So.
After probably a month of not uploading videos to Youtube and getting desperately behind on my playthroughs, I finally submitted and went to my local nerd store* and talked to the nerdling-in-chief about my problems.
While a laptop upgrade is out of the question, for laptop design reasons, they are, however, selling their in-store computers which they use for their "LAN parties" and "48 hour Battlefield 4 marathon sessions" at a suitable discount price. Top-end market graphics card included.
Obviously, this doesn't solve my internet issue, and will require some setting up and getting used to (not least re-downloading all my games from Steam and Origin). However, it should be able to run any currently released game at 60 FPS on high graphics settings, and will probably turn things like Dragon Age: Origins and Skyrim into virtual works of art.
So, some good news, at last.
*it really is a nerd store. Combined computer gaming and tabletop RPG and tabletop gaming needs, all under one roof. They have a homebrew Warhammer/Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting, for Christ's sake. Also, neckbeards everywhere (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOwSHXK0444).
A "LAN Party" sounds a lot dirtier than it most likely is.
:lmnuendo:
Well, neckbeards are involved, so hygiene isn't a priority.
Excellent stuff. I'm nowhere near caught up on the DA playthrough though I do recall it was starting to get interesting for some reason.
Considering any new purchases, while the subject somewhat arises? I'm seeing not much of anything until various kickstarters finish.
No. Well, Dragon Age: Inquisition when it comes out, of course. I have Watch Dogs and Dark Souls 2...will be getting Pillars of Eternity of course, and if we ever hear anything concrete about Mass Effect 4, I will consider it (so long as multiplayer makes a comeback).
Aside from that, there's not a whole lot to interest me at the moment.
I'm actually a bit more interested in the Dishonored playthrough, because it seems like in DA, Cain already knows what's going to happen; but in Dishonored, it's all, "where the fuck did those ninjas come from?"
Well, I only know what happens in DA and DA2...I'll be playing DA:I blind. In fact, I'm thinking that it might be best that I let you guys set up whatever craptastic hideous world you decide you want for the first two games, and then I'll play through the conclusion of those how I decide, since I wont know what's a critical decision or not
Quote from: Cain on May 29, 2014, 01:34:34 PM
No. Well, Dragon Age: Inquisition when it comes out, of course. I have Watch Dogs and Dark Souls 2...will be getting Pillars of Eternity of course, and if we ever hear anything concrete about Mass Effect 4, I will consider it (so long as multiplayer makes a comeback).
Aside from that, there's not a whole lot to interest me at the moment.
I'm going back and forth on the upcoming Torment game. I say upcoming, it's as close as Pillars of Eternity. I'd probably put P:T up there as finest game every written but this new one just seems wrong somehow.
Yeah, I'm not convinced by the new Planescape game, not least because of the participation of Monte Cook.
I mean, Monte's a controversial chap I wont deny, capable of good stuff but also capable of not delivering. But Planescape: Torment wasn't just a game. It was a work of art, an existential piece of literature in game form. That's beyond the talents of pretty much everyone except the original writers at Bioware and Obsidian.
Result on the gaming box! Half the cost of a laptop is miniaturisation, complex cooling systems and integrated screens. That all goes away with desktops, so you get twice the bang for your buck, if you can wear the reduced portability.
Also, with HD TV's performance converging with monitors, your screen is now as big as your telly- 40" for a couple of hundred bucks these days.
should tide you over til VR comes out :fap:
Quote from: Junkenstein on May 29, 2014, 01:57:21 PM
I'm going back and forth on the upcoming Torment game. I say upcoming, it's as close as Pillars of Eternity. I'd probably put P:T up there as finest game every written but this new one just seems wrong somehow.
I don't think it's going to work out. Planescape was easily one of the best games I ever played, the only issue with it was that combat was a little lacking. But the dialogue? Top notch. The storytelling, the profound wisdom, the life lessons you could learn in that game? Phenomenal. It's going to take something incredible to top that.
Yeah, and for the time I bought it at, this was a very good laptop. But the tradeoff was getting steadily worse as the computing requirements rise...it had to happen sooner or later. I'll still use this for word processing and stuff....hell I may even use this one to upload footage while I record it on the other one. That could deal with some of the connection issues I've had.
