Nonek

Has anybody seen a lower mandible? Mine fell off. Sounds fantastic, reading between the lines it seems like the more resources and effort you put in to the Stronghold, the more you'll get out.

If they're needing to clarify the dialogue wheel responses, why not simply revert to having sentences at the bottom of the screen? Was this so broken and upsetting to people, and is having a circle at the bottom of the screen so important? Seems a little illogical to implement all of these extra measures for the sake of having a circle present.

The Fallen. Some warriors never leave the battlefield, the siege, the warcamp. Even when their bodies fall to the earth and rot into dust, they still fight on with the same rage and glee. Trapped by the glut of emotions and souls being released, their own souls continue to struggle, glorying in and refining their hatred and scorn to the fineness of a razors edge. They love the slaughter of their enemies or even innocents. The breaking of the siege when they gorge themselves on rape, the ecstasy of gold and the maniacal joy of senseless destruction. The comradery of standing shoulder to shoulder with their brothers, facing and surviving seemingly impossible odds. But all these feelings are now muted, dull and lacking in satisfaction, without flesh and blood they cannot enjoy their passions. So they haunt their places of rest, tearing apart any spirits that intrude there, and wait for war to come once again. And when it does they strike, infesting the soldiers of the line and lurking in the back of their minds, fanning the flames of heroism, courage, hatred, scorn and bloody release until the unknowingly possessed are overcome with a berserk rage and bloodlust. The bounds of morality and conduct are swept aside in an instant, and replaced with rabid viciousness. Often they are struck down by their own people, who sense the wrongness and unfettered rage that has a hold of them, and look into eyes of blank disdain. Animancers are said to have died trying to bind these souls, futilely trying to control a spirit that cannot control itself, but there are rumours that weapons exist wherein many such souls howl and gibber. Blades of sinister terror, that ache to whet themselves on the fragile shells of mortality, to enjoy the iron tainted scent of pain and suffering once more. Strangely enough some Glenfathans do not seem to be affected by these raging echoes.

After seeing The Avengers last week, I have to say: You've no idea what you're talking about. But hey, even if it was bad humor, it'd be still better than the I'm-so-zany/meme-bait referencial stuff everyone is doing nowadays. I actually like what Joss Whedon does lately, Firefly and the Avengers were nicely restrained, this is neither to me and seems to be exactly what you were referencing Oner, Buffy type zany humour, I prefer something a little more observational and restrained. More Sten, far, far less Alistair and his lamppost licking. I don't really expect any change at all this late in the game, just thought i'd make observations.

Mixed feelings after watching, i'll try to summarise succinctly: 1. The combat looks a lot more satisfying than the silly overexaggerated DA2 combat, still don't like the batting stance the zweihander idles with. 2. Saw the protagonist roll, is this automated or do we control it? I don't wish to be controlling a party and have to manually dodge for all of them, too action gameish. 3. Scenery was exceedingly dull and brown, rather washed out, where's the colour? 4. The scenery reacting to ones actions, fireball on the boat for instance, is definitely an improvement and I look forward to setting long grass on fire etcetera if I have full control of my forces actions. 5. Are these companions mandatory? Obviously the unmotivated and poorly written caricatures of DA2 are not something I wish to see in the game, the boring dwarf and cutscene woman in armour especially. Really like to kill them both as well as Lilly Alan if possible. 6. Nice to hear that the large bronze skinned chaps are included in the character creation, can we create one without the silly horns? 7. Drop the sub par Joss Whedon attempts at humour, they only appeal to the lowest common denominator and are very painful to have to listen to. 8. Tone down the music telling you when to be sad etcetera, overemphasis is not really needed and is a little blatant. 9. Other than that the little music I heard was very nice. 10. Ditch this simplistic Templar - Mage - Veil nonsense and go with a more personal and human story, DA2 was ruined with the forced reliance on this illogical and pointless binary conflict, as well as any human motivations being over ridden by the plot boiling down to a standard evil McGuffin plot device. A personal and entirely human approach is far more satisfying to me. 11. The large map with different routes looks very promising. 12. Unsure about the talk of choices and consequences, they lied about this in the story trailer for DA2 so until refuted i'll belive they're lying again. 13. The chain's silly, drop it, emulate Mr Sawyer's idea for Eternitys engagement zones. Far better and more organic method of crowd control. 14. For your own good drop romances and stop catering to that crowd. 15. Make sure your political correctness is without any flaw, having campaigned on that agenda and rubbished many complaints as the work of homophobes and misogynists, you will be being watched for any slips that you make. The unmotivated, idle, moronic and slavelike representation of characters in DA2 will not be allowed to pass without challenge in my opinion.

