Recent content by Oeolycus

These re-reviews all run like embarrassing advertisements for the game. Sad days.

Interacting with NPCs in Fallout is like arguing on the internets!

I remember Scotland Yard. I've heard that Fury of Dracula makes good use of the deduction mechanics in SY and adds in a great theme, combat, and other interactivity.

Learn to operate your gun. 7/10 (as long as you don't stand near me)

Scrabble is about the only game out of the bunch that I can get my girl friend to play, but I dislike having to play small words for big points and not looking for the biggest and best words. Also, knowing 4 languages is a huge burden as I have way more to process before I find the right word...

If you misspell canon, you deserve to be made fun of: Cannonical: boom goes the nuke. (similar journalistic talent) Cannonical, as in, put all the previous elements into the cannon and blow it to kingdom come.

I'm increasingly finding myself less and less attracted to PC gaming. I've started playing board games with my extended family and friends. I've gravitated to board games for their replay value, strong well-developed mechanics, and the community feel. We mostly play the top end stuff on BGG...

PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS: Irrelevant. Irrelevant. Irrelevant and true. Huh? Irrelevant--no way of telling until it's too late. And who picks a handle like Lepidus? He's certainly one of the least dignified of third wheels in history. At least Crassus found death in battle (even if it...

Why? If I made a flow chart of each games' areas and quests, I think we'd see multiple paths to many branched quests in each. Hands down, Fallout wins--but it's NOT because its multi-linear, non-linear, or anything else. Listen, the reason I coined the term (if I did) was because...

How do you read books or see movies? Do those ever satisfy? EDIT: Also, this is still linear. You just headed on a different line. I'm sure you can find an example where you can't do something you think you should. For instance, in FO2, you can't directly accuse the brothers of messing with...

I agree that the schema of the "main quest" is not the "main quest" is a great part of Fallout 1 & 2. My argument was that it was poor story-writing. Necessary to get the PC to interact with the world? Very likely, but that's what the OP's essay is on--writing from design challenges. Now, I...

RE: BN Good example with the term "democracy" and its vague definition. Let me present another: republic. For those who don't know, it's from the Latin res publica, or "the public thing (or affair)." Talk about vague! I can just see the wealthy Roman families coming up with that term when they...

failout wrote: This quotation is from the wikipedia entry and refers to this website, in which the author makes two arguments: and secondly, By token he means, a character like Ms. Scarlet from the board game Clue. I think the author's original words are a much better explanation than...

I would then argue that almost no single-player CRPG upholds the base definition of what an RPG is. Before Fallout, before CRPGs, before DnD, RPGs were collaborative and social. Even on my top ten RPGs I find no game in which I collaborate to bring about a story. All CRPGs are already written...

Wow, great discussion. I agree RPG is a misnomer. Roleplaying started as a social activity, but for the most part, CRPGs are single player activities. CRPGs, therefore, are inaccurate copies of the original experience of roleplaying (DnD or otherwise). This is similar to "comic book" movies...