Hurlshort

I finished the second Dragon Age book, The Calling. It was ok, not as solid as the first one. It answered a few questions. I might be the only loser who read both and played the games here, but what is the deal I don't know, it just seemed altogether odd. I did like the Architect. Bit of a lame ending, but Gaider develops characters well enough to keep me reading.

Got the call to the big club in MLB 10 The Show. I'm off to a hot start with 5 hits in 7 at bats. Still not getting a ton of playing time though, but I think I have a good shot at a regular spot for next season if I play well with my chances now. I also beat Dragon Age today. I replayed just from the Landsmeet, and I took Loghain and let Alistair wander off. This ending seemed to be a lot better, actually. Loghain got to redeem himself by giving his life in an honorable way, and I got to keep on keeping on. It was more satisfying. Now I'm probably ready to pick up the expansion, although I will wait until April when I know I'll have a bit of time to play.

Up in the Air - Enjoyable and has a lot of funny moments, but overall quite depressing.

Sounds good Pope! I just don't think Widmore killed all those people. It's too tidy.

So who killed all the folks at the plane? The easy answer would be smokie or the sub guy, but I also suspect Jacob's bodyguard chick might not be all that good. Also this last episode should be called "Sawyer bangs every redhead"

Spaghetti from a can sounds horrific. I'm having Filet Mignon tonight. Got four nice cuts for $20. I'll have it with scalloped potatoes and asparagus, which I plan on baking in the oven after drizzling olive oil and salt & pepper over them. Should be nice, it's much easier to do all this on a weekend than a worknight.

Found Two Worlds for about $15. I've only played for about 30 minutes, but it's a nice looking game and easy enough to figure out the mechanics. Definitely a large world, I'm already getting lost!

I think you get 400 points for $5.

It is a beta, and it's a fairly intensive game to run in a browser, so I would expect a decent amount of instability.

Bethesda really does have a bizarre idea of level scaling though. I mean they are just horrible at it. I don't think you should need to change your difficulty level to get by a boss either. I just think the game should be balanced correctly so that when you get to the big boss, you are powerful enough to stand a decent chance of victory. Maybe scaling is the 'cheap and easy' way to make that happen, but to me it is way better than the alternative of grinding out another couple levels.

Divinity 2? Is that really sandbox like? The reviews are a bit rough for it, too. I actually played Gothic 3. It was a pretty interesting game, I got into it for awhile. I was playing it through Gametap, and they imploded before I got to play it much longer. I think I'll just pick up either TW or Risen based on which one I find first.

Drakensang isn't sandbox. Risen is definitely better than Two Worlds. TW is a boring, flavorless Oblivion clone. Drakensang is the best of the lot, but its much closer to NWN2 in mechanics and gameplay. That said, I gave up on all three of those games after a few hours of gameplay. Drakensang's plot and quests are mind numbingly boring, Risen is just another Gothic game (and having played the first three, I've had my fill) and Two Worlds is weak all around. Note however that my tolerance for standard fantasy plots these days is practically non existent. Drakensang's sequel is something to look out for, judging by Virumor's reports. TW seems to have a pretty massive patch that added some content, and I really enjoyed mkreku's visual review he gave earlier. Risen does have decent reviews though. edit: I think I remember Volourn played TW and ejoyed it too, but I might have the wrong forumite.

The town of Hurl is on its way to glory! edit: This game doesn't run very good, probably a mix of my connection and browser. I played a similar version of this thing years ago that was a bit simpler graphically.

Nice. Spend the summer driving around, trespassing, seducing lonely housewives... And get paid for it this time!

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.