LadyCrimson

The concept of being able to patent everything under the sun in broad, over-reaching strokes is becoming a bit ludicrous, imo. Like some of the gene patent situations.

It looks like a cross between the worst bad 80's music videos combined with an early 70's cheesy disco movie. There's even a bionic man sound in there, haha. The costumes are horrible & not sexy...most of the dance moves are robotic & not synchronized very well. Either bad dancers or really bad choreography. The special effects & transitions look like something one can do with cheap home video software. But I dunno, Lady Gaga vids are wildly popular, and aspects of this video reminds me of some of hers only with much lower production values. So maybe I'm out of touch with things & my opinion means nothing. heh I'm not sure what you mean by 'how naturalized' they seem. There's nothing wildly Asian (vs US) about the video, if that's what you mean, unless you count the stylistic trend weirdness of it. But kitsch & bad dancing are universal. I can understand the English lyrics as well as I can any other popular disco-ish dance track & there's no heavy accent. It's strange how singing seems to dilute accents a lot. The music itself...eh...again I'm out of touch. I'm sure it could become popular enough to sell well if marketed right.

Pots/healing: They could put a long timer on potions and increase the rate of chr. healing. I don't mind potions but I can understand just mashing the 'chug' button can get old. In the campaigns I've always used the npc healing mage too. Sometimes half my party would just heal. But if playing solo (esp. in MP), in DS1 at least, potions alone weren't as 'awesome' because of the rooted-in-place delay of actually drinking it. When mobbed, they could damage you fast enough to take off a lot of the health gained from the pot before your chr. was finished with the drinking animation..so you'd either have to run away or do nothing but stand & drink pots. Could hardly get a whack in, lol. So I didn't feel like potions were as much of a crutch as the big purple pots of Diablo2 were. I need to play DS2 again to refresh my memory...did it have the same kind of potion-drinking delay animation?

Well now, that's interesting. Multiplayer, outdoor areas, mod kit. That could improve my desire to play quite a bit. I could play w/hubby on LAN. I bet it'll still be cartoonish tho. heheh

From my personal perspective, in terms of what types of games are typically being produced/marketed these days, I'd say that's my favorite theory too. And I don't even care about being strongly "plot driven". But even the obsessive 'tinkering' aspects or silly goofing off I enjoyed so much in the past - the things that for me made a game replayable - often feels like it's missing. Instead of getting a gobstopper I'm getting a piece of gum.

PC gaming as it was 10-15 years ago has changed into something different, imo, in both infrastructure as well as style - I'd agree with that concept. But dying as an industry? Nah.

...A lot of people disliked The Usual Suspects for similar reasons (that it was likely all a lie). Such never bothers me, personally. I like being surprised like that sometimes. I don't relate well to tables & figures being applied to movie-fake-science. But I still don't think it's consistent. I already know the concept/idea the movie is trying to make you swallow, but what you're saying is the explanation does not, imo, refute the inconsistencies within the movies concept of dream layers, itself. Such as why making a turn in a van cause a ripple in a coffee cup/sonic boom in another layer. and why the ripple in the cup/sonic boom doesn't also take minutes to finish its ripple, if time is so stretched out in the deeper layer - the van whipping around a corner takes a couple seconds too, right? Edit:should clarify, not actual sonic boom. But thumps. Guess u could say it's from the building shaking in response but still time issue. Also, I'm not saying inconsistencies ruin the film or anything. But imo there are some & they can't be explained away...they're just there, like in any sci-fi movie. heh

I'm not sure what what the videos are, at root, really trying to say. That the video game industry is changing? That recession impacts them? Well, yeah. Nothing stays the same forever. Is this a surprise or something? Combined with all the new tech/global networking, which opens up areas that didn't exist when video games started, things will fluctuate/alter as companies try to figure out what works/sells. The video gaming market (imo) has been trying to turn into/maintain a major worldwide culture aspect (like movies, fiction books, fashion)...unfortunately, that costs a lot of money (humanity en masse has a relatively short attention span), which over time alters the way the industry is run. And like any such, it'll have ups & downs in terms of market value & infrastructure. I highly doubt the industry is dying/dead, however. That's complete hyperbole for the sake of attention-grabbing headline. I may personally dislike the way it's going - don't like the trends of book publishing either - but it ain't dead.

I used the mouse for almost everything in both games, except potions & sometimes forcing of spellcasting. I probably used other hotkeys now and then but just not as a primary mode. Keys in DS1 were remappable....were they in DS2? I don't remember. But yes, I agree...keys must be remappable...that way people can have them as they wish.

Dungeon Siege 1. Fun to revisit a little, but one doesn't stay very long. heh It needs a modern-day resolution mod. 1024x768 looks rather terrible on this monitor even when I set monitor to 4:3...not sharp at all. At least zoomed all the way out.

