Nepenthe

More interested in the possible "Spanish fakeing/assault" of the day. If there really was no contact, it would be a suitable escalation of David Villa's fisticuffs and Torres's swan dive. 0 yellows before last night, indeed.

Having been there, I kind of doubt that it's a wonder of the world as a museum. Considering it was built as a church (to Holy Wisdom), and was later converted into a Mosque, it kind of defends on what bonus the wonder gives, is it faith based (look towards original use), or epic war booty... That said, the "current" image is probably the most sensible way of approaching it, the one that doesn't seem like an obvious political statement. It is also completely misleading as it implies (to those who may not know) that its the product of another civilization. It stood as a christian church for a thousand years and is the crowning achievement of the Byzantine civilization, not the Ottoman turks which just tacked on the minarets and ruined the internal decoration. It was a world wonder in a true sense up until larger cathedrals came to appear in Europe, and the only thing that makes sense to me is for it to be represented in its original form - in a tribute to those who actually created it. Whatever was done after Byzantium fell is irrelevant as it doesn't change the fact that the Ottoman empire has really nothing to do with it. So you're basically agreeing with me, but just being more polemic?

Having been there, I kind of doubt that it's a wonder of the world as a museum. Considering it was built as a church (to Holy Wisdom), and was later converted into a Mosque, it kind of defends on what bonus the wonder gives, is it faith based (look towards original use), or epic war booty... That said, the "current" image is probably the most sensible way of approaching it, the one that doesn't seem like an obvious political statement.

I'm not too fond of the gameplay in the first one, but the second game is one of the best I've ever played.

Sounds to me like they weren't honest. Or lawyers living in the capital. Insanely high cost of living, **** wages, high taxes, corrupt politicians.

I'd say pretty much the reverse. The first one is the best one of the bunch, and I wish I could unsee the third one. Been going through a movieless spell here. Since the GF decided to marry somebody else, I haven't been in a theatre and the updated 5-point surround setup has been driving me more towards gaming than movies. I got a bunch of blu-rays waiting, including Minority Report and Saving Private Ryan. Thinking of picking up Up in the Air, but apart from that, can't really think of anything interesting.

I'm running out of teams I can support really fast.

It's funny, I'm looking at UK in the same way. I guess either I live in the worst of ****holes, Canada would be even better or there's differences between industries.

Looks like this is an intra-EU issue to me (distorting competition within the single market, which is in effect true). I have no idea why one of the big cross-atlantic publishers would react in this way, it makes no sense as they can and no just shut studios down or move them. Is there anyone of sufficiently large size left operating on the continent? What's the status with Infogrames/Atari?

The Mac store is still pretty sad, though. I wonder if they'll get something in the way of back catalogue.

Or by initially just having a maximum of 1-2 hours to play /day due to work, social circle and gf/fiancee/wife, even without the kids. When even the shortest RPG starts stretching out into months just due to lack of time, you tend to be unwilling to spend a night or two grinding the same spot. If I hadn't been bedridden for December, I'm not sure I could've finished DAO even once. I played that on normal, though.

This is getting ridiculous. I think it was established beforehand that DAO would be getting a lot of this kind of stuff. Now that the effects on the main story are minimal, it's basically a question of deciding whether you want to pay for loosely connected episodic content. I don't think it's ridiculous, far from it, but I think it's pretty obvious they aren't even targeting everybody with this. I mean, personally, I'm probably going to pick this one up, but most of similar spinoffs for the other characters would definitely stay unbought.

Mostly this. I played the Rogue Spears etc. back in the day, so I've had enough reloading to last me a lifetime. I also have a lot less time to game than I'd like, so I like to keep things progressing when I have those 1h+ stretches available. Mass Effect 2 on Insanity posed some challenge, and it didn't mostly feel of the "fake" kind (though armor on Husks was kind of meanspirited)

I'm not entirely sure how the business model works here, but the CD-keys are likely a matter of bookkeeping, and that is very important. Steam sells products for other publishers. They need to be able to keep track of all that meticulously, or else the publisher will not do business with them. The CD-Keys are likely the easiest way to do this. EA gives a bunch of CD-Keys to Steam. They track the keys, and when they are activated, they send Steam a bill. Again, I'm speculating here, but I imagine it works something like that. I'd go as far as assume that Steam orders a certain amount of CD keys from publishers, based on their projected sales, at more or less regular intervals. Obviously, they don't need to do this for Valve games, due to the process either being automated, unnecessary due to advanced Steamworks integration or just way easier when you're moving stuff from one hand to the other.

... so the publisher just sends an x amount of stuff to a ®etailer, who has no control over the amount bought? Come on... If this were CD Projekt, you'd all be in arms against Valve.

Indeed, the story in games has fallen far from the days of Pacman, Bubble Bobble, Operation Wolf, Arctic Fox and Death Track. I can't think of any game, past or current, that would meet the "standards" a well-written game would seem to require to gain the "forum-poster stamp of approval". My point is that "badly written" is basiclly the most subjective of "objective" criticisms, and as such is always the easiest to apply.

I know what you meant.

I liked Vice City, but the other two GTA games I own (3 and 4) are among the handful of games I've bought during my lifetime but have never bothered to finish even once (the only other one I can think of off the top of my head is Dark Corners of the Earth, and that was more like bad timing and the demise of my original xbox).

Why? Sounds to me like the two parties haven't automated something that should be automated to a sufficient degree. I'd say it's primarily the fault of the party running the webstore, not the publisher...

404, hope it WAS good http://www.mediafire.com/?kdizq2ngzrg Thanks!

404, hope it WAS good

You people have too much time on your hands.