Musopticon?

I nominate Freedom Force and Third Reich!

nom nom om lasagna nom

This man is worth his cookies.

Puked hairball+pitch black winter morning in kitchen+naked feet=kekekekekeke The cats are dearies, but sometimes it feels their only excuse is that unlike everyone else who plasters our house with puke, they never feel like opening their little hearts. Bless the little pests.

Yeah, I have yet to beat Sam n' Max either, but man were they fun back in the day.

No, Griskey is fine, thank you.

Byakuya is likely the gayest and GARest former villain in shounen, heh.

Yeah, well, Vivec was the arcology place, I understand how dreary studying floating city-size blocks of sandstone might get. Though that played quite a bit into the good atmosphere the game had going, every locale from the east coast Telvanni shroom cities to dwemer tech ruins to the monasteries in the desert had a very different look. It was hard not to like the effort they put into making something original.

^ Clearly not, then again I have a day job, a family and other stuff going on. You could enlighten me as to how these games worked, rather than sneer at my lack of available idling time. Cheers MC Ah, you're at your forties then, since the height of Sierra and Lucasarts adventure games was in the early 90's and the only way you could not have had enough idling time back then would be that you hold true seniority in the internets. Getting cranky to anyone over how worthless your pastime has been is strictly of your own making. I wasn't sneering at anyone. Now I am though. Anyway, it's your chance to remedy your past misgivings! It's still possible to find the odd Sierra collection from a bargain bin, along with King's Quest and Space Quest anthologies. Being the forefathers of the adventure game genre, still in its death throes, they are browser or dialog box-based adventure games where gameplay relies on exploration and puzzle-solving using your wits, the infamous Way of Thinking Outside the Box and usually a bursting inventory, meanwhile conversing with the various critters and createrues of the worlds. Often, but not always, character death wasn't really an issue and the gameplay was entirely resourceless, meaning there wasn't health gameplay or interaction with threats other than those presented by puzzles, such as surviving a cliffhanger or being tortured, etc. It's very much a genre worth visiting, even if you detest idling time.

So, none of you played Monkey Islands, Sam and Maxs, Space Quests or any of the other zounds of humorous adventure games?

I don't understand how you can compare the art style of Morrowind and Oblivion and digress by "it was similar[...] except prettier and high res". Vvardenfall is one of the most exotic places Bethesda has ever explored and the art style reflected that. Shroom cities, chitin armored desert cults, demons based on ash, massive arcologies facing against the traditional Romanesque fantasy empires. I still think the art direction was one of the highest points of the game. Minus the faces, urgh... And as for Oblivion, I immediately thought of LotR movies from the first concept art(of a Gond...Imperial City guardsman IIRC) to the launch trailer which featured the same marble arches and stained white buildings that littered the movie trilogy. Not to mention, gone where the zany polyps and odd crustacean monsters of Morrowind and instead we faced goblins, wolves, ogres and skeletons in very earthly tones vey reminiscent of the fauna of the movies. They even revamped the Imperials into resembling their Gondorian counterparts, instead of the very Romanic imperials of previous Elder Scrolls games. I mean, sure these are general features and the game had some uniqueness and even very inspired places(such as Dementia), but when I found a King of the Dead-lookalike in an Ayleid ruin, which in itself looks a bit too Noldorian to be accidental, my alarm bells went off completely.

I think Rhomal and co. are referencing to the LotR movies rather than the setting as a whole. The movies had a very distinct style that, somehow(lol), seeped into rpgs released after the movies. Oblivion is a good example, so is Dungeon Siege 2, Dragon Age is shaping up to be one as well

*Heavily*? Really? JE is a piece of crap with a very superficial 'it's not really ancient China, it's really our own mythology but influenced by Chinese mythology but not really Chinese mythology' layer that's otherwise just standard mediocre Bioware shovelware. Bio: "Watch us botch yet another setting!" Fans: "Pee on us, Bio!"

Woah, Evan Lahti of PC Gamer US really hasn't played any rpgs since BG. That's almost an achievement.

Perkele.

