Keyrock

Maybe because developers and publishers have caught on to the fact that the D&D name isn't as glamorous as it used to be and that establishing their own IP is a potentially far more lucrative endeavor.

So, on my way through Skull Rock to get the air shard for the blessing of Ylath, I found out I needed to get the blessing of Shalassa first. So I hunted down the water shard, whooped up the air lord and now I'm going back to Skull Rock. I'm almost 60 hours in and I still early (I think) into act 3. Edit: Got the air shard. Back to the forge I go... tomorrow.

I like ski jumping, alpine skiing, bobsled, luge, and, oddly enough, curling.

Last night during the Supabaw I started off with a bloody mary with tons of horseradish in it. Then I switched to beer: Fosters in a giant can.

Help me, Internet-Stream Kenobi, you're my only hope.

Yeah. There is a group of Rakshasa called the Cult of Meow, or something.

It's true. The NBC (It's still NBC, right?) coverage is awful. Here are the top 5 and the Americans, and now a 25 minute long overdramatized bio of one of the American athletes. How about instead of the overdramatized bio you show me the whole event instead?

Is there a relic spear?

I actually wound up trial and erroring that puzzle (because I didn't happen to have learned the detection spell). With the load times being what they are, you can imagine it took some time and a whole bunch save scumming (I'm not proud of myself ). My party is level 20, creeping up on level 21. I'm going through Skull Rock to get the air shard so that I can do the Marauder promotion quest, though I need to make a quick hike back to The Crag (or Karthal, whichever is closer) to fix up my armor. I like how my strategy has adapted as my party has grown stronger and I've encountered different enemies. Earth Magic is my Shaman's bread and butter with Poison Spray, Acid Splash, Poison Cloud, and Regeneration. Between Acid Splash and either Shatter or Sundering, I can obliterate my enemies' armor. Poison Spray is one of the first things I cast and the damage really adds up over time. Sometimes when I get ambused and surrounded, I'll Poison Spray, then drop a Poison Cloud on the enemies behind me from time to time, just so they have something to choke on while I dispatch the enemies in front of me. Then when I get around to them they're pretty well softened up. Regeneration is a life saver (literally). I've also found myself using Purge a lot more often. I'm more frequently encountering enemies casting Regeneration on themselves, which I quickly remove from them. Elite Earth Elementals, in particular, can be difficult to whittle down if you don't keep Purging them. Has anyone attempted that Meow Dungeon you can "buy" with the points you accumulate in UPlay? I "bought" the dungeon, and I found the character that you use to access it, but I have no clue what level I should be when attempting it.

Well, that was one helluva blowout. I wanted the C-Hox to win, but I kind of wanted a decent game. Oh well, epic scale beatdown will have to do. C-Hox just demolished the Donks in every single way imaginable

It's quite lovely as long as you're looking at strictly scenery and not any of the (unmodded) characters. Honestly, from what I've seen, Bethesda's character art is constantly superior to the modders work in Skyrim's case. Not as high-res, certainly, but they don't do barbie dolls and creepy inflated **** barbarians (don't search these, just take me on my word and spare yourself the sight). I agree that the vast majority of character model mods make them look like barbie dolls, but if you search hard enough you can find some mods that improve the looks of the characters while staying out of hyper air brushed pin-up territory.

Holy smokes, in the confusing as heck labyrinth category, The Crag ain't got nothin' on the Karthal Slums. I do like hot Karthal looks and feels like a proper city. A big, sprawling, takes a long time to walk from one end to the other, city, rather than a glorified village labeled as a "city". Next up, I'm going to take a stab (pun intended) at the Marauder promotion quest.

I haven't played a golf game in so long. I used to love some golf games. Hopefully this turns out as good as it sounds.

Nice job, Obsidian! And for the ones who want a realistic display of medieval times I can only say that the three major developers of the games are real history fanatics who know their stuff. They've already done immense research on the topic and they will continue to do so, no worry. But keep in mind, that it is still a game and therefore TOO MUCH realism isn't always the best way. The game should still be fun and entertaining which is actually more important than 100% historical correctness imo. Agreed. Realism and accuracy are great so long as they don't detract from the fun of the game.

It's quite lovely as long as you're looking at strictly scenery and not any of the (unmodded) characters.

Weird. Maybe it's a bug with fast travel? I've never used fast travel. I'll take a look over at the game's forums to see if something like this has been reported. As for my own game, I made it inside Karthal. The sewers were pretty easy, as was the mansion, at least the first floor. I haven't headed up to the second floor yet as I had a worn weapon on my defender I wanted to fix in town, then got sidetracked doing other stuff.

That sucks. Which city?

Pacers picked up Bynum?

