Tigranes

Gromnir's right, though. I really could not care less about all this idiotic hype. I'm pretty sure of the kind of gameplay experience Dragon Age will offer, and I'm also pretty sure that the game will speak for itself a lot better than these promos with the 'maturity' of a stillborn bacteria. Ironically, it's shaped a situation where the idea of the game itself still provokes anticipation, but that anticipation is much, much better off without the hype and previews that are meant to build it up.

The terrible box art that would put anybody off, the ponderous beginning that is fascinating in retrospective after you learn more but is rather flat the first time round (especially when you're shuffling around in your zombie costume), the subpar combat and the content cuts in the latter half of the game that made them linear battle-fests are all valid criticisms. It was just good enough to easily overlook it all.

Awesome, I didn't know someone recreated the Zhuge Liang version for the Cao Cao version. The latter had the best engine but was level-scaled so the challenge was gone.

Of course they do, because with decent AI they would have been much more enjoyable.

By the late 1600s I was over-stocked with money, colonies and every kind of resource, and HRE gave me a massive force-limit. So I waited until the French got into a big war with Aragon; infiltrated the administration and then DOW'd. My navies were able to go around intercepting a lot of troops moving around in fleets between continent and colony, and I ended up rolling over all of France with about 200,000 troops (lost a third or so on the way, then disbanded another third after I hemmorhaged thousands of ducats on maintenance). Luckily all their colonies were adjacent to mine, so I had 99% war score, except for their one province somewhere near the Black Sea. Most of the provinces you see there are undeveloped colonies only worth 2%, though, and I immediately had to release Hainaut, Luxembourg and Dauphine to get below the BB limit. Really once you hit that point where you have the resources to protect everything, upkeep everything and still have enough leftover for emergencies, you're no longer in danger. I spent about fifty years before that war colonising Brazil, Mexico, West Africa, Madagascar and Indonesia, studiously converting everyone to the Reformed faith (and playing international ping-pong with rebels until it finished). You're going all-European, it seems? Wade into Italy, that'll cause a big ruckus.

Still EU3, doing a trading/colonising empire with the Dutch.

Not to mention that it is extremely normal, and sensible, to wait until you are ready before releasing info. It only seems bad to us because we check so often.

CrashGirl. Now, back on topic...

Playing through EU3 with IN and NA as I said, and having a computer that can handle it is delightful. Milan, as usual. I enjoy the TW-style missions you get, but I wish I knew about the fact that Historical rulers = no Royal marriages = you have to fail those RM missions you get. Also, you still end up getting a giant blobular terror aka Austria with historical Lucky, so I have to cheat in every 50 years and get rid of their entire armies (and declare a couple of silly wars), or they just go Genghis Khan on all of Europe. Hmph. Building up a trade empire as usual but also getting a sizable hold on Northern Italy. Venice is isolated but a massive pirate fleet with about 10 carracks has terrorised the seas there fore decades, so they're effectively immune from invasion. :/ Maybe I'll just go colonise, but Portugal seems to have conquered most of the east coast (of US) already.

As did Mothership Zeta, but all of the DLCs were a lot more meaty than this, which might be the source of the complaint.

You made a longer post, but there's still no logical substantiation. I'm not trying to defend NK or advocate communism, actually. And I'm sure if you took the time you would be able to throw a logical argument at me. But I think the point stands that it's ironic to sit and laugh at 'extremism' and 'conspiracy theories' when we then sit there and foreclose ourselves with fallacies like 'inherently stupid socialism'.

Re-installed Europa Universalis III after getting In Nomine and Napoleon's Ambition. I always suspected I'd like teh game a lot more if my computer could handle it (isntead of waiting half an hour for the time to pass), so this should be good. I have no idea what the xpacks add, but they should be fun, too. I have Rome as well but didn't really feel the period and teh decisions they made to suit the period were really good for the kind of game this is. edit: Oh, yeah. Hard to pick a favourite... I spent the most time with Age of Kings, which was brilliant; Civilisation 4 would no doubt take the crown if the battles weren't STILL ridiculous (if less than 3), Europa Universalis II and Medieval: Total War (the original, before CA went nuts and decided to create legacies of game-breaking features that survive new iterations and even engine changes) are excellent as well.

And a defense of a communist country is inherently wrong because? I'd rather see a spirited and substantiated defense of anything than a baseless dismissal.

I very much doubt 'healthier surroundings and diet' - you have a point about infant deaths, but I think you're overcompensating. It is true that the idea of medieval people dropping dead at 30 is bogus (you had a better chance of that in industrial London), but they certainly were smaller and less healthy than the modern man. Not counting Islamic regions or anywhere else (how's that for implicit Eurocentrism ), the failure to construct proper urban infrastructure in terms of public health was a concern for 'smaller' cities such as London and Paris from at least the 15th-16th century. Look, I don't even know how you can make such a claim when at the very least, the Black Death is staring right in front of you and picking your nose. Now, about their immune system, you could possibly make a case. I think the interesting thing is that most high fantasy settings don't consider the lifespan / health issue, and the demographic is pretty much what you'd expect from modern society. There're always decrepit old men thrown around, etc.

$20's enough for a pizza and a beer over there right? What more do we need? You know, as much as I fail to find any merit in individual major decisions made in FO3 (VATS balancing, the entire story, difficulty, subways...), I did finish the game, and it was a very fun game that had a lot of things coming together for it. And it was a massive improvement from the studio's earlier product (this is probably one thing agreed upon by those who love and hate Oblivion). So yeah, there's something worthwhile going on in there, even if I'd prefer that that 'worthwhile thing' happened while we got a more authentic FO sequel brewing in another cauldron. Heh, what was the topic? We've got to be kidding if we think we'll hear any NV info this year. will be interesting to talk about this once we've played DA, AP, etc.

Yeah, but Australia is positively flatulent.

Todd's one high-level critter, six grenades won't make a dent.

You mean, like several Beth devs? Couldn't resist...

Sounds like something that really has no good reason to exist. No, really. What fools these people into thinking their FPS-RPG combat is good enough for combat sims?

I would have fallen for it if alanschu posted it.

Okay, okay, we're probably done here...

It's a well designed dungeon, it's just too easy because the devs wanted to make sure it didn't frustrate and players actually got to see Athkatla (hence why the more difficult areas in Level 2, for instance, can be skipped). I go through it most of the time. Back to DA - the wording makes me wonder if you can exit areas with the entire party even if you don't have everyone within the exit grid. I doubt you can have different party members in different areas due to memory limitations and whatnot, but will it be like PS:T where if one person reaches the grid you can all go?

With 120 hours of voiced dialogue in the mix, yeah, 12gb isn't too big a deal.

They just need a script to add 'mate' into every other sentence, mate.

I used to mod it away... then I realised I missed it. But then, I can act out all Irenicus cutscenes down to the inflection of voices. An odd way to question, Irenicus. Did you not like his tone?