Janmanden

This is good news, even though it's pretty old already, and it can't get any worse - and even if it did it wouldn't make any difference to me. The last Obsidian game I enjoyed whole heartedly was the Fallout: New Vegas Old World Blues expansion and that's almost ten years ago. All the games they have produced since has been a huge disappointment to me and especially PoE, which was the final act of complete alienation and total indifference, which is also why I didn't see this news before, because this board is as alien to me as the company and that makes me a little sad, because I long to belong somewhere, gamewise. Would be nice if Micrsoft would be able to round up all of the former Troika members and add them too and put them all together, InXile, Troika and Obsidian. It could be amaaaazing!!!

Lately I've been doing a bit of nostalgia gaming. Last week I played GOG's version of the Temple of Elemental Evil, which proved to be a lot better and a considerably more different experience than the game I played more than ten years ago. Lots of different beginnings, content and endings and a lot of extra areas and NPC's.. Unfortunately my headset was broken during that week so I can't say whether sounds was improved as well.. In the last few days I've been playing this really ancient game, the first of the Might & Magic series called Book One - Secret of the Inner Sanctum. I've been trying to play it a couple of times in the past two decades, but somehow I just never managed to stick around with it long enough for it to grow on me, but this time I managed to hack the memory of the stats rolls at character creation to create a team with a higher level of survival to deal with my lack of tolerance for tedious gaming.. Anyway, in regards to M&M1, I think that must be one of the most annoying games I've ever played, probably because I've been pampered and hand-held in so many ways in games with considerably more user friendly and informative designs.. It's not the lack of a minimap nor a compass which means I have to pay a lot of attention fo maps on my desktop to avoid being totally lost that bothers me, not the total lack of item identification, not the text-based nature of combat which doesn't even include names of spells which means that I have to use the manual all the time as a spell reference.. All those things are really nice to have, but even today developers often fail to do them right.. Nope, what really bothers me is that I have to get back to a town, find the Inn and sign-in, before the game kills me, to save my progress.. Happened so many times that I was piling up Exp point in a dungeon somewhere ready to get several levels at once, with a ton of gold to fund them too just to get whacked by a random encounter in the last minute with total loss of Exp, gold, gear.. Back to square one.. Games today that offer as little choice and visibility as this game is usually played in a super-hardcore ironman difficulty, which for some reason was the default setting in 1987.. It's a pretty funny and embarrassing thought. Gotten as far as Level 7 with a bit of self-moderation, but there is really too much grind already, perhaps I need to see what else this game has got to offer, before I grind it to death for fear that it will kill me before I get the point.. There is a roadblock and I am afraid it's me.

Feels like there is an option missing, the meh one seems a bit too indifferent, which is never the case for me.. I have a strong sense of both genders and the homosexual ones as well and I play them all, because it's a game and I want to experience everything that it has to offer. In games that doesn't offer any difference I go with the ones I think fits the class and my character the best, but I have tendency towards picking female characters, because for some inexplicable reason, perhaps being heterosexual does have some pull, I just happen to like girls..

