What are you playing now?

[Lancer]

Much obliged.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

No problem

[metadigital]

Too kind.

[Nartwak]

Magic: The Gathering.

[SteveThaiBinh]

Baldur's Gate - for the first time ever. I was worried at first about the basic graphics, but very quickly adjusted and am enjoying it a lot.

[metadigital]

How are you finding the THAC0 and Armour Class ... "

[SteveThaiBinh]

How are you finding the THAC0 and Armour Class ... "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good question. I played Planescape: Torment and just about got the idea that low Armour Class was good, but I have no idea what THACO is, though I've seen it in the character sheet. I think it's seventeen or eighteen?

 

I'm also having some problems with 8s that look like 2s.

[karka]

thac0 + ac = the min. value of die that you need to roll for a succesful attack

Edited February 11, 2006 by karka

[metadigital]

THAC0 = To Hit Armour Class 0 (zero)

 

In other words, if the monster has an AC of -2, your PC can't hit it without a natural 20 on the twenty-sided die, or 5% chance.

[SteveThaiBinh]

Thank you, that's all as clear as mud.

 

So far, I give my characters good weapons and armour and they mostly kill the monsters, give or take a few reloads, while I'm having fun with the mage spells. So long as that remains the case, I've no problem with THACO.

[Judge Hades]

Ah, nostalgia... It kind of smells like a rotting corpse.

[Darque]

I am now playing games again :D

 

Go go Resident Evil Zero Moltov cocktails ftw

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Did you ever play Cold Fear? I saw it in the bargain bin today. I suspected it was bad, based on my total lack of recollection of good reviews. And the cover art.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Cold Fear was awesome

 

I enjoyed it more than Resident Evil 4

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

O. So I should have bought it then? Damn.

 

I bought FF vs 3rd Reich and the Barbarians for Total War.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Cold Fear is an excellent survival horror game

 

If you like survival horror, it's a must get

[Darque]

believe it or not, i just started with fallout. I never played the series, and it's the only legendary RPG left I haven't played yet i think.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's a great game something I pay once in a while still.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Fallout and Fallout 2.

 

They don't make 'em like they used to.

[Dark_Raven]

Fallout 2. Simple graphics compared to the ones made these days, but I would put Fallout 2 in the top ten any day before some of the games being made today.

[Bulgarian Jedi]

Nothing beats the classic Age of Empires II.

This game never gets old.

[thepixiesrock]

Phantom Menace. What a great game.

[Lancer]

believe it or not, i just started with fallout. I never played the series, and it's the only legendary RPG left I haven't played yet i think.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Now that you invoked the "legendary RPG" status.. Here are some RPGs I would grant that status to and that every PC gamer should try a hand at if they consider themselves a gamer:

 

1) Ultima series (particularly VII parts I and II)

2) Planescape: Torment

3) The BG series (especially the original BG)

4) Fallout I and II (play the first before the second!)

5) Daggerfall

6) Wasteland

7) Knights of the Old Republic (a modern game destined to be a classic)

 

 

Honorable mentions: The Gold Box games, Wizardry, Might and Magic, Bard's Tale and a slew of others...

[metadigital]

He he! I found a copy of Curse of Monkey Island today! Woo-hoo!

 

I also found Heroes of Might & Magic, too, but I didn't know if IV, VIII or IX. Are any of them any good?

[karka]

Heroes of Might & Magic and Might & Magic are different games. And the latest HoMaM game is HoMaM 5.

[mkreku]

A while ago I reviewed a game called Boiling Point: Road to Hell, which was an action RPG (sort of like Deus Ex, but with a map similar to Morrowind) that had serious potential but was marred by some equally serious bugs. I liked the core game, but was annoyed by the constant crashes, the constant slowdowns (3 fps are BAD!), the constant horrific vehicle physics and the constant corrupted save games. Oh, and the fact that I after a while couldn't use any vehicles at all because of a bug was also kind of a nuisance.. seeing as the gameworld is 25x25 kilometers in size!

 

Anyhow, I scored the game quite high but mentioned the bugs and told every potential buyer to keep a look-out out for patches. Dumb as I am, I quickly forgot about this game and didn't take my own advice. Now, a few months (hrmm) later, I found out that Deep Shadows (the developers) indeed did publish two patches, the latest patch weighing in at ~200 MB. Because of my lack of good games to play, I decided to give it a shot and re-installed it and upgraded it to the latest patch.

 

I think this patch has now taken the crown as the best patch I've EVER installed (dethroning the Deus Ex patch that added multiplayer and proper DirectX support). I have had one (1) crash since I installed the latest patch and I have clocked 50-60 in-game hours so far! Compare that to the 3-4 crashes per hour before the patch.. Also, the slowdowns are gone! I don't know how they accomplished that, but the game runs smooth as silk for me now, except for a little stutter when it loads big cities and such. The quests are much less buggy too now, I haven't had a single corrupted save file and they did something to the way they draw graphics when you're flying because it looks much better now (it used to 'pop' in graphics in the horizon).

