WTF

It's not just anti-piracy but also memory seek times. The thing is till now most carts were quite small in size but these games are all over a few gigs. So when you have multiple files on one memory card if it works like the old SDHC or memory core duo type cards they'd be a lot slower. As is it is slightly slower reading from the memory card's made for the vitas. Now if they used the older type the seek times would be terrible that loading would suck, not to mention the system has more RAM so more of the game is loaded onto the memory which can also cause initial load times to be higher but refresh and reloading times should be a much better pace and wipeout actually lets you see this in action due it's slightly slower load times.

Actually there's a little more to that story than reported. The current head of SCEJ was the head of Sony Santa Monica for over 10 years. He saw the development of God of War, Twisted Metal and a bunch of other games. He was asked by Shuhei Yoshida to take charge of SCEJ so that they'd be more timely and come out with better results and other things. he took over in 2011 I think. All these changes are probably the result of him trying to make it into