Humodour

Blogging from a rudimentary laptop with a rudimentary satellite connection powered by a rudimentary solar array?

Oh, and if you think this 'surge' tactic has been successful in decreasing sectarian violence, you should read this: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/comme...rge-952490.html

I think people are brushing it off because Obama was 8 when they existed. He's never had anything to do with WUO and has personally denounced their acts. And as for force - well, maybe didn't like the idea of being conscripted to go fight in an unjust war in a dangerous country to fight an unwinnable battle. It's not like the American government had a stellar civil rights record at the time. Not justifying them, but it's hardly black and white.

I've heard a lot of conflicting reports about the success of this surge strategy. Besides the fact that McCain said it works 100%, and he lies alot, and besides the fact that Obama said it didn't and I'm pro-Obama, I'd actually like some evidence that it is working in a long-term sustainable way. I mean, it's clearly a failure if we have to do repeated surges and if it doesn't bring about a clear end to the war any time soon, right? While we're all hearing about McPalin accuse Obama of being a terrorist, why don't we look at McCain's record: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/233..._maverick/print

Yeah, that crazy Palin bitch is claiming Obama is a terrorist. Funny, except Obama was 8 years old when the guy he's accused of 'associating' with was involved in those anti-Vietnam protests. Moreover, Obama's association with was regarding funding grants for disadvantaged school students. Seems like the Palin thinks education is terrorism, but does that surprise anybody?

I wasn't aware sticking your fingers in your ears and going "NANANANANA NOT LISTENING" was a discussion style.

Yeah, OK. We don't want to chase new users away, etc. Time for my medication, it seems. And a timeout. You should add a transparency layer to your signature gif and anti-alias it. It would be time consuming but cool.

Just an update for those interested: Obama has been polling at an average of 7% above McCain for 10 days now. Historically, by this point in the election, 95% of voters have already made up their mind definitively who they plan to vote for on election day. Obama's campaign is currently planning to win Nebraska, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and North Carolina. Obama seems to have already won Michigan, Florida, Virginia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. McCain is trying to win 1 of Maine's 4 electoral votes, much like Obama is doing in Nebraska. McCain should be careful or Texas will soon flip for Obama, too. Then again, once Texas flips you can bet Obama has already won upwards of 370 electoral votes elsewhere. For those new to quirky American politics, you need 270 electoral votes to win. Obama is currently on about 264 EVs. McCain is on about 190. http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/ http://www.electoral-vote.com/

Does it get confusing always being half an hour late?

My reply was a sarcasm/irony mix in itself, but now you just ruined it. So does this mean you live in Queensland? For some reason I pictured you as a Melbournite.

Good example. you mean Jaime i assume? if you told him to stay there you'd see him in Paris and he could get you Gunther's killphrase (or if you hadn't gotten Anna's and killed her the old fashioned way a Aug Upgrade Cannister i think) Yes, I think Carter always leaves UNATCO regardless. As Shryke says if you ask JAime to stay and spy for you you get the killphrase; if you tell him to split he smuggles out an AUG cannister. In either case he meets JC in PAris and passes along the appropriate item. That's about the extent of player choice in the game. Don't get me wrong, I think DX was fab, but still at it's heart it is a very linear first-person shooter. AN excellent one, of course. The thing is, Deus Ex offered a straight path with a wide degree of lateral variation on the way. You call that linear, but I really don't think that's accurate. Fallout offered a straight path as a guide with a wide degree variation in all directions. You'd be right in considering it more non-linear than Deus Ex, but that doesn't simply make Deus Ex linear. By comparison, Half-Life 1 was completely linear (much as I love that game, and much as its combat was very non-linear).

You can't safely assume that. I have no clue who 'most people' are that you refer to, and it would seem you mean 'most people who ever played Deus Ex' which is definitely weasel words territory. Anyway, semantics. That's not a fault of the skills system. I've seen this handled various ways inclusive of a skills system and without it. Heck even most generic FPS games don't have 100% accuracy. It's a feature in those cases, and I think it's a feature here. I know Josh hates it, but I disagree with him. It also justifies closing in on an enemy before shooting, as well as the use of scopes, laser sights, skill mods, crouching/standing, running/walking, steadying hands, etc. I definitely think it was designed the way it was meant to be. It's things like these they tried to dumb down for Average Joe in Invisible War that made it unappealing to the game's original followers. Um, Deus Ex also did the huge cross-hair thing, remember? The smaller the cross-hair, the better your accuracy. I think Deus Ex handled the system well. Now, Vampire: Bloodlines on the other hand - that's a game whose system you can complain about (although even then I personally didn't care).

Yes, this coming from me. A guy who loved KOTOR1, BG1, Shadows of Undrentide & Hordes of the Underdark, but disliked NWN1 OC and BG2. I freely admit Bioware is not my favourite company. They've made some good games and some bad games. They aren't perfect and I don't think they're on the right track. I don't call them a bad company, though, and I'm perfectly willing to play one of their games if I hear it is Old Bioware style (Dragon Age). So I don't know where you got it that I attack people whenever they say something positive about NWN or Bioware. Seems like you're simply trying to attack my nature because I made a valid point. random n00b: chillaxe.

I was originally going to say that a good way to tell when you joined the community is what you call him, because his change in name usually marks different eras in the forum, but I didin't want to have to deal with someone saying "But I join (sometime) and I call him (something)!" when it's really supposed to be taken kind of light heartedly. And I really was around when he was the other name but never paed attention to him, until he went by Hades.

Now, this may have been your subtle point, but I fail to see how that simplifies it.

I played it the first few times on the easiest settings. It quickly became one my all time favourite FPS (alongside HL1) and RPGs (alongside PS:T). I later replayed it on the hardest settings and, again, it was immensely fun. What point are you trying to make? That difficulty levels have something to do with justifying removal of the skill system? Also, you use 'most people'. What's your source? I'm not fond of weasel words.

How can you call it a sound choice when there was nothing wrong with and it provided a necessary feature (complexity) which was not accounted for? If it ain't broke, don't fix it seems to apply well here. Re J.E.: I know J.E.'s justification is 'unnecessary complexity' but I often find myself wondering just how unnecessary a lot of the things he's against actually are. Obsidian's track record and IWD2 have failed to convince me either way so far (this issue is often obfuscated by bugs and lack of polish). So as I said, verdict is still out. It looks like Aliens will be his real baby in this regard, so we'll know soon.

Ouch! I just hate it when my computer knows more than me. Didn't even flash up a message saying "DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME! FOR GREAT JUSTICE!!"

I have no clue what's going on. One minute it's 1:30 am and next I look it's 3:00 am. I guess this means... I get... an extra hour of sunlight in the afternoon?

Yep. Sick of people making games that suck these days because they think "Hey, I have a brilliant idea! If we make the game simpler, it'll be so much more fun!" And what scares me is that it seems Josh Sawyer thinks like that. But hey, the verdict's still out on that one.

I don't want anybody else When I think about you I touch myself I don't want anybody else Oh no, oh no, oh no

I'll believe it when I see it. Sounds like a load of douche. I doubt anything can come close to Deus Ex 1 these days without being based on an independent concept, and independent universe, and made by independent developers.

In the old days he was called Visceris, though...

Here's an idea. You ready? It's a metal box and you put integrated circuits in it. Yeah? Yeah?

You don't debate Volourn. You tell people they aren't allowed to hold a point of view you don't agree with. He (understandably) feels BG2 is a superior RPG to NWN. Let him express that opinion without jumping down his throat.