Nonek

On my monitor an update tapping, something to wake me from my troubled napping. And so I did hie to my study and lock the door. Pillars of Eternity Mister Urquhart thundered, and in my mind on the new name I wondered. It shall be called Poe, forevermore.

Fantastic update and thank you very much for the early release of said update. Everything looks very fine, very fine indeed, however my one gripe would be on the cleared and restored stronghold: There is too much greenery present around the walls, I would want at least a few hundred yards of killing ground ideally. The peddlers and traders who seem to be gathering around the walls are to be expected and possibly encouraged, however I wonder what the situation is in regards to local townships and such? Once again very much appreciated.

Theakston's Christmas Ale, very palatable pint, good body and a nice aftertaste.

That is priceless, you can see why the makers might grow a trifle exasperated when having to stomach advice from such barely literate cry babies. When did all this bawling for emotional engagement begin, and why are people so oblivious to the irony of a nice little satire like the Stanley Parable, the game is not exactly subtle in its approach. Edit: I notice they haven't fixed the weird hip and crotch animations in DE:HR.

Oh and may I say that allthough sickening, one may manipulate Kaelynn the Dove quite masterfully. Obsidian are actually quite good at this in comparison to a lot of firms, whose treatment is usually laughably blunt. Somebody reminded me of this in a topic the other day, I forget whom however, I do apologise.

Mister Obyknven, I do apologise but as of the current moment the British government hardly has a pot to piss in, if you wish for reparations then i'm afraid all we can offer is to share in our huge amounts of debt, which means that you would now owe the IMF two trillion pounds or thereabouts. However we as usual can offer luxurious accomodation, solid investments and high end shopping to the respected gentlemen and ladies who have made such a success in your respected native land, and wish to now reap the rewards of their endeavours. The government did contact her Majesty on this matter, but her consort answered the phone unfortunately and was less than circumspect. I believe his exact words were: "Make us Bolshy!" However we all know that the Prince's humour can be somewhat adversarial, and so have taken this reply as declining to comment. Edit: What's that cycloptic pretty boy midget doing in a Nazi costume? Hardly the image of racial purity the Hun wished to project what.

One question if you gentlemen would be so kind. If Eternity is successful (as i'm fairly sure it will be) and spawns a lucrative franchise, will the expansions add to the base game with areas, feats, characters and what have you, or do you envision them being seperate affairs like for instance Dead Money in New Vegas? Personally i'd prefer an integrated gameworld slowly expanding I think, but would not be against seperate areas like the above mentioned adventure. Furthermore, and I hope i'm not being presumptious, do you envision returning to the same areas and situation if you should happen to develop a sequel? The reason I ask is that so few gameworlds now seem to favour slow iteration, where our actions are seen to have occured and the theatre of conflict changed with our passing. Ultima for me seemed so authentic partly because of the impression my Avatar had left upon it. Please note this does not mean i'm in any way against introducing new areas, i'm all for dynamic, strange and striking locales, just that existing areas can be built upon and taken advantage of so that the gameworld seems to expand rather than retcon with every game. It seems such a waste when all of the hard work a developer provides is forgotten, or worse yet is derided in favour of their latest product, rather than being taken advantage of and expanded upon.

I'd also add that turning Marburg, persuading Parker of his mistake and betraying Leland might qualify. Manipulation in Dead Money was rather well done as well, especially if one got a little too confident with Dean Domino. That said I think your idea is a splendid one, and hopefully the new dialogue system will allow us to play a game of verbal chess with our antagonists and maybe allies, without the you win buttons.

Apparently the Witcher games have sold six million units, didn't know that they were so popular.

@Karranthian, that's the one, the compensating for something armour. Pinnacle of the craft. @Tsuga, apparently he was only competing in the foot melee.

I'd just like to add, we're still smug.

That's the Royal Armouries reproduction of Henry the Eighths battle armour from the Field of Cloth of Gold isn't it? Far preferred the first harness he was due to wear for that event.

Intimidation bonus for a worn helmet? The echoing voice, the lack of identity etcetera.

Fascist movements, I do believe they're referring to Mr Cleese's funny walk.

Such individuals are tolerated in Dover due to their exemplary work in deterring French visitors, I believe it's a lesser evil.

I do agree about willpower being one of the most important aspects of the film, indeed it is Conan's superior will that saves him when he stands in the same position as his mother, in fact she almost seems to lift her head giving Thulsa a cleaner stroke. I think this is most clearly demonstrated in another scene from the books, Howard's little dig at christianity where Jesus suffers in silence on the cross, Conan in comparison kills and drinks the blood of his tormentors. A pivotal moment for the character. The deleted scene between Subotai and Conan is rather nice as well, echoing what you said about the futility of his revenge.

Unfortunately there have been many instances of this supposed "honour" killing (I see nothing honourable in multiple assailants butchering women) in England, this needs to be stamped out with far harder sentencing, and acknowledged as both evil and wrong.

