majestic

I don't know, the end of the Trooper storyline was plenty climactic - for both my keyboard and my desk, that is.

I think I'll be having nightmares for a while.

I think it's finishing a quest that always counts as a turn while journal updates generally have a chance to do so.

The first thing I played on Linux was Quake (not counting the solitaire-like games that came with every window manager), but that was a long while ago, almost 20 years now. Not sure Loki was a turning point - when they went belly-up in 2002 it almost turned out to be the nail in the coffin of AAA games running on Linux.

DS9 certainly had the best character development of any Trek series and it had the advantage of having Robert Hewitt Wolfe (whom I would say is the MCA of sci-fi writers) working on it for a while, and a noticable dip in quality after he left at the end of Season 5. TNG had some really, really good stories that easily rival the best of TOS but it is all wrapped in a lot of filler and sprinkled with some damned awful stinkers that kind of dilute the experience - for every Drumhead there are two Shades of Grey...

Oh, I'm all for diversity and choices, please don't get me wrong there and I would love to see Linux succeed as a viable alternative in gaming - if only because it means that the current chokehold on game development is broken up a bit. Look at how Vulkan made Microsoft streamline DirectX for the first time in ages - DX12 is so much better than the past decades of improvements they made. I just don't share the opinion that Brandon Adler's comments are harmful towards Linux gaming or that there is any major migration going on - and even if SteamOS succeeds on the market, it might just be used in the way consoles are these days with the remainder of its capabilities as fully formed Linux distribution lying fallow. Time will tell, but it is really far too early to play a requiem for Microsoft.

TOS is campy, over the top and has all the production charm of a 60ies TV show, but the quality of its content (= sci fi storytelling) is no better - or worse - than that of any other Trek series. But I guess graphics are as important to TV shows as they are for games, right? Right?

Yeah. Going back to DOS games via GOG.

Legacy provides the basis for Inquisition. So if you plan on playing DA:I and only want to get one of the DA2 story DLCs Legacy is the way to go - but Mark of the Assassin was more fun (but much less relevant to the lore of Thedas). Plus it had Felicia Day voice acting which is always a huge plus.

I like the creative number interpretation that's going on. Sure Microsoft has lost some ground recently and Windows Phone has a hard time on the market (which I personally find rather sad because after having used iOS, Android and Windows Phone I can definitely say I like WP the most) there is absolutely no data to indicate that there is any large scale migration towards Linux going on. In spite of all the privacy issues, Windows 10 has, a mere month after it's release, three times the desktop market share that Linux has. Just let that sink in for a spell. If anything, casual users tend to use their tablets or smartphones intead of PCs these days, but none of those are likely to actually care for games that much. Aside Angry Birds and Candy Crush Saga, obviously. So perhaps Steam OS will shake things up a bit, but honestly, it's not the opinion of Brandon holding Linux gaming back, it's the lackluster support of certain companies regarding drivers that will REALLY be a problem (or already is one) - even for Valve and Steam OS. Can't quite shake that much up if half the graphics card market decides that they don't want to play ball. But yeah, whatever.

I think DA:I could have profited a lot by having more areas like the Frostback Basin and Emprise du Lion. They were nicely done and focused on a particular quest with a few sidequests here and there but none of the utter inanity that some other areas turned out ot be. Somehow all the low-levle content is kind of... bad. Bland. Oh, and boring.

Not liking Voyager or Enterprise isn't a real reason for such drastic measures. Not liking TOS however screams for more than just a divorce.

Oh, I totally forgot that Trespasser came out today and with it being set two years after the main game it only makes sense for not being able to go back. Guess that means I'll be playing DA:I again this week.

That depends on your level and what you mean with moving the story along. Jaws of Hakkon is a bit more difficult than the base game, there's a reason it drops gear and crafting schematics that are leaps and bounds ahead of everything else.

There is at least one scripted interaction that only checks your character's stats and equipment - the very first one during the prologue.

Oh my, why do people get butthurt so easily these days?

Yes, there are. And actually two missions start from the docks, so... missing both kinda means not talking to your companions much I guess.

The sale containing System Shock 2 is back. To quote myself from the last GOG thread: Respect the will of the many. Glory to the flesh. Glory to the mass.

Ever since Team America: World Police, all I do when I see Matt Damon in any movie is yell MATT DAMON! at the screen.

Yes, and that's also why GOG's patches are really very small compared to their Steam counterparts. The first patch downloaded almost 2GB on Steam while it had 80MB on GOG - because the patch on GOG was simply a delta patch, something that used to be much more common. That is also why, years ago, sometimes patches came out specifically for updating one version to the next, or a much larger one that contained all prior updates - but that was way back in a time when bandwidth was an issue for everyone. Good old... times, and all.

Low, based on Steam stats anyway. Of course "boot the game" is like 60% on avarage for games, so... it might just be really disproporiate numbers all by itself. Any VET know if BG also got this ****storm in 1999? And personally I think ToB just absolutely sucks, TotSC was much much better. Atleast it's not like The Witcher II that added DLC to act I while there are 3 acts and you can't get back once you finish one. Must have been hell for our current forum members... Not that I would remember. TotSC was pretty well received especially since it focused more on the strength(s) of Baldur's Gate. It became somewhat of a template for Baldur's Gate 2 in terms of more and more meaningful dungeoneering and much less traversing empty wilderness areas. That was 16 years ago though and players generally weren't the prissy little entitlement bitches they are these days. I wonder how much whining and grating BG2 would get if it would be released today. Damn. All those bugs that were never fixed by Bioware and the utterly horrible balancing and not a single balance pass in sight.

Nice hardware.

Shadowplay is a bit less fiddly than FRAPS is, but both get the job done well enough, assuming you have the computing power and hard disk space necessary to get decent results. Especially given how terribly SW:TOR is optimized. Silly thing eats resources like there's no tomorrow.

I just finished Satellite Reign. The ending, while not completely terrible, isn't exactly well done. The map is semi-interesting if a bit nonsensical for a skyscraper, but the enemies are all a joke, especially the final boss. I had more trouble with the first few missions in Downtown. And that was without bothering to research the final pieces of augmentations, gear and weaponry. Hrm. Still, recommended for every Syndicate fan.

I liked the point he made about Hong Kong not looking Chinese enough. Because Berlin was totally super German in Dragonfall? Riiiiight.