Zoraptor

Returning in that context refers to electoral returns- ie being elected. Technically it would be returning in the other sense as well since most of those areas were at least Caliphate, but I wouldn't usually go back 1000+ years anyway. There's a big leap to go from 20% enriched Uranium, which Iran has, to ~95% enriched which they would need for weapons. It's the sort of thing a highly industrialised country with a lot of manufacturing capacity and expertise could do quickly, Iran, not so much. Unlike North Korea there won't be active technical help available from Pakistan in setting things up, so they'll have to do everything themselves. Really though, if a quick, peaceful solution was desired the supply of pre enriched uranium from 3rd parties would not have been vetoed. That removes both a solution and any appearance of good faith from negotiations. If the US is going to prevent the importation of enriched uranium then the Iranians only have two options- actually have all the enrichment infrastructure themselves, where it is immune from US veto; or give up on nuclear power totally. Given that they cannot easily import even conventional power equipment number 2 is not really an option even if it did not mean huge loss of face.

If Ion Storm were writing their design docs in french it might explain why DX and Anachronox were delayed, and go some way to explaining Daikatana. The only DA2 gameplay vids I remember had a very poor response- jaggy graphics, big 'anime' style change in combat animations and the like. Pretty sure there were a fair number of stills released first. Anything done in Frostbite should at least look a whole lot better.

Atari is in receivership which may well be the ultimate problem, as some sort of royalties stoush seems likely. I suspect if it was Hasbro then it'd be gone off steam as well, since last time there were problems with Hasbro the D&D games disappeared from everywhere.

But ecept the portraits, BG2 was BG+. That's how a sequel is made. Keep what's good, work on the areas that were problematic, and just add more content. You don't fix things that aren't broken (replacing them with broken things no less), nor you reinvent the wheel making your game unrecognizable.Especially when you are on a tight budget and short time to make the game. See, I agree with you with respect to DAO vs DA2, too much baby was thrown out with bathwater, it was a relatively quick sequel etc. Having said that, there was no need to change the look of the characters from BG1-2 given that the elapsed time between games was not long at all, and for most of them you'd barely be able to recognise them unless you already knew they were the same person. For DA3 though? It's a new engine so change is inevitable, Morrigan is at least recognisable and, to be honest, 'jaw too manly' reads rather like the old Internet Standards 'elbows too pointy, 2/10' trope which is- even though it's currently one of the most overused terms on the internet- passable as misanthropy.

Doesn't seem that much different than "DA3 vs TW3, which is better and why? Discuss!", currently to be found in forums Obsidz, to be honest. In any objective sense it's all a bit silly and trivial, but then it's not like much if any serious business internet discussion is going to alter the world either.

That was blocked because the nuclear program is an excellent excuse for getting sanctions onto an enemy who is antagonistic to you and all your regional allies. Remove the nukular threat and it gets very difficult to justify sanctions, and you end up with a Cuba type situation where nobody else bothers. Can't say that I really agree with a lot of other stuff either. Turkey is not the natural leader, it's not Arab, is an old colonial power not remembered overly fondly and has a recent history of secularism that is at odds with the current tide, even if their current leader is a mild(ish) Islamist. Egypt is the closest thing to a natural leader in the Arab world/ middle east. As a member of NATO Turkey does not need nukes, and the idea of the Muslim Brotherhood or the house of Saud having nukes is every bit as bad an idea as the Iranians having them, in fact one of the main reasons for not wanting Iran to have them is so that if they do get them Saudi will probably feel they have to. The Sunni gulf states have already tried to topple Iran once, via proxy Saddam, while even in Bahrain at present no one except the Khalifas is saying that Iran is doing anything, and that in a country where the shia majority is being oppressed without either (western) comment nor sanction- even active support from Britain in terms of riot gear, gas, monitoring equipment, sniper rifles etc. And I'm less than convinced that democracy is some sort of default state of affairs, most of the elections in the ME are returning islamist parties to power, which are by definition neither secular (nor even, by definition, pluralist) nor particularly in favour of freedom except as it is defined in the(ir interpretation of the) Koran. I have no problems with Iran seeking nuclear weapons despite its ramifications as given their strategic situation it would be eminently sensible to do, though I am unconvinced it is what they are actually doing since it's the same people as insisted that Saddam had WMDs. It's as likely that they've got sick of having to sell their unrefined oil for a relative pittance then reimport refined stuff at a premium because they are blocked from increasing their refining capacity/ maintaining what they have, and nuclear power gives them that power irrespective.

