Gwardinen

That was pretty great. I haven't really been reading much conceptual, philosophical sci-fi recently and that had reminded me how much I miss it. For some reason I'm rarely as intrigued and entranced by anything as much as I am something Philip K. Dick-esque like this. I really wish there were more of it done well, and that it had passed into other media more too. What I wouldn't give for a game that made me think like one of his stories.

Pretty much my feeling.

To be honest it doesn't seem like the game is balanced for singleplayer. You could lay a lot of mines, keep yourself constantly shielded and drop some shields around the map too, but it'd be easier to just do it in co-op. I know that's easier said than done, but it really is what the game is designed for.

That's uh... pretty weird. I'm honestly not sure what else to say, other than that making standard weapon attacks ranged in Magicka may be great or totally pointless and boring.

Yeah the list of interested parties has grown since I last counted it. As I've said we're probably best off deciding on the broad setting/theme for each DM, if they're able, and then have players divvy off into groups for that. The larger number of people wanting to participate may be made up for by the larger number of potential DMs, though.

There is a pretty funny play on that going on, though. Disclaimer: I heard this from the PC Gamer UK podcast and haven't yet replayed the demo to see if it's true or they were just imagining it. In the first scene, which is the over the top heroic mode of the opening story, Bethany has larger breasts than she does in the later "real story" of the family's escape. That's pretty neat, that not only are their powers exaggerated in-character, but so are the T&A.

I'm not so much saying that her unhappiness has nothing to do with him, but I didn't really consider getting back together an option because... he doesn't want to. I wasn't really thinking about their relationship at all, and I wasn't saying that he should just assume she has no bearing on him. I'm just trying to state that in the very specific situation of a potential suicide, people seem to be quite willing to take responsibility for that person's life and there's all this potential guilt if things go south. I'm simply attempting to warn him off that, helping her is good but don't assume that you can control whether she lives or dies and don't let grief wreck you if it comes to that. I realise right now the last thing anyone probably wants to think about is the possibility of her death, but trying to get into a place where you don't blame yourself after you already have is very hard, and I've seen people go through it. Normally I'd agree with this wholeheartedly, every time I've tried a breakup and kept contact it's gone kind of sideways. However, I do think it's important you try to get her help, even though increased interference by you might sort of conflict with the point I was trying to make above... and this advice given by syntheticgerbil that as I said, I agree with. It's another of the complicated balancing acts of life, I suppose, and I hope it works out for you and that you return with stories of the perfect way to handle the situation.

That's more what I'd expected to happen, but it might be that that is deemed unnecessary now that we can have whole stories told in DLC, à la Lost & the Damned and the Ballad of Gay Tony.

The only thing that I can really suggest is that you try your best to get her to seek professional help. The fact that she asked you makes it seem like this is one of the "cry for help" styles, so it is important that she get that help. It will probably be difficult to convince her, but it would probably be incredibly useful to her if she were able to talk freely with someone whose job it is to listen and recognise the signs. Also, on your end, do not take this whole thing onto yourself mentally. It is not your responsibility to ensure that she lives or that she is happy - and if someone truly wants to kill themselves, they will, so don't believe that if this goes wrong it was your fault. Do your best to be there for her, if that's what you choose, and try to get her to seek help, but don't make this a quest.

Fair enough, they might just be beginning a long, long promotional run-up then. Who knows, a GTAV announcement might even bring more attention to LAN (good but confusing acronym), though it's already near the top of my most wanted list. Facial acting based lie detection? Yes please.

While I was playing Final Fantasy XIII there was a point at which I was just grinding up experience, and I went through most of the Out of the Game podcast. So yeah, anything with repetitive action. Also, anything that is traditional multiplayer (ie. no story) is good if you're not playing with people you know and therefore have no real need to communicate. At the moment I will listen to podcasts any time I'm not doing something that uses the languages centres of my brain. I just listened to part of a You Look Nice Today episode while emptying the dishwasher.

This feels like a weird idea to me, because of LA Noire coming out soon. Why would they want to distract attention from that and its possible DLC/expansions? It seemed like RDR was well timed because GTAIV had pretty much just burned out by the time it hit, and LA Noire might be about ready to take the reins (pardon the pun) so why mess with that? These are genuine questions, if anyone has any information/considered opinions on why it might be a good idea.

Well like Squid I didn't see anything that makes me think the combat is going to be any better than the last two games, but by god the music. It might be worth it just for the music.

Just to try to keep momentum, where is everyone at? Who is DMing the second group? Where is the second group going to be set? I think once we have these questions answered we can split up the groups based on setting and start making characters.

That was the weirdest part for me, I must say. Since when is eating a dangling apple sexy? When would you ever eat a dangling apple anyway? And most importantly, who thought eating a dangling apple was something that could be accurately simulated by the Wii?

In that case I shall gleefully download it and bask in the aural magnificence of Nick Congrats Nick Breckon.

Lionhead is the #1 offender, but Bethesda is definitely a close second for me, I was convinced Oblivion was going to have the greatest AI ever developed, etc. before its release. The truth was rather disappointing.

