Tigranes

So, for the first time since PS:T's release, there is real, concrete indication of a new Torment in some kind of spiritual-successor form. (All news is shamelessly copied from or obtained through the Codex.) Colin McComb worked on Planescape: Torment, and is currently a writer for inXile's Wasteland 2. His blog has recently featured discussions of what a new Torment game would look like, in a language that suggested this was not mere speculation: http://colinmccomb.com/?p=157 http://colinmccomb.c...157#comment-115 We now note that the US Patent Office shows 'Torment', which has always been copyrighted separately from the Planescape setting, is currently owned by 'Roxy Friday' as of May 2012 - an entity that has previously been attributed concretely to Brian Fargo and inXile. Planescape remains the property of Wizards of the Coast, and of course has been officially dead and shelved for years. http://tsdr.uspto.go...pe=statusSearch So, it seems almost certain that there is something going on, and that it will involve McComb and Fargo at least, if not Avellone and others. Now, because every single freaking thread about BG3 or PST2 is full of "OMG BHAALSPAWN STORY IS OVA" / "OMG NAMELESS ONE STORY IS OVA" etc and we are all sick of it, let's say it right here: there's about 0.01% chance that it would be a direct sequel, and for good reason. Colin McComb himself says: Finally, Brian Fargo has just confirmed that there is something here, though he can't give details yet - so it's not hallucination. All in all, no real details about who, how, and what, but it seems almost certain that something is in the works, and it is proximately involved with the people originally at Interplay and/or directly working on the original PST. Good enough for me.

Then it looks like I will be checking out BGEE. Well, depends on how important money is to you. In that case, you could just pay half the price for the original on GOG, then spend 3 minutes on a widescreen resolution mod.

I found it really tough to get into CK1 as it is indeed clunky and opaque, but everything I've heard reliably from veteran Paradox players is that it holds up far better to sustained play than CK2. CK2 is marvellous but, as Zoraptor says, ends up a bit shallow because the way each mechanic is balanced and fits with each other makes it too easy to get on the groovy train, and it ends up feeling too much like "everything is going great but I still have to press all these buttons". Really, I think in a lot of cases, post-2005 games lacking replayability and feeling 'shallow' after one or two playthroughs has a lot to do with a combination of small decisions. There are games that could have become real classics but there are fairly small design decisions or balances that all add up to the feeling not of a precariousness or challenging victory but a pushover or makework - Risen 2 and CK2 are real victims of that compared to their predecessors (yes, I'm aware that in that case the originals were post-2005 too).

I think it's absolutely fine for Trent or alanschu to say they don't think the original video is much good. If we call that 'disrespectful' I think we're just going overboard. I don't care about which one is 14 years old or which one should be 'respected' or whatever. In the end, the only thing that matters is: they changed the cutscenes. Are they better or worse than before? To me, the answer is clear: worse, a lot worse. Thus, it's yet another factor in the "BG:EE = Waste Of Money" opinion.

The only way to overcome the petty stupidity of professors is to become a Name in your field. If you do, the 'grade' is nothing more than a little villain in your life narrative to squish on your way; if you let yourself go, then it becomes retroactively truer and truer. I know whatever we say it will still get to you, though. It's hard not to. I've generally had very good, reasonable, ethical professors thus far, but anyone with even a brief exposure to the publication, conference, etc. system fully knows that it's far from a meritocracy.

That intro is just awful. Wasted time, wasted labour, wasted attention. The hand-drawn method isn't a problem, the problem is the hand drawing isn't very good, and the editing/cutting work is shoddy. The original was nothing special, so it's pretty hard to make it significantly worse, but there you go.

Having played Risen 2, Crusader Kings II, Diablo 3, Football Manager 2013, PES 2013, and bits of Dishonoured, Guild Wars 2, not having bothered with ME3 as I know I'll be bored, I can confidently say: None. Best of the lot, is Crusader Kings II.

That's how it's always worked in the history of Western civilisation, so...

To gift Steam games you have to have purchased as gifts to begin with, right? You can't give away games you've played?

Divine Divinity 1 is a lot more fun than 2 - both are mediocre games but each worth a playthrough.

I think for 'serious help' you need to describe your problem a bit more. Am not picking up dishonoured until it's under $10. Tried it for half an hour at a friend's house, and I know you can't judge a game based on that long, but on Hard I just blinked up on a rooftop and shot some people with fire crossbow bolts, and people DIRECTLY NEXT TO THE DUDE just sat there having a mosey. Screw that, with that kind of AI I might as well play pretend with my invisible friends.

