Nappi

When was your first playthrough, by the way? I think they patched in more content after the release, but I had already completed the game at that point. Did you notice anything new in the parts of the story that were shared between the two playthroughs?

I will replay The Witcher 2 at some point to see the other side of the story, but I definitely had a "full experience" playing through the game only once. Even though I missed roughly one third of game, the campaign was definitely long enough. In fact, I think there was just the right amount of content for one playthrough. I don't mind if the developers decide to go the extra mile when it comes to content, as long as I'm not forced to pay extra.

Yea! It was the best... like... at sucking!

If I remember correctly (and I do), the squad sight and the ability to snipe after moving were mutually exclusive choices. I think there is no (or very little) distance penalty in sniper accuracy, so once you find a good spot (in terms of line of sight) you rarely have to move the guy. Just something to consider when training your next sniper.

This is why you fail. My two snipers with squad sight and, later, double tap abilities were the backbone of my squad.

Hah! I love that there is some limit of stealing the guards will tolerate. The party was awesome, but I suspect that the rest of the missions will be quite different. Hopefully, the new Hitman will turn out good.

Ahh.. I think I heard that once, but didn't make the connection.

Can you get caught stealing, by the way? I pretty much ate everything there was to eat and stole everything there was to steal at the costume party, and no one complained. I was, in so many ways, the worst guest.

I agree that typing that was somewhat unnecessary. I had not seen or paid attention to that whale in the picture you posted. I more or less exactly covered points 2 to 4 in the post you just quoted. Note that I said this was not immediately clear to me. I repeat that I am now aware that whales are magical in Dishonored. Whale oil was just an example and not my only problem with the world of Dishonored. Wikipedia Brown did a much better job than me at pointing out how some of the decisions significantly improved gameplay but made the world less believable.

To be fair, I would probably have the same kind of problems if the Spice (whatever it is) in Dune was not "Spice" but "paprika". Now I can at least think that it is some spice that is unknown to us. I guess a big part of the problem is the fact that it was not immediately clear to me that whale oil in Dishonored is actually magical whale oil, because of, you know, video games. In the same way, I don't assume that glowing wrench in a video game is a magical wrench, or that a highly explosive fuel tanks are fundamentally different from real world fuel tanks (which tend not to explode very easily), or that a machine that wouldn't work in real life would have some weird physics behind it when the easier explanation is that the designers cut corners a bit. And so on... I would like to read a book on the history of science and technology of Dishonored, though. I still find the range of things that have and have not been invented quite incredible.

I have not read/watched Dune but is Spice really supposed to be the same object as paprika in our world? Because if it isn't, I think you are still missing the point I was trying to make with all the whale oil vs whale oil and Tungsten vs Mithril comparisons earlier. I'm aware that whale oil is a direct source of electricity in Dishonored, I'm just saying that I find this design choice surprisingly alienating. I am also completely aware that there is magic in the world of Dishonored - I'm more than halfway through the game already - so there is really no need to list all the occurrences. Anyway, I feel like this discussion is going nowhere, and I'm kind of sorry that I even brought it up. I think I'm backing away now.

Am I aware that there are various shortages in the world? Of course I am, I'm not completely ignorant. Are there other oils that have similar properties than (our) whale oil? Definitely. Have they tried to use those instead? Perhaps not; Perhaps they have, and have failed. Maybe (their) whale oil is unique among oils? Maybe. In any case, it is not the only way to generate electricity. Even though most of the electricity is (strangely) used to power up arc pylons and light walls, electric motors have clearly been invented. I can only assume they are of the traditional coil and magnets variety. Strangely they don't seem to have invented an electric generator which is very similar in structure. If they had, they would have loads of alternatives to whale oil (even if whale oil was magical and unlike any other oil in the world). This sort of development, or lack thereof, seems very bizarre to me. I appreciate the effort to depict a shortsighted society with various shortages - the developers did a very good job at that for the most parts. However, I can't help but feel that the shortage of whale oil is more akin to a shortage of apples and not of food. Anyway, fine, whatever, so everything is running on whaleoil. I can deal with it. Whale oil is common between this world and that of Dishonored. It is not a mythical substance in this world and at one point was commonly used as a material for candles and other stuff. To my knowledge it cannot be turned into electricity with almost no effort. Like I said, I have no problem with trinkets and pieces of equipment having alien properties in, for example, Lord of the Rings simply because it is not suggested that these properties originate from Tungsten or something. Mithril does not exist in our world so it is easy, for me at least, to accept that it gives the armor magical powers. I guess I just have to deal with the fact that whales in Dishonored are magical magical mammals, and their oil* has qualities completely unlike the whale oil of this world. This sort of weirdness just alienates me from the setting a bit. To be honest, I have not played many fantasy/scifi games. For all I know, the world of Dishonored might be much better crafted than most of those. I don't remember being nearly as weirded out by the world of, say, the Witcher 2, though. Maybe it is because so much of that world was different from ours, and not just a couple of very specific things. Anyway, this is not nearly as big a problem for me as the size of these post may suggest. Obviously many people find the world of Dishonored to be consistent and well crafted, while I find some of the design decisions somewhat alienating. Furthermore, it seems I'm not very good at articulating why I find the setting so inconsistent, but the feeling is definitely there. Like I said, it hasn't spoiled my enjoyment of the game by any means. Dishonored may yet prove to be my game of the year. * Interestingly, I didn't have problems in accepting bone charms, as they immediately fell into the magical trinkets and talismans crafted by wizards category in my mind.

