kalimeeri

The bad news: the cake collapsed under the weight of all those candles a couple years ago and they set the house on fire. The good news is that now that I'm retired, I can finally start working my way through the backlog of games I didn't have time to try while I was working and raising my family. GOG is my bestest friend.

The game plays a little differently than standard conventions, and for those raised on D&D the leveling/perk scheme might seem very foreign at first. But if you're interested in a good story driven game do give it a fair chance. I think on my first playthrough (cold) it took me almost a third to half the game to feel comfortable with it ... but once I did, I was in love. My youngest daughter reported the same experience, once I convinced her to play it; it's now one of her very favorite games, and she'd kill to have that lifesized statue of Geralt that CDP has in their offices! On a side note, there's also a balancing mod by Oscuro for TW1.

Good to hear! Much as I love the games and Geralt's character, I agree that TW2 lost much of the 'feeling' of being a witcher by trade (a side effect of the political focus of the story, I'm sure). In TW1, Geralt was practically dragged, kicking and screaming, into the human political scene, whereas in TW2 he almost seems to embrace it after the first few scenes with Triss. I also called foul on the mechanics that forced you to prepare ahead of time for a fight against unknown enemies ... you knew it was coming, but it was a guessing game at best, more commonly a die/reload situation. And you know, I can't for the life of me recall anything about the soundtrack in TW2 ... yet that of the TW1 still runs through my head. So if CDP can somehow meld these two games together, it would be a fitting end to the series.

I just wonder how they're going to handle the pre-order situation. Hope they don't forget the folks who floated their boat thus far. Long before they put up this kick-starter, they were collecting $ for pre-orders of that game (Mage's Initiation). The pre-order cost substantially less, but gained you what now amounts to the $100 level of contribution. Who knew? It's not that much money, but I'd hate to think it wasted; and it's hard to think kindly of someone who blows you off. Guess we'll wait and see.

Oh dear... My first PC was actually designed as a word processor that ran on CP/M (Dos' daddy...)--BUT I learned it also played games (if you typed the code in correctly), lol. Don't recall the make, but I caught it on sale at around $500. After that I bought an Amstrad 8088 with two 5-1/4 floppies... which I eventually tied to a couple external 30 mb RLL refurbed hard drives. I couldn't afford to buy them new, lol. Eventually I bought a factory-made (first and last comp I ever bought) 286 ... after upgrading that as far as it would go I followed the tree progression by building my own 386, 486, Pentium, and beyond, piece by piece as spousal ignorance/money allowed. I was determined that my kids (both born in the early 80's) grow up knowing computers, as I was convinced that was the future. They became gamers at a very early age, and still have fond memories of playing shareware titles like math/reader rabbit, etc. and all crowding around the screen when the latest Sierra adventure arrived. In a way I kind of miss those days; the hassle of memory loading/configuring peripherals not so much.

This sounds like the basic problem is acceptance... when it's compounded by distance and time, it's nearly impossible to overcome if there are limited opportunities to do so (visits are only occasional). I see myself in much the same situation with my own extended family--but IMO in my case it's a lost cause; it's 30 years too late and several thousand miles too far away to change in this lifetime. That was my choice and my solution; and while I still wish it could have been different, every effort is doomed to failure if only one party is willing to forgive. Your wife seems to be trying very hard to engage with them for your sake, but your extended family is an allied front who are not accepting the gesture for what it is, but rather analyzing/seizing on specific words or phrases, which they can then discuss among themselves at their leisure after you've left. They are not going to stop, and telling them to will only cause you to seem defensive and generate more hard feelings. FWIW, my own suggestions are that you should forget about it--it is an issue and makes you feel very awkward, but poking at it will make it all the worse. Don't play their game! Perhaps you and your wife might limit yourselves to more listening than participating in discussions, but beyond that... Just be who you are ... accept who they are (warts and all), visit when you can, enjoy your time, and forget the rest. Maybe in time they will learn to do the same, but if not... Life's too short, and hard enough without worrying yourselves over family drama.

I'd be pleased to have Magicka. :D Played the demo and liked it, but never got around to buying the full game.

