Keyrock

Slinky, I'm sure those nude mods are perfectly tastefully done and are used solely to fully showcase the elegance of the female form and in no way, shape, or form, objectify those poor, weak, defenseless women who so desperately need us men to come to their rescue, even when they don't ask for us to do so.

Hopefully that trailer only represents alpha status. They should get together Team Ninja and license their boob physics technology from Dead or Alive for this game.

So, it turns out that Interceptor and 3D Realms are not making a Duke Nukem game after all. Instead, they're making Bombshell, starring a scantily clad woman with a robotic arm who is in no way, shape, or form a female Duke Nukem (why would you even consider such a thing?). The game looks to be a top-down/isometric shooter, in the vein of Shadowgrounds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjsyXnqHOhA http://www.destructoid.com/interceptor-entertainment-forgoes-duke-nukem-for-femme-fatale-bombshell-274875.phtml Always bet on Duke Bombshell?

The Mario Kart 8 reviews are coming in and everybody is raving about the game. My urge to buy a Wii U continues to rise. If (when) Nintendo puts out a proper Metroid, I will likely break down and buy one. Me, mister hasn't bought a (home) console since 2001 (PS2), will buy your freakin' console if you just give me a proper Metroid. You hear that Nintendo (I'm sure they don't)? I will buy your freakin' system if you give me a proper Metroid. All I want is a proper freakin' Metroid. Gimme the damn Metroid already, Nintendo!

Whoa. Mc Escherville.

I'm in the beginning stages of Gothic 3. My ultimate plan is to side with the orcs and mercenaries against the rebels, but I'll play both sides as long as I can (I'm doing this playthrough pure greedy, cares for no one but himself Nameless Hero style). I know once you either liberate a town or wipe out a rebel encampment there's no going back and you're locked out from working for the other side, however, I don't remember if there is a reputation level threshold that locks you out of working for the other side too. It's been a long time. I've helped the rebels at Reddock to the point where they trust me, including getting them a blacksmith, now I'm going to start working Cape Dun for the orcs (got me some slaves to catch). As for combat, I'm mostly going to specialize in large weapons. To me, reach is king in this game, and being able to use a polearm is about as good as it gets.

In many cases, you are correct, but, as a blanket statement, I disagree. There are cases where voice acting can add a lot to the gaming experience. There are cases where simple text on the screen would have been a much better choice.

I'm taking this to the DA:I thread to halt the derailment.

Continued from the Random Video Games thread... Pretty much this. In Awakenings they at least attempted to make them something more than just mindless killing machines, though I, personally, thought Bio's attempt wasn't very successful. Still, it was better than just the mindless bags of rotting flesh aimlessly roaming the lands to kill everyone that they were in DAO and DA2. In DAO and DA2, the only amount of intelligence the darkspawn showed above that of a completely mindless zombie is being able to function as a somewhat cohesive squad, to some degree. Tolkien goblins and orcs, though thoroughly one dimensional creatures, at least showed personality traits, such as greed, jealousy, and fear, that could be used to give them motivation for what they do beyond just simple bloodlust. Awakenings tried to assign some personality to darkspawn, though I found the attempt more comical than anything else, but DAO and DA2 darkspawn seemed to be driven by nothing more than a desire to kill. Anyway, maybe in DA3, the darkspawn will get fleshed out more and be shown to operate for some purpose other than just to kill? Hopefully they will go in the direction Awakenings tried to go in and do a better job of it? I hope so. I, personally, find it a lot more interesting fighting a foe that you can relate to, at least on some level, than stabbing mindless creatures of pure evil with no redeeming qualities whatsoever that you can kill without the slightest tinge of guilt (I think that's part of why zombies have become so popular in Hollywood and with game developers. They're an easy enemy to use where there is no worry about killing them being in any way morally wrong). Even when you look at a character like Jon Irenicus, who is about as evil and hateable an antagonist as it gets, there are parts of his downfall and descent into madness that you could kind of feel bad for the guy. He brought a lot of it upon himself, but you can look at it from his perspective.

Yeah, the Dubs roster is far from perfect and they have issues to address in the offseason, every team does. Even the remaining contenders in the playoffs, and even the team that ultimately wins the championship, be that Miami, or whoever else, has issues to address. That said, I think nobody is going to argue against the Dubs situation being light years better than the Knicks situation. The Dubs have a core of talented young players, including a guy who might become a top 10, possibly even a top 5 player in the NBA very soon. The Knicks have Melo (for now) and this:

Smart move by Steve Kerr. The Warriors job is a much better job than the Knicks job. Sure, with the Knicks job comes New York City, but you also get a roster in shambles, an unfavorable cap situation, and Phil Jackson, who will likely coach the team at some point, looking over your shoulder. With the Warriors you get a young talented team that can potentially win a championship in the near future with a little help.

