Aristes

Hey, Calax, we were there at the same time. I don't know if I would have had time to meet, but I would have bought you a beer if I'd had the chance. It would have made up for all the times I've griefed you for one thing or another. I also just returned home. Most recently from Henderson NV.

Okay, I'm going to start up my account for no other reason that no grief you guys. As Hurl knows, I'm a bit of a flake in that I want to get together but I tend not to play but, damn it! This. time. I. WILL! Anyhow, if I'm going to pay for the service, I'm damn well going to use it.

What Mr. Shumaker said is entirely true. WoW heavily favors folks who exploit the system. You can't even get into a lot of pickup raids until you know the fights and how to use your powers. ...And make no mistake, gear isn't king in WoW. Knowing how to use your character is king.

I'll admit I laughed, you jerk, but that's all you'll get out of me!

Yeah, Gorgon, the Mods are suffering from megalomania. That's got to be it. Seems like you're a bit full of yourself, also. He could have shut down the thread for all I care. The real problem is that this thread wasn't thought provoking or insightful. It's a cut and dried case where even the alternate view hardly had anyone playing Devil's Advocate. ...And heaven knows this place has no shortage of folks willing to represent the Devil. Sorr, Wals, some of your threads are interesting and create some good discussion, but this guy is just a <insert favorite expletive here>. As for you, gorgon, good luck with your crusade against the oh so harsh mods in this forum. Hey, send me a PM when you're moderated for a couple weeks so I can try to raise a rebellion. I wonder how well that's going to work for you.

Aw, come on, Wals! You know the answer to this one. You're just throwing red meat to the Wallies. (isn't that an Aussie term? ) Anyhow, the guy is trying to find himself. Apparently, he should look at the end of a crack pipe.

I'm playing farmville while listening to A Kiss to Build a Dream On. Change the graphics a bit and it'd be a Fallout farming sim!

Oh, I don't know. I remember some collector's edition stuff in one of the BG games, I think. Nothing I couldn't live without. I am more intrigued by in game content, though. Hell, you never know. I might break down and preorder. I mean, if the game is normally $59, then you make a good argument by pointing out it's only $64.99. Five bucks? *shrug* Why not, I guess?

The people in the media might be good folks, but the media itself is a worthless pile of steaming excrement. By that I mean, it takes a lot of hard work and a variety of sources to have any chance of figuring out the truth. Folks complain about Fox news, which boggles my mind. It's no better or worse than any of the other big players. They all exist for ratings, for which they sacrifice virtually every ounce of integrity they might once have had. Of course, news media throughout history have been pretty spotty and sometimes downright corrupt. *shrug* ...And in what way are you not a fan of Israel, bro? 'You want to see them driven into the sea' not a fan or 'think they engage in human rights violations?' As usual, this is an honest question in shorthand. No tricksies!

Sounds like a beast to play balance. I mean, mages and werewolves and ugly bad. Now, if they only allow Vampire players, it won't be so bad. That or make some of the tough guys an elite class you have to earn. I won't get the title, but it's an interesting universe, even if Vamps are becoming sooo played out.

Well.... it's a lot of fun to grief folks some times, but no matter what you think, you should really experience the game (and fairly!) before you give it a bad review.

Oh. I wonder if EA's store is as good as STEAM. I've had good luck with Valve's store. I've also used Direct2Drive. I think I'll just pre-order a hard copy. I'll install it the minute I get it and hunt out a bug ASAP so I can carp at Alan about it. hehehe

So, you get a bonus item in Dragon Age that you can use in ME2? I don't plan on buying ME2, so that won't do me any good.

What? There's stuff in there I can't use unless I get ME2? I'll take the standard edition, thanks. I just don't do much of 'collectors' edition' sort of guy these days anyhow, though. I'll probably either wait to get the game on STEAM or preorder it. Hey, will this game come out on STEAM?

hahaha Insta-family, you brave brave man. I think Harry Potter is over-rated also, Shryke, but I agree with Hurlshot that it served very well to encourage reading. ...And it was a good series, just mind-boggling that it created such a huge industry. *shrug* Hey, it was a fun read. I find the movies boring and completely missed the last one. Wastn't worth going to see it, but I'm sure I'll get it on bluray.

