Gorth

My apple is redder than your Orange. Beat that! At least I managed to finish ME3 (crappy ending and boring grind towards the end included). Can't say the same thing about TW2 which got uninstalled before completing it (when yet anohter QTE popped up). I still got Skyrim to to do though, lets see how that one fares... Point being, while nominally all "crpgs", they are as different as 'Command & Conquer' is to 'War in the Pacific' (both being labelled "strategy games"). It depends on what you are looking for in a game. Some games may even have what you are looking for despite being different genres.

Old News

Isn't that exactly the problem? Some vigilante stalks a guy, pursues him despite police telling him to back off and then shoots a man when he has him cornered, claiming self defence. Police couldn't even be bothered to investigate as the killer claimed "self defence", effectively turning a stupid law into a free for all "license to kill", as long as you say the magic words "i felt threatened". Maybe it is good that it gets a bit of attention and especially the police conduct gets scrutinized a bit.

Yeah it is a very good game.. Battlestar Galactica the boardgame... Oh wait...you meant computer game? I've still got the old Avalon Hill game 'Flat Top' lying around in a closet. Haven't found anyone to play it with for the last 10-15 years which kind of suck. Great game if you can put a table aside for it permanently (or as many weeks as a campaign takes). Playing a bit of Gratuitous Space Battles. Wishful thinking, but if somebody ever were to crossbreed that game with Master of Orion 2, wet dreams would come true.

Latest data mining analysis shows close to 100% of gamers (allowing for statistical errors) picked that one. That's probably going to be the established Canon for the franchise. They could have saved the efforts and money spent on the other 15.

I don't know all the details or who did/said what, but I always thought it a stupid move to instigate the Golden Temple massacre when your bodyguard is a Sikh regiment.

The Prothean is probably the only really interesting party member this time around. Some missions are short, but the 'priority' ones (those that propels the main story forward) are actually quite sizeable and elaborate. Some of them even quite spectacular in size and scope with impressive backgrounds featuring combat, reapers demolishing things and so on. Didn't pay attention to nitty gritty stuff like texture sizes, so for me it didn't really matter I suppose (it wasn't noticable when playing). I don't know what time restrictions they were under, but it looks like what is there, had fairly decent production values (I already commented elsewhere on the quality of the background "ambience" and little details that adds to the atmosphere elsewhere). You even run into areas that are not corridor shaped, which makes for a nice change, especially with opponents that no longer only has two options (hide behind cover or bull rush you). The different behaviour of enemy types was a welcome addition. Unfortunately the game has some pacing issues (IMO), where it on one hand tries to create a sense of urgency and it is very top heavy with the combat (at the end, it feels like it's all you ever do in this game) on the other hand there is a lot of walking back and forth (and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth etc.) on the Citadel, being more or less the only non-combat location besides the Normandy. And, you can't even bring your party member along for a stroll, as everything there is scripted. At least they got rid of most of the stupid mini games and there is no more hacking, lockpicking and other dull time fillers. Bonus point to Bioware for that. If they could just have made cutscenes skippable, it might have helped replayability.

Sort of doing the same thing on a smaller scale, booking tickets to Denmark for August with a handful of days to spend in Hong Kong. Might visit Italy while I'm in Europe anyway, always wanted to see Sicily.

Thanks for the reminder >_ Remembering many a late night programming LISP for EMacs. List Processing my butt, it stands for Lots of Idiotic Single Parentheses. For a nice challenge (and if you love old HP calculators), try Forth. First commercial programming language I purchased for my C64 way back (came in a nice cartridge).

