Spider

Actually, we don't have to pay for them. I've read somewhere that he gets the funds for his movies through some german grant or something. So I don't think not watching will stop him. It's not like any of his movies have been stellar successes. Why anyone (game studios) would allow him near any of their licenses is beyond me though.

Bloodrayne. What an awful movie that was (but I agree it was a total hoot as well). There's even a sequel on it's way.

Yeah, but then it's just to hide again.

Also, you can get a similar effect by taking assassin or shadowdancer levels. Hide in Plain Sight is all the invisibility you'll ever need.

As far as as formatting is concerned, I think that is something that'll take care of itself in the future. I recall reading about Microsoft saying they'll move to an open format with their next generation of office. Possibly XML-based.

Titan Quest: Immortal Throne (although since I started with a new character I haven't actually gotten to the IT part yet) and Jade Empire. But much more of the former than the latter, that hasn't managed to grab hold of me yet.

How is compability a problem? OOo can save in multiple formats including, but not limited to, .doc. So as far as compability is concerned, it has the upper hand compared to MSO. I use OOo exclusively at home. I vastly prefer it's interface, at least in regards to Writer and Drawer (ie Word and Power Point). I find them to me more user friendly and intuitive. I find the things I want to do much easier. I think I'd say Excel is better than Calc though, although I use either so rarely I don't really have an opinion. Calc does the things I need it to do, but it could be a bit sleeker I guess. The spellchecker is pretty bad in OOo though. It's somewhat of a hassle to install extra languages and I find that the Swedish dictionary leaves a lot to be desired. Although if the only language used is US English, the spellchecker is good enough. So yeah, I like OpenOffice.org and would definitely recommend it.

Halo, Half-life, Starcraft (although admittedly that one is a bit old now), Quake, Gears of War, Metroid etc. SciFi is fairly popular when it comes to gaming. The only genre dominated by Fantasy is RPGs.

Iirc, when the Planescape setting was discontinued, Torment was no longer allowed to be marketed by WotC. Interplay even had to stop selling it on their website.

I would if I were you, there are some pretty good ones (and some really awful ones). The NPC mod and Sword Coast Stratagems are two mods I wouldn't play without (SCS I've omly played with once since it's new, but it's really good). Go here for links to all the mods you could possibly need: www.pocketplane.net

1.04 didn't increase performance for me. But 1.03 didn't decrease it either (well, it did, but only because I gott AA options to activate, otherwise not), so I don't know if it helps.

Ever considered installing a level cap remover? If you worry about it upsetting the game balance you could always just ramp up the difficulty, or play with the new mod Sword Coast Stratagems, that definitely ups the difficulty (a must for people replaying it, it's possible it's only available for those playing the game with tutu though). As for the topic, I just realized there's another RPG I never finished. Morrowind. I've tried playing it twice and both times I got completely fed up with it within an hour and had to get rid of it. (Oblivion, on the other hand, I had a lot of fun with and finished after a lot of hours)

It's a good enough action game. Archery and sword fighting is well implemented. Can't say about magic since other than heal I didn't buy many spells. Character customization is decent, actually as good as can be expected in an action game (sort of like how it works in Gothic III but less detailed). I found the story and the general writing to be somewhat uninspired though. It's all fairly... campy. But it's not being sold on it's storytelling merits, but on it's sword fighting merits. And those are very good. It was great fun at first, but did become a tad repetitive at the end. Not bad enough for me not to finish it, but it did lessen the enjoyment I got out of the game. As did the endgame bug I suffered, where the game would crash after beating the final boss, but before showing the end cinematics (or rather bug out in a way that it would seem like I had failed in the last quest rather than beat it). It's possible that has been fixed in a patch, but I just felt cheated...

Which fan was that? I've had the same experience with two fans, although the first time was much worse. Most likely becaause I was unprepared. Can't remember the name of the second one (came with the processor) but the first one was a Zalman geared for a LGA775 slot. Possibly Zalman CNPS7700 (it's spinning at the moment, so I can't check )

I was talking more about the amount of physical force that needed to be applied to get the bastard to align so the screws could be screwed in. I was sure something was going to break. Not to mention having to bend a few parts away so it actually fit on the motherboard (the system fan was in the way).

The CPU is easy enough to install. The CPU fan on the other hand is the stuff of nightmares.

Only RPG that I've started for real and haven't finished is Gothic III. I've gotten quite far into it and basically gotten my character maxed out in the skills I wanted (except one or two things). But there is still a ton of stuff to do. I quit playing it when NWN2 was released because I figured I'd wait for performance to improve through patches (I also uninstalled it to make room for NWN2, but kept the save games). Never managed to feel any inspiration to get back into it and doubt I ever will. I guess Hammer & Sickle also kinda qualifies, although calling it an RPG is a stretch. Anyway, I just couldn't get into it at all. I only ever got to the first town, then it was uninstalled. Given that I love Silent Storm, I was really disappointed with this game. Can't think of another RPG I haven't finished (almost didn't finish ToEE, but replayed it to finish something like a year after it's release).

To me horror is a separate genre from Fantasy. So The World of Darkness is a horror setting rather than a fantasy one (just as I don't consider Steven King a fantasy writer). But the line is definitely blurry in that case. Somewhat less blurry when it comes to Star Wars, which I definitely consider a fantasy setting. All of which, of course, is irrelevant in regards to this poll. Kaftan's poll, Kaftan's definitions. Voted non-fantasy anyway. Only having two options is a bit misleading though. You're putting Fantasy up against all other genres. So while a majority may prefer other genres, Fantasy is probably still the most popular genre. So just because other genres is winning in this poll, it doesn't mean a pure Sci Fi RPG will be well recieved by all who voted for that option. For instance, I would probably prefer a fantasy RPG over another Star Wars one (based on setting alone, nothing else factors in), but I would even more like a cyberpunk game or one set in the world of darkness. In my opinion, for a poll like this to be useful, every larger genre would need it's own option. But again, it's not my poll and not me who is going to use it.

Except you can't use both Eldritch Spear and Chain simultaneously. Only one shape at a time.

Werewolf.

There's a third UFO After-game out now as well. Afterlight. I've only played Aftershock and it was ok. Decent mechanics, somewhat interesting story, cool factions. But much, much MUCH too repetetive. The game used only a few different maps for it's mission and the missions weren't exactly varied. After fighting aliens on the same map for the 20th or so time, it got kinda dull. In the end I actually ignored all assaults on my territory and just ran the clock down waiting for the big event I knew (through forum spoilers) was coming. What the game needed above all else is some some sort of random map generator. Then maybe it wouldn't have gotten so boring towards the end. (it was quite fun for the first half of the game though)

Or, you know, the thief-based prestige classes (assassin, shadow thief, shadowdancer).

@ Diamond: If you've already played BG2 and are thinking about going back to BG1 for the first time, I'd recommend considering playing BG1 with BGtutu. It's a mod that let's you play BG1 with the BG2 engine. The reason for this is that the game engine is improved upon a lot for BG2. Not only with kits and classes, but with things like walking speeds and resolution. BG1 is locked at 640x440 and walking across the maps takes forever. And there is a lot of walking across maps. There are some things that may change the balance a bit (for instance, arrows are not the best path to victory in any given encounter anymore), but for me it's worth it. There are people who think one should experience a game as it was designed before fiddling with mods, and if that applies to you then by all means ignore this post. But personally I do think tutu is worth it (after BG2 was released, there was no way I'd even consider replaying BG1 until tutu was released).

It's kinda hard to stumble across Skie. She's part of a quest for another NPC and without him in the party she isn't joinable.