Gorth

Your UK English is getting bloody good!

It would be a bit of a stretch blaming DRM for killing the PC market, especially since it is a reaction, not an action. By your logic, rampant piracy killed PC gaming. Since we are all coming up with our personal theories (I haven't watched the videos since the company firewall blocks things like youtube and facebook), my favourite one is that the market has changed and casual games for people with little time and short attention spans shall inherit the earth. Heck, even yesterday I noticed that Space Empires V (a turnbased 4x game) is coming as a browsergame for facebook. The gaming industry like so many others will seek towards the path of least resistance, as in the most return for the least investment. That means find a large market for small games.

I managed to kill one of them (Blazer) through a combination of opportunism and dumb luck I managed to overhear a conversation between several alliance battlefleets that they were going to take on the enemy in a sector, so I tagged along intending to do a bit of scavenging and killing off some of the smaller enemies. Having filled the hold with fat loot, I noticed that Blazer was severely wounded (less than 1500 hull points) after finishing off the bulk of the battlefleets and new Dominator ships were entering the battle. Going 'Banzai!' I just charged it and kept sticking with it, exchanging shots at close range and killed it It is just hilarious how things play out sometimes in this game because of all the AI autonomous players. I've had missions succeed and fail without me doing anything. Like trying to please the Peleng by blasting a garbage transport to smithereens. I succeeded without ever seeing the ship, as a pirate took it upon himself to destroy the ship (it probably refused to "donate" its cargo to the pirate) Edit: So far, I've found that resilience is worth more than offense, so high Armour Cladding on hulls together with good repair bots makes you almost immune to anything but facing entire flotillas on your own (&^%$# raiders and pirates sometimes gang up on me).

Make Love not War Orcs are just misunderstood emos. I haven't got the slightest clue what the Fable games are about, maybe I should check out some FAQ's some day.

THIS! Nothing screams wonky console->pc port more than awkward, unconfigurable controls, whether it be mouse or key assignment. Ok, maybe microscopically small, linear hallway levels and graphics that doesn't scale well, but hey? Having just played a few very old games (and some not so old, but with "old school" gfx) like Space Ranger 2, I subscribe to the ideology that the latest shaders and flashy lighting is secondary to good game mechanics AND controls. The latter can within reason make up for less eye candy, not the other way around. Painting a Trabant a glossy red colour doesn't make it a Ferrari.

Saw the trailed for 'Sucker Punch'. Looks at least superficially interesting. Besides that, watched Godzilla. Corny, over the top and hilarious bad ruining of suspension of disbelief in many places, but Jean Reno is always fun watching.

Still playing Space Rangers 2 I can't remember the last time I ran into a game that was such a time sink. It has given me too little sleep the last two weeks... and I haven't even tried the planetary rts combat yet The text adventures are a mixed bag, but generally fun. I've been captured (by a fleet of Peleng battleships, I was heavily outnumbered) and imprisoned for my crimes then survived months in jail, balancing my popularity with the inmates vs. the wardens, I've visited and solved the mystery of the haunted house of horrors, solved the murder case on the remote science station and so on. I still couldn't solve the Maloq shuffle puzzle and it was such good money Still, I've got a very big ship and a lot of very big guns. Even going toe to toe with several Dominators barely scratches my paint now and 97% of the galaxy has been liberated.

It's even more fun when you've heard a few audio interviews... you can almost hear him talk fast, even in writing

So what? The messages got streamlined, it's the sign of our times. Too many words confuses people

Confused thread is confusing...

Sitting there, quietly minding my own business on a late Saturday evening (after midnight actually), reading a few documents, casually browsing the forum every now and then when suddenly this vivid bright light shines through the window blinds... While my eyes are preoccupied watching psychedlic colours, my brain started working on the puzzle of what happened. Logically, it shouldn't have happened, because the covers on window completely blocks light, even sun light. UFO's didn't really enter the equation, nor is the neighbourhood an obvious terrorist goel. There are no nuclear powerplants either. Eventually, my addled and slightly sleep deprived brain arrived at the conclusion that it had to be a weather phenomena. True enough, while trying to figure out the WTF for the last 1/100th of a second, the shockwave arrived on schedule and shook the building, rattled the glass and sent several concussion waves echoing back and forth, bringing back nostalgic memories of the earthquekes I experienced in Wellington. Except, they weren't so noisy Ah well, the fans on my computer radiator eventually stopped rattling (they don't like being moved around), the vibrations ceased and eventually the ringing in my ears even stopped. Enough anyway to listen to the sudden downpour. I guess if you are a garden plant, you appreciate the rain. Reminded me a bit of a Black Sabbath concert I once saw live.

Moved to the gaming section...

Dig a hole in the ground, fill it with stakes and dangle a virgin in front of it? Well, you said the beast was sacred slaanesh Couldn't they trick the cultists into dealing with it for them? Nutcases going to retrieve the "holy cow" of their religion. It would be a mighty accomplishment for a cultist leader hoping to advance the ladder (completely unauthorised by the demagogue of course).