Not particularly, it's the fashionable entry that usually serves to goose my gander. To implement the given traits could be a simple matter of skill adjustments, unique dialogue reponses, statistic penalties/bonuses and perhaps increased or decreased influence with certain factions. One wonders if certain races or cultures are burdened with a reputation for certain attitudes and traits?

Modron Mind - You are extremely logical and possess a fine memory and reasoning abilities, puzzles and riddles are meat and drink for your mind. However your emotions and empathy are somewhat stunted, and in truth you think of those who rely on such falsities as dullards and weaklings. Thus your interactions with people on a personal level are hampered, but your argumentative skills are extremely potent. Squeer - You rely on what you want to believe, emotions and passing fads are what rule your world. The illogical and false are as real to you as well reasoned arguments and factual presentations. You are thus extremely flighty, easy to decieve and lacking in solid reasoning ability. You are however stubborn and will cling to your beliefs whatever truth is used to utterly refute them, if faced with a definitive argument you simply change your standing or ignore that in favour of what you wish to believe. You will be able to play on peoples emotions initially, however in the long run most npcs judge you to be annoying whiny and far too needy. Fashionable - You are a dedicated follower of fashion, and thus somewhat of a chameleon as you fit naturally into what is acceptable by the masses of society. This extends to your beliefs and morals, so that you'll always champion what is currently in vogue and treat those who do not as monsters you simply cannot understand. Thus your character is fairly likeable to the common man, and well able to infiltrate any social gathering. However in terms of willpower and individual personality you are sorely lacking, and in truth you have no real convictions to stand up for, prompting dislike from those who come to know you well. Pariah - You've abandoned society and interaction in general, you are quiet, deep thinking, ugly and unwashed. It has been a year since you last spoke to anybody, and you've really enjoyed it, because you hold nothing but contempt for the vast herds of your fellow man. Weak minded, easily manipulated and judgemental they disgust you and you've abandoned them entirely. Free of the pressures of civilisation you have grown wise, and strong minded, focusing on your immortal soul and what is important rather than the transient flesh. You are socially inept however, poorly attired and blunt to the point of insult, alienating the vast majority of people you meet and enjoying it. The few that do manage to befriend you find a companion of unstinting loyalty and unflinching character however, and will defend you with similar loyalty.

Yes personally i'd like to see a recognisably different setting, something like King of Dragons Pass where one has to change ones perspective and conform to the differing culture (managed not to use the word immersive for the sake of those who can't understand its meaning - do I win a prize?) Truth be told however I do think that any setting can be interesting if one invests enough detail, personality and internal consistency into it. This is why i'm confident of Mr Sawyer's view of Eternity, he seems just as interested and attentive as the most pernickety of players, and for me that usually ensures a setting of satisfying logic and reactivity as opposed to the usual poorly disguised modern setting under a thin veil of renaissance fayre flavour. Really love to see a more authentic Viking setting sometime, kenning poetry, futhark runes, womens rights, holmgangs, the quite existential advice of the sayings of the High One, wool and fine craftwork over the usual false representation as fur wearers, those wonderful norse earned names like belly shaker and hairy breeches, the small tough horses that they used, the unique position they had on faith being a mans personal business etcetera, etcetera.

Watched this Firefly series over the weekend with my boy, and surprisingly enough I found it quite enjoyable, due mainly I think to the lack of the usual squeeing humour and far more emphasis on character building and an ensemble cast. However I watched the film Serenity tonight and found it a bit of a let down in comparison, River turns into Buffy, the pathetic one liners are back and the Shepard's identity mystery built up throughout the series is wasted. The Operative was without a doubt very interesting and the film in general is I think very good, but one could have replaced every silly Kung Fu scene with a psychic outburst and ensured River remained a far more interesting character than the usual (and frankly by now cliche) super martial artists schtick. Edit: Totally forgotten about Forbidden Planet, thank you for the reminder Amentep, best adaptation of the Tempest i've ever seen and the effects were totally amazing for that day and age, not to mention the soundtrack.

