Dewar

What video card did you have again?

Won a costume contest at a small bar near us, wasn't much competition really, but $50 is $50. Now I spend the next week running around crazy getting ready for the party at our house.

Storywise, the basic goal in Pokemon is to defeat the eight gym leaders that are spread across the world in different cities, get their badges, then head to the elite four, which are basically the best pokemon trainers in the world and the only real challenging part of the game. Weaved into that general framework, there's usually a story about a rival of some sort that shows up on occasion, as well as some evil pokemon organization (Team Rocket, Team Galaxy, etc.) that needs to be beaten. So if you're asking what you need to be doing, the answer is pretty much always "make it to the next city, and beat the gym."

She can take a ton of punishment compared to a lot of the NPC shades. I entered the Duke's Archives this weekend.... Somewhere along the line I got the impression that the drop rate increase from holding humanity only counts when you are in fact human, but yesterday I watched some videos that state that isn't the case. I can't figure out if I read it somewhere, or if I just made it up.

What has ended up helping me with most bosses I've had trouble with is going in as a phantom in someone else's world, helping them out, and seeing how it's done. Since most players are experts at this point, it's been a huge benefit. At least until Seath. That was a disaster both times I've tried it as a phantom so far.

I did it as well! I guess since there's some new people starting, I should spoiler as well.

Make sure to turn off in-game anti-aliasing as well. DSFix takes care of that with its INI file, and if you have both on you get weird resolution problems. Man, I beat my face on the Four Kings repeatedly tonight. I know they're supposed to be one of the harder bosses, but I just can't seem to damage them fast enough to kill them before more show up.

So far I've gotten my ass whipped in every single PvP fight I've been in, except one in Anor Londo where we outnumbered him 3-1. New PvP elements scare me.

Anyone with a static IP could, in theory, run a server assuming that they have a UPnP enabled router, but my experience is that it starts getting a bit laggy and wierd once you get up over 4 people playing. Of course, we were also playing with a huge FTB pack that had lots of machines that could have been part of the problem. We had a lot better performance running off a hosted server, and they're not near as expensive as they used to be. Edit: Oooh, 1.7.2 came out as well Edit3: Dang it, that's a voice server not a Minecraft server. I need to learn to read.

That's an interesting discussion. Being a former MTG player, mechanics driven gamer, and white male, I tend to agree with Laura Shigihara. It makes sense given the basic mechanics of MTG to call out the smaller group with a specific label, but not the bigger group. For instance a certain subgroup of developers might be labeled as "Creative" but you wouldn't then label the rest of the developers as "non-creative" (keep in mind that I haven't actually seen the card set so, if my example is an actual card type, forgive me.) Otherwise, you'd end up with card types that are 20 words long describing all the things that the card isn't. However, (and I'm assuming the content of the set once again) you wouldn't want to have a subset of cards that are black developers right? Most people would find that distasteful (or risky, depending on their stance on the issue) enough to not include it, even though there could be similar mechanics created that a famous minority developer could be an inspiration to others of his/her same race. It's a sticky issue for sure.

Not bad for one night's work. I also am just about ready to start the DLC stuff.

I don't remember her mentioning Frampt at all. That gives me an idea of who to talk to at least. For some reason, games that barely have any story in them end up getting me interested in the story the most.

Yes, a certain percentage of your troops (based on crown laws and your relations with the king in question) are taken and balled into his armies. You also have the option to raise your own armies and go to war to help him, if you so desire. If you are his martial, chances are that you're leading one of his armies, which really gives you no control or benefits but instead the disadvantage of possibly dying in combat.

I started Candybox 1 a couple of days ago in prep for the new Candybox 2 launch. Is there any way to make fighting the dragon less annoying? I've beaten him a couple of times, but it just takes forever and it's boring as hell.

I'm not asking for hints at all, since I already have an idea where I want to go, but currently I have these options (that I know of) There was a yellow gate in Anor Londo that I can pass now that I have the lord vessel I can get the key I need in New Londo to drain the water there I still haven't gotten very far into the catacombs due to the respawning skeletons The Hydra Boss is still there, and I might have a little better luck killing it now with Soul Spear There's a tower next to the Hyrda Boss that has a big knight that used to kick my ass, I think I could probably get past him now I opened up the sealed door in the forest, but got pretty quickly killed by the assasins behind it. I might be able to handle that now? There's still half of the Valley of Drakes I haven't seen yet I opened up the path to the Lava area under Quellag's Domain and haven't touched it And finally, I discovered the path to the Hallows when I was looping back through Blight Town to check for things I missed. That could be an overwhelming set of choices if I wasn't aware of the structure of the game. I find it pretty freeing at the moment, but I definitely see how a lot of people would either run to an FAQ or quit completely given that list of options. Now the part of this post that is a question. I got the lord vessel, and chatted with the lady a bit. It seemed clear that she wanted me to do something but, either because I wasn't paying attention or she wasn't clear, I have no idea what she actually wanted me to do. Storyline-wise, what's the next goal in the game? I don't mean specific locations, just goals. Up until now, it's been fairly clear. First it was "Ring the Two Bells" which then showed the video of the fortress opening, which then lead linearly into Anor Londo (but not the guy I was supposed to kill apparently.) Edit: I should say that Anor Londo was my favorite zone so far. It stands in good contrast to Sen's Fortress and Blighttown.

Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy has three different endings depending on messed up QTEs as well. I guess that's a trend for Quantic Dream.

My wife has been playing the Xbox version of the first one on and off, but has been having a really hard time picking up the chords the way the game was teaching. Has the actual training stuff improved at all?

I realize that MMOs aren't particularly popular around here, but I ended up picking this up to play with my wife and I've been surprised at how different it is. I'd sworn off paying a monthly fee but this has been worth it for me. In particular, the crafting in FF14 has some really unique ideas. Almost every piece of equipment in the game can be crafted, and the use of proper materials and techniques allows players to craft high quality items that are better than anything in the game besides dungeon loot. There's real gameplay in the crafting system as well, not just clicking a button and waiting for a result. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJEEYpV8GaM Anyway, is anyone else playing? I'm playing Dewar Scrabulous on server Famfrit. Come join me and my two friends....

Hmm, that's not a good sign.

Yay, that's good to hear tegan.

Hmm, the world felt a lot different to me than pretty much any other MMO out there, but then again I haven't seriously played a Final Fantasy game since 10, so maybe that's why it seems unique. I agree about Secret World though, I really need to play more of that, but there aren't a whole lot of my friends playing and that's half the draw for me.

: ( edit: We really need to get the Frowny face smiley fixed.

Sorry, I should have been more specific, I was in Anor Londo, and I didn't see the particular part of the cathedral I was supposed to walk on. All sorted now as I've beaten Anor Londo! Despite a ton of invasions, and failing miserably the first couple of times trying to get back the soul for Firelink Shrine, I was able to get past the boss after only two shots and with one helper. Then I got back to the shrine and bought all the juicy awesome sorceries. I've read some bits and pieces about zones I've already completed, so now I'm going to spend a while picking up a few random bits I missed here and there. So next, Blight Town take two and Darkroot Garden all over again. To your point jmb, after I beat the two gargoyles, I went down into the Darkroot Area, and eventually all the way to the black door of Blighttown, because I thought for sure the Capra demon was a way later boss. So yeah, I went the completely wrong way, but it worked out in the end.

Maybe it's time to consult an insurance lawyer?