BruceVC

It's all cosmetic. Before the sale you could earn game discount coupons instead of the summer sale cards you currently get, but I haven't seen anything that was comparable to the steam sale prices so how useful that is may vary. Okay thanks, I thought as much

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2370988/Five-prison-officers-suspended-Lee-Rigby-murder-suspect-Michael-Adebolajo-loses-teeth-melee-Belmarsh-high-security-wing.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490 I'm sure you all remember that barbaric and horrific killing of that UK soldier, Lee Rigby, that was hacked to death during the day by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale . Anyway one of the suspects Michael Adebolajo has claimed that prison staff has been roughing him up and knocked 2 of his teeth out? Shame, poor baby. Its unbelievable the rights and justice that people expect in Western countries when they have absolutely no respect for the laws of those countries and are quite happy to commit the most horrendous crimes living in those countries. Can you imagine what would have happened to these 2 people if they had hacked a Russian or Chinese soldier to death and were living in those countries? I would lose no sleep if either of these people had an " accident" in prison

"Finland is a small degradated periphery of Finno-Ugric world, historically they live in isolated small communes with too much inbreeding. As result their DNA are broken, genetic diseases everywhere and womens have "specific" Finnish fat and short legged appearance." Yeah I'm sure Nep with have something to say about this

I have been reading about the Steam card system and all the benefits seem cosmetic expect for something that says "You might earn game or DLC coupons" That's rather vague so what is the point of the card system?

DOG EEEEEEYES I think the Two Best Friends Play video of Sleeping Dogs is the best advertisement Square Enix could possibly have for that game. Got Dark Souls (really need those mods, wow,) Far Cry 3, the Mount & Blade series and Saints Row the Third on Steam's you-know-what. Why would you buy Dark Souls, I thought you have played it? I am also going to be buying Dark Souls so apart from the Hi-Res Mod what other Mods would you suggest?

Well, the drug dealer story sounds like it didn't exist at all in the released version. It doesn't, but that was unrelated to anything Radiant AI. They turned off both the ability to kill plot critical characters and for those plot critical characters to become hostile to other NPCs through their actions. When a non plot critical thief steals apples from in front of a shopkeeper it would be "stop criminal scum!" and he'd be chopped to sausage (indeed, the shopkeeper starts saying "stop thief" but stops halfway through stop for the plot critical one); so the general behaviour is still there and the problems at the heart of it remain. And that fundamental problem is that while the thief 'knows' he should steal he has none of the essential context of how he should steal, so he goes to a shop and steals stuff in front of witnesses and in broad daylight. For a functioning behavioural AI that is a fundamental error as it breaks verisimilitude, no real person could behave that way, be regarded as a thief, and get away with it. That's also why you end up with people raking carpets and the like. I find this discussion interesting. But in the example you gave why not just include in the AI "only steal items at night or when there is no one within a certain radius " That type of coding couldn't have been that hard but I may be missing something?

"purge it from my memories!" Come on Alan, that's a little theatrical. Was your Oblivion experience really that bad?

Its a good game and does offer one of the interesting "living" cities you can explore. I like the way they motivate you to explore the city by placing items like the statues in various places. Oh and the martial arts are a nice change to using a gun in combat

http://thebritinsc.blogspot.ca/2009/06/interestingbut-wrong.html Which is true. An AI that is unpredictable is very scary as a developer. For instance, if you think about a learning algorithm for say, a sports game. Lets pick soccer. Now, imagine that the AI ends up having success by literally just kicking the ball towards the net whenever it gets the ball. WHen it doesn't have the ball, it just tries to get it. If it starts to decide "this is the most effective way for me to play," then you pretty much destroy the "soccer experience" for most people playing the game. I know about its failures because I played Oblivion, for my sins. It (or something similar) probably is the future at some point but it will have to overcome some significant problems with getting to a level of realism (verisimilitude, really) where it doesn't make you regularly facepalm. Okay so we can see the obvious flaws so I suppose the developers need to program or consider as many possible scenario's as possible which does make it very difficult to develop the AI effectively. But I do find it exciting and still something in the future that can be implemented to improve the whole RPG experience

I think so. i don't really understand how radiant works. Anyone care to explain? I know I could look it up, but I want an intelligent answer, not some random cyber-yokel. The idea of Radiant AI was to give AI knowledge, aims etc so they could develop their behaviour organically rather than have specific schedules and scripting governing their behaviour. It didn't work, leading to thieves stealing apples directly in front of shopkeepers repeatedly and house owners raking their carpets or staring at walls for hours. Radiant AI was a good if impractical idea, genuine scripting like in Gothic 3 was less flexible, but worked far better. Thought it was an open secret that the Radiant AI demo was specially scripted rather than being on the fly. The average 2005/6 PC would be considerably worse than a 360 in terms of power. How do you know about the failures of the Radiant AI? I find it interesting as I see it as the future of AI in RPG

