Tale

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.

I refuse to sign any petition on principle, unless the petition is funny or relates to excessively long ladder climbs. This does neither. However, I do generally prefer limited ammo and the resultant complexities to unlimited ammo and the relative simplicity as a principle. On the other hand, I fully accept that the aforementioned resultant complexities of a limited ammo design may not add anything of significance in the design of a particular game and may indeed detract from the more core interests of that design. As an example, limited ammo designs may be harder to pace or result in undesireable breaks in pacing where the player has to seek out ammo. And, personally, I've very rarely ever seen ammo used in any serious conservation by a game. It's usually so ridiculously abundant that my only concern is making sure that I use my full weapons so that I don't "waste" the next stash. Many such games would probably be better off with unlimited ammo just so I don't feel so compelled to weapon juggle.

Yes, half-assed comes to mind. But it *is* just an expansion after all... You can't target an improved invisible creature, so you can't remove their immunity, I believe that's the problem? True Sight? Anyway, ToB was originally meant to be BG3, but they seem to have just gave up and did a half-assed Xpack instead. That's why I installed Ascension - hoping it'd add a bit of life. But as it stands I'm struggling to find purpose to continue BG2 normal - it's all just too easy... but more than that, it really is boring. Maybe I've just played chapter 2 way too much. Yea, I'll go to spellhold and sort things out. Wild Mage Wiiiiiillllld.... Mage See how easy a time of it you have when, right in the midst of a battle, your Mage casts fireball x2 on your party.

I came into this thread forgetting that everyone is 2 or 3 weeks ahead of the rest of us. sonofa

http://www.penny-arcade.com http://www.xkcd.com http://www.gigaville.com http://www.giantitp.com http://www.nuklearpower.com http://www.lfgcomic.com

Lightweight.

Wait a second, Warlock's attacks are only once per encounter! That's it, D&D is finished! It would have been so cool to have an entire fight consist of a Warlock yelling dark secrets at his enemy until the enemy lost his mind. "YOU ARE AN INSIGNIFICANT SPEC IN THE UNIVERSE!" "THERE IS NO PLAN, YOUR LIFE IS MEANINGLESS!" "NOBODY LOVES YOU!" "YOU WILL BE FORGETTEN WHEN YOU DIE!" All the while his enemy is screaming "NOOOOO! IT CAN'T BE TRUE!" until his head explodes.

Lovecraftian flavor in my favorite class? nom nom nom nom, delish

I wonder what kind of pact my Neverwinter Nights 3 (or whatever the next D&D CRPG is) Warlock will make. Star or Infernal. Star sounds tempting.

I like quite a bit of what I read. I'd buy the book if I ever PnP'ed. Which I don't.

So, my new list would probably read: Metal Gear Solid 4, naturally. Beyond Good and Evil 2 Red Alert 3 (somewhat) Project Origin Can't think of anything else.

Gotta love ADV. They were the ones bringing Gurren Lagann to the US. Now, well... their future is uncertain.