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The golden orb weaver is actually harmless to humans, if you don't count the scared to death factor anyway.

87 posts since Thursday. You guuuuys!

I think I figured out why I'm so meh about D3, though. After looking through those comparison videos you posted, Digg, it dawned on me. It's meh because I've seen it all before. In a certain game that I've been playing for the better part of seven years.

Seriously, those bloated guys in the D3 beta that explode when they die and spawn those worms? Abominations with Snake Traps in them. And skeletons that look and sound like the multitude of skellies from WotLK. Even the witches, or female undeads, remind me of Banshees from WoW, except for not being spectral.

It's an isometric Tirisfal Glades!

I still think their skill system will give a lot of flexibility in allowing people to have very different playstyles. You can only use 6 skills at a time. There is nothing inherently good about locking people out of trying different things unless they are willing to level a new character. I always hated that part of D2. You were completely locked in. If you add in the ability to respec in towns, then I don't really see why limit it at all. The current setup literally lets you pick any 6 skills you have, with any rune for each spell and come up with your own combination of 6. Given the options, I'm thinking characters will feel very different depending on what skills you pick and what gear best compliments it. This is way more variety then a talent tree option that locks you in far more.

Compare it to D2. Play on the beginning difficulty to blood raven. The complexity in D3 is significantly higher then in D2 for the same period. It's been a while since I've played but I don't really remember being challenged much by anything in the first act.

Edited, Apr 22nd 2012 2:38pm by Xsarus

Neil deGrasse Tyson is my personal hero. He's so outspoken about science, and it's awesome.

you're oversimplifying switching on the go. It's not that easy, invokes a cooldown, and in any kind of demanding situation will be hard to pull off, especially when you have all the skills available, and all the runes etc. It will be hard in challenging pve, and completely impossible in pvp.

that being said, I agree that it shouldn't be possible at all in combat, and probably should invoke a greater CD, but limiting it to town doesn't make sense to me, because that's just needless annoyance at that point.

I really don't remember being challenged at all up to Blood raven, but I'd expect beginning D3 to be easier anyway, just because blizzards games are being sold to a much wider market these days, and so the starting point has to assume the person has not actually played that many video games. I have trouble understanding this as a criticism though.

There's a big distinction between not being challenged, and not having to think. If the game wasn't challenging, but was asking of something more than just mindless clicking, it would be a different story. So far, I've enjoyed DH far more than every other class, because all of its skills seem to have legitimate strategic value, and it's under-powered compared to the others so you can't just spam your first nuke and win. I think asking for that is legitimate.

No, a newbie shouldn't be punished because they don't know how to kite well. Doesn't mean they shouldn't be forced to use their snares/CC or really play with range.

But a newbie doesn't learn at all if the game is forgiving to the point where there's no reason to bother learning how to kite, snare or CC. If you can just spam the standard damage ability and win, you aren't learning anything. I can potentially forgive this up through the cathedral's first floor. By that point, the game should be forcing you into tactical play.

D2 definitely taught through difficulty and death. And the abilities you got early generally defined the whole tree's default play style, so you began to learn it right away. Take Sorcs, Frost got Frost Bolt/Armor, which definitely encouraged kiting. Fire got Warmth and Fire Bolt, teaching mana management. Lightning got Charged Bolt, which was mana intensive--great for groups, but better to mix it with melee when you couldn't guarantee most would hit. And you learned that right away.

Wizard in D3? Nuh-uh. You start with Magic Missiles, which is a free nuke and teaches nothing but range. Then you get the Frost beam, which theoretically teaches kiting. Except that the kiting aspect is irrelevant, and the spell's not really that much stronger than MM to begin with. You'll use it for the damage, not for the kiting effect (if you're new). Even worse, since you have to stay still to channel it, you're actually probably WEAKER as a newbie trying to utilize it for kiting (who likely won't realize the snare will stick).

It does, at least, demonstrate that you can run out of AP. Then you get Shock Pulse. Technically stronger if you can hit more than 2 mobs with it, but it's ridiculously inaccurate. Since you probably aren't hanging out in melee range of large groups of mobs, you're probably going to feel like SP is really weak. Without incentive to use it, you aren't going to learn how to use it. Arcane Orb teaches you to watch for enemy groupings, but that's about it. Your first glyph just makes MM stronger, further eliminating any reason to use something else.

Frost Nova is the first really tactical ability you get.

Really, my point comes down to one thing. If you can essentially tank n' spank every single mob without issue, than you have no reason to use the tactical abilities. D2 wasn't hard in the beginning, but it definitely encouraged you to play tactically in virtue of the fact that you only had access to a standard attack and a tactical attack. And, even if you took a straight damage skill, your mana couldn't sustain it outright, so you had to deal with class limitations.

