Amentep

For me it was just that as a compeltionist I tried to explore every tiniest corner of the map and do every side quest. And for that the game is just too huge. Its possible that I may fall afoul of that, being ocd with fog of war clearing. But I may just stop playing the game and come back to it later if fatigue sets in as its totally soothing playing in a relaxed atmosphere.

I'm playing Sacred 2. I'd played it when it first came out and never finished it - guess I wasn't in the mood. But I'm now in the mood for something that is kind of laid-back. And Sacred 2 seems to fit that bill; there's something soothing about blowdarting swaths of enemies at a distance before they ever get to you and then wandering around and clearing the fog of war from a map. And there's a lot of map to cover.

If you can't find a way to make your show interesting for 17 out of 22 episodes, then it is not because "this is how it needs to set up". It's because you have a piss-poor creative team. I found the entire season interestig and enjoyable so far. Its the one show I look forward to most every 2-3 weeks. yeah - while there have been some weaker episodes, on the most part I've enjoyed the series as well.

Perhaps I could have phrased my post better, in retrospect I come off a bit testy; that said my question was genuine - I've been trying to answer questions as they come up since this is a player to player support forum and I'm truly at a loss as I can better get out the word that the official support for the game is Ubisoft. Since you'd brought up that what has been done is insufficient (or perhaps just easily missed), what would be the best way to get that across to new posters who come here seeking help that the official support is through Ubisoft and this is mostly peer-to-peer with occasionally developers reading for new issues but not always able to respond?

Have you updated with the latest patch and have you verified all of your files via STEAM (assuming its the PC version, might be wrong)?

The early Japanese RPGs are based on either Rogue or Wizardry or games like SSI's Phantasie. Heck part of the appeal for me early on playing Japanese RPGs like Phantasy Starr is they reminded me of Phantasie, a game I really loved in the early to mid-80s. All the way to turn-based random battles and being able to see the heroes and monsters attack in turn.

Well, not sure I'd agree with that unless you want to also argue that, say, the Wizardry series aren't RPG's either given the influence that series had on Japanese RPGs as an example.

I think it was Oblivion that had the character creator where you could spend hours fine tuning the features and STILL end up with a character who looked like their face had exploded. And Fallout 3 put you in the dark so it was hard to see your features. Its weird, but for me the more I can customize my character - either in features or in skills/abilities - the more it makes me want to finish the game. When characters are set (say Diablo) as long as theirs a look or skill set I like I'm okay, but its not the same as it is with a character you created. But then again, I used to draw portraits for my Pen and Paper characters, so...

While I share your dislike of FF X-2 (that game, for me, marks the moment where the Final Fantasy series fell off a cliff, quality wise), what exactly makes western RPGs any more "legitimate" than Japanese RPGs? I have never played a Japanese RPG before but I'm going to attempt to answer this one. JRPG have no Romance in them....that's what makes them a pseudo-RPG You apparently don't realize that Final Fantasy X (which X2 is a sequel to) is about Tidus and Yuna's relationship (and to a lesser degree, Wakka and Lulu's) and Final Fantasy X-2 involves Yuna after the events of FFX seperates her and Tidus (which happens shortly after Yuna proclaims her love for Tidus, IIRC). Or you're trying to be funny. Anyhow, I enjoyed X-2, so...

And then Hydra shows up twirling its collective mustache and the dilemma thing is irrelevant.

AoS - wasn't expecting all of that (figured out some things as the ep went along, but still...wow!) Talk about a "nothing will be the same" episode...

I'll be interested in knowing if the 3rd Patch helps with this at all when it hits PSN.

The XBox 360 Patch 03 is imminent according to the patch notes (its available in STEAM). When it becomes available it should fix the quest trigger for O Canada; hopefully that will solve your issue. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65338-patch-notes/

I thought the 3rd patch for consoles was still forthcoming? Its only live in STEAM at the moment. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65338-patch-notes/

Patch 03 is out - http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65338-patch-notes/ According to the notes it fixes the skipped content when grounding due to being lost in the forest triggering the next day when the first day isn't finished - I'm curious if it solves this issue as well.

Has the 3rd patch helped?

Patch 03 is out on STEAM and supposed to fix the problem (Console updates soon, apparently) - http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65338-patch-notes/

Have you tried the 03 patch yet? I'm wondering if the difficulty change helped anything (its out on STEAM, soon for the consoles according to the update -http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65338-patch-notes/

Good news - http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65338-patch-notes/ According to the notes the 03 Patch is up at STEAM and will be available for consoles soon.

As I understand it, you can camp in the countryside and rest in inns or taverns. When you choose to do so you have to choose what you're characters are going to do - for example regain strength by resting a full day, training or guarding the camp.

I'd never get out of character creation, I think...

Obviously more stats can be more representative, but it can also add a lot of unnecessary complexity. That said, in the purpose of full disclosure, most of the P&P games I played, we looked at the stats as guidelines and didn't do a lot of roll play.

I wouldn't argue that, really. But... What's in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet;

Except for the fact that the realms of such deities are usually not places where any sane person would want to spend their eternal afterlife But for the devout, it *is* a place they want to spend their afterlife. I think that's always been one of the hardest things to deal with in fantasy RPGs is the proper addressing of evil faiths. I remember struggling the trying to run a priestess of an evil deity (Talona) and keep hold of such a different ethos from my own. And yet of all the Clerics I've played, the fact that I struggled with the character has made her more memorable than many others (such that I've recreated the character a couple of times). To me, at least in D&D terms, while there were several illustrations used for it (IIRC common sense is mentioned and I think that's where we trip up with clerics of evil dieties a lot) the one that made the most sense to me was "awareness". And in this case I mean awareness of self and the awareness of situation and surroundings. A high wisdom means a high awareness; when tied with faith it means a canny knowledge of their belief system. An irrational zealot would have a high wis but low int score - which seems to go counter to the "common sense" definition - but the way I see it the awareness of belief outweighs the understanding of things outside of belief heavily. A learned monk could have a higher Int score than his Wis score and a mage who is convinced that that he can be a diety if he can discover enough magical power might have a wis to rival her int. A fighter, supremely aware of what they can and cannot achieve with their own power would also have a high wis; one who believes his sword arm to be infallible would be low wis. Or, you know, something like that.

Is it like those male enhancement ads proliferating on commercial TV?