~Di

Okay, I must confess. I hated Diablo 1 and 2. Couldn't finish either of them. Yet I still had a rolliicking good time with Divine Divinity and I did indeed tell Grommy that I thought it great fun, if not particularly brilliant in the RPG department. I still thought it a worthwhile diversion until the final scenes, which were utterly gruesome and dull. Grommy hated it. I understand that. I'm a bit more relaxed in my entertainment than Grommy is, and a bit more forgiving. He is right. Divine Divinity was an action RPG with little character developement and a mediocre story... but I, being a bit less critical and a bit more forgiving so long as I had a fun diversion and was entertained, enjoyed it more than he did. He tried to finish DD... but frankly gave up, because it was simply not up to the kind of story he found worthwhile. I knew it was a 50/50 stretch when I suggested it. However, Grommy did make it to the final chapter... which even I found to be frustratingly hack-and-slash without redemption. We discussed it at length. Grommy and I are quite different in what we enjoy in an RPG. I am much more forgiving for obvious plots and mediocre writing than he is; I am also more inclined to enjoy something that gives me a few hours of escapism as opposed to a few hours of briliance. I admit this. I thought he'd have fun with DD, and I recommended it to him. He found it seriously lacking. Not the first time we have disagreed on what is an enjoyable diversion and what is intellectual genius... although we both agree on certain genre stars like PS:T. I can confirm, however, that Grommy completed more than 3/4th of DD before he gave up on it, because we discussed it years ago. It's just that although we can agree on certain games that pushed the envelope of genius, we disagree on other games that were merely good fun for me, yet mediocre attempts by him. No big deal. Nobody agrees on everything, and I am more desperate for diversion than he is. As I have said, I hated Larian's second game "Beyond Divinity", to the point that I could not force myself to finish it. I will probably purchase Divine Divinity 2 only because I believe that a talented gaming company like Larian should be supported... but I have lowered my expectations for it. However, those who accuse Grommy of not giving Divine Divinity a legitimate try are quite wrong. He spent hours giving Divine Divinity a serious effort based on my recommendation. He and I simply do not always have compatible expectations, and in this instance he was not able to enjoy the original DD to the extent that I did. I feel bad about that, because I was not able to appropriately describe the pros and cons of the game in a manner that let him decide whether it was something he would actually enjoy. I feel bad that he didn't have fun with it, as I did, but he is correct in that he purchased the game solely on my recommendation and was disappointed by it. Although Grommy and I respect each other, we don't always enjoy the same kind of games. I'm easy, I guess. Please don't tell my husband.

No, it's not. 360 & PC. Ahhhh, thanks, sweetie. I buzzed over to the Larian forums and discovered that myself. I'm quite relieved.

As a side note, Russia has apparently decided it would like control of the Port of Poti... and has taken it. It's happily building permanent structions for the Russian soldiers that will occupy it under the guise of "peacekeepers"... inside of Georgia's soveriegn borders! No sense letting a little thing like a signed withdrawal agreement stand in the way. Anyone surprised?

Looks interesting. I loved Gothic 1 & 2... was scared away from Gothic 3 by the label of "bug-fest crash-maker". I'll keep an eye out for this.... I suppose, though, it will make me play as a guy again. *sigh* I hate that.

Like some others here, I enjoyed Divine Divinity for what it was, a fun action RPG with an interesting story (well, until the final scenes!); also, I really disliked Beyond Divinity. It was boring, generic, it's story so uninteresting that I had to force myself through it, and with a plot twist so vacuous and obvious that it could be spotted in the first hours of the game. Still, I will probably buy this sequel (1) to support a young, struggling but talented gaming company; and (2) to see if they can return to the original DD "magic" funness. The graphics have surprised me! Isn't this Larian's first foray into 3D technology? I'm impressed by what little I've seen. Waittaminute... this isn't an X-Box exclusive is it? Bah. If so, forget everything above this sentence.

Don't give me that, I'm just being an exaggerative jackass making more of a jab at women than anything. Indeed.

