Keep in mind though that you need one hand free to use your implement (so you can cast those Healing Words and such)

Just dropping in to say that this isn't correct, in case nobody else has discovered this by now. Implements for clerics don't require the use of any hands. Also, implement powers can be used freely with no penalty even if you don't have an implement. This also means that technically there's no difference between a cleric with a non-magical implement and one with no implement at all.

Be careful about applying knowledge from 3E into 4E. Try to unlearn your old skills.

Are they increasing sub prices as new features come online?  Or are we helping to subsidize development?

They have increased the prices, but those who subscribed with the old prices keep them for the rest of their subscription period. I wouldn't expect prices to rise much more than they've done right now, at least not for a long while, no matter the amount of new features.

I have a subscription to D&D Insider, and I think it's worth it. The character builder is extremely useful (particularly for finding errors on the character sheets your players have made) and allows you to use feats, items and other features from books you don't even own, with full descriptions of what they do.

The D&D Compendium lets you quickly search for items, monsters, feats, rules, skills, etc. from any published source so that you don't have to keep all the rulebooks handy during play. It doesn't matter what books you already own, their contents will still be readily available to you.

Another new application is also set to appear within the next month or two (I think). This is the Monster Builder. It lets you browse through a list of every single monster that has been published so far and gives you its complete stats. Then you can quickly modify it as much or as little as you like. Do you like that Illithid but think it's a bit too high in level? No problem, drop it a couple of levels with the press of a button, and the information on the screen will be instantly adjusted. Not only that, but you can even build your own monsters from scratch with this utility. From what I've seen, it looks like a really useful tool that I can't wait to try out.

What are good hybrid classes that are needed in groups? Rune-Keeper?

I play a captain, and I don't think you'll be able to find a more true hybrid class than that in the game at the moment. The runekeeper only has two roles, and he has to choose one of them at the beginning of combat, making it really hard to dynamically change roles while fighting. The captain can (but doesn't have to) fill several roles depending on what your group needs. Those roles include main buffer (this is big. The difference between having a captain or not in a fellowship makes a dramatic difference on everyone's abilities), secondary healer (you'll be asked to heal the healer, but you'll also give some juicy heals to the rest of the group, only you can't really do it on demand), secondary tank, and to a certain degree, DPS. Even if you stat up to just one of these roles you'll be able to take on any of the other ones at a moment's notice.

Quick question before I commit...does the game look as good as this video does WITHOUT DX10? I have XP so no dx10 for me. Thnx!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtir8DNELzw

Almost. The only differences between the DX9 and DX10 versions that I've heard about or seen (I've tried both) are the shadows and the water. Water looks really good no matter which version you use, but the DX10 version has more advanced effects such as refraction. The shadows are easier to see a difference in. All objects cast static shadows in DX9, while the DX10-version has dynamic shadows. This results in cool effects like individual leaves in trees casting shadows on the ground that sway back and forth. You need a reasonably beefy PC to be able to use that option though. Honestly, you're not likely to notice much difference during gameplay unless you look for it.

Moon has 1/6 earth gravity.

To launch something from moon surface, you need 1/6 of the power needed to launch that from earth surface.

Moon lander doesn't have 1/6 the power of the rocket that launched apollo to moon orbit.

Moon lander doesn't have enough power to launch from moon surface to moon orbit.

Since those astronauts who "moonwalked" were back to earth, then the moon landing was fake.

Moonwalking can only be true if those astronauts were stranded on moon surface and never returned.

Could someone please install a slapping plugin for the forum so that I can slap VR to his senses? Pretty please? With a cherry on top?

It's fun to hear the text from the original with full voiceover for once. Some of the characters are absolutely hilarious with their new voices, such as the shopkeeper ("Ahoy there, fancypants!"). I keep coming across stuff I had forgotten about, such as this particular section from when you're trying to learn swordfighting:

Swordfighting instructor: "Alright, so we're fighting up a storm. There's a pause in the fighting, and I say: 'You fight like a dairy farmer!'. You respond?"
Guybrush: "You must be thinking of someone else. I'm not a farmer."
Swordfighting instructor: "... I can see we've got a lot of work to do here."

