Dewar

Personally, I thought SR3 was a ton better, but I think that's simply a matter of the game changing from being a GTA-like to an Infamous-like. I missed driving.

It sounds like the OL mod is a bit too intense for me, so I decided on Stalker Complete. Is this the right place, or is there a newer 2012 download page I'm missing? http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009

The static risk is increased if you live in drier climates. Up here in Seattle I don't have to worry about it much, but when I worked for a place that had techs in New Mexico, they were always shorting out parts. As for the build, I'd consider doubling up the memory. 8gb is adequate now, but CoD is the first PC game that requires a 64 bit OS because it wants 6gb of memory, so I suspect we'll be heading that way soon. Additionally, if you like to host multiplayer games like Terraria, Minecraft, etc, those worlds can take a lot of memory. You also might consider staying on Windows 7 if you like playing older games, as some of the Win8 compatibility mode stuff has been less than successful.

I really enjoyed Reckoning. As long as you don't get bogged down in trying to complete every quest (there are a ton of them, and a lot of the sidequests are boring) it's a very solid 30-40 hour RPG.

I wouldn't really call Atari the same company after being purchased twice, going bankrupt, and now operating with the sum total of 10 employees, but I get your point. One other thing to remember about Nintendo is that for almost 10 years they were the only console company making a profit on the selling of the actual hardware, rather than posting a loss and hoping to make it up with software sales later. They have a lot of cash laying around, I'm sure they'll do fine. I imagine that current management will be axed here soon though. Japanese companies tend to take a pretty dim view of posting a loss while American companies seem to be quite happy losing money for years and years.

Hmm, maybe it's time to buy my wife Rocksmith 2014. She kinda stalled out on the first one, but the new way that chord teaching works might do the trick.

The B is a spoke wrench and the pictures shows a person in the process of tightening their spokes.

I had a devil of a time understanding what was going on in the first Stalker game and eventually gave up on it (not my typical behavior on these sorts of things.) Maybe I should install some mods and try again.

I bought Towns cause it looked cool and Dwarf Fortress like, I played it for about 30 minutes, and then went back to DF. It wasn't horrible, it was just meh.

As far as I know it's never been anywhere near ready. The multiplayer server structure hasn't been played with at all (there's limited 1v1 arena type things now, that's it) and there are supposed to be 7-ish distinct ages and the beta only has one in it. After hearing the guy talk in person, I really really want this to be good. He might be one of the most charismatic people I've ever met in person.

I'm apparently font blind. I've read articles about why Comic-Sans is so bad and all that, but I just don't see it. It's probably a blessing though, I imagine it would be like myself being a chemistry major and getting annoyed at all the pseudo-chemist crap they put in CSI, but with every single printed sign anywhere you go.

I liked the alien feel. I guess that's what I miss most actually. The improvement in mechanics and convenience in DS2 is well worth it though.

I got stuck about where you were and checked out Heide's Tower. I had a devil of a time at first, but then I realized what the enemies in the area were trying to teach me, and I was able to fight them pretty effectively at that level. The optional boss in that area is a real killer though.

I enjoy throwing down my summon sign just inside the door and dropping a lightning bolt on Bellbros who have a 2 to 1 advantage and think they can play around with their prey. Doing that last night, I got invaded by a phantom the moment I stepped through the door, before I even was able to put down a sign. I stay resolutely in the opening foyer, not wanting to head up and having to fight the dwarves as well as the phantom. He keeps running half way down the stairs, waving, then heading back up. Eventually another phantom summons in, then they both start hanging at the top of the stairs. I still refuse to follow them. Eventually they get bored, cast homing soul arrow, and try to drop on me through the hole in the celing. I only fall for that trick once. I dodge both the attacks and the soul arrows, shread one with my sword, and the other runs away in terror instead of finishing me off and gives me time to heal.The best part was when that guy came back, I made a stupid mistake and left myself open to a full combo, and he only did 3/4 of my life in damage before draining his stamina dry and being unable to roll (I'm not all that armored up either.) I rammed my +10 Lightning Heide Sword down his throat.