 

The biggest improvement (for me) though is the way they changed the entire physics system of the game. Everything works so much better now, from jumping/falling to driving/flying. The cars finally feel like cars, as in when you're driving them they skid, jump and flip over if you're not careful. The boat is now making boat sounds (duh!) and handles like a boat would, only a bit nicer (as this is a game after all and driving a real boat is not really fun). The helicopters and planes are still a bit weird (especially the helicopter) but they're at least not 'stiff' anymore and they resemble some sort of flying feel. It might not sound as such an improvement, but it's a huge improvement over the original, trust me. The entire feel of the game has changed from a stuttering, crashing beast with a stiff overall feeling to a smooth going, stable-as-hell experience with a fluid and graceful overall feeling. Remarkable difference.

 

So basically, I've been playing this game obsessively since I reinstalled it with the latest patch. I've discovered so much content that I wish I had seen before doing the review. There's so unbelievably much to see and do in this game, it's difficult to imagine how a small team like Deep Shadows could have done it all by themselves. Those guys must have worked their collective butts off to pull this incredible game off and fill it with so much extra stuff! I've ran into obscure side-quests in the most unexpected places, I've found so much extra detail (a sun resort, a pair of spooky campers, drug factories, forgotten indian villages, inca temples, hidden mafia airstrips, an army shipyard, impressive waterfalls, dark caves, SAM missile bases, secluded hermits, expensive villa's, a volcanoe, a ruined church, and so on.. there's much more!), so many new things to do (the best part was when I found out that stealth and sneaking actually work in this game.. almost as good as in the Thief games!) and so much more fun than the first time around. As an example: I was playing the game, but took a short break while talking to my girlfriend. Suddenly an enemy helicopter spots me and starts shooting at me. Instinctively I turn to the game and start running for cover (I was at an airstrip right then) while firing back at it with my puny automatic rifle (I was out of ground-to-air missiles). I keep shooting at it while running from cover to cover because the damn thing circles me and always finds a way to hit me. A few frantic moments of intense battle later I notice the helicopter is starting to smoke, so I run out onto the runway, guns blazing, and finally manage to blow the thing out of the air. As the helicopter explodes it starts to fall.. and I am right underneath its falling path, so again I dash to get away. The wreckage falls down a few meters behind me, shovering me in debris, and several explosions send me flying (almost killing me in the process). I get up, hide in a hangar, and turn back to my girlfriend expecting to get scolded for giving the game her attention, but she's just standing there with big eyes and her mouth half open, going, "What game IS that??". I liked that.

 

There are several different factions to join/work for (mafia, government, bandits, civilians, indians, the CIA and the guerillas) and each of them offer a deep (yes, deep!) and long series of missions. The game keeps track of how you're percepted by each faction, and some of them are polarized, as in Bandits-Civilians or Government-Guerillas. This means you can't do all the missions at once, but it's possible to switch allegiance if you work for it (not easy, but rewarding once you manage). Each member of each faction react differently to you, based on your standings with the different factions. That means that if you're good friends with the government and you enter a guerilla controlled town, you're not going to get any help, prices will rise in stores and you won't get all the extra side-quests normally available to you. Also, people say different things to you based on your reputation, and some even attack you straight away.

 

Your character has a bunch of stats to him. Every weapon you use, you start out as a complete novice with. As you use the weapons more and more, you get better with them, individually (using a revolver does not make you better at using a sniper rifle). Weapons wear down after a while, but you can practice your repair skill by repairing them. Weapons are also upgradable (distance, rate of fire, reload and magazine size) and there are plenty of them. You gain experience points from combat and quests, and you gain levels slowly, although I'm not really sure what the levels are there for yet.

 

The main quest is actually well-written (with a lot of twists and turns) and your character and the main quest NPC's have some really hilarious lines. Most of the dialogue is spoken, although in some of the obscure side-quests it's all text. Basically you're an ex-soldier in search of your missing (kidnapped?) journalist daughter in a fictional South American country. Of course, there's more to it than that as indian legends and mysterious soldiers cross your path during the game (so far). Unfortunately, the game has some translation quirks (Deep Shadow are from.. Ukraine?) but not as bad as to be immersion shattering.

 

Uhm.. This became a bit long-winded

 

But I am playing Boiling Point right now and I recommend it to everyone who enjoys action RPG's with a first person perspective (and has a relatively strong computer)! It should be really cheap by now too.

[karka]

I am waiting for that patch. It is good to know it is working well. Now, i can get the game. Thanks for the info.

[metadigital]

Heroes of Might & Magic and Might & Magic are different games. And the latest HoMaM game is HoMaM 5.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Okay. Assuming they are either:

1. Might & Magic IV, VIII & IX
   
2. Heroes of Might & Magic IV, and Might & Magic VIII & IX
   

What's the rating for these ... are they as bad as I suspect ...

[karka]

Most likely B

 

Only M&M IX is a real crap. Others are not bad

[metadigital]

Cheers.

[Cantousent]

I have and I'm about halfway through Indigo Prophecy. Following the current mania, I'll write up a review when I've finished. I have a lot of thoughts all around on it.

[Llyranor]

Call of Duty 2