Shapeshifter? Stalker? I don't remember that back when I used to play BG1. Are these kits out of the expansions, or is this all new stuff?

Most of the big BG1 mods add in the BG2 classes and kits, along with the BG2 UI.  BGEE adds in the classes and kits.  The potential downside to playing a BG2 class/kit in BG1 is that it may end up being a cakewalk.  One of the Druid kits called a Totemic Druid has a class ability that summons a creature at level 1 that can't be harmed by normal weapons.  That would make the first part of BG1 easy.   

Playing on the pc version it seems similar to a modded BGTutu experience.  You get some new npcs and a new fighting arena (Black Pits) with BGEE.  I've done the full mod install before, and I'd rather just fire up BGEE at this point. 

I spent most of my limited gaming time this weekend playing BGEE.  The sad thing is that I've barely touched the story.  I've been rolling up different character classes to relearn the BG D&D ruleset, and then attacking the unlucky tutors and inn patrons in the very first location (after I've saved).  There's a wizard in the inn who has been attacked over and over as I try different classes.  He normally comes out ahead.  Horror followed by Melf's Acid Arrow and Magic Missile is deadly against level 1s. 

My top BGEE class/kits so far:
1.  Half Orc Barbarian wielding a 2 handed sword.  He gibs everything, including wizards that try to cast horror.
2.  Elf Stalker dual wielding longswords.  I forgot some of the things that I used to love about the infinity engine games...like Backstab! DOUBLE DAMAGE!  <Insert Name> Death.  I love how the game engine doesn't just show them dying, they blow up and splatter everywhere.
3.  Human Shapeshifter wearing just a t-shirt and pants...Werewolf!  As cool as the Shapeshifter seems at first, it doesn't look like the class has been fixed.  They're awesome at level 1 though

When I played BG in 1999, my character was a half-elf fighter/cleric.  He was pretty good.  He would normally end up being the last man standing during the tougher fights.  Good times.         
     

I downloaded it earlier today.  Everything works well.  No issues so far.  I completed the tutorial and started a new game.  Major nostalgia.  It's been fun choosing a class, lots of options.   

Edit: While I haven't tried it, putting UPlay in offline mode should solve the problem according to others. It's a good thing their copy protection works flawlessly, right?

That's worked for me.  UPlay is awful.  If it's in online mode, almost all of their games will check back through UPlay to their servers, and if the servers are getting hammered, the game either won't run, or it will be choppy as hell.  I'll let their games connect through UPlay when I launch them, and then unplug my ethernet cable while I'm playing.  UPlay is at its worst when a big game is released, or when they have a lot of games selling through Steam seasonal sales.   

Anyone pick-up the PC version and can share their impressions?

I've been keeping an eye on their official forums, and they seem to be sorting through a lot of issues with the PC version.  I don't enjoy having to install lots of mods (GoG version), especially having to mess around with game file directories, so I'm hoping BGEE is successful.  I'd like to see BG2EE in the future too.

I was thinking the same thing.  Miles & Munroe need a romantic getaway weekend together.  I didn't believe Miles for a second when he said that Munroe was dead to him.  Anyone can see that their love runs deep.  Miles was trying to be icy cold, but his emotions spoke otherwise.

The acting on this show is unlike anything I've seen in a long time.  Maybe it's the direction.  Juliette has played the same character on Lost, V and now Revolution.  Where's her male counterpart though?  Father Tom Baldwin from V?  He needs to be on this show asap.         

I credit the movie for 2 things: 
1.  Teaching me that drinking pee is a survival option if I'm ever stranded on a boat
2.  Waverunners can go underwater and then launch up and out like a surfacing submarine

If the remake can be as educational as Kevin Costner's version, I'm all for it.  He had 2 good ones back to back with Waterworld and The Postman.  How could Kostner do that to Will Patton? 

[villain]

Jack from Borderlands 2 is my favorite villain of 2012.  He had me when he started talking about ponies.  

