LadyCrimson

Watched the first two episodes of "The Following," some new FoX show with Kevin Bacon. I liked it. I'm not seeing myself liking it past a season or so (I think I'd tire of the potential never-ending conflict they seem to be setting up), but seems like it'd make for a good season or half-season. At any rate, it's fun to see Bacon in a series.

I never actually finished BG2 and I didn't like it nearly as much as BG1, for a variety of reasons. I definitely loved some of those old, "classic" crpg's and have many many fond memories of playing them, but I haven't played all of them nor do I hold them up as some untouchable pinnacle. What they do have are certain elements in them that I often feel are missing in many of today's rpg's, that I would like to see again. My reasons/those elements are obviously likely not the same as yours. And I really don't care what games Sawyer likes or dislikes in his own personal time or tastes. I'm sure everyone in the company plays a lot of games I personally dislike, but Obsidian has created games that I loved, nonetheless. But again, that's just me.

Watched (most of) the extended edition of Aliens. Some of those extended scenes may drag the action down a bit, but I still like them for the added bits of character. I'm still mad about Alien3 and the abrupt, pointless way they tossed aside the two other surviving characters. It's fine that they weren't a part of that film/story, it's just the way they did it. Bah.

I was referencing the other notion that Helm seems rather obessed with ... that Sawyer liking to play Skyrim in his off hours is somehow a sign of game design apocalypse.

Great idea! I tend to forget about that one - never did go to the prom/dances anything semi-formal in school or otherwise, for a date.

I think Azure might have been wishing more for something a bit more Diablo like skill tree wise. Less that there's one non-gun skill that you augment in your manner of choosing, and more that that there are separate ones that you could use back and forth. But I could be wrong. I'd agree about some classes being able to do the raid type bosses solo better than others. I think that was at least somewhat true in the first game as well (outside of the cheese-cheat spot). Which I was fine with when there was only that one "raid" boss and there were plenty of other ways to get good gear that worked great (even if not the utmost top gear available). But... ...because of this, that's no longer true in BL2. I've pretty much given up on getting even the basic Legendaries. I might find one once in a while from a first-kill of a plot boss, but since I can't kill Terra or any of the others alone and I'm not going to gamble for 10000 hours, I play the game as if they don't exist. Which is a marked contrast from BL1, where I could and did find the orange weapons from regular combat or the machines frequently enough to be satisfying/helpful to run-through of the game itself (vs. just grind farming later). Hubby and I tried to defeat the "raid boss" thingie at the end of the Hammerlock DLC (this in playthru1, lvl 36ish or so) with a Gunzerker/Commando, and that did not work at all. Now some of this is definitely due to us not being the best players for that sort of fight, but anyway...I had a feeling about the direction Gearbox was going to go in from General Knoxx, and they just keep moving further in that direction. For hubby and I, who like to start over anyway, at least we can make new characters and play the game together up to PT2 Warrior and then just do it again. That's been fun enough for the most part - hubby doesn't care about raid-boss or farming/finding the "best" items so he's fine, and if he's fine that's all I care about right now. Still, I'm not sure I'd buy a BL3 at this point.

I've never cared about flowers but I didn't mind if guys brought them on a first date or occasional special occasion, either. Just shows they're putting some thought/effort. If you're worried they might object to the notion of cutting flowers for profit, bring a small live potted plant instead. Doesn't have to be a flower plant. Tiny starter bonsai might be good. Also convenient because such can just sit in a trunk all night if needs be.

I tend to think of them as character-based games, where emphasis is often put on character/s building/influence/story, as well an overall plot to tie beginning with end. Games like Diablo and the others you mention have pretty much zero emphasis on character, outside of choosing what skilltree to use to more effectively bash monsters. That said, my (admittedly vague) memory of IWD1 was that while it did have a story, it wasn't really focused much on character compared to the BG's. So I can understand a bit where people are coming from when they say things like IWD more of an action/strategy-game or something.

I'm glad I'm not a famous super-Chef, where public/media might suddenly start re-evaluating my ability to cook/teach great restaurant meals if one day I said I really liked/ate Togo's meatball sandwiches. Obsidian never said P.E. would be a clone of the older games. They seem to want a game that harkens back to those games, but that doesn't mean they (the whole team, including Sawyer) may not also see it as an opportunity to try to do new things and/or alter some mechanics that, over time, they see as something they might like to have changed/done differently. Creative people tend to do that sort of thing. (and I see nothing wrong with that) From what I know of Sawyer, I also expect combat in P.E. will actually be better/more interesting than in the past IE games.

If I never sit in this stupid recliner again, it will be too soon. *bored* Think I'll rent some pay per view movie. Must be something.

I have no problem with item degradation, as long as the notion of durability is reasonable. I played a little of Dead Island recently, and in that game you'd pick up a weapon and I swear after killing 6-10 zombies, it was almost broken. Coupled with a very tiny backpack so you were hard pressed to keep enough spares on hand, that was taking it a bit far, imo. It's not that one couldn't deal with it, but it was extremely annoying and doesn't add anything to the gameplay but irritation. Item-swapping - don't really care. That's one of those things that if I feel like swapping weapons cheapens my combat, I just don't swap weapons, even if I can.