Oh dear, legal troubles. BG2EE delayed, BGEE no longer for sale on Beamdog (still is on Steam though).

I do wonder if people complained about the new looks of Jaheira, Imoen, Viconia et alia in BG2 vs BG1 as if the sky was falling. At least it seems that Morrigan has put some clothes on, she always made me feel cold wandering around the world in that get up.

Logically, it cannot be. You, or any individual voter, have effectively no responsibility because you have effectively no influence. 1 vote in 60 million for you, 1 in 300 million for an american, 1 in 4 million for me. But people buy into the notion that they have influence over elections because collectively we do and politicians play to that, people like to feel important and involved, and for the health of the system itself it is important for people to feel engaged rather than apathetic. It's human nature again, really.

Gamersgate will have a better deal on D&D titles, inevitably. They frequently sell the GOG version bundle for ~$7. Might snag a backup of System Shock 2 for $5, got a disk but it is a 14 year old disk.

The Fade was one of the potentially better pieces of backstory in DAO, but it didn't really give much of a feeling of danger. Though that's a consequence of having so much combat and it being a long game as much as anything. Day 1 PurchaseTM For both titles, probably.

I didn't have any problem with either the drawings or the sex separately, but found the boobie card 'achievements' rather cringe inducing as it reminds me too much of giggling behind the bike sheds over some magazine when I was 13. It's a bit like Miranda from ME2- I don't mind her character particularly, and I certainly don't mind looking at Yvonne Strahotsky. I did however find the obsession with butt cam and ludicrous poses in ME2 to be embarrassing.

I don't think it's detestable, it's just 100% human. People don't like admitting when they make mistakes, and like to accept or make excuses for the people they like and support. That's particularly true in a democracy with elected officials because if you've elected the guy you're tacitly accepting blame for his conduct since you put him there. How would anyone feel voting for a guy who knifed his leader in the back and threw a reporter he'd been having an extramarital affair with off a building? I'd probably feel a bit stupid if I'd done that.

Boobie cards were censored in the US for TW1, with some oh so arty draping of cats and loose clothing. The only place to get censored versions for TW2 was Austral(as)ia as sex corrupts the delicate minds of young Ockers* and they didn't have an R18 classification at the time. Nice progressive New Zealand missed out as well, for the thirty seconds until someone posted a workaround on GOG. *Actually it was only censored when sex was granted as a 'reward', the Triss stuff was not censored but the elf woman/ succubus was.

Secular, basically- more or less what you'd expect from a typical 'western' style set up. Named after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey.

The west only supported the Egyptian and Tunisian protests once it became clear they would win/ the cost of supporting The Hoz/ Ben Ali and keeping them in power got too high relative to their usefulness. Erdogan has certain advantages even over them (actually democratically elected and broadly supported, leading efforts on Syria, more strategic location even than Egypt), and has a certain reputation for prickliness where any support of his enemies will lead to repercussions. Basically he's unlikely to be toppled and will not respond well to outside interference. There's an english language source for the suicides (and bad conditions) at least. If there were something on resignations from him it would probably be in Turkish and require translation.

If it's the poll I've seen then it was general population, not internet population. Generally it would be the more committed ideologically who will comment on an issue online, and they're also the ones more likely to either swap position to support 'their' guy, or at least keep quiet so as not to undermine him even if they think he's wrong on the issue- as anything else helps the opposition. It's a general observation only in any case. I broadly supported Obama but don't mind saying that he's been a disappointment on just about every relevant front, and there are plenty of people on both sides who haven't conveniently swapped positions even if some fairly strident people have almost comically reversed or fallen silent.

I reckon his head is too small for his body/ he doesn't have a neck. ISTR Foltest and Radovid had that problem in TW1, though that was because they had rather large epaulettes when wearing armour.

There were two women that I can remember. One in the place Rhobar ruled that I want to call Temeria but it ain't, specifically the place with cows and you had to get grain and there was a windmill. Second was a dancing girl that you had to get for the ruler of a town in, uh, Varant. I don't think either spoke much if at all. I think that the fan patch added others as well, as last time I played there were a couple in the rebel camps that I'm pretty sure weren't there in vanilla.

To be fair, as much as there are Republicans who're up in arms mainly because it's Obama and who defended Bush for doing similar things there are also more than a few Democrats who would have been incandescent with rage had this come out during Bush's term who are either quiet or defending it under Obama because he's their guy. If it had been Bush bugging reporters and having the IRS 'independently' decide to investigate his political opponents the internet would be replete with Bu$Hitler's and the like every bit as much.

