Nepenthe

But that's exactly the thing - you are assuming that scholars are "on a side", based on where they were born. That's not serious. Conversely, nobody has suggested that Russian accounts of events are dismissed, just because they used to be dirty commies. What "side" are academics that study economic models in Antiquity on, exactly? The problem with Russian authors is that they tend to have an over-dependance on Russian material. Considering their recent past, the veracity of their source material might be seriously warped (say, WWII accounts).

I'm pretty sure I've known that for six months, or something. Maybe I'm just very good at connecting dots, but I kind of doubt it. Apart from that, quite looking forward to ME2 - preordered the CE yesterday. p.s. Sounds more like Michael Hogan to me.

I liked CoD 4's SP - it was worth the 20 euros I paid for the game earlier this year. Looks like MW2 is worth about the same 20 euros - when I can get it for that price in a year or two.

O_o What? No, no, I'll take your word for it. I'm just boggling at the concept of taking over a fort and then getting a storage box outside it as a reward. Sure, BG2 showed that having that keep wasn't exactly Tons of Fun, but that's just... disappointing. (Still waiting for the euro PS3 release of DAO. Which is why I'm off the loop)

O_o

Stone Prisoner's the key on this train of thought, anyway.

I'm fairly certain it occured to the people who made the decision in the organisation. In fact, I'm betting the "free DLC" concept was a major supporter of the simpler DRM scheme.

And you are able to present evidence that this in fact the case w/ EA at the moment? He's arguing on the internet, not in a courtroom. Evidence is for courtrooms. And occasionally arbitration.

Heh, I thought you were kidding. No, the problem with Garrus' face is that they somehow forgot to add in the hi-res LOD texture. And after a year and a half of NERDRAGE on the boards and failed patches, they gave up and announced that they weren't going to fix it. The other problem was that they subcontracted the second DLC to the studio that had made the above ****-up. And they proved it wasn't an isolated mistake. As much as I like Mass Effect, I like to think that I'm not exactly blind to the numerous problems it has. It kind of reminds me of Baldur's Gate 1. A game that has its main advantage as paving the road to the best sequel ever made. So yeah, you could say I have pretty high expectations of ME2, and it can go either the route of Baldur's Gate 2 or Matrix 2 - we'll see.

Hmm, that's interesting. Either the US and European stores are completely different, or the thing actually works a lot better than I expected and saves me from looking at any nasty points after I've bolted my account to my credit card. Blows As for the rest, Christ. Maybe it comes from buying 1-3 games a year, roughly, but I've so far been quite capable of determining myself whether coughing up for some DLC is going to be worth it or not. Sometimes it has been, sometimes it hasn't and 5-10 bucks (or even euros!!11) for some extra fun is not going to break my bank. OTOH, a game with a 5-7 hour single player campaign is not going to show up in Casa Nepenthe for a 70e price tag.

No - PSN lets you buy what you want with real money and doesn't force you into buying "points" first in arbitrary chunks that are unrelated to the cost of whatever you want to purchase. The Xbox Live system is an immoral ripoff, if there ever was one. p.s. Euro ps3 versio of DAO still not out. Having a rather dull time in a fever with all friends offline.

Whoa, really? Maybe you can influence them to stop being **** and return to their roots, then. Yeah, back to doing medical software!

While I'd say that you're overstating the goodness a bit, I have to mention that it is the only game ever that I've played through three times basically in a row. ODd a bit on it, though.

Same here, and I also dug the a lot. I believe he's (still) the Lucasarts in-house composer, and did the Force Unleashed score. (Which I have to describe as forgettable, since I can literally remember nothing of it)

Home computer, laptop for commuting, work computer... OK, what are the other two I need? Oh, ok, Boss is feeling generous, gets me new computers at work, home and a new laptop too. See, I can't play it on all my computers during that 24h period, I'm getting screwed by draconian drm.

... Edging suspiciously towards? It's hard to get a lot more fascist than the Spartans were, really.

Until now, the only valid reason for not playing at native res has been having a 40" fullhd tv. I tried Baldur's Gate II on that, I couldn't see sh*t, the text got so small. (It wound up being unreadable even at 800x600 at my viewing distances. No sofa-BG2 for me)

Oh come on, there is not a single person on this forum who hasnt at one point downloaded something not entirely legal. But in this case it was actually a friend of mine who gave me the info while he was complaining about delayed PC versions of games. Probably not. I agree with Purkake in the unnecessity of bringing it up, though.

