TOEE - Oh, Me-he-he-helany

So, armed with my Holy Longsword +1 and an NPC druid wife, its time to start acting like real adventurers i.e. time to kill something!

The local wood craftsman is highly skilled and can create masterwork equipment. Masterwork weapons give you a +1 on your attack roll and are a pre-requisite if you want to craft magical weapons (or armor). However, in order to craft masterwork equipment, he needs good quality wood.

Fortunately for us, the local woodcutter informs us that there is a source of good quality wood in the nearby Deklo grove. Unfortunately, the grove is currently overrun with spiders. Hmm, not quite the easy "giant rat" fight that I'm used to getting as level 1 adventurers in D&D games but still, spiders should be easy to take out right?


Of course, they would be giant spiders...

Wow - two giant spiders for my first real fight. Granted, I outnumber the giant spiders by a factor of 3 but considering that my guys are level 1 and liable to go down in a single hit, lets just say I'm not exactly filled with confidence.

The other big threat from the spiders is that they can cast web which can really frak up your party. To counter this, and against the advice of Wizards of the Coast marketing campaign, I immediately split the party.

Sonora, my thief, goes straight for the top left spider while Meleny goes for the top right. By locking down the spiders in melee, we get an Attack of Opportunity if they cast the Web spell and a chance to disrupt their spellcasting. Jaheira, my druid, summons a wolf to help Meleny while the other PCs split up so that we wouldn't all get caught in a web just in case the spiders manage to successfully cast.


Two web spells later, both Coryn, my mage, and Meleny are locked down in webs.

My plan didn't work out exactly as I had hoped. Still, at least my melee fighter and cleric aren't locked down in web spells. Sir Galahad, my fighter, starts to head top right to help out Meleny. Unfortunately, the web spell also slows down movement so its slow going for him. Meanwhile, Falgur, my dwarven cleric, charges the top left spider.


Critical hit!

And wipes out the spider with 27 damage on a critical hit! What a start to my first real fight as adventurers! With one spider left, time to pile on and overrun him.


Or rather, pile on and get caught up in webs

Unfortunately, things don't go so well with the second spider. Due to its position, its in a natural bottleneck and only two melee characters can engage him at a time (three if you include Falgur who has long reach with his spear). Naturally, I found this out the hard way when I tried to send Sonora in to help out but found that she could only stand around helplessly. The web also gives me a -2 on my attack rolls so even hitting the spider is proving difficult.

Naturally, the spider doesn't have any trouble hitting us and as you can see, Meleny has already taken 8 damage (on one hit).


Poor Melany

I eventually manage to take out the spider but not before it hits Meleny one more time. For 10 damage.

Alas poor Meleny, I barely knew ye. But this does show you how lethal combat can be for 1st level adventurers in D&D.

TOEE - Arriving in Hommlet

First off, I should tell you not to worry too much by the header. Although I intend to do a series of posts on TOEE, I don't really intend to chronicle my passage through the game. What I plan is to capture screenshots of different combat situations I end up in as I go through the game and explain my approach to that encounter. Hopefully, it will serve as a series of posts which will illustrate the tactical diversity available in an RPG with turn based initiative mechanics and also provide some concrete reasons as to why its such a shame that more games like this aren't published.

With that said, watch as I now immediately deviate from the plan!

Early Origins
Its not much of a spoiler to tell you that TOEE is based on the classic D&D module released in 1985 and voted as one of the most popular D&D modules of all time. And just as with the original module, the meat of this game starts off in the village of Hommlet.

One of the interesting things that this game does though is start you off with an opening vignette which is based on your party alignment and which gives you a reason to travel to Hommlet in the first place. Although nowhere near as extensive as the origin stories in DAO, its quite cool that the game gives you this motivation to be in Hommlet instead of just plonking you down there and saying that you are looking for adventure.

The Neutral Good vignette starts you off in the capital city where, while wandering the streets at night, your party hears a scream in one of the side streets. Rushing over like the bunch of adventurers that you are, you come across a thief standing over the body of a woman. The thief is easily dispatched at which point you search the woman and find that she was the canoness of the church in Hommlet.


In the world of D&D, this should actually be - "if only my cleric was high enough level to cast raise dead..."

With a good alignment, your party decides that it should make the several day trek to a remote village to tell the church there that their canoness is dead. Yeaaah. I know we are 1st level adventurers and hence, poorer than spit, but still - couldn't we even afford to hire a messenger?


Before I know it, we have arrived in Hommlet

Believe it or not, the first thing to happen to my group after we arrive is that we get shaken down by the game's equivalent of the local mafia. We had headed straight for the church to tell them of the bad news whereupon we came across Calmert. Calmert is the administrator of the church and if we wanted to see Canon Terjon, we would have to pay 10gp as a "donation" to the family church.


Luckily, I had pumped some points into my intimidate skill

Seriously? I'm here to do you a favour and deliver some bad news and you ask for a donation? Well, guess what, I got two pieces of bad news for you then cos you ain't getting even a copper piece out of me!


The Raise Dead spell, while great in gameplay terms, is a real drama killer

Hommlet quests
The quests in the opening village of Hommlet are some of the best I've seen in a cRPG. Unfortunately, the very same quests are also some of the worst I've ever seen as well. How? Let me tell you what happened when I first arrived in Hommlet.

When I first arrived in Hommlet, I found my party on a dirt track leading into the heart of the village. The first house I wandered past had a bevy of kids as well as a relatively young grandmother who tells me that she felt it was a shame that two brothers, both of whom are farmers, are feuding over the limited space they have in their barn. A family feud - me senses the potential for some xp!

Walking across the street, I enter the house of Percy, one of the feuding brothers, who promptly complains about how his brother, Filliken, is taking up more than his fair share of space in the barn. Oh, if only someone could talk some sense into Filliken! The wife though, who seems eminently more sensible, has a great idea - why don't they build another barn!

So, I start heading towards the carpenter and along the way, come across Filliken. Who is immediately belligerent toward me as he believes that I am there at the request of his brother, Percy. Which, to be fair, was true. So, no luck in talking some sense into Filliken. I guess that leaves the carpenter.

I look up the local carpenter and ask him if he can build a new barn for the brothers. Unfortunately, the carpenter is busy and isn't willing to help the brothers out by building their barn first. Current estimate is for the barn to be built in around a years time. By now, I should have seen sense and left them to their devices but the munchkin in me wanted the quest xp.

Anyway, the carpenter has a brother called Marek who tells me that he is in love with Althea, the eldest daughter of Filliken. Unfortunately, the carpenters were new in town and members of the Church. Filliken, being old blood, was a member of the Old Faith and before the two young lovers could be wed, Marek would need to convert to the Old Faith. Alas for poor Marek, Jaroo (the local druid) wasn't willing to perform the conversion on Marek.

Ah - true love. How could any hopeless romantic like myself not help out? So, off to see Jaroo to find out why he wasn't willing to help out these young lovers.

