Gwardinen

My thoughts: System: I don't know much about the systems you posted other than D&D4, which I suggested primarily because it's (comparatively) easy to learn and play. It has very similar rules to video games as many games took their basic rule ideas from D&D to start off with and D&D4 has now gone the other way and streamlined itself in some modern video game ways. I like it and think it works well for basic adventures, but I'm willing to learn other systems. Method of Play: I've actually started playing play-by-post campaigns on the Penny Arcade forums, and it works surprisingly well. For fairly internet-active people like we are, it moves along at a regular, if not incredible, pace. It also allows the players to describe what their characters are doing with more depth than real-time games which tend to devolve into "I attack that guy!" That said, the actual roleplay sections could possibly work well in real-time because sometimes you just want to have a quick conversation back and forth, not wait for lengthy posts. Myth-Weavers is pretty good, I have a character sheet up on there myself, but Orokos is also great if you can get hold of an old copy of the D&D4 character creator. It only accepts files from that program, but once uploaded you can use it to automatically roll your abilities and that sort of thing. Basically it's ease over customisability - this would only work if we were playing straight D&D4. Invisible Castle is also a lightweight dice rolling tool. I think all of these were in my post on tools earlier in the thread, maybe some others too. Timing: Requiring the ability to post once per day seems to work for the PA threads. Chances are not everyone will need to post every day, but the concept that on any given day you'll probably have 15 minutes at some point to whip up a post isn't a bad one. Obviously things may slow down for some and speed up for others at different times of the week (such as weekend) and there may be special circumstances occasionally, but it's not a bad guideline. For real-time, it's easy for me because I'm also in the UK, and it so happens that Wednesday and Sunday are good nights for me. Thursday is less so, but there may be times I can do that. Tone: Personally I've been engaged in campaigns that go roughly like a video game RPG, combat and roleplay and choices all regularly interspersed. It works pretty well, and I would definitely be inclined not to do a straight dungeon crawl (combat vs roleplay is a delicate balance and that seems too far on the combat side) or an open sandbox (seems like a bad idea for beginning players to just be told - go do whatever you want, figure it out!). The other concepts all have merit. Finally, I would love to play but since I've been the one pushing this and since I'd like to learn how to do it at some point, I'd be willing to be an assistant DM if the party shakes out in such a way that it seems beneficial. I'm a decent writer and a bit of a bastard so I'd probably be good at it.

Well that's really the trouble with a game like this, it needs a DM to come in and set shit up. Actually the weight of work and responsibility that rests with the DM is one of the most unstable things about tabletop RPGs, it seems.

As I sort of feared, nothing ever really got off the ground. Many of your ideas sound awesome, particularly the one involving pre-classical gods - I absolutely adore that concept, but I have no idea how difficult it would end up being to put into practice. As for those that are more fully formed, I would probably cast my vote for the Infinite Isles over Strange New World, because I really know nothing about 1915 US.

I generally feel the same way, but I think with this being a semi-reboot for the series they were just trying to graphically update the look of the characters from the first three games, rather than change their look to suit current tastes. That said, there are characters who have different, even more retro skins for the purposes of showing change between their original look in the story mode and a new look later in the story (eg. Jax's arms, the human ninjas becoming cyborg ninjas). That makes me wonder whether anyone ever considered the idea of having the women look the way they do now in the story mode and then having updated (ie. 21st century sensibilities) versions of the skins not for later in the story mode but rather for the rest of the game. It wouldn't surprise me if that was indeed considered, but rejected because of likely fan backlash.

Agreed, but my original quote wasn't to do with story sequences. I just said loading in general was quick in the game and that I suspected that one part of that was to do with the 2D camera angle meaning less data had to be loaded. I'm sure the 2D angle also helps with loading the next fight during the story sequences, but I'm not sure exactly what allowed them to load the next cutscene so fast. The only thing I've noticed is that there will be a real-time rendered moment at the end of a fight in which your player will briefly taunt the other one or say something else, and then it'll switch into the pre-rendered cutscene you described. It's only a few seconds, but perhaps that is enough time to start streaming the video or something to that effect.

I played a little of MGS3, then decided it wasn't worth it and watched it as a film instead. To be honest, I think it probably works just as well as one, if not better at times.

I think you underestimate the benefit of having a very small environment to load that you know exactly what angle it will be viewed from at all times. For example, only what you see actually ever IS rendered or loaded into the game, if you turned the camera around there would be nothing there. This is also how God of War managed to have such beautiful environments and set pieces - they employed non-adjustable camera angles to make sure you could only see the bits they wanted you to see, meaning that everything from corners to around the sides of pillars just never had to be loaded or rendered. All of this cuts down on disc space needed, amount of data needed to be loaded in, memory used and rendering time.

