Amentep

Still not seeing the retcon.

I'd love that, but I doubt it. I haven't seen any supporting hints and Bioware is not hesitant to completely retcon epilogues. Which epilogue are they retconning? The one where she "dissapears into the wilderness and is never seen again" that was retconned with the "Witch Hunt" DLC?

To me that is a problem with her character however, as it makes her feel even more of an unbelievable caricture than the innappropriate attire and lack of armour do, realistic and believable motivations are important to establish a characters personality and backstory, when all of this is just thrown away for the sake of the illogical BUT THOU MUST plot, then I fail to see why I should particularly care about that character. Much like with Avelines incompetence as a guardswoman and dereliction of duty despite the Qunari presence. If there were problems with the narrative then make a better one, or go back and release an enhanced edition, if a small company in Poland can do so then a big firm like Bioware should be able to easily. After all making Dragon Age 3 a better game doesn't do much for those dissatisfied with DA2. I'm not disputing that the narrative could have been better; all I'm saying is if Isabel had been dressed as a nun and never talked about Sex but had the same interrelation to the story, she'd still have sat with thin motivation for year in Kirkwall to allow for the story to play out as planned. To me this is a problem with the story; they shouldn't have made it so that any of the characters were essential, yet Anders and Isabel are but also with very little rationale behind either, IMO.

I'll agree about the armor bit. The sex talk I'm neutral on. I think the parts about her not pursuing her own objectives or being killable are kind of defined by the story narrative being spread over time and the whole Qunari bit relying on their pursuit of the stolen book which would fall apart if she left (and possibly if you killed her). Which is really a problem(?) of a highly structured story with little elasticity to respond to the player's action (thus limiting their options) and not a problem with Isabela as a character, per se...

Since none of those are as common cultural stereotypes -- yes. Dunno where you come from but the "horny man" and the "beautiful chaste girl" are fairly common cultural stereotypes. But it seems like your problem is solely derived off of your personal perception of stereotypes. So as you said, YMMV. Is she any more "sexually available" than Morrigan or Zevran? Or...well any of the romanceable NPCs if you give them enough gifts? They're all pretty much designed to be sexable if that's what the PC wants.

Let the Wookie win. No, not really. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_MuywHuEoM

Here's the thing though: she is not a real person, so "because she wants to be" is not a real reason. I get that they gave her motivation and backstory and she's a modern (medieval) independent woman in control of her sexuality, but the reality - like, in the real world, reality - is that she is a video game character. And as a video game character, in a game played mostly by men, many of whom will never finish the game or pay much attention to her backstory, she is a scantily-clad woman who has big boobs and talks about having sex A LOT. I am not saying such a character should not exist or cannot exist, and I am not saying there was not an honest attempt to write her intelligently. But, fundamentally, you can't get around the fact that her function in the game is more sexual object for the player than sexual being. I'd disagree since the player doesn't have to have sex with her and can very easily lose her through the game (or, for that matter, not have her in the group at all, IIRC). I'd also argue that her function in the game - like Sten or Zavren in the first or Fenris in the second - is to have a party combat role while at the same time fleshing out part of the Thedas world culture that we've not actually seen yet (Rivani). Like Zavren, she comes from a background and/or a culture that promotes casual sex. Would it have been better if she'd been "the flat chested, homely one who liked sex"? Or if she'd been the "one with boobs who hates sex?". Or if it had been a "masculine man who liked sex" instead of a woman (or elf-man Zeveran)? Any character can be reduced to a simplistic (and silly sounding) sentence. So you admit that you see a "flaw" in the romance that actually applies to ALL of Bioware's romances (which is actually a problem I agree with - the sublimating of an NPC's character in order to have the Player get a 'positive' romantic outcome) but you only consider it a problem with Isabel because she's the only one who "wants" sex?

I find it sad, not funny.

Got Dragons Crown yesterday. So far I've been fairly impressed, the controls are easy enough to pick up and smash stuff with but there seems to be a good deal of finesse you can build up to. They've made a looting system that is fun with multiple players (so far). Unfortunately I didn't have as much time yesterday with it as I'd hoped.

Pretty sensible reaction when some stranger yells at you. not really. I remember getting caught in an impromptu 'wookie off' in a motorway service station. With a whole bunch of strangers making wookie noises at each other. Okay, my first thought when reading the term "wookie off" was not what it ended up being.

So did you post this via the phone or the kitchen stuff? Its actually only sprinkled here...which is a changeup as we've had a couple of months of storms, a lot of them thunderstorms

That trailer does look interesting but I hope the game isn't in that grey colour? It is, that's what they're saying. Okay thanks and for clarity sakes why would they make the game in grey? It apparently looks interesting, fits the story and setting and ramps up the suspense. I really wasn't talking business so much as - IMO - they've been making a lot of terrible games, and have been for some years now.

