Duncan

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Posts posted by Duncan

  2. Posted

    http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=68245

    The firm hopes Halo Wars, from the developer of Age of Empires, will give it just that. "It's for the Germans," the exec confided. "We think this genre of game is perfectly suited to Germany, northern and eastern Europe. It illustrates our desire to release games that are appropriate for gamers in all markets."

    I find myself pretty interested in Halo Wars right now.

  3. Posted

    you have to close more than just 2, I think it's about 4 in total you need to close for the main quest.

    the reason I closed 20 was because the whole "world" would get ugly if you come too close to the gates. Besides, it takes only a few minutes to close them (I just run past all foes).

    It's two: the Kvatch gate and the great gate near the end. Everything else is optional. As for the world getting ugly, you can avoid getting close to those gates pretty easily. You can see them from a good distance and they show up on the radar. And If you're so appalled by the sky turning red, I don't know why just running past the gates isn't a better idea than spending twenty minutes inside of one. I guess I am at a loss as to why, after you closed the first gate and found you didn't like it--and you're absolutely right, of course, the Oblivion gates are not much fun at all--you proceed to close optional gates, repeatedly.

    It's like, yeah, Psychonauts got really annoying for me when, after getting through the Meat Circus, I loaded a save game and played through it again twenty times. Such a fucking hassle.

    Like Miffy, i felt it lacked narative and characterization for me. OK so it did have those things, but they felt too 2D. My disbelief was at no point suspended. Now Neverwnter 2, out next month - THAT has me excited.

    Well, you're right, too. It is pretty much two-dimensional. Oblivion is not the go-to game for in-depth narrative or characters. I mean, I like what it has, and the narrative is much stronger on a smaller, rather than a grander scale. I don't get why you were looking for that kind of thing in Oblivion though. The Elder Scrolls series has never been acclaimed for its writing prowess. If you look at Morrowind, it was a flat, staid, ego-stroking biography of you, the player: the most powerful person who ever has been and ever will be. And while Oblivion, to its credit, doesn't do this, one of the reasons I maintain it is better than Morrowind... it is a little unrealistic to have expected that much narrative complexity in the sequel. Oblivion takes a step forward, but it's still ultimately the fantasy wish-fulfillment genre.

    I am looking forward to Neverwinter 2 also! I never even played the first one though, I am showing up expressly for Obsidian (specifically, Chris Avellone).

    Wow, did I melt down in this thread or what. :tmeh:

  4. Posted

    The Wire is not really on my radar. I might check it out.

    Heh, The Wire is not really on anyone's radar unfortunately. :sad: Walter is probably right when he says it's the most important tv show ever.Very broadly, it's a literary novel about the drug war in Baltimore. I mean, that only scratches the surface.

    There was a decent Slate article about this, although no one should actually read it beyond these two paragraphs, because it's largely about the fourth season.

    The Wire, which has just begun its fourth season on HBO, is surely the best TV show ever broadcast in America. This claim isn't based on my having seen all the possible rivals for the title, but on the premise that no other program has ever done anything remotely like what this one does, namely to portray the social, political, and economic life of an American city with the scope, observational precision, and moral vision of great literature.

    During its first year, it was possible to mistake The Wire for merely an unusually shrewd and vivid police drama. But the program has gotten richer and more ambitious with each season and now fits only into a category it defines by itself: the urban procedural. Its protagonist is the broken American city of Baltimore, depicted with obsessive verisimilitude and affectionate rage. Its fundamental concern is the isolation and degradation of the black underclass, a subject that has, with the exception of a blip after Hurricane Katrina, disappeared from the political radar screen. If the national conscience is ready for another sleepless night about the waste of lives in the ghetto, I expect that The Wire will be what keeps us awake.

    It's good! It's good stuff!

    edit: Oh and everyone should watch Studio 60 also!! Weirdly enough, that's the show in more danger of being cancelled. :tdown:

  5. Posted

    The Wire is an unstoppable monolith of brilliance. Everyone should watch the first season, seriously. This show is easily the best thing that has ever been on television.

    I am also liking Studio 60 a whole lot though I am a big Aaron Sorkin fan. This is also something more people should be watching than they actually are. :fart:

  8. Posted

    Oblivion becomes quite annoying after you closed the first oblivion gate. After closing about 20 of them I decided to complete the main quest

    WHY DID YOU CLOSE TWENTY OF THEM??!??!

    ...you only have to close two, ever...

