Darth InSidious

I rather like one of the reviews for Uranium ore: That said, some of the best reviews are the "one-star" ratings on books. If you have a favourite book, look for the one-star review on Amazon. I can guarantee there'll be at least one gem there. Take this one of Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One: There are others of the same book complaining it has too many adjectives. Gotta love Amazon.

Don't you? I can think of three moments of actual C&C in the entire game. Two of which were on the same (penultimate) planet, and the third was the five-minutes-before-the-end "choose your final cutscene" choice. Thanks for the info. What I'm particularly curious to know, though, is the extent of the reaction - will some "main" missions only be available from NPC Bob, while an alternate can be sought from Agent Joe, or would this option be taking the same mission from different angles? As, indeed, were Jade Empire and KotOR, with the minor exception that the other two didn't actually bore me.

He does have a point, in that the purpose of making video games is to a) entertain and b) make money. It does seem that sometimes b) goes out of the window with a) following shortly after, and the executives three weeks after that.

... has me worried. Not sure I'm following. Mass Effect did have branching dialog and a plot deeper than the average console cRPG. Their of those accolades explicitly said Mass Effect was a good game, if that's your problem. My problem is that Mass Effect had a crap plot and its branching largely consisted of: 1. Good Option 2. Bad Option with the same result as the Good Option, but gives renegade points 3. I'll be going now.

It is true that the combat is pretty awful. The game starts painfully slowly, as well.

Positive, but ... has me worried.

Not sure if Planescape counts as art per se, but it's certainly the best-written game I can think of. Certainly, it has a greater claim to being art than 98% of what gets turned out at present... Yes, but they are fools. This... You can't compare Picasso with Van Gogh, can you? Certainly you can. It's just a profitless endeavour.

The One-Eyed Merchant.

Deionarra. Fall-From-Grace. Dak'kon.

It's generally referred to as TFU or STFU, nonetheless.

Wait, wait, wait. Giving the player choice in a Bio game?

Just adds to my amusement that its acronym is STFU...

Thank you for spelling the word correctly.

There is no such thing as the "special relationship". I'm not quite sure what about this is difficult to understand - the US uses us as a vassal state. That is our relationship - so I don't quite see what's so bad about wanting out of it.

What's wrong with the Celestial Intervention Agency?

Just finished Gilgamesh. I was quite surprised at how short it is, and how unsatisfying it seems as a narrative. Now I'm trying to finish Gatsby, which seems just as interminably dull as the last time...

Is Torment a worse game because you can't choose your gender or customise your appearance? No.

ceterum censeo EVE delenda est.

Mmm... I'm going to go with either Worms 2 or Worms Armageddon.

You know ME2 is out between Jan-March? Thats a long delay. I think releasing it before ME2 is a better decision. True, but releasing later would have the advantage of pushing it clear of the hype of both. Releasing right before DA:O as is currently planned seems ill-advised, TBH. Putting it between both might be a wiser decision, IMO.

Repetitiveness can be a bit of an issue, but at level 8 you've got a bit more flexibility than just you blast.

Polish would be a big thing in this game's favour. And if it were to come out after the hype for ME2 and DA:O had died down, it would have a better chance of selling. Plus, it would give more time to spool up the hype machine... There are some good arguments in favour of delaying the game's release. OTOH, the technology is losing its appeal the longer it's unreleased, which could lead to negative reviews on release on grounds of "old" graphics.

Have you tried the warlock? It's not quite as powerful overall as a normal spellcaster, but if you aren't keen on the standard arcane options...

Why? By showing there was a miscarriage of justice on a spectacular scale and based on potentially very dodgy evidence? Why? Are you at gunpoint? So putting more stock in the fallibility of people and their capacity to do evil knowingly and willingly, including to put an innocent man in prison on a life sentence, equates to cutting yourself off from society? And why does not trusting one court, at which a man was tried by a panel of judges in a particular country call into question the entire judicial system worldwide? We need neither. About time, too. It's just a pity that the Scottish Parliament has more balls than Westminster.