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Surprisingly, I agree with all of Volo's 'greater than' statements. I actually preferred HotU to MoTB, but by MoTB I was pretty burnt on D&D. What I was saying earlier is comparing an expansion to a base game is problematic. An expansion by nature is going to a be a tighter, more refined game than any OC. That doesn't mean it can't go terribly wrong. ME2 over AP was a tough one for me, but I can give ME2 a slight nod I suppose.

I've always stayed away from raids in other MMO's because they seem like work and I don't really want somebody yelling at me about how to kill a dragon, but when it is as simple as running up to a big rift in an area and hitting the join public group button, it makes it pretty accessible. You also are rewarded based on your contribution, so that works out good. Admittedly, raiding in WoW takes a bit more organization as you need certain classes in the party but the "raiding" is the same, going to kill some big baddie. How does it work in Rift? Say only dps and tanks happen to be in the raid, is it just a wipefest because no healers happened to wander by when a rift opened? Most rifts can be closed pretty easily with a decent group, healers or no. There are also a lot of hybrid healer classes, so having no healing is fairly unlikely. Now there is the occasional big guy stomping around, and he would be a pain to kill with no dedicated healers, but you can always choose to run away from him.

Give credit where credit it's due. Storywise: Kotor2>Kotor NWN MoB>>>>NWN That's a pretty unfair comparison. If you want to compare NWN to NWN 2, or the NWN expansions to one another, that's another thing. But comparing a base game to an expansion is a bit of a reach.

GFY. Good For you? Great Friends Yippee?

I've always stayed away from raids in other MMO's because they seem like work and I don't really want somebody yelling at me about how to kill a dragon, but when it is as simple as running up to a big rift in an area and hitting the join public group button, it makes it pretty accessible. You also are rewarded based on your contribution, so that works out good.

I reached level 20 in Rift. I'm starting to feel pretty studly, wandering the lands shutting down Rifts. I helped kill some giant yesterday as well, it was pretty intense, I think we had about 20 people attacking the guy. I was also swimming out in the middle of nowhere and came across a chest with decent armor and some water breathing potions. There is a ton of cool stuff in this game.

Humming along at level 18 in Rift. My character is really starting to get interesting, I've put most of my points in Paladin but I've also spent a few in Warlord, and now I've got a nice mix of buffs and shield based attacks. I really like my chances against spellcasters, I can disrupt them on a regular basis. Last night I went through a place called the Iron Fortress. I think my server population is a bit low because there was literally no one around, and so I had to be very careful as I made my way through a place packed with bad guys. I managed to solo a few major plot baddies thanks to judicious use of scrolls and special items, and I really enjoyed the challenge. Now I'm on to the second zone, so we will see how that goes.

I'm not sure on the pace combat in TOR. It looks cool enough, but it is definitely more of a minigame implementation. I wish they had a system where you actually fly around a la Freespace and do quests, but I guess that is too much to ask.

I have the original Droid and it is awesome. It is rugged, has an actual keyboard, is fast, and has a ton of apps. So I would get the Motorola Droid 2 if I had the option right now.

We found a small frog in the kids bathroom at 1:30 AM. I have no idea how it got there.

Ninjas are a product of popular culture. While there were spies and assassins in medieval Japan, there is really no evidence to support any type of organized movement. Calax I looked up those names and got nothing that said Ninja.

I can pick out the students that attended this type of school within the first week. While they often excel at creative and critical thinking skills, they lack the ability to follow directions, struggle with groupwork, and don't pick up on social queues very well. Not that I'm complaining, it is nice to have a few students capable of critical thought in my class, but when I have 38 students it is also nice to have kids that know how to raise their hand when they have a question.

Sounds good to me. I hope it isn't a remake, but rather another one of the many Conan stories.

Oh yeah, I taught at one of these schools my first two years in education. I actually had sections on my formal review for Happy Thinking and Friends of the Earth curriculum. Don't get me wrong, it was a great experience, it motivated me to get my teaching credential. But there was some pretty silly stuff going on there.

We have these all over the place in the US. They work fine on a small scale, like 1 in every 30 schools, because then you mostly only have kids and parents that respond well to that educational model attending them by choice. There is also a certain age where you have to ditch all this and get to work, typically this is around High School, because a parent willing to shell out for this type of education also expects their kid to go to college, and you aren't getting into an Ivy League school with an academic record of happy faces and rainbows.

They really look like they are side by side in the video, so I'm not sure if I'd call it a hit from behind.

Chara has no history of dirty play at all. Their history explains why he rode him into the boards late, but it is a bit much to presume he purposefully lined him up for the partition. Guys get rubbed out along the boards 50 times a night in the NHL. I'm not opposed to a suspension of a few games. It is important to raise awareness here. But everything about this screams horrible accident to me. edit: Big article on it Hmm, after reading what all those players are saying, I might have to change my opinion of the play. I know I personally don't have a ton of awareness about where this stuff is when on the ice, but I'm not a professional.

Reached level 12 in Rift. This game has the crafting system of WoW, the public quests of Warhammer Online, and the collection quests of Everquest 2. There are also some shades of Tabula Rasa in there. The story and world are pretty unique though, I'm excited to get home and play it.

Not likely. Here you go. Good ole' Wikipedia has a surprisingly good amount of information on it. While the biblical Jesus is very much a symbol of Christianity as a whole, it is very unlikely that he was created out of thin air for the purpose of gospel.

I was watching that earlier. It is terrible, but Chara was clearly just trying to rub him out along the boards. Anywhere else on the ice it would be a standard interference call. I keep wondering if there is a better way to design that partition? I had my shoulder driven into one of those a few years back, it really sucks.

I'm getting frustrated trying to learn how to play an F chord on the guitar. I keep muting strings. Gah.

Awesome Wals, you deserve a medal I filled up the gas and propane tanks for my RV, we are taking a trip this weekend to Monterey. Gas is dang expensive right now, but we aren't driving far, so it won't be too bad. I'm a bit worried about a consistent dripping I am getting from the outside water nozzle, where you plug the hose in for city water. It isn't a lot of water, but I don't remember it doing that before. Hopefully it is just something that needs to be tightened.

Awesome I was a bit concerned with DA2 when they changed the art style. Not really because I dislike the new style (I haven't played it so I will reserve judgement) but because it was a pretty major change with a very short window between the games, and it seemed to be a sign of other problems.

Action combat does sound a good deal better than passive combat.

I could see Nintendo rolling out a new system in two years, but I think the PS3 and Xbox360 have about 4 years left before they are replaced. We are on a bit of a plateau right now, and it's about dang time.