Kotor I was a fairly shallow, straightforward game. But what it did, and did well, was develop characters you grew attached to and learned to care about. I nearly didn't play Kotor II when I learned they were starting over with a new lead character, and the companions from the first game may or not be absent. The brilliance of Kotor II is that it played on the love players had developed for Kotor I's characters, and that same love proved to be the underlying motivation for and within the second game. Kotor II went on to be deep and involving, of course, with far more complex characters... but without having played Kotor I, there's a whole emotional level of player involvement you're missing. As npc's from the first game show up one by one, you're with old friends--you can't fully grasp what they're up to, but you sure as hell know why. Pity there was never a third game to end the story--I really wanted to see Kotor I's (anti)hero again, and see how Kotor II's fit in.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/11/disney-lucasarts/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher It just did. Or maybe it's just mercy.

I tried to answer the poll, but kept thinking of Ignus... an immensely powerful party member who was at times irreplaceable, but one that began to frighten the crap out of me the more we carried on. Lord, how I schemed to get rid of him, in the least offensive way! I finally left him at the bottom of one of the deepest, darkest dungeons, as I recall--I could not care less if he took whatever loot or money he felt entitled to. But the fact is, I don't think he would have taken anything... and I have this really bad feeling that he's stalking me still. And then there's Vhailor... ::shiver:: Perhaps your vision of companions is a slight bit narrow, yes? There are all sorts of motivations for joining up, not the least of which is obsession. And if you betray them, what if nothing will satisfy them but your soul?

Lol, I still have the original game boxes for PS:T, BG1/2, IWD, etc. proudly sitting on a shelf. I played them, my kids grew up playing them... and from time to time we still replay them ... now courtesy of GOG, since the game discs eventually wore out.

Quick! Where's the "Undead" option in the poll?

Not a fan of MMO at all, but LAN would be nice if they're thinking of going the multiplayer route. I remember playing IWD, Diablo 2, and Dungeon Seige with my family, and had a great time. There's no server costs, and no policing required ... and you sell multiple copies of the game.

Dark Souls: Prepare to die for PC. While the keyboard controls are somewhat ... arcane ... the dev's did a pretty good job on the PC port (considering they've never made one before). Graphically, it looked pretty good out of the box--but within hours of release, the modding public had released a patch that upped the internal resolution so it looks much more like a PC game. So far I've spent about 10 hours with it, and expect I'll be spending about 100 more--whatever else it is, it's a great game that I wouldn't have bought or played otherwise (I don't own a console).

I don't think that Jane Jensen's name carries the weight that it used to, even with me. I was a staunch supporter of Sierra back in the day--I didn't like all of their game series', but KQ, QFG and particularly GK games were the holy grail. All that ended horribly with the last games of each series and the push for 3D. After finally receiving my GK3 pre-order, I was so infuriated that I wrote Sierra demanding my money back. I loved the moody, introspective character of Gabriel Knight--and they'd made him into an arrogant Indiana Jones. Worst of all, Jane Jensen herself enthusiastically supported the 180 degree shift from a sensitive, bookish dude forced into an unwanted lifestyle to an aggressive pendulum-swinging Tarzan. Determined to somehow keep the dream alive, I bought JJ's books and tried to read them--O.M.G., I'd have flushed them if they fit in the toilet. To this day I find myself questioning how much of the first two GK games were Jane Jensen--certainly the idea for the character and the research was hers, but it's hard for me to believe that a person who can't even string a cohesive thought/sentence together could have written those games--even allowing that game writing is quite different from prose. Call it lack of faith or something else ... but I can't bring myself to devote money to this project unless she has one hell of a support staff.

Whether it's a sad or happy ending doesn't really matter. What I see is a failure in execution--Bio writers knew how they wanted it to end, and that might even have been acceptable, but they were either under pressure and/or too close to the story to make it clear and understandable to the majority of players. And you can't discount the fact that well-loved fictional characters often take on a life of their own. You might have a firm idea of where your story is going from the get-go, but once you get there... that ending suddenly feels, and is, all wrong. A heroic character needs to die heroically, not in a 'WTF did he just do again?', or a 'what does it all mean'? That adds up to a confused mess--people who loved the game have a need for it to make sense, so they come up with a myriad of wildly divergent opinions to that end. Some feel betrayed by the Gods, on top of that. Charging for a DLC that makes a proper job of it seems wrong, but it's a concession to the writers, to indicate that Bio stands behind their original work (even if it doesn't play out well). And at this point, it's not about money at all. Most people who love the Mass Effect story are more than willing to pay, just so they can reflect back sadly and fondly at the character's journey as a whole.

