Mark Sweetman's page

Hunter's use guns, not farmers. I assumed you were smart enough to get that.

Just a small comment - farmers in Australia have guns. One of the ways to keep kangaroos / foxes / rabbits under control is to shoot them. Which they are able to get under permits and within the laws in Australia.

Nope, they just schedule fathers day for the start of the footy finals :p

A slight detour away from criminals vs law-abiding citizens - presented without any comment but sadness.

Stiehl - not quite, though I am aware of them. I'm traditional, English muffin base, fried back bacon, fried egg and a splash of bbq sauce.

Happy Father's Day to much of the world (except you Aussies :P)

Hope that wishes are extended both up and down the paternal lineage. I'll be celebrating with bacon and egg muffin breakfast, scallop and codfish biriyani lunch and pizza for tea.... Mmmmm, calories...

They must just have all been afraid of Wellesley...

Original description of Red Sonya:
It was a woman, dressed as von Kalmbach had not seen even the dandies of France dressed. She was tall, splendidly shaped, but lithe. From under a steel cap escaped rebellious tresses that rippled red gold in the sun over her compact shoulders. High boots of Cordovan leather came to her mid-thighs, which were cased in baggy breeches. She wore a shirt of fine Turkish mesh-mail tucked into her breeches. Her supple waist was confined by a flowing sash of green silk, into which were thrust a brace of pistols and a dagger, and from which depended a long Hungarian saber. Over all was carelessly thrown a scarlet cloak.

Source

An alternative take on Tom Bombadil

A quote from the speculative piece: “Tom Bombadil is the master” Goldberry says. And his subjects are black huorns and barrow wights.

Be careful, Turisas is a gateway to the wonderful world of Folk Metal... spend too much time there and you'll be headbanging to Finnish Death Polka playing a cover of a Pet Shop boys song...

Enjoy Cheapy - it's a cover... but it's metal..

Edit - ooh, sniped by 20 seconds ;)

Actually the book was released on April 21, and the movie May 19... so they were developed in parallel. And the book was written by Terry Brooks, not just a ghost writer... but that digresses.

What about something like Starship Troopers then? Based incredibly loosely off the book, though wildly different in execution.
Both of the adaptations stand up on their own for different reasons.

Or a TV series like Dexter, Game of Thrones or even The Walking Dead?

All of these adaptations surpass the original in some ways, while not in others. People are allowed to enjoy only one, the other or both at the same time.

They've crossed the lines to make foes that hadn't existed in the tolkien cannon...

Which foes were they? - Azog exists in canon, but was just dead prior to the Hobbit.

On the book vs film debate... I will state that I have not read The Phantom Menace Novel, does that mean I can't comment on how I dislike Jar Jar?

Hama - thanks for the clarification, your bias to the written word is clear in your statement.

I tend to view each medium as different and with their own specific advantages and disadvantages. But I personally wouldn't look down on anyone just because they haven't read a book attached to a movie... just as I wouldn't do the same in reverse.

Dunno. I tent not to take seriously opinions of people who watched a movie based on a book without previously or afterwards reading said book.

Might I ask why?

For a movie to work as a movie it should be able to be enjoyed without requiring any knowledge of the root material.

A news source on PRISM Presentation - it is interesting...

Edit: My biggest complaint is the formatting on those powerpoints... hideous.

Tropes would indicate that things are inevitably about to get hectic...

Aussie style

Shhh... you'll disturb the serenity!

So, that's two egg mayonnaise, a prawn Goebbels, a Hermann Goering, and four Colditz salads.

After considering what's already on my dance card and vacations and work in the next few months I'm going to respectfully withdraw.

Good luck to all and hope you have fun :)

Aussie plugs and US plugs are indeed different... but that is easily solved with a cheapo adapter. The more pertinent difference is that the US power system operates on 120V rather than Australia's 230V.

Most laptops and shavers and some other electrics are dual voltage (as in operate of either level) but still worth checking.

Aye - this'n looks like it could get exceedingly expensive if you were after everything in it... I think that's already at upwards of $350 (before shipping) and climbing if you're after all of the expansions.

I'll just flag it and see where she ends up in a few weeks methinks.

More kickstarter Cthulhu board game with some impressive looking minis.

Well he does seem keen on riding fillies... boom tish.

Scott - I think I know what I'm trying to say... the question is whether the medium of the internet is letting that get through without distortion, and whether you're actually trying honestly to hear it. You seem intent to try and tear my argument apart... when I'm not actually arguing with you on much at all.

