/depaint

...Do you know what you've done?!

*paints the forums with a nuke*

NUCLEAR LAUNCH DETECTED.

*DECLOAKES*

Ghost reporting...

Back~! Well for a bit anyways, just long enough to make a point or two and disapear into a puff of smoke... also know as school.

The problem is that there are so many great games at the moment that complete statisfaction is impossible in a single genera. Games are like food, one day we'll want some skyrim for dinner - but maybe the day afterwards we feel like starting our breakfast with a side helping of starcraftII toast and battlefield cerial. It's a crappy analogy now that I've read it again, but it does make a point on how we want changes day by day. Games are very good now a days as well; but sometimes they can be a tad daunting to 'complete'. Skyrim takes at least 200 hours to beat (guestimate) - every questline, every quest, max level... and so on. But there is also multiple ways of ending the game. Games are built more on the WOW model that we honestly are getting too much at times and so they become a choire to beat rather then a pleasure. Crono-trigger was the first game that really had this as far as I experianced as it had that agravating New game + option that lead too SO MANY ways of "beating the game". It's not actually a problem unless your a raging completionist... unfortunatly all of us as old school gamers are. I would say in a broad statement that games are designed now to be more casual then completionsitic as they are something that you can pick up and play and play without ever beating them. The thing I miss personally is the sense of accomplishment at "beating a game". Portal 1 + 2 were games that could be beaten for example - As were games like supermario brother games. They had an excate time table to them. I miss actually winning.

I bought New Vegas three times.

I downloaded new-vegas for the sole purpose of testing it on my system to see how the glitch (game) would handle. It crashed every 30 minutes or less, and would corrupt upon auto and quick save stacking (that was never properally addressed for most PC users as it required specific windows operating procedures). I did enjoy it though ultimately dispite these issues, and I bought a legit copy on steam when it was part of a 20$ deal - what in retrospect was about what the game was actually worth. I'm considering purchasing a copy of skyrim post hoc to compliment the company, I just usually like play testing my games for a while before I invest money into them, and skyrim is worth full price for the amount of pleasure I got out of it.

Perhaps to deal with rampent piracy the companies should begin releasing demos again like they did for ff7. The problem with demos and early test builds I found time and time again is they are not representative of the game as a whole. A major issue is it used to be an understood agreement between the developer and the player that a demo showed the pro's and most importantly the cons of a game in full view. For example in ff7's demo the player gets to play up to the point in which the have seen most of the basics of the game - seen some cool and boring stuff - and haven't been flashed with knights of the round. With modern demos they tend to give the player a INCREDIBLE experiance in the first level where the player will experiance, but then after that the game is mostly bland and uncreative. For example skyrim's first dungon and town are criminal of this. There are lots of scripted events these places such as "Dragon, I SAW A DRAGON"! and the talking bandits in that mine along with all the clutter, traps, and excitting tricks. However in other areas comparitivily the player only encounters this shere amount of detail 20% of the time. Bioshock's demo was criminal of this as well as the player got plasmids and skills that they would not encounter until much later in the game and events and scripting that was far beyond what was for the rest of the game. (remember how the demo gives you the "rapture" start, the plane crash, it's JUST INCREDIBLE). yet after this point, dispite being a great game is no where near as grand in scope.

In other words, demos are advertisements, NOT playtests. For example when I bought my liscence for photoshop, I paid 200$ for it and haven't regretted it unless I haven't eaten for a few days (I had it pirated for a long time, but some of the collage work I do requires a legit copy for legal reasons). It was because I was first offered a public liscence, a 30 day full program demo, and I full well knew the pro's and the con's of the program vs other programs that also offered similar test periods. This is what I would call a fair demo - because it didn't just highlight the features, it highlighted the program as itself. Games need to do this and regain our trust in demos and alot of moral pirates will be willing to shell out a few extra dollars for great games here and there. Game distrubters are used car sales men, we all know it.

You sum up the against points rather fluidly (pun intented). But their are a few pro's that should be mentioned from the alchole(ic) perspective, keep in mind this is assuming that the drug is used in moderation:

1) You do stupid things - and CAN benifit for it.
Don't get me wrong, being stupid is criminal long term, but occassionally having a drug that can make you focus more on the now - rather then anaylising the now - can be a powerful aid to many people who are otherwise inhibitioned in social settings. Simply put by all drinking a small amount we can trade anaylitical behavours for a more hands on experiance. Simply put, alchole is a social lubricant.

2) alchole can serve as a powerful pain supressent for short term grief. Breakups - lost oppertunities - and other tragedies are often best met with wine. A bartender knows more of a persons problems then their doctor (as with alchole we are more open). As long as it doesn't become a habit, it can safely give a grief stricken person a good outlet for person pain provided they have someone to grief too. It's because it interfears with logic and lets us deal with those emotions emotionally for short term. For example if you break up with a Girl friend because you are going in a different direction - you can logic it out and explain it, it doesn't change the fact that you have now been denied your dopimine high. You will still feel sad. Sense and sensibility - all of that.

3) Warped perspective can give new perspective. Writers tend to be alcholics. Try reading dubliners drunk, it actually makes alot more sense. Especially plays like waiting for gadot and most of beckett. The thing that alchole does along with other mind altering substances is it changes for brief periods the way a humans brain processes information. Native tribes for example used drugs for spirt quests (as we are ALL too familar with). It's a great way of developing new and intresting ideas internally - or at least developing new ways of thinking. Alchole is the same.

