Tigranes

I don't think you can play on past your hibernation? I did pretty well with finesse & cunning, but couldn't avoid one wound from the wizard.

http://www.choiceofgames.com/dragon/ From the Codex, with love. Text-based, multi-choice, light-hearted, but damn fun.

So I took a break after 3 playthroughs, I think I'll fire it up again for a solo playthrough. I'm thinking a Rogue Archer on Hard. Of course, the quandary is I can't use that for the expansion, but I'll work that out later. I'm usually a fan of DEX over CUN just because that's what the voices in my head say, so maybe Shattering Shot and Combat Stealth first, and gradually get Arrow of Slaying.

Alpha Protocol: Genuinely looks great. Fallout New Vegas: FO3's visuals and Obsidian's story/writing should do it for me. Thief 4: Depends on what happens to it. DA Awakening: More smash & loot? Why not. Diablo 3: Grand fun. Age of Decadence: Good demo.

Great stuff, that's the first new info in a while isn't it? I don't mind the 'supernatural' stuff to be honest, as long as it doesn't act obnoxiously, and I doubt it will. Deus Ex hardly felt 'could happen next week' to me, in fact, nothing in the genre really does.

For me Dragon Age is undoubtedly the first very replayable Bio game since BG2 and the first for me to actually remember fondly. The plot is nothing to write home about and sometimes the writing suffers from Overseriousitis, but the battles and dungeon crawling are genuinely fun. Bio combat hasn't been *fun* since BG2. That's what I'm here for and I think DA does awesomely.

Yahtzee isn't actually a reviewer, you know. He's an entertainer first and foremost. His job is to use 'game reviews' as a framework and the 'game' as an ingredient in order to make entertaining criticisms. Of course it's only as funny as it is because it has a sound basis on reality, but he does make factual mistakes every few weeks, he has a very clear bias (even more so than other reviewers) and you can make any game sound bad the way he does it. He's just fun, and occasionally points something out well. But that's okay, because he's very funny.

We could do with a bit less spam or pointless bickerin... And yeah, I'm guilty of that half the time, but as an authority figure, I have to be hypocritical

Moving on from doing psych therapies for each other....

Sorry, I read too much into it then. However, it's not an example of that, either. The key point is that it's part of regular negotiations that is par for the course, and the tide could well turn the other way into 'kow-towing' for the Chinese in a few years. It was about Rio Tinto trying to get the best deal possible to save its pretty poor books, and BHP/Rio trying to carve out a very profitable pricing scheme (index pricing) for the future. China 'bullied' the corps just as much as the corps are bullying China, in terms of effects. It's just that China's methods are more unseemly. Definitely agree that China's 'government is the company' deal is worrying though, and should not be tolerated.

Actually, this one has very little to do with morals or principles. China had been growing ever more stronger, more determined, smarter and more organised in this sector for the last few years, and Australia, for instance, had openly seen this as a threat, talking about the 'Chinese menace' and getting pretty worked up about it. As by far the biggest customer for these megacorporations China had been using pretty aggressive negotiation tactics, as had been Australia. Stuff got messy last year when Chinalco (China) nearly took over Rio Tinto (Australia), and lots of people in the Aus press and government ran around talking openly about China taking over their country and other such nonsense fearmongering, which, combined with strategic lobbying, led to Rio Tinto standing up Chinalco quite embarrassingly. Later, China jails several Rio Tinto officials for a token spying excuse - so dirty stuff from both sides. China might want to milk a 33% price cut, but iron prices have been increasing at much higher percentages than that every year, and now Australian corps are successfuly outmaneuvring the Chinese, prices will get even higher now. This has nothing to do with principles, just business.

Nobody's announced a sequel. Mountains out of molehills. Standard generic comment most PR people give an interview.

Ohh, I see. James Cameron did have a subtle and ironic point to make about his audience, after all!

Seems like what began as an effort to isolate the discussion to a critique of the writing has splurged onto a free-for-all beat-the-dead-horse, but that's what we always do, so: I would suggest that you are confusing what is a call for intelligently written dialogue with intelligent sounding dialogue. Nobody wants the Matrix Architect from FO3. That said, I don't think the general quality of the writing throughout FO3's dialogue is that poor. In combination with the VA, some key characters are either pretty poor or uninspiring (e.g. Moira), and there are some attempts at jokes and wit that make you groan, but on the whole it's not 'poor writing'. Just no one-liner or no character's style of speech worth remembering. This is true, but it's also a cyclic thing. The more people want X in a game, the more devs/pubs will think people will want X in a game, the more games will feature X, the more customers will think X is the only way to go, the more video game forumers will wax lyrical about how X is inevitable, and it goes round & round. *shrug* It happens. I think the main differences between FO1/2 & 3, for people who don't like the latter, is (a) the lack of truly witty or memorable dialogue; (b) the occasional misuse of profanity or awkward characterisation;

Enjoyed Ultima VII: Black Gate, and moved on to Serpent Isle. I don't like the little changes they made (80's Xena portraits, even more obnoxious Olde English, more linear) but it's still pretty fun. Considering a crazy EU3 game with Korea or some Sahelian Empire, if I can figure out how to survive. What, something new? Eyeing Divine Divinity 2, but no $ at the moment. Waiting to see if The Longest Journey and Psychonauts work on Win7.

Bad.

Actually, I like the Codex Volo better. It's more chaotic. I'm sure theres a more recent thing that may be leaked later on..

I just realised Volourn would make a great Generic US Army General In A Movie. "Sir, my spleen's falling out and there's a little goat trying to rape me." "SUCK IT UP"

But I thought you loved me, Krezack.

Sorry, that don't fly - it's a question of degrees. Avatar was disproportionately unoriginal and boring in comparison to its box office success and hype.

Meh, there's not much to see. It's clearly a very early build. Squad-based, 3rd person over-the-shoulder, dark, pretty creepy. That's all you get, really. I see no reason why this couldn't work with a fantasy game.

Exaggeration / Generalisation. Don't troll. Anyway, what's the point here exactly? Van Buren was looking good. That's got nothing to do with nostalgia. Would it have been better than Beth FO3? What kind of question is that? Depends.

Oh, definitely, he was clearly trying to make this movie for the 10 year old in all of us. Yeah, or, a third-time-try at the Dances with Wolves

In man-hours, no.

Just seen it. Generally pretty & fun, but: 1) It does look pretty, but nothing jawdropping. It might be better than LOTR when you count the pixels but I thought LOTR did it all better, and the flying ships looked positively Lego. 2) Way too long, the flying scenes for instance could have been cut to a third. 3) Figured out plot in first 15 minutes, amusing how they try to get on the green bandwagon. 4) I don't get what was so special about the generic love interest, meh. I loved how the aliens are built to look weird but still attractive, and how their concept of kissing and sex is exactly the same. P.S. "Unobtainium"? Are you kidding me?