It is the final mission. I finished the game some time ago. I enjoyed the game a lot, but couldn't help saving all the time. I don't even consider checking out the Iron Man mode.

It's little things such as things requiring electricity only running on whale oil. Why just whale oil? To me, it seems like someone at some point just thought that it would be rad if whale oil was the main source of energy in this world, you know, because Moby Dick is cool (or something). The fact that there seems to be a serious shortage of the stuff (if I remember the announcements correctly), yet no one has come up with viable alternatives, suggests to me that the history of the world of Dishonored is not fully thought out. Even weirder* is the way in which the whale oil is converted to electricity. It seems to involve, well, nothing at all. It just happens. The developers of Dishonored didn't craft a completely new world; it is very much rooted in ours. At least there is no indication that the physics of that world are fundamentally different from ours (apart from magic). That is why it seems super weird to me that they give such alien properties to such a common substance. I don't remember if Lord of the Rings fundamentally changed the properties of one particular material or object that is common between our world and the Middle-Earth, but at least I didn't find the world as confusing and fragmented as that of Dishonored. There were magical swords and trinkets, of course, but it was never claimed that this was caused by trace amounts of Tungsten in the blade. In fact, I would probably be more comfortable with Dishonored, if the machinery ran on some magical substance and not on refined whale oil. Perhaps "well thought out" was not the best way to put it. For all I know, the developers might have spent years crafting the world. Unfortunately, it just feels somehow broken to me. In any case, this isn't a huge issue for me and, like I said, I'm enjoying the game immensely. However, I don't think I would find a book set in the world of Dishonored very convincing. *To be honest, some (or most) of this confusion might be a result of me not being arsed to read every book excerpt that I find. If there is some logical explanation for all this stuff, I would definitely like to hear it, although I think it shouldn't be necessary to read those things in order to feel that the world isn't fake.

The world of Dishonored with its whale oil powered tesla coils, zombies and magic seems like a not particularly well thought out mess to me. I'm actually getting used to the the art style (my initial impression was based on the trailers and gameplay videos) and the graphics are acceptable on PC. The cartoon faces are super weird, though, but I think I might be getting used to them as well.

Damn this game is good. At first, I was completely put off by the art style and the setting as well as the erroneous comparisons to Bioshock (which I didn't enjoy). I'm still not a huge fan of the plot and the setting but the gameplay is absolutely superb. The game looks much better than I thought as well.

I bet Apple fanboys will keep buying their products, even though the company clearly knows nothing about mirrors and reflections. Fucking sheep.

I'm not a big Star Wars fan, but I bought the bluray version of the original trilogy a while back. I didn't mind the extra rock at the entrance of the cave in front of R2D2, it was actually pretty well done. However, the dinosaurs were just horrible and completely unnecessary, as was the holo-Christensen at the end of episode VI. I just can't figure out who they were aiming to please with these changes. So yeah, I'm all for getting a restraining order for George Lucas on all of his films. I have no idea how Disney will affect the situation, though.

I think Mass Effect 2 was a big improvement on the original as well. Shadowbroker DLC is definitely worth buying; Overlord not so much. Mass Effect 3 is quite similar to Mass Effect 2, at least in terms of gameplay and, to some extent pacing. If you liked ME2, chances are you will not hate ME3.

I take it the Steam purchase does not include a standalone soundtrack? I think I'm more interested in it than I am in the actual game. Now, when will the next Humble Bundle be up....

When I think of Goldblum I think of him naked, holding a baboon.

Yeah. It definitely looks like a regular military sweater. I still like that they chose it over a full uniform, though. All this Dishonored praise made me buy the game, despite not being at all interested in the setting it at first. Damn you. Also, that Bobby Kotick story was fantastic. I can't believe Sean survived the drop.

Kroms, that was a distressing read. Glad to hear the thing is, at least, sort of sorted out now. Today, I got my Master's thesis in covers and a package from Idle Thumbs. Yay, day!

SecretAsianMan's point is very valid. The series of random numbers you used as an example, would mean that the probability of hitting would have to be extremely high for the next few turns, to get anywhere near the 80 % chance of hitting. I also think the adoptive probability system you are suggesting is seriously limited in its usability, because in most games the probability doesn't stay constant anyway: soldiers and enemies move in xcom, the player loses troops in Civilization, etc. In that case, would the adjusted probability be a property of the troop or the (short-lived) situation?