Gromnir

should make that your signature. am suspecting that vol no longer lives in kanada, but rather in the perpetual state o' point not found. *shrug* we get what we deserve for direct responding to vol. HA! Good Fun!

you mention schindler's list, but what 'bout transformers, and all the other formulaic blockbuster films? actually, the closest thing to a sure-fire win in the movie industry is family movies. why? bigger potential audience. games is expensive to develop and publish. movies is even more expensive than is games. sadly, schindler's list is an exception rather than the rule... and for understandable, if regrettable reasons. honestly, we wouldn't mind if games industry somehow became like movies. say what you will 'bout the movie industry, but by years end we typical can identify almost a couple dozen good movies (if documentaries is included). here is a couple "best of" lists for movies: http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/09/01/best-movies-of-2010/ http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/12/th...ms_of_2010.html http://www.newsweek.com/2010/12/21/the-bes...f-2010.all.html looking at the aforementioned lists, we got no difficulty finding a dozen keepers... and there is some stuff we liked that doesn't show up on such lists. how many good games does we play in a year? three. HA! Good Fun! ps am not looking forward to the day when the game industry settles on a formula: the ideal mixture o' story and gameplay elements to achieve Blockbuster status.

no, it wasn't. their first product weren't even a game... were medical software. their first entertainment software, a mech game... sucked. then they made bg 1 and had great success. their second non-crpg, mdk2, did not suck. mdk2 was an excellent adventure/shooter, but hardly anybody bought it. bio makes crpgs. that doesn't preclude the possibility o' bio making shooters, mech simulators and adventure games. even so, the biowarians apparently learned their lesson well and since the release o' mdk2 over a decade ago, they has described all of their games as crpgs. duh. one o' our recurring criticisms o' bio has been that they tries to make games that appeal to everybody, which is functionally impossible. anybody who peruses the bio boards for 10 minutes will understand the sisyphean challenge they face. bio simplifies character development choices in me2 and a bunch o' folks like, and a bunch o' folks hate. after bg1, a vast number o' people complained 'bout the pointless wandering involved with the bg1 maps, so bio largely removes such stuff in bg2 and a new group o' people show up complaining-- "How could you remove the bg1 exploration? That is what made the first game great." *snort* am not sure what kinda endemic obtuseness has seized the bio brain trust that makes 'em think that there is a perfect development alchemy whereby they can find the ideal combination o' features and elements that will result in near everybody being satisfied with their game. taste in games is no different than tastes in food. there is no perfect food that appeals to everybody... and even if there were, if people had to eat the perfect food all the time they would get tired of it real quick. try and make the perfect universal food based on feedback from customers would result in an utterly unpalatable mess... 'cause some folks like sweet and others prefer sour, while some is liking heavy while others likes light, etc. nobody would ever attempt to makes the perfect food, 'cause tastes is too varied. nevertheless, bio is trying for something similar with their games. HA! Good Fun!

This utterly baffles me. Having shooting being tied to a skill which you must use skill points to increase to make it better, is a bad thing? I have never understood this. [lots of stuff seemingly unrelated to crpgs] bio makes crpgs. is an admitted niche market, but nowhere is it written that crpgs has gotta use shooter mechanics. in fact, for a looooooooong time, what set crpgs apart from the shooters is that success or failure o' the crpg gamer's character were dependent on the character's skills and not the gamer's reflexes. you got G-level skill in handguns and you is getting slaughtered? perhaps you needed J-level skill... or better tactics. regardless, whether or not you got Mad Gamer Skillz were irrelevant... not need to punch x and y button simultaneous while holding right trigger and left bumper while strafing. crpgs typical boasted more choice in character development and gameplay aspects than other genres precisely 'cause there were no mad twitchy skills necessary... what made gameplay engaging were not players hitting the correct combo o' buttons fast enough and accurate enough, but rather the tactical and strategic aspects o' the game. oh, and so there is no misconception, we ain't suggesting that crpgs is for smarty and cerebral folks while shooters is button-mashing baboons. any snot-nosed pre-teen with a little patience can successful complete fallout w/o much difficulty, so don't assume that we is ascribing some kinda intellectual superiority to crpg gamers--we ain't. now perhaps bio wants to make shooters, or crpgs that has more shooter elements. perhaps doing so is more economic lucrative? dunno, there is already a multitude o' developers out there who is making very nice shooters. if bio wants to make shooters or they wants to make games that attract shooter fans, then niten is at least partial correct. the thing is, the computer game genres has developed separate precisely 'cause fans o' rpgs is not necessarily fans o' shooters. there is no absolute and obvious need to makes games that is more shooter-like. heck, the sims games still do very well, no? is not as if gameplay, by its very nature, must be as niten suggests. am happy that folks like greylord post. obsidian is a crpg developer and their boards is understandably gonna attract a more hard-core rpg fan element than would a board dedicated to madden football or a nascar game. rpg fans can gets a bit moribund in their thinking. popular local misconception: crpgs IS. some o' the locals (particularly the codexians) suffer from a kinda reactionary approach to crpgs. crpgs IS-- there is a crpg ideal, and only the chosen few gots a clear enough vision o' the ideal crpg to give it shape and life... and apparently only such chosen has the right to comment 'pon crpgs as well. *shrug* in our estimation, there is no perfect crpg ideal, and we recognize that the genre is constantly evolving. greylord likes some crpgs, but he likes 'em for reasons far different than does Gromnir. good. is good to hear and recognize that a crpg need not appeal only to the codexian groupthink, or the obsidian majority. that being said, if we wanted to play a shooter, we would be unlikely to play obsidian or bioware games. is already a legion o' shooter games and developers inundating the market. HA! Good Fun!

