Tigranes

Additionally, I hear that there was an Italian player behind the goal, which still makes Ruud eilgible to score (since the said Italian can come back at any time). Italy can have no complaints, Toni's 'shot' 1v1 was terrible and before Del Piero they created nothing. Gio scores and it's 3-0 to the Dutch.

I'd expect a mid-level campaign actually, something like level 8-10 to 15-17. I would be happy with that, too - remember SoA was ~7 to ~20 and it was much bigger. Epic would be nonsense.

That would be nice. Just two or three well-made NPCs, not five or six, and then we have a lot of options from which to create our own. This would also allow the Obsidian NPCs to be more wacky - they don't have to make sure their NPCs cater for every class of protagonist, etc. More Okku-like NPCs please.

Yep. I predict a MOTB scale, which is absolutely fine.

I think we can clearly see where the focus on this project is. Full party customisation would imply that we are not going to see joinable NPCs, which has been one of the primary areas of investment in NWN2 and MOTB. 15 hours I think is also only slightly smaller than MOTB, but keeping in line with the Xpacks' attempt to create a tyte story rather than the sprawling wonder that was the OC. We can probably assume, for now, that the intricate interaction with factions / economy and the creation of explorable wilderness areas is where that investment is going. I'm happy with that, really. They seem to determine very clear areas of focus for each project and that can only be good.

It is surprising how they can make such a short campaign with all that exploration, etc.

I know I just finished the entire trilogy, but I'm going right back to start it again. :/ I really wasn't satisfied with SCS2, it was a fantastic mod but made the game lag too much, and there are a batch of new mods I want to try. For BG1 I plan to use the following configuration: -> BG2 Fixpack -> BG Trilogy-WeiDu & Tweakpack -> with Dark Side of the Sword Coast / Northern Tales of the Sword Coast -> and some quest mods (Grey Clan, Bone Hill, Sirine's Call, Unfinished Business) -> and the NPC Project, Tutu GUI Never used Trilogy before, but I assume it'll be sort of like Tutu. Dark Side is a really old mod and pretty amateurish (or at least, that's what I remember from when I tried it in ~2003), but Northern Tales is a new one and that required DS. We'll see.

YES. It's everything I ever wanted The 15-hour tag seems kind of, well, weird considering all that free roaming and so forth they emphasise, and 'full party customisation' in the Electron engine is something we've got to watch with caution, but this is exciting isn't it?

A perfect summary of the post-Renaissance approach, Gorgon. But you seem to have gone and remained there - let's update it to post-Mettray, too: surely you would agree that if a society is found to be awfully conducive to the production of deviants, then you are looking at neither an ideal nor a cost effective situation. That 'balance' in the variable of crime you suggest is surely just as related to systems of ostracisation and justice as much as it is to do with social conditions, poverty and so forth.

And this, I keep saying, is the consequence of a society which doesn't bother to learn what Islam is.

Croatia *needs* Eduardo not only to finish off those chances but to complete the general attacking formation. They don't have any other talented striker to shore that up, Modric can't do it all. 0-0 in Romania-France, about to start second half. Predictably dour, especially with Vieira and Henry missing. Anelka's lazy as usual and has made some stupid, stupid touches, but we usually don't seethe best of France until later on, do we?

You silly boy, download Dungeon-be-Gone and never play Irenicus Dungeon again! Also, the UI isn't that bad. But then, I am rarely that unhappy with UI.

Personally, I always love to read about the social impact of games and the workings of game culture that is not written from an ivory tower point of view (Heidegger's Curse: can we talk about online communities without making lots of pseudo-philosophical nonsense about transcendental minds, etc, please?), so *Online Communities, *Virtual Identities would get my vote. Also would be interested in *Emulation and *Indie Games on the Rise.

Jansen (the LB) was bad, as was Ballack adn Gomes. Gomes was invisible until others put chances on a platter for him, then he made atrocious misses. Ballack just can't be bothered. All this was amply exposed in the first game, and you wonder whether later on in the tournament, they will be made to pay for it. Another thing was how Podolski was playing as a midfielder, with Schweinsteiger on the bench - and that when Schwei. did come on, he was pretty selfish (if good). I wonder why? Lahm was really the only one providing consistent length, it just didn't matter today because the Poles were being ripped apart down the middle.