In short: The problem, as I see it there is a problem and it is that pretty much all Romances are just like mini-games, like a puzzle or a maze of things you need to do right and often totally out of character somehow, because the game turns into more than just your choices, and once you've "beaten" them, it.. erm.. disappears and is replaced by a strange kind of moral compass, like a marriage or something, because it's somehow tied into the End game. If you break your "wovs" something else breaks in this game or the next or the third one.. Even though it adds to replay value I find it to be extremely annoying, but I really wouldn't want to be without it and the absence usually generates a feeling of an emptiness of sorts, there are just some senses that needs to be pulled in some ways to make a game feel complete, I wonder if I think that, hm, maybe, probably, who knows?! Because I didn't have the time to make it short: I also think Romance options are usually pretty nice until the point where a strange twist occurs, a writers block in motion or whatever and you are suddenly cornered by some strangely conservative, orthodox and archaic concept or feebleminded Christian virtue that severely hampers your progress and promiscuity.. Like that moment in Mass Effect where you suddenly find yourself up close and personal with an opportune moment for a nice threesome with you, smurfette and what's-her-name.. Which instead becomes an unwanted choice between one or the other, because for some odd reason you can never have both or more. Maybe that was just the way this particularly mix of characters were supposed to play out, but once it happens all the time it's something else entirely.. Seems to happen in every BioWare game with multiple Romance options - they are all incompatible. Even in SWTOR.. And then, once you have bagged another beaver the romance ends, all the hormonally charged dialogue options disappears and all you get is a stone face, at which point you realize it was just a mini-game, except it's still running somehow and will impact whatever End game you get.. And in the third installment you only get the big prize if you stayed abstinent in the second one.. Attention span, attention span, att.. That's just.. Erm.. Rude, somehow. There is a GRRR-HULK emoticon missing here. Romances are nice, I like developers that add them, but there is an escape button missing.. My wife really doesn't need any more ammo to shoot down my gaming habits..Would be nice with some cover-up support. Some quick-switch to a really conservative, sharp and focused business like excel sheet screenview.. Just like in the old times on Atari ST where some games had a the-boss-is-coming-key that switched the view instantly to something else, something clean, sober and work-related that doesn't flicker when you switch. Anyway, have a nice day.

So.. The free "Upgrade to Windows 10 now!" The "Offer expires on 29 July in 4 hours, 51 minutes and 8 seconds." I tried it out a year ago and wasn't pleased. Especially the lack of control with Windows Updates is a big turnoff point and some graphical changes too like windows and folders and everything is so bloody flat and have shadows at the same time. Has anything really changed? Is Window Updates still a pain? I wish I could search for these things myself, but I find Both Google, BIng and pretty much every search service to be bloody useless in regards to filters or maybe I forgot and they removed them as features. I guess I could always upgrade it online, but I've already done that once and the offer still stands as if I never took it.. Last time I decided to quit Windows 10 and go back to Windows 8 it turned out that it wasn't 31 days at all, but only 28.. In which case I had to reinstall Windows 8 Pro, upgrade to Windows 8.1.. Fix all my installations.. Dealing with all those perfectly working Express version, that had been disabled (and thus unable to re-register to unlock) in favor of something worse and blah-blah-blah-massive-pain-in-the-arse-dows.. Not too happy about trying that again. Forgot to mention. So, I've already taken the offer once, which didn't change anything in this regard, I mean, apparently it's not like a Microsoft Windows 10 OS Cloud Server where I can always install it from again, because I already reserved my copy and the offer still stands completely oblivious to this, and since it doesn't actually make a complete Windows 10 installation that I can always pick later and that it doesn't give me a Product Key I am really confused about my options. Hm.. I did actually download it separately, but I wonder if I can actually install it later, past this date and everything will be jolly miss molly or .. [insert the opposite].

Would be nice if there were some auto-responses in this thread like... { I logged in <event>, got into the <area>. Got to about the <level> before real life interrupted and I had to log out. Expecting to be able to resume it at that poitn... Logged back in a day or so later and found the whole thing resets so I have to go through each damn combat again. Got to about <level> again... and real life interrupts. I'm really not sure if I can be bothered to <insert action> just for a(n) <insert result>. } That would really save me a lot of time. That's one of the things that also keep me away. It's a nice game and all, but it doesn't handle interruptions very well. It also happened quite often during conversations, that I would be afk for a few minutes, then come back and continue, clicking responses and then suddenly get kicked for being afk, because the game fails to register mouse movements, which I guess, technically speaking, isn't proof of being back at the keyboard.. erm, because.. mouse. D'uh?! You can't just do a part of a flashpoint solo, leave or be kicked by a zealous server, and then come back later to pick up from where you left off to finish it. Those intro missions to Fall of Revan, I think I repeated those five times, before I was able to stick around long enough to move on and put them behind me, because something was always interrupting me.

