Chat/Comment thread

I'm all about Borderlands these days.DIII...
Borderlands 2......one day, all the games I want to play will be available.
Maybe tomorrow!

Just looked it up on Wikipedia.
Sounds good... but I'm not so into the one-player aspect right now.My wife and I play together, we like simultaneous pixel action
Same with Borderlands, actually... I've been playing the game for 7-8 months (maybe just an hour a day or so on average...), but I've never played the single player. We just play the split-screen and it's a riot to go through the quests together. In Borderlands you can do the entire quest system with up to 4 players (online... only up to two splitscreen off the box), it's nicely open like that.Is it a sign of trouble in the marriage when you're arguing over who gets the next Volcano sniper rifle?

Are you sure your statements are not false?
This was your statement:

quote:

---

I think people don't value the truth anymore. It has become a poisoned pool. Pluralism abounds. One man will judge me to be evil in his subjective morals, another man will not. "Truth" has become nebulous, all they care about is winning.

---

Isn't this obviously false to anyone who knows someone who does, still, value truth?
What are the conditions for being judged as "no longer values truth?" Are you the only arbiter?The black/white, on/off thinking here causes a lot of issues.
Perhaps you're simply surrounded with poor examples of people that value truth.
But it's difficult to believe you've done a valid investigation to justify thinking that all people across the globe no longer value the truth.If your statements were a bit more believable it would help... saying things like "some people" or "most just care about winning..." would add credence to your thoughts.As another aside: Reading things like this become a lot more interesting when you understand that to a large and growing number of people... worshipping "God" is worshipping an idol.

Yes, you're right. But I think it's limited? From what I can tell there's the main 1-player story line, and then a separate, smaller 2-player co-op campaign.In Borderlands, it's the same main story-line. You can run it solo or multiplayer, it doesn't matter. Kind of like Diablo 2 style questing.
Well... if you can even call it a "story-line" in Borderlands. Let's just say that Gearbox focused their efforts on gameplay in Borderlands...

I haven't watched the video yet (at work). But I'll take a guess at what he's whining about:1. Doesn't like the idea that he "puts in work" to get good gear and some punk-ass kid "can just buy gear" to be as good as he is.
2. Diablo 1 and 2 didn't have RMAH.
3. Blizzard is just doing the RMAH for extra money.
4. Always online means he can't play solo wherever/whenever he wants.
5. Always online means he can't do LAN with his buddies (LAN = no lag, online = some amount of LAG).My rebuttles as to why he's just dumb (and will probably buy the game anyway):1 & 2. Diablo 1 and 2 certainly did have RMAH. All games have a RMAH where anyone "can just buy gear" to be as good as anyone else. It's just done by 3rd party outside people that have a 50% chance of rippings folks off. D3 is just going to move the RMAH that already exists into the actual game so that there's 0% chance of folks getting ripped off when they do it. And, of course, it's not mandatory, there will be an "in game gold-only AH" as well. In fact, if you play Hardcore mode (one death and your character is deleted)... there's no RMAH at all, only in game gold-only.3. Yeah, Blizzard's taking a cut off the RMAH. But, well, anyone (the 3rd party companies) who ran all the previous RMAH's always took a cut... why shouldn't Blizzard? This just doesn't bother me and I don't see an issue. Besides, each player is given a few free auctions each week (there's a small charge to put an auction up in the first place otherwise). So, I just see this as better than letting the 3rd party companies have their way with it again.4. I find this to be a legitimate gripe. Just not with me, I tend to have an internet connection whenever I want to play anyway, so I personally have no issue. And the ease Blizzard will have with making updates and combatting dupes/controlling their economies will be vastly improved because of the online-always requirement. Therefore the downside (none for me) is hugely outweighed by the upside (massive for me) on this issue. I am all for the always-online requirement. To me, it will only make a better playing experience and should be done.5. Again, if you're into this kind of thing, I find this to be a legitimate issue. But, again, I'm not into this sort of thing so it doesn't bother me at all and I am still very happy that the game will be online-only because of the huge bots/dupes issues it will correct (or at least make a lot better).Um... yeah... so I've been following D3's development for the last 3 years...

I wouldn't doubt those stories...The co-op I play is simply the splitscreen with my wife. So we're mod-free, cheaters-free, jerks-grabbing-all-the-good-gear-free... all that stuff Aside: Diablo 3 is implementing separate loot drops for each player so that no one can grab your loot that drops. They also have an online-only requirement that will greatly restrict mods, dupes and cheaters. I'm looking forward to a game that's removed those kinds of griefing.

