Nonek

I'll probably have a bash at Dragon Age: Nobody expects the Spanish when it drops to a negligible price on Steam, just so I feel that I am getting some payback for preordering the Signature edition of DA2. Unless it's on Origins in which case i'll ride off into the sunset...on my own.

Is It Safe? - The amoral Cipher sometimes needs answers quickly and has no time to spend examining the targets mind, opening mental doors and tracking down the hidden truth, at such times he uses this fearsome technique. Placing his hands upon an opponents skull he strips a mind of its secrets, by tearing through and sifting out what he wants to know, the victim will suffer multiple cerebral hemorrhages as the cruel Cipher tears into their brain. Each moment spent under such brutal mental assault will result in a permanent loss of intellect, as well as memory, sense and balance being compromised. No secrets will remain however. What Sights I Shall Show You - A southern tradition that is slowly filtering northwards, a bard will sometimes hire a Cipher to enhance and visualise the telling of his sagas, so that as well as the spoken word and music that accompanies such tellings, there will form indistinct dreamlike images in the minds of all spectators that hint at the scenes being retold. This is a non intrusive method of mind mastery, merely sweeping up the mood and surface level thoughts of an audience and refining the images into a performance worthy piece. It is said to be the height of fashion amongst the more supposedly civilised nations. This House Is Clean - When a plague of vermin has become too much for an innkeeper or head of household, he may turn to the local Cipher for help. Asking all small infants and pets to be taken from the premises the Cipher will extend his will over, under and around the house and exterminate the multitude of little minds that dwell therein. A thorough cleaning of the premises to dispose of the little bodies will be needed after treatment, and there is nothing stopping other vermin from returning, but still many swear by a yearly appointment with a Cipher. It should be noted that farmers fearing for their bees, worms and ferrets hold Ciphers at arms length, trusting more to the goodly work of a Druid.

Remember, for each fifteen cigarettes that you smoke, a mutation will occur in the body and mutations can lead to cancer. Or ocassionally becoming an X-Man, but that's really rare.

I've no doubt there are entire reams of accusations allready out there somewhere on the internet, from what i've seen the game could upset no end of all too delicate sensibilities. We all know how eager some people are to find even a hint of their personal bete noir, though personally I found the most despicably portrayed characters of the second game were white men such as Bernard Lordeo. Edit: One still ocassionally sees the naked female drawing issue raised from the 2007 release of the first game.

I can see Geralt's very masculine, stoic and almost chandlerish personality being an impediment to the Bioware people however, they usually prefer (as far as i've seen) more blatant characters and the broader squeeing humour of the Bioware archetypes, Alistair/Minsc etcetera. Though personally I found the important part of Geralt, the personality he expresses through his choices, was quite malleable. Edit: They may regard a stoic, faux unemotional, and rather reserved tough guy personality as rather boring.

The motion capture added a fair bit to the Witcher 2, real lot of human elements, but will we see the detail on such a small level as the Eternity engine uses? In an ideal world i'd love to see such a thing included, and heartily applaud the generous nature of the offer, whether it's successful or not.

Tormented Memories - Some souls are old, they have travelled all the paths that life offers, and one can only respect the strength of their endurance. The cunning Cipher may for a few brief moments draw out the experience of a previous life, and grant its skills to the present incumbent, so that they gain a slowly escalating bonus in swordsmanhip, archery, the arcane, lost knowledge or lockpicking for instance. This requires the utmost concentration that a Cipher may exert, they remain static and sweating throughout, and suffer a loss of stamina every few moments, they are after all piercing the veils of time and death to coax those memories to life. It must be remembered however that there are many new souls born, as the population expands over time, and they have no past experiences to draw on. They Live! - When a Cipher abandons all subtlety and in a rage elects to totally destroy his opponent, he may use this dread technique. It is a severing thing, a mental scythe that the mindmaster uses to tear into his opponents spiritual being, and though at first it may seem nothing more than a cause of lethargy, soon enough it will grow much worse. The target will begin to lose himself, mental attributes and skills are shorn away until the Cipher has severed the very soul of his foe. If the severer does not succeed in his attempt then the target will regain his statistics, just as quickly as he lost them, but if not then supposedly only death awaits. It should be noted however that the Cipher known as Hal the Eye, before he was burned at the stake, insisted that he had seen soulless bodies survive such severing, walking and talking as normally as any other. Drunken ramblings, heretical rumour or an extremely disturbing truth finally unveiled?

