Zoraptor

And GSC games added too. I always meant to check out Cossacks as it sold an amazing number of copies for a game most would never have heard of. Probably means Stalker(s) are coming as well.

My french is reasonable. I never got the hang of thinking in it though so I was always better at understanding it than speaking it. As a consequence (and from the latin) I can generally get the idea of what is being said in any romance language with a bit of concentration and if it isn't said too quickly. My german is enough to tourist, no more. My latin is rusty. It was probably my favourite language, even if it is of limited practical use. Everything else consists of being able to say 'hello' 'goodbye' 'thanks' random things that amuse me and stuck in my mind (japanese for hot dog, ice cream) and fairly random maori phrases- though I do have good pronunciation at least.

It's certainly an explanation for deciding to stand in front of an SS banner and photograph yourself, though it would probably be a better explanation for peeing on corpses (since objectification of others is one of the main factors of numerous mental disorders like psychopathy). Moronism is probably a better explanation for both, at least the photographing part, in the absence of other evidence of mental instability though.

It's all a domestic smokescreen. The Argentine claim effectively is that "the bishop of rome said so 5 centuries ago! The 'real' colonial master (Spain) claimed them! The americans beat us up then the brits stole them! Any of the above at various times!". Beating the Argies in a war fought for them is easily enough for a it to be de jure ownership rather than a de facto claim, and always has been. Mikael Sakashvili will invade in a bout of poor geographical knowledge, due to 'strong historical links' dating back to Stalin doodling on a map in a drunken stupor sometime in 1932. All will go well until his army notices penguin in the sea, thinks they are reinforcements and promptly runs away. Claims will be made that the penguins had suckered him into attacking in the first place and were on the way to the island before the attack began.

There are a couple of odd things. Crown Authority definitely, I've had zero problem increasing it and it really ought to be hard work to get people to agree to it given they're effectively voting themselves out of power. France always seems to invade Spain. Disappearing dlc because Paradox don't want their game getting pulled for having dlc available in places other than steam. Also, my King married the daughter of the- obviously highly progressive, heretic and black african tolerant- HRE's Kaiser and their son inherited some land in Germany. I guess it's not so extraordinarily odd that the emperor packs off his extremely eligible daughter to Deila Gabran since at least I was a king, but I only tried for her (with a 'haha, you're dreaming mate') because there wasn't a single Orthodox woman of any stripe or age available to marry, for some reason. Still, my father in law being King of Germany is great for scaring the locals.

I think* it's a guild/ union requirement that accurate cast listings are given to IMDB as it is considered a formal resource, and they're done at time of recording. That's why Grey DeLisle was credited for Alpha Protocol despite her character getting the chop. *Not 100% sure.

I've been playing one of the Ethiopoan kingdoms, haven't yet been stomped by Egypt but I have little doubt it will happen. I'm still very much in "why did they change this, how do you do this" mode at the moment though. Harold Godwinson is still king of England after William the Asterisks copped an arrow in the eye in a nice reversal of history, so I've not played long in game time. I'll probably try an Irish minor next, as they were always good fun in the original CK if you didn't get smacked early.

Heh, I bought Crusader Kings 2 off Gamersgate, then used the bonus blue coins to buy DLC like some hapless 12 year old consoler with poor impulse control. But at least I've had the game for 12+ hours even if I were asleep for a lot of them. Wrong way around. Again. Steam pulled the EA titles, not EA, FACT r00fles. I'm still somewhat amused at the front of a company offering steamworks doing it because someone had the temerity to want to bundle a dlc handling platform on their service given that the whole point of steamworks is to get their dlc handling platform installed on and with as much software as possible.

Thank god his character hasn't changed during the trilogy. Best renegade Shephard quote ever: "We'll need more bodybags". Shame it was from a satire interview rather than the game. Renegade shep is always best served with a healthy side of ham and cheese, Starship Troopers movie (minus Casper Van Serious Business) style.

I suggested that as a possibility only about a dozen or so posts ago, as apparently did Enoch, at least, previous with no prior knowledge. I don't think it can classify as a retcon under those conditions, especially as there were hints at it from the start (those oh so subtle close ups on Miranda's ass TIM's eyes).

