Azarkon
-
Posts
486 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Posts posted by Azarkon
-
-
Such a dearth of PC games compared to consoles. I hope PS3 fails
-
If wars can be justified solely by the good deeds done by those who fight them... Then all wars are good.
But of course, you must also look at the other side - for every new school opened, how many innocent children were killed? For every Red Cross truck delivering aid and support, how many Abram tanks were there knocking them down?
I support good men and alwalys will. But the doctrine of "support the soldiers - and therefore the war!" is bull**** and always will be.
-
Well, I'm not one to expect PC RPGs to be bugless on release. I just hope that NWN 2 does get the support that it'll need to thrive as the successor to NWN 1. Understandably, that's outside of Obsidian's control as a company, but fans probably won't make the distinction. To this end, all the calls for a guarantee from Feargus, etc., albeit comical, are understandable - people really want this game to succeed in the long-term as NWN 1 did. With such a passionate fanbase, failure can be deadly.
-
Well, let's put it this way: if Bush doesn't respond "sternly," then Iran gets a free green light on its nuclear program, Japan & S. Korea follows, and the NPT goes all to hell. Course, that might be a good thing, considering that double standards have cost the US more than dearly in terms of world prestige.
Thought experiment: if nuclear weapons are indeed the deterrent people claimed that they were, then say that we arm Japan, S. Korea, and India with nukes to counter N. Korea, Pakistan, and Iran - it'd lead to world peace, right, cause no country would dare set off nukes in fear of retaliation so everyone would just play nice? And to think: we'd all have Kim to thank for bringing humanity into a new golden age - maybe he really is the Great Leader
-
Just because NK has the Bomb doesn't mean it has the means to deliver it. However, this is a bold diplomatic move - I assume that Kim will now walk around as if he carried a big stick. But by pissing off China in the process, I'm not sure if the regime will hold - I mean, the worst they could do now is nuke SK/Japan/China, assuming those countries start imposing sanctions, and I'm suitably confident that a four country alliance will defeat them before that happens.
What is most worrying is the US response. I do believe Bush said that the US will not live with a nuclear NK, and in the context of trying to prevent Iran from going nuclear, the US is obligated to deliver a can of whoop ass on Kim's regime, or risk looking like a toothless lion without the means to back up its proclamations.
-
But the Creator races are out to get yoooooouuuuuuuuu...
-
Melissan would've been better if she had been a recurring character, maybe a NPC you've grown to trust, but the problem with the BG series was that you didn't have to get any NPC in your party, which makes it difficult to have traitors (ie the issues with Yoshimo).
Or if she was a Zulkir. Oh yes.
-
They died too fast
-
Yeah Edwin was a Red Wizard. One of my favorite characters, too. Would've loved to have the Zulkirs involved - they've got all the necessary qualities: evil, intelligence, ambition, a tad of insantiy, and political shrewdness. Even if it's only as sub-bosses... Please?
-
I'd like to see the Zulkirs of Thay as villains in some future CRPG. How come we never face off against any of the nefarious wizards in FR, anyhow? The closest we've got is, well, Halaster in HoTU and he wasn't really a villain there as much as he was a plot device.
Something to do with not wanting to tamper with canon?
-
China isn't stupid for doing nothing about NK: why would they? Let's look at the possible best and worst case scenarios:
Best case:
* NK comes back to the negotiation table after becoming assured of its new nuclear stick. The US makes some concessions, NK gets some breathing room, and eventually adopts Chinese-style state-directed economic reforms. China can then flex its economic muscle and get a sane NK on its side as permanent ally. Win-win.
* NK thumbs its stick, but no one cares. The regime eventually topples due to mass starvation. Before that, the remains of the regime, still bitter about SK, calls on China for help. China goes in and gains a new province.
* The missile test fails and NK is back to square one.
Worst case:
* NK attacks SK. SK retaliates with US aid. NK in desperation nukes SK. Both Koreas are now in shambles. China, along with the US and Japan, stands to gain from rebuilding the countries.
* NK attacks Japan. Japan retaliates with US aid. NK in desperation nukes Japan. China now has one less neighbor to compete with.
* The US attacks NK with Japan. This pisses off SK, which now leans towards China. The US gets bogged down in yet another occupational war and its resources are stretched to the breaking point. China, in a gesture of "good will," buys even more US war bonds and makes the US even more dependent upon it. At the end of the day, the Chinese become the new dominant economic force.
* The US attacks NK with SK. But that won't happen because SK is for "peaceful reunificiation" and wants the US to butt out.
* The US airstrikes NK. NK in retaliation nukes/missiles US allies SK and Japan. Might give Japan an excuse to militarize, which could be bad for China, but the likelihood of that happening regardless is pretty high anyhow, so no real loss.
* The US nukes NK. The whole of East Asia gets pissed at the US and China gets more influence in the region.
* NK attacks China. Not going to happen.
So why would the Chinese do anything? And what can they do? They've already told the NK to "stop it," but NK is obviously not listening. The only two things the Chinese can do at this point would be:
* Sanction NK alongside the rest of the world. But this would cost them what good will they had in the country and gain them almost no benefits.
