Tort

Does he have this on Youtube?

How do I load a custom portrait into a game? Also if I want to make a custom portrait what dimensions\format it should be?

Btw, how do use a custom portrait? iirc there was no in-game option to load one, so probably we need to it to a particular folder for the game to recognize it and add it to the list, if so which ?

Such a single minded view... I assure you that there far FAR more entitled pricks on the internet, who never worked a day in their life and feel that they should be able to get everything for free.. Such laws are about strike balance and need to adapt with time\progress (change from physical to digital commodities and the internet). Also despite best effort, there will always be self righteous people (on all sides) whining that they have been swindled. I bet that most who has played BG in their teens, at one time or another lended a book, movie etc. The problem started when it became too easy to "lend", lending became copying (using multiple copies at the same time) and instead of limited pool of friend it became anyone on the internet(sharing). EDIT: Btw iirc even the books you thin you "own", has legal notice that you can't copy\reproduce any of its material without permission. Also concerning steam, as it has been pointed out, you can already legally play on different machines (just not at the same time) and even share games among your house hold. Which is pretty much all the things you mentioned that you should be able to do.

It doesn't matter its Fantasy RPG. If look closely, at the core all genres\mediums explore the same themes, with time some new social issues brought forward, but at the core its good ol' human nature we love, hate ... That is pretty much the common RPG setting, where "races" are just more flourished variants of real life people stereotypes. And it works well, because it teaches that in the end despite those superficial differences at the core all people(humans) have the same needs, hopes and dreams.. The difference here is that those races are actually separate species, and with Obsidian emphasis to make the setting more plausible (which I enjoy), this has stuck out for me from the start. For the most part of history, we haven't been as enlightened as we pretend to be now days, spilling rivers of blood of those who were perceived different, and I have trouble imaging so many actual species developing side by side without primal instincts taking over. (starting with fear) Anyway, this isn't a gamebreaker by a long shot, just a tiny itch. To be honest, when I first read it, I thought that JS made it for him to have a setting based reason to avoid half-races.

Exactly, the fact that those races are actually different species. For example, if Dragons were real, can you imagine us living side by side with them? Its especially dubious since many races developed side by side throughout its early tribal periods..

On the Race side of things, I am not sure where Obsidian is going. Usually in RPGs all Humanoid Races can be seen as Human ethnics, that due to some extreme circumstances developed distinguishable physical differences, but those differences can be gapped by intermingling and sharing their culture etc. However, in PoE, Races are different species who can't intermingle, there will never be half Human\Elf. Honestly, I have a hard time imagining our world, with several intelligent\functional living side by side during darker times of history...

IMO how you explore the setting is just one aspect of the game, its intertwined with story progression and other game mechanics and can't be considered on its own. To me, even though BG2 world feelt smaller and more constricted, it was overall far better game, with more area to explore. (although possibly I am thinking of expansions and mods, it has been a while since I played BG1/BG2 not modded). In terms of exploration, BG2 had a bit too big initial quest hub, that some found confusion and missed the outdoor locations, that give you feeling of the world around you and a "change of scenery". I am not sure which style we have here (more BG1 or BG2), but i believe we will have several acts that follow the main story, each act will open new areas, quest-hubs and exploration opportunists. As well as more wilderness areas then there were in BG2. - I like it. EDITED.

Indeed, also it is still civil right issue in many places, which is why its such a popular theme in gaming (and otherwise). And I was happy to see this little twist on this "tried and true" theme, which is both historical and allows for some grey in the setting for us to explore.

It is to me. The game is set in a former colonial frontier, where the colonist exploited and enslaved the natives... Usually it this point, it turns into a "black and white" story\morality (pun intended), with the white devils who are corrupt, evil and without any redeemable qualities vs the brave and courageous people of color who are all saints and philosophers. So yeah it is good to see a splash and mix of history as reminder that human nature isn't bound by skin color or circumstances. In our case vallian culture belong to the oldest, most advanced and expansive empire. They are elitist and the most prominent slave traders. I'd love to see how it plays out. EDIT: Also the Aedyr are the ones who are loosely resemble the roman empire.

