Azure79

I agree that there is that sense of awe at the immense open world before you when first stepping out of the prison. And I really did have fun with the game for the first few hours. But then after the same elven ruin/cave/oblivion gate populated by mostly the same enemies it grew pretty stale. For me its the lack of purpose that makes Oblivion not fun. I'd rather have a few well fleshed out areas that have their own setting and history with interesting characters than an large open world full of the same stuff over and over again. I never finished Oblivion or Morrowind because there never seemed to be any point to it. That's mostly why I prefer the IE games. I like how each area is different and has its own story and mini-quest arc. If Oblivion had areas like Dorn's Deep and the Severed Hand I would be much more enthusiastic. I personally think those areas far surpassed any area in Oblivion in terms of atmosphere, story, gameplay and challenge. Are there areas like this in Oblivion? I never finished so maybe there are. I tend to doubt it though.

Played through Tomb Raider Underworld and found it quite enjoyable. The camera wasn't as bad as I first thought it was on the demo, although there were a few 'faith' jumps here and there. The underwater sections were great and I especially enjoyed the later levels. I thought the graphics and atmosphere were great and really added to my enjoyment. Combat is pretty drab, but the weapon you get towards the end of the game make it pretty fun. Overall a good game.

Never took the LSAT, but whenever I take standardized tests, I usually concentrate more on practicing a lot of actual problems than studying the strategies for different sections. This is under strict time limits like an actual test. I find that if I solve a lot of problems, most of the problems on the actual test feel very familiar so I do well. My sister is taking the test in June, and she was able to get a whole mountain of past tests when she took a review course. I think they might be available from whatever testing authority manages the LSAT. Not sure. She went through them like actual tests with time limits. She didn't seem to find the logical thinking part too hard and had more trouble with the critical reasoning section. My strategy would be practice and repetition under strict time limits. Hope you do well.

Was that the show where the aliens come under the pretense of peace and then start eating people?

Seriously? Superman and Batman fight it out against Aliens and Predator? I don't know whether to cringe or cheer for the potential awesomeness.

I feel sick after reading that. What would drive someone to do such a thing? He should be put away for life with hard labor.

I don't think I've ever watched full episode of Star Trek whatever the series. I've seen Wrath of Khan, but that was so long ago that I don't remember the plot at all. I also remember seeing a movie where they had to fend off a stealth ship or something. I remember that being really fun to watch. I'll probable enjoy the movie since I'm easily entertained and have no emotional investment in the series at all.

The gameplay seems kinda fun. If they could make it into a over the top action fest that pokes fun at itself, I think it would be interesting to play.

I hope they keep the overall atmosphere of the game a little light-hearted. I really enjoyed the overall design of the first game. I never really go for the picture taking minigames some games throw at me, but for some reason, the picture taking in BGE was fun. So were the vehicle sections.The game was just plain fun.

I never played the original Duke Nukem 3D, so I wasn't really interested. But still it is amazing they lasted this long. I haven't seen a game the with 3D Realms logo in years. Was it present in Prey? I don't remember.

I'm all for tighter story and more interesting characters of course. I also really want to see areas and dungeons that look unique and have a unique theme or quest going on, with many different enemy types inhabiting them who don't attack you on sight but parley with you and give you more options to do quests or whatnot. I really enjoyed playing Fallout 3 the first time through, but after the same looking subway tunnel/factory/radio tower/office building I would literally get sleepy walking and shooting my way through them. Even places that did have unique enemies, like the raider hideout or the comics building, didn't really help because it all came down to walking in and shooting everyone anyway. There were exceptions of course. I particularly liked the Antagonizer quest because you could interact with the NPCs and see why they ended up doing what they did. But I also noticed so many places where things could have gotten more interesting. Such as the factory where you run into ghoulified Chinese soldiers hiding out. It would have been interesting to see how the ended up there after the war and what their view on things were, but instead you just walked in, they attacked and you killed them. Not very interesting after countless battles that play out exactly the same way. I also ran into this bar like place in some random sewer with a Ghoul proprietor. The place seemed unique enough that I thought it might be a source of an interesting quest. Nope, the ghoul attacked me on sight, I killed him and that was that. I even tried reloading to see if I could get him to talk somehow and tell my PC what he was doing down there with a bar, but everytime he attacked, so I had to kill him. So that's what I basically want. Less samey stuff but more involved, interesting areas where combat is not the only option.

How much is it for PC? Oh wait, I formatted my hard drive and I don't want to start the game from scratch. I don't think I could take the tedium. It was very fun the first time though.

