aha, here's the bit about the Kinect being required.

I disconnect mine because my Kinect thinks I'm talking to it all the time.  Seriously, it's the most nosy device in my home.  Talking to my wife while playing turns into fits of frustration with the Kinect.  

I was watching the reveal of the Xbox One over at my brother's place earlier today. Kinect thought THREE TIMES that we told it to stop playing the video.

Piece of crap. Damn does it need a 'lock mode' where it ignores everything that's being said short of a specific command sentence or something.

Also, I've been saying this for months now, but the WiiU is absolutely and utterly dead. Period. There's no life left in it whatsoever.

I've read elsewhere (but can't confirm) that all the exploits found about so far were posted about on the Closed Beta Boards (and immediately locked) as well as sent in as bug reports.

If true...damn.

Let's just dive right in:

PS3:
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Fast & Furious: Showdown
Resident Evil: Revelations
Worms Collection

PSV:
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault (PSN)

360:
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Fast & Furious: Showdown
Resident Evil: Revelations
Worms Collection

WiiU:
Fast & Furious: Showdown
LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
Resident Evil: Revelations
Sniper Elite V2

3DS:
Fast & Furious: Showdown
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D

PC:
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Dust: An Elysian Tail
Fast & Furious: Showdown
Resident Evil: Revelations
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

What are you buying this week?

they may get more people biting on Kickstarter since the company won't see anything unless it hits the goal.

Based on how little they've gotten so far, this one is doomed to failure.

OK, stupid question - if you do the dungeon delves event an it says "chest unlocked", is there an actual extra chest, or is it just extra loot when you open the boss chest?

AFAIK, it's just extra loot.

Now there's a game I remember playing in my youth.

Also, Athena next week? Oh lord I'm sorry.

[PS3:]

After the pretty much empty release list last week, let's take a look at what's coming out this time around.

PS3:
Metro: Last Light
Dust 514 (PSN)
Star Wars Pinball (PSN)

PSV:
Velocity Ultra

360:
Metro: Last Light

WiiU:
Mega Man 5 (eShop)
Super Metroid (eShop)

3DS:
The Starship Damrey (eShop)

PC:
Anomaly 2
Bad Bots
Metro: Last Light
Nancy Drew: Ghost of Thornton Hall
Raiden Legacy
Sanctum 2
Thunder Wolves

What are you buying this week?

I am confused about some equipment levels... I have a blue L9 dagger, that no matter what seems to be recommended over my found green daggers, even though the damage is higher on the greens and so are the bonus effects.. any idea why?

Because Cryptic is stupid.

Price to the vendor is the ONLY thing the 'recommended' system looks at. The ONLY thing.

First off, her 'calling Norton' was not her calling the anti-virus company. She was calling the scam people who got her PC infected in the first place. She does not have Norton installed. Just a virus by the same name.

Also, wow, her PC is seriously infected. Her best solution would be to pull the drive, copy the contents to some temp location somewhere else (of the files she wants to keep), scan said files to make sure they're not infected on the clean computer, then wipe everything and just start over.

I know of what site you're thinking of though as far as cleaning goes, but I'm also drawing a blank. Frankly, the 'nuke it from orbit' suggesting (wiping everything and just start over) seems like the best solution IMHO.

Also, as mentioned, Cryptic has said that classes will be free to all. And they've said that the Drow will be free 60ish days after NW launched.

yep, but you'll either have to decide which character you're going to delete if you've already used up your 2 character slots or buy an additional character slot.  I think they're hoping most people won't want to get rid of old characters.

Character slots are one of the reasonable things to buy - 2 slots for $5 (500 Zen).

Jett will look over the Legate as well, both trying to judge his reasons as well as scanning him via his magical sight. He's heard of strange rituals and such that require one to basically kill themselves to pull off.

Sometimes I hate MMOs - already people talking a zone chat looking for people to run dungeons specifying minimum gearscore. Luckily there is plenty of content in the game to play without dealing with people like that.

