Zoraptor

If the US and Europe really get into trouble Australia will follow anyway. They're already having problems with most anything that isn't mining boom related, and if China et al suddenly find that the west stops buying from them then they'll stop buying from Australia and it'll be a hard stop for everyone. That's probably the only really 'positive' thing about the world economy at the moment, nobody really wants Europe or the US to have a fiscal implosion due to the collateral (hoho) damage that will ensue- the exporters won't have anyone to export to and the big surplus runners will find the bonds and a lot of the assets they hold to be near worthless. The US or Europe going belly up would have enormous repercussions for everyone else, and everyone knows it.

I can't see the kinect thing actually being used. Too many obvious ways to avoid or subvert it, too many potential problems. Though at least for once it seems that it is actually a proper patent, for a proper invention.

For reference, since it may be useful as an illustration. I've actually thought that games arguments are useful in seeing exactly how people end up with stuff like the Inquisition. It's completely trivial yet some people (at least seem to) take it so very very seriously. Makes it easy to see how people end up taking more serious stuff even more seriously. Can't say I've had any problem with Boo's attitude, or anyone else's here on this topic which is close to a first for a console war. There's been some mild hyperbole on occasion, but who hasn't been mildly hyperbolic on occasion. I don't think anyone (myself included) could cast the first stone on that front.

A PS3 in New Zealand was as much as ~1050USD on release, and a 360 wasn't that much cheaper. You can build a very decent PC for that (or a slightly less decent one and get someone else to assemble it) though it's more difficult if you're buying beige box retail. That costing was an extreme case but even now if you have a decent baseline PC a very reasonable quality video card costs less than a PS360- which are in the 300-350USD range unless buying a non HD non kinect 360. Really though it's a Total Cost of Ownership thing, I doubt anyone really believes the PC can compete on pure price except in extreme cases like the one above. If I were to be buying new release games here I'd expect to save something like 200USD a year on PC over console just from price differentials and even taking into account using UK remailers to get around the consoles' ludicrous regional game pricing; that and the added flexibility and utility of the PC are the sort of things taken into account.

I think it probably has occurred to me since... I'm not using that sort of set up and bought a militantly mid range replacement for my militantly mid range original card. Besides, anyone who looks down on someone because they own/ don't own a certain piece of hardware is in desperate need of some perspective in life (but that is inevitably where this sort of discussion ends up so might as well get it out of the way while making it look obviously stupid). If you'd like the hyperbole stripped away then for me, getting a computer capable of playing games has saved a lot of money over buying a console. Chances are that if you actually bought a 360 six years ago you will have had an RROD or had to replace it out of warranty, and you will have paid more per game on average, paid a lot up front and had something that is a lot less flexible than a PC. And that is without considering whether you'd have needed Gold Live. If you need a computer anyway then a console is a false economy, especially a new generation one- so long as you aren't in it for the epeen then it's perfectly plausible (perhaps even likely) that a computer is a better economic choice because you'll be spending the bulk of the money required anyway. After all, people don't include the cost of a 40+ inch TV in the cost of a console.

Okay, I picked up a fairly bleeding edge pc 6-7 years ago. Apart from having to replace the graphics card twice (because they died, not because of a need to make them better) , and a hard drive that also died needing to be replaced, I haven't had any issues and it still chews up modern games with no problem. And no, it still runs on the OS it came with. My computer is six years old- celebrated it's birthday last week, I gave it a compressed air clean and a new internet connection as a present- was decidedly mid range and still plays everything I want absolutely fine. It's gone from a (nVidia, since it's so old now the numbers are overrunning) 7600GT to an (AMD) 5770, from 2GB to 4GB and from XP to Win7. All those additions cost less than a console does- going from 2 to 4GB RAM cost less than a cafe meal- and less than 200USD in total. And it's never once had a Red Ring of Death unlike those highly reliable safe as houses built to resist anything 360s. Also what the ravening, unwashed console hordes* tend to forget in their desperate quest to discover fire, writing, abstract thought and the other things that the glorious PC gaming master race takes for granted is that their games don't even play at proper HD resolutions. While I am playing Dragon Age: Origins as God Intended at full detail 1920x1200 60+ fps with flashing bells, blowing whistles and clarion trumpets the poor unfortunate consolers are crawling in the dirt picking up the chaff of mere 720p and 30fps. That is after all why they're called consoles in the first place, their owners need to be consoled over their poor performance. Of course what I actually buy a computer for is to do stuff on that ain't gaming. Gaming specific costs for this computer are actually zero, as I would have bought all the upgrades whether gaming or not. Since I need a computer anyway and there is no way I'm going to go the false economy route and deliberately buy something rubbish just to save a few short term dollars the only extra cost associated with making the computer a games one is- maybe- a better video card. Everything else I need anyway. And I can guarantee I'll be able to pick up a decent video card for less than the cost of a current gen console. I might actually get a whole system for less than a next gen console's starting price, given how much the PS3 was at release. I'm actually likely to get a new computer this or next month, then I will probably put Linux onto this one. Just another thing I can do in the libertarian utopia of PC land that people living in regimented, totalitarian consoledonia (excluding hacked PS3) can only dream of, had they the imagination and ambition to dream. *I did rather enjoy playing BG: Dark Alliance co-op on the PS2, and SSX was pretty cool too, but like Luke Skywalker I ultimately resisted rather than fell to the dark side and I totally do not own a 360 which if I did own I was certainly given and only use to play proper PC games that happen to be inflicted with steam and to totally stick it to The Man I would buy them 2nd hand as well. Hypothetically speaking.

