Hurlshort

Anyone watch the All-Star game? Looks like choosing players worked out well, it was a close game.

I went golfing today, it was a decent game. I hit a 118, which is a decent improvement over my last two times out. If I keep improving, I'll be happy. I'd like to get my game down another 10 strokes or so.

I love the idea of choosing players for this. The presentation itself was pretty bad, particularly giving Kessel a car at the end and then showering them all in confetti. I hope they stick with this format though. I was hoping they would try and opt for a bag of pucks before calling on Kessel though, just for laughs

They fought the law and the law won, big surprise. "Yet, we know exactly who was responsible for that attack. Anonymous believes it is unfair and hypocritical to attempt to put these 5 arrested anons to trial without even attempting to find those who DDoS'ed a website which you oppose." This is a stupid quote.

I've heard a fair amount of good things about it. I've come to realize these games are pretty hard to judge based on other people's opinions. I enjoyed the original and I thought Risen was phenomenal, so that probably puts me in the target demographic.

I'm still waiting on the Two Worlds 2 PC release. Maybe it will come out next week

I'm fairly optimistic about what I've seen Jerry Brown do with California so far. He's been cutting costs like a madman. It's clear he has set aside party lines and is trying to fix the deficit, hopefully enough legislators can do the same.

I will be a bit surprised if this game gets released this year. If they want to do the beta testing right, they need way more time. I believe they are still only doing internal beta testing. They should run a closed beta test with decent numbers for at least 6 months, then an open beta test for 3, then close it up again for at least 3 to fix all the problems found in the open beta. That is the way Blizzard did it, and they had one of the better launches in MMO history. Heck, they still had oodles of issues, whch shows how hard it is to launch an MMO.

I am teaching about the Yuan Dynasty right now, so I've gone ahead and brought this up as a talking point. Thanks for linking it, it's pretty fun to discuss

I refuse to acknowledge the existence of this DLC until it is released for the PC.

I can see why RDR gets all the GOTY stuff. It was probably the most impressive game I played on multiple levels. Great graphics, gameplay, story, voicework...the list goes on. That doesn't make it the most entertaining game for myself, but I get the praise.

Hmm, tough question, since I can hardly remember what came out in early 2010. I'd probably throw out a list like this: 1. FO:NV 2. Mass Effect 2 3. Alpha Protocol 4. Risen (I bought it this year, might be a 2009er) 5. Civ 5 6. MLB 10 The Show 7. Red Dead Redemption 8. Gran Turismo 5 9. Just Cause 2 That's about it, pretty good year. I'm never going to really understand all the flak AP took, I had a blast playing it. Other than Civ 5, it's also the most replayable of the bunch, it is rare that an RPG gets me playing it more than once. The only other real surprise was Just Cause 2, that game was a better sandbox title than RDR for me, just didn't have the same story.

According to Inside Two Worlds, Southpeak delayed it til 28 January. That's good news, I read somewhere else that it was delayed until February 8th.

So has anyone seen Two Worlds 2 for the PC in the US yet? It is supposed to come out today...

It depends on the gamer, but you can reach the level cap and the high level areas in most MMO's while playing very casually. I'm talking a couple hours a week or so. Sure, it takes longer, but with most games including rested xp, it happens. So I would guess most casual gamers in that boat would find it easiest to just keep a basic subscription that doesn't limit them, it's what I do. The f2p model seems to be best for people that are trying the game out, or play very sporadically. I'd bet you get more hardcore players putting money into MT's than the f2p people. I know folks with 7 or 8 maxed out characters, multiple accounts, and all sorts of storage means, and they play every day for hours. They jump at the chance to maximize their time online with bonuses.

I was pretty firmly against the micro-transaction model, until they implemented it into my favorite MMO, LotRO. The key is they still have a subscription model that gets you access to everything, and you accumulate points to spend on the extras over time. So a casual gamer can just pay the simple once a month fee, while a hardcore gamer can go nuts with bonuses to stats, xp, and travel.

It's more like "Investor says it is always better to bet against MMO's in general."

It's easy to be hopeful about ES games. Even if they turn out terrible, they are super moddable and someone will go through and make them better.

Because stubborn people continued to play them through to completion, I suppose. Not that I'm saying you are stubborn, no, definitely not.

I try to limit myself to one full priced game a month. If there is nothing great coming out that month, I'll usually even pay off a pre-order. I also tend to trade in a couple games a year, and I don't really count the games I buy with that credit. Basically if I spend less that $30, I don't count it

I agree the sudden homing in on you after you fire an arrow is lame, but at least they are upping the damage. If I can take out an enemy consistently in 1-2 shots, I won't need to backpedal so much.

What a bunch of hyped up fanboys we got in here

I'm not sure what you mean, I don't think an oil company wants to drill in my condo. A short sale is my best option for moving the property. Our loan is with Wells Fargo, and they've been allowing a lot of short sales as they are much better than foreclosures. But if I can just modify the loan to close the gap between what I make in rent and what I pay in mortgage, HOA fees, and property taxes, I'd be happy. I have a great tenant living there now, the property is in good shape, and if the market ever recovers it would be nice to have it as an investment property.

The story and the characters made BG for me. I replayed it a year ago and still really enjoyed it. Admittedly I am probably colored by reminiscence. Oddly enough, I never got into BG2, and trying to play it again recently also didn't keep my attention for long. I think there is too much going on, I liked the simpleness of the BG1 story more.

Thanks Labadal, that's good information. I guess that Japan's market is big enough to bankroll the new system. I bought a PSP when it came out, but it just lacked games that I wanted in the first year, and eventually I traded it for a DS.