They have to release the game so that an 'average' computer can run it right out of the box, knowing that the included textures won't do the world justice, and that nobody but the most casual player wants to run it that way. And large texture packs eat up huge chunks of valuable DVD space, as well. Historically, a lot of games stop right there, so it's to Bethesda's credit that they freely provide higher-res alternatives for their game so soon. It's very apparent from Skyrim that Beth has taken a different approach to development than some other big game companies--there's no need for a large team of marketing analysts to reduce game-making to a formula, when all they have to do is look at what the modding community has created to see what their audience desires most in this type of game. And since mods are 'technically' their property, they can take inspiration and even copy parts of code (some brilliant minds have contributed to Morrowind/Oblivion's modding scene). It's gratifying to see so many features make their way from modded Oblivion to Skyrim--it's very clear that they were honestly trying to make 'the perfect game", and they almost got it right. But that's a big 'almost'. Skyrim is not bad, for a vanilla game. Not bad at all. On the whole, I'd say it's better than vanilla Oblivion in some aspects (not in others). But something is missing, something very elusive... and I'm not sure even modders can put it right. I believe the gorgeous and painstakingly realistic world of Skyrim is its greatest strength, and also its greatest flaw. I set Skyrim aside and went back to my fully modded install of Oblivion this weekend, and within five minutes was having the time of my life--I was meandering along, riding a beautiful horse in the sunshine and enjoying the view, and through no fault of my own was drawn into a huge, sprawling battle of men and beasts alike--and ended up having so much fun I was actually laughing out loud. I can't see that happening in Skyrim, if for no other reason than the topography, and the variety of creatures that would logically inhabit that world. I realized that in Skyrim I had been trudging on a maddening ugly horse from one city to another, freezing my arse off in skimpy armor (who on earth would bare their skin to that cold?), and in the process of hurrying to the more temperate areas had become more involved with advancing levels and perks than immersed in the story or the world; in short, grinding is more work than fun. (In Oblivion, I don't even think about levels, other than to wonder if I dare enter certain dungeons with a wimpy level 5 character who can't run so fast.) Don't get me wrong--I like Skyrim, a lot. Without a doubt, the engine runs better (controls are another story). And I love listening to the npc's, and watching the dragons soaring across the sky. But the sad thing is, what I want most is to hear and see them in Oblivion. If Bethesda were to mash modded Oblivion's freedom (no quest railroading!), unpredictability and life into their next effort, they may well create the perfect sandbox game.

In other news, 60000 terrorists, spies, and illegal immigrants are now working feverishly to learn Photoshop.

You can also usually disable the device in the bios. That takes more than two steps to get to. (And if you password-protect the bios and forget the password, sayonara forever). But the problem is that if you're on a local network, any of these schemes is going to shut that down too.

Thank you. It's a thankless, damned-if-you-do-or-don't job ... one you can't even begin to appreciate until you've been there. As with any profession, there will always be a few who overreact or take it too far--those few are the ones you see in the news from time to time, because that's what makes it 'news'. Most cops are just happy to go home at night with their butts and careers intact... War Stories come later, when you've got enough distance to be able to laugh instead of cry.

It's all in your character build and the equipment he's wearing. Tell your friend to beef up his stuff with essences, particularly retribution and doom. The only boss battle I had a problem with was early in the game against Ranjali .. she kept spamming spells left and right, and I only had Anjali for cover (she was doing a very good job of dying). But at Level 35 (using 2h and windshear all the way through) Lucas has around 600 attack and does massive criticals--Reinhart is basically unstoppable and barely gets a scratch. With that pair, I went straight from Glitterdelve to the desert, kicked Molocath's butt and then went looking for the rumored 'really tough' final boss ... only to find out I'd already killed it. Never even used the ultimate abilities, but they're too expensive anyway unless you kick on anything else you might need before you cast them, and then you'll die quickly unless you get to work refilling those orbs.

