Catacomb

Re: Champions Online - Cue Dead Parrot Sketch! I completely agree. There was so much potential in this game, and unless drastic changes are made its going to die.

Re: What do you really think of Champions Online? -I can take any of my five different builds in CoX and pvp with high competence. Those are just my five toons, its not limited to those builds. -GFX in the games I mentioned are superior based solely on pixels per screen + FPS. A game can be drop dead gorgeous - doesn't make a bit of difference if you're running it at 4 FPS. -CoX has more build options in the character creator. Fire them both up, try and build your 'ideal' super and see which game can get it closer. This isn't subjective and I am by no means a hater, but it is an inferior product. Sad but true.

Re: What do you really think of Champions Online?

Re: What do you really think of Champions Online? As my side job has been video game reviews I'd like to take a crack at your question. First off, let's go into the nuts and bolts of CO. One of my favorite sites to check before I load up a game is right here; http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/srtest/ - Can you run it? Its a great litmus test, and it lets you know exactly where you stand in the grand scheme of things. You'll notice right away that CO requires a massive amount of power when compared to WoW, the notorious resource hog AoC, and even CoX - the last of which should concern anyone looking to get into CO. Why? To put it bluntly CO is graphically inferior to ALL of the above mentioned games, and its not even a close race. CoX has an amazing character creator as well(Arguably far superior), and it has another advantage over CO, multiple servers. This, of course, helps with resource allocation and allows for smoother combat in non instanced zones. So already CO has two strikes against it when compared to its direct competition, but that's not all by a long shot. You would think that in a game like CO you could build a framework and then go from there(Since that is the very appeal of the Hero System), but that's not how it goes at all. Sure the bare minimum basics are there, but have you ever pvp'd? Anyone who has will know the following powers - bionic shielding, chainsaw gauntlet, regeneration, acrobatics, teleportation, laser sword, mini device - I won't name them all, but let me put it this way - you had better be rocking these if you want to be successful in any pvp combat. Don't believe me? Look me up, drop a duel, and I'll prove it. The imbalance of builds makes the game extremely frustrating for someone who actually wants character immersion. CO offers - in theory, infinite builds to explore and tailor to your character. Its only smoke and mirrors once you enter an arena. "But I don't care about pvp!" Then why are you playing CO? Seriously. The pve is a joke, and by no means a challenge. I understand you might not want the time sink that WoW is, but I have always seen games such as AoC as having a 'middle grounds' of sorts in this neighborhood. Sadly, there's just no meat when it comes to CO pve and that's just wrong. You cannot be completely imbalanced pvpwise and then offer nothing pvewise, it doesn't mean you cater to casuals. It means you have an unfinished game. "I like being able to solo almost everything." True, you can do that, unless you want to get into the one bright spot of CO - the depth of universe. The scripted uberboss fights are great; if unchallenging, and you lone wolf types will never know the most fun aspect of the game. As an aside, the universe is the ONLY aspect CO beats CoX - the only one. Back to pvp and general balance issues. CO's devs need to understand that they have created an MMO in a world completely dominated by one product - WoW. You may hear how this class/build is dominating or OP, but to be honest it is probably the most balanced game - all around, ever created, which is a great reason for the appeal. So CO's devs look at that and they make sweeping changes to individual powers they see as broken; fair enough, but they make the greatest mistake of ANY dev team over the past several years. They overcompensate. This weakens a power in either pve or pvp, and in turn completely trashes a build someone may have been using for months... which alienates customers. It happened to WAR, it happened to AoC, it happened to Guild Wars, Shadowbane, and even CoX. Some survived the initial overcompensation, some did not. CO likely won't because rather than powering UP abilities to come in line with what was OP, they nerfed them to be either underpowered or worse - completely useless. Don't take my word for it, just look at the boards. At the end of the day CO is plagued with tons of problems and cannot compete with its opposite number - CoX, which is more entertaining, deeper, and much more likely to be here in the long run. Sadly, no one learned from Mythic's sad translation of WARHAMMER; you need more than just a property.