My subscription was cancelled yesterday, because I had a new set of creditcards a month ago and the one attached to this was retired. I mostly play for the single-player experience and I think it has become more of a bad habit than.. erm.. Well, anyway, I just spent the last month trying out new ways of dealing with equipment. I had gotten used to use my army of crafters to fill out all 14 slots (and 7-9 of these with 3 mods and augments) every 4th level and it was a hell of switching characters, watching the game load/unload fifty billion times to research and pile ressources and work, work, work.. That month where I came back and realized that I could send those MK-2 boxes to my alts and equipping a new character with Rating 178, that was such a sweet relief to be absolutely carefree for 55 levels (still had to produce guns and shields, but still barely noticeable) and when BioWare/EA nerfed that I just couldn't be bothered by that old crafting scheme and started using the Gear from Armormechs and Synthweaving and it was another really nice and pleasant surprise that I could finally make complete sets of the same level and some of them were actually pretty cool looking (albeit too ugly on the Republic side except for a few sets from Synthweaving).. Not to mention that they were better than both Mods and MK-2 Awards until level fifty-something.. Strongholds have been there longer than I have noticed, because I.. don't know.. I didn't pay attention to the changes and noone was rubbing them in my face. Finally getting that Legacy Storage (and Cargo Bays and Modification station as well) was a really nice change and generally I had begun using the stronghold as a quick way of skipping straight from a planet to the ship or just phase in to switch, trade or store items and then back again. Really nice. I also went back to my first character ever on some European server I totally forgot about it. The game was suddenly challenging again because all the legacy bonuses and general combat preparedness doesn't follow the player from server to server. Of course your army of crafters is unique to the server, but I thought that the Legacy bonus was tied to my account.. Big surprise.. Having just crappy armor, no Army of crafters and no buffs or anything.. I spend the Lvl 60 token on Making a Empirial Sniper and got Armormech.. Didn't know that was a bonus.. But that token description is really off.. There is no way in hell that, any player with care and attention to detail, can complete the game without ending up with all his companions at rank 15 in general and at least one around rank 30, but with the Token they were all Rank 1.. Rank 1? Seriously?! Really????!! Not kidding??????!!! (and I could go on like this for at least two hours, getting bigger and greener every second until I would be .. Ugh, now I did it again.. and again.. Sorry.) But at least I got rank 500, or so, pre-made as part of the token bonus.. Token 60 Character.. It's nice in a way, but it feels more like a punishment somehow, because all your companions are rank 0 (1) and there are no conversation options to enjoy or improve that, you have no money and no ressources and no crafting receipts, the free gear isn't even on level and it cannot be sold - ever. And it doens't unlock whatever class you pick in the Legacy system except the Chapter 2 buff I think, which is just weird.. But all the story arcs are still open.. Basically you are just cut off from the only interesting part of the game for a quick level bonus. It doens't even work for a quick switch to the new .. erm .. *BLANK*.. *NULL*.. *DIV BY ZERO*.. Wow .. it's only been a week and I already forgot what the name of the latest addition is.. I guess it really is time to quit I had lots of fun with this game actually. Biggest, best and longest singleplayer game I've played in a very long time.. -- edit added extra crap just for that crappy feel that is really neither wanted nor desired - why the hell did i do it - arffff--

It's too bad that those old boxes are so big and clunky.. I thought about making a wall with covers of all my old vinyl electro-industrial and my games too. I never got the standard Vinyl plastic sheets to Work, never found plastic sheets for both that would work and when I sat there with a scissor ready to cut the game boxes I just couldn't do it. I wouldn't be surprised if plastic sheets that would fit exists today, but now I have other priorities. I've got all those boxes stashed away in bigger boxes, while the content has been split up in other boxes... CD's in one box and a few stragglers filling up a bit of space here and there.. Flags, maps, manuals, gadgets in other boxes.. And I've been carrying it around for more than twenty years.. Some times I would rent storage space somewhere, but somehow I always got a problem with the accessibility, bill and payment and had to drop the idea. If only I was still living at home with Mum like all you Guys..

