BruceVC

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/08/01/verdun-review-early-access/ Guys in recognition of the fact that today is the beginning of commemorations of WW1 I found this interesting FPS (??) called Verdun, its based around the historical and real battle. I am a huge and avid fan of WW1 but I have no idea if this game is any good. So any opinions from people who have played it will be appreciated ?

Nothing like realism in a game. roflmao. I'm not with you, don't you think love and betrayal can cause people to react excessively?

In a way this does happen in Dragon Age 2. In no way do I want to promote the romances of Dragon Age 2 but this one point is included there, where your commitment to Anders is tested at that one time. Anders loves you but at the same time he uses you to further his goals, up to the point where you can unknowingly help him in blowing up the church. You can forgive him for that. You can kill him for that. Or if "rivalmanced" you can convince him to commit suicide. Also the betrayal by Isabella when the Desire Demon seduces her, you can choose to forgive her or not. I obviously forgave her

I hate to seem to be agreeing with Volo on this because he may be trolling but I do see his point around TV series and the possible similarity around games Take the series Lost, for years people loved and were addicted to it but then after the last episode they suddenly didn't like how the saga ended and that became the talking point and a negative. Instead of all the good things in the previous years and it does seem unreasonable But I suppose its not a good analogy to compare games to TV series as in a game you can spend dozens of hours immersing yourself in a particular part of series and if its bad it can really taint your perspective of the entire experience, like DA 2 did for many people ?

You are nitpicking now and you know it, ISIS is as bad as Boko Haram if not more so because they are a more effective military force. They practice and enforce a completely brutal and anachronistic form of Islam that isn't tolerated anywhere in the world by any recognised government, basically the same as Boko Haram. But I will acknowledge that within ISIS there are different objectives and some aren't as extreme as others, for example the Iraqi tribal Sunnis don't have the same goals as the foreign fighters who have joined ISIS

By that logic, any loss of civilian life is always going to generate sympathy, thus every loss is in the interest of the side loosing civilians. And thus every side with high civilian casualities is just playing the propaganda war. But you see this is interesting difference between Israel and Hamas. From what I am seeing there is no doubt that the Israelis do care more about a single Jewish life than what Hamas cares about a single Palestinian life, and I'm not suggesting the death of Jewish child is more important than the death of Palestinian child. But take the prisoner swop around Gilad Shalit, they released over 1000 Palestinian prisoners for his safe return. So the Israelis don't use the death of there citizens for political capital. Now end of the day if Hamas really wanted to prevent civilian casualties they wouldn't be firing rockets from within the confines of Gaza, irrespective of all the political grievances surely Hamas would be thinking " if we do this this there is going to be a retaliation and cost in innocent lives" But this doesn't seem to concern them? For them the political objective is more important than the loss of innocent Palestinians? And I have issue with that type of sacrifice mentality

Battersea Park was awesome, its weird to think about this huge cosmopolitan city like London with millions of people but then you still have these relaxing and important areas of nature like Battersea. I was surprised but pleased to see the number of people exercising, there were literally hundreds of people jogging and cycling. We walked the entire park and went a good distance up the Thames. I also enjoy reading the various plaques around statues and in gardens, London obviously has so much history that you'll walk past a statue and not realize how significant it was, so you need to take your time and check out everything, We then had a very tasty and traditional English roast for lunch at a pub near Battersea, its is truly hard to beat Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding with loads of gravy Today is a very important day, its the beginning of several commemorations around WW1 and there are going to be several events in London. We are gong to the Imperial War Museum to partake of what is happening there. So now my trip is going to focus on historical events. I'm really looking forward to seeing the new War Museum

The point, Volourn, is that one of the big concerns has always been that DA:I will feel like just another Console port. Well? here we are, getting some evidence of that already. Volo that is true, this concern has been raised numerous times. I am not going to say it is true yet because obviously I haven't played DA:I yet but this was a criticism raised before about DA:I from others

Wow you are lacking ambition with only those choices, I am hoping for it to be more like DA 2....who is with me !!!!!

Oh no there are still loads of blatant cases of extreme homophobia in Africa, so we still have loads of work to do before we can move onto world hunger. But I appreciate your commitment to another SJ cause

Those political objectives being liberation from a racist, colonialist power with a laundry list of war-crimes. I'm hardly a strong fan of Hamas but they are quite easily the lesser evil. Now this is where we disagree, I will take the actions of Israel which are excessive over that of Islamic fundamentalism any day. Just look around the world at the likes of Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram. And ask yourself who you would rather have in your camp? Despite the issues around how Israel has acted now during this conflict they are no where near as brutal and intransigent as the extremist groups I have mentioned. And lets not kid ourselves, Hamas is an Islamic extremist group despite how they portray themselves IMO

