~Di

Honestly, you must have been a member of the Southern Baptist congregation I attended as a kid. If you think that's over-the-top, you should have heard my old preacher! That would have been tame from him! Exactly my point, thank you! Expressions of belief by the religious are freely allowed, and should be. Expressions of non-belief by the non-religious should also be freely allowed. Anything short of that is censorship and discrimination, two things most free societies should scrupulously prevent. And I honestly don't know what the proper definition of "atheism" is... I simply thought it was a title hung around the neck of a non-religious individual who didn't believe in an all-knowing diety in the sky. They may have other spiritual beliefs; just not that one. Then again, I've never been interested in dissecting all the contradictions and definitions inherent in most religious discussions, so I'm not the most informed person about this topic.

Conversely, you have religious folks getting into the argument, saying "There is a God and non-believers will either burn in hell or be murdered for heresy" (depending on the religious fanaticism involved, of course)... when they really don't need to bring it up at all. It doesn't affect them that the other person does not believe in a god, so why bother? You see? Double standard. Society accepts religion's right to proselytize and even impose religious values codified into law, which affects believers and non-believers alike. However, non-believers are not allowed the right even to publicly express their beliefs without a huge outcry which usually ends up with something to the effect of, "why don't they just keep their damned opinions to themselves!" Now I'd agree to that, since I've no wish to have "There is no god" signboards plastered in public areas any more than I appreciate seeing "Jesus Saves" signboards plastered in public areas. The problem comes in when one is allowed and accepted, and the other one isn't. If that makes any sense...

That makes no sense to me. You say you believe homosexuals have the right to marry... then you vote for Prop 8, which amends the California constitution preventing homosexuals from marrying. You say that denying homosexuals the right to marry is the "moral equivalent of holding another human being in bondage", and yet you voted for that very thing, denying homosexuals the right to marry. I'm pretty danged confused by your position at this point. Could you clarify?

Ye olde double standard. Religious folks should be allowed to pepper public places with "Jesus Saves!" and "God is great!" but non-religious folks should be forbidden from peppering public places with "There is no God!" The former is an example of religious freedom of expression; the latter is clearly a malicious attempt to offend. Gotcha. Isn't that the truth? I'm still livid over the deceitful manner the pro-prop 8 fearmongers conducted themselves, and disgusted that so many voters actually fell for it. Exactly. A non-religious individual wishing for a career in public service has to either lie about his/her beliefs or simply accept that only religious folks are considered "qualified" to run this country, and come up with an alternative career path. That absolutely boggles the mind, that people who simply do not believe in heavenly dieties are reviled, treated with contempt, and denied even the right to verbalize their belief/nonbelief without being demonized, ostracized and publicly attacked. Freedom of speech? Not when it comes to this topic.

Me too! I loved IWD1... the music made me swoon, and instantly transported me to that cold, bleak world. Every time I played IWD1 I got a tingle when I heard that theme song lilting through my tiny speakers. I spent ages developing each of my "perfect" parties, and just never got tired of creating new ones and new games. Then came IWD2. I was sooo excited, and the port of Targos was so amazing I was just in heaven. But halfway through the game, I was literally bored by the tedium, unimpressed by the locals, and frankly sick to death of the story. I finished it... but barely, and never played it again, whereas I must have played IWD1 a dozen times over the years. I still can't quite put my finger on why I reacted to the two games so differently. *shrug* Just one of those things, I suppose. Anyway, I'm currently replaying Mass Effect. For all its flaws, I like this game... and I love "yaaa-hooo'ing" over rocky terraine in my Mako! Love that cheeky little vehicle.

