Nepenthe

I agree. It's always easy to bash 'the writing' and the 'VA', just because, well, it's easy. I have no qualms with, either, and I (still) think Mark Meer sounds suitably generic for the role, considering that he's acting a character that can basically look like anything within the sliders' limits.

At the resolution and packing artifacts I'm getting from that vid, I'd have to be psychic to be able to say anything about it.

Until you hit the customs barrier, and suddenly it loses out even to a local brick & mortar store...

The sad part with those quests is that they are pretty good experience and really good money. Unfortunately money is basically worthless in this game (if you don't have Pinnacle Station), since the problem with the really good stuff isn't that it's expensive, but that if you want it, you need to hammer reload 1687 times due to the stupid randomness of the stores.

Wrong. They are taking the other quests into account, too. The situation seems to be that you get some bonus resources for having done these quests. Hardly gamebreaking if you didn't, and you sure aren't going to miss out on anythinng. TBH, I read the original quote on meforums, and I'm not sure this (=unc: valuable minerals having an effect in ME2) is the 100 % correct interpretation. We'll see in a couple of weeks.

Well, these two I didn't know. Reporter makes sense, minerals make me glad I was OCD enough to those on a character with max experience.

I thought ass-staring was the hidden real motive of the elevator scenes.

Didn't that Red Faction sequel sell an obscene amount of copies just because it came out in June and nothing else did? Or didn't even that one come out in June and I'm confused?

Yeah, that's what you'd think. OTOH, it could be that you just get Oghren instead.

No, because it's a sequel and not an expansion. I'm conditioned to deal with these changes between installments, not when it comes to expansions. Did MoTB hurt then? Don't have it. Never owned gear that could run it (or bloodlines for that matter, not that it's really relevant to the topic).

I don't really get that, his work on the Dragon Age mythos has been very solid. I even read his book and was surprised at how decent it was for a video game novel. Yeah, and as far as I know, he had nothing do with either Mass Effect. Which I assume was implied, this being the Mass Effect 2 thread.

Not sure if he was targeting me by quoting me out of context, or himself with that.

No, because it's a sequel and not an expansion. I'm conditioned to deal with these changes between installments, not when it comes to expansions.

Well, the basic principle is the same that lead to a major uproar when it was announced that the ME squad would get overhauled for ME2. Except, this time, it's an EXPANSION. It would be kind of like if after Baldur's Gate II, all your party would get their collective asses vanished and you'd get Anomen, Sarevok and 3-4 new random dudes instead. With maybe Keldorn as a quest giver. My reaction would have been then, as it is now 'F this!'. Also note that I'm not going around waving my hands in the air and screaming ZOMG THEY BROKE IT I'M GONNA BOYCOT THIS!!11 I like to think I'm capable of making informed decisions close to (and after) the release - I know I've done before...

Yeah. I didn't get much sleep when I was a prosecutor and I've never gotten that much attention from the opposite sex. Well, also, apparently being a prosecutor combines the best parts of being a cop and a lawyer in the minds of a lot of young ladies. (And in some ways they are right, but there sure ain't nothing sexy about the job.)

I'd like to thank Maria for saying what I was trying to say way better than I ever could have. Fixed and QFT. I wish you were right. The guys are in some ways a lot worse. There's half of them lusting over Miranda's pixel boobs and ass (which, I have to admit, as pixel boobs and asses go, are pretty phenomenal), and the other half (the one I like to call the 'shall never know the touch of a woman' group) are bashing the character (and Yvonne Strahovski)'s looks department. It's quite sad, really.

Not only hair, but same haircut and beard. And it was during gameplay, so unless he's just a temp.... If Oghren, of all the DAO NPCs is the only one to make a comeback, the odds of my copy of this disc being left in the custody of the local game store increase significantly. Hell, even if it's somebody else, I'd still have preferred more of them to make a comeback, even if to avoid a jarring 'this isn't what the game ending said!' moment... Oh sure, they've probably got the 'how to separate your romantic interest from you in a way that it sort of makes sense in the context of the story' thing fine-tuned from ME2, but still

