[Still for their genres, I'd say Blizzard takes the story cake hands down.]

That's because Blizzard doesn't make RPG's, Bioware does.  Action RPG's (Diablo) and MMORPG's (WoW) aren't what I'd consider "true" RPG's, thus the story restrictions.  Still for their genres, I'd say Blizzard takes the story cake hands down.  I wouldn't say Bioware is innovative either.  All their stories are cut and paste formulas.  I'll give them some credit on gameplay.  Overall, I'd take Blizzard easily.  Other than Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 I never replay Bioware games.  The hours I've sunk into Blizzard games, even excluding WoW, is probably order(s) of magnitude higher than the hours spent on Bioware epics.

Blizzard games have stories? 

Sure they do.  Even just Warcraft III had an amazingly involved backstory that intertwined with the story of Arthas as it played out in the game.

I'll reserve my spot.  I finished a buttload of games (24 total) in 2009.

What's really crazy is I've finished 73 games (all the way through to the ending credits) from 2006-2009.

January - Torchlight (PC)
February - System Shock 2 (PC), Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC), Mass Effect 2 (PC)
March - Mass Effect (PC), Mass Effect 2 (PC) for the 2nd time!, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA)

Diablo 1 was on the original Playstation I think.  The great Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance games were basically Diablo on the Playstation 2.

This isn't a big stretch.

I've never played it, but I understand Immortal Defense is available as a "pay what you want" sale now.

Hmm.  Not sure.  I actually bought the game when Direct 2 Drive had it on sale for $5 so I don't know if Valve worked out a different DRM arrangement with them.  That sounds a lot better than what I thought.

Edit: To be honest, the game is so good (especially Butcher Bay) that it's completely worth it even with restrictive DRM, especially at that price.  It's a no-brainer.

actually, assault on dark Athena always included EfBB.  It's the one with updated graphics. 

I know. Just emphasizing that you're getting two games for six and some change. Seems like a good deal.

It's a good deal and they are great games, especially for that price.

Just an FYI.  I'm fairly sure the Steam version has Tages DRM which has a hard limit of three installations and doesn't allow you to revoke (get back) any activations.

When I get to 10,000 posts (if Ron still has me on the moderator list) I'm going to delete everyone's account but mine.

Eh.  It looks like crap with tits.

I did like Starbuck's goodbye, though I wish they cleared up the father/missing Cylon link. 

Why did you like her goodbye? There was absolutely no explanation for anything about her - if she was a cylon or a human or hybrid or angel or how she was on earth before or how she knew what she did or, well, anything. Then she just disappeared. All those little plots they wrote for her, not a single one of them meant anything after that.

It was blatantly lazy writing, IMO.

http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/The_Destiny

The nature of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace's specific destiny began in the Season 1 episode, "Flesh and Bone"...

It didn't always make a lot of sense to me but I'm not sure I'd use the word lazy.

http://www.abevigoda.com/ffb.php

Abe Vigoda is alive

Page loaded Monday December 21 2009 4:31:54 AM PT

Reload page for update

[Best kill by stabbing someone in the freaking eye:]

Best kill by stabbing someone in the freaking eye:  The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.

My sons are 10, 12 & 13 and love the following games:  Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Small World, Pirate's Cove, Coloretto, Memoir 44 and Heroscape.

That was a seriously boring trailer.

I've had the PX-100's for five years and no problems here.  In fact, I think I might have recommended them to you.   

All my typical choices were mentioned: Baldur's Gate II, Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy XII.  I definitely love RPG's but for my game of the decade I have to go with Rock Band 2.

Which is crazy because I resisted getting a "plastic instrument game" for so long but there's something so compelling about drumming on Rock Band 2 that creates an itch I never knew I had.  Since we picked it up early last summer I've been obsessed with drumming.  I started on Easy and have now progressed to some songs on Expert.  I find myself tapping out rhythms without realizing it.  My wife will giggle and say "Do you realize you're drumming again?"  I don't realize it, it's just something I do now.  I listen to songs and I'm trying to figure out the beat.  It's crazy and I'm a bit embarrassed by my love for this game.

Other games I've loved but I can't think of a game that's crept into my day-to-day life the way Rock Band 2 has.

This is one show I never was able to like and I'm a big sci-fi fan.  I watched all the episodes until about halfway through season 2 and it never got better for me.  I didn't find the characters interesting. The blue lady and the gray-skinned one were irritating.  So was the Klingon-wannabe.  All I could see of Claudia Black was her nose.   The dumb voiceover and the screeching song during the credits made my head hurt.  I actually didn't mind the muppets that much compared to the rest of it.

I even tried to watch an episode or two last week when I saw they were up on Netflix.  Still hated it.   

In Soviet Arkansas violin plays you!

Beatles: Rock Band was a quasi-religious experience for me.

Batman was amazing start to finish.  Loved that game.