I'm sorry babe, I tried my best to entertain you. It was good while it lasted. Awwww no babe you're different, the only one for me. Without you I am not complete. Don't leave me now, it can't end like this :'( OMG I've been waiting to hear those words for a long time. Promise you'll never leave me again honey. Never. Again. Is that so? So what the heck do you call this then? Yes, we do place more emphasis on looks than what women do in relationships; they are more of a driving factor, but men are not oblivious or have a lack of understanding to romance and what it is, we know that relationships can't survive on infatuation and lust alone, that there needs to be an emotional connection. Not all guys are shallow and seek just looks; without those qualities I've highlighted in my quote I couldn't be in a relationship with said girl if she didn't possess them. The concept of romance has been brought up in this thread, but it hasn't been the crux of discussion because emotional/psychological connections being the driving force behind relationships is basic knowledge, hence the hilarity of this thread is unfounded. I don't think qt.14159 said anything about guys being shallow or oblivious, so I don't know why you seem so offended and hostile. Mainly, I think she was trying to highlight the differing definition of "romance" itself between most women and most men. Frankly, men and women bring different emotional drives to a relationship. The initial attractions are based on different senses... men are attracted more with visual and scent, women are attracted more by communication and emotion. As the relationship grows, compatibilities expand both the male and female areas of attraction, with men becoming more emotionally attuned and women becoming more sexually attuned. Most women need romance... that emotional, communicative connection... in order to feel sexual on more than a physical level. That's simply a difference in male/female psychological makeup. When women try to explain to men how they see romance and relationships, and they are shut-down or mocked or scolded due to misunderstanding or miscommunication, then a valuable tool in understanding the opposite sex has been lost, in my opinion. If a woman wants to know how a man feels, she should ask him, and listen to his response. If he refuses to communicate, however, she feels shut-out and frustrated. If a man wants to know how a woman thinks, he should ask her. If she tells him, he should be prepared to listen as well. How else are two people ever going to understand each other well enough to build a long-term relationship? That's my take on it.

Wow, congratulations! An excellent achievement by the Aussie triathathaletes!

Man, I can't believe how many people are supporting China's shallow deception by saying "everyone else does it too". Clearly y'all haven't seen some of the homely but lusty-lunged kiddies on American television. And everyone else does NOT do it too.

1. Jagged Alliance 2 2. BG2/TOB 3. PS:T 4. Fallout 2 5. KOTOR2 6. KOTOR 7. Wizardry 8 8. Deus Ex 9. NWN2 10. Alpha Centuri

It was not that big a deal. A 5.4 earthquake (the revised estimate) is considered a low-end moderate quake. A "toddler" quake, if you will! This one was shallow, so would be felt more, but those closest to the epicenter might see a crack in their concrete and lose a few breakables; that's about all. SoCal natives (like me) have been through so many quakes that one can usually judge with fair accuracy the size and distance of the quake within the first 2 seconds. Most natives would have gone back to sleep after this one. Not a big deal. Seriously. Unless it's a precursor... (cue scary music!)

I can't substantiate it either since it's been a long while since I played, and I myself definitely remember FF being on (and liking it). Honestly? I think if true, it's a very bad move - and you probably agree that hte toggle was the best idea. FF does irritate me sometimes and I can see why some people do want it off. That's cool. I can't substantiate it either; Sylvius the Mad made this statement in the BioWare forums, and it went unchallenged so I presumed it to be true (he's a fierce proponent of FF and was furious when it was patched out... plus he's a dear friend!... so I took his word at face value.) Yep, a toggle would be great, but NWN2 didn't have a toggle. FF was difficulty oriented; I can't recall if it kicked in on Normal or Hardcore difficulty, though. As far as tactics go, I enjoy tactical gameplay too. Hell, Jagged Alliance 2 (and all of it's insanely difficult mods) wouldn't be my all-time favorite game if I didn't. However, when I'm playing a party-based RPG where magic is a primary factor, I don't enjoy dumping my carefully-created PC to fend for herself while I babysit every move the magic-throwers make. If AI is still insufficient to account for the location of party members when flinging fireballs, then by all that is holy give me the option of turning FF off! That's all I'm asking. I'm not asking them to discard tactics. I'm just asking them to either write AI that allows magic to be used without micro-managing one party member at the expense of the PC (thereby destroying immersion factor for some of us) by either fixing magic AI or giving me the option of keeping my mages from killing the rest of us! Thing is, story and immersion in the fantasy world is important to me too. If I want to micro-manage tactics, I'll go back to Jagged Alliance 2... on the highest difficulty level! Now THERE are some tactics! Yes, we probably disagree on these degrees. And yes, if AI-controlled mages were bright enough not to kill us all with the first few spells flung, I would indeed be a lot happier.

