Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - Fellfrosch

Pages: 1 ... 21 22 [23]
331
Everything Else / A man child
« on: October 28, 2002, 01:41:26 PM »
Some of you may have heard that my wife and I are going to have another baby in April. We just had an ultrasound this morning and discovered that said child will be a boy! Just thought I'd let you all know.

332
Everything Else / The Poll
« on: October 13, 2002, 04:21:58 PM »
Whoever's cheating on the poll (I have my suspicion of who it is) knock it off. The poll is designed to limit your votes to once per person--there are obvious and easy ways to circumvent that, but I was hoping you'd all be honest enough not to do it. I'd prefer that our crew be selected by everybody rather than by one cheater.

333
Video Games / Spriggan...
« on: October 07, 2002, 02:42:53 PM »
Fire Warrior is a video game. Why did it need to be moved to tabletop?

334
Video Games / Lionheart
« on: September 27, 2002, 07:27:57 PM »
Lionheart is Black Isle's alternate history fantasy RPG, using the Fallout character system and a new graphical engine from Reflexive Entertainment. I've been following it for a while, but recently happened onto a cache of incredible interviews and, best of all, a fascinating alternate timeline.

http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/371/371199p1.html

A lot of the initial media coverage for Lionheart called it another Arcanum, "dwarves-with-guns" kind of game, but it's turning out to be remarkably different now that we get to see more details. I'm very excited.

335
Video Games / Requiem
« on: September 23, 2002, 03:39:12 PM »
Even though I haven't played Diablo 2 in ages, I still log in every now and then to keep my acocunt active and take a look around. It would appear, however, that I waited too long this time--I logged in yesterday and my characters had all expired. Most of them are free to go, and will not be missed, but one of them was special. One of them was more than just a character. I'm afraid I must with heavy heart announce the passing of Wychfire, veteran tankazon.

Wychfire was a tankazon who began life so early in the game's release that tankazon wasn't even a word yet--she was the first, and a glorious pioneer. She could stand toe to toe with the toughest bad guys in the game and whack them in the face for hours, never taking any damage as she slowly wore them down to zero life. She was something of a matriarch for all of our other characters, having existed for far longer than any of them. She was a special woman, and she will be sorely missed.

Please observe a moment of silence.

336
Role-Playing Games / Tracy Hickman's rant
« on: September 13, 2002, 03:55:31 PM »
Apparently, the recent issue of Dragon magazine contained a sealed section for "Mature Audiences Only," probably as a prelude to the release of "The Book of Vile Darkness." The sealed section contains rules for some pretty vile necromancy and some overtly sexual necrophilia, among other things. Tracy Hickman goes off on the subject very emotionally, which you can read here: http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24200

There are some of his points that I don't agree with (for instance, I think the Comic Book Code did more harm than good), but he also makes some undeniable and prescient points. So I ask--is there a way to include evil in your games without going over the top? Is it better to stay, as Hickman suggests, on the squeaky-clean, family-friendly side of the hobby, or is there something to be gained from a darker, more serious game? When does it become too much?

337
Video Games / America's Army
« on: September 09, 2002, 06:35:48 PM »
I finally downloaded this game (since I got sick sick of waiting for them to mail it out), and it's pretty interesting. For one thing, you have to go through a lot of Basic Training before they'll even let you play a real map--and the training comes complete with a drill sergeant, though he doesn't yell at you as much as you would expect.

The thing I like about the game is that it's stupidly hard to actually hit anything--not only does kickback and walking and even breathing move your weapon around (thus ruining your aim), but there are loads of built in modifiers that reduce your accuracy (whether you're standing or crouched or prone, whether you have the sight up, how fast you're moving, etc). It seems dumb to like a game because the guns are innacurate, but that's just a balancing factor that contributes to the game's real point--you have to work as a team to get anything done.

You see, almost every shooter out there suffers from the Teen Wolf syndrome: a single powerhouse player can win the game by himself, running and jumping and shooting with amazing accuracy while his teammates stand back and hope they get a chance to do something. In America's Army I have yet to see this happen, and I'm starting to doubt that it could--the game highly favors a team that can coordinate and strategize. Very cool.

I'm almost out of Basic Training and ready to try a real map. I'll tell you what happens.

338
Video Games / Greek Game Ban
« on: September 06, 2002, 01:53:37 PM »
I'm kind of surprised that no one has reacted to my news post on the game ban in Greece. Despite my expression of disbelief, the news is very real--if you don't trust gamespot, the same story is running on msnbc.com.

So what do you think of this? If you live in Greece, you can be fined tens of thousands of dollars just for owning a computer game-regardless of whether you play it or not. If you visit Greece as a tourist and take along your gameboy, you could go to jail. Sure, those of us who neither live in nor visit Greece have very little to fear, but it's a frightening precedent in two ways--first, it's a sign that Greece could enact even more totalitarian laws in the future, and second, there's a possibility that similar laws could spread to other countries.

What do you guys think of this?

339
CCGs / Rumors
« on: August 28, 2002, 02:32:01 PM »
For those interested, here are some of the more interesting rumors about the upcoming Magic Block (ie, the next three sets).

The names are verified: Onslaught, Legions, and Scourge (in that order).

The Cycling mechanic will be back, with the same name and same effect.

The main new mechanic (which has been pretty firmly verified) is one called Morph, which lets you play a creature face down (as a token, basically) as a 2/2 for 3 mana. None of the rumors I've read mention color, so I'm assuming that the 2/2 creature is colorless. Then, at any time, you can pay the Morph cost for a facedown creature and flip it over; it then becomes a real creature. One example I've seen is the Blazing Firecat, which Morphs for two red mana into a 7/1 creature. I don't know for sure if you can play the creatures straight from your hand, or if you have to bring them out unmorphed and then morph them. Either way, it sounds like a very interesting mechanic.

The second new mechanic is one that has not been fully explained or confirmed. It's called Tribal, and has a coat-of-arms kind of effect (ie, Tribal creatures get bigger when similar creatures are in play). This is a lot like the old Plague Rats ability, which I always loved, so I'd like to see this rumor turn out to be true.

The final rumor is a weird one, but one I find to be extremely intriguing. You know how in Odyssey Block the colors were unbalanced from set to set? In Onslaught Block the colors will be even, but the spell types will be unbalanced: Legions allegedly contains nothing but creature spells, and Scourge will have no creatures at all. This, of course, is still an unproven rumor, but it's very interesting.

All in all, I'm think it sounds like an interesting environment. The cycling in particular will interact well with Threshhold and Odyssey Block. What are your thoughts?

Pages: 1 ... 21 22 [23]