Tigranes

Sorry, I doubt this forum has a lot of people that know about Xbox issues... I would suggest actual Xbox forums for this particular query.

My supervisor at work likes Yahtzee too, actually...

The fact that the Revelations is full of fire and brimstones and monsters and women, actually, shouldn't make it any more moronic or any less believable... in fact, if I was a nonbeliever treating the Bible with skepticism, armies of evil as innumerable as sand and monsters half-lifted out of Greek mythology would be a lot easier to believe than a hundred other things in there. I haven't a clue as to what to make of Revelations, though. An end of the world that I would appreciate is a slide-show showing the consequences of my actions in the world, a final snapshot of the world before The End and an exhaustive list of statistics and achievements.

Did everyone get infected with double-post disease or something? :/ I got lost a while ago, but: The definition of word was never a question of regulation, but a question of implicit, collective and contextual understanding. The 'original' meaning was just as much subject to 'popular consensus' as the most recent manifestation of that word, and elisions along the symbolic landscape should not be taken as 'distortions' from some sort of 'proper original'. Why does it matter so much what the word cult had once meant two thousand years ago, if we are discussing how 'cult' should be used today?

Maybe they hired alanschu because he had good taste in games... Okay, so I trolled Pretty cool preview stuff, thanks MC. I do expect you'll have "No I really hate HATE you" lines from BG2 that let you pretend the game doesn't have any romances, right out of the box.

I only ever played Blood Money and that was damn good, yeah. I do remember it being linear-ish, though, in terms of ways you can do stuff? Or is that because I'd often get hopelessly lost and just do things the most standard way possible?

Doesn't it? Or is it for not touching them at all (i.e. undetected)? I really want a game that takes the whole poison / sabotage business to the extreme - poison coatings (that can go on weapons but also on surfaces or objects), poisoning of edible objects, sabotaging of doors, beds, pens or devices, etc... but you'd probably need a Thief-like game for that, with the added element of well-done NPC scheduling/AI. Anyway, yes, we've only seen tranq darts. I doubt there are a lot more for the kind of gameplay AP uses, which is a lot... 'faster'.

Sorry krez, can't have you insulting Great Lord Xenu. Is a debate on who or what is a cult and what is not really useful?

They're always a good fight - a lot more so with SCS2 because they beef themselves up. They then dispel your buffs immediately, and the thief backstabs your mage. Then there are the skeletons, flame strikes, hold persons and that unstoppable tank. I typically start off by sharing some Potions of Explosion (and the Oil versions) round, as well as the fireball wand and the neckless of missiles - even 5-6 explosions typically don't drop any of them, but it helps (and I dont' consider it cheese if they're in LOS and I don't re-charge wands with late-game cash). If you want to lure, it's actually easier to go UP one more stair, to the rooftop (where you also get a much more enclosed fighting space, for better or for worse). I'm in the Underdark of BG2 now - typically this is where I lose interest and let the game hang for a while, I'm not too sure why. I might just check out the Drow shops then kill Adalon just to be out of here.

lay down some sweet riffs and upload them so we can make fun of yo-- er encourage your progress. hahaha Jerkface! But I agree, upload some tunes, Tig. And I liked seeing the cute little bugger, LC. The geese were nice, but I know how mean geese are in real life. Keep them in photos! I couldn't afford an amp so I'm still on the Marshall practice amp, and my skills are pretty deplorable. Nevertheless, I probably can't resist getting photos of it up at some point.

I bought a Gibson Les Paul. Studio, on a 6-month payment deal, gold/black. Just could not afford a Standard, and a Fender strat just doesn't stand up to this glorious thing. Now as long as I don't get fired anytime soon...

You could rely on the AI in the KOTORs too, but that was because the games were just way too easy.

Morrowind and Oblivion are great for exploration in the sense that there's a ton of stuff to find. Same goes with FO3. The only problem is that, in oblivion in particular, the lore and backstory matters so little in terms of what you can do, they all devolve into extremely monotonous loot/monster pickup (even worse if its level-scaled badly and randomised), and are formulaic (every city / guild). I put a lot of hours into MW, OB and FO3. MW's advantage is that the world makes the most sense and is the most interesting, but it's also the most monotonous. OB has the most fun combat IMO, simply because VATS is horrible and you didn't DO anything in MW combat, and it's also the most fun to just run around in, but you get sick of it the quickest because of the level scaling and the lowest writing quality out of all 3. FO3 really did a lot better in making each location and thing you find both explained (if not always logically) and providing a variety of ways to interact. If only the world wasn't so clearly nonsensical... They're all flawed games that provide a lot of exploratory fun though.

Same, although my last day one purchases were ETW and Oblivion, so not the best of records.

Wasn't so much a difficulty issue, was an issue of really bad design and cheesefest on the part of the enemies. Also, Grommie scares me something fierce.

