Tigranes

No, I think he's talking about his design philosophy and you're reaching for unnecessary connections. He sometimes says polarising and elitist things, but when he talks in detail about what he's trying to do with his own game (i.e. the more important stuff) he is usually just being honest about where he's coming from. Outspokenness isn't necessarily better than PR-speak, but I prefer to hear honestly where devs are coming from and what their opinions are, so I can tell if they're being elitist, narrow-minded or whatever. I certainly don't want to mine what they say for potentially insulting comments and help push more devs towards the Pete Hines side of the scale. Who knows, but actually, if it turns out to be turd I will be very, very amazed. There is (for a game with no ETA) a large amount of material out there that shows that (a) the writing is at least decent, and fits the old school style; (b) combat is relatively simple but well polished and fun if you like the style;

Don't know what happened with you WOD, but stealthboy works with Caesar's tent. It's just that with guards standing right outside both sides of the entrance, it's very difficult to remain hidden even with the stealthboy - maybe a low sneak skill.

To be honest, I think Dead State will turn out fun and innovative and unique, but a fairly simple and limited game. This is a good thing in terms of Doublebear getting their first game out the door, and also 'innovative' and 'expansive' don't work well together in that context, but as a player, AOD is something 'meatier' to wait for. AOD combat demo was actually very good, taste aside - if we're just looking at the question of single-character turn-based combat it was Fallout (1) done better. UI / usability wasn't bad either.

The Dice... of FIRE! The interior looked softlit to death, kind of like NWN2 - hope my PC can handle it.

Except he's not being douchy in that post, is he? Don't become a meme of yourself, Purk. STAY TRUE! Personally I think they're overdoing it a bit at this point, though hard to know from the outside. I'm not expecting it till second half of '11.

I think a quest pack, or even making your quests slowly build up a larger narrative or link with each other, is a good idea to popularise the mod - even though I love quest mods sometimes I think, if it's a 30 minute quest should I even bother installing it? Given the fact that FNV is still addictive it'll probably only take me a couple of days to get to the area. Still finding some new things in the 4th playthrough - it's the first time that I actually saw the two Sarsaparilla Caps people fighting each other , so I intervened and shot the guy, and got to talk to the girl.

That's true, but this one has about as much in common with them as.... well, nothing.

I don't know where the quest is set, but I've just started my 4th Energy Weapons-NCR playthrough with it.

Dungeon Siege 3, The Witcher 2, Diablo 3 and Deus Ex 3 are my personal must buys. (Yeah, they're all sequels, huh.) Age of Decadence and Dead State are on there if they make it out the conveyor belt. Elder Scrolls V - probably, depending on info. Dragon Age II and Shogun:TW2 probably on the bargain bin list. I just read an interview about how the Shogun AI is "too good" and had to be scaled down - hey, guys, you said the exact same thing about an earlier release in the franchise and guess what, it was too stupid to run in a straight line.

What exactly was artistic about Avatar?

First time I've heard of this, and it's weird, since the patch should have removed the online activation. Can Steam update the game? Can you try finding the activation folder inside steamapps/AP and see if you can run activation through there?

I can see where you're coming from about 'fully implementing', but at the same time I believe that the player shouldn't be able to pursue every option out there - that just gives too much power and makes the gameworld a land of puppets. The NV ambassador himself tells you that his post is sort of a dead-end one in the NCR career rung, and the higher ups neither pay much attention to him or expect much from him. Even though his standing will have been improved through your help, I find it unlikelyl that he could persuade the gung ho commander over at the Dam not to take out the BOS. The only way I see the BOS being 'saved' is if their entire questline was much more fleshed out, and, for instance, the leadership disputes can be led to an option where you can arrange an agreement between the two. But then, the BOS themselves make this difficult - I think it's very realistic that almost everyone wants them gone one way or the other because they have a centuries old history of being high and mighty, dangerous, and never really open to negotiation. Would BOS lend their technology in any way to help the NCR? Would they promise to stay out of the NCR's way no matter what? Again, I agree that depending on the variables a Yesman-NCR alliance would have been a a good alternative to have, but to be honest, being pressured to destroy BOS just makes good sense in the setting. When you are forced into actions that don't make sense in the gameworld it's railroading; when you're forced into actions that do make sense it's good storytelling.