It turns out that Jaroo would love to perform the conversion of Marek to Old Faith. The problem is that he is trying to maintain a neutral relationship with the local Church so he won't actually perform the conversion unless he has the blessing of the local Church. At this point, its worth mentioning that this is the same Church that tried to shake me down when I was doing them a favour. Yeah - I'm sure they would be willing to do a good deed.

The Church was not willing to sanction the conversion of Marek to Old Faith (quelle surprise). Unless I could get someone else to convert to the Church and maintain the balance of power in Hommlet. To this end, the Church tells me that Jakk Borton, a local leather merchant, would be a good choice as they have been trying to get him to convert for a while without any success.

So, after quickly changing into my Jehovah's witness shirt, we trek across the village once more as we head out to find Jakk Borton and convince him to join the Church. Naturally, things aren't that easy. After finding Jakko, he tells us that he will only convert to the Church if the Church's God can perform a miracle. Not just any miracle though but a healing miracle on his brother-in-law, Bing, who used to help him in the shop.

Alas, the Canon Terjon is not willing to perform this miracle. The canon actually says that he doesn't have the ability to cast a Heal spell but this is a blatant lie as I find a scroll of Heal in his belongings. Some quick thievery later and I am armed with a Heal spell with which I can cure Bing's sickness! Finally, some progress in resolving this family feud (you do remember that all this is so that I can resolve the family feud right?).

After Bing is healed, Jakko declares his undying loyalty to the Church. The Church then approves the conversion of Marek to Old Faith. Jaroo then completes the conversion and Marek and Althea start planning their wedding. As Filliken is now family, the carpenter is willing to build the barn first. Awesome! Suddenly, everything is falling into place and the feuding brothers will soon have a barn each!

Except not. Naturally, things aren't quite that easy. Although the carpenter is willing to prioritise the building of the barn, he still requires someone to pay for it. Unfortunately, Filliken, who is a stubborn old fool isn't willing to pay for the barn as he thinks that Percy should pay for it. And no, Percy isn't willing to pay for it either. But again, Percy's wife comes to the rescue!

She tells me that Mathilde, the old grandmother I first met, is actually in love with Filliken. Furthermore, Mathilde is loaded so she could easily pay for the barn. Once more unto the breach as we brave the streets of the village looking for Mathilde.

We find Mathilde and sure enough, she would be willing to pay for the barn. Huzzah! Alas, she tells me that Filliken has rejected her advances. Boo!!

Off to Filliken to find out why. Turns out that, although Filliken also likes Mathilde, the stupid old sod believes that he is still in a period of mourning for his dead wife. His wife died over a year ago and Filliken can't remarry under the rules of Old Faith.

Even to my simple eyes, that sounded like a bullshit excuse. But what I needed was proof. So off to Jaroo again to confirm the rules of marriage under Old Faith. Jaroo clarifies that the period of mourning need only last one year at which point people are free (nay, encouraged!) to remarry and have children. In other words, Filliken is free to remarry and has no more excuses.

And with that last obstacle out of the way, Filliken agrees to marry Mathilde. Mathilde in turn, is willing to pay for a new barn and I finally manage to solve the feuding brothers quest. Huzzah!!

Wow - what a quest.

On one hand, this is an awesome quest in that it is so involved. In addition, the solution to the quest is not a simple one and considering the hoops you have to jump through, its no surprise that the villagers themselves never actually managed to resolve it themselves. Which is part of why I love this quest.

So many cRPGs have you doing simple fedex quests where you walk across the street, talk to an NPC and then bam - quest solved. At the end of it, you just sit there and wonder why these morons couldn't have resolved the quest themselves. I mean, all they had to do was walk across the street!

On the other hand, this quests involves you running back and forth across Hommlet numerous times which is really time consuming and soul destroying when you just want to get into combat and kick some ass. Never mind the fact that my party of adventurers, who go around killing monsters to help protect civilisation from the evil cults that value anarchy, ends up spending their time playing Cupid. Really? Geez, I really hope the evil cult doesn't complete their plan for world domination while I'm running around plinking love arrows into people...

Awesome Sword is awesome
Anyway, with all of that running around Hommlet, I actually spent a fair amount of time in Fillikens home. Filliken actually has two daughters in this game. The first is Althea who is in love with Marek. The second is Meleny who became very friendly after I talked to her a couple of times. And when I say very friendly, I mean "farmer's daughter" friendly...

Alas for me, I cannot consummate until Althea is married. Basically, Filliken is old school and won't even consider any hijinks with Meleny until his older daughter is married. Of course, this problem is resolved as part of the feuding brother quest as Althea is free to shack up with Marek. This in turn, leaves me free to shack up with Meleny (who is a level 1 druid).

But shacking up with Meleny is really just icing and is not my main objective. What I really want is the awesome family heirloom that I get for marrying Meleny. Filliken has a Holy Longsword +1 which he gives to me after my agreement to marry his daughter.

Naturally, he makes me promise to look after her.


After all the trouble I went through with his family feud, I can guarantee you that she will get what she deserves...

Temple of Elemental Evil

Well, despite what I said in my Fallout 3 review, I haven't been able to resist the lure of Temple of Elemental Evil and as such, Hitman: Blood Money continues to sit on my shelf waiting for its chance to shine. The thing is, although I enjoyed playing Fallout 3, I've always preferred party based RPGs where you have different PCs taking on different roles. Add in the fact that I've recently been re-listening to the D&D podcasts created by Penny Arcade, PvP and Wil Wheaton and you can probably understand why I've been itching to get back to a very traditional swords and sorcery style RPG.

However, by far the biggest draw for me is that Temple of Elemental Evil features a party going into combat using turn based initiative mechanics. I honestly cannot remember the last time I played such a game. Even the famed infinity engine, which was the basis of my all time favourite cRPG Baldur's Gate 2, wasn't able to scratch this itch as it wasn't a turn based engine (although it was able to capture the feel of D&D game mechanics extremely well).

As a result, after the payment of a mere USD6 to gog.com, I am now the proud owner of TOEE. Naturally, the first thing I did was to download and install the Circle of Eight modpack which fixes many of the bugs in the original game as well as tweaking the rules to make them even more compliant with 3.5e rules. Oh yeah, it also includes a ton of new content (gotta love mod communities!).

I've spent the last week mucking around with the game to get a feel for how the game plays (I even briefly recreated Acquisitions Incorporated ingame for kicks). Bear in mind that I've never played a 3.5e game before so it was important to get a feel for some of the differences (such as clerics being allowed to use bladed weapons!). I'm now ready to start the game properly and you can find the party I intend to use below.

Sir Galahad
Sir Galahad is my sword and board tank. I intend to start him off as a fighter to grab some extra feats and then multi-class him to Paladin to get the Paladin bonuses. I've been a huge fan of the Paladin class since the BG days so having a Paladin in my group was pretty much a no-brainer.


