Blarghagh

While I like the idea of that for flavor, living world idea I dislike it very much from a gameplay perspective - if I'm slow enough, I stop facing interesting undead and get only skeletons? Cool as an idea, but practically a punishment in the game for being too slow.

This is some of the worst nonsense I have ever read. Characters arcs will only ever work where the narrative demands the character to have an arc. Otherwise it is a disingenuous and pointless distraction that goes nowhere and desperately needs to be cut out. I am so sick of people demanding characters arcs where narratives do not demand it at all. How one note characters deal with a plot, or other characters deal with one note characters is more than enough dynamic for 90% of narratives and most shoehorned character arcs created due to awful claims such as yours are responsible for almost all bad character writing. Here's an example: House was good because House always did the same thing - he was an absolute **** and had the clout to back it up and all the dynamic this show needed was seeing the other one note characters deal with it. This show became awful when they started adding character arcs to it because someone just like you decided House needed a character arc, absolutely ruining the character and narrative dynamic in the progress. Seriously, go read anything on narrative construction and learn not to spout nonsense that you read on a fan fiction guide as fact.

I didn't know that, I did know that their screechy roar noises are a combination of dolphin and walrus. The T-rex, on the other hand, roars with a combination of freight train, cow going moo and a tiny pomeranian playing with a rope played at half speed. I love sound effect stories like that. Other favourite examples of mine are the sound of the evil spirit from The Grudge, which is someone slowly running their finger over a comb, and the roar of the Balrog in The Lord of the Rings, which is a cinderblock being dragged over another cinderblock.

I actually do agree with you, I think CG has been used as an excuse to be lazy by many directors and studios. The one sentence VFX artists dread is "we'll fix it in post" and a lot of CG is bad. This is mostly because of A) Directors don't know what to do with them and don't actually talk to the visual effects artists (see the video) and B) Because the VFX artists don't have enough budget for quality, usually due to the fixed bid structure. They get contracted to do vfx on a movie that, according to script and storyboard has an estimatd 50 vfx shots. Then the director adds twenty more shots, but because it's a fixed bid, the vfx team doesn't get paid more for those shots so the budget for each shot to be done goes down. I also agree with you that I miss practical effects. While Jurassic Park was made famous due to it's CG, I think the dinosaur animatronics are much more impressive. Similarely, the Alien lost a lot of it's power when they made it CG. I don't think CG is a catch-all solution for all special effects work. That doesn't take away that the way the studio works for VFX artists is completely unfair. The set designer has to build another set, he gets paid for an extra set. The people who build 90% of the rest of the set in modern movie making? Don't get paid an extra dime.

am I bad if I hated all those movies? I'm sure there are movies that employed visual effects that you did enjoy. People tend to underestimate how many visual effects are used - even non-action films. Pretty much every other shot in, for example, Forrest Gump has some form of digital effect or enhancement. Even people who say "I hate CG, I hate blockbuster movies" will have a film that is filled with digital visual effects in their top 10, I guarantee it. Pan's Labyrinth, that was critically lauded for it's amazing practical effects had each of these effects enhanced by VFX artists. Titanic, Jurassic Park, The Matrix, even Fight Club (especially Fight Club even, which has more CG shots than Jurassic Park does) - these films are filled to the brim by things VFX artists made on ridiculous, cheap fixed bid contracts that allow for no overtime even if the amount of shots they need to create dramatically increases.

Life After Pi, a good introduction to what is wrong with how Hollywood treats visual effects artists and why half of your Facebook (probably) turned green around the time last years' oscar ceremony. It's an issue close to me not only because I'm an aspiring visual effects artist but because I love movies, I love seeing them on the big screen, and it pains me that people who made 95% of a movie come to life have to live in constant fear of losing their jobs, or having their contracts changed without recourse. Without visual effects artists, there wouldn't have been a Life of Pi, there wouldn't have been any Lord of the Rings movies, there wouldn't have been a Gravity.

Do you care to offer a more scandalous one? No more scandelous than some of the humdrum things offered in this thread. - I've enjoyed romance in CRPGs on occassion. - I prefer playing first CRPG playthroughs on easy mode so I can immerse myself in the story without having to crunch numbers to figure out why I'm dying and taking me out of the story. Challenge comes after story for me. - Though Obsidian wrote my favourite companions, on average I've enjoyed more Bioware companions. - The influence system in KotOR 2 was absolutely dumb.

