Tentacled Monkey

So I started playing Bethseda Software's latest title, Fallout 3, yesterday. This game is absolutely awesome. Imagine if you played the original Fallout combined with the latest Half Life. It is amazing, simply stated and bold, but no less true.

The game play is ideally suited to PCs, thankfully! In my opinion Bethseda screwed themselves with Oblivion IV by having an almost retarded key mapping, making it almost impossible to play. They definitely learned from their mistakes with this release. Playing Fallout 3 is a treat the majority of the controls center around the gamers faithful 'WASD' without making any actions feel awkward.

The graphics are amazing, you get pulled into this world of destruction and hopeless endurance easily. You can run anywhere, there are no load times or zone changes except when you enter a building. I played yesterday for about 12 or more hours and now sit at level 5.

Two words of warning thoguh, if you don't have the power to push this game things in the distance will not appear until you get within a set distance of them, unfortunately this refers to bad guys as well. The other item worth noting is that you can get really lost really fast, especially early on.

Other than that, possibly the best game I have ever played, definitely the best this year. Hands down.

Vampire
So I started playing the old Vampire the Masquerade with some friends of mine here in the last several months. Its been nice, but I made one greivous error in judgement when creating my character. I assumed the others in the group would have created a fighter type ass-kicking vamp and they did, so I created a heavily socialized Follower of Set. Granted I was allowed to be at 7th generation but let's face it Serpentis is not exactly known for its combat effectiveness.

So far we have had run-ins with a few prot-zombies and some mortals, nothing too dangerous, no the main problem with my character is the heroin addicted Brujah that is in the group with us. So far he has frenzied three times, one time almost killing me and another character in the fray. So I have made it a point to act like a Set and have been trying to use ghouls as "flesh shields" to try and alleviate any damage that I might take. But, alas, I also am almost worthless in a fire-fight. So I need a ghoul that is also well versed in combat. Without the "flesh shields" I am not going to last very long in a combat scenario.

Dark Heresy
A few weeks ago I acquired the Warhammer 40k RPG Dark Heresy. This book is awesome and is truley one of the best RPG books I have ever seen. It is gorgeous. Aside from that The system is fast-paced and deadly. The setting fleshes out alot of the information attained not only from the table-top game but from the novels as well. In the game you play an Acolyte of one of the Calixis sector's powerful Inquisitors. You start as a new recruit and work your way up through the ranks, if you live that long, to become an Interrogator or and Inquisitor, neither of which are covered in this book.

I am so excited about this game that it is retarded. I have a group lined up and a place to play but as of yet we have still not decided on when to play. I need to read up on the rules some more and one of the packaged adventures to detrmine what will happen. But allof that aside I am really excited about this game, and I think it shows.

I am working on making a GURPS game that is centered around the world of Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files set about 80 years into the future; also comprising themes from Charles Stross's Halting State. I have been waiting patiently for a few years for the Dresden Files RPG to come out and have finally decided to make a go at it using the fantastic GURPS system.

The basic story will be in NYC as opposed to Chicago and there will be a predominant neural interfaces for most of the working public and a "Cop Space" a la Halting State. I am still in the early planning phase but I will be making more and more updates as time goes by. The story will also house beasts from the Cthulhu Mythos but I am not sure exactly sure how yet. I am sure some figures from the novels will arrive also.

Do you guys remember the hype surrounding this game about seven years ago? It was supposed to be one of the greatest MMOs ever, but a series of technical issues plagued players during release and stifled its popularity. Well Anarchy Online is still around, and they have made a series of impressive upgrades to their client - I think they are on version 17.7.3 - making it one of the funnest MMOs that I have played in a long time. Yeah the graphics are a little bit dated now but the gameplay makes up for it, honestly it just sucks you in. I was sick of playing WoW and sick of paying for it. Oh, didn't I mention that Anarchy Online is free to play now? Yeah, I know. Let the fucking Lich King wait, this is worth the break.

It seems that Skotos has an online rpg based on Lovecraft using their text-based rpg engine. I have only seen an example of their gui and have seen no content as of yet since their gameplay is primarily subscription based. As soon as I can find out more I will let everyone know. Also, if someone else has tried it please let me know how it is.

Here is a great thread about an upcoming Cthulhu board game. Another must have!