sivartTheGreat

Man, that guide is making me miss SF. I've been able to trip to the bay area twice before ... now I want to go back. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiightown.

Hey, you're right. Here's COD, for comparison. Note weird bow-legged cartoon soldier dude.

Great thread topic, and so very timely too, as I just booted up Call Of Duty Classic last night and was overcome with utter dismay. Here's the thing: I played a lot of hours of Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault multiplayer - there was an extra school-issued computer in my dorm room, so we had that thing running as a dedicated clan server 24/7, so when I say a lot, I mean a LOT – and man ... the fact that MoH:AA came out before COD1 is starting to make me uneasy. I don't remember MOH:AA looking bad in the least – it was very satisfying, strategic multiplayer game – at least that's what my memory is telling me – but COD1 is a mess. The character models look all out-of-whack, with helmets that are way too big and animations that look as loopy as Silly Symphony. The color palette is almost cartoonish. The voice-acting is borderline silly. The aiming is horrific (although that may just be the fault of a sloppy console port). So, yeah. I have avoided MobyGamesing either game's footage/screens to find out if COD Classic is just a fluke, or if my rose-colored glasses are a chronic condition. I can't handle the truth.

This isn't game-related, but the Moro Islamic Liberation Front has been in the news lately, creating such wonderful headlines as: "Ampatuan private army seeking help from MILF" "MILF halts movement of Moro troops" "Irish priest kidnapped in Philippines released by MILF" "MILF denies involvement in Maguindanao massacre" "Time ripe for peace with MILF: Clinton" "Clinton to gov't on MILF talks: Strike while iron is hot" Can't make this shit up. That's just from a quick Google News search. Anyway, video games!

So, I consider this important: Around the 14-hour mark, I had one encounter trigger where I died LITERALLY LIKE 30 TIMES IN A ROW HELLS NO. I tried every tactic ever, and kept having my whole party knocked down by explosions coming from (I thought) the main bad guy in the room. Turns out there is an option in the menus to turn ON having spells/abilities show up as text over the characters' heads (good and bad guys). TURN THIS OPTION ON - it makes all the difference. After doing so I discovered there was a mage in the corner one-two punching my entire party with Fireball and a Blood Magic spell. Once I figured that out, ran over with my rogue, stabbed the mage in the face and finished the encounter basically unscathed. Since then I've been going into encounters more alert and tactically-minded and doing just fine. 20 hours in and haven't changed the difficulty from Normal. Maybe all the perceived imbalanced encounters just require some strategy.

360, yo.

So I skimmed this thread but I'm way to early in to read any of the blacked-out business ... but here's my take on how the game is shaping up. I'm level 10ish now after probably 16-17 hrs in, playing on normal, 360 version. The difficulty level seems completely all over the place. I'll steamroll through a battle and then get completely wasted in literally 5 seconds at the next one - which, due to the almost nonexistent autosaving, has resulted in significant hours of replaying. I started saving obsessively, but each character is limited to 31 (!?) save slots, so I can no longer use the "save new slot" button (irritating UI oversight). I am to a battle now - the dungeon is irrelevant - and I think it's the final encounter, but I get wasted right after I enter the room. Plus, I have 2 health potions & the guys in my camp and in the nearby town aren't selling any more, and don't appear to refresh their stock often. I've found that the more difficult encounters basically require me to immediately rush the most powerful character ("Gang Leader", for example), else they lay waste to my party. Feels awkward, tactically speaking.

I think that may be only for one character background; I started mine as a Dalish Elf and have had to search for no shield. Although I also agree with above post.

NOOOOOOOO! That cloth map was my sole motivation to get the collector's edition. 'Course, I preordered from Spun.com and it still says 'backordered', so I might get screwed anyway.

Ah. So it's basically a bicycle seat for your living room. Fantastic.

For those of you who are interested in solving a mystery SLASH discussing furniture logistics, here is the photo of the "Gaming Position" chair thing mentioned at the end of the episode (that was my email the Thumbs read). Input is appreciated. I am no closer to figuring out how this thing works than the moment I first saw it.

There is that one level in SMB2 where the end-of-level bird door COMES TO LIFE AND ATTACKS YOU. It's basically a statue ... right?

Sweet decoration for the wall above his mantle?

I had the Green Uvirith mod, if I remember correctly - it had multiple levels, an armory, and a nice view. I still liked pimping my house in Fallout 3 - my shelves have a nice display of various unique items. I think that deciding how and where to stow all your shit counts a lot as 'emergent gameplay' in its own weird way. I'm right there with you. I stole every blue lamp I could find and lit my office / pillowfort a vivid blue. I wish they'd kept the dynamic lights for Oblivion and Fallout 3, but I guess they didn't jive with the physics engine or something.

Favorite: I almost went with TIE Fighter, or Fallout 3, or Fallout 1, or Total Annihilation, or Dark Forces 2, or X-Wing Alliance ... ... but I'm going to go with the original Rome: Total War. I wasted an entire summer on RTW. There are so many ways to play it, between all the factions and the RPG-lite royal family system. It had just the right level of arcadiness to keep me interested - the addons and subsequent games all seem a bit bloated to me compared to the original. Best: I am going to put in a brave vote for Bubble Bobble (the arcade version, not (any) of the ports). That game is pure brilliance. The fact that the platforming and attacks are based dynamically around bubbles, which have physics that react to each other and also the wind of the level ... the incredibly complex bonus system ... the 99 completely different levels ... the demanding (but not impossible) difficulty curve ... it's just a really creative and beautifully refined game. Desert Island: Folks tend to default to puzzle games here, but I am the type to be easily psyched out by any game where the central goal is a high score. I am going with Elder Scrolls: Morrowind here. I spent (probably) 100+ hours in that game in college, and it got me through a miserable Midwest winter. I know this sounds ridiculous, but getting up at dawn in Balmora & watching the sunrise while picking some alchemy ingredients and wandering around was a wonderful thing to do when it was dark at 4 and 20º (not counting wind chill) outside. Sad story: I once had a sweet helmet collection on the railing of the balcony of my sweet mansion. I also had a sweet pillow fort in my sweet office. Then I screwed up my mods and the next time I loaded up my mansion was gone.