Steph dropped 44 last night and Bogut had a beastly 17-17 double double last night in a nice come from behind effort over Utah. They needed the hot shooting from Steph to overcome Klay Thompson's epic bricklaying (3 for 20) night. One thing about the Warriors that makes them a scary team to face, but also leads me to believe they can't get to the finals with the team they have: Klay is such a streaky, uneven shooter. He's going to have nights where he goes ballistic and drains 9 or 10 3s and very few teams will be able to keep up with them when he's draining buckets like that. Then he'll have nights where he's completely ice cold, laying bricks like crazy, and even a hot streak from Steph won't be enough to overcome a really good team on those nights.

It helped them get to the finals and they would have won the championship had Pop not made a rare (for him) coaching blunder by keeping a blazing hot Duncan out at the end of game 6. Besides, the Thunder have a back to back. Resting key players during the front end, if the opportunity presents itself (and being up 30 through 3 quarters is as opportunity as opportunity gets), gives them a better chance to win the back end of the back to back.

While I certaily wouldn't object to watching KD keep playing to extend the streak, the game was over before the 3rd quarter even ended and I can't fault Scotty Brooks for resting KD, especially with the extended minutes KD has played in Russ' abscence. Epic scoring streaks are awesome, but in the end, the champonship is what truly matters. Just like LeBron, I'm sure KD would gladly trade in any and all individual accolades for a championship ring. The Larry O'Brien Trophy is what it's all about. Everythign else is not just secondary, it's a distant second.

KD's 30+ point scoring streak is over. Durant and the Thunder could have easily kept it going, as Slim Reaper had 26 points, along with 7 assists, on an insanely efficient 10 of 12 shooting through 3 quarters, but the Thunder were up huge and Scott Brooks decided to rest KD for the rest of the game. It was a wise move. KD's scoring streak had already reached an epic 12 games, the third best in the past 30 years. Chasing T-Mac's 2003 14 game streak or Kobe's 2003 16 game streak would just be superfluous. More importantly, the Thunder won their 10th straight game, a streak that includes wins over Miami, San Antonio, Portland, Houston, and Golden State. OKC now has a 4 game lead in the brutally tough Western Conference. There is a lot of season to go, but they're obviously in damn good shape right now. As for the individual honors, while I still think LeBron is still the most talented player in the game when he tries his hardest (note: The MVP award does not reward the most talented player, it rewards the best performance through 82 regular season games), it is no longer a foregone conclusion. While in the past couple years when the question "Who is the best player in the NBA?" was asked, the vast majority of people would answer "LeBron James" without giving it a second thought (and rightfully so), I believe that now when someone asks that question most people at least have to pause and think about it and compare LeBron and KD, before answering "LeBron". What I'm saying is that KD is now in LeBron's ballpark, in the same category. Before it was: 1)LeBron 2)Everybody Else Now it's: 1)LeBron 2)Durant 3)Everybody Else This is not because LeBron has regressed (he's playing as well as ever in several areas). It's because KD has improved so much in ball control, passing, and defense. King James is still the best player in the league when he tries his hardest, but he now has a truly worthy challenger for his crown. The next few years should be really entertaining as we get LeBron in the second half of his prime and KD in the first half of his. It's not quite Bird and Magic, two guys whose primes ran at approximately the same time. And it's not quite Kobe and LeBron, a guy at the end of his prime overlapping with a guy entering his prime. It's somewhere in betweem. Hopefully both guys stay healthy (as they have throughout their careers) and we get the 3 to 4 years when both guys are near their peak. It should be fun to watch.

I'm not going to argue the particulars of each game in the series with you bevcause it's been a decade since I played any of the older games, and my memory is far from photographic. Suffice to say, I'll take your word for it. I'm sure they took elements from many of the games, but their main target was World of Xeen (they stated so, but I'm too lazy to look for a link). As a dev who had never made a Might & Magic game before, or any type of old school RGP, they likely cherry picked features they thought would work together, and, as anyone with little or no experience doing something, made missteps. My point is, all things considered, the game turned out pretty doggone well. I think they really nailed the combat mechanics and difficulty level. Sure they could have implemented more features and done a lot of things better, but they exceeded my expectations and made a game I'm really enjoying. Edit: Just killed the Shadow Dragon. At level 17, it was a piece of cake. The warfare skill that stops enemies from casting makes that battle much easier.

Well, the devs specifically targeted World of Xeen (M&M 4&5) as the games to pattern this after, so it's no wonder that stuff in M&M 6 and onward wasn't in this game. I agree there is plenty of room for improvement, but I think that for a first effort in this series and this type of game for a relatively unknown developer, they did a pretty good job. Which makes me all the more eager to see what they could do with the series now that they have some experience under their belt.

♫ In the midnight hour we cried "more, more, more" With a rebel yell we cried "more, more, more" In the midnight hour Ubi "more, more, more" With a rebel yell "more, more, more" More, more, more ♫