Humanoid

Command and Conquer ....Might and Magic. That's a simple enough substitution. Though I'd probably skip the main franchise and go for the Heroes of Command and Conquer spinoff. If C&C went turnbased I might buy a game from that franchise for the first time ever. Hex-based for bonus credits!

I'd call it 7.5 rising to 8 once the technical bugs get ironed out. The game world is pretty well-realised given it's the first outing for it and you can take as much interest in it (or ignore as much of it) as you like. The combat mechanics will take a while to mature and should do so either in future patches or in sequels. What's there is implemented well enough - the spellcasting system is a highlight for example - but it'll take a few more iterations for proper balancing. Tactical encounters are somewhat lacking in variety, consisting of either scripted ambushes or generic rooms with generic lackeys in them. Still, they go by fast enough and rarely drag on too long. Enough's been said about the story and although sometimes improbable or overcooked at times (everyone you meet with either a) die within 30 minutes, or b) betray you) it goes along at a decent pace.

I'm perfectly capable of multiple full party wipes in quick succession on easy difficulty. I don't really play for the combat which is fairly repetitive so I only give the barest attention to tactics and skill selection.

A bug that hits me a few times every play session is during movement, the game may abruptly switch to a different party member. Initially I thought it might have just been me fat-fingering something but I'd say not because the originally selected character would just continue running in the original direction and get split from the party (most usually sprinting into a wall or a rock or somesuch). This tends to happen when I move with the mouse instead of the keyboard, although I haven't specifically tried to reproduce it.

There should be a book somewhere in Denerim IIRC. Check the merchants. Will do! I just hope I can afford it. Thanks. Well you can always save, buy the book (selling everything you own if you need extra cash), learn it, then reload and have the specialisation open. Yes, it's sort of cheating, but cheating the the same way that overclocking is stealing.

It always makes me sad that I can't use the acronym WC in a gaming context anymore without 95% misidentification by other "gamers." Especially when the alternative isn't even a valid acronym.

Ultima 4 - but then that was the whole point of the game.

To be fair I don't think tooth decay was a major issue until the advent of the modern diet.

The biggest problem tactically seems to be the overabundance of doors. Not doorways, despite most strategies revolving around them, but the closed doors with mini-armies stationed behind them which just kills the tactical setups in most encounters. I'm not asking for JA2 or anything of the sort but the design of almost every encounter generally discounts the tactical use of space at the moment, with the single point of approach elimination positioning as a consideration. It also marginalises the Survival skill because as useful as the information it gives could be, you're prevented from acting on it most of the time because of the door in the way. Doors could be justified in numerous situations, such as mansions and other such dwellings but I'm not really seeing the rationale of them in say, ancient dilapidated ruined temples where every architectural feature within has or is in the process of crumbling away. Except the doors, which are as sturdy and functional as ever. So yeah, curse you damned doors!

I could have sworn that one of the NPCs referred to the event of the game's first battle as being "a year ago."

Well it would be in Oblivion.

Buy, steal or otherwise gain the Darklands rights. No elves, no dwarves, no magic. Failing that at least copy the character creation as close as possible.

Bioware has already done that before with NWN Hordes of the Underdark.

Maybe the EU competition regulator will step in and force competition for the micropayments in game - so you'd have various blacksmiths stalls and the customer would be free to purchase from whichever company will sell you a Longsword +3 for the cheapest vendor. Or buy the iLongsword +1 from a certain vendor instead for double the price (it'll have a nice brushed aluminium hilt!).

Anyone with it installed on an SSD have a report on load times?

Google control all information in the known universe, so in a fight against the collective governments of the world, Google will emerge victorious. And I for one welcome our new Googly overlords.

I replaced the cooler on my 8800GT with an Accelero S1 (with undervolted turbo module) and I'm pleased with the results, and installation wasn't too bad. However with most (or even all) 3rd party coolers, there's a catch - it decouples the GPU cooling from the memory and the VRM cooling, which gets delegated to small or non-existent individual heatsinks. The danger therefore is that while the temperature monitor will report a nice drop in the GPU temperature, you won't be able to determine whether the other chips are necessarily getting sufficient cooling.

Well they have apparently stopped making them, or at least that's what retailers say.

Indeed it's been going on and on and on and on and on since the opening of the Interplay boards in 2003.

A bootable Linux CD (i.e. an OS that runs off a DVD) might be useful for rescuing stuff if the Windows installation is beyond help.

Best value SSDs these days would be the ones based on the Indilinx controlled, e.g. the G.Skill Falcon, the OCZ Vertex, the Corsair X series, the SuperTalent UltraDrive, the Patriot Torqx, the Crucial M225 ...and probably a few more - all these drives would be pretty much the same and lead the price:performance stakes. Intel X25-M is the market leader and is faster for most uses, and it's priced accordingly, especially given there is a worldwide shortage of them.

Thing is, a Raptor costs pretty much the same as a 64GB SSD these days, so for most applications they'd be rather obsolete. 64GB would easily cover the OS and the games du jour for most people.

What's suitable will depend if you want to replace or simply add to your current drive. For a second drive purely for storage I'd go with a 5400rpm drive like the WD Green series or Samsung F2. For a system drive, if you don't want to spring the cash for an SSD, a WD Black, Samsung F3 or Seagate 7200.12 would be more suitable. Just don't get a Seagate 7200.11 since they were prone to spontaneously bricking.

All I can remember of MoTB is creating a remarkably ineffective Rogue/Wizard and having to rest after every fight in the opening dungeon. Had to join my queue of Stuff to Replay Eventually.

I've had a Diamond S3 Virge DX and Diamond Riva128 (the first ever mainstream nVidia chip!) and two Diamond TNT2s before the company sort of went under. Leadtek GF3 Ti200, Sparkle GF4 Ti4200 also still alive, but since then I've had a pretty rotten run, Radeon 9800 Pro died, Gainward GeForce 7900GT died, HIS X1950XT fan crapped out, 8800GT ok now with a 3rd party cooler.