Cool_Freaker

I would say it's almost impossible to get any version of Age 3 unless you knew someone in Ensemble studios who was very naughty and somehow stole an unfinished copy which would probably be spread all over their harddrives.

He's referring to Age of Mythology. Or just by the sound of He's talking about Age of Empires II: The Conquerors - as that was an improvement in the expansion as compared to Age of Kings. Yep, AoC was definitely one of the best games I have played. I believe in terms of RTS though, the Blizzard games: StarCraft and Warcraft III have been out doing Age of Empires in the way of player numbers. The newest patch is rather old - I like Teutons, always have and always will, unless they seriously screw them over in an unlikely event of a new game patch.

I don't know, I think it would be a very bad move by Valve to shut down 1.6. Would they be expecting everyone to move to Source or CZ? I know CZ is not worth the money, and my computer can't play Source... I guess they may stop updating it and support for it, but to remove it from Steam would be a rather bad idea considering how many people still play. It would still need many more years before it could be considered an option, I believe. As for AoEIII, some of the newer rumours floating around are: * 4 names on Indian Tribes: Sioux, Comanche, Cherokee and Iroquois. * Indian Tribes work the following way. You can take the time to ally with a tribe, and then you can get a few benefits. You can get unique units, unique weapons (don't ask how this will work, possibly armory techs?) and unique abilities from the natives. The abilities will somewhat be like the GP's from AoM (AoT), and there is one example of it. You can push back the Fog of War if you ally yourself with indians. Those can be used once in a while (so not only once, and possibly you don't have to pay for it). * The 3 resources are Food, Wood and Money (old news) and resources are right in your bank once you gather them. (old news as well) * As your Home City levels up, the city will grow and with more people in the streets etc. (cosmic changes), but also once you gain a level, you can get new units, new upgrades and new abilities. Your Home City will also provide economic bonuses to the colonised land, and it will ship you troops and goods. You can also get historic buildings, which give you advantages (nothing more specific). Home Cities will have a level cap (online) and while matchmaking, you are channeled to people of your own strength. But in the Gaming section there's whole threads, I think most of the information is close to being accurate. If you want to read for yourself try reading these interviews: http://www.totalvideogames.com/pages/articarticle_id=7205 http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/age-of-empires-iii/582928p1.html

Actually it's a GF (Girl Friend haha - nah Guardian Force) in FFVIII. I agree though, Ifrit looks best in FFVIII with him slaming the huge firebally down using both hands clasped together. Didn't like how they replaced Ramuh with Quetzacolt though. (it looked like a big faceless ghost thing).

Looks fine on my 17" CRT Screen... but I do have to say it's really weird looking at text like that after being used to it being so... pixelly All the bolded text looks a bit blurred though, and on the desktop, it makes all the icons look reallllllyyy bad since the text underneath is so nice

Yeah I liked FFIX's card game. It was easy to understand, and I could win As for Triple Triad in FFVII, well, there was all the crazy stuff, like cards flippin' crazy and then somehow this guy comes in and pwns the whole screen with one card and flips half of yours.... I did get the hang of it at one stage, but I got pissed off coz I couldn't get one of the Character cards coz it was just so damn hard to beat.

Yeah, it was fun, but felt really linear. Character stats development was kind of *pre-determined* from the beginning... Characters weren't the most enthralling just in personality themselves... Blitzball wasn't really that great... But I still bought it, played it, and loved it.

Same. The Sphere system (even the advanced), seemed a bit restrictive to me. The Junction system was too complex. I really liked Materia from FFVII though. My fave FF is IX also, though all my friends would disagree. It's great how it's kinda back to the old school style. I don't see how people have such a problem with the "chibi" characters -> big heads/small body. I thought it was kinda cute. I guess gaining abilities through weapons was really quite simple...

Lots of RM Huns freaks, but as Eruntalon said: It's absolutely true. They're basically good for your knight rush at Castle, and good for flushing also. But if you want to Imp boom they're not so great. I didn't find their special unit anything great though? Good vs buildings, but only useful early on in Castle age. However, because so many people use Huns non stop it has taken away from the variety of RM games, not so much because it's over powered, rather it's overused.

