Gorth

While watching the movie, I just kept thinking of Harry Potter villains whenever he was on screen ...and 'Snoke'? Seriously, SNOKE??? Nothing Harry and Hermione can't fix with a wand. Yes, those two characters were a complete failure in my book, not enough to ruin the overall enjoyment of the movie though. It was fun watching Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher again.

For the first time in living memory, I've seen 2 movies from start to end. First I went to the cinema and saw Star Wars VII and then my brother gave me a voucher for one of those streaming movie services that danish cable providers offers, so i could see 'Minions'. I loved those little yellow buggers, their antics, pseudo language and the humour.

New York cantina tour October 2014 Summary from Dulfys site (you would need to find some video of the Q&A to get the exact conversation now, if such exists) (because of the excessively long time between Dread Fortress/Palace and Ravagers/Temple of Sacrifice) "Why so long between Operations? Looking ahead at the project plan they knew this was going to be a problem. However they only had two options that they could realistically go with. The first was to release an operation before the expansion, but have it quickly become obsolete come 3.0, and only have one operation available with 3.0. Or they could wait and have two for 3.0 but have a really long time without anything. It was really crappy and high end PVErs got “f*****”. It is something that they don’t want to ever do again (have that much time between operations)." So the goal was never get anywhere near 12 months between operations again. That was 14 months ago the last pair was released now and unlikely to be anything released the next 6 months for end game content. Edit to add: You could argue that a statement of intent is not the same as a promise. Doesn't change the fact that old players are royally screwed once you have played 2-3 alts through the KotFE story line (unless you are a die hard pvp'er, in which case you have been royally screwed for the last 2 years)

Sounds plausible. Found the first game so bad I threw the towel in the ring before finishing it. Trust those sneaky aliens to not go home and give it a rest in a gentlemanly manner.

"Lords of Midnight" being absent from this list automatically disqualifies the author from having any credibility Ultima IV was also conspicuously absent Otherwise, most of my favourites seemed to be on the list. Well, those games I've spent 200+ hours on anyway. Of course the list also had games which I barely touched and tossed aside again.

Yeah, the bugs seems to multiply in the dark corners of the universe. When I started playing (don't remember when exactly, it was shortly before planet specific commendations got replaced by generic planetary commendations), I was impressed by how stable the game seemed. For all the quests and missions across the classes, it seemed to work flawlessly (the odd failing to trigger proc or relic double proc oddities not withstanding). Fast forward a few years and you wonder if your game client launches today Some really bizarre bugs like offhand not being visible when inspecting players, or the pvp bug that meant bolster gave you a nice boost in warzones if you had good star ship gear equipped for your star ship, exploits that gets to linger for months without being squashed as a priority... I don't know if they were, but it sure felt like the game ran a very long time on skeleton staff. I've bemoaned it before, but it also felt like combat mechanics and encounter designs took a nosedive after Dread Fortress/Dread Palace launched. Pretty much leaving all melee classes out in the cold except for some ridiculously overpowered assassins/shadows in warzones. Makes you truly wonder if those combat design guys every played their own game and their own operations/flash points. It's rather obvious that they are struggling with something for end game players to do, coming up with very, very obvious attempts to entice people to stay subscribed between chapter releases in the expansion. Grinding heroics Is *not* fun. Especially after they removed all story content from the heroics and just left the mind numbing grind (I've heard that if you go to the planets and look up the quest givers, you can still get at least some of the story parts of that part of the game). Star Fortresses with way too little to differentiate them. Done 6 on a character? Never more for that character. Swearing on his mothers honour (some Bioware employee) that there would not be that long between operations again, first thing they did was the break it. The current loot system is also not going to encourage new players to play the old operations, it has always been a piss poor idea that 2/3 of the ops group gets rewarded for their time and effort and the last 1/3 gets left with barely enough credits to cover their repair bills. No, pointless pet #145 is *not* going to entice existing players to stay subbed.

Does "hive minds" count? Or gestalt principles? A single ant is not necessarily very bright, but their "collective" memory and problem solving skills can be astounding. Edit: Unlike humans, which seems to become dumber and stupider, the larger the mob.

Duh, you are right. Time for my IQ gene-therapy. I got it mixed up with the Central Intelligence Agency bit. Good thing annual leave is just around the corner. My poor grey matter is doing overtime

In the US, they leave the thinking to the government... they even have a Federal Bureau of Intelligence

I didn't bother with the proxy stuff, the deal was still a good deal. You effectively get the cartel coins for free if you were going to add 60 days of sub to your account anyway. Since I was logged into origin (which happens once in a blue moon), I also grabbed a copy of Dragon Age Inquisition Game of the Year bundle at 50% off. Not sure if I'm ever going to play it, but I guess 50% is probably as far as EA is willing to discount for relatively new titles.

