Tigranes

Vic, that might be true. I hadn't thought about that because I'm not really interested in games pushing the envelope in technical graphics, and my comp couldn't handle even Oblivion at high settings anyway. I really don't see what's so "Obv with Guns" about it, at the moment. Apart from maybe the combat.

I got the impression that many of them were artificially souped-up from 'true' in-game, kinda like the trailer. Quite a few were very probably actual ingame though, and they were pretty good. Bit too photorealistic I guess, but it's not terribly out of shape. It's exactly the same thing man. You're just as biased as all those hype-machines you keep blasting, if you say one is "Creative death sequences" and the other is "exploding body parts". That's what the original sequences were. Exploding body parts. I don't like slow motion either because I think it's stupid, but that's the only difference. I'm sure we can somehow turn it off, for our personal enjoyment. Cause you know, the original Fallout didn't have nukes going off at random places, ultra-technological BOS enclaves, gigantic energy weapons that fired beams of light, and stuff like that. I agree that the degree of sillyness is higher, but it's again not some sort of catastrophic rapage - hey, talking deathclaws. I'm actually rather encouraged by what we've seen so far. It was never going to be the kind of "real" FO3 hades and co keep bleating on about, cause guess what, you're never gonna get one. It might well turn out to be as bad as FOBOS, of course, but it's harder to tell on things like the exact feel and gameplay yet. I'd say what we've seen so far is more encouraging than "Oblivion with Guns". God, I really hope they don't put the Oblivion persuade system in though. The dialogue screen just made me think of that.

Half the pics ain't in-game but some look to be, or close to, and they look very, very nice. Not perfect, but it looks pretty fun. I still don't really understand why VATS lets you do all that, but at least their direction is away from twitch play, or so they say. As far as hype and preview info goes, this is all very exciting. Oh, and level 20 cap... *shrug* realistically it won't matter too much.

Not sure how well that would work in Oblivion engine. Sounds awesome. Generally everything in there except the combat system, which paragraph I just don't understand, looks great or alright. I mean, they would, of course, being random bullet points, but still. And everybody surely expected the beginning-picktraits-thing that Bethesda does. Don't think it'll matter too much, though wonder what Vault Hospital means. A GECK-made Hospital? You start inside a vault? (In Timeline does that make a whole lot of sense?)

That's the res. I use, any higher and things are too small - God, I can't go back to 640 now. Well, I can stand it for FO and PST, but still. My female stalker hasn't got past Friendly Arms yet... actually, I often get really, really discouraged by BG1 until I get to Nashkel or Beregost. I hate Candlekeep (installed the skipper), the stupid stupid gibberlings whom you have to run from, and I don't know, Friendly Arm Inn is just silly. Find-me-a-ring and all that other stuff is only fun if you're tripping over yourself in pnp. I think I enjoy myself the most between immediately after the Nashkel mines, and up to return to Candlekeep... mid-game.

I don't think it's either, in terms of stats. IE games specifically point out how gender is only an "aesthetic preference" and I'm pretty sure FO doesn't differentiate.

Nothing, since D&D dictates that genders have no inherent differences (go PC!).

Yeah.

Oh, some of them were crazy, they were. Can't remember if it was tactics or Improved Battles version, but there was one modded incarnation of Tor'Gal (the Troll boss below De'Arnise Keep) that was.. uh, impossible to kill for my party. I'd debuff him as much as I could, then set up a little round-robin of everyone whacking him with magical weapons and healing each other, but he was like a freaking werewolf on crack - healed something like 5-10hp / round and I actually fought him for over 10 minutes and ended up with no potions left and him still at Uninjured. The 'Unnerfed' dragon bhaalspawn in TOB was pretty bad too, and try the 'restored' Illasera if you can't dispel her instant unlimited invisibilities while she fires bleeding piercing arrows. Anyway, it's all about smarter and sensible enemies, not ridiculously difficult.

Tale, I could go through vanilla SOA with a solo mage and didn't have too much trouble (except for some specific encounters). I'm not saying this to brag (oh wow, X is better than Y at a single player RPG!!!!), but it can get too easy. Hell, I usually only take 4 party members, and this time I don't think I'm even going to have a melee tank-style character at all. Cleric, Thief, 2 Mages maybe. Or maybe a Stalker instead. I'm trying Sword Coast Stratagems as well, apparently it has some nifty stuff like enemies calling each other for help. And spellcasters using buffs more sensibly, being prepared for fights, etc. It's not only harder but more 'realistic', i.e. you can't surround people, set traps round their feet and then talk to them to initiate combat anymore. Also got (in Tutu) NPC Project, Grey Clan major quest mod, FinchNPC, and a couple of minor things - should be fun.

Uggghh, fine, fine, fine! *reinstalls*

Woah, what happened there? Well, its my fault for wording it so badly and ending that part so abruptly, Cant, so I apologise if I caused offence. Here, perhaps a better pass at what I mean; Firstly, I have great respect for teachers as a whole. I'm only now finishing up my undergrad so I'm still a young student, but I can see that teachers do a very difficult job and they do have an impact on their students, which makes it all the more burdensome. I've tutored kids and even that was daunting. It was less of a bash on HS as an institution; more that HS years seem to be a point in time when, combined with other factors, I perceive a limited phenomenon where students get used to a "Enough To Pass" routine where they just do what they're told, and they do it only enough to pass (grudgingly), and don't ask themselves what they're doing or why they're doing it. I suppose laziness has a big role in that too, but it's mainly because I enjoy academic work so much when done right - you look at students who just do exactly what the project wants them to do, and end up with a castrated product with edges chopped off because they aren't interested at all in pursuing anything other than the pass mark, well, yeah. It seems to happen even with extracurricular things, or non-school things; because they're used to doing things as they're told, they have no initiative when they're doing something outside of school as well, lacking such things as organisational skills. Obviously this doesn't apply to all HS students - as I say, it's ano ffering of a limited phenomenon that from my personal, and thus distorted, vantage point seems quite extant. edit: of course, it must be realised that a segment do use the environment of HS (which really has great supportive potential) to full advantage and do a lot of fun things. And hell, even if you dont "achieve", social training in itself is a good thing to learn. So I gather she is a maths teacher as well? In theory, seems like it's a simple approach of "too low marks = somethign wrong with the teaching = flush staff." Hrm...

