Volourn

"Bruce, people are regularly shocked because it upsets the narrative that the violence is about some regional issue or other." Eh. Many muslims are Amerikan so it shouldn't be surprising that a small percentage would support extremist pieces of crap. I really wish the 'good\ muslims would stop excusing the evil of the 'bad' muslims by going 'what they did was wrong but'... nonsense. There is no but. It is indefensible. Period. ie. In Iraq, AQ, and other terroroists and so called \freedom fighters' have killed more Iraqis than Amerikans have. This is likely true most everywhere that AQ 'fights the good fight'. As for this particular situation, disgusting.

"But I think it's in both the developer's and gamer's interest to talk about things without a boycott" It\s not boycotting to not buy something you do not like. Am I 'boycotting' if I choose not to buy Barbie because I have no interest in dolls? No.

"Frank Gibeau talking about Dead Space 3 (and why Dead Space 4 is most probably, well, dead) and reported in every game site. Obviously each studio and each title has its own budget and we can't get data on that, but EA's MO seems to be 1) whatever the starting point, double the budget vs the original 2) triple the sales targets 3) close studio when the sales targets are not met. Rinse and repeat." You just defeated your own point. Your point is that EA expects games to make 5mil sales no matter and shown DS as truth yet then claim DA2 and ME3 didn't make 5mil sales.. Then, why is EA making DA3 and a new ME game if they consider them failures? How can you pretend you make sense when your own logic doesn't follow its own inner logic? L0L

"I must say Alan, I am puzzled by your eagerness to 'correct' people who are trying desperately hard to give BioWare a get out of jail free card. I hate to be captain obvious here, but those blaming EA are the naive remnants (of your formerly rabidly loyal fanbase) that would have bought DA:I on the slender hope that maybe - just maybe - it was all evil EA that led to the (at best) mediocre schlock that was DA2 and ME3, and that good old 'real' BioWare was fighting a silent rearguard action in the defence of the genre/quality/IP integrity. Extinguishing those notions closes an awful lot of doors..." BIO doesn't exist as a company. It is a division of EA. EA owns it 100%. Everything BIO has done since EA bought them was done because EA told them to do it. EA *is* BIO. This is a fact.

BIO is not an independent company. It is enslaved to EA. EA is BIO. It's not complex no matter what babble you spew. EA owns BIO the same way I own my computer. They do what they want with it. Period. As for ME3 vs DA2, DA2 is the better game. ME3 is the only game outside of SS, MDK2, and S:RPG that I haven't finished.

"Movies can be art, that does not by default make all films works of art. Games can be art, that does not by default make all games works of art. If you're going to stoop to the level of saying Uwe Boll is a misunderstood artiste, then Michael Bay is the Picasso of our times." Art does not neccessarily mean good, awesome, or terrific. Art is art. A 6 year old's ugly stick figure drawing is as much art as a Picasso even though Picasso's is obviously superior. Period.

It was a good show but way overrated. And, the only people to blame for its cancellation are those who didn't feel the need to watch it.

She does amazing damage with her twin swords. She is very good at giving Aveline a hard time. Most importantly, she is so powerful that she gets an entire group of freaks to get so butthurt over a friggin' book they become murdering scumbags of innocents. I laugehd and laughed when I purposefully refused the Arishok's offer of a duel because I felt he didn't deserve to be honoured to die in such a way but deserved to die en mase. What an oevrrated piece of crap. Anyways, back to Isabela. She is awesome. P.S. I never used the pirate to open boxes. That was Varric's job.

"nyway I am almost certain that the Brood Mother in DA:O was/used to be a dwarf who was transformed into a Brood Mother. The crazy lady (Who admittedly isn't the most reliable source of information) rambed on about the process, the implication being that different races produce different spawn and that's the Darkspawn reproductive cycle." That is how broodmothers are made. That doesn't make them dwarves or whatever race they used to be.

"I don't buy it, where is her beard?" Vast majority of dwarf females don't have beards. FACT. "You mean Volo just said Humans were Hawter than Dwarfs?" Broodmothers are not dwarves and elves. They are tainted beings cursed to be doomed. That is no dwarf. Trust me.

"The only romance is mandatory, and it is a broodmother." Not as HOT as the Awakening one. :D

"No one spoke about popularity as it is irrelevant." "but is still able to garner its dedicated following of fans." 'Nough said. I win again.

"By the same logic, Skyrim is better than all Bioware games compined. Deal with it. I liked how in a previous post you said that what others think doesn't matter to you, and then you say that sales are measure of quality. Be consistent at least." You obviously don't know how to read. A certain someone claimed that AP was more liked and more popualr than DA2. I told him no and gave reasons why he was wrong. Being popular doesn't equal good. Never claimed that. Skyrim is definitely more popualr than DA2. I'd never deny that. That doesn't make it better. Just like KOTOR is more popular than FO but that doesn't make KOTOR better than FO. Capiche? Don't be ignorant.

Except DA2 sold millions of copies and despite loud whining has a ton of people who like it while AP bombed in every meaningful way and is liked by an extremly tiny minority. DA3 is coming. Where is AP2? 'Nough said.

