Tigranes

That's *too* long if that's true. Half of Act 1 would be sufficient for demo purposes, why put up for free nearly a quarter of the game? But then, if that's what they want to do.. Maybe it's not selling quite so well.

What's wrong with the old "You must restart before this works, will you do it now"? I suppose their tech centre got some calls with people having problems ignoring that, so now it's forced. The interaction between Microsoft and its users continues to resemble the raising of a six year old, you know. But yeah, I've had complaints from non-comp-savvy buddies who kept thinking it was virus or spyware or whatever. After examining their computers I would have to patiently explain this is actually Microsoft doing it, and no, Automatic Updates are not necessarily very convenient, and no, despite Microsoft's warnings about the coming of the Revelations, sometimes its better to leave that stuff off. NZ has bandwidth limit as well, and I recall one particular time when I was running low with a few days to go, and Auto Updates downloaded some big updates that got me in the red. Heh. I just don't update my windows anymore, it rarely has huge problems.

I think the only one I ever read was the one where that chest with a thousand legs or whatever went berserk. I was always too daunted by the sheer number of volumes, since there's no way all of them can be gems, right? How old is the guy?

WHERE? RUN!!!

Sand has taken over this thread. Alert! Alert! Sand, wasn't the logic put to you by others that: - WoTC have a clear purpose and reason for changing things. However, you may not like this purpose, or think its a crap purpose. But it's still a purpose for them and they are not changing 'for the sake of changing things.' Assuming for now that they are right and WoTC are following a clearly defined objective, your current reply is: - It doesn't matter, I think the changes they are making are crap, and therefore that means they have no clear purpose and they are changing for the sake of changing things. Something fell off there, no? If you were to say that what we know of 4e so far doesnt seem to focus into any sort of general directive, and thus 4e is a mess for changing things randomly, then there would be a point. Or, if you were to say, you don't like 4e because you don't like the changes they're making, that would be a fair enough opinion. But I'm not sure why you feel the need to essentially say that if they're making changes unpalatable to you, then they don't have a clear purpose. I'm not sure about how I will feel about the low-level changes in the end, for example, but I can clearly see that they want to try and remedy what they believe is frustration for the low level player in line with their overall aim of providing a more streamlined and easier to understand adventure. Whether they will actually do so, or whether this is good, is another matter.

*wades past the crowd eating popcorn and watching* I guess this is a good time to end the festivities, before real bullets start flying. Newbies are people too, guys.

Well, without a clearly defined topic, this thread is clearly on its way to fairy-land. Be nice to each other, kids.

But are you suggesting that a level 4 party in 3.5ed are not under the threat of death? I mean, they're not exactly hard to wipe out. Its just that, in most circumstances, they will have at least a chance and some time to try and defend themselves.

I'm a few more hours in and it is a very enjoyable game, even at like 10fps and low graphics. I looked around a little with grass and things on and the game is very beautiful. In art direction and game design actually, its quite a lot like Gothic 3. I haven't found any of those 'lesser of two evils' moments yet, but then the story has hardly even begun and I've just been running errands. This game is worth playing though.

Porcupine Tree - Anaesthetic

Krookie's a stalker, Krookie's a stal-ker.. Playing the Witcher, I would play it all day but having one-digit FPS does make you need breaks.

I remember clicking on a combat dummy to practice my swordfighting. For about thirty minutes. Then I quit. :D It's pretty solidly made though.

While it is nice to dream about what's not going to happen.. I think this is a nice idea. We all know the dissatisfaction around not being able to destroy a certain canon FR system at the end of MOTB; if the OP's idea was adapted, such a thing coudl well be done through the game, the death of a God or the permanent destruction or transformation of a civilisation. I think it's an exciting prospect?

Well, I still haven't deleted any posts. I'm starting to get withdrawal symptoms.

It might indeed be an issue with whatever theme setting / skin you are using?

Playing the Witcher; Harp & Chrystanthemum is waiting.

I'll be around on this.