Nah, he's right. Disrespecting corpses is something people of all nationalities do, if they're sufficiently angry/ hyped/ scared/ conditioned/ stupid. They should be run out of the military on a rail, but that's mainly because they are clearly just too stupid (hey guys, let's pose as we pee on corpses/ build nude prisoner pyramids/ stand in front of SS flags, it'll be a sweet memento!) to be away from mummy and daddy, let alone put in charge of weaponry. That's not just a US problem, it just tends to be more newsworthy when it is their problem. If you want something to get grumpy about Hadaitha being worthy of a 3 month suspended sentence would be a better target, because that required extended malice rather than being potentially a one off nervous reaction or some hick ignorami posing in front of 'cool' symbols.

You're a bit hung up on the charity thing. I'd tend to look at it as being similar to tipping*. You liked their games, you want more of them. You can't (realistically) go into EB/ Gamestop and leave an extra $10 for them there. I know there are plenty of games that I'm positively embarrassed about paying so little for given the amount of enjoyment I've got out of them. Usually I try and reward by buying their next game at full price, but that option ain't always available. There's no guarantee when tipping that you'll be back, nor that the service you get next time will also be exemplary. But that doesn't make it charity, it's an acknowledgement of quality service rendered against the expectation that further quality will be rendered in the future. *Non US style tipping that is, where it isn't effectively mandatory and an expected cost.

I'm not really a great fan of ME2 by any means and it's quite an achievement to get me sounding like I am, but really, people need to learn what the difference is between legitimate criticism and personal opinion, and between legitimate criticism and carping about standard gaming conventions, and when they overlap. This is something I wish most gaming journalists would get the gist of as well, to be frank. For example, if you're going to complain about Shephard being a moron, then that standard needs to applied evenhandedly, and by that standard just about every protagonist in a game is a moron. JC Denton? Joined a front for a government/ industrial conspiracy responsible for most of the problems of the world. Moron. Dude from System Shock? Hmm, I'll turn an AI into a psychopath on the whim of a power hungry corrupt exec, nothing will go wrong! Cretin. BG2? Sure Yoshimo, join the party, we'll follow you to see your friends, what, you're betraying me? Clown. Fallout? Sure I'll fetch your waterchip, I'm sure you'll be super grateful Mr Overseer since you ain't by any means an insular domineering git. Doofus. 95% of cinematic fps? Sure, I'll walk into this telegraphed trap, what else am I to do, stand around forever twiddling my thumbs waiting for them to patch intelligence into the plot? If you give that sort of analysis you're completely missing the point of gaming- there's effectively an infinite supply of games, if you don't like a game that's fine, but you're almost certainly better off just forgetting about it and playing something you do like. I think Oblivion is the worst game I've ever played (oh yes, literally) with the possible exception of the NWN OC. I think I've spent time writing about why I dislike it once in total, as a response to someone who asked me directly why. I didn't like the game, I know Beth wouldn't listen to why I don't like the game and I know lots of people did like it. The only result possible is a pointless back-to-forth trying to convince people that they didn't really like something, they just thought they did.

The evidence in the game is pretty consistent. It makes TIM look like he's lying, sure. Quelle surprise, there. 1) TIM is the one pushing the Collectors as the big bad. No one else (even the Alliance) is very concerned. 2) The evidence presented in game (running from Horizon, losing to NormandyII) suggests they aren't actually a huge threat, militarily. If TIM were an impeccable source that might be a problem, story wise, but he ain't. 3) They may be a threat in other ways. Ironically evidence suggests they may be more of a threat to large, mixed, concentrations of aliens (per the Omega plague) than large concentrations of humans. It isn't even (that) contrived that Shephard gets lead around by the nose by TIM. He spent most of ME1 doing random quests on the word of random people, potentially including such heights of perspicacity as being manipulated by a blue chick mafiosa into bumping off two rival underworld kingpins.

Romney strikes me as the Republican equivalent to John Kerry. A candidate who almost nobody has any real enthusiasm for, except for the belief that he's "electable" while the other candidates aren't- and that he isn't the much loathed incumbent.

Ubi didn't make their own DRM prior to Uplay (and even then they tended to bung Tages on for good measure). They used Safedisc then Starforce then SecuROM then Tages (pretty sure it's an old gen1/ 32bit Tages on BG&E), then Tages and Uplay. And at various times, no DRM at all, not even a disc check. I've said it before, but I will never ever understand what Ubisoft intends with their DRM schemes. It's a perfect storm of alternating obnoxious heavyhandedness and poorly explained and dreadfully underpublicised lighthandedness. And their record for fixing old broken DRM is utterly abysmal.

