Monte Carlo

He's taking himself too seriously, is our Dave.

^ You just used the words 'my immersion.' This is almost always the precursor to an epic fail comment.

I made an, if not massive, sizeable pledge and got Beta access. Now I realise that I don't want to spoil myself. How much of the game do we think we will playable without destroying the sense of awe, wonder and delight at cracking open the real thing? You see, I could just play around with chargen, but isn't that like an alcoholic taking the cap off a beer 'just for a sniff?'

I think we should put Chris and Dave into a celebrity death match-type scenario.

Will it feature vampire romance, though? This is the burning issue.

Gromnir is an experienced contrarian, provocateur and troll, in the old-skool and largely positive definition of the term. In my, albeit limited, experience there is more fun and enlightenment to be had in arguing with him than not. He also couldn't care less what you think, so have at him. He won't mind.

No, it isn't wrong. At all. Such people should go and play dating sims. It's like Flight Sim fans having to suffer casuals who don't want to land the plane, fly the plane or in fact do anything with the plane but enjoy the view. Seriously, these people are playing a game they don't really like and need to be encouraged to play one they do. They need to be called out at every opportunity and sent back to the Bioware social thingie where they belong.

These all sound great. I was wondering though about the "sending companions on missions" activity. Are these separate adventures that we, as the players, will be able to play using just the companions? Or do these missions get completed based upon some internal formula? Thanks. Hopefully we can send NPCs we don't like on suicide missions.

I'm getting it. I've been playing a lot of D3 recently, am also looking forward to the PS4 version next year. Switched to the European server thought (damn latency issues) so have had to start again. * grumbles * I finished D2 and the XP with a paladin so am looking forward to the crusader.

Completely agree. But the XP breaks the game and the current dev paradigm at Obz would describe this as 'degenerate.' Why they care when it's a SP game is anybody's guess.

What game is it?

Angela is clearly a Stasi sleeper asset, reactivated for....

"Terms of Engagement" a self-published piece of military sci-fi by some German / American dude. Starship Troopers meets Aliens meets Blade Runner meets Black Hawk down. It's actually a lot of fun.

^ These are the sort of performance metrics I can believe in.

Beating RPGs with severely gimped characters is a key part of re-playability. I did the whole of BG2 with a really crap Bard and had a blast.

^ No way! I need six super munchkin min / maxed characters to even try.

Heh, I sent Dave Gaider and PM about Ascension and my rigs performance with it in about 2002 or thereabouts and got a personal reply from the man himself. Ascension is a really good mod and a labour of love.

^ That looks like chucking-out time at my local pub.

I want to know what was for lunch. More interesting than spreadsheets.

I agree with Azure, you can make a pretty twinky four-person party and have a fun challenge in IWD (I did this with both IWD1 & 2). In IWD1 I went for a Paladin, Fighter / Cleric, Fighter / Thief and a Mage. In IWD2 I had an evil party with a Fighter, Thief, Fighter / Cleric and Sorcerer.

Dave Gaider was very encouraging to modders and was extremely open around his own mod for BG2 / ToB. It might not have been official, but the fact that DG was involved spoke for itself. But that was when Bioware was Bioware.

It would be neat if you could get a helm with slots FOR MAGIC PLUMES. Different plumage confers different powaz. FEAR MY VORPAL PLUMES! The irony of course, being that the more outlandishly covered in feathers you are, the more awesome you get.

I think some arses have been twitching at EA towers. They realise that Da2 was insufferably bad and the suits want to sprinkle some Skyrim magic over DA. Problem is, the Bioware rail-roaded story / fixed NPC set-piece will need shoe-horning into this exploration iteration of DA. So it might be messy.

I can see the Achievement --- DEAD GIRLFRIEND (Bronze, Silver and Gold)

I was waiting for someone to point out a probably heartfelt plea from BSN. Sorry Bruce, but you just revealed your romance tamagotchi tendency there.