Any worthy of mention. I really, really, miss tactical squad based RPGs like X-Com, especially the technology research part. So hard to find an RPG these days that isn't a Diablo clone or isn't a hack and slash RPG.

Well, come to think of it...any non-hack and slash RPG sounds like an idea.

Arcanum perhaps? I haven't played it, but it looks interesting with the tech trees.

Aye. Unfortunately the combat system was a joke (well, compared to Fallout 1&2, which game at that day and age wasn't a joke?) and it was ridden with nasty bugs (worst of all, corrupting saved games). Thus, any Troika product is met with my gaze of bitter contempt. I have not recovered from this traumatic experience.

Any Troika product as in all three of them? And even Bloodlines? Come on...

Game permanently crashed during encounter with a German vampire hunter...Von something. Couldn't get passed it...and this was after numerous patches.

I still remember the unpatched version. The sky would turn into Matrix coding, stutter, and hang/crash.

Though if you're unconvinced of the numerous bugs this game has...the trivia section just about explains it. Though I still couldn't get past that vampire hunter...even after the fan-made patches. -_-

How long ago was that? Because for the last few years (at the very least 2 years, probably more) it's been working A-OK with the unofficial patches. I haven't had any problems in two and a half playthroughs, and believe me, I did enough stuff to break most games out there today.

That trivia section is WAY outdated and it can kiss my hairy ass.

The crash after the hunter (actually when you leave the area in the boat, and I believe only if you save the guy) is only in the original (1.1) version, 1.2 fixes it, without even getting to fan patches. Certainly did for me at least, and I had played 1.1 till then, just patched to 1.2 at that point and that was that.

I usually encounter every single possible bug in any game I play. But for some freak irony I hardly encountered any bugs in Bloodlines, even though I played it shortly after released and probably unpatched (maybe the first patch).

Troika's legacy for bugs continued with Obsidian though. Neverwinter Nights 2 corrupted my save games halfway in the game. New Vegas crashed to desktop every half hour or so and had a couple broken quests, because I did something it didn't account for. Didn't encounter much problems with Kotor 2, but half the content was missing.

Except that game-breaking one, Bloodlines' bugs were originally mainly in the form of broken off-the-beaten-path side-quests and incomplete/inactive content, plus I believe some stuff if you played a Malkavian. Watched a part of a playthrough with latest fan patches once and was quite dumbfounded at all the stuff I had missed, but player was also pointing out that quite a few of those things were inactive or broken in the original version so no way not to miss them then.

As if Fallout 1&2 weren't buggy? As much as having unplayable quests?

Few years ago I've found (via dlh.net) unofficial patches for Arcanum with long list of fixes - have you tried them?

Played that when I was a wee younger. Was much more forgiving back then. Thankfully, Troika's reign of terror came to an abrupt end, not surprisingly. Only to be replaced in its tradition of bugs by German game developers. -_-

Speaking of Arcanum, seems like Avellone started it after all :))

Tactical gameplay is no longer really en vogue in genera. Some Jagged Alliance clones lately, but few really worth mentioning. And the development of the Rainbow Six series epitomizes the entire tactical shooter genre. There's no real tactics left at all. In my opinion, a shooter without a separate planning stage can't call itself tactical, period. The way I see it, Hitman is actually the only somewhat tactical shooter series still around.

Aye, I could go with that. Imagine if Hitman had a technology tree...how would that not be more awesome?

*invest in this skill to drag/carry bodies faster*

Yeah, totally.

Seeing as you play a top assassin, I guess the assumption is that all your skills are already at max.

Oh, I forgot to mention the amnesia plot. There's always an amnesia plot. :p

That doesn't work anymore. Jason Bourne proved that you keep your skills even if you suffer from amnesia.

Speaking about tactical stuff... while active pause system sounds more realistic (everyone acts at the same time), I don't find it rewarding enough... there is something about planning ahead when you play in turns, counting action points, anticipating enemy actions like in chess. When I play anything using Infinity Engine, I keep pressing pause every few seconds (so gone is the smooth action effect), yet I lack the precision of turn-based combat.

It's sad that the latest Jagged Alliance is only a remake and with active pause to boot. X-Com: Apocalypse or Fallout: Tactics at least allowed you to choose between modes of play.

The only real-time tactical squad RPG game I know that actually worked out is Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy.

Giant bugs popping out of nowhere and you didn't bring anyone with a rocket launcher in da squad. Yeah, you're screwed. This game should receive a freakin' medal as far as I'm concerned...and not a single award in the gaming media. Hope the press that scored negatively on this game dies a horrible bug death. Amateurs.

A game about bugs with no bugs. Yeah, a freakin' medal.

I hated that movie...

Another game that's similar to JA, Wages of War. It had military-themed sequels.

Deadline is real-time, but as tactical as it gets.

If you hated that, you must really hate 300. I loved both, no need for drama, just kill everything in sight. Lovely.

A lot of plot holes where explained in the game. I love it when that happens. Reminds me of KOTOR 2 when they were explaining where Chewbacca and his race came from.

*and why is Chewbacca deemed a spelling mistake? Damn you Google Chrome!*

Why is that game in the "Inspiration: Movie" game group if the description specifically states it's based on the book?

The description is wrong. Just look at the cover and screenshots. The uniforms, the Federation logo, the design of the bugs, all straight from the movie. The game just combines it with stuff from the book, like the power armor.