afraid. It was a solid shooter with a good assortment of enemies and weapons. I had fun at every level and I especially liked finding every bit of information about the backstory as I moved through each level. The phone messages and laptops were a great way to keep the player abreast and the design team did an excellent job with pacing the story developments throughout the game. Which brings me back to DOOM. Normally, I don't engage in arguments about DOOM. That's because I don't feel the need to compare a game to DOOM unfavorably. However, FEAR is billed as a sort of thriller/horror game, but it fails to deliver on that end. In that regard, DOOM was, when I played it, the best. Since then, while there have been games that have aspired to the same level, none of them have captured the suspense and horror of DOOM. Some of the levels remain excellent designs even by today

Played F.E.A.R. and finished it. I'm not going to bother writing a long review. I will satisfy myself by saying I thought the ending sucked. For once, can we have a horrror film that doesn't have that sort of cliched ending. I mean, I understand that the reverse used to be true, but it would be nice if Moreover, there wasn't any fear in the game. The Original DOOM still reigns supreme in this regard. Hell, Half-Life 2 had more suspense and it wasn't billed as a horror game. Come on! Virtually all your opponents were bad guys with guns. For all that, however, it was a solid shooter. I enjoyed it and don't resent the purchase. It wasn't as long as Half-Life 2, but it wasn't over in ten hours at least. It was a fun game overall, even with its shortfalls.

Oh, come on, everyone blames Volo!

I'm sorry about your friend. I remember a debate from a few years back where someone made a passionate statement concerning a friend who had been the victim of a violent crime. She was advocating stricter gun laws and tied her point to the weapon that killed her friend. I sympathised with her, but I had to ask if the weapon used to kill her friend had been legally purchased or stolen. It was a valid point, I thought, as the point of stricter laws was mute if the weapon were secure through illegal means in the first place. Still sucks to demean someone's personal loss. So, don't get me wrong, but your friend killed himself. It was a terrible accident, to be sure. Nevertheless, the shotgun didn't jump off the shelf and shot your friend. If we look hard enough, we might actually find the few specific instances, unlike your friend's accident, where a weapon literally killed someone by some freak of nature, but those exceptions only serve to highlight the underlying truth to meta's statement. Guns are the instrument by which people kill people.

It's not a matter of games teaching something valuable to people. That's self-evident to the degree I have trouble taking seriously anyone who has the audacity to suggest otherwise. More's to the point, we learn something from virtually any endeavor we undertake. We may choose to confine ourselves by only applying what we've learned to the specific task at hand, but that's simply a matter of choice. It's also a bad choice. Anyone who advocates such a view learned something somewhere, but it was certainly the wrong lesson. Learning how to operate a vehicle imparts a certain amount of care and caution. That understanding of caution applies to tasks from working on computers to caring for and keeping firearms. Taking care of a firearm teaches responsability which is also something useful for such tasks as owning a pet or tending a garden. Games do impart useful skills, at least in the broadest sense, to the players. This truth is so self-evident that I will simply approach any discussion from this standpoint. You might want to advocate the devil's position, but that, more than anything else, trivializes the conversation.

Ah, that's the Magic player in you talking, not the Street Fighter. :Eldar's grin and wink icon: I think this Sirlin fellow makes good points in his article. Of course, there are counterpoints. Like meta, I believe in freedom. Freedom for blizzard to create the game. Freedom for me to play it or not. The value of that choice is greater than individuality or merit, because we derive our individuality from our freedom and from it flows our merit. Even then, there is no true meritocracy. Of course, Sirlin dislikes the player's freedom to choose the game, but he wants more freedom within the game. He's got it backwards. Blizzard has the right to decide the rules within the game. Players have the right to choosewhether or not to play. He has a distorted view of personal freedom. I think Sirlin makes an eloquent appeal to the reader with which I do not completely disagree. However, what's his end game? Should the government step in to set the situation straight? Should citizens be punished for playing video games? Taking Sirlin's line of reasoning to its final destination is far more bonechilling than anything he's said about WoW.

If you're asking for a computer for your birthday, you're just going to be disappointed.

Yeah, but Hades says any number of contradictory things so oftens, how can even pretend to tell what's going on in his head. Hades is like the weather. If you don't like what he says about a particular issue, wait ten minutes and it'll be something different.

I think I gave Morrowind 8/10 when I reviewed it a billion years ago :'( The damn game fooled me. It kept me thinking "Soon it'll get better, soon the good bits will start" but it never did. It trudged on until it suddenly ended without even a cut-scene as consolation. Gaah, stupid game makes me angry even now! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> pixies was right! (That's how K2 got most of its good reviews.) :ph34r: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Other than the fac that I disagree about the quality of KotOR2, the beginning is one it's best bits. The intro was solid in that game. Now, some of the stuff that followed was lackluster. Some of it was great. As far as Oblivion goes, I'm looking forward to trying it, but I won't buy it sight unseen this time. I will wait to hear what folks say and then maybe I'll give it a shot.