It's not really my thing, but I believe Neverwinter has a tiered dungeon system that requires a certain gear score before a player can participate. This might be why these players are specifying the scores they need.

Correct - the 'epic' dungeons (of which there's not only a level 60 version of all the dungeons, but a Tier 1 and Tier 2 version of them) flat out require a certain gear score just to enter. Although I've heard that if you complete the dungeon, you'll at least get a piece of gear that's great for tiering up in for your class.

Also, as mentioned, Cryptic has said that classes will be free to all. And they've said that the Drow will be free 60ish days after NW launched.

Wondering if I should just pony up the $60. If it came with a bag I might have done it already. Why the $200 and $20 packs come with a bag and the $60 one does not is beyond me.

Well...crap.  I thought I read this morning that the $60 pack did come with a bag. 

yeah, it's an odd exclusion.  of course you can buy 1,2 or all 3 of the packages, so maybe they thought whoever ponied up 60 bucks might be easily convinced to pony up an extra 20.

NOTE: The $20 pack comes with a SINGLE bag for ONE character (not all of them). Also, you can buy the goods inside for about $21 worth of Zen (100 Zen = $1). So if you don't want some of the stuff that it comes with, just buy it directly.

The $200 pack however gives you a bag for all your characters.

My complaints so far are the prices of simple things that should be cheap. Bags are $6 and $10 (each, and per character), bank slots are $6 I believe for each expansion as well (again, per character). Yet Mounts, of which you only need one of (as they're all account unlocks) are anywhere from $5 (slowest speed) to $40 (fastest). And yet again, Companions are single character only, and are like $10 to $30.

It annoys the hell out of me, personally.

Jett thinks quickly and while he moves to act per Adara's order, he will more than happily let Kriv get the justice that he feels that the Dragonborn deserves.

[PS3:]

Lots of releases over the last few weeks, and now...not so much. Weird.

PS3:
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (PSN Classics)

PSV:
Rymdkapsel (PSN)

360:

WiiU:
Solomon's Key (WiiUVC)
Xevious (WiiUVC)

3DS:
Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move (eShop)

PC:
Graviteam Tactics: Shield of the Prophet
Pinball FX 2

What are you buying this week?

I know it's still in beta, but a 4-hour server maintenance that starts at 9:00pm on a Saturday?  C'mon now...

It's not beta. Calling it beta is a lie. NW has launched.

And I'm guessing that the only reason they took things down at pretty much weekend primetime (for some places) is because they were getting some caution signs on the hardware replacements they put in the other day. And they didn't want things to explode again.

I'm personally enjoying the heck out of the game. I don't know what kind of replay value it has, but for my first run at least, I'm having oh so much fun with it.

Just keep in mind that yes, it's supposed to be frantic paced. There's no pausing and giving orders here.

I knew that, I think you missed the part where I shaved 15 hours off the real time timer 

....ooooh.

I had a theory I tested out this morning and it was confirmed.  I queued up an 18 hour crafting right before the maintenance and it was done 3 hours later when servers came back up.

Yup. All crafting is real time, so you can do things when you're not around.

Also, go here:

https://gateway.playneverwinter.com/

This site allows you to not only see your characters when you're not playing, but also craft, check your mail, and visit the auction house. It works best in IE (for some reason), but a wide range of browsers (including some mobile ones) work with it.

Also, via datamining, Archery Ranger, Scourge Warlock, and the Dragonborn Race have been found. The question is when they will release them.

Well, Jett has nothing to add that would help prove their point any better than what was said. He completely disagrees with Statement 4, as deep down he knows that everyone would not have been welcome there, but instead would've been welcome as slaves, but he has no way to actually prove it in the court of law.

Statement 3...yeah, we kinda made a mess with that one. He was always curious what happened to the dragon. Now he knows.

This really looks like FTL, except just a slight (huge) upgrade to the ship building component.

So, any thoughts on this so far?