.... I DONT BELIEVE IT, I FORGOT TO BACK UP MY MASSIVE STOCKPILE OF BG MODS. Well, from memory.. Baldurdash: General fixpack (or whatever better version roshan is talking about) Unfinished Business: Attempts to find things that Bio planned but didn't implement, and 'completes' those quests. I.e. the kidnapping of Boo, or more background on Suna Seni / Valygar. Avenger's Thief mods: I believe had some gameplay implementations as well as stronghold fix. Ease-of-Use: Weimer. Some things, like infinite stock arrows, are nice; others are a bit munchkin. Tactics *or* Improved Battles: two things that make a lot of battles harder, personal preference for whichever. Improved Banters: Adds lots of new banter. If you use Ascension, check out Turnabout, which lets you call up allies of your own in the Melissan battle. Also Redemption, which has Irenicus as a PC and charts his 'redemption'. Check out the Three Gecklings website, Pocket Plane Group, etc. Gah, I had like 15 more, I can't even remember now.

Try the unnerfed demogorgon patch. Agreed. In consolation, don't exit right away. That's what I did, and soon I forgot that you even could. I thought the first level looked very nice. The second level with the multicolour and keys were crap, but the later levels were kinda nice too..

More than think.

Oh god, it was that? Seriously, I hate it. It's like having a vivid image of manboobs stuck in your head.

I suppose you can look at it that way - my instinctive reaction is to think of the middle-class, relatively stable family home raised kid facing the hurdles of ridiculously low academic standards (for passing). In that kind of environment other 'tasks', like extra-curricular things and social life, aren't as much challenges but good experiences. That doesn't mean my own high school years were happy and easy and whatnot, it just means that I think the kind of 'challenges' you face in HS, even for your age, are really nothing (unless you're in an exceptionally disadvantaged situation), not just academically but in all sorts of other ways. I rather see HS, and to an extent middle school, as that stage where the middle-class developed countryman is rid of his capacities of initiative and are rendered reactive subjects, just doing what they're told enough to get by. Everything is so custom-tailored for you to do with so much time that you become conditioned to these standards.

If you can't cheer, why have a ceremony? If the staff are not competent enough to control outrageous cheering, why punish the diploma recipients? The only way it'd make sense is if, say, the four got up and got their diplomas, took their time on the stage, incited others to cheer and 'rocked' the place before eventually coming down. Even so, thats more a case of the school demanding a formal apology or banning them from postgrad party (which they did) - not withholding the actual diploma. Sounds like the superintendant & co just said, screw this, we'll move on. Not a bad idea once they've got their feet in the mud.

I suspect not, for a few more months. Poor ramza.

Hey now, that's like a "Congratulations, you bought our game!". If Saint's Row does that then there should be no problem at all. I wonder if the issue with cheat codes lie elsewhere. Also are we talking exclusively about 'natural' cheatcodes? Because maybe this is just to get GameShark and other paraphernalia sales up.

Morgoth eats a banana on the way to school. Microsoft's point I think is that they are trying to integrate your single player experience into the realm of online competition, i.e. not just online games but SP games too have the benefit of that extra 'pull' factor on gamers. Though I"m not sure how it all works in particular, youv'e got to wonder why they dont' make it so that saved games which haved used cheats are diqualified from Achievements.

"The students in the central Illinois town about 150 miles southwest of Chicago will still graduate and receive their transcripts," Doesn't that mean that they will still be given everything, except for a piece of paper they can hang up on the wall? In that case, I wouldn't give a crap. To argue with them over the diploma is like saying that I value that piece of paper, I value that extra bit of recognition that the school authorises my academic achievement. I don't need to hang on to that, especially if they'll graduate me anyway. While we in general do give that school authority by working to receive their qualification, that's the bare minimum - screw that if they won't give you your diploma, or they don't really like your hair, or whatever. The kind of stupidity they display in refusing the diploma is a truer indication of their ability in administration. That said, in their shoes I wouldn't even have bothered turning up to the ceremonies, let alone cheer, so ah well. I feel sorry for the annoying bother the idiots have made for them. edit: oh, its a high school, not even a university? Hahahahahaha.

I wish the content of Sand's posts would change over time even half as much as he says the industry has changed. But wait, this is Sand. What are the chances of that happening? Next to nil I - Sand, you know curiosity if not hope will get the better of you. You'll rant about all the ways in which Bethesda are failing during production, and also be skeptical of anything they say right, then eventually you'll play it, and well, not sure what your ultimate verdict would be, since this is a game we know nothing about. But hey, we're all doing a little of that ourselves, I guess. On the trailer, the guy with the armour - does that resemble anything in previous games? It looked pretty different from your standard power armour, but maybe it's just power armour that Bethesda re-drew, or something like that. Also the focus on an urban atmosphere is probably confirmed by now. I don't mind at all, could be interesting, especially if they look at the more sophisticated developments of postapocalyptic, second-stage civilisations (past the immediate impact generations).

Yeah, which to be honest is like saying for someone looking for information on joinable NPCs in the game, it sucked and was worthless. I think its very reasonable to have expected this trailer to not reveal much at all - gameplay footage, if they even have any good ones to show at this stage, will only come later.

Who cares, really?