I enjoyed Risen 2, it will remind you about the old Gothc games where you have an open world to explore and certain creatures you can't fight until you are more powerful

Nah, Planescape didn't allow you to have that deeper interaction and connection with party members that a sexual experience provides. That was the one thing unrealistic about the game for me. The ideal Romance implementation for me is BG2 or the DA series where you can court Morrigan and Isabela So do you think Divine Comedy would have been deeper if Dante ploughed Beatrice? But seriously folks. Taking Planescape as an example, Sure I hear you around Grace but I was courting Annah and I can't think of a reason under the circumstances why the characters couldn't have developed a sexual relationship. I have made this point several times before but I'll make it again. In Planescape you have this person who travels the planes, finds out he is immortal, fights demon kings and meets godlike creatures and has this party of people that not only are inextricably linked to him but are also prepared to die for him. Now you take one of these party members who he is attracted to and she is attracted to him and despite all the hardships they face together and all the death and misery they somehow don't develop the physical part of the relationship? No that's unrealistic to me as far as normal emotions are concerned and how they naturally develop. Nah, Planescape didn't allow you to have that deeper interaction and connection with party members that a sexual experience provides. That was the one thing unrealistic about the game for me. The ideal Romance implementation for me is BG2 or the DA series where you can court Morrigan and Isabela So do you think Divine Comedy would have been deeper if Dante ploughed Beatrice? To be fair though, Le Morte d'Arthur would have been a bit different without "The Book of Sir Tristrams de Lyons" and "Sir Launcelot and Queen Gwynevere" as would Orlando Furioso without Ruggiero and Bradamante... Mmmm, not sure what you are saying but it sounds intellectual and relevant

That does look entertaining, I'll also keep my eye on this one

Nah, Planescape didn't allow you to have that deeper interaction and connection with party members that a sexual experience provides. That was the one thing unrealistic about the game for me. The ideal Romance implementation for me is BG2 or the DA series where you can court Morrigan and Isabela

Pool of Radiance? A game for parvenus and the nouveau rpgiche. Akalabeth is where the old school action is at. I was so committed to establishing my rpg cred that I played it in the womb*. (also, glad to see a certain someone has got rid of his steamprofile, I may have had an irony mediated infarction staring at the DAO badge that was prominently displayed there) *Well, I played the original Wizardry through to completion when I was like 5, at least. lol...good post But you joking about finishing Wizardry at such a young age right?

I never focused on your profile picture before. I love Jon Stewart, the man is a genius. I assume you heard about the Egyptian equivalent to him Bassem Youssef. http://www.salon.com/2013/06/22/egypts_jon_stewart_interviews_jon_stewart_in_cairo/ Bassem has taken a huge risk to his person well being by creating a TV series like the Daily Show, this show is one of the most popular in the Middle East. I watched an interview with him on CNN, I have huge respect for him

Alan, oh my hat !!! You do crack the occasional joke, nice one

Also historically and even in certain countries in modern times the moment a girl was "flowered" it was acceptable for her to be married. So she could be 12 or 13. This wasn't seen as pedophilia at all

Whatever you do, don't propose. At least not yet, ask her to move in and give it a year or so to see how compatible you guys really are

Wow, I like that outfit. She looks stunning and very similar to a ME character

Good question, you don't see many but they are on the increase. But the difference in South Africa is it is completely unacceptable to say interracial relationships won't work due to fact people are different races, in other words religious differences are more of a barrier. This is due to our past and how many South African's really believe in the importance of racial integration and equality

I would love a key for Shadowrun Returns? I haven't purchased the game yet

I think this thread is a good idea and I hope it doesn't get locked I firmly believe there is nothing wrong with being an admirer of female form so if its done in a tasteful way what is wrong with pictures of ladies?

You raise a good point but almost all those things you mention are class and social barriers and those I agree can create issues in a relationship. But if you take all those things away and say that you partner is a different race then there is no reason you can't have a relationship?

I think you have missed the point of the kids video. Firstly its irrelevant in the struggle for equality if interracial relationships have been televised for the last 50 years, we can never have enough discussions or condemnation from any source opposed to bigotry. Until bigotry doesn't exist anymore there will be always " a fight" Now back to the video. For me the whole point is to show us just how silly and irrelevant racism should be. For exactly the reason you mentioned that racism is taught having kids give there honest opinion highlights how when people are not indoctrinated with a certain ideological view they see no issue with something like an interracial family. The kids aren't confused with the nature of the question, they are surprised that people have an issue with interracial families. And that's something that hopefully resonates with people who made the controversial and racist comments originally about the advert.