Nepenthe

The truth hurts, doesn't it?

Nah, I know what I can get when I'm on the top of my game, both mentally and physically. I'd rather get myself back there than do anything hasty right now.

Hey, I'd be interesting to get your views on the conditions in Finnish prisons and mental hospitals, as my statement was qualified with an "around here". Please supply it in triplicate during my office hours.

No time right now, I'm afraid. Autumn, maybe.

I had that too. Of course, it wasn't exactly out of nowhere, it was out of my ex showing me her sonograms.

Nah, you'd all blame Bioware for it.

That's interesting, around here the only thing that matters is the perp's mental state during the crime. He can be completely bonkers afterwards, he'll still go into the slammer, just a separate division. (Of course, the difference between prison and the place where the criminally insane go is mostly academical. So mostly theoretically interesting.)

Let's wait for the first screens at least before we start rubbing Bioware's face in it, eh?

Agreed. I think I mentioned it before, but I think I got the same feeling in Uncharted 2, even though it wasn't really... the same way.

The game really suffered from the case-slashing that must've taken place. It's in dire need of good, unconnected cases. Which I guess they can try to fill with DLC, but which makes the first playthrough kind of... heavy.

That does explain a lot.

Thank you. Nothing a little gatorade won't cure at this point, apparently.

Either that, or the other alternatives listed above. Of course, there are more ways of "invading" that the classic use of military force, these days. Lots of high-paying "modeling jobs" to entice young women from poorer countries?

Well, like I said before, it's precisely because of those days that I don't get it. I got to do enough of it when I was 10-11, and while essentially watching my Best Friend play Secret of the Silver Blades through back in the day was tons of fun, I like to spend my free time doing stuff and experiencing things rather than watch other people do it. Ok, except for Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch. More seriously though, if I want to watch something, I'll watch a movie or some tv series, I'll only turn to games if I want to do something.

I got food poisoning from pizza on Saturday. Just saying that it might not be over, yet.

The problem with any limited resource is that people generally don't just keel over when they run out of something they really need, they tend to to go after it... aggressively if necessary *cough* USA and oil *cough*. I suspect that they'll start going after the, ahem, punani as Ali G puts it, way before they start dying.

I'd agree if it was forced, but I actually like having the option over having to simply always go with the one or the other. Also appreciate the ability to skip action sequences, as there is one in particular that instakilled me the necessary amount of times before it gave me the option. I literally died the in the first second every time, and again I'm going to call out piss-poor design on that one rather than my inability to grasp the controls (which happened too).

Yeah, this is kind of what I meant to say earlier. I haven't played RDR (and I doubt I will), but I think it's better than any of the 3 GTA games I have played (GTAIII-IV, Vice City). So, if you are strange like me and hate the open-world bs of gtas, this might be more up your alley.

But you don't. Get the SP experience, that is. The "game" part of it.

Mostly agree, though I think some of the action sequences are a lot better than any I've played in a GTA game... Never understood the concept of watching other people play. I got to do enough of that in the 80s with hot seat multiplayer.

It's nothing of the kind. The game mostly consists of totally untimed classic adventure-game type investigation sections, with (generally optional) rockstar style freeworld roaming segments in between, and occasional action segments (car and foot chases, gunfights). The investigation elements are in theory interesting, with some nice (if simple) puzzles. Most of the time you're just canvasing areas trying to find clues, which will point you towards new locations and people, and help you in interrogating said people. This doesn't just straddle the line to boring, but sometimes also crosses it resoundingly. Mostly the areas are quite bearable, but occasionally they are a bit on the large side, with a lot of wandering required. I can live with it, though and it does have a certain addictive quality to it. The much-touted facial animations play a big part in the interrogations. Unfortunately, anyone who complained/complains about the Mass Effect dialogue wheel is probably going to have their head explode here. You ask a question, the perp/witness answers and you get your choice of truth (believing them)/doubt (essentially accusing them with proof)/lie (proving that they are lying with a clue from your notebook). In practice, in a lot of situations you can tell that the person is avoiding telling you something, but it still might be truth (they didn't tell you everything), it could be doubt (which it basically should be) or lie (with some pretty serious leaps of fancy being necessary to connect the proof). The core problem being that especially with "lie", your mouthpiece can take the interrogation in an unforeseen direction, and the proof you had turns out to be inapplicable (for that particular question). Or just completely unforeseen in general. You can skip the driving around almost completely (you can let your partner do the driving), but sometimes this will results in different situations at the next location (say, gunmen might have escaped due to being too slow) or a clue not showing up. I found the driving to be generally a LOT better than in the last Rockstar game I played, GTA IV, both in physics and in camera. Story-wise, it's a typical on-rails story, where nothing you do impacts the story in any way, and includes a lot of failed story-failure. Trying not to cross into the spoiler territory, but sometimes the game doesn't allow you to reach the correct result. Sometimes your character just makes decisions for you that I find grating I dunno, I've gotten this feeling in a few games over the couple of years, mostly this one, uncharted 2 and Brutal Legend, and I can't quite place it. Lack of the famous RPG elements? Mostly, I enjoyed the experience, but found it to be fundamentally flawed as a game. I don't think my issues with the interrogation mini game were due to an inherent stupidity on my part, but it is, of course, a possibility.

No overheats, good game for food poisoning, like I have now.

He wasn't the project manager (casey hudson equivalent), they just seem to like him as a a mouth piece.

OTOH, both Baldur's Gates had multiplayer.

Good one, Tale!