Granted, I had to reroll 81 times but check out those stats!

As you can see from the stats, Sir Galahad is a king among men. As a general rule, I did take the extra time to reroll stats until I managed to get some good ones but even with this in mind, the stats that I managed to get for Sir Galahad are beyond belief. Its probably a good thing I created him last otherwise I would have spent way too much time trying to get similar stats for my other PCs! Anyway, with stats like these, I naturally named him Sir Galahad (who, if you know your Arthurian legends, was the knight who found the Holy Grail).

Falgur Nalbek
Falgur is my backup melee fighter and main healer. I have armed him with a great spear which has 10" reach so that he can stand safely behind my tank during combat. This will allow him to still attack the same target as Sir Galahad while being close enough to heal Sir Galahad if the need arises.


With a Con score of 20, Falgur could have as much hp as Sir Galahad!

One of the nice things about 3.5e clerics is that they don't actually need to select any healing spells. Good aligned clerics can spontaneously change any existing memorised spell to an equivalent level healing spell at the time of casting. This is pretty awesome as it allows you to memorise and play around with other spells without fear of not having enough healing.

Jaheira
Jaheira will act as a backup divine spellcaster. I didn't initially plan on having a druid but in my initial muck-around, I found that all of my clerics spells were spent on healing. The druid will help alleviate this problem and hopefully allow me to cast some of the other divine spells in this game (I did consider having 2 clerics but felt that would be a bit boring).


I admit it - I just couldn't resist naming her after one of my fav NPCs in BG

One of the cool things in this game is that they have partially recreated the crafting system in 3.5e. Unfortunately, crafting magical items, scrolls and potions generally requires an XP cost. Having Jaheira in the group will allow me to create scrolls and potions based on divine spells without my main cleric taking the XP hit.

Coryn
Coryn is my artillery. His role is to stand back and blast enemies from afar. Sorceror is the preferred class for this as he doesn't need to memorise spells hence he can cast as many of the right type of spells as he needs. I also made him an elf so that I could get the free longbow proficiency for cases where I don't want to waste a spell.


With a face like that, I was soooo tempted to call him Edwin...

Of course, the difficulty for me will be in making sure that I pick the right spells. As sorcerors can only learn limited spells, picking the right spell at level up is critical. This wasn't as big an issue in BG2 as, by the time I played a sorceror in BG2, I was already intimately familiar with the game.

Sonora Lothiriel
A rogue to round out the party and to deal with traps and act as the face man for the party. As with the sorceror, Sonora is an elf in order to benefit from the free longbow proficiency as well as the +2 dexterity bonus.



I also intend to multiclass to a wizard after getting several rogue levels. I understand that traps aren't a huge deal in this game so 2-3 rogue levels will hopefully be enough to see me through. Meanwhile, the additional wizard levels will allow Sonora to act as a backup artillery caster as well as taking the xp hit for crafting items and scrolls.

Knights of the Chalice

I mentioned recently that I was interested in playing Temple of Elemental Evil primarily because the combat in that game is very much based the D&D turn based ruleset. Unfortunately, very few turn based tactical games are released these days which is a real shame as turn based games tend to have a very different play style to real time games.

However, as I was thinking about TOEE, something occured to me. One of the comments made about the 4e D&D ruleset was that it was much more easily transferable to a cRPG format. Although no publisher is going to greenlight a AAA turn based game, it was very possible that an indie developer may have made a turn based rpg using the D20 OGL licence.

And after a bit of digging around, I managed to find Knights of the Chalice. In essence, its an indie game based on the older 3.5e D20 licence but what really caught my eye were some of the comments around how complete the help file explained 3.5e rules and how well the game had managed to adapt the 3.5e licence. So it was with great anticipation that I downloaded the demo.

Unfortunately, after playing around with the demo, I uninstalled it. The problem is that the game doesn't appear to be very well balanced. For example, you can only rest your party at designated campsites. You don't get the option of trying to rest in a dungeon but risk being interrupted by monsters. Couple in the fact that, according to comments, quite a few dungeons seal off the entrance after you get in and you can already easily imagine your party going up against the end boss with few spells and limited hitpoints.

But this wasn't what made me uninstall the demo.

While playing the demo, my party of 4 were wandering down a corrider when we were ambushed by bandits. Our party was caught by surprise and lost the initiative battle so the bandits got in 2 turns before my team would be able to act. Two lightning bolts from their mage later and I was left with a mage who had to fight off 6 bandits on his own. This all happened before I got a chance to do anything.

Now, I am generally up for a challenge in terms of gameplay but from my limited playtime with the demo, this game just feels like it would be frustratingly difficult. Furthermore, the game is selling for GBP14.95. Quite frankly, I would much rather pay less money for TOEE and get what is probably a much more balanced game.

Fallout 3

Wow - after a long hiatus, I finally feel that I have played enough of Fallout 3 to give a reasonable opinion on it. I haven't finished the game yet (in the sense that I haven't completed the main story quest) but considering this is an open world RPG, I don't think finishing the main story is all that important (although I definitely intend to do so).

Stuff I liked
Atmosphere
Bethesda have simply done a fantastic job in creating a post-apocalyptic world for you to explore. From the opening cinematic all the way through to the music and graphics, the game not only feels like a wasteland but it also captures the feel of the original Fallout games perfectly. And this isn't just in terms of graphics or sound. What makes the atmosphere in Fallout 3 superb are little touches of how things are placed.

For example, in one of the museums is a demo of the vaults. Basically, it was built by Vault-tec so that they could show people the amazing new vault technology that they had developed. Inside this demo is a skeleton with a mop and bucket next to him. On the ground by his hands is a beer and a snack. Looking at that, you can just imagine the janitor sitting down to enjoy a quick snack just before the bombs hit. Little touches like this really make the game come alive.

VATS
Before I played this game, I really wondered how Bethesda would be able to pull off the VATS system in a real time FPS style. This really isn't an easy thing to do considering that VATS was a system initially designed to enable aimed shots in a turn based game. And I have to say that this is another area where Bethesda have done a good job. They have managed to capture the feel and style of VATS superbly.

Deaths
Another area where the game is hilariously funny are the death animations. I naturally picked the gory death perk as soon as I could and watching people explode into component parts when you get a sneak attack critical just never gets old. If you have played the original Fallout RPGs, then you would know that this is a holdover from those old games and I'm very glad that Bethesda included it in Fallout 3.

Stuff I didn't like
Party or tactical combat
All too often, it seems like your choices are to either have a group or to have tactical combat. Fundamentally, the game does give you lots of options to setup tactical encounters. You can sneak around and set mines. Or you could drop off a grenade in someones pants (which is hilarious).