Quote from: Raz Tech on May 29, 2014, 02:11:34 PM
Quote from: Junkenstein on May 29, 2014, 01:57:21 PM
I'm going back and forth on the upcoming Torment game. I say upcoming, it's as close as Pillars of Eternity. I'd probably put P:T up there as finest game every written but this new one just seems wrong somehow.
I don't think it's going to work out. Planescape was easily one of the best games I ever played, the only issue with it was that combat was a little lacking. But the dialogue? Top notch. The storytelling, the profound wisdom, the life lessons you could learn in that game? Phenomenal. It's going to take something incredible to top that.
Indeed. The new one will either be a modern masterpiece or an appaling sham trading on the name. Even with the list of writers involved the only thing I'm pretty sure of is it's not going to be "meh, 6/10".
I'm also suspicious that achievements or similar will creep into the gameplay. These fuck me off no end due to their charming ability to break all immerse qualities and lines of thought. I can just see a screen with a vaugely "profound" statement and no matter which answer you pick a big flashy graphic pops up celebrating your achivement to make a choice.
Out of curiosity, have you encountered the Parable of Stanley? I think you'd enjoy it.
I've heard of it, I think. When I finish with the current backlog of games I'm working on, I'll make sure I give it a go.
Summary of what you need to really know:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiCLKmEAa1I&feature=kp
I suspect you'll like this quite a bit.
Quote from: Junkenstein on May 29, 2014, 05:59:53 PM
Summary of what you need to really know:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiCLKmEAa1I&feature=kp
I suspect you'll like this quite a bit.
Nice find - subscribed!
bumping that game up the list, thanks
Quote from: P3nT4gR4m on May 29, 2014, 06:36:24 PM
Quote from: Junkenstein on May 29, 2014, 05:59:53 PM
Summary of what you need to really know:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiCLKmEAa1I&feature=kp
I suspect you'll like this quite a bit.
Nice find - subscribed!
Yeah, the guy does good work. Actually looks at games that actually try something new with their mechanics. Reviews tend to be pretty spot on too and cover the aspects I actually give a shit about.
Personal Favourites:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS7PCcvVoPI&index=3&list=PL44284B7F254B4024
Reviews of the reviews of the recent-ish Duke Nukem game. Stunning in many ways.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X43i8NQ--_s&index=6&list=PL44284B7F254B4024
Deus Ex - Human Revolution review. Spoiler heavy and relevant to your interests in many ways.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnCpSMlUEpo&index=9&list=PL44284B7F254B4024
Adventures in Advertising. Very related to the above, covers aspects of cognitive dissonance between the advertising concepts and actual gameplay. Highly recommenced.
As I said, the rest of his output is of similar quality so if those don't grab you for whatever reason I still suggest a look down the list for anything you recognize and give him a go.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL44284B7F254B4024
Quote from: Cain on May 29, 2014, 01:34:34 PM
I have Watch Dogs
How are you finding it? Reviews are split between people who love it and people who seem seriously butthurt that it didn't meet the hype.
Curious about that too actually. From what I recall it certainly had potential.
I read a dozen reviews saying "Terrible clone of GTA5 plus hacking" and seeing as I haven't played GTA5 yet, I bought that instead yesterday.
I feel the need to post this (http://youtu.be/PcbpIntnG8c?t=16m13s) here (surfed on from a couple of errant signal vids) First match is fucking awesome but I don't know the map. At 16m13s, however, DM6. :fap:
Q3 is my favourite game of all time, ever in the history of all games ever and probably yet to come. Nothing comes close to the feeling of being able to circlestrafe around the levels like a goddamn ninja ballerina, raining rockets, and knocking eyes out with rail.
It may have been another "This is a great advert for a game that has absolutely no bearing on the plot, gameplay or key mechanics" moment then.
GTA5 was a blast. Trevor stole the show. That little sprite acted his fucking ass off!
Quote from: P3nT4gR4m on May 29, 2014, 09:06:24 PM
I feel the need to post this (http://youtu.be/PcbpIntnG8c?t=16m13s) here (surfed on from a couple of errant signal vids) First match is fucking awesome but I don't know the map. At 16m13s, however, DM6. :fap:
Q3 is my favourite game of all time, ever in the history of all games ever and probably yet to come. Nothing comes close to the feeling of being able to circlestrafe around the levels like a goddamn ninja ballerina, raining rockets, and knocking eyes out with rail.
