I've got a Wii, Xbox360, PS2, PSP, DS, and an Xbox.

I've got one of those joysticks with the classic Atari games.

I also play Scrabulous.

Ooo, I've also got a Colecovision with the Atari 2600 adapter, but that's out in the garage.

The way my DM played it, there was minimal interaction with NPCs such as barkeeps and such. I'm used to spending at least a little time negotiating the lodging fees and things, but my DM said, "We don't do that stuff, it's a standard fee. And our horses and supplies are pre-defined for the trip into the woods, too." Anything that wasn't geared specifically towards progressing the storyline was extraneous. I don't like pre-programmed gaming to that extent.

Yeah, you still needed a GM that was willing to roleplay. And many mods were railroads stopping frequently at the combat station. And, playing at a Con, especially at high level, meant you were pushing it to get done in time. Conversely, there were a number of mods that came up with an excellent storyline or some great role-playing opportunities.

Ultimately, I found it was still basically about the other people at the table. A good group made a good game, a bad group made a bad game.

Pete is near-incoherent with anticipation for GTA4.

Not true. I witter with great clarity.

How much am I looking forward to GTA IV? Counting the days, picking it up on the morning of release and losing the day to it. I'm actually intending -due to the depth of interactivity - to treat it more like an RPG in the early phase and just stroll the city and make a small amount of money without dipping into criminality unless forced to. I just want to make the whole thing really last because there is nothing so sad as a GTA city after the final mission is done because no matter what other little errands or stunts there are to do, the city has effectively become static and that just kills it for me.

ION, yes, I strongly recommend Unhallowed Metropolis. The first 50 pages of the book are pure glorious fluff with a really interesting story that has plenty of depth and plenty of juicy questions.

So, given that this is the Gaming thread, if people want to meet on Xbox Live over this weekend for some Halo shenanigans, let me know. Also, the Heroic Map pack is now free so download that, it's worth it. The Legendary map pack is approximately 10 bucks but I think that's worth it too. Great new maps.

Somewhere back in the UK, I still have my original Atari game system tucked away.

Is GTA IV coming out on PC at any point?

Or, if that seems impractical, go to Scola's house.

I'm Tom Scola, and I approve of this message!

Re: board games. Big fan of Settlers, but has anyone played History of the World? LOVE that game, though it is a major time commitment (or needs to be spread over multiple sessions).

Yeah, I bought History of the World as a Christmas present for a friend a while back. We spent a fair amount of time playing it. It was a lot of fun, although whoever gets the Aztecs in that epoch gets screwed.

You're right though, you have to be able to put aside a fair chunk of time to get a game in.

It was a lot of fun, although whoever gets the Aztecs in that epoch gets screwed.

And whoever gets Rome in its epoch has everybody else whaling the crap out of them for the rest of the game. We played around with some of the turn sequence rules, but eventually decided that the game designers had done a pretty good job setting things up.

Is GTA IV coming out on PC at any point?

The initial release is PS3 and Xbox 360, but IIRC the previous games have all hit other platforms some time after the original release -- so I wouldn't be surprised to see it sometime later.

Quoted without comment from wikipedia:

A Staten Island-esque area will not be featured in the game for the reason that Rockstar Games believes it would not be fun to play there.