Monte Carlo

Don't be disingenuous. I've read page after page of 'check your privilege' BS where its clear a view exists that your opinion isn't valid if you ain't 'got skin in the game.'

The poem wasn't offensive. Have held my counsel as there seems to be nothing but hysteria about it. The person who complained on Twitter might be trans, but maybe isn't aware some of the time-honoured cultural tropes around the issue that have existed since antiquity, for good and for bad. BTW, the censored poem completely fits into the analogous time period in which this game is set. The idea of a man being (sexually) 'duped' by another man impersonating a woman is the stuff of bawdy legend and has been since time immemorial. Transsexual prostitutes were scratching that itch for Johns in Pompeii and Constantinople a thousand years ago, just as they do now. I know, I know. I'm a white hetero male. I'm not allowed an opinion as the politically-correct cadres gather by their digital guillotines, knitting furiously as another heretic is beheaded (how convenient, BTW, that we live in times where we simply 'No Platform' those with whom we do not agree. How very 1930s). But whether they like it or not, you can trace this lineage through to Lou Reed's 'Walk on the Wild Side' to 'Lola' by the Kinks, where it morphed into something more opaque and (arguably) less pejorative. In fact, I'll give Ray Davies the last word: I met her in a club down in old Soho Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry-cola [LP version: Coca-Cola] See-oh-el-aye cola She walked up to me and she asked me to dance I asked her her name and in a dark brown voice she said Lola El-oh-el-aye Lola la-la-la-la Lola Well I'm not the world's most physical guy But when she squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine Oh my Lola la-la-la-la Lola Well I'm not dumb but I can't understand Why she walked like a woman and talked like a man Oh my Lola la-la-la-la Lola la-la-la-la Lola Well we drank champagne and danced all night Under electric candlelight She picked me up and sat me on her knee And said dear boy won't you come home with me Well I'm not the world's most passionate guy But when I looked in her eyes well I almost fell for my Lola La-la-la-la Lola la-la-la-la Lola Lola la-la-la-la Lola la-la-la-la Lola I pushed her away I walked to the door I fell to the floor I got down on my knees Then I looked at her and she at me Well that's the way that I want it to stay And I always want it to be that way for my Lola La-la-la-la Lola Girls will be boys and boys will be girls It's a mixed up muddled up shook up world except for Lola La-la-la-la Lola Well I left home just a week before And I'd never ever kissed a woman before But Lola smiled and took me by the hand And said dear boy I'm gonna make you a man Well I'm not the world's most masculine man But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man And so is Lola La-la-la-la Lola la-la-la-la Lola Lola la-la-la-la Lola la-la-la-la Lola

I almost switched him off as the intro was doltish and annoying. Then you get into it and he's not a bad reviewer and has a pleasant way about him. I suppose he's not aimed at me, but I do wonder how many people give him fifteen seconds and hit the off switch.

I think this is pretty much inevitable given the variables. I also think it's no bad thing, either. I know gaming masochists are out there, who want every fight to be against the odds, but most of us like to feel the boss now and then, as well as out-classed.

Love Ferg, clearly one of the nicest guys in the biz but really Obsidian taken themselves, and this whole SJ thing, far too seriously.

Look at the 'likes' on this post. PrimeJunta is a simpering commie SJW. I'm a rugged, macho lover of freedom, rare steak and chainmail bikinis. And guess what? We both agree anameforobsidian.

... ... ... depends on who's asking. Long time, no chainmail bikinis. Good to see you back.

Make it so, LeBurns!

Ha ha is that the LeBurns?

These pictures are rampantly sexist, featuring the type of boob-plate many socially-responsible and enlightened posters fought so hard against. The developers showed their socially progressive credentials by photo-shop bombing the merest suggestion of the female physique during the early days of this project, to protect impressionable minds from the female form and the patriarchal yoke of non-realistic armour types for pretend people in pretend worlds. So, having said that, please post some more.

Am going to give benefit of the doubt and say perhaps he's expecting Forgotten Realms style antipathy, for example Dwarves and Elves (etc).

I think the racial descriptions in-game and during character creation make it *very* clear in this setting there is relatively little racial tension / discrimination as we know it. For example, you get Vailian dwarves, elves and humans (how this genetic mash-up works is neither here nor there) as much as you get pale-skinned iterations of these races. There is slavery, but it's pretty equal-opportunities slavery. In short, it's a sort of Star Trek - The Next Generation with sorcery, where a devoutly religious, quasi-high-medieval culture has evolved with a fairly relaxed take on blood and race, but a more nuanced view on faith and culture (souls and stuff would explain that, I suspect, after all your next soul could be of any race which is quite unifying when you think of it). It's fantasy. It's agreeably different IMO, but I detect the desire to avoid unfortunate R/W comparisons when it comes to matters of race (etc). Understandable. Tired as I am of the hysterical American kulturkampf when it comes to these matters, I'll leave it there.

The OP is growing in skill. A solid 'B.'

You need to give that cat some plate and a shield.

You're serious? Ranged fighters are a bad build in PoE.

Wizard spells go up to level 10, right?

^ Agreed. I suppose you can spot trends though.

Even more annoying than whiners are counter-whiners. Or meta-whiners. Or shills. Yeah, meta-whining shills, of which there is no shortage 'round here.

I haven't even had an email from Paradox which is pretty crap really.

And my question is this? Why do you care so much how other people play this game?

I really want to play Company of Heroes on my watch. Oh, no. I don't actually. It would suck.

This is a very fair point. It's Planescape without the depth and Baldur's Gate without the campy, munchkin fun. It's sort of in the middle and not the better for it.

Eh, I know personally of someone who cried because he didn't get a 10 in a test in high school. Millennials gonna millennial.

Reviews are the views of one person. They throw in some pros. They throw in some cons. You might even know the reviewer's personal bete noir or preferences and factor that in too. But, at the end of the day, it's a review. Not every review can be milk and honey, but dammit 8/10 is pretty solid IMO. 8/10 in a genre I enjoyed in the first place? That would never put me off considering a game. Ever. This game is pretty niche and has some issues. It's going to provoke strong reactions one way or another. It has received a warm reception from the mainstream gaming media overall, so I think chill pills all round.

The answer is (a) consoles (b) consoles. WoTC being precious about D&D licencing hardly helped, either.