Yes, that is honestly what impressed me most about the story mode. In fact loading screens in general are very reasonable in the game, and I wonder how much that has to do with switching back to a fixed 2D camera plane. I really feel like this, MvC3 and Street Fighter 4 have shown that fighting games are just meant to be 2D, even now.

Son of a...! I can never unsee that now. I always felt like there was something up but it really is just that they're wearing them backwards, isn't it?

The words Beasts & Bumpkins and KKND are just setting memories firing in my brain that haven't come up for years. It's wonderful and a little sad. I also played Seven Kingdoms and its sequel the Fryhtan Wars a fair bit. That wasn't terrible. Sort of.

Once again can't recommend Sacrifice enough, and it really holds up over time if my memory serves. Also it's not too well known but I really loved Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising. It was written by Warren Ellis, if you know who that is, but it's the gameplay and just the whole concept of the thing that really sells it for me.

Jeez this thread is starting to look like a governmentally redacted military file. Portal 2 arrived for me today and I've played a little bit of it on PS3 and am downloading the PC version now. I love it so far and Stephen Merchant did an even better job than I was anticipating. Can't wait to try out the coop, so anyone can feel free to throw me an invite. I don't think I have one of those fancy one word Steam IDs, but this is my profile URL: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197972105562 Alternatively you might be able to find me by searching for the player name Gwardinen.

Finally back in the country, made it home, no Portal 2. Disappointment.

I'm not back in the country for another 12 hours or so. Game sent me an email yesterday telling me they were dispatching the game, so it may actually already be sitting in my hallway. I need a gorram portal gun to get me from here to there.

I'm really curious to see the menus, now, as the UI design of a game definitely does matter to me and hearing that they're so good definitely has me intrigued. I've been avoiding this sort of stuff fairly heavily, and having read that, I now think I had good reason to. I can already feel the stirrings of the hype monster in my belly and we're still seven months off. Ah well, hopefully when I get back in-country tomorrow Portal 2 will be waiting for me to take my mind off it.

Yeah, I realise even as I'm saying it that I'm being unfair passing it over so, but that is the reality of the situation. Also it's not just the advertising and "cred", I genuinely don't think it's a great game - I think it's a good game, and it's a very charming game. As I said I enjoyed it more than I thought I would but I'm not prioritising Portal 2 because of JK Simmons (though admittedly it doesn't hurt), I'm prioritising it because I think I'll enjoy it more. I will no doubt eventually play Majin, and I will enjoy it, but I am not seized by a terrible need to experience it right now.

I keep hearing about the Room, but most of the things that people tell me are "so bad they're good" just leave me thinking they're so bad that they are actually just quite bad. That said, that clip did make me chuckle, so I may grab some friends and alcohol, as advised, and see if it's worthwhile.

What's going on? Are the True Finns doing as well as it seemed like they might?

I tried the demo of this shortly before its release, almost as a joke. I found myself pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the game, though. Sadly after its release I simply never got around to trying the full game, as there were other games coming out and other things to be doing and it is just generally a low key game. I definitely don't think it's going to distract me from Portal 2 once I actually get back to the UK, but at some point I'll probably play it as an inbetweener while I wait for another blockbuster.

I recommend at least giving Awakening a go, since you already own it and it is different in some of the ways you mention you'd like DA to be different. Specifically, it's totally differently balanced (whether you find it better or worse remains to be seen, but the difficulty levels equate out to a very different experience) and it's much shorter.

The First Law books are great, Joe Abercrombie has also written a couple of stand alone novels within the same world, entitled Best Served Cold and the Heroes. I have read both and recommend them wholeheartedly, with the caveat that the Heroes does deal with events that sprung from the First Law trilogy so you're probably better off reading those first.

...oops. Now that I look at this one, though, it actually looks kind of interesting. Though I hate any marketing summary that ends with "and he/she/it meets a young/wacky/unusual whatever and finds his/her/its life changed forever!" I'm willing to hope the film itself is better than that.

Yeah, I've seen it. I quite enjoyed it, but that may be because I'm pretty much game for anything with Edward Norton in (with the exception of the Italian Job remake). It's not a film that's going to change your world, but the story, acting and atmosphere are all done well.

I just preordered it despite my complete lack of money. We'll see how that works out. I got the predictable PS3 version, so I'll be happy to play with any PC or PS3-based Thumbs.

I'm actually only at episode 5 myself, but I looked up the laugh track thing out of fear. It supposedly tapers off over the season and then doesn't appear at all in the second season. I definitely recommend Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip if you enjoy Sports Night, the more I see of Sports Night the more it seems like Studio 60 was Aaron Sorkin's attempt at a spiritual successor to it. However, there is one glaring issue and that is that it only has one season. So you have to prepare yourself for that disappointment from the get go.