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Sure. Depending on who you ask, a hack is just what an unsuccessful artist calls his more successful peers...

This comment proves that you are not an artist.

You don't know what you are talking about. You need to read more and fantasize less. Much less. The F

Heh, that's the cool thing about these discussions: you get to consider viewpoints that are completely opposed to yours, based on details you may have missed or interpreted differently. Actually, for me it was the other way around -- Tali I saw as the confident type: she has her own responsibilities that she doesn't forfeit, and doesn't jump at the first chance to join up. She's willing to get the shaft to preserve something that's important to her people, and asks for Shepard's aid without displaying insecurities or issues. I haven't explored her romance, but from what I've seen, it's the most free of Shep-worship garbage, and she even makes a somewhat sarcastic remark precisely on this. On the other hand, Miranda constantly keeps her bitch-shield up to prevent people from spotting and exploiting her massive self-esteem issues, something that has nothing to do with how capable she really is, but rather how vulnerable and in dire need of (Shepard's) reassurance that she's not devoid of personal merit and merely a product of her pop's dough. But... at least she doesn't I had completely forgotten about Ashley. Yeah, that's the kind of woman I was thinking about. And no, the poetry stuff only bothered me because of the unnatural sudden change of mood in the conversations... but not nearly as much as her telling me what a devout Christian she was. I've had a few awkward moments like that IRL, so that's probably a good thing about Ash, even if it made my skin crawl at the time. And she does have a real mean streak, too. "Not today, friend." *pew pew pew*

No. The Alliance's goal in that operation was to find out whether the rumors going around about Shepard and Cerberus are true, and what their connection to the missing colonists really is -- the Alliance "aid" is merely an excuse. Anderson and TIM both confirm this.

Clearly you have no idea what you are talking about. I suggest you read a bit more on the subject of WWII before making your ignorance public so casually. The theoretical foundations of the science behind nuclear weapons were laid out in the early 1930s, more than a decade after the end of WWI. Further, there was no point in using such weapons against the Nazis -- it was clear that they weren't surrendering no matter what, and their industrial base was destroyed by the point nukes were ready to be used, after years of conventional carpet bombing. Not to mention that Germans wouldn't be very happy about it, and that might have been used by the post-war pro-Soviet crowd. Not only that, but "tactical" concerns have no place in a discussion on WWII-era nuclear arms; those were strategic weapons whose development was ordered due to fears that Germany, that could have never orchestrated a conventional bombing campaign against the US, could get them first. Proper "tactical" nukes were first developed and deployed during the '50s. Quite simply, there was nothing that WWII-era nukes could do, that regular air raids couldn't do better, more cheaply and with less risk. Except for, perhaps, the wholesale, instant killing of tens of thousands of civilians which, after reading your posts, is obvious is the only thing you are concerned with. I fail to see how WMDs come into the equation, there. The IDF has a history of success against overwhelming odds. When did nuclear weapons become the sole option for preemptive/defensive strikes? And, more pertinently, why on Earth should Israel attack Iran?!

YEEEAAAHH

Bio seems to have issues writing convincing strong, independent female characters. Jack's case is obviously an "all-powerful bitch" fa

Chavez isn't a proper dictator until he has absolute rule-by-decree powers, which he has held in the past and not abused unlike 20th century European dictators. He's not a dictator until the judiciary is his toy, which it isn't presently, despite its questionable practices and targeting. He's not a true dictator until he becomes the keystone of the state, which he most certainly is not. He could have moved to change these things, as his supporters have an absolute (as in 100%, not merely 50%+1) majority in Parliament. Until that changes, it's simply a populist, corrupt regime, but not a dictatorship. Sorry.

Some women find facial scars attractive; mind you, most of those women are krogan.

And Zaeed is...?

Stop hitting on Mordin, already. He told you he's not interested!

Have you tried SCS/SCSII? It seriously boosts encounter difficulty across the board without resorting to the lame cheating bull**** developers fall back to when they need to up difficulty. It simply makes use of smart scripting to give the AI a more or less accurate idea of what the player is doing and then the AI makes "informed" and sensible decisions. And it's all strictly legit - so it can be done. Of course, I have no idea about the amount of man-hours that went into making that mod. I get what you are saying, and it's difficult to disagree... developers have much more important business to take care of (such as romance) and who cares about competent AI that can actually surprise you from fight to fight, anyway. Gimme another inane JNPC to distract my attention or a few more FedEx quests any day! IIRC, Ascension was Gaider's original vision of what the battles should have been, or at least some components were initially in the game but were scrapped when testers got raped repeatedly (Illasera, Demogorgon), so in a sense the content was already there and it was not that much work to make it public. But I doubt we'll see devs re-working aspects of the game that are considered finished, much as I'd want to personally.

