Bartimaeus

Enhanced edition, or..? In my experiences, moderate is the hardest difficulty of them all in the enhanced edition, though it probably depends on play style. I'm not an AoE2 expert or anything, but I can beat two of the hardest AIs by myself, while two moderates is...significantly harder. However, if you're playing on the original AoE2, don't bother going to a harder difficulty than moderate: same AI, just cheating via extra resources. Not worth the trouble. (e): Reason why moderate is probably harder for me is because they play more conservatively than the harder AI settings: harder AI settings really try to crush you as soon as possible, and if you're good at defending against their immediate rush, they then play at a severe disadvantage as a result of using all their resources to try and crush you more early in the game. Moderate AI, as I said, tends to be more conservative and willing to sit back and try to build up resources rather than attack first, which can be tricky to play against if you're playing two of them at once. This kinda matches my own basic strategy, which is probably why it's harder to defend against for me.

Me after that Packers' game: (probably also applies to Lions fans)

And the Packers continue their downward spiral... Actually, ignoring the anomalous Vikings game, it's really more of a free fall.

Kind of depends on what you define as "supporting", doesn't it? I think the NFL is a complete joke (as an organization): I don't buy any sorts of football gear, I don't buy tickets, I don't buy any sort of special NFL packages...does watching illegitimate streams online count as supporting it? I like the sport...I hate the organization providing it. (edit): Shoot, I gave a serious reply to BruceVC. That avatar changing business really works, it seems.

Against...the AI, or in multiplayer, or..? What exactly is the bar for "good", here?

I own the game on Steam, and tried to play it somewhere between half a year and a year after release, I think, so presumably, it wasn't because of the unpatched business. For me, it was like...I was trying to use a normal longsword, like the Sword of Heidi (or whatever it's called), or the Fire Longsword, or...just any longsword at all...and they're just...so sluggish-feeling to me, and so short-feeling to me. My favorite sword to use in DS1 was the Balder Side Sword, personally, which had a great moveset (in my opinion), great speed, good length, O.K. damage - not good damage, but O.K. damage. I also loved the Great Scythe and the Lifehunt Scythe if I needed something a bit more heavy duty...and it's like, I spent the entire game (Dark Souls 2) trying to find something I liked like I did those two weapons, and I never stinking did. It was instead weapon after weapon that I felt was too slow, that was not fun at all to use. It drove me crazy, and it really just did not feel like the same game at all to me. This was also compounded by the shorter i-frames from rolling: I mean, the amount in Dark Souls 1 was admittedly pretty ridiculous, but you compound my weapon troubles with the severely shortened i-frames and the fact that I basically never even once used a shield in Dark Souls 1, and it just became...so much frustration for me. I beat the game...and the DLC...but I tell you, I didn't enjoy it one bit. You think somebody who was able to beat Dark Souls 1 at SL1 on NG7 (with the exception of Four Kings: I was able to do literally everything else) would've been able to adapt to the slightly different intricacies of the Dark Souls 2 combat system, but I really just couldn't. Just hated it.

No...I would definitely call you a troll, or at least troll-like. But hey, if that means I can troll a troll by saying that (which, by your own admission, is exactly what I'm doing), I'm all for it. (edit): Though I will definitely say that I won't be pleased if Majek doesn't at least acknowledge the semi-legitimateness of my complaints in the context that I have voiced them: I didn't write out that long...or...uh...moderately-sized post that very coherently explained what I specifically didn't like about the game just to be ignored, and for his last word on the matter to be him babbling about how I'm sort of troll when I actually adequately explained my position whereas he immediately resorted to ad hominem...not exactly my idea of a good conversation. And stop...branding my posts with your silly "like"s, Qistina! I don't deserve the punishment of actually bothering to read your posts.

