Hurlshort

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.

Sweet, I'm a featured character!

Was the original PSP a success for Sony? It seemed to be a failure, but who knows what their expectations were. I just hope they don't expect to match the Nintendo handheld numbers. There is one very successful handheld gaming device on the market, and I don't think the PSP2 is going to be it.

I think I got myself a house to rent. It is a bit more than we wanted to spend, but it is a great size and and very good shape. We had three properties we were keen on, but the other two had a couple drawbacks (the biggest was no high speed internet!) and so I turned them down. It's a three bedroom house with a detached garage. There is plenty of room for our RV, even an easy place to plug it in. Lots of storage, and the landlord runs a wiring company, so there is one large room with a pretty cool surround sound system. I'm pretty excited to move in, it sounds like it will be ready by the end of February. The neighbors also have children who go to the same dance studio as my daughter, so that will be awesome. They are the ones that tipped us off about the house. I don't think I even told you guys why I am moving. About a year and a half ago we moved in with my mother-in-law to help her with the bills, her trucking company was struggling. Her foreclosure finally went through on last Wednesday, and it sold at auction immediately. She might end up renting it back from the guy who bought it, but my wife and I are ready to move on, we did what we could to help her. I have to decide what to do with my condo too. We are renting it out, but we take a loss every month on it because it doesn't cover the mortgage. Once we get into this house it will be very hard to keep up with the mortgage payments. I am looking at doing either a modification or a short sale, since we owe considerably more than the property is worth. So a good amount of stress and anxiety mixed in with the excitement

It sounds like even if Red Eagle moves forward on it, Obsidian will be fairly limited in their role. But who knows?

Eh, pretty much everything said to Volourn is like tossing gas on the fire, so you might as well have fun

Last time I didn't get one of his tirades, I got called a n00b, so I just try and pretend I know what he's talking about. Absolutely disgusting indeed!