It's funny how some people just happen to come up on all these 'leaks'. You know completely without looking or actually themselves wanting to pirate anything, of course.

vast improvement?? I looks almost exactly like the original, only with slightly better graphics and it seems the enemies responds a little to being hit now, that really the only difference I see.. Let's use our eyes and watch the video. The first thing you notice, beyond the graphical improvements, is the animation has really become a lot better. Mass Effect 1 had the same problem a lot of RTC RPGs had, which is that it felt like you were playing a game of chess from the viewpoint of a pawn - characters practically slid instead of moved. Strafing and backpedaling looked ridiculous, the slow-motion run of the husks was comical, and everybody stood up straight all the time. The animations here are more fluid and dynamic. The second thing you notice is the reactions of the characters, which you noted. Combat looks much faster-paced. The third thing you notice is that weapons, at least the ones the PC is using, are off of the tiring battery system and actually have ammunition counts now. Gunplay in general just looks more satisfying. Asides from the reactions, which we both noticed, the only things you've listed are cosmetic changes.. I don't think that's vast, mostly because I thought you were talking about improvements to the gameplay mechanics. It's a video - it's kind of hard to see anything but cosmic changes, especially when it's edited like this one. Which is why I'm reserving my judgment on changes in the gameplay one way or the other. But hey, everybody else is free to jump into as many 'conclusions' as they want.

I think the idea of Dog having additional talents on the console build was experimented with, but ultimately not implemented. I remember seeing a version where he had warrior talents too, but the most recent version I played, he did not. Flow control refers to, specifically, the actual level up process. It's difficult to click on the little plus beside your character on the console. You don't level up more frequently in terms of experience acquired. Though the game is easier on the console. EDIT: I haven't read Nathan's post, it's possible that the warrior talents are still there. The primary difference is that on the consoles the flow control required that the player allocate points. If they had nothing they could allocate a talent point to, you couldn't proceed through the level up. I have since moved on to other projects, but I thought that we had changed Dog's level up so that he wouldn't run into situations where he had no place to put his points. I'll take a look on Monday No need to bother for my sakes. I'm mostly just sore from not getting to play with BG-cam, so my pain threshold for any other differences between the versions is a bit low at the moment (oh yeah, I'll point a finger at the different release date for the Euro PS3 version as well). The dog situation seems odd, but nothing I'll lose sleep over one way or the other

And people seem to be buying it. And they can't even be console peasants, cos it's the, you know, PC version. What's up with THAT?

If you're referring to me, I was confused by Nathan Frederick's post on the Bio boards (more like borderline freaked out) and Alan's comment didn't exactly put my mind at ease. Now I've read the Bio boards for the "official explanation", and I'm still kind of O_o about the whole thing, but no longer running around carrying a torch and screaming. Edit: the difference is Dog gets access to extra talents at high levels on the consoles, since he was the only character who could fill up on talents at (even) very high levels - running out of assignable talents would have broken the console level-up system (for some reason this is different from the pc side) and rather than start reworking this type of fundamental, they just decided to give Dog access to some warrior abilities when it maxes out on its canine talent tree. p.s. I get it now, sounds a bit odd, but hey, nothing to get my panties in a knot over.

I quite like Mass Effect. I think they've created a pretty solid and fun sci-fi universe and I hope that after Dragon Age, it'll be the next one to get a Pen and Paper RPG treatment (hopefully by somebody really competent in present-day & futuristic RPGs, like Crafty Games). The first game is not perfect (it has technical, gamplay and story issues), but I still quite enjoy it as it is. Looking back, it reminds me a lot of Baldur's Gate I and how I feel about that game: a good game on its own merits, but the prequel to one of the best games ever made. So yeah, you could say I have high expectations of ME2.

... If that was supposed to reassure me, it didn't. Mostly because the differences in level-up systems was specifically mentioned_ Dog getting different abilities in the console system and in the PC system (sounds like a difference in what you get leveling up). Flow control issues kind of makes me think of 'console gamers need to level up more often not get bored' Happily, I'll have some weeks to read all the reviews and hear everybody else's opinions on the game while I wait for my preordered euro PS3 version.