Heh... watched the video (lunch time)... it was pretty funny.But, yeah... the guy's just ranting at stuff that's not even real.I give him allowance for his anger about the online DRM issues... if you like that sort of thing, I can see that being a problem. To me, however, I'm really glad they put in an online-only requirement, it's just plain better for the way I play (legit, not too often, generally team up with folks I don't know at all).As for the RMAH (Real Money Auction House), I don't think he understands how it works.
He talks about buying stuff from the RMAH and giving Blizzard cash... this isn't how it works. The cash is actually going to another player who put the auction up (apart from a small percentage cut that does go to Blizzard). I'm actually looking forward to the RMAH to see if I can make a bit of money myself after putting in so much time.

I can't say too much yet. I had a baseball game last night so only got to play about an hour's worth before bed. I'm not even out of the content that the beta covered yet... But, from what I have seen and played... I love it. I think it's a fanatastic system and I'm really enjoying the gameplay.
I'm hooked on the fishing-style of gameplay that involves always looking to upgrade or find better junk.
I haven't done any single-player, though. My wife has a copy too and we play together all the time. Will do, but after the weekend. For the first few days I just want to play through with the wife and get used to things a bit. Then I'll start doing more multi-player stuffs.The one laptop my wife uses has a decent video card in it. It's really nice and smooth on that machine.
The laptop I'm using only has an intgrated Intel (R) HD card. I have to have all the settings either "off" or "low", but I haven't reduced the game from full laptop resolution yet. It's slightly laggy... but not too bad. Certainly acceptable for me.Weapon choices... armour choices... rings, belts... runes, skills... followers, artisans (blacksmith...) so much to take in right now. Still a bit overwhelmed by all the mechanics. That should calm down after playing for a few days, though.I hear the servers have been down a bunch and the launch was "less than successful".
Personally, I haven't had any problems and my wife hasn't had any problems either.
I do work in an industry that creates new things (assembly lines) all the time, though. So I'm likely a bit biased in accepting a few glitches here and there as the bugs are worked out. That's just the nature of any new... anything.Work is dumb. Making me all not-play-Diablo-3 and all.

It's the best gameplay to evolve into games that I've ever come across. Agreed. Multiplayer is so much better.
Unfortunately, you cannot have a "follower" while in a multiplayer game. Or maybe just while in a party in a multiplayer game? Haven't tested... Apparently each follower is supposed to have their own little backstory quest-line thing to discover as well. Poops upon your single player only content! No problem. Mine's not so personal. Not that I'm looking for additional spam or anything... Wicked. I thought the good laptop was going to be for me when D3 came out. But, alas, I was outvoted It's fair enough, though... my wife's home all day (she has Complex PTSD and has a really hard time interacting with anyone on a social level... becomes almost impossible for her if she's not with me or someone else she trusts). So she gets to play all day and it doesn't make any sense to make her switch computers whenever I'm around just to play D3. Besides, doing that would also make me feel like an ass I am coming only from D2 (never even tried WOW or any other MMORPG), so the actual controls are very comfortable for me. Except I hate the "ALT" button to re-display the items on the ground. I always re-map this to the "F" key.
Oh, nice options to know about if you haven't seen them all ready. Turn on "Advanced Tool Tips", it'll tell you the exact numbers for every skill (+150% damage for 2 seconds... or whatever). Also, you know how there are different groups of skills and each group is kinda bound to each of the 6 action buttons (LM, RM, 1, 2, 3, 4)? If you turn on "Elective Mode" you can then bind any skill to any action button. You still only have 6 action buttons... but you can choose 2 skills from the same group if you're okay with not using any from one of the other groups. I would guess that this was a glitch and probably had something to do with the servers going down for correction.
The Checkpoints are simply places you can return to if you die, or even exit the game (on re-entry you'll start at the last checkpoint, even if it's in the middle of the dungeon or wherever...) Any items or experience you've gained after a checkpoint will be saved within milliseconds of you adding the item to your inventory... during normal operation it'll just be the monsters you have to re-kill when you re-start a game at a checkpoint.
You just got screwed from whatever glitch happened to the servers. Had to run some stupid-responsible errands yesterday. And go to the batting cages (because I sucked in that baseball game I mentioned earlier... ). But then I got 2 hours in to D3 last night. Wife and I went through and beat the Skeleton King with 40 seconds to spare before the servers got reset for some reason. Hopefully the items I picked up were saved... haven't checked yet. But still, the game's just awesome and it's only getting more compelling.