[PS3:]

Random: It's almost like it's PC Indie Week or something with all these great games due out.

PS3:
Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Zeno Clash II
Zombie Tycoon 2: Brainhov's Revenge

PSV:
Soul Sacrifice
Zombie Tycoon 2: Brainhov's Revenge

360:
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Zeno Clash II

WiiU:
Kung Fu Rabbit

3DS:
The Denpa Men 2: Beyond the Waves

PC:
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Fez
Leviathan: Warships
Might & Magic Heroes VI: Shades of Darkness
Speedball 2 Evolution
StarDrive
Strike Suit Infinity
Zack Zero
Zeno Clash II

What are you buying this week?

I read where they did 3 shards for the start to reduce stress/lag etc. and later will combine them into one after things smooth out

Correct. It's a strange thing for Cryptic to do, but I can see their reasoning. Just a question of how long it'll take before the merger happens.

Having not been one of the people who wanted to take the Legate to trial, Jett really doesn't have a good opinion on what to charge him for other than, "just general evil". Which doesn't count at all.

Random thoughts: Kavouri going totally nuts doesn't surprise Jett. Sadly it had to injure Kavak in the process. He also appreciates the information from Misa, as well as her opinions on Amehez. Although hearing that Kavak has basically allowed Amehez to lead worries him a bit, it at least comforts him to know that the construct's decisions have been good for the town for the most part.

Also, on Boulder:

I do hope someone else has a better idea what to charge the Legate for.

AFAIK, the STO Wiki is the only place to really turn to (short of asking on the forums or other players) for learning how the systems fully work, as sadly the ingame tooltips don't help very much at all.

Some of the things are quite...complicated, to put it simply. Although I thought the Wiki linked above explained things decently well.

STO is a lot of fun, IMHO. The main issue is that there's little reason to stay a subscriber once you've been one for a month, assuming you level a character to max level in that time. It really doesn't give you anything as a benefit past that point.

Also, it's getting a HUGE update with the Romulan faction in a week or three.

[PS3:]

So, shall we take bets on how well this week's pseudo movie licensed game turns out? Will it dodge the curse of most movie licenses? Or will it be yet another game in a very long list of them?

PS3:
Dead Island: Riptide
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
Star Trek

PSV:
Draw Slasher

360:
Dead Island: Riptide
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
Star Trek
Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine (XBLA)

WiiU:

3DS:
LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins
Puzzler Brain Games
Puzzler World 2013
Mega Man 4 (eShop)

PC:
Dead Island: Riptide
Don't Starve
Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine
Neverwinter (Founders only)
Poker Night 2
Star Trek

What are you buying this week?

Nothing comes to mind in Jett's mind about what to do next. He just hopes it doesn't all fall to pieces as they return to their old home.

At least I know I must have done something right when one of the first posts in my announcement thread in the beta forum was from one of the devs going "oooh definitely have to try this one".

Yeah, that's quite a positive comment, no? Congratulations.

OK, Operation: Prisoner Transport is a go.  Will have a write up of the party's journey back to good ol' Crater town posted in a day or so.  In the meantime, prepare your opening arguments for a very special episode of Law and Order: Special Legates Unit!

ROFL

Wait, so DD and FF can now be part of the new Marvel movie universe?

DD, yes, FF, no, as 20th Century Fox is making yet another film.

At least I think so anyway.

Jett has no issues bringing Ginsreli along, but he's leery about Grenus. The last thing that this needs is something going terribly wrong with 'defending' the Legate during his trial.

That said, if it would make the townspeople happier about the result...he's worth the possible frustration and general mayhem chance.

I agree with AA's line of thinking, as well as starting our journey to Crater Town.

[PS3:]

What happens when a bunch of Superheroes get together inside of one game? They fight, obviously.