However, all of those options become moot if you have a group. I have a high sneak skill so I can creep around undetected. My group (currently consisting of dogmeat and the Star Paladin) don't. What this means is that by the time I spot an enemy, they often spot dogmeat or the Paladin at the same time. At this point, dogmeat charges forward to engage in melee. Unfortunately, this also stops me from getting a clear shot so I have to strafe sideways until I can get a clear shot otherwise I end up shooting dogmeat in the arse.

The game tries to cater to this by allowing you to order your group to stay behind. Unfortunately, this isn't easy to do as you have to individually engage each one in conversation and ask that they stay behind. And then, when you want them to regroup, you need to individually engage each one in conversation and ask them to follow you again. Not fun.

I actually thought about ditching the party altogether. The problem is that there are enough instances where you come up against groups of supermutants that you sometimes really do need the extra body count so that the enemy can shoot at someone else instead of directing all their fire at you.

Stupid AI
Bashing a Bethesda game for bad AI - I bet you never saw this coming...

As with other Bethesda games I have played, I'm a little underwhelmed with the AI. In particular, one incident stands out in my mind. At the time, I had dogmeat and Charon in my group and while wandering around the Capital Wasteland, I came across a large raider base. What made this raider base impressive was the fact that they had somehow managed to capture a super mutant behemoth and trap it within some kind of electrically charged cage.

So what does Charon do? He charges into the cage and takes on the behemoth at point blank range. Despite the fact that he is normally perfectly happy engaging enemies at long range with his combat shotgun. Despite the fact that the behemoth is stuck in there and can't come out.

At this point, it doesn't take a genius to work out what happens next. With the amount of hitpoints that a behemoth has, it was able to flatten Charon before we were able to kill it. I thought about reloading but in the end, decided that the stupid twat deserved to die and just kept on going.

Story
Bashing a Bethesda game for its story - I bet you never saw this one coming either...

In some ways, its a bit unfair to pick on Bethesda for this. It is well known that their strength is in creating a fascinating open world for you to explore. In fact, in previous Bethesda games I have played, I have always enjoyed the game more when I deviated from the main story. But at the end of the day, this is an area which could be improved and they should continue to be called on it until they get it right.

Controls
I played Fallout 3 on the PC and in some ways, I wish I had played it on the X360. The issue is that the controls are clearly optimised for a gamepad and the PC version does occasionally suffer as a result of this.

For example, you can assign weapon hotkeys so that you can access different weapons quickly instead of having to go into your inventory each time. Unfortunately, you are limted to only 8 hotkeys - the numbers 1-8. What happened to numbers 9 and 0? The answer is obvious when you look at how the hotkeys are setup around the eight points of the compass which nicely correspond to what the X360 gamepad can handle.

What annoys me about issues like this is that there is simply no reason for the developer not to allow you to use the number 9 and 0 on your keyboard. Its not like they are being used for anything else and even if they were, keyboard mapping on PC games would easily resolve the issue.

Game Breaking DLC
I bought the GOTY edition which came with all the DLC. Initially, I was planning on playing the DLC much later but I accidentally stumbled across the Operation Anchorage DLC while wandering around. Seeing as I was there, I decided to go ahead and complete the DLC.

One of the items you get after completing Operation Anchorage is Chinese Stealth Armour. This armour is awesome in that it acts like a permanent stealth boy provided you are sneaking. At first, I was having a great time sneaking around and headshotting mutants. However, I very quickly realised that the armour actually breaks the game as it becomes too easy to sneak.

Case in point, I now have 200 stimpacks simply as a result of most enemies not having a chance to damage me (and my meager reserves of bloodpacks and ice-cold nuka colas being enough to deal with the minor damage I do get).

Closing Comments
I have to admit that, despite the large number of complaints I have listed above, I do like Fallout 3. It is a good game and it deserves a thumbs up from me as well as the critical acclaim which it has received.

However, one thing which I realised as I played through Fallout 3 was that I really miss the turn based group combat of older D&D games. I really miss those old RPGs where it was really important to have a balanced group able to handle a multitude of situations instead of 1 uber PC who can handle everything. Those kinds of RPGs have a very different feel to them and for me, come closest to the days when I was playing pen and paper RPGs.

After I finish with Fallout 3, I intend to play through Hitman: Blood Money on the X360 (which I borrowed from a friend) but after that, I will probably go buy Temple of Elemental Evil (or maybe go through Icewind Dale).

FM 2010 - Preseason 2013/14

What a year 2012/13 turned out to be! Winning the Premiership and Champions League double gave us a stack of revenue but even so, it wasn't enough to cover our operating costs for the year (primarily due to a huge transfer outlay). As a result, there were several key focus points for my transfer policy over the coming summer.

The first was to ensure that I spent funds reasonably. The reality is that my club had a negative bank balance even with the huge revenue streams I received from winning the Prem and the CL. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't afford a big money signing this year.

The second focus was around Babel and Stevie G - I needed a replacement for Babel as I suspected that he would want to leave the club soon for a new challenge. In addition, Stevie G was starting to get old and I would need a replacement to act as cover in the short term with a view to taking over his slot in the long term. But who could I sign with limited funds?

Luckily for me, our new chairman (if you recall, we managed to kick Hicks out in 2009/10) came up with some additional capital! Together with the sponsorship money and season tickets, our club was not only back into the red, but we had a decent transfer kitty as well!


I like my new chairman :)

Unfortunately, right at the start of the transfer window, Aquilani decided that he wanted a new challenge. Which was a bit of an upset primarily as he was a pretty important player for us.


Lying git - why did you request a transfer if it was so hard for you to leave!

Anyway, time to get started on the transfer market. Which isn't as easy as you would think. The problem is that most players are prohibitively expensive if they are good (you may recall that I spent over GBP40m for Papastaphopoulos who was a CB - imagine how much an attacking player would cost!).

Luckily for me, I knew that I would be looking for a left winger a while ago so I had been keeping tabs on players who might be available and who were able to play in that position. A massive stroke of good luck enabled us to pick up Mesut Ozil for GBP20m which is an incredibly good price considering how good a player he is.


Ozil actually plays best as an AMC but his quality means that he can play AML better than Babel

And the great thing with Ozil is that he can also cover for Gerrard if necessary!

Originally, Ozil was going to be my only new big signing. However, another piece of good fortune would shine on me.


Rumors that I was interested in Wesley Sneijder - I wasn't

A rumor came out that I was interested in Sneijder. The truth was that I wasn't looking to buy him but had scouted him as part of my normal scouting process. However, after the rumor came out, I realised that I could purchase him for a relatively small GBP15m. For a player of his quality, the price was just too attractive and not long after, Sneijder joined our ranks.


Another quality signing - this is shaping up to be a great close season!

Alas, fate would play one more cruel trick upon me. While I benefited from the rumor mill in signing Sneijder, the rumor mill came to bite me in the ass when a couple of clubs showed their interest in Skrtel. I publicly ruled out selling him but alas, by Monday morning, he was in my office asking for a transfer.

Although annoyed, I wasn't too upset as Ian Jones had been doing a fantastic job and I felt he was ready to step up to the first team on a full time basis.



