Tale

Wait, the Austrian weather service is a credible source on Japanese nuclear issues?

A battleship armed with an anti-infantry gun. It's crazy enough to work. The Reaper Anti-Shepard would be the one dreadnought among them that isn't a moron.

Three things can happen to your character in Dragon Age Origins. Dead: DAO. Left to a realm beyond the fade: Witch Hunt. Otherwise disappeared: Dragon Age 2 I felt the ending was fine. I thought Act 3 felt rushed and silly. But the ending itself was fine.

Waffles. Cheeseburgers. Fajitas. Dwarf Fortress. Daily Show. Stargate Universe on Blu-Ray. The Slayers. Shrimp flavor Ramen. Life is good.

They won't kill us all. At worst they'll be at the cusp of victory, then proceed to transfer themselves into toasters or various other household appliances for absolutely no reason at all. At which point they can be killed with handguns.

We don't need you Australians exposed to even more violence! Between your constant inebriation and living in a hell world, it could push you over the edge.

It's Nixxes. Their ports have been solid.

I, too, hate it when the left demonizes and tries to control the lives of homosexuals.

I can't say it was any smaller than The Strip of New Vegas as a city. It did, however, lack interesting locales within that city.

3 was the second one I beat. Namely because of the better controls. A quick 180 turn makes running away soooooo easy.

That knife is the main reason Code Veronica was the first Resident Evil I ever beat without cheating.

Only problem with Code Veronica is that the knife is overpowered. It seems to do damage for every frame of the strike, instead of just the contact point. Or something. So you slash a zombie and get like 4 hits on him. It's a bleeding machete of zombie murder.

Bioware writing sci-fi... By that logic they should be harvesting dogs or growing bacteria and harvesting them. Ehh, it's not unique to Bioware. Humans are special is borderline omnipresent in fantasy and space opera with multiple intelligent races. The reasoning is never anything other than mind bogglingly stupid.

Also, I'm playing Progress Quest at work. You're all jealous.

Suddenly? You led him on and you know it.

Interesting. What if Anna was unkillable at that point in the game, much like Gunther is when he captures JC at the BAttery Park subway station. You were given the choice to kill Lebedev or not kill him. Either way he dies, either by JC or Anna. How would you respond to that as a choice? Success is not a choice. Success is an outcome. A choice is the ability to try. Anna can be as unkillable as she wants to be. I still need to be allowed to make the attempt. Gunther at Battery Park is similar. You are given the choice to resist.

Pretty much just because they consider Shepard awesome. He's been a bit of a silly ego-stroke protagonist from the get go. It doesn't matter that he wasn't working alone, it was all him. I hope Mass Effect 3 will let me finally start gunning down Cerberus Operatives while yelling "FOR KOHAKU!"

Did you get it off the recent Steam sale? All the Gothic games for $19ish. I bit because some of our forumites like it. So far, I'm still trying to get used to the controls in Gothic 1. It's a little wonky. Not sure why they just didn't have a separate attack button. Is there a mod out there that converts stuff to mouse and keyboard controls? Playing in the highest resolution so the game looks decent. I like the music so far and the voice acting is a lot better than what I was expecting. I got it off a sale back around Christmas, as I recall. The graphics are fine and don't bother me. The barely implemented mouse controls do. The keyboard controls are too sensitive as well. Maybe I'll give it another try another day, but not any time soon. And for some reason, looking around outside causes my framerate to plummet. I have no explanation for that.

Here's my perspective. When I play an RPG, or even an open world game, I do not suffer murderers. I will not play a character that turns a blind eye to Anna attempting to kill the man in the airplane. Anna must die. I frankly don't care if he dies anyway. Or if he doesn't show up later. In Red Dead Redemption, I do not suffer the bandits who execute people on the side of the road. Or the corrupt Mexican soldiers who do the same. I don't care if my net reward is 2 pieces of ammo. Call it a false choice if you want, but being forced to render implicit permission against my character's ethics is obnoxious in the worst way. The fact that the game doesn't change in any appreciable way is secondary to whether or not the game allows me to have basic control over my own character's outrage. Vulpes Inculta barely gets away from the first encounter without a bullet in his head simply on the basis that his victims were no better than him. And I do mean barely. I let it rest on assuring myself I'll do it later. Dragon Age 2 did this, forcing me to let a warmonger and murderer waltz right by while I flipped off my computer monitor. It will be a negative element that stays with me long after all my good memories of it have faded.

I tried to play Gothic 2. The control scheme was simply intolerable. Did Germany not have mice in 2002? I also tried out Mount & Blade: Warband. Actually was enjoying that. Only criticisms so far is that my guys keep getting in my way and I can't do mounted melee combat to save my life. Debating between M&B or Neverwinter Nights 2. Kalach-cha!

It's really really not. A large part of choices is to express your character. Not simply to get his ends. The means and the ends can be different. Hmmm. If expressing your character results in no significant changes from the gameworld does that expression have value? I'm not saying that they have to be good changes; they could be negative or punitive. The downside being that having to spend dev time implementing false choice is dev time that could be spent elsewhere. False choice doesn't take as much time and effort as real choice, but it c oulc be argued that false choice has significantly less value. Yes, that expression has value. Because arbitrarily denying it simply makes the player feel impotent. It is a point of frustration and aggravation for your players. And you will lose them. Sometimes it can even feel as if the game is actively mocking you by denying obvious choices. Players won't stand for it.

Act 3 in a nutshell.

It's really really not. A large part of choices is to express your character. Not simply to get his ends. The means and the ends can be different.

I didn't even realize you could save Paul the first time. Then I play Invisible War and "what the heck is Paul doing here?!"

I don't ask for meaning. I just ask to be given the choice to try. That often feels like asking a lot. Meaningful reactivity to my attempts is a very nice thing. But I ask for that second.