Keyrock

Patch notes say they fixed 'some amount of save corruptions'. http://www.miserymod.com/?p=368 Hmm, I think I'll wait until they fix all the save corruptions. It's so frustrating to do something really hard and noteworthy only to lose all that effort due to a save corruption.

My viewpoint is this. I already have Steam, I don't need yet another service. The whole point of having Steam is having most of my library centralized in one place (2 in my case since I have a bunch of games on GOG also, GOG is a bit different though). Continuing to add more services is counterproductive to centralizing my library. I've already signed my soul over to Valve, I don't need to sign my soul over to Dread Lord EArts, or Ubisoft, or Microsoft. So, I say no to Origin, no to UPlay, no to <horrific Microsoft "service" that shall not be named>. I've taken one step down that slippery slope, I'm not taking any more.

Did they fix the saves corrupting in the latest Misery patch?

You've been able to get it as abandonware for years now, though that may change if they put it up on GOG and Steam. Note: I have no clue as to whether abandonware is legal or not. Edit: Also, more screenshots! I like that locomotive.

Yeah, I mentioned this in the Random Video Game News Thread, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt for this to have its own thread.

Yeah, the goblin with the hard hat on is pretty sweet.

Details about combat in Might & Magic X Nothing unexpected here, but it's good to see progress being made. From a strictly stylistic point of view, I like the look of the interface, even if it does take up a bit more of the screen than I'd like, though, curiously, that bothers me less in a first person view game than in an isometric or overhead view game, for whatever reason.

While still technically BioWare, the Austin studio is effectively a different studio. Outside of lending a hand from time to time, it'd be akin to worrying because DICE is making Battlefield the same time we're making DAI. Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying.

Gender reactivity in Wasteland 2 I actually hope they don't spend too much time trying to make sure that every possible part makeup gets absolutely equal advantages and disadvantages, because then the game will become homogeneous. Certain characters or party makeups should naturally have life be a little bit tougher for them. To use an older Obsidian game as an example, I thought in NWN2 if you, for example made a Grey Orc character (like me), it would have been cool if the game was much harsher toward you for much of it. I mean, most of the game takes place in predominantly human communities, with some elves and dwarves and so on. It would make sense that an Orc would be discriminated against, perhaps even outright attacked, in such a location, but the game barely notices, and beyond a line here and there, there's no difference whatsoever to playing a human or an elf or a halfling. Conversely, an Orc character should gain some advantages when dealing with the Orc tribes in the game, but since that's a relatively small portion of the game, those advantages would likely not be equal to all the disadvantages you would get in Neverwinter or Highcliff or any other predominantly human location, and I would be fine with that, in fact I would want it that way. Anyway, it's great to see projects like this focusing on making a living and breathing, believable world through character interaction and reactivity, rather than focusing on shiny graphics, SPLOSHUNS!, and set pieces, then just glossing over character development and reactivity, like so many big budget games do these days.

We wanted to do 3, because it gives us more time per project. What I meant by "what we wanted to do" was that fan outrage didn't crack an EA skin. I actually had considered emailing Aaryn Flynn suggesting we push to 3 projects to effectively move to 3 year dev cycle, only to have him mention it at the following studio meeting. Are you confusing bi-annual for biennial? Or do I not understand the math for how releasing every 4 months gives you more time per release? However that works out to a 3 year cycle, I am happy to hear. But also very curious as to how. Errr, we wanted to do 3 projects, so that we can roughly release one a year and take 3 years to make each one. I thought it was inferred when people were talking about "annual releases." (which would mean one BioWare game a year) It seems I misunderstood you. EDIT: Yeah. Since in my mind we were talking about "1 release per year" I totally read your "do two releases a year" as simply "work on two projects at once." As long as BioWare has a large enough team that they can work on 3 projects concurrently and not spread themselves too thin, then it sounds like a solid plan. That was my fear when I heard about the turn around time on DA2 following DA:O. My fear was, they're working on ME3, they're working on SWTOR, and now they're also working on DA2, all at the same time? I'm scared the quality will suffer on at least one of these projects. And, well, in my mind, at least, my fears were confirmed.

Absolutely stunning graphics. Completely forgot about this, time to dust of the old X games to get back in the grove. Still sounds like you can't pilot multiple ships, but if we get an actual crew, with interesting characters, I can live with that. I'm thinking a pirate first run, just because it will be interesting to see if what they say about the game is true. Would make being a pirate much more rewarding. I'm definitely not above taking out a target of opportunity here and there (no one ever accused the Teladi of fair business practices) and I'll definitely go on raids or even military style fleet battles (usually once I have my merchant empire up and running and I can afford to assemble a fleet while my freighters and factories go about their business), especially if it will benefit my commercial empire, but I'm generally a merchant first. At some point I like to dip my toes into every facet of the game. If the economy is really going to be as dynamic (beyond what we've already seen in the X games) and the stations and factories as modular and interdependent, then there should definitely be ample opportunities for... corporate sabotage, if you will.