    Ohh I was trying to ride this thread out but I just lost it right there. Oblivion is great! Morrowind is interminable! How can you prefer the tedious, lifeless, dreary, jerk off fantasy faux-epic monotonous, irrelevant history lesson that IS Morrowind?!

    Perhaps Bethesda was able to convey more with text than they were with high-tech AI and voice-acted shenanegans.

    Oblivion:

    "Yes, I can tell you about the Imperial City! I've lived here all my life, I love it! Hit up Madame de Elf if you're interested in heavy weapons. Beware the Grey Fox!"

    Morrowind:

    "Aye, so ye be interested in Morrowind, Outlander? Morrowind is a troubled land; the culture and customs of its indigenous peoples and tribes have been cast asunder by a variety of social, religious and political conflicts with other outsiders such as yourself. That will be the last time I make reference to you as I do not wish to personalise this dialogue in any way. Three houses rule over the swamplands of Morrowind, House Telvanni, an eccentric wizard house, House Redeagrag, a noble warrior house, and House Hlllalallau, corrupt, thieving politicians and mobsters! Forgive me for using an exclamation mark, I don't wish to taint this conversation with emotion. Did I just use a contraction? Fuck me. Though the Imperials of House Hallllllau effectively rule this land, I have more respect for the code-abiding warriors of House Redorreamgo, as does everyone else in our fair hamlet. Some say--and by some, I mean 'everyone'--the ancient Dwemer were involved in ancient Morrowind lore through some tediousness or another. There were some Dwarves, too, I almost forgot to mention the Dwarves. I'm not sure about the Dwarves. They disappeared at some point. Perhaps a noble adventurer could investigate such a disappearance. The noble adventurer would find plenty of gainful employment in the local guilds. The Guild of Mages, the Guild of Fighters, the Guild of Thieves, a secret guild, there is a guild of assassins, I think--I am trying to avoid contractions by not using the possessive. That makes what I have to say a little longer, but you don't mind, do you, sire? That is folly on my part, you cannot actually answer my question. That is an example of the kind of laughs we have in Morrowind. Again, my words are slathered in facetiousness. None of us ever laugh, ever. Nor do we sleep, nor move, nor emote. Did I mention the Gods? Gods are very important to us here in Morrowind, as they are very real and kill us fairly often. Not that we care, really, we take it easy here in fairweather Morrowind. Here is a list of the Gods. Azura, Dagon nhioa, Dagon Sidious, there are some others I believe. You can ask at the local temple. There is a temple in every city. Those new entrants to the temple must make a pilgrimage, including, as I remember, to a big fence in the middle of Morrowind, I almost neglected to speak of the ghostfence or whatever it is. There is a crisis of some sort ongoing but I, like everyone else in the entire land, remain unfazed. We take it easy in Morrowind. I mentioned that before but I repeat myself quite often, it is just something I do. If you have more questions you could ask my fellow Morrowindians, though they will provide the exact same answer I just gave you. Even if they're like an illiterate, grunting zombie who wants to murder you or some shit. Oh, my language doth become colloquial! I must stop before I becometh excited."

    Yeah I guess they were able to convey more with text! How did they pull that off! Score one for text over voice-acting shenanigans! What is this, 1992?

    I mean come on -- how many people can honestly say they've ploughed through all supposed 80 hours worth of gameplay here? The mind boggles.

    ME! I CAN! I CAN SAY IT! I DID IT! AND IT WAS GREAT!

    :tdown::tdown::tdown::tdown::tdown::tdown::tdown:

    :fart:

    :frusty:

    :wtf:

  10. Posted

    Hang on, so we have Halo 3, Halo Wars, Halo movie, and a prequel called Forerunner? So basically there will be three Halo franchises? Won't that dilute the brand?

    It does seem like this will do it. When you think about it, it's pretty remarkable how restrained Bungie/Microsoft have been with the franchise given its popularity. Up until now I guess.

    BZZRT! Wrong. Halo 3 is simply the "conclusion to [the] story arch".

    Arc! Arc! This is an arch:

    arch.sept.sever.jpg

    :oldman::fart::oldman::fart::oldman:

  13. Posted

    I don't want to start a new thread for this because I'd probably be addressing the exact same people. If Rodi can talk about DS9 I can talk about Stargate. We're making a new thread for BSG season three though. :oldman:

    Is anyone watching either Stargate? I feel pretty sure Redwall is. I just watched the Atlantis "finale" (summer finale :fart:) and I enjoyed to a degree I really wasn't expecting. I mean it's not The Wire or anything but it's good on its own level. I actually stopped watching Atlantis last season but season three has been really good. It has the feeling of classic SG-1 without actually being classic SG-1, which it kind of was at various points during the first two seasons.