Okay, last batch of pictures, I promise. Anyhow, thanks to everyone for your well wishes. It was a fun party and I really appreciated the input for the costume and, because of your comments on my costume, I feel like I shared the day with you. The Burger King joke got a chuckle out of people all day. Well, here goes. http://homepage.mac.com/klwiltshire/PhotoAlbum11.html Maybe someone else can have an anniversary or party and share it with the board!

hehehehe Tron themed. Next time, we can have a five year Obsidian anniversary party where you have to come dressed as your favorite character from an Obsidian game. Hell, I was willing to drag folks to Las Vegas on a Holliday weekend. I sure as hell don't mind going down to Orange County for a day. :Haksthumbsup:

Yes, I rather like pickles and they're great Renaissance fare. In fact, since the costumes tend to be hot, especially for folks running around in armor ( :D ) pickles are much in demand during every fare I've attended. Artichokes are also a dish from the Renaissance. Actually, artichokes are downright ancient. The edible thistle and all. Anyhow, now my mouth is watering for some roast lamb, thanks to Atreides.

That's the twenty year. I'll start trying to convince the wife now.

Hey, I've gained a little weight over the years, but I didn't really look like Fred Flintstone did I? Ah, that's my all time favorite cartoon, so no biggie. At least you didn't say I looked like Dino.

Let's not lose sight of the important fact. mkreku thinks he's more normal than I am. hahahaha j/k, you lovable Swede. Haven't you even considered going to a Renaissance party? Maybe a faire? It's a great way to get all sweaty in a hot costume tromping through clouds of dust while chomping on a toad-in-a-hole.

Many thanks. :D Also, meta, mead can be brewed, but it can be made like wine. I daresay, the mead you can most easily access is, literally, honey wine. This might be a simple matter of misunderstanding or semantics, as it can be made in the process of making wine even if you'd like to drop it in a separate category. I like wikipedia, but I don't buy the answer. Often, the label on mead itself carries the words "honey wine" on it. So, because someone wants to create a frivolous distinction, I'm going to ammend my statements, which are acurate at any rate? Nonsense, you yutz. The mead I had was not brewed, which is an answer to your first post. However, it is still quite resistant to bacteria, so you would have done better to drink mead in many places than the local water supply. Brewed mead, however, is probably even better, but we're best served by anyone with a biomed background to answer that particular question.

Let me tell you something about that damned crown. I hated it. I tend to run hot all the time, and the crown was making my head sweat something fierce. Also, the Burger King irony didn't escape me. I'd been telling the guests about the Burger King suggestion all day. Mead is wine made with honey instead of grapes. It can be brewed or not, depending on personal preference. In either case, mead has a higher alcohol content and a pH level, and so, brewed or not, it tends to be resistant to bacteria. Still, brewing is even better. Nothing like boiling the water to hedge your bets. Between that stupid crown, the wonderful beverages, and running around in the cat ladies curtains, I was hotter than hell. I didn't mind being flushed, though. heh heh heh

Who are you calling barbaric?! :Eldar's poking fun at Atreides icon:

Sorry, it's the tenth. That's aluminum foil or tin. So, one of the guests, who didn't make it into the pictures, bought us an aluminum pizza pan and a tin of sardines. doofus. :D

Yes, as scheduled, my wife and I celebrated our anniversary in Las Vegas on February. Our anniversary falls on February 17, but we chose to have our little party on the 19th. My brother-in-law (and brother-in-spirit, if I might add) is a photographer in Las Vegas, so he took pictures for the event and was gracious enough to host them for me. I don't have all the pictures as some folks were there early and left before dinner. The pictures I do have show most of the folks who arrived in costume. There are some camera shy folks who didn't make it into the pictures, but I'm brave enough to put my ugly mug on display if you're brave enough to take a peek. Anyhow, here are a couple from one of the guests: That's my wife, my sister, and me. My wife is standing on the left side of the picture and my sister is to the right. You can guess which one is me. Unfortunately, my wife hates getting her picture taken, so there weren't many of her from this camera. Here's one of my wife and me. I'm sure you can tell us apart. Yes, that is actual mead I am drinking. I drank three bottles of the stuff. It's deceptively sweet, but its alcohol content is greater than beer. Of course, I couldn't hurt any feelings, so I sampled beer and ale as well. By the middle of the evening, I was singing Nessun Dorma. Here's one of the banners we used. We had a variety of different banners: unicorn, dragon, lion, knight, griffon, and war elephant. Following are a few pictures in which I show my skill with a plastic crossbow armed with suction cup bolts. Here's a link to a whole slew of pictures. http://members.cox.net/digitalrealm/index.shtml I especially like all the food. We went simple for most of the event, but my sisters went all out on the food. We had authentic Renaissance fare complete with recipe cards, some of which were written in Elizabethan and Middle English. Anyhow, that's pretty much it. Feel free to mock, praise, post, provide similar pictures, otherwise participate, or even ignore this little thread. :Eldar's glad to celebrate his anniversary with his online friends icon:

hehe. You yutz.

No, don't invoke the Hellfire Maelstrom power! NOOOOO! Anyhow, I think it's perfectly legitimate to find meaning in games. If you did come to some sort of cartharsis by playing a fictional character, would that be bad? Unlike Gromnir, I'm not clever enough to be sly, so don't take my comments as insults. I'm serious. For all intents and purposes, folks on message boards are fictional characters and we get angry with one another and sometimes even find meaning or understanding in communicating with one another.

Well, I won't go out of my way to praise the United States when I'm overseas, but I'm damned if I'll lie about my place of birth. I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada the day before we landed on the moon. On the other hand, I tend to get a long well with folks, particularly in real life where a friendly grin, a wink, and a tankard of beer can fit into the mix.