DanJW

Can't wait for episode III Interesting to read that Whedon did it following the writers' strike.

Hey N0wak! What day are you down? I bumped into TWmac the other night. I think there's more thumbers here in Brighton than I realised.

Penny Arcade linked to this blog post, that illustrates the difference between the Harmonix and Neversoft approach.

Isn't Playstation Home meant to be something like this?

One thing I have to say about the excellent dialogue, is that it is the first RPG where taking the nasty bastard route made sense. Even in KotOR the dark-side path felt a bit contrived, and so in all RPGs I gravitate towards playing 'light side'. But being a renegade in Mass Effect felt totally logical - you're not evil, you just take the point of view that the end justifies the means... and when the end is saving the entire galaxy then you can justify a hell of a lot along the way. My Shepherd wasn't malicious, she just had very little patience for messing about, and would cut through anyone in her way if they were holding up the mission. Sure there are opportunities for dirty dealings, but even then it's more like "playing the system" rather than the typical "I want to play a chaotic-evil such-and-such who murders everyone I possibly can because I'm bad-ass". The fact that the background is much more real-world in its lack of good-vs-evil helped too (there's just politics and survival). Well done to Bioware for finally getting the 'not a goody-goody path' right for the first time.

Post the responses!

No, he prefers to glass people.

He has first-hand experience of drugs and violence. I say that makes him qualified!

Are these some new form of satire? Some almost-genius guerilla counter-marketing by Sony? I really want to know!

Vimes, just look at the little "dungeon crawl" missions in Starcraft and Warcraft 3 - the ones where you just get a couple of heroes and a handful of men. Those show how you can build a hack'n'slasher using an RTS engine. Then there's the way AI handles skirmishes. Oh, and the "tech" trees for each class. The more I think about it, the more it seems the action-RPG genre is actually a branch of RTS. Who knows, perhaps there will be a form of resource management to top it off.

Yup, I think I agree with all of that.

I've been reading around on blogs the reaction to Ashley Cheng's comments about Diablo III being conservative and Blizzard's lack of innovation. Leaving that to one side for a moment, I think people might be pleasantly surprised, and for one main reason: I've got a hunch that the Diablo III engine has branched off from Starcraft II. The 3D landscape interaction, havok physics, swarm AI... they share a lot in common (perhaps Diablo 1 was itself built on Warcraft tech - I hadn't thought of that before). Anyway I suspect that we may find some RTS type ideas secreted away in the gameplay of Diablo III.

Yeah, the game is estimated at 15 hours, which is about 10% of, say, Baldur's Gate II. Frankly that's a good thing. Howvere the third act in Mass Effect did feel a tad rushed. Still awesome though.

I finished Mass Effect this weekend while cat-sitting. I loved the story towards the end and the way the citadel factored into it. Gameplay wise I chose Soldier, and I'm pretty glad I did. (Later on I got the hang of combat and choosing weapons and upgrades and skills, which probably made it easier. Man the pulse rifle is awesome). The powers don't really seem that exciting, and I think they're for the most part still a hangover from Bioware's D&D fantasy history. Benzier was by far the hardest fight in the game - those Asari commandos are bitches. So was I! I played a nazi goth renegade bitch and had great fun. Failed to woo Liana though No Fox News Porn for me. Overall the plot was over much sooner than I expected. Noveria and Feros are the first two post-citadel missions you get and after those you are nearly half way through. I only did about half the side-quests, since as everyone has mentioned they are just cookie-cutter half-assed jobs. By far the worst job Bioware have done on side-quests for a long time.

I know what you mean Erkki - the steady rythmic pressing of the 1 key (or whatever) to keep your health topped up can become so ubiquitous as to become irrelevant (The Witcher, by contrast has you drink just one or two potions per encounter, if I'm correct?) So this new health orb system ensures that you don't need to constantly press your health potion key, just keep moving around. It probably helps with your inventory being taken over by a potion stockpile as well. I'm slightly reminded of Lionhead's philosophy that as much of the gameplay, feedback and controls should take place 'in-world' rather than in the UI that hovers over and apart from it (something I'd like to see more of in MMO's actually).

I love this article. Why did I not go into a field of research where I could do things like this?

Quick! Choke the life out of it while it's still breathing!

Comedy Genius.

Oh please. Everything is pointing to skull rejoining the gang within the next month. No balls what so ever.

I had a chief experience once.

XKCD has always done it though, and it has always done it well and with a sense of poignancy. And yes I think such things generally are a result of the author trying to express their own life, but that doesn't mean they are liekly to work. C.A.D is only occasionally funny anyway; I stopped reading it a while back. PvP did something similar recently with Skull the Troll going away. It was such a boring two weeks that I nearly gave up on the comic altogether. I still might actually. Currently I read Penny Arcade, XKCD, Scary Go Round and Pencils at Dawn. I did read Calvin and Hobbes and the occasional Garfield but I'm currently boycotting ucomics because of the fucking annoying mosquito advert (yes I did write a letter of complaint).

No it's not strictly necessary. Watch it when you can though.

They still have one unannounced game in the works. Their job page suggests that it is a "next gen MMO". Here's hoping for a Planetside style World of Lost Vikings Starcraft!

Yeah, Razor is a two-part feature length episode that aired between seasons 3 and 4. Continuity wise it actually takes place towards the end of season 2, and contains flashbacks telling how the Pegasus escaped the initial attack and found it's way to Galactica. It also contains the phrase "by your command"...

Don't forget Razor. It foreshadows a few things in Season 4. Coincidentally I'm having another shot at learning Painter as well, although I'm focussing on the oils.