Just because people lacking your refinement have dubbed the Aphrodite of Melos "Venus", doesn't make her less Greek. I think this wasan appropiate and fitting 4000th post >_ The original was a bronze cast as with most Classical Ancient Greek statues, those marble replicas were made by the Romans after the original. So when you see a Greek marble statue is probably a roman copy, hence Venus. I thought current scholarship dismissed the claim that it was a Roman copy but instead thought that it was a Greek copy (of course, IIRC, there's still some debate over whether the statue represents Aphrodite or Amphitrite anyhow, but I think we're up the garden path at this point...)

That trailer does look interesting but I hope the game isn't in that grey colour? It is, that's what they're saying.

I find your distinction between scenarios to be arbitrary. A bit like asking "would you rather have cake or a poke in the eye with a stick?" "There's no proper context because the bandits just pop in out of nowhere" As does the cop in your scenario (who has no motivation ascribed to him as to why he wants to pull you over - just as the bandits have no way to assume you have money the cop has not been given a reason to assume you need to be pulled over) "and you never hear from them again." This isn't a fault of the scenario, its the fault of the world not responding to the players choice. The cop could be bluffed and go away and never be heard from in your scenario - does it make it bad that that happened? So some bandits jump out and attack you. You get two initial choices - fight or flee (your cop scenario only gets one more option dialogue which could easily be implemented for the bandits). That doesn't mean, however, that the game couldn't make the bandits part of a larger faction. That it couldn't be built into the narrative. It doesn't even mean that it doesn't respond to your choices (maybe the road is one of two choices, and one is known to be patrolled by bandits. Maybe the local guard hired you to travel the road because of reports, maybe you choose the road because it puts you closer to where you want to go even though its more dangerous. IMO the problem isn't the bandit scenario, but of motivating the story elements and creating a context and consequences around even the most minor of game element. Which then comes down to story vs verisimilitude IMO - how much do you want the game to mirror a novel (where everything happens for a reason) vs real life (where everything doesn't have a logical motivation as people collide within a framework that allows for the random and unmotivated and surprising). In that sense, I have no problem with the random encounter.

Lets see, I've seen THE PHAROAH'S CURSE (1957) - fun period horror mummy film. Usual trope of mummy's curse befalling archeologists/semi-grave robbers. This time the mummy sucks blood. Better ideas than execution. Big let down was the end, which seemed to just happen rather than make sense in the story. THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN (1977) - gory late 70s Horror film. Astronaut affected by space radiation becomes a cannibal monster. Very schlocky (supposedly it was originally planned as a parody but AIP thought they could get better money by making it a straight horror film). Still its fun in that low-budget 70s kind of way. The lead is so deadpan, I can't help but figure no one told him it wasn't a parody anymore (or that they changed it so late they couldn't change what was shot and his performance no longer fits the film). JACK THE GIANT SLAYER (2013) - IMO the story never really comes together as it feels it should. There is to me a seeming lack of focus; nominally its about Jack - but its about the Princess too. And about the King, the King's advisor, the head of the guard, the power struggle amid the giants, Jack's relationship with his Uncle, etc. There are some good bits (the villains do everything but twirl mustaches in their villainy) but the final sequence lacks any oomph.

I have to admit, Sega buying Atlus worries me a whole lot - particularly since Sega can't seem to get their act together, I can only fear how they'd run/ruin Atlus and Atlus' games. Also I'd have to figure some of the niche games Altus USA publishes wouldn't get picked up under Sega. but maybe I'm being too gloomy & doomy Also I'm not a superfan of 1st Person Shooters, but that Betrayal Trailer looks interesting.

Which critic is that? FWIW I liked Pacific Rim.

Fallout: Cuba?

I couldn't get past the opening miniseries on BSG, I'm afraid.

Looks like its also being touted as an online multiplayer game from what I can see... Because that's what it *is*. Did anybody seriously think Capcom is gonna pour a $100 million into a massive singleplayer Skyrim-killer PS4-exclusive game? Capcom ain't a charity and financial debacles are no longer acceptable. I was just pointing out information that I'd not heard about before, particularly given the theory at the time of the drop of the original trailer that it might be more like Dragons Dogma (which has a very light and unnecessary online component) than a MMORPG or Guild Wars type thing.

I'd guess the same designer, design team or company. Not really sure what the issue is...its a bit like complaining that all of Drew Struzan's posters looked like Drew Struzan had made them.

Looks like its also being touted as an online multiplayer game from what I can see...

But is it Yahoo Serious?

Indeed, I understand that many people have been institutionalized by it. Wait, that didn't come out right...