Tilt, this version contains all bonus content so I can't really see what you mean.
http://downloads.webhallen.com/product/?id=15072

I bought Sims3 via Ztorm and it worked perfectly, unlike Steam you can uninstall everything else but the game and it still works.

I'm unfamiliar with this site. What is it all about? Is it limited to Swedish residents? I can read Swedish, but it just takes a little longer than Norwegian or English.

Is this a download version of the game? What are its limitations? Why is the release date almost two weeks earlier than the official one? It all sounds a little sketchy. It's also MORE expensive than the EA Store version.

Yeah, I think so. Which makes their treatment of non-US and non-UK customers even more appalling. We're some of the world's most active gamers here in Scandinavia (thanks to the weather and the expensive beer), which makes it extra insulting when we're treated like we don't even exist.

I bought some Open Lock scrolls, but it wasn't able to open any of the chests that I dug up/found. I guess there is a limit to the open lock scrolls.

Those particular chests are quest related and can't be opened until the plot tells you to.

The way things are looking, I might just end up buying from EA Store because it's the edition that offers the most "bonus content" and I might as well see how their store works (or doesn't). I need to think some more about it.

I also found 2 rings that give +1 to sword each- all I need is a better sword (something more powerful than Arics) that gives me +1 to sword and I'll have it maxed out.

I never found any other swords that gave bonuses to the skill, so don't count on it. I was extremely thorough in my exploration too, going into every single cave I could find and more or less exterminating every hostile creature on the island, as well as completing nearly every quest.

I was pretty glad to have the Open Lock rune in the end, despite having rank 2 in the skill. About half the chests you find in chapter 4 are locked and need rank 3 to open, and the lockpicking system is FUBAR anyway. I mean, what were they thinking? There's no skill involved, so they might as well have gone with random chance. The way it's now is just annoying and I found myself using the rune instead of the skill even for chests I could pick manually.

Uncharted 2!!!!! (gasp! Five exclamation marks. A sure sign of a truly insane mind)

Ah, makes me happy to live in a nation with a socialized medical system. No wait, I was already happy about that!

Just curious, TiLT, but what price is it going for via digital download over there? (and where is 'there' anyway?) The Collector's Edition is going to be a pretty consistent $60-$65 over here in retail locations, and download sites are also in line with that.  As for regional restrictions, my guess is there has to be some sort of financial reason behind it.  I know distributors like Stardock and Valve would be more than happy to sell more copies, so it's not a choice on their end.

I know it's not the fault of Stardock or Valve. EA just likes to promote their own store, which sells their products at ghastly prices and through their crappy download client. The current price for the "Digital Deluxe" edition at the EA Store is 479 NOK (I live in Norway), which is about $85 according to current exchange rates. There's just no way they can justify that price for a digital edition when competing products (Risen for example) sell for half that price or less.

I can understand region restricting digital downloads as long as there's a reasonable alternative. In this case however, all the downloads are restricted to the US or are so overprised that I can't see how anyone would ever want to buy it, particularly since it's only available through the EA Store over here. I could go to the store and get it way cheaper than as a digital download, yet both the publisher and developer will receive less money that way. Stupidity in action!

There! Finally completed the game. It was a long ride, and in the end I was ready for it to be over. The three first chapters are great, while the fourth feels like it drags because I had already pretty much maxed out my character by then. All I had left to upgrade that might be useful to me was my mana capacity, and that doesn't really make much of a difference for individual battles. I was level 27 in the end.

Great game!

I was level 18 with maxed out Fireball by the time I finished chapter 2. That spell got really powerful when I leveled it from level 9 to 10. Where I previously had to wait several seconds for the spell to recharge, it now recharges in about a second, letting me kill most creatures before they get close to me. Even creatures that I in the middle of chapter 2 thought would be really hard even when fully leveled are now pretty easy, such as ogres.

In fact, the entire game has been pretty easy since about the middle of chapter 2.

Spoiler for what? What do we have to know in advance before we click that spoiler tag? Come on, throw us a hint at least!

In my opinion, Obamas removal of the rocket shield in eastern Europe has done more for world peace than anything else in a long while. That alone should count for a lot.

Well, Fire gains an improvement at level 5 (increased blast radius and more splash damage), so I assume Ice gains a similarly thematic upgrade at the same level. I suspect there's an additional upgrade at level 10, but I'm only at 6 so far.