On a similar note. I was pleasantly surprised, when the Vallians turned to be the major slavers ..

In general, unless you playing a sandbox game like DayZ, you can hardly get lost, what you can do in cRPG like this is royally screw-up your plot\quests (unless you love level scaling) That why a mix of freedom and progression through the story is a winning strategy.

Considering that Microsoft ended support for Winxp, that OS has officially run its course. With that said, you probably asking if the game will RUN on WinXP. I don't know. However, it would probably will (it isn't a 64bit game, and use dx9), obviously the main issue would be performance, but I used to ran many new-ish game on low (e.g. Dota2, with 4Gb min req) on 10 years old laptop, with Win7 32bit, 1Gb RAM memory(+diskonkey as readyboost) with little long loading times, but no visual or otherwise lag.. Also in my experience if you upgrade to WIN7, you'd get better performance than with WinXP. Indeed. Although to be fair those are general public numbers, IMO steam HW survey provide more accurate numbers for gamers.

I got that and found your post useful, but still the term leaves a sour taste in my mouth, reminds me the time when I discovered that shire also means county.. not just silly name for place where hobbits live.

I am a bit worried, that this thread is past its due date.. We got a reviewer who isn't a reviewer (features guy) playing on bellow min spec rig (memory wise), who just made a passing comment in a forum...

So Palatinate it is, or maybe duchy palatinate :| I suppose the confusion\problem lays with me, since I have never heard of this term before (all the other ones in this thread are easy, they are the same-ish in my language) so i'd probably just stick with plain 'independent country'.

On a related note, does the 'Free palatine of Dyrwood' is an independent Duchy?

I am no expert, but my guess is that windows startup example might fit here i.e. people want their OS to load fast, so you first load the core component to show something on screen and then you load the rest in the background. Valid point, we don't know on what OS that person encountered those issues.

You can never catch all the bugs, but I doubt that 30% crashes managed to pass through the net of beta testing. Its probably specific issue to that guys hardware/software/etc and or he is exaggerating a bit.

It is not too "indie", just not mainstream material. A game for readers isn't as big of selling point as you might think.. most tend to prefer more action oriented RPGs, chunk some hours (maybe put some mods), jump to the next best thing... I agree that it's likely to sell like WL2.

40$ shipping, sound like an express shipping cost for far far away. Anyway for that price, you'd be better off buying at amazon both the guidebook(15$) and Prima Official Guide(28$) and enjoy the "FREE Shipping on orders over $35"... you'd pay less and get more..

I think this is a very important distinction. Its common to play on what is real and what we believe to be real. So in a world where souls play an important role, and we are told outright that the divine and souls are real. Its very likely that there is a hidden twist in plain sight. I have a theory about the nature of the gods.. in part it is based on the info on the guidebook backcover.

It is not just a mater of market situation, but also timing. InXile/Obsidian Kickstarters scratched an itch for the cRPG crowd at the right time, a lot of oldschool folk resented the feeling of being left behind and blamed the big publishers for it. Riding on the initial hype of kickstarters, many of them didn't see this as funding a game, but as investment in restoring cRPGs to its former glory, sticking it to the big publishers capitalism in the process (many of pledged far more then the average customer) Additionally ridding on the legacy of the originals the kickstarters many younger folks were attracted, who aren't necessarily the target audience for those games. So considering that Kickstaters popularity isn't what it used to be and that even hardcore fans aren't likely to keep pledging way above average sums, IMO any hope for as successful PoE2 Kickstarter will need a little bit more then just doing good, it need todo great.

That is pretty much the same in POE. The existence of the divine and souls is known fact in the world. Its believed that those who choose not to worship a deity risk their soul a 'world of pain' as they go through the cycle of reincarnation. With that said, I got the impression that there is a lot of freedom in who you worship, usually you would have a god that most associated with your way of life (e.g. god of the hunt and adventures) but nothing limits you from praying for god of war, redemption or whatever put food on your table in times of need. Generally unless you are in the pass of the gods, they do not rule you, and its my understanding that unless you are a priest you are not required to commit to one god.

you forgot to add: /Sarcasm