Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
A beta MMORPG that, due to an NDA, I can't tell anyone about.
It's really fun, though.
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A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government. - Smacky
LOTR Online has been everything I expected and more. I've never played a better MMORPG. My little hobbit burglar rules!
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But, as Deepak Chopra taught us, quantum physics means anything can happen at any time for no reason! Also, eat plenty of oatmeal, and animals never had a war... who's the real animal?
I'm a huge fan of the Battlefield series but I was a little dissapointed with 2142. I like Battlefield 2 better.
I like it roughly as well (air combat is much less fun in it, but I got the feeling that air power was too dominant in BF2), but it has the bonus that I can get some of my friends (who didn't like BF2) into it because they like the Titan matches.
And of course Camp Gibraltar is some darn fine playing with well-matched teams. Nothin' crazier than the score starting at 300-330 and realizing that it's suddenly down to like 10-10 - and then having it finish at 1-0. :)
A beta MMORPG that, due to an NDA, I can't tell anyone about.
It's really fun, though.
If you are betaing Darkfall or that Pirate MMORPG (I forget what the name of that pirate one is, there was a thread about it here not too far back) I am going to fly to Eugene, come to your house, and tickle you until you tire of it!
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Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
I'm mostly playing a free Scrabble knockoff, Quackle. (If you wish, you can design your own board to look exactly like the official one, but because it's copyrighted, they can't distribute it...) It kicks my ass every single time, but it's really good practice.
Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
hey if anyone has a pc and wants hl2 and episode one i have gift thingies to gift away.
I have a PC, and I covet games.
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A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government. - Smacky
A beta MMORPG that, due to an NDA, I can't tell anyone about.
It's really fun, though.
If you are betaing Darkfall or that Pirate MMORPG (I forget what the name of that pirate one is, there was a thread about it here not too far back) I am going to fly to Eugene, come to your house, and tickle you until you tire of it!
I can neither confirm nor deny your suggestion.
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A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government. - Smacky
A beta MMORPG that, due to an NDA, I can't tell anyone about.
It's really fun, though.
If you are betaing Darkfall or that Pirate MMORPG (I forget what the name of that pirate one is, there was a thread about it here not too far back) I am going to fly to Eugene, come to your house, and tickle you until you tire of it!
I can neither confirm nor deny your suggestion.
I HATE YOU.
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Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
I know Isildur from H&R is working on a pirate MMORPG, called "Pirates of the Burning Sea." The other pirate MMORPG in beta right now is the official, Disney-owned "Pirates of the Caribbean." I don't actually know anything at all about Darkfall (though don't take that to imply that the beta I'm in is either or both of the pirate MMORPGs mentioned).
Timothy, have you signed up for the beta for any of these? In my experience, that's the best way to get into 'em. ;)
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A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government. - Smacky
Jake: I lack sufficient home computing power for either, frankly. My computer is a few years old and I'd need to upgrade to a MB with PCI express and a SATA set up to run anything reasonably new. Unfortunately, that is not in the budget just now.
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Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
Medieval 2, Elder Scrolls 4 (mostly my daughter plays it), Fifa 07.
But mainly I and my daughter play DDR. I'm hoping to be ready for the South Park dance team by by Christmas.
I used to play a lot more PC games, mainly RTS, but I am starting to slowly go over to the consoles. I'm looking forward to the next Call Of Duty for ps3.
I'm currently murdering my way through Call of Juarez. I loves me a western FPS -- I needed a fix after Gun and Red Dead Revolver. So far I like it.
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A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government. - Smacky
does call of juarez suck like the demo seemed to indicate or did they fix some of the shitass?
also jake send me your steam ID and hl2/ep1 shall be yours sometime this week (thursday prolly)
ep2 is fun but hard. portal was a LOT of fun, and i HATE puzzle games.
the upcoming for the next six months has some big names in it - crysis, assassin's creed, blacksite, an eventual far cry 2 release, hellgate, timeshift (even though i think it may suck) etc.
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"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Eric: The starting part was a bit rough, mainly because a) I wasn't used to the controls, and b) the life of the viewpoint character is unrelentingly shitty, but I'm much more of a stone-cold killer now. And I recently shot a man on horseback, and was rewarded by seeing him fall from the saddle with a boot caught in the stirrup. He was dragged for quite a distance before coming loose. That is the sort of genre stuff that makes me happy in Old West games.
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A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government. - Smacky
Playing a lot of Call of Duty 4 multiplayer with some friends, but only on "hardcore" maps (where you don't have a detailed HuD and bullets are very, very lethal). Regular-mode multiplayer is just a standard soldiers-run-twenty-steps-and-get-winded military FPS without vehicles, but hardcore is fun. Tactics matter, and I can often trick and flank the hopped-up, bullet-dodging 15-year-olds whining about how gay the map is. In the end, I usually manage to squeak by with more kills than deaths in a round, which is all I ask. :)
Also, I finally got into Sins of a Solar Empire last week, just in time to actually have an idea of the game before helping interview two of the developers Sunday night. Rather fun, and far less micro-manage-y any other real-time or strategy game worth the name I've played. There's a real sense of scale in it. Fleets take several minutes to cross between distant star systems (at least at the speed I was playing), and if you're looking at an overview of the stations and ships in orbit around a planet, it appears to take a Real Long Time to wander your POV over to even the next planet without zooming out. It's a very Powers of Ten effect - as the developers boast, you can zoom seamlessly in from a God's eye view of the "galaxy" (or however many star systems full of planets the scenario has) to single ships.
Last night, I got roped into a "us against the computer factions" game with a couple of friends; Kay got to wipe out the last enemy planet. I zoomed in on that battle, not doing much besides harassing some space pirates, and admired the capital ships bombarding the planet. Then, on a whim, I clicked on one little streaking drive-flare that passed in front of a battle-cruiser. That got me tracking the tiny thing, so I zoomed in on it - a fighter in the 30-odd squadrons accompanying the fleet she was attacking with. As I watched, it carried out attack runs, firing salvos of missiles at an orbital lab, then at an asteroid being mined in orbit around the planet. As promised, every single little ship in a battle was actually doing something, which was rather neat.
