Timenn

Doesn't your job involve denying any bug exists in the first place? Haven't found any troublesome "bugs" so far. If you ask me I would blame the Xbox 360 console. It's always safe to blame that one. I like the game, it's engaging and the action has improved over Mass Effect 1. The thing I missed most, I think, are the strange planets you could visit. Not that I didn't feel sorry you didn't have to visit the same hideout layouts over and over again, but there is something very cool about driving around under a red giant. The new upgrade system worked for me. I never mind large inventories with lots of stuff to choose from, but in ME1 it started to become a bit generic after a while. After some time you would figure out which brands to stick with (as they were definitely superior over the lesser brands) and the usual loot you would pick up felt just like junk you needed to sell at some point. In ME2 almost every upgrade is worth something to you, and you have just enough credits in the end to buy them all. This means that you would want to spend time looking around at every mission for every small sum of credits too. As for the spoiler bits: [hide]Loved the suicide mission. This time the entire team is involved, setting the mission up in multiple sections allowed you to play around with different team members. In ME1 you picked your team at Ilos, with no way of knowing you would use them all the way to the end. I came to like all the characters I recruited, though Jacob and Jack held the least interest to me. I was impressed by the character development of Garrus and Tali. They both felt like the same characters, but you could definitely see they had advanced two years. The fact that Tali could be romanced was actually a surprise to me, so my next playthrough would hold something new and interesting for me. My first imported Shepard did stay loyal to Ash though (yay!) I think the only bit I was disappointed with was the role of the Council. I understand this game was not about galactic politics (like the first game), but the Council should have nagged my Shepard a bit more. Saving them (in my case) was the big endgame decision of ME1, and I was looking forward to some more arguments with them. For those who might be worried the Reapers are going to be here soon (final shot of the game), rest assured that you need to be quite far away away from the Milky Way to have a total overview of it, the Reapers aren't close by yet![/hide] Did anyone catch the space physics gag from one of the conversations with a store clerk? It reminded me very much of Arthur Clarke's Imperial Earth.

Can agree with grypon about Death at a Funeral, wonderful film. The fact that is remade so soon into what seems like only a mere American version disturbs me somewhat. There are a couple of films I'd like to see, but the ones I'm most curious about are Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, and Harry Potter 7 (hoping for an equal improvement as with part 6 to part 5).

Bah, again something typical for them people south of the rivers...

Yes, you should stay away! Bloody tourists complaining about tourists, that's our job! I have to agree with namp about Rome, though I must add Paris to the list (beneath Rome though). And there's Troms

Still, it's worth considering he hasn't left you in all these years.

I'm still interested. I have been on vacation the past three weeks, though it seems nothing much happened around here anyway.

Sorry, I feel the poll is a bit skewed. Members, who are allowed to vote, will see the message board more often than the front page, meaning that they are likely to see the new posts in FED2k News first. The anonymous visitor is more likely to see the site itself, and the news presented there, and they can't vote!

I've asked around a bit, and it seems like Vista is rejected by both regular consumers as well as system operators. It's heavy, it has alot of useless "features" and it doesn't really add anything important that wasn't already in XP (or NT, for that matter).

It's time for a scandal!

If I recall it correctly, an old Westwood employee commented on it here. He said that it was possible to use the units online, but they were only available for building to people who pre-ordered.

That sort of settings is probably found in the Wiki/Site stylesheet as well. There is a way to make links a different color by using <span style="color: #000000;">link</span>. But this is a very bad idea, because it has to be done manually for every link, and leaves very redundant info.

I'm re-reading The Wheel of Time series (by Robert Jordan) at the moment. Book Five (Fires of Heaven) to be precise. Series is very in-depth fantasy, that will end with the 12th book. Sadly the author has died before finishing the final novel. An author has been selected to finish the series, and I hope (and suspect) he will do a good job on it.

