Tale

Real men die when the zombies come. Don't be a real man. Run.

Is it a debit card? Do you use it at the ATM machine?

Do we truly know that's not going to be the case with this game or something similar? I somehow am wary to jump to the conclusion that Obsidian is going into a full-blown third person shooter. Considering that this is a developer whose history is so heavily tied to D20 games, I hold my doubts that this'll play like Max Payne. You've read the previews right? No. No, I have not. I don't read magazines nor do I hunt down scans. I fully anticipate it would be closer to Max Payne than KOTOR, but hold doubt that it'll be all the way over on that side.

Heh, Viconia does kind of piss me off as my Cleric. Every single time I play, without fail, her low strength score will catch my by surprise.

Do we truly know that's not going to be the case with this game or something similar? I somehow am wary to jump to the conclusion that Obsidian is going into a full-blown third person shooter. Considering that this is a developer whose history is so heavily tied to D20 games, I hold my doubts that this'll play like Max Payne.

*is assured*

The only thing ever to get my credit card company suspicious enough to call me was a $60 or $70 charge from the UK. What did not get them suspicious enough to call me was an overseas purchase from Hong Kong.

It's sometimes easy to forget other games we've played with infinite ammo. Did we ever have to reload or stock up ammo for blasters in KOTOR? Can it honestly be said that finite ammo would have brought anything of benefit to that game?

I think he's a tad bit insane. Thinks he's a rock star.

I was intimidated and frustrated with the spirit-meter at first, too. But then I stopped being obsessive and it actually worked for me. I was just terrified of having any hunger at all that I was afraid to progress in the game and was missing out on the new abilities that would help me manage it better.

It's quite silly that Bethesda didn't test what the game would be like if people selected "New Game."

You're overthinking it. Putting weapons into holsters has been done for some time. I've got a PSOne games where characters can sheathe swords. I can't fathom why you'd want or need to get physics involved. There's no need for the holster to actually "hold" the weapon. In fact, there's no need for the holster to even be a seperate object from the weapon when the weapon is holstered. It just needs to look like a weapon in a holster. Which should be more of a modelling task than physics. The complication I see is, how do you actually sling a shotgun over your back? Do we actually have straps in existence that pin firearms to people's backs allowing free use of their hands with another firearm?

I never needed Alchemy for Morrowind. I actually used it, but pretty much exclusively for water walking and water breathing. You explore a little, find a decent sword, and you can cut down anything. Oh, and the absolute brokeness that is Dark Brotherhood armor. 2nd strongest light armor, quite valuable, delivered right to you while you sleep.

I could never enjoy those mods. I tried a couple and ended up finding nothing but poorly balanced encounters. And even they couldn't attempt to fix the lack of any reason to explore. I think it was about the point of trying those that I realized I didn't care about dungeons because the greatest treasure to find at the bottom would be yet another rusty warhammer.

Next to Morrowind, I pretty much hate Oblivion. I can't put my finger on any singular thing to blame for why I hate Oblivion. Not a fan of blame altogether. But I'll say there's an interaction between a melee-stealth character, scaling, and Clanfears that made it a very unpleasant experience. Clanfears being the biggest offender in the creature category, but most of them share it to some degree. The result of the interaction of factors is that a melee stealth character spends a good portion of the game getting absolutely tossed. As any stealth specializing character will experience, your stealth will be probably the thing that goes up the most at the begining of the game. Which, after a few levels, leaves you absolutely boned for the combat that results after your first strike. Even if they're major skills, your endurance and ability with your weapon have not gone up to the same relative degree that your enemies endurance and strength has. So, your tactics have to drastically change for what were previously mundane tasks. It's a difficulty increase for no sensible reason. At this point you adapt by either switching to the bow (which you may be able to use to either kite, get multiple sneak attacks) or using massive amounts of poison. If you encounter a Clanfear, the necessity of using a bow is critical. But also an exercise in futility because there will be a relatively distinct window of your gameplay experience where even causing a Clanfear to look at your fragile body will cause you to automatically die. When you enter this window, you need to change things. I fully accept my own fault in things developing to that point every time I play. It's a choice of playstyle on my part that led me to such a situation. I never was overly interested in any particular endurance skill. But, I also recognize Bethesda's fault for implementing a design where early decisions can result in later events going so terribly pear shaped without warning and without giving reasonable methods for rectifying the situation. But what's even weirder is how inconsistent this difficulty is. Early on things are well balanced. You can sometimes sneak up to someone, sometimes get the cheap shot in, then wittle them down normally. Then it transitions to a period where you can sometimes sneak up on someone, sometimes get the cheap shot in, but regardless of if you did those two previous things or not, it's time to start kiting while emptying your bag of every potion you could possibly managed to stock up in a "and the kitchen sink" manuever. As your sneak skill increases, you transition to yet another period for the rest of the game where nobody ever notices you. Not even while you're stabbing them repeatedly in the back. It all forms a retarded bell curve difficulty. It should be noted that in this later period where you stab someone repeatedly in the back that, if they did notice you stabbing them 10 times for the highest sneak attack multiplier, you would be truly and utterly boned.

http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit/ http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card/ To make this thread more than simple "LOL, LOOK AT WHAT I FOUND, IS FUNNAH!" how about we discuss the flaws in credit card security and future developments in improvement. I know that not too long ago, many credit card companies were starting to issue cards with photos printed on them. Which would be hilariously useless in a day and age where many stores let you slide your own card. But quite useful at places like Best Buy where they seem to have a policy of checking the name on the card with the name on the ID. I've even heard of some credit cards using biometrics. But, it seems people aren't generally concerned enough to demand credit card companies make a transition to such technologies. Give the links a browse, laugh a bit, then come back and share your opinion on current and future credit card security.

Oh yes! HAHAHA. It's absolutely atrocious finding a weapon for her. Unless you like +4 quarterstaffs.

Oh, hey, apparently romanization of some Japanese words does carry accents and

I'm pretty sure there's no accent over the e in anime. No languages involved in the formation of that word use accents.

I always have fun when I do a color spray on Minsc (and the rest of my party) when I meant to hit the lizard he's thwacking with a magic missle. Edit: I can't be the only person who likes Jaheira. She never really seemed to be nagging to me. She also has a very good sidequest. Maybe the best companion quest.

Dang this thread. Dang it to heck. Makes me want to replay Baldur's Gate. And by "want to" I mean "installing now." I also almost bought a new copy of BGII+TOB for $10 from half-price books, just for a backup. Edit: I think I'd actually rather play Neverwinter Nights 2, but this temporary graphics card is terrible.

I defy you to show me a situation where deadly force is not only necessary, but also not wholly appropriate. In either games or life. Just imagine if you had infinite ammo while waiting in line at the DMV!

I watched Shinobi: Heart Under Blade this weekend. Shinobi was good. It was not exceptional, though, and I doubt I'll ever watch it again. But I did enjoy it.