[Spoiler]

How to beat Aric without becoming frustrated:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Don't go around leveling up or improving your fighting skills beyond rank 2. It's not necessary. Let him beat you once, then go talk to Caspar. He'll tell you of an alternate way to deal with him, using a bit of trickery and alcohol. Following his instructions will make the fight against Aric just as easy as the previous fight you won, or perhaps even easier.

Spoiler for Hiden:

He already beat me once (took ma money!) and now he back in the Arena waiting. Caspar has no options though.

Spoiler for Hiden:

You should get him out of the arena. Let him beat you again.

[Spoiler]

How to beat Aric without becoming frustrated:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Don't go around leveling up or improving your fighting skills beyond rank 2. It's not necessary. Let him beat you once, then go talk to Caspar. He'll tell you of an alternate way to deal with him, using a bit of trickery and alcohol. Following his instructions will make the fight against Aric just as easy as the previous fight you won, or perhaps even easier.

It seems I was mistaken in my assumption of what this DLC was. Turns out you HAVE to pay for this one even if you own the game, which changes things considerably. They could at least have held it back for a few weeks to not make it look like such a cash stunt.

Hacks and cracks mean very little when it comes to the 360 and PS3, particularly the latter. Piracy is rare enough that it doesn't cause any huge problems on those platforms.

DLC included in game packages is nothing new. My purchase of Prince of Persia from Play.com included the DLC expansion for free, for example. It was in the form of a code I could input into the PSN store that unlocked the DLC for my account. After that, the code would be invalid for anyone else attempting to use it.

The only situation in which you'd be able to access the DLC when purchasing used would be if the original owner hadn't unlocked the DLC for himself.

The point is to make it way more appealing to purchase new rather than a used copy without making the game worthless without it. I think it's a brilliant move that could do wonders to help the game industry become more profitable. The only caveat is that not downloading the DLC shouldn't gimp the game experience. It's a nice incentive for people to support the industry.

oh, and I found the alchemist in the Monastery.  that indeed was a cool little puzzle to find him, and knowing there is an open spell makes me sad I spent 10 points on pick locks 1 & 2.

I dunno. I'm a mage and have still trained lockpicking to the second rank because I haven't found even a single Open Lock scroll, and least of all the rune. I have no idea where to find it, but I suspect it might not appear until later chapters (I'm in chapter 2).

You're not really supposed to fight that guy like that, but if you managed to win, more power to you. I couldn't take him out even on Easy and instead followed the alternate route to get through it.

I've got the game but have too much on my plate to play it much at the moment. I'll get back to it later, but I don't know when. Need to finish all the other great games coming out first, such as Risen, Uncharted 2, Brütal Legend, Dragon Age, etc... Life sure sucks.   

OK, I'm officially starting to find combat with humans boring.  block block block, be blocked be blocked be blocked, rinse, repeat, occasionally hit

What, is your skill at level 1 or something? What you're describing is combat between two unskilled combatants. Once you get past level 1 in a combat skill you can do parries, counter attacks, side attacks (at certain ranks) and other fancy stuff that makes things more involved.

I want to get HDMI cables for my PS3, which would be the best for the best price?
What do they even do? Send more info, faster?

Some people will try to tell you that higher quality cables produce a higher quality signal. These people are clinically insane and should not be listened to. Buy the cheapest cable you can find, it makes absolutely no difference to the signal.

Hooray once again for the media either not understanding or just choosing to disregard actual facts. This was followed up with "Gmail accounts also had their passwords stolen", implying that both Hotmail and Gmail have massive security holes where there are none.

This is merely a case of user stupidity. It has nothing to do with Hotmail or Gmail except that the phishers pretended to be those services. Unless you are stupid, your password is safe.

[Spoiler]

1) Where can I get Alchemy 3? I'm assuming the guy in the Monastery can do it based on posts here, but I haven't found him yet (just his lab late at night filled with +3 Wisdom books).

Spoiler for Hiden:

I think the alchemist in the monastery can train you all the way to 3. You've nearly found him. The area you're in is the correct one, but it's all a big puzzle that you need to solve. Spend some time there and look closely at your surroundings. You're bound to find him sooner or later.

There is an alchemist in the Monastery, but he's well hidden. Trying to find him is a very cool quest in itself.