Actually got around to running through the single-player game for Call of Duty 4, recently. It's very well-done, with an excellent sense of tension in the scenarios. (The Chernobyl sniper-mission sequence is just murder that way.) I liked it quite a bit, though now I really, really want the fully-automatic version of the G3 that isn't available in multiplayer. ;)
I like single player COD4 much better than multiplayer. I can't seem to find a game of multiplayer that is anything other than a grind. The value of overall strategy isn't apparent in most of the game types.
Unpacking an old box, I found my original Baldur's Gate disks, including the Tales of the Sword Coast.
been playing through that. Fun stuff.
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"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
I've been playing Odin Sphere. It's kind of awesome, but very hard.
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Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
My friend Alex cajoled me into picking up Hellgate London, which has impressed me, particularly since it was $20 and the company seems to be trying to implode.
Playing as a Marksman, it's basically a PvE FPS with a lot of Diablo-ish traits; other classes play more action-y, I'm told. You run around areas, shoot zombies and demons and whatnot, hover up the drops that geyser out, blow up boxes for goodies, rinse, then repeat. The graphics are rather pretty, and the exposition and NPCs present an amusing mixture of grim heroism and semi-cynical humor.
On the downside, the path-finding of some of the friendly NPCs is just odd. "Murmur", a newbie hand-holder character who vaguely reminds me of the Tenant version of the Doctor in a cheerful moment (and who sounds like he is opening narrator from the intro cinematic, which is a rather cool clip), follows you from where you encounter him to the next underground station zipping around you like a freaking maniac. Similarly, many of the Engineer-class pets - flying drones - whiz around the area like happy, excited houseflies.
Ultimately, though, I'm shooting zombies and demons with big guns that have unlimited ammo. Barrels explode. This is good.
It's not technically a game, just part of one, but the Spore creature creator is a fun program to fiddle with.
And after designing and coloring your critter, you can put it through its paces in the "test drive", including seeing how it interacts with its children. Then, it can upload video of that to YouTube for you. As an example, an unreasonably cute version of an old D&D monster being introduced to its spawn faster than it can emotionally cope with (well, momentarily):
And then there's what can only be described as the Dreaded Fractal Sky-Moose:
I'm playing Soulstorm, the latest expansion to Dawn of War. It adds the Sisters of Battle and the Dark Eldar.
So far, I've cleansed the system of the Orks, the Tau, and the Dark Eldar. Filthy Xenos!
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A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government. - Smacky
I bought an XBOX around Christmas to convert into a media center, and recently have been playing games on it. Since my son, like many 4-year-olds, is completely ga-ga over cars, I've been playing Project Gotham Racing 2 with him, mostly just going into the showroom and taking out whatever cars suit our fancy. There's two types of cars I do well with: cars like the Ford Focus RS or the Audi TT that go slow enough that I can keep them off the wall easily, and cars like the Enzo Ferrari or the Koenigsegg CC that I have no hope of keeping off the wall, but that are so fast that I easily make up the time.
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"Many people are unaware the term "collateral damage" was adopted by the military because the previous euphemism, oopsies, didn't sound professional enough." -- J sub D
I've been replaying the Zelda series on emulators. Working on Ocarina of Time right now, the first for the N64. Great game. I'll actually try to finish Majora's Mask this time. Maybe I'll borrow a friend's Gamecube and play those Zelda games, though I hear they're not as fun. And if I get a Wii . . . yum. Twilight Princess looks great.
I've been replaying the Zelda series on emulators. Working on Ocarina of Time right now, the first for the N64. Great game. I'll actually try to finish Majora's Mask this time. Maybe I'll borrow a friend's Gamecube and play those Zelda games, though I hear they're not as fun. And if I get a Wii . . . yum. Twilight Princess looks great.
I'm hardly a Zelda conisseur, but we've got almost the entire Zelda library in either emulation for Gamecube or Wii. Twilight Princess is fun. I also pretty much enjoyed the Okinawa of Time (sorry, I've got some sort of mental block and can't refer to those flute thingies by their proper name). Mrs. Lunchstealer found The Windwaker tedious. Her favorites are also probably Okinawa of Time and Twilight Princess, too.
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"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
David: "On emulators" = on the computer, or on the Wii? If the former, what do you think of the quality of the n64 emulator, and where did you find it? I didn't know there was a decent one out. I'd love to be able to play some of my games that were lost in the flood again...
I've got a great emulator called Project64, and I too have been compulsively playing Ocarina of Time.
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But, as Deepak Chopra taught us, quantum physics means anything can happen at any time for no reason! Also, eat plenty of oatmeal, and animals never had a war... who's the real animal?
I've got a great emulator called Project64, and I too have been compulsively playing Ocarina of Time.
I'm using Project 64 too; you can find good emulators for newer systems at ngem dot com. Emulation is good for all systems up to the PlayStation. The PS2 emulators are apparently runnable at a decent framerate on the newest, fastest computers. PS emulators are in good shape, and can even be played with better resolution and less pixelated graphics than on the actual PlayStation.
Project 64 has a good graphics plugin called the Rice plugin or somesuch. It allows you to import better textures for games for which someone has spent time to make better textures. If anyone wants it, I have such a pack for Zelda; the original maker apparently is crotchety about it being available online for some reason.
Unfortunately, I run Linux on my main computer (and know for a fact that my windows box doesn't run PSX emulators smoothly. At least, it didn't run FFVII). But going to the Project64 website directed me to the appropriate Linux emulator, which seems to work.
Unfortunately, it's basically impossible to effectively handle the analog stick with a computer keyboard. So now I need to get one of those usb controllers...
Thanks for the tips, guys. And am I wrong about the difficulty of controlling with keyboard?
I found a build of Quake for OS X on Intel, so I dug out my old install disk and have been fooling around. What's really scary is how well I remember many of the levels. I haven't seen them in at least five years, but I'm running around saying, "OK, jump in the water here, shoot that panel there, secret door there..." Something about being pursued through a place by hideous monsters trying to kill you must make it memorable.