Nah. They can't have Space Captain Geralt explore the cosmos in his spaceship boinking aliens, they're limited to what the source material and their licence allows. That isn't a matter of argument, it's a matter of fact. FACT! even. They may be able to for TW3, but they certainly weren't totally free with respect to TW2- where they had Atari then NamcoB telling them to have things like securom on disk copies and regional pricing. That was very clearly and quite explicitly against the wishes of CDPR since they did pretty much everything they could to void it. Hopefully that will not be the case for TW3, but someone will be distributing it on disk and their on3 version at least will have to have drm on it, whatever they may want. And when it comes to comparison with Bioware, while they do have to answer to EA it can hardly be said that they haven't had plenty of time for DA3- DA2 was launched 8 months prior to TW2, after all. If both are released in their approximated window DA3 will actually have had longer in development.

A licensed IP cannot be original. The backstory, relationships, world building etc is done by someone else, and a game based on a licensed IP uses these things rather than creates their own. Sapkowski may have created an original setting (albeit with a lot of obvious influences) but CDPR hasn't. The reason to use the licensed IPs is to get name recognition and not to have to build a world yourself, after all. I'm not trying to be dismissive, I've enjoyed both Witcher games and have little to no doubt that I'll enjoy the third. It just won't be original, and CDPR ultimately has to function under the same limitations as everyone else (barring Valve, I wouldn't even include Blizzard to be honest) with respect to making a product that will sell rather than a product that is exactly what they would like. As an example, TW3 will have DRM on the on3- they may not like it to, but it will, if it didn't it wouldn't be on the system at all.

Don't be silly there is absolutely NO chance of a Third World War. I can't believe you actually think this is even a remote outcome? If the Russians do supply S300s they'll be crewed or supervised by Russians. If the west wants to set up a no fly zone (without UN mandate, given Russia and China will both likely veto) those S300s will have to go as they're able to hit targets at very high altitudes and very great distances, and that means the likelihood of dead Russians. As Rostere says, it's the economy that's the weakness. The US (and other western countries) are heavily indebted and only going more into debt, at some point putting the military on the credit card has to stop and at that point it may well become impractical to have quite the global projection that the US has been used to since the 50s. They may be going for more cost effective measures, but they're untested.

Way imbalanced though. Gameplay sucks, especially the economy. No proper fast travel No quest compass- you can pay for one but only on some servers No respec- well, limited to paid and only certain servers Imbalanced economy, yep Arbitrary character generation No respawn (I've heard you get to generate a new character on death or actually get to play an entirely different game, but never seen proof. Might just be certain servers, as well) Given no respawn, the prevalence of arbitrary death is badly imbalancing and unfair Some servers suck and are really difficult to even grind your way to success, and it seems to be random as to which server you start on No magic No race selection beyond simple skin colour. Yes Volo, no proper dwarves Gender/ sex issues handled poorly, sex often reduced to minigames Access to cool weapons are severely restricted Different servers have different rules, and some of the player moderators are certainly products of unmarried parents Different languages on different servers. Sounds cool, but boy does it have practical drawbacks On the positive side there is no DRM and you can play it offline. TLDR game sucks, nobody should play it, demand refunds.

Meh, that always comes up. For better or worse EA has only continued Bioware's direction, not altered it. Bioware did dlc before it became cool (NWN) went console and RPG lite with no influence from EA and produced ME1 and most of DAO without being owned by EA. The only change was rushing DA2, and that was at least partly Bioware's own fault for having DAO take so long that ME3 and DA2 on a normal cycle would have been near synchronised in production and release date- and that seems to have been fixed for DA3. I like CDPR as much as the next guy, but it isn't like they just make the games they want to, they make the games they think will sell. They could have kept TW2 to the same formula as the first game and had (mainly) iso camera, vaguely diabloesque combat and the like, but went for a overhaul. Anyone who thinks that that was not influenced strongly by the decision to release on console need only look at the UI, and anyone who thinks that the decision to release on console was predicated on enlightening the unwashed console masses, cowering in the depths of their despair and degradation rather than making money is slightly naive- and if they really really wanted to do exactly what they wanted then yes, they would do original IPs. Cyberpunk and Wiedzim/ Witcher are licensed IPs with limitations to what can be done with them, their own IPs are more work, but there they could tailor stuff exactly as they want.