Nonek

After learning to respect every shambling skeleton in Dark Souls (the hard way) that looks incredibly... cheesy. Oh no you didn't...

So this PS4 Pro I assume is going to be a beefed up version of the regular PS4 with 60+fps and higher resolution graphics as standard, are there any downsides I can highlight to stem the tide of requests from the offspring?

I've always found sewing to be extremely relaxing, keeping the hands busy while the mind wanders, and gives a sharp reminder if ones mind wanders too much. It's a lot like marital obligations really.

Last episode of Battlestar Galactica's first season. The fleet need Starbuck to deliver a nuclear warhead onto a Basestar with her stolen Cylon ship, while the president wishes her to go back to Caprica with it and fetch the Arrow of Apollo. Instead of undermining one another and fighting over this resource, why not simply do one thing and then the other? The fleet is not in imminent danger and neither the President nor Adama are unreasonable before this point, this seems like a very manufactured and inorganic conflict. Still a good programme in terms of quality, though the universe and the characater building seems far less well plotted and paced than Babylon 5. How the devil Gaius is going to bring a child to term with his imaginary companion i'm not even going to attempt to work out, though it seems that the organic Cylons are built to mimic humanity so much that they simply are a manufactured offshoot of the species, strange that Cylons would wish to ape their despised creators so much.

Thought i'd take a break from Thief Gold with a little action, downloaded Revenant off of GOG, mainly for the excellent combat and beautiful Ronny Moorings/Patrick Collins soundtrack. At first I couldn't start the game, however once i'd removed the Winmm.dll file from the root menu there was no longer any conflict and it's now running smoothly. Edit: Turn off preloading of sectors, otherwise the game will be stopping to load every few minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr7bKYMuerA

Not nearly rare enough, sadly. Granted, roads actually are safe. Generally speaking tho, monsters are still way more common than they should be - they don't resemble an ecosystem in any way, just... Random groups of evil. I didn't read the English version so I wouldn't know, but yes, there was something along the lines said in the books. Now that's a good point, I think it should be. I'm pretty sure that was said in the game itself, somewhere. It's kind of weird that there's far, far more necrophages than there's corpses. I disagree, north of the Pontar the monster placement seems about right. The sorceresses left with the Elves and Nilfgaard triumphed if I recall correctly. I didn't make the last quote, but the numbers seem quite large, I found bodies all over the place. Certainly didn't seem like they were fighting a war with a few men on either side, or anything silly like that. Plus there's the dead bodies rising as Drowners and such. Totally agree, the pointless padding of loot recycling, i've been complaining about this for years but everyone wants to farm inconsequential tat.

Which is why monsters mainly only roam openly in the No Man's Land of Velen, they're re-inhabiting an area man has mainly abandoned. Go north of the Pontar and they become rare again. "Soon monsters may cease to be but sons of female dogs will always persist." If I remember the quote. It also may be that another Conjunction is imminent, if I remember correctly mankind arrived around five centuries past, the Aen Seidhe five centuries before that, so the Conjunctional (is this a word?) creatures may be coming out of hiding. Edit: Necrophages in particular of course, perfect conditions for propogation.

Is it alright if non nationals vote Guard Dog? Hardly informed but with the choice presented one hardly needs to be. Oh and no return to the bosom of Mother England option? We have biscuits, and tea in which to dunk them!

Dear Usa, regarding your upcoming elections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1YmS_VDvMY

*sigh* As per usual, God forbid people like things you dislike. Anyway, The Witcher 3 is an excellent example of fantastical visual design of an open world - not only placement of individual structures made sense, what really got me were walls of various huts and structures adorned by drawings or illustrations, it looked so ... Life-like. And then the darn game went and ruined it by monster/enemy placement which made next to no sense and minimal interactions between factions or wildlife. For such a life-like world, seeing encounter placement so remote from anything close to life was just sad. I've not said anything about whether people can like something or not, stop overreacting man, we're only criticising games. I quite liked the Witchers monster placement, in ruined and wild places only rather than roaming around freely in lands that were supposedly settled, gave the Witcher a reason for existing and wasn't handwaved away by having guards fighting monsters in lands they should have been driven out of with mans arrival. Now the levelling mechanic, that's another thing.

Yes actually a game instead of a pointless larping aid. I like the Witcher 3 as a well simulated world: Massive amounts of farm and grazing lands to support the population, as there should be in any land in that period. Realistically sized settlements rather than the half arsed couple of huts for a capital city that is so laughable and lazy. Wells regularly placed so that the population can drink, wash and launder, or the settlement built around a water source. Roads and tracks in realistic locales, verging from muddy ruts to paved highways. Ships and boats sitting in natural harbours, where fishermen nets and rods hang. Every locale seeming to have a reason for existing other than random placement, whether that be the orchards of White Orchard, the trading dominance of Novigrad throttling the Pontar or Oxenfurts strategic hold upon the Pontar crossings and scholarly focus, all economically viable. Inns and taverns being sited in sensible locales for passing trade. Settlements in dangerous areas actually having a stockade or some form of defense rather than just being open to anything wandering in. No Man's Land being a wild and monster haunted wilderness claimed by no nation in reality and left to grow wild while north of the Pontar the land is settled and monsters are rare, certainly not roaming freely in a comical manner, in remote places and usually all the more deadly. Reminds me of the king of open world games Ultima VII, that pioneered such great well simulated worlds twenty plus years ago, they actually felt lived in with NPC schedules that made sense, homes where you could tell the occupant just by glancing around and cities where you could get lost in the world just moving around you.

