alanschu

Actually yes, she is the duelist from DAO. I forgot that she is in that. Sorry for the spoiler... >.>

LOL definitely LoF!

There's some mechanics I think are pretty interesting. Like receiving a defense bonus to overwatch attacks if you happen to be dashing (using both your movement points). Chryssalids give me nightmares! I'm getting the impression the AI doesn't seem to cheat. I see them making "good decisions" based on imperfect information. Like, it knew where a guy was (because I shot and killed his only alien that had visibility). But without him seeing, I moved other guys in to cover the first soldier. AI comes kicking down a door to target my vulnerable guy, but got mowed down by the guys it didn't know were there.

I think the companions are DA2's strongest point. I really enjoyed them all, with Isabela, Aveline, and Varric being my favourites.

Yeah I'm in the same boat. I enjoy the narrative right now too. We'll see on subsequent playthroughs.

XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM XCOM

I think everyone identifying themselves as "human being first" is closer to the monoculture idea you're talking about. I still see the opposing team as "the other guys" regardless of culture, and I don't think this disappears if people are less nationalistic. The fact that this still exists despite homogeneous cultures is evidence that humanity's competitiveness is not dependent on culture. At best it provides an alternative form of competitiveness (you see it in the Olympics, which actually makes me shake my head more and more), but Michael Phelps still competes as hard as he can against Ryan Lochte, despite both being American.

Yeah they do get their little scamper. I wonder if it was a balance thing as getting the jump on them would be very powerful (guys get huge penalties when in the open. Bonus chance to hit, huge bonus chance to crit, stuff like that). The one catastrophic full wipe was me being stupid and failing to remember that that vehicle was on fire, so when it blew up I lost 3 of my squad. The two rookies remaining had it in rough. Chryssalids still suck (in that horrifying way they used to be).

I had two missions that were total failures. One was a terror mission where 2 (out of 5) guys ran for the hills and I evacuated because my best soldier was 1 of the 2 remaining and I didn't want ALL rookies for the next mission! I have had 4 countries withdraw and it has NOT gone well at all :D :D D: D: Classic Ironman FTW!

It's 5:30 AM and I work tomorrow.....

LOL "Yeah I'm totally not feeling good tomorrow" <.<

The NBA 2k series has fantastic career modes with excellent player progression as well. I sunk over 200+ hours into 2k12's MyPlayer mode. Haven't had a chance to play 2k13 yet.

If someone ends up gone for a significant period of time, then their computer is still on that entire time which may not be something that they want to do. Deleting saved games upon continue requires an exceptionally stable game. Better hope you don't crash (or have a power failure or a host of other things that could interrupt the session).

A raise. EDIT: What are the odds the post preceding mine says the same thing!? >.<

One more day! If it's out at midnight I think I feel myself getting sick >.>

I'm getting LoF vibes now!

I didn't care much for Medieval II, and Empire was meh and I skipped Napoleon. I love Shogun 2 though.

A lot of stuff can be scalable though. Even if someone like Avellone or Sawyer is key on designing the traits of one of the companions, you don't need to have the same artist do concepts and models as the other character(s). If their core team was pretty small to begin with, adding on additional staff doesn't see that much for diminishing returns anyways.

I'm surprised Wing Commander 3's mouse support is vacant, sicne I thought they came up with a really elegant solution with the first two that allowed mouse support to offer fantastic control.

I wouldn't say that the direction of DA2 changed midway, though I would agree that there was some level of influence from ME2 (looking at things like imports and whatnot in particular), as well as some general feedback that was received from people that played DAO and even the ME games. I'd say that the transition worked well for the most part for ME2 played a part in us being more aggressive in our changes than we probably should have been. EDIT: I'm trying to remember when Fernando made his comments, and what is specific role with the company was at that time. He is responsible for "general post launch support" type stuff now, and if he was when that comment was made then his statement arguably doesn't apply to just DA2 but both franchises.

As for 4th edition, work has a good number of people that have played all editions of D&D. Many seem to like 4th edition too (and many don't).