This and other releases this week:

PS3:
Injustice: Gods Among Us
Dragon Fantasy (PSN)
Sacred Citadel (PSN)

PSV:
Dragon Fantasy (PSN)

360:
Injustice: Gods Among Us
God Mode (XBLA)
Sacred Citadel (XBLA)

WiiU:

Wii:
Pandora's Tower

3DS:
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo (eShop)
Witch & Hero (eShop)

PC:
God Mode
Papo & Yo

What are you buying this week?

The recent Giant Bomb Quick look of Terraria was pretty terrible.  Brad clearly didn't know how to play it and wasn't even putting torches on any of the walls.

If that's true...wow.

If you want to see what Terraria is like (basically a side-scrolling Minecraft except a lot more 'actiony'), go visit Youtube and search for a Let's Play of it. It's a lot of fun and is well worth the entry fee.

Starbound looks to be awesome. Another indie title I've heard of is called Darkout (and is actually buyable at this point).

Does Jett agree to Lorna's terms?  And what does the group do next?

Jett gladly agrees to Lorna's terms.

It's also times like these that I wish that 4th Edition had a bit more 'mass powers'. Or in other words, something like the ritual of Travelers' Feast (feed 5 people for 24 hours), but scaled up to say, like 50. Then Jett could help feed the locals instead of having to spend the next 10 hours casting the ritual just to take care of 50.

Anyhow...

So now we have a way to get back to Scaleport quickly. Once Jett has taken an extended rest somewhere down the line (as the ritual needs 5 healing surges to cast, and Jett doesn't have that if memory serves), and 4 hours to cast, he'll create a Teleportation Circle (2x2 area, unless there's a good reason why to risk making it larger) in a good spot somewhere in the Fort (more than likely at the Circle he shut down way back when). And then he'll start maintaining it.

And thanks to his new Planar Portal Ritual, he'll be ready to leave whenever on summoned mounts. Just as soon as the rest of the crew decide what to do.

Although he's curious how Lorna knows of these recent events. He ponders that as he helps with Kriv for the moment.

That sounds like you have one epic of a mission chain being built there, TiLT. Really looking forward to seeing it all complete.

One interesting change to Neverwinter for this beta - not only is crafting in (finally), but you can sorta 'choose' your level advancement. Instead of being on a set defined path, you get level up points where you can pick your powers (and rank of said power) in the order you want (to a point).

There's a set of balances around it from what I've read, but it sounds like an improvement over the old system as it at least gives you some flexibility.

(why is it always 3 lol?)

Because if one side gets too big, odds are good that the other two combined can take them down. At least that's what normally happened in DAoC.

After Jett's last attempt at using his Arcana powers to mess around with things he didn't fully understand (the dragon's necromantic powers) nearly causing a TPK, he's not interested in doing anything that could cause A Very Bad Thing if the dice are against him.

That said, while the rest of the group chat with the Legate over what exactly they have in mind, Jett will go wandering. Perhaps there's a good magical library somewhere, or maybe the Temple of Ioun & Erathis might have what he needs - but either way, Jett would like to have access to being able to port back to Scaleport at a moment's notice.

Especially since getting the camp at Cratertown (assuming they want to come) back to Scaleport is going to take -forever-. Even more so during winter.

Well we either need to somehow transport all of Cratertown to Scaleport, or we need to have Ryla become the new ruler of Scaleport (If she is agreeable to it) and our band of misfits needs to transport the Legate to Cratertown.

Misfits indeed. But Jett would be up for Ryla becoming the ruler of Scaleport (again, if she wants it), unless someone else has a better ruler in mind.

Jett can also easily create up to 8 Phantom Steeds, so it's not like we'll have issues heading back to Cratertown. At least we won't be walking. And if he gets a lucky dice roll, they'll fly in style.

Although if Jett knew Linked Portal or Planar Portal, he could create a Teleportation Circle inside of Scaleport somewhere and then the whole party could easily get back to Scaleport at nearly a moment's notice if something went horribly wrong. Or it could be used to port all of Cratertown to Scaleport once the crew gets there.