aries101

sorry for the snip, but this way the question stands out more clearly. The Teddy Bear Launcher actually is in the game. It is just called a Rock-IT-Launcher. You can put anything in it, from rocks to ashtrays to teddy bears. Personally, I think shooting teddy bears at people is stupid and not fun at all, but Todd Howard thinks otherwise...

In the tread about the patch at the Biowware forums, Rob MCGinnis said that we had to clear out our override folders as well as our custom UI folders. Why is this? BTW, I have a default UI folder. Is this the same as custom UI folder ?

Maybe I got my wording wrong? then ? I 'm referring to the 21 choices in TES where you can choose between being an acrobat, an archer, and some rogues etc. etc. I'm not sure if this is what classes are meant to be in other systems? I mean, in Mass Effect playing as a sentinel or as soldier is choosing a class? or have I misunderstood this ?

I won't say the obvius here, because contrary to popular belief, most console gamers are not stupid and dumb. They are just casual players who like to have a good time playing games, not thinking too much about what they're doing. However, I still think they're perfectly able to understand that you get a perk every other level - this also gives them something to strive for, a reason to make progress in the game. Todd H. reason for dealing out 1 perk/level up seems to be that people often mistakes traits for perks. I don't think Todd H. understands how leveling works in The Elder Scrolls game or he probably would have it streamlined. If there is one thing that needs to be streamlined in the TES universe, it is the leveling process. I mean, everything is dependant on something else. There 21 classes....which could easily by streamlines to about 7-8 classes. But I digress...alrhough, yes, it probably would make Todd's head explode...at least mentally... if he, as the decider, were to make a D&d game. In Fallout, you don't have classes, instead you use skill points to determine how your character plays the game. Want to play the game most-ly noncombat...then put skills into science... Bethesda seemed to have grasped and gotten that concept. After seeing the E3 demos and interview, I'm cautiously optimistic about this game...

It is a good thing I think that Gygaxx isn't alive to see this happening to his invention... I don't mind there being a Spell Plague, could be interesting to see how the inhabitants of Faerun deals with this sort of thing. I do mind, though, that the Plauge will not affect the Sword Coast in any way, shape or form. What did the people there do? Did they put up some magical kind of barrier?? I don't like the thing about turning monsters etc. into someone from either Hell or Heaven. It means that Faerun loses a lot of its charm if we don't get to see any Batezu or Tanar'ri ? anymore. It just flattens the world...I find...

from the gamesradar hands-on preview p. 3 --- http://www.gamesradar.com/pc/fallout-3/pre...51320531089/p-3 Now, there's a consequence I didn't expect. Nice to that your actions do have consequences, also on a large

I just saw the LiveWire from IGN and I have just to say this: Wohoo: just like Homer Simpson probably would (eh-maybe not...) The gameplay felt and played just like Baldur's Gate to me. Except for one thing, though. The mage had to use a staff to get her spells working. I liked this a lot, though. I also like that wer can zoom in and out at will. The Ogre? at the top of the tower looked great, too and Greg Zeschuck did say that dragons have been confirmed... and I do think your character will get to see one... The common people in Ferelsen might not, though...

Awesome, I hope it isn't changed That has the potential to become incredibly tedious and annoying, though. Healing potions were invented for a good reason... Yes, it can. But then, there's nothing preventing you from either having a mage that's the advanced class mage or using fast regenerating magick. Also, there are no resurrection in this game. When people are dead they are dead. And stay dead. (unless you reload, of course...)

That rather depends on how you define 'low magic' doesn't it?? David Gaider have said that this game is going to be low magic. Not in terms of there isn't much magic in the game, but rather in terms of magic being rare and not overused. Ordinary people will fear mages as mages are seens as powerfull people...

When I wrote 'when you're hurt you hurt. You need to fight your way back to base camp to get medical attention' I was well aware that magick could be used to speed up the regeneration and that an advanced class for mages will be specialized in healing and buffing. To me, this means two things. Healing will be done like in some movies when you just lay your hands on someone and they get healed, i.e. their skin regenerates faster, or you will need to specialize your mage in healings and buff spells. Since there are no healing potions or spells in Dragon Age: Origens. I think David Gaider (the lead writer) has said that you can get seriously hurt in this game. You will have base camp, though. If say, you get seriously hurt in battle, you can't just drink a healing potion or do a healing spell. You need to get to base camp to get medical attention i.e. being stitched up and such. This could have changed, of course. I like the (new) IGN screenshots, though

Here's a nice post from Bioware's DA: Origens forums about magic http://forums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?t...44&forum=84 (scroll down a bit to see what Maria Caliban has to say) A few highlights, though (for the lazy ones, like me ) Magic is going to be very dangerous and rare. The Church and the religion in Ferelden, the place in which the games takes places are against magic, any magic. Mages are born. Period. You're a mage or not. Period. As soon as you show any talent for magic...well, you get taken away to...ehm...another place. Mages can cast mind control spells. It is forbidden to do so. Anyway....when did stop someone... Mages are feared by the common people. Magic does not include summoning, teleportation or resurrection. There will be no healing potions or healing magic. When you're hurt, you're hurt. You need to fight your way back to base camp to get medical attention. To me, this is looks far better than the system used in D&D... It will definetely not be a Tolkien rip-off at all. Maybe it will blend some RTS elements into the RPG environment?

