Nepenthe

Yep, I bet you boys are glad I'm not handling YOUR cases right now? :D Actually, been playing some more madden25. Probably going to take a stab at dishonored, which I had to abandon with the move and all a year ago, but that won't be until next week.

Slept four hours, had to take a strong painkiller for my back, squeezed out an appeal in record time and had an overly heavy lunch. Tired doesn't begin to describe how I feel right now. More like comatose.

Also, circular is apparently ****ing hard to write on a tablet.

I bet if maternity leave, parents rights and employer contribution to them were on a (Northern) European level, this case would never have happened.

Using increased emphasis on romances as a sign if their "decline" is a but curcukar, IMO, since that emphasis is placed there mostly by media/snarky gamers. For example, I don't think a romance has been morecore to a Bioware story than Bastila was in Kotor... Me2 has a wrong type of emphasis on romance in the npc stories due to locking out character interaction and progression outside romances, but it's something they did pick up on and fix for me3.

Wait, people are still expecting originality from BioWare? Oh, you poor things It was more like "how the hell can this guy be so enthusiastic about such a boring character?". I guess anything is a step up from James Vega...

So let me get this straight. You bought a game on the steam sale and then started playing them on the xbox?

There is not a snowballs chance in hell that they can carve out a piece of the MOBA pie. I really don't know what they are thinking. Unless they have some revolutionary spin to the moba genre, I doubt they would even make a splash. They are apparently trying very hard to prove my point that they're just as much about trying to make a cheap, quick buck as the next publisher

and can they just call a merger a marriage and side step any antitrust laws? Bingo

I'm waiting with detached amusement for the inevitable decision by SCROTUM that corporations have an inaliable right to get married.

Has the mandatory "This game is misogynistic" review popped its head yet? I think it was on Eurogamer. Nope, they must have forgotten to enforce their new editorial policy.

Holy Smoke, Ice-Cream flavoured Tabasco !!! I love Tabasco and I use the standard 4-5 flavours regularly. How many different flavours did you see? Or was it Tabaso flavoured ice cream... Quick, we need an existentialist!

Of course, this is topical since ex-nun Leliana and the fallen madonna with the big boobies are clearly the same archetype.

Thanks for repeating the best criticism of DAO! (The voice actress doing Leliana is a native French speaker!) In that case she's doing a very good job of overacting. Note that I live and work in Brussels, I have to listen to native French-speakers speaking English all day. Though, on second thought, the over-the-top lisp she adds might be the thing that actually sets me off (because I hear it a lot on wannabe French-sounding actresses) Yes, becauseA) all francophones have the same accent in English (and French!) B) Leliana isn't actually from a fantasy country called Orlais but Brussels and your criticism is entirelyvalid! (Edit : Agx beat me to it)

Thanks for repeating the best criticism of DAO! (The voice actress doing Leliana is a native French speaker!)

You don't know that though. Sure, he looks a bit silly in that picture but he may have good lines and a good voice actor. He may actually look okay when you're playing and he may have some great armour. He could be based on the old fashioned gentleman archetype rather than the smug rogue who annoys people rather than amuses and the picture may not reflect that. We don't know very much about what he or the pirate will actually be like until we see them in-game. If that happens, I'll update my opinion. I keep an open mind, but so far the DAI character reveals have me facepalming hard. Still struggling to put a 3-(wo)man team together.

This guy failed long before he reached the marketing department, unless he was originally conceived by them.

I bet you can guess what I recommend to boost ones immune system? I've been sick only once in 9 years. Being scary? The germs are afraid of you?

They're like a mean parody of Bioware characters. Yeah, I had to do a double take at this guy. I'm going to have to change my expectations to something like a fantasy version of the original batman series, apparently.

Well, the bigger the c***, the more likely they are to self-identify as an anarchist in my experience.

I'm havin a hard time following your logic here. If you kept her out of the party, how can you comment on the writer's achievements? Isabella occupied the Rogue position in party during the first act for several major quests. Every banter involved sex in some way and there was never any indication that there was more to her than being a slampig. Yeah, this confirms that you clearly didn't understand her character or didn't bother to read her dialogue options I read every single dialogue line Isabella spoke in act 1, and they were almost universally about sex. If Bioware wanted to showcase a character who was sexually liberated, then perhaps having them discuss more than sex would be a better move than creating a sex addict. The problem is that they gate everything interesting she has to say behind a) her approval mechanic and b) the passage of time. She doesn't have much that's more profound than "sex, sex, sex," before Act 2, and very reasonably a lot of people didn't have the patience or inclination to get to that point. It's my most consistent problem with BioWare games. The characters generally have a fair number of interesting things to say, but hearing it is often dependent on suffering through whatever key attribute of the character the writers have decided to bludgeon us with "to get to know them." Very good point.

I'm havin a hard time following your logic here. If you kept her out of the party, how can you comment on the writer's achievements? Isabella occupied the Rogue position in party during the first act for several major quests. Every banter involved sex in some way and there was never any indication that there was more to her than being a slampig.Yeah, this confirms that you clearly didn't understand her character or didn't bother to read her dialogue optionsI read every single dialogue line Isabella spoke in act 1, and they were almost universally about sex. If Bioware wanted to showcase a character who was sexually liberated, then perhaps having them discuss more than sex would be a better move than creating a sex addict.Not the point of the character and, well, if character development happened in act 1, it really wouldn't be development? Regarding the rest of the party, I don't like most of the da2 npcs, and only find myself really enjoying the game when using a core party of aveline, varric and isabela, with Bethany thrown in when available (probably because she's bland vs. actively annoying like the other two mages). The rest are either too whiny (anders, fenris) or just otherwise meh.

I'm havin a hard time following your logic here. If you kept her out of the party, how can you comment on the writer's achievements? I kept trying to put her in my party and saw some of her banter during the time sink's that were created with the game. And deliberately put her in my party for certain events (her distaff counterpart, Zevran's appearance). I should point out I didn't exactly like Zevran for the same reasons. He was less clunky with "I <3 sex" but still it permeated his whole being to the point it just got boring. Also I tend to play Warrior/rogue characters which means that Zev and Isabela were redundant. With the way that the game is designed, DA2 seriously needs to amp up the amount of AOE possible given the only way they increase difficulty is by throwing more enemies at you. Now you're just manipulating the results by using her in the scenarios where you (rightly) expect her to confirm to your bias...

I'm havin a hard time following your logic here. If you kept her out of the party, how can you comment on the writer's achievements?