James

Should I stick with the standard version or try to upgrade to 64-bit? Stick with 32-bit until Windows 7?

Whilst I don't really have a problem with it in practice, in ideological terms I think even having a numerical representation of moral status at all, even if it's internal and obscured from the player, is risky. In Fallout, I don't believe it's possible to see the actual value assigned to each karma event, or your precise karma level beyond the broad very bad/bad/neutral/good/very good classifications, but the fact that it's quite easy to remain very good despite numerous small crimes is a little problematic. I don't go around pickpocketing or safe-breaking much, but if there's something interesting or unique, I occasionally go for it, and I haven't yet even dropped down to good. I can understand that the goods done in quests will generally outweigh more general small sins, but the fact that the character can remain not just good, but very good is somewhat suspect. I would have thought an exemplar would be someone beyond reproach. Apparently theft isn't a problem. I guess I haven't done too much of that, but I did feel quite bad after stealing all the money out of the safe in the floor of some Megaton establishment (I think was the bar or something). I went for it because it was so much, but in retrospect I didn't really need it. It's an example of how my behaviour in games is completely different than that in real life, and kind of psychotic. As a rather mundane tangent, I also find it interesting how the simple act of walking instead of running in a game makes things incredibly boring, yet if we ran everywhere in real life we'd look like lunatics. I suppose we come to these things with different expectations. Games aren't virtual life, because that's not what we expect or want from them. Sorry, that tangent was dumb. While writing this post, it occurred to me that it might be interesting for a game with an explicit morality system to close off ranges to the player. For example, if you displayed the scale, you might make it impossible to reach the highest rank, as a kind of comment on the reality of life. Or perhaps you could only attain it at a young age, then inevitably lose it as the world corrupted you or pragmatism forced you to let go of some of your values OR WHATEVER. I don't know, perhaps that's stupid. EDIT: What might also be quite interesting, if hard to implement, would be to have a subjective morality system, whereby each character would judge you according to your actions and how they each felt about all of them. Ethical relativism is a bit of a slippery slope, and I'm not too happy about it as an approach to things, but it's undeniable that different people have different conceptions of what is right and wrong, so it seems a little absurd to have a universal scale which people prefer different parts of. I guess that's probably been done on a limited scale, as in characters reacting to particular events, but I don't know of a fully-fledged morality system working that way.

Yeah, I thought it looked like Brighton. I'm casting no accusations here, but what lead you to discover this?

I can, yes, and I am, although I didn't do the quest for the stealth hat until I was already at 100, so that seems a bit wasteful, but I guess it's no different than all the other quest rewards that I don't use. It's more the perks and books I'm concerned about, though. It feels like perhaps I should have planned ahead more, but that would require looking a load of stuff up before-hand, which seems against the spirit of the game. It doesn't really bother me that much. It's just an annoyance.

At first I used to go through all the junk I picked up on an expedition and sell what I didn't think I'd need, until I remembered that traders have finite funds and I'd been accidentally giving stuff away. Now I just leave it all in a filing cabinet in my home. I'm doing OK for money, and I hardly buy anything, anyway. I've got my Repair up to 100, so I can free up a lot of space by repairing my equipment the moment it gets the slightest bit worn. One thing that's kind of annoying me is how you generally can't bring a stat above 100, but it won't stop you wasting points or items on doing so. I got my sneak up really high a while ago, and now I'm getting perks and armour and books that boost it further -- it would have been to well over 100, had that been possible. I guess it doesn't really matter, and I shouldn't really obsess over it too much, but it's frustrating to think that I could have put those points into something else and ended up with a better build. Oh well.

Lots of stuff, but my favourite is body parts. I will actively make space for a body part. I was kind of hoping I could make some sort of grotesque abomination, but keeping all the bits in my fridge is good enough for me.

"This game would buy you; returning the favour is the least you could do." - IGN.com I like it. Triple posting.

Magic, mimes, postmodernism and Blue Peter badges.

Just a quick thought: what OS would you guys recommend? I have XP Pro and Vista Home Premium, but both are 32-bit versions. Presumably 64-bit would be more appropriate (although last time I asked someone he said that those versions have way more driver issues). How's the whole DirectX 10 vs. not being Vista thing panning out? As far as UI goes, I don't really mind either way, but I've heard that Vista uses significantly more resources. What would you guys advise? Speaking of which, what sort of wattage should I be shooting for?