Do you think 'the larger scale combat' actually means that the game will be an RTS/RPG hybrid. This game footage or trailer does indeed seem to suggest that this could indeed be the case. Apart from me worrying about this, I sort of liked it. I was intrigues when the King (His Majesty) mentioned the Blight. What is it? And how do the player character fit into this particular world setting...

well, there's a shocker! thank goodness Bio is taking such big risks. Yes, but you see the dwarves are not dwarfes in the D&D sense like the elves are not the High Elves of the Tolkien nor the D&D Universe. The elves may live in tree-villages but these villages are completely different from anything we've seen in a crpg in a very long time. I seem to remember a discussion about zombies and orcs in the game on the DA forums at the Bioware boards in which David Gaider mentioned that yes, there would be what we will call zombies in the game, but there really not zombies just like the orcs are not really like orcs...or what we know as or interpret as zombies or orcs... Please allow me to digress a little: As teacher I know that it is necessary to reach into a connection point in the students' consciousness meaning that I have to find somewhere in the brain (or consciousness) to connect the new things I'm going to teach them - else they will simply not learn it. The point is this: We, as crpgs, tend to interpret interpret orcs and elves, in the D&D connection or setting, since this is what we know. When, David Gaider, then comes along telling us, that yes, there will be dragons in dragon age, but not the dragons from D&D, we do have hard time takem this in, understanding this and what it really means. It is no different than the people in the medieval ages interpreting the toothwhale's tooth as the horn from a unicorn or sailors interpreting seamammals, sea-lions, seals or even dolphins as strange and mysterious underwater creatures such as mermaids and such -ehm- things? Hey, someone might even mistake a moose for a horse, if all they've ever been exposed to - that has four legs, a head and tail, is a horse. We tend to put new information into what we know is true - and when someone tells us soemthing we cannot fathom or understand - or wold split apart. Many Danes still think that LEGO is a Danish company. Well, it is. But only because it has its main adress in Denmark. The LEGO company has branches and affiliates allover the world, the same for B&O, the Danish Radio/TV company. Understanding this, sort of shatters the Danes belief system. Understanding that say the dragons, the orcs and the zombies in Dragon Are are different than the orcs etc. in D&D will be a belief shattering experience to some, if not all, players of the Dragon Age game.

Yes, we know that Dragon Age will be taken place in continent (I think?) called Fereldern. We also know that you can choose your origin story and magic is being mana based. We also know that if you choose to start as a dwarf, or an elf, or a mage, you will start in the dwarven village, the elven village or the mage's village (probably a tower or something). The reason being magic being mana based is simply because magic in Dragon Age is low magic - not the high magic from D&D where every Tom, Joe & Harry seem to know a few spells. Magic in Dragon Age is limited to (from what I remember) mages. Only mages can use magic in Dragon Age. They do this by drawing from nature's surroundings creating fire(balls), drawring from the ether etc. when they do magic. Much more in tune with magic in Lord of The Rings I find, than with the magic used in D&D today. We also know that dwarfes live underground and that elves life in tree-villages. We also know that Bioware's (or maybe David gaider's?) take on say elves are not the high fantay class elves, maybe more in line with the elves in the witcher?? nor are the zombies & orcs going to act like the orcs & zombies in your typical D&D game. We also know that Dragons are a force of nature --- something very few people have actually seen - while many may heard of it. And in a rather lenghty post, David Gaider talked about why this age (in DA) was named Dragon Age, something about 'a chantry' that looked for signs and then gave the age an appropriate name. I'm as exited as the next one for July 9th....maybe we finally get a release date?? or a trailer or something?? I'm just curious why Bioware deiced to reveal this on the 9th of July....?? Did they use a clairvyoant to set the date? What's so special about July 9th? Other than it is a wednesday??

A very happy birthday to you Obsidain May you have many more

According to Chris Priestly, Bioware's Community Manager, the game is already out in some stores in Souteast Asia. And by that I mean Singapore, Thailand, Korea and a few more countries. For my money, this is a very weird decision since I know that game, music and video piracy are big problem in the Asian region. The games releases this week (tomorrow on the 28th of May in 2008) in US/CAN while most of us Europeans will have to wait untill June 4th-6th. This actually give the pirates 8-10 days to do what they do best (and no, I'm not one of them nor will I ever be) - and by that I mean cracking away at the code, the activation etc. Especially when the game is already out in a region of the world that is notorius for piracy. The same could be said for the decision not to include the drm activation scheme in Russia since apparently piracy is a problem in Russia, they decided to not use Securom in the Russian game. It will Starforce instead, though. But that's not the point, though. The point is this: Bioware and EA seem to rewarding the pirates (in Russia) by simply saying 'hey, we know there's alot of piracy going in your country - have some drm securom free version of the game'. I think much is ot be said for global releases for AAA titles like Mass Effect...

