LadyCrimson

That's kinda what I figured. Each their own and all that. Yea, the SP campaign was very linear pathed like that...so was DS2. I still liked goofing off with the party NPC's and such tho. But in DS1, the MP had an entirely different, very open & huge playing field with (simple) quests & such. No party npc's/donkeys either. I liked it a lot more than the campaign actually & played it solo a lot. IIRC DS2 didn't have that sort of thing, which annoyed me greatly. So Obsidian, try to either make DS3 a bit less "you must follow this narrow path" or at least make a separate world environment for MP ala the first game. I rarely pay attention to stories in any game so doesn't matter to me. Even in BG, npc's told me to go somewhere & kill/find something, so I did...I couldn't tell you what the story was in that game for the life of me. All I remember was there was this sad little Elf mage... That said....again agree, DS in-game, there was no story in terms of your character having any choices that really affected anything. It's all in the booklore, ala Diablo, as mentioned by someone else. But that's the nature of the genre most of the time, so...imo...who cares. Actually, playing a mage I used a lot more buttons. Or rather, I used a lot more skills. And since you only had two spell slots, I had to constantly switch spells and multiple spellbooks. So whatever interface they create, I want it to have a much better system for dealing with that. And more than "hit button A to cycle through your 50 spells".

Since I haven't been into many new games, I've been playing a little bit of everything when it comes to old games. Funny enough, I installed DungeonSiege1 in early May & played some of it because a friend had bought it recently & her comments made me nostalgic....bought Outcast from GOG, played a bit of that (graphics aren't nearly as cool as I remember...ah, time & tech, lol). DungeonKeeper1 still, of course. Majesty1 (until I lost my CD...)...going to get Prince of Persia Sands of Time from GOG now. I've never played it...dunno how far I'll get but it does look fun. Sigh. I have such a short game attention span.

I'm not on Steam, otherwise I'd start a new character w/you. Course, while I can stomp my husband into the ground, I'm not a super fast player compared to most of you, most likely, so I'd probably drive you nuts anyway. Nice to see some are still playing now and then tho. Btw, did you ever buy any of the expansions? I thought Zombie was worth it...so was Knoxx, except the increased level cap ruined the after-winning gameplay since nothing scaled to the new cap...but the initial increased difficulty was refreshing.

The punchline is that it doesn't really have a setting beyond "generic fantasy" so if they want to make something out of it, they will pretty much have to make it from scratch. @Slowtrain: I'm not really complaining about the DS setting, other than it being yet another generic fantasy world, but about the baggage that the DS IP has. There are two mediocre Diablo clones, one horrible spin-off in space and a horrible movie attached to it. The name doesn't really have any positive connotations associated with it, the best you can hope is that no one will remember those any more. Having the Obsidian name on it will probably help a bit, but most people don't know/care who Obsidian is. I'm curious what's wrong with a 'generic fantasy world/setting' anyway? To some it seems like a dirty word now or something. Does everything have to be some sci-fi or post apocalyptic or zombie or magical GIJoe fantasy setting now? I like different settings too, but I still like the 'generic magic/kingdom/knights fantasy' setting and always will. Besides...almost nothing is non-generic now anyway & hasn't been for a long time...imo it's more to do with execution of gameplay than what type of 'setting' the world is put in. ps...I recall the goblin/robot enemies/areas in DS, plopped into the middle of this magical setting...which for me at the time was unexpected and jarring but at the same time kinda cool. pps...or am I misunderstanding and by 'setting' you really mean plot/story?

Considering that some consider Alpha Protocol's PC version a disaster port, I'd say this is sadly a very likely possibility. Yeah, that part made me a bit nervous too. That makes me think of...well, Borderlands or Overlord interfaces, which were ok for those games, but I dunno...hard to picture the original DS games with such simple interfaces at least...depends what they do with the game, as always.

This would be my opinion as well. Sure the 1st two were hack n slash Diablo clones, but they were fun. Just because you may not like/respect a genre of a game they're making doesn't mean it's a company disaster. They might alter it just enough to make it something more interesting too (but probably still hack n slash, I'd guess) and in this economy, a job is a job. Obsidian can be pickier about projects, if they wish to be, when the economy becomes more robust again.

But it would help some with the aerobic fitness at least. And unlike pedaling, you wouldn't get the huge leg/skinny upper effect. Yeah, I've thought about a set up like that myself. It'd be great for when I watch 3 hour ballgames/twitter. But you'd need something to lower the table/keyboard for when you did want to sit down. lol

My hope dashing needs a bit more work if I want to be truly Evil. I love this level. Wall off & let the tunnelers multiply till reach the games sprite limit, then crush them all with boulders.

I apparently misplaced my original Majesty CD sometime in the last month...I've reached the point where I'm looking in improbable places for it. If I accidentally threw it in the trash or something I'm going to one unhappy camper. Sure I can buy a new disc, but it'll probably be one that's already patched. I liked playing the non-patched original game now & then....

Not pedals....treadmills!

I guess pro-gamers need to start playing competitive Wii-Fit?

I wanted to input that I'd never even heard of the comic but I enjoyed the film, as a film, quite a lot. Was it perfect? No. Was it all action all the time? No. Was it occasionally a bit plodding or over the top? Sure. Did it have one of the best film actor-characterizations in Jackie Earle Haley/Rorschach? Oh yes. --I saw "Seven Pounds" the other day because it was on free Encore. I'd never seen it but did recall the ads, which made it look like some kind of inspirational drama. I was in a cranky mood & could've used some inspiration so I tried it. Two hours later, I was depressed as hell. Good lord, what a desolate, sad movie. imo. I know it's supposed to have some altruistic hope out of the dark theme or whatnot, but inspirational or feel-good it is definitely not. Blargh.

I see a lot of fun villains in there (I only skimmed, 100 separate-click pages on IGN is migraine-inducing). Saw some I'd agree with, some I didn't, and many I've never heard of/seen before. Long live the Pac-Man ghosts.

Holiday weekends....they're long so you want to go somewhere, but all reasonable destinations are super crowded, because everyone else wants to go somewhere too. Get off my lawn.

Subaru. Not quite as reliable as Toyota/Honda but still pretty decent in that area. Basically, something with all wheel drive. It's not full-time 4x4 but it does make a difference in bad weather, as long as you're not trying to chug up a sloppy mud hill (that's what 4x4 is for, haha)

It's raining again. :/ The extended wintery weather has been good for my allergies, so that's a plus.

So, like, are you glancing at the clock every few minutes?

"I'm not crazy, I'm eccentrically creative." .... Also, I wouldn't say Vin Diesel is "hot", but he does have a certain appeal, especially in his "serious" eye gaze. But then, I tend to have a thing for bald men. If he had/kept a full head of hair, his appeal-factor would plummet drastically.

General thoughts: Well I viewed the piece as taking a few salient, age-old points about video-gamer culture wrapped up in a giant hunk of self-deprecating humor. If one reads it as being very literal, I can see having an annoyed reaction to it. Maybe my being female during the growth of the gaming industry is part of why I find it so funny, I don't know...more likely I have a strange sense of humor. Anyway, the bare bones "reasons" listed are always debatable, but I mostly liked the article because I've encountered enough things related to all of those "reasons" to find the humor relatable in a way that made it hilarious to me. In terms of the stereotype that gamers are youthful douchebags...perhaps it began with arcade games, where the stereotype back then was "youthful dropouts/hooligans skip school to drop quarters in the arcades." Or the start of rock n roll and science fiction fandom. If something is, for some reason, associated with some kind of youth culture movement/rebellion (that is, by the adults/parents of the time), it often seems to stick a while. Such hobby/interest stereotypes abound for a lot of hobbies/interests & certainly doesn't apply solely to video gaming. Edit: P.S. Another thought: I do think the entitlement thing tend to run rampant (on the internet) more and more, but not just in terms of price vs free etc. I had a discussion about that elsewhere once, and one of my theories was that the ever increasing ability to have contact with game companies themselves may be a partial factor. "We" are increasingly used to the idea of being heard, and for some, that includes becoming increasingly impatient when "we" think we're not being listened to. eg:Borderlands forums, when everyone was convinced latest add-on broke the end game(ie they didn't like it), when there was no response by Gearbox ppl within a few weeks, droves of fans threatened to quit/never buy again, & conspiracy theories about the silence abounded. It was, imo, all fairly ridiculous. But also interestingly amusing.

I seriously hate ants inside the home. This house we bought, I guess they moved into a wall, because all winter they kept coming into the bathroom (no food so it's strange they didn't learn that). I've sprayed, I've cleaned, I've even stuffed toilet paper between tile and baseboards. Nothing kept them from coming back. I finally resorted to using this 'natural' orange spray that leaves a sticky residue...they get stuck in it and die, limiting where they traveled to a few baseboard spots. I'd clean up the dead ant bodies every few days & spray again. Now with summer they've moved back outside...haven't seen one in weeks.

Anything over 78F is 'too farking warm" Anything under 42F is "too farking cold." Loathe humidity, not fond of living in snow. Therefore, my primary residence will always be the Bay Area, California.

Hope this wasn't posted within some other thread already...but I found this Cracked.com article really funny...his points are, imo, somewhat on target, but it's the way he writes them out that made me giggle. Your mileage may vary. http://www.cracked.com/article_18571_5-rea...oure-gamer.html

Reading thru the thread...I found the Spore comments interesting. I didn't even notice the DRM on that one (tho I was aware it had some). Didn't do anything noticeable to my system in terms of blocking abilities anywhere, but I'd certainly be PO'd if it had. Was that a DRM bug that affected certain systems or something? Which goes back to the problem that DRM w/pc games that have to deal w/so many configs is always going to be problematic. I personally don't mind some basic copyright protection measures...say, online confirmation ONCE, when you first install a game (not every time you start the game, and not 24/7 like Ubisoft)...with the option to snail mail it in if you don't have 'net access (which would suck, but at least the option is there)...but DRM has become way out of hand & unreasonable vs. it's potential true effectiveness.

The Joss Whedon/Neil Patrick Harris combo on Glee wasn't quite as super-awesome as I was hoping for, but it was still extremely delicious. Artie's tribute to flash mob's was well done too. Typical day for me so far...ie nothing to write home about...now about to watch baseball.

Agreed. I realized that when I looked at my (rarely used) word press blog, which I had using the % width. I always disliked fixed width (too....much...empty...space...) but articles just don't do well when stretched across a widescreen 1920 monitor. Had to change it. Also use the half-width browser window as well. Ballgame or movie on one side, browser on the other.