For me, the finest pure FPS, particularly of that era was the original Unreal Tournament. Sure, some of the weapons sucked and the AI scaled up to FUCK YOU levels but it was pretty fucking perfect. Not to mention the Announcer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwxjYFqP35A
00:10-00:12, and a few after that. Still in my head whenever I try any gun game today.
On the UT v's Q3 war I was Q3 camp, born and bred but when UT3 came out, I fell for Onslaught (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHGs4b0MiSU) hook line and sinker.
Quote from: Pæs on May 29, 2014, 08:56:41 PM
Quote from: Cain on May 29, 2014, 01:34:34 PM
I have Watch Dogs
How are you finding it? Reviews are split between people who love it and people who seem seriously butthurt that it didn't meet the hype.
Not played yet, as it would melt my laptop. I mean, when I tried Black Flag, I was getting 10 FPS maximum, so I dread to think what Watch Dogs would do. And I've been avoiding other playthroughs so I can do a blind one, so I have no idea what to expect beyond what I've seen in the official trailers.
I suspect I'll like the storyline, if nothing else. I mean, I watch
Person of Interest religiously, and this is pretty much Person of Interest meets Assassins Creed.
Quote from: P3nT4gR4m on May 30, 2014, 06:30:20 AM
On the UT v's Q3 war I was Q3 camp, born and bred but when UT3 came out, I fell for Onslaught (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHGs4b0MiSU) hook line and sinker.
Yeah, that was the main thing that sold me on UT. Simple stuff like "assault" was just really nicely implemented. Always had a preference for the engine too, it just seemed more stable in general but I have no idea if that's actually reality. That said, Carmack has done some incredible work. Zenimax/Id letting him go is one of the fucking stupidest business decisions I've ever seen. Someone must have fucked up and thought they were talking about Romero or something.
Quote from: Cain on May 30, 2014, 04:23:01 PM
Quote from: Pæs on May 29, 2014, 08:56:41 PM
Quote from: Cain on May 29, 2014, 01:34:34 PM
I have Watch Dogs
How are you finding it? Reviews are split between people who love it and people who seem seriously butthurt that it didn't meet the hype.
Not played yet, as it would melt my laptop. I mean, when I tried Black Flag, I was getting 10 FPS maximum, so I dread to think what Watch Dogs would do. And I've been avoiding other playthroughs so I can do a blind one, so I have no idea what to expect beyond what I've seen in the official trailers.
I suspect I'll like the storyline, if nothing else. I mean, I watch Person of Interest religiously, and this is pretty much Person of Interest meets Assassins Creed.
You have to play fucking Black Flag. Do it right now. Whatever it takes! The story is the usual kind of hokey bollix with a dash of conspiracy theory but the ship gameplay mechanics is fucking stunning, the water simulation (big breakers can be surfed, properly, like I do in a kayak) makes the ocean practically a character in it's own right. The ambience is like knocking back a bottle of Jamaican firewater and dropping a patch over one eye. Who knew pretending you're Cpn Jack would make for such an immersive experience?
The rest of it is pure AC sandbox. Does what it says on the tin and, if you like that kind of shit, then it prolly won't disappoint. One last thing (only a teeny bit spoilery) Sea Shanties. Johnny fucking Bolger! :wink:
Quote from: Junkenstein on May 30, 2014, 07:44:59 PM
Quote from: P3nT4gR4m on May 30, 2014, 06:30:20 AM
On the UT v's Q3 war I was Q3 camp, born and bred but when UT3 came out, I fell for Onslaught (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHGs4b0MiSU) hook line and sinker.
Yeah, that was the main thing that sold me on UT. Simple stuff like "assault" was just really nicely implemented. Always had a preference for the engine too, it just seemed more stable in general but I have no idea if that's actually reality. That said, Carmack has done some incredible work. Zenimax/Id letting him go is one of the fucking stupidest business decisions I've ever seen. Someone must have fucked up and thought they were talking about Romero or something.
I reckon Epic back then was more art focussed than ID. They got in bed with Nvidia early on and that gave them the tech they needed to know the kind of look that was required so their shit was always nicer aesthetic art. ID had okay artists working there, don't get me wrong but it was more of a mad-science thing at ID. It came out in the physics for me. UT felt functional where Q3 felt like a kind of expression of how it was possible to "feel" in a game. They dealt a more visceral and fluid experience. Comparing the two, for me, is to examine a reversal of emphasis. ID saw physics as the expression of their art and Epic saw the aesthetic as .