Like Qistina? The person I put on my block list after reading like two of their posts? Hmm, that's not exactly a comparison I like. Yes, I felt that combat was significantly slower in Dark Souls 2, though, of course, my impression could be totally wrong: I was very busy not enjoying the game, after all. Nevertheless, I did have the constant feeling of, "Holy crap, why are my attacks so slow, why does it take a million years to recover from doing a light attack to be able to move/roll again - or to do anything besides another light attack, as even trying to do a heavy attack afterwards is significantly delayed for no apparent reason - why does it feel like I gotta be at point blank range to be able to hit any of my opponents with any of my swords, what happened to the visceral feeling of combat that I loved that was present in the first game". I couldn't even begin to count the amount of times I died because I did a light attack while an enemy was in the middle of doing their own attack, and I had to sit there for a second realizing that my character was about to get hit/die because the delay in between doing an attack and being able to move again was so much greater than it was in DS1 and I could simply never, ever get used to it. It was quite maddening to me: in DS1, you could chain light and heavy (and, I guess, the forward light and heavy attacks, too) as you please, and you could roll so, so much quicker after an attack, particularly with lighter weapons...in fact, I stopped bothering using lighter weapons in DS2 by the end of the game, because it made me so stinking mad: at least using a greatsword (I was particular to Lost Sinner's Blade, to be specific), I felt like I deserved the slow movement. I'm not arguing anything else Qistina may or may not be saying: I'm not even reading what they're saying! Just trying to explain why I really, really, really did not enjoy DS2, and really regretted making myself play through all of it in what was evidently a futile attempt to do so. I'm glad so many other people apparently enjoyed it, but I did not. Also...do I know you? Though you're not completely wrong: I can definitely be a bit of a troll. Just...uh...not really about this.

On NG1? Hah, yeah, let me know when you switch back to beating bosses with that sword hilt.

As the guy that's beaten the game on NG7 at SL1 with the sole exception of Four Kings (mostly because I don't feel like mastering the art of fighting three to four of them at once), clearly.

Yeah, it's easier to just take the black firebomb starting gift and throw a few of them at him.

Yeah, I don't really care how Dark Souls-y or not a non-Dark Souls game is... And I would very much disagree with Dark Souls 2 being "fine": Dark Souls 2 was like...if you took the combat of Dark Souls 1, slowed it down like 25-33%, made most every weapon shorter and slower and consequently more difficult and unfun to use (so much so that I literally never found a single weapon I actually enjoyed using like I did in Dark Souls 1), and you replaced what felt like roughly half of the bosses in the game with Iron Giant-esque bosses: giant (i.e. slow) humanoid bosses that are oh so predictable and not very fun to fight when facing the close to that same boss for the umpteenth time. Probably forgetting some other stuff, but yeah, I'd rate the entire experience as being pretty awful.

That, and Dark Souls 2 was made by the B team while Bloodborne was being handled by the A team - which would perhaps explain (to me) why Dark Souls 2 sucked so hard. Loved the first game, please shoot me in the face if I ever even consider trying to play through the second again.

I watched all of Gran Turino for the first time recently. It seemed pretty good, I guess... I'd seen the last 15-20 minutes of the movie like four times, so seeing the beginning...and middle...did give the finale a bit more weight than the four previous watches, which was nice. Yay for catching up on a movie that I saw commercials for like seven years ago?

Why does Greedo look so messed up at 0:56? Original Greedo: 0:56 Greedo: That is some bad editing.

Browns fans after that game:

I very much disagree. Bayonetta 2, Mario Kart 8, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Super Smash Bros., and Shadow of Mordor were all awesome games. Bayonetta 2 was my personal GotY for 2014, that's a 10/10 game IMHO, freakin' amazing. Heck, Bayonetta 2 is my current frontrunner for Game of the Decade, it is the spectacle fighter perfected. Yikes, with a list like that, it's no wonder I pray for a triple A gaming industry crash.

Well, we have the "man", whom we suppose to be you or to at least represent you, we have the toilet that the man is sitting upon, then we have the implied Obsidian forums to which you are posting to, and finally, we have the level of quality that your posts possess in between all of these different, seemingly unrelated factors. What was perhaps once a mystery is now seemingly illuminated rather quite thoroughly. (e): One day, I will master the delivery of my stupid 'witticisms' enough that I don't have to have a giant "THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED" sign on all of my posts...someday.

Ah, your new avatar explains so much, Kaine!

But I have nothing else I currently want to change it to...

Packers home games just ain't what they used to be.

The original theatrical release versions? Even with the original female/warped-looking Emperor Palpatine in The Empire Strikes Back?

Putting this person on my ignore list after seeing only their very few first posts in this section (not this topic, but this section in another topic) is seeming very prodigious right about now.

Possibly contributing was the torn labrum in his shoulder that he's getting surgery for ...

That's a pretty significant difference, particularly for the Intel CPUs. (edit): Well, all things considered, even the AMD results are pretty significant. Just that...the Intel results are even MORE significant.