My favorite lead protagonist (so far) would be Lee from The Walking Dead...mostly because no other lead characters really stood out for me.  I haven't played AC3 or Far Cry 3, maybe those leads are more memorable.

My favorite supporting character(s) is a toss up between Tiny Tina from Borderlands 2, and my hired pawns from Dragon's Dogma.  My DD pawns actually showed up in my storybook ending...how cool is that?  And there's no way I could forget their memorable lines...like this one, "The sight of a woman excites it!"

  

It's interesting that there are a few games that have been showing up as GOTY and GOAT.  We've had some polarizing games this year.  ME3, Diablo3, AC3.   

iPad version delayed a week...didn't make it through Apple's certification process due to a crashing bug.

That can't be a good omen.

Uh oh.  It's weird that they haven't had any early reviews to help generate some positive buzz.  If I were them I'd show it off to everyone I could so they could see the difference between this version and the one on GoG. 

Finally the wild and domestic animals of Berlin can breathe a sigh of relief.  It was probably a little hairy at times for them. 

[Guild Wars 2, XCOM, Dragon's Dogma]

I can't give my final nod until after I have a chance to play Far Cry 3. 

As of today...
GOTY Contenders:  Guild Wars 2, XCOM, Dragon's Dogma
GOATs:  Diablo 3 (it's a fun game spoiled by bad loot and the Auction House), Star Wars The Old Republic

I agree with the "re-reviewer's" thoughts on the FTP model.  It's like they implemented an anti free player FTP model. 

What about the backlog? Won't someone please think of the backlog!?

It's always there...wanting to be fed, but I try and ignore it.

Baldur's Gate EE for both PC and iPad (if the reviews are positive).  I would love to be able to play Baldur's Gate on my iPad while I'm traveling.  Hopefully it's good.  I will definitely get Farcry 3 at some point...possibly in December.

$7.49 is a great deal for the Witcher 2.  If you don't already have it, and like rpgs, go get it!

you want to see the Far Cry 3 Map editor trailer?
sure you do!!

I only played around a little with the last game's map editor because the maps could only be used in multiplayer. The inclusion of a single player sandbox mode is, for me, a big plus for the editor, although I notice that the video said "and even some AI" indicating that the AI couldn't be fully implemented on your own map. Still, it's a step up from FC2 and another reason it's definitely a Day One purchase for me.

Oh man...my family is going to love the editor, especially with the single player sandbox mode.  If we can do local splitscreen coop in the sandbox too, that would be awesome.  

It's hard to believe, but the Microsoft Store had the best Black Friday deals this year by pricing almost everything at $9.99 or the $14.99 Forza Horizons. 

Microsoft Store
Gears of War 3 $9.99
FIFA Street $9.99

Steam
Crysis 2 Max Edition $11.99
The Walking Dead $12.49

Toys 'R Us
Skylanders Giants Starter Set $49.99 (we already have the portal, but this deal was cheaper than the set for portal owners)

I picked up Gears 3 and FIFA street for $20 total.  Those are crazy good prices.

Easily GOTY

Yerp, and it's on sale at steam for 12.49 right now, how crazy is that. Peoples if you haven't gotten this yet, you have to.

Just got it from Steam.  Looking forward to getting started.

This election has really brought the crazy...and is still delivering.  It's not like this when it's just 2 old boring white dudes running for President.   

I like the clinic diagnosis the Prime Minister gives in the article:

Barrow also expressed doubts about McAfee's mental state: "I don't want to be unkind to the gentleman, but I believe he is extremely paranoid, even bonkers."

Bonkers! 

That's a damning amateur diagnosis.  It's nearly impossible to come back after being declared bonkers.  Even batshit crazy is better than being bonkers. 

I tried out the FTP model last night.  All of my characters had been moved onto 1 server.  I was told I needed to rename those with red warning signs next to their names...which was pretty much all of them.  After spending about 15 minutes trying to find names that hadn't already been chosen, I logged in with my highest level character (lvl 40 bounty hunter).  A pop up screen letting me know that I am a preferred status player welcomed me, but also pointed out what I was missing compared to subscribers.  The option to subscribe was flashing.  I closed that message and finally saw my bounty hunter, just where I left him months ago. 

