majestic

Oh, yes, there's no doubt about that. The Practical Incarnation was magnificent in his... practicality, unfettered by any moral consideration.

Starting with 18 in WIS is a must, then distribute among INT and CHA. CHA is a little less important than INT. Focus on WIS while leveling up, get it to 25 as soon as possible (that includes some easy to find early boni to the stat). If I remember correctly the highest INT check is 21, so make that your second priority then work on CHA. The rest of the stats can easily be ignored. Look for a certain NPC that can help you become a mage so that you get most out of the stats - just make sure she is a mage before hitting level 7 (there's a stat level-up bonus that otherwise will go to STR as fighter or DEX as thief) so you get a point in INT as a freebie. Talk to your companions early and often, they all and you gain massive stat improvements through dialog. If you're worried about starting with annoyingly low physical stats you can drop a few points into DEX, maybe start with 15 (that's enough for the entire game). That also helps with playing an evil TNO if you're so inclined, but it's not really necessary. TNO *is* immortal after all and the only downside to dying is that you need to walk back a bit. Unlike in other RPGs, being an evil bastard in Torment is a bit different. You're not just evil for the lulz. You'll end up being a really, really terrible person. Especially to your companions. Heh. EVUL SPOILAH:

No, it isn't.

Of course both are silly. It is, however, possible to earn a living by being the snobbish variant. We call those people art critics.

Ah, now, see... Arcanum is a title that is utterly unmade by the terrible (combat) mechanics while ToEE is a title that is utterly unmade by all the elements that aren't combat. I kind of wish that someone would combine the two into one actually playable game.

I think the complaint was more about developers releasing "in-engine" footage with graphics and effects that are then not present or of reduced quality in the final product. Mostly so that console peasants don't feel bad about being console peasants. Erm, not that this would apply to a PC-only game.

Did you ever meet any of those swaggetarian hipster guys that seem to pop up everywhere? I'm perfectly certain such equivalents exist for entertainment too. Like a bunch of people I know who pretend to like jazz because it makes them feel superior to the grunts enjoying a bunch of Taylor Swift. Heh.

Careful, we don't want Luzianus to come back. Better not to talk too openly about this.

That's pretty spot on. The disjointed nature in which the storyline is told makes it hard to casually play the game and follow it, unless you're really good at remembering details. Keeping WIS, INT and CHA high is also necessary, otherwise you miss out on a lot of stuff, and what's maybe even worse, have to fight more battles, and those are certainly *not* PS:T's strong suit. In a way this is a flaw that PS:T shares with KOTOR 2: If you don't have the right stats and actively influence and talk to your companions you will miss out on many details of the main story line - so much that it might even appear to not make sense at all or have plot holes the size of a small moon space station. I don't think it is a coincidence that both were made by MCA.

Yeah, a throwback to Luke's and Han's antics on the Death Star while trying to save Leia. Maybe that's what annoyed me. I seem to have trouble dealing with the remakey nature of the film. =(

The entire escape sequence for instance. I can already see the "Fin and Poe dicking around in space" comedy-spinoff. And yes, maybe I'm a bit too cynical and jaded and exaggerate that out of proportion, but there *were* comedy elements to Finn's character in the beginning of the film that annoyed me to no end.

It's different from ToEE insofar as you only control one character and the combat is a bit more like in Fallout (the original Fallout, that is). Oh, yeah, there are feats that give you access to a bunch of tactical features that my character has no access to because he's killing things with mentally projected fireballs and neuroshocks instead of weapons, so no idea how those are. In the beginning you're given quests from one of the head honchos in the starting area, and that's pretty much it. I spent most of my time so far wandering the tunnels and killing... rats, trying to catch fish and other critters. That nobody really wants to buy because old-school traders not only have a limited credit supply but also a list of things they want to buy. Found a real nice but useless piece of armor worth a fortune? Yeah, too bad for you if noboy's buying armors right now. Oh, well, maybe the guy that does has nothing you want and not enough cash. Heh.

I already spent a couple hours wandering around caves and tunnels. So far it's been fun, but a few things are bugging me, or dare I say: A few things are a *bit* too old school. Especially the part where there are multiple currencies with weird exchange rates and the fact that the barter window doesn't give you a price in numbers but instead a slider showing how good (or bad) the deal is. The exploration part is a bit hamstrung by the fact that the game very clearly tells you where you are not yet supposed to be. In the form of impossible skill checks at that level or enemies that kill you in a single round, but maybe that'll change. It certainly didn't help that I had no real idea what I was doing when I made my character. Oh, and lest anyone else falls for this trap, if you want to use psi abilities then keep in mind activating them will cost you a point of constitution.

edit: I hope Fin stops being the silly black guy comic relief character in any subsequent films. While I applaud JJ for not abusing the Droids for that or creating a new Jar Jar Binks using the token black guy for some stereotypical black guy antics in the first half of the film felt a bit off.

I don't think it is unreasonable to say that the movie is too much of a conservative remake for its own good. Maybe the next one will stand on its own and pass from being good to being great.

I wonder who came up with the names in the prequels and in TFA. Supreme Leader Snoke, I'm officially calling you Lord Sudoku from now on.

Open at your peril: Still, in spite of all that, much better than the prequels were, but that is not saying much...

Gods of Egypt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJBnK2wNQSo This, Star Trek Arcade Wars and Independence Day 2... 2016 sure looks promising for fans of... terrible movies.

I've just finished Serious Sam: The First Encounter. The series was one of the things I bought from GOG while it was on sale recently, among with Tomb Raider. Serious Sam was a blast but in the end it really got repetitive. Karnak and Luxor felt like this massive drag where everything is just the same. Still, it was nice to go on a classic shoot rampage. Now installing the first Tomb Raider. I never played any of them because they came out while I was in my rebellious youth phase and they were popular (blargh!) AND featured a woman protagonist with ridiculous boobs that all the stereotypical nerds worshipped, which I though was pathetic and confirming all the negative prejudice us nerds faced. Well, I'm no longer that rebellious but I still think the conventions with Lara Croft lookalikes and 15 year olds flipping out over pixel boobs are ridiculous and a blight, but I'm willing to give the game a chance now.

For me the biggest flaw of Satellite Reign, aside from the respawning enemies and self-repairing environment on releoad, was the difficutly curve. In a way it was like Commandos, you play the first few missions until you realize how limited enemy responses to your actions really are and then you just start to blast through everything. By the time I was halfway through the second sector I didn't even bother with hacking cameras or turning off lights any more. Equipment mini-spoiler:

No, it never was any issue at all, but it has been 17 years and expectations shifted. These days people whine about being able to sell equipment from NPCs they pick up because it gives a few hundred credits that you otherwise would not have. Back during the IE games some classes were more useless than rangers and paladins were at PoE's launch and everyone was more or less okay with it. *shrug*

This has the potential to be worse than the Wolverine spin-off movies. Quite an achievement.

I found the races with Delphi much more annoying. Bad controls and a horrible case of rubber band AI, no thanks.

Ah, to finally find kindred souls who also liked Master of Orion 3. I've put hundreds of hours into that game, but I can see why people would hate it (especially those who just wanted a reskinned Master of Orion 2, because MoO3 is different in EVERY aspect). It took me a long while to find out what the hell was going on and why my planets didn't do anything but build infantry and stupid troop ships.