Thanks for that. It's nice to have some example specs to consider. What retailer or retailers do those prices refer to, Scrobbs? Also, what sort of resolution do you generally run things at? I did the thing I always do (going to a site and being tempted by all the absolute top-of-the-range stuff then being horrified by the price and put off the affair completely), so I was kind of going off the idea, but then a friend suggested he was thinking of upgrading and the prospect of getting into some multiplayer with him won me back over, so I'll definitely look into these suggestions. This is all rather exciting.

I think they revised the interface a few weeks back. What better opportunity to jump on the betawagon?

It's not so much the inaccuracy that bothered me (I generally zoom in anyway, having been trained to do so by CoD); it's that if I have the X and Y sensitivity high enough to be able to turn around at a non-laborious speed, it's too sensitive for aiming with in zoom mode. I guess you could say that I could put up with the slow turning if I'm going to be spending most of my time in cover anyway, but I would counter that that is a dumb idea and I'd rather not be annoyed while playing a game.

"If you like the things this game is you'll love this game." - IGN.com "It'll fist you through your eye socket." - IGN.com

Oh yeah, I also considered that. I haven't seen that in any other games, but I don't see how it could be anything other than a great idea. And the avatar was suggested by Wrestlevania.

I think that was the one that was meant for multiplayer, but ended up being single-player-only because of difficulties of some kind. Or something.

That's an utterly bizarre way of doing things. Still, if it works, I'll be happy.

"It'll blow you through a hole." - IGN.com "It'll rape you away." - IGN.com

My main impressions from the demo were that it could really do with toggle crouch, and that there seems not to be any happy medium between fast turning and fine aiming. The former would be easily added, which would be encouraging except for the fact that they haven't added it yet, suggesting they're not into the idea. I don't know about the latter. Change the gradient between gently caressing the stick () and slamming it as far as you can (), maybe? Other than that, I thought it was pretty cool. I'm looking forward to giving the multiplayer a go.

I will join you THROUGH TIME. That would have been totally hilarious if this had been the other board I visit.

I had the theme tune stuck in my head for much of my first year at university. I like it but it doesn't go anywhere, which is catastrophic song-stuck-in-head material. I think it was Miffy who was trying to snipe me as I ran at him at the end of a round. I would have liked to have seen that from his perspective.

If you arrange one ahead of time, I'd probably be up for it.

Me too. Seriously. Not as often as I used to, though.

"This software is a game!" - IGN.com "Now with interactivity!" - IGN.com "This game could crap in your pocket and you would beg for more!" - IGN.com

If anyone has it on 360, I definitely want to play it more. If I get a new PC at some point, I'll definitely get the PC version.

Sorry to dig up a really old post, but this was my main problem with the pre-4 Resident Evil games. I beat REmake on the easy setting, then decided to try Zero on "normal" or whatever the harder of the two initially available settings was, only to give up after having a really traumatic fight with some centipede things leaving me completely without ammo. In those games you had to use typewriter ribbons each time you wanted to save, so you couldn't habitually save every time you'd achieved something you deemed worthwhile; you had to judge carefully what was actually worthwhile, and what you could bare to do again. The problem with that is that what I'm gambling is my willingness to play the game. Your success at it also depends to a fair degree on your ability to predict the course the game will take, introducing a weird sort of game-design-analysis meta-game. I was OK with the save system in RE4, although I did slightly lament the limited number of slots. I've also often wondered how often people are faced with the situation of saving in a state where they're very poorly prepared for what follows. I'm also reminded of hearing about stuff like people accidentally doubling back during missions with a time limit, passing through an autosave point, and discovering that they've made it impossible to complete the level, and that there's only one save. That's precisely how I am with Dead Space. It seems pretty great, but I only got about twenty minutes in (over a few sessions) before reaching a save point, letting out an "ohfuckthankgod" sigh of relief, putting it back on the shelf, and resolving to finish everything else first. I guess I'm just a great big coward. On the subject of the controls, I completed both the GC and Wii versions several times. Both schemes work fine, but I think the Wiimote is easier (either that or I managed to get better at the game); I certainly got a lot further on that mini-game where you have to get a certain amount of points within a time limit, and in which sometimes a horrible beast is unleashed on you and you go to pieces and start blubbing and running away completely without dignity.