"NWN, IIRC." Nah. BG2, FO, and PST. "I would put DA2 at the same level of quality of AP" L0L AP is crap. It is, BY FAR, Obsidian's worst game and is one of the worst games ever. DA2 is WAY better than it in every way manage. Hell, even its repetitive areas are lessy copy paste than AP's crap. AP is POR2 and ES series level of poop.

*yawn* Only toolbags go by what others think. Define 'metric ton' btw. You are full of crap. You probably think Twitcher is best game ever. I'lls tick with the PSTs, BG2s, and FOs. Thanks.

Back to the Putin article.. I find it hilarious he talks about how 'everyone is equal' but he is upfront' about his hatred of gays and how he doesn't considered them human or equal. What a piece of murderous ****.

"I can kinda-sorta see where Allan is coming from. EA went for the shorter dev cycle, yes, but it was BW that wanted to squeeze in more stuff anyway - which led to less polish and more asset reuse." EA is BIO. Whatever BIo decides is EA decides. BIO, as a company, does NOT exist. This is NOt the same as BIO being able to tell Interplay to scrwew off, we're taking our ball elsewhere. EA is BIO. Good, the bad, the ugly. "Dragon Age 2 would have been a decent game if it had a year and half of development time, not nine months. It doesn't matter who's fault it is, but it's not gonna go well for anyone if you release a ****ty bugged out incomplete game." 1. DA2 is almost as good as DA1. 2. of coruse, it be better with more time. 3. Hate it or like it; it's a complete game. BEGINNING. MIDDLE. END. complete Period. "I think what Allan is getting at mainly is that EA does bring positives as well as negatives. EA provided impetus to finally get DAO released, and the fault for it taking so long has to be Bioware's since they were independent for 80% of its development. DAO took so long that it nearly caught up with Mass Effect's schedule, which is bad for commercial reasons (potential overlap of sales/ publisher/ PR resources, concentration of revenue/ 'dead patches') and for production reasons (shared resources between ME/ DA teams coming under pressure at similar times, dlc scheduling). While it's possible to blame EA for not ordering more time for it there are very good reasons for it being that way- and a team producing a game every 5 years is not going to be commercially viable long term whether it's EA or independent Bioware." BIO managed to do fine pre EA. Maybe DA took a long time but it was obviously worth it. Also, DA would never intervere with ME because the fanbase for both is the same. They'll buy both games more or less. BIO has hundreds of employees. They can manage more than 2 games/series at once. BIO also had other games being released while DA was in production. It wasn't like it was only DA being worked on during those 5 years. They ahd money coming in from other sources. I mean BIO was financially sound enough to turn both NWN2 and KOTOR2 and reccommend the 'competition' for them. Don't make stuff up.

The Family - Good, entertaining movie. Nothing special. 7/10

"was a rather pretentious and smug statement in hindsight." And, bigoted.

EA is BIO. To blame BIo is to blame EA since EA is 100% firmly in control. BIO is not a company. It is a division.

What justice did he obstruct? The harassment and attempted lynching himself over some silly drugs that hurt nobody? he should be awarded a medal for standing up to the bullies and scumbags who tried to destroy him. He should them for a billion dollars minimum.

"considering DAII sales were lower than DA:O sales. Which, in the world of video games, is almost impossible. Sequels almost always make the same amount of money as the original, or more." No, it isn't. in fact, the opposite is often true. Afterall, if the first game sells 2mil, and let's say 25% hated it, you likely just lost a good chunk of the first game's paid customers. In the DA1-DA2 case, while DA2 sold less it also cost far elss and likely still made a healthy profit. Afterall, it did sell more than 2mil easily. "Wait, what do you mean the C&C was pretty damned good? I found that no matter my choices, everything turned out mostly the same. don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the game, but the C&C was not one of the high points." As far as the fubar ending (as I mentioned above) with the two psycho end bosses, the C&C is very good. All of the companions have multiple thinsg that could happen based on you decisions. Quests in act 2 and act 3 are largely dependent on quests you did and how you did them in earlier acts. ie. That quest with the young half elf mage has a lot of various conclusions based on your actions.Some good some not so good. Compared to the vast majority of RPGs, DA2 has fantastic C&C. You can lose out on lots of quests based on your decisions, also what you decide in quest A could effect whether or not you get quest B, or quest C. You can end up losing almost all your companions based on your decisions. I think Varric is the only exception (maybe Merrill?).

"It is kinda funny how they can joke about being lazy and yet get away with it repeatedly." How many times does this have to be covered? It wasn't laziness; it was about lack of time. DA was made in 5+ years. DA2 was made in less than 2. They are about the same length. Obviously, 'compromises' and 'sacrifices' have to be made. That isn't laziness. That said, it backfired because that is easily the #1 complaint about the game. Followed by the equipment shenaningins and the fubar ending. And, I agree, those are all negatives. But, the reactity (aka C&C), characters, writing, and actual combat are pretty damn good.

Sometimes the obvious is the correction answer. It is obvious rape is about sex more often than not. I don't know any study/reaearch/poll will ever to be genuinely be able to actually 'prove' it one way or the other so I find all studies on the issue highly suspect.