They were both fucking great games, mind you. One was the digital equivalent of Rembrandt and the other was more like snowboarding or base jumping. Gameplay wise ID had a headstart. We were playing Q1 LAN deathmatches and TDM, a good two or three years before Unreal the single player game came out on the old voodoo cards. ID got a lucky break with the strafe bug and, rather than fixing it, they magnificently capitalised on it through Q2, perfected and fine tuned in Q3 which was where UT found itself upon release.
Then UT3 brought massive map strategic elements, some absolutely sick and perfectly balanced vehicular gameplay and I jumped ship having taken my Q3 skillz as far as I was capable or could be arsed. The vehicles (the mantas especially) were the physics sport that had been missing from the previous two. But any time I was on the ground, I felt like I was running through treacle. Every boost jump I made, I'd remember jumping bridge to rail on DM6 and sometimes, when it was really bad, a little tear might happen. :cry:
Credit where it's due, you want to talk massive maps it's all about Tribes 2. Those were fucking huge for the era, 60 on 60 fights. I'll see if I can find some footage because when that was going well it was amazing.
I kinda drifted onto fps rpg's with oblivion, Total War for strategy and GT series on Playstation and haven't really played much killsport FPS since then. Getting to old and slow for twitch shooters nowadays :emo:
Do you like entirely too much strategy in your strategy games? If so, you should try the europa universalis games if you haven't already.
That looks quite good. Decent community / Easily moddable? Seems to share a lot of similarities to Mount and Blade series from what I can tell.
I've wondered about that. Steam seem to push it at me pretty heavily. I might try it out, once I get bored of Civ 5.
As for Black Flag...the visuals look pretty stunning, and the ship gameplay does seem interesting. Which is just as well, since the stealth gameplay, after the AC3 uproar, are now a fucking joke. Not that Ubisoft ever seem to have gotten stealth entirely right (see: Far Cry 3)
Yeah, I've skipped a couple of the series but I never really ranked it as particularly amazing. Good, fun couple of days diversion but that's about it. The ship stuff is a whole new dimension. Don't get me wrong, it does get predictable and a bit repetitive eventually but, until then, it's a total trip!
Circle strafe and bombard ALL THE THINGS
You bastard, how did you get a hold of my top-secret master strategy? :argh!:
The day we invent an AI who can lead its shots is the day humanity is doomed.
Sooner or later someone's going to hook a bot up to a neural net. Targetting is the kind of thing that neural nets are perfect for. Let the machine predict every possible aim point for a whole bunch of given target movement patterns then let it know which ones hit and where. Couple of billion iterations later, you've got yourself the ultimate aimbot.
Incidentally, remove the bot and add in "800 hours of practice" and this is why I can consistently get the 20 headshot medal in ME3MP. Predictable movements FTW. It's actually kinda hilarious some people resort to using aimbots in that game.
Oh fuck, yeah. My late, lamented Q3 had rockets for that. Airshots with rocket pwn'd the shit out of precision railgun twitch shots for my money.
Hmm
http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/8/5695780/the-next-unreal-tournament-will-be-completely-free-and-developed-by
QuoteWhen the last Unreal Tournament came out seven years ago, Epic Games was riding high. The company's Unreal Engine 3 had become the de facto standard for big-budget video game development, and Gears of War was a flagship Xbox franchise. Much has changed since then, including a renaissance in indie development, and Unreal Engine isn't seeing the same success. But the company has an intriguing new plan. Epic Games has just announced that the next Unreal Tournament will be completely free, and developed entirely in the open. Starting today, anyone can contribute. While the project will be led by senior Epic Games programmers, the game will be effectively developed by you.
""From the very first line of code, the very first art created and design decision made, development will happen in the open, as a collaboration between Epic, UT fans and UE4 developers," writes longtime Unreal Tournament programmer Steve Polge, in a blog post discussing the plan. All the code and all the content will be freely accessible in a Github respository, which should be live soon. The company is also detailing the project on Twitch, and intends to issue regular video updates there.
I'm not entirely sure how to react to that. Opening up the development process seems like a good thing, however essentially asking the community to work on and develop it for free seems a little iffy. I can't really guess at the likely end result about now but I can't see it going well without a lot more structure to the overall development process.
Or maybe it'll be kittens and sunshine with no issues. Doubt it.
