Nepenthe

I dunno, I think they're intentionally trying out different ways of testing loads etc. instead of just doing what everybody else is doing. Suspect they also expect that the servers would get absolutely hammered in an open beta, which is why they're also having the "soft" open for people who've preordered. All about not getting everybody on at the same time.

Everybody can revive party members with Mythal's Favor.

I thought this was hilarious. Did nobody catch on, or did it just suck?

There's always someone stupid enough. And it's usually me, but...

With a resounding thunk. I can only assume people from Amazon getting on the horn and giving them a piece of their mind. Of course, their whole contingent is now sold out, again, and probably at a significantly higher price than what people like me would've paid for it. I won't make idiotic proclamations like "I'll never buy another game from them", but I won't forget...

Statues/action figures/etc are basically an instant no-buy to me. I like a pretty box and extras that fit in there, but am hurting for space (and action figures is an aspect of geek culture I actually did outgrow 15-20 years ago...)

Heh, too little, too late. I bet their augmented/CE sales just imploded. **** 'em.

The redhead had around 40 % of the total vote when I looked. So I guess goths are Bioware's new target demographic. It makes sense with all the angsty facial expressions their recent protagonists have. Dude, you had that reply primed for the dark-haired one, but still had to fire it off? ;P

Clearly, they still have some impact in a few jobs. I'm seeing a lot of models in the London area advertise their a-levels...

The redhead had around 40 % of the total vote when I looked.

I never asked for this (one).

Also, the "vote which she-pard winds up on the box cover" vote is now in phase... 2! The first round was a great demonstration of how democracy is, in fact, the worst form of decision making, let's see what happens now.

While I didn't find the ME2 combat particularly inspired, I found the rhythm of the game to be good enough for me to not mind it at all. It was still aeons better than ME1 combat... Getting there...

Since I was replying to a post about itunes, I was obviously referring to movies/tv series, not games.

I agree, it was like he adapted to the fact that his audience wasn't mostly native speakers by talking to them like they were retarded children. It was really painful. Missing Casey Hudson and Jesse H. While I don't disagree with you in theory, I still think calling ME2 "a shooter with dialog"ue is a crude simplification and displays an agenda in whoever does it.

IIRC, there are some differences in the legislation re: digital sales, due to specific language requirements for products made available at certain regions. Which is why the whole "digital sales are universal" is hella confusing in this case.

I love to hate them (political elites) but the fact is that the moment they get in office they receive a call to remind them about who their biggest election contributor was and what exactly he expects them to do during their term in office. Depends a bit, we had our own little election funding brouhaha after the last elections, and the parties get significant contributions from state taxes.

Speculation from the uninformed and uneducated here (talking about me, not you). The problem with the greymarket is that, despite what it looks like to those of us who spend too much time on the internet, lots of the world isn't both centralized and global. They still have staff at local offices, local marketing budgets, local lots of of stuff. And they decide how much these local operations get paid and funded based off local sales. If German sales fall and UK sales rise, the thing they see is that the UK operation is doing swimmingly, but the German operation is doing poorly. Germany gets less funding for things like localization and commercials. Then, that causes UK sales to fall as well and they're like "fudge!" Now, I think Steam could go a way towards resolving that problem. But they may not be quite up to allocating resources based on stats that aren't money just yet. The problem is that the publishers still view it as a grey market, they want to have all the good parts of the freedom of movement, but not live with any of the downsides. EU expects you to accept the fact that your product will be sold cross-border as a part of the package.

Now this I can agree with. However, you'll have to agree that the "betterment" process the creators of AC faced was a lot simpler than the one that had to be done for ME1? Hence, how missteps are a lot more understandable in that context...

They can arrest people for putting up posters? If they were posters designed to incite criminal behaviour, disturbing the peace, racial hatred etc etc... Or an "I will give x money if so and so is killed" type of poster It's that fine line between freedom of speech and all that jazz. Although technically I don't think the european countries actually have that as a specific founding principle like they have in the states. it can be littering, too! ;D

I'm friends with a bunch of female law students ( ) and they use "<3" a lot too!

I'm not even sure if VPD had the augmented edition when I pre-ordered my Limited edition on sunday. Just noticed that there's even better version available for few euros more. Oh well... Managed to change my preorder. Now, I can have the augmented edition for PS3 for the low, low price of 84,90e. :D Well, it's a good thing the people who apply these rules in the EU aren't as [ad hominem insult deleted]... have a broader view of things. Also, your other comments on the matter were also really, really wrong.

In the "look how old-fashioned!" 50s bra advert kind of way? In that case, agreed.

Its been a long time since I heard that word, you South African you. Almost makes me miss Botswana. Anyway in these sort of discussions people from the US generally prefer the private sector, while Europeans and anyone who enjoys the welfare state (or what's left of its carcass today) generally supports it first and foremost. There are of course differences in opinion in these camps but by and large this is the prevailing attitude. After all states created Europe as it is now, while the US was basically created by entrepreneurs - or so the myth goes. So no surprises there. The problem in Europe is that states have been going the way of the US ever since Thatcher and Reagan and the neoliberals/neoconservatives (which sort of ideologically melted together) took the ideological reigns of the economy, demolishing both the functional and dysfunctional parts of the welfare state in favor of the "anything goes" capitalism, in which you basically work as many hours a week as your boss decides and your only right is to queue up at the dole if you're not satisfied. Its not that bad yet, but that's the way its going, and the state is powerless to stop it as the political elites are practically controlled by the economic elites, or melted together. This power shift undermines the basic tenets of democracy as the state is the only expression of the people as a collective. The more it weakens, the less say people have in their society. And the political elite is controlled sometimes via direct corruption, sometimes by the "we'll take the sneaker factory and move it to Vietnam" writ large. Our govt has been bending over for years from the fear that Nokia &co will simply pack their head office up and go, and take the taxes they ARE paying with them...

Agreed. This whole thing has been pretty unimpressive, my trusty normal retailer (verkkokauppa) only got the different versions like 2 weeks ago, so I caved in and ordered it from Gamestop... Now I have to go there and see if I can upgrade to the aug ed... and I'm really close to not caring enough to go. (Un)happily, I have business in the same block today, so... Still, not a happy customer!