Nepenthe

You are doing it wrong. Here's the right way: Thanks, I already got the Vodka and Apocalypse Now recommendation, along with Beer and Bond movies and Absinthe and Gabriel. Vodka/Absinthe and DAA might be a surprisingly good combo. Just be sure, that before you start to play to cover the keyboard and monitor with some kind of transparent plastic thingie... you never know whenever this comes handy... especialy if you change the combo into Vodka+Absinthe and DAA That's why I use consoles, man.

Liara has an unrealistic personality change in them. That answers your question, doesn't it? I've read the first one, didn't think it's very good, but I don't think the personality changes go as far as to be unrealistic. Creating a massive information trading empire in two years is a bit stretching it, yeah, but becoming a cold calculating bitch when somebody you love gets offed and then you get royally screwed while trying to recover the body... I can see that as ending innocence and naivete pretty well.

You are doing it wrong. Here's the right way: Thanks, I already got the Vodka and Apocalypse Now recommendation, along with Beer and Bond movies and Absinthe and Gabriel. Vodka/Absinthe and DAA might be a surprisingly good combo.

Strange. *shrug* Dunno, she should have been there. Yeah it was definitely confusing that she would change so much in such a short time, given both an Asari's lifespan, and the fact that the rest of your old team just became more of what they already were. Maybe it's her mother's genetics shining through. It's the Mass Effect comics shining through, more like.

Alpha Protocol Deus Ex 3 Mass Effect 3 And, not really, but I know I'm going to buy it since I suddenly find myself in a position with nothing better to do (ie. single, not over her): Dragon Age: Awakening.

It's strange, apart from assault rifle ammo (the weapon is ridiculously underpowered), I never got the feeling it slipped into resource management. And this is a game I've completed on average once a year since it came out.

It's difficult to do in your first playthrough -- I think you need to import a level 60 character from ME1 to be able to hit 30 first time around. Beating the game unlocks an achievement that increases XP gain by 25%, so it should be easier in subsequent playthroughs. But if you import that lvl 60 me1 character, it's really easy. I had a bunch of n7 quests left over when I hit the cap on my first playthrough. With all the DLC they have planned, makes it kind of meh. (Having hit the level cap so early, that is).

Let me get this straight.. you're saying that because it's a videogame cringeworthy dialogue shold be forgiven? Probably more like 'point me at 5 games that don't have cringeworthy dialogue'

Yeah, this is what I was thinking of, too. I quite liked Ashley, too. I'm hoping they manage to do something worthwhile with the ME1/2 NPCs in ME3 (or some expansion).

Either I'm misreading what you're saying, or you've gone through a different route from me.

I got the impression that Normandy wasn't really a ship of the line as much as it was a stealth/scout vessel, relying on staying unobserved rather than fighting. Cue the introduction of ME2, where they all seem shocked that the collectors can "see" them Bingo. Normandy isn't supposed to be shot at. Cerberus doesn't have the fleet to blockade the relay, the Alliance doesn't believe the Collectors are behind the threat, and even if they did, they'd have trouble sending a fleet into the Terminus Systems (see ME1).

According to the documents they were negotiating their contract while they were "courting" other publishers. Activision is; no doubt, fighting for their most popular product on the market. But i'm on IW side on this one, 1 good MW game is better than a thousand spin offs. It is their right as creators after all. Then all the designers of cars should have complete creative control over their car? And they should tell toyota, honda, ford, and chevy to shove it because "the car doesn't need a cupholder! or upgraded crumple zones! that ruins the aesthetic!" This isn't a question of how things should be: based on the court documents IW key personnel were given creative control over CoD: MW sequels. Looks like Acti didn't know the value of the franchise back in the day and are now scrambling to undo their mistake. Obviously they when they made the agreement, they thought that the cost of creative control was less than the amount of raw cash needed to keep the guys working for them. As obviously, they were mistaken.

