Keyrock

You mean like introducing Emma Stone's character, then seemingly dropping her and never hearing from her again after your date? :D Yes, all the girlfriends in Sleeping Dogs are woefully underutilized and underdeveloped. I can live with them having the others drop in for a cup of coffee and never be heard from again, but I wanted more Not Ping in my life. She did get a small part in the Nightmare in North Point DLC (as mentioned, the story DLCs are fun, but really short), but that's still not nearly enough Not Ping for my tastes.

I'm glad so many people are getting into Sleeping Dogs now, too bad it didn't sell better initially. I hope Squeenix still lets United Front do a sequel because for a first sandbox effort, they did an amazing job. Imagine what they could do having learned from their mistakes?

They'll be getting at least a 30 spot from me, depending on what the tiers look like.

I'm at what I can only assume is the final boss in Serious Sam 3: Jewel of the Nile, a gargantuan version of the fat dudes with rocket launchers, except holmes has a massive cannon that shoots cannon balls and smashes everything to bits. So far I got splatted 3 times. I'll try a few more times before I search online as to whether there is a trick to it.

Chris Avellone tells you why you should back this project (starting March 6th):

As long as they deliver a great game, they can show off or pound their chest all they want. They're looking to get attention because attention means more sales (usually). I see no problem with that.

I actually miss code wheels. The last game I bought with a code wheel was Ankh 2, and I think they did that as a joke more than anything. Ah, the good ol' code wheel:

The only female characters who can become spymasters are the wives or mothers of the present ruler. A daughter/sister won't be an option, absent an incestuous marriage. Yeah, I guess I have to scrap that idea. The wifey is a decent enough spymaster for now. On the positive side, I married off my eldest daughter to a Georgian prince. The religious differences are a point of friction, but I managed to get him to my court, smoothed things over using the international language (money), and the guy makes a fantastic chancellor.

I had trouble at first too. Once you know what to do it's pretty easy. Get the jetpack then look for a pile of metal rods or pipes on the ground. Once you get one of those you can use it like a lance or spear. The idea is to stick those in his back. El Gigantor will keep spinning around to face you so just keep dodging his attacks until he meanders off into the sand to do battle with El Wormo Grande. When those two tangle, that's your chance to get behind El Gigantor and plant a spear in his back (when you get close enough a red spear outline will appear on him where it will wind up, kind of like when you plant explosives on walls). Once you spear the dude, drop down, recharge your jetpack and get another lance. The spears in his back will work like lightning rods and he will periodically get shocked. Wait for another opportunity and plant another in his back. It may be possible to kill him once he has 2 spears sticking out of his back (he'll take more damage from getting shocked with more "lightning rods" sticking out of him), but I didn't kill him until I planted the 3rd one. He's easy pickins once he has 3 lightning rods sticking out of him.

I imagine there will be abilities that can be learned both to bolster or bypass the engagement zones, correct? We already know about the aforementioned wind sprint, will there be something like tumbling to give you a chance to avoid disengagement attacks? How about abilities to enlarge the engagement zone or make disengagement attacks that much more punishing? Then of course there are any number of potential spells to bypass engagement zones like teleport, invisibility, etherealness, who knows maybe there would be spells to enhance the engagement zones somehow too?

All of the screenies look good, but the ones with the sea are just downright breathtaking.

True, but that's a seriously high benchmark to go up against.

I'm excited for the removal of QTEs and the ability to jump and climb anywhere. Hopefully this means I will no longer be deterred from going places by a 1/2 foot tall rock outcropping. Mixed feelings on the VATS-like system.