Seems like a good idea but a bit too powerful, as Pop says. They get a lot of what makes the Rogue great and more, often for free. I mean, they will before level 10 have Sneak Attack, Hide in Plain Sight, Imprv. Evasion, Imprv. Uncanny Dodge... wouldn't they totally flatten any rogues they came across?

I'm on to you xard.

So. I vowed that I wouldn't buy it until a patch or fan-patch was released to restore the dialogue, but I was bored and I succumbed. I finished the long tutorial area and looked about a little bit in the first town (Vizima?). I don't think we had a lot of post-play discussions about the Witcher, but surely some of us have played/finish it by now? No? Did I miss a ginormous thread somewhere? Well, impressions. Only ~5 hours in. Story / Writing A pretty standard beginning. The opening FMV was nice and the fight scene was a whole lot longer and more impressive than NWN series', they poured some gold into that one. They use the cinematic dialogue mode to tell most of the story, but since the voice-acting (so far) is quite good, the effect is nice. I obviously haven't uncovered much, but there are few unnatural parts, whether due to translation or bad writing, and the flow of the writing fits the quick pace of the gameplay as well as the darker and 'pragmatic' touch behind the setting. Promising so far. Graphics / Visuals Obsidianites should know by now my computer has more suck power than a possessed vacuum cleaner, so I'm playing everything on low. That said, it still looks alright. The characters are well-made up and look smoother and better-rounded, having lost the 'blocky' look the NWN series can have. It's inherited from the Aurora Engine the weirdity of characters running on the spot or gliding around, but the character animations are quite solid too. The art direction is generally spot on, and the game succeeds on looking like its own thing, not related to NWN, and looking pretty good at that. I imagine with high-end computers it will be even better. Oh, the GUI are pretty stylised and look good, too. Combat Hrm. It looks pretty solid, but simple. Sort of like Jade Empire actually. You have Group Stance, Fast Stance, Strong Stance; but whatever stance you use, its usually the matter of targeting an opponent, then clicking the mouse every couple of seconds to carry on the combos or parry/dodge. I imagine with a wider variety of Signs (magic) and potions coming up as the game goes by, the combat will get busier and more frenetic. Right now it looks good, like Jade Empire, but is a little dull, like Jade Empire. At least dead corpses don't drop glowing balls. Character Development You've got this, sort of a tree thing, one tree for each primary stat (Strength, etc), each fighting style, and so forth. It looks pretty solid, though I'm disappointed there doesn't seem to be any sort of special 'fighting moves' you can learn. It might be gimmicky but it would sure make the battle more fun. Still, there seem to be a lot of abilities to learn so we will see how that turns out. Oh, and you all know that you cant change your gender or whatever, right? If you don't, you clearly have Sand on ignore. Personally it doesn't really bother me at all, as long as I can play the character my own way. And so far, it seems I can to a limited degree (under the general personality setting provided for Geralt; I obviously can't go around saying things like "Oh goody goody gumdrops" in that setting). I'm happy with that, but some may not be, fair play to them. Other Gameplay Standard RPG stuff: go around and talk to people, get quests, do quests, get reward. There is an alchemy system that is actually fairly similar to the Elder Scrolls: you pick up ingredients including 'natural' ones, mix them through formulae you learn throughout the game, voila, potion. I haven't encountered a really interesting one yet, but like the Elder Scrolls there seem to be a big variety of such 'miscellaneous' items found in the game (e.g. X wine, Y wine). Personally I found Oblivion/Morrowind's massive range of such flavour items too cumbersome, but it is a nice touch, so we shall see. There is a definite set of schedules by which people act: on a basic level people sleep and wake, move around a little, sometimes even eat food or whatnot. I have yet to see how extensive this is; probably similar to Oblivion, but it's still a nice thing, I think. Of course, I visited the Priest's house at 4am and woke him up to talk about a quest, and he seemed quite happy to jolt up and give a good rant about religion and morality. Hrrmm. Regarding the sex stuff - the tutorial gives you an opportunity to hit the sack with your former lover (tried it: just a nothing-shown scene, infinitely better than Mass Effect's B-movie stuff, then the card), and then the first town has a maid who seems rather easy to seduce. I guess the rule of the RPG hero applies - everyone wants you, even if you have white hair and have scars all over. I wonder why TNO never got any. Miscellaneous The sound and music seems decent to good so far; nothing bad but nothing amazing, yet. The voiceovers are pretty good, I really really detest bad voiceovers so this is nice to see. I've also encountered no bugs so far. On my slow system the loading times are quite long, but not much longer than NWN2/MOTB. So far I think it's definitely recommendable. It's not going to 'revolutionise RPGs and gaming', but what, you actually believed that? I think like other big RPGs in recent years, it will give a good solid romp, but its design lends itself to enjoyment for me more than Oblivion's somewhat family restaurant / straight up high fantasy stuff, so I think I will like it. Now come on, I'm sure somebody here has already finished the game? I'm surprised how little we've talked about it.