Hey, bro, what are the chances? I'm driving through Nevada at the same time you are. I would seriously buy you a beer if we'd been close, but you were not even remotely close to me. Something else that sucks is that you were able to hit the Shakespeare festival in Cedar City. It's one of the best I've seen. The funny thing is, we're seeing two plays and neither are Shakespeare. We're watching The Secret Garden, mostly cause the wife want to go, and Private Lives by Noel Coward. We toyed with Henry V, but I own the movie and I've seen the stage production so we figured the Noel Coward play would have to do. We'll think of you guys while we're there tomorrow. I forgot the time change, so I had to switch the backstage tour til Friday. Anyhow, you've had some great pics. It looks like it was a blast. If only taks would have broken out a damned camera, we would have some pics of his excursion, but nooooooo. He's too good for us! If you ever get a chance to hit Virginia City or Carson, go for sure. I haven't been up to Northern Nevada for years now, which is truly sad. I envy your trip. Last time I was even close to halfway up the state was when I went to Rhyolite a few years ago, and that's not very far north of Las Vegas. If you get the chance, Death Valley in when the wildflowers bloom is awesome.

Will: There's the Leaning Tower of Stupak (the Stratosphere). I don't know if it would survive the nuclear war, but judging from how well the buildings have fared during the whole FO series, it seems to make sense we'd see it. It is huge. I've been to the top of the thing and the view from above is quite impressive. The thing about the Strip is that it looks tiny from any direction driving into town. Maybe a little less so coming in on the I-15 from California, but even so it's not huge and sprawling. Las Vegas is like an oasis in the middle of the desert which surrounds it on all sides. When I was a kid, there were many many patches of desert within the city as well. I don't see those as often, but there's a whole lot of empty desert in all directions from Las Vegas. Of course, the Strip itself has all sorts of large and garish buildings. Well, screwed up the time change 'tween Nevada and Utah so I had to reschedule the backstage tour to Friday. That will cut into my Lake Mead stop, but I plan on getting good photos anyhow. I have some of the extreme edge of Lake Mead, but they don't do justice to the sheer size of the Lake. Even with the water level dropping, it's impressive and I would suspect, if they can keep the dam running properly, there would be more water in the lake with the vast vast majority of the population perishing in the war. First, though, I had to stop in Henderson in the morning, so I have one photo I took coming into the basin. This photo shows some sort of commercial building on the side. Notice how open the approach is to the buildings. I also took a couple photos in Henderson, mostly just to show how the desert is all over the damned place. The desert areas in the last two photos are literally right across the street from a very nice housing area. The homes are new, nice, and rather large and yet the desert, far from detracting from the value, is a draw for a lot of folks. It's beautiful, assuming you can look at it from the large bay windows in your two story dwelling. The first picture shows some black rocks on the left edge, brown and redish rocks, and then white rocks on the right. Note the towers and pipes all over the place in the second photo. Coming out of twon, we stopped at the very edge of Lake Mead. Don't get the impression that this is "Lake Mead" as such. The actual lake is much larger, but it does have some outlying areas. I went the back way from Henderson to Valley of Fire in order to get a little slice of the lake, which is exactly what I got. A tiny slice. The back way to Valley of fire has some interesting scenery and a few miles of dirt roads. This gives you a good idea of the different levels of elevation all over the place. Next I have a bunch of photos from where we stopped in the Valley of Fire. Most of them I took at the petroglyphs simply because it was convenient. I'd packed a cooler full of marinading meat and grilled it there. You have to grill pork right to make sure it's done, which means either par-boiling it, which wasn't an option and I'm damned if I'd do that to my BBQ, OR you have to grill it a long time. It was a few hours for everything, but the pork was so good the pig would've wanted a bite. So, it's Cedar City the next two days, which means I won't get to Lake Mead again until Friday. Still, I should have some nice photos from there also. I'd really like the game to break from FO three a bit in that I'd like to have more areas that are isolated. I don't want it empty. There has to be stuff to do, but maybe not quite so populated as DC. ...And I hope it's not crammed with stinking aliens. jjc said something that struck me as true a while back about the idea that the vaults were just experiments. I don't mind the funky things FO3 did. I enjoyed the game quite a bit, but I hope that it doesn't establish 'canon' for the series. At that point, it's just becoming too disjointed for my tastes.

Yeah, that's my take also. I mean, the alien aspect in particular doesn't appeal to me, but the idea that aliens are too goofy for Fallout sounds kind of hollow. I don't mind it being goofy. I worry about it getting to be a big part of the backstory 'cause I think it does detract from the essential gritty wasteland feel. If there's some way to indulge in the aliens idea without making it a center piece of future games, I'm all for it. ...And, of course, I could play it and really like it. There is no argument like success. *shrug*