I'm not saying the first group of mobs should flay you alive. But I don't think it's unreasonable for standing still as you just attack be sufficient to kill you fairly early on. The only encounter I can think of until quite late that really doesn't work well with this tactic is the captain in the witch's lair, because of his frost nodes. And I just tanked those with the Monk.

I pretty much never listen to in game music for any game, I much prefer my own music.

Video Game Music? Here's a subject I can talk about!

Recently been listening to the Katawa Shoujo soundtrack. Despite it being a free game made by the guys at /a/, it's surprisingly good. Favorite song from that is called Aria De l'Etoile (Aria of the Star)

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Been listening to the FFX soundtrack recently, too. "Someday the Dream Will End" is my favorite track from that.

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Found a cool A Capella version of the turret opera from Portal 2 ("Cara Mia")

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I've also had the Baccano! opening stuck in my head for a while.

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One thing I will always love about Homestuck music is that the artists like to make the occasional song very 8-bit-esque.

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Speaking of Homestuck, I could gush about that all day. But I'll keep it to two songs. This one is a lot of guitar and horns. I love me some horns.

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Oh, hello awesome final boss music, a la Bayonetta.

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And then there's this.

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I'll see you, and raise you the full orchestra version.

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Ooooh, touche. I wish my roommate wasn't working in the other room so I could play this louder. My headphones broke last week and I've yet to get new ones. :(

Another KH favorite: Sora's Sacrifice
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FFXIII had some beautiful music, too. I really loved the various uses of that same core melody throughout (which is common in game music, I know, but I really loved this piece especially).
The Promise:
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Sustained by Hate:
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Serah's Theme (Japan's English, which I prefer)
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Serah's Theme (US' English)
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Hope's Theme
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This is Your Home
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Cocoon de Chocobo
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FFX (I actually used to have a playlist of just songs from this game that I'd listen to when going to sleep/sleeping):
Daughter of the Great Summoner:
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People of the North Pole:
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Someday the Dream Will End
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And to give some people nostalgia...
Federation of Windurst:
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Heaven's Tower:
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Selbina:
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I can't actually remember much from FFXII but the opening music--can't even remember any character's themes.

Two Steps from Hell:
Strength of a Thousand Men
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Archangel
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Armada (was the song in the FemShep Reinstated trailer, apparently, but I don't remember it)
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Ironheart
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Dark Harbor
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Dragon Rider (can't remember if I linked it earlier, and too lazy to look)
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United We Stand, Divided We Fall
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Who wants to buy me this baby as belated birthday gift or something? It's only $155,000.00 to buy it now. That's only a little more than $10,000.00 per ounce of beer.

Why would you pay money for a baby when you can make one for free?

Oh, wait, it's a beer. I should read the entire post before responding to it.

I'm sure that's what they said to sell it for more.

It's a barleywine style ale with originally an ABV of 12%, there's a review of a tasting from the 1875 batch in the ebay link as well.
When kept under the right conditions, beer ages well. Especially strong ales like barleywines, imperial stouts and quads. Sours also tend to age well. Really only pilsener and hoppy beers go bad with age and of course when kept in sunlight or high temperatures the beer goes bad. The sunlight thing is also why beer tends to be bottled in brown bottles and why sh*t like Heineken or especially Corona sucks so much, they let in so much UV light that by the time you're drinking it the beer is skunked.

The Fresh Prince of Bevelle?

いえゆい
のぼめの
れんみり
よじゅよご
はさてかなえ
くたまえ

私は魚に関してあるある好む。

What's with the Japanese all of a sudden?

"Babelfish" doesn't translate well with autotranslaters, so I had to improvise.

I need context/explanation in layman terms to understand why you're angry here... Help me out.

Dear sweet baby jesus, please, for the love of all things good and pure, please get logic and critical thinking into high schools as a required, first year course.

In your holy name, l'chiam.

I can relate, and the problem is vastly less egregious for someone who works with history articles.

Essentially, you're reading the journal/article/report because you are trying to evaluate an argument. To do that, particularly in the realm of science, they need to be clear and explicit about every important bit of info.

So suppose Author A makes an argument that the French Revolution wasn't a bourgeois revolution, and one of their premises is "Use the argument put forth by Doyle in <insert title>". Well, that's kinda important, and you shouldn't need to read a whole additional book to be able to engage with an article that only uses it as a part. They should spell out what that article is, then offer the original source itself as supplemental info. That overall argument could be potentially solid, since modern scholarship has actually lent a ton of support against the traditional interpretation of the war, but it's not going to be convincing if a whole part is just missing.

That would be the logical course of action, yes.

Srsly.

The logic classes I took in college as part of the philosophy minor were some of the few that actually have use in my everyday life still.