Gorth

For those flashpoints where solo mode exists, you can now pick it when talking to the "quest giver". Like in the past where you picked Normal or Hard mode at the entrance, some of them now has a third option, solo mode. You get a buff that makes you and your companion stronger and you get a GSI Combat Droid as extra team member. The droid is a DPS/Tank/Healer that makes Treek look weak by comparison. Heck, even my well geared tank got a guard slapped on him by the droid while it proceeded to wreck the place and me trying to keep up

Solo vs. group... While there are many things wrong with 3.0, they did actually make it easier for solo players. Previous tactical flashpoints (minus the CZ ones) are now available in solo mode, so you can play them as part of the new planetary story. The only thing you cant solo is the operations and traditional flashpoints, and you you really only want that if grinding or testing your skills constantly (or your patience in the case of pugs) is your thing. Bugs notwithstanding (and they are legion now), its perfectly possible to play through the class stories, Ilum, Makeb (which now has a bolster funktion too, so you can play from level 47 there), over the preludes to the Shadow of Revan expansion, ending at level 60 without doing group content, just saying

Agent was my favourite story lines, but as a matter of taste etc. I quite liked the trooper story. Completely unrealistic of course, but it's a bit like the game version of The Dirty Dozen (or half dozen in this case). Plot spoiler warning: Chapter 1. Chapter 2 & 3 No idea if you care about in-game romances, but the most interesting one was the one you couldn't get (as a male trooper). You'll know when you get there.

Yeah, life is played in "Iron Man" mode

Because the best way to deal with a security risk is to add another security risk into the equation. Once upon a time, I had some petty fun by replying to email scammers, forging my own address to be that of other email scammers, telling them that "i" (the other scammer) was interested in getting scammed. I sometimes wonder if it ever resulted in scammers trying to scam each other. The only online store at the moment that has my billing information is Amazon. You could argue it is one too many, but nobody's perfect. As for other online stores, I do regularly change passwords because i keep forgetting them (not using the same password everywhere has that effect) and ask for a reset password email when forgotten.

We might just have to disagree on that one. Governments don't provide "legitimacy". Or would you classify Pieter Bothas apartheid regime as "legitimate", or the Chinese governments crackdown on Tiananmen Square? The Iraqi governments use of poison gas against Kurd villages? "Legitimacy" is just a buzz word, used by the spin doctors to justify actions. Same thing with "Democracy". Want to start a new crusade for land, resources or market shares, sell the idea that you are bombing the enemy into proper compliance with "Democratic" ideals. For better or for worse, the western world is a collection of plutocracies and the world is governed by "Realpolitik".

I can land a Boeing 737 in my old hometown in Microsoft Flight Simulator X. I wouldn't try that in real life

The one I remember best from my younger years, often being headline news: Baader-Meinhof Gang (aka Rote Arme Faktion) "The Red Army Faction existed from 1970 to 1998, committing numerous operations, especially in late 1977, which led to a national crisis that became known as "German Autumn". It was held responsible for thirty-four deaths, including many secondary targets, such as chauffeurs and bodyguards, and many injuries in its almost thirty years of activity. Although better-known, the RAF conducted fewer attacks than the Revolutionary Cells (German: Revolutionäre Zellen, RZ), which is held responsible for 296 bomb attacks, arson and other attacks between 1973 and 1995"

Spent the weekend building my new Ikea kitchen. Well, started on it. I don't have all the parts yet (I'm militantly opposed to financing), but got most of what I got put together. Still a lot of work to do and I noticed that I forgot to buy silicon for the making the area around the kitchen sink water tight. I'm also going to get a professional to hook up the stove to the wires in the wall. I can handle normal 220v stuff, but this was just too many cables that needed connecting, 5 or 6 or so for the 2x16/32 ampere stuff.

I don't usually consider myself "elitist" (old, cynic, jaded, conceited and spoiled perhaps), but I'm tired of games going out their way to cater to political correctness. Not talking about trying to appeal niche groups, just trying to bring out outrageous ideas that doesn't care about censorship or offending sensibilities. No, I haven't really tried the postal games, the "humour" isn't really my kind of humour. I think I'll go watch the old Arnold Schwartzenegger (sp?) Conan movies again. Misogynistic check, chainmail bikinies check, good guy team member gets killed check, gratuitous violence check, gratuious sex check. Oh, and Basil Poledouris soundtrack check. No, not really looking for a Conan crpg, just felt like trying to elaborate a point.