If I ever find proof that someone tapped him up, I will go legal!

As the pre-season draws to a close, this is the look of my squad.




As you can see, I have a pretty huge squad. Part of the reason for this is that I have put a real focus on youth players (new names you see in the team which I haven't talked about are generally people who came up through the youth system or people I bought as youngsters). The other reason for the large squad is that I want to challenge for a couple more cups this year and hence, need some more decent players (even if they are a bit young).

After those screenshots were taken, I made one more new signing. Initially, I had tried to get some experienced CB but they were all looking for guaranteed first team action and I wasn't willing to offer them that. In the end, I had to settle for buying another youngter.

FM 2010 - Season 2012/13

You will recall that at the start of the year, both Agger and Babel were looking for a new challenge. Agger in particular had submitted a transfer request which had caused me a world of trouble as I had to scramble to buy a replacement CB. Agger subsequently left on a loan (with option to purchase) while Babel hung around for another year.

Luckily for me, Papastaphopoulos (what a name!) turned out to be an excellent player and although I still think I overpayed for him, I have to admit that at least he immediately established himself into the squad as a key player.

Anyway, after the disaster that was season 2011/12, there were two key things that I was looking to change.

Younger players
The first thing I wanted to do was to give my youth players more of a chance to play. If you were paying attention during my pre-season update, you would already know this. What you might not know is why.

One of the problems my side has always faced is a difficulty in breaking down weaker teams. In the first couple of seasons, we were generally able to beat the better teams but we always struggled against the weaker teams. At first, I thought it was simply because weaker teams were playing a lot more defensively thereby making it harder for me to score. However, I ultimately realised that the problem wasn't quite that simple as it seemed like some of my key players really weren't playing that well.

In short, I suspected it was a case of motivation. This was why I wanted to put more youngsters into my first team squad. By playing a mix of younger and more experienced players, I was able to have a solid spine of key players mixed in with young lads who were looking to impress and win a regular first team slot.

Buncha' bottlers
The second key thing I changed this year was in how I approached the mental aspect of the team. The problem I have is that my team are a bunch of bottlers. Put them in a pressure situation and they fold like a cheap suit. Looking back at the disaster that was last season, I think one of the things that went wrong was that I put too much pressure on the team to perform.

The thing is, I should have realised this much sooner. The signs were there. In the 2010/11 season, they buckled badly at the end of the year and there was a fair amount of luck in how we won the Prem that year.

The upshot of all this was that I made a very conscious decision to be a little more lenient on the team. Don't get me wrong, I fully intended to give out the occasional roasting (and in fact, did so on more than one occasion) but the key thing was to find the right balance so that the players had an environment in which they could perform.

Premiership
So, with all that said - did it work? What do you think:

Man City were favourites for the title - hahahaha, lets all laugh at MC!

Despite me ultimately running away with the title, things weren't smooth sailing. The start of the season was very similar to how last season developed in that we had a lot of trouble beating teams. In fact, most of the defeats and draws were in the early part of the season. I suspect this was primarily because the changes in mentality that I was trying to implement took time to take effect. However, after they did take effect - wow. My team went on a ridiculous unbeaten streak where we took on all and sundry!

Still, Arsenal weren't making it easy. It wasn't until around Xmas that I actually took over the lead and even after that, Arsenal were breathing down my back. In the end, the extra experience of my side proved decisive as, for some unknown reason, Arsenal fell apart in April and lost a ton of games.

Ah - it sure does feel good to be back at the top. :)


Cup glory too!
I didn't actually do too well in the League Cup or the FA Cup (which really disappointed the Board). What this means is that, as you can probably guess with a header like Cup Glory, I won the Champions League!

Actually, looking back, I have no idea how I managed to win the CL. All through the group stages and during the knockout stages, my team never played particularly well in CL matches. However, we were generally somehow able to sneak a win (due to Torres being awesome this year) which ultimately ensured our progress.

The final of the CL was against Chelsea and luckily for us, they had a player sent off early in the first half. Despite being down to 10 men, they still played really well. In fact, if I'm being honest, they probably outplayed us. However, Torres managed to score a goal on a counter attack and we ended up winning 1-0. What can I say - I guess we were just destined to win it. :)

The Squad
Final squad ratings below. Actually, that's not strictly true. Both Gerrard and Lucas played lots of games and were key players during the year. Unfortunately, both picked up injuries at the end of the year and I dumped them into the reserves while they were out injured. Of course, being the idiot that I am, I forgot to put them back into the squad for the end of year group pic.
D'oh!



As you can see, Torres was our key player this year

A look at the squad value (which doesn't mean as much as it used to as the value now defaults to what you paid for the player before slowing moving to a lower figure over time). Still, with 5 players valued over GBP10M, this is an impressive squad I've got.


Some concerns around the number of older players but otherwise, a good squad

Finances
Unfortunately, despite my success, the clubs finances aren't in particularly good shape.

Despite receiving GBP40M in prize money (GBP20M for the Prem and GBP20M for the CL), I still had a loss of approx GBP24M with my bank balance overdrawn by approx GBP11M. As you can see from the numbers though, a big reason for this is the huge net transfer spend of approx GBP59M (okay, I admit it - I bought the Prem!).

Fallout 3 - Blood Ties (part two)

As promised, Vance was on the mezzanine overlooking the common area. The common area itself was a fascinating look into the Family. Filled with pews all facing the mezzanine, the whole area looked like the home of some kind of cult. This impression was strengthened when I saw Vance standing at the top of the mezzanine looking like some kind of warped preacher with his long black overcoat. I wasn't sure who the Family was but I was pretty sure that they were bad news. In any event, Vance was the key to locating Ian West so I headed up the broken escalator to where Vance stood.

"Welcome to our home," he said as I approached, "My people call me Vance. I lead this group of weary travelers and outcasts who need a home. We do not get many visitors here."

"Really, I wonder why? Could it be due to the number of landmines that you laid in the tunnels outside?"

I have to give him credit. He didn't even bat an eyelid. Unfortunately, nor did he answer my question. Instead, he just looked at me and asked "And to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

"I'm looking for Ian West. I have a letter for him from his sister. I understand he is here?"

He turned and looked out over the common area before replying, "What you see before you is the last bastion of hope for the downtrodden and misunderstood. We are the remnants of society, cast aside like the clean-picked bones of a hunters feast. Men of science would call us cannibals, eaters of human flesh. Society labels us as monsters, demons and the unclean."

I couldn't help but blink at that. Did he just say cannibals? Visions of the West family, with their throats clearly having been gnawed upon, swam before my eyes. I definitely don't want to hang around here. Better find of Ian West and get out post-haste.

"Um, that's great," I said, "but I'm looking for Ian West. I understand he is here?"

"Ah! Your words illustrate why the hardships persist for my people. I think of my teachings as an improvement, a way to transcend our cannibalistic nature."

