Musopticon?

My delicate psyche is assaulted by dreadfully lurid mental images! Uhm, on relationships, I have managed to find a very compatible partner. Met her just about a year ago at a student party, we were both English Philology freshmen, she didn't mind me being a rude bastard and seemed to be almost too knowledgeable on all the nerdy jokes a crowd of drunken Finnish humanists tends to throw around and was easy on the eye, which is perhaps a rare attribute in all the females that understand why calling football "futaus" is darn funny. So, we shared enough similarities to bother talking. I met her several times during the autumn and early winter, usually at parties or student happenings. She had dug my msn from the depths of the internet and we were beginning to get very familiar. Long story short, roaring Christmas party with the English language club(which is perhaps the smallest of the 5 language student clubs in Tampere uni, funny that), everyone was in high spirits and she all but dragged me home. Next morning was awkward for the 10 seconds it took for me to realize where I was. After that, well, the coffee was pretty darn nice. Funny thing, the lovey-dovey of a steady relationship is not what makes me feel we complement each other. Everyone has that at some point, it's the Relationship Chemistry 101. Rather, we have fought pretty fiercely considering how new the relationship is and I can say with quite the certainty that I respect her more and more with each passing day. It wasn't love at first sight, but rather slowly getting to know each other, working through what made things click for both of us. Getting to look at the uncertainty, hates and fears in your other self. She slowly grew on me, which was something I never expected. Hard to explain, really. If it had been the other way, a rush of excited coupling and blind love, using the other to fill some carnal and empathic need everyone has, I don't think we would have lasted even this far. Uh, so there.

Yeah, it's Gaider alright. Well, thanks for the info.

I remember shooting perhaps three times in Hitman 2. But yeah, it's not the combat that made Hitman interesting, but the crowd stealth, disguises, mental games with the guards, etc. In a nutshell, the sheer scope of options when in a mission. Most, if not all, missions could be finished with only killing the mark. If you were really good. I hope AP borrows heavily there.

Throes of Dawn - Hyperion And above Hyperion smiles I remember the sun in your hand the wind on our skin descending off the one

Seriously though, as long the CQC is responsive, unlike Jade Empire, I'm all for it.

I didn't even get to the Jade Golem, Stone Immortal was enough of a win button for me. So was Mirabelle. As for not using them, why would I want to make the game artificially harder? I remember struggling with the clumsy combat system from the very start. It's like they took KotOR 1, streamlined off item use, based fighting on nonsensical energy meters and took all fun out of weapon use by tying both it and bullet time to focus. Not to mention there was often very little inclination to use any of the, admittedly many and varied, powers in your roster since the vast majority were underpowered and/or hampered by the system. Let's not even go to problems with collision detection and reach. Or the horrible horrible target-lock which made combat against groups an exercise in frustration because the alternative is to flail away to their general direction and hit nothing. To add a deep fighting system to an RPG would be a disaster? And most RPG players are lazy idiots with the attention span of a mangy runt. Generalizations sure are fun, huh? I or one would like to see an intricate fighting system in an RPG for change. It's a bit of stretch to call it a disaster before a good attempt is even made. I'm anxious to see what Obsidian is able to do with Alpha Protocol's CQC system, especially if they show even a bit of the same love and dedication their design customary does.

Dungeon Siege 2 is just about to end. Zaramoth's Horns is a bit of bore, but they've dropped war pedestals and eyes of Zaramoth everywhere so it's a combat power lightshow extravaganza all the way. Nicely epic. Now, if I just found the strength to finish off the last few Qatalls and Shails and not fail entirely in the end boss fight, I'd get to a)start another playthrough with a completely different party of npcs, 'cos I missed like half the quests this time. b)finish it and move on to Lord of Destruction. I want want want to start a Necromancer game.

This isn't the first time I've heard someone call DMC and Gaiden button-mashing, but it's still funny. If JE's combat had had even a teensy bit of the intricacy of Ninja Gaiden Black's any single combat encounter, like having to use more than two moves to win for instance, I might have finished the game. The only thing JE had over e.g KotOR's combat was the inclusion of dodging. It's still the least involved of all combat systems in Aurora-based rpgs.

With that said though...Kusari-gama <3 <3 <3

Harumph. Bionic Commando Rearmed, best value for money evar. That game eats the platforming genre alive, spits leaps-of-faith and doesn't even feature jumping. It's like making a fantasy action rpg without melee combat and somehow succeeding epicly. That said, the original game had already created the perfect model, this is afterall *just* a remake. But that does not make Grin's contribution to next-gen gaming any less worthwhile. They reimagined a forgotten classic into a game that beats most full price titles in the platform out of the freaking water. And the co-op is snuggly. Total GOTY in my books.