I took the liberty of merging the two threads, as they were pretty much about the same topic

Was it actually Blizzard's fault? Yeah, the identity theft might not necessarily be "recent". About a month or two ago, I had to recover $5000+ from credit card abuse. Since it was a card I rarely use (actually, I've only used it once during a 6 month period) I had an idea where it got copied (a hotel reception, a month before the hijackers used it).

What is the nature of the beast (so to speak)? Bipedal? Quadrupedal? For some reason, I keep thinking a warped and twisted, oversized bull. Is it immune to people waving a red cloth in front of it? This is Estalia after all

Not sure if I understand all the intercompany relationships correctly, but the rig was owned by Trans-Ocean, using at least in part equipment made by Haliburton (sp?) and leased and operated by BP. If you start fiddling with the checks and balances, you can create more "throughput" and make the site appear more valueable when you determine what the operator has to pay for leasing it. Edit: One "conspiracy" scenario would be something along the lines of substandard equipment, an operator that ignores the smaller warning signs trusting in the big whistle to alert them to serious danger, except that it has been disabled by the owner because "it already had a lot of small alarm bells" and the combined greed of everybody involved leads to disaster.

Considering the currently outrageous pricing of blu-ray media I wonder if they aren't painting themselves into a corner, where ssd's might be cheaper and more reliable, or even better, a return of the good old "game cartridge"? Edit: Sort of happy that I didn't go on a spending spree on blu-ray titles. Still too few region free titles / multi region players around.

Huzzah. Hope it's not just you. I know the Ultramarines get fluff love, but now they're at Primarch level ? I was about to say 'The Emperor Provides', but it is an action game There is so much fluff to love, yet they chose the poster guys (again). Is the entire gaming world filled with munchkins with inferiority issues?!? Hey Relic, how about a nice roleplaying game some day? We have 5 games (expansions included) with the Blood Ravens and only 2 with Ultras tho. 3 with Fire Warrior. The last fun WH40k game I played was Chaos Gate (yes, with the Ultrasmurfs in an x-com lite clone). Unfortunately I lost the box when moving from one place to another way back

Huzzah. Hope it's not just you. I know the Ultramarines get fluff love, but now they're at Primarch level ? I was about to say 'The Emperor Provides', but it is an action game There is so much fluff to love, yet they chose the poster guys (again). Is the entire gaming world filled with munchkins with inferiority issues?!? Hey Relic, how about a nice roleplaying game some day? There is that Fire Warrior game. Yeah, I rememeber that one. I even tried it. Thats why I gave WH40K computer games a wide berth ever since.

Huzzah. Hope it's not just you. I know the Ultramarines get fluff love, but now they're at Primarch level ? I was about to say 'The Emperor Provides', but it is an action game There is so much fluff to love, yet they chose the poster guys (again). Is the entire gaming world filled with munchkins with inferiority issues?!? Hey Relic, how about a nice roleplaying game some day?

It should save every time you land on a new planet or station. Unless you disabled that option. Muahaha... it had a "Turnwise Save" option (which defaults to 'Never') I just needed to use the scrollbar on the option screen to get down there and see it. Thanks

Maybe not exactly adventure/quest material, but stuff that makes for nice tavern gossip in a harbour town, rumours of ghost ships (with zombie crew and all), a plague ship sailing into the harbour, having to avoid press gangs recruiting "volunteers" for the next expedition to Lustria (unlike the 17 previous lost expeditions, the investors are convinced this one is destined to return a fortune), mutineers, the threat of Barbarossas fleet, save the prostitute, the beer has been sabotaged/gone bad, whatever

No matter what I originally plan to do in BG2, I always wind up with Minsc, Jaheira, Viconia, Nalia and Imoen. Unless I'm cheesing out with a sorcerer. Guess Vicky just limits options too much, and can't play without her. *longing sigh* I think I've completed BG2 with most characters except 2 (Cernd and Jan). Both because their "personalities" get on my nerves. BG2TOB is a different matter, I think I've only ever completed it twice. It suffers from the same problem as MotB, highlevel cheese just isn't fun. Fun usually stops somewhere around level 15 (give or take a few levels). Still playing Space Ranger 2. Getting sort of decent at it. Still dies regularly and wonder why I keep forgetting that there is no autosave

Well warpstone is in itself highly explosive. Think RDX plus other explosives. Generally speaking, Skaven constructs and guns are powered by warpstone, but it is prohibitively expensive in slaves and favours, so black powder may be an acceptable alternative for Clan Eshin operatives doing field work (i.e. work with what you've got). Of course, it could trigger tunnel fighting scenarios that would make M.C. weep tears of joy. They are also known to bribe humans as a means to an end, usually playing political factions against each other. I don't know much about Estalia, since it isn't covered in either the wargame or the usual fluff (paperback novels), but if it is anything like The Empire, there will be layers inside layers of plots, pitting the interest of The Underempire versus various Chaos cults, vying for power and the means to bring down the human establishment.