213374U

Once you try Italian espresso, you'll never want to go back. For them brewing coffee is something of a ritual... and it shows.

You aren't big on sports, are you? -Boxing: two dudes beating the crap out of each other. -Golf: some guy trying to push a ball into a hole using a stick. -Weightlifting: fat bozos squatting and making funny faces. -Track & Field: running and jumping around and these guys don't even have a ball to kick! Really, give me any sport and I'll give you an inane simplification. Except Curling. Curling rules. Interestingly, pro football players are some of the best conditioned athletes overall, barring gymnasts. I guess that must be just for show.

For all intents and purposes, it is. Read Hades' original comment, and read my reply. Read it as many times as you need, understand what kind of minority Hades and I were talking about, and then get back to me. Because the Pope and Cardinals are, in themselves, a minority, silly! Whatever power they have over the Catholic Church is something even you can't seem to get straight. Further, being anti-gay is nowhere near being part of the WBC. Discrimination of any kind is against the Due Process clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution (cue Enoch). You don't need legislation targeting specific segments of the population if you apply the law as it's written. In fact, you are creating further inequalities if you do. "Durr". Lol. Is that worse than a bunch of black kids beating a black kid to death, and how so? "Hate crimes" are bull****. You don't gangrape, torture and murder somebody out of love. Either make punishment harsher across the board, or don't bother. You are just arguing for further social division, as Gorth already pointed out. You are losing your touch chum.

fatty Perhaps. But can I dance or what?

Nope. You're the one trying to place everyone in the same camp. The burden of proof lies with you. And I guess you know this for the same reason you know that every Christian must be a Republican bigot. Okay. What does it have to do with what I said, anyway? How is that specifically pro-gay? And why should it be limited to gay people? Tsk tsk. Hate crime legislation IS positive discrimination. Sorry if you don't agree. You're right about DOMA, though. But, how is it linked with the alleged bigotry of Christians as opposed to Americans in general? We have gay marriage over here, and Catholics are a majority. *shrug*

Ah, well. I'll take that as a compliment. They are Christians. They are Republican. They are, according to you, anti-gay. Go on and establish the relationship between those conditions, past the purely anecdotal and incidental. Show us how being Christian makes you an anti-gay Republican. Show us how NOT being Christian makes you like gay people better. And as long as those groups you cited do nothing to quash the freedoms/rights whatever of the minorities they don't like, their opinions are just as valid as your own. You're just going to have to live with that. I already argued against the centralized character of the Catholic Church, btw. "pro-gay reforms", lol. Positive discrimination is still discrimination, m'kay?

Yep. I'm 3 alright!

NO U

I bow to your superior rhetoric, sir. I'm sure you leave all the girls gasping at the sheer wit of your sharp rebuttals. The thing is, I didn't - YOU assumed I had. I was commenting on your poorly supported opinion which, funny, is apparently now a "sarcastic riff". I do. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case with you and "sarcasm". I'm getting there, with your help.

Oh, goodie! Another e-pissing contest. It's been too long since any FO3-related thread turned into one. Aren't you? Wow, then what are you posting replies to what others say for? If not debating, what are you doing, the dishes? What question is that, the one about me making assumptions based on some picture you posted in a different thread, or the one about me being 3? Heh, do you really think either of those warrant an answer? I couldn't care less what you look like bub. In fact, I hadn't thought of that pic until now. You could be a German Shepherd for all I care. Chances are you'd put up more of a fight, too. But here you go, a pic of mine, just so we are on even footing. Feel free to assume what you will. The ones you haven't made regarding your statement that "FO3 is inherently inferior in every department". I suggest you familiarise yourself with the meaning of the words you throw around to look important. Yeah, after all, it's just so much effort to express the reasons behind one's bull****. And certainly, we SHOULD know by now what those reasons are. It's none other than TwinkieGorilla we're talking about, here! And then some.

Even better. I've seen your arguments. Well, more like, your lack thereof. And this 3 year old just beat you at debate. Lol, owned.