I play escapist entertainment to escape from all the social interactions I have to go through on a daily schedule, so this is fairly much diametrically opposed to what I want, then again i'm a bitter old man.

The Bitter Tongue. There is a sect of female Ciphers who have long be-devilled the world, and this is their weapon, a potent unarmed combat technique with which they can fight without even lifting a hand. This vocal technique passed from mother to daughter over many generations has principally been used only on family members, specifically sons whom the users have given their daughters to marry, and whom they consider to be unworthy. It will at first fatigue the target as the endless stream of insults and sarcasm drains their stamina, it will then lead to the opponents party turning on each other in battle, at the third stage the Cipher will cause the target to be abandoned by his party members and be cursed with either alcoholism, rampant lust, massive weight loss or berserk rage. The final stage of the word assault will curse the opponent with penury, so that he loses all goods and moneys. A lesser form of this technique is used by the Bene Gesserit of Dune.

I noticed that the email account that I use with my Paypal account recently started recieving updates, just like my Kickstarter email, so I assume that they'll be in contact with us in a few weeks or months (depending on the content.) In the meantime I intend to Endure, and in enduring grow strong.

A quick loot courtesan tip, you're missing a small amount of loot by not taking everything from enemies bodies (the Kite Shaman's sword etcetera,) to do so either switch manually to their paper doll or just press the big red arrow take all button.

I'd go with the investigation to uncover Azar Javed's identity in the second chapter of the Witcher, mainly for two reasons: One it requires actual investigation and logical deduction, two it can be failed so badly that the protagonist dies, I find both of these features to be refreshing in an industry where harvesting golden quest markers is seen as the height of good design. It also really fits the character of Geralt, a man who has made a career out of playing it Bogart. I also thought that the first little triangle quest you find in Torment was endlessly charming, it teaches you a few of the games systems, tells a little story, and immerses you in the mood of the place. With the added benefit of a tasty bit of loot being uncovered, that's worth quite a bit of jink.

The Gift of Fury - The enraged Cipher summons the roiling flames of hatred that scorch his gut, engulfing his comrades in their fierce embrace. The party gains a steadily building bonus to strength and damage, but at the cost of focus and reasoning, if held too long there may be a chance of members falling into a berserker rage. My Little Eye - The Cipher locks eyes with an opponent and rips all the light from their world, the enemy is at first merely disquieted and minorly affected by the spreading gloom, but eventually the well of darkness in the Ciphers eye swallow all light so that he is functionally blind. This quite powerful illusion sometimes induces panic or fear in the target, but these are uncontrolled side effects.

I personally find there's an awful lot of modern male leads who seem to lack old style gravitas, no real bottom.

The Gygul Squeed. This hideous bloated monster dwells in foul pits ruined by its own cancerous mass and disgusting dietary habits, however despite it truly grotesque appearance the creature endlessly seeks to console itself through copulation with other species, willing or unwilling. It has a strangely childlike high pitched squealing voice, which it uses from hiding to draw in its prey, an endless repetition of the strange word "Wubmi." With its long flabby suckered arms it latches onto any prey that approaches and drags them into the sickening vast bulk of its torso, slowly suffocating them in tides of blubber and poisonous stale sweat. It has never shown any mercy for the poor creatures it entraps, paying no heed to gender, race or species, it only wants to satiate its own sickening desires. In the end they die and rot, food for the Squeed. Strangely enough after this unsuccessful copulation the monster mourns the creature it has just killed, thrashing and wailing in its pits for days or even weeks until the endless hunger once again overcomes it. Then it feeds before the call of "Wubmi" rises again and it hunts for the next innocent, hoping that this one will be able to stave off its hunger. Folk legends state that a ring thrown at the monster will entrance it for awhile, allowing the victim to flee, perhaps the symbol of Eternity fascinates it. Others insist that a mirror held up to the creatures gaze will reduce it into a pile of salt water. However most folk are wise enough to run for safety when hearing the endless beseeching cries of "Wubmi" echoing over the land, for not even monsters of great power, evil and strength care to endure its vile presence.

