Gorth

Still playing Storm of Zehir. Busy building a merchant empire on the Sword Coast. I wonder if I'm just easily amused or something, but I really like the game so far. Lots of litle things to do, small "dungeons" to discover and the odd more elaborate location (I found Umberlee's temple quite stunning). Haven't had a chance to try out all the cohorts yet. Wonder if the Septimus (sp?) the Doomguide shows up later again.

The latest EUIII expansion introduced "Dynasties". You better ensure your succession or your country might go down the drain due to instability and succession wars. Grab a serving wench if necessary, illegitimate heirs are better than no heirs

Botox as a hair product?

This is where I stopped reading. Yeah, he obviously never played Mike Singletons "Lords of Midnight" We'll have to disagree on this one. I found DA's setting and factions to be its weakest link. At least ME2 had The Force, Jedi... oh wait Seriously though, Ferelden, Wardens, The chantry, Dark Spawn etc. was as uninspired as could possibly be. Only slight redemption came from a few interesting, atypical NPC's like Sten, Dog and Zevran. If developers want to base it on real world cultures, why not pick something more "distinct", like Celts, Picts, Sumerian or whatever. Edit: By comparison, a game like ME2 used humor to great effect. Salarians enable you to overlook possible shortcomings because you are too busy giggling while playing.

Quite possibly. I'll confess to not being up to date at all on the issue

I would be surprised if they didn't try to pass on some of that liability to the company that built the "Safety Valve" (sorry, don't remember the exact technical term for the gadget).

Moved to technical stuff. I wonder if it is related to this?

Had an interesting flight to Sydney today. Now, getting stuck in a holding pattern because bad weather is causing a queue to build up is not unusual and not particularly entertaining, things sure got fun when landing. Shortly before setting down on the runway, the pilot suddenly hit the "full throttle" button, pulled the nose upwards and banked to the right... Looking out my window as we ascended again I saw the *other* plane on the runway. Way to start a week It looked like another Quantas plane. I would love to hear the lunch room conversation between the pilots involved

I started out with her too as a cohort, not knowing she was a ranger at the time. It was after dropping her, that I wanted to hire the other guy. Not being able to find the missing crew (or rather, the missing key) however, I'm not sure if it is possible to progress the game any further I wonder if I can cheat code in a key... I gave up and started a new game, importing my characters from the above game. Not sure what happened to my first game, but now I can what was supposed to happen. Not only did the little reptile go awal, so did Na'Sani and Volo who were supposed to be in that corral at the bazar, giving me new tasks. Yeah, they had disappeared too. This time, I got a few tasks from Volo too. Ah well, hopefully, I can "clear out" the map reasonably fast since I get to keep my xp and my equipment. That is, I dissed my lead character and created a new ranger/wizard/arcane archer, but otherwise intact party.

I started out with her too as a cohort, not knowing she was a ranger at the time. It was after dropping her, that I wanted to hire the other guy. Not being able to find the missing crew (or rather, the missing key) however, I'm not sure if it is possible to progress the game any further I wonder if I can cheat code in a key...

Next up, a top 10 list why lists are silly...

Still playing Storm of Zehir. The game is growing on me. I seem to be stuck now though and I wonder if it is a bug or me doing it all wrong Trying to find the missng crew, I figured the the door locked by goblin runes at the shipwreck is involved and there has to be a key somewhere not too far away (I cheated and looked at an annotated map on the net) and there is indeed a "tribe" on the map, just to the southeast of the wreck. Trouble is just, it's too well hidden for me Do I need to do something else first or is my spot and search skills of 12 just too little? I wanted to hire the services of Umoja at the bazar, but he keeps referring to an imaginary friend. I seem to remember from a "dry run" through the start of the game a long time ago, that yes, in the past there actually was a big lizard standing next to him. I wonder where it went... Edit: Otherwise, I think I've done just about everything there is to do on the map, except getting through the "Viper Temple".

I wonder if there was a giant centipede and some evil galaxians on the list? Sorry, haven't checked the list. Can't really be bothered either as past experience shows such lists to be inherently silly

Maybe a tech-priest can perform an exorcism? Oblarg, do you have incense and machine oil?

Warhammer Dwarven Elder Goddess of protection, anathema to all things magic, which is abhorred in its raw form by all right thinking dwarves. That is why they have rune priests, who channel magic safely through their work (the runes they inscribe on their tools)

Heh, welcome to the club (see my Gfx card rip thread) In my case, it was the gfx card that started dying after a year and a half. Any chance you could get your hand on a spare gfx card, even if it's just a $40 one? Borrow one from a mate for a few days? Do you have overheating problems? Static electric carpets?

A Dwarf with magical powers?!? Valaya will have his liver for breakfast

I was kidding about the Gorthoba part...

Nobility have fairly long names in Spanish, don't they? Alonzo Francisco Juan de Navarra y Gorthoba etc. Edit: Might give it a more "exotic" flavour if you introduce regional Iberian languages. Looked up a few Basque phrases: Xanti Basajaun, Matxin Josepe etc. Could be passed of as "Old Estalian" I suppose. Maybe look up a few Visigoth words too?

Could be about Turkey and the Balkans. It was the year Austria annexed Bosnia and Hercegovina and the Young Turks rose to power in Turkey offering to ally Turkey with Britain, but Churchill turned them down (anyone spot the irony in that?)

http://members.cox.net/sandiept/name-generator.html or http://www.atlantagamer.org/iGM/RandomNames/index.php? Does male and female in a number of languages (including Spanish) Edit: Plan B - Get Numberguy to send you a phone book

Hey, somebody has to put the Fi in Sci-Fi I imagined ME2 more as Comic Book material than movie material though. In some ways ME2 was like Kotor2, it was the journey that was interesting, not the destination.

Not sure if Avernum VI qualifies, but I've been drooling over it for a while at gamersgate. Anybody played it?

Just a friendly reminder to the early birds to use spoiler tags for spoilerish stuff...

I still have my old Anti Maastricht Treaty campaign t-shirt. It might become a valuable collectors item some day