Volourn

"Considering that sequels in videogameland are often better than the originals" I haven't done much official research into the subject, but if I were to hazard a guess that most sequels tend to get ratedlower than the originals. This is doubly true for expansions. One clear example is HOTU which reviewers and most gamers agree is better than the NWN OC 9and SOU0 yet is rated far lower...

Unlike certain anti BIo posters... R00fles!

"Iraq was NOT in a state of revolution! Saddam, as evil as he was, was NOT ordering his attack helicopters to open fire on demonstrators!" Nah. He was doing stuff like that all along. From even before he got power he had no problem with mass murder. "But before operation Iraqi freedom, things were pretty calm." Just not true unless your defintion of 'calm' is different than what the word actually means. "Iraq was NOT in a state of revolution!" Because, Hussein made sure it with his mass murders. It's not like Iraqis didn't try multiple times. The Iraq war was based on truths.

"Nah, mages were invented to appeal to insecure teenagers with secret dreams of one day becoming more powerful than everybody else. Especially more powerful than the guys who gets all the girls. That will show them! (cf. 'Harry Potter fans' & 'Raistlin & Caramon')" The same can be said for kewl knight/warrior types who tend to get the girls that mages tend not to. "You didn't download the demo yet?" Who claimed I didn't?

Can't speak for DA2, but in DA1 the mage was eaisly killable in comaprison to warriors/rogues in physical combat. An ogre for example, could kill a mage in 2-4 hits no problem (barring any potential protective spells). That's how it is 'balanced'. A mage vs warrior one vs one would be quick in favor of the warrior unless the mage continually gets lucky with freezing type spells.

"If I can slam a sword on the ground and knock people off their feet, it's obvious I'm no longer working within the constraints of what real world swordsmen can do. " I never brought up 'real world' stuff since, afterall, magic doesn't exist in real world.

"Not really a hardcore gamer though." If you replay the same game over, and over, and over again youa re definitely a hardcore gamer. if you feel the need to post on gaming forums for YEARS about games, you are a hardcore gamer. Everyone who posts here is a hardcore gamer. There is no disputing it. Also, i don't go around reading my fvaorite books, watching my favorite movies, or even listenting to my favorite songs (though I'll listen to them if I hear them) non stop. Casual gamers play for fun, and they'll move on to the next kewl thing. People claim that WOW is for 'casual gamers' but it ain't. Casual gamers likely played it for a couple of months and moved on even if theyn liked it. Hardcore gamers who liked it are probably still playing it.

"This isn't an MMO, classes don't need to be balanced." And, thank god for that. Balanced classes are a sure sign of poor development. Mages should NOT be the equal of fighters and rogues. They use friggin' magic. I'm sorry but anyone who thinsk someone who uses swords should be the equal of someone that CREATE fire out of NOTHING are just silly and not thinking logically.

"That's probably because most games suck and don't even reward the expenditure of time required for a single playthrough, let alone multiple playthroughs. If games were BETTER and rewarded multiple playthroughs, then people would play them multiple times." Nope. The averga egamer does not play games (barring sports games and other MP games) more than once./ It has very little to dom with quality of said game but more to do with time and looking for the next cool thing to play, and the majority don't finish it. As a fun example, I had a friend buy FO:LV, and he loved it yet didn't finish it. That may be anecdotal evidence, but it's backed up by game companies' research and hardcoded facts. Don't mistake your own 'hardcore agmer experience' with the 'average gaming joe or jane'.

"further cemented Muslim bigotry' Fixed. We get it, Muslims in the ME tend to be bigots when it comes to other people including other Muslims. Muslims killing muslims. More muslims wer emurdered in iraq by Muslims than muslims that were murdered by non muslims. Why is that? Why do Muslims feel the need to murder each other yet claim they do it to fight the 'barbarians from the west'? LMFAO Hopefully, the good people of the ME will get the freedome they deserve and want that most westerners don't want them have because they prefer to have Muslim countries be in crap shape so they can feel all superior. Thankfully, NA Muslims have seen the light and don't rely on violence to get what they want. btw, Iraq is better off without Saddam in power. The 'disaster' of Iraq was caused by an Iraqi called Saddam Hussein. No non Iraqi made the decisions that absolutely crippled Iraq's finances, power, culture, and infleunce that he did. Hussein destroyed Iraq. Nobody else did.

Only terrifying about Titanic how sorely underrated such an awesome movie is.

Tried watching it. Was one of the most overrated, and boring sci fi shows ever created. The fact you felt the need to compared to JS says everything that needs to be said about XFiles which its crappy writing, horrific acting, and garbage everyhting. I'd rather compare it to Fringe which is amde by the same guy and has been accused of 'copying' X-Files except in Fringe's case it does everything better. better acting (espicially better acting), better writing, better archs, better overall story, just plain better. L0L Jersey Shore L0L To answer "So, anyone else here like it?" No. Hell to the no.