Is it pretty much just Skyrim hype? I fancy listening to it but I'm trying to avoid Skyrim marketing because Bethesda always makes such outlandish claims; I feel like I'll enjoy the game more if I don't listen to them.

I had no idea Dragon Age had been in the works for so long, that explains a lot about it - and to be honest, also makes it impressive that it ended up being so good and cohesive. It's also sort of weird to think that now BioWare is doing an MMO, but it's effectively based on a fusion of KOTOR and the new Mass Effect-inspired dialogue and voicing and such. I do want to give props to BioWare on the technical side, though, the DA2 demo looks great and runs totally smoothly on my relatively old machine (ok I can literally only select up to medium quality, but it still easily looks as good as the 360 version). This contrasts harshly with my issues with Shogun 2: Total War at the same time.

Yeah, I'm sure it is to do with getting a decent starting party composition. My issue with it is that while a good party composition is a fine thing, I'm much more interested in the characters in a BioWare game than I am the mechanics. ME2 was a better shooter than ME but if I wanted to play a game that was a great shooter, it would not be what I would pick up. I played ME2 for the characters, the dialogue, the universe, etc. As such, I would rather somewhat gimp myself than have characters taken away from me without a choice. This is particularly problematic because I played a mage in the first game and I may well do the same in the second, which would kill off the character I actually prefer (from what little I've seen) out of the two possibles. I see what you're saying about homogenising the BioWare games, but I can't say I'm surprised. It seems to me that the release of DA:O followed quickly by ME2 was actually an aberration in terms of BioWare's design. These two quite significantly different games being released at roughly the same time is very unusual, from what I can tell, for BioWare. Generally they're a much more single directionally progressive company - I can see a definite trend of focussing more and more on streamlining interface and combat and making a more dynamic and fully-voiced dialogue system to go along with more clear-cut moral/personality choices from BGII to NWN to KOTOR to Jade Empire to Mass Effect. It's not completely unbroken but you can definitely see a specific kind of progression there. DA:O was actually kind of an anomaly, it was jumping back to KOTOR, almost to NWN or BGII, in terms of overall design and theme.

I completely forgot about the Isabella character from DA:O but it'd make sense if it was her. The Flemeth redesign caught me a little off guard too, but I actually quite like it. Also, and I'm completely aware that I'm straying into fanboy rationalisation here, it feels appropriate to me because in DA:O Flemeth was trying to appear nonthreatening and just nudging you along, whereas in DA2 she has literally just saved your ass and is trying to bargain from a position of power. I also second the enjoyment of the rogue gameplay - the archery stuff is still somewhat meh but the two blades melee rogue build is awesome. They took my least favourite class from the first game and made it incredibly cool. My current go-to simile for it is "like a ninja on crack". My one complaint about the story/character stuff so far is that it seems like there is rather a defining moment for your party that is completely based on which class you pick at the start. As far as I can tell you make no other "choices" to determine this seemingly far-reaching decision, so unless something has been stripped out to accommodate the demo that does rather bug me.

Ok, but what I'm saying is, if you don't like the fact that DA2 is more action-heavy than DA, you may be disappointed with the Witcher 2 because it is intended to be more action-heavy and smooth fighting than the Witcher. I'm not talking about the first game at all, I'm saying that the Witcher series is ostensibly shifting in the same way that the Dragon Age series is shifting - faster, smoother, more streamlined combat. To the point where, in all the live events the Witcher 2 has been shown at, the participants have been encouraged to play with a 360 controller no matter the platform.

That's true, although from what I know of the Witcher 2, if you don't like the more action-focussed fighting in DA2 you may well be disappointed by that as well. For some reason Bethesda games never register in my mind when I think about traditional RPGs, but they are almost a tradition in themselves at this point so I have no idea why that is the case. I agree, Hermie, the way both versions still play to their strengths somewhat while supporting the overall more action-y direction that BioWare clearly wants is quite impressive, whatever you think of the shift. The only thing that bothers me about the console version is that targetting is much less precise. Basically you target whatever is most central to your current camera view, and you can shift targets with the d-pad, but it will then shift again as soon as something moves or your camera moves (or so it felt). It makes manoeuvring away from other enemies while focussing on a main target (for example, when fighting the ogre) quite frustrating.

I played the demo on the 360 earlier today, and it was pretty action heavy but I wasn't sure how much of that was due to it being the 360 version and how much is a change from the first game. That said, it didn't particularly bother me and for the most part I enjoyed the conversation and characterisation style changes - I like the new blend of Mass Effect and Dragon Age. I wouldn't be surprised if the gameplay is generally faster and more streamlined, though, as I think the first DA may well have been the glorious swansong of the hardcore traditional PC RPG. The PC demo is in the process of downloading at the moment, because I want to play both to see which platform I want to get the game on. This is even more important because my PC is gradually getting to the point at which most games just don't run well on it anymore. I just finished playing the Shogun 2: Total War demo a bit, a game I've been anticipating for some time, and was truly saddened by how badly it performed. PC gaming really does break my heart some days.

I've already drafted three characters and only one of them is a spellcaster (though yes he is a motherfuckin' wizaaaaaaaard).