Unfortunately, I run Linux on my main computer (and know for a fact that my windows box doesn't run PSX emulators smoothly. At least, it didn't run FFVII). But going to the Project64 website directed me to the appropriate Linux emulator, which seems to work.
Unfortunately, it's basically impossible to effectively handle the analog stick with a computer keyboard. So now I need to get one of those usb controllers...
Thanks for the tips, guys. And am I wrong about the difficulty of controlling with keyboard?
I couldn't do 64 on the keyboard, so I just bought the el cheapo 19 dollar logitech gamepad (it's basically a PS1 controller clone) and mapped it differently depending on the game. With project 64, you can save controller profiles for different games, so it's pretty easy.
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But, as Deepak Chopra taught us, quantum physics means anything can happen at any time for no reason! Also, eat plenty of oatmeal, and animals never had a war... who's the real animal?
Major garage-sale score -- another XBOX and fourteen games, including Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas, for $40. I've been representin' Grove Street ever since. Yeah boyeeeeee.
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"Many people are unaware the term "collateral damage" was adopted by the military because the previous euphemism, oopsies, didn't sound professional enough." -- J sub D
You mean suck like warcraft III sucked, or suck like Daikatana sucked?
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"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
Compared to Warcraft II and Starcraft, I didn't love it. Dunno, I just got bored halfway through and stopped playing. For a while I thought I might just be burned out on that style of RTS game, but then I went back and played Starcraft again and enjoyed it.
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"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
and yeah i've never been able to wrap my head around rts games. i wanted to support sins of a solar empire when that came out cause i like what i've read from the head of that studio, but ehhh.
so now i'll just wait for age of decadence to come out to get my rpg fix. talk about old old old school. http://www.irontowerstudio.com/
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"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
I finally got my hands on the Spore Creature Creator after Eric .5b's recommendation. It's strangely addictive, considering that you can't really do much with it until the full game is released. My creations, if anyone cares, can be found here.
For those with more discerning tastes, my six-year-old's critters are here. (Watching his "Ballooncrab" move around... sitting down, particularly... is hilarious. I wish I could show you what I mean.)
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A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government. - Smacky
For those with more discerning tastes, my six-year-old's critters are here. (Watching his "Ballooncrab" move around... sitting down, particularly... is hilarious. I wish I could show you what I mean.)
If you have the editor, you can just open up those critters in it. The description of the creatures is actually encoded in the image file. :)
(You can also make a video and uploaded to YouTube in the editor, but that seems a bit sluggish, lately.)
Did you make up the Linnaean "scientific names" yourself, or does the program help you in some way?
One day I might need help coming up with the scientific names for certain science-fictional creatures I have in my head, but I know too little of Latin and Greek to avoid making really stupid mistakes. That is, I know a lot of root words, but I don't always now how to string them together properly. Maybe smacky could help me.
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"My intellect is gigantic, monstrous, terrifying."
The "scientific" names are totally made up. Mostly based on bits of the names of the two critters I think they're most like, but I mix family and species and phylum, etc. willy-nilly. They all get the "J." prefix because I made 'em, and I'm an egocentric bastard. If Gideon, for some reason, decides he wants pseudoscientific nomenclature for his critters, his will likely all start with "G.", etc.
I pretty much just wanted something to go in that blank field. :)
EDIT: I know virtually nothing about how to string them together, BTW, and I throw in suffixes that'd probably make a professional biologist's head explode (sorry, innominate one). I mix "-us" and "-ii" with reckless abandon, based entirely on what I think looks good.
EDIT2: The blue and yellow bird-like thing is named after Marty Feldman. If you load it up into the creature creator, and get a look at its eyes, you'll see why.
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A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government. - Smacky
Thanks, Jadagul, I'll tuck that away for future use.
You know, here's one that's puzzling me at the moment, and it's probably more difficult than most, because it combines Greek and non-Greek.
Suppose a guy discovers a large reptile-like animal that he wants to name after the sirrush, which is a Babylonian name. Would that just be a Sirrushosaurus? Or a Sirrushasaurus? Do you need to somehow transliterate the Babyonian name into something that looks more Greek? (Maybe not; there are dinosaurs that seem to just have words from Chinese and other languages tacked onto the Greek, like Dilong paradoxus ["paradoxical emperor-dragon"] and Muttaburrasaurus ["Muttaburra (a place in Australia, probably an Aboriginal word] lizard"].)
Or how about a guy discovers a large bipedal predator with a roughly doglike head and wants to name it "Anubis beast" after the jackal-headed Egyptian god of the dead? Would that be Anubisotherium, Anubisatherium, Anubitherium, or something else?
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"My intellect is gigantic, monstrous, terrifying."
"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government. - Smacky
Thanks, Jadagul, I'll tuck that away for future use.
You know, here's one that's puzzling me at the moment, and it's probably more difficult than most, because it combines Greek and non-Greek.
Suppose a guy discovers a large reptile-like animal that he wants to name after the sirrush, which is a Babylonian name. Would that just be a Sirrushosaurus? Or a Sirrushasaurus? Do you need to somehow transliterate the Babyonian name into something that looks more Greek? (Maybe not; there are dinosaurs that seem to just have words from Chinese and other languages tacked onto the Greek, like Dilong paradoxus ["paradoxical emperor-dragon"] and Muttaburrasaurus ["Muttaburra (a place in Australia, probably an Aboriginal word] lizard"].)
Or how about a guy discovers a large bipedal predator with a roughly doglike head and wants to name it "Anubis beast" after the jackal-headed Egyptian god of the dead? Would that be Anubisotherium, Anubisatherium, Anubitherium, or something else?
Harrison Ford has done a lot of work with conservation causes; consequently he has a couple of species of bugs named after him, all of which are Genus harrisonfordi. So, I'm pretty sure that you only really have to latinize the word you want to use, rather than translating it.
