Chit-Chat

[Mr. Handy]

Welcome back!

I think we were all waiting for you to return and for us to be served our food, but maybe there are other players in our thread who haven't posted yet.

[Dave Syrinx]

Yup, and then we´re waiting for the security detail to arrive, right?

[SuAside]

i'm up for picking up the pace. at least if kabukiman is as well.

[Reclaimer]

Wow, ended up being unable to post for a long time without warning AGAIN. If I can, I'll see if third time's the charm.

[Mr. Handy]

Welcome back! Unfortunately, Laraqua disappeared herself some four months ago, so this game hasn't been moving.

[Laraqua]

Well, I'm back. Let's see how well we go.

I'm more than happy to re-start with a bang! See you on the forums.

[SuAside]

I'll do my best to start posting again as of this weekend.

Good to see you back online.

[Laraqua]

Yup, it's been awhile, but as per usual, wild dogs couldn't keep me away!

By the way, what'd you think of Fall Out 3? I'm re-playing it again and looking forward to New Vegas.

[SuAside]

It's dangerous to get me started on the Fallout franchise, especially about the Bethesda incarnations. Are you sure you want to do this? I'll try to keep my rant short (leaving out a bundle off stuff).

In a nutshell, Fallout 3 fails to be a sequel to the first 2 installments. If they had named it Fallout: East Coast or something, I wouldn't mind. But they named it Fallout 3. This implies a sequel, yet it betrays everything the series stood for (as explained by the original Fallout devs)... Amongst other things, Fallout was meant to be a deep tabletop RPG on a computer. That's the look & feel they went for. This requires isometric view (note that 2d or 3d doesn't matter, but it needed to be a slanted top down view), turn-based gameplay, a decent stats system that can't just be maxed out on everything and so on and so forth.

I couldn't care less about FO3 as a standalone game, but as a "Glittering gem of hatred" (as one dev once put it a long time ago) I cannot help but loathe FO3 for what it utterly fails to be. It's a dumbed down FP-RPG that's more of a shoot 'em up than anything else. The series was once full of meaningful dialogue, and now you might as well be discussing mudcrabs.

But don't let this rain on your parade. Enjoy your game.
Me? I'll stick to Fallout 1 & 2, Planescape: Torment, Arcanum, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines and so on if I want to play a meaningful RPG.

[Laraqua]

Personally, I loved Fall Out 3 but I was disappointed in its lack of depth. It did what it did quite good but the focus on realistic 3D environments meant short-cuts elsewhere. The land was too big and too barren, too many repetitious subway stations, and what the hell was with that big old famous building in Washington where the super mutants were hanging out, and which I ventured through expecting some momentus hint about what happened in the war and why ... being EMPTY of all history, notes, and clues? I liked the gameplay, personally, and it is by far better than Oblivion (leveling system of craaaap and the missions weren't nearly as cool) and most of the other RPGs around. The characters were also more interesting, the quests really cool, and the communities unique, but there was less of a focus on those things as it should be. In Fall Out 2, you could uplift communities or destroy them by your actions and really there's only one real chance to do that in Fall Out 3 (and that's a pretty obvious, simple choice involving a nuke). So I can understand your rant...

I don't think it needs to be Isometric, however, as Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines did an okay job at a 3D environment and the increased graphics were pretty awesome when connected with the missions and characters (though the combat was craptacular and the environment not nearly as large so I guess they made other short-cuts). So here's hoping that if they keep to the 3D First Person perspective, they take a clue from Vampire: the Masquerade (frickin' awesome game - wish there were more).

So, what games are you looking forward to?

[SuAside]

Personally, I loved Fall Out 3 but I was disappointed in its lack of depth.

Eversince the oldskool crew left Bethesda and people like Todd Howard took over, there has been a lot of 'lulz', 'shiny' and 'kewl' stuff, but very little depth.

The land was too big and too barren

By comparison with the original, it wasn't barren enough.

The desert conveyed a sense of loneliness and solitude. In FO3, there's just people everywhere.

and which I ventured through expecting some momentus hint about what happened in the war and why ... being EMPTY of all history, notes, and clues?