Yeah bring on disease and poisons, nice way to knock a confident party off their high horses, visibly show them the danger inherent through interaction with the afflicted. If they don't take sensible (and sometimes harsh) precautions, then feel free to decimate the party. Oh and those plague doctors with the masked snouts full of pleasant smelling herbs always look so oddly threatening.

It was an old text adventure called "Warlord" that cast you as a Pict fighting to prevent a roman opponent from winning a challenge, that would decide the fate of Pictland.

One thing I hope they continue to prioritise is making their games subtle in the presentation of the story, such as all the hints to the identity of the tower mages wife and apprentice, and the identity of Loredo's mother. Have actual choice and consequence built in, such as the investigation of Azar Javed in act two, where you can actually fail and die due to slipshod investigation, or waste Iorveth's time and die in a hail of arrows. Lastly I hope they do not give in to the modern trend to include sub par Joss Whedon "snarky" (whatever that means) dialogue, it was refreshing to hear serious discussion and no idiotic forced laughter lines aimed at the lowest common denominator in both games, that really needs to be excised from existence. Nice to hear a fair bit of cursing as well, in genteel modern society we might frown upon such but among the working lower classes of the witcher world this fit right in, in my opinion.

Nomenclature: The traveller in the beyond. Portfolio: The aiding of Ciphers travelling beyond the flesh. Allies/Enemies: None. Symbol: Among Ciphers is sometimes shown as a helping hand. Manifestation: The traveller is not thought to exist in the material world, his domain is the void that dwells beyond the mind. Ciphers who have become lost in the darkness between stars or the mazes of their own minds are sometimes saved by the traveller, he appears as a robed, hooded and gloved asexual being, that silently leads them to salvation. Some Ciphers believe he is a gestalt entity, formed from all the souls lost in their own minds, who have unknowingly manifested to save their brethren. Others believe that he is a god of Ciphers, slowly being born into being, at first manifesting in the heart of his power until he may rip a path into reality. Some say he is merely a fragment of a Ciphers own mind or soul, though every Cipher to have met him is positive that this is not so. One thing to note is that the traveller does not seem to judge based on morality, he saves at random (or in a pattern so arbitrary it may as well be) and has rescued the most tyrannous masters of manipulation and the gentlest of mind healers.

Quick word of warning for any left handed (like myself) gamers looking at dead space, the cursor keys and their surrounding ilk are not re-bindable as direction keys in the first dead space game.

I had the same problem with the lack of english translations, there are some folk on the official witcher boards who've allready done full translations in various formats however. http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?/topic/20967-our-community-fan-translations/ Looks like it will be the last game set in that world however.

I can see it being an ending for Geralt however, always leave them wanting more and all that.

Conclusion of the trilogy.

I Share those reservations, the CDPR devs proved themselves to be one of the few developers able to make cohesive and logically satisfying games, that burst with life and verisimillitude, to abandon that tight and fairly linear focus seems very risky. That said one can indeed hope that they are making something as in depth as New Vegas, Betrayal at Krondor or one of the better Ultimas rather than a consequenceless hiking simulator such as Skyrim. It seems insanely ambitious but then again so was the first Witcher game, just look at what they did to the NWN engine, and the depth of the world they created. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Though personally I thought the engine and UI were the weakest parts of New Vegas, i'd still buy a New Vegas 2 if it was made by Obsidian, in my own humble opinion it was right up there with Ultima 7 in terms of being a great RPG.