Basing on what I know so far, I'll probably pick the Ranger Class. It appears to start pretty basic, but gets more complex as it levels. Which is a good thing I think. First get used to it, and then slowly new abilities will present themselves to be used. I think it can be managed for the entire party to be present. UTC afternoon is the most likely timeslot. It will be evening for gunner, and morning for the Andrew and Vanguard. Best thing would be for everyone to post their availability hours (just a basic idea, not your entire schedule): Hours available, in theory: 6:00 UTC - 23:00 UTC Hours available, normally: 11:00 UTC - 22:00 UTC (Note that UTC doesn't know DST). This is not binding, it certainly doesn't mean I'm always available at these times, it just shows it is possible. So this just means I'm never available outside these times. I wouldn't dare to play while I'm at work. :D I don't think I can work with a drawing feature in MSN (using a third-party client). Perhaps you can inform people of the coordinates of a specific element, and people will manage their own grid?

I have been searching where I can change the current theme's stylesheet, but I haven't found it. Perhaps Gob can shed some light on this? For example, the diff of an edit is very hard to read; the unchanged text has the same colour as the background.

Smileys on the wiki; It is not a bad idea to upload them to the wiki. Usually images used there should be uploaded. Such images can be handled much more fluently than offsite images. You can link offsite by using single brackets (instead of double). Example: [http://www.example.ex/image.png] As for the post not showing up properly. It may have to do with bad synchronization between cache and the real data. Have you tried what happens with refresh/ctrl-refresh ?

Edric, I have been reading up on some of the basics, including your notes. I think I can manage the character sheet, but I do have a few questions before I decide on a class (which determines the kind of character I will play). Magic - I understand you must prepare spells before you can cast them. You select the spells you want before resting (choices are bound to a couple of rules). But what effect has resting on the gameplay? Will I see the party leave without me because it takes too long for me to prepare, or is it something easily done between combats? Spells - It seems that casting spells requires quite some effort, is it worth it? It's my experience from games that spells are usually underpowered (by fear of overpowering them) compared to melee/ranged combat. But is this different? It all comes to whether it is adviceable for a first time player to pick a Magic user class, or stick to more of a fighter type (which I don't mind btw). A few practical issues: How would we deal with the time difference and availability of players? The time zones seem to range from +2 (Edric) to -5 (Vanguard) (Not counting DST) Must everyone be present in order to be able to play? How to display stuff like characters sheets and combat grids? We could use the wiki for that, it can easily be edited by all players, and it allows for some formatting. Unless you want to do all the administrative work on your own ofcourse.

Well, if you don't mind me learning along the way, I would like to join in. Perhaps Dunenewt was referring to just one or two practice combats.

As much as I'd like to participate, I'm afraid I don't have any rulebooks. I vaguely familiar with the concept of D&D, but have never been able to expand on it, due to no D&D players in my environment. Loved the riddles though, Edric.

[hide]Ordos45?[/hide]

We don't have enough boards for that to happen.

This is problematic because of two reasons. It is hard to ignore such extremists. If the "wise" media ignore them, then the tabloid-like media will bring them to the foreground because they like to score stories. There is not one media, so trying to control it like that is very hard. Secondly, it is not a good idea. As seen with Belgium (Flanders, to be precise) - their extremist party was generally ignored - but still this has lead for a strong support for this party. People felt ignored, and voted for the party that was supposed to get rid of the "old" politics (a common argument of such parties). Ignoring extremist themselves might be wise, but it is not wise to ignore their supporters. Debate should be sought with extremists, not to convince them, but to show their supporters there is an alternative way. This way the supporters might feel that their arguments (read: Their party's arguments) are taken seriously. Andrew, like I said before, I wouldn't use this movie to promote freedom of speech. It is just a bad example, that will only take the focus away from real issues. Think of the Danish cartoons, or the censored prophet Muhammed's image in the South Park episodes "Cartoon Wars".

Oops, that was supposed to say years. You was a nice guess, or not?