Gorth

I know it's election year... but 51% + 59%? Someone is inflating the voter numbers somewhere. Or multi ethnic people counts for both

Put oily fish in the microwave and you'll be reminded the next 48 hours what you had for dinner... Didn't cook it myself, but had tandoori prawns and chargrilled squid yesterday. It was quite delicious.

Thread pruned a bit. Try to stick to discussing tutorials and not each other?

I believe that IQ, like energy, is constant. The more people you add to a mob, the less there is to go around to each individual

Story mode operations have been nerfed so badly, it's likely only the "Master & Blaster" (keeping Master's tank alive) and Underlurker (testing dps skill) that pose any real challenges for pug groups. My new juggernaut tank did his ops inauguration with a dread palace run with no less than 4 'noobs' in the group and only 4 of us were level 65 and it went smoothly (and maybe RNG was blessing us and giving us good noobs, because they actually listened to my long and winding explanations before each fight as well as during the fights). As long as you are geared correctly and at whatever level you are currently at, bolster will usually get you to a point where you carry your own weight. Yes there are always extreme cases in team composition and bad things can happen to groups (everyone being under geared, no one knowing their class, people just being morons pulling everything and no single player having a clue about fight mechanics etc.) Edit: I love the 'smack' sound when a scrapper lets his fists fly in a fight...

I really wanted to like Alpha Protocol, but the mini games just killed it for me. Never made it out of the starting area. I'm all for AP2 if they could get rid of such legacy garbage (mini games, qte's etc. that kills my enjoyment of games)

Thats hectic...lucky they didn't kick your door down...imagine what they would have discovered That reminds me of that scene from 'Brazil' (great movie) where the tax departments Stormtroopers assault the wrong apartment due to a clerical error.

I lived there for 8.5 years and never even heard of a baseball league. The "big" sports are cricket, rugby, tennis, football (Aussie rules and soccer both), cycling and swimming... Places I've been to: New Zealand would be my first pick I think. Nice country and nice people, at least away from the major urban centres like Auckland. Places I've haven't been to: Mauritius. Just to get away from the world and all it's noise and hectic life styles.

You guys should just apply for Commonwealth membership and accept Queen Elizabeth II as your rightful head of state

I never was good with names... Sorry

Haven't posted these in a while. A few more show my yours I show you mine I know it's a matter of taste, but I actually like swotors art style. The slightly "cartoonish" look just ages better than attempts at photo realism. Oricon has some really nice vistas, even when visiting it for the 337th time... My sentinel girl watching the lava flow (from Jedi Covenant)... It's raining space ships, adding to the already abundant wreckage... Lieutenant Hamilcar patrolling the Balmorran grasslands, enjoying getting out of the heavy industry areas (from Harbinger) Bormu... I really hate Bormu (the big critters in the background). There is an ingame achievement for killing a gazillion of them. Hands up if anyone ever did that one.

Thread getting a bit long... Press Play!

Start of old Thread End of old Thread Previous discussion ended at: Had a bizarre urge to wave a light saber way back in October. Buddy is replaying so I figured I would finish the download. Neat that the female IA and Ciri have the same voice actress. Keyrock kept posting images from Mordheim - City of the Damned, so when I noticed it on sale for 40% I bought it today and is currently downloading it. I guess between us, we are the Lost and the Damned... Edit to add: Also grabbed a Bioshock trilogy pack for around 5-6 Pounds. Not sure what that is in Dollars, but it is dirt cheap.

Corporations always scare me when they become too big and influential. Nothing good for the non shareholders ever come of it. As for Microsoft, it's a question of control. It's no secret that they've been envious of Google for many years (hands up, who checks Bing before Google when using search engines?). That's why they want to get rid of your privacy as much as they can get away with (every metric they can wring out of you about your behaviour and what you do can be sold to the right buyers). Now they seem willing to sacrifice the sale of Windows in order to get people on a platform of no return. That Windows is destined to become "Software as Service" is something I haven't been able to find any reliable sources for. I would say no, you are not paranoid, alternatively, I'm equally paranoid. If it wasn't because the company I work for uses it on their work laptops, I wouldn't have it inside my walls at anytime.

You know you are getting old when you actually struggle to think of a game you are looking forward to...

I guess cheese includes everything from Gorgonzola to Blue Cheese (both of which i love on pizza)? Where is the love for olives? I love those French thingies, Nicoise or whatever they are called. Don't be fooled by their dark colour, got nothing to do with the crappy black olives. Otherwise ham/chicken and tomato based sauce (unless one of the above 2 cheeses present). PS: Anchovies are excellent together with hard boiled eggs instead of salt and pepper, but not on my pizza.