The California SC cannot throw the amendment out because it is part of the Constitution of the State now. In other words, unless it conflicts with another aspect of the same it is the supreme law of the state and the SC is bound to enforce and uphold it. Hold your horses. Two significant lawsuits are in progress already on this matter. 1) Interpreting how rights are applied is up to the Judiciary branch (courts) not the Legislature branch (voters), as determined by the CA Constitution (and also the US Constitution) under separation of powers, 2) removing equal protection under law is a change to the fundamental nature of the Constitution and thus is a Revision, not an Amendment, which in turn requires a 66% majority, not a 50% majority. It sucks that government has any say over marriages in the first place, but until America adopts stronger civil unions things like this will be important. ^^^ Exactly. California's constitution prohibited discrimination based upon, among other things, sexual orientation. That's why the Calif Supreme Court threw out the first initiative that prohibited gay marriage in the first place. Prop 8 basically revised the state constitution by removing all protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation... that's not a minor amendment; it's a total revision of what the constitution stands for. We can thank our knee-jerk initiative process here, where any dumb idea with enough signatures can be put on the ballot first, then marched into court later. Prop 8 is nothing more than instituionalized legal discrimination. It's just plain wrong.

Beautiful pics! Looks like an awesome country. And you're a cutie, btw!

I hope it's thrown out. It's institutionalized discrimination that doesn't just amend our constitution, it revises it... which requires a 2/3 majority vote in the legislature before being put on the ballot. That didn't happen. Besides it wouldn't have passed in the first place if the pro-prop 8 people hadn't shared the crap outta half the populace by threatening that if it didn't pass teachers would be forced by law to "teach the gay lifestyle" to their children from kindergarten on. Damn pack of lies, but it worked.

Well, I guess the "group hug" didn't work.

Not according to BioWare's Georg Zoeller, who said on 7/16/08: "I'm not saying one or the other in regards to DX API Versions, but developers usually use Windows XP because it is a stable and well tested environment at this point. That doesn't mean nobody in the building runs Vista - after all you need to support it when you ship the game. In general terms: At this point it would be limiting your potential audience way too much to create a DX10 only game. Look at the numbers (e.g. Valve Hardware Survey). So if you are afraid we might release a game that only runs on DX10 hardware or operating systems, you can relax now. Whether or not the game might support DirectX 10 if present, different story, not answered today. " And reiterated on 8/8/08: "Releasing a DirectX 10 only game (of the scope of DA is at this point not commercially viable. DirectX 10 does not have enough market penetration yet."

My husband says it doesn't... then again, he's not much more computer literate than I am. I'll have to look into that. Thanks for the suggestion.

The only game I'm looking forward to now is Dragon Age. Oh, and since I've heard some pretty good things about Fable 2, I would be interested if it comes out for PC (and runs on XP).

Nothing annoys me more than America-bashing.... but Europe-bashing is a close second. I think this international e-peen contest has gotten a little out of control. I mean, we're all friends here. No reason to try and hurt each other's feelings, and I kinda-sorta think that's what's going on here. C'mon. Group hug!

That was unkind. What have I done to you to elicit such unpleasant insult?

No. Husby has forbidden Vista on any computer in the house. Once Direct X 10 is required, I will be replaying old games until the day I die. Which probably won't be that far way, unfortunately.

Thanks for the reply. Looks like I won't be playing it even if it is ported.

Sorry to resurrect a dead thread, but I read some reviews of Fable 2 that sounded interesting. Does anyone know of any talk to port this to PC, or will it remain an XBox exclusive?

Huh? The manual says to use the arrow keys or the WASD keys. You can actually grab that puppy with your mouse and move it???

You guys must be kidding!! You thought trying to manuever through a bunch of wheels with blocks and moving red squares in a few short seconds using your left hand desperately whacking A, D, and W keys was FUN??? You're either deliberately messing with my mind, or you both played Mass Effect on a console!

I had a bunch of bobbypins early on, but by late in the game I had...5 bobbypins. Maybe I just wasted a bunch because I sucked at the minigame? I dunno. I doubt you sucked, but if you didn't like it you probably weren't as patient as I was early on in learning how to quickly and safely find the sweet spot without breaking the pin. I didn't find it a difficult minigame... certainly nothing as infuriating as Mass Effects hacking/lockpick monstrosity! And I thought hacking kind of fun. Different strokes, I guess.