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I CAUTION YOU / IN DEFEATING ORCS WE MAY FIND THE ONLY VILLAIN LEFT TO FACE IS OUR OWN PREJUDICE--qwantz.com
Apparently "Alamosarus" wasn't named after the Alamo, although it is found in Texas. It was originally found in the Ojo Alamo formation in New Mexico. Wiki is your friend.
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"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
San Andreas update: When I steal a fire truck and start hosing down pedestrians at the airport with the water cannon, even my wife thinks that's funny.
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"Many people are unaware the term "collateral damage" was adopted by the military because the previous euphemism, oopsies, didn't sound professional enough." -- J sub D
Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
Dark Corners of the Earth? Or is there a newer (not as buggy, hopefully) version?
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A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government. - Smacky
Oh, yeah. I really like how they did the "Innsmouth Look" in that game. The townsfolk are wonderfully creepy and wrong.
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A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government. - Smacky
i tried it about four times last night before giving up. i only barely got past the section right after you get out the hotel room. the jumping is very clumsy, unfortunately.
also you'd think a private detective would, you know, carry a gun or something!
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"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
The Orange Box (finally got the 360). Also, the original Ratchet and Clank.
Both are fun, but Portal is heroin.
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Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
I hit the adamantium golem wall in '05 and haven't gotten back to it yet.
Right now I'm playing a lot of XBox -- Burnout: Revenge with my son, GTA: San Andreas (Grove Street, boyeee) and trying to not suck at Forza Motorsport.
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"Many people are unaware the term "collateral damage" was adopted by the military because the previous euphemism, oopsies, didn't sound professional enough." -- J sub D
well i haven't hit any golem walls yet, though folks are telling me to dual class as a fighter/wizard. i dunno. magic seems kinda pointless in d&d - you use up your three or four useful spells, then have to run off and rest.
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"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Dhex: I don't know how it works in the game you're playing, but yes, that's what magic does in the early levels. Then you get to the good stuff, and you can like destroy entire rooms of monsters with a word.
it seems artificial and a bit cheap in the context. i can see how it also forces you to make difficult decisions.
but i tend to lean towards cheap.
It really depends on the version of D&D. Wizards got nasty fast in 2nd edition D&D. My little party in the old Pool of Radiance game was anchored by the unholy evil of two half-elf fighter/mage/clerics, and once they got fireball and lightning, whoah nelly, everything in my path died. (Never played 3rd Ed or any CRPG based on it.)
A friend of mine is running a D&D 4th edition game, and one of the new edition's premises is that low-level wizards are no longer creatures of "fire off your spell for the day, then run like Hell/beat on the weaker things with your staff." You can always fire off magic missile once per round, at least. (IIRC - haven't gotten to that part of the rules, yet.) It's a rather CRPG-friendly premise, so I expect to see one for the new edition out soon...
it seems artificial and a bit cheap in the context. i can see how it also forces you to make difficult decisions.
but i tend to lean towards cheap.
Think of them as a combination of artillery and sniper. About the time your fighters are getting feats like Greater Cleave, you can use your wizard-types to set up large numbers of enemies to be knocked down like bowling pins. Toss a fireball or two deep among the enemy; carve them up with Magic Missile, and then watch a fighter turn an attack of opportunity into a kill-crazy rampage.
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"Many people are unaware the term "collateral damage" was adopted by the military because the previous euphemism, oopsies, didn't sound professional enough." -- J sub D
Nethack, drawing much from D&D, has also dealt with the same wizard issue for a long time, and that has the added issue that you're not a member of a party, so you don't have fighters to hide behind. It's mostly "fire off a couple piddling Force Bolts, then throw darts and run away". However, once you get something like Fireball or Cone of Cold...to say nothing of Finger of Death! Playing a wizard is actually really good practice in keeping low-level characters alive, since you *know* you can't just keep pressing the attack button until things die.
I hit the adamantium golem wall in '05 and haven't gotten back to it yet.
3 words:
Melf's Minute Meteors
The only spell (i think) that can work on golems, and damn effective too.
Also, uber the hell out on your best tank with shit like Bless/Haste/etc (and make sure you equip something like a +3 weapon, I think Minsc can get something really early that's 2-handed and +3), funnel the golem(s) (if you can), and let the mages fling those meteors.
Oh, and I really suggest using at least 2 mages if you know there's an adamantium golem to at least have enough castings of MMM to make a dent on the golem.
Now that Officer Frank Tenpenny is out of the way, I may have to learn those words.
Of course, now I'm gonna get all confused after playing D&D 3.x-based games for so long.
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"Many people are unaware the term "collateral damage" was adopted by the military because the previous euphemism, oopsies, didn't sound professional enough." -- J sub D
It's been years, but I don't recall any problems with golems. Are they in the Throne of Blood expansion, because I kinda lost interest around that point and let it go.
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"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Rather a lot of Battlefield 2142.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Heros of Might and Magic V
Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I'm a huge fan of the Battlefield series but I was a little dissapointed with 2142. I like Battlefield 2 better.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Baldur's Gate 2
System Shock 2 Demo (will be getting game when back in S'port)
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War
I have a tank full of gentle cuttlefish.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
ss2 is frikkin awesome.
dodonpachi via mame
and episode 2 on tuesday.
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
A beta MMORPG that, due to an NDA, I can't tell anyone about.
It's really fun, though.
A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government.
- Smacky
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
LOTR Online has been everything I expected and more. I've never played a better MMORPG. My little hobbit burglar rules!
But, as Deepak Chopra taught us, quantum physics means anything can happen at any time for no reason! Also, eat plenty of oatmeal, and animals never had a war... who's the real animal?
=Professor Farnsworth
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I like it roughly as well (air combat is much less fun in it, but I got the feeling that air power was too dominant in BF2), but it has the bonus that I can get some of my friends (who didn't like BF2) into it because they like the Titan matches.
And of course Camp Gibraltar is some darn fine playing with well-matched teams. Nothin' crazier than the score starting at 300-330 and realizing that it's suddenly down to like 10-10 - and then having it finish at 1-0. :)
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
If you are betaing Darkfall or that Pirate MMORPG (I forget what the name of that pirate one is, there was a thread about it here not too far back) I am going to fly to Eugene, come to your house, and tickle you until you tire of it!
Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Freecell....oh and some Spider Solitaire. I loves me some spider solitaire....
Proud Cosmotarian
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I'm mostly playing a free Scrabble knockoff, Quackle. (If you wish, you can design your own board to look exactly like the official one, but because it's copyrighted, they can't distribute it...) It kicks my ass every single time, but it's really good practice.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
episode 2 and before that i got stuck in portal.
hey if anyone has a pc and wants hl2 and episode one i have gift thingies to gift away.
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
*RAISES HAND*
Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I've been messing around with Jade Empire. It is almost indistinguishable from KOTOR. I'm starting to get bored.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I have a PC, and I covet games.
A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government.
- Smacky
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I can neither confirm nor deny your suggestion.
A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government.
- Smacky
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I HATE YOU.
Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
The "pirate one" being the one Jadagul (?) is working on?
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I know Isildur from H&R is working on a pirate MMORPG, called "Pirates of the Burning Sea." The other pirate MMORPG in beta right now is the official, Disney-owned "Pirates of the Caribbean." I don't actually know anything at all about Darkfall (though don't take that to imply that the beta I'm in is either or both of the pirate MMORPGs mentioned).
Timothy, have you signed up for the beta for any of these? In my experience, that's the best way to get into 'em. ;)
A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government.
- Smacky
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Jake: I lack sufficient home computing power for either, frankly. My computer is a few years old and I'd need to upgrade to a MB with PCI express and a SATA set up to run anything reasonably new. Unfortunately, that is not in the budget just now.
Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Medieval 2, Elder Scrolls 4 (mostly my daughter plays it), Fifa 07.
But mainly I and my daughter play DDR. I'm hoping to be ready for the South Park dance team by by Christmas.
I used to play a lot more PC games, mainly RTS, but I am starting to slowly go over to the consoles. I'm looking forward to the next Call Of Duty for ps3.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I'm currently murdering my way through Call of Juarez. I loves me a western FPS -- I needed a fix after Gun and Red Dead Revolver. So far I like it.
A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government.
- Smacky
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
does call of juarez suck like the demo seemed to indicate or did they fix some of the shitass?
also jake send me your steam ID and hl2/ep1 shall be yours sometime this week (thursday prolly)
ep2 is fun but hard. portal was a LOT of fun, and i HATE puzzle games.
the upcoming for the next six months has some big names in it - crysis, assassin's creed, blacksite, an eventual far cry 2 release, hellgate, timeshift (even though i think it may suck) etc.
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I heard Call of Juarez had a really crappy starting portion, but got better as you played.
Haven't played it though.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
dhex: Sent via PM. Thanks!
Eric: The starting part was a bit rough, mainly because a) I wasn't used to the controls, and b) the life of the viewpoint character is unrelentingly shitty, but I'm much more of a stone-cold killer now. And I recently shot a man on horseback, and was rewarded by seeing him fall from the saddle with a boot caught in the stirrup. He was dragged for quite a distance before coming loose. That is the sort of genre stuff that makes me happy in Old West games.
A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government.
- Smacky
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Playing a lot of Call of Duty 4 multiplayer with some friends, but only on "hardcore" maps (where you don't have a detailed HuD and bullets are very, very lethal). Regular-mode multiplayer is just a standard soldiers-run-twenty-steps-and-get-winded military FPS without vehicles, but hardcore is fun. Tactics matter, and I can often trick and flank the hopped-up, bullet-dodging 15-year-olds whining about how gay the map is. In the end, I usually manage to squeak by with more kills than deaths in a round, which is all I ask. :)
Also, I finally got into Sins of a Solar Empire last week, just in time to actually have an idea of the game before helping interview two of the developers Sunday night. Rather fun, and far less micro-manage-y any other real-time or strategy game worth the name I've played. There's a real sense of scale in it. Fleets take several minutes to cross between distant star systems (at least at the speed I was playing), and if you're looking at an overview of the stations and ships in orbit around a planet, it appears to take a Real Long Time to wander your POV over to even the next planet without zooming out. It's a very Powers of Ten effect - as the developers boast, you can zoom seamlessly in from a God's eye view of the "galaxy" (or however many star systems full of planets the scenario has) to single ships.
Last night, I got roped into a "us against the computer factions" game with a couple of friends; Kay got to wipe out the last enemy planet. I zoomed in on that battle, not doing much besides harassing some space pirates, and admired the capital ships bombarding the planet. Then, on a whim, I clicked on one little streaking drive-flare that passed in front of a battle-cruiser. That got me tracking the tiny thing, so I zoomed in on it - a fighter in the 30-odd squadrons accompanying the fleet she was attacking with. As I watched, it carried out attack runs, firing salvos of missiles at an orbital lab, then at an asteroid being mined in orbit around the planet. As promised, every single little ship in a battle was actually doing something, which was rather neat.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
This is pretty lightweight, but it's still damn funny:
OWL COUNTRY
Featuring an owl, hordes of pigeons, and many top-hatted, bemonocled men wandering the streets of Montreal.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
O RLY?
"My intellect is gigantic, monstrous, terrifying."
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
This is too funny not to share. Not exactly a game, but the Punk-O-Matic!
http://www.kongregate.com/games/EvilDog/punk-o-matic
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Just started Portal last night. Love. It.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
playing assassin's creed. impulse buy. i don't know why.
it had a lot of promise but i don't think i like where it's going to go.
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I lost interest in it pretty fast. Which was to obad because it has some of the element there to be a great game.
I've been playing Twilight Princess for the past week or so.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Actually got around to running through the single-player game for Call of Duty 4, recently. It's very well-done, with an excellent sense of tension in the scenarios. (The Chernobyl sniper-mission sequence is just murder that way.) I liked it quite a bit, though now I really, really want the fully-automatic version of the G3 that isn't available in multiplayer. ;)
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Playing Earthbound/Mother 2 on a Snes emulator. I've beaten it before, but nostalgia is making me go back and it's still good and awesome :)
I have a tank full of gentle cuttlefish.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I like single player COD4 much better than multiplayer. I can't seem to find a game of multiplayer that is anything other than a grind. The value of overall strategy isn't apparent in most of the game types.
