Leferd

Kewl. Looking forward to the improvements and the game.

Just stick with the vanilla game for your first playthrough at the very least. I would recommend against modding the game until you are very familiar with it. The vanilla game by itself is excellent. After you've been seasoned, then you may want to try out the mods, which are generally incompatible -as the two big ones: EB and Total Realism are mutually exclusive from each other. For Medieval 2, I would heartily recommend either the Retrofit or Custom Campaign Mod, dependent on whether you have the Kingdoms XP. They were made by a Creative Assembly developer with the help of other CA staff to make the vanilla game more in-line with a more hardcore Total War audience (as opposed to casual fans). They don't diverge greatly from the vanilla version (like Stainless Steel) but is improved in so many little ways to make an already great game...better.

I live in the Bay Area as well, and have only seen a grand total of one copy in all the stores I've been to. Nothing at Fry's, Best Buy, Target, and all but one Game Stop. I was really surprised to not find it at Fry's. Their PC games selection is fantastic.

You know...it's really not that bad. Gaider isn't much of a novelist, but atleast he didn't write the Mass Effect novels. They were terrible. Gaider though, is a really good video game writer. I'm thinking maybe that as a side project, instead of writing a Dragon Age novel, he should have scripted a comic book miniseries and had each chapter's art done by a different aspiring comic book artists within the ranks of Bio's art dept. That would probably mask some of his awkward, virgin novelist prose.

If EA closes Bioware anytime soon, they'll really have lots of explaining to do over the $800 million they spent last year on behalf of their shareholders. As stated previously, EA and Bio are really counting on the Star Wars MMO. Approaching WoW levels of popularity or bust.

I believe Ziets went to Bethesda.

You would have to finish Korriban and then visit Dantooine before you trigger the Leviathan interception.

Devs get paid by the publishers for hitting milestones. Sometimes even upfront. You're referring to royalties.

XP's are relatively cheap (in terms of cumalative man-hours and resources) to crank out. If the numbers and expected sales figures look promising, then why not? Obsidian will get paid whether it sells or not.

BEHOLD. Dragon Age Origins: Bioware Edition $100 US. That game manual better be a spiral bound tome of epic(!) proportions if I'm dropping a Ben Franklin on that.

Josh has great taste in keyboards. I built my computer around the Model M. (1993 vintage) *edit* looked at the mouse. Is that an Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 as well? *edit #2* looked at your speakers. Is that a Cambridge Soundworks classic Soundworks in beige? This is freaky. We have the same PC peripheral setup.

I may just have to pick up the X-Com games.

Turn based huh? Sure, if you consider Real Time with Pause to be turn based.

Steve Young, yes THAT Steve Young, is actually actively supporting the NO on Prop 8 campaign. Which I found surprising since he is a well documented Republican AND the direct descendant of Brigham Young. Go Niners!

Hmm...you're right. I may have been too hasty. The gap is actually closing in. It's now 52 to 48 with 29% reporting in. You're right about the constitutional amendment part. I definitely glossed over that part. Thanks for the explanation. I guess we'll find out how it fares tomorrow.

My hope is yes under "separate but equal" Indeed. Brown v Board of Education. Was that what they used to strike down Prop 22?

Looks like Prop 8 will pass. As of 30 minutes ago: 55% yay 45% nay With 23% reporting. Will the state Supreme Court rule against it, just like Prop 22 a few years ago?

if Prop 8 Fails, this is a very good night for this citizen of the Old California Republic.

That was a very good and gracious concession speech by McCain. Very much like the old "mavericky" McCain.

Obama will probably end up with 348 Electoral votes once this is all over.

Yep. It's pretty much as over as it can be, without actually being over. With all due respect to Yogi Berra, of course. =) ... Ok World, do you loves us again yet?

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/ As of this typing: Electoral Votes Obama 346.5 McCain 191.5 Popular Vote Obama 52.0% McCain 46.1% Win Percentage Obama 98.1% McCain 1.9% Senate Seats Held Democrats 57.1 Republicans 40.9

Being 3D and having top down views are not mutually exclusive. Look at the Total War Series. Otherwise, I totally agree with you.

Well, top down/isometric is a bit dated when compared to the current 3D age. Just saying...

Very positive Review from the always reliable Tom Chick. But the real storyline here is how you develop your character and navigate the choices. This is what makes Fallout 3 a great RPG. It's got plenty of meticulous stats and picky skill checks, but what sets it apart is the way you navigate the moral geography. Who do you help or hurt, and how do you do it? That's the far more compelling part of the storyline, and it's the bulk of the character development, even more than which perk you take when you level up (which is also pretty compelling). In this regard, Fallout 3 is very much like the games of Obsidian and Black Isle, but without their dated top-down contrivances.