Humodour

That's awesome, but I bet the crew got a headache.

Shoe phone.

Well, so far, it seems that you are in the minority on this particular forum. Really? I got the impression a lot of people on this forum get a sad face when they think of Vista.

Nightwish is good.

Before you listen to Gorth, think of the floods of users Alpha Protocol and Aliens are sure to release. What better way to respond to the 100th "teh alein queen is hot??" poll than the medium of dance? Come, children! Studies show the following emoticons are also an effective n00b-management tool: 3) 4) 5) / 6)

The Tactics mod is outdated and its difficulty enhancing capabilities have since been surpassed by other mods which play fair and rely on highly advanced AI instead of using cheep methods such as taking the party's items and/or giving opponents absurd abilities/resistances. See SCSII for an example of a modern AI enhancing mod. BTW, Arkan, this might also interest you: Flaming Swords in BG2. Just thought I'd pop in and say it's good to see you're still around, aVENGER.

Why would they avoid that? It's the perfect way to unfold it. I'm with Arkan.

But I thought game CD-keys used the DEC alphabet to avoid confusion of G, I, O, and Q with C, 1, 0, and O, for example?

Possibly, but I reckon it'd work much better if it was Anders. It seems to be gearing up for that, too, including Anders/Starback dynamic.

Lay off, he just meant something like "You chose a great company to work for. Their games are entertaining to a lot of Chinese people even after the cultural barrier."

It depends on their level as well. I doubt you'll be able any time soon - they are meant to be very powerful foes.

That's epic. I was hoping it'd be Anders for the comedy value.

Pretty much. I'll be happy to use DX10 when I switch to Windows 7 - and I'll be a W7 early adopter. I think that by the time W7 has rolled out, the DX10 marketshare will be fairly massive between Vista and W7. Probably still not enough to validate DX10 only games, but devs will likely start to focus on it in favour of DX9/XP users by then (though I imagine XP will maintain a firm grip on some OS market share even then). Nah, that's correct. Thing is, corporate users are both some of the biggest users and one of the biggest indicators of OS success.

To start with, you're extrapolating a pistols skill to then mean separate skills for every other type of gun, which is extremely rare to find in games but also has no support from the article, which speaks only of pistols as a skill. I will be very surprised to find a separate skill for shotguns, rifles and machine guns each, as you claim, not least of all because it would **** up the skill system in terms of balance (one diplomacy skill but 5 or 6 weapon skills? lol), but also because it would be an annoying combat system for the player to work with, spreading things far too thinly as it were. And is the distinction really any less arbitrary? You might be able to make a case for it if they weren't building this game around Rambo-style playing being a definite option. Most recently, you illogically redefine the meaning of 'catch-all' to mean 'specific' so as to refer back to your original argument that weapon groups must be 100% realistic (even if it doesn't makes sense in terms of fun and game balance). This argument could only hold water if weapon grouping based on form/function (BG2, IWD2, your system) was a less arbitrary choice than weapon grouping based on size/complexity (BG1, KOTOR, SS2, Deus Ex, Fallouts), which signs indicate is not the case. Re: Did you by any chance come from RPGCodex or NMA?

Somehow, I'm glad.

Right, because it makes perfect sense that you could apply the rules to the Chain Shot ability to a crossbow, a shotgun or an assault rifle... No, wait, sorry. That was sarcasm. Even if that was a "catch-all term," the weapons it describes would be extremely similar (ie precise, fairly large clip, medium-to-long range, et cetera), and couldn't be held in such broad categories as "small guns". Face it: I'm right, you're wrong. Somebody has ego problems. But no, you're not 'right'; I've just stopped arguing with your circular logic. It seems you created this thread not to speculate about the skill system but to try and enforce your personal opinion of what it will be like. I'll continue to wait till more information is released about the weapon system before I blindly accept your overblown speculation about it - that will be a much better indicator of the truth.

Drawing parallels between SecuROM and the HIV virus only serves to cheapen both. On another note, one of the reasons people should oppose this kind of DRM is not because it's 'harmless' or 'overblown' as Gromnir believes, but because it's just one small step towards granting publishers ever more control over copyright. Stopping it right here and saying "that's enough" as has been the case with Mass Effect sets a precedent. It draws clear lines between what is acceptable and what is not, and will make further future 'progress' in DRM require clear discourse between publisher and consumer, as it should be. It should never, ever be a case of letting them get away with it simply because it is unobtrusive to the majority.

I think I'm most after a Cyberpunk type game. I guess you could say SS2 and DX1 (and almost Anachronox) came close. I'm thinking like a Bladerunner RPG or something. It would be refreshing. Edit: And yeah, turn-based isometric would be sweet. I think there's definitely a profitable market for it out there even if it doesn't pull in the big bucks of console gamers.

? I really liked this episode, as the story has finally moved forward. Can't wait for next week Holy crap, that was not meant for this thread. It was intended for Waslingham in a thread where he asked about laptop use outdoors. And agreed with your posts.

True. I've been planning to get a new PC for ages now. It's just a matter of money.

Pardon me if I ignore you when you start to compare this to AIDS, Gromnir.

Personally I'd like something more cool like a PipBoy or Denton's implants, than something boring and commercial like an iPhone or PDA.

Occam's razor doesn't apply here. Whilst the 'conspiracy' theory is certainly more complex, it potentially has better explanatory power to the 'accident/coincidence' theory, given the shrewd, manipulative mindset of corporate execs. Moreover, Occam's razor is more of a secondary support where all other evidence and attempts at proof fail - it should never be used as the main argument for why something is 'wrong', nor as a blanket back-up argument which is beyond question.

Intentional or not, I agree. These are the reasons I am hesitant for 'praise' Bioware for this move.

Actually, it's true that businesses are the dominant force in operating system uptake. Gamers are more about driving innovation, if that make sense. Linux plays many games fine. GTA, Oblivion, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, etc... granted you need the commercial Cedega atm (about $50 I think), but Wine also plays a lot of games and is catching up (considering Cedega stole Wine code, that makes sense). It's more of a patch solution for now, but the ability is certainly there and will only get better.