 

I have that bug in Windows 7. It can also be fixed by changing the resolution within the game.

Maybe if they add catchable trainable pets you fight in arenas with.  Bet no one has thought of that.  

I hate you.   




 

I've slowed down my playing in lotro.  My Warden hit 52 and I think I might have hit the wall. I've enjoyed the game, but Ifeel like I am grinding now. Didn't have that feeling til I hit 50

You shouldn't feel like you're grinding at that level. The levels around 50 are the most densely populated levels in terms of quests, so you should be able to cherry-pick just what you want. Perhaps you should try doing the main story quests from Shadows of Angmar? The story is really good.

In short, life on a Star Destroyer must have been pretty boring. It was probably much more exciting to be a planetary governor, Moff or Grand Moff.

I doubt it, since STAR WARS IS FAKE

Prove it.

Woot!

You guys definately need to post some AAR type summaries for those of us "watching".

I'm not exactly sure how you plan on making any real progress without a Halfling in your party; as we all know they are the backbone to any successful adventure - but I suppose you will just need to make the best of it.   

Safe journeys!

The last time one of my groups had a halfling in the party, it was an NPC and ended up decapitating the party's dwarf in his sleep... with a dagger. The rest of the party thanked him for it.

Of course, this was in Warhammer.

I've never understood why they can't take such a rich environment like the Star Wars universe and make a game that doesn't have to involve Jedi, The Empire, or the Alliance as anything more than a backdrop to a story that doesn't revolve around one of those.

I'm hoping that the upcoming Star Wars TV-show will pave the way for stuff like that, though I suspect there may be a jedi among the main characters.

I dunno. I thought the whole idea behind Star Destroyers was that they carried so much firepower that the presence of even one was enough to cause fear in the system it was in. So, the challenges posed to one SD would not be much of a challenge at all. If they were a challenge for a Star Destroyer, then people would start to get the idea that SD's weren't so tough after all.

On second thought, maybe that's why the Rebellion got as far as it did. Maybe SD's were just paper tigers and it took a few courageous Rebels to get people to see that?

Your first thoughts are pretty much right. The Empire had thousands of Star Destroyers at its peak, but the amount of solar systems under their control was so large that they were still spread out thin. The Rebel Alliance never had weapons that were able to properly deal with Star Destroyers, so they tended to avoid them. The arrival of a Star Destoyer would be a cue to escape through hyperspace. The only rebel ship that could almost stand up to a SD would be the Mon Calamari cruisers, but the rebels only had a handful of those and couldn't take the chance of going toe to toe with Star Destroyers with them.

In short, life on a Star Destroyer must have been pretty boring. It was probably much more exciting to be a planetary governor, Moff or Grand Moff.

Also: Is it really necessary to make a whole new thread, in PC Gaming, about a game that doesn't exist and probably won't? Under a thread title that seems to indicate that the game is under production?

is this monkey island the faithful recreation of the original or is this a new chapter?

It is the original with new art, music and voiceovers. You can switch back to the old version by pressing a key at any time if you like. There's nothing new in it apart from that.

On the other hand, the NEW Monkey Island game was released last week. That's technically MI5, and is going to be released in five chapters. Last week was chapter 1. Well worth picking up.

I always liked how normal people are seemingly able to walk back and forth to the North Pole in this movie, while wearing normal clothes and not using more than a few hours.

It would be easier to just drop the T and say SWOR.

I once again have to state my love for this series. The third episode of this season in particular was brilliant television with a finale that I probably watched five times just because it was so awesome.

I bought Witcher.  Will advise in 24 hours....

Whatever you do, make sure you actually finish the game. The events of the last hour are extremely vital to everything that happens throughout the entire game. And that's all I'm going to say about that. Enjoy!

