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Would very much recommend this course of action. I've read remarkably little Eco (of his fiction at least, I've read some of his essays and other works) but I should remedy that.

Fun fact, looks like I bought my copy of the book in Hong Kong.

So it has followed me all around the planet, and I still haven't got around to reading it!

Yeah, maybe the time has finally come.

[Baudolino]

2026's first reading - Baudolino, by Umberto Eco.

Hmm, interesting choice. I love Umberto Eco but haven't read that one, its sitting on my bookshelf staring at me right now in an accusatory fashion.

Maybe it's time to promote it from my bookshelf to the giant pile of unread books sitting next to me.

I'm not sure if I count among the people 'talking it down', but I'll clarify my opinion

Fallout is probably my favourite game franchise of all time. If not outright, then definitely up there in the top 2 or 3.

So saying that Fallout 3 is my least favourite Fallout is like saying that its my least favourite thing out of my absolute most favourite things ever. So not really negative

Yeah there's a bit of 'uncanny valley' going on I think, plus the fact that ragdoll physics always feels more like a clever tech demo than an immersive experience to me.

Compare that with the sheer love that the 2D artists put into the 'gibs' in both Fallout and Doom. The brutal death animations for characters like Gizmo and the Overseer in Fallout 1, and the joy that artist Adrian Carmack put into every flying chunk of flesh in Doom. Such as taking scans of their own scabs and blood to use in game

In fact, come to think of it, that is the unifying feature of both Fallout 1/2 and Doom - the emphasis on the 'gibs' and gore. Maybe this is a reason why the combination works?

That was one of John Romeros core design principles wasn't it? In in doubt, add more gibs!

It is based on GZDoom, which is an open source project, so I'm guessing they can do as they please if they have the skillset and time.

There are already various RPG elements visible in the HUD - hit percentages, combat/world log, item interactions etc

I'd forgotten that the Necropolis level is the first time you encounter a Cathedral member as well. Fallout 1 is still the only game that genuinely convinced me to join a cult

And wow, those death animations look brutal, they really nail the visceral feeling of Fallout 1 and 2.

Especially the SMG and Plasma Gun, absolutely nasty. Sprite-based 'gibs' and gore. Way better than the 'AAA' ragdoll nonsense in Fallout 3 and even Fallout 4.

I would pay truly unreasonable amounts of money to play the Cathedral level from Fallout 1 done in that style.

Unity. Pray. Follow.

Nothing suspicious here, nope, move along

ok, this is looking even better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0Wv6kkloCU

Who knew that Fallout 1 and the Doom engine would work so well together?

https://www.thegamer.com/fallout-bakersfield-remake-original-1997-game-gzdoom-engine-boomer-shooter/

Necropolis from Fallout 1 as a 'Boomer Shooter'

End of this month is a tricksy period for me too, family obligations etc

Yeah, the FO2 ending just seemed to culminate in a fairly boilerplate 'hahaha ultraviolence' type end-boss, despite all the variety leading up to it.

Whereas the FO1 bosses were just so damned... INTERESTING. Horrifying in appearance and nature, but charming, articulate, and just downright weird.

And I absolutely LOVED the pacing of the Cathedral, especially in a gaming era with far fewer spoilers. The descent into the Cathedral really did feel like some kind of descent into Hell or Madness.

Yes, I thought that FO2 was an objectively 'better' game due to mechanics, variety of quests/decisions etc.

But I preferred FO1s much tighter narrative, and the villains in FO1 gave it a much nastier 'horror/mystery' vibe which definitely fit my tastes better.

https://www.ft.com/content/29fd9b5c-2f35-41bf-9d4c-994db4e12998

"A new global gender divide is emerging" - the political/ideological gap between young men and young women has been widening for the last 30 years, and widened rapidly in the last 10 years.

Why this has happened, and what the implications are, are pretty profound questions for democracy.

Hey everyone!

My name's Cosmic Void and I make adventure games with pixel-art graphics, mostly point and clicks, but also some text parsers.

My upcoming game is Twilight Oracle, a comedy point and click adventure.

Some of my favorite adventure games include Space Quest II, Sam & Max Hit the Road, The 7th Guest, Sanitarium, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, and Little Misfortune, just to name a few.

Yep, I also loved adventure games of that era.

Space Quest 3 was my favourite from that series, and I played the hell out of Leisure Suit Larry. Also loved the Police/Kings Quest series, and all the other late 80's-early 90's smorgasbord of adventure games, from Rex Nebular to Maniac Mansion/Day of the Tentacle to BioForge etc.

I think the pinnacle for me was Grim Fandango. Damn, that was a game.

Yeah, the shove of BG3 is largely unuseful except to throw someone off somewhere, for which it's borderline OP (because "disengage" or misty step are better ways to get a non-close-combat character out of melee range, which is another major reason for shoving, and because shoves don't cause knockdown).

But yes, I'm sure there are ways to do this, though making them streamlined is always a challenge - one can either end up with too many mechanics for the average player to remember, especially because D&D's spell system is already middling-weight, or you end up with all these things being specific actions for a certain class, such that you end up with a "grapple fighter" who can do makikomis as a bunch of special actions and nobody else can. BG3 feels like it has rather few positioning and control focused options compared to most things in its genre: often the front-line fighters have more options to control a larger area of space than seems to be the case in that game.

Yeah, one problem with grapple mechanics (and 'control' mechanics in general) is that it can be quite irritating to 'lose control' of ones characters.

One of the more annoying fights I encountered in BG3 was an enemy with the 'garrotte' ability (prevents the user and target from moving, silences target and applies damage per turn). However, the major irritant in this case was the critters also had the ability to teleport, taking their target with them... so the fight basically involved chasing teleporting enemies all over the map who were strangling my silenced and immobile casters.

*** and yes, of course they teleported to the most annoying, difficult to follow locations possible - roofs, platforms, round corners etc... and of course the casters capable of casting fly/teleport etc were being silenced and strangled

Its modified 5e DnD. Excludes the specific 'grapple' rules of 5e.

But again, I don't think it would take much tweaking to make an effective 'grappler-lite' skillset with what is available in BG3 (shove/disarm/knock prone etc), such as
- the ability to knock prone/shove/disarm as combined actions
- extra choices around how to follow up such a move, such as
-- simulating a joint-lock by applying joint damage effects
-- simulating a 'makikomi' by knocking yourself prone after the throw and doing extra damage to the enemy
-- far more control of enemy positioning (being shoved off cliffs is already very effective/irritating)
- the ability to 'reverse/counter' shove/trip/disarm attempts with a successful saving throw
- changes to prone mechanics to make being prone far more punishing in heavy armor
- reduced fall damage (grapplers spend a lot of time learning how to fall)

Lots more possibilities I'm sure.