Just seen the latest render/concept art of Eredin Breac Glas and i've just got to say I think it's appropriately terrifying and otherworldy, a nice fantastical change of pace from the generally realistic armour we saw in Assassins of Kings, you can see why the peasantry are rather leery of the hunt. Nice work Nightshape and colleagues. http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?/topic/36447-have-you-seen-this-yet/

Now that humour I do find palatable, but then again I don't think Mr Gaider himself would say his prose is anywhere near Mr Bierce's level, well certainly not from what I read of the Stolen Throne, no offense. Edit: That horse is humongous.

You know purely as a thought experiment i've just tried to imagine something purely fantastical and with no basis in mundane matters, for the life of me I can't, must be the old noggin failing me.

To be honest I was not aware of the gentleman until recently, though I may have heard of him and simply forgot as tends to happen all too frequently lately.

Personally I wouldn't mind playing a purely fantastical game, something like one of those great old Yes album covers brought to life, all stream of consciousness and striking imagery, almost a dreamlike meditation upon a theme. Something say a little like Journey, though obviously that still is shackled by reality, the scarf people walk, slide and jump according to ordinary physics, the architecture though sweeping and embellished is still recognisable and the lanscape and the mountain are seemingly as mundane as anything else on earth, until the use of the glyph/sound magic is introduced anyway. To be honest however it's beyond my limited comprehension as to how one would go about making everything purely fantastical, and then again not making that mundane through repeated use, I do believe there are talented developers out there who might be capable of this however. Either way I don't believe Eternity will be anything like that however, seems that Mr Sawyers wishes to make a virtual other earth, and then add a spice of the otherworldly to garnish it.

Maybe i'm misinterpreting the intent of those twitter notices and they're not defenses against what are in my opinion valid criticisms of some of Biowares latest output (weak characters, illogical narrative, poor prose, lifeless theatre of conflict, cinematics over agency etcetera, etcetera,) I thought that they were pointed barbs aimed at peoples complaints and their supposedly poor understanding of English, and thus not a smart way to engender consumer goodwill. If that was not the case then I openly apologise, however other consumers on the fence such as myself might see this the same way and Bioware presumably wants as many customers swayed to purchase as possible. Still don't find such broad humour particularly palatable, but that's a matter of personal taste.

I do believe Mr Gaider (and most of the modern world) has forgotten the value of dignified silence, insulting ones potential market is hardly a smart passtime, especially when one must use sarcasm the acknowledged lowest form of wit. Still one supposes that such venting is necessary to negate the recent criticisms of Biowares work, though personally so long as i'm still recieving a salary i'm satisfied that my work is quite good enough.

My immersion was ruined when I got out of the bath.

Lately i've been thinking about dialects and accents, not jusr for the denizens of the world to enrich the cultural feel, but for our protagonist so that our character seems a little more grounded in the world and less formal, for want of a better word. Something to think about for a future game perhaps, a hardy plain speaking Dyrwood frontiersmans rough drawl, a Vaillian merchants exotic but impeccable pronunciation, a haughty Aedyreans sneering contempt or a Glenfathans rich brogue for instance. Perhaps selectable like the excellent soundsets of Icewind Dale 1&2?

Enjoying Space Hulk so far, thank you for the review Walsingham.

Wonder if with their promises to make players choices count they're going to go back and patch Lilly Alan out of DA2 for those who desecrated the Ashes at Lords.

I think that should always be the core problem with armour of any sort, heavy, sweaty and bulky but potentially lifesaving if a blow should slip past your guard in the heat of battle. Whereas very light and unarmoured individuals would have the benefit of increased energy, speed and reactivity to incoming blows at the cost of that chance unnoticed blow being devastating. Didn't know Morgan were still knocking about.

Tried reading the first book some time ago when it appeared in Waterstones, not a fan of Mr Gaider's prose.

I'd agree with Sargon being default especially considering his place in real history and the games slant on zoroastrianism, but thanks to the roll I found whirlwind potent throughout, and a lot easier to pull off than many others. Same weakness as Witcher 2 really.

Amazon's broken really, her roll is far too effective and once you've unlocked a certain attack you don't need anything else for the rest of the game, the map is quite interesting in terms of the story and level design however. I'd prefer the gameplay of Tukaram, and that includes locking on, strafing and backpedalling the same as every character which were sorely missing from the second Witcher, that would have improved the games combat immeasurebly in my eyes. Personally my favourite is the dwarf, but that would just not suit Geralt's fighting style.

Personally I wouldn't be averse to the developers shamelessly pinching the combat system of Severance: Blade of Darkness, still the best combat system i've ever experienced in a game.