213374U

It's not any stupider than using the "aryan" noun to refer to people of obvious Nordic descent.

I am in no way affiliated with the author. And those t-shirts made me giggle... if Hitler rose from his grave, he'd probably just shoot himself again after seeing this kind of nonsense.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, I guess. I don't like playing storyless games just as I don't like eating breadless sandwiches. All I know is that if I had known what HL2 was like, I would now have 50

Yeah? Does it describe the use of fireball wands as enemas?

Funny how the article bases its most dire possible consequences 100% off the assumption that CO2 emissions are the cause for global warming. After all, what are pragmatism and scientific skepticism against media trends?

Good point! It's entirely possible that I might be seeing HL through a pink colored glass. It was a pretty revolutionary game and I had never played anything like it before. To be honest, I played it through only once. However, it was not as ambitious a project, and it didn't have a story to continue. But at any rate, the arguably thin plot of the original was better woven and better developed as well, if only because it didn't have any previous games to lean on. Even if the plot was simple, you knew what was going on. And it was a self-contained story; it didn't need any expansion packs to complete the story, though those certainly added in some flavor.

Heh. I'd circumvent a ban just to piss you off, commie.

Lie? Well, I guess you could say that we are all lying, as I haven't seen anyone reveal their true identity yet. Some even create weird online personae to conceal their true selves, for whatever reasons. Go figure. If you don't accept that posting from behind a pseudonym is a valid way of protecting one's RL privacy and you consider it "lying", then you are a liar yourself, by your own definition. If, on the other hand, you accept it, please explain to me how is one alias more valid than the next and why is it wrong to have more than one. Also, and instead of going off on a tangent about how many liars you have to deal with on a daily basis, explain how creating an alt account to circumvent an effective ban is an act of cowardice. Pretty please?

That's what I've read too. So, how is the movie doing? Any chance of a sequel? Or, even better, any chances for the show to be resurrected?

Oh noes! He's trying to steal my mojo!

What can I say, my Chi isn't what it used to be...

Sketchy, at best. Certainly not well fleshed or deep, in any sense of the word. Yes, apparently I have got caught up in my own words, as there was a plot of sorts (the game wasn't Q3A after all), but certainly not enough to support the game. 1. No way out? He's out as soon as he's managed to evade the Combine patrols. It's not like the player is given the choice to try and run away, only to find himself back in the midst of it by the hand of the Gman. Being a scientist, I would expect him to just get the hell out instead of playing hero. 2. Exactly. There is a resistance movement already in place. He doesn't need to do anything by himself, that's what the resistance are there for (if only they could stop stepping into every single mine they can find). While you might find the revolutionary leader figure quite romantic, those usually just get themselves killed when they try to be too much of an example. That is not an explanation for Gordon's recklessness. 3. Uh... what? Usually, when you want to establish a plot device like that, you lay down some premises, such as a developing relationship, in order to make the knight-damsel thing credible. In the game, Alyx is just some scruffy girl that Gordon has just met that gets into too much trouble. Yeah, she teaches Gordon how to use the grav gun and shows him her neat robo dog. Yeah, I could feel the passion. You need to read, buddy. I already said that I have nothing against a story that is presented 100% from the protagonist's eyes. My problem is not with the way the story is delivered. However, there is no such story, and I'm still waiting for you people to tell me a HL2 story that isn't based off assumptions and loose comments and observations. I want details, I want well defined, deep characters, I want a setting setup, I want motivations. Well?

I guess everyone's entitled to their opinion. I don't give online personae as much importance as Gromnir does, which makes the identity of the poster irrelevant to me. Assuming that posting from an alt is a means of saving another account's "prestige" is almost as funny as it is ridiculous. But then again, people can get real worked up about stuff that goes on here, so perhaps it's not that far-fetched. I made accounts for very specific purposes: to circumvent the moderation, or that time when I was feeling playful and cloned a few members.

