What art thou playing milord? Ye Olde Thread 3.0

[Brys]

Just found it for much cheaper than before - 1 used at amazon for £25. I'm very tempted, despite already having a lot of games to play that I already own.

[Max the Mostly Mediocre]

I tried out one of the Mechwarrior games on PS1 (I think, might have been PS2). Wasn't really into it. I don't know how they compare to the PC games though.

They're completely different. Moreover, the latest MW, MW4: Mercs, is soon to be released for free. Yes, legally.

Well, 'soon'. It's been a month since the announcement, and nothing yet. Of course, it's a fan group that's been authorized to release it, so that's not unreasonable.

And a hearty 'hell yeah' behind Vampire: Bloodlines, Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate I&II, Fallout 1&2, and Total War.

If you have a certain tolerance for eyesore graphics and getting your ass handed to you, X-Com and Jagged Alliance 2 are turn based squad strategy titles worth checking out.

[Mackaxx]

Monkey Island II is also easily one of the most brilliant single games ever made. I really hope they do a remake of it, but because of its much larger size I suspect it will take longer and they'll probably charge more for it. But hell, I'd pay £20 for it. It's that good.

The ending is also particularly mental and was disowned in later iterations of the series.

[Renasko]

I've been messing around with the 'Pro' thing in FIFA '09, which somehow didn't seem that great until now. I think I only gave it one or two tries before, but I'm really loving it now. Great, fun aspect on the game. I'm mainly just playing it to get back to my best. What with FIFA '10 coming out soon and all. Will need to be ready for some challenges from friends. :)

[Zelgrath]

This is the latest from the mech 4 guys,

Well folks its certainly time for an update regarding the the FREE release of Mechwarrior4 recently announced. I figured it would be worth mentioning considering this is the weekend of GENCON 2009 where all of the major players in the Mechwarrior and BattleTech world are expected to converge on Indianapolis this weekend. We have been receiving a wealth of requests for information regarding this release from gamers both young and old. As a game fan community development site such as MekTek, receiving such honor to release a million dollar product developed by Microsoft may be one thing but delivering on this release successfully is another. Currently, MekTek is working around the clock on pretty much everything in preparation for this free release. There will be a second media blitz when the release is ready as both MekTek and the release partners want to ensure the word travels far and wide regarding the official release. Also expect to see more info regarding partner developments around this time on BattleTech.com.

The reason we did not re-package the ISOs of Mechwarrior4 and release the game as is right after the release of the announcement is because we simply were not prepared. The news and announcement of the FREE release happened very quickly and was dropped in our lap almost as quickly as it was dropped in yours. Since the announcement, we have been diligently preparing for the release of Mechwarrior4 which has all of the digital protection mechanisms removed. Along with this development we have also been working on our MekMatch software. For those of you not familiar, MekMatch is a reverse engineered protocol developed for match making services in Mechwarrior4 by MekTek. This service was developed after Microsoft terminated the Zonematch service which officially supported Mechwarrior4 multiplayer. Our MekMatch software needed a serious overhaul to handle the amount of traffic we expect on our servers when the game is released. MekTek also plans to include MekPak3.1 with the free release of Mechwarrior4 which includes an additional 100+ new battlemechs, dozens of new weapons, maps, and other content developed by MekTek. The distribution will come as a single file self-installable which will be initially downloadable via torrent trackers and later provided in multi part volumes, ISO. Finally, MekTek is also releasing a new application which has been in development since this announcement which provides the community with the latest patches and software from MekTek. This software will greatly simplify the patching process of Mechwarrior4 and allow MekTek to push updates, such as our MekPak4, to the Mechwarrior4 community much easier than in the past.

The unfortunate aspect of all this great news is that all of these new developments could have been ironed out before the announcement but they were not. Our partners felt an initial announcement was necessary and so did we. We plan to release Mechwarrior4 for FREE when developments are completed and considered stable. We are also waiting on legal paper work from lawyers and as anyone out there that has worked in the professional industry knows, something of this magnitude takes time on all fronts. MekTek is not receiving any financial support from the partners regarding this release and obviously no one can quit their daytime job to get the job done faster either. The release has entered beta status and will be delivered to the world very shortly. MekTek is supported through donations from our community and thus far we have received 50% of our goal to cover server infrastructure costs. We hope the community will continue to support us during this very busy time to ensure we have the best possible hardware in place for this release.

Thanks for supporting us folks, while we work hard on something new and shiny, for everyone, for FREE!

[cjfshaw]

MW3 was actually my favorite, it was what got me into MW series. I loved picking a Daishi or a Thor and just loading them up with PPCs and oneshotting other mechs. Is this free release for mercs also including the expansions? (black knight or whatever it was called)

[Werthead]

The ending is also particularly mental and was disowned in later iterations of the series.

The problem with the ending is that Ron Gilbert is the only person who knows what was going to happen next. And he left LucasArts before development could start on the planned Monkey Island III. Curse gives an explanation which actually seems reasonably logical (and Gilbert seems to be fine with it) and extrapolates the the story nicely, so that's hardly it being 'disowned'. In fact, the explanation given in Curse is itself backed up and foreshadowed by dialogue and events in MI2, so I've got a strong suspicion it was close to what was being planned on all along.

What is interesting is that there is actually a gap in the story between MI2 and Curse (which notably is not called 'MI3'), and lots of people on Ron Gilbert's blog have suggested he could actually use that in a hypothetical-and-will-probably-never-happen 'proper' MI3 to fill in the gap, since Curse itself is so popular that people don't want it rendered non-canon (Escape they apparently can live with being dumped, but since it bridges Curse and Tales, which Gilbert is working on, that too is apparently still canon).

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Ok, at the behest of those on this board I am trying Baldur's Gate again. The first one. And I just finished chapter 2, and am beginning to lose interest--about the same place I lost interest before. I'm a fighter around level 3 or 4. I read somewhere I should dual class as a mage but the rules in this game are so weird, strict, sometimes obscure, and complicated I don't have the urge to learn them. Ultimately does it matter if I double class or not?

And if I let some of the annoying characters die, like Khalid get murdered, will Jaheira stay with me or will she leave? I'd like a better fighter in his place.

I didn't download the extra talking mod this time and am finding it more tolerable without being interrupted by all the extra nonsense.

The game is okay, but complicated. Is there a point in dual classing? What are the benefits of being once a fighter, then at level 4 changing to a mage? I can't say the mages are all that great anyway. They run out of magic too quick.

Why do I run into random dudes in the woods who say stuff and walk away? What's the point to that?

[Zelgrath]

I'm pretty sure that people won't leave if you let their partner get killed. I always used to reload or resurect people myself though. Be careful with companion alignments. Evil and good companions will occasionaly start killing each other.

Are you looking at the one that lets you stop leveling as a figher and start as a mage or the one that lets you advance two classes at the same time where your xp is divided between the classes equaly? If you don't want to play a wizard then don't bother. They are really weak in low levels anyway. Later on wizards become vitual gods but that's mostly in BG2. The main thing they are used for is crowd control. Take spells like sleep and you can disable your enemies for several rounds of combat while your party kills them.

There's a lot of random stuff in the different areas. Some of them are quests but mostly it's just stuff to do or maybe you get some useful information.