I hate to be anal (boom ching) but some of those are not Aesir but Vanir. Still nice to see Golden Bristles, oft overlooked.

She really ought to take those shoulder pads back to the 80's, their natural habitat. Is it just me that thinks about the poor workman who comes along to his nice freshly concreted square and beholds the mass destruction this alien has wrought on it, for no other reason than to look cool? I bet she never comes back and lends a hand or pays for the damages. Blasted Extra Terresestrials taking our capes!

I chuckled gratuitously. Though on the subject of doping I have to admit that I have ocassionallly had a spoonful of Buttercup Syrup and applied a little Deep Heat to the old knees, shoulders and back when playing Rugger. Lord I have sinned etcetera.

Been thinking of this one. It's the old title from like 20 years ago, right? I loved Blood Money. How does it compare? Afraid I don't know, I quit Hitman after the first game and just seemed to miss out on the rest, have to dip the toes sometime. Thief itself (yes it's the old one) is brilliant, excellent use of shadows, sound, organic introduction of mechanics and plot, levels that tell a story in and of themselves, etcetera. Only play on the highest difficulty however, it's the most rewarding and content rich. Edit: Be aware that on the highest difficulty you cannot kill else you'll fail the mission, and sometimes cannot even be noticed or blackjack guards, also pay attention to the levels and explore them as they are unmatched in design. There are maps but they will only show what is known of the locations, the unknown areas will remain unmapped, there are no quest markers for holding babies hands, and paying attention, exploring and experimenting will sometimes be required. Also in many modern games if you go above an opponent you will just disappear because of poor AI, on Thief this is not so, do not underestimate guards or anyone. Most of all enjoy.

Thief Gold. The perfect stealth game, only matched by its own sequel and boasting unparalleled level design: A map that gives hints that one must extrapolate on and explore instead of being led by the nose. A design that is not insultingly simplified. An atmosphere that has not been matched by many titles at all. Coming back to Thief is always a pleasure and a welcome break from modern dumbing down.

I Appreciate it, i've seen a few episodes of season 1 and 2 but due to dislike of the original property I didn't pursue it. So far it's enjoyable and thinking about it the parallel between Exodus and BSG is fairly obvious, making the Egyptians into programmed machines however seems a little heavy handed, though the pursued being the polytheistic is a nice turnaround. I do wonder whether the president and Baltar's visions are somehow related though, perhaps wrapped up with Cylon ressurection and thought downloading.

I had guessed they were radiation proof, except the kind found at Ragnarok station, but I would have thought they would want to preserve all of the other evolving lifeforms of the Twelve Colonies that have done nothing to them. Forging a dead environment just for themselves at the expanses of all their gods other creations seems...for wont of a better word, evil. I think it's the lack of detail on their monotheistic religion that's bothering me: At times their god seems to be presented as a deity of forgiveness and the traditional faith, hope and charity. At other times as the jealous and warlike deity of the Old Testament.

I really can't understand the Cylon air of righteousness in Battlestar Galactica, they've undertaken the genocide of almost an entire species, billions of people, used so many nuclear weapons that the Twelve Colonies should not be habitable/dead worlds for millenia, and yet they still think this is okay with their god? It seems an awfully weak point in trying to get the player to empathise with them, they're utter monsters, whether mankind created them or not, that does not absolve them of responsibility for their actions. I can't see how anyone can get over this, and I can't see why Baltar doesn't raise this point with his imaginary friend. Edit: Making twelve life bearing worlds lifeless is also such a crime (considering their rarity in the Milky Way) and an utterly moronic waste that I fail to see what their "plan" is?

Been thinking about replaying it with the revision mod. I was thinking the same when I was looking at the modding scene after installation, but upon further study the GMDX mod seems more true to the game, while improving the mechanics and retaining the...atmosphere I guess you could say. Revision seems more like its own thing, trying to move away from the base game. I'm very satisfied with my GMDX playthrough.

Finished Deus Ex with the classic line. "Bob, you're not a god, you're just another Page in history." Yyyyyeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Apologies.

I play in Insane mode. If I was just kept alive illogically because the player can never face any challenge or setback i'd be far more put out than I was having to restart the game as I did, there need to be failure states in games, far more of them in my opinion. However there are few developers who cater to that so I wouldn't worry.

I have to admit that the Witcher 2 had two very high points for me: The first was in the prologue, if Geralt tried to escape from the dungeon Ves simply put a crossbow bolt through him and it was game over. The second was when one met the dangerous Scoiatael leader Iorveth, surrounded by bowmen, knowing that Iorveth was a remorseless killer, and told to not bandy words, if the Witcher chose to ignore these warnings and antagonise the killer then his white hide became a quite fetching pin cushion. Made me chuckle and applaud.

Speaking of the Beasts that remarkably use senses to experience the world, what do you think Kyros will decide is their fate? Personally i'm hoping that we recieve the order to exterminate the species as a possible impediment to the lawful day to day running of his tyranny. Nice little bit of genocide for the greater good, hand their hunting grounds over to settlers and farmers who can reinforce our campaign. I wonder what they taste like?