Drowsy Emperor

That the west turns a blind eye to disrespect towards the book they swear to, "in God we trust" etc - is not a portrayal of how wonderfully tolerant it is. More like, apathetic and fragmented to the point that anyone can say and do just about anything without fear of sanction. While a reaction might happen in the states, europe is disgraceful in that regard. Well except if you dare question the prevalent multicultural dogma, then you're looking at a quick trip to personal and professional ruin.

Kosovo is in Serbia. Bad example anyway, we were protecting our culture, successfully, until the US intervened against us. Chechnya is a republic of the Russian federation that instigated a civil war and was ultimately defeated. I don't see what it has to do with this discussion at all, except that it was a war of islamists vs "eastern europeans" and the islamists lost. Both conflicts were very bloody, but um, that's what war is like. Kurdistan isn't even a country, its a region in the Middle East and has nothing to do with eastern europeans at all. Regardless, the west is good at protecting its own interests. Its just that culture is no longer among them. Its all about the moneys nowadays, which is what you get when you put businessmen in power and let them rule over everything. And the east is absolutely, depressingly, same in that regard.

C&C's don't matter if there is no substantial desire to see a particular outcome. I never cared, at all, about any choice in (for example) Fallout. There was no emotional investment in any of them. Same with Arcanum, the characters were lifeless, the story fodder. No one has, or will ever be, able to define what a "real RPG" is. Its a highly subjective thing, even in pen and paper gaming. If playing a role is the minimum definition, then every game ever made can be considered an RPG.

No, he died because he was an American political figure and close/vulnerable. For most of the world where the US has or had a presence that's reason enough, for Arabs especially + they're fanatical enough and not (as) afraid of retaliation. This really has nothing to do with the film at all.

I hate to say I told you so. But, I told you so.

I have faith in Firaxis, they have a good track record. (Meaning they made SMAC so they get a free pass from me.)

On one hand, you can't go screwing around with things people consider sacred. I'm disgusted at the (mis)treatment Christianity regularly gets in Europe and the US. US is sort of divided into hardcore camps so I can understand all **** slinging between them, but Europe is a disgrace considering that Christianity made it what it is today. On the other hand, who are they (moslems) to demand a special status or even respect. Respect is a two way street last time I checked, and as far as anything non-islamic is concerned, they have none (as a collective, as individuals, well, its individual) . Case in point: boarded up and walled off christian churches in the middle east with believers living in constant tension. If we were to talk about respect, I'd suggest they start giving real freedom of worship - the kind they get (and abuse) in every western country for free. No? Well then, you just don't need these mosques then, do you? Sadly the only way to earn respect with them is to reply in kind and show backbone. Lastly Mohammed was historically at least a ruthless killer, and his last (wife?) was a child so its not like they're slandering him too much (or at all). If its factually correct, there is no ground for complaint. PS: I still don't see the point of making such movies or what any (good) intent behind it might be.

What do you mean HD resolution? Are you referring to the widescreen mod and playing in your native resolution?

Troika's games were far more ambitious for their time and more innovative than Obsidian's. At least Arcanum and Vampire anyway. TOEE was the most polished, but it was too dry story and character wise. However all of them either felt unfinished or were unfinished/broken to some extent, which is why I can't rate any of them highly (although Vampire is so unique its possible to overlook its flaws). Obsidian at least delivers a complete product (most of the time *cough* KOTOR2 *cough*). All of them (or Obs and other old/new devs) need to tighten up their act if they're ever to reach Bioware in its prime - to consistently deliver a complete and (in all segments) well crafted product. That Bioware took that achievement (which is no small thing in the gaming industry) and perverted it into a factory production of clone games is another matter.

Resonance. A new adventure from the same guys that gave us Gemini Rue. Judging by my score I'm half way through and so far I like it a lot. After that I have to give Discworld: Noir and Botanicula a spin. Then I have see if I missed any more really good adventures and get a hold of them... Since adventure gaming went rogue from the whole industry I'm sort out of the loop as to what is good and what's not worth my time. The last few I played were Grey matter, Book of Unwritten Tales and Gemini Rue and I was quite happy with all of them. Then there is BG:EE coming up, uh....