Yeah, anything can be considered an act of war. NK has repeatedly said stuff like "If you do X, we'll consider it an act of war and react accordingly!" (not that they ever do, but that's a different discussion). The real question is whether or not the rest of the world will agree that it was an appropriate act of war. NK would never get such approval, and the US wouldn't get it either for something like cyber-terrorism. Even a government-sanctioned killing of another nation's people may in some situations not be considered a real act of war. It's complex.

I think I'm near the end of the first episode now. It's pretty good, and also larger than I had expected. There's quite a bit to do on the island the episode takes place on, despite it looking somewhat barren at first. The puzzles range from very easy to somewhat hard.

The game has turned off my computer twice though. I don't know why.

We didn't want the vision of the game to be in any way distorted or damped. An odd example of that occured during a conversation with a publisher who said that on account of their market research players overall want their protagonist to be an elfish woman and that if we had changed The Witcher accordingly they would have considered negotiating a contract

Lol, this one is funny. Is there even a game with an elfish woman as a protagonist (besides WoW and other MMOs)? I think that publisher was trying to make his secret fantasy come true.

I don't think they meant to force the player to be an elf woman. They probably just wanted the player to be able to choose among (or create) several protagonists, one of which would be an elf woman. Which is still completely retarded considering The Witcher's setting.

This discussion sounds like "I dreamt that you were mean to me last night, so I'm going to be mad at you all day!"

I pick up a lot of "man vs. nature" vibe from anime, but science vs. nature?  Must have missed that one.

I guess those are two sides of the same coin. Science is always done by mankind in these stories, and there's usually a scientist or two behind the bad things that happen.

Having said that, character design in Japanese games is much worse.

I think you're saying something different from what you mean. What you mean is that character design in Japanese games is less appealing to you. It's not arbitrarily worse than that in shooter games, as Gratch was pointing out.

Of course! Anything else would be kind of stupid of me to assume. :p

Still, I think the general Japanese approach to character design is so horrible that it's approaching fact territory. I guess this is the time to mention that I can't stand anime either, for much of the same reasons (and the fact that 90% of Japanese storytelling is about science (evil!) vs nature (good!)).

Probably good news for the republican party too. Means they won't have to deal with her bullshit in public again.

Woohoo, another Japanese game where you control a bunch of kids who aren't old enough to buy a beer even if they add their ages together. Consider me surprised.

No wait, consider me out!

This stuff cracks me up.  I'm going to start dropping into all the FPS game threads and saying "Wooo, another space marine/WW II shooter with ridiculous macho men and chicks in skimpy clothing.  Consider me surprised." and see how quickly I get flamed.  

You do that. I'll be right there next to you saying the same thing. Character design in games is generally pretty bad these days.

Having said that, character design in Japanese games is much worse. It reflects the common Japanese stereotype of trying hard not to be different and just repeating what worked before. It's so bad that I got pleasantly surprised that the new Castlevania game actually features a protagonist that looks like he's about 40, with a European look and without being overly macho. I didn't know the Japanese even knew what that looked like. :p

The times where I've been in a two-man captain-only team, we've felt invincible.

Woohoo, another Japanese game where you control a bunch of kids who aren't old enough to buy a beer even if they add their ages together. Consider me surprised.

No wait, consider me out!

The second town was a 70 MB download. Not 3 GB. Unless the person who wrote the quote likes to exaggerate enough to ruin their own arguments, the reviewer version of the game was different.

[needed]

This almost makes sense-except when you consider the quotation of the 4th post where it is stated that a 3GB update was needed to be installed in order to play.

Have you asked any of those of us who play Sims 3 if we had to download that update? I didn't. What's going on here is probably a form of copy protection used for review copies of the game. By making them jump through this hoop, you complicate any leaking to the warez scene, hopefully delaying a pirated release enough that the legal version gets out first.