No.

GRID 2. Call of Pripyat Misery 2.0 was going to be the game I played until Saints Row 4 came out, but with my save games getting corrupted, I had to shelve that, so GRID 2 will fill in nicely for the next week and a half or so. It's amazing how much difference car and track made. I was doing vehicle challenges to win cars. I did the KTM X-Bow challenge on a proper race track with turns that suit my strengths (some of them, anyway) on the highest difficulty setting, and while it took me several tries, I passed the challenge and got the car. Next challenge up was the Jaguar XKR-S on a Hong Kong hill climb track, my absolute worst track in the game. The game describes the XKR-S as being set up so you can drive with any driving style. I describe it as way too loose and unstable to drive like a proper grip car, but it also sucks at drifting. I eventually had to lower the difficulty to easy to pass the challenge. I would skip it altogether since I'll never drive that car again if I can help it, but then I wouldn't be able to do the next 5 challenges which may have cars I actually want.

There is a definite contingent out there that considers X2: The Threat to be the pinnacle of the series. X3: Terran Conflict is my personal favorite so far. Unlike previous entries that were all basically built atop the original X: Beyond the Frontier, X: Rebirth is being built completely from the ground up, we shall see if it's for better or worse. Sure looks good in the videos.

They encompass everything. Combat, trading, building, exploring. You can be a pirate and prey on merchants, you can be an enforcer and hunt down pirates, you can be a merchant and trade in a dynamic economy. You can build factories, mines, complexes. You can assemble a massive fleet and take out whole sectors. You can pretty much play the games any way you want to. I'm a Teladi (think Ferengi from Star Trek) at heart, so I'm all about building a massive trading empire and acquiring profitsssss.

It's a different engine. And horses still suck in TES. And how would Oblivion melee/magic/bow&arrow mods apply to guns? Also it's Colt, not Cold. What if he refrigerated the revolver, though?

To take a break from the several pages of military history propaganda. X Rebirth has some new ridiculously gorgeous videos and, get this, a release date. An honest to goodness release date! November 15th. Of this year, even! http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/08/08/eyegasm-5-minutes-of-gorgeous-x-rebirth-footage/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEbL1p5vZpw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhT2zmF7ip4 /jaw drops to floor It looks so ****ing good. Maybe the seemingly endless wait will be worth it!

Ah, okay. I hate to say this, but as far as pixel art goes, that's not very impressive. And I love me some pixel art. Hopefully that's really preliminary placeholder stuff.

My reaction as well.

Really frustrating game for the Sawx for 8 innings. They had opportunity after opportunity to score and squandered a lot of them, meanwhile the 'Stros had few opportunities and made the most of them. Then in 9th inning a 3 run homer gave the Sawx the win. Frustrating game to watch, but a W is a W. Now if I could just get a Rays loss tonight, I'll be a very happy man.

Unfortunately, I think I'm going to shelve Misery for a while. That's five corrupted saves I've gotten now. I save on different files a lot so I didn't lose that much playing time, but it's getting really frustrating. It seems a lot of people are getting corrupted saves. I'll give it a break for a bit and hope they put out a fix soon.

Man, I love the SVD so much. It's so ruthlessly accurate. Very little bullet drop too, even at very long range. Obviously a headshot is insta-kill on a human target, it is with almost any gun unless they're wearing a super duper helmet, but even with center mass shots, 2 usually does the trick, no matter what kind of armor they're wearing. I'm keeping this rifle until I get either a TRG-42 or the Gauss Gun, I can't imagine anything else being an upgrade.

Saints Row IV does BioWare-style sexy time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB3WT_XepsI LOL

I see you definitely like castles, I like castles too. I hope the trip went well. Those are some nice looking areas.

I'm not nearly far enough in to reading through the book to make a final judgement, not to mention, that I need to actually play the game first. There really aren't "spells" per se, everything is technology, though some may refer to it as magic. The number of intristic powers (called esoteries) available to nanos is a lot more limited than the D&D spell repertoire, and they're a bit more broadly defined, though the amount of effects that can be accomplished with artifacts, cyphers, and oddities, is potentially limitless. Outside of being d20 based, the system shares practically nothing in common with D&D. There are 3 stat pools: might, speed, and intellect. As you use each of these you can can apply extra effort into actions, whatever they may be, to either increase your chance of success or increase the effects (more damage, etc), but this drains the appropriate stat pool by a certain amount and you don't immediately get those points back (until you rest or whatever) which limits your options down the line or makes you more susceptible to certain things. I need to read a lot more to truly get the grasp of it.