Saying it was better than the prequels isn't spoiling anything... it's like saying the sun rises tomorrow

I guess we all got different interpretations from his "answer". Probably projecting a bit of ourselves into our interpretations. I read it as not being happy with "creativity by committee". Not really related to the answer other than in a tangential way, I still haven't finished PoE and one of the things that keeps holding me back is, it almost feels "over produced". Like a boy band that has been through the 27th pass in the hands of the producer, making it good craftsmanship but devoid of the madness, bold ideas, risk taking and spontaneity that appeals to me.

Kind of sad when the only poetry I remember is the Iron Maiden version of Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I think I even looked up some facts and history about the original author (Samuel Coleridge) of the text. That was a long time ago though.

I did the gree event until maxed out in reputation and having collected 200+ grey helixes (the fringe benefit of a lot of level 55's back then, could run 16 man Xenoanalyst like 5-6 times a day, SM and HM). Never got around to spend them all. Rarely ever participated in the pvp, except for a few times where friends persuaded me to join them. A pub guild I was once a member of once showed up with 20 man, 5 groups of 4 and camped in the middle, killing anything that got close and didn't have the guild tag. I guess it was fun for 30 minutes...

Thread getting a bit long. More fallout here

Start of old thread End of old thread I remember looking for Daddy in Fallout 3... never found him

Now I feel like someone who has just been shown how a magician did a trick

He wants to be Caliph?

Now you sound like one of those wise old men...

The two most disappointing chapter 3's for me were Knight and Warrior (for different reasons). Took me half a dozen tries to make it past chapter 1 of the consular story and it was the one I finished last (although I did find it got better towards the end). Never going to roll a female consular again though, just can't stand the completely flat, unengaged voice reciting text from a piece of paper (mentioned it before, I think Hayden Christensen is Oscar material compared to the "acting" of the female consular VO). Like something you would hear from somebody memorizing their lines before getting the context and no directing help. Played around a bit with the free level 60 token, but just couldn't settle on a character. It feels "wrong" somehow starting on the expansion without having a past. Hard to explain really.

I miss my old companions. I miss the companion stories. Even when you recruit Lt. Pierce, SCORPIO etc. they feel "empty". Like the 5 years since you last met are non existing and no catching up other than the recruiting dialogue. No evolving stories there. Since my bounty hunter didn't get any old companion back (which my sith warrior, agent and trooper did), I used the terminal to summon Mako. I doubt very much I'm going to use the new companions much. Highest ranking Lana Beniko/Theron Shan is 6 and highest ranking Nico Ocarr is 3. They just don't have the backstory that the companions you gathered from level 1-50 has. Did Black Hole for the first time since 4.0... wow, Torvix has fallen on hard times. All the golds in the "heroics" (what a ridiculous misnomer now) have been reduced to silvers and all the silvers have been reduced to common trash (one shot fodder for dps players). I guess I should look at the positives and appreciate it's fast rewards.

It's a sad time when a psychic octopus is the only creature you can trust to tell the truth in the world of football. RIP Paul.

Ever considered the possibility that heads of state's personal interests and their responsibilities may have a conflict of interest? Point in case, Ghadaffi, Saddam Hussein, every long ruling despot clinging on to power at all cost? The Kurdish party hurt the ruling party in Turkey in the previous election and if continuing, they may or may not have ousted Erdogan from power through a normal democratic process. Hence, the Kurds needed a good stomping and who better to do that than a group with similar interests (and blowing the nationalist trumpets at the same time, rallying voters behind the ballots). He *is* the leader of an islamist party after all.

German is/was my second language, although I'm probably more fluent in English now (which used to be my third language). If anything, I learnt that no country is perfect. Mostly getting along with people, but raising eyebrows at the various administrative quirks and idiosyncrasies you run into. Germany was a mix of two things, not feeling comfortable living in the big city and the deeply ingrained "formality" in the way people interact. At least I can get people to address me by my first name here (after a bit of encouragement) But yes, I have fond and less fond memories from each country. Nobody is perfect. Denmark the semi-socialist "paradise", New Zealand with it's "remoteness" from the rest of the world, Australia which I guess would be closer to USA than England now culturally, Germany where you need to fill out a form for crossing the street and England where everything looks and feels a bit old and worn down

Gorth I would like to point something interesting out to you but before I make my point where have you lived in your life? Denmark, New Zealand, Australia, Germany and England? (that's 'living', not just spending an amount of time there)