~Di

Just started playing, and must say I'm impressed! What hasn't impressed me is the loud music that drowns out dialog. I've set my menu audio "music" and "radio" down to zero, and it's still blaring. I can't find a configuration menu that allows me to do anything else... am I missing something here? Would appreciate any help.

I just placed my online order! Until it arrives, I'll just have to muddle through replaying Gothic 2. Am getting excited, though. I've been waiting a long time for Fallout 3!

You know, I've always wanted Sigfried as the guest but by the time Shani has her party in my games, the guy is sitting in the swamp with a echinopse thorn in his gut. Maybe if I ignore some of the sidequests until later and hit the main story until I get to that point... I shall try that next time! Yeah, as you've found out, Carmen will come to the party... and boy, does that piss off Shani! I felt really bad, so I never invited her again. I've always taken my favorite dwarf! Damn, sorry about your lost game. I hate it when that happens.

Wow. When you post a spoiler, you post a big one. Hope Gorth doesn't come back here until after he's finished his first game!

The nurse will be in front of the hospital at noon only. Just like the woman who appears outside the order and walks to the graveyard at noon each day, who wants you to do in her husband's ghost. In Ch. 3, the swamp cave is filled with cocatrices. You'll get a quest from the druids to get a mushroom there, and you can kill all the cocatrices you need... and then some! Choosing sides is always a bummer for me. I usually play neutral all the way (but you MUST choose a side for the bank robbery, dang it). I have also gone with the Order once and the Squirrels once... but it broke my heart to kill Sigfried 'cause I liked the guy! If I'm neutral, I don't have to kill either of 'em! I'm such a wuss.... Glad you're having fun. Despite cringing at the juvenile trading cards, I really loved The Witcher.

I'm replaying Gothic 2 at the moment. I'd forgotten how much fun it was. Makes me almost want to ignore all the horrible things I've heard about Gothic 3, and take a gamble on it.

If you question Vaska more, she'll tell you that you can leave items in the Voydanoi "mailbox" (where you put the logger's axe, if you did that quest in Ch 2), and they will exchange it. Not things of dry land, however, so only leave swamp herbs, fish, swamp animal extracts etc. Now I never bothered to try it but it might be fun for you to see what they leave! Just save first in case you leave something that pisses them off... you do not want to make Vaska mad.

You'll be able to get the same armor in CH 3 from the armor-selling dude outside the tavern. After my first game I realized how important cash was, and I gathered herbs frantically, sold every rusty sword I found and ran back and forth selling torches (those things are worth 40 gold EACH). Since it's almost the end-game before you get your special armor, I recommend getting this armor to tide you over. Don't think you'll be getting another silver sword until the Lady of the Lake quest... it's a marvelous sword but you cannot upgrade it with runes (well, you can, but it just becomes another silver sword and loses its own "special" powers... which are awesome.) So upgrade your current silver with runes as soon as you can afford... you'll not need to do so again. You will also be able to get back to the swamp in CH 3, but you won't be fighting just ordinary wyvrens then. They'll be Royal Wyvrens (save 3 of their eggs for later! ) Don't hit the tower until you have done everything in CH 2 that you want to do... and good luck!

Instant death is not good, no Looks like it has to be done the hard way. I finally got some literature on wyverns too, just to discover that they are vulnerable to silver, not steel. So much for me trying to slash them to pieves with my steel sword. I've stocked up on bombs, blade coatings, Swallow and I think it was called Tawny something (the one that regenerates endurance). I've more or less relied on the first Sign (the one that repulses/stuns enemies) so far, so now I've spent two handfuls of talents on Ignis. Lets see if that works better together with a buffed up Geralt. The sign that causes damage/pain to enemies ganging up on you is not to be underestimated. Saved some witcher butt more than once when getting swamped by enemies. The "shield" one is the only one I've found no use for yet, but I suppose that it because battles are over fairly fast. Either with dead enemies or a dead witcher Edit: Cheat question: Is the sword on the body a steel or a silver sword? I.e. should I leave my current nice blue meteorite sword at home in the Inn before retrieving it? Yep, as a general rule use silver on everything that doesn't have two legs and talk. On wyvrens, use fast silver. You'll miss them 9 out of 10 times using strong silver. Make sure you clear your "retreat" hunk of land of all drownders, echinops and other nasties. Nothing is worse than battling down a wyvren only to find yourself mobbed by lesser creatures at the same time. Kite, run to your safe area (so you don't fight forward into the nest of them), then cut it down with fast speed. Heal, if necessary. Rinse and repeat. Voila. I go with the consensus on meteorites... use 3 red. Awesomeness. I never bothered to change my sword until I got the magnificent gift from the dentist (which won't take upgrades, but doesn't need any!). Oh, and the sword on the body is steel, which others have told you. I always sell the thing because it's worth 300 gold! Make sure your "second" sword spot is empty before you try to pick it up.