You seem to have no idea what I'm talking about. And what's worse, you have no idea what you are talking about. A very vocal, very small minority does not warrant comments in the vein of those you made. That accounts for Mr. Phelps and other idiots. The Catholic Church or, more accurately, the bunch of idiots who sit in their halls in the Vatican spouting off nonsense are a disgrace. They are, however, a minority as well, and do not operate or conduct themselves the same way your average neigbourhood Padre does. Those people are usually kind, hard-working folk that are involved with the community and an example of tolerance. I suggest you look up the meaning of that word. But the bottom line is that for you it's easier to take the manichaean route and put everyone in the same camp with Phelps. So go on, show me proof that "Christians", or any other random group you feel like hating on today are "evil". You can't, and you'll go "but I don't need to prove anything to you", or some other similarly lame excuse. Same old, same old.

Hmm. Perhaps you forgot that you can pause the game at any time by hitting the SPACE BAR or left clicking on the clock face? Looks great. I'll have to get around to using the widescreen mod myself, one of these days... edit: I take it you finally managed to solve your install problems?

Invisible characters and shadows have concealment, so you can roll a natural 20 and still get a miss. True Seeing and other divinations do nothing against characters that are simply hidden. I hated the mansion the OP is talking about, too. I had the suspicion that the rogues weren't there at all, until the very moment they backstab you.

And I guess I'll just take your word for it. You look like such an informed fellow!

I don't see where the sense of wounded national pride comes from. In DX, HK may not be portrayed very favourably, but neither are NYC or Paris, for that matter. And I have never seen complaints about this, as people understand that the portions of the cities presented are not necessarily representative of the state of affairs of those locales as a whole. They are merely the parts of those cities that the developers considered they needed to use in their story... and then they gave everything a bit of a "down" feel to account for the ongoing world crisis of the story. So please, let's keep the chauvinism to a minimum. This is a spy RPG we are talking about, not a tourism slideshow. edit: it just occured to me that you may be referring to the same tired Asian stereotypes we always see applied to characters. If so, yeah. That needs to go.

And blanket statements are only as good as the figures that support them. Oh, right. You don't care whether what you post is true or not.

I suppose it should be obvious that neither approach is inherently superior. Execution. Tastes.

Err... has it? Can you give a few examples so we know what you're referring to specifically, and what standards are you measuring against? There were parts of Fallout 3 that really stood out to this DC-area resident. The Metro stations, the Capitol, Dupont Circle, and the National Archives were particularly impressive. I was on the lookout for ghouls on my commute for weeks. Edit: Just noticed that alaschu pre-empted this particular comment. Fair enough. Never been to DC myself, so it's good to hear an informed opinion.

Where did this question come from? It came from my sick, twisted and sleep-deprived mind, if you must know. I guess I should have been more clear and asked which RPGs was he comparing against. But the examples folks have put forth so far aren't RPGs, but games where free-roaming is, if not the central force behind the game, at least a very important part. How about I go asking around the Paradox boards for characters and writing in the level of MotB? Do you think that's sensible? edit: Argh, ninja'd!

So, um, we want huge, mostly empty maps so we can roam freely doing nothing much? Isn't this supposed to be a story-driven RPG?

Good points, good points. I do hope some of the improvements in AI accomplished in FPSs are taken advantage of in other genres, though. By complexity I mean a system that allows for a reasonable variety of problems presented, and an amount of possible solutions to match, with different chances for success. No win buttons, no leaving fights on auto-pilot, no single strategy to dominate the game. But what I want above all is the re-introduction of mechanics that punish player error. Think a checkmate you see coming, but fail (or choose not) to prevent. I'm sick of games where you watch rather than game.

Oops. Little misunderstanding back there, I thought you were trying to be clever. Sorry. The game must have a narrative (not to be confused with a plot), obviously, since, regardless of format, it's a work of fiction. You are being told what's going on in a world somebody made up, who are the good guys, the bad guys, their motives and whatnot - the form in which this information reaches you is not important. But if you thought there's no narrative proper, that's a good indication of how different that is from the very central role the characters and story plays in FO3. Less room for freestyling, but in exchange for a more involved story and characters.

Whether you are being sarcastic or not, I can't tell. I'm going to grant you the benefit of doubt though, and simply recommend that you practice some more.

Which results in (or perhaps stems from) a much weaker and less cohesive narrative, with possibly less involvement from the player, both explicitly and motivation wise. Which is, if I understood correctly, the point Gromnir was making. Tastes.