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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...

So, smoking is cool again? Heh, somebody said we'd be seeing that as a reaction to the anti-smoking craze we're having lately, in the nth-hand smoke thread. As for JC (Paul? whatever), just one word: poser. Here's how it's done:

Yeah, the Vindicator is a must-have. If not as much for the PC, as Grom said, for squaddies that use ARs. Garrus and Zaeed can make do with the Avenger as they have a sniper rifle for stand-off fights, but Grunt and Samara can't seem to hit the broad side of a barn at a distance. Funny that squaddies don't share that uncanny aiming with the rest of the NPCs controlled by the computer. Also, it's pretty stupid that only the NPC that researches weapon X is allowed to use it, and "bonus" weapons are in turn restricted to Shepard. Good thing that the coalesced.ini is there to help you around that and the fact that Zaeed doesn't have any research projects of his own.

No, I don't think I did. Garrus was screaming at me that everything was so urgent that I didn't even slow down to grab medi-gel. I figured I could loot the place after I secured the location... and scour for ammo, since by the end of the battle nearly every one of my weapons was totally out. Wrong. *sigh* It's a learning curve. For me, a big one! Since the game is divided into missions, it's advisable to create a new save before starting the next one. That way you can repeat the mission if you need to, for any reason, without losing too much of your progress. And missing the Vindicator is something I would repeat the mission over. Unless you have the Collector's Edition, there's only two other choices, one of which you already have and the other one requires you to play a certain mission in Hardcore difficulty. In Garrus' mission you can loot the place at your leisure between waves, when Garrus says "come talk to me" over the radio, btw.

Sure. Try playing on a different difficulty level, the game plays differently. Leave an engineer alone on hardcore, his drone will make you stagger out of cover - you die. Usually enemies with heavy weapons are more of a priority than the ones with pistols, unshielded foes take priority over protected targets, etc. And boss fights require custom tactics, too. It's really, really childish to come bragging that you can master the game in an hour, if you play on Casual. 1. Roll a Vanguard2. Choose "Insanity" 3. ??? 4. PROFIT!!! You see, the thing is I have posted evidence that contradicts your (and Volly's) nonsense that the only way to play is hiding behind cover. All you have posted in return is... *waaah waah my mad CS skillz are no good in a different game waah waaah* Err... I thought this should be obvious, but apparently I'm wrong. CS is a multiplayer game. Multiplayer games are, by their very nature, much more competitive and replayable. Learning curves have nothing to do with this - you can learn how to play CS in ten minutes. Refining your skills is only necessary and fun because there is a point in doing so, as it's a multiplayer game. A better comparison would be between HL and ME2. But then again, there's no need to land a 3-round burst headshot there, as the penalty for failing is merely a reload, and there's no reason to log the staggering number of hours required for that anyway. Come think of it, why the hell am I doing your comparisons for you? Go on, establish a comparison between ME2 and The Sims, for greater dramatic effect (and hilarity). I'm now going to quote and examine your arguments piecemeal. Brace for impact! Not quite. You are invulnerable from a certain reduced angle only. I'm not quite sure what you're getting at. But on the other hand, you have biotics and tech powers that work pretty much like grenades and can hit targets behind cover. Wrong again. Try Charge. Or Tactical Cloak. Or Combat Drone. Seriously, have you played this game, or are you just going by some review? You need to aim just enough to hit their head. How much more do you want? AFAIK, hitting the eyes doesn't deal extra damage in CS. And again, there isn't much need for extreme precision aiming in HL, or even in CS if you play against n00bs. You'd need to play the game a bit more to get the answer to that question. And, you know, try something that doesn't involve your fool-proof strategy of having fights drag on and on as you hide behind cover for your shield to replenish - I can see how that would be boring. LOL, I ignored UT because it's even more of a generic shooter than CS - there's virtually no difference between UT deathmatches and their Q3A and JK2 equivalents. You just run and gun, learning the maps by memory, camping at good spots, spawn-fragging and rocket-whoring your way to the top of the list. "Master" one and you have mastered them all; mechanics remain exactly the same, and only guns and maps change. Just up your mouse sensitivity to the top, remap the "jump" key, and you're good to go.

"Laughable" how? In CS you need pinpoint accuracy, reflexes and most importantly map foreknowledge. In ME2, precision is nice to have, but knowing when to take cover and who to target is more important. It's a different game with a different focus - if I started making comparisons with Jedi Academy gameplay, how much sense would it make? It's funny that you say that, after you went on about how awesome you are at CS, possibly the most one-dimensional multiplayer shooter ever. CS is fun and addictive because it's multiplayer. Ever try playing with bots? The main reasons why ME2 combat fails when compared to GoW (other examples welcome) are simplistic map design and a dismal AI. Basically it has two routines: (a) stay behind cover and take precision potshots at the player, regardless of whether the target is visible, and (b) advance towards the player, shooting along the way, ignoring all other considerations including obstacles/cover, map hazards and party members. It's really mind-****ing-boggling to activate tactical cloak, change places, decloak behind a door or cover only to see all enemies make use of their spider-sense to turn towards you and start pumping your cover full of bullets. And then there's squadmates only finding out they were being shot when they fall unconscious, and to make things even more absurd, they deal only about ~60% of the player's damage. Yeah, we can't have squaddies doing all of Shepard's work. And in spite of all of the above, it's still fun to play. Imagine if they got serious about making a shooter.

Unless you guys are suggesting that Bioware invented the epic poem, I'm not exactly sure where you're coming from, or how their sticking to a common but broad set of well known elements is a bad idea - rather, it's their execution of some of those elements that is sometimes lacking. I sure as hell wouldn't want a RPG about groceries shopping and doing the laundry.

No ****, Sherlock. Obviously, after years of paying insane taxes, you are left without the resources to face such an eventuality. You expect the state to cover your butt - which unsurprisingly, it can't do in your example. It did... And i have accumulated enough resources to have own big flat, own car, and i have no mortgage (or how it is called) and not a single EUR of debt Can you say that of yourself Mr.NoWelfareHealthcare And it still make me happy that when **** hits the fan, all the money i payed to our welfare medical care can save my ass in a hospital when i get an heart attack and the i get heart surgery worth of 100.000+ EUR and i do not pay a single dime... Uh... what exactly are you trying to prove? That your Euro tax regime is responsible for your privileged financial situation? You first said that if you had had to receive medical attention in a non-EU country, you'd be so broke your only option would be suicide. But now you say that's actually not the case - this negates your original point, or is simply a non sequitur. You need to either stop rambling, stop making stuff up to push your point, or a combination of both. And no, I don't have a flat. I don't need one, as I spend most of my time cruising around in my 100m yacht.

And yet, I'm seriously considering following Volo's advice and taking shotgun training for my Infiltrator...

Oh, yeah. Definitely! Throw Field - hit one key: encounter is over. It only makes sense that you consider this "overthinking it", and then complain about how "dumbed down" the game is.