I'm pretty sure that's the original Godzilla noise, making Godzilla literally the only thing that should be allowed to use it. EDIT:

I'd be interested to hear why you dislike Jaheira so much. She's a bit of a bitch, but some real people are bitches so I think it gives the character some realism. On the other hand, I've killed Anomen more times than I care to count.

I think barely any of the opinions in this thread were blasphemous at all. : /

The question about memorable characters: (I'd like to note first that this is not neccesarily what companions I think are best, but what companions have stuck with me in a positive sense) Main reason I remember characters is bringing the funny or being very distinctive, but I don't want all my characters to be funny or very distinctive. I find Minsc and HK-47 to be two of the most memorable characters around, but they were funny or distinctive mostly because it contrasted with the settings and the other characters. Other characters can be funny occassionally, but if everyone is funny it just becomes ridiculous, and the same goes for distinctive (someone in this thread before mentioned that your group should not become a traveling circus). So while these characters were most memorable to me, they were only that memorable because there were less over the top characters to compare to. This doesn't mean that I don't like less over the top characters. Atton, for example, is also one of my favourite characters and outwardly he is a fairly run-of-the-mill scoundrel type character, but I don't think about him quite as much as I think about the funnier HK-47 moments. Another important reason I remember characters is plot involvement. I like it when a character actually has a place in the story or are somehow related to the main character's arc. Not all characters have to have this, but it does feel more like they belong. Kreia is a good example, because Kreia essentially is the story. I prefer it when most of my characters are part of the story arc and only a few are loyal tagalongs that I picked up. Yoshimo comes to mind - he has an arc that is a part of my character's story and has consequences for my character. His twist originally shocked me (though I must admit I was pretty young) and is a moment in gaming I am not likely to forget. However, the game shouldn't force a character's arc on you in this way. For example, Carth's story in KotOR wasn't very interesting to me and the fact that his whole Admiral Saul plot and trust issues were forced into the main plot while I never brought the character along was a bad choice, and he was memorable for me in that way in that I really disliked him for it. He was a character I didn't care for, didn't pick for my team, and he stole the spotlight from characters I did enjoy playing with. Since it's been said you don't get characters forced on you in PoE, this shouldn't be a problem.

Patch notes. Okay, yeah, I could have googled that myself. But what specifically would you say has made the game more fun or interesting?

Could anyone tell me what all has changed? I haven't played this for at least six months.

That's an example of 3D done well, actually. Especially when it shows a place that has no natural horizon for your brain to adjust to, making it go "****, ABANDON SHIP, ABANDON SHIP." I suppose you could see that as 3D done well. I couldn't watch it, however, which I assume is counterproductive when it comes to film.

The Hobbit 2 was a rare example of 3D adding to the experience, which I mostly attribute to it showing in 48fps and 4k resolution - the eye strain was significantly reduced. Other than that, it still suffered from problems. The Smaug sequences were practically monochromatic and I found the 3D broke immersion more often than it aided it - Peter Jackson's sweeping camera pans tend to mess with the effect and I'm immediately aware of how my eyes are reacting to 3D glasses and taken out of the story. The Hobbit 2 was one of the better executions of 3D, the only one that worked decently since Avatar. A lot of people say Gravity also did it extremely well, personally I disagree, that film gave me motion sickness up the wazoo when watched in 3D and I actually had to walk out - I loved it when I saw it in 2D however. As for why I don't partake, my grandfather when he was alive grew it in the back of his yard and sold it to people (shush, don't tell anyone). Nobody who ever came there to buy it was ever anything else than a deadbeat and most of them were also addicted to speed or meth. It burned me on the whole thing from a young age. I know correlation is not causation, but I'm never going to take that chance. I got around to watching that Godzilla trailer now and it looks amazing. Super excited about it, though the shot of the statue or liberty made me think of Cloverfield.

mmmm...smoke some weed, watch a movie in 3D and then tell me the experience wasn't better than 2D What is it that makes it better? The barely noticable depth effect that doesn't actually register to your eyes and brain anymore after 5 minutes of film, the eyestrain from forcing your eyes into perfect focus for every second of the film, the higher chance of motion sickness, or the complete loss of color and contrast in the image? While I don't partake (I know, so unexpected from a dutch person) I highly doubt even weed can make this better.