And I hate the ship map. Hate.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
The Wetwork map becomes much easier when you have some silenced weapons and claymores. Just stay low - someone's always sniping.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Unpacking an old box, I found my original Baldur's Gate disks, including the Tales of the Sword Coast.
been playing through that. Fun stuff.
"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I've been playing Odin Sphere. It's kind of awesome, but very hard.
Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
titan quest
NUMBERS GO UP
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
My friend Alex cajoled me into picking up Hellgate London, which has impressed me, particularly since it was $20 and the company seems to be trying to implode.
Playing as a Marksman, it's basically a PvE FPS with a lot of Diablo-ish traits; other classes play more action-y, I'm told. You run around areas, shoot zombies and demons and whatnot, hover up the drops that geyser out, blow up boxes for goodies, rinse, then repeat. The graphics are rather pretty, and the exposition and NPCs present an amusing mixture of grim heroism and semi-cynical humor.
On the downside, the path-finding of some of the friendly NPCs is just odd. "Murmur", a newbie hand-holder character who vaguely reminds me of the Tenant version of the Doctor in a cheerful moment (and who sounds like he is opening narrator from the intro cinematic, which is a rather cool clip), follows you from where you encounter him to the next underground station zipping around you like a freaking maniac. Similarly, many of the Engineer-class pets - flying drones - whiz around the area like happy, excited houseflies.
Ultimately, though, I'm shooting zombies and demons with big guns that have unlimited ammo. Barrels explode. This is good.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'
"love is like porn, you know" -- Ali
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
That was great.
"My intellect is gigantic, monstrous, terrifying."
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
It's not technically a game, just part of one, but the Spore creature creator is a fun program to fiddle with.
And after designing and coloring your critter, you can put it through its paces in the "test drive", including seeing how it interacts with its children. Then, it can upload video of that to YouTube for you. As an example, an unreasonably cute version of an old D&D monster being introduced to its spawn faster than it can emotionally cope with (well, momentarily):
And then there's what can only be described as the Dreaded Fractal Sky-Moose:
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I don't know if this counts as a "video game", but The Agitator wasn't kidding when he said,
"Click on this link, forfeit the next two hours of your life."
I don't know why it is humans seem to enjoy working through hours of needless frustration.
"They civilize left, They civilize right
Till nothing is left, Till nothing is right"
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
The Spore Creature Creator demo doesn't work on systems with Intel GMA950 graphics adapters. $%@^%#!
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
It also doesn't work with Daemon Tools, apparently. Bastards. I get "A required security module cannot start" or some shit. Fuck 'em.
David L. Watkins
TANSTAAFL
v4sw4/5CRYhw5ln4/6pr5/6ck3ma7u6Lw6VWm5l6/7Gi5Ce5t6MSXb8HILOPSTen5a3Xs5IMr4p4/-5g6ACMPRS
hackerkey.com
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I'm playing Soulstorm, the latest expansion to Dawn of War. It adds the Sisters of Battle and the Dark Eldar.
So far, I've cleansed the system of the Orks, the Tau, and the Dark Eldar. Filthy Xenos!
A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government.
- Smacky
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I bought an XBOX around Christmas to convert into a media center, and recently have been playing games on it. Since my son, like many 4-year-olds, is completely ga-ga over cars, I've been playing Project Gotham Racing 2 with him, mostly just going into the showroom and taking out whatever cars suit our fancy. There's two types of cars I do well with: cars like the Ford Focus RS or the Audi TT that go slow enough that I can keep them off the wall easily, and cars like the Enzo Ferrari or the Koenigsegg CC that I have no hope of keeping off the wall, but that are so fast that I easily make up the time.
"Many people are unaware the term "collateral damage" was adopted by the military because the previous euphemism, oopsies, didn't sound professional enough." -- J sub D
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I've been replaying the Zelda series on emulators. Working on Ocarina of Time right now, the first for the N64. Great game. I'll actually try to finish Majora's Mask this time. Maybe I'll borrow a friend's Gamecube and play those Zelda games, though I hear they're not as fun. And if I get a Wii . . . yum. Twilight Princess looks great.
David L. Watkins
TANSTAAFL
v4sw4/5CRYhw5ln4/6pr5/6ck3ma7u6Lw6VWm5l6/7Gi5Ce5t6MSXb8HILOPSTen5a3Xs5IMr4p4/-5g6ACMPRS
hackerkey.com
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
this is what i wish i were playing:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=1995
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I'm hardly a Zelda conisseur, but we've got almost the entire Zelda library in either emulation for Gamecube or Wii. Twilight Princess is fun. I also pretty much enjoyed the Okinawa of Time (sorry, I've got some sort of mental block and can't refer to those flute thingies by their proper name). Mrs. Lunchstealer found The Windwaker tedious. Her favorites are also probably Okinawa of Time and Twilight Princess, too.
"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
David: "On emulators" = on the computer, or on the Wii? If the former, what do you think of the quality of the n64 emulator, and where did you find it? I didn't know there was a decent one out. I'd love to be able to play some of my games that were lost in the flood again...
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I've got a great emulator called Project64, and I too have been compulsively playing Ocarina of Time.
But, as Deepak Chopra taught us, quantum physics means anything can happen at any time for no reason! Also, eat plenty of oatmeal, and animals never had a war... who's the real animal?
=Professor Farnsworth
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I'm using Project 64 too; you can find good emulators for newer systems at ngem dot com. Emulation is good for all systems up to the PlayStation. The PS2 emulators are apparently runnable at a decent framerate on the newest, fastest computers. PS emulators are in good shape, and can even be played with better resolution and less pixelated graphics than on the actual PlayStation.
Project 64 has a good graphics plugin called the Rice plugin or somesuch. It allows you to import better textures for games for which someone has spent time to make better textures. If anyone wants it, I have such a pack for Zelda; the original maker apparently is crotchety about it being available online for some reason.