Quote from: Junkenstein on June 02, 2014, 01:10:27 PM
Hmm
http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/8/5695780/the-next-unreal-tournament-will-be-completely-free-and-developed-by
QuoteWhen the last Unreal Tournament came out seven years ago, Epic Games was riding high. The company's Unreal Engine 3 had become the de facto standard for big-budget video game development, and Gears of War was a flagship Xbox franchise. Much has changed since then, including a renaissance in indie development, and Unreal Engine isn't seeing the same success. But the company has an intriguing new plan. Epic Games has just announced that the next Unreal Tournament will be completely free, and developed entirely in the open. Starting today, anyone can contribute. While the project will be led by senior Epic Games programmers, the game will be effectively developed by you.
""From the very first line of code, the very first art created and design decision made, development will happen in the open, as a collaboration between Epic, UT fans and UE4 developers," writes longtime Unreal Tournament programmer Steve Polge, in a blog post discussing the plan. All the code and all the content will be freely accessible in a Github respository, which should be live soon. The company is also detailing the project on Twitch, and intends to issue regular video updates there.
I'm not entirely sure how to react to that. Opening up the development process seems like a good thing, however essentially asking the community to work on and develop it for free seems a little iffy. I can't really guess at the likely end result about now but I can't see it going well without a lot more structure to the overall development process.
Or maybe it'll be kittens and sunshine with no issues. Doubt it.
Well they did something like that with the plot for snakes on a plane, and that turned out awesome.
Oh wait no, it was terrible.
It also seems to mean that you can fuck with the development for the price of $19/month.
Now, if I was a rival developer, I would certainly not, never ever not even once, consider adding two metric tons of bugs features to the process. Yeah, yeah, it'll get caught in code review. Until the reviewer thinks it's funny enough and lets it slide through.
Calling it, on release will be a bug fucked mess producing some stunning AI fail videos. I think Colonial Marines still holds this title but I'm sure someone else is gunning for it.
UT is a dual purpose product for Epic. It's a video game, sure but it's also, traditionally, been the showcase tech demo for the engine. Makes perfect sense to crowdsource the dev, given that, plain and simple, you can get more done with a couple of thousand devs and artists than you can with a couple of dozen.
Project management will make or break it. Be interesting to see how it pans out
To some extent, I can see and understand the logic. Look at say, Skyrim mods that have been developed after launch/release. My current version of skyrim probably shares little more than the name with the out of the box version.
However, that's because Bethesda launched a solid base for people to experiment with and build on. This other way round, of actually getting developers to build the base seems much riskier. If it works, I can't really knock it and indeed, will encourage it. I'm just not convinced that this is the optimal way to develop a product.
As with most things in life, there's probably a middle route (Do most development yourself, open to community pre-alpha stage for input/feedback/bugfixing) that's more practical, sensible and expensive.
Aside, I recall something I heard a short while ago, a couple of guys talking about how it's currently wildly optimistic to try and release a product with no bugs, and the best you can realistically aim for is no / minimal serious bugs. With that in mind, perhaps this whole community led model might be more viable than I initially thought.
Also, I'll probably pick up Tropico 5 when it drops in price somewhat. The few older ones I can recall had a pretty solid sense of humor and from what I can tell the new one is in the same vein.
QuoteHowever, that's because Bethesda launched a solid base for people to experiment with and build on
Well, I wouldn't go THAT far. Skyrim is actually notoriously hard to mod because a single mod can easily affect the whole game in unintended ways. As such, notions like a "clean save" or "script-free" mods are a joke. Not to mention how vanilla bugs still plague the game now, and were never resolved (case in point: current game has had vanilla bugs which did not occur in previous playthroughs)
Alright, I should have qualified that better. "Relatively solid base". Still a better option than many developers who release shit that's broken and don't allow the community to fix faults as found.
How many other games can you recall off-hand where the creation kit is as much of a selling point as the game? I can think of Neverwinter Nights and the Starcraft map maker (which was a fucking pain to use) and that's about it really.
Yeah, true. I would also add Baldur's Gate to that list though, as after the release of the Infinity Engine in 2003, thousands of mods were made for the games (and some exceptionally good ones, too. David Gaider, who wrote the series, wrote at least one of them).
Also Fallout, Oblivion and Dragon Age have a sizeable modding community.