Obviously you're not going to camp corners all the time, most of the time a good sniper is enough to get rid of almost every enemy in JA2. I'm not complaining, its just a game - if it had anything to do with real life your team would be dead come the first encounter on account of trying to start a revolution in a foreign country armed only with handguns. Turn based games are even less realistic than real time ones, so the only thing XCom needs to do is be fun and challenging and that should be enough.

You mean like basically every human players does in those types of game? Yep. And its not like you have much choice, most of the time you're outnumbered and you have to whittle them down while keeping your team in one piece. If combatants were so stupid to charge people down around corners in real wars, every soldier would fight the way we play Jagged Alliance.

http://www.youtube.com/user/blacklily8?feature=results_main If you guys want to struggle through this guys YT chat channel you'll find his interviews with Brian Fargo, Avellone and other notable names... He did a good guide about RPG's on Gamasutra and later made a channel for reviewing old games, many of them RPG's. His reviews are slow, too long and rambling but you can hear interesting stuff in them occasionally

Or you could just get a whore and dress her up in bikini mail, for a fraction of the time and effort. Or I can import a clown NPC, call it Drowsy Emperor, and have him prance around in game spouting dialog which he thinks is clever, but few else do, becasue he is a attention whore? Either case without these mods faces and bodies look blocky, jagged due to being 'consolized'. These FX edits actually uses the power of video cards that have been made in the past few years to made NPCs look good. Sorry if you are too snobby to appreciate hi res FX. Some of us do however. That said back to the main point, I would also install the hi-res water and foliage mod, makes the water and trees look MUCH better and more realistic. Dude, 4 out of 8 mods you listed are about perfecting virtual girls, so sue me for making fun of your steamy geek passion.

Hey, don't shoot the messenger! Besides, XP is now over a decade old. Maybe devs are obliged through Microsoft's pressure to stop XP support now. Bang, bang! Its Microsoft that's putting a real effort into obliterating XP - to the point of kicking it from netbooks and pre installing Windows 7 exclusively.... Which runs horribly on their limited power. I have two almost identical ones and the one with Win 7 is a slow mess, without any palpable gain. My main pc also runs XP and its been able to run every major PC game even during 2012, most of them on near maximum setiings. And its over 5 years old - the fact that consoles run the show really worked in my favor. XP is the only Microsoft product I ever liked :D On topic... In all my gaming years haven't played more than a handful of games with decent AI anyway. FEAR and Half Life are the only ones that made an impression. All turn based tactical games I ever played had incredibly stupid AI, and were particularly prone to cheap tricks, like baiting and waiting around a corner.

Thanks

Upcoming adventure: http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/primordia.html Could be good...

No XP support. About time they drop that turd. Because Vista is so much more widespread to qualify as a min req? Or even a system worth supporting at all? I sometimes wonder if you keep your brain in a jar next to the keyboard so it always fails to stop you on time before you write something Morgothy.

Sheeeeeet, time to dust off my joystick.

The Avengers. Actually the first 20 minutes, that's how much I could stand before reaching for the remote Also: Metropolis (anime) - exceptionally well drawn, storyline is muddled garbage Men in Black 3 - it doesn't have the charm of the first one, but its quite enjoyable

Or you could just get a whore and dress her up in bikini mail, for a fraction of the time and effort.

Broken Sword 5 kickstarter has been up for a while apparently. I have mixed feelings about this. BS 1 and 2 were my favorite games for a long while when I was a gaming noob. BS3 was perhaps the game I anticipated the most, ever. And it was colossal ****. I was so angry with Revolution I didn't even look at BS4. On the plus side BS5 will be (since its raised the goal) 2D, hand drawn. On the other hand, I don't trust Cecil to deliver. The man took a dump on everything good he ever made with BS3 with its brain dead puzzles and crate constant crate pushing.

Don't become a slave to games, mang. Nobody's forcing you to finish these on time. Or at all.

Here's something unconventional: http://www.cabrerabrothers.com/ A cyberpunk text adventure with hand drawn static pictures... If the writing is any good it could be a nice diversion. Its not like we get much cyberpunk these days anyway.

You'll be back here before you know it.