What? Why did I lose so much then? Yeah, I noticed that most of the "professional" players would keep the middle die and reroll all the others... even when they had the winning hand! Totally odd.

Not really, even most safes offered the choice to pick the lock or hack a computer. And there was never anything really important in them. And once your skill was high on lockpick, you could just force the lock if you disliked the mini-game. I thought hacking was absolutely necessary! You learned the entire backstory of your father and mother and your birth, got a couple of quests that gave you a nice reward when you followed clues, found passwords that offered entry into key-required areas... and turned off those freaking turrets!... among other things. Lockpick, once you skill is high enough, is so easy there's no reason to ever force the lock! Early on there was a distinct scarcity of bobbypins though, I'll grant you that.

Got any good examples? Of the top of my head? Hacking in Fallout 3. Bar games in Fable. That dice game in the Witcher. OMG, yes! Dice poker is positively addicting! I loved it! I also like Pazak from KOTOR. Once I learned the trick to hacking in Fallout 3, I got a kick out of it too. Ordinarily I hate mini-games. The flying quests in Jade Empire make me want to gargle glass.

Aw hell, that makes all the difference! I'm not a Blade Runner fan, so I honestly don't know which quest you're referring to. What's wrong with the music? I mean, it certainly isn't IWD memorable, but then again I have 3-Dog on most of the time so I can't even remember what the other F3 music sounds like. I just wondered why you didn't like it. Wow, you found Fawlks in less than 14 hours? I didn't realize that was possible. I never got him until I was about 90 hours in, and ready for end-game. Then again, after my first game I realized that I needed to stop at a certain point in the main quest, lest I end up spending the rest of my low-level exploration fighting ... which were too much for me until I'd leveled up quite a bit. IIRC my character was quite impressed by Fawlks, and through considerable conversation learned a heck of a lot about how the tragedy of super mutants. NPC personality was pathetic, in my view. They just got in my way, gave away my position, had nothing helpful to say and bored me senseless. I never bothered with them after I agree with you on this. Biggest disappointment was the lack of colorful sidekicks... but Bethesda is not known for colorful sidekicks. Bethesda is known for a lone-wanderer on a journey kind of game, so 'twas to be expected. The game did spend a GREAT deal of time discussing the societal issues of prejudice... of ghouls. Several quests dealt with that specifically... the "ghouls are people too" thing... including one that to this day makes me so mad I wanna spit nails because the "best" option ended up in wholesale slaughter. Most hard-core RPGers like choices with unforeseen consequence, but that one just ticked me off. Parts of the main quest were quite emotional for me. I know, I'm a softie. But damn.... We differ, obviously. I thought Oblivion had a ton of flaws, and hated the main quest, but I do enjoy games that give me freedom to explore and progress at my own rate. What I thought Fallout 3 delivered was a true Fallout atmosphere in a massive gameworld that for me at least was addicting and awesome! To me, that was the game's personality.

Fallout 3 is an awesome game, just awesome. I figured I'd have fun with it, because I actually had fun with Oblivion after I got some mods to correct the design flaws. But I had no idea I'd be this blown away with it. Massive game, just massive. Bethesda hit a home run with this puppy. Judging by what I've heard on several other forums, the majority of people who have played it simply love it. There will always be someone who won't think rubble filled with supermutants is their cuppa, but that doesn't mean that the game itself was any less epic. I think it's a shoo-in for GOTY, even though I'd earlier thought that about Mass Effect, which I also love. I think any hardcore gamer simply has to at least try this game. I insist! Edit: Actually, Rostere, in a mere 10 hours you cannot have even scratched the surface, let alone completed any of the dozens of major quests that do indeed have big consequences in the wasteland. Heck, 3-Dog on the radio brags like a proud papa everytime you help someone in need. I found exploring quite rewarding, in that I found lots of bobbleheads, met lots of people, many of whom had lots of caps and needed my help, saved a few towns, emptied a few more... I spent over 100 hours on my first game, and still hadn't found everything. Boring? OMG... you may not like games that offer exploration and freedom, but boring is not the term I'd ever use for this game.