Halloween isn't what it used to be. When I was growing up, it was (mostly) good clean fun--we'd walk miles along dark soggy farm roads dressed in a sheet and armed with a flashlight and a pillowcase for the booty. Now you're not cool if your parents don't buy you a costume... But not one dressed-up kid has been seen in my neighborhood for the past 10 years; even when my girls were young, I'd rather take them to a party then let them take their chances out in the wilds. My youngest (mid-20's) and I sat down with a bottle of wine and played Sacred 2 across the LAN till 3 a.m. She kept missing the hotkey for inventory and hitting the one that summoned her god instead ... some huge angry minotaur-looking thing which then chased us ALL over (before killing us), wreaking havoc on the countryside as it went. So much better than handing out expensive candy to cell-phone toting snots who can afford it better than I can.

Bethesda doesn't make story-driven games. Instead they adopt a sandbox approach, focusing on the world and its lore ... with a few short stories (at best) thrown in for good measure. This approach lends itself much better to role-playing than one where you must follow the storyline in order to advance your character. (In Oblivion, one doesn't have to play any of the vanilla quests at all, and the world still revolves and makes sense). But to do that sort of thing properly the PC's (and NPCs') particulars must be as generic as possible, to allow the player's imagination to take over. Writing in a follower that has a complicated past/personality limits what the player can imagine about him/her/(it?)... and there is no such thing as 'one size fits all'. Put forth your best effort, and there's still a chorus of 'this sucks', 'why didn't you make...' etc and much criticism ensues. So I would expect that any romanceable npc's that are included in the game will be quite bland, and players will quickly tire of them and their stock dialogue. Best to leave that to the modders--who can create a single character with specific goals or attributes per mod add-on ... keeps Beth's companion hate mail inbox from overflowing, and allows them to concentrate on the formula that's been kind to them--creating a believable fantasy world where just about anything can happen.

Crafting is a mini-game in itself, and it can be fun. I have spent much time in many games collecting the necessary ingredients to make a unique weapon or piece of armor that I couldn't get anywhere else. For instance, in NWN2, if you wanted the best armour or accessory in the game, you had to craft it--you simply couldn't find it, or buy it for any price. It wasn't absolutely necessary for survival, but it sure made battles a lot easier. TW1's potions are another example, in that the potions created were absolutely necessary in some battles. That kind of crafting system can sometimes become tedious on subsequent replays, and it's a rare game that gets it right ... but it does make the effort worthwhile. With the crafting systems in the majority of rpgs, it simply isn't. I dislike--and won't use--crafting systems that provide you with useless products that you can't sell for more than a few septims/orens/credits ... if I'm already wearing better armor than I can make, what's the point? Likewise, crafting a superb witcher silver sword and then finding a better sword under a rock around the next corner makes me lose the will to live. That's broken, and it is just busywork (but at least in TW2 I made a good living off selling ingredients, lol). Still, if the system provides me even one useful item that I can make for a lesser price than I can buy it (repair hammers/whetstones for instance), I think the game is richer for it, and I'm in. The stripped-down Kotor2 style of swapping crafted customizations is effective, too.

A pox on SI! Apparently I'm one of the few who loathe it; even though the landscape is reminiscent of parts of Morrowind, and the npc's are vaguely interesting, its mere presence (and plot) just doesn't seem to fit. I played through once when it first arrived, finally went back years later to make sure I wasn't wrong. The atmosphere still grew stale and grating rather quickly, and I still found it hard to care one whit about the 'struggle'. And seriously--how many players actually wanted to become a god? I'd have uninstalled and been done with it a long time ago if its resources weren't required for the majority of player-made mods. As for same-sex relationships in Skyrim, I had heard they were possible ... just not required or even obvious. As in, not 'in your face' as they are in DA. I'm fine with that, if it's handled well; it's not my thing, but I know some who will enjoy it--to each his own. My biggest argument with the upcoming game is requiring Steamworks, whether you buy it retail off the shelf or not. That's nearly a game-killer for me, can't say now if I'll buy it or not. This is a single-player game--and my little single-player heart says 'hell, no'. Disappointed with Bethesda, I am.