Can't solo World Bosses?! That lord kinda stinks.. No Wonder, it's a JEDI ffs!! (they don't have Lords...not even on Dark V.. kinds sucks) It was going so well with Alliance missions.. Solo this, solo that.. and then suddenly forced into Multi-player and big Groups to do World Bosses to get some useless Trandosian (from the dreadful Consular Arc) to join you.. Leaves a big scar on my single-player experience x16 (legendary double living-legend) with an unfinished quest on my sheet. And then some other event that I am still puzzled about.. involving Lokin..

Phew. What a x-mas nightmare, but.. it's real?! Shiiiii... Okay, erm, so, well, uh yep.. The flooding can easily be explained by the total nerf and cripple of companions. They can no longer use Earbuds and Implants, and some of them can't even use headpieces or secondary weapons, and Khem Val only have two slots left.. One for customization and one for Melee.. 11 slots dropped.. Same goes for the ship-droid.. For a standard game with five stripped companions (and a bot), that's a lot of items to pop-up in inventory. Twelve characters with five companions plus droids.. Too much Work. I'm.. How..Wha..Why?????

Haven't played the game for a few months, forgot to cancel my subscription and then I decide to replay the game with an alternate classes.. Already completed all eight a long time ago.. And played 4 extra alternate versions.. Deciding what to pick.. Haven't played the Imperial Agent for ages.. But as soon as I decide to switch away from my new Adventure to get all my Crafters started up on creating items for my new character I am hit with overwhelmingly huge mess.. All my characters are flooded with items.. Cargo bays have gone missing.. Action panels have been reset.. Skills have been reset.. Companions have changed and they are all either half- or totally naked.. Several skills have disappeared and thousands of Purple and Blue crafting receipts I made myself from Reverse Engineering have disappeared.. Can't make Armoring.. Can't make Enhancement.. Can't make Barrels.. I had them all in both Blue and Purple.. Now I only have a handful of a few random items left.. And it's not like they were removed from the game, they were just stripped from me so I can go and buy them again. Where is the Justice in that? No Justice in gaming? No gaming rights? Really weird!! It's too messy to consider playing again. I feel violated, but apparently I have no rights. All that time, stolen. No compensation of any kind - just some silly new and useless items with the latest upgrade. Nothing, but a massive amount of Work, which got absolutely nothing to do with playing at all unless it was a SIMS game about playing house and collecting horse**** or whatever. Not even MERRY CHRISTMAS (that would probably be too snarky), but I wish it for everybody else!!

In my second and last play, a week ago, I completed the game, with a Monk, Solo on Path of the Damned with Expert and Trial of Iron enabled with less than ten rests and got only Seven Achievements instead of Eight. I didn't get Zero Knockouts, even though I obviously never had one! Please fix it. + Solo + Expert + Trial of Iron + Path of the Damned + Triple Crown + Triple Crown SOLO + No Rest for the Pro - Zero Knockouts?! (Complete the game without any party members hitting 0 Endurance.)

How about using a higher resolution? - And some green tea and a yoga strike..

I just upgraded yesterday and it's too much work already. I have already sent more than fifty suggestions about things to fix and so on. Lots of simple stuff, flaws, bugs and mistakes. I really get the feeling that it must be an early sketchy draft just off the table they sent me. I can't believe anyone actually spent more than five minutes crapping up graphics for a quick preview and botched the rest. This release is like an early alpha or beta-release of a small game from an indie developer, that just barely managed to fund the development on a Kickstarter that only had their moms and grannies donate.. What the hell happened?!

I just hope that Bethesda teams up with someone who actually knows how to make content, characters and dialogue beyond that horrible generic crap that Bethesda is known for, but I don't see any mention of that.. There are some snippets and comments ffrom the past, but.. Any light on that?