Kayran sucks, but it's only one fight. I do remember how long it took for me to learn the combat system so that is a thing, but once you do learn it it can be reasonably enjoyable, similar to TW1 - neither of which, in the end, has great combat. I'd agree that in the end it was a good not great game.

TW2 is worth playing at least once. QTEs suck but they aren't that frequent, and if you select Easier QTEs in options, you won't get stuck with them. It's just a very well made game.

I wouldn't be so quick to go with the flow. The way in which the judges - appointed by Mubarak, and with a recent record of acting quite ambiguously re. the new constitution and trials over the old guard - have led anti-Mursi protests actively and vocally, and the way the Western media, elites and Egyptian NGOs have got on the wagon, is intriguing to say the least. That kind of 'everyone aboard' narrative is great for decisive action when required - e.g. getting rid of Mubarak - but less so for building a healthy democracy. That said, the new powers Mursi has given himself cannot be argued away - here's hoping they can be dropped without jeopardising the authority of the presidential position unduly.

Building it really isn't that big a hassle, if you think of all the benefits in cost & performance over the next 2+ years. Besides, you should be keeping all PC-related spare cables, CDs, etc in one place, whether you buy a prefab or build, so there's no difference there. You could build quite a decent tower for that price, but even if you go prefab, integrated graphics - just stay away. Forever. (Sorry I'm not linking to any actual alternatives, but there are people here who could pick for you far better than I.)

Hilariously, the bank keeps screwing up sending me my new card, so meanwhile, I can't make any online transactions. It's probably for the best, though I did get a friend to nab me a $80 monitor.

I discovered that the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Parade starts right outside my house, takes two hours to leave the street, and also has a penchant for playing the Star Wars theme at random moments. I played football, did some work, etc. No family and no turkey, but all is still well.

Might pick up K2 for $2.50, since my CD is somewhere on the other side of the world.

I used to enjoy pizza, then I came to America. Now, there's a lot of good pizza in America. The problem is, most of the time I see pizza, someone else ordered it, en masse, from Papa Jones or something. And they generally go for the time honoured Bread + Mozzarella + Tomato Sauce + Pepperoni + Copious Amounts Of Oil combo. I generally like onions, pepperoni, capsicum (it's not 'pepper', guys), and some form of herbs on top. Seafood style is always interesting too.

The pie charts would never have made everyone happy. If you reduce QA, apparently it means a buggy game. If you reduce product management, it means an ill managed game. If you reduce artists, it's an ugly game, etc, etc. If you keep the pie charts exactly the same, then that's a problem too...

In practice, FO2 idiot dialogues were more of a "something new for playing the game the 4th time" rather than something that holds up the entire game. The Malkavian dialogue did a much better job at it. I think it's far, far too difficult to expect too much to be done with 'Stupid' dialogues though, and if they're a bit gimmicky, that's fine with me, since most of the time you'd be choosing to make such a character deliberately. This is different from PS:T where you missed out on a lot of lore by going with an average character, and I doubt they'd do that here.

Every rendering scheme has its ups and downs, but I still find BG2 prettier than NWN2 or KOTOR2. By the way, using the same engine as NWN2 and making it using the same graphics style and assets as NWN2 would be a disaster. Because if you wanted a full 3D game in the modern style, then you're going to be judged by that standard, and people will tell you how bad it looks compared to other full 3D games. It wouldn't have the style and appeal of 2D/2.5D games, and it wouldn't have the style and appeal of 3D games either. I don't know exactly the budget breakdown for NWN2, but even if it cost the same as the current 2.5D method, the latter would be better.

You mean, if I had all the money and time in the world, why would I not want something? Well, firstly, that's a rather vapid supposition. But OK, of course I'd want a PS3 if I was rich and idle, next to my yacht, my harem, and my giant amusement park made entirely of crates. But the PS3 still wouldn't get a lot of use, because I would still, you know, want to have fun, and most of the games don't seem that fun to me. That's not to say there aren't any fun games on there, but back in the real world, it's not really a good value proposition for my money and time. I'd rather play another round of IWD than, say, Okami. Obviously it's a different value proposition for everyone else. I will note that a large part of this is due to emulation technology, since we can now comfortably play anything up to the PS1 era. I do like having the original Super Marios or FF6/7 or FF Tactics available on the PC.

In other words, we just assume they're all shagging each other, since who knows when they'll all die and they don't have any other friends? Sounds reasonable.

No information. Unlikely at the present.