Maybe it's just my imagination, but the guys who write the "ambient" stuff seems to be doing a better than job than many of the character writers. It was the same thing in ME2. Things like the advertising, background chatter, store keepers, etc. are mostly excellent done, from the PTSD Asari, the refugee teen girl waiting for her parents, the human that is driving the Batarian refugee up the wall with his incessant chatter and one of my favourites, the human girl that sold her car to buy her Salarian friend new armour Apart from Vega and Javik (the Jamaican crustacean DLC), the party members felt like an afterthought. Not sure why they needed to give EDI a new body, as most of her interesting dialogue happens aboard the Normandy anyway. Facepalm moment... using flares to signal the shuttle that you are ready for pickup,

I've mentioned it before, but one of the sad things about the ending is it steals the attention from the games other problems, which are unlikely to generate any feedback (constructive or not criticism). Bad pacing, uninteresting characters, limited non-combat locations, too much walking to find pointless fed-ex quests, bugs (software bugs, not monsters), uninterruptable cutscenes, long and boring intro, Kai Leng (which for is to ME3 what Jar Jar Binks is to Star Wars). Plenty of things that could use a review and is unlikely to ever get it.

Lets just say I'm an absolute disaster in a kitchen and anything involving machinery and/or heat is considered a serious challenge. If frying it on the pan, it's going to require my full attention and micromanagement from start to finish, or it will end up in blaze, as charcoal or other unimaginable horrors. Thats versus opening a can and eating it, putting it in the microwave and waiting elsewhere 5 minutes for the 'Ding!' or even better, go out and order it at a restaurant (which also requires less cleaning up afterwards)

I think you're right. I'd recognise those Xvarts anywhere. Took me 5 years to realise BG2 had a tutorial

My South African colleagues swears Biltong is the best thing since the invention of beer, but I generally prefer my meat at least slightly cooked on the outside. I don't mind it being red and juicy to the point of going 'Mooh!' when I jab it with my fork, but uncooked? Not so sure.

Well, that throws the previous list a bit in disarray

Didn't really feel any attachment to most of the characters this time. Possibly exception being my "romance" option from ME2, but then she was the only one who ever cared about my Fish (and she didn't want to go back to the Normandy)

If there is justice in the world they will be 70 nerd virgins. "After his death, Osama bin Laden went to paradise. He was greeted by George Washington, who slapped him across the face and yelled angrily, "How dare you attack the nation I helped conceive!" Then Patrick Henry punched Osama in the nose and James Madison kicked him in the groin. Bin Laden was subjected to similar beatings from John Randolph, James Monroe, Thomas Jefferson and 66 other early Americans. As he writhed in pain on the ground, an angel appeared. Bin Laden groaned, "This is not what I was promised!" The angel replied, "I told you there would be 72 Virginians waiting for you! What did you think I said?" -- Very old joke from rec.humor.funny (from shortly after 9/11-2001)

Beer and sarcasm is fine. Beef is often too much work. Unless somebody else prepares the meal of course. Life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease. No matter what you do, in the end it will get you killed. MIght was well enjoy the ride, as you won't get refunds. I'm having a helluva time finding a store with any decent Cognac anywhere here. Thats more whinging than depression though

EA Lawyers? Hey, it said 'speculate'

This... Never cared much for the setting, but the first game had other things going for it. If they return to that, I might be able to muster a bit of interest.

Not likely to happen soon, unless they start doing fan funded console games... Now, how about a kickstarter publisher? Lets raise money to start publishing games

Heh, time for heads to roll

Danger 5 is like Vegemite.

I think it had some good parts and some very good parts, but it also had a lot of not so good bits, not just the ending. All the stomach acid about endings just make people overlook the other annoying bits, like long and boring intro, frustrating slow "dream sequences", mostly boring and annoying party members (James and EDI being possible exceptions, Javik if you've got him), tedious, boring "side quest" system (fly around and scan planets to find 'x' for somebody on the citadel) and while the citadel was nicely made, it was about the only non combat location you got to set foot on when off the Normandy. Only redeeming factor for the combat was the improved enemy AI, otherwise it's as boring as ever and there is a *lot* of it. That's just from the top of my head. The story? Some of it was good and some of the characters delivers outstanding performances, but the overall story has more plot holes than a sieve. You feel it was written by a committee rather than a visionary.

Evolution Edit: Seriously, the (my) trick is to take constant micro breaks. Get up, go for a short walk. Grab a cup of coffee. Meet a colleague and discuss something while standing. Never sit down for more than 30 minutes without getting up and move around a bit. Working 60 hour work weeks every now and then wouldn't be survivable otherwise.