He was waiting for me with 1 action bar, the other 3 bars were gone.  Preferred players get 2 bars, which I was able to load back up because my UI preferences were saved.  If you don't have saved preferences you can select the one named "Extended Actionbars" or something like that.  There's now a big Cartel Coin store icon front and top center, just in case I forgot this was FTP. 

I was happy to see that he still had access to his speeders, so no issues there.  The game let me know that only subscribers get rest XP from cantinas, so when I logoff I should just go outside in the snow.  The single player content seemed just like it was before.  But it was hard to go back to after playing GW2.  I prefer the much faster pace and movement of GW2's combat system. 

The perferred status faqs say I'm limited to just 2 characters, but I was able to login with all of my characters last night.  It must be a grace period thing. 

The biggest thumbs down from me is the XP gain penalty that FTP/Preferred players have of -25%.  Give subscribers a boost to XP gain, but don't penalize the FTP crowd.  Another thumbs down  is the performance of the SWTOR engine.  GW2 looks much better and plays smoother.

When he gets caught, I'm sure he'll have a 30 day free trial.

I found this awesome enough that I'll make my first post since sometime in 2008. Gratch, that was excellent. 

Well, after reviewing your full body of GT work, I find that this is the best post you've ever done here.

It's a walk off home run.

I'm guessing Intel execs are wrestling with when to drop the McAfee namesake from their AV products.  AFIK, McAffee has nothing to do with the business since he sold it to Intel.  He's been focused on enjoying his profits and growing, designing and consuming all manner of narcotics.  And apparently associating with drug cartles and other squirrely peeps.

Steam + lower prices for PC titles + Steam's evil holiday sales + PC gaming with a 360 controller = lots of PC gaming time for me too.  I own a PS3 and 360, but it's a no brainer for me when I see a title I want for $59.99 on 360/PS3 versus $39.99-49.99 on PC.  The MP might sway me towards the 360, but that's it...unless the PC port is bad or it comes out months later.

A compromised CIA director is a bad thing...as is a compromised theater commander during an active war.  Knowledge of infidelity is blackmail leverage 101 for other nations and their foreign intelligence, particularly for men who suscribe to the concepts of honor and family.  It has little to do with the infidility itself and more to do with what they would do to keep it a secret.  Both Generals Petraeus and Allen made themselves vulnerable the second they started fooling around.  Yes, they're human, but in those roles they have to be a little smarter about what they do.

What if Jill Kelly were actually working for a foreign intelligence while she's hosting parties inviting the top leadership from US Central Command?  I hope that's not true.  It certainly seems weird at best given that she has no connections to those units or that command.                

[Spoiler]

I thought Rick's approach with the zombie was

Spoiler for Hiden:

his irrational attempt, at first, to get Lori out of the zombie's stomach.  I was really hoping they wouldn't show that.  Thankfully he just rages out and stabs the shit of the zombie instead.  I think some part of him told him not to even go there with cutting open its stomach contents.  They showed something similar in an episode from last season, so I was worried they were going to do it again.

I was also confused by that scene.  Was the flattened bullet evidence that Carl carried out the coup de grace, or did he aim away from her and fire into the ground?  It wasn't clear to me.  What was clear was that the zombie in the room had just fed well.

 

Affirmative. I hope the enhanced editions do well.

I'm getting frustrated just reading about the in-game experiences that some of you have shared.  What the heck happened to this game?  I played a lot of AC and AC2, and I don't remember anything like the frustrating examples posted here.  Unclear mission objectives drive me nuts in any game.       

Arise!  With the freeplay weekend (11/7-11/11), has anyone tried getting back into Rift?  I had a character close to max level at 47, but RL and other games pulled me away and I canceled earlier this year.  I patched up and looked at my characters, and man, it's overwhelming how many soul combos and skills there are in this game.  I'm spoiled by GW2 just having to worry about 1 hotbar of skills.