I do think that a frantic belief in the idea of Heaven/afterlife, or reincarnation, has some roots in the dissatisfaction with the shortness of our lives and the fear of death, of an end. But effectively, if you are reborn with no memories or anything as a completely different person, how is that any different from oblivion? If you as a self is completely lost, then it's like melting a golden ring then making it into, uh, golden chopsticks. Except in our case, the material that is remade isn't even visible or detectible. Would it really matter whether we were reincarnated or not if this is the case? Wouldn't it be 'oblivion' anyway? I'm Christian (sort of, wishy washy) so I'm not really hung up on needing physical and empirical evidence. The law of empirical evidence, with which the scientific thought is closely related, is only one of many ways in which we try to understand the world: in the end, just like the law of faith or other spiritual mechanisms, the law of human precedence and common sense or the law of natural instincts, this law cannot explain everything in the universe to the point of rendering these other laws irrelevant or incorrect. There is no point I think in saying a soul is scientifically/empirically unproveable (i dont know if it is or not, by the way), I think. But I won't stray too far into that tangent. What I really wanted to say is, despite me being (sort of) Christian, I don't think the afterlife should ever be the aim of your life. In the end, we don't know what happens when we die. In a common sense way, then, it's kind of silly to place your hopes on the afterlife and live for that afterlife, unless you're in the middle of a war zone eating burnt rubber for breakfast and working sixteen hours in a coal mine and you have terrible diahorrea. I think the aim of our lives (and what we live for) should always be something in this life. Even for a Christian or any other religious person. Isn't it more worthwhile to try and make this world a little closer to heaven, rather than work all your life to accumulate 'points' so you, just you, can get into this 'heaven' that's supposed to exist on the other side? Man, would it suck for you if you died and there wasn't no heaven. But if you follow the former principle, you wouldn't feel that your life was a waste. This is of course very idealistic. Sometimes we need the prospect of perfect goodness and happiness waiting for us on the other side to push on. And early religion especially had that effect on a lot of people, who were able to adopt that epistemology onto their core beings better than most people can these days, and really live and die for that afterlife. And yes, we are very curious about what happens after. But as posters before have pointed out, in a logical and empirical sense, well, we can't really, at the moment. But there are plenty of reasons to live the good life, whatever that may be in your worldview, without the potentially druglike allure of the afterlife.

No other icons are blurry, just the system tray? A screenshot would help, I think I may have seen it before.

Fantastic news, and we haven't even seen Purgatorio yet. I'm another of the silent fans waiting for its release - I have yet to be happy with any fanmade mod for the NWN series except a couple, but the trilogy has looked very solid so I'm anticipating. Congrats!

I don't know, I picked up skiing in one day and was reasonably proficient by the day's end, whereas the snowboarders never really got the hang of it. They'd just skittle down a few metres then fall on their butts. And I fell and rolled about fifty times, but never really had the skis trouble me. But then, I just jumped onto my side and rolled on purpose when it looked like I was going to lose control.