Zoraptor

Yeah, they've mentioned it multiple times including when they inked the deal, that's how I knew about it in the first place. I don't really have a problem with it either since they were upfront about it. If there isn't something on RPS in the next few days it would probably mean they've got a do not criticise clause in the adserver contract, but so far as I am aware that's standard practice even for something like Google Ads.

Ironic really, since RPS's ads are all (well, for the moment at least, can't imagine anyone there would be at all happy at them shafting one of their contributors) served via Eurogamer. I presume that is why they are using their personal blogs for it rather than RPS itself.

If you want ME2 "in the cloud" add its key to Origin. Doesn't even cost anything.

Nobody's randomly hating EA. Did you read at all what I have been saying here? Do you seriously think me and thousands of others hate them just because that's what everybody does nowdays? Heh, my dear suomi friend you appear to be Taking Things Rather Seriously. But to be frank, yes, I think a lot of people hate on EA because it's "cool" to do so. I don't like EA nor pretty much any other publisher but it gets utterly tiresome to go on and on and on and on and on and on about it, and you can hardly open a topic without either a Tourette's or 5 Minute Hate style EA loatheathon at some point. Origin is what it is (a direct steam equivalent lacking 3rd party originworks), the pricing is what it is (high, but it will inevitably drop), the dlc policy is what it is and they do do these things for a reason and not just to randomly annoy 'customers'. If you seriously believe raging on the internet will have the slightest influence on that then... well, it won't, you're wasting your time and you'll end up giving yourself an ulcer to boot. If you don't like it, don't buy it, simple as that. End of the day money is what corporations understand above all else.

It was originally Fox Interactive (who iirc owned Monolith at the time) but now; (LAST LISTED OWNER) VIVENDI GAMES, INC. CORPORATION DELAWARE 6060 CENTER DRIVE, 5TH FLOOR LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA 90045 So not actually listed as Activision, but close enough to make no difference. Trademark cancelled (well, lapsed most likely) May 2012, interestingly enough. There are plenty of Activision games on GOG, especially Sierra ones.

If it's all just EA crap then why even bother finding anything out about it? Not just because of you of course, but randomly hating on EA is getting just a tad boring now. As for complete sets including dlc as well things like the Bioshock pack don't include Minerva's Den either, it's usually the goty/ collection whatever for the individual game that contains the dlc, if there is one. The trilogy- as with the games themselves- isn't aimed primarily at PC anyway.

shift + reload page ought to work as an alternative to clearing the cache, iirc.

What's wrong, Infinitron? Found the discuss!on ain't scaling to your level? If you can't stand the heat etc etc It's hard to accept because there is basically zero chance of PE fitting the extremely narrow and- as even admitted by you- rare circumstances in which steam is just a glorified download manager and as such you're trying to get traction on an irrelevancy every bit as much as people claiming there will be standalone patches for a steam only game. Even your own picked source ran counter to your claims. Pointless discussion now anyway as there really ain't anything further to add. Anyone unconvinced either way ain't going to be now.

Presumably they look on the dlc as subsidising the low relative cost of the trilogy packaging. Pretty sensible from a business standpoint. If you're expecting anything else then disappointment is going to be a constant friend, I'm afraid. Personally I'd probably rebuy an ME2/3 with all dlc since it would be cheaper than the bandwidth cost of downloading it or buying the stuff separately, but wasn't realistically expecting it. As for complaining about weapon swapping in cutscenes... if that's the worst 'bug' in the game you're doing pretty well. Completely cosmetic and only likely to annoy people already looking for stuff to complain about.

The fan novel may be your best bet for that rather than a faq, mainly because it presents most of the in game dialogue as actual dialogue rather than focussing on quest specific stuff.

... That's clearly talking about moving folders around on the same computer- hence they have the right registry entries and My Docs already set up- rather than moving from computer to computer. The second quote is explicit about that. You've also completely destroyed your own claims that the download via the client is an inherency and should not be considered DRM, to whit "install the game and launch it once (this step is important, because this finalises the installation)". So you don't have to just install it, you also have to launch the game at least once with your gatekeeper app running- according to your own source. This DRM thing keeps getting more flexible by the minute... But hey, continue whiteknighting steam- and SecuROM Launch Control- if you wish, maybe at some point you'll even get the definition of DRM changed to "something that manages digital rights and is bad, so it can't be steam because steam is good!!!!". But at the moment steam is inherent drm, and that is FACT! pure and simple no matter how much it causes panty bunching amongst a certain subset of steam devotees.

That would be levelling the playing field as in a player more focussed on diplomacy or other skills is not at an automatic disadvantage to someone focussed on Killing Stuff or vice/versa, I'd presume. That's pretty much irrelevant to power gaming per se, as if you allow alternative solutions you could make a powergamer diplomacy build, a powergamer monsta killa build, a powergaming stealth build or other types. I'd presume that what is being looked at is a way to encourage and reward efficient- but variable- character builds rather than specifically kill off powergaming except in its ludicrous extremes (18/18/18/3/3/3 stats with little to no negatives for the 3s, do quests then kill quest givers for extra XP, that sort of thing).

