Axeldeath

It's nice to have a developer that cares about their storytelling and writing like Bioware does, even way back in the Baldur's Gate days of Bioware one of my favourite things about the game was the inter-party dialogue and the awesome character creation (how you could be chaotic evil, neutral evil, true neutral etc.) Mass Effect is one of the only games that does "cinematic" right, in other games it's clear the developers have no idea how to use cutscenes and camera angles.

Does not compute. Fallout 2 was Mad Max: The video game, nuclear apocalypse is just as generic as Tolkien fantasy, if not more so. --- My favourite RPGs include- Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, Ultima VII, Ultima Underworld: Stygian Abyss, Arx Fatalis, Deus Ex, Human Revolution, Fallout: New Vegas, Oblivion, Daggerfall, Skyrim, Gothic and Neverwinter Nights.

What? I don't even... I said what an RPG was above, I didn't think anyone would actually think being linear stopped it being an RPG. In that case all tabletop RPGs (the original RPGs) are no longer RPGs then, they had no side-quests or open worlds. They followed a linear narrative created by the players guided by the rulebook. I know this is a conversation about FPS games but that was too silly to not reply to.

I didn't actually find Insanity too difficult. Then Scions. Then Praetorians.

What's that? The General Chat has become the Random thread again? WELL I NEVER.

Singing the Snake Eater theme chorus for the 10000th time today. This but whistling the Mass Effect 2 nightclub music.

I notice a running theme in that post.

WELL THAT WAS A NICE INTRODUCTION. NOW I SORT OF DON'T WANT TO WIN.

See, this is why you need to dye it purple Blighty.

So in other words a schizophrenia machine.

BANNED FOR NOT BEING ONLINE FOR 9 DAYS!

All a game has to do, to be an RPG is replace player skill with avatar skill. When I shoot someone in Fallout: NV the game will calculate whether my shot will hit or not hit depending on my guns skill, that's an RPG. When I frag someone in Quake DM that's not an RPG, because it was all my skill rather than the game calculating if I would kill him or not depending on whether my level was high enough. Nearly every modern RPG is a hybrid of multiple genres, only turn-based games can truly be RPGs, and only if they rely on D&D style mechanics because otherwise they do require a level of player skill. Having "RPG elements" just means to give the player the feeling of progression to keep the player playing the game, note- this means the game still rests entirely on player skill, so games like Human Revolution and Fallout don't have RPG elements, they are RPG hybrids. You see these RPG elements in most modern multiplayer shooters like COD and BF in an attempt to keep the player playing long after they would have stopped from sheer boredom (it's late but I'll just unlock ooooone more gun, then I'll go to bed), it's just another lazy skinner-box technique designed to rake in DLC sales and keep servers alive rather than making the game fun and replayable. But anyway, an FPS is just shooting from the perpective of the character you're controlling. No matter if it's an RPG, has "RPG elements" etc. etc.

D7vS4z6ngQo Too obvious -edit- Nope, found the perfect one. p8nbQKaJkRw

Dark times indeed.

Well that episode was filler.

These are the latest circulating rumours, I believe IGN started them. I've also seen a lot of rumours regarding MS wanting to compete with the Wii U rather than the PC and the next Playstation, focusing on their Kinect tech to draw in the casual gimmick-loving crowd. Regarding the tech, with a HD6670 there'll be DX11 etc. but it's so not next-gen, by the time it comes out (I estimate 2013) PC tech will be so far ahead of it, as it's already beating the rumoured specs easily. And I believe there's a reason for this, if the specs really are going to be that low then it's quite likely the new Xbox will try and contend with the Wii, offering prettier graphics while still at a low price point (a HD6670 is only about $80.00... retail) to draw in both frat boys and stay-at-home mothers at the same time. Going a bit off-topic though, I just wanted to reply to that. If any more rumours come in that are a bit more concrete I'll probably start a new thread regarding it. --- OT: My perfect game would have to be an immersive sim in the style of Deus Ex and the Thief games except with a larger focus on emergent story-telling and a rich atmosphere, that isn't full of scripted events. Rather, it would say "here's your objective, here's a fuckload of tools, now figure out how to get there". It would also have an RPG system like Deus Ex, where if you weren't skilled enough in a particular area- you sucked at it, for example, in Deus Ex if you were untrained in sniping your aim would be as steady as a drunk, but put points into sniping and you could become an expert marksman. I believe RPG elements like those really increase immersion, and it makes you feel as if you're actually improving rather than just getting "+8% chance of critical hit" for levelling up your strength. Level design would either be hub based with linear sections in the vein of Human Revolution, or levels that are open and allow multiple playstyles to succeed found in games like Thief II and the original Deus Ex. -edit- Also, factions. I can't believe how awesome the inclusion of factions that actually interact with each other is, the only games I've played that have done this believably is S.T.A.L.K.E.R series. It makes the world feel so alive and it's so awesome that this stuff happens dynamically. Oftentimes my immersion is shattered because it's always me that's causing everything to happen, especially in games like Call of Duty and BF3 where I can stand around for 5 minutes then suddenly a building will explode because I walked towards my objective. Half Life 2 semi-solves this by having things triggered ahead of and behind you rather than everything obviously being triggered by you. But when it all happens dynamically it's just so much better. It also adds a layer of choice and consequence into the game, I could risk my life/medkits/vodka/diet sausages and help those stalkers, or I could sit back and wait for the battle to end so I can loot everyone's corpse but that means the stalkers become a bit more hostile towards me and I might not get their help later on in the game during a sticky situation. -edit 2- Maybe you'd like to give Nuclear Dawn a go? It's a multiplayer FPS/RTS hybrid that's very rewarding once you learn the game. One layer is the commander who's given a traditional RTS view of the battle and can build various building to attack/defend and collect resources. While all the while aiding other players on the server who are all playing it as as class-based FPS who's main goal is to capture points and attack the enemy base.

-edit- Oh man that is awesome. NEEDS MORE PAGES!

I feel like this comment is aimed at me.

Well it's rumoured that the Xbox 720 will only be getting a Radeon HD6670. Lol.

110 square pixels of pure transparency does not live up to GALO SENGEN!!1!1! 5/10 I am disappoint.

I wouldn't call that a descent into madness, I mean Just got to hope the developers get their act together, it's hard to feel sorry for them after the fiasco they caused by not thinking at all. Has there been any word about whether this is coming to PC? What with Epic being the developers.