Thank you so much for helping me out I really appreciate it The clockspeed of my CPU is, I think, 2.4 Ghz. The solution seems to have presented itself, though. I have been in contact with the firm that build my now 5 year old computer. And they say I can upgrade with a new dualcore CPU, a new motherboard, 2GB and a Geforce 8800 GT graphics card. I will then still have monet to spare... (tecnically the money does not come from a tax return but from a refunding of loans in my house; I just didn't know to to explain it else then...)

Thank you, Mkreku for this. But does this not mean that I have to buy & install a new motherboard as well? I'm not that computer tech savy, so what does the CPU actually do? And can it be replaced ? My mottherboard ID is a Sprindale-G according to Everest - if that means anything to you ? And could I just buy the 2B Corsair Value RAM and the Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 card ---- and maybe a new powersupply if needed...

Yes, that may well be - but not everyone can afford to buy a new computer every 2

Yes, that may well be - but not everyone can afford to buy a new computer every 2

I was very excited when I found that ME as coming to the PC. However, I then found the minimum system requirements My 5 year old computer won't play MEPC. I already now this since I downloaded the demo for Crysis, and it wouldn't play at all on my computer. The minimum for the GPU was a Geforce 6800(GT), same as the minimum GPU for MEPC. I have gotten a small tax return, though, but I decided to do something about my very old kitchen floor instead of upgrading my computer and to buy games I can actually play on my current computer instead of buying a new computer. (I also bought some books...) And then there's the whole securom thing with the limited three activation things....which sort of factored into my decision not to buy MEPC as soon as it was released here in Europe. I can live without playing MEPC as I probably have about 50-100 games I can play...

I think this means that the US version gets a tad more bloom than the European version. I don't like the bright and shiny color palette used in Oblivion. It hurts my eyes. They obviously have overdone the bloom effects way too much in Oblivion. Yet, it seems that the Northamerican market much prefer visuals to be light and bright whereas the European market much prefer a darker tone visually - or a more toned down version. I think this is done to increase sales in the US; i also think that this won't happen, since the fans in the US of the Gothic series probably buys it because it does not have the same bright colors as everything else - in the US.

I don't belive that this was a tactics used to get more attention and then rescind so that they could say 'hey, were listening to the fans'. The thing is, it took them a week (6-7 days) to rescind the 10 day re-authentication thing. (or say that you don't need to do this anymore). I strongly suspect it was the whole 'not gonna buy thing' from at least a 1000 people that did this. Now if those people tell 10 people not to buy the game, and if these 10 people then tell other 10 people not to get game -- well, you can see where I am going with this... You still need a reliable and stable internet to activate the game, though. It is not the same DRM as Bioshock's. Bioware has written the installer themselves, it (securom) is all contained within the wrap of the executable. It has nothing to do with the installer or with the activation (as I think Bioshock's did?) but with the running of masseffect.exe - the game itself. I am not that happu with this DRM, but I can live with it.

Stanly Woo and Derek French on the Bioware MEPC forums have said that it is three activations. As long as you install the game, MEPC, on the same machine you can install away ---- as many times as you want. The game is tied to your hardware configuration, not the installer. The game requires you to go through a one time online validation process through providing a valid cdkey. I am fine with this. The DRM thingy does not control your installs, it controls your activations. Some people might not be interested in the game, because it requires an internet connection or may not be interested in the game because it has DRM like Securom. And that's fine...

Exactly. I would rather wait and spend my money on something, the Sins of the Solar Empire expansion or, hopefully, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky for example, that will not have the headache that is overused, unwarranted copy protection. If the game is available on Steam without the hassle, maybe - but unless I can get a legal copy without the bull**** I'm unlikely to buy, and play, the game. I mean, I find CD/DVD-checks annoying and wish that more companies would put out no-cd patches once their games reach a certain age - too think that I would willingly buy into this god awful, half arsed system when there are other, less annoying, games on the market -that are equally good- is ludicrous. Blasphemy! I think I have to agree with Hurlshot that most people don't play 10 or even 15 year old games. I have finally accepted and mourned a litlle over that I won't ever be able to play games like Ultima IV, or Wizardy 5, or The Gold Box games - ever. I have discovered that I simply don't have the time or patiente to get these games to load in Dosbox so that I can play them. Some times I will fire up Fallout 1+2 though. Or some older adventure games. But that's it. As for Bioware selling out, EA is the publisher and EA has decided what copy protection Mass Effect for PC will use.