FlintlockJazz

On the other hand CDPR ignored/streamlined choices with W3, which caused W2 to lose its charm for the sake of W3 being standalone, W2 as a game became meaningless to me which I loved before. oh, you just reminded me. As wonderful as W3 was, I never got over that they just ignored the fact that I spared and released Saskia from Filippa's influence. That was a bummer. Yeah I didn't like how Roche, who was never a big deal in my playthrough of W2, gets foisted on me like some old friend whereas Iorveth ma bro never appears. I mean, do they ever even mention what happened with the Pontar Valley in W3 if you freed it in W2? Are they conquered and destroyed by Nilfgard or Redania? Do they become a puppet state like Temeria can become? Do they just get ignored by all sides? A mention would have been nice...

Mass Effect, Alpha Protocol, and other modern-day/futuristic games would be quite interesting if done X-COM style. Commanding squads, using cover as you advance forwards, or entering ducts... Final Fantasy 7 could also work if done right. I might actually enjoy playing Knights of the Old Republic as well if they did it isometric.

Flintlock, I just want to let you know. This is absolutely your fault. Oh dear sweet Jesus mother of Mary, what have I done? (Bloody good pic though! Works worryingly well!) Ah, the waiting game. I am sure we will know, from the screams that will echo across the world...

I'm with you on Ashley. Even my girlfriend hates her and I'm like "What?" I hear its her racism, though I think a lot of that is misinterpretation of her dog metaphor, people seem to think she is equating aliens to dogs yet actually she is saying it is the humans that are the dog in her metaphor, as she thinks the aliens would sacrifice humanity for their own survival just like humans would sacrifice a dog to save their own lives. Kaidan and Ashley are both clearly little more than just a showcase of the two main human viewpoints in the game, "Tolerant Progressive Human" and "Pro-Independence Human", as infodump characters.

Joke’s on you. My mom is your mom.

You don't like Wrex, or even.... Garrus??!?!!??!? You monster!!!No seriously, Garrus was one of the best things about Mass Effect I don't know how you got through that series without liking the guy. Hey, I said I did still like them! Just found them to also be horribly obnoxious, and in some cases (Liara, Zaeed, Jack) not likable either, to the extent that I would leave some on a certain planet to die horribly while shouting my name... Having said that, none of them were particularly deep or well-written characters in my opinion. They were actually usually little more than exposition dumps with some cool catchphrases thrown in. It is easy to love Ydwin when other female companions are masculine ones. You are playing a party of serial killers. I don't see a cute anime girl in there without being a monster in a disguise. I thought being a monster in disguise was a prerequisite to being a cute anime girl? Or my exgf. Or KP's exgf. Counterpoints: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShrinkingViolet http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YamatoNadeshiko etc. Counter-counterpoint: Your mom. (Please don't hate me).

Are you implying that this isn't what we want? Have you SEEN the valentines day video? Omigod you are right! Omigod I wanted to romance him after that video too!!!

Instead of the Od Nua statue you are chasing a giant Orlan Baby across the seas! EDIT: Hang on, would a Giant Orlan be essentially a normal-sized human or elf, in the same way a miniature version of a giant space hamster is a normal hamster?

Just a thought for all those who want to bed Pallegina: Josh Sawyer is writing the character. That means that when she confesses her undying love for you, when it describes her lying you down and having her way with you, that is Josh Sawyer thinking that up and writing it down, describing your favourite sexual fetishes. You could say that he is cybering with you, and anyone who announces that they romanced Pallegina and enjoyed, he knows what they did. Just wanted to put the image of Pallegina with Josh Sawyer's face in your head. For my amusement.

Funnily enough, the stereotypical Fantasy Setting as portrayed by D&D and others, is not very Middle Ages at all. As one person I saw put it very aptly, "Fantasy aims for medieval but misses by a large margin". Most of what we take for granted for being in Fantasy isn't anywhere near medieval, the societies depicted in them are nothing like it (the economy especially, and I'm not talking about the adventurer economy issue at all but the fact that people have money at all and that there are shops) and thats before we get to things like rapiers, full plate, etc. Stereotypical Fantasy Setting 101 is a hodge podge of many different cultures and eras, and has no real bearing on any authentic historical setting at all. Just sayin'.

In that case, good news everyone!

Multiple dice also cause the results to be more bell-curved. It can be harder for some people to get their heads around what that means but it does tend to be better in the long run I find.

Pop away for a weekend and come back to this...

One idea I have had for a pirate game for a long time (and which I think would actually fit in with PoE) is that party members act like the specialists you could pick up in Sid Meier's Pirates! game, with the bonuses they apply being dependant on their class and level. So Rangers apply a navigation bonus as navigators for instance. This would fit well with PoE, as it doesn't require the characters to spend points on being good at ship stuff at the potential cost of on-land combat ability (similar to how they make sure non-combat skills don't come at the cost of combat effectiveness by having them come from a separate pool, which I agree with). Maybe the choosing of certain abilities would provide different bonuses maybe, but that would be in addition to what the abilities do and not at the cost of them.

