Meshugger

It was supposed to be PC only with QuadCore as minimun requirement and complete DX10 utilization. How the times change. No, it was supposed to be the poster child for (Intel) quad core utilization, not that it was supposed to be the minimum requirement. It would run on two cores too (minimum requirement). Bleh, that was just to fool the non-QuadCore crowd that they could play it too

No, I mean, how do you figure it's not possible to have a desperate, utterly humiliated person believe he's better off taking what the "good cop" is offering? That was not what i was saying. By careful social engineering, the subject will willfully give the information wanted because he has established a bond of friendship with the interogator. I was not talking about the good cop/bad cop-scenario. Sigh. And here I thought we were making progress. So... can you actually substantiate that? Hoho, aren't we a scholar today? It is very difficult to prove, for example if you want to prove that inflicting harm to further ones goal benefits society more than not doing so. If person A impose harm on B, and consequense on doing so may only benefit A, and only on the expense of B, is that really torture in the sense of the point i am making? No. However, when intelligense services conduct torture, the beneficiary is the state, and since a state cannot exist without people, the people ultimately bear a moral responsibility. If the people wish equality in front of the law, then the state should be able to torture them, which is counterproductive since no one really wants to be tortured. Subsequently, the state has to torture people that are not of the state or sovereign. This implies that torture is conducted by those who can on those who can not defend themselves, might makes right and all. That concludes, for me, that torture is a form of tyranny that benefits only benefits strong, which has no place in a western society.

I concur. Such a regal creature. I mean, just look at its facial expression!

It was supposed to be PC only with QuadCore as minimun requirement and complete DX10 utilization. How the times change.

They probably had a focus group research study, where it became apparent that the marget segment for the PC users was to small to cover the overall marketing campaign.

Source. In case if anyone cared.

I disagree. I'll elaborate on this later though, when I chew through more of the story - to make sure I'm not wrong. I finished the forest. So far there are some things I don't like: -Too much grind in areas dedicated to the main quest line. Both the elven and mage recruitment missions felt overlong with too many mobs to go through. -Too many random encounters against mobs, practically one per trip. -Leliana. The character is too schizophrenic. -Too many generic quests. Especially the boards, but much of the other stuff as well. -The PC's dialog options. Too short and to the point, reminds me of Shepard. -Design of the forest. What I like: -The resolution of the Witherfang quest. -Most of the game's joinable NPC's. They're mostly a bit on the dull and generic side but they're not emo, and they've got interesting storylines. Wynne in particular. I've yet to get the dwarf. -The way you learn the Arcane Warrior or whatever that mage specialization is called. -Design of the ruins in the forest. No. When my mage PC is doing all the slaughtering and all the rest are only used to keep the enemies busy something is not right. Spamming mana potions and dancing away allows my PC to dish out obscene amounts of damage, to the point where most of the other characters seem redundant. In DnD this power has limits, in the amount of spells you can dish out in an encounter. In DA you just have to keep potions handy and you can slaughter just about anything. And every spell is available, thus you don't have the possibility of being unprepared. No other available class can even touch a mage, if he's played with at least a little effort and stocked up on potions. -Also when you've gained sufficent levels, you always have a spell that has "cooled", and with enough potions you could more or less deliver an unending stream of spells. You misunderstand my point. DA showed me, dispite its shortcomings, that Bioware can make a good RPG. As you said, make DA2's story more personal, give room for areas that have nothing to do with the main story having quests of their own. Give more variation when it comes to enemy encounters, upgrade the art design and color palette, work further on the game mechanics and you have a really great game. It has solid ground, it simply needs to lift off. And who the hell called Vizima a city of bad design, in terms of scope and art again? That's just pure BS all the way through.

This and torture are mutually exclusive... how? Because they are simply fooled. No physical pain involved and no psychological either. Kinda like men try do in order to get a easy lay on a late friday night. As i said, having to work for a sadist. Not really a selfless sacrifice, since it doesn't require the accused to act out of sadism or desperation. The consequence of being held in court happens no matter the intention. The morality of torture is that the act is inheritly wrong, no matter the reasons behind it.

Time to sprinkle a little blood magic on those babies. - I would totally raise a blight in her Ostagar. - I would totally venture into her Deep Road. - She could totally rebuild my Circle Tower. - Etcetcetcetc....

Yeah, i actually bought it/played it since i thought that it had awesome graphics back then. But the setting left no lasting impressions for me, quite boring actually. Thus, i am a bit dissapointed about this.