Those guys were the first boss that my friends and I really had problems with. I'm still not sure exactly how you're supposed to solo them. Maybe my character not having a shield was part of the problem for me.

I got stuck in a rut fighting the optional boss to get to the Dark covenant guy. I ended up blowing 2-3 hours fighting through the Undead Purgatory over and over again to fight him, and then I didn't get anything worthwhile for it in the end. On the plus side, I got the ember I needed and now I have a +10 Heide's Sword with a Lightning Imbue. When I get up to 50 faith, that thing will be godly. I hope I can get the warped sword up to be about as good, because I love the moveset on it when you dual wield it, but it doesn't keep the moveset when I put it in my offhand.

I'm looking forward to Everquest Next, even if it's a total disaster.

Dark Souls 2 is more much linear than Dark Souls 1 (but not completely linear like Demon Souls) which I think contributes to item #3 on your list. If you prefer the linear-ness of Demon Souls, I wouldn't worry about that. As for the other things you've heard.... #1: I have found about the same number of bosses that were truly interesting in Dark Souls 2 as I did in Dark Souls 1, however there are many more bosses in the newer game, leaving some bosses definitely feeling like filler bosses. So far, I haven't found any bosses cheap, but I'm playing a mixed melee and miracle build, meaning I can dish out short or long range damage as needed. #2: There are a few bosses that seem like they'd be pretty dang hard to solo, but those usually have NPC summoning options to help out those people who don't want to play online. On the whole, I've completed more bosses Solo than teamed up myself. #4: I would agree with this. A great deal of the enemies are humanoid and of the same basic archtypes with just numbers like life and attack speed increased or reduced. In some ways that's nice because it makes the weird enemies really stand out, but it also gets tiresome at times. Mainly, what is really changing the game is the abundant online connectivity. Even if you aren't co-opping directly, there are tons of messages all around giving hints (on the good end) and ruining surprises (on the negative.) I'm finding the whole online experience to be worth other negatives. I love the co-op experience, and I've even had fun in the duels and bell tower invasions I've had.

Oooh Southpark on sale. Editted because I'm dumb and can't read dates.

Oh, I thought you were locked into doing one or the other. I have more than enough Meld to do both right now, really time has been the limiting factor thus far. Edit: I'm also starting to crave going back to my original XCOM game that I have 1/4 complete.

I must have missed a huge section in Iron Keep then, because I don't remember placing any lockstones in there. I rolled through some jars that splashed water on me, and I thought that would count, but it didn't Edit:

I like the moment by moment mechanics for DS2 (though that might be because I'm familiar with them, and I played Demon Souls inbetween, which had some interesting mechanical problems here and there) but I think the world was better in DS1. If nothing else, I've had a lot of fun with the plethera of online options since the servers are hot right now.

Well, look how much money Doublefine has spent on Broken Age, which is a comparitively priced game. Larger independant developers don't have the luxury (or misery) of cutting their budget to the bone in order to make a game. Edit: Yeah, that is interesting that it wasn't included in the Kickstarter pitch. Maybe there's some sort of contract and that IGN article got the scoop on some information that's not supposed to be publically available? I suspect that they'll be more news on it after the kickstarter closes.

You hear all these stories about companies who use up more than half their money on fulfilment of Kickstarter promises. This is a lot closer to the TBS telethons where you get a unique DVD for a $100 pledge, rather than a T-Shirt pre-order system. $125 for a t-shirt is more like what I think a lot of kickstarters should be aiming for. The choice of Sony only is a bit odd, but I've heard enough people rave about Frequency and Amplitude that I decided to throw in my $20. Maybe it's like that one movie kickstarter (I searched but couldn't find it) where they needed to earn enough money to prove to the studio that the movie was worth making, and then the studio threw in the rest? Maybe Sony has offered to back them with some money if they can prove it's wanted? Edit: Whoops, posted this a few minutes late I guess.