Re: Signs your Champions GM is now (fill in the blank) Signs Noam Chomsky is your GM. 1) An incredibly vile and evil race will be introduced in your first session and despite your thoughts to the contrary they are the good guys. You silly heroes are just opressing them. 2) The 'Rich' perk will only be allowed if you are willing to admit that you are truly a villain. 3) If you ever question the GM you have 'Misinterperated the facts' or 'Taken the campaign out of context'. 4) The party may only ever attempt to help those in their immediate area or city. Any branching out will be seen as 'wicked agression'. 5) If you choose to play as Americans then your characters real name must sound German. Afterall, you are an evil Nazi. 6) There is an illuminati, oh yes, there is an illuminati. Although they are called 'The Elites' and he gets really angry when you use the term 'illuminati'. Signs H.P. Lovecraft is your GM 1) Everyone must take Disadvantage: curious to the point that it will kill me. 2) Ego is the most important stat in the game. 3) You show up to the game with three different character sheets. 4) Looking at the twisted corridors of the temple that has been drawn on the playmat makes you go a little crazy. 5) You win if you die... and stay dead. 6) You DO NOT want the magical, mystical, or otherwise mysterious items that you have found. 7) You need the GM to repeat his narratives four or five times before you understand them, and then wish he hadn't. Signs Clive Barker is your GM 1) Blood 2) Unnameable horror that has a very earthly sense of humor including pithy remarks and sometimes dance moves. 3) More blood 4) At some point during the night someone will be skinned from head to toe. This will not necessarily kill them, in fact, it may make them stronger. 5) Even more blood 6) DO NOT! Play with the puzzle box

Re: New Avengers are very Dark Champions You lost me right there. I don't mind when a character conecpt is 'magical'(Its usualkly the way I go, in fact.), but it annoys me when writers are going for one thing but then resort to the 'magic as an answer for anything' well.

Re: Venture Brothers Hero? Viva Los Muertos is the best episode to date IMO. You have a Frankenstein that was made out of someone Brock killed, Brock's crisis of conscience, a bunch of GREAT lines("Dean, right now Hank is better than you." "I'm not the one who, froze his corpse or, nuked him back from the great beyond to be some half dead, short bus seat warmer" "Brock hit him so hard he's got an afro now!" "Where the heck did they put Africa America?" "HOT DOLPHIN!" "Dried up little Keebler, you poisoned me!" "I didn't think hippies had guns."), and the Scooby Gang re-imagined as Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, Valerie Solanas, and Patty Hearst.

Re: The Things That I've Learned Facing Bricks Amen. Now imagine a brick with TK.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Grandville is crazy on Champion right now, I hate how laggy that zone can be.

Re: Worst. Hero. Ever. Yes I watched the animated series, and no it was nowhere near as good as Batman The Animated Series. Superman was still a character with little depth or personality, and too much raw power. Yes he can still do whatever, whenever it is needed: Hi, he's still the strongest, fastest(A brick that can beat The Flash in a race, he did that in the Animated Series btw.), most invulnerable brick, with both fire and ice energy projection and the ability to fly on top of his alien technology gadget pool. C'mon, you can like him all you want, that's fine. To me though, and to alot of comic fans out there, he's just a lame leftover from a long gone era who's real draw is nastalgia appeal. I'm not the only person who thinks he's the worst superhero ever either. There's a long line of guys who think like me, and no, we're not newly indoctrinated comic book fans who just started reading during the age of Liefield and Lee as someone tried to say earlier. As I've stated, you want to like him, like him, but this thread is not about who you like, its about the Worst. Hero. Ever. I think it is Supes.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Playing Rolemaster last night one of our players was getting familiar with a new 'one-shot' character and he had a flaw called weight intolerant. Now, in Rolemaster I believe that makes it to where your encumberance penalties are increased, but that's not how he read it. Eric: When I was reading this character sheet and saw 'weight intolerant' I thought it meant he didn't like fat-chicks. Yeah, good times, good times.

Re: Worst. Hero. Ever. My criteria make no sense? Superman can do anything, can be defeated by nothing, and if something just happens to get the upper hand he has a bigger gadget pool than Reed Richards. Its something a six year old kid would create when he and his buddies were running around playing in the backyard. He's just bad...so very, very, bad. Honestly, 100% seriousness to all of the Superman apologists. If he didn't exist before now, if there was no 'Superman' template even, and he came along today, would he even make it into a comic book?