[Spoiler]

well i'm gonna call it a day with this as well,on about mission 25 and its just getting fucking ridiculous,its the one where you have to 'protect' the blood pump thing and bring out that Elizabeth Greene out into the open(so the mission objective says)

wave after wave after wave of those monsters keep attacking the blood pump,then two of those tentacle things start throwing cars at it,while more waves keep on attacking,and to top to off the Blackwatch are shooting at you as well,after about 40 minutes of repeating and repeating i thought fuck it,i've had enough

Spoiler for Hiden:

I found that one to be quite easy once I realized I could pull off my devastators with little to no negative effects on the vehicle I was protecting. When the final wave (two supreme hunters and two tentacles) attacked, I did two tendril devastators (can't remember its exact name right now) which killed the hunters and let me focus on the tentacles. At that point the battle was a breeze. The boss afterwards, on the other hand, is an exercise in patience.

7.8 million to thieves and parasites that steal other people's hard work. I hope that sentence from a month ago or so sticks to these bastards.

I doubt they'll see much if it- most of it's probably going towards the fine and legal costs.

They're not even seeing that. It's all supposedly going to an internet fund to promote the kinds of ideas the Pirate Bay represented.

Hmm, I though all Pirates! were greedy booty loving malcontents hell bent on nefarious plots to bury gold?  Anyone know exactly what kinds of idea they represented?

I'm not really sure what their plans are, but I would suspect they'll be focusing on making new ways to exchange information online anonymously.

7.8 million to thieves and parasites that steal other people's hard work. I hope that sentence from a month ago or so sticks to these bastards.

I doubt they'll see much if it- most of it's probably going towards the fine and legal costs.

They're not even seeing that. It's all supposedly going to an internet fund to promote the kinds of ideas the Pirate Bay represented.

You dont dare hackers,  the whole point of being a hacker is basically the challenge.  Why offer them one?

It's not a challenge for the crackers. In fact, it's so rudimentary and boring (read: not glorious) that they probably won't bother. Your thinking isn't exactly the same as the pirates'.

I feel like the two sides of this argument are discussing two completely different things. The people who are against this way of dealing with piracy keep stating that games will eventually be released incomplete, requiring a download to get the whole experience. Of course this won't happen. Don't be silly!

What's happening is that more companies offer something extra for the game, something that will extend or increase your enjoyment of the game without crippling it by not being present. Once again, The Sims 3 is a good example of how this is going to be approached. The game box contains the entire game. Nothing is missing. You could have nothing but that box and still keep playing the game for ages. If you register your game though, you get access to a whole new city to place your sims in, which adds value on top of the already solid game. You also get a bit of free money to use on the Sims store, which adds even more value. Is the game a demo because these things weren't included in the box? Of course not!

as I said - Stardock model, and it works damn well for them. Brad has previously stated re his Galciv II, that his latest versions werent cracked at all. I doubt that any money is lost on this model

Yeah. The pirate scene is all about the "glory" of being first to release the big new games, applications and movies. Once someone has released a fully working version, they all lose interest and move on to the next thing. There is no glory in releasing DLC and patches.

The pirates are just going to pack up the full version. They have rules about releases you know.

Yes, they do. It needs to be the full version (which these games are), it needs to be fully playable without encountering any issues from copy protection, and it needs to be simple. Those aren't even absolute rules. The only one that REALLY counts is the "be the first group to release it" rule, and this is the one everyone strives for. Cracking patches and DLC is more of an exception than a rule, and it adds a layer of complication for the pirates where the owners of the game would only have to click a button in the interface to get it.

The first time I saw Thomas Jane emerge shirtless from the water in Deep Blue Sea, I nearly jizzed in my pants. 

Wow, I don't think it was necessary to have that described to me.   

Though I'm sure you wouldn't even have blinked if "Thomas Jane" was replaced with "Jessica Alba" or something similar, eh? :p

Demos? Oh come on! Have you tried The Sims 3? Is the base game a demo to you? If so, you must be playing some pretty damn fantastic demos.