You don't like Wrex, or even.... Garrus??!?!!??!? You monster!!! No seriously, Garrus was one of the best things about Mass Effect I don't know how you got through that series without liking the guy. Hey, I said I did still like them! Just found them to also be horribly obnoxious, and in some cases (Liara, Zaeed, Jack) not likable either, to the extent that I would leave some on a certain planet to die horribly while shouting my name... Having said that, none of them were particularly deep or well-written characters in my opinion. They were actually usually little more than exposition dumps with some cool catchphrases thrown in. Oh good lord do I ever agree with you on Zaeed and Jack. I imagine the writers' meeting to have gone something like this: "Ok people, we need edgier companions. Like, really, really edgy." "Like the edge of this ruler?" "No, edgiER!" "The edge of the edge of the ruler?" "That's it! Write up some catchphrases and we done!" "What about hairstyle?" "Whatever hairstyles rulers have. Hang on, don't we need to add in another one of those, what are they called, the things that have all the milk?" "Women?" "Yes, them! Make it a female ruler!" "Hey, we can't leave pencils out!"

An answer I'm used to hearing and one that contradicts itself. I mean, if that was the case, every developer who pours in hours of hard work would get rewarded, no? Every good/great game would be a success and no developer would be closing their doors, this obviously isn't so. I can't relate the gaming industry to all things in life, maybe musicians... Musicians would be a valid work hard and only out of luck do they become noticed. It's about as close to a real example I can get. Everyone works hard, or at least they say they do. As far as getting rewarded for it - well, that all depends on the person's definition of rewarded. Hard work can be coupled with luck, usually with alt of competitors, it's just that. Something I have learned over the years is that the games industry is a different kind of business, sure it's easy to say "The Witcher 3 is a phenomenal game" but what if it wasn't? It would still have those 1 million pre-sales... all because of hype and a great demo. This industry has alot to do with luck, whether people want to admit it or not. Let's also get to another fact that The Witcher 3 was bought mostly by people who had never even played a Witcher game before. Anyways back to the OP's question,an important thing to keep mind about PoE franchise is that they're crowd funded games and only on one platform. You're missing the point. He is not saying that hard work automatically equals success, but that to get 'lucky' in this business you still need to put the hard work in and develop a good game to get lucky with. It's like the lottery: you can only get 'lucky' and win it if you actually play it, but playing it does not mean you will be automatically lucky. You put the work in and then hope you get lucky. Of course, where you put the work doesn't necessarily mean the game in the gaming business, EA shows you can get lucky if you pour the hard work into advertising and marketing instead, but that's a debate for another time.

You don't like Wrex, or even.... Garrus??!?!!??!? You monster!!! No seriously, Garrus was one of the best things about Mass Effect I don't know how you got through that series without liking the guy. Hey, I said I did still like them! Just found them to also be horribly obnoxious, and in some cases (Liara, Zaeed, Jack) not likable either, to the extent that I would leave some on a certain planet to die horribly while shouting my name... Having said that, none of them were particularly deep or well-written characters in my opinion. They were actually usually little more than exposition dumps with some cool catchphrases thrown in. It is easy to love Ydwin when other female companions are masculine ones. You are playing a party of serial killers. I don't see a cute anime girl in there without being a monster in a disguise. I thought being a monster in disguise was a prerequisite to being a cute anime girl?

Is it wrong to admit I like this? The boom as your entire party lets loose right at the start of combat gives me jollies. I managed to pop Raedric's priest guy right at the start of the battle with him on my current playthrough using this tactic, though to be fair I did only have one pistol and one arquebus at that point. Made the rest of the fight a lot easier as they no longer had their main healer, felt pleased with myself.

According to Icantha, "improperly channeling the essence would destroy the machine along with the souls." This implies that you need the essence in the machine from the souls to destroy it, and that by doing so kills the souls, which is pretty dark. You're not just killing people, but any chance of a afterlife/reincarnation too...

Freed up? Or forced? Coming up with idea after idea constantly is going to lead to burnout. Plus, wouldn't you want to work on and build up your own ideas rather than have them thrown over to other people the moment they have any success? Obsidian have made a big deal out of how PoE 2 is the first time they have been able to work on a sequel to their own work, and it seems a big deal to them. Also, more properties does not equal good properties, this model is not good for creativity.

Maybe we just think we are in the southern hemisphere, when in actuallity the magnetic poles have just flipped over as they are supposed to on our world every now and again? Perhaps the Eastern Reach is really the Western Reach!!!

Sorry but as Wormerine pointed out above the hit point system actually leads to more backtracking and reloading annoyances actually. With the Endurance system I actually carry on playing the game, maybe stopping to rest at the most, whereas with hit point systems I either immediately reload or have to backtrack back to town for a resurrection (which is annoying lore-wise, especially if death is actually meant to mean something in the world).

You need to log into the backer portal on Obsidian's website and confirm all your stuff there first before your badges will show up. Mine didn't show up either until I had done that.

Er, personally I see it from all sides, think it depends on your own political leanings and who you hang around with. People often only knowingly engage a person of a differing view when they are arguing with them, other times they hang with like-minded friends or don't discuss politics at all. The most extreme example of what you are suggesting that I have seen was of a (US political party) Libertarian who loved Ayn Rand. Both the Right and Left leaning members of the forum we were on found his constant postings of his favourite pet hates and proclamations to be tiring, especially since trying to engage with him usually resulted in him launching personal attacks while accusing everyone else of ad hominens and dichotomies and the like. Fun times. Zealotry is seldom a virtue no matter what cause it's dedicated to. Damn right, its the polarisation that I see happening that has me worried more than anything else. Trying to convince a friend that going too far Left is just as bad as going too far Right is not something I expected to have to do in this day and age...

I have too many badges! They are taking over the world!