    Atlantis is actually even making me laugh once in a while which I never expect. Like the World of Warcraft bit in this last episode. Ohh. The show is still kind of shaky in some fundamental areas, like the not-quite-there team dynamic and the vagueness of Teyla's character. Even so it is still leagues ahead of current-era SG-1 which has been running on empty since the beginning of season 9. I stopped watching it a couple weeks ago and I really don't miss it. I don't care that's it's cancelled either. SG-1 had its ups and downs over the first eight seasons but I loved it. I can't get engaged by it now at all. So, Atlantis: :tup: especially since I thought it had gone down with the franchise last season.

    I think I'm just talking to Redwall though. :shifty:

  17. Posted

    Sith had some good action and fun bits, but no Darth Maul. Between Portman's acting (or just her script. Whatever) going down the shitter and the lack of a real badass villain (How much faster could Tyrannus and Greivous have dropped?) Episode 3 didn't live up to what it could have been. A decent end, but not as good as all that.

    Sith loses a million points for "nooooo", and "ok I am dark side now", both of which were kind of the point of the entire prequel trilogy. I haven't seen any of the prequels since they were released so I don't feel comfortable ranking them, I think they're all pretty much shit and as such their positions are negligible. I would say Phantom Menace does have the advantage of just being kind of bland and inoffensive when compared to the other two. The best thing Sith has going for it is Ian McDiarmid, who was really good. Best actor in the prequels, easily.

    Also, yeah, Indy tops Star Wars for me too. Although Empire, for sure, and probably New Hope/Jedi edges out Temple of Doom.

  19. Posted

    Did anyone actually buy these?

    I did. ;(

    I don't know. I know I'm getting fucked over by the usual Lucasfilm bullshit -- putting low quality versions out there so they can get away with see, these aren't that great, you never really wanted them, right? -- but at the same time I want the damn movies. :getmecoat I haven't even seen them in nearly fifteen years.

    I didn't buy the 2004 DVDs because I hated the changes that much, and the edits to bring it in line with the useless prequel trilogy. I do like having the audio commentaries for the 2004 versions though.

    The original versions are labelled as "bonus discs." How dare you.

    Also, Return of the Jedi = UNDERRATED. I'm sorry but there it is.

  20. Posted

    I'm further into Fallout 2 and it has picked up. I just got to New Reno, where they love their sex and they love their drugs.

    What's interesting to me about Fallout 2 right now is that in Fallout 1, really, the protagonist was the world. I think that's one of the things you needed to buy into to really get the game, that it's not about character or plot so much as what the world is like and how it changes. The Vault Dweller, the mutants, the brotherhood, everyone, were all just actors on this considerably more important stage. And I'm not getting that same sense from Fallout 2. And it's not like Fallout 2 is character-driven instead, like Planescape or KOTOR 2. It doesn't seem to have been replaced with anything. It's not plot-driven; the pacing and objectives are pretty much the same as in Fallout. I'm enjoying Fallout 2 on like a quest-by-quest basis but there was a larger level there in Fallout and I don't think it's here.

    All that stuff about the world, though, is why Fallout's ending really didn't work for me.

    The very last thing, getting kicked out of the vault. Clearly you were being set up for a fall, but I thought they were going to kill you or something. Leaving the vault, isn't that BY FAR the preferable option? The vault blows compared to the rest of the world. Why would you want to stay in the vault at all? I mean, all the guy has to do at the end there is walk over to, like, Shady Sands and he's SET. I'm saying it wasn't very sad at all. The Vault Dweller was a total cipher, it's not like you could empathise with him losing his home. The player never makes any kind of connection to the vault. Fuck the vault!

    That's sort of the point though. You're all alone in the nuclear desert and everybody is out to fuck you over. You have no idea where to go from the start and you feel pretty lost at times, which is exactly what it would feel like to be in that situation. It sounds like it wouldn't work, but it did for me and a couple of other people at least.

    I thought it really worked. You're thrust into this completely alien situation, but, crucially, you don't feel incapable of handling the game, which would get you confused and frustrated. That balance is one of my favourite things about Fallout. Compared to Fallout 2's sedate opening, it's no contest.

    I think Bethesda will do a decent job, but I probably won't like it if I try to think of it as the third in the series. I just don't think they have the right touch to make it all come together in the same way that the folks over at Interplay did.

