Tigranes

There's a lot of QTEs in the prologue, less aftewrads.

Whoa. I agree with the basic point that there is no such thing as 'inherent' property rights, and especially intellectual property is a particular historical construction rather than founded on a consistent set of ethics, but that's a whole load of equally artificial assumptions and judgments you're bringing in there. Anyway, feel free to create a thread on this or find an existing one, but let's keep this one for game news...

It's not a huge deal. Without the desktop, I'd have the macbook for mobile emailing/etc, then yeah, do a proper clean reformat/etc of my old 'power' laptop which can handle anything up to 2007. I guess I could use the opportunity to get into Jagged Alliance 2. I've looked up the baggage restrictions and it seems like the case in particular will be too much for all the travelling. No CK2, Risen 2, etc., then... maybe Diablo 3.

I'm thinking one box for all components, with each component in a anti-static bag (does the PSU need to go in one, too?) then in bubble wrap, to minimize the number of boxes and the volume. Then, of course, the case. I can't remember what I did re. thermal paste/heatsink when I built this thing, but I'm sure I can do it again without breaking stuff. Main determinant will be whether I can actually transport all this stuff across the world with the baggage limits on planes.

Oh wow, OK. So later you meet these gnomes, and turns out some of them learned to talk, but obviously they picked it up from pirates, so the it's a pidgin of their own language and.... These guys are hilarious, awesome stuff.

It's because to manage your growing empire, you are spending more of your gathered resources on upkeep and repair costs, not new buildings and units. After a while, your upkeep costs are large enough that it's difficult to build anything new... Sorry.

I thought Two Worlds 2 was a terribly mediocre game that isn't worth 5 minutes of your time (I gave it 5 hours), and Kingdom of Amalur wasn't much better. Arcania, obviously, is bottom of the crap-barrel. Risen 2 is far, far better. Currently, my assessment is that it's just as good as Risen 1. It's weaker in some aspects, like combat, which I really don't appreciate, but I think they put in the pirate theme skilfully, and the addition of muskets and other elements improve the game. One big question mark is whether, like all other PB games, the last bit of the game will devolve into mindless hack and slash - Risen 1, like all Gothics, wasn't worth playing once that happened. In a related way, I hope I don't see many more 'boss battles', I saw one and it was (a) far too easy, (b) stupid-boring. Not sure about my initial comparison to Witcher 2. I think they're very different games, so maybe it was silly to begin with. Certainly I've had great fun with both games so far, but I'm not done with R2.

Actually, thinking about it, I'm tempted to take my desktop with me as I go US->NZ->France->Korea-US between next week and the end of August. I built it last year from newegg parts, and am thinking whether it would be a good idea to try and take it with me, and what precautions I'd need to take. If I did it, I would take it to NZ, use it, then take it to Korea, leave it there while I'm in France, come back and use it in Korea, then take it back with me to the US. (1) I'm thinking the best idea is to dismantle the computer, repackage each part in foil or bubble wrap, then reassemble, so that stuff doesn't snap or rattle. Would it suffice to bubblewrap everything like graphics cards? I have original boxes, but they are too big, combined, to really send. (2) These days the PSUs handle different voltages automatically, right? So I'd just need the plug things that change the shape of the power plug on the wall end? (3) I wouldn't take my monitor, obviously - is there anything about monitor capability that could be an issue? I think I have a monitor back in NZ, etc. It's not a necessity since I have my old laptop (heavy, dead battery, largely ailing) and an ancient Macbook (good for email), but it would be nice to have it around. Thoughts?

1 year out of 5 done, but I'll be at home in NZ for a little bit, then France and Korea for research projects. I'll be moving to a different place next year, so timed it to cut down on rent overlap. Which is why my desktop and other things will be languishing here for the summer. Our school gives us quite a bit of money, but I'm still drawing from my own savings as well.

Still in crunch mode as I prepare to move out, leave the country, and finish three articles, and play Risen 2 since I won't have my desktop until September. Obviously, the last is the most important! *fire up*

The double-barreled musket has propelled my character to awesomesauce, shooting down everything in its path. I think bullets should be a tad more expensive - it would also be nice if there were different types (are there?). Running around Antigua doing this and that, game hasn't devolved into hack and slash yet.