Yeah. I would like to think that Michael Sam would be evaluated strictly on the merits of his abilities as a football player and he could be given a place on the team or cut accordingly without any media hoopla accompanying it in either case. Unfortunately, that's just not the reality, the media won't let it be. By taking Michael Sam, the Rams took with him a whole lot of extra baggage, for better or worse.

Darkspawn are easily some of the least imaginative enemies ever devised. They're basically copy & paste orcs and goblins, without being remotely as interesting as orcs or goblins. At least with orcs and goblins there is potential for inter-tribe relations and intrigue and they have motivation beyond just "must kill everybody". Darkspawn are just a blanket copout enemy that mindlessly kill everyone for no purpose other than to kill everyone. With no semblance of personality and no complex motivation whatsoever they're set up as mindless pincushions for you to stab guilt-free.

Now that I'm done with Tesla Effect, I'm going to fire up some Gothic 3 w/ 1.75 patch, content mod 2.6.2, and quest pack 4.2.

At the moment this is what I'm leaning toward for a motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157503 What I like most about the board: 3 x PCIe 3.0 (x16, x8 x8, x8 x4 x4) - There's almost no chance I'll ever do 3-way SLI, but it's nice to have the option, just in case. 8 SATA III ports SATA Express - I don't plan to get a SATA Express SSD, but it's nice to have the option 3rd party controllers Very affordable The cool blue color on the heatsinks doesn't hurt either.

Probably Aumaua for my first character. After that, I'm open to playing anything, other than elf.

In fairness, a group of 6 priests should, by all means, be the bane of the undead. I'm definitely leaning toward priest as my first character. Nothing really surprising, they're pretty much how I envisioned them, which is fine.

I doubt I'd make it through even a single episode.

At lev 18 Ravenous Ghouls will be a struggle, they were for me. The game will absolutely let you wander into areas you have no business being in at your level (and promptly get mercilessly destroyed). On my last playthrough I wandered into an area with multiple elite earth elementals when I was still not nearly high enough level. With no one in the group to cast Purge, I couldn't stop the elementals from healing themselves via regeneration spells and my damage output wasn't enough to significantly outpace their healing. I really thought I'd have to revert to an earlier save, but several tries and a good chunk of my potions later I managed to kill the elementals and ran back to town just as fast as I could. The game gets noticeably easier sometime between lev 20-25, when you start getting promoted and grandmastering skills.

Man, I don't know what to think of the Pacers. They struggle and just barely beat the Hawks, who aren't even a mediocre team. Then they come out flat for game 1 of the series with Washington, after that they turn it on, win 3 straight, look impressive at times, and I'm starting to think, maybe they figured this out. Then last night they just dropped an EPIC stink bomb. Yes, Washington playing well had something to do with it, but the Wiz didn't play THAT well, it was mostly Indiana being flat out awful. Just awful. Who is this team? Miami has to be loving this. Their path to the Finals couldn't possibly be any easier. I'd be quite surprised if they lost a total of more than 3 games before the Finals. On the Western side of things, what a crazy finish in OKC last night. After the Thunder gave away a game 4 they absolutely should have won (they were up 16 with 10 minutes to go), the Clippers gave away a game they absolutely should have won (they were up 13 with 4 minutes to go). Yes, there was some questionable officiating in the final few seconds, but that doesn't change the fact that the Clippers flat out stopped playing the final few minutes. It will be interesting to see how the Clips react to such a crushing defeat. OKC picked itself up off the mat after the epic game 4 collapse, can the Clips do the same?

PipBoy first the vault and finally nuclear rockets. I'm pretty sure we already have those, entirely too many, in fact.

Finished up Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Joint: I managed to achieve maximum detective rating: My ending was different from IndiraLightfoot's I also managed to get all 16 Mike & Ike Candy Comics netting me a "Day 13" I wonder what's in that save game?

I'm at, what appears to be, the end game portion of Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Joint. I'm happy to report that I managed to snag all of the Mike & Ike Hammer Candy Comics along the way, hopefully that nets me some kind of (point?) bonus at the end. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Edit: Finished the game. I liked it quite a bit, had me entertained throughout. It's a Tex Murphy game through and through and it packs a ton of fan service. If you're a Tex Murphy fan, you'll definitely enjoy it. If you're a point & click fan you will most likely enjoy it. If you don't like point & clicks, this game won't change your mind. I'll play it again in a few months to get a different ending.

Sad Xenomorph is sad.

Still playing Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Joint. I'm about 11 hours deep and on Day 8, so I figure I have to be nearing the finish line.