I only get annoyed at bad science if it's both unnecessary and obviously bad science. Something like the FEV in Fallout is... implausible but since it's necessary to the story and at least vaguely possible I tend to give it a pass. On the other hand, for something like the grove in System Shock 2 having reached Tau Ceti V at relativistic speeds or the weapons in the game falling apart like they're made of cardboard I can't help but wish that they'd included some sort of explanation rather than hoping that people wouldn't notice. One thing which does tend to annoy me and is somewhat similar is including ahistorical stuff just for the sake of being ahistorical. I'm not really talking lost Maori tribe invade western europe in world war two with neutronium waka and mecha Hitler fights them off the beaches (that will be $100 for the idea, ta Paradox) which is just silly, but either hammering square history into the round storyline or airbrushing like crazy so as to have nice clean good guys and bad guys.

Russia? Maybe if they could reabsorb Belarus and Ukraine (and some of the -stans as well), but the only one which is even a slight possibility is Belarus post Lukachenko. Else they'll just stay treading water and dropping back further relative to China. They only have one card (energy) to play on Europe, and they can only play it sparingly lest they give enough incentive for Europe to seek real alternatives. Big thing from this US election is how much of a drag the Tea Party is on the Republicans. Romney actually did well campaigning, and far better than I expected him to, but while the Tea Party may be great at mobilising a certain section of the party base and raising money a lot of their policies are anathema to the swing vote moderates who are essential to actually winning. In particular the Akin/ Mourdock 'controversies' while it may have actually appealed to some core republican backers cannot but have damaged Romney by association with precisely the demographics he needed to win.

Volourn is a dirty commie! What would Fidel Castro and Ernesto Guevara have achieved without their shadowy PR master delivering cutting barbs against their enemy? Ultimately guns and bullets are secondary to reducing your enemy to a quivering mess with a well delivered insult. I also hear that Fidel credits his oratorical skills to input from said shadowy revolutionary presence...

One of the later ones actually had no or disc check only DRM on its retail release. One of the reasons Ubi's DRM policy was so stupid was that it seemed to be almost completely random in type and implementation. Most of their always on games seem to have got offline patches at some point though.

I largely agree. What DA2 should have been was the BG2 to DAO's BG. What made BG2 so successful as a game was that it took the stuff BG did well and kept it, and improved the stuff that BG did poorly. When it came to DA2 far too much baby was thrown out with the bathwater.

Yeah, I don't have any qualms about reliability, it was more about whether it'd aged well. Anyway, picked up the first Crusader game plus Stronghold, Nox, WC2, Theme Hospital and LoL1/2, so I ended up spending a takeaway meal rather than a cup of coffee.

"I was young and needed the money"

That would have been Mass Effect. Hence being commonly called the "Mass Effect wheel"... Technically, Fahrenheit/ Indigo Prophecy at least had a dialogue wheel earlier, though ME was certainly the first Bioware game to use it- and it has to be admitted that "Fahrenheit/ Indigo Prophecy wheel" does not really trip off the tongue as a description.

I probably wouldn't be surprised at all, on a fundamental level people like stuff that affirms their beliefs and stuff that makes them feel comfortable. Telling people that they have to make hard decisions now is almost always going to lose out to someone saying that everything will be all right if you carry on as usual, because one is difficult and the other is easy. The whole debt crisis is a pretty good example of this. Some people were very worried about the mounting debt and over reliance on certain economic sectors and ideas years ago while others thought they'd discovered the secret to permanent prosperity. We now know well who was right, and who was believed. I may not have liked Helen Clarke (the previous NZ prime minister) very much but she at least made sure we did both parts of the Keynes equation and paid down debt in the good years of the early to mid noughties rather than raise debt even more, for which she should be applauded far more than she has been.

I rather suspect that the proportion of scientific fraud hasn't changed much over history, it's just that we've got better at detecting it now since science is much more available. We even had two (no doubt left wing, given their target) schoolgirls prove that a theoretically blackcurrant juice based mass market drink made by a multinational ('Ribena') was flagrantly lying about having vitamin C in it, and they were 14 of something. It's hardly like 'scientific fraud' is cut along any sort of ideological lines- plenty of 'rightist' scientists swore blind that there was no link between smoking and cancer for decades and would use every statistical trick in the book as evidence. Somehow, I suspect that is Different though.