All I'm saying is that user reviews are not useless (neither the aggregates nor the individual comments) - and when taken with the appropriate grain of salt can be just as useful as the 'Professional' reviews are.

Embrace the grey here - the world isn't all black and white.

But at the end of the day - just a tad off topic. As I said upthread, cautious and concerned - but awaiting E3 to shed a bit more light on exactly how the game in question will play.

In keeping with the lord of prostitution... you'll notice that there's no prohibition on being touched by others.

Reminds me a bit of Just lie back and think of England.

Scott - I appreciate that it is your opinion that user reviews have no merit. But it isn't one that I share.

Bioshock Metacritic - 414 positive, 60 mixed and 84 negative.

84 out of 558 makes it basically 15% that gave a negative review.

Of the critics - 44 reviews total, of which 14 were credited with a full 100% score. That makes it 32% of total reviews - of which roughly a third said 10/10, a third had A grades and a third had dead links from metacritic. Average that out it makes... roughly 15% that had an A grade bumped directly to 100.

All I'm saying is that we're both right.

Deus Ex: The Fall will be available soon for iPad 2, iPhone 4S and iPod Touch 5 and above for the price of $6.99 - from the press release.

So the game will need to be playable on a 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display. I'd state with resonable confidence that touch based controls will be the primary means of control rather than aftermarket controllers (the Deus Ex: The Fall website states as much).

They also suggest in different wordings that it won't be watered down - and will be a full 'Deus Ex' experience... which seems to indicate that they'll be trying to make a similar experience to Human Revolution.

Maybe they'll blow my mind completely and I'll finally need to buy an upgraded iPad... but my simian brain is struggling to fathom how touch based controls will be an intuitive and easy to use as a mouse and keyboard combo without significantly compromising the gameplay speed or fluency.

That said - bring on E3 when the masses will get a hands-on and there'll be some more information floating about.

Krensky - you're right, that was a mis-shapen statement on my part.

The press release looks interesting, but tablet touch controls are what predominately have me worried. Tablet games are more limited than a full PC or console release would have been - that's what I was meant to be meaning.

If they are able to be more successful in the mobile market than the PC/console market, why shouldn't they move in that direction?

Putting on my corporate hat - yes, as a business they should exploit that. Go where the money is and mobile definitely has potential to reach more consumers, etc, etc.

Putting on my gamer hat - I'd be saddened by that, though to me it's not about the games that they do make... but more the games that they won't be making because their focus is elsewhere.

Yes, making one mobile game doesn't mean they won't make deeper more strategic games in the future... but it does mean that they are committing resources to making a mobile game rather than console / PC.

Given that Square Enix seems to be laying off people recently rather than hiring... I don't see it as 'nerd rage' to express a concern as to what the future holds.

What I don't particularly like about metacritic scores is the attribution of a numeric of 100 to a letter score of A or a 5 star score - which I think tends to inflate the number for a metacritic review.

If you compare universally acclaimed games, the user scores tend to be about 10 to 15% lower - which I think is partially due to that numerical distortion.

I'd still hold that both sides of the review coin have merit, and both can give distorted views of what to expect in a game (be it content or general 'good' ness).

This shows part of an issue with metacritic

The top game of 2007 (based solely on critic score) was Out of the Park Baseball 2007 - but this was based on only five critic reviews. The user ratings have then been perverted with people taking offence at a baseball simulation sitting on the 2nd spot of all time - downrating the user score.

So both the critic score and the user score can be swayed due to various factors.

I looked up Metacritic scores for the Deus Ex franchise (limited to PC offerings):

Deus Ex: Critic - 90; User - 9.4

Deus Ex: Invisible War: Critic - 80; User - 6.2

Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Critic - 90; User - 8.3

Based on the critic's scores, they still viewed the second game generally favorably - while there was a much more mixed set of user reviews.

Chuck a swarm at him :)

Past: 1d5 ⇒ 4 - The Time of Trials

Wounds: 1d5 + 18 ⇒ (2) + 18 = 20

Fate: 1d10 ⇒ 2 - 3 points

Armour History: 1d10 ⇒ 4 Death is Joy

Starting point before modifications:
Weapon Skill: 41; Ballistic Skill: 45; Strength: 43; Toughness: 44; Agility: 44; Intelligence: 41; Perception: 37; Willpower: 33; Fellowship: 37

Devastator Marine - Salamander Chapter with a big ol flamer and Cleanse and Purify.

I'll touch up the details and post up the finished version later.

Weapon Skill: 2d10 + 30 ⇒ (10, 1) + 30 = 41
Ballistic Skill: 2d10 + 30 ⇒ (10, 5) + 30 = 45
Strength: 2d10 + 30 ⇒ (9, 4) + 30 = 43
Toughness: 2d10 + 30 ⇒ (4, 10) + 30 = 44
Agility: 2d10 + 30 ⇒ (2, 1) + 30 = 33
Intelligence: 2d10 + 30 ⇒ (1, 10) + 30 = 41
Perception: 2d10 + 30 ⇒ (1, 6) + 30 = 37
Willpower: 2d10 + 30 ⇒ (2, 1) + 30 = 33
Fellowship: 2d10 + 30 ⇒ (6, 1) + 30 = 37

Agility re-roll: 2d10 + 30 ⇒ (6, 8) + 30 = 44

Nice - Top heavy and none too smart or personable. I'll peruse my books before making a committment on build.

DM Grey - Good! - everyone needs some Chronicle of the Righteous in their gaming :)

At the root of it all is the fact that critical fumbles get worse as you increase in level - as in as your character is meant to get better at fighting... they actually significantly increase their chance of a critical fumble.

A 1st level fighter has a 5% chance to get a natural 1.
A 6th level fighter has a ~10% chance to get a natural 1 on a full attack.
An 11th level fighter has a ~14% chance to get a natural 1 on a full attack.
A 20th level fighter has a ~18.5% chance to get a natural 1 if he takes a full set of iterative attacks.

A spellcaster has a 0% chance to fumble his spells.

@Mark, Indeed I am. Only thing I'm unsure about is the arm withered from 'use'. Doesn't really seem to jive with Chucaro. Otherwise, looks good.

Intent there was actually to set up for a Ritual of Debilitation from the Chronicle of the Righteous that I'd ask for permission for if selected. Can be refluffed to mean general weakness due to prolonged poison exposure if needed.

It does state that rake attacks can be made - but I'd thought that was only there to allow for it to avoid the starting turn while grappling bit. *shrugs*

It isn't pointless in my interpretation as it still bypasses the restriction of 'only one attack on a charge'.

Suppose it's po-tay-to vs po-tah-to depending on which but of the rules you think supercedes the other.

Aye - but to use a rake, the target needs to be grappled no?
Rake (Ex) A creature with this special attack gains extra natural attacks under certain conditions, typically when it grapples its foe. In addition to the options available to all grapplers, a monster with the rake ability gains two free claw attacks that it can use only against a grappled foe. The bonus and damage caused by these attacks is included in the creature's description. A monster with the rake ability must begin its turn already grappling to use its rake—it can't begin a grapple and rake in the same turn.

So the attack chain should have been:
Bite;
If success then attempt grapple via Grab;
If success then two rake attacks?

To use Voodoo's vernacular... sorry for being Buttinski - but shouldn't the tatzyl have needed to initiate a grapple (via grab ability) before being able to attempt the rake attacks on both Wildr and Salvi?

Yes I would still take superstition, and no I wouldn't normally hold back raging to get buffed up.

It's a sad day for Germany.

Weak minded regional legislators have chosen to repeal a most magnificent hangman word - Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, which relates to the 'law for the delegation of monitoring beef labelling'.

As I put hand to heart and lament... I recall the time when at age 13 I put pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis on the board at primary school for Hangman.

At least it wasn't one of these Fey... my thumb hurts just thinking about it.

Rest up though.

The somewhat less than original, yet should still be enjoyable, twist for my witch will be Alice in Wonderland-ish. He's a devotee of an Empyreal Lord of dream and hallucination, and to his mind the entire change is being perceived as a lucid dream. When he's asleep or taking on visions from the venom of his snake familiar he'll get visions of Golarion or other 'realities'.

Crunching away with crunch and fluffing away with fluff.

Gregory - yes, in Golarion lore drow are always evil. Without going into spoileriffics, the reasoning is in the Second Darkness AP.

I believe that Warhammer (both Fantasy and 40k) has covered the "turn off your brain and kill everything in sight in the name of the Absolute", and in particular Ragathiel feels like a ripoff Blood Angels space marines (due to the added "brood over my sinister nature" and "my peers think I will flip out some day" tropes).

And more than that, both Warhammers are a subtle parody of that, while Pathfinder plays the trope straight and dead serious.

Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with that though... just like a Longsword +1, simple and easy to understand is good sometimes. I just prefer to think of him as a gateway empyreal... enough to get you in the door and soon enough you're gorging on more complex fare.