They take an average of 10 seconds, are very easy, are bound to difficulty so you can set difficulty to easy for them, and are only required apparently for one part of the main story; I myself have only seen only one instance where you need to do them for any sidequest or even significant benefit. There is the lockpick 'minigame', but it's even easier than Oblivion / Skyrim / FNV / etc; most of the time I just shake the mouse for a couple of seconds and I win.

Huh, pity. I'll have to play to the end to see whether the crafting limitations are a good thing or not. (C&C!!!111!) I guess I'll sell the hundreds of plants I've collected, now, and eat the statboosts.

Whoa, that looks pretty cool. i'm all booked up with Ck2 and Risen 2,but let us know, I might buy the game when it comes out.

You can't ask someone to buy & ship from US for you? E.g. I'd be happy to, but (a) you may not want to trust an Internet Person (horror) with moneys, which is understandable, and (b) I'll be out of US for the summer in a week. But maybe you know somebody on the other side?

A familiar story where the piece I'm writing is transforming in nature precisely as I write, so that when I'm done, it will already be something very different in my mind, and what is actually written will be a horror-child caught in an existential crisis between two states of being. Also, it would probably be better without Risen 2. Grrr.

You only need one, I had the boots and hat, mentioned the hat and he believed me, but I think I had the option to mention boots, too. Try wearing / not wearing the items in question, as well. If you do need another one:

You can use flowers to brew potions, but in Risen 2, it seems such crafting skills are only available after the midpoint in the game - same with crafting muskets, guns, etc. - and brewing potions is tied to Voodoo. There are also some rare flowers that give permanent stat boosts. In older PB games, you never want to eat them because they can be brewed for even more powerful permaboosts, but I'm not far enough here to know when/if that happens. I love the economy because you always need money and you're always so poor. It also makes double-crossing quest givers to pocket an extra 100 gold, or picking gold as a reward instead of some rare item, actually important; that stuff, and the Treasure Map chests filled with precious metals, have been my sugar daddies, though I'm still perpetually short. Done most of the quests on the second island, going with the Inquisition, exploring a bit now. With the musket I can take on ghouls and such that I couldn't before, so I should be able to look around. Can't wait till I try the Monkey Training skill.

I've never played MMOs long enough to tell what differentiated GW1, but I enjoyed levelling up with a few of my friends who were into it. The story and setting were absolutely terrible crap, i.e. a collection of $1 fantasy novel dumpsite material, but at least you could skip it. I thought the core mechanics and instance design were solid. It was pretty generic looking and had way too much bloom, but ah well. Haven't followed GW2 at all, I'll check it out after release and see how many people I know play.

Sure, what do we need to do?

The musket is super cool! That is all.

Running around the second island, I think the dividing into islands has its ups and downs. Obviously it limits your free exploration a bit, but each island is big enough that you have plenty of places to explore, including places that are clearly too difficult for you that you could go to anyway. So it actually helps me in that I don't get exploration anxiety and start rushing to systematically map the place out, and I still get to scratch the explore itch. I think later you get a ship and can go freely to and fro, as well. I keep putting money & XP into cunning, but saving up a bit now so I can learn some sword moves and see if that improves the combat. Had to fight a certain big-mouthed monster before and that took a lot of frantic jumping and running away from its snappy jaws.

The entire mechanic of the D2 sorceress depended on managing several sets of cooldowns; their importance is evident in the way Blizzard had to eternally fiddle with the cooldowns for Frozen Orb and Blizzard, in particular. Thus the obvious utility of the Nova+x build. I saw some similarities in the way the monk builds up spirit then punctuates this with big attacks that use the spirit bar. it seems more basic, less frantic, more tedious than D2, but I can't say for sure until we can play to pretty high levels. Still not sure, I guess I"ll get it if there are enough people here who do, and we can have a big Obsidian group.

Two Worlds 2 was a terrible game, so it's hard to judge the 'type of game' from it, since it wasn't even good for what it is. Exploration is fun in a different sense than Morrowind. It's about a smaller world where the eternal danger of enemies that can kill you in a few seconds really changes the way you explore, and it's all about seeking out little nooks and crannies - if you take the trouble to check behind a waterfall, the island on the edge of the map, a small cave off the beaten path behind some vines, you're going to be rewarded for it. The danger these enemies pose - and Risen 2 has some instakill traps as well - means you're going to be finding creative ways to jump off ridges, run for your life, etc. to get to some places.