The wyvrens will respawn. Once you decide to go for that body, you have to kill all of them that are on the island at that time, then loot it and get out. When you return, there will be more wyvrens. Oh, and I always kite them out one at a time too. Takes a while, but better than instant death.

Well, this really happened... sadly enough. Here's the story. There are plenty of loopholes in the telling of this incident. For one thing, a 7-month-old infant may have started to crawl, but most at that age just scoolt around on their little elbows, or kind of lurch and flop forward. They certainly cannot walk and jump into a firepit on their own. Next, there was a serious wound on the infant's head... but smoke inhalation and soot in his nostrils indicated he was alive while in the pit. Horrifying, utterly horrifying. This guy isn't the cleanest fellow around, either. He has several arrests for drugs and dui going back a decade, and had been deported at least three times. This story really gives me the creeps. A tiny infant dying such a horrible death. Yes, I believe the man responsible should do prison time. Two years really isn't enough, in my view, because there is more to this baby's death than meets the eye. At best it was negligent homicide; at worst... well, the "at best" is bad enough, I suppose.

This. Di~, you are right in the regard that it is ultimately the individual who chooses to do a criminal act (what a criminal act is another question). But judging from your post, you seem to believe that society has no influence whatsoever on one individual's upbringing, congnitive reasoning and viewpoint of life, which i highly disagree upon. If that were true, then the ghettos and the rich neighbourhoods would have the same crimerate and the same type of crime, and ofcourse the same percentage of Rhodes Scholars. What is exactly is your reasoning that the environment plays no role in shaping up ones character? I don't believe I said that environment plays no role. See my post #108. People raised in poverty, violence and abuse are exposed to crime more routinely than those who are not raised in that environment. My position is that more people raised in poverty, violence and abuse choose not to commit crimes than choose to commit crimes; therefore, the choice is the individual's alone. I've also seen large pockets of crime in middle-class neighborhoods where the criminals were not exposed to poverty, violence and abuse; they choose to commit crimes for the same reason that any criminal does... it's easier to take someone else's belongings than to work to earn those belongings on your own. I do not subscribe to the notion that "society made me what I am today." One may have more or fewer opportunities based upon the economics of one's birth. It may be more difficult for a poor person to secure the education needed to rise above his/her upbringing. Yet many, many people have risen from poverty to success and power through their own determination and hard work. Many, many people from good middle-and-upper class upbringings have fallen into the cesspool of crime through laziness, addiction, or a simple belief that they are entitled to take whatever they want. To me, the "society made me do it" excuse is a lame cliche, cited robotically as a way to erase personal choice and responsibility by blaming the ecomic factors of birth. It reeks of the "from each according to ability, to each according to need" mantra as a way to equalize everyone, thereby eliminating these nasty economic factors... and supposedly eliminating crime in the process. Only we have seen that doesn't work. It rewards the lazy, penalizes the productive, and completely obliterates personal incentive. It puts government in the role of parent, citizen in the role of child, a role one can never outgrow. And it eliminates personal responsibility for one's choices and behaviors, resulting in a lack of motivation to make those choices wisely. That is why I believe that using the "societal" crutch to excuse crime will in the long run be detrimental not only to that same society, but to the individuals comprising it as well.

People who want to absolve criminals of responsibility for their own behavior by blaming it on society, poverty, circumstances and environment can always find a way to twist statistics to support their own beliefs. I am simply saying that individuals choose to become criminals or not to become criminals. Most poor people are not criminals. Those that are have nothing and no one to blame but themselves. It was their behavior and their choice.

Yeah, I really love this game! I loved the character romance with Kaidan too. Thought it was well done, and Kaidan is definitely a cutie! I can see why the dialog was clipped, since the entire game was VO'd. It would have been an expensive nightmare to VO (twice, no less!) long lines of more expansive dialog. Anyway, I can't wait for Mass Effect 2. I loved almost everything about this game... even my sweet little Mako!

Just butting in here for a moment. I think you have rather a romanticized concept of felons as people whom society has tread upon, and who have no choice but to turn to a life of crime. Of course there are people from poor and abusive families that have turned to crime; but most people, the vast majority of people from poor and abusive families do not turn to crime. And frankly I suspect if there were statistics available to segregate criminals by their upbringing you'd find the at least half, perhaps more, of these criminals came from middle-class families, were not abused and decided to rob people and steal cars because it was just easier to take other people's stuff than it was to get a job and earn their own stuff. Simple as that. I've worked closely with police departments in the past, and trust me when I say that white, middle-class felons were the rule, not the exception. Crime is not forced upon a person because of environment. Crime is chosen by a person because of his/her own narcissism and lack of conscience; it's simply easier to take what one wants than to work for it. Period. Blaming society for the choices made by individuals is illogical and for the most part is demonstrably untrue. Okay, back the regularly scheduled "guns are good/guns are bad" discussion!

