Bartimaeus

Wasn't that my point exactly? No, see, the idea is for the developers to use just a LICK of common sense and make the items actually appropriately priced, in line with items of similar power throughout the rest of the game at very least, instead of...you know, literally being some of the best items to sell in the game. There's also the BG2 approach in making the items work only for that specific character (or rather, that specific race-class combination, to be more precise), as well worthless to merchants. However, I've always seen this as a bit too extreme, and would prefer something less anti...anti-power gamer, I guess? Where did all of these characters get all of these highly enchanted items that work for only them, anyways? This is an RPG, with the operating word being "roleplaying" - give the player a little respect for these things. (edit): Yes, I imagine the prices were changed patches later after I played, since they were clearly insane prices. As I said, this thing was really only a small gripe in the grand scheme of things. These are old, old games. I've had and played them on and off for a very long time, and as a consequence, I've gotten to that point where I want everything to be just so. So when a group of people that had little connection to the original games come out of the blue and say, "Hey, we're making Enhanced Editions of your favorite games - give us money!", and it turns out one of the main selling points is terrible new content that I don't want that sticks out like a sore thumb, and that they're charging more money for the game on my platform than on another for something I don't want even the slightest part of, yer not gonna get happy feelings from me. The entire thing feels more like they were trying to get relevant experience in working in the Infinity Engine for their midquel (while also making a quick buck) than making actual genuine Enhanced Editions. The only people involved in the project that I have any respect for are the incredibly gracious modders who helped add a lot of the new art assets (the author of 1PP, Erephine, as the biggest example I know of) and the modders who helped with some of the technical stuff that the devs were clearly struggling with in the beginning (and also some of those tech people who made some rather neat miscellaneous changes to the engine). Funnily enough, with the fiasco and the community split that was the result of the EEs being released, modding actually died off even more after the EEs were released (beyond some modders doing cursory compatibility updates), rather than had any sort of revival. So all in all, no, I really don't have very many positive feelings to associate with the EEs.

...But as I said, it's completely irrelevant that I murdered him (or the girl). If I had merely accepted him (or her) into my party immediately (which I could've done so with literally the same amount of effort, and almost zero roleplaying consequences), it's literally the same exact problem. The only thing that actually fixes the problem is just pretending the characters don't exist (or...uh, I guess willfully ignoring that selling their items is much, MUCH more of a benefit than having them). So the whole murder-hobo thing doesn't really matter by my estimation. (Also, honestly, this entire issue regarding lack of balance is actually really only a minor issue to me: see below.) Know what I think an even better solution than doing any that is? Don't play or purchase an "enhanced edition" that was at least partially hijacked by completely random writers for the sake of inserting their own fanfic* party members into the game. You don't usually need bloody writers for enhanced editions...and if you're going to have them, at least make the new or rewritten content fit in at least halfway with the original content, please...or at least make it optional like you did for your iPad version of the game. I wanted some of the other things present in these EEs, but clearly, it's not really worth the bother. (edit): Oops, I forgot to explain the asterisk. *: not that there's anything wrong for people to do this for their own games...but I sure as heck don't want them, and this was actually the deciding factor for me not bothering to purchase BGII:EE.

I actually only murdered him because I knew he was a new party member and I really didn't like that he was there. I don't normally play that way. And now that I think of it, I think the other new party member, the wild mage girl, had a staff that was worth the same amount, and you could find her even *earlier* than him (she was in Beregost, if I recall correctly, and he was in...Nashkel near Minsc? Real creative, putting them in places where you can already recruit other party members, guys...), and also, I am pretty sure you can get both of them to join your party immediately (I know you can at least the girl) so that part about being a murder-hobo-psycho is kinda irrelevant, . In my opinion, party members that you can recruit immediately at the beginning of the game simply shouldn't generally have items that are worth a ridiculous amount of gold.

Yep. Don't think I've ever been on a forum where you could. Yes...and I love opening up a person whom I've put on my ignore list's post, skimming it for a couple of seconds, and thinking, "Yep, that's why I did this." I just wish I wouldn't view their posts so often to reaffirm that I'm correct in expecting what I'm now getting by viewing their posts.

You did? Where? I must have missed it. All I see is this... ...which actually rather says the opposite, as it says you know you annoy certain people...which I would think would imply you know what certain people you annoy...

Neat, Bruce has now graduated from making other people's threads about himself...to making his own threads literally about himself. I think my current avatar has an appropriate expression. (e): Hey Bruce, why don't you take some of your advice and just contact the people who you feel you may have an issue with on PM? You could also follow your own advice on growing a thicker skin and not caring what other people think of you. Instead, we have...this thread. Bloody brilliant.

Yes. If you don't like modding and/or there are a few particular features/changes you want in the EEs that you can't get through modding, then O.K., it's not a terrible buy. If you can and there isn't, then I seriously recommend just sticking with the originals and just modding. Random anecdote: I'm sure they've changed it by now, but when I first played the EE, one of the new companions came with some part of unique boots by default. I killed him and sold the boots for like 12.5k gold or somewhere thereabouts and pretty much broke the game economy immediately because of it. Good stuff, Beamdog.