"What? Look, I just want to find Ian West. I really don't care if you are cann... um... Actually, if I accept that you're no longer cannibals, what do I call you?"

"Each member of the Family must speak one of the Laws. From these Laws, you can discover what we are. Return to me when you are ready."

With that, Vance turned and walked away. "Can't you just answer the frakking question?!" I yelled after him but he ignored me and continued on his way. Bastard.

***********************************************************************

Several hours, and numerous confusing conversations with his "congregation", later, I had a fair idea of what I was dealing with. The Family were not cannibals - they were vampires. Not the actual mythical beings obviously but rather a group of people who follow the ways and rites of the vampires. What was fascinating though was their belief that they could sustain themselves purely on blood. The man in me screamed out against this abomination, telling me to turn and flee, but the scientist in me couldn't resist prying further.

I went back to Vance. If anyone was going to be able to satisfy my curiosity, he would be the one.

"Tell me what you've learned," he said as I approached, "What do you think we are?"

"You're vampires. Or at least you follow their fictional traditions. But what I don't understand is how you manage to get enough nutrients to sustain yourself from blood alone."

"Do you think I believe I can turn into a bat and fly away?"

"Well, of course ..."

"Of course not." Vance continued speaking as if I hadn't interrupted him, "Do I cast my image in a mirror? Absolutely."

"Yes, I know but ..."

"I have shown these people the way of the vampire. I've provided them shelter, organisation and a sense of belonging."

"Yes, I know but how ..."

"Ian is at a critical moment in his life right now. After all that occurred in Arefu, he is scared and confused."

Despite my annoyance, that last sentence caught my attention. "What? What do you mean? What happened to Ian in Arefu?"

"Ian's hunger for flesh overwhelmed him ... it drove him to kill his parents. Because of my intervention that night, he stopped just short of being lost forever to his cravings for flesh. Now, he has become one of us ... a member of the Family. The hunger that drives us must be kept in check. It is one of the most difficult things to teach."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing - Vance had actually listened and was answering one of my questions! In my shock, I missed the chance to get in another question and Vance continued speaking.

"I will allow you to speak to Ian. Perhaps you can help him come to grips with his greatest enemy. Himself."

And with that, Vance once again turned and walked off.

***********************************************************************

I found Ian in a little room at the back of the Family base. He was sitting at the solitary chair in the middle of the room and staring blankly at the wall. Seeing the past perhaps? I'm not sure why but he looked oddly out of place. As if he was uncomfortable with where he was (or what he was?). One thing was certain though - his eyes held the look of a haunted man.

He looked up at me as I entered the room. Something in my eyes must have given me away for he turned back to the wall and said, "You must think I'm some kind of monster."

He sounded so sad. So alone. What can you say to a man who has not only seen his parents brutally murdered but who was the one who caused such tragedy in the first place.

"Ian, I'm sorry but I can't help you. I'm just here to give you this letter. Your sister, Lucy, asked that I deliver it to you."

For a brief moment, at the mention of his sister, there was a spark of life behind his eyes. With a whispered thank you, he took the letter and started to read. For a while, he was silent as he read the letter. Eventually, he looked up and I could see that the letter had clearly had an impact. His eyes watered and his voice choked as he struggled to find words.

After what seemed like an eternity of uncomfortable silence, he said, with a touch of regret in his voice, "Thank you. I think I had it all wrong. I shouldn't have come here. Please, tell Vance I've made my decision. I'm going home to Arefu."

After this, it wasn't long before Ian was ready to depart. When I informed Vance of Ian's decision to leave, Vance merely smiled and enigmatically babbled something about sheep and roads. In fact, Vance seemed happy with Ian's response and held no ill will at all. He even offered to send some of his own men to protect the town of Arefu in exchange for some blood packs. Truth be told, the whole incident ended rather abruptly and surprisingly without incident.

***********************************************************************

I left Arefu shortly after dropping Ian off. Evan King and the other residents were happy enough to see us return and after hearing how Vance had saved Ian West, they were more than happy to agree to Vance's proposal and accepted the Family into the settlement. They even invited me to stay with them. To be honest though, I couldn't wait to leave and was happy to see the back of Arefu and the creepy Family. And that was the situation when I left Arefu - Vance and the Family were safely inside Arefu and had agreed to protect it against raiders. A win-win situation all round.

In my travels across the Wasteland, I did occasionally think of Vance and of Ian West and ultimately came to a realisation. I never went back though. Considering that I have heard no news from Arefu since I left, I sometimes wonder how that little settlement is doing and whether I should go back to check on them. But considering my role in this whole affair, perhaps its better if I didn't.

I have to give it to Vance though. He really knew what he was doing. All the time that I spoke with him, he rarely addressed me directly and never answered my questions. Except once. The one time he answered my questions was when he needed to distract me from the deeper implications of what he was saying.

Vance told me that Ian had succumbed to his desire for flesh and killed his own parents. Vance told me that he had arrived in Arefu just in time to stop Ian from eating the flesh of his own parents. Vance told me that he had saved Ian's soul as a result of this.

But how did Vance know that Ian had attacked and killed his parents on that fateful night? How had he known exactly which night that Ian would lose control of his cannibalistic instincts? And was it coincidence that he had been able to get into Arefu just in time to stop Ian from eating the flesh of his parents?

Too many coincidences - the whole situation stank to high heaven. The only reasonable explanation for Vance being there that night was if he knew what was going to happen. And the only way he could have known that Ian's parents would die that night is if Ian had told him.

When I first arrived in Arefu, Evan King told me that he had been defending Arefu from the Family. That he was singlehandedly protecting the settlement from the wolves that sought to gain entry. And thanks to my efforts, the wolf was invited into the hen house.

FM 2010 - Preseason 2012/13

I haven't finished writing up part two of my blood ties quest yet so instead, you can hear about what I've been doing during the preseason in FM2010.
:P

England
2012 was the year of the European Championships. And, just as with real life, England failed to deliver on the international stage. After getting knocked out of the competition by Italy at the quarter final stage, the FA and the public demanded answers!

After none were forthcoming, the old manager was sacked and a new one brought in. Can you guess who?

I actually considered turning them down until they got better players.

Liverpool
After the abysmal season last year, I needed to ring the changes. Get rid of some flotsam and bring in some new quality players who would be prepared to die for the cause. In particular, I was looking for another attacking midfielder and a world class left back.

Unfortunately, as usual, things wouldn't go my way.

At the start of the preseason, Agger decided that he needed a new challenge and wanted to leave the club. As a result of this, I put him on the transfer list and had a look at other players in my squad. It looked like Babel was also starting to express discontent and was considering looking for a new challenge as well and I figure I am only going to get one more season out of him.

So instead of looking to strengthen my squad, I spent most of the preseason looking for players to replace existing squad members. And the transfer fees in this game are frakking ridiculous.