Seriously though, I really can't understand the "logic" behind DRM. I'm pretty sure that's because there simply isn't one. Companies (and especially publicly traded ones) are at least theoretically obligated to take steps to protect copyrighted works. DRM won't work for anyone with a bit of technical knowledge but does work for the casual "just cut a copy to CD" types and it's something that a company can point to to its shareholders as "fighting piracy". Companies in general also love to have maximum control over their customers and drm is one tool that can influence this. At least in theory Blizzard has near complete control over Diablo 3, for example, including a captive marketplace and the like. Note: I actually agree that drm is pointless and definitively so from a consumer's POV, but that is pretty much the rationale that would be used for it by companies. I rather doubt that most companies really want to eliminate piracy though, as once that is gone they have to explain why they aren't making money to shareholders without being able to point to x billion 'lost' dollars from pirates.

But then he says that he has the right to assassinate US citizens by presidential fiat as well. He isn't exactly consistent on such matters.

Unless they bung random but required stuff into My Documents or variation thereof, or require registry entries to work properly. For the vast majority of people either of those problems would mean effectively no functional back up.

Yeah, I'd tend to go for TW3 being the earlier release as well- set team, set engine, set game systems. So far as we know the Cyberpunk game has none of those yet. Even if using RED engine it will likely need more significant alteration than would be necessary for TW3.

i'd advise actually opening links that get posted before commenting on them . it's simply an overview of the AD&D 2E rules used in CRPG adaptations, including IE games. Heh, fair enough, it's a fair cop etc. OTOH of all the 2e games PST probably needs the least explanation since the combat is... inherently more forgiving than something like Baldur's Gate where if the protagonist dies you get an annoying ten second game over cinematic.

Nope, he's wrong, you're wrong. You have for example successfully 'proved' that SecROM's launch control ain't DRM- it's a "one time technical procedure" as well- and your evidence for your position is a forum thread with zero technical information, just a random joe writing a list of stuff you agree with. You do not need a client to install a game, it is not an inherent part of installation, it's extraneous and designed to check your permissions. And again, under the situation outlined by the OP any additional content or patching would absolutely require steam since there would not be a genuinely drm free alternative. You'd also have a lot of fun trying to transfer such 'drm free' programs seamlessly across computers unless they're very simple, or you know what you're doing. Potentially you'd have to backup all the stuff not found in program files, and the registry entries as well.

Lost? They managed to take something they had no real possibility of making and hence had no prospect of retaining the rights to and got Bethesda to pay them a seven figure sum to settle. Sure, Bethesda got to write a nice statement saying that they won a Glorious Victory but paying $$$ for something you should have got for free and would have done if you were half way competent is hardly winning.

I'd advise not reading a FAQ- too inherently spoilery. Spider's advise for a high Wis/ Int/ Cha build is probably sufficient; I'd just specify that you won't be able to be a wizard from the start in case you think you're missing something.

Patches, mostly. I believe they're referred to as free 'dlc' but to all practical purposes they're patches since they are free. Pretty good idea overall, don't fragment the playerbase and have more stuff to be bought by them via microtransactions.

There isn't really any way that a sequel could realistically end up being publisher funded- if it does well then Obsidian don't need the money to make a sequel, if it does poorly then publishers won't be interested anyway.

Like many others though I'm replaying NWN2 at the moment, though I expect to lose momentum around the orc caves and some of the other sloggy areas. Finished my ME3 replay a couple of days ago. Reactions pretty much the same as first time, found most of the bad parts a bit less bad because I expected them. End Game Slog was even worse playing on insanity though, mainly due to the combination of context sensitive controls that would seemingly randomly stick you to cover rather than sprint or jump an obstacle and bullet sponge insta-kill enemies with regenerating barriers.

Fanboys tend to bring an almost religious zeal to things and blur the differences between fact and opinion. It's rather difficult to tell if you're actually a fanboy yourself because if so you think your arguments make perfect sense. It's one of those things where thinking you may be a fanboy probably means you aren't really. Personally I always try to be critical- point out the stuff I like and the stuff I think can be improved. Going on interminably about how much I hate something or how much I love something I do try to avoid. The Revan novel was written by Drew Karpyshyn who was K1's main writer and a significant contributor to TOR itself. Given that Lucas infamously doesn't care about the EU I don't think he can really be blamed for that, though there certainly is plenty you can blame him for.

All of these make combat seem like a punishment that only comes up when you've failed at the "right" way of doing things. As a general rule, do you enjoy doing things that are associated with just having failed? I don't know anyone who objectively enjoys cleaning up a dropped and broken glass, for example, even if life forces them into that situation. To some extent combat should be a punishment for failing, if you're not primarily set up for a stand up fight, at least. It's a kill or be killed situation and it is eminently sensible to either avoid it, or stack the odds in your own favour- pen is mightier than the sword/ don't give a sucker an even break. And of course, should you happen to fail in your attempts then you're in a more sticky situation and actually get 'punished' for not using a straight fight tactic. It's also not applicable to all encounters- trying your diplomatic skills on a shambling zombie is unlikely to get you much reward and you're likely to have to use more traditional solutions on them. The examples were to show that you could get negatives from alternative methods as well. If you want to fight because that is how your party is set up or simply because it's fun it remains an option, it's just that there are alternatives with similar rewards so that combat is not automatically the 'best' solution 90% of the time. Indeed, most of the options I outlined still involve fighting, they just involve using some imagination and making sure that that imagination gets rewarded. And yes, I actually do rather enjoy failing at games because I find constant unrestrained success boring. Personally I would like a challenging game that rewards success and punishes failure and allows and rewards a variety of different approaches, so long as the distinction between success and failure is not arbitrary I won't complain.