It's not that you're talking to me. It's that you make silly generalizations. Why is it "clear to you?" Because it's not what you want, and you obviously are a more seasoned and hardcore gamer? When Baldur's Gate came out, 14 year olds (and older) were more likely to play console games as well. Some do play computer games as well (or even instead). Given that my roots are as a computer gamer starting from about 5 on the Apple II (Loderunner FTW) I am well aware that people of all ages play PC games. All the talk of 10 year olds and 14 year olds is a total red herring. Do you think that Dragon Age is being made for 10-14 year olds to buy it? Having the luxury of being on the seller side of a midnight launch one time, the diversity in age of people in line to buy those games is insane, and pretty much entirely adults over the age of 18. I'll agree on the notion that the focus of a lot of game developers/publishers is to minimize barriers to entry and will wholeheartedly agree with the idea that in many cases you can argue that drawing in more "casual" players can be a benefit. But even then, COD doesn't "draw in casual players" either. But there are advantages to utilizing systems that have worked in other games because it helps limit barriers to entry. There's a ton of hardcore gamers that play something like WoW (I'm sure many of them love a game like BG even!). As much as the Codex may hate WoW's popularity, when determining how to balance combat abilities, there are advantages to utilizing a cooldown based system because people are already familiar with it. A large penalty with using something like Vancian is that people inherently struggle with the concept, lore wise (I agree that it's retarded conceptually. Those that argue against cooldowns for being an arbitrary restriction yet support Vancian have completely failed to understand that it's also an arbitrary ruleset used to balance combat by equating spells as effectively being ammunition) and tripping up on understanding why the system is in place creates a barrier to entry. The other trip up is that it's frankly less common. Many games throughout history, PC or console, have had magic systems. Vancian style systems are much less common than, say, the idea of mana consumption (which most are more easily able to understand conceptually within the setting - it doesn't break the verisimilitude for them - and it's a more frequently used so there's an innate familiarity with the system). Frankly, Vancian often loses out for simply not being as common of an idea. Even though it's original use was as the way magic works in Vance's books, unless people have been exposed to his books or game systems that utilize his system there's going to be innate barriers. D&D types are more willing to embrace it because they are more familiar with it, but so much more than D&D types play video games, even RPGs. Including the IE games. I think many people come to the conclusion that because the IE games are based on the D&D license, those that loved the games are in large part also D&D fans. I don't believe this to be the case at all, though. I say this as someone that did grow up playing D&D CRPGs too. It's not that "younger" gamers are more likely to see lesser barriers to entry with "simplified" systems. It's that gamers of all ages are more likely to see lesser barriers. Dismissing the groups for being 10-14 year olds just makes one come across as being an old curmudgeon that doesn't want to believe that his preference has always been niche. Unfortunately the economies of scale of AAA game development make it more challenging to appeal to niches, but fortunately things like digital distribution and Kickstarter are allowing for a resurgence in "older school" game designs. Frankly, a 10 to 14 year old PC gamer is probably more likely to pirate the games that they want because they have the free time to play a ton of games and to learn how to acquire them, and they lack the means to get the money to acquire all of the games that they want. At best they get some for gifts, but I'm sure I'm not that unique in that my piracy rates plummeted as I got older, with my rate of game purchases going up. The focus of the big publishers is not the under 18 crowd.

You should learn how to manage Japan's economy.... I'm even willing to do the "Japan gets bonus resources" Campaign! "

As unlikely as it would be (I agree it'd be a huge shift), I don't think it'd get rid of competition, or even judgment or acknowledgement. If people identified themselves as a "human being" first and foremost, it just means that a lot of the racial/cultural motivations for conflict are minimialized/eliminated. I play hard in a game of volleyball not because I wish to assert my dominant culture. I certainly don't try harder against different ethnicities. I like to win though (what's this get me... dopamine? Haha) and it's fun to compete and play at a competitive level, so I continue to do so. Alberta is considered more "redneck" and perhaps more homogeneous (especially in rural areas) but I still compete with others for employment and purchases (like my condo) in addition to leisure activities. I wouldn't consider the dissolution of culture/nationalism as something that would make people all communists or anything like that, working towards the collective.