They shouldn't really be directly compared, considering the console/generation difference.I never had much of a liking for FFVIII, I can never get myself into it for some reason. Also, I found, once you're stuck, you're stuck, as monsters/bosses level up as you do, so you can't just go away and train if you can't win... *got stuck on Cerb*FFX's sphere system, as opposed to FFVIII's junction system is a helluva lot simpler to use and understand. I'm not a stats freak, and nitpicky things like junction was just not for me. I do have to say, though, I didn't like how in FFX the characters were "assigned" different roles from the outset -> Wakka kills flying stuff, Auron kills armoured stuff, Tidus kills fast stuff, Rikku is useless etc :DI liked Eyes on Me from FFVIII though...

I liked Rinoa. She seemed like the most "real" character, and certainly is more real than a lot of other FF Female leads. To me the other characters seemed a bit - superficial? That's the feeling I got from Zell, Irvine and Selphie anyway. Quistis was good - she seemed to have an understanding of SeeD & the world, and Squall was boring.Edea was just... weird

There was no need for the full quote there *Thinks it was a cheap grab for hosting points* Ah well! But since the game is focussed on America, I thought they decided to drop the Discovery thing. Yeah I've been waiting years for this, AoM was a big disappointment for me, I pre-ordered it and got it on launch, but it didn't hold my interest long.

It's fun initially, but so many people just user boomer with perfect aim, that there's really no variety anymore. Every time I just end up getting owned by some boomer in a hole that uses SS then dual with thor. It's especially bad for me, as I'm on double metal axe, meaning I'm just unable to go into the Beginner Servers, and in the Advanced ones, I'm always kicked for no reason other than level or the other team is stacked with wands and battle axes - against a team of gold/silver/metal axes. Basically it was rare to get any sort of a good/fair game.

It's quite obvious he's playing Counter-Strike 1.6Firstly, I believe [CD] is for the HL Mods, or more specifically Counter-StrikeSecondly, he actually says "goone into cs1.6"podbicanin do you have custom skins or some sort of mod installed? Check those things. I'm not sure if it effects CD. Also, make sure no-one has been screwing around with your computer and has installed hacks without you knowing

I believe they changed it, and they're simply naming it Age of Empires 3, not Age of Discovery. Anyway, there's an interview with the AoE3 creators at Gamespy: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/age-of-empires-iii/582928p1.html Main points from the interview: * There will be familiar units like pikemen, crossbowmen, plus a variety of new and more powerful units like musketeers, cannons, and tall ships. * This time period allows us to show some pretty spectacular scenes: from the virgin forests of the Pacific Northwest, to Mayan cities in Yucatan rain forests, to a volley of cannons attempting to stop a charge of grenadiers. * Mortars, dragoons, frigates, pikemen, culverins, grenadiers -- they're all part of the colonial age. * In Age of Kings and Age of Mythology, large engines like catapults were strictly used for siege. In Age of Empires III, artillery move out onto the battlefield as a major arm of the military. In fact, light artillery is what you use to break up those lines of musketeers! * The gameplay will be a little richer and more varied in Age of Empires III because players will have an unprecedented amount of control in determining the strengths of their civilization. * Imagine that you have two tech trees: one that you pursue every game as a course of developing your colony, and another tech tree back "home" in Europe. The techs you get in Europe persist throughout multiple games. For example, you don't start the game with the ability to build docks. You must unlock that ability in the home city. Once you do, you can start building docks that game and every additional game you play with that home city. But you don't have to choose to get docks, and in fact your human and computer opponents are likely to pick an entirely different path of upgrades. * Units realistically bounce off of rooftops, roll on the ground, fall over the cliff, and float away in the water.

I really doubt Call of Duty has that much realism in it. To me it seems more "arcadey" World War II FPS. It definitely has a realistic atmosphere, in Single player, with the way the AI works with you, and the feeling you're part of something *bigger*. However, all the events are scripted, and physics in-game are not the most realistic. If you really want a take on a more "real" WWII FPS, I would suggest a more strategy orientated game such as Hidden & Dangerous II. It requires a lot of planning, and I would say it's akin to Rainbow 6.