bio has embraced concept over character. actual character development is difficult to achieve in a crpg such as the ones released by bio and obsidian. there just isn't enough text/dialogue available to writers to develop an original character. consider how many dialogue encounters you gets with each character over the course o' a game. if you ain't romancing the jnpc, then you gots prohibitively little opportunity to build someone unique and compelling... so bio don't try. bio (as does obsidian) focuses instead on embracing a familiar concept, and then tweaking to make kewl. am not against the writers using a concept to initial develop a character, but we expect something... more. make alien. give wings. give telepathy. *snort* consider one o' bio's most popular jnpcs. hk-47? an assassin robot with a "meat bag" line? is nothing else. even gaider has conceded that hk-47 were a one-trick pony. nevertheless, hk-47 were the mostest popular kotor jnpc based on those ubiquitous Favorite Character polls. you not think bio takes notice o' such things? garrus is the good cop who has the seen The System fail and is teetering on the edge o' the abyss... etc. the shtick writes itself, no? given the limited resources available to the writers, we do not blame them for embracing concepts/archetypes/clich

*chuckle* the irony is sweeter than the candy. HA! Good Fun!

Those "girlie" nations are the smart ones, as they don't waste tax payers money on playing a bit ol' Imperialism. Soon the US and UK will be bancrupt, and nobody will shed a tear. Good riddance. ... was gonna to respond, but this bit o' wishful thinking mixed with equal parts amnesia and insanity is too silly to bother with... but we will note that in the unlikely event o' the twin collapses o' uk and us economies, we expect that there would be considerable tear shedding in austria and the other girlie nations. HA! Good Fun!

you is mostly correct. however, as is montes characterization o' uncle sam (sans the brits) that inspired our response, we is willing to follow his lead. you can't have it both ways. HA! Good Fun!

Hey now, dont look at us. This is France and the UK jumping up and down for war. Funny, when the US is jumping up and down for war everybody else is expected to ask Uncle Sam nicely "how high?" Situation reverses.... actually, we thinks monte mischaracterizes greatly. when the US goes to war, the rest o' the world seems to thinks it gots a right to tell uncle sam, "how high". is understandable why the rest o' the world would do so, but we sympathize with American military commanders who gets the fuzzy end o' the lollipop as American politicians, at the request o' foreign powers, force ridiculous constraints on the commanders in the field. is almost refreshing to sees montes "situation reverses" as nato bumbles and stumbles in libya while attempting to achieve military goals that seems opposed to political ones. even so, as there is no "good guys" in libya, we is content to watch this bit o' regional mayhem progress without an end in sight. bunch o' tribal factions with only one thing in common: they hate the US. let 'em beat each other into oblivion. let the other nato partners take some o' the heat for a change. as long as this stays a libyan conflict, let it burn so that whomever ends up in control will needs spend the next 20 years rebuilding infrastructure. and if the libyans start cursing the English Satan or French Devil with venom approaching what they reserve for the US, then we will shed few tears. sounds horrible? good. HA! Good Fun!

