Humodour

I run faster than a robot, thank you very much!

You mean this? http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?act=M...&filter=ALL

No, but I've got a list of some of the best ones saved here by a friend: http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/images/macro/

Nope. Closest I've got it "All I wanted was a custom avatar" I got a custom avatar! Except Josh Sawyer didn't like it so he replaced it with a bucket.

Oh man. I miss BIS.

**** yes. This was one of the best aspects of Fallout and Deus Ex - not that I ever did it, but the fact that every encounter made it an option, which I often took.

Well you're no fun.

'Albania' is Muslim for 'The Banana'.

I'm pretty sure Australia is the most non-religious Western country other than Albania.

That's the IPLY boards, not Black Isle. The Interplay forums were run by a fascist dictator, and not the good kind like The Overseer.

Dude, what the hell are you talking about? You're one of the nice guys compared to a some folks around here. C'mon, name names.

You can see where they're coming from - Australia is an extremely lucrative country in terms of wealth and raw resources and would be a prime target for invasion if ever a war broke out. The challenge for our government is defending such a vast land mass from such a mass invasion when all they have is a small army but a huge technological advantage. Robots and drones are certainly an effective answer to that dilemma, and they also cut down on allied casualties. I'm aware it's not all sunshine and lollipops, but what are your specific qualms with the concept, Gorth, accepting that this has nothing to do with strong AI (i.e. a Skynet scenario)?

I think it might be: Recruit is 0 Veteran is 5 And then you've got skills to distribute beyond that at character creation, I believe.

That's a massive amount of sales. But I actually recall Feargus giving bigger figures than that.

Well, good to have you back. Wish more BIS'ers would return.

He's busy with real life these days, AFAIK. He still takes the time to check up on Josh's Black Hound project I believe. And hi GM. Took you long enough to migrate eh?

I was always under the impression that Deus Ex sold quite well later on... So did Torment. But that's not what publishers, and even dev studios themselves, tend to look at.

You've said this before, and I just think it's plain stupid; nobody is forcing you to go and interact with his fans after you've read each strip. Also, I'm not seeing it - the 'obnoxiousness' or 'retardedness'. Quite a mass generalisation.

I'm sorry, but what? You end the game then either click on New Game or Exit Game, and it's presumptious if they give you a reason to choose the former? No. He's basically saying that developers should put all the content in from the get-go, because it is presumptious of them to expect players to enjoy the game so much that they would want to play through it all again. His opinion is fair enough. In AP's case, that really wouldn't work too well. Some explanations are probably in order. When you start up a game, you pick an "agent history", which pre-selects some of the skills for you. You can choose between Soldier (guns), Field Agent (stealth), or Tech Specialist (tech skills). These give you some basic recommended skills that will suit your playstyle if you don't want to allocate your skills yourself. (You can also choose Freelancer if you want to allocate your skills yourself.) However, the history you choose will also change the way some characters will react to you; some characters (especially early on) know that you came from the armed forces if you chose the Soldier background, and will comment on that, etc. Recruit and Veteran are similar. If you start as a Recruit, you are assumed to be a really green recruit, and your other agents are going to give you a hard time about it (which in itself can be pretty amusing); likewise with Veteran, where other characters will treat you with a bit more respect because they know you've been around the block once or twice. So it's essentially impossible to have all this content exist in one play-through, unless we populate the world with a bunch of schizos who think Mike is both a recruit, a somewhat capable but unproven field agent, and a veteran all at once. That sounds better than the article.

I never really understood how the Russians got to keep K

I agree that it's sad to see this game end up like Deus Ex or No One Lives Forever or Torment (great games with soft sales due to lack of an advertisement push), which it invariably will.

tl;dr

America only entered the war near the end when Japan attacked and generally speaking things were already going badly for the Germans, right? Suppose Japan invaded China, didn't touch America, and that Germany was performing better against the Commonwealth? Would America remain essentially non-aligned and hope the fascists left her alone?