Summation.
- Mind altering substances - not always a bad thing. Just use responsibity when dealing with them.

Stella guys. Just stella.

Well it's good that someone is covering my rampent and horrible theift. Arrgggg.... I'm what's killing the video game industry. hehehehe.

*Hands drack a rifle* You should be the one who does it, he's your pet after all.

Just looking back....
okay... I should not said "bought" when I wrote this ... I actually should of said ruthlessly pirated the shit out of it.

Are an evil cancerious tubor that is out to get us all.

Futhermore this topic has absolutely no revilance what-so-ever and will be used to remind you all that we need to have more form activity.

do it for the rabbits.

That is all - thankyou.

All the games... all of them.

This is my second character. The first one was a lvl 20 fighter orc experiment. Fun for a while but it grew boring relitivily quickly.

But some cool tips for everyone intrested in playing a mage.
If your doing enchantment look into the absorb magika or resitance too it, abosrob magika can be hard to find on generic items, but it will turn up sonner or later. Good races are breton which has a natural 25%(?)resitance and epic dragon skin ability that provides 50% absorbtion for a minute. Nord is also a suprisingly good choice as well as the 50% resistance to frost really seems to shine as most of the most powerful enemy mages seem to prefer ice magic when it comes down too it. Dark elves arn't bad, 50% fire resistance with a +10 starting boon to destuction... I'd avoid highelves because the +50 magicka sucks in conparison to the defense especially at higher levels when spells become scary.Throw this in with a moderate alteration skill that will eventually provide 30% additional resitance, 50%absorbtion (or something) and a master enchanted item or two with those properties and your laughing at mages. Without throwing too much effort into this character is currently sitting at a 25% rate of absorbtion, 70%ish magic resisitance, and almost 225% regeneration. (I've mastered enchantment at this point, azure's black star makes this a joke - because dispite what the game says, it absorbs white souls as well, and petty gems are easy to buy in bulk for training purposes). Worrying about restoration is not really a problem as duelcasted healing brings you up to full health so fast it's retarded. The only thing really worthwhile in that tree happens to be the +25%(50% with a second purchase at 60) magicka regeneration. Not bad for a background perk.

Offensivily, if your playing a dedicated mage go for the frost and fire bonus in the destruction tree - skip sparks until a higher level or when perks become more liberal. (its because sparks is meant to be a happy medium for characters who are not a dedicated mage. Not much is strong against it, but not much is weak to it). Get duel cast, and the knockback as soon as possible too - this will really help you when fighting strong single enemies. Illusion is as far as I can see virutally useless overal - but I need to explore it considerably more before I can make a final call. Quite casting (perk) is good, but long term isn't worth it unless you have a high sneak, and muffle (spell) does the job just as well. Alteration is fantastic, I can't preach this enough, the tree is epic, and the bonus especially along the side are so worthwhile it's not even funny. Conjuration is nifty, espeically if your outnumbered, a zombie or a flame thinnger can save your ass in a boss fight - but long term takes alot of dediction to get past skill level 40.

Conclusion
Breton mage - destruction/alteration - sub in enchantment conjuration = best.
Nord mage - destruction/conjuration - sub in combat or smithing with alteration - good.
Everything else - pretty terrible.

Shouts are only ever important on master difficulty as far as I can tell.

Basically they only play in when you need 1) an instant win 2) a breath to recover a tiny bit. I playing a pretty dedicated breton mage at level 30 now with only enchantment and smithing as sub skills. No armor whatsoever and not alot of health means that most non-magical foes one-shot my character unless I'm using stoneskin at the time(which upgrades it too 2 hits at most). I can definitly say the knock back at level 2 has saved my ass more times then I can count, and the level 3 ice is just hillarious for swarms. My conclusion is shouts are basically only good as a reserve for the highest difficulties where you have to hit most enimies 10 times with a ice/firebolt to kill them (most other spells in the destruction domain arn't worth the magicka cost, ossacially with icestorm/fireball as an exception).

I'm guessing though, for a melee character, shouts are basically usueless though.

I bought skyrim... My life is now over.

Also, this game is awesome.

With an english and psychology degree? hardly. I can now offically tell you about your favourite authors problems.

I'll be buying the torrented version of skyrim.

@ drack: I just have always had a bit of an obbession with map editors.

In 5 days we've had an explosion of activity. A ACTSPLOSION if you will. Somehow this makes me happy.

I noticed 2 things here.

Both of were the title of the window.

Clearly the space station is the only answer.

So it's like the sims, but with mining. Do you like the pretty dresses?

A duck walks into a hardware store and says, "I'd like to buy some nails".
The merchant responds "how you going to pay for that"?
The duck says "Put it on my bill".

AND NOW I HAVE SAID EVERY BAD JOKE EVER.

takes a bow, anyways reccomend some good comedy, I'm in a dire need of a injection of humorous humour things. I've become to serious, and I am afraid I might become a sam soon. (Used that, all out of bad jokes.)

Hey drack, I was thinking about starting a web project for shiggles and entertianment. I have no idea how to get - maintian - run, or anything really related to website design. I was wondering if you could lend me a little server space so I can start something (In the next 3-4 months). Is this okay?