Keyrock

It seems like, much like the Witcher games, the protagonists look is set in stone. This would obviously make much of the development much easier, not having to allow for different body shapes, sizes, and looks in equipment design, cutscenes, etc. Also, as Zoraptor stated, medieval Europe was a very mesculine dominated society. Allowing you to play a female character would force extra work for the programmers and designers in tailoring equipment to different body shapes and changing the responses of NPCs to the gender of the character (if you're not going to have different responses depending on gender, what difference does it make whether you play a male or female character?). You can get away with gender choice in fantasy games because you can always just say that in this world genders are treated more or less equally, but if you're going for something historically accurate from the medieval period, then males and females would need to play differently. So the question becomes, is the extra work in allowing gender choice in the budget? Also, is it worth the extra work involved?

I personally think the day/night cycle is pretty close to just right. It could stand to be slightly longer, but as it is it's pretty well set up to allow you to take full advantage of shrines. Shrines are not automatically marked on your map, but you can make your own map markers and notes. I always make a note to specify whether the shrine is active during the day or at night. Then I plan out my trip so that I hit up a night shrine right near the end of the night, then hit up as many day shrines as it is convenient on the way to a dungeon (or vice versa). The effects last long enough that getting buffed up from three or four shrines can make a massive difference in the dungeon.

I got the axe weapon augment from the CtA event: Why include a top spike on an axe if it doesn't extend past the axe head? Anyway, I'm done with the event. i don't care about brutal enchantments and no other rewards interest me.

I just always assumed this sort of thing happened (and still does) all the time. When I read these reports I just shrug and say "par for the course". It's pretty standard practice for large, powerful corporations (not just in the video game industry) to use their wealth and power to sway public opinion, either by paying off people to speak more positively about their products, or to dissuade people from their competitor's products by spreading FUD and threatening legal action (patent trolling and such). This sort of thing has existed in one form or another since the beginning of civilization.

Another hint for people starting out: Level up Primordial Magic to expert early on and buy the Identify spell. It will save you a lot of money in the long run.

Off the top of my head: Roy Hibbert, Paul George, danny Granger, Lance Stephenson... ... that's all I got. Paul George has arguably been the 3rd best player in the NBA this season.

Yep. Co-signed.

I just killed Mamushi on my 3rd try (he knocked me off the top of the lighthouse the first 2 times). I had brought just enough mana potions as I had none left after the fight, though I did have a couple of elixirs and a bunch of health potions. That's one fight that definitely would have been easier with a mage-heavy party since Mamushi blocks physical attacks so much and deals retribution damage. Good times.

It is. Slim Reaper was back on the court tonight after resting his sore shoulder for a game. He had a run of the mill 32-14-10 triple double with 70.5% shooting. It's his 10th straight game with at least 30 points, matching the longest such streak in the past decade (LeBron and Kobe are the others to have a 10 game streak in the past decade).

I've been playing mostly Might & Magic X. I did the bandit lair and I've cleared out most of the lighthouse. I think I've gotten the whole thing cleared except for the boss fight at the top, but I headed back to Soprigal to stock up on potions and to repair my worn equipment. The battle where I was surrounded by 2 Kenshi and 2 elite Kenshi was brutal on Warrior difficulty and I needed to use up a lot of my potions to survive. The boss fight should be pretty epic. I also played a bit of Neverwinter Online, doing the current Call to Arms skirmish event. I'm halfway to getting the weapon augment, which is the only thing that interests me in this event.

I am no RPG nerd, my good sir. I am a RPG dweeb. Blackguards has been mentioned many times in various threads, mostly the "What Are You Playing?" thread. It's definitely a game I plan to pick up eventually, but my cup already overfloweth, partially due to the M&MX you mentioned.

This is the same complaint I have about GRID and GRID2. They constantly place you at or near the back of the pack and the races aren't long enough that I can wait to pick and choose my passing locations, like I would were this a real race (and I a real race car driver). On the higher difficulty settings you simply cannot afford to wait for good passing opportunities because the lead pack will be so far ahead of you half a lap into a 3 lap race that it will be physically impossible for you to catch up to them and you can forget about a podium finish. So what I am forced to do is stuff the car in kamikaze style in the first couple corners and pray the bounces go my way and I don't wind up spun out. The vast majority of the times I get spun out and I have to restart the race. Lather rinse repeat an average of 10 times or so until I get the miracle start I need to have a chance. That's not racing, that's rolling the dice and frustration. There is no skill involved it's the racing equivalent of save scumming. Save scumming is not fun.

