Enoch

The new translation is from a friend/old schoolmate of mine who now teaches at Boston Latin School. So does that earn him a spot in the game's credits?

People over the age of 6 watch that voluntarily? Wow. Anyhow, to pull us a little back closer to the ME2 topic, I'm taking suggestions as to which companion I should Virmire in my ME1 playthrough. Female Vanguard, mostly paragon, no romantic entanglements, and I haven't taken any of the humans outside the ship in a very long time.

That's why I called him the best I've seen and not the best evar. I haven't played JE, MDK2, or NWN1, and make no comment on the kewlness of their antagonists.

Irenicus, sure. By far the best Bioware villain (read: only interesting and memorable Bioware villain) I've seen. But Sarevok was lame. Both hilariously cliched and stupid-by-plot-necessity. ("I think I can become god if a lot of people die." (silly, but arguably within 'fantasy' believability) "A lot of people will die if Baldurs Gate and Amn go to war." (Logical) "I need to sabotage some iron mines." (wat?)) I'll take the cliched and characterless DA Archdemon over the cliched and ridiculous Sarevok. I count Saren and Loghain roughly equally-- cliched, but at least there's a little bit of nuance to their presentation and a little bit of logic supporting their overall schemes.

Oghren does make a fair amount of sense, if you're only including one repeat JNPC. Bio can't possibly pick one of the romanceables without inciting the holy fury of the all afficianadoes of all the other romanceables. And if we know anything about Bio, we know that they love to shovel fan service at that particular group. He's probably the JNPC who the average gamer (i.e., someone who played once and then moved onto other things) played with least, as the Deep Roads was one of the toughest areas, likely to be done later in the game. That keeps him relatively fresh. And there really isn't a clear plot-based reason that he couldn't return like there is with other JNPCs. Sten goes back home, Al could be king, Morrigan buggers off, etc. I know it's possible for a player to kill Zev, Sten, Dog, Lel, and Wynne over the course of the game, and Al and can end up sacrificed. Actually, is there even a way to kill Oghren in the Deep Roads, if you make the wrong Branka-related choices? It might be as simple as that he's the only companion besides Morrigan who always finishes the game alive.

Were it a little further down the East coast, I'd be tempted. But I'm not gonna haul all the way up to Boston for a gaming convention.

Me too. I enjoyed many of the Gold Box games when I was younger (PoR, CotAB, the Krynn games, the Savage Frontier games, and maybe a couple others-- they kind of blend together in my mind), and the first BG drew on that nostalgia for a decent hunk of its appeal. But somewhere around the release of IWD and BG2, my mindset regarding the rules system shifted from "accepting" to "critical," and I started figuring out the degree to which it sucked. 3E improved certain aspects of it (mostly the dual/multi class rules and bizarre saving throw system), but still left scads of problems that bugged me more and more with each iteration I played in a CRPG. Edit: And, yes, Planescape was my favorite.

This one is my favorite:

Horizontal scroll-bars that only show 1 item at a time? Ew. I hope that's only in the console interface.

Everyone would be immune to the taint. I thought Grey Wardens weren't immune to the taint but rather were special individuals that could withstand and use the taint to some degree. The taint would eventually overcome them driving them insane, hence the self exile of older grey wardens to the Deep Roads. Thereby dealing with the whole problem of looking after the aged and decrepit in society.. When everyone hits that age..they wander into the deep roads to fight deepspawn until they die.. No need to support them in the thriving kingdom above ground.. But some of those aged citizens won't go quietly into the good night of fighting in tunnels. So elite police units are formed to track down those who attempt to elude their pre-ordained fate. Thus sets the scene for Dragon Age 3: Loghain's Run.

Personally, I found the "Al ends up as a lonely desperate drunk" ending more satisfying.

The first one was fun. I found the second one frustratingly difficult, though, and gave up relatively early-on. That said, I was probably about 13 when I played it, and not nearly as good then as I now am at min-maxing RPG systems.

