josh

@Ruinkind uh, they just reversed the order of month and day. It's still coming out march 9th

@GuardianLegend

Wrong Reich - try the first Reich instead of the third. Hence characters like Augustus and Cassius.

Because I fail at replying, here is a duplicate of my rebuttle:

Adjustable stats and advancing skills are not what make an RPG - they are simply one mechanism to show how a character adapts and advances in a world (which the various class powers of ME2 also do).

An RPG is about assuming the role of a character in a story, seeing the story from the point of view of that character, and most importantly giving the player the control to affect the story using the character. The ME franchise does this better than almost any other series - even seemingly trivial decisions have implications later, big and small. ME 2 was an epic triumph in terms of continuity between games, loaded with little details reflected decisions in the previous game (whether it is helping some minor character, or determining the fate of the council), and it really put gravity on the decisions made within it.

There are few games that have put so much work into making the role you assume believable, whether it is the decisions and options for your own character, the representation of your companions, or the 8 million ambient details in the game world. It is far more successful at being an RPG than most any game that has a strong stat/leveling mechanic, and it is a shame that people such as yourself are so hung up on advancement mechanics that you miss that. They are called *role* playing games, not "stats and skills modification games" and your pointless fixation on that element has kept you from appreciating an incredibly refined game.

And that was a reply to akeso (who in turn replied to me) on the previous page. It's been a while since I commented using IE - its awesome to see that the reply bug is still alive and well in this blogging platform.

Adjustable stats and advancing skills are not what make an RPG - they are simply one mechanism to show how a character adapts and advances in a world (which the various class powers of ME2 also do).

An RPG is about assuming the role of a character in a story, seeing the story from the point of view of that character, and most importantly giving the player the control to affect the story using the character. The ME franchise does this better than almost any other series - even seemingly trivial decisions have implications later, big and small. ME 2 was an epic triumph in terms of continuity between games, loaded with little details reflected decisions in the previous game (whether it is helping some minor character, or determining the fate of the council), and it really put gravity on the decisions made within it.

There are few games that have put so much work into making the role you assume believable, whether it is the decisions and options for your own character, the representation of your companions, or the 8 million ambient details in the game world. It is far more successful at being an RPG than most any game that has a strong stat/leveling mechanic, and it is a shame that people such as yourself are so hung up on advancement mechanics that you miss that.

Here is an apology for rushing out Dragon Age 2 in a year. You didn't get any engine upgrades or much in the way of new art content, you lost the interesting dialogs you could have with your companions, and you were stuck exploring the same 4 locales over and over again because we were too lazy to create much in the way of locales. But hey, to make it up to you here is Mass Effect 2, which unlike Dragon Age 2 is actually an improvement over almost every aspect of the previous game.

Don't get excited though - this is mainly so you appreciate what a half assed job we are going to do with Mass Effect 3. EA wants sequals every year so don't get used to the level of detail or the love put into Mass Effect 2. Dragon Age 2 is our future - our half assed, rushed to production future.

So they just chose the nearest cross streets as their studio name? What happens if they move locations?

Hey armchair lawyers who keep using the DMCA as an example of him breaking the law, little tidbit for you - the DMCA makes it illegal to circumvent controls for the purposes of copying (even if copying itself is otherwise legal), what it does not make illegal is circumventing said controls in order to run your own code. Since he took steps to prevent using his own output for piracy and has marketed the purpose of his jailbreak as a means of running homebrewed apps rather than pirated apps it is not obvious that a law was broken in the US.

Also note, Sony went after him for violates the terms of the PSN (which is pretty dubious), NOT for a DMCA violation

I wish EA would port the XBLA version of Risk. That would work pretty well on a small screen, could be played with the asyncronous multiplayer that the phone supports and was a pretty decent version of risk.


What I would really kill for, IF YOU ARE LISTENING MS, is an XBLA/WP7 port of the original crimson skies board game (not the super lame Wizkids version). You already own the IP microsoft and it could be very awesome on both platforms

> "Dr. Chopra is the author of more than 55 books on "mind-body health, spirituality and peace.""

I think you mean more than 55 books on complete BS. The claims Brain Age made about improving the brain were on very shaky and unsupported scientific grounds so and the guy behind that wasn't a complete hack. Any game true to Deepak won't just make claims that aren't scientifically supported but in fact claims that are directly contrary to reality.