They're both people you would never want to be friends with, really. On a comical note, has anyone seen Erwin Olaf's photoshoot of the Dutch squad? I mean, seriously. This 'fierce passion' and 'heroism' thing they have going with sport is getting hilariously stupid. The "ENDURE AND CONQUER" TV ads were bad enough. The new neanderthal fashion for 'keepers Sir, I am proud to serve my country against the evil midfielders of San Marino THE STORM-CLOUDS GATHER. READY THE TROOPS AND LIBERALLY APPLY OIL. I couldn't find matching length socks today That was my pan au chocolat, you bastard Can he ever make a different kind of expression? This is where we have Darth Vader scream NOOOOOOOOOO

Awesome, thanks for the heads up. On tweakpack - personally not interested in anything except Banter Accelerator, but Unifinshed Business is very, very welcome. I was going to replay BG2 with a TC mod, but maybe it's Torment time instead.

Austria surprisingly not-so-sucky and manages a 1-0 loss against Croatia, while Germany in first half is now 1-0 up against Poland. Centre-half lured out and Klose free, handed it on a platter to Podolski.

Spain arguably has a superior midfield, but only if Aragones learns to stick with a real central midfield. Xavi, Fabregas, Iniesta, whoever, choose one playmaker and build the midfield around him, not stick everyone in there in a 2006-Brazil / 21st Century England mess. But that's no skin off Portuguese backs, because I think in terms of quality the Spanish midfield is just unbelievable. Certainly, Ronaldo is happily described by Korean football fans as, roughly translated, the slaughterer of meek sheep - when the defence is poor enough to leave him gaps to run and stand off him he can do amazing things better than anybody else, but when they are tactically astute and have defenders skilled enough to stick to him like glue, he is no more than your average good winger. He proved that again against Turkey - and if a Turkish defender can neutralise him, well. He's still an absolute asset to any team, but like in anything these days, believe the hype at your own peril. Germany - Poland today, and Croatia - Austria. The latter hsould be fun actually, hopefully we get to see a lot of goals ().

Vaclav Sverkos with a nice, if sketchy, finish and the Czechs are ahead with only ten minutes to go. Switzerland made some good forays throughout the game, but didn't have enough to... Oh wow, just as I say that, forces a great save from Cech with a volley, then the follow-up hits the bar!

Fascinating, rn - I tried to continue that TOB game, left Minsc out of the party so that he wouldn't object to Irenicus taking Balthazar's soul. Soona fter, I had the dreamtalk that you mentioned - then, a little bit after that, some real breakthrough (that 'logical battle'). But then a Fallen Solar killed my protagonist, so I'm just hanging in Amkethran now waiting for that talk to fire. I wonder if it's inconsequential and he already has that Balth Soul, or he can sitll abandon that.

I don't think Italy quite has it to complete the championship double (or maybe I just hope they don't.) Watching the first game right now between Switzerland and the Czechs, not bad so far, Vehrami with a nice semi-Cruyff turn. I'm a fan of France/Holland, but tipping Germany for the trophy.

I thought flame arrows disappeared upon contact. Yeah, that's how much I know about FR/D&D. Yeah, I'm not saying my imaginary situation would actually be plausible. It's just something I use. I don't always do this - for other things the slightest break in immersion really thtrows me off - but I think in such cases the gameplay allure of having them together overcomes it.

I think we have, over the last two pages, asserted that the original comments regarding names was absolutely spurious and logically bankrupt, and have done our job of safeguarding the world from falsehood. So, uh, y'all can take off your capes now.

Sorry moat, I mean useable for me , in the sense that right now, any computer that is powerful enough to make Vista's increased resource hogging negligible, is too expensive for my student's budget.

The thing is, though, I played BG2 first. In context of the fleshed out characters, looking at them in BG1 was certainly different than for a lot of people. I think BG1 had better character concepts (i.e. Kivan, Tiax, etc., over Aerie and Anomen) in general, but I have trouble seeing BG2's extra dialogue and stuff as a negative factor. And about Dynaheir: What I usually imagine when I roleplay non-good is that having picked up Minsc and Edwin at Nashkel, my protagonist evaluates the situation in terms of practical advantages. He's in a position where he can hardly trust anyone, but desperately needs allies, and quickly, to build a fighting force against Sarevok. He wants to take Minsc for his fighting prowess, but is distrustful of having 'factions' in his party: he wants them all loyal and bound to him, not with their own agendas and small factions that plot together (which is why he will never take Xzar/Montaron, and barely tolerate Khalid/Jaheira). Eventually, he comes to the conclusion that having M/E is superior to M/D. During the confusion of the gnoll fortress attack, he, shall we say, 'turns a blind eye' while Edwin sneakily sends a flame arrow down the hole, while Minsc is occupied. Sure, it's nowhere as plausible as the original stories and it is definitely cold-hearted. But that's a much more realistic 'evil' than 'ally with Edwin and kill Minsc'. Personally, for the sake of fun gameplay I'm willing to overlook a few big stretches of imagination.