Most investigation stories and books that i have read about the subject has given me the following conclusion: 1) Those who have sanctioned torture are seldom people of high moral character. Either they are sadists themselves, or have to work with sadists. 2) Being subtle, fooling and oversmarting your opponent is more prevalent. The best act of espionage or counter-terrorism comes when the enemy is not even aware that you have aqcuired information from them. 3) Targets of torture are often trained against physical pain and psychological wargames. More often, they come from backgrounds where they have been inflicted severe physical or psychological abuse since childhood. 4) When conducting questioning of a subject, the most valuable information is often acquired when the subject is relaxed and have created a sense of bond, call it even friendship, with the questioner. The questioner is often an expert in social engineering and of high intelligence. Sanctioning torture says more about us than about our enemy. Only men that lack class, sense of culture and high ethics thinks that it is ok. Like the Soviet Russians. On the hypotethical situation that numbersman put up: It simply lacks any practical significance, but i will play along. Lets say that torture was the only way to acquire the information needed, and consequently torture was implemented. However, the torturer and the those involved and sanctioned it should be put into prison according to the law of the land. If the subject of torture have died, they will then be tried for murder and will be given life in prison. Like a good RPG, there should be choices and consequences for your actions. No army should have a field book on torture, torture should not be a legal technicality, torture is simply an action of the desperate that lack intelligence, honor, rectitude and class. Torture is a criminal activity.

DA showed me that Bioware has the potential to make DA2 to be this centurys BG2.

Hmm. Would you rather have Obama or Palin as President? Understand I am no particular fan of Obama's, but the idea of Palin as President seems appalling to me. Put me down for "None of the Above". I think I have a better shot in 2012 than Palin does. Between you and Palin, no scratch that, between you and any other Republican, i would vote for you. Just sayin'.

Damn right, caffine should be banned. So many people are addicted to this horrible substance. Totally, especially when you just want to go out and have a glass of juice with a friend. My jacket, and all my clothes stinked of coffee, yuck! Can't they just drink coffee at home instead?

But you don't hear about reefers smoking "a pack or two a day" of blunts.

Point one. And of the whole "culture of smoking" comes from being rebellious, living on the edge so to speak. Separate it from that, and smoking goes down by itself. However, you guys are facing two different problems with that: - If you systematically ban/outlaw smoking further, it will only justify the rebellious culture around smoking (hint: look at all the "cool" bands and rockstars that are out there) - Since smoking is bad for you, and thus, it is part of the whole "living on the edge"-culture. How do you not make it bad? Also, there was a smaller british company that started to produce electric cigarettes, where you only breathed out regular steam out of water. No tar, no smell, no carcinogens, no risk of cancer for you or anyone else. The only thing that you inhaled was the flavour, water and nicotine. But do you know what the non-smoker lobby did about it? Complete ban in most countries, since it sends the "wrong" signals to youths. Thanks a lot, guys.

Hey, they promised better graphics for DA2. Yay! //EDIT: Hopefully that will include fixing the facial animations. For example, when Leliana sang at the campfire (bad song aside, couldn't they just have done some folk-music?), it looked more like that she desperately needed to take a dump rather than singing.

"Revolution", eh? 2012 will be such a hoot, i tell you.

Thanks, i just did that

^What the hell did i just write? Grammarnazibots? must've had a brainfart. No worries, Gorgon. I will not send you any sexbots of any kind.

The characters are dead (no, really), focus on the atmosphere (and for god's sake, the music man, THE MUSIC) instead of the story. + OVA 9000 Finishing DA left me with no interest to play anything for a while. For once, i actually feel satisfied, like after a good meal. I think that i will read some books or play some guitar instead. Until FFXIII is released, that is.

Exactly! When the times allow it, i will order a grammar nazibot to Gorgon. Who knows what it will actually do, but i think that he will be happy with it.

Yep. You touched on the two biggest WTF moments that really, really rankled me. I still loved the game, but damn. Those were two really crappy "design decisions". I not only hated them, I actually resented them. When I finished my latest game, I sacrificed myself because that cad Alistair dumped me when he became king. Grrrr. Elitist cur. So I died just to be contrary... and because I wanted all my companions to file past my good-looking corpse to say nice things about me. But... but... Alistair just gave this windy speech... calling me his "friend" which made me want to leap out of my coffin and scratch his eyes out... and nobody else said a damned thing! They were all at 100% with me... and they couldn't find a couple of nice parting words?? From now on, Alistair dies. Oh, yes. He will always die. Bwahahaha! Hahaha, oh man, now THAT was a sucky ending

Wee, finished the damn thing after ~65 hours of gametime. My human Noble with his minxy orleasian girl went on traveling together forever, yay! 8/10 But first of all, what the hell happened to Alistair when i did *that* decision at the landsmeet? Talk about being out of character, sodd him and his whiny ass and the writer who came up with that "solution". Same with Morrigan and her "solution" at the fireplace in the end, talk about being in an awkward position. Big kudos to Bioware though for making the gameplay actually *fun*. Please continue to build upon that. I will do a replay sometime solely for that reason. Speaking of the expansion, i would gladly jump into that one if it weren't for FFXIII being released the same week. Sorry Bioware, but my dose of JPop comes before Manowar-wannabees. That copy will collect dust until then. However, will the expansion include the DLCs, or do you still have to pay for them seperately? And why is Alistair in those "Awakening"-trailervideos, my Alistair didn't stay with me on my big ending ceremony, will he be replaced by someone else, or is the pro-Alistair-ending canon now?

Or Nietzsche, or Shopehauer, or Spinoza, or...