Zero Hour isn't too bad, certainly I'd say it's better than the expansions you could get for Red Alert 1, and Command & Conquer Original ( I saw Covert Ops? in Target for $2). They only added some new missions, which was kind of boring.It's much better for multiplayer. LAN Generals, you must have Zero Hour, as having the different generals and their specialty really helps to mix things up and makes it interesting. In the single player sense, there's some new units and new campaigns, hell it's not the best expansion pack ever, but if you love Generals I'd recommend it...

Not necessarily, there are a lot of pro DM players too. It does have less variation than say an RM game, but there is certainly strategy there. Especially if you don't manage to kill your opponent(s) quickly, the game gets drawn out, and it's a huge grab for resources, granted you don't play one of the custom maps with gold mines/trees/stone everywhere.

Seems like we have similar tastes in anime! All of them are in my list also You got Naruto twice though - as great as it is I don't know whether it needs a double mention I'm suprised how few people have actually seen Melody of Oblivion though, it's quite interesting, and apparantly has a lot of symbolism. I guess you could pick up on the monsters etc and what they represent... Very true. And some people just can't like something other people like, as they need to be *different/cool*, which is rubbish. But do the people around your school like normal cartoons, and are just discriminating against anime? If they just dislike cartoons in general, it's understandable. I know people who are just not inclined that way, but if the only reason they dislike anime is because of big eyes it's just stupid.

Sorry mate, but what are you on about? Some news about the next C&C using the HL2 engine is it? Or simply a wrong post in the wrong topic? *I know I do it sometimes*

Nicely done indeed. However I found when the hue changes to the greyish colour, it seems to highlight the way the render was cut out, and it looks a bit rough. If you could smooth the edges a little and somewhat *blend* it, I reckon it'd be even better. Also the text blends so well, but for the kind of old/knight/medieval feel is perhaps to ghetto-ish? Anyway, just my two cents. I couldn't get a nice animation like that in a million years, I love it.

Ok, I haven't got it yet... is it worth it for the single player? Do they add a nice big campaign for us? I loved the single player aspect, multiplayer is fun too, but for me, CoD is about single player... The great thing about CoD is it has relatively low system requirements, and is still pretty damn fun. The atmosphere in game is really good, as you all probably know, because it feels as if you're fighting "among" soldiers, rather than being a solo commando. That's what turned me off many FPS games, it's the "you're a lone commando trying to save the world who kills countless enemies". Honestly, I get scared I always like to play more when there's an AI ally computer who goes in first and takes the bullets - and for that reason, my least favourite missions in CoD have to be the Mansion one and the Dam mission... too much solo work.

Don't know whether it's true or not... Driver wasn't like GTA to start with, the first game was just a crim driving game, where it was just about escaping the cops and watching your car fly around when you do stunts - I used to play it so much with my friend, we had a ball watching the Cop cars fly over in San Francisco and flip. Driver 2 has getting out of the car and guns I believe, but you have to remember, that was while GTA was still in the 2D stage... Of course GTA3 and Vice City came out before DRIV3R, but seeing the series had already established itself, I don't see it being a problem, especially when Driver 2 was the first to explore the 3D crim sim aspect of it. However, True Crime Streets of LA could be another one in trouble? That was certianly a *spinoff* the GTA series... Anyway, Driver has been declining since the first, it's probably a good thing they don't continue with it.

Not sure on actual unit count, bit the variety isn't too bad, and there's certainly many upgrades you can research for them too. Base building is important, especially establishing forward bases etc for gold mines. Bit similar to StarCraft I guess, where it was always important to get your second Mineral source. The races are different, that's for sure, but perhaps not *quite* as varied as StarCraft. In my opinion it's because they pretty much all have the basic classes - Basic soldier, *Advanced* Soldier, Seige, Basic Flying and Heavy Flying - note this is VERY generalized. Obviously with each race these units are very different, although they can be loosely grouped into those categories... Is StarCraft 2 going to be based on the Age3 engine? That's news to me... wow

Wow, you have the exact same problem, and reason for wanting to play as I do I used to play for hours on end vs the computer, not in Campaign mode... but once I upgraded to XP it doesn't want to work anymore. I tried using that compatability emulation thing, doesn't seem to work for me either. So I just had to make the move to more recent C&C Games