Gromnir

*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!

Hear, hear. One minute we're selling them weapons and buying their oil, handshakes and publicity photos of big manly hugs, the next we're bombing them, it's the duplicity and veneer of righteousness that rubs me the wrong way. It occurs to me that a handshake from these men is equivalent to a mafia kiss of death. ... does the english sell libya arms? am asking 'cause as of 2009, the United States refused to sell libya such stuff. were kinda a big deal when the U.S. considered engaging in "non-lethal" military hardware contracts with libya in 2009 following the payment o' reparations for past transgressions. some 'o the "non-lethal" jargon were kinda silly as it included such hardware as the c-130 (a transport/arlift platform that makes for an exceedingly effective gunship) but am recalling that the actual contract that were being discussed were for humvees. *shrug* haven't paid much attention over the last couple o' years, but it were our understanding that libya bought virtual all their military weapons from asian and european sources... and we thought that the english were not one such supplier... but we coulds be wrong. even so, am thinking that a photo wherein world leaders does not spit in the eye o' gadhafi is hardly showing hypocrisy. is tough to have meaningful peace deliberations After you has used your bodily fluids to insult the guy on the other side o' the table. HA! Good Fun!

they look like cuttlefish. is not lobsters but cuttlefish. for the jeopardy fans, cuttlefish is the biggest brained invertebrates. as an aside, am recollecting that the etymology o' "cuttlefish" is kinda amusing... and somehow appropriate for a bio uber monster. HA! Good Fun!

based 'pon harbinger comments and the existence o' the human-reaper hybrid at the end o' me2, it would appear that the reaper goal is to make humans the new template for their planned species evolution... not new collectors. is a better story angle too. no human is gonna advocate servitude to the reapers as a race o' mindless drones, but am seeing that some human individuals and organizations (cereberus) may not be so opposed to galactic human-reaper supremacy as an alternative to seeming inevitable extinction. more opportunities for conflict. HA! Good Fun!

okie dokie. have been kinda avoiding this thread since the game release, nevertheless we did manage to play the game for 'bout 45 minutes and we got some feedback from a hardcore crpg fan o' ours who purchased the signature edition and got day 1. impressions: 1) a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a will not = win... 'least not on hard or nightmare. we felt challenged by the combat, even if we thought the camera were pure suck. Gromnir has been comparing da2 to me, but is probable more fair to compare to je. the super-leaping combat moves is reminding us o' je more than other bio games. nevertheless, there is a significant tactical component to da2 combats. 2) nightmare = stoopid. is not challenging so much as ridiculous. there is seeming unavoidable stun effects and enemies that can instakill virtual everything save for sword and board tanks... and 2h warriors under the effect o' stonesomethingorother. 3) is still some terrible dialogues, but is not as bad as it were seeming in the demo. 'course we only got 45-minutes, so is not as if we got much o' a feel for story. our friend stopped at the end o' act 1 (with no intent o' continuing) and he were strangely ambivalent 'bout the story elements. he hated the emo elf warrior jnpc, but he thought varric were fun. as for the plot itself, end o' chapter 1 didn't seems to convince our acquaintance that da2 were progressing well or bad. 4) some o' the abilities don't seem to have much value save that they is a necessary requirement for some other ability. no improvement from da:o in that regard. 5) during the short time we played, we experienced a couple bugs related to access o' menus. 6) have seen compared to bg2, but is actual more similar to bg1... once you reach bg city. back 'n forth doing relative simple quests with loads o' combat. is no bg2 unseeing eye or thieves guild questage in kirkwall, but there is loads o' little quests occurring in identical seeming buildings and locations. 7) ... POSSIBLE SPOILER x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x our friend quit at the end o' chapter 1... and he were fuming mad 'bout it too. he were moderate enjoying the game and were irritated that he felt the need to abandon da2. we asked what were the cause o' his consternation, so he showed us. the Boss battle at then end o' chapter 1 were... odd. is tough for Gromnir to describe as we not have much game experience beyond crpgs and strategy games, but the boss battle reminded us o' console fighting games we played in the early 90's... and arcade games played in the 80's. to win the battle it seemed as if you not only needed the right party composition, but more than tactical consideration, you had to be very good at timing the movement o' your party so that you coulds escape the boss Mega Attacks that were telegraphed. were big columns in the boss battle room that served no purpose save to give the player something to use as cover. our friend noted that he played the battle on hard more than a dozen times before he beat the boss... figured out the correct patterns and positions to be utilizing. felt cheated. he quit. end spoiler X X X X dunno. the game were buggy and performance lagged in specific locations in spite o' more than recommended system requirements. still, other than the boss battle, the game looked enjoyable enough, if not particularly deep or compelling. side note... during the short time we played, anders hit on the male protagonist and we got 15 rivalry points for choosing the mild rebuff option for his advances. apparently anders is written by a 13 year-old girl. HA! Good Fun!

if that is the case, then why did the biowarians allow such an approach in the demo? if vol is being truthful, then the demo demands is perplexing to say the least. is perhaps easier to assume that vol is full o' crap, 'cause is so often the case that vol is talking nonsense. even so, we were surprised by the lack o' challenge o' the demo... particularly the console demo. made us wonder if the demo were a genuine representation o' da2 gameplay. 'course we still cannot understand why the biowarians would tune the demo to be less challenging than the actual game combat. so until we gets feedback from a source a bit more reliable than vol... HA! Good Fun!