Hurlshort

Do achievements have some sort of value I don't know about?

Was there an extended downtime for the forum today? I thought I noticed one. Maybe it was the rabid Dungeon Siege fanbase.

Hitman without Jesper Kyd is Hitman in name only. I heard that the opposite is true as well, Jesper Kyd without Hitman is Jesper Kyd in name only. Thankfully that will suffice in most courts of law.

Are trophies really that important? I like a pat on the back as much as the next guy, but seriously, isn't playing with your friend more important than a shiny trophy in your display case?

If it makes you feel better, the DS property wasn't exactly a hot commodity that many developers were clamoring for. Obsidian is reviving a dead franchise here. Sorry you don't like there decisions.

The Surgeon General of the US received regular reports on this whole thing when it was happening, so I would say the US government was involved and and apology was in order.

It came out awhile ago, and quite a few folks here enjoyed it. I'm waiting for it to go on sale myself.

Seriously, this is reprehensible. I'm surprised it took so long to get out as well.

Pretty cool to see a series where the home teams keep winning. It seems like more often than not in hockey, home ice is a disadvantage.

I'm still going to buy it. I spend way too much time here to be comfortable not picking it up around day one for full price. It would be one thing if it was simply a game I had no interest in, but after the demo it seems like a solid game, albeit with a few flaws. I can overlook those because I love Obsidian and want to see them stay in business.

My son has croup, which is something I got a few times as a child. His birthday party is Sunday, so hopefully he will be recovered in time.

Definitely a day one purchase for me.

I've been playing video games for a long time, so illogical levels are pretty par for the course. That was a frickin' huge house, by the way.

Well, it looks like it is coming along decently. It isn't turn based, so that is a big bummer for me. The plan & go mode might be feasible. There are a few folks from the Silent Storm crew working on this, if I remember correctly, or they are using a modified engine from Silent Storm. This might mean it will be a decent tactical game. My other big concern is that they won't have any of the personality of the JA series. It's tough to gauge that with a video, but the portraits alone lack the charm of the previous games. It still isn't coming out until the end of the year or 2012, so we will see. edit: To answer the original disappointment question, my expectations are already pretty low, so it didn't make them worse or anything.

I get that identity theft is a problem, but I think that is a concern in a lot of places. I'd say I'm more at risk when I hand my credit card to a waitress than I am on Facebook. As for employers or the law using that information against me, this is another case of understanding that there is no such thing as anonymity on the internet. Don't post stupid pictures and don't say stupid things. Don't even friend stupid people. It isn't very hard to do. For example, I have students who try to friend me every year, and I just say no. Maybe it is naive. I also wonder how useful this information is BECAUSE it is so widely available. It's the whole needle in a haystack idea.

Considering I only use it to communicate with friends and family, that sounds unnecessary. The whole point in putting information like an email address or a birthdate is that it makes it easier to keep track of that information among your circle. I get reminders about upcoming birthdays, I can send out invitations to events, I can share pictures of the kids, etc. What I'm saying is the benefit outweighs the risk of my private information getting out. I also don't post stuff that is inappropriate and I don't really have any hush hush secrets. What exactly is the risk here, by the way? Like, what are you guys worried about exactly, in terms of that information getting out?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I plan on retiring in my fifties. Working until 67 sounds like madness.

I have a hard time believing the image recognition software is any good at picking out one of a billion people. Sure, when you have a list of 100 people, it can probably make a good guess who on your friends list is in a picture, but I just don't see it being effective for large scale security.

So is the complaint here that when I upload a photo, it will automatically recognize other facebook members in the photo and offer to tag them? Why would that upset me?

I've been playing Project Zomboid too! It crashes after about 5-10 minutes for me, but it is a very cool concept. You start out in a room with your wife who is bleeding, and first you have to try and stabilize her. Then you move out of the house for food and supplies. It has a Minecraft style crafting system. I was in the same situation as Ros, except I had been lucky enough to get a shotgun. I was waiting for them to break the door down but then the game crashed. I haven't seen another shotgun since.

I thought the story was immediately more engaging than anything I remember from DS1 and 2. The writing was better by far, and the characters you meet actually had a little personality. Rose tinted glasses, I suppose.

Slug, that whole situation sounds like it will have a comically tragic ending. Keep us posted.

Look, I love Obsidian and I will buy this, but did anyone else feel this game played and looked like something that came out 5 years ago? I was hoping they would take some of the stuff that great action games of late have done and incorporate it. I was thinking we might get a little God of War or Ninja Gaiden mixed in with an RPG to spice things up. I'm just worried about the reception, I don't know how it will win folks over.

The DS series was super boring when it came to story, characters, dialogue and all that. DS3 already is a vast improvement on that after playing the demo. My concern is that the gameplay and graphics of action games has come a long way since then, and DS3 seems stuck in time there. It looks outdated, and it plays like something that came out on the last generation of consoles.

Played a bit of the Dungeon Siege 3 demo. It isn't very stunning visually, but the story and dialogue so far is about a billion times better than the previous two in the franchise. It looks like a pretty standard action RPG other than that, albeit a dated one. I will pick it up because I love Obsidian and the story will probably be worth the price of admission, but I am troubled about what this will mean for Obsidian's future. I just don't see a solid seller here.