I think people often fear the initial idea of something/change more than the actual end result/reality of what that idea turns out to be during actual gameplay. eg, sometimes it's hard to envision a change until you see it working, and thus we fear it until we can see it working. I have no idea if the ideas Sawyer/others are coming up will end up being something I'll like, but to me that's the point. I'm willing to try them to find out.

Yes. You had the same named land areas, but it was different in design, size/openness, etc. Altho, I'd be hard pressed to call it a campaign, really. It was a lot more basic/sparse. The exact same maps of the SP campaign were available to play as well, but it was the other one that most people played. I don't think the spell system was broken, but having to use skills to level them up was limiting, the way it was done, because if you wanted to be more than pure "nature magic" you had to keep switching fairly equally between it and whatever else, or going back later to kill stuff with puny level1 fire spells to level it up. I remember I spent a lot of extra time to create effective dual mage. Anyway, it's an old game that was fun to a lot of us who were hungry for more action-rpg's when it was released, but I'd say like many games of the period, it hasn't aged well.

DS1 was a lot more interesting to play in the MP mode (which you used to be able to play solo offline, I don't know if you still can). The maps were less linear and quite different. But there was no party - it was more like playing Diablo with your single chr. And it still had no story, really. I remember it took me a while to warm up to DS2. That beginning, imo, was terrible, but once I got far enough past that to the meat of the action-rpg gaming I liked it quite a bit. The expansion was a dismal piece of work, tho.

Y'know, a lot of games I've played have had minor clipping issues. Name of the game, so to speak. But I think BL2 tops the list, at least in some aspects. Stuff like items falling under the floor all the time, to be lost or making you pixel hunt for the right spot to be able to click on it, places I can clip into rocks, enemies leaping and getting stuck in rocks, all of that. I don't remember BL1 having nearly as much issue with it. Also ... along with finally farming the Commando head I wanted, I just got the 3 Vault symbols for my first gambled Legendary. Only took 200+ hours of gameplay time and millions of gold! Of course, I was gambling for Eridium with one of my mules at the time, so it's a completely useless one.

Haha, soon as I complain about my luck finding something I find it. But it's about friggin' time! My BL2 life is complete now, yay, blahblahblah. Well, mostly, I was just jealous hubby's GunZerker had that cool bowler hat. Now we can play top-hat and bowler-hat (I don't like the helmet-heads). Yes I care about such things. Maya's head from that enemy I was farming is kinda cool too. Looks kinda Cary Grant-ish. Wish the clothing skins didn't alter the hat/hair color. Oh well. No biggie.

I farmed for that BL2 Commando head that I wanted for another hour yesterday (so 50ish more tries). 3 more Legendary Cradles and 1 Gunzerker head. Bah...I want my Axton to be in a top-hat, darnit! Even if I can only see it when in a menu. Heh. Maybe today's the day. I suppose some people farmed this enemy and had exactly the head they wanted drop in 10 minutes. Sorta like how I never had an Shako drop for me in Diablo 2. A friend gave me one, and that's the only reason I had one. I have the worst luck with such things.

I've been sleeping on the recliner for most of the week to stay in an upright position (health issue, nearly over with). This has led me to discover that one of my (adopted as adults) cats likes to wake you up at 6am by paw-scratching/tussling with the top of your head. Cats aren't allowed in the bedroom here (allergy reasons) so I didn't discover this earlier. At any rate, this has made me glad that I tend to trim their claws with a claw clipper. ...and yesterday I napped, watched bad TV, napped, surfed the web from the recliner (cordless tech is awesome sometimes), napped, played a game for an hour, napped....you get the idea. Today will likely be more of the same. Maybe tomorrow I can finally get out and do something more interesting than being a slug with a cat for a hat.

Live action actors are obsolete? I haven't noticed that yet, either in terms of film or stage. The industry for both has changed of course, but obsolete? Nah. I'm always sympathetic towards the continuing push to eliminate requiring humans from various jobs...as I think in the long run it leads to a lack of variety, option, number, and "tiers" of employment opportunities.

I do that occasionally with Steam sales, and then most of those titles sit uninstalled and unplayed, or only played for 20 minutes. So I know what you mean. We could build a fire, sing a couple of songs. ...not in the mood for "real" playing of any game this morning, but I did try continuing farming for one of BL2's Axton heads. A very easy to get to/kill enemy drops it (under a minute for each run), and I swear I've killed the thing 200 times and so far it's dropped 4 legendary Cradles and 1 Maya head. It's Legendary gear drop is more common than the purely aesthetic appearance head. That's getting a bit ridiculous.

The lack of anything interesting to watch on 800+ channels of TV and a couple of mostly-sunny days is making me long for baseball season. At least Walking Dead starts up again soon.

That aspect has actually been discussed a lot already, in all the other threads. At any rate, it's more about what direction almost all previous romance threads get turned toward, rather than any original intention. It's been a while and things are slow, however, so as I said, we shall see.

What is a "Videa?" ..... I had to say it.

I gave up on my Mech after having to listen to her scream every time she caught on fire. Drove me bonkers, and not in a good way.

For some reason, the image of a cat's face and front paws peeking out of a kangaroo pouch came to my mind. Probably means it's about time to get back to snoozin'. Happy day/cheers.