Nepenthe

I remember it was the ONLY problem DA2 had when I played it through, thrice. I think I was supposed to say that.

So "amount of recycled maps" is now a measure of its own, separate of how good/bad the game is?

i dunno, I thought DA2 was better than NWN OC and Jade Empire, and they survived those two just fine. Guess it was just before the EA acquisition and everybody starting to hope for some kind of collapse.

It's great, it's like this forum is rapidly becoming a parody of itself.

:lol:

Agree with both parts here. A bit surprised by the amount of "OMG, MUST PREORDER" I'm seeing for ME3 now - this didn't really provide anything new... or that impressive. Uncharted 2 was still held back by the total lack of player input into the story, but I agree that their "cinematic set pieces" were indeed very, very impressive. Wonder if I should grab 3 today, hmm... And yes, as was mentioned already, the maws were a lot more numerous in me1, and really, the whole idea is that it rips off both sand worms and sarlaccs at the same time.

Coz it's free, and that's all what gamers really care about. Thresher Maws have been in since ME1, so you are a bit late to the party.

Indeed. How is a proper evening complete without some before-dinner ****tails (whiskey- or gin-based, depending on the season), proper wine pairings with dinner, and a bit of cognac after the meal? Just don't have your ****tails in the ****pit, you'll just **** up.

Mass Effect 2 - Lair of the Shadow Broker Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Missing Link Dragon Age: Origins - Tough one, in the end, probably liked Leliana's Song most. DA2 - Mark of the Assassin Interesting part about the DA DLCs is that IMO in both cases they managed to improve significantly on the gameplay in the latter content. LotSB shows some of this, too.

A Russian living in Finland did a statistical analysis of the (publically available) Russian electoral results, essentially proving cheating on a massive scale. Unfortunately the data isn't available in English yet and it's too involved for me to reference here, but a particular favourite details are that the governing party's share of votes goes through the roof in those areas with high percentages (ballot stuffing) and that exceptional amount of voting districts had flat percentages of voters turn out (70 %, 75 %, 80 % etc.). Edit: link for our Finns: http://antonnikolenko.blogspot.com/2011/12...astollinen.html

You mean you don't keep the dryer going all the time? *lights cuban cigar with 100 euro bill* More seriously though, by calibrating the tv properly, you can often bring it down to bearable levels - ie. below those of the average gaming pc, for sure. Most TVs still have brightness and backlight cranked out of the box way beyong anything you need for home use, to pull in people at electronics stores.

That would be Volourn, I just consider them pathetic losers with self entitlement issues.

Yeah, I know, he's happy with his 32" (!), and I could get a nice Sony with all the bells and whistles for ~400 even with Finland prices.

After years of giving "12 months of free computer support" to my mom for Christmas, could finally afford to buy her a real gift - a really nice classic Dualit toaster (she loves toast and had always had ****ty cheap toasters that burn her fingers). Now trying to figure out something for my dad. He'd need a new tv, the one he has was from the early gen LCDs and can't receive digital tv without a separate set-top box that really kills the picture quality, but I also know that he wouldn't want anything that "extravagant" from me. Probably a couple of bottles of some nice Barolo, then. Happy I don't have to do any other gift-buying, though. Last person I got anything for xmas outside the nuclear family was my ex, when I got her the signed Prodigy tour book. That was as close as I ever saw her to crying.

It's not a crime because consumers and consumer advocacy groups lack the political pull of game, music, and movie publishers. If you're going down that road, there is no end of officially-illegal activity that you can justify as morally permissible. "Child molestation is only illegal because NAMBLA lacks the political pull of the local PTA!" And hey, not long ago a bunch of guys thought that gassing a couple million people was ok, or at least morally grey, because they had saturdays off instead of sundays. Ie. people will be able to convince themselves of the moral acceptability of their actions, no matter how terrible. (Yes, I went there, mostly because it was the only suitable escalation. And yes, take it with a pinch of irony, but also understand the point.)

Umm... Widespread election fraud has been reported by official foreign supervisors. Clearly they are also just on an agenda to get the commies back for another round of the cold war.

You can also add a lil' bit garlic and chili with the olive oil, yummy.

Had to look the car up. Nice one, square muscle. Hope that turns out better for you than the last one. Similar problem with my mom, I lent her my old Blackbook (which had a reinstalled OS from a couple of weeks ago) and four weeks into her 6 week work trip the thing just went bananas again. Trying to troubleshoot with my computer illiterate mother (she's an astonishing person, she can do an excellent powerpoint presentation, scan and manipulate quite well in photoshop, yet copying files from one folder to another can give her problems). Well, happily one of her former employees set her up with a nice Sony for the rest of the trip, too bad about good old Acheron, he seems to have finally left us after running practically 24/7 for 4 years. Meanwhile one girl at work doesn't seem too averse to my company. Big glasses and hipster band shirt kind of girl - until she showed up in 5" heels and a micro skirt today. I had a cartoon character eye-bulge and nearly walked into a door. Suddenly feel like going back on my "no co-workers, NEVER" rule. Which would be stupid.

I'd expect you to be able to make the connection as an intelligent person, Walsh. "Oh, the 2nd hand sellers are the real criminals, so I'm actually doing a good thing by downloading the game myself". The art of good business is being a good middleman. Money doesn't go from consumer to game publisher before other actors get in on the action and in doing so contribute to overall economic activity. On a related matter, one would have to show that these middlemen, such as used game sellers, negatively affect the quality and budget of games before comming out against them. Assumptions aren't useful here. You're quoting me but I can't make a connection between what I wrote and what you did.

Did that reflect your expectations going in?

I tried it on a console in a shop - I fairly liked the original but after about 15 minutes I stopped the game and I've never even considered going back.. it felt bland and boring. Did you play DAO on a console? I've often thought about my own perceptions about the DA series. I think the crucial point is that I played DAO originally on a console, and only later on the vastly improved PC version. Even with the later PC experience, DA2 felt like a massive improvement, since that's what it was - over the DAO console version. I played the console demo at an event pre-release, I can imagine the gameplay felt terribad after the DAO pc version...

I often wonder how many of the people who keep on whining about DA2 actually played it, never mind with an open mind.

I'd expect you to be able to make the connection as an intelligent person, Walsh. "Oh, the 2nd hand sellers are the real criminals, so I'm actually doing a good thing by downloading the game myself".

Sure it does, but the easy access to cracks by "professionals" has rendered the old-school piracy of making a copy of the disc and giving it a friend a bit redundant. Doesn't mean it wouldn't happen if the measures weren't there.

I have to agree that between a south park game and a deadliest catch game, I'd buy the latter any day of the week.