"Comparing DAO combat to IWD2 is an insult, given the creativity behind many of the combat situations in IWD2. " An insult to DA, you mean, as IWD2 combat was dreadful and had noc reativty. Crappy combat is crappy combat. IWD2 was a failure. IWD1 was a fun dungeon crawl, IWD2 was not. DA is sueprior to it in ervery single way as is IWD1. As for the whining about 'too juch combat' in DA2, it's logical since every game has lots of combat... espicially when the people whining will go on to praise games like BG2, IWD2, PST, FO, KOTOR, BL, ARC, GBG, etc., which all have 'too much combat'. DEATH TO IE GAMES! "FIGHT > DIALOGUE > FIGHT > DIALOGUE > FIGHT > DIALOGUE > BOSS FIGHT > DIALOGUE." You just gave the defintion of every RPG ever created. L0LZ

"Meh. We know reviews are mostly rubbish, it'd be silly to believe them now. I'll wait for the demo." People believe what they want to believe. if you believe DA2 will be rubbish that's what you'll get from reviews, if not, you'll see the opposite. *shrug* 30 hours? I'm sure it'll be 30 hours for some, 20 for others, and yet 50 for another group. Then you'll get the braggarts who'll do it in 10, and the lsow pokes whow do it in 80. Big deal. Time is irrelevant as long as you enjoy it. One of the best RPGs of all time - FO - was 10-20 hours max if you took your time. Didn't lessen my enjoyment of it to be darn sure. "That's what you get for rushing the game out of the doors." Game wasn't rushed. Game was finished when it was finished. If DA2 is the worst game ever, it has nothing to do with length of the development. It be a cop out just like it was for certain other games. Afterall, NWN took 5 years to make, and a certain segemnt of punks think its a horrible game. *shrug* That's life. And, NHL 11 took a year to make and its an awesome freakin' game. IWD1 had a 'short' dev cycle yet was a solidly fun game. R00fles!

"limited class progression with fixed skilltrees" What exactly is that supposed to mean? Isn't, byt defintion, all class based or heck all character, based progression' limited'. And, fixed skilltrees? That's exactly how it was DA. Not, to mention most evry RPG in existence.

As long as IWD3 is better than IWD2, I'm all for it. Too bad it would be using 4th Edition...

DA was definitely more 'tatical' than BG. No contes. "How much do you want to bet the it will get golden reviews praising every single aspect of the game no matter how bad it (maybe) is? I'll be happily skipping this one. Looks like it has way too much Bio fanservice." How much do you want to bet the same 'ol tired anti BIO contingent will bash it repeatedly for eyars to come in every aspect no matter how good (maybe) it? Works both ways.

"Also, the new issue of German mag Gamstar has a review of Dragon Age 2. It's not online yet, but the headline says it's not as good as DA:O." So... this means it's a 9.1 instead of a 9.3?

Kaberle should ahve no, and just left Toronto at end of season with nothing to show for it. After how they have treated him so horribly, it is what they deserve.

"But riding coattails is a bit heavier of an accusation." So.. only anti BIO peeps can be over the top? K, then.

"Does a clown pull a kid under a bed in that movie?" Yup. That's the clown fight I was referring to.

"Getting some PR and giving some in return (Bioware must have liked someone using their tech)" The only thing BIO likely got out if it was some money they got paid for the use of their tech.. CDPG got access to a multi million sized potential customer base. Sorry, but anyone, who thinks that CDPG didn't get a sizeable number of potential customers based on BIO's (albeit limited) involvment is silly. It's not even about quality (or lack thereof). It's about large fanbases, word of mouth, and pimpage.

You tap into someone's fanbase that is the definition of ridiing coattails. If you don't think CDP's tap in to the BIO audience (including Obsidianites and Codexers) didn't have a part in how successful The Witcher was, you are the one deluding yourself, my friend. I already gave myself as an example of it, and I doubt I'm unique in that either. There's a reason why obsidian's most popular games are sequels and NOt their original game. NWN2. KOTOR2. FO3.5. AP. Which one of the above does not belong? 'Nough said.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Poltergeist as a 'scary' movie. Like i said, I don't get scared but I've heard plenty of people talk aboutt hat in the past, and there were definitely some 'scary' moments in the film. The clown fight, and 'They're Here', and 'Don't go towards the light! Not to mention the always kewl It. "WE ALL FLOAT DOWN HERE!"

I counter that with the fact that if it wans't for nature we wouldn't even have an 'overpopulation' problem iin the first place.