Ugh, I never realized how dated my laptop is until I started doing this stuff. The connection sucks and the laptop is like the 'little engine that could.' ...Only my laptop is wrong. Anyhow, I have the pictures on facebook and I'll 'save as' from there so the photos will be small enough to upload to Obs. I have a tiny bit from Henderson, a little bit from the extreme edge of Lake Mead, and then more photos from Valley of Fire. We took a cooler with some pork ribs and chicken I'd been marinading the past couple of days. The park is not busiest in mid-July owing to the fact that the air is only slightly cooler than walking on the surface of the damned sun. Folks came and went, but I stayed and grilled and I will tell you now, those pork ribs were so good, even the pig approved. Anyhow, I got some shots I figured I'd share. Probably tomorrow after I get back from Cedar City. It just take a long time to move all the photos around and figure out the small number I'm actually going to use. One thing I will say is that NV is not like the LA or DC areas. There are a lot of remote locations around Las Vegas. Yeah, I know you can find secluded spots around the cities if you look, but you don't have to look all that hard around Las Vegas. I've spent enough time in all three places to be able to tell you that the desert around Las Vegas should have some areas that make the player feel truly isolated. Obsidian might not want to do that, but it's certainly possible.

Okay, for folks who haven't done so, I'd look at Sawyer's link and take a gander at his pics. They're awesome, and some of them are off the beaten path. Sadly, nothing I have to offer this trip is off the beaten path because these days the wife and I tend to look at 'adventure' as staying at a hotel near the fun stuff. That's why I'm so fat: NOTE: I am bashful so I hid my face. I do have more photos I took, however, and, like Hurlie, I think of computer game settings wherever I go. Zion is beautiful and it's a lot more gentle than the deserts around Las Vegas. I had never been there before, but it's certainly as aesthetically pleasing Yosemite, where I have been several times. On the off chance we end up there in NV, I'd like to make some observations. First of all, let me hit some of the things that the deserts in Nevada, Arizona, and Utah have in common. The sand and rocks are varied. This is one of my beefs with the DC title. The desert is one shade of brindle**** brown with tiny specks of black and white thrown on top. Sand comes in different colors and can be anything from fine to course. Both rocks and sand can be hotter than the forges of hell after the sun's been beating on them all day. The other thing these areas have in common is the nature of the roads. A lot of the best roads in the post apoc world would probably still be the remains of the man made roads of today. Some of these have been hewn through the mountains and some of them are in natural corridors that allow for passage. Now for the things that tend to be a bit different. In Arizona and Utah, and different parts of Nevada, there are a lot more mesas. You're going to have a lot of canyons and some of those canyons will have water pretty much year round. Some won't. Folks above you have a serious advantage. Just ask Custer about that one. In Zion, there is a lot of water and a lot of greenery and even some wildlife to hunt. Yeah, folks can't hunt there, but the wildlife exists. It's not quite like being in some of the midwestern states where they give away population control permits like candy, but it's better than Nevada where you tend to work a bit harder for the kill. Finally, here are a couple of pictures I just thought were kind of cool. I mostly took photos to support my ideas, but the shady rocks one looks kinda cool.

First of all, I'm impressed. Rat bastard! You've got photos all the way up into Montana for crying out loud! I feel guilty about sharing photos from Zion! Nice real estate in those pics. Seeing that tiny tent reminds me of camping in Lake Mead. As it turns out, I've also been camping up in Montana, but I'll save those photos for some other time. Of your photos of Nevada, Arizona (?), and Utah, I am heartened by the spread. It's truly wonderful to know that the folks working on the game have done more than see the Las Vegas Strip at night. I love the deserts of Southern Nevada. I've dug for clams in the sand at the bottom of Lake Mead. I've camped on Mt. Charleston. To see your photos is a relief because it might mean that the areas of my youth will get better treatment than the campy feeling of New Reno. Sure, include the humor, but do justice to the region. Anyhow, I have some photos of Zion, but I'll double post and include those in a bit. I wanted to say I appreciate the photos and I hope other folks who have pictures to share of the area will also feel free to post!

I think I saw that one. The one with the kid who fell underground? I wasn't a big Xfiles fan, but I did scratch my head. It was time killing fun altogether, but certainly not something I'd bother watching again.

Hey, Poz made a post about an 'RPG ultimate collection,' but it's not an English version. Does anyone know of a compilation title I can buy that includes the Black Isle/Bioware classics, such as BGs, IWDs, PS:T, FOs, and the like? If so, I'll post I'm playing that. As it is, I'm playing farmville and Mafia Wars on Facebook.

I think Black Mesa is the company name in Half-Life dude. What's funny is that I passed a place called Black Rock and I thought of Half-life. haha Anyhow, I have photos of the Zion National Park I'm going to post later. I have to say that Zion is a bit far away, but it's an interesting area and so I guess why not? I won't post the Cedar City stuff, but Valley of Fire and Lake Mead is a must. If those aren't in the game, I'll be sad. :'(

haha. I'll do that just for the hell of it, bro! What I'm getting from you is the novelty factor. Count me in, although I won't promise I can actually spend much time playing.