BruceVC

You really need to read article Iucounu, you are demonstrating exactly what the article says that when people that faced with irrefutable facts they rationalize there belief and are incapable of reason, its fascinating to watch as you try to explain your view. I understand this is a defense mechanism as to accept another perspective would undermine everything you believe and what you believe is what defines you But I have heard a new one in this argument and I have to say its a good one. So now we can't ever use science and how we know the world operates in debates around creationism vs evolution because how do we know that some sort of divine power hasn't just recreated science as we know it? Awesome I like it, so in fact how do we know that maybe 2000 years we all lived in some sort of Alice in Wonderland universe where we all had wings and mushrooms could speak? Your rejection of the foundation of how everything works and can be proven is genius and makes for exciting historical debates.

Do you want a real answer or is that statement more rhetorical?

"Iron Bull" Nice, I have always felt that Bioware could develop there relationship arcs in different ways. The concept of RPG porn in there games is intriguing?

Walsie I have never asked you this but what do you do for a living?

Then it might be moving to watch, change one's perspective, force a shift in ideas. Ew. Doesn't bear consideration. To me it doesn't matter if there responses are staged, the message is true and relevant Be careful, young one. That way The Guardian lies. Do you mean the newspaper? I was thinking about what you meant and using Yahoo I realised it was the Guardian that broke the Snowden and Prism scandal and if that's what you meant then you are right, truth and relevance doesn't always apply. As you know I am opposed to what Snowden did. But racism is a social issue and Prism is more about how countries choose to protect themselves. But I do see your point

Romances in games where waaay before first mass efect and other biowereian games (i hope you don't see BG2 as biowere game). BG2 had romances way before ME, but there where many games before that had romances but they where "plot" related not optional, for example Final Fantasy series. But there where many game before that had romances but they where more plot related and not focust on them even in all FF series from 1 to 7 romance was not so imortant to main plot but more for personal character development. Final Fantasy 8 break it and made plot that romance was almost at first place (but plot was still good and more mature). . No one in these threads are asking for a singular romantic interest. They are asking for multiple choice for different genders and sexualities. Yes I think Romance should not just cater for heterosexual males

Business is business. The end goal is to get as much money as possible. ALWAYS. I have to dispute that view. There are still standards and ethics that every business needs to adhere to, it may seem like its all about money but it can't be at the expense of everything else There are standards and laws they must adhere to but the bottom line will always be profit. Yeah, you can't just do anything in the name of profit, but companies will do everything they can within the rules (and bend the rules as far as they can get away with). Those that don't tend not to survive. People like to sound idealistic, the real world doesn't function like that. I hear you and I agree that profit is the ultimate goal and I support that business objective but there is no reason big business can't also follow standards which you are saying so I think we are on the same page. Most of my customers are banks and financial institutions and despite the perception these types of businesses do try very hard to conduct business ethically. I see more malfeasance and unethical behavior in the public sector, but that may be a South African phenomena

If you think that's unprecedented, old boy... Okay so maybe you can give me an example where a person killed someone in broad daylight with witnesses and admitted it and wasn't found guilty? I know people can beat the legal system but not in these types of circumstances

Business is business. The end goal is to get as much money as possible. ALWAYS. I have to dispute that view. There are still standards and ethics that every business needs to adhere to, it may seem like its all about money but it can't be at the expense of everything else

If somehow that happens it would be an unprecedented travesty of justice. But I do see the risk of them being mistreated in jail

Then it might be moving to watch, change one's perspective, force a shift in ideas. Ew. Doesn't bear consideration. To me it doesn't matter if there responses are staged, the message is true and relevant

IMO, you can't condone that sort of behavior by the staff, because it becomes endemic and soon EVERYONE is getting roughed up, not just the "truely dastardly ones" I hear you Calax and I should see it like you do but I have to be honest I don't. What these 2 people did was a crime so barbaric that I feel no sympathy for them whatever happens to them in jail. What frustrates and annoys me even more is that this is another case of people being welcomed to live in a Western country and having opportunities presented to them that they would never get in there own country and yet they turn against the country that embraced them. There are several Islamic fundamentalist groups in Africa that would welcome them if they really wanted to fight a war against the West, but no they chose an unarmed soft target and attack with the safety of numbers and hack him to death in broad daylight. So once again no sympathy at all from me

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