Nope, I guess it wasn't me you "beat under my rock". I have yet to see a valid point when defending HL2's story. You will find that it's pretty difficult to defend something that simply doesn't exist, as I'll prove. Fair enough. I'm not, and have never argued the storytelling format of the game. That is a style over substance kind of argument. You argue the former, I always refer to the latter. That might apply for the first part of the game, when Gordon is simply trying to escape... from something. But, after that is done, what are his motivations for getting himself yet again in that mess? He is a theoretical physicist, not a soldier, not a mercenary. In the original HL Gordon fights as much to save his own life, as he does to save his colleagues and clean up the mess he has made. The bottom line here is that Gordon has absolutely no in-game motivations, as is consequent with the mostly incoherent plot of the game. An entire world whose circumstances and details aren't even hinted, making said world completely irrelevant to the player, important as it may be to the character. Huh? I'm not sure I follow here. So, basically, you are asking me to wait and fear not, as the almighty Gabe Newell will deliver the missing pieces in some future installment of the saga? If that is what you are saying, then you are just acknowledging that the game does lack a plot, and therefore I'm right and have been all along. HL2 is a standalone product which lacks a fundamental part. Can you imagine the outrage if HL2 had shipped without texture packs? Without speech? Alas, those seem to be much higher in the priority list than the writing. Now, the only other way I can read that is that you are used to get your plot-driven entertainment in an incomplete state, and thus, the way HL2 shipped is perfectly fine with you and you can find no fault with it. If that is the case, my recommendation is that you read more books. Quality stuff, and much more immersive than this POS-of-the-year that passed for a masterpiece of innovative storytelling. Before making that sort of statements, I recommend you check your facts. HL2 is one of the games that have taken the longest to develop, ever, with some six years in production time. And still you ask for more time? In six freaking years they didn't have the time to think up a story? Get real. No amount of clever slogans can make up for a missing plot. Cheers from under my rock.

Sometimes it's fun to play a monster campaign, for a change. I would have nothing against a mindflayer PC under such circumstances. Not my cup of tea, but I guess different people have different tastes. The half-dragon part is stupid, though, and it seems there may be an excess of sourcebooks in that game. However, as Eldar said, playing a level 0 commoner that suffers like a -8 penalty to his attack rolls when using his low quality shovel (which he's not proficient with) as he tries to kill the mice in his basement can be just as lame.

A level 2 character on Taris would be owned...though if you were the scoundrel class you could sneak past most enemies(but that would be boring) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Not really. All you need to do is rely on your party members to deal with trouble since they can level up. I did Taris that way. It sucked though... On to the topic. I don't think consulars will lose in comparison to guardians since the whole point of playing a consular is having a lot of force points. This purpose was defeated in KotOR due to the "force sensitive" feat that gave the PC way more force points than he/she was supposed to have, which meant that at the higher levels, guardians could spam force powers without much trouble. I doubt such a feat will exist in KotOR II, so maybe there will be a reason for playing consular after all... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Ever logical, ever wrong...

Just saw it and I'm bumping this thread for no other reason than saying that this movie is teh shiznit!!1. Go watch it now if you haven't. I'll have to check out the tv show too. That is all.

No geek would try to play a half-dragon mindflayer... ...as there are lots of prestige class combinations that allow for far greater Ultimate Power... :ph34r:

In this case, the healthy choice would be not to think.

Fix'd.

What? No Illithid half-dragon? What kind of game is that? Next thing you'll say is that you won't be allowing for the Tarrasque as a familiar, right? How the hell are your players supposed to slay gods if you deny them the basic tools!? <_<

Uh, excuse me, do I know you? Right. Anyway, you know what they say about assuming, don't you? And that is a double assumption, as you don't know what the PMs were like, AND you assume that this "troublemaking" stance is my natural state. Reflect.

For some reason, I'm getting the impression that you just read the last post (last page at most) and then decided it was time for a nanny-style comment. Now here's a question for you. If this stuff is all "getting old", why are you reading it, and most importantly, why are you replying? Post counts don't increase here, you know...

Um, yes. Perhaps I assumed too much. Let's start over. Do you have any friends? Agreed. But barring you, most veterans have proven that they can also post in a serious, constructive fashion, and those who haven't are usually drawing flak as soon as they post. That is not the case with new users. You won't see me flaming n00bs, unless they step on my toes, though, as I tend to grant them the benefit of doubt. I'm sure I could, by stretching the forum guidelines, argue that your "hypocrisy = yu0" statement constitutes a personal attack. Agreed. But again, you'll be hard pressed to find a veteran poster whose entire postcount consists of spam alone.

What, trying to scare me now? Give me all the warnings you want. Ban me if that makes you happy. I can make a new account when you are not looking. Proxies are even easier to configure and use than hotmail accounts. That is, if I actually cared about posting here enough to go through all the trouble. But hey, who am I to step into your ego wank fest? Keep banging your chest all you want, that neat moderator thingy under your avatar definitely grants you the right. The thing is, I already did. I have heard all of that before. Unlike you, I actually know what am I talking about. And I wasn't discussing any particular decisions here. I just stepped in and commented on some remark made by a moderator. I guess discussing general moderation policies isn't allowed anyway, even when no particular incidents are being discussed. I guess I can't state my preferences on moderation team members, either. You might want to update the guidelines, though. Oh, wait, no need for that. Those are "open to interpretation" by you cool guys, which basically takes us back to my original statement about those guidelines giving you carte blanche. About for the former, I did already. I got absolutely no response. As for the latter, why do you think this was the first post I had made since about a month? Ow. Man, with one-liners like that, I don't think I can win this one. I should know better than to mess with the toughest kid on the block.