The combo of Bioware, 360 and UE3 made Yvonne StraHOTski look a bit peculiar. What hope for a mere mortal?

There definitely was a mod to disable it. Never understood the complaints about it myself. Worked well to stop rest spamming and introduced some interesting mechanics. Probably best not to discuss it further though I guess, as there would be inevitable spoilers.

That seems to be primarily shlock space opera staple- Earth is in Danger, Stay Tuned For More!!! though if I play ME2 again some time I may pay a bit more attention to who is talking about Earth being hit and what they say exactly, and whether it comes from TIM directly or indirectly. Otherwise, the Collector's plan seemed to be the far more sensible kill off all the aliens on Omega and hit there next, rather than Earth. That would certainly make more sense given the Collector's apparent weakness at direct confrontation.

Neither are plot holes, the second is pure opinion. I'd say there's actually plenty of in game evidence that the Collector ship is not that great- it runs away from the few fixed guns necessary to defend a small colony like Horizon, for example. It had zero chance of hitting a well defended target even on in game evidence, thus things like the plague on Omega to kill off the non humans and get lots of vorcha there. The circumstances under which you fight it are almost polar opposite from the first time, you're in a larger and better armed ship even by default, and they're the ones surprised. If it were a plot hole it would be pretty much identical to the working for Cerberus one- you're basically just believing what TIM says about the collectors being OMTG teh big threat!!one!1!! even despite knowing that he's utterly amoral and completely untrustworthy, and later knowing that he set Horizon up in the first place. I'm slightly reticent to speculate given that the game has leaked, but I'd go so far as to suggest it may have been a case of one reaper servant using you to eliminate another reaper servant.

Only one of those (working with Cerberus) is a genuine plothole, the rest is just stuff you didn't like. That's just the direction they chose to take, much as Obsidian developed K2 around having to have Kreia until the plot demanded she go, even if you didn't trust her. Your only knowledge that Kreia is no longer a sith comes from Kreia herself, your only knowledge that TIM has humanity's best interests at heart comes from him etc. I'm no fan of how they chose to accomplish their plot as it is at best clunky, but then again lots of game plots have decidedly clunky aspects precisely because without them the story would not exist. It is more clunky than K2 because it is a direct sequel using Shephard, but I think I can safely say that everyone has seen people who absolutely loathe the idea that Kreia cannot be spaced in K2 as soon as you leave Peragus- not all called Volourn, either- and that that complaint is fundamentally the same as that applied to working for Cerberus; that it's a plot contrivance in order to tell the story. My big list of criticisms for ME2 would be: Cerberus (plothole), too many loyalty missions (personal preference), gob smackingly awful final boss (fundamental and absolute irrefutable truth), gameplay which was too frequently overly popamole (personal preference).

I have to disagree at least partly and that's despite also finding the overreliance on character related side plots irritating. The loyalty mechanic worked fine, some of them certainly could have been better handled in terms of how the loyalty or lack thereof paid off but most had a reasonable reason for the increased performance. Have to agree with Nepenthe, there aren't really gaping plot holes in ME2. The oversupply of loyalty missions results in a rather poorly integrated (or perhaps poorly paced might be better) and rather underdeveloped plot, but it makes reasonably coherent internal sense despite that. The only plot holes are introduced in the context of it being part of a series and your likely antipathy to Cerberus from ME1. Even then I'm willing to cut it some slack with the proviso that they should really have found a better way, given that I don't get upset at Kreia being a forced companion in K2 when you can find out almost immediately that she's a sith.

It is fixed. It works fine on modern hardware out of the box, er, so to speak, which is all they ever do. As I said, there's good reason for not bundling third party fixes for things like widescreen (copyright, security issues, support) and it's well outside their scope to do it themselves. They've fixed the installer borking itself on any NT based OS if you didn't know switch-fu and the game dying on any processor with HT enabled (plus the codec issues with movies, albeit belatedly) and that's all they needed to for it to work.

Multicore is fixed (heh, all it needs is something like "imagecfg thief.exe 0 0" from a DOSprompt iirc) but just about nothing else is, no widescreen/ddfix etc. I understand why as bundling what are effectively mods opens a can of worms on the support and licencing side but there are a lot of complaints about it.

Was this deliberate? Rand Paul = Ron Paul's son, so I expect he was named deliberately. He's currently a senator new entrant from 2010, iirc.