I'd say he's already there, he might even have an edge in a few areas. Perlman is the voice of Fallout, which is huge. But Vin voiced two very good Riddick games, and is actually the founder of the studio. Perlman is the leader of a tough as nails biker gang on TV, Vin is the leader of a car racing gang in Fast and Furious. Perlman is Hellboy, Vin is Riddick. Both have comic books. Honestly it's a pretty close comparison. As awesome as Ron Perlman is, Vin has the edge - everyone knows who Vin Diesel is. I have to respectfully disagree with you. Vin Diesel has yet to go into the foreign film scene. A fantastic film i recomend to everyone, La Cite des Enfants Perdus ( The city of Lost Children ) Ron plays a 'slow' french muscle man. He speaks french throughout the entire film ( much more than afew lines by Vin Diesel in Los Bandoleros ) Now i Grant you Rons french isnt that good, but luckily it fits into the 'slow' muscle man character ^ . ^ As a European, I find interesting the notion interesting that people in Europe care any more about art films than in the US. The general audience in Europe is just as dumb as the general US audience - there is no "foreign film scene", there is the niche audience that watches art films which is the same everywhere. My point stays, everyone knows who Vin Diesel is and very few people know who Ron Perlman is (with the occassional "hey, it's that guy" or some geeks who knows he's under the red make-up in Hellboy). Don't get me wrong, Ron Perlman is a much cooler actor who can play practically everything whereas Vin Diesel is a mediocre actor who needs parts tailored to him, but the claim that Vin Diesel might get lucky and get into Ron Perlman territory? Ron Perlman wishes he was as famous and succesful as Vin Diesel - character actors like Perlman don't get much props whereas Vin Diesel was the leading man in how many franchises and blockbusters? I love Ron Perlman, but Vin Diesel is in a much better position. Plus, I'm detracting points for Dungeon Siege.

I think I often misremember NWN because I had so much fun with the toolset, player-made stuff, and even some online DMing. But the official campaign was absolutely awful. I remember one area near the end that was a huge map, with levers in each of the corners that you had to pull... with boring filler combat happening every few feet it seemed. I couldn't understand why they had included an entire area that served no purpose other than to delay the end of the game by 20 minutes. The entire campaign felt like a bad student project, and I don't remember anything else about it. A recurring BioWare problem I think - the endgame of KotOR was essentially the game just throwing as much Sith soldiers as it could at you. Most dull part of the game.

I've got 5 cats, one is a Norwegian forest cat and the rest are just domestic shorthaired cats, some with lynx-like tufts on their ears. I don't have any particular breed preference or something, I do like the white cats we used to have here though, but they're gone now do to castrations and sterilizations. I love cats, I wanted to see what a Norwegian forest cat looked like so I googled it. They are adorable I briefly rented a room from an old lady who bred them and pretty much always had kittens around. It was extremely therapeutic to come home to a cornucopia of kittens to play with to de-stress after work.

I'd be freaking out too if I was surrounded by fish people.

I'd say he's already there, he might even have an edge in a few areas. Perlman is the voice of Fallout, which is huge. But Vin voiced two very good Riddick games, and is actually the founder of the studio. Perlman is the leader of a tough as nails biker gang on TV, Vin is the leader of a car racing gang in Fast and Furious. Perlman is Hellboy, Vin is Riddick. Both have comic books. Honestly it's a pretty close comparison. As awesome as Ron Perlman is, Vin has the edge - everyone knows who Vin Diesel is.

Cool. Vin Diesel is famously a huge nerd, so I'm sure he's happy.

That, or collect a huge paycheck for a handful of lines (at least, I didn't read anything about him being motion captured). Plus, that's what he's best at, Vin Diesel's best part has always been The Iron Giant.

I can't decide whether that looks incredibly dumb or incredibly awesome.

While I agree with some of the things you said, I don't agree with what Ellis said, specifically: “And when someone is criticised for their content, they seem to collapse, or the person criticising them is called a hater, a contrarian, a troll.” This is absolute bull. "Generation Wuss" is by far the generation that gets the most criticism simply because everyone can criticize everything, anywhere, and does so very vocally. The previous generation would never have had an Anita Sarkeesian situation simply because, as you put it, the previous generation was less censorious - they simply wouldn't have cared as much, whereas my generation got their collective panties into a ridiculous bunch over it. I'm willing to call it right now that Ellis hasn't received as much criticism in his entire life from his peers as most "Generation Wuss" artists get in a week. I will admit, however, to belonging to the ridiculous generation of waxed moustaches, douchy hats and worthless, overpriced electronics with fruit on them. I wish I didn't, although I do have a beard. EDIT: Mistook who were gen Y and gen wuss, had to edit.