I managed to identify a world class LB and AMC in addition to some good DCs. However, the asking price of the players I identified were all in the GBP80M+ range - well outside my budget! And to be honest, I don't think I would pay that much even if I had the money!

In the end, I spent GBP41M (most of my transfer budget) on Sokratis Papasthopoulos, a DC to replace Agger. Yes, he is a good player but way overpriced. But then, what choice did I have? The annoying thing is that I still don't have a world class LB and its likely that the transfer kitty for next preseason is going to be spent on a LW to replace Babel.
>:(


Anyway, my squad in preparation for the year. The main reason that you see quite a few new names is because I intend to blood some of the youngsters and put some of the lower quality first squad into the reserves in preparation.



One last thing - despite having crippling debt, Liv are still considered one of the richest clubs in the World.

Fallout 3 - Blood Ties

As you know, I've been playing Fallout 3 recently. One of the quests which I really enjoyed was the Blood Ties quest and I figured I would turn that into a blog post. By the way, it should go without saying that this post will contain spoilers but just in case - SPOILER ALERT!

*****************************************************

The quest itself started off fairly innocuously. While talking to some of the townsfolk in Megaton, one of them mentioned that Lucy West appeared to be very worried about something. This didn't result in an entry in the quest log so, figuring it would be a 2 minute quest, I initially decided to ignore it. However, while wandering around Megaton trying to fix the broken pipes (another one of the quests without a quest log), I came across Lucy and took the opportunity to chat her up with her.

She told me that she hadn't heard from her parents in a while and was worried for their safety. Her family lived in Arefu, a small settlement to the north and she wanted me to deliver a letter to her family for her. Finally, an entry in the quest log!

The way I figured it, why the hell not? I mean, I planned to go north at some point anyway as Moira was looking for someone to check out Minesville. I could just do a quick stop at Arefu on the way, drop off the letter and get into Lucy's good books. Easy, right?

In hindsight, I guess I should have known things wouldn't be that easy. I mean, Bethesda wouldn't have bothered creating a quest log for a simple delivery job, right?
Bazinga!

I arrived in Arefu and, after talking my way past the crazy gun-toting sheriff guarding the entrance, made my way to the West residence. Of course, I knew something was wrong as soon as I got to the door and realised that it wasn't locked. Every other settler had locked themselves inside their homes as they were terrified of being attacked by a gang of thugs calling themselves the Family.

With a fair amount of trepidation, I pulled out my combat shotgun and went inside. Although the place was a mess, the first thing I actually noticed were the two dead bodies. Actually, there was the smell as well, but I digress. One of the bodies was sprawled over the bed and the other was sprawled over the floor. Not particularly pleasant, I'm sure you'll agree, but the really disturbing thing were the bite marks on the necks of the bodies. Clearly, Evan King had been doing a good job guarding the settlement...

Of course, this also meant that I wouldn't be able to deliver Lucy's letter. It wasn't until later, when I was telling King about the dead West family, that I learned about Ian West. Ian was the son and, with only two dead bodies in the house, the obvious question was - where the hell was he? The best guess from King was that the Family had him.

Time to go hunting.

But before I headed out, I needed to rest. The trek from Megaton had been long and, after several skirmishes with raiders and wild animals, I was in no condition to take on a gang of thugs. Would it be disturbing for you to learn that I took this opportunity to take a rest? Would your answer change if you found out that the rest I took was in the West residence and that I spent the night sleeping next to a cadaver?

Anyway, after a little bit of rest, I headed out and promptly got lost in the wasteland. At least, until I remembered that Evan King had mentioned that the Family was likely hiding in one of three possible locations and that he had kindly marked those locations on my pipboy. Hey, cut me some slack here! I'd like to see how calm you are after spending the night hugging a corpse.

I eventually found the Family holed up in the nearby Metro station. After creeping around in the dark tunnels for several hours, I spotted what looked like a raider standing guard outside some gates. Clearly, with the number of traps I had to disarm, these guys valued their privacy and probably wouldn't be happy to see me. Sticking to the shadows, I crept in a little closer and unslung my hunting rifle. One clear shot to the head - that was all I needed, one ... clear ... shot...

"Hey! What are you doing down here?"

It was around this point that I realised the guard was looking right at me. Clearly, a change of approach was called for.

"Umm,' I said a little sheepishly, "I'm ... looking for Ian West?"

"Oooh, you mean the new guy? Go on in, Vance said someone might come round. You should go see Vance first though. He's up on the mezzanine." And with that, the guard opened the gate.

"Oh. Okay," I said, "Thanks."

That's me - the soul of brevity. In my defence, this wasn't the reception I had expected. What with their attacks on Arefu and the number of traps that, presumably, they had laid out to keep people away, I was expecting a bit more ... drama ... before being able to get inside the compound.

Be that as it may, I was in!

*****************************************************

Mass Effect 2 - conversations

I posted my impressions of ME2 a while back. Looking back at that post, I realised that there was one significant omission from it.

First off - I should say that I loved ME2. I think its a great game and, in many ways, it really is a lot better than ME1. The combat gameplay is so much better, it feels like a different game. ME2 also has one of my favourite NPCs of all time (namely, the very model of a scientist Salarian, Mordin Solus) who has some of the best dialogue in the game. However, despite the fact that BioWare really made a lot of improvements in the design of ME2, there was something about it which felt off. There was something which prevented me from playing it as much as I played the original ME1.

And reading this article put that reason into focus for me. Ultimately, I felt that the decisions in ME1 were better than in ME2.

If you look back at my post on ME1, you will find that I actually devoted a fairly large chunk of the post to the role playing decisions that you got to make in that game. In particular, one of the things I loved about ME1 was that making renegade decisions often felt like taking a very pragmatic approach to the problem versus an idealised goody-goody two shoes approach. This really allowed me to play my FemShep as a good person out to save the Universe but who didn't have time to deal with the niceties of a social situation. She wasn't nasty - she was just purely focused on the mission. As I put it in my original post - if you got in her way, she would take you down without a second thought.

However, the decisions in ME2 didn't give me that same impression. In playing ME2, I very often felt like the responses were boiling down into a nice Shep vs jerk Shep situation (granted, there were some exceptions but this was the overall feeling I got). The problem is that my FemShep wasn't a jerk and the renegade response often felt like it was being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk. And this is borne out by my bitch brigade FemShep in ME2, who halfway through the game, had a high paragon meter but only a small renegade meter which was the opposite of what she had at the end of ME1. In the end, I had to start acting like a jerk just so I could up my renegade meter (as you know, having a high renegade meter is important if you want to make certain renegade decisions).

For whatever reason, BioWare weren't able to avoid the nice Shep / jerk Shep situations which they avoided so well in ME1. Hopefully, things will improve with ME3.

Fm 2010 - Season 2011/12

Sigh.

Excuse me for a depressing post but I'm really not feeling particularly buoyant at the moment. Unfortunately, season 2011/12 will be a season to forget for numerous reasons. For starters, I forgot to take screenshots at the start of the year so not much of a pre-season report to give you.