Why is it that every time she goes overboard with the booze, I have to both stand the ire and then pick up the pieces in the morning? I frankly am a bit perturbed over being a constant punching bag. Sure, your uni going down the drain by the minute, sure, your parents aren't exactly the best of the lot, but why does it fall on me to be both the caretaker and the lover despite whatever she decides to utter when drunk? I really do love her, for the first time ever I love anyone so much, but...well, no "but". Rather, why is it required that I be the elder brother and the concubine as well? Uh, sometimes I wish we never met anyone else, especially when under the influence, but that just happens to be the way Finns work. I don't know whether to blame the environment, the history of our frankly pitiful nation, the baaaad weather or the economic depression, but I had a lot less drama and a lot more good honest encounters with foreign students and mates than Finns. What is it that we as a nation fear so much in other people that we need a token amount of alcohol in bloodstream in order to function as reactive and supportive individuals in social encounters? And why is it so ingrained, this dichotomy of taciturn vs. under the influence and jolly, into our psyche that alcohol turns everyone into a completely different person by default? And, as perhaps the most interesting and enchanting part of this grand devilry, why is it that I never forget anything, never change the way I think, never suddenly lust after the same sex or suddenly brood over really simple and of zero consequence things no matter how much of that damned fiendish liquid runs inside me? It's sometimes disheartening to be so against the cultural norms and mores of this sad sad society. On that note, some of us could learn some tact and some social skills like reading each other enough to spot individual differences in taste, manners, philosophy etc. It is not really that hard to achieve. Now, I have a BA thesis discussion and a chance to talk about sources with my superviser in 7,23 hours, so I guess I should get some shut-eye right about now. At least, shut-eye until the missus decides to come home. Funnily enough, I just realised that it was our district that faced the latest late night rape scandal this year. I'ma call her right now.

I'll wait for a more interesting era personally. Truth to be told, I haven't even played Kingdoms yet, so I'm not making the jump anytime soon, heh. Honestly though, I think this age is a bit more interesting than some of the scenarios in Kingdoms(England, meh), but the ship combat focus hasnt sold itself to me just yet and I'm still a bit angry over how much of a Rome remodeling job the previous game was. A useless one, since we have Crusader:Total War anyway.

I agree, I thought they had their visual feel and influences down pretty nicely. Even better than Jade Empire, which was game I personally liked to play just to enjoy the sights(minus the odd skeletons on some models, wtf). As for the teaser, meh. I didn't feel anything for Shephard, so this video doesn't really amount to anything. To be honest, I hope they have a more memorable and less "realistic" cast in the next game, some of them felt like I was talking to previous co-workers rather than the quirky and nerdy flair Bioware usually goes for. It's not something I want from an epic space opera. I might in the minority, but I think that flair is an asset for their game, IF they have some actual depth to go along with it. Not a Jade Empire disaster, like Black Whirlwind or Henpecked Ho. Not outright goofyness, but that special something that comes with being a party member.

And if it's as bloody hard as Lost Planet 1, then it's a must-have by far. Edit: Goddamn, Capcom knows how to do an announcement. Get this, they start by being really familiar with their player base, acknowledging them, then showing a good trailer and end up with a questionnaire small Q&A where the devs actually admit to listening to fan input. That's one great team there. Anyway, I'll add King's Bounty: Armored Princess to the list.

Yeah, I saw the announcement, bloody awesome. Me and a couple of mates will likely start a romp of Golarion once someone acquires the final version after summer. Honestly, it'll be great to finally use the new rules, instead of just playing 3,5 without prestige classes(nothing wrong with that though) and with the Pathfinder Equipment(armored kilts for everyone!) and Faction feat lists available. The Finnish branch of the Society grand campaign has been really something cool. Some of us are Living Greyhawk vets, so the disjunct scenario-based "world" feels a bit akward, but others, like me, had their first taste of D&D outside FR and that's really something admirable. Thanks Paizo, thanks everyone.

Yeah, we moaned about that after release in TTLG, but the writer thought it was decent enough given the circumstances. I mean, big whoop over some cousin she hasn't met in years. Similarly, the plot is a bit fidgety over some of the politics, I mean why get the Hammerites to attack the smugglers when all she had to do was approach the cult in person and present the artifact? It just doesn't make sense. Some of the missions feel really tacked on, ironically like Thief 2, and don't really make all that much sense in the story. Nevertheless, I liked playing through it on Expert. Just wish there had been more of the kind of consistent quality as with the Hospital mission, I feel that the large number of authors didn't contribute to the overall vision.

Yeah, mine's pretty similar, I haven't played any(discounting Thief2X) in 3 years though. And I see "...Beanstalk" was in C6. It might be a good idea to see whether the wide-screen works in Thief 2 Xpansion, Shadows of the Metal Age, it's kind of itchy on tech. Of course, if you haven't played it yet, do so. I remember being pleasantly surprised when the odd 3 years of wait for the project actually paid off.

I hope those missions include at least "Left for Dead", "Ruins", "Garrett and the Beanstalk"(Contest 5, IIRC) and the "Ominous Bequest". Think about your obligations as a fan, and you'll yield.

I'm filling summer job application forms, this one is for Amuri museum area in Tampere, and listening to NIN. I know, I'm pretty boring.

Played some Rollcage at a party, man what a classic. Soul Calibur 4 didn't turn out to be much of a classic, but I understand the party value, good and honest drunken titillation. Now I'm starting Syberia for the first time and making my way through the Elf parts of King's Bounty(lol 2000 Lake Faeries=12000 dam crit.=die Ancient Ents, die!), it's really something. Such as "repetitive" and "phenomenally fun". I'm itching to finish Witcher EE as well, but I'm kind of bummed with studying taking most of my time.