If FG% is the end all and be all of what makes an MVP then I guess DeAndre Jordan is the league MVP. Also, I'd argue that it was Dwayne (I always spell that wrong) Dwyane Wade that elevated LeBron's game. How many championships did LeBron win before he joined Flash's team? Before LeBron joined the Heat, and even during the first season with the Heat, LeBron lacked the mentality to be a killer and wilted in big situations (remember when the Celtics made him pretty much quit on his team?). It was Wade that instilled the assassin mentality in him.

So you're predicting that the Pacers will knock the Heat out of the playoffs, Volo? Dang, while that's certainly a possibility, I wouldn't go that far. The Heat have always (always meaning the last 2 years) been able to flip a switch in the playoffs and take it to another level. We don't know if what the Pacers got is enough to beat Miami running on all cylinders and in 5th gear, or if the Pacers can put it into 5th gear themselves. That's a bold prediction, man.

LOL, the pegleg. I like the idea of someone sawing off their own leg in the name of fashion. Now that's dedication!

I actually like that aspect of it. Combat movement is like a chess match of trying to line up melee enemies to get as many "free" shots on them as possible before they reach melee or trying to force archers and casters into melee while taking as few shots as possible while closing on them.

Agreed. I stare in awe an laugh when looking at how silly dominant Slim Reaper has been this year. I'm glad we're in agreement. Good lookin' out, Volo.

Based on what? Here are the regular stats without any advanced metrics (which mostly favor Durant): Kevin Durant: 31.0 PPG .504 FG% .413 3PT% .882 FT% 7.7 RPG 5.1 APG 0.8 BPG 1.5 SPG LeBron James: 26.2 PPG .580 FG% .376 3PT% .747 FT% 6.9 RPG 6.9 APG 0.3 BPG 1.5 SPG King James leads in FG% APG Slim Reaper leads in PPG 3PT% FT% RPG BPG Also, Slim Reaper plays on the #1 team in a very tough Western Conference, while LeBron plans on the #2 team in a straight up pathetic Eastern Conference.

Yes Volo, a one game sample size against a 15-30 team should determine the league MVP. You're obviously a genius. On a serious note, while Durant is the obvious MVP leader at this point, it's not a half-season award. There's a whole half a season left. Things can change dramatically.

Might & Magic X: Legacy. I'm loving the heck out of this game. There was the worry that since it was being made by a developer that never made a Might & Magic game (not even a spinoff) they would botch it, but put those worries at rest. Lymbic did Might & Magic up proper. **** this game is good.

Melo went freakin' bananas tonight scoring 62 points and adding 13 rebounds. That's one helluva double double.

Yacht Club also put the music of the trailer, the isolated vocals, Clockwork Tower theme (all hail Jake Kaufman) and 60fps 720p version of the trailer on their site Seriously, listen to that Clockwork tower theme. Makes me wanna buy the OST Kaufman is a chiptune wizard and they're will be tracks by Manami Matsumae too. I'm going to be in Chiptune Heaven.

I was actually surprised they were sticking as close to their original schedule as they were, given all the extra content they were putting in, so the delay, while a bit disappointing, doesn't come as a big surprise. Like Labadal, I've got a metric ****ton of games to tide me over until then.

Wait for the boss fight :D a tip: if you find it too hard, try to get a level or two somewhere else... and try to use choke points anytime you can. He took out half my team before I finally took him down (on the third try). My ranger is about worthless and my melee guys miss an awful lot so my mage is basically carrying the lot of them. I'm pretty sure I've just built them wrong somehow Still, this is my favorite game in a long while Remember that wearing armor reduces your attack rating. You can lessen and potentially completely remove this penalty with armor skill. I remember getting frustrated by how much my melee characters were missing during Early Access, then it dawned on me that my armor skills were crap and I had a significant penalty to attack. I'm like that a bit too. I see greyed out squares on the map and it bugs the heck out of me. I got my party up to level 3 and haven't even thought about entering the lighthouse yet. I'm taking it nice and slow, reading all the lore books and song books and stuff. Edit: This was the game that popped my UPlay cherry also. I've since (I bought this way back during Early Access) gotten AssCreed2 also. So far that's the extent of my UPlay collection (Child of Light and Rayman games will likely expand it eventually).

I can attest to the fact that Warrior s definitely significantly more difficult than Adventurer. I got killed by the Queen Spider in the starter dungeon. The starter dungeon! Killed her the second time, but had to leave with an unconscious character because I ran out of antidot potions. In Early Access playing on Adventurer difficulty I got lulled into a false sense of security since I collected so many antidotes in the dungeon I had excess and the Queen Spider was a pushover. Not this time. Loving it!