    Yeah, I can't get too excited about Fallout 3. After Oblivion, I have every confidence in Bethesda to make a great game, but expecting it to be classic Fallout!, blindly getting hyped up because it's Fallout!, that seems misguided.

    Fallout 2 got sidetracked on a lot of smaller, sillier things, I thought. There was a lot more to do but it felt a lot less focused. Also the pop culture references felt totally out of place.

    Again, I'm not that far into it, but I would agree. The thing that bothers me about the pop culture references -- and this was in Fallout 1 a little bit, but mostly the sequel -- there's a bit of an attitude there. Like the developers have restrain themselves to make a serious game. And all the nonsense like finding some Star Trek or Lost in Space ship crashed in the desert, it's too much of a wink to the players -- aren't we clever, we don't take ourselves THIS seriously, it doesn't come across usually but we're pretty funny guys. They're almost disassociating themselves with the game because of some compulsion to let the audience know they're not this serious. It's not even like it's an easter egg because it happens so often. Worse, it's not even that funny. I mean, there's some funny dialogue in both Fallouts, but they rely on this kind of thing far too much. Honestly, though I don't think it hurts the game terribly. It bothers me though. And certainly it's not limited to Fallout, the end credits of Jade Empire are a perfect example of what I'm talking about.

    I do like the games though really :getmecoat

  21. Posted

    I really want to love Fallout, but I've never even been able to make it through the demo. The mechanics of the game just don't work for me.

    I can sympathise, actually, I didn't like the demo at all. I'm not sure what changed that made me like the game but I remember feeling totally confused and uncomfortable with the demo where I wasn't at all in the full game. It might be something worth trying if you can find the game cheaply.

    I've also been keeping an eye on the restoration mod for KotORII. They've been making a lot of progress over the past couple of months. I won't be at all surprised if it's released before the year's end.

    I can't wait for that. I think it might just be a couple months away, yeah.

  22. Posted

    It's one of those historically important games that I missed completely, so I played Fallout for the first time this week, and now I'm like three hours into the sequel. So I am genuinely interested in talking about the Fallout games and what our nine readers think of them. I am polling you. Please chime in on Fallout. Did you notice how I played the 'in' and 'out' against each other? I could be writing headlines for Gamespot with talent like this.

    Fallout... I liked. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that it did not engage me on the level that it apparently did everyone else. I don't know, though. The first of the Interplay/Black Isle RPGs I ever played was Planescape: Torment. I liked it a lot the first time, the second time, a year later, when I had a better grasp on what the game was about, it became an all-time favourite. And after Fallout I actually have a deeper appreciation of Torment. There weren't that many people working on both of them, but produced so close together and within the same environment, I am just amazed at the world of difference between the two. This is all by way of saying it is not unlikely that Fallout will grow on me.

    I just started Fallout 2 and it's starting to get a little tedious. I think I acclimated to Fallout faster; I still don't feel like I have my bearings in this one. I did not get off to a great start with the opening of the game in the village; uninspired and uninteresting. Then I spend like ten minutes poking geckos with a spear for no damage. And already I'm finding quests I have to turn down because my stats aren't high enough. Fallout did better, I think, in keeping the player consistently engaged and having a real sense of progress, neither of which seem to be the case here thus far. On the plus side dealing with party members is not the fucking hassle it was in Fallout.

    I also have Fallout Tactics which I will get to later. I think I might like it though. I can roll with some epic Fallout squad combat. Hopefully, with the four years distance between the games, it's not going to be like that battle between the Blades and the Regulators in the Boneyard which started off exciting then quicky devolved into spending all your turns running after the one last guy on the map.

    Who cares about what I think, though? I don't!

    I want to know what you think. You can talk about Fallout 3 if you want. Or whatever. You can talk about whatever you want really. This could be a Katamari Damacy thread if you want. I can't stop you.

  25. Posted

    The Final Sacrifice (also known as the episode with Zap Rowsdower).

    I saw this episode today as well as Puma Man. Cracked my shit up. I think I was laughing continuously throughout Puma Man actually. I've only seen like five episodes of the show ever so I can't really recommend anything but I'll check out the rest of your list.

    Oh wait, I did watch some of the shorts on youtube and those were pretty good.

    Are You Ready for Marriage? Part One:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=epriMrqo06M

    Part Two:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=qj2wYVUh7Gw

    Keeping Clean & Neat:

    Hired! Part One (part two is on the manos episode):

    rrrrrrrrrowsdower