Hurlshort

That made me smile

I've been stomping around the snow in Yosemite with a bunch of 8th graders this week. It is really beautiful, evrything is starting to melt now.

It took me like ten minutes, but I finally figured out what you mean

Two women at the same time.

Cool, I thought they did a great job of recreating the Conan world. The beginner island is fantastic, it is as solid as any single player RPG I've played. Unfortunately I felt the game fell apart after level 20, bu ti played it at release, so maybe they've tightened it up.

Well, it does depend on what type of jackpot I hit. A million is just going to let me get out of debt, buy a house, upgrade my car and RV, and retire a few years earlier. It would be awesome, but it isn't really life changing. I would still work because I love my job. Now if I was a multi-millionaire, I'd probably stop teaching full time, maybe work as a substitute or look for a part time assignment. I'd build my dream house and spend months traveling in a nice RV exploring the country. I'd try not to be too spend-crazy, I want it to last and have enough to help my kids and kids kids. I would buy a condo in San Francisco and get season tickets to the Giants, and I would do the same for the San Jose Sharks. I also think it would be cool to fly a bunch of the forumites out to a Stanley Cup playoff game. I'd definitely take all the NHL thread folks and probably invite a few others. There are lots of possibilities, I guess.

That's why I said its going to flop. It's obviously difficult to predict the staying power of an MMO, but if they have a smart business plan, Volourn is right in saying it will only affect the MMO studio. I also fail to see how a game in a completely different genre can really ruin Bioware's reputation. I guess if it was a complete disaster, sure, but it looks like a pretty solid game. My only concern is that it will not be fully ready and will be pushed out early , a la Warhammer Online.

Bioware's MMO is going to be a smash hit. It is going to sell like hot pancakes. That is practically guaranteed. The real question is whether the 3 million+ subscribers it gets will continue to play after the first month.

Picked up MLB 11 The Show - they implemented a new analog stick system this year and I'm pretty bad so far. My first game in the minors was a disaster, two strikeouts and I grounded into two double plays. I also flubbed a catch in the outfield. I've been a bit better since then, my average is at .200 and I'm fielding well, but I still have a ways to go.

I just read a story about a pastor who was run out of his church because he was using quotes from Ghandi. Someone went a bit nuts and said 'newsflash: Ghandi's in hell' and apparently the congregation sided with the nutcase and not the pastor. It just amazes me how popular the fire and brimstone churches still are.

Dang, someone told me they were wearing different clothes and I gladly accepted it, as that meant a nice happy ending. Now my world is a darker place, thanks LC

My kids make me groan about getting out of bed, but they are also the greatest reason I have to do so.

In M&B I just order everyone to follow me. It works well enough. I try and make sure I have as many mounted troops as possible, if you aren't mounted, then get a bow. I love that game.

Just one AC game sells 8 million copies, to say nothing of the entire franchise. There's no RPG that sells anything like that, so basically they can't afford it. Plus the RPG developers (and there're only a few) just happen to be not that good with graphics and stuff. We'll see about DS3. I'm not sure I buy that fully. The Hitman game had huge crowd tech. and I don't think those sell way more than a Bioware game. Plus they had no way of knowing AC would be a huge hit, it was a gamble and a new IP. Maybe an RPG could sell numbers like that if they made their games look like AC. I buy the limited resources argument a bit more. I get that an RPG needs to focus on different things than an action game, but since DA2 has clearly been 'action-ized' to appeal to a wider audience, it would be nice if we got some of the best parts of being an action game as well.

The problem with Kirkwall is you have games like Assassin's Creed with actual bustling cities, and for some reason every RPG still has the bad economic downturn look. I like Kirkwall myself. I thought the art for the city was very solid, and it seems like a decent sized city. I haven't played enough to be certain, but it is already better than the DA human and dwarf cities.

I'm supposed to take a bunch of 8th graders to Yosemite next week, but the storms have been pretty rough up there and it might get cancelled. There was another school there this week that was evacuated and apparently it took them 10 hours to get home, it is normally about a 4 hour drive. The power is out in Yosemite Valley and the roads are closed, but today is supposed to be the last bad storm day, so hopefully it will lear enough for us to go.

I'm almost level 24 in Rift, and it is still a blast to play. There is a great variety of stuff to do, questing, pvp, closing rifts, crafting, artifact collecting... they really did a good job on all of them.

Carver is your brother, so if he tried to hit on you in his short time, that would be breaking new ground, at least.

I'm just bummed. I'm a rather big fan of the DA universe. I read both books and though the first one was great and the second was decent. I thought DA1 was a solid game, although I wasn't a fan of the wardens. I had a bit of trouble with the expansion, but I got through it and thought it wrapped up the second book well. But I was really looking forward to DA2 as a move away from all the Warden depressing stuff, and so far it hasn't captured my attention at all.

So I've just barely started Dragon Age 2, but one of the first parts of the game bothered me. First off, this isn't a spoiler because it is literally the second thing that happens in the game. I'm trying to get into Kirkwall. There is a guard telling me about why the town is closed, and he says a ship will be arranged to get us back to Ferelden eventually. There is a group of deserters nearby who are also pretty upset about this. We make a bit of a stink about us having family in Kirkwall and the guard says they might be able to get a hold of our family and find a way for us to get in. This is where the game goes crazy... The deserters go nuts because we might get in, and attack the city guards. There are so many things wrong with this whole scenario. 1. These guys escaped Fereldan by deserting against the darkspawn invasion, are they really going to take on a fortress of enemies? 2. There wasn't any real sign that they were being mistreated, they weren't supposedly starving or anything like that. They were even promised passage on a boat, granted it was back to Fereldan. But is the city of Kirkwall the only place in the entire world? 3. I had to kill these guys, and it was literally treated like I just cleaned out rats from a cellar. We couldn't get them to surrender or something? It just sets an odd tone, like it's no big deal to go around killing folks. I guess I'm spoiled by games that make this stuff somewhat meaningful. 3.

Would you rather get less money? He's probably rather not get audited, more like.

Karate Kid - The new one that is actually Kung Fu kid. Ok, I was a big fan of the original, I grew up with it really, but this new version was awesome. The setting was phenomenal, Jackie Chan was on par with Mr. Miyagi, and Will Smith's kid has some great acting chops.

Up to level 22 in Rift and I just finished my first dungeon. The dungeon was pretty standard, I'd say it's the first thing in Rift that hasn't impressed me. Everything else in the game has been similar to other MMO's but pulled off just a bit cooler or smoother. Ah well, there was nothing wrong with it, I was just hoping for something neater. It didn't help that it was in a dingy tomb. I also finally installed Dragon Age 2. I was happy to see that I could import my save game, I didn't think it would matter with this being a separate storyline, but now I look forward to seeing the impact of my previous decisions. Maybe I'll get some e-mails from people in Fereldan.

I just get along really well with quite a few posters here. It isn't that we all share similar opinions or lifestyles, but something just makes it easy to converse with the folks here. I don't have many really close friends that I talk about everything with, other than my wife, but I find myself being able to do that here. It's great.