The big changes were that I signed Igor Akinfeev to replace Reina and also managed to bring in James Milner. It was actually a toss up between Lennon and Milner but in the end, I went with Milner as he had slightly better all round stats (Lennon having slightly better attacking stats).

Unfortunately, neither Akinfeev nor Milner did particularly well this year. As a result, Cavalieri managed to get a lot of playing time. And this highlighted a broader problem with this season. Right from the start of the season, my team really struggled to beat our opposition. All too often, my team was outplayed by the opposition (which is what really grates - the fact that we were so often outplayed).

Another issue is that my team seem to be full of bottlers. I noticed this at the end of last season when my team buckled (but still managed to win the Prem as MC bottled it in the final game of the season). However, in the current year, despite MC making a few mistakes and giving us the opportunity to win the Prem, my team always managed to find a way to lose. For example, in a key game against MC to take the Prem lead, my team were 2-0 up but still managed to let in two late goals.

The only upside was that Torres was fantastic this year and managed to pull our ass out of the fire more times than I can remember. If it hadn't been for Torres, we would have had a lot more draws and losses.

Final league table below:


Final team ratings:



And the board - not very happy (understandably)


Just in case it isn't obvious, we won nothing this season. Not only did we not win anything, we were knocked out of all the cup competitions at an early stage (CL - quarter final, FA Cup - 4th round, League Cup - 4th or 5th round

Roll on 2012/13. Sigh.

Fallout 3 - quick rant

Can you believe that I have only just started playing Fallout 3 but already have stuff to rant about? 

Anyway - language warning.  This starts off with a major rant.

Manual
First off, I want to say to Steam and Bethesda - FUCK YOU!

As you know, I bought and installed Fallout 3 from Steam.  Seeing as this is an RPG, the first thing I did was to go looking for the manual (normally, on the games product page on Steam, there will be a link to the games manual).  However, in the case of Fallout 3, it said that there was no manual.  I had a quick look around on my hard drive to see if the manual had been part of the download in pdf form but I couldn't find it there either.  As a caveat, this might simply be because I missed it but regardless, I couldn't find it.

Although this was annoying, I figured it wasn't a big deal and turned to the internet for help.  More specifically, I turned to replacementdocs (a great online repository and my no.1 go-to-source for game manual downloads).  Unfortunately, this is what I found.  The short version is that Bethesda won't allow the site to post any of the manuals from their games.

So in summation - I buy one of Bethesda's games from Steam and not only do I not get the manual but Bethesda seem to be going out of their way to prevent the manual from being posted online.  What a fucking bunch of bastards.

PS I do have the manual now.  In the past, it had been uploaded to Steam and all Steam did was remove the link to it without actually removing the manual.  Of course, I was only able to find this out via a google search. Considering I actually went and bought the game though, getting a copy of the manual was way more difficult than it should have been.

Quest log
The quest log in this game sucks eggs.  Minor spoilers ahead - very minor though as this is all very early on in the game.

Anyway, I have escaped the Vault and have just arrived in Megaton.  After talking to Moriarty and trying to find news of my missing father, I realise I need some bottle caps to purchase this information from him.  Naturally, rather than blindly following the obvious route of talking to the junkie who stole caps from him, I wander around town to talk to the townsfolk to see if there are any odd jobs that I can do for money (hey, it is an open world RPG!).

As I wander around talking to people, I find several possible quests.  One of the settlers is a junkie and the local doctor needs help in getting him to break the habit, the water pipes are old and broken down and need to be repaired and one of the settlers seems to be very worried about something.  None of these quests were logged in my quest book.  Furthermore, the quest book doesn't allow me to type in my own notes so I can't create my own quest notes either.

WTF?  Seriously?  Am I supposed to memorise this crap?

This is an open world RPG.  As a general rule, ALL quests should be logged into the quest log and this rule should only be broken as an exception.  Finding 3 quests which are not logged within the first 10 minutes of entering a new town is simply taking the piss.

Freedom Force

Freedom Force was a game I initially got, together with the 3rd Reich expansion, way back in January during one of the sales on Steam. At the time, both of the games were being sold for USD2 which is an incredible deal. At that price, the game would still be worthwhile even if I only got several hours worth of entertainment out of it.

On a side note - I love the occasional sales on Steam. As I type this, Fallout 3 Game of The Year edition is on sale for USD25 and is currently being downloaded onto my PC. Can't wait to get started so let me know if there are any good mods I should be downloading as well.

Anyway, I finally got around to finishing Freedom Force after several months of occasional playing. The game itself is a real time strategy game where you take control of 4 members of the Freedom Force - a group of superheroes dedicated to Freedom, Liberty and all that good stuff. After forming your group of superheroes, you find yourself pitted against numerous superpowered enemies before finally taking on the big bad himself (who, in the greatest tradition of comic book villains, is out to destroy the Universe!).

Stuff I liked
Atmosphere
What you think of the games atmosphere will really depend on whether you like comic books. More specifically, whether you liked the silver age of comic books as this is were the game clearly draws its inspiration. However, what Irrational have managed to do is throw in a heavy serving of cheese with the game. The amount of melodrama belies description (at least for my paltry vocabulary) and really has to be seen to be believed.

Superheroes
You are controlling a squad of superheroes. I'm a serious comic book and superhero nerd. Come on - do I really need to elaborate on this?

Flexible powers
Irrational have done a great job in building up a diverse list of superpowers. Certainly, there is enough in the game that you can easily imagine building up a Marvel or DC superhero quite easily. In fact, you don't need to imagine it as the mod community has a library of skins and game mods for you to try out a new batch of superheroes. Spider-Man, X-Men, FF - they can all be recreated here for your amusement.

Characters
The heroes themselves are a great bunch of characters. I was tempted to immediately sub in my favourite Marvel superheroes when I started to play this game. However, I decided to stick with the default characters and I was really glad I did. The heroes in the default list you get to choose from are an eclectic and strange, but funny, bunch of characters and the developers did a fantastic job in designing them.

Stuff I didn't like
Superheroes?
Unfortunately, the superheroes you get to control feel seriously underpowered. At no point in the game do you feel as if you are controlling a group of superpowered heroes. If you ever get in a fight with a bunch of goons, you are going to be lucky to come out alive (even if the goons in question are your ordinary run-of-the-mill gangsters). I can understand that this is done for gameplay balance reasons - but still, its annoying to have to micromanage even when you face off against ordinary humans.

Not enough RPG
I really shouldn't complain about this considering that the game was designed as a real time strategy game. However, I can't help but feel that a more robust leveling up system would have helped the game. Possibly, this is tied into the first dislike that I had above.

On a side note, I know this will never happen but I really wish someone would develop a turn based superhero RPG. That game would scratch so many itches. Way too niche for a mainstream developer though. Maybe an indie developer?