Enemies don't respawn, but new, more powerful enemies are added at certain points, particularly between chapters.

Sounds like I'll be spending my 5 leftover points on Alchemy 3 then.

The negative side to going bananas with your alchemy skill like you've done is that you won't be able to go past the maximum training limit. The idea is to let trainers take you to the max and then use potions to increase your level past that, but when you've used the potions in advance you won't be able to do that. Still, that's only an issue if you were expecting to hit the limit in the first place.

Personally, I'm going the way of the Mages as well, but I'll be keeping the sword/shield out. Not being able to shield block is extremely dangerous against certain animals (anything that attacks 'low', like wolves and such), as you can't block them.

That's what I do too. I find I don't get penalized for using sword and board instead of a staff, especially since I'm using an enchanted sword that gives me +1 to the Sword skill, leaving it at the same level as Staff. I've got much better weapons lying around (including a 50 or so damage staff), but I don't want to use my precious Learning Points to increase my Strength enough to use them. I'm considering improving my Alchemy to level 3 and creating some permanent strength potions since I'll never hit the cap in that stat anyway.

I think this might be a game I could actually replay. I feel like I've skipped a large amount of content by going with the mages instead of the bandit camp. Not only would that give me a different view of the story, but I'd also use different skills from the ones I use right now. Focusing on melee must be a pretty different experience from trying to fireball monsters to death before they get close to you.

Damn, and I beat that bastard twice! He is really hard. Oh well... It was a very good learning experience. At least it got me ready for all those War Crickets. 

What, you mean the ones that go down in 3 fireballs?

I like the game, but combat can really tick you off. Be ready to hit the "load" button tons of times. Right now I'm trying to beat a particularly nasty guy, for the second time, and it is hard as nails!

If you find yourself up against a really frustrating fight, you've done something wrong. Either you're in a location you're not supposed to be in yet (gain a few more levels first) or you're not supposed to deal with the situation that way. I got frustrated because of the latter during a section in the early part of the Monastery (for mages. Dunno if it's the same for warriors) where I had to fight a specific guy that could take 30-40 hits to go down while he took me out in 1 or 2. Turns out there's a much better way to deal with that situation if you ask around a little.

I had that bug too. More alarmingly, it returned for the main quest in chapter 2, forcing me through the roof when I tried to enter a very important doorway. I don't understand why this hasn't been mentioned anywhere else that I can find on the Internet. I was starting to fear that I wouldn't be able to proceed until I transformed into a Nautilus, which let me pass through.

Having said that, I haven't actually found many bugs in this game. It's been the two doorways as well as a monster that got stuck in terrain and some bizarre movements when falling down from somewhere. Minor stuff, except the doorway thing.

All your companions are your current level at any given time, regardless of whether you bring them along or not.

Yeah, it's a carbon copy of Gothic 2. However, the reviewer from Realgamer seems to think Risen copies Fable, Monster Hunter and The Elder Scrolls. It's as if he's trying to be an internet troll on purpose.

360 reviews:

Eurogamer 4/10
Realgamer 3/10

Keep in mind that these two reviews seem to be written by people with no real relation to the Gothic series. Particularly the Realgamer review suffers from that. The 360 port also seems to be very shoddy, as the PC version doesn't suffer from most of the negatives presented in these reviews.

This segment from the Realgamer review is extremely damning for the reviewer:

The thing that annoys me most about Risen is the brazen way it steals ideas from so many better sources and pretends that they are in some way original. After half an hour an experienced RPG-er will likely be suffering from severe gamer deja-vu: chests are hidden and opened exactly as they are in Fable, the item collection and filing is practically the same as in Monster Hunter, dialogue and character interactions are a very poor copy of the system used by Bethesda, the setting has been done a hundred times before and the whole thing ends up feeling like a collection of leftovers. With the performance issues, there is practically nothing to keep you playing beyond an urge to find out how much worse things can get.

Oh my, that man is going to get flamed to death today.

after seeing so many series I like get canned in their first season I think I'll wait for this to get a second season (if it gets picked up beyonf the pilot) and then rent it on DVD.

And you wonder why series get canceled...

How is character creation?

Male. female, customization?

There is no character creation in Gothic/Risen. All character customization is done through training by using XP.

According to the reviews I've read, Risen is a very polished and bug-free product. Yes, they've found some minor glitches, but nothing near the scale of what we're used to from the Gothics.