The originals had a lot of clues as to what happened, carefully placed for those who went looking for it, but easily ignored.

I don't think it needs to be Isometric, however, as Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines did an okay job at a 3D environment and the increased graphics were pretty awesome when connected with the missions and characters (though the combat was craptacular and the environment not nearly as large so I guess they made other short-cuts).

It needed to be isometric to be a sequel of the originals, not to be a good game, those are 2 different things.

As for V:tM-B, it was plagued by a lot of issues and Troika was forced to release too early by Activision (who provided the cash). It's too bad, a lot of content is missing and it was pretty damn buggy (even included a gamestopping bug).

So, what games are you looking forward to?

I just finished StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty, and am still playing Alien Swarm regularly (it's free off Steam, get it, it's good fun with decent coop players).
Other than that, I always return to Team Fortress 2.

But in the future? No idea. Maffia II perhaps?
Deus Ex 3 is underway, but I'm sure they'll fuck it up even more than with Deus Ex 2.

In the RPG genre, only Age of Decadence is on my list (see http://www.irontowerstudio.com/ it will be downloadable for free).

[Laraqua]

What I meant by 'too barren' is that there was a lot of irrelevant land to cover. I'm particularly thinking of the south-west sector with all those subways! I think it would have been fine if there were just more clues but there were a lot of locations that were just kinda 'meh' because I'd explore them and learn nothing! Even from some of the vaults. The raiders also out-numbered everyone else which was pretty funny!

As for the whole Troika debacle, *sigh*, if Activision had supported them, we might still be getting awesome games.

As for Deus Ex 3, here's hoping they DON'T fuck it up ... but it just tends to be that games with a number on the end just aren't very good. I wish they'd just start doing what authors do and use the company as a brand name rather than trying to sell through sequels all the time. Maybe not Activision ... too broad, but stuff like Ubisoft Montreal, etc. If we re-focused on the developers, maybe then they could create 'new' titles.

Oh yeah, speaking of *sucky* ... I always have the urge to play Hellgate London. Not the real Hellgate London, mind you, but the one I imagined... The Fall Out-style game but with demons and the London Underground! Now THAT woulda been something awesome....

[kabukiman]

Hi!
Just saw some images of Deus ex 3 and a review from a magazine from someone who played a bit. He saids it's not better than the original, but it's very good. Of course, since he didn't played all the game, the most important element- a good story- is missing. I liked the idea that we need to buy the implants, but I hate the idea that the character can regenerate himself over time.

[SuAside]

He saids it's not better than the original, but it's very good.

Well, I wouldn't take that at face value. The time where pc game mags really did deep reviews and really voiced opinions is long gone. Only appeasement and fanboydom remains.

How many times didn't we read from FO3 reviews that the reviewer had played the originals to death, only to read total nonsense clearly proving that he didn't. (and I don't mean opinions, but factual inaccuracies about the original games)

Most recently some asshat reviewer that was thrilled to see Ceasar's legions (the FO:NV slavers) make a comeback. Except, they were never in the originals...

[Laraqua]

hehe ... that's terrible!

[kabukiman]

In this case I hope your wrong. Deus ex my my favorite rpg/shooter, and the only non strategic game I bother to finish twice. On the other hand, I didn't even finish the demo of deus ex 2.

[Mr. Handy]

Lukas should have 12 HP, not 11. It's (CON+SIZ)/2, rounded up.

[Laraqua]

Thanks for checking that over for me. I didn't even double check that - I simply assumed that CoC would round down your hit points! Also, what TERRIBLE rolls did that poor fellow get. Funnily enough, it works quite well for an intern, especially the ultra-high Intelligence, but MY GOD! The poor fellow...

[Mr. Handy]

Yeah, those rolls are pretty bad. I've had worse before, though. My first set of rolls for Takeo in Island of Yomi had two 4s, an 8, and a total of only 75 stat points. This guy at least has 85, but that 6 POW stinks. Especially in combination with that 17 INT (and thus 85 Idea). Hope he likes being crazy...

[Laraqua]

I know! It's such a lovely combination ... and he'll be going on the expedition with you. Enjoy...