Nice gif, love the cat Is this where you need a neutral third party to point out that it looks like his discussion is going in circles now and not really progressing this thread anymore?

Meh, worst of the worst. Junk food glorious junk food. The downside to being abroad working on a project and no decent places to eat anywhere near the hotel or the office (and not enough time to scour the surrounding neighbourhood for decent places). Sort of strange considering being "abroad" when working on a project in Denmark (a multinational company with branches in a lot of European countries).

Good thing nobody can see my workplace. My Windows Desktop is a mess

It's not just the usb2 and sata2 ports that bothers me (I've added SATA3 and USB3 cards), but the memory limitation of 12Gb on my current motherboard that bothers me the most. Some day...

Still waiting... and waiting... to see if Intels skylake chipset is any good (and if it will hit the market this year). PC needs an upgrade, but I'm not going to bother with the 97 chipset. Edit: Just some tidbits for good measure about the chipset itself Link "we'll see a new '100-series' chipset, codenamed Sunrise Point. The Z170 will be the replacement for Z97, which itself was not a massive upgrade from Z87. It will feature more PCIe lanes (up to 20), SuperSpeed USB and motherboards will likely have 10 USB ports as standard. There will also be up to three SATA Express ports. " "The H170 chipset will - unsurprisingly - replace the H97 for mainstream PCs, while the H110 will be the 'value' offering, replacing the H81 and various other chipsets."

@Bruce: One mans inclusiveness is another mans catering for lowest common denominator. As somebody who enjoyed the "middle half" of ME3 and didn't even bother looking at reviews of DA:I, I probably fall in the latter category. It's like they got the point where you *feel* that their games are developed from analyzing their datamining, working of checklists with flavour of the year gimmicks and general mandatory subjects that has to be covered in order to cover the largest multifaceted demographic as possble (translation: maximizing revenue). It feels less inspired and more like games developed by committee. Nice visuals, but short on visions. [/grumpy old man]

I think the last Battlefield game I liked and played was Battlefield Vietnam Which reminds me, I need to reinstall Battlefield 1942 (and the Road to Rome expansion again). I suddenly feel like playing it

The modding scene and QA seems to be two ways that people sometimes get a foot in the door so to speak. Usually after having put in the long hours, lots of patience, lots of skill and lots of perseverance has been shown

Isn't it sort of in line with Biowares trend of Charname either belonging to or working for some "Chose One" group? Whether they be Jedi, Children of Bhaal, N7, Grey Wardens or whatever? Usually some kind of elite or extrajudicial group.

Getting close to solve one of the great mysteries of the universe? Why you can't tickle yourself "Since Blakemore’s ground-breaking studies, many others have tried to find ways to find ways to trick the brain into tickling itself. Controlling someone’s foot movements with magnetic brain stimulation, so that their hand tickled their foot against their will, seems to do the trick. But it is one of the few experiments to succeed – others have produced puzzling results." Forcing people to tickle themselves... talk about cruel and unusual punishment Also covers some possible implications for Artificial Intelligence research.

Not playing "now", but going to play Wasteland 2 tonight. Finally got around to get my old desktop PC working and finding the old firefox shortcuts, including the one to the ranger center and the rewards page. Picked one Steam and one Gog key

I never played the game through GWFL. I bought it, installed it, uninstalled it right away when it asked for GWFL credentials (so its just sitting there on my steam account atm).

Lets try finding a way to post that is less abusive towards other posters... I hate when having to find the big scissors for cutting out posts.

Hmm, I could have sworn I saw a note on Steam not long ago, that the GFWL had been patched out of that one (finally). I might actually reinstall it and give it a second shot [/OFF TOPIC]

Can't really help much there, never played the game before. Love your writing style though Somewhat unrelated, but wasn't there once upon a time an "aging" part to the haste spell? In general it should only be cast on long lived characters as they wouldn't feel the loss as keenly.