:declineofobsidian:

Wheels of Prophecy and Longer Road are both mods I have, forgot about those. I actually haven't tried WOP properly, might do that this time.

Awesome stuff, thanks Monty. What mods are you going with in the end?

You... hate sneaking, and you're playing Thief.

It's a pity but there are members I never end up taking - Cernd and Valygar because they are the most boring people in the world (they're like Carth, except they know to shut up a little more), Aerie and Haer-Dalis because they are bloody annoying. Finished Planar Sphere myself and probably going to side with Bohdi to go to spellhold, just because it's the first time in ages that I can (I usually play thief, or have Keldorn in the party).

As numbers says, G3 Fixpack is now the automatic 'patch' to apply immediately after TOB 26498 (don't ask me why I remember that number). I would argue that Sword Coast Stratagems II is absolutely necessary as well - an excellent combination of AI, scripting and enemy upgrades that results in mages and clerics that pre-cast, enemies that use abilities and potions, better calls for help that actually work, smart dispelling of player buffs and so forth. Also endlessly customisable. Otherwise, depends on your tastes, but here are some of my favs. I despise mods that lack proper production qualities, polish, or don't mesh properly with the existing games: this goes for most of the horrendous, self-indulgent NPC mods with disgusting custom portraits, even worse music and dialogue worse than anything you'll ever see in Oblivion. Stuff below are okay. Technical / Rules Mods: Since I'm pretty dense when it comes to D&D rules some of these may contravene real rules and you might balk at 'em.. hm. Ashes of Embers: Good for one thing, removing hard-coded class restrictions on weapon use in AD&D. I have Edwin on crossbow at the moment. Gibberling Tweaks: As numbers man says. Good tweaky stuff. Improved Summons: Some options are a bit on the power-gamey stuff, but I always thought summons should be more significant in BG2. TOB Refinements: Pretty old-ish and has things like HLA fixes and true Grand Mastery, I recall... Rogue Rebalancing: Great mod for thieves and bards including rule fixes and additional stuff. Wild Mage Additions: If you play wild mages, a few new things to play with. Quest / Gameplay Mods: Ascension: The obvious one, still good after all these years. Turnabout: Allows you to summon old allies to help you in the final TOB battle, just as Melissan does. Use with Ascension. Dungeon Be Gone: Skips Irenicus dungeon, gives you xp/loot. Assassinations: A series of assassinations that you are tasked to do - quite interesting setup. Quest Pack: A bunch of new quest content. Unfinished Business: Restores cut content from the game as close to the original devs' intentions as possible. e.g. Minsc loses Boo! Banter Packs: Adds more banter, quite good. No time to add links to everything, but you know where to go for BG mods - Pocket Plane Group, Gibberlings 3 adn Spellhold Studios. edit: Give!

Yes I did. I've played through Tactics (the original), Improved Battles, Improved Anvil, etc., and SCS is quite clearly the best. Rogue Rebalancing's always been good, too. I just wish that someone does a proper mod that shoehorns in 3rd ed rules to remove hard class restrictions on weapons and armour.

Baldur's Gate marathon again, last one was over 6 months ago. Must be the first time this decade that I went so long without. :/ Picked a druid as mainchar for the first time to go through BGTutu - I actually have no idea how druids are done in pnp, but I really wish they'd go all out with this class. Give them a lot fewer spell slots than clerics, deprive them of more cleric spells, give them a huge variety of transformation abilities and later the ability to summon animals while you are transformed yourself. In other words a specialised animal horde machine, rather than a cleric with branches sticking out the ears. Ah well. Switched to wild mage for BG2. New computer can handle Sword Coast Stratagems AI / combat mod without a hitch so that's presented quite a few challenges. The Unseeing Eye's three Horrid Wiltings destroyed my entire party (even though I had the rod) and mainchar only survived through a couple of save rolls to drop the last fireball. I have Edwin in the party as well - maybe I'll get Irenicus in the party (Longer Road mod) in TOB and go for an insane magefest, just for kicks.

FO3 is worth a playthrough, but since you've done that, I'd say go with the Witcher. Big game, pretty solid / fun (and well optimised by now), pretty good C&C and story if you get past the over-sexxing. However, if FO3's story didn't bother you, then you might be fine with ME's. Best gauge, really, is just how much you enjoyed KOTOR1.

Actually, I'd argue it was much harder to get through the NWN1 OC, just because you needed an abnormal level of tolerance for crap. 3.5ed D&D does let you screw up (unknowingly) to the point of getting horrible parties, and that particular room *was* inspired straight from Hell, though. In fact, considering just how exceptionally bad that one area was, I'd have said just cheat past that building (as easy as godmode) and you'd never be so frustrated elsewhere... but I guess it's too late, huh?