Hurlshort

I'd like a new PC game, preferably a decent sandbox RPG. I'm torn between picking up Risen, Drakensang, or Two Worlds.

I'm hoping my ankle will recover by next Wednesday so I can play hockey. I stepped on a puck during a game last weekend and twisted it. Given that it isn't at full strength yet from the broken leg surgery, it hasn't reacted very well. It is swollen and very tight. I've got another two physical therapy appointments before the game, and I'll stay off it all weekend, so hopefully it will be in good shape. I'm also going hiking in Yosemite in a week with my school, so I need it to be strong for that as well.

Just joined, I'm on World 3 as Hurlshot.

Yeah, I totally disagree with this. If there is an End Boss to a crpg (doesn't have to be though), it should be set in stone how tough that boss is, not up to the whims of the player. Otherwise you end up with absolutely ludicrous **** like in Oblivion where you could be come the Arena Champion at freaking character level 1. Preposterous. The entire point of a crpg (one of them anyway) is to develop your player character from a weak noob to an ass-kicking machine. It's part of the job of the developers to make sure that the game is balanced so that most player characters will be tough enough to meet the various challenges along the way, while still allowing them the freedom to get it over their head or beat on some cannon fodder, as the player sees fit. If you as a player don't want to go through the process of growing your character, you probably shouldn't be playing a crpg. I think we might be thinking about very different types of level scaling, here. I agree that Oblivion had a terrible scaling implementation, but that is a problem with sandbox games that let you go everywhere off the bat. Again, I'm more a fan of smart design that makes level scaling a moot point. I don't really notice scaling in Mass Effect or Dragon Age because I'm more focused on progressing through a story line.

My issue with non scaling is when you are moving forward in a story, but you reach a point where you can't beat a boss and you have to grind through some junk to get powerful enough. I actually prefer quest xp games, where you get no xp for killing or grinding skills and rely solely on progress as a levelling up mechanism.

With the costs involved with making movies, I have a hard time blaming the producers for finding ways to offset the costs. I understand if it is done badly, but he had a beat up early generation iPod that looked the part. I found it easy to believe. Would you rather he sport a Walkman?

Definitely seems to be due to his previous suspensions. He got 1 game in his first suspension, two games earlier this year, and I'm not surprised at 8 for his third offense. Makes sense to me.

I hate respawns and I love scaling. My brain stopped working at one point during the reading, so that's all I have to say.

That's his third suspension, so that explains why it is 8 games and not just a couple. I'm not a big fan of the skating full speed across the ice with the intention of laying someone out. It's one thing to finish your checks, it's another to just run around trying to kill people.

Why is that?

Plot aside, Gary Oldman and Denzel Washington are simply superb actors and they made Book of Eli pretty good for my money.

I'm not sure if my ideal woman would really have a big tattoo on her face.

After trying to work through a new campaign, I've decided I am going to just rewind my original game to the Landsmeet, save Loghain, and then let him kill the dragon. Bit shorter than replaying, and it will let me use my warden for the expansion.

Your best bet is to expect a sequel to DX2, which was a fairly average game. That way you have a slight chance of being blown away, and a lot less chance of disappointment.

I think the suspension is about right. It wasn't a particularly bad hit, but guys need to be more careful around the boards. About a week ago another player got a 3 game suspension for a very similar hit, so they are being consistent whether it is a superstar or a grinder.

As a long term investment, possibly. You are going to have to put some money into it and then wait and hope the area recovers a little bit. It is like buying those empty lots out in Nevada, sure they might turn into something someday, but it's a gamble. This has a better chance of becoming a decent property, given that there is infrastructure already, but there are more costs involved. What they need is some company to come in and buy up a bunch of land for a factory or something, then that will create jobs, which will create a need for the homes and everything else. But that may be 5, 10, 20 years away. Maybe it can be marketed as some modern age Ghost Town, and tourism will drive up the property values.

Blizzard did the same thing with Starcraft: Ghost. They just don't want to release anything that isn't going to be huge.

Actually there are probably just a bunch of other costs, the ten bucks is just covering the change of ownership. The amount you would be paying in property taxes and everything else would not cover what you might salvage from the house itself. These houses are likely already fairly stripped down, as well.

I'm thinking about picking it up, the reviews have been solid and I enjoyed the demo of the first one.

I've been trying a second play through of Dragon Age, but it's just too combat heavy. I'm barely through the intro and I'm already dreading the grind.

You're playing with a broken leg? The bone has healed at this point. The Xray is pretty wicked, in between the tibula and fibula is a huge metal rod from my knee to my ankle, with screws holding it in place. Here's an example I fond online, it looks a lot like this, except the breaks have healed: They can take the rod out in a few months, apparently it's only about a two week recovery for that. The biggest problem is my muscles atrophied in my left leg, and my ankle still has some swelling and circulation problems. I can't run yet, but skating is actually low impact (unless I hit the boards again) so it isn't too uncomfortable. I just won't be able to pivot or pull up on my left leg fully, it's at about 75%.

If there was going to be a fight between the sequel to WoW and Modern Warfare 3, I'd put my money on MW3.

I'm pretty excited for the weekend, I get to play my first Hockey game since breaking my leg on Sunday. I'm still not 100%, but I can hang back and play defense well enough to help my team. They've lost seven games straight since I went down, so I definitely can't hurt them too much.

The big issue I had with Waterworld was I went in with high expectations. It was supposed to be an epic and he spent a ton of money on it. I saw it in the theatre on opening weekend and it disappointed me. Now I catch it on TV every once in awhile and it is pretty watch-able. So I'd say expectations play a big part. The Postman is the opposite for me, I had no expectations going into the first viewing of that one, and I found it wonderfully entertaining. In fact it is high up on my Post Apoc. movie list, probably in the top 3.

Is that the new trend? To be honest, I thought we were in the 'bash MW2' stage, but perhaps we've moved on with the recent FF release. Isn't it almost 'bash ME2' time though? It's been a couple months since release.