Obviously. Promancers aren't very picky. Well if its any consolation you guys have definitely convinced me of a more realistic way that Romance should happen, like the example I gave. I actually am going to start actively advocating more realistic Romance implementations in future. So this should be progress for a someone like you who appears to not like or want Romance

No I think you misunderstanding my point, I am not saying that Hamas is using civilians as human shields (they may be, I can't say with certainty) I am saying the loss of Palestinian civilians suits there political objectives because this increases sympathy and support for there cause from countries around the world

While traversing Ancient haunted crypts filled with Flesh rotting Ghasts? (Ie. the example of mine that you're attempting to counter)? Aaah. No they don't. Except maybe in poorly written Bioware fantasies. This I do agree with. However, this is exactly what Bioware romances is not. They are contrived and feels out of place. They aren't integrated into the storyline. They feel like a stalker mini-game, artificially added to the game. The Morrigan romance in DA:O was well written and was a natural part of the game. Zevran was amusing when I played as a female warden. All the rest of the "romances" in DA:O, in Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, not to mention the travesty of a game that was DA2, made my toes cringe. So if Josh Sawyer want to make something better than that, I applaud it. And if it's between the typical Bioware romance and no romance, I'll take the no romance option any day. You guys have made me think about another Romance arc that will add to the realism of a Romance implementation The basis of this Romance idea is you can't Romance someone if they haven't been in your party a while because how would feelings develop realistically if they haven't developed over time, so for example if you keep changing party characters it would be hard to build Romance with new members But to add to this your chance of Romance would increase if the party faces certain epic challengers together. So take Firkraag, at the end of the battle when the party is recovering and resting in a Tavern or around a campfire someone that you have been particularly friendly with through previous dialog choices, like Viconia, would initiate a discussion with comments like "facing that Dragon made me realize what is important to me...life is too short to not be happy " ( obviously I'm not a writer so this is just an example ) , but the point is the Romance only starts if she is in the party a while and you have faced certain death before I believe this would make the Romance less contrived and definitely more believable. And this seems to be one of the issues people have with Romance, previous implementations are just not believable?

It's a good thing, then, that I have never argued such a thing. And while I agree that haunted crypts filled with ghouls, vampires, the stench of death and the ritualistic chants of Necromancers are just the perfect settings for a romantic story, I still think that you are ignoring the narrative importance of atmosphere and mood in a good RPG. No one is suggesting that Romance should happen in the middle of ghoul infested catacomb But think about facing adversity like that and then leaving the dungeon and the party rests, as the sun sets the party members reflect on the horrors they have just faced and fact they survive another day. Just the fact they are alive would make them more appreciative of there fellow party members. Add to this the reality that the attractive cleric, Viconia for example, also saved your life through healing magic..the personal and emotional connected should be obvious. Why wouldn't you pursue a Romance interest. Yes that would be very reasonable ?

You have convinced me, Jade Empire is the next game I'll be playing once I'm done with Far Cry 2

AC4 is the only game in the series I haven't played yet and it also sounds entertaining, But is it like the other AC games where the activities are always fun but ultimately the same, in other words you can only liberate so many areas or deliver so many messages? I just find the repetition gets boring so you always move onto the main quest eventually.

That's an excellent question, the explanation is probably got to do around the lack of space and the number of Palestinians who would need shelter, but I am just guessing here. Also there doesn't seem much general concern to the Palestinians from Hamas. I have said this before but Hamas uses civilian casualties to gain international sympathy and support for there political objectives

I did. If you don't like the video, why not rebut the points you disagree in the video? Did you even watch the first couple of minutes? Or did you just look at the 56:58 time on the video and that was one of your reasons to dismiss it? Not saying I agree or disagree with the video. I at least watched it to see what it was about. After the first couple of minutes, I was hooked and it was pretty interesting. Okay, I may watch it then. Generally everything Vals posts doesn't offer a very objective view of the particular situation so I normally don't watch his videos. That doesn't mean his opinion I automatically discount but just his video links

Yeah its a stunning day, can't ask for better weather actually. We have decided to go for a walk to Battersea park and have lunch out there. Tomorrow we are going to do all the Museums and more historical sites

Thanks for responding, there is no right or wrong answer. This is purely a perspective and something I am personally interested

Its not silly at all, if I asked you something that you personally supported but wasn't in the game like BHM or Modding support from day 1 you would have no issue answering. I am trying to understand what peoples priorities are But if you don't want answer that's fine

Lets say the resource requirement wasn't an issue, what would you choose? This is why its called a hypothetical question

Interesting hypothetical question, if you could choose between Romance or Big Head Mode to be part of PoE, in other words it was entirely your choice, what would you choose?

Its highly unlikely anyone is going to through a 1 hour video with the title "The Truth about Israel and Palestine". The more most objective people look at the situation the more we realize there is no such thing as one "Truth" Rather make yours points about the conflict in a post with links so people can see where you get your opinion from. That way people can make reasonable comments