Had an interesting experience yesterday, eating scotch eggs for breakfast. I love to heat them in the microwave for a few minutes and then have it with some spicy sauce. Well, yesterday was a bit different... poking the thing with my fork, it exploded like a hand grenade, sending egg "shrapnel" in all directions. I probably sat for all of 5 seconds, staring at my now empty plate in stunned disbelief. The noise was quite impressive too, sounding like an exploding light bulb. Then i couldn't help burst out laughing at the absurdity of it, while slowly starting to gather some towels, water and soap. Today i still find "debris" from yesterday, clinging to the underside of cupboards, the ceiling, the far wall etc. Talk about surprising food

He is a demagogue and even though I can recognize his skill in industry and business acumen he also represents the worst aspects of Capitalism He is arrogant, dismissive. bombastic and has very little regard for the consequences of his words or views. ...and a history of bankruptcies where others are left to pick up the bills. Funnily enough, the costs of his business misadventures roughly matches his estimated personal fortune He reminds me a lot of Silvio Berlusconi. Except Berlusconi is the more successful business man. Edit to add: Funny thing about the British system, if a petition gets enough signatures, parliament is required by law to debate it: MPs to debate call to ban Donald Trump from UK

I would recommend trying a few. Even if it's a complete disaster (which does happen in pug groups, especially with too many new people in the group), it's still a fun experience and the older operations has quite a bit of story built in. It does require people to know their class though, as well as more than just the bare bones basics of their role. That being said, they have removed so many mechanics from the SM operations (they are still in the HM ops), that apart from ravagers and temple of sacrifice, it's more tank and spank mixed with the fundamental basics (i.e. don't stand in circles, push appropriate buttons etc.), none of which requires lightning fast reflexes (heck, I'm getting close to the half century mark)

Kotfe was a nice story. Problem (for me) is, it felt like a big QTE with very little player agency. Soloed a few H2 star fortresses before, during and after the companion nerf and reversal. Completed a few "6 packs" with friends, guildies or pugging. Probably wont bother getting an alliance specialist beyond my current highest ranking one which is rank 12 (Admiral Aygor on my Powertech) Simply too much repetitive grind. Did a few of the heroics. Just isn't fun when all the story parts have been removed and only the kill x enemies grind is left. Watching with mild amusement how people are flocking to the way too easy EV HM for the 220/224 gear (and fighting like hyenas, ninja looting, name calling etc. that comes with it), thinking yeah, way too go Bioware, not only no new operations but also making the current oldies completely pointless and obsolete by making top tier gear so easy to get. Mostly just pugging a few sm ops theses days, turning it into a sport getting 6 piece (216 gear) set bonuses for as many alts as possible.

I would probably add Knights of the Old Republic 2 to the list today. Best music in an Obsidian game ever.

He made some good late 80's rock too when part of Tin Machine... RIP David Bowie http://youtu.be/ivRtxulMics and a decent live performer too (not the best example, better videos out there)... http://youtu.be/KGRIwlxLgc0

To be fair, the food in German supermarkets and grocery stores is atrocious...

Yeah, Sand/Killian/Visceris/6foot invisible rabbit etc. rip. We miss you. Haven't seen taks in ages too. Hope Colorado is till on the US map

I do. You're right. What looks good on the training dummy doesn't work in "real life". For a long time, progression raiders dropped all melee classes except powertech/vanguard dps (for the hydraulic overrides and sonic rebounder spam). Assassins, Operatives and Maras (plus their pub side counter part) simply didn't stand a chance in the piss poor encounter designs in the SoR operations. Everything was specifically designed to keep melee players away. Mostly of the type involving templates with aoe damage centered on bosses. Sword Squadron, Underlurker (the lurkerlings does more damage to anyone closer than 10m to them) etc. Good luck trying to survive on a melee class. It became a challenge all on its own trying to carry 2 melee characters at one point. Bioware and their metrics... when their data analysis showed the majority of players preferred their companions with no pants, they wrote a script to streamline the process for players (j/k) Part of Biowares new grind campaign. Now you can do mindless crate grinding for alliance influence, mindless gift grinding for companions and mindless grinding of old heroics (to make suure your really feel the grind, they removed all the story parts and left just the grind parts) for credits and crystals (and crates). Having a main stat was too confusing for new players. So it got stream lined away. Same thing with critical and surge stats. You can now play the game from origin world to end of makeb just spamming basic attacks and not worrying about any gear, roles or game mechanics (and it *shows* in the group finder). They have put a lot of effort into removing those vendor. After first removing them from fleet, it looks like they are now going through planets and removing moddable gear there too. You are of course welcome to spend the cartel coins buying a few packs from the cartel market and hope you get some nice moddable gear there. To be fair though, with the new appearance designer, you really only need moddable weapons until you get the level 65 gear from the supplies section on fleet. Appearance designer alters your appearance regardless what gear you are actually wearing. Blue and green gear can be bought and replaced for their stats while your looks stays consistent with the "skin" you slapped on top of yourself. As for experience points, the "tactical" flashpoints gives so many, that if you can stomach that Chinese torture, you usually get enough xp for at least 1, sometimes 2 entire levels during a single flashpoint run.