Maybe this "Architect" will provide some explanation why every road in Ferelden passes under an 80-foot tall stone arch every 50 feet.

The only thing that comes to my mind is "Tunnel Snakes Rule!"

The U.S. isn't averse to train transportation-- it's averse to train passenger transportation (outside the DC-to-Boston corridor, that is). Freight rail is still a huge industry in the States. Anyhow, a motorcycle or the like would be cool, but I still see it most likely as the method of 'fast travel,' rather than a means to squeeze lots of driving/vehicular combat gameplay into an actiony-RPG. (Think Mako.)

Neat. I remember that one.

Weather does not equal climate. Suck it, everybody who tries to politicize the one remaining neutral topic of conversation available in this country!

Huh. I picked this up in the Steam sale this week, but only played through the 'intro' area. The atmosphere and gameplay have failed to grab my interest so far. I'm sure I'll jump back into it again at some point and explore the first quest hub a bit, but my expectations aren't high.

So, other than the new piecemeal armor, how else is inventory/loot being changed? Because playing through some of ME1, the weaknesses of this system are really grating on me. The items have no character whatsoever-- just a brief description of the manufacturer (that manages to be even more boring than the codex entries), a product line name, a number, and 3 stats. And the mods are worse. (Really, how many different ranks of Incendiary Rounds does the game need?) They missed a big opportunity to add some character to their gameworld by making the inventory screen a trip to generictown-- even a handful of unique items would make a big difference. (The only one I can think of is the anti-thorian gas grenade mod, which even has a superfluous "I" ranking so that it fits in with all the other items from the boringville armory.)

On the local v. non-local issue, nearly every study on donation efficacy comes out strongly in favor of well-run international charities.

I slept for 11 hours last night. One of the few perks of recovering from illness.

if it is food poisoning, you would know it. you would also be spending much more time in the bathroom on your knees, too. i had to be taken to the hospital the one time i had it. it doesn't typically result in a fever or other aches, as i recall (going on memory from what the doctor told me... probably could check wiki but i'm hungover and not feeling investigative right now). anyway, they gave me a shot that cleared up the nausea in half an hour, and immodium will always plug the back-end rather quickly. add in some saline drips through an IV and i was fine in under 2 hours though i felt out of sorts for a day or two afterward. technically, there's no such thing as the stomach flu, though i've read that the flu itself can cause nausea and diarrhea (as well as the other symptoms, obviously). i haven't had anything like that in a long time, fortunately, and i certainly don't envy you. Well, the reading I've done told me that for both maladies, symptoms can include stuff like vomiting, nausea, et cetera... I took that as meaning that people respond differently to the bugs, and that food poisoning could be any one of a number of possible toxins that have a range of effects. Rather than try to get to see a doctor on a holiday for a definitive diagnosis, I decided to just rest and force fluids for a day. Anyhow, the important thing is that I am feeling a good deal better this morning. The nausea is gone, the fatigue (which was awful yesterday) is improved, and although I still don't have much of an appetite, I'm in the midst of eating an entire piece of toast. (Solid food forced down yesterday: 6 saltines and a half cup of applesauce.)

And my New Years present is: A Stomach Flu! Well, I guess it could be food poisoning. The symptoms (nausea, diarrhea, body- and headache, dehydration) are quite similar. I haven't puked yet, but the nausea has gotten close to pushing me over the edge from time to time. This sucks.

Wrasslin' : American Gladiators : : Scripted TV drama : Reality show. One focuses on established characters and storylines; the other is about ordinary contestants winning big bucks. @theslug, I think the point of the MMA pic was that people get entertainment from watching others get beat up in a rather brutal fashion, rather than something to do with the physical dangers to the participants. I'm sure that afficianados of the martial arts get more out of watching the fights, but to me it never gets past Jackass-style "that must've really hurt."

Huh? The crazy fan in the Citadel markets? Did anybody find his interruptions entertaining at all? I'm having bad memories of the "Noober 2" (Neeber?) who showed up in BG2-- it wasn't funny the first time, and it didn't get any funnier when they did it again.