Have played: Pool of Radiance - Curse of the Azure Bonds - Secret of the Silver Blades - Pools of Darkness (for some reason, I've always really liked Secret of the Silver Blades the most. It could be Vala the Amazonian, the story, the well of knowledge or something else. Still, barring some... roughness in Pool of Radiance, a brilliant 4-game story arc. Rocks. TSR also did Crpg tie-ins pretty well, even if Secret of the Silver Blades and Pools of Darkness never got any kind of 'module' release. Curse rocked, and the novels were IMHO some of the best of that era in TSR stuff.) Dark Queen of Krynn. The first two installments of the Gold Box Krynn trilogy were never ported to the Mac side. I got these a couple of years ago, but I'm having some issues gaming on the PC that has kept me away from these. Will try to do one day. BG1+ToTSC+BG2+ToB. Best 'classic' Fantasy CRPG story arc ever made. Manages to pull some pretty cool stuff out of the by then stagnant Forgotten Realms setting (and in a way that Wizards never could do with their property, instead flushing the whole thing down the toilet. Gains supplementary award for worst cross-over products in the history of mankind, both the novels and the utter and miserable failure of capitalising on its success on the P&P side. BG1 feels painfully rough after the second installment. Same situation as above for the past few years - tried playing on TV, but font size is too small). IWD - just once, without the expansion. I've had the expansion for ages, so I should probably take a stab at this one at some point as well. Can't remember much. :/ KOTOR I & II, if you include d20 under D&D. Played these again last Autumn, before I had any kind of restoration mod for II. Had them on the xbox before, tried them on the laptop for the first time. Hate not having surround any more, these games are the ones that I most seem to identify with lasers blasting over my head. Actually bought a dolby digital live peripheral for my laptop to get that thing going - still need to get a new amp and speakers... But, these games are good fun, and II will get a playthrough with some kind of restoration mod in the nearish future. Have not, will try to: Torment. I've owned this game since 2003, just before I went into the army. After my discharge, I haven't been able to get it work on any of the computers I've owned (crashes on boot). I guess I should really try to troubleshoot it one day. I know I really should play it. Let's just say that the events have conspired against it. IWD II. Started playing when I got it, lost everything in a windows crash, haven't cared enough to go back. 'One day...'. Also have the other Gold Box Forgotten Realms story arc, the Savage Frontier one, around here somewhere. Also on the list of things to try out... My current major problem is back trouble/mental block coming from office work that basically prevents me from enjoying gaming in front of a computer. I'm primarily limited to consoles, or the stuff I can get my laptop to play reasonably well on a 40" 1080p tv (basically the Kotor's so far).

Sure, couple times in act 1 and 4 I was little irritated with running back and forth, but the reason why DA was overlong to me is because it constantly felt like I had to go from point A to B while the space between had nothing but monter killing. That equals massive yawnfest to me. I didn't get that feeling in TW. I sorta kinda have to agree with Dragon Age having some fairly dull bits. Mostly it consists of every quest kind of running for 'one dungeon too long'. Or in the case of Orzammar, several.

Wouldn't Jacob qualify for that title more? Thane's a frog, after all. That's what you'd think. The Thane threads on bioware forums have been like a 60s Beatles concert with swooning fangirls. Or so I heard. Jacob's gonna be the Carth/Kaidan/Alistair buddy-(b)romance guy, Thane's going to be the alien dude with leather jacket and angelina jolie lips and a dark and mysterious background romance guy. My opinion: I've moderated and later administrated an official band forum for almost five years now. The practical thing I've learned in this time is that geek girls will obsess over the strangest things, and the amount of 'squee' they can put out in their obsessiveness is just... amazing. Somebody's obviously read the signals right at Bioware.

So far the only two joinable characters that I'm leery of are: Grunt - I got this nagging fear he's going to be the MW2/shooter/generic lowbrow fanboy pleaser version of Wrex(ZOMG HE WONT STOP WHEN I TELL HIM TO HES SO EDGY AND BADASS ANDNDNNADANADN) Thane - Estrogen Brigade Bait,* and the most blatant I've seen in a game in, well, ever. Also potentially EDGY AND BADASSsSSSSSSsss to compensate for the first part. I actually had to look up the character's name because I'm so 'meh' towards it. :/ SuZe can go either way, I don't have enough to go on to even have the nagging doubt I have on the other two... * Yes, I'm aware that Miranda is basically the Ms Fanservice, if not the Fetish Fuel Station Attendant. If you feel I should be just as annoyed by her, you can put it down to my failures as a heterosexual male.

Bottom row, pic in the lower right-hand corner. I grinned. Looking good, can't wait to get my grubby paws on this. Metagaming collectathon? OCD much?

What? I fail to see what's dumb in rather playing a good game for 15 hours than a bad one for 50. Oh well, it must be a Swedish thing...

Gonna have to go with April here, too.

It's funny how that works - after they do two novels about geographical distinctions disappearing, they still couldn't follow it in their own game.