But I did want to mention that Skyrim is really hard to mod. Experienced modders say it is really hard to mod. Experienced modders who mod Bethesda games in their sleep say it's hard to mod. For some reason, the game aspects tie together in really unusual ways, so it is very easy to change one element and have knock on effects on entirely different elements without meaning to. So, for instance, you change an ingredient so it boosts lockpicking instead of fortifying health, and all of a sudden dragons start flying backwards.
Also, new computer delayed until tomorrow. Probably have everything up and running by Monday.
Incidentally, I spoke with the guy in the store, while waiting for my quote, and he said the main problem with Watch Dogs, as far as he could tell, was the graphics were not so great. Well, apart from having to access uPlay to play the game, but that's a whole different kettle of fish.
Well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but HAL 9000 2.0 is a no go.
I bought it today. I even got it home. But with all the hassle of setting it up and the extra stuff I'd have to buy and install and this and that and the other...I decided it was an expensive mistake, and I should have aborted it in the first trimester returned it to the store.
So, no shiny 120 FPS brand new games for you guys.
Quote from: Cain on June 05, 2014, 07:53:27 PM
Well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but HAL 9000 2.0 is a no go.
I bought it today. I even got it home. But with all the hassle of setting it up and the extra stuff I'd have to buy and install and this and that and the other...I decided it was an expensive mistake, and I should have aborted it in the first trimester returned it to the store.
So, no shiny 120 FPS brand new games for you guys.
Awww.
Good comp name though.
I named my comp Haephaestus' Forge.
You realize this is basically putting a ticking clock on your current machine? They tend to be somewhat spiteful like that.
Last machine I built was called Jaws
(http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/P3nT4gR4m/IMAG0012.jpg~original)
Never been big on cable management :oops:
(http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/P3nT4gR4m/IMAG0014.jpg~original)
Is that an old style CRT monitor? If so, kudos. There's something about flat screens that just make them more uncomfortable to use for me. No idea why and its probably mainly spite.
That said, there are some benefits to them. They won't get nicked for one thing and any standard burglar would probably assume the PC it's attached to is of a similar age.
This was a few years back. I'm still using this rig (or would be if it wasn't mothballed) The two GPU's melted after a couple of years and I replaced them with one card that supports dual flatscreens. I hung onto the crt for ages, tho. Right up until the refresh rate caught up.
Quote from: Junkenstein on May 29, 2014, 01:57:21 PM
Quote from: Cain on May 29, 2014, 01:34:34 PM
No. Well, Dragon Age: Inquisition when it comes out, of course. I have Watch Dogs and Dark Souls 2...will be getting Pillars of Eternity of course, and if we ever hear anything concrete about Mass Effect 4, I will consider it (so long as multiplayer makes a comeback).
Aside from that, there's not a whole lot to interest me at the moment.
I'm going back and forth on the upcoming Torment game. I say upcoming, it's as close as Pillars of Eternity. I'd probably put P:T up there as finest game every written but this new one just seems wrong somehow.
Turns out Chris Avellone, one of the writers for the original Torment (and currently lead developer for Pillars of Eternity) has been confirmed for the new Torment game. So it may not
entirely suck after all.
I still struggle to see how it will live up to the original though. It's not really clear how it relates to it, either...I mean, the story of The Nameless One is definitely at an end and, as I understand it, the new game is in an original setting, and so has nothing to do with Sigil or the D&D cosmology.
Yeah, I caught the Avellone annoucement. It does add another reason to the "buy" column.
As I understand it, it's a thematic continuation. There will be a central question similar to Planescapes "What can change the nature of a man?" but it's a whole new set, setting, characters etc, etc.
What will make or break it I'd guess, would be this Monty fellow. I've yet to see two consistent reviews of his work and I've heard plenty of bad shit that's made me wary. It seems to be a case of "can you make a good game with Monty shitting it up in the background?"
The writing talent on POE is certainly top notch though, and I suspect Torment will suffer in comparison. Suffer quite badly too.
In fairness, I'm not at all familiar with Monty's work so I'll probably make a snap decision based on a sample of it.
It's my understanding that Monte Cook is capable of pretty good material, but he has a problem with abandoning projects before they are completed and/or sometimes rushing work.
Well then. That's exactly the kind of chap you want in a kickstarter project.
Sounds like the smart money gives it a miss and waits for reliable reviews in this case. Which is a shame because this really should have been a "TAKE MY MONEY" thing.