Nepenthe

In general, I'd agree with the Veteran statement, but after the pummeling with the nerfbat adepts got for ME2 (down from being totally OP in ME1), it might be a bit... grindy with the adept. In fact, adept would have been my last choice for playing ME2, it's the only class I haven't beaten the game with yet (nor am I likely to).

YES, I HAVE HEARD HER SAY THREE LINES OF 1/3 CONVERSATION OPTIONS IN A GAME SPANNING HOURS AND I CAN NOW PERFECTLY DETERMINE THAT SHE "SUCKS"!!!!!!!1111 Honestly, wtf?

The journal is a mess. It doesn't sort quests by order received or by completed status. IIRC, there's a toggle between sorting by order/status and alphabetical. So either Bioware's right in not including toggles, or you're bugging.

I had a minor crisis some years ago (in fact, a bit after KOTOR came out)... I'd found myself on a date with a woman who was in her early 30s (so about 10 years older than me at the time), and I had a total BSOD over it. Woke up the next morning, went and bought my first console ever (the xbox) with KOTOR and optical cables and refused to leave my apartment for two weeks. My mother brought me food. Clearly, I was too sensitive for my own good (or more like I thought that it was a sign of desperation, at the time).

I never open my door, but then again, I talk daily with people who care enough about me to call the police, and they know to use e-mail or google talk if I'm not answering.

It's been a while, so my memory might be faulty. Can't you drag/assign them to number keys? I'm pretty sure you can. Though much of the interface got dumbed down for the PC sequel, I think they left that alone. But whomever decided to remove keyboard shortcuts to your codex or you quest log is an idiot. One thing I'm kinda disappointed about. I don't intend to play through this game 6 times, one for every class, and I want force powers, sniper rifles, grenades, cloak, the works, but I can't have it. The leveling trees seem pretty limited for all classes. If I remember correctly you get to pick one of your squad members special abilities after you beat it once. A bit earlier than that.

Closest to that list you'll get with the Infiltrator, but yeah, they've specifically tried to make the classes (more) different from each other (thn they were in ME1). Class-based RPG, kind of to be expected, really.

-agree with first -the list on the bottom? All there, aren't they? Based on my experience with the older convention demo, looks like the player was indeed buttonmashing. Edit: looks like even with the icons, the system is a bit difficult for some.

Best purchase you've ever made. Hint: The truth is somewhere between my and sorophx's bs.

The main reason for doing my doctorate is (and was) that both my parents have one. Can't be worse than them. I've had it up to eyeballs with academia, especially as I'm seeing the kind of ludicrous bureaucracy (that smarter countries, like the U.S. have been doing away with for a while) seep in and take control of the system, resulting in me and other academic staff have to spend 40 hours a week doing random stuff to appease pencil pushers, work evenings and weekend to get our actual work done and still get paid peanuts. GNGNGNG. S'yeah, working a lot for that Dr. in front of my name, so I can create a lot of confusion with my to (non-Finnish speakers) apparently androgynous first name.

Thats very surprising to me. In my mind, Europe is usually an example of how education should be taught. My fifth grade daughter is already learning pre-algebra, a topic that wasnt tackled until the freshman year of high school back in my day. I think the key difference that makes our education better is that we learn to not treat Europe as a single entity. And to be less facetious, we have award-winning education systems here (ahem, Finland) and countries that probably have GNPs smaller than what the education budget in this 5 million inhabitant country is.

Well, Draconian DRM is soon going to be coupled with daily body cavity searches for all employees when leaving work. (No, Mkreku, I don't mean for real - don't send that application just yet)

Not really talking about the morality, the viewpoint is never going to be strictly moral/economic. The best available data (and even that is not too good) is known downloads vs. sales. Every other data is going to be skewed even further - and copyright law ties the compensation responsibility to "copies manufactured", not to "sales lost". So, by law, there is little incentive to research the matter further, those people who do research it will probably have an agenda, and those who answer the questions certainly will. I probably should carry this thought further, but I suddenly got really bored of the subject, so I'll leave it at the above. I guess the tl;cbat (can't be arsed to type) content is that due to the imperfect information available, the "sales lost" is really trivial and the way it looks is a lot more important. Also sounds like crytek might have issues getting a publisher in the future, if their internal security is on that level. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that makes even me start polishing my claws, and I'm not even involved with the games industry.

There is no credible answer to it, because even a substantial interview set would still be subject to interview bias. There simply is no way of determining what people would do if the piracy option were removed. Also, I think that way too much emphasis is placed on this - it's still people taking advantage of something people have worked to create without paying for it. Whether he would buy it if he didn't have the choice to get it for free is, if not irrelevant, the certainly not crucial to the equation.

Maybe you aren't saying anything worthwhile? Just throwing that out there... Kind of related: I just held a lecture for 25 stone-faced exchange students. None of my questions were answered. It was kind of like talking to a toilet wall by myself for an hour and a half. Meh.

Whose the village idiot then? I'd say the answer to that question is kind of like the answer to "who's the sucker in this poker game?"* *If you can't tell, it's you.

... I rest my case. Oh please, you don't expect me to do an indepth analysis... Of course not, I just had this very clear picture of you brandishing the snuff box when you wrote the earlier message. But, enough of messing with Nightshapely. I have no idea what to expect from DA2, I think that in a lot of ways it's going to be the first "real" post-EA acquisition game from Bio. Relatively short dev cycle, etc. Interesting to see what the result is, and does it feel like less of a grind than DAO did.

... I rest my case.

That's just because "the art direction, my dears, is teerrrible" is the elitist backwoodsman (points to Monty for coining that) way of saying "IT LOOKS LIKE ****!". The latter one is a legitimate opinion. The first one is equivalent to opening the snuffbox, sniffing some of the stuff in and sneering at what you perceive to be an unwashed peasant.

Yeah, the Bio boards are evenly split between the bat**** crazy Dragon Age relationship simulationists and the Mass Effect "If I don't feel like I'm getting enough headshots I restart the level - this game totally blows because it doesn't have a headshot counter" (albeit with some 1337, worse grammar and typos tossed in) konsole kids (though I think that most of them are actually PC guys, no way anyone on a console gamepad can obsess about headshots). Here we just have the princesses of gaming. And please, the Bio boards were the same since before DAO came out. You're just high on nostalgia. Also, I share Entrerix's wish - even if I can't really count myself into the group.

Or maybe the two are just getting their dates set on a different principle, DXHR being done by an in-house team etc.

Between this and the pretentious asshattery we have here, I'm kind of at a loss where I should go for my rpg discussion.

You'll be able to afford THE one. Every year or so. Which is why doctoral student/doctoral student romances are so common - you're both so skint it's not embarrassing.

that's the most reasonable thing to do always. so many games get released every year, no reason to rush methinks Reasonable to pirate first, maybe buy later for a lot cheaper? You see no problem with this, at all?