David L. Watkins
TANSTAAFL
v4sw4/5CRYhw5ln4/6pr5/6ck3ma7u6Lw6VWm5l6/7Gi5Ce5t6MSXb8HILOPSTen5a3Xs5IMr4p4/-5g6ACMPRS
hackerkey.com
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Unfortunately, I run Linux on my main computer (and know for a fact that my windows box doesn't run PSX emulators smoothly. At least, it didn't run FFVII). But going to the Project64 website directed me to the appropriate Linux emulator, which seems to work.
Unfortunately, it's basically impossible to effectively handle the analog stick with a computer keyboard. So now I need to get one of those usb controllers...
Thanks for the tips, guys. And am I wrong about the difficulty of controlling with keyboard?
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I found a build of Quake for OS X on Intel, so I dug out my old install disk and have been fooling around. What's really scary is how well I remember many of the levels. I haven't seen them in at least five years, but I'm running around saying, "OK, jump in the water here, shoot that panel there, secret door there..." Something about being pursued through a place by hideous monsters trying to kill you must make it memorable.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I couldn't do 64 on the keyboard, so I just bought the el cheapo 19 dollar logitech gamepad (it's basically a PS1 controller clone) and mapped it differently depending on the game. With project 64, you can save controller profiles for different games, so it's pretty easy.
But, as Deepak Chopra taught us, quantum physics means anything can happen at any time for no reason! Also, eat plenty of oatmeal, and animals never had a war... who's the real animal?
=Professor Farnsworth
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Major garage-sale score -- another XBOX and fourteen games, including Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas, for $40. I've been representin' Grove Street ever since. Yeah boyeeeeee.
"Many people are unaware the term "collateral damage" was adopted by the military because the previous euphemism, oopsies, didn't sound professional enough." -- J sub D
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
prediction: fallout 3 is going to suck.
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
You mean suck like warcraft III sucked, or suck like Daikatana sucked?
"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Hey, I liked Warcraft III!
I have a tank full of gentle cuttlefish.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Compared to Warcraft II and Starcraft, I didn't love it. Dunno, I just got bored halfway through and stopped playing. For a while I thought I might just be burned out on that style of RTS game, but then I went back and played Starcraft again and enjoyed it.
"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I burn quickly on RTS games. They start out different, then seem to become the same again.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
daikatana suckage, i mean.
and yeah i've never been able to wrap my head around rts games. i wanted to support sins of a solar empire when that came out cause i like what i've read from the head of that studio, but ehhh.
so now i'll just wait for age of decadence to come out to get my rpg fix. talk about old old old school.
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I finally got my hands on the Spore Creature Creator after Eric .5b's recommendation. It's strangely addictive, considering that you can't really do much with it until the full game is released. My creations, if anyone cares, can be found here.
For those with more discerning tastes, my six-year-old's critters are here. (Watching his "Ballooncrab" move around... sitting down, particularly... is hilarious. I wish I could show you what I mean.)
A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government.
- Smacky
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
If you have the editor, you can just open up those critters in it. The description of the creatures is actually encoded in the image file. :)
(You can also make a video and uploaded to YouTube in the editor, but that seems a bit sluggish, lately.)
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Cool creatures, Jake.
Did you make up the Linnaean "scientific names" yourself, or does the program help you in some way?
One day I might need help coming up with the scientific names for certain science-fictional creatures I have in my head, but I know too little of Latin and Greek to avoid making really stupid mistakes. That is, I know a lot of root words, but I don't always now how to string them together properly. Maybe smacky could help me.
"My intellect is gigantic, monstrous, terrifying."
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Stevo: I'll volunteer my services as well, if you want them. I'm a bit rusty, but I have done five years and could read fairly fluently at one point.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
The "scientific" names are totally made up. Mostly based on bits of the names of the two critters I think they're most like, but I mix family and species and phylum, etc. willy-nilly. They all get the "J." prefix because I made 'em, and I'm an egocentric bastard. If Gideon, for some reason, decides he wants pseudoscientific nomenclature for his critters, his will likely all start with "G.", etc.
I pretty much just wanted something to go in that blank field. :)
EDIT: I know virtually nothing about how to string them together, BTW, and I throw in suffixes that'd probably make a professional biologist's head explode (sorry, innominate one). I mix "-us" and "-ii" with reckless abandon, based entirely on what I think looks good.
EDIT2: The blue and yellow bird-like thing is named after Marty Feldman. If you load it up into the creature creator, and get a look at its eyes, you'll see why.
A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government.
- Smacky
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Thanks, Jadagul, I'll tuck that away for future use.
You know, here's one that's puzzling me at the moment, and it's probably more difficult than most, because it combines Greek and non-Greek.
Suppose a guy discovers a large reptile-like animal that he wants to name after the sirrush, which is a Babylonian name. Would that just be a Sirrushosaurus? Or a Sirrushasaurus? Do you need to somehow transliterate the Babyonian name into something that looks more Greek? (Maybe not; there are dinosaurs that seem to just have words from Chinese and other languages tacked onto the Greek, like Dilong paradoxus ["paradoxical emperor-dragon"] and Muttaburrasaurus ["Muttaburra (a place in Australia, probably an Aboriginal word] lizard"].)
Or how about a guy discovers a large bipedal predator with a roughly doglike head and wants to name it "Anubis beast" after the jackal-headed Egyptian god of the dead? Would that be Anubisotherium, Anubisatherium, Anubitherium, or something else?
"My intellect is gigantic, monstrous, terrifying."
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Well, a Texas dinosaur was called "Alamosaurus".
So joke'm if they can't take a fuck.
"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Huh. I don't remember that one.
A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government.
- Smacky
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Harrison Ford has done a lot of work with conservation causes; consequently he has a couple of species of bugs named after him, all of which are Genus harrisonfordi. So, I'm pretty sure that you only really have to latinize the word you want to use, rather than translating it.