* Attack NK in the hopes of taking it over. But this is suicidal - the Chinese military might overwhelm the NK, but they'd be fighting an occupational war and that'd cost them dearly. Plus, SK would get pissed and lean even closer to the US. Japan would have an excuse to re-militarize (see! The Chinese are aggressive!), and the Western world would have an excuse to label China as a military threat. Not gonna happen.
-
So is it good or not?
Let's have some constructive feedback here, folks.
-
Gimmicky features do not really interest me at this point. Anyone know how good the OC is for Wyvern's Crown?
-
The President's speech sounded good, because it hit all the keywords: freedom, bringing democracy to the world, freedom, keeping American safe, freedom, brave American men and women, and did I mention freedom?
I think it'll play well with those who already support Bush, and may draw some of the more gullible who were on the edge. But he's really not said anything new - the central theme of his administration is already dead clear: everyone wants freedom, but freedom must be paid for in blood and oil.
-
None of the mediums used for artistic expression can be considered concrete, but writing is probably the least concrete of them all. Whereas with music and art there exists the visceral qualities of tone and color, and with film the recorded act, language, taken down to its principle roots, is simply a collection of symbols with no inherent meaning or worth. This abstraction, in turn, allows expression at a higher level, which is necessarily ambiguous.
What this has to do with game writing, I've yet to figure out.
-
Your friend is right.
How long they could keep it up, though, is up for grabs. Whether "social harmony," as used by the Chinese government, is a long-term goal involving Orwellian thought control or simply a transistory stage in keeping with national security issues and threats to the government... Is anyone's guess.
-
Aw, crap. I guess China won't be going to war with the US over the last oil deposits then.
Stocks in oil and the defense industry?
-
Eh, Israel should just accept that it's going to be fighting a permanent war from here on out. Not something any nation should have to do but those are the unfortunate cards history has dealt. Even if Iran and Syria are crushed the terrorists will not be diminished, unless the entirety of the ME is nuked, which is something that Israel do not have the moral authority to do unless it itself is nuked first, in which case what would be left to save?
We live in an age of diminishing natural resources and growing worldwide tension - an age of cataclysmic climate change poised before the brink of natural and political disaster. What lies at the end of the tunnel, I don't know - all I know is that this is the age whence man's sense of morality and foresight will be definitively tested. If we succeed, the result is mere survival. But if we should fail, then not only us, but our children, will bear the consequences, and they are dire indeed.
-
You can't stop it, suckers. <insert sardonic laugher>
Then how did most of the Hispanics currently in the US, the majority of whom aren't Spaniards at all (or at least, to begin with), take up Spanish, transplanted from half-a-world away, as their official language? The great irony of the situation is, of course, that Spain, in its heydays as a fading European nation, would yet have its linguistic legacy carried on in the Americas, as a lasting influence of its culture long after it itself might disintegrate. What Spain, as a nation, could never achieve in California, its force as an immigrant language seemingly will.
It's always possible to force people to assimilate. The only question is how far you're willing to go. History is overly focused on the armies and the great leaders, and too little focused on the cultural memes that will define the future of humankind.
-
Federalism, Hades. Federalism.
-
That the UN *should* be the police man of the world should not even be up for debate. Police men, by definition, are those who uphold the laws of a community. The police men of the world are then, by extension, those who uphold the laws of the world. International law should not be established by one (US), or even a group (modernized), of nations. I think we can all agree that the US and the modernized nations only have their own best interests in mind, and not the majority of the world's population, which live in developing countries. To allow such a force to police the world would be to create an oligarchy of the elite - the police force would then simply be a corrupt extension of the rich and the powerful, and terrorism might, then, become even justified as a form of resistance.
That the UN *could* be the police man of the world is a much more polemical argument, and something of a tragedy. The inefficiency of its bureaucracy and the deadlock of the Security Council are both very poignant issues that vastly undermine what the UN could be. But its fulfilmment should be the ultimate goal - for there to emerge a world nation, the UN, and not the US or Europe or China or Russia, must be the police man.
-
Hades wants something to happen, that is just plain silly. Something that our world isn't capable of. We can't trust eachother, because deep down, we still are animals.
And there you just nailed exactly why Iran will continue pursuing its nuclear program, regardless of what the US does. But then I could've told you that in the beginning - this discussion is pointless, because nothing said here will affect anything in the world, and nothing the US or the UN babbles will change the basic facts regarding how power is kept and exercised in this world.
Embrace powerlessness; it is the joy of life.
-
I guess we should count our blessings then now that religious fundamentalism is making a comeback in the US
-
I couldn't. It was a no-rest area, or at least that's what NWN told me.
NWN2: Major disappointment - Character creation
in Computer and Console
Posted · Edited by Azarkon
Hmm. I think character customization is an issue, mostly because NWN 2 is not only a SP game but also a MP game and in MP games, people want their avatars to represent themselves. However, we're talking about the SP here, and the lack of Oblivion-like character customization didn't exactly kill KOTOR, another game where characters take up "1/3rd" of the screen, so I'm leaning towards the idea that the significance of this issue is exacerbated by the fact that many people find NWN 2's models "ugly" and therefore particularly un-representative of their personal fantasies. The increased resolution and lack of portraits contribute to the problem.
I wonder what prompted Obsidian to go with this style of D&D graphics, as opposed to giving in to the more prevalent theme, these days, of making characters super models.