That college humor video was hysterical. Yes, I remember Leo talking about how he & his wife had 'lived a lifetime' in a few minutes or an hour or whatever whilst they lay on the carpet dreaming. But if time proceeds faster as you go deeper, why does it slow down within the deeper layers to allow for the delayed & and very lengthy) reaction of anti-gravity blah blah blah.

My impression was that it was supposed to like

I have no need for/don't want a cell phone/contract & all the cluttering apps/menus that go with a cell. All I want is the video. I don't care about anything else, so not interested in a unit that does 100 other things. Edit: Stand alone units are still better quality than the phone (even the 720) too. Probably not for long, but...

Bought the Kodak zi8 HD video camera for casual use. Initially thinking I'll like it for the features more than the no-feature/fixed internal memory Flip. Only downside is it uses .mov files so need a converter software if want to burn DVD's & the internal mic is mono so if you want stereo you have to buy an external mic. But at least it has ex. mic option, unlike the Flip. Charging battery...we'll see! Can't wait to try it.

Thanks for the input, ppl. It does sound interesting but I decided to take it back because $55 (local Best Buy's retail price ) for 12 episodes is too much - didn't realize it had so few episodes in the season at first, either. I'll get it thru Netflix rental or something instead.

Has anyone watched HBO's True Blood? While buying some other DVD's, I impulsively bought season 1 'cause I recalled reading some decent reviews of it. Got home, read more about it, wondering if I made a mistake/should return it (haven't opened it yet). I like vampire stories if they're done ok but can't quite figure out what type of show True Blood is really supposed to be. ie, is this going to be a "tween" soap-opera style show - 90210, nekkid, gory vampire edition! - or something more interesting than that?

At this point I barely remember exactly what about the item picking up was annoying me...maybe it was a bug. Sometimes items would 'drop' behind barrels or tables or corners and I was unable to 'walk' close enough to pick them up, for instance...loot hotkey or not. Plus targeting enemies (as a spell caster) felt awkward here and there.

Neither did I, but google is amazing! I did try to do a Search, but all I came up with the cable channel and many pages of encyclopedia A-E entries. But then, I didn't try very hard. These days if I searched every reference/acronym/slang term I saw on the 'net that I wasn't familiar with I'd have no time for anything else. hahah

I don't know what A&E is, but if there's some kind of serious depressive breakdown going on, as much as it feels sucky to stand around 'doing nothing,' sometimes it's actually better to keep distance a little while. That is, of course, assuming your friend has some known support/watchdogs around him already (like his gf, parents, other family, doctors etc). Call & ask if there's anything you can do/if a visit might help, but if the answer is no, let it alone for bit then ask again later when family have had time to figure things out themselves. Also, it depends on the situation & the person of course, but I know that some ppl don't want many around to witness their problems. Don't know what the gf said, but it's possible your friend is insisting on not wanting to see ppl & she's just respecting his wishes.

Always gotta have the crates & barrels. I remember the game Nox...which was a cute/fun game...had this issue where they made almost everything 'interactive'. That is, everything was movable by running into it, from chairs to tables to fruit. It was annoying because you'd get 'stuck' on things all the time. So nothing like that, please. heh But the 'bombers' that Nox had - little summons that simultaneously unleashed a few pre-loaded spells when they contacted an enemy - were cool. A bit like kamikaze pet-traps. A little over-powered, but one could tweak to fix that. I'd love to have something like those in another game. Floor/thief traps are ok but mobile ones are even more fun. Heh

Yup. And I do understand it, at least from the business side of things. From that side, it was bound to happen. Difference is, to people like me, it's sad that it has to be so.

I don't normally mind some 'cartoon-y' to a game, but yea...color wise Torchlight was very garish in some spots. Also, some of the camera view stuff began to annoy me, IIRC...making it hard to pick up items or target things here and there. But for the price worth having in the collection, imo.

I liked it, but I also stopped playing before the finish. Something about it wasn't very addictive for me, couldn't tell you what exactly. But it's a fine dungeon-stomper. Also, be sure to play on one of the harder difficulties. 'Normal' is way way way too easy for experienced action-rpg players.

I know. My 2nd line was just poking fun at you a little. I agree that what bnet seems to be doing is more akin to Ubisoft DRM as far as the single-player aspect goes. But I was more referring to the concept of Blizzard's bnet seemingly trying to turn their servers into a self-contained entertainment mecca service for all their games. Not just in terms of copy-protection, but the whole 'we want bnet to be an awesome but enforced social-media intertwined gaming platform!' vs. the more individual per-game basis it felt like it was before. Perhaps it's an illusionary perception on my part, based on personal dislikes, but it still makes me uncomfortable. And yeah...Diablo3's sales won't be hurt much, if at all, by these things. Too many people have looked forward to it for years and will probably buy it anyway, if only to check it out for themselves before condemning (or rejoicing) ...and that would include me.

....most of the time this forum has men complaining about girlfriends. But today.. ...husbands. No matter how much freedom & space you give them - & believe me, my husband has a lot of both - some of them will still complain that you nag too much.