Then use a higher difficulty. Friendly fire requires you to put your mage (if not your entire party) on puppet mode and babysit their every move. Micromanaging is not a pleasure for me, quite frankly. And I'm hardly alone. When party AI first came out, I hated it. I was trained to do BG2 pause-and-micromanage gameplay... and I was damned good at it. But as AI has improved, I've discovered that in games like NWN2 I actually feel as if my PC is an individual within a party of competent comrades instead of my PC being simply one pixelated body of many that I, the player, must pull the strings on, one by one by one. I actually like that immersion, and don't want to lose it. From what I've seen on the Bio NWN2 forums, there is a split in opinion on this with those who hate friendly fire being slightly in the majority. People expect and enjoy different things from games; that should be okay. A FF toggle or FF implemented via difficulty should serve everyone's wish. What I don't understand is the mindset that there is only one right way, and even addressing those that disagree through the design of the game is somehow heresy.

Not only have I read the full post, but also many others - on this forum and others. That's why I replied. If I quoted that particular part of the post it was merely for convenience; I could just as easily have quoted the whole post. The holier-than-thou attitude that drips from your posts whenever the discussion is on how sexuality is portrayed in games isn't just anecdotal. You do it every time you get a chance, seemingly. As I said, you are perfectly welcome to have your opinions and voice them. But refrain from making moral judgements and spicing up your posts with patronizing drivel in the vein of "I'm sure males will be thrilled by it" and "it's clearly targeted for teenagers". How about if, instead of readily jumping into your victim routine, you try to be a wee bit less condescending and judgmental? Enough. I'm discussing the game, the interview and the topic of this thread. You immediately leaped into discussing me personally, in very insulting terms. Stop it.

According to posters at the BioWare NWN2 forum, it was because people were squealing bloody murder when Qara kept blowing up their parties. Now I couldn't say, because the first time Qara killed half my party I promptly deleted the game, started a new one at a difficulty level that did not include friendly fire. I was told that FF was patched out of all difficulty levels at a later time. I cannot substantiate that because every time I've played NWN2, I've stayed at the level below where FF was originally implemented. Anyone who doesn't agree that friendly fire is a game-breaker never met Qara. That is all.

I agree on Dragon Age but no DI. For the love of all that is holy, you cannot be serious on looking forward to Fallout 3. Seriously. You have always mirrored my like and dislike of games, but please... Fallout 3?? D: Awww... .... I feel bad letting you down. But yes, I want Fallout 3. Thing is, I'm not expecting it to be anything like the original Fallout games. I expect a completely different game set in the Fallout universe, and expect to play it and judge it on its own merits rather than in comparison with my beloved Fallout 2, which will never be reproduced again. I feel all teary-eyed, Jaesun. You've... you've never expressed disappointment in me before. *sniff*

Because I dispise friendly fire with every fiber of my being. If a mage is so stunningly incompetent as to kill off half her own party along with the enemy, how can she possibly be bright enough to be a damned wizard? If one has to turn AI to puppet mode and babysit every move a mage makes, ignoring your own PC, then what in hell is the use of having AI or a PC in the first place? All you're going to be doing is babysitting the mage so she doesn't kill everyone. And I suspect I'm hardly the only one who feels that way, since Obsidian found it necessary to patch out friendly fire in NWN2 to drench a torrent of player fury over it. The friendly fire threads on the official NWN2 forums at BioWare are running pretty heavily in favor of those who feel as I do, that friendly fire negates the use of companion AI and requires micro-managing mages to a level that dimishes fun significantly. If you think turning off friendly fire makes a mage "the best solution for every problem", then clearly we haven't been playing the same games.