While I spent most of ME2 quietly rooting for him to be proven right, with Shep running through an elaborate self-delusion, egged on by credulous moonbat conspiracy theorists like TIM and Anderson. Sadly, they probably put too much supporting evidence to make this the case, outside of pulling a full-on Newhart or "Incident at Owl Creek Bridge" ending. bierce story were short, and from the start you gots increasing clues that reality don't mesh with what is going on in the story. not even the biowarians would attempt a "who shot jr" bit o' flimflammery with me3 'course you weren't serious, but is simple far too late to pull back from the precipice o' Total Galactic Warfare. needs make the best of it. ... am still not seeing a point for the second game insofar as plot advancement. HA! Good Fun! ps am recalling that the only twilight zone episode Not authored by the incomparable Rod Serling was, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". were a frenchie short film. pps apparently the entire short film is available online at numerous sites http://www.viddler.com/explore/nzgmediefag/videos/12/ we were disappointed with "Jacob's Ladder" as we were hoping for a modern reinterp that would do the material justice.

... for a moment there we thought monte were a texan. HA! Good Fun!

your original observation were as follows: "I still can't believe they haven't used Andy Hamilton as the dwarf (Tyrion?)" really? sometimes you argue just to argue. tyrion is the youngest lannister sibling... so maybe get judy dench to play cersei? and it would look damn silly for hamilton/tyrion to bemoan his dwarfism as he stared down at some o' the stark children. *snort* HA! Good Fun! I merely made an observation that I saw a very wry, devious, short man as Tyrion. Having him older wouldn't pose the least obstacle to a film adaptation. On the other hand YOU immediately launched into yet another of your poorly punctuated and bafflingly aggrandised half-orc broadsides. You can't be arsed to type capital letters, but you can be arsed to repeat your tired catchphrase repeatedly? Get off your damn high horse. *chuckle* you has really gone off the deep end. your initial observation were not that hamilton were wry and short, but rather that you were baffled ("can't believe") that hamilton were Not chosen for the part o' tyrion. by now it shoulds be quite obvious why hamilton would be excluded from the short-list o' candidates for the role o' tyrion, nevertheless you continue to rail and wail. hamilton is 56 years of age and he is NOT the dwarf you thought he was. end o' story? no? bah. oh, and am suspecting that our posts are 'bout as accurately punctuated as is yours. spelling and capitalization, on the other hand... HA! Good Fun! ps our left hand is functionally paralyzed, but thanks for asking.

your original observation were as follows: "I still can't believe they haven't used Andy Hamilton as the dwarf (Tyrion?)" really? sometimes you argue just to argue. tyrion is the youngest lannister sibling... so maybe get judy dench to play cersei? and it would look damn silly for hamilton/tyrion to bemoan his dwarfism as he stared down at some o' the stark children. *snort* HA! Good Fun!

am suspecting you answered your question without realizing. "30 years of comedy writing and performing behind him." duh. the guy is probable in his mid-50's? HA! Good Fun! ps we checked the bio for hamilton. he IS old and surprisingly tall at 5'3"... which makes him not a dwarf and taller than some o' the other non-dwarf members o' the cast.

martin is fat and old... which is pretty much the same as being ill 24/7. also, the geek grapevine has suggested that martin's efforts these last couple years has been focused on the tv series. am not certain if such rumors is based on anything other than wild speculation and dubious hearsay. HA! Good Fun!

am seeing the perfect opportunity for a game product tie-in... verizon commercial mayhap? HA! Good Fun!

zip. zero. nadda. do an internet search w/three words: gideon, bible, hotel. HA! Good Fun!

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/...n.burn.take.cnn we typical avoid video from cnn, but... HA! Good Fun!

religion to go extinct in 9 countries experts predict mathematicians is a funny bunch. our cousin got married last june. it were her second marriage in 5 years. given her rate o' increased matrimony, mathematicians predict that by the year 2025 she will have been married 12 times. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

... what do you teach? in any event, ask lof how well the soviet ideal of eliminating organized religion worked for them... am sure he can spin so is more interesting and wacky than the reality. HA! Good Fun!

