James

Yeah, so much work went into those RPGs. I have really fond memories of them. I'm wondering if anyone has heard from Kevin/Rick Hunter? What's he doing these days? He had a YouTube channel for a little while but it's gone now...

I personally haven't noticed anything missing, but certainly, the HTML-heavy RPGs we used to do are borked. But at least the content is still there! It's fun to go back sometimes and re-read that old stuff. I'm still just blown away that the PMs survived! I feel like I could write a book about my PM discussions, haha.

That's cool. I'm playing Alyx super slowly so that it doesn't end too soon, heh. Like you I'm also playing through the earlier games as well. Are you playing Half-Life: Source or Black Mesa? I highly recommend the latter. Although it's created by a fan community, I'd say it's really the definitive version of the original game. And Half-Life 2 is simply incredible. It remains an amazing game even now in 2021. Out of curiosity, where are you up to in HL: Alyx?

Me too. Last night I went into my private messages on here and realised they'd all been retained! My god, it was a cornucopia of wonders from (almost) the last 20 years. At one stage, Kevin from AE invited me to participate in a podcast debate about AE/OB...haha. So bizarre to read that (and my response) from the time.

Has anyone played Half-Life: Alyx? I can't believe OB has been around for so long that we actually saw the arrival of Half-Life 3 (well, kinda). Playing through Half-Life: Alyx has prompted me to (yet again, for the millionth time) play through Half-Life 2. It's incredible to me just how well that game has held up. It still looks and sounds amazing, and the gameplay is as sharp as ever. It's really stunning - definitely one of my favourites. Also, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is pretty good. It's definitely bringing back memories. The series really holds up well.

"OB will exist until the end of the world." Well.

Oh yes I saw this on Discord. Congratulations!! Such gorgeous photos. 🙂

Hm, not a bad idea. But I don't think I could do justice to it. 😞

Right now I'm playing: Persona 4 Golden I had bought a Vita a while ago and kinda just left it collecting dust. I didn't get Persona games...I kept dying in Persona 4 Golden, heh. But then I played Persona 5 and I began to understand how you're supposed to play these games...so I've now gone back to Persona 4G and I'm loving it. I just picked up Freedom Wars as well, which I'm keen to try out. Ghost of Tsushima What can I say about this? It's getting rave reviews. It's really good. I'm slowing down on it a bit more now though...it's a very large game, and starts to feel a bit repetitive. But it's still lovely. I'm chipping away at it here and there. Catherine Full Body Never played the original version of this, so I was keen to try it out on PS4. I'm enjoying it so far for the most part. Pillars of Eternity This is my first real go at a CRPG (even though I'm playing on console). I've never been able to get into CRPGs really - never had the patience. But I'm giving this a serious shot, and I'm generally enjoying it. It's really fantastically written. I've mostly got the hang of how combat works, but there are some things that confuse me and aren't explained well in-game, so no doubt I'll be hunting for some tips on YouTube. 😛

Nice one! Looks like you got the chance to do quite a lot. I agree with you 100% about the food. My goodness. There's SO much great food everywhere you go! The best food I had was probably at a little Japanese curry place at Nara Station. It was really small and didn't look special from the outside, but when I went inside, there were a lot of awards hanging on the walls. The curry was so incredible - best I've ever had in my life. I still get cravings for it, haha. Fortunately there's a lot of great Japanese food in Australia, as Japanese restaurants (often run by Japanese folks) are very common. But still, there's nothing quite like eating Japanese food in Japan. Mind you, the moment you stray from Japanese food over there it starts to get a bit iffy. Their western food is often a bit patchy, and I was surprised that their Chinese food is often not great (at least in my experience). Ironically, we also went to an Indian restaurant in Ginza (one of the very few I saw) and it was also one of the best Indian restaurants I've ever been to. I love Indian food... so that was a nice surprise. You did quite a few things I didn't. For example, I didn't get the chance to go to the Fushimi Inari shrine...despite that being so famous! But I did go to Nijo Castle and Honmaru Palace as well as a few other historical places, all of which were stunning. In terms of our journey, it kinda went like this: Arrived in Tokyo and stayed one night in Shibuya. Next morning (super early... ugh) took the Nozomi Shinkanzen to Hiroshima. Spent a good few days in Hiroshima and did NYE there (which was amazing). Took Nozomi from Hiroshima to Kyoto. Spent a few days in Kyoto and while we were there, we also visited Nara and Osaka (we only did one night in Osaka, I wish we'd done more). Went from Kyoto to Tokyo on Shinkanzen. Stayed in Ginza for about a week and explored around Tokyo from there. We did a ton of stuff around Tokyo. The biggest highlight for me was the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. Words can't describe that place. Honestly, it brought me to tears at one point. It was beyond gorgeous. Really lovely to hear about your trip - I am going to see if I can share some pictures here. I've gotta get 'em off my phone! 😛

Any ideas on a type of RPG/theme?

The big question is, what should it be about? I haven't written any kind of fiction in years. If I could get the gang back together (or most of them), I'd like to have a crack at either a new Maverick Hunters RPG or even just continuing the last one. It'd be super weird (but also kinda cool) to just resume something we stopped a decade ago. 😄

It's cool that you made your way to Japan. What areas did you visit? Was it what you expected? I went to Japan last year (well, end of 2018 through start of 2019). I went to NYE celebrations in Hiroshima, which was a ton of fun.

Well who would join me if I did?! Hm...? I feel like it’d be a lonely RPG...

I wish I'd replied to this thread originally so that I could see if my predictions would come true.