That is awesome! Congratulations, man. You deserve it!

I agree that it's unlikely. It's just that one of the developers to be using that "nail 'em all" concept as a marketing tool took me back a bit, and made me nervous. I don't mind games pushing the sexual envelope. In fact, I like it. It's that very mindless "nail 'em all" thing that I disapprove of in games that are clearly targeted at young males. Obsidian has always shown strong, capable (if not always chaste!) females in their gamess. I'd be shocked if they didn't continue that... so yeah, the interview really surprised me. Agreed. Yet that is how it was described by the developer... kind of a head-scratcher since it doesn't bear resemblance to the style and substance of Obsidian's other games. Clearly this isn't going to be like KOTOR2 or NWN2, though, so perhaps the option of a sociopathic protagonist is something that will be available. It wouldn't be the path I would choose as a player, but I know a lot of gamers love having "evil" options. Something to consider, I suppose.

Right back atcha, bucko. Next time, try reading my entire post in full context instead of yanking out a sentence so you can have yet another go at me.

Again, as you have done so many times over the years when I express gaming preferences with which you disagree, you drag out discussions from 9-10 years ago, talk about me as if I'm the deaf little pet sitting in the corner of the room, and proceed to explain to the forum why everything I think and say should effectively be dismissed. This time I wasn't in the mood to smile and take it. I've never been discourteous to you, Gromnir. Just the opposite. I am not "too sensitive". I'm pissed off by your rudeness and deliberate effort to dismiss me and my opinions as unimportant. I don't deserve this, not from you.

You are quite correct, you didn't. I must have put your name in there for all the other times you did and I let it go. This time, however, you were innocent. I apologize.

True. I wasn't in the best mood to begin with. Sorry about that. I like to discuss games and their features; that isn't a license for others to discuss me personally, in this thread and others around this forum. It's become a bit too common with several posters in here, frankly, and it's getting on my last nerve. I thought your presumptuous comment, "So, what you're really saying is that you prefer unlimited power so combat doesn't interrupt the next soppy romance / plot / cookie cutter NPC chatter cutscene?" to be extremely condescending... and perhaps a touch sexist. Gromnir's rude ridicule of me personally was pretty much the last straw. I try to treat posters with respect and courtesy. I may not always succeed, but I usually try... unless they make it personal and tick me off. I should have had a much shorter tantrum though. I think everything after "Screw you all" was probably unnecessary.

Oh crap. I give up. There is only one way to "correctly" enjoy a game, and that's how the hardcore players decide a game must be played. Screw you all. I am but munchkin powergamer who is to be disrespected, insulted, mocked and ridiculed. Nobody has any worthwhile feedback except those who are DnD afficionados who adore the thrill of perma-death and constant reload. There's little reason to post any feedback here unless it conforms to the whims of those who believe themselves the true heroes of DnD hardcore. The rest of us are mere idiots or "greedy muchkins". Go ahead. Drill the developers with demands from the hardcore folks who are about 1/10th of the sales necessary to make a game's breakeven point. After all, only what you like is important. Go ahead, insult me personally, Gromir, Volourn, Monte Carlo, et al. You are so superior to me, after all. ONly your preferences are important. Anyone who disagrees is obvious a munchkin, powergaming idiot. At this point, I really don't give a damn. If Obsidian capitulates to a dozen loud-mouthed, demanding fanzillas, then they deserve what they get from the majority who don't enjoy irritating interpretations of DnD and taunting interpretations leading to tedium and frustration. Only your desires are important, after all. Anyone who doesn't share them is subject to ridicule. I've given my last dollar to Obsidian, if they continue to cater to y'all at the expense of those who simply want a fun and enjoyable gaming experience. Revel in your superiority, you self-important twits. Narcissism is its own reward... or so I'm told.