Red Faction: Guerrilla was probably the most "fun" I've had with a game for a long time.

Plants vs. Zombies was the game I didn't expect to spend as much time with.  I could still play it over and over.

I just wish Microsoft would put some of their back catalog on Steam (or Impulse or something else).  I'd totally buy Rise of Nations Gold, Rise of Legends, Age of Empires III.  And those are just right off the top of my head so there's probably others I'd pick up.

[at least]

7 steps, or they could just allow me to install my damn games where I want like everyone else.

Dude.  You've made at least 7 posts on the issue in this thread.  More than one for each step it would take to fix the problem.  You want us to just send wonderpug over to your house to do it for you?

Jackie Chan is not an action star. He's a comedian.

And comedians typically do this?

Im dizzy.

What kills me is he did all those stunts himself including the incredible slide down the wire with the lights at the end.  The man was insane.

Jackie Chan is not an action star. He's a comedian.

And comedians typically do this?

QUALIFIED!

DISQUALIFIED AGAIN!

Jean Claude Van Damme - No Retrea No Surrender, Blood Sport & Cyborg all in the 80's

DISQUALIFIED!

Jackie Chan in Police Story (1985) beats all of these.

Sean Penn is a fabulous actor.  Dead Man Walking is one of the few movies that can make me tear up.

Yep Michael in The Godfather is better than any single performance DeNiro ever gave but overall DeNiro gets the nod for his consistency.  Like Pete said, Pacino often seems to be playing Pacino no matter what the role.

Great news Huw!  Definitely post pictures when you can.

I was way ahead of you guys in observing the threat/promise that is CeeKay.

Don't even mention problems like these unless you've tried to quit out of Assassin's Creed 1 on PC.

Yeesh.

I have a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology.  And I majored in English for a couple of years in undergrad.

And I'm still an idiot.

Maybe get her a DS?

If your deal with earicci doesn't go through I'll take you up on it as well.

Curious.....why do you think Mass Effect is deserving of top billing? Look at every other major RPG on the system, don't you think that they do what Mass does, only better? Oblivion and Fallout 3 alone are not only better (in my opinion), but trump Mass Effect on almost every level I can think of, especially in terms of graphics and control.

I don't know that I'd say it's the best game on the 360 but it's definitely in the top 5 for me.  Don't even get me started on Oblivion's random groups of bandits with full daedric armor that level up along with you.

From the article:

It moves the genre towards exciting combat and away from menus and bogged down die-rolling. It takes the conversations and makes them feel cinematic and immersive through innovative new interactions and camera cuts. It forces the player to make difficult decisions that they'll feel the full weight of in Mass Effect 2 once it reads your save and sets your actions in stone... and I don't want to hear your whiny excuses about waiting for an elevator ride to finish its 30 second ride.

I can't argue with that.  I liked the combat a lot more than Fallout 3's VATS system.  The conversation system wasn't really revolutionary but it was done differently and felt fresh to me.  I liked the decisions you had to make in the game and the elevator rides never bothered me at all.

The credit for the sense of immersion I felt while playing goes to the writing, to the high caliber voice acting, and the overall world design that combines a convincing artistic style with a broad fictional backdrop and the best soundtrack in recent memory. It was an experience where I didn't obsess about statistics or my morality gauge or any of the traditional RPG systems meant to distract attention from the core experience. Instead, I just concentrated on role-playing. Considering how many other products of this type try to compensate for their lack of character with overly complex crafting mechanics and non-combat diversions, I found this streamlined, story-focused approach refreshing, and without a doubt one of the most memorable experiences that can be had on an Xbox 360.

And again, I can't argue with anything he said.  The writing was phenomenal.  The world they created was engrossing in a way that Fallout 3 wasn't.

Also C. S. Lewis died that same day.   

I love Mass Effect and played it through twice on the 360.  I also have the Windows version and it is occasionally quite glitchy with my fresh install of Windows 7 (won't launch, crashes, etc).

FWIW, I've played quite a bit of Mass Effect on Win 7 64 bit without issue.  Both disc and Steam versions (yeah, yeah I've bought it a total of three times now including the 360 release). 

Maybe I need to buy another copy and it will like me more?

Seriously three times?  I thought I was nuts for buying it twice!

I love Mass Effect and played it through twice on the 360.  I also have the Windows version and it is occasionally quite glitchy with my fresh install of Windows 7 (won't launch, crashes, etc).

Assassin's Creed was a lot of fun on the PC and looked phenomenal.  Play it with a gamepad though as it controls better.

Not really. 

I never played Quake 2  .

Dude!  I bought four PC games one Christmas: Quake 2, Half-Life, Jedi Knight and (of course) Thief.  I must've played through Quake 2 three different times including finishing it on the hardest difficulty level.  I loved that game.

But I'm guessing it doesn't hold up too well anymore.