Online gaming is a total hit and miss all the time until you find some decent people to play with that you stay connnected with. It works best if you become part of a community and stay in touch, get personal and talk online to add more character than just letters. It's a lot of work, but it pays off. I've been part of the same gaming community for almost seven years and still keep in touch from time to time. It was much easier, when I was single.

That sounds really weird. At first, before I even read it I thought that they were probably going to make some of those Adventure games with Full Motion Video that Sierra did with Lost in Time and Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within and other Adventure games in the early and mid nineties, but they plan a 'Super-show' “A ‘Super Show” episode combines one part of interactive playable content with one part of scripted television style content. Both pieces, when combined together, are what make an actual Super Show ‘episode.’" That kind of sounds like Mass Effect 3, actually.

I decided to get a Smartphone, an InFocus M320u for my birtday two months ago and it was pretty cheap despite being packed with goodies like having Gorilla Class 3, 2 GB RAM and 8-core 1.7GHz and I always know the time in Beijing.. I spend the first day running all kinds of benchmarks and that was pretty impressive. On the second day I installed all kinds of apps. On the third day I reset the phone to the factory settings to get rid of all that junk and installed a bunch of Antivirus. I only have one or two of them left, but I think they have go soon, because they complain about all the factory apps being potentially unwanted.. It's got a pretty nice camera on both the front (8 MP) and the back (13 MP) and a really nice flashlight. It accepts two standard-size SIMS, which means I can always switch back to my durable, but piss-poor, Nokia. I've already upgraded it to 32 GB and I spent about 40 MB of that.. in only two months. I've already tried to break it a few times and failed. It's running Android 4.2, but there is an upgrade path for the Thaiwanese and Japanese models, unfortunately mine is the Chinese one, which also explains the clock.. Oh, I am quite happy.

How is that history in the sense that eveyrone else is talking about? And indeed, it's funny that many people still read Thucydides, Homer, Shakespeare, etc. or listen to music more than five years old, if the new is always indeed better... Erm... How is that not history? A recording of a first-hand impression that details his or hers experience with a game in detail? It's probably the best kind of history, because it's actually useful in the same context and for more than just making up your mind about whether you want to be part of that history. What sense is that? Everyone else, who? I see a whole who isn't talking about anything in the same sense. Everybody seem to contribute in their own way, which is perfectly fine. Should I quote the whole thread and point out how each and everyone is contributing with different threads on history and some who isn't? I don't think so, but you can name a sense, that you would like me to contribute to.

One-liners, I like it. Good work guys. No more of these walls of text about depressing bs that makes me want to kill myself..

I would say that if you get stuck in a puzzle then a walkthrough (definitely), guide (probably) or a hint system (maybe) is a useful part of that history. Wouldn't you?

I see. Thanks for your input. I will wait for the follow-up and see how it plays out.

Broken Age (Not *this* one, but the game). I saw a reference to this in a Steam discusssion, through a link in context with the Day of The Tentacle, which I am happy to see will receive some attention soon. The first ten user reviews don't recommend the game, because it's too easy and too short and they really don't understand where those $4M went.. That doesn't make it a bad game, but the game has this refined, cutesy cuddly look all around. It looks very stylish and childish and far far away in Galaxy that I would never give a **** about and the actors acredited to this game really means nothing to me, that could sell it all by itself, but my curiosity is piqued and I am short of a game that I want to play. I tried searching for it, but I find too many other things that are broken. Anyone want to share their experience and impressions?

With history; games (and pretty much everything else) age, gets old and wrinkly. Without history; there is a world to explore I generally avoid history as much as I can because I rate my personal experience higher than anything else. The only times i ever need history is when I am stuck in a puzzle and the mechanics of the game waste too much of my time finding that missing needle in a haystack or I wonder whether the game is just broken. "Game" could be replaced by anything really and I guess that's the way it works.

You could be a trolley-bus. They are big and nice and comfortable and they just breeze through the landscape without a sound. A bit slow, yes, but why rush a nice and peaceful experience? And they are quite healthy too, especially if they are green. Green is good. And you would not be alone in your diet and exercise. Sounds like the cure.