Yeah, I know. Getting to know that beforehand almost made reading Gamefaqs forums worthwhile. Hahhah. No.

The first werewolf challenge on Warrior in the Aqua Capital underground is killing me. But damn the game is luv <3

I love love love the POW Camp and High Tech Fortress levels <3 <3 Last level is pure torture in some parts though.

Amorphis - Black River

Can of worms, open!

Last week of vacation before uni starts again, kicked it off with a nice buzz of wine and beer with the missus. I didn't even know they sold beer in 1,25 litre bottles here. It's like 3 Finnish pints, ingenious idea. The wine was just Malbec, but alright in the long run. It's the last time I'll babysit someone's little sister with her though. Talk about killjoy. And it's not even that the brat was annoying, completely opposite actually, way brighter than I was at that age, but that we were stupid enough to promise to look after her. Today, I should probably go pay the rent and sent in a job application, but there's the Rise of the Witch King to kill some major time and hobbits.

wat Total bargain bin material there!

Usually it's 50 euros for a new pc game and 70 for a new console game, excluding cheaper retail games like SoaSE. Those prices translate to around 74 dollars for PC games and 103 dollars for console games. Ergo, most of you westerners get them pretty cheap. It's not even possible to rent or return here. No wonder internet auction sites like huuto.net are so popular. To be blunt though, I haven't bought a full-price game since the Witcher and NWN 2(though I bought that from London, heh).

So, should someone who likes adventure games but has never played any of the QfG series(other than a short try of the last game back in late 99) be excited?

I liked being able to smash enemy settlements to pulp with an elite strike force. It was a welcome change to the toil of the regular skirmish gameplay of constant expansion and fortification, a gameplay that was, by the by, hampered because the tech trees were perhaps a bit too extensive to be benefit to the strategy model of rapid expansion. Being able to use specialists early on(vehicles and infantry with anti-armor capabilities for instance) was what kept me going towards the end of each campaign. Building that entourage was a treat. If Relic can successfully implement choice and consequence into that system by persistent wargear and experience...well, I'm sold. Not that I'm not sold already, I'm scrounging cash to build a new rig for DoW 2 as it is, it's just that seeing them implement each new cool feature is like a little victory to an rts player. It almost makes every long-awaited Kane's Wrath and Rise of Legends that didn't live up to the hype bearable.

Use either one of those, most people do. For simplicity. As for BfME 2, I admit being an idiot and thinking in Total War terms when going to combat. The mission got easier once you stopped trying to flank everyone and started instead to rely on unit counters and the hero. It was actually very easy. Now, the Scouring of Shire, that was goddamn hard! All those Dunedain and the Isengard "surprise" at the end were just about the death of me several times. In hindsight though, that mission was one of my favorites so far. It's certainly a great RTS mission, despite the enemy relying on rushing you. It's the difficulty that makes it enjoyable and getting to burn Bag End and about two hundred hobbits is always a joy as well. Right now I'm in the Celduin river village mission where you can't build anything and have to cope with bombardment ships and freaking Mumakil. On the other hand, the evil campaign threw against Fornost, which seems to be a fun little siege. Since I bought the anthology(and for just 19 euros, no less), I also have the expansion and am anxious to start the Witch King campaign. I already tried the first mission and the voice actor who does his voice is spot-on. Gives me shivers, heh.

Probably a mistake from their part, bullet storm supposedly removes the need to reload for a while. Then again, I could be ways off with that. Edit:typo days ftw

I agree with Xard, Red Alert 2 is easily the best C&C game. Unless I've missed a masterpiece by not playing Sole Survivor.

Well, to be honest, Westwood's Yuri's Revenge was a celebration of all things wacky and explosive in 50's horror and science fiction. Getting to parachute bears and command psychic schoolgirls doesn't even come close mad scientist having a death ray in a moon base or atomic tanks killing dinosaurs in a prehistoric San Francisco. Not to mention, the bullfrog apc unit launches every unit with a parachute included, the bears are not dropped from a plane or use the parachutes themselves. I doubt anyone will even use the apc for bears when there are very decent tesla troopers available. And those dropping into a base over defenses is anything but ridiculous.

Hahhhahah, that should sell it to even the most ardent whiners. It's also nice to come out of the death system closet and admit that I like the early DnD crpg system much better. Thanks a lot Obsidian.