Exactly. I've been playing computer games for nearly two decades, and most games have male main characters so obviously I "can" do it. I just don't feel emotionally invested in them, and am just going along for the story. I am certainly more emotionally involved in a game where the main character is female, especially if a romance is involved. I still will purchase games that force me to be a premade male character if the story otherwise interests me and the game comes highly recommended. I loved Deus Ex, for example. I won't be running out to buy AP when it hits the shelves for that very reason. No female character to play, and the "spy" genre has, in my opinion, been done to death. If I learn something different after it's out, something that sets it apart, maybe I'll change my mind. But at this point, I don't see that happening. Folks around here just seem to believe that if anyone doesn't play games exactly the way they do, don't enjoy exactly the same gaming experience that they do, don't enjoy exactly the same games that they do, then it's okay to insult them and imply that they are either wrong, or stupid... or both. *shrug* But there are still plenty of posters here who respect other points of view and enjoy hearing them. You are one of these!

LOL! I don't know the scene in question, because thankfully Mass Effect not only allowed me to play as a female, it gave me Kaidan as well!! I mean, yum! I usually avoid romances when I'm forced to play as a male. Romancing a female doesn't add to the gaming experience for me, so I usually just skip it. I didn't mind the flirty stuff between Anna and TNO in PS:T, but if it had gone further... let's just say that the combination of twisted dead grey limbs, horns and a scaley tail would have made me shudder big time!

I feel this way, pretty much. When I can play a female character, I actually identify with her... sort of "become" her... and transfer my thoughts, feelings, and actions to her. When forced to play a male character, I can't identify with him and don't ever feel I "am" him. It's rather like sitting on his shoulder and watching him run around the world doing his thing, but not really emotionally invested in whether he succeeds or not. Oh, and pretty much avoid all romances with a male character if possible. Damned Geralt had me feeling like a peeping tom every time a seemingly-benign conversation ended up with a lousy trading card! Now I can avoid them all... they do make me feel a bit, er, scummy.

A tragedy. My condolences to all the Fins on this board. You must be devastated.

Er... these figures were the same in the primary between Hillary and Obama. Both democrats. No, it wasn't used as a perjorative any more than my reference to Palin as an ultra-conservative was meant as a perjorative. It describes the perception of their political positions... one far left, the other far right. The Fox News snipe was totally uncalled for. That is a personal attack, and I resent it. Nothing in my post deserved that kind of personal smear.

Of course it is. This isn't a post-racial country. Weren't you around for Jeremiah Wright? People were scared by the idea that Obama might have been "blacker" than he looks and acts. If Obama had done anything but disown Wright he wouldn't have the nomination. And he's got an unusually difficult time shoring up support amongst working class whites, even when he's actually softer on the social issues they care about than Clinton was. Actually, the Rev. Wright controversy centered more around the fact that Obama called a man who has repeatedly said racist, hateful, anti-American statements "the most influential person" in his life. That made more than a few folks take a step back. When Obama then turned around and denounced what Wright had said, then stated that he personally had never heard him say those things, that just made Obama look like either a liar or a fool who spent 10 years in a congregation with the "most influential" person in his life, and had no clue what the man preached from the pulpit. This "being blacker than he looks" stuff is ludicrous. Will race be an issue in this election? Sure, because somewhere around 90% of black voters have said they are voting for Obama, and a full 70-80% of them (can't recall the precise percentages; saw them on a newscast) admit that they are voting for him purely because he is black. So yes, in a racially mixed election race is going to be a factor. And if Obama loses, I suspect there will be much gnashing of teeth and allegations that he lost because too many white folks wouldn't vote for a black man without considering the possibility that too many folks of all color wouldn't vote for an inexperienced, ultra-liberal candidate of any color. Of course if he wins, there will be grousing from the other side that he only won because all the blacks voted for him without considering the possibility that there were simply too many people of all colors wouldn't vote for an aging Bush-buddy with a gun-toting, ultra-conservative veep on the ticket. One thing every election has. The blame game. It's the only thing policians are really good at.

Hush! They think they've got us all figured out. Don't disillusion the poor dears.

Tough crowd. I've actually enjoyed all of BioWare's PC games. BG2/TOB is my favorite, a real classic... NWN OC was my least favorite, although I enjoyed the expansion... and I've really have great fun with KOTOR, Jade Empire and Mass Effect! Have played them all numerous times. I haven't played any of the Troika games except Arcanum, ( *shudder* Arcanum was enough Troika for me) so I can't really compare combat styles. Since I'm more of a story-oriented than a combat-oriented person when it comes to games, I can pretty much deal with any type of combat used... except the super-hardcore stuff that makes you reload 20 times for every battle. I will say, however, that I had a great deal of fun with Jade Empire's combat! Acrobatics, lots of cool whacking and bowing... what's not to love??

Speaking of which, how different will Dragon Age be from your last few titles? Because repetitiveness in Bioware's games has really set in for me. I don't get that "repetitiveness" thing. To me Bio's latest games have been very different from each other. KOTOR was very different from BG/NWN; Jade Empire was very different from KOTOR; Mass Effect was very different from Jade Empire. I'm just not seeing repetition here.