Tale

Pretty much every line of hers was fishing for compliments or flirting that if you reciprocated would end it right there.

BG2's was better. His Mage form is a pretty standup fight. If you've figured out how to beat any mage by that point, you can beat him. It's the same dispel protections and hope you survive whatever big crap he tosses your way. The demon form, or whatever you want to call it, I kind of hated. I usually only won that with summon cheese and by some of the enemies turning invisible, running away, and their AI glitching so they forget you exist.

The final bosses of BG 2.5 was impossible for me to fight. "My weapon has no effect." "My weapon has no effect." "My weapon has no effect." I've got only one character with a +5 weapon, everyone else had trouble finding better than +2. Holy christmas, Jaheira can't use anything better than a club or staff. There's like nothing better than +3 for either that I came across. Fighting that battle felt like the designers were calling me on the phone just to personally insult my mum. And half the enemies spawned by the boss resisted every spell that Edwin, Viconia, Jaheira, and Imoen threw at them. And the fight lasts as long as several boss fights with no resting, so those spells are never coming back anyway. Maybe I'm completely terrible, but the game makes no effort to teach you how to get around that crap. You have to search internet forums for cheese that you won't know unless you're already intimate with D&D 2e.

End boss fights in all three Baldur's Gate games are a sticking point for me. Mass Effect was much better in that regard, but it feels like a hassle to play through the first one at all.

NPC 1 is a first generation personality that has never learned adaptive traits The problems with emergent AI behavior is often from evolutionary psychological systems or at least learning, basically adaptive systems. Namely that videogames have none of that. The programmed behaviors persist until self-destruction unless the programming is enough to find an equilibrium with only what is started with.

A new worms game comes out tomorrow.

I wish I could disagree, but I can't. Forgive me, Claudia! I HAVE SINNED

Uncultured swine, the lot of you. I bet you never did a DAO run as John Chrichton. Edit: John... John Chrichton. Michael Chrichton is the author of Jurassic Park.

I still find Morrigan speaking with Claudia Black's voice utterly confusing. I thought it was fitting. Morrigan was basically a still frosty Aeryn.

You harm a hair on Claudia Black and I'll...

Wot? I may be many things; obnoxious, socially inept, unthreatening, generally impotent, terrible at punctuation, arrogant, faux British, but I am NEITHER a ginger nor a hippy, you bloody wanker.

I'm just thankful they are resolving it. I always assumed it was Gaider's pet setup for the sequel that we'd never get to fully resolve with any satisfaction. If this is done well, I may have to start being nice to Gaider.

The developers have already been paid, it's the publishers who are complaining. If the developers have some sort of royalty arrangement it would still affect them. I don't know if that is an issue though. In terms of effect on developers, I would think that a game that doesn't make enough money for the publishers won't see a sequel (where have I heard of that happening lately?) and developers of such games might not attract many publishers for their games.

We lack any good zombie strategy games or sims. Plants vs Zombies? Why do we need zombie strategy games and sims? What's wrong with the zombieless ones? Because Civilization isn't complete until there's the overwhelming threat of zombie hordes attacking all nations. Do you nuke your ally to stop the infection or do you sacrifice your military to aid them, potentially making it worse? Maybe you intentionally unleash it on your island enemies, what could possibly go wrong? Also, because zombies could be a bitching Evil Genius spiritual sequal. Take everything that was Evil Genius, but replace henchmen with survivors. And enemy agents and soldiers with zombies. Or Dorf Fort. Only whenever a Goblin kills a Dorf, it makes another Goblin.

We lack any good zombie strategy games or sims.

That's pretty funny. I'm giving them benefit of the doubt on it, supposedly they're exploring different tactical cameras. Maybe it will be gimped, but I WANT TO BELIEVE.

We don't just need Zombie RPGs. I fantasize about a Zombie Evil Genius type game.

Zombie RPG implies to me that you're playing as the Zombie. Now that could be a new subgenre.

I was under the impression that Gamestop goes to extraordinary lengths to not buy extras. That's the entire point of pre-order system they push. And why some games end up underperforming (Okami).

Ooh, I wonder where this game will rest on emergent v. scripted.

Sounds like an average game of Dwarf Fortress. Tantrum spirals, nobles, useless dorfs. It's touted as a feature. Urist McGlassmaker is possessed! *I have nothing to make glass items* *he eventually gets melancholic, stops drinking, and dies of thirst* Urist McGlassmaker's wife is throwing a tantrum! She throws a switch, drowns half the fort. Urist McDrowned's best friend is throwing a tantrum! He attacks a nearby baby! Urist McBaby'sMother is throwing a tantrum!

I think maybe it's a time for a shift more towards the so-called casual market. Good casual games do one thing well, replay. Modern bigname games treat themselves like movies, a beginning and an end. But don't have the benefit of theatrical release. And are charging 3x the amount for home release. I think it's well researched phenomenon that most people who play modern big budget games don't even beat them. So, I'm actually kind of hoping we see more smaller budget games at cheaper prices. Though I imagine most gamers would be pretty upset with such a shift. I don't think I would, though. Games seem too padded as it is. The relevance of all that is with the potentially smaller budgets are lower prices. With lower prices are more attractive first hand sales. I think I get far better budget out of buying a Sam and Max season for $35 than I get buying the latest Halo for $60. Especially since I don't care for Halo's multiplayer option.

Wait, so the five round Mad Moxxi maps take nearly two hours each. There's a twenty round challenges next? RABBLEFRAZZLEDAGNABDIZZLEMOTHERFRACKIN GEARBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOX I don't feel like spending nearly 8 hours doing something that doesn't get XP or weapon skills. I guess I'll be doing Secret Armory next.

That would require me to have not already fled in abject cowardice.

If this guy is anything like his namesake, he'll be the last one alive.