No. Wanted to, but no time. Torchlight 2 is coming out in the next few months, supposed to be much larger and more of what it was "supposed to be". And the creators of torchlight are actually the orginal creators of Diable 1 and 2... Sounds like the random Jar of Souls event when searching for the right tomb-place before the Skeleton King. There are many random events. Even if you play the game through and search out everything... you won't find everything. There are some random events that just may happen to not spawn in whatever single instance you're in. Just another level to the randomness they've jammed in to enhance replay value. Unfortunately, yes, it was many somethings that were all completely terrible.
She doesn't mind talking about it, though, and hates the social stigma attached to not talking about such horrible things. It's like all this bad stuff happened, and she's also punished by not being able to talk to people about the stuff other assholes did to her? It's shitty.
Quick summary:
-raped repeatably by step-uncle while she was 8-10 years old
-during this time mother was getting drunk a lot and would be abusive or not around
-during this time father was dying from breathing chemicals (now illegal) at a manufacturing plant during his job (so he was bed-ridden)
-during this time she lived in rural Arkansas (read: hours away from the fastest ambulance/police/help), and with her mother taking off she was the sole care-taker of her dying father... heating a wood stove and feeding them, paying the bills and that sort of thing too.
-father died and other shitty family members wouldn't let her see him when he was in hospital (wouldn't take her), stole her inheritance (house and land father left for her), and blamed her for his death
-moved to Illinois at around age 14
-raped repeatably by rich russian mob members
-got pregnant by older boyfriend, who forced her into an abortion
-abused by drunken step-brother
...I'm probably missing a few things, even, but that's all the largest stuffsNow:
-currently living with me in Canada away from abusive family members
-relationship with mother is much better and even very healthy (mom stopped drinking a few years ago)
-now has a very nice, very safe house and environment to heal within
-Canada heath care is good for things like broken arms or other physical problems, but pretty shitty where mental health is concerned... she basically needs professional therapy 2-3 times a week... for a good few years at least. But the cost is about $200-$250 per session. Which comes out to about $2000-$3000 per month... None of which is covered by OHIP (OHIP will cover about 1 session a week for a maximum of about 2 months. Period. Not per year... ever. Most company insurance plans will provide only $500/year for this sort of thing). So, basically, we can't afford the therapy she should get.
-I provide decent therapy myself, but I'm by no means a professional
-she has a decent friend base now, and a few healthy relationships, it's growing, but there are hurdles
-once she trusts you/knows you, you would never imagine anything at all is wrong with her
-she loves animals and would never hurt anyone (one of the reasons I love her... went through all this shit and still cares more about others than for herself)
-her improvement over the last few years of living with me and away from the abuse is phenomenal, but still a ways from integrating into society on her own
-sounds like a shitty deal, (and the past really is), but now... we wouldn't really have our relationship any other way, we live a relatively healthy life, we love each other, have some supportive friends, are not (currently... stupid economy) in any financial trouble, and generally have a really good time. Exactly Nice!
Losing stuff is not fun. In D2 the only way to transfer things between characters was to drop it in a game, exit and re-enter with other toon and pick it up. Sometimes exiting and re-entering just plaing didn't work and shit got lost. Le poops.
D3 now has the stash-thing, though (big chest in town). Anything in there is seen by any toon you have. It is good. I think (depending on level difference) your exp from monsters might be a bit restricted, but all in all they've developed a really good system for multiplayer.

Yes, if you look at the item in it's blown-up box, it should even say "Rare" somewhere...
Not sure exactly what official category the orange items are in. But I do know there's a "Legendary" category up with the Rare's. Maybe that's what the orange ones are?Rare's have a bunch of good additions to them, mostly random.
Legendaries have a bunch of set additions to them, with 1 or 2 additional random modifiers added on.Legendaries are harder to find than Rare's. But it is possible (Blizzard designed it this way) such that certain "really good/lucky" Rare's can be bettern than the Legendary items.

Yup, still playing as much as possible. Which isn't too much, actually, I have a level 26 Demon Hunter..
Flaws? What are the flaws? Connection speed or something? I haven't noticed anything, but all my multiplayer games are not public (just me and the wife). Seems fairly stable to us. Maybe something that affects you more at higher levels? .Everyone gets that yellow head-piece (and others) as they progress the Blacksmith. But the items you actually craft will always come with random modifiers. I'm a DH and my wife's made a monk and a witch doctor... Maybe we just haven't seen the flaws yet?