Re: Worst. Hero. Ever. Why follow a series so ungodly lame that I threw up in my mouth a little trying to? I used to work in a comic book shop(I use the word work, loosely) and one of the owners used to come in every few days and say "Hey, you need to check out *blank*." and usually it worked out very well. He pointed me to The Watchmen, Alien Legion(Jugger Grimrod is GOD!"), and even Captain America who I always had felt was a little lame prior to being given some choice issues to read. Then he had me sit down and read Superman. Wow, what a steaming pile. Even with the best writers, great art, and all of the bells and whistles Supes is just LAME. Horribly, terribly, lame. I read issues with Darkseid that were just pathetic, ones with Mongul that made me question the sanity of DC, and then there were the issues with lamo villains like Toyman. Yeah. Good stuff. The guy has EVERYTHING. He is god in yellow, red, and blue. He is a walking, breathing, plot device that can do anything that is ever needed at any time and it is just pathetic. You guys choose to like him? Fine, but this thread is asking the opinion of who you think the lamest hero ever is and I truly believe it is Superman. He was cool when I was 6 and got lame about the same time I started cheering when the ewok in Jedi got duffed. So again, Superman. Lamest. Hero. Ever.

Re: Worst. Hero. Ever. Hey, all of you Superman fans. Thor wanted me to relay a message. "Methinks thou dost protest too much."

Re: Worst. Hero. Ever. Writers caveat. Superman's only appeal is his place in line. He's one step away from a comic book ABOUT deus ex machina and its pretty sad.

Re: Worst. Hero. Ever. I submit that Superman isn't even a hero. That word insinuates doing something despite the harm that may befall you. With the exception of Doomsday that harm just doesn't happen to Superman. So he can't be the lamest superhero I suppose. In that light, my vote goes to Aquaman.

Re: Worst. Hero. Ever. Superman wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't beyond the pale. Thor is one of my favorite supers, and he's one of the most powerful Marvel has to put out there, but even he gets his teeth kicked in, alot. Superman though? Please. The guy is a munchkin's wet-dream and even in his supposedly 'powered down' state he's the meaning of the word uber as connected to any other word. Its not 'Marvel love/DC hate' either, Batman and MM are two of my top three(Admittedly MM is a pretty crazy concept too). I say it again, if Superman weren't the first, he'd be a third tier comicbook hero that would likely not even have his own book. First does not mean best.

Re: Worst. Hero. Ever. Superman is the worst hero ever. Being first doesn't make you best, just ask the Arizona Cardinals. Fact is, if Superman were created today even idiots like Millar would laugh at the concept. Superman is the ultimate munchkin character and a walking joke when taken in context. Imagine the scenario during the beginning of a new campaign. GM: Okay so I've seen Bob, Jerry, and Susan's characters, let me see yours Jim. Jim: Okay, but I went a tad bit out of the point framework we were given. GM: That's alright as long as its not too bad, let me see. *GM looks over the sheet and casts a glance back at Jim* GM: Is this a joke? Jim: What? GM: An uber brick? Jim: Yup GM: With energy attacks? Jim: Yup GM: And super speed? Jim: Yessir GM: And a secret fortress where he has an attached gadget pool? Jim: Uh huh GM: You're out of your freaking mind. Jim: Oh c'mon! He's completely vulnerable to magic and there's this special type of rock that saps his powers... Not only that but Superman is never in any real danger, ever. There's no sense of drama there, no suspense, no wondering about the outcome. Superman, the first, the worst.

Re: DEX levels in your campaign. We had to tone our dex and speed down because it doesn't scale like any of the other stats. You get to a point where you are getting a massive return on it and it doesn't seem to diminish. Since we were playing in an altered Marvel Universe we still had Nightcrawler and Spider-Man as the torchbearers for the stat but there were plenty of people who were closing in, we even had some bricks in the upper mid-20s. One of the few stats you really have to keep an eye on, especially in a long campaign.

Re: Top Eleven Adversaries of Arnold You say the Alien, I say the Predator, know what would be cool? A movie where they fought. Yup, that would rock.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Yeah, I'll re-up this weekend and check, Haven't played since November so I might have. Got a shadow/elec brute(Krellick), energy/elec(Pulse), ninjitsu/super reflexes stalker(Catacomb), and Jadelotus my broadsword/invuln scrapper. All 50, man I'm sad.

Re: WWYCD: Dead Enemies are no fun. I believe Catacomb's response was best expressed by Samuel L. Jackson in 'A Time To Kill.' "Yeah I killed him, and I hope he burns in hell!"

Re: Top Eleven Adversaries of Arnold

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Bah, I'm going to re-activate I think. Miss the game and my new comp is a freaking monstrosity so I'll be back. Have 4 50s on Champion(Two brutes, a scrapper, and a stalker). Look me up on global handle @Ahgasbane

Re: Top 10 Action Hero One-Liners "Dyin' ain't much of a livin', boy" - Josie Whales, The Outlaw Josie Whales