Plodding along as a Polish Duke in Crusader Kings 2. I'm at the year 1087 now. King Boleslaw the Bold is doing a bang up job of laying waste to the pagans bordering Poland and expanding our border. Once my eldest son becomes old enough I'll grant him all my lands so he doesn't lose any of them to his younger brother (****ing Gavelkind Succession ). My oldest daughter, Krzysztyna, has just reached maturity and she's going to make a fantastic spymaster. I'm debating whether to replace my wife with her now or wait a few years. I think I'll do it soon, the wifey is getting old and she should spend more time at home. I've been improving my technology and my holdings, but I'm not yet in a position to make much of a power play. The plan is for Janusz, my eldest son, to go on the offensive once I die and he takes over as the Duke of Silesia. Hopefully by then he has enough wealth to hire some mercs and with my bolstered army I can smash up some pagans and expand my lands. There's a duchebag in a neighboring area that keeps making bogus claims on my lands, but he's part of the Holy Roman Empire and I'm in no position to feed him his liver at the moment. Maybe I'll send Krzysztyna over to his lands to **** with him once I make her spymaster? Maybe one day he "falls" on a dagger in his sleep? Maybe one day he has an unfortunate hunting "accident"? Maybe he eats something that winds up being not so good for his health?

I really have little to no problem with DLCs, other than non-free day 1 DLCs. As long as the DLC is appropriately priced and I perceive I'm receiving value for my money, then it's fine. That goes for both purely cosmetic DLCs and story DLCs. It's like an expansion pack, but a smaller bite sized one. As far as microtransactions, I understand it in the context of F2P MMOs. I'm still not a fan, but I understand it. If that **** seeps into my single player experience, though, well, that's when I say sayonara.

Done and done.

As long as this wouldn't be too complex for the designers, I think the melee engagement zone should change based on whether said melee character is already engaged with another enemy. For example a melee character not engaged with anyone should be free to spin around in any direction, thus his engagement zone should be a full 360 degrees around them (note the masterful artwork): However if said warrior is already engaged with another enemy, then his engagement zone may only cover a cone in front of them, say somewhere between 90 and 120 degrees or so, because turning around to engage an enemy trying to get past them outside that cone would mean giving up their flank or rear to the enemy, which is generally unadvisable: Of course there may be skills/spells/items that allow the cone while engaged to expand.

While I agree that pathfinding was horrendous in Infinity Engine games, and not really much better in Aurora Engine games, I'd personally much rather deal with the increased overhead a mechanic like this provides than having tanks be completely ineffective at controlling the field of battle. Of course, I'm already the type of player that micromanages the bejesus out of my party anyway, partly because I can't trust my casters to not fry my own party members with AoEs, so I'll be controlling all my characters' movements on the battlefield anyway. This should also increase the value of skills, and items that increase the movement speed of characters so they are able to get past melee characters that are in the process of setting up a "defensive wall" before they get into position. Also, this adds value to invisibility/etherealness spells/skills that would allow you to get past the engagement zones unhindered. I think this mechanic adds a good bit of tactical gameplay to the game, and I'm all for adding tactical gameplay, even if it means more micromanagement overhead.

Or in a trap rogue placed. That would be awesome. Absolutely, as long as he was careful not to get caught in the trap himself.

That sounds reasonable. The attacker could, of course, just step forward, keeping pace with the withdrawing defender and keeping them in the "engaged zone". This could then be used by the defender to draw the attacker into a position that is more advantageous to him and his party (e.g. into a spot where a mage has clear line of sight of the attacker).

Good stuff, basically attacks of opportunity that also slow opponents down, not just damage them. Me likey. Another thing me likey: Josh's cheese-tastic puns.

I'm not sure how that's an issue, many of these kickstarters are going to be missing the release dates. Seems to be a lot of baseless speculation from people who backed it minimally. Yeah, if they're adding extra features above and beyond what was promised in the Kickstarter, I don't see how that's a bad thing. As far as the release date goes, I've pledged to about a dozen Kickstarter projects, if not more, and I don't expect a single one of them to make the release date, Project: Eternity included. Games missing release dates is pretty much the standard for the game industry as a whole, not just Kickstarter projects.

It's been a long time since I played TW1, but if I remember correctly (that's up for debate), I don't think you can get the higher upgrades without getting the lower upgrades first. Also, later on in the game, you will have tons of bronze medals, so go ahead and use them.

I used to collect things for years too. Heck, I kept floppy discs for years after I ceased to even have a computer with a functional floppy drive. Adapting to digital distribution was weird at first, but now I wouldn't have it any other way. If I never handle another CD or DVD I'll be just fine.