If I call a man's wife ugly, even if she is, knowing it will make him angry, then there is some blame at my door. if the man with the ugly wife goes on a killing spree after your observation 'bout his mate, and the people he kills have NO relation to you in any way, then no, the blame cannot be reasonably attributed to you. am still not certain if is disingenuous or stoopidity we is facing. when this topic first came to light on these boards last september, we were amazed to see just how little respect many peoples outside o' the US has for the notion o' free speech, so perhaps this is an insurmountable cultural obstacle. even so, if a bunch o' afghanis got angry 'cause a dingbat in gainsville burned their holy book, then we wouldn't have an issue. is understandably human to get angry. burning books is bad. burning holy books is clear meant to be inflammatory. but angry is far different than homicidal even in england. let us reverse the scenario. hypothetical: an islamic cleric holds a trial o' christianity, after which he burns a copy o' the bible (he picked up a Gideon Bible when he stayed at the Holiday Inn in Kabul). a week later a group o' protesters in gainsville, florida responds by hosting a rally outside the Florida Tibetan Buddhist Center. things get out of hand quickly as the protesters begin shouting "Death to the Taliban!" and "Burn the Ayatollah!" 14 people are killed when the rabid protesters whip themselves into a frenzy and attack the "compound." among the dead are the leader o' the Buddhist Center, llama david bole from santa fe, as well as six employees (4 cubans, 1 puerto rican and 1 mongolian). heck, if walsh publicly set copies o' the Declaration of Independence ablaze and some crazed American "patriot" responded with misguided homicides, we would not blame walsh for the resulting deaths. we would blame the "patriot" and no other. ... as much as we thinks that the actions o' the pastor o' the 60-member dove world outreach center church were insulting and rude, we will not hold him responsible for what occurred in afghanistan. HA! Good Fun! edited ps almost as disheartening as the insanely unnecessary deaths o' the victims in afghanistan is the recognition that thanks to the abject stoopidity and irrational violence o' the murderous mob that attacked the UN compound in Mazar-e-Sharif, the dingbat pastor with his congregation o' 60 has been, to some small degree, legitimized. he were nothing... a nobody.

if every hate filled dingbat in tallahassee burned every available Koran in the state of florida (5 or 6?) that wouldn't justify violence on behalf of... anyone. if you is in anyway exculpating or excusing the recent afghani violence, then the stoopidity you referenced should encompass one additional englishman. no doubt you will deny having done so, but you has clearly drawn a parallel between the stoopidity o' a "dingbat" in florida engaged in a ridiculous but legal and immediately harmless activity, and the acts committed against UN personnel described in your linked article. even if the UN personages (gurkhas, a swede and a romanian) were members of terry jones' congregation (unlikely), such violence would not have been justified. nevertheless, to speak of jones' stoopidity in the same breath as those who were involved in the recent violence at Mazar-e-Sharif is either disingenuous, or stoopid. btw, am thinking that murder and beheading is justifiably labeled as barbaric, no? terry jones actions on the other hand, were laughable... right up until some folks in Mazar-e-Sharif decided to kill UN personnel. side note: am not blaming the Mazar-e-Sharif violence on Islam. HA! Good Fun!

we don't follow the awards news at all. couldn't tell you who won any game industry awards... for any year. some group o' "experts" telling us which games we shoulda' liked? HA!. however, the info we shared were posted on this board relative recent, so we remembered. that being said, if we were interested in such things, and were inclined to draw conclusions 'bout games based 'pon such awards... *shrug* in any event, we has been offered copies o' da2 from two peoples who quit the game. even so, as is our custom, we is gonna wait 'til a patch is released before we plays the game. so, am suspecting we will be waiting for another month before we get to play da2 as bio tends to release patches, meaningful patches, a considerable time post release date. in bio's defense, it seems that since the multi-platform era took hold o' the industry, most patches takes a long time to reach gamers... and the inevitable 1.01 stuff that is fixes o' pre-release issues not count in our estimation. HA! Good Fun!

Well, given that Fallout: New Vegas (Charting the rise to power of the Courier) beat Mass Effect 2 (Save the galaxy) to the WGA nominations for story and was nominated alongside it in the BAFTA awards, it would be somewhat awkward to explain if a reversal of focus [Dungeon siege 3 (Save the kingdom of Ehb) vs. Dragon Age 2 (Charting the rise to power of Hawke)] yielded the same results. ... am gonna be magnanimous and assume ignorance rather than codexian obfuscation. http://www.industrygamers.com/news/rocksta...rd-nominations/ HA! Good Fun! ps we will happily slam bioware, but only when they deserve the attention.

robert e. howard? kidding, right? thigh highs stockings and stiletto heels? also, while we does vague recall that sonya carried a pair o' flintlock pistols, we don't 'member no magic use. our memory is indeed fuzzy regarding the single howard sonya story, but am picturing sonya using her saber rather than her pistols in the limited action sequence(s) from the story. am suspecting that a link to howard would needs be VERY tenuous at best... got far more o' a over-the-top anime feel. howard admittedly gives insta geek cred that the obsinaties would like to embrace, but we see very little rationale for blaming howard for the dungeon siege 3 gun tart. HA! Good Fun!