It looks like they added some soul templates with explanations, which is helpful.  It's still a lot of skills to manage.  After about 30 minutes of trying to relearn some of the souls, I logged off and went back to GW2.  I'll give it another try this weekend.  I enjoyed Rift while I was playing, but I just don't think I could go back.  Both GW2 and TSW intentionally limit the # of active skills you can carry on your hotbar, which I like.  I hate having to manage 3 banks of skills.

If the Preferred Status FTP experience isn't too obnoxious, I'd like to finish up a couple of my storylines.  From what I've read, I have to choose 2 of my characters, and the rest will be locked in their FTP model.  It sounds like they will let players keep and use all of the upgrades and items they purchased as a subscriber.  If that's the case, it might be ok for just experiencing the class stories.

Getting docked 2 months pay (half pay) sucks.  Receiving NJP in the form of a letter of reprimand may not be that big of a deal if their CO keeps it off their permanent service record.  If I had to guess, I bet their local command knew, but the Navy's higher ups didn't, and found out after the fact.  The local command is probably just complying with the least severe penalty they can, while still making it look like a punishment.  At the end of the day, it's game based marketing for SEAL team 6...which is what the Navy should want.  They probably pissed off some admirals in the process though, and pocketed some nice consulting fees...pissing off even more people.  Hopefully they didn't really reveal operational trade secrets, that would have been stupid.         

Maybe the innovation will be that the game doesn't follow the 2-3 hotbar click fest of most mmorpgs, and instead uses a much more streamlined UI?  It sounds like you can choose weapon and armor preferences that are not tied to any class archtype model, which is different from most mmorpgs.  The mega server sounds like a good idea in theory.  

I'm not sure the market will support another subscription fantasy mmorpg though.  Their pricing model could make or break it.  

NY Daily News

"The aviation community has completely changed since we made the movie a long time ago," Bruckheimer told MTV. "So we have to find a way in and how to incorporate the Maverick character into it."

Top Drone?  The film would focus on a group of cagey joystick jocks as they compete for top honors at the Drone, Remote Operator Course.  The latter half of the film follows them in action in real hot spots, dealing with the rigors of flying remote combat sorties from their air conditioned trailer.  Lots of interpersonal drama inside the trailer, with some fun and hijinx in the camp.     

My whole life, I've pronounced this game kah-RAH-tek-a, but I just recently heard Jordan Mechner pronounce it kara-TEK-a.

I've always pronounced it exactly as you have.  No way am I changing it now.  That would be like trying to alter a childhood memory.   

That was a great trailer.  The game on the other hand...hopefully it's better than it looks.

I didn't have enough $ at that age to buy an apple, so I played karateka on my commodore.

Trump seems batshit crazy these days.  

I keep hearing the word "fractured" to describe our political and cultural landscape.  I think what people are really seeing is the impact of diversity on what used to be that mythical white silent majority.  That silent majority doesn't exist anymore...and I think that's what the Romney campaign was referring to when they mentioned they were counting on a wave of faith (rather than looking at the real polling data).  Republicans have always banked on that white majority during my lifetime, but it's just not there anymore...at least not outside the deep south, Texas, straight up to the Dakotas, and Arizona.  The republican leadership needs to come to grips with this reality, the reality that there's not a hive mind silent majority.  Their existing base can't carry elections.

If the republicans want to win in 4 years, they need to think outside their current mishmash of white conservatives, radical white tea party members, and the unfortunate republican leaning moderates that have to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.  They need to think big, and consider developing a candidate in the next 2 years that represents the diversity of their country, and not the lack of diversity of their party.  


      

I played through the first level last night, and I'm really impressed with the graphics.  I don't know how they're getting that out of the 360, but it's a big step up.  I also like the more realistic art style of the covenant.  They look more alien and less cartoony.  I died a few times on the first level, so normal isn't a cakewalk for me...which is good.