Watched JCVD too. I thought it was interesting just seeing Van Damme not in an action role and showing the audience what he might have gone through in his mind as the years passed and he got older and less popular. I also recently watched Red Cliff about the famous battle in China during the Three Kingdoms period. Well, I suppose its watchable for audiences not familiar with the source material. I am very interested in that part of Chinese history and pretty familiar with the characters portrayed both in the romanticized Three Kingdoms novel and actual history. I didn't like it. My main beef with the movie is it tries to be too much of a Hollywood grand/epic movie like Troy. From the music to the way the film is shot to the unnecessary love story aspects that they shoved in there, I think it strayed too far from the source. Plus the ending deteriorates into pure nonsense, with the main characters playing hide and seek in a burning building, a female hostage and Cao Cao, one of the most infamous historical figures in Chinese history, saying "Throw her from the roof!". I was rolling my eyes throughout the last hour of the movie. I almost choked when Zhou Yu walked from the battlefield muttering, "There are no victors here." This is of course after the obligatory shot of dead infantry of the two opposite sides lying next to each other. Was John Woo trying to be as cliche as possible? Too many important points that make that battle especially interesting to read about (at least in the novel) were left out and too many things entirely unnecessary were shoved in. They should have made a movie about the Battle at Hu Lao Gate which is more straightforward and actiony compared to the strategem filled battle at Red Cliff.

How is the story? I think most people here are familiar enough with the general gameplay and graphics of the NWN2 system. Interesting NPCs? Interesting combat encounters? Antagonist that you love to hate? Ah, maybe I'll just spend the 10 bucks

Huh, well that's a shame. The Witcher was a good game and a beautiful one at that. It got a little repetitive at the end, but I liked the world and the characters. The story was also pretty interesting, with a nice quirky twist at the end. I really hope the second game expands on the characters more with a deeper story. Watching the ending cinematic, it looks like it'll be interesting.

What other mods have you installed? I would recommend Sword Coast Strategems and the Banter Pack if you haven't already done so. The former makes combat challenging, but not cheap. It might get tough if you install the option of letting mages use BG2 spells like Stoneskin, but its not impossible. You just have to use some good strategy yourself. Banter pack adds in NPC talks like BG2. Some are pretty entertaining and well written. I probably couldn't play vanilla BG without at least those two mods.

I loved Divine Divinity. It was a pleasant mix of actiony combat, magic, humor and role-playing. I also felt the last sections were rushed and one skill in particular was way overpowered. But, I'm looking forward to DD2. Finally I get to be the dragon in a RPG.

This news sends nice warm feelings up and down my spine. I can't freaking wait!

Oh definitely. It looks amazing.

You must realy hate Star Wars aswell Oh, l love me some Star Wars. I have no problem with tried and true themes in a story. I was just stating my opinion that its hard to take a group of rebels seriously when they're all wearing designer clothes and don't' have a speck of dust on them despite the collapsing city around them. Just an immersion breaker for me I guess. The battle system does look ok, but I can see myself getting annoyed very fast with the transition to battle mode screen that is currently is place. Then again no mana and no leveling could mean that there is a cool tech/skill system in place that will make the combat more interesting and less tedious.

No thread for this game yet? Despite my waning interest for JRPGs, somehow the announcement of a new FF always seems to get me interested. Damn nostalgia. I was looking at the gameplay videos from the demo and it looks pretty but otherwise I wasn't too impressed. I think I finally figured out why I can't take JRPGs seriously anymore. The story seems to be beleaguered Rebels vs. Evil Empire, but all the rebels look like they've just come out of a fashion boutique, complete with perfect hair and makeup. I guess a lot of gamers like the art style, but it just seems silly. Plus is the male lead wearing black lingerie under his shirt? No random battles but they still insist on doing that blur-out blur-in transition to a battle screen? Why would they keep that annoyance? The music was pretty catchy though.

Finally. Anything official on how the DRM works? I don't want to jump through hoops just to play a game.

This shows sounds entertaining. I'll have to watch the Ninja vs. Spartan one. Wouldn't the ninja not really fight fair though?

Dark Athena takes place immediately after Butcher Bay I've read. If you really want to play a Riddick game I would just go out and get the first one. The graphics are pretty good and the gameplay is solid. With all this Securom nonsense around this latest release, its not worth the money or time to buy a remake of Butcher Bay with a 5-6 hour add-on game. Or just rent it if you have a console.

Squid sushi is good too. mmm...