There's no way they'll ditch the Skyrim engine until they've got at least one Fallout with it. They've been using the same engine for years, just heavily modifying it. I don't see that changing any time soon.

I think Skyrim's engine is different enough. Fallout 3 definitely felt like a prettier Oblivion engine, but Skyrim's feels singificantly different enough, while still being familiar.

How long is it? I picked it up in the Steam sale but haven't touched it yet.

The one complaint I have (which amounts to very little since I haven't actually played it) is that it doesn't seem like a Max Payne game. that could be all in how they were advertising it though.

Crazy ass crap is always fun. I just don't want them to lose the noir.

Sounds awesome, ill snag it on a Steam sale. This one got lost in the Diablo 3 shuffle for me but many ribbed D3 players for being able to play it because it was a proper single player game with offline mode(the servers were not able to handle the d3 players at the time).

Heard great things.

How are the guns? Is there much variety there?

I really wish Blizzard had emulate Borderlands for the multiplayer. True offline single player, easy drop in multiplayer. If the servers are down, you get no multiplayer or auction house but you can still play.

That said keeping it online is a good form of drm, which was probably one of the major factors, and it keeps the core off the pc to prevent hacking and exploits, which is definitely a good thing.

But yeah, the servers close to launch were laughable.

They said it was a multiplayer game that wasn't about the DRM. In theory I can accept that. In practice though, like I don't know it has all the trapping of it and even if you wanted to go back to a Diablo 3 1.0 world, there is not chance you could as its all server side.

Sort of waffle on how I think about that. Wherein the game is fine, it does feel so much like DRM I am not sure there is a real difference.

You can talk to the steward or something, can't remember his title, to upgrade your house. I think there's a chest upstairs by default though.

As for werewolfing yourself, I never cared for the benefits. It's a fun novelty at first but I never used it after a few times.

You can get through that quest line pretty quickly and then there is a way out.

And if you get Dawnguard, there's a way back in!

Yeah, you don't get your sleep bonus on skillups, and people will tell you that you smell like a wet dog. That's about it.

There's one sidequest where you can get an item that helps control when you can turn. I won't give any more info in case you want to avoid spoilers but you can search for it on the wikis if you are so inclined.

You can control it but you only get one per day. The item changes that.

Actually I think that coul be interesting. If they gave you more benefits to being a werewolf but one big drawback, like turning automatically on a full moon.

I'm going to be a child for a second.

"body parts are all melded"

hahahahahahahahahahaha....

OK, now that THAT's out my system... I haven't played a Madden game since Madden '94. I feel like I might be missing out on something huge since so many people play it, but it seems like the people who don't love it, absolutely despise it!

The tech behind this one does sound pretty interesting though. I may have to rethink my stance on sports games.

Happy they are trying to be more real, but yeah when you go that route the rules you write to make it seem real are ... Mastadon's falling from the sky and arms bending in strange positions but not breaking real...

That said, really interested in checking this out. I might pick up the demo on my PS3 and give it a whirl when we hang out next.

So this follows the awesome Madden tradition of you pick plays and can play people in those plays but dont have to? I mean it differs from the typical Basketball game model in that way right?

Awesome.

Double football all the way!

I thought of this discussion when I saw today's Penny Arcade: http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/08/31

Awesome and relevant for today!

Wow, I had no idea Wipeout and Lemmings were made by the same people. SO many hours trying to get those bastards to go where I wanted them.

It is sad when something with so much history closes up shop. I wonder how many studios EA might scuttle now that they are up for sale?

Not too sad about EA dying but they have so much IP and games they own, I wonder how the cool stuff will survive?

That said, Sony is making a choice based on costs that I understand but... I mean couldn't Lemmings 2012 be something people care about? I mean, I might get that on my phone?

Wow that is some epic stuff! Seriously impressive man, wow!

I liked the art hall, the enemy farming zones and just how freaking big your house is. Was that off a small world?

That makes sense. After our large world my small starter world seems pretty small. But one can always reroll :)

I know, that's what makes it awesome. Very curious to checkout Minecraft for that end too.

I am most likely going to pick up Minecraft in the next bit and try it. Let you know how that develops... I might post something about it :)

Awesome, if you find it let me know.