I CAUTION YOU / IN DEFEATING ORCS WE MAY FIND THE ONLY VILLAIN LEFT TO FACE IS OUR OWN PREJUDICE--qwantz.com
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Huh.
Apparently "Alamosarus" wasn't named after the Alamo, although it is found in Texas. It was originally found in the Ojo Alamo formation in New Mexico. Wiki is your friend.
"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
regardless, i will remember the alamosaurus.
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36197.html
wow that looks fucking terrible.
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
San Andreas update: When I steal a fire truck and start hosing down pedestrians at the airport with the water cannon, even my wife thinks that's funny.
"Many people are unaware the term "collateral damage" was adopted by the military because the previous euphemism, oopsies, didn't sound professional enough." -- J sub D
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I think I am going to cry.
I didn't realize Halo4 was coming out already.
Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
finally got into call of cthulhu. it's balls hard.
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Dark Corners of the Earth? Or is there a newer (not as buggy, hopefully) version?
A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government.
- Smacky
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
no it's that version. i haven't found it buggy, jsut really fucking hard. (i'm at the run away and bolt the doors section)
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Oh, yeah. I really like how they did the "Innsmouth Look" in that game. The townsfolk are wonderfully creepy and wrong.
A parasite feeding on bacteria growing on fungus growing on cow excrement? The only way the parasitic chain could get any longer would be if the cow excrement worked for the government.
- Smacky
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
i tried it about four times last night before giving up. i only barely got past the section right after you get out the hotel room. the jumping is very clumsy, unfortunately.
also you'd think a private detective would, you know, carry a gun or something!
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Eternal Darkness...very HP Lovecraftish, so I like.
I have a tank full of gentle cuttlefish.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
The Orange Box (finally got the 360). Also, the original Ratchet and Clank.
Both are fun, but Portal is heroin.
Whenever I catch so much as a glimpse of pr0n, I suddenly turn into a sex-crazed barbarian, slashing and clawing my way through whatever and whomever until I find something to put my weiner into. -- Taktix
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
i am finally getting into baldur's gate 2.
interesting. (and hard)
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
More like crack. The high is way too short to be heroin. Just when you get into it, suddenly it's like "game finished? The hell you say!"
I CAUTION YOU / IN DEFEATING ORCS WE MAY FIND THE ONLY VILLAIN LEFT TO FACE IS OUR OWN PREJUDICE--qwantz.com
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
I hit the adamantium golem wall in '05 and haven't gotten back to it yet.
Right now I'm playing a lot of XBox -- Burnout: Revenge with my son, GTA: San Andreas (Grove Street, boyeee) and trying to not suck at Forza Motorsport.
"Many people are unaware the term "collateral damage" was adopted by the military because the previous euphemism, oopsies, didn't sound professional enough." -- J sub D
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
well i haven't hit any golem walls yet, though folks are telling me to dual class as a fighter/wizard. i dunno. magic seems kinda pointless in d&d - you use up your three or four useful spells, then have to run off and rest.
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Dhex: I don't know how it works in the game you're playing, but yes, that's what magic does in the early levels. Then you get to the good stuff, and you can like destroy entire rooms of monsters with a word.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
it seems artificial and a bit cheap in the context. i can see how it also forces you to make difficult decisions.
but i tend to lean towards cheap.
"Yeah, but my character would be all swav and deboner." - Warren
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
It really depends on the version of D&D. Wizards got nasty fast in 2nd edition D&D. My little party in the old Pool of Radiance game was anchored by the unholy evil of two half-elf fighter/mage/clerics, and once they got fireball and lightning, whoah nelly, everything in my path died. (Never played 3rd Ed or any CRPG based on it.)
A friend of mine is running a D&D 4th edition game, and one of the new edition's premises is that low-level wizards are no longer creatures of "fire off your spell for the day, then run like Hell/beat on the weaker things with your staff." You can always fire off magic missile once per round, at least. (IIRC - haven't gotten to that part of the rules, yet.) It's a rather CRPG-friendly premise, so I expect to see one for the new edition out soon...
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Think of them as a combination of artillery and sniper. About the time your fighters are getting feats like Greater Cleave, you can use your wizard-types to set up large numbers of enemies to be knocked down like bowling pins. Toss a fireball or two deep among the enemy; carve them up with Magic Missile, and then watch a fighter turn an attack of opportunity into a kill-crazy rampage.
"Many people are unaware the term "collateral damage" was adopted by the military because the previous euphemism, oopsies, didn't sound professional enough." -- J sub D
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Nethack, drawing much from D&D, has also dealt with the same wizard issue for a long time, and that has the added issue that you're not a member of a party, so you don't have fighters to hide behind. It's mostly "fire off a couple piddling Force Bolts, then throw darts and run away". However, once you get something like Fireball or Cone of Cold...to say nothing of Finger of Death! Playing a wizard is actually really good practice in keeping low-level characters alive, since you *know* you can't just keep pressing the attack button until things die.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
3 words:
Melf's Minute Meteors
The only spell (i think) that can work on golems, and damn effective too.
Also, uber the hell out on your best tank with shit like Bless/Haste/etc (and make sure you equip something like a +3 weapon, I think Minsc can get something really early that's 2-handed and +3), funnel the golem(s) (if you can), and let the mages fling those meteors.
Oh, and I really suggest using at least 2 mages if you know there's an adamantium golem to at least have enough castings of MMM to make a dent on the golem.
I have a tank full of gentle cuttlefish.
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
Now that Officer Frank Tenpenny is out of the way, I may have to learn those words.
Of course, now I'm gonna get all confused after playing D&D 3.x-based games for so long.
"Many people are unaware the term "collateral damage" was adopted by the military because the previous euphemism, oopsies, didn't sound professional enough." -- J sub D
Re: What Video Games Are You Playing?
It's been years, but I don't recall any problems with golems. Are they in the Throne of Blood expansion, because I kinda lost interest around that point and let it go.
"But if it makes you feel better, I would also enjoy a world in which there are men, women, transsexuals, genderqueer folk, etc. who all enjoy pelican role-play." - JD
"Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
Re: What Video Games Are You