They were on the approaching their end of their contract with Activision, right? Is not to much of a stretch to think that they wanted a little more creative freedom to develop games aside from the Modern Warfare series. Considering that Activision's policies are to squeeze every moneymaking cow dry (see Guitar Hero) and that they were already planning another IP when Activision forced them to do MW2. IMO, they decided to dash out there before they were turned into a MW making Rapunzel, forced to only work on those titles or to see them dragged down by a series of spin offs. AFAIK, Infinity Ward is 100 % owned by Activision. I'm pretty sure even the court documents from the other day confirm this. So there's no way IW as an entity is going awol. It's always an option that everybody quits at the same time, or a benevolent (relatively speaking) publisher lets you have your freedom back, like with Bungie and Microsoft... But seems a little bit far-fetched at the moment. I still think the most likely story is that the IW head honchos wanted to exercise their creative control of CoD: MW by not allowing anybody else to make a sequel while they chose to work on something else - thus earning them the ire of Assembly Line Kotick himself - and I can't say I don't understand his viewpoint, it is his methods I find... totally amoral?

I was just musing about the differences between U.S. and local legal cultures at this point. Glad to see I was wrong. Looks like a pretty strong case to me, depends of course on the contract+memorandum and their contents... The only problem that I foresee is how much damage will IW sustain during the time of the trials. For a big company it is easy to sustain themselves during the proceedings, but I wonder how will a small studio like IW will hold out. What's worse is that they could be blacklisted among publishers for this, they come with the baggage of a trial. Although if they do win they could go independent. Let's hope the hiatus doesn't break their momentum. IW isn't involved in this. They are IW. No longer.

I think the point wasn't about ME2 generally. Rather about ME2, played on Insanity difficulty-- with the health and protections of enemies ramped up so high, all the combats turn into tests of one's endurance and patience. Bingo.

I was just musing about the differences between U.S. and local legal cultures at this point. Glad to see I was wrong. Looks like a pretty strong case to me, depends of course on the contract+memorandum and their contents... The only problem that I foresee is how much damage will IW sustain during the time of the trials. For a big company it is easy to sustain themselves during the proceedings, but I wonder how will a small studio like IW will hold out. What's worse is that they could be blacklisted among publishers for this, they come with the baggage of a trial. Although if they do win they could go independent. Let's hope the hiatus doesn't break their momentum. IW isn't involved in this.

Insanity run is brutally deceptive. It starts out easy enough and the difference between hardcore seems negligible. But once you get to Derelict Reaper & Collector Base, the s*** starts to hit the fan! For maximum survivability/pwnage I recommend: Soldier + Geth Shield Boost + Geth Pulse Rifle (& Widowmaker) + Inferno Ammo; OR Soldier + Geth Shield Boost + Revenant; Even though the shield powers burn out pretty quick on Insanity, they're still a lifesaver when used as a second-life instant heal. I got as far as the Derelict Reaper before I burned out. Too much RL stuff going on to spend on grinding like that, but I think I need to complete that run and then eventually do another full run of DAO before/if I get Awakening at some point. Probably need to restart the Reaper, went in with a poor party composition and just got fed up.

Sounds like my average Monday.

I was just musing about the differences between U.S. and local legal cultures at this point. Glad to see I was wrong. Looks like a pretty strong case to me, depends of course on the contract+memorandum and their contents...

I dunno, EA uses Cider, and I'm somewhat... sceptical of it. Of course, neither does there exist a Mac with a decent graphics card, never mind at a sane price. The reason I went with Apple+consoles, shrug. I hope things change.

edit: oh look, there was a second page. (Looks like I need to swap over to GSB, if I ever get the masochistic urge to complete that insanity run that ruined the game for me)

I think the point of DR is to control the legit customer and get as much money as possible from them by making their game product a service that has to be paid for on an ongoing basis rather than aa a one time purchase. basically, apply the mmorpg payment model to single player games. It would be a much more stable and productuve revenue stream, especially without the additional cost of having to maintain a mmorpg environment. If it fights piracy as a side effect, that's great, but I don't believe such is the primary purpose. Pirates are, for the most part, not goign to pay anyway. It's the legit customer that yoy need to target and get as much money as possible from, since they have already shown that they will pay. While that's definitely something, for example, the music industry is trying to pull off, I'm not yet seeing monthly "drm payments", so your conclusions might be a bit premature. With "cloud gaming" etc., probably going to be as you predict, but not there yet...