Actually, it isn't a fair complaint at all, because what it boils down to is that you want a very specific ending where you side with X and let Y stay and fight Z and have green eggs and ham for breakfast the next morning. (1) NCR's intentions to annex New Vegas & the Mojave as a whole is very clear throughout most of the game - impossible to miss if you put "150+ hours". (2) The player might not like the fact that to side with NCR (or with House, or the Legion, for that matter), you have to wipe out the BOS. Guess what, you take the bad with the good. These factions are always going to have some intractable demands and points where they won't budge. The only question is whether it makes sense for them to be so hardassed about this. IMO it makes perfect sense that after what happened with Helios and such, and given the personality of that lady general who gives the quest (very "wipe out the bastards" person), they want the BOS gone. If it was Chief Hanlon in charge of the whole outfit, for instance - no, it wouldn't. (3) Should you be able to side with Yes Man then still work out a compromise/cohabitation deal with the NCR? I think this is the only complaint in the whole deal that has any merit - ideally you should be able to choose here. It does make sense that after working so hard to fight the Legion, the NCR is not going to take kindly to any upstart suddenly redrawing the map, but then you do have an army of Uber Securitrons with you. I think the factions' motivations, plans and responses are nearly always sensible and with clear notice to the player in FNV, which itself is hard to do.

It is now Christmas in New Zealand. Have a good one. I might say that my stepdad is the best Christmas relative in the whole world, because every year he needs, wants, and gets, some new socks.

The alien ventilators, which are not very serene, are located in Doucheland.

I'll say one thing about Diablo II multiplayer. Everyone was driven by one thing and one thing only - pure efficiency. Most variants of greed, selfishness, laziness, lamers and griefers were automatically pre-filtered by the overwhelming imperative that once you enter battle.net you should be with 7 other people charging down some monsters within 10 seconds, and picking up your first worthwhile loot/level of the day within 60. Haven't played WoW but my limited experience with a smattering of MMOs suggest that this is not the case there.

Reviews. Horrible things, I avoid them whenever I can.

Looked up some 50's Korean psychedelic rock for some reason. Forced to go to pointless family dinner now where we will reaffirm the encouraging fact that we don't really know or care that much for each other...

Those of you who enjoy the good things about Christmas, good on you and feel free to tell us all about it. Those of you who get surrounded by rampant consumerism, formalised hospitality and fake cheer, you will be even more inclined to share. I'm most interested this year in what everyone got and gave for gifts, especially between intimate relationship the leeway for funny gifts is small. (Damn the lack of html.) Personally, while I don't mind overmuch (yet), I think it's quite interesting how; (1) while I prefer to give gifts more spontaneously, as I feel that is more sincere than having to give on giving days, it turns out that if you get the gf/etc something 3 weeks before Christmas, that only raises expectations for the "real" gift. Thus we have this fixation of sorts. (2) as the video points out, the said gift for gfs/wives/etc must be romantic; my gut feeling is that for many (not all), funny/practical/absurd/cute gifts are acceptable but only as supplementing the "proper" romantic gift. Again, the 'proper'. (3) for men who don't have skills in performance, arts, crafting or earning lots of money for extraordinary events, jewelry (along with some junior partners like shoes) emerges as the perfect 'solution'; it meets the (1) & (2) requirements while being relatively easy to buy and pick for the man. This is quite interesting/ironic when considering the role of jewelry marketing in helping building up this status. (4) while it's tempting to write this off as socially conscious/conditioned women having typically womanly and thus unreasonable expectations in the romantic sector, I can't help but think that there is a solid process of legitimisation going on in the heads of many individual women when they come to expect (1) & (2) that is not necessarily "but diamonds are how you show real love!!11!1"...

Yes sir.

Oh hey, I just noticed the iron wheel thing, too. Heh.

They look reasonably delicious.

Hrm. Now that I've read the Ulysses wiki, if it turns out that way it would be pretty awesome too - DLC that tie in together like that. Maybe we can get a proper xpack too, given how well the game sold, but perhaps it'd be difficult given that the level cap is already 30 and the way it ends.

If there's one man that can make me by a DLC it's Chris Avellone. Oh, yes. Before I space out: One disappointing thing about Dead Money, though, is that it's obviously as closed-off as it can get, instead of trying to expand on loose ends in the main game. It'd be really nice to have a Legion-oriented DLC, for instance (Ulysses comeback?).

That's how the modding world is. I've installed it now, but haven't started my new playthrough yet, hoping to time it so I can play Dead Money on that one.