MacMichael

I've played through most of the Prologue, but I'm holding off until I finish up the first one, so I have a save to import. But since I also decided that the Witcher 2 would be a great excuse to put some money into computer, I have a new video card on the way early next week and an AMD quad core to replace my dual core, whose install didn't go as planned. Turns out my current, older board is happy with all the AM2+ quad cores, except the one I bought. So, things have been in pieces while I figure out how to solve this issue. Guess I needed a reminder of why I build complete systems rather than upgrading bit by bit.

Woohoo! I actually win something for once. Thanks Tale!

If there's a chance of waiving the 100 post count, then I'd be interested in Honest Hearts. As for #3, sent as a PM, as requested. Thanks.

Just starting Chapter 3 in the Witcher. Played through most, I think, of the Prologue of the Witcher 2, but I'm putting off seriously getting into it until my new video card arrives next week. Also been playing Brink which, after being a little worried seeing that first D review, I've been enjoying. Have a friend that I've been working through the Campaign missions with in co-op.

Brink is all pre-loaded and ready to go for me, unlocking somewhere around 9pm tonight judging by time on the Steam page. I have a craving for some good co-op and multiplayer, which I'm hoping this fills. Never played the Enemy Territory games.

GoG.com's facebook page has information on a price increase for The Witcher 2 in Australia that's happening tomorrow. In the comments they also mention their Fair-price policy, so you get credit at GoG.com because of the price difference. Also, they mention it will be the censored version that you'll get if you live there, but that modder's should have an easy time fixing that.

The manual. It's a pretty complicated game to learn. Right, the manual, too. If you get a physical copy, pull out the keyboard commands and throw the rest in the trash, it won't help. Edit: This on the other hand, will. http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=162408

If you're looking for places they cut, the story, as mentioned, is mostly ignorable. And I have a friend that won't play it because of the autopilot AI. Autopilot AI is basically, fly from point A to point B. Oh, an object in our way, turn away at an angle, fly a little, try to resume, oh, an object in our way, turn away at an angle, fly a little, repeat until you're clear of the object. I personally think I works well enough, considering stations and ships and asteroids can go away and new ones can be placed, since the universe is dynamic. But he won't touch it. They also cut in the QA. When their products ship, they surpass Obsidian for issues, but they're great about patching, and in those patches, adding additional content as well. At this point, you shouldn't have any significant issues. They also strip out the DRM about a year to a year and a half after release with all their games. I personally had a save with a time played marked at 30 days. And I'm not the sort that leaves the game running to let my freighters and stations earn money while I sleep. It's worth checking out if you want a space sim. It's very open as to how you can play. I haven't tried X2, but I've played both X3:R and X3:TC. TC seems to be quicker in making money and earn rank with the different races to purchase their capital ships if speed for play is an issue. In that X3:R playthrough, the 30 day one, I still hadn't picked up a destroyer or carrier. Though I tended to go mostly for the combat than focusing on my trade empire.

If you're willing to look past the "animated in Japan" look and could deal with the way they animated Cowboy Bebop, you might try Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex. It had a solid two seasons. It's especially good if you're into worlds like Deus Ex: sci-fi, cybernetic augmentation, and the rest.

I was going to check it out today, after hearing about yesterday, but it seems they've already transitioned over to Crysis Wars, which I don't have yet. So, maybe in a couple weeks. I'm interested in hearing how it is.

I keep noticing a bit of music that I remember from ME2. I think they added something to it, but it sounds like it's pulled almost directly from it. I'm finding it a bit annoying since every time I hear it I start thinking ME2, rather than what I'm doing, playing DA2. I'm just past the Deep Roads, and I've already come across some significant C&C based on choices surrounding Bethany. It has me excited to see how different things can play out with different parties and decisions.

Hurray! Somewhere new to join and lurk! *lurks, its what he does*

ULTIMA! Maybe instead of X, maybe IX, then we can ALL pretend there never was a IX, just like I do.

I'm currently playing Silent Hunter 5, which I've been enjoying. Probably the best place for info on naval warfare are the forums at subsim.com. The modders there have also done a lot with the Silent Hunter series if you really want realism.

I also just started playing Dead Space again. I had started a game awhile back on the 360, when a group of friends and I were getting together for regular gaming sessions, but this time I have it for my PC. Most of my issues with the mouse and keyboard control seems to have been solved by turning the mouse sensitivity way up in game and turning off V-sync in game.

I don't usually play multiplayer fps, but I received a beta key and figured I'd try it. Last one I got was for the PS3 version of Dead Space 2, even though I only have a PC. So far, I've been enjoying myself.

I think it depended on platform. It had FF for most difficulties on PC, but I think it only had FF for one of them on the consoles.

Having watched the two seasons of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex recently, I really like Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. She did Motoko Kusanagi, and she did Sie, in Alpha Protocol.

GOG is now offering pre-orders of The Witcher 2. http://www.gog.com/en/page/tw2_preorder/

Something Film Noir would be interesting.

I'm all for it, as long as I can import my AP save into F:NV.

I ended up picking it up on the day it came out in the US. I haven't had any problems connecting to the servers at any point. One night, I did apparently lose connection to the servers, but I barely had time to read the screen before I was back in game. I'm still not sure about the system, but it hasn't given me problems. I'd be more comfortable with it if they announced, and stuck to, a schedule for removing it, rather than just saying they'll do it if it's needed. Kind of like Egosoft does, putting out a no-CD patch, usually with additional free content roughly a year out from release.

I guess.... but one would have thought they could at least make their explanation consistent. The PR department should be able to at least coordinate a single explanation, no matter how BS it is, unless of course all three explanations are true, which seems rather unlikely. Actually, the stories make for a neat and tidy progression. The servers go down due to "exceptional demand" which turns out to be "a DoS attack" which necessitates "maintenance." Of course, it could just mean they couldn't figure out how to make it work and have now resorted to poking the servers with sticks, hoping they'll start working on their own, and they just need a cover story, it's hard say.

As far as I understand there has been cracked version of the game since day one, but ubi claims is not "legit" cracked version since it lacks some extra download content. What I keep hearing is that while it was cracked the first day, the cracked version hangs or crashed at several points. The first trip into the animus and some story mission. So, the open world can be played, and using some savegames can get around these points, it doesn't let you play all the way through without issue. Supposedly, the game downloads part of the story mission, thus the isues. But I've also heard everything from one end to the other on whether it's cracked or not, so I'm not really sure what to believe about it.

Yeah, they would say that, because imagine if it wasn't? What they say can say a lot. Admitting it's an attack, suggests things would been working fine for the load they expected. They sold what they expected or less. The reason things aren't working is due to outside interference. But it's also admitting a serious weakness that they didn't plan for or didn't find a solution for. It's a partial failure for Ubisoft. The story the other day, that it's simply greater than expected load, could be better than expected sales, meaning one or more of DRM didn't have a significant effect of sales, piracy was defeated so they purchased instead, whatever else you feel like coming up with. Which sounds better? Of course, there's always the possibility that the system was designed so poorly that a gentle breeze could knock it down, in which case, why not stick with the story that lets you say things are going better than expected, instead of the story where they admit they didn't expect what they got? I would suspect that Google and Microsoft, having been targets for far longer, have had time to get their technology and people to a point they don't have this sort of issue. Ubi just hung a giant bulls eye around their neck and said, "Here we are!" Which suggests to me that they probably should have put more time, money and thought into their system. While I don't disagree with you, for arguments sake, applying that logic, a great number of games, and many other things for that matter, should have never been released, some of which actually turned out rather well after some post-release work.