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Yep. And in the brave new world of unlimited digital freedom, no one gives a toss.

Funny how that works. Because if/when evidence does surface, usually years later, nobody cares anymore owing to the novelty having faded and the fact that those responsible are no longer actively involved and therefore not valid political targets. False flag ops in the past are well documented, yet anyone who suggests anything of the sort is immediately labeled a conspiracy theorist and evidence is dismissed as "propaganda", which provides a convenient intellectual shortcut to ending any discussion. morpheus.jpg what if I told you that this is all according to plan? I fully subscribe to the bolded part, btw. *rotates recliner*

More sympathy than your hypocritical reassurances that toppling governments is "what is best for the region" when the West does it, interspaced with cries of bloody murder when it's anyone else, that's for sure.

LOL

^ On the other hand, it's a Ch.2 reward. The dispel magic clicky is useful in a pinch, too. Problem is NPC alignment is a bit all over the place in BG2.

Dietrich is the man. I found him rather weak for a "dragonslayer" totem shaman, but he's second to none in a support role. It's funny because the character concepts don't really reflect their combat roles—bar brawler shaman is support, "medic" is melee specialist, "sniper" is a beast CQC point/breacher. The chicks are a bit bland character wise, what with the done to death baggage from the past thing etc. Leet haxxor dude... I just want to punch him in the teeth.

No need to apologize as it's not really an old thread but this one before it was interrupted. That threads are closed on this forum just for reaching an arbitrary # of posts is pretty retarded in my opinion. IIRC, this was originally done for stablility reasons—huge topics caused issues and posts would go missing or something; it's not arbitrary. The software has been updated numerous times however, so I'm not sure it's still necessary. Also, the old version of the forum software allowed you to go into "reply" mode even in locked threads, where you could then copy the whole post and paste it on the new thread, with proper quotations and link to the original post. Maybe the mod squad could check with Admin if it would be possible to have that option back or enable the "multiquote" button in locked topics?

Reporting for duty. (because despite tough talk, NATO isn't about to do anything about it anytime soon)

I take that you are implying some people actively want Dragon Age: Inquisition to fail? Undoubtedly the Shandenfreude Faction does indeed exist, though I wouldn't count myself among them. I will be thrilled if DA:I winds up being spectacularly good. I would much rather have a great game than whatever erection I could get from schadenfreude. I'm just not giving BioWare the benefit of the doubt. Pretty much. Also, the butthurt is going to be tremendous regardless of whether the game is good or bad, so...

I've already expressed my thoughts on the ME3 endings in other threads, no point hijacking this one further. Still, how the player resolved the major plot arcs had much weight on the EMS rating, and therefore (before the Extended Cut DLC which lowered the EMS requirements), those decisions determined which endings you could achieve, albeit indirectly. Options available to resolve those situations, in turn, were determined by decisions made in previous games. I'm not disputing that they lied about having sexual relations with that woman or that the actual writing for the endings nearly cost me a laptop screen. I'm simply saying that, to me, the way those decisions affected how the game ended (indirectly as opposed to IN YOUR FACE) was the right way to go about it.

To be honest, that didn't bother me—I guess I'm glad they decided to scrap that frankly stupid idea, if they ever considered it seriously and it wasn't just marketing BS, and just stick to WHAT IS UP WITH THE ANCIENT MACHINES HELLBENT ON KILLING EVERYONE. I think that keeping the consequences of choices made in previous games really low key was the right call. But even assuming it's true this time around, is it really important if the ending accomodates the decision I made early on in the 100-hour long journey of helping some barmaid back in the ass end of nowhere to get rid of the rat infestation problem in her cellar (or nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure)? I'd much rather they focused on writing a credible and internally consistent plot with sensible choices along the way, even if that means a smaller variety of ending cutscenes. The whole choices/consequences thing isn't about the number of endings increasing exponentially with the choices presented. Also, how many people actually replay the game a sufficient number of times to experience a fraction of that? What exactly do they want to accomplish? This was my reaction when I read the "40 endings" line.

You've never done any programming I see. Coding disasters don't just miraculously work. That's an insult to the programmers and other people who worked on the games. It also implies that the programmers didn't know what they were doing at the time with their coding (coding disaster as you put it), but hey. it somehow how miraculously worked. Must be special programming magic. Also, as a few have pointed out, they have some of the original team members working on the EE's. Without actually looking at the code it's impossible to tell how easy or hard it is to work with, if it was well designed, organized, optimized, clearly written, etc. You can have a piece of code that mostly works but it's a nightmare to debug for anyone but the author (and even so...). Bad QA is still bad QA, however, and there's no excuse for that.

^ That's why I made a paragraph break between my question to you about BGEE and my reservations about BG2EE. I'm not terribly interested in BGEE (as in, haven't been following it closely) so I was curious what your reasons for considering BGEE superior to the original were, in hopes that in time the same process will be repeated with BG2EE. Thanks for the answers, anyway. *the BP version of Ascension caused errors with some of the end boss battles, IIRC. Maybe it's no longer the case, but at any rate it's not the only mod that doesn't work, just the most egregious example. This some sort of weird pet peeve of yours? Not even sure what you mean...

While I generally share your criticism of style over substance, I don't think the art direction is necessarily a good example. After all: Yup. Leave it to us Europeans to produce something so obscenely ornate that ends up being caricaturesque. (though I suppose a valid complaint is about the taste of anyone who draws inspiration from that... ) edit: Also, because why the hell not: "Yo dawg, I heard you like sceptres, so we put a sceptre in your sceptre so you can rule while you rule..."

In what way? Superior implies a comparison, and if you like it better because you can play it on your tablet whereas when the original was released that platform didn't even exist yet, it's not really a comparison at all. I mean, it's great that you feel that the port is worth $15, but what have the devs done in the six (or whatever) months since BGEE was released that makes you say the EE version is superior? I'm not invested either way, but the fact that mods that I consider essential (Ascension, among others) aren't compatible, and the way translations are being handled (i.e. they aren't) make me a bit reluctant to give these guys my money. Those were two things that the original had that the new version doesn't, so for me it hardly warrants the title "Enhanced". As it stands, anyway. I think the XP is fine—you shouldn't be forced to complete sidequests to be able to advance the main quest without being gimped. If you do absolutely every quest available to you, including possibly killing any dragons you come across, it shouldn't be surprising that you end up being overpowered. Also, by the time you are ready to take the thieves or Bodhi up on their offer, you will be way over 20k, which is hard to justify from a roleplaying perspective. Don't get me wrong, that's the way I used to play it, too. But I wouldn't say it's a design flaw. In one of the many balance mods I used to have, the Shadow Thieves' fee was raised IIRC to 80k... and I still had plenty of money to go around and buy high level scrolls and stuff. If, on the other hand, you are referring to how XP completely breaks the game if you are playing a solo Kensai/Mage, that's another story...

I'll be sure to slap my grandma across the face next time, thanks for the heads up!

Yeah, apparently homeboy had declared that he was afraid of being killed by police. Also the Defense Minister just resigned. Housecleaning? OK. Am I the only one who finds it a bit surreal that the only time a mod steps in on this is to suggest that people refrain from calling others darling/sweet pea?

Well played.

Yeah, I'm sure you are an active participant in the glory of the American economy, the head of a S&P 500 company, and not a burger flipper on minimum wage or something like that, not at all. 0/10 would not read again. And for someone not interested in the thread, your repeated attention grabs are pretty funny. What, the in-laws are visiting and pissed in your corn flakes again? Or maybe you are just not getting enough likes for your lame jokes in other threads? Poor dear. (that lighthearted enough for you?)

No, if anyone has shown a reading deficit throughout the close to sixty pages that this has gone on for, it's you—as evidenced by this post. Where exactly have I (can't/don't want to speak for others) characterized Russia or Putin as "victims"? And dude, stop with the "I have evidence, but it's up to you to dig it up" schtick. It was funny the first time, perhaps, but that's not how conversations work. No, really.

A bit of Deus Ex HR. Enjoying the simple pleasures of (augmented) life, such as hurling explosive barrels at unsuspecting gangbangers. I am a simple man.

This. And the fact that they totally rewrote his personality between Awakening and DA2. He was my favorite companion in the expansion: Yeah, yeah. I know Gaider defended the rewrite as his own idea and stuff. And as a concept for character development, it's original and interesting. But it was a hack job; DA2 Anders just comes off as annoying, petty and whiny. Certainly not what one would expect from a powerful mage that is both the victim of constant unjust persecution and possession by a spirit of justice. The new voice actor didn't help either.

Interesting theory. Do you have any evidence to back it up?

Well! It's a fine day for Americentrism, don't you think? Crimea may seem insignificant to you, but in Europe any display of power by Russia is a cause for alarm. Especially eastern Europe, where Russia has a history of smacking the locals around. Understandably, people are concerned. Especially given the fact that in the past months, mainstream western news outlets have painted an extremely one-sided picture of the situation, with abundant comparisons to Nazi Germany. If you still don't see the point of discussing this, well... there's always the attractive women thread. No longer believing the source would imply acceptance that liars have somehow taken power, and have been doing so consistently for decades at least. And in the absence of a coup, in a democracy, this can only happen if we vote said liars into office. That's the ****ty aftertaste of democracy—all those wars, all those lies, all those crimes, they have been perpetrated in our name, with our consent. If we openly stop believing the lies, we must accept our share of the blame. nobodygottimefodat.jpg

I'm pretty sure Anders will be in it, since letting him live was a HUGE option in DA2. Sure, let's make the terrorist, gay, apostate, possessed mage a recurring character. Good role models are overrated in my opinion. Maybe Bio is actually trying to make a statement about how history portrays terrorists freedom fighter-types.