From what I've heard on reddit, the President can appoint whom he wishes, but unless it's confirmed by the Senate (and no others are appointed/nominated in the meantime), then the appointment essentially lasts only one year (there are actually a few more details than that, such as if they're really determined and really, really want to disrupt things to prevent there from being even a temporary additional liberal judge, they can actually break this by deciding to never go into recess the entire year, but this was essentially my understanding of it). e: words

Huh, that's weird, 'cos I was kinda thinking the exact opposite... Taste is such an odd thing...to one, you can simply hear an all around great song...to another, there's not a single thing to like about it: not the instrumental, not the vocal work, not the lyrics...and in this case, most certainly not the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWfSQtDtioE

I'm still on Windows 7 until all that stuff is sorted out.

I always thought TotSC sucked. Like, a lot. Durlag's Tower was O.K., Werewolf Island is awful, truly dreadful stuff (and is written terribly inconsistently), Ice Island is pretty meh, and the Demon Lord quest is pretty bad (and completely out of the blue and random...), too. Throne of Bhaal isn't great, either, and suffers from especially horribly written non-main quest content (...anything that happens in Saradush, for example...). And that's ignoring the fact that most people's problem was *with* the main plot, which says some really, really bad things about the non-main quest stuff. At least Watcher's Keep was pretty cool, if nothing else.

Funnily enough, that was literally the article (that I got from reddit) where I pulled the numbers in my previous post from.

Okay, if you want to be pedantic (and I know you do, ), it would be more correct to say they lost their pretty much sole chance (outside of a miracle) of a comeback with that fumble.

He's wrong in saying that they didn't lose because of that one fumble, though: a field goal (which they closer than an XP for already...) makes that a two possession game, and given the seemingly insurmountable task of driving down the field with not too much time left once was already difficult, doing it two times in a row (and that's assuming a successful onside kick...) was basically impossible. It's the Super Bowl, man - this might very well be the only time you ever make it here (especially given the extremely tight competition in the NFC - the NFC really needs to lose one of its currently top tier team and the AFC needs to gain one). There's just no room for hesitation. One of your defensive guys is playing with a broken arm, and you're shying away from trying to save the game because of the mere potential for injury... Not that I say I completely blame him - it's a literal split-second decision, and he nearly did it anyways. Pretty much any other reason he could've given - thinking it would bounce differently, just hesitating in the moment, even no reason at all - probably would've been better than, "I was scared of getting hurt, and made a decision to try avoid that even though it'll make me lose the biggest game of my career". But whatever, he and his team are pretty young - there'll be other chances. They've been saying the same thing about Aaron Rodgers and the Packers (and they said the same thing about Marino and Rivers and...) since his SB victory, though - things just don't always go your way in this game, so take advantage of the chance you already have.

They are? Numbers I've read put the number of delegates at 4,763, with 712 of them superdelegates - or 15%. Of course, it only takes a tiny bit more than half to secure the nomination, which really means if you control all the superdelegates, you're already close to 30% there...but the thing is, the superdelegates are free to change positions at any time. I don't personally think Sanders will win, unless there is a serious upset upcoming in Nevada and South Carolina, but if he actually does do well, I am pretty certain we should see some of those superdelegates switch sides.

Well, there's your problem... (but on a more serious note, that's also counting superdelegates, of which Hillary currently controls almost roughly half of already - for the time being, anyhow - and she also currently has 6 out of 8 for the state, so it's actually 13 to 9 for normal delegates)

Yeah, if it had carried him to a decent victory in Iowa, I'd be feeling a little more optimistic, but even there, turnout was pretty low...hoping for the best, expecting the worst.

Yeah, going into the Catacombs...and especially going into the Tomb of the Giants...is a really bad idea before going to Anor Londo - it's so hard to get out. Naturally, it's what I did when I was going through the game for the first time...

I actually thought it was a pretty decent game... (edit) what the hell hotkey did I just press to make this post by itself? That was weird...

The vast majority of the commercials were pretty cringe-worthy. (e): Oh, and the half-time show, too. And...the post-game stuff, with the crying Panther player and the "are you retiring Peyton!?" and the terrible victory speech from the...um...woman that was the wife of the Broncos' owner, who looked like she'd had plastic surgery ten too many times and sounded drunk, high, or just not mentally all there. Yeah, pretty much anything that wasn't actual football. (e): Oh, and the absolutely atrocious pre-game stuff. CBS sucks.

Wow.

I have so much crap to do tomorrow that I'm not even sure if I can watch the Super Bowl...I'm sure I'll procrastinate some as per usual and do it anyways, though.

Being around here a lot, the only reason you need to want Bernie to win the nomination is so Bruce can eat crow. Of course, if Hillary gets the nomination, then we all have to instead. Sweet baby Moses, please let Bernie win.

Good to know Paradox is adding weird mechanics that don't really work to CK2 just as they have been to EU4, too.

I have a friend who got noise complaints about excessive noise made in the middle of the night. He lives alone, has no pets, has a normal day time job, and probably doesn't sleepwalk hard enough to draw noise complaints, but none of that seems to matter to landlords with unhappy tenants.