I don't think anyone is expecting you to be swayed by anything, much as there is effectively zero chance of anyone who liked DA2 being swayed by you. Likers gonna like same as haters gonna hate. Convincing someone that their opinion is Wrong! happens very rarely. You'd go far better simply presenting why you dislike it rather than present it as objective fact since you won't lose a significant number of people instantly by that approach. There are things that were poor about DA2 which probably do meet the criteria for objectivity such as enemy spawn and asset reuse, two issues I've never seen defended in anything other than a facile manner (ie saying that they were done to cut down on time/ money resources). Some people, and not a tiny number at that, do genuinely like things like the characters and the story and as such they cannot suck objectively- you can still present why you didn't like them. OTOH Is probably just a touch, a smidgeon, a tad overstated in the reverse direction.

Anyone played the Crusader: No Subtitle games recently? I always meant to play them back in the day, but never got around to them and wondering if I should.

Yeah, with the strength of the religious right in the US it's pretty much inevitable that scientists will be seen as 'leftist' because from their perspective reality itself is leftist. There's also the plethora of bought and paid for corporate pseudo science which is anything but leftist. It's a lot more balanced outside the US. Really though it's all just labels people can hide behind so as not to actually address issues. "You raise an otherwise cogent point, sir, but I'm afraid you're a leftist/ rightist/ whatever and as such I win again"

I have been playing Pharaoh/ Cleopatra which I bought on a whim from the mighty GOG and it's the first game for ages that I'm unreservedly enjoying. It's not that it's a perfect game by any stretch but it gives a beautiful warm feeling that reminds me of weeing in a wetsuit Better Days. I'm meant to be playing NWN2 which has stalled after I had no time for a couple of days. I'm pretty close to the trial so I've actually got through most of the slog, so there's no doubt I'll go back to it.

Isn't your example really two checks, though? The [bluff] to believe I'm the Great Zappo and then the [intimidate] of arm ripping? Hmm, problem is that that requires- presumably- two skill checks rather than one which makes it fundamentally more difficult than any single check, and to most purposes you should be using the non existent "Zappo's" intimidate rather than your own. Using an "intimidation" option requires that you both convince the target that you're capable of doing the violence and convincing the target that you're capable of doing the violence, in effect bluffing an identity is the same and not twice as difficult. Dunno really, I'm not particularly happy with the D&D diplomacy/ bluff/ intimidate system on a fundamental level anyway.

Yes, i already tried this and it not worked. OpenGL maybe? IIRC IWD2 used it for some acceleration and the original did not. If so it may end up getting fixed by a driver update, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

hmm. In the order they occur to me, not in actual preference 1. Cracker Not a weak episode in the lot and two of the most memorable characters of all time from Robert Carlyse and Lorchan Crannitch, let alone Fitz himself. 2. Blackadder Still as funny now as they were first time 3. The Muppet Show Watched them as a kid, also enjoyed them as a somewhat older kid 4. A bunch of documentaries Ken Burns' documentary on the US Civil War, Line Of Fire, History of Warfare etc. I'm just glad our History Channel still has this stuff as well as Ancient asterisking Aliens. Yeah, not technically a single series but I laugh at list making convention. 5. Red Dwarf (mid run series) ditto Blackadder. Went on too long and had a rough start, but the middle is uniformly excellent. 6. The Wire/ Breaking Bad Both beautifully constructed and well written. On an episode by episode basis The Wire would probably win out, but BB's high points are absolutely brilliant so I can't really separate them. 7. Blake's 7 Have to pick it, given my avatar. Avon is the best anti hero ever, and the series was hugely influential. Well, in the small niche of dark space opera, at least. Honourable mentions to House of Cards (Ian Richardson/ Francis Urqhart ftw), Dangermouse, Top Gear, Time Time, Farscape, Buffy/ Angel, Between the Lines, Homicide: LotS, mid run ST: TNG. More no doubt that I'm missing.

I generally agree but it is context dependent, for example... is not a good example. In the real world, sure, a 100lb kid ain't going to frighten anyone, but in a world with magic that 100lb kid may actually be able to rip your arms off- and being a wizard capable of doing that is potentially something you could bluff. If I claim to be The Great Zappo who will rip your arms off (with the power of my mind) then the 'intimidation' aspect is dependent on bluffing the identity. In any case there still needs to be some way to differentiate "I'll kill you" (genuine intention) from "I'll kill you" (threat, but not intended to be carried out whether bluff or intimidation) as for all the talk of bad design there will be inevitable situations where designer intent and player intent clash.

That's 2e where lower AC = better rather than 3e where higher is better. I've been replaying NWN2 myself and not run into any problems with AC. Lots of scripting/AI issues, but no outright bugs.