I must admit I do find Cultist's meme heavy humour rather enjoyable, for my sins. Edit: Personally i'd assume that in general the anime featuring children is for children, and those featuring adults are for adults, though I have to admit that telling the two apart is sometimes difficult considering the heavy stylisation. I always get the gender of Final Fantasy protagonists wrong for instance.

Fantastic review Lord of Lost Socks. I always thought that the central theme of the first Conan movie was strength, and Conan learning that it is not enough to simply be strong. Personally that's where I believe Thulsa Doom made a mistake in his translation of the riddle of steel, rather than flesh being superior to steel, it is simply that steel is only as strong as the hand which weilds it. This is emphasised by the scene where Conan shatters his fathers sword with his ancient Atlantean blade. As I remember the film was dismissed by the New York Times as Star Wars made by a psychopath, which was a little too harsh but unwittingly quite appropriate considering Mr Howards somewhat temperamental state of mind. Though I don't think Schwarzenegger was an ideal Conan, the film did somehow capture the spirit of the short stories and novel, in fact the only time Valeria really comes to life is when reciting Belit's line over an awoken Conan on the shores of the Vilayet Sea. Making use of what is arguably one of the better short stories. There was a sense of magnificent, bombastic theatre about the film which sat well with Howard's prose, and all told though I find the content troubling as a Howard fan, none the less i'd say it was a wonderful homage to the mans works. One I think he and the Cimmerian of titanic mirths and melancholies would approve of. Edit: One thing I did find interesting was Thulsa Doom himself, as an amalgam of many antagonists in Conan literature the cult leader was very well concieved. Using Mr Jones great nubian face, but pairing that with light eyes and straight hair suggested that he might be of a vanished species, and his powers of mesmerism and skinshifting both abilities inborn to that species. Mr Howard always seemed intrigued by such possibilities, not unusually so considering the speculation about the origin of species was far more vibrant and new at the time of his writing. Indeed Conan frequently tangles with great anthropomorphic apes in his adventures, and some of the Hyborian races are seemingly devolving.

I was speaking rather more of popular media created around my lifetime than literary works from the lifetime of humanity. Even within that scope, of course, there are obvious exceptions on both sides. Sorry if I came across as pedantic and picky Kjaamor, I just believe that a certain amount of horror and tragedy have been present in fantasy from the Saga of Gilgamesh onwards. Even the Ultimas, as bright and sunny a setting as one could ask for, where one is playing as an avatar of what is best in humanity, had some extremely disturbing scenes. Edit: As Tagaziel points out there have been eras which one would curse to be born in, when if the Mongols weren't slaughtering you then you might very well be one of those unlucky enough to see the Black Death arise. Still I agree that a satisfactory ending should be achievable at some cost and effort. 2nd Edit: Then again i'm a pessimistic Englishman, so one suspects a certain cynical bias is present.

I wouldn't say that this is a new occurence in media, Medea's actions towards her own children was rather horrifying, The ancient Greek heroes didn't exactly show their fallen foes much respect as evidenced by Hector's fate. Grimm's fairy tales often had absolutely horrific moments in their earlier incarnations, the Norse saga of Brennu Njal features an entire family being burned to death in their own home, Egil Skjallagrimsson puts an axe in another childs head at the age of eight, etcetera. There have always been extremely dark and horrifying elements in fantasy media, it's hardly a recent innovation.

Part of the reason why i'm personally more accepting of immigration is because as an Englishman I am one, allright my family were mentioned in the Domesday book and have been in England at least a millenia, but still this is rightfully the land of the indigenous stone age settlers who crossed the land bridge from the continent, and share a heritage with the Basque people of northern Spain. Nothing against Denmark, but I don't want to go back there, i'm rather settled.

When I grow up I want to be a microphone.

The dwarf soundset from Icewind Dale was almost perfect for me, I believe that it was the same old gent who performed as Kresselack and the Elder God in Legacy of Kain, Tony Jay if I remember correctly. Personally I always like old insults, swiving and such. Crude expressions in ancient languages are also nice, in my old p&p norse setting one of the characters would in the heat of anger chastise him enemies as Nithlings and Skraelings. Really angry character, a berserk, and this just added to his fearsome aura.

In essence I do believe a lot of this was our own fault, we had mass migration and had seemingly no limits upon it and more importanatly no infrastructure to absorb it. Migrants barely speaking English were dropped off in grim northern towns, allready hard pressed by economic downturn, and with local populations who barely travelled and were not particularly friendly to each other never mind complete strangers from half a world away. Thus began the formation of ghettos and slums where unemployment and crime ran extremely high, and there was no integration. A seemingly perfect breeding ground for radicalisation. I'm not trying to make excuses for the young men and women who choose to commit atrocities in the name of their non existent god, merely saying that we set up a perfect breeding ground for such behaviour, and now unfortunately we're stuck with it. One would agree however that the brave Muslim men and women who speak put against fundamentalism are the future hopefully, otherwise old Mr Powell may have been right, which nobody in their right mind wants.