LadyCrimson

Don't you watch the Discovery & Science channel survival shows? Of course you can! Gut 'em mash 'em boil em stick 'em in a stew...

At our previous house (a lot more grassland there) we had a couple large possums coming around. I took care of an old stray cat who 'adopted' our back yard until she died, and I learned possums like cat food too. So I had to feed her/take the dishes away. I'm surprised to see raccoons at this house actually. It's not the kind of city-area you'd think they'd be in. Several miles to the west, yes, where there are a lot more trees/hills, but not right here. I guess they hide in the bits of marshland or in the sewers at daytime.

I saw it some days ago, but guess I didn't mention it here yet? Ghost Writer....it started off very well, with nice mystery & atmosphere, became steadily less interesting, & then finally (imo) a bit absurd. Pierce Brosnan was good in his small role, Ewan was fine, & I liked the drab/dingy weather cinematography. It's not that it was a bad movie by any means. More like...eventually it collapsed under the weight of the artistic mood, perhaps.

Eh...I have a healthy respect for nature but I'm not one to be paranoid/annoyed with it. I'm more afraid of unseen ticks & mosquito as far as disease goes. *shudder* But I certainly don't recommend trying to actually pet raccoons or standing too close. That actually would be foolish. I've fed two (maybe the same one?) twice in 2.5 years, to take pictures (zoom lenses keep me far away). I never encouraged them to show up in the first place - they were coming into our yard since the 1st day we moved in here, I hear them loudly jump the fence every night which initially drove me crazy when I didn't know what it was, heh. I'm used to it now & hardly notice, funny how that works. This is a dog-owner heavy (and some cats) area, & I suspect some of them leave pet food/water out all night so the 'coons keep coming. Also, the 30-40 ft avocado tree that overhangs our yard is one of the attractions, so unless I can get my neighbors to chop it down (which I wouldn't anyway, I like the tree) they're going to keep coming.

So I'm playing Two Worlds today for a bit, like I have every day for a week plus now or something...and I started to wonder. Why are there so many frakkin' merchants? I counted over a dozen in one of the bigger towns alone, spread out over a wide "we're gonna make you run a mile!" area. Probably a 2-3 dozen others I've encountered in other towns/areas so far, too. I can see having more than one per town, what with the stacking items concept/more opportunity to buy stuff for that, but...well...see... ...a person who is compulsively driven to check every merchant for gear every time they go in to sell loot, especially early-middle game, is going to be slowly driven mad by it all. ( <----------- me )

The raccoons are back...this time with 5 little ones. They eat all the broken, fallen avocados in our yard. Don't usually feed raccoons but eh, they showed up near the door at a time I was walking by....I still had old dry cat food & those small guys were too cute. Only way to get pictures. Mama let her kids eat first before she ambled on over herself. I always wonder where they go during the day, in a city like this.

Two Worlds. Also....my guy is getting a big ego, thinking he's all studly, posing for flashy press photos & stuff. (click 4 bigger if ya want) ... (the flash is a summon dissipating, heh)

Yea, that's exactly it. Trying too hard. Plus for me at least, after so many years, just putting a new gloss on their old IP doesn't feel enough anymore, with all the cash and time a company like Acti-Blizz has/takes. There may be new crafting stuff & skill trees but yet...well, I dunno. I'm probably just feeling ambivalent because of the long wait w/lack of much info. That said, that monk video is still awesome and I know that's what I'll try first.

Re: Diablo3 - I'm positive it'll be an addictive, obsessive game, like always. But I'm not getting the feeling that it'll be quite as much a "classic" as the first two, if that makes sense.

heheh. To cast 3 you cast 1 normally first, then cast the 2-summon spell and cast it again.

Ok, I can summon 3 of each dude at once. I'm not sure that's supposed to happen? Regardless, it's ridiculous/funny. They're on duration timers, but since the game pauses as you switch 'spell cards' they still all last a few minutes if you get it right, which is long enough. Normally I'd only cast 4, since it's easier, but this amused me for 20 minutes.. In the second pic, I forgot to move a bit each casting, & they trapped me in their circle. Click images if you want bigger.

I'm not impressed. Not unimpressed, mind you, but not impressed either. This caravan will 'follow' you from town to town and can be upgraded? Seems odd. Also, if you pause the video I notice that one attribute of an item is "increases vendor value"....oh boy? I do like being able to craft more freely via a NPC rather than everyone rushing to that Act quest. Breaking down stuff for parts could be useful, but knowing Blizzard the chance of getting good parts from that will be 1 in 7 trillion. hehe And...is that 20 detached human feet he has in inventory, or just hunks of meat, or something else? I can't quite tell.

Thanks, that's what I thought. And yes, that's a common problematic aspect in terms of balance for wide-appeal....but I personally don't mind much.

Eh? I don't think I've seen that before. Sometimes ppl cut/paste the linked story text & wrap it in quote tags but that's all I've noticed. As to the moon...if it's actually relatively recent geological activity, I can see why it would excite certain circles. But if it's not going to create tidalwaves or change my astrological sign (haha) doesn't mean that much to me.

Hey mkreku, I'm curious about what level you finished Two Worlds with? I know there's technically no level cap but with random wandering/alchemy hunting I'm already level 31 and I haven't even come close to "seeing" even half the map or started on the main quest yet. I mean, I talked to that robed man in the starter area, got his instructions, and have ignored that quest line ever since. I realize that'll make those quests easy when I get back around to them. I prefer exploring at the moment. Done quite a few of available side/faction quests however. You can get around most of the town guards beforehand by hopping fences in certain spots. I'M SO SNEAKY. Altho, once I couldn't get back out again & had to reload, and once I stood on the spiked wooden palisade logs for too long/slipped or something and managed to impale myself, taking damage that almost killed me. heheh

That's with the HDR slider turned almost off, too. It's not the physical dimensions I'm old-fashioned about, it's the file size your browser loads in the thread, which the forum does not actually alter. But yeah...these days I shouldn't be bothered if they're 300+MB. There's a lot of things like that I need mentally to 'get over', unless I want to emulate my grumpy "internet shouldn't be for giant video-streaming/media!" husband heh I'd post more Two Worlds screens but I think you covered all the armor and vista concepts back when.

Took 15-20 seconds to load, it looks pretty, but yeah...on hindsight I see the light fog-swirl but I thought that was just part of the image design, since there's lots of fog around the (non-clickable) game title icon too. Still waiting patiently for there to be more under the "Video" button.

This is true. Which is why it can look so garish in a screenshot. Often times in actual combat I'm too busy to notice specific spell effects. And then I die. lol

JJ Abrams really went nuts with it didn't he? Flare is usually avoided by cinematographers. In some photographer circles, (good, artistic) lens flare is a major attribute. Not as much as bokeh, but...I've seen some pretty creative & often subtle uses of it in photos. imo it doesn't translate too well in games yet tho.

All right...fine. I like Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" song. It is dance-catchy & over exposure breeds some attachment, like Put a Ring On It. But that's it! And while I can see the resemblance to Madonna's career I still can't relate to her as an artist at all. God I feel old.

Nice shots. I'm wondering, are any of those the 'maxed out' distance viewpoint? Like, #1, #8 & #9 appear to be further away view wise, are those the farthest outward zoom? Also..it looks like the adorable piranha-head is helping. Please let him be helping. I want him. It is a bit extreme in a few of the shots (looks like a spell?), but hard to say how it seems when in motion. Screens can capture big balls of still flare, while in motion it's barely a micro-second that's not distracting to actual gameplay.

When I started up The Longest Journey years ago, I found it interesting & the art style was different in a nice way. But I felt pretty much the same. Adventure games such as those aren't generally my thing tho. I could appreciate why people liked it so much, but I felt lost and not entertained by it. Then a bug happened & I couldn't continue so I quit, never to return. It's possible if I tried it again now I might like it better, being older w/slightly different tastes perhaps, but ... nah.

There's no actual requirement to post at max resolution in this thread. hehe ....sometimes I think about posting full size, since everyone else seems to now, but the old-fashioned goof in me still rebels against it for most screenies.

*reads thread* Did it ever? ...but yeah, I did like IWD a lot when it came out.

For the record, I found the 1st RE to be watchable but nothing that great. My spouse, who doesn't like horror movies that much, thought it 'wasn't too bad' - which means he found it tolerable. Haven't seen the 2nd, and I caught the 3rd on cable. I remember the beginning but can't recall if I watched it all or if I turned it off. Haven't played the games either. Yet I still kinda want to see the new film.