It may nominally and organically be a democracy, but low participation and illiteracy cast doubt over the real legitimacy of the "democracy". As for Nehru's socialist policies, they were quite mild compared to their Soviet or Chinese counterparts. As far as I know (and admittedly it's not much), there was no abolishing private property, mass collectivisations or forced population relocations, etc. Which is what allowed it to remain "democratic". Does a merely strong state planning of the economy equal socialism?

"Socialist democracy" isn't very descriptive. "True" socialism requires of totalitarianism to even get started. Please refer to the umpteen previous threads on this topic for a more detailed explanation. I don't know where you are getting your facts, but if Venezuela is a dictatorship (very debatable), it's only because democracy has failed. Countries don't just "turn" into dictatorships, there is always significant popular support for them. And if those who have the ability to prevent it from happening refuse to do so... And, at any rate, modern dictatorships don't really have a political color - their only allegiance is to power and their only goal is self-perpetuation.

Think of it this way: you are saving a lot of turian lives!

GSB > Barrier > Fortification Fortification cannot be upgraded through research. Barrier can be upgraded with Biotic research. GSB can be boosted with Tech AND Geth research. And if that's not awesome enough, level 4 GSB gives you a 10% increase to weapon damage! Functionally, Barrier and GSB are pretty much the same. GSB is better for a soldier for the extra 10% damage, though. Geth Shield Strength research doesn't apply to Shepard, AFAIK. Edit: I'm also fairly certain that when it says "shields" in the description of a certain research item, it actually means shields/barriers/armor, making the distinction essentially cosmetic.

He's probably a tie with Miranda for the most versatile squaddie, capable of dealing with barriers (conc shot), shields (disruptor ammo) and armor (grenade) - not quite as good at stripping protections as her, but on a league of his own in hurt output (+50%!). He can duke it out with the best of them, or he can stand back and do some damage with a sniper rifle. He also has the most mission comments/interjections, too. He does have something to say after almost every mission, in exchange for not having a proper conversation wheel, perhaps. His personality is pretty much a hit or miss thing though, but that's more than can be said about Jacob and some others... You can select only their unlockable talents as a bonus talent. So, for instance, you couldn't choose Incinerate from Mordin (you get Neural Shock). For a Soldier, AP or Warp ammo is probably a good choice. Or the bonus talent from the NPC that you get for the last fifth of the game... whatever you do, don't bother with Slam. It looks awesome... and that's all it's ever good for.

Or, you know... modding.

Isn't that like, the whole concept behind the "scene"?

Welcome to my ignore list, dumbass. Population: YOU From now on, assume that I auto-reply with "R00fles!" to whatever you have to say.

While that's certainly a possibility, I doubt it'll get that bleak. A more likely scenario may involve subscriptions giving you access to a pool of games, with extra fees (lower than the present €50, with luck) to get access to new, AAA titles with high production values. Other than the obvious "you need to be online to be allowed to EXIST"-bull****, I don't think I'd be too bothered by such an arrangement. I mean, I've been getting a gazillion hours worth of good (and not so good) entertainment from videogames. If you compare the dollar/hour ratio for videogames with other media and the costs associated, it's pretty cheap and I don't think publishers would be overstepping their bounds to change that. And hopefully continued funding would mean better support in the form of patches for games.

- "Do you smoke, Denton? Don't. That stuff will kill you. I knew this kid..."

I could understand if they used the FRM crap to rule out reverse-engineering and replication of the bonus weapon. But it would make sense to allow it to be used by someone else if Shepard for whatever reasons doesn't want to use it, no? And the FRM excuse simply doesn't fly when they are building weapons from scratch by virtue of NPC research. But you are right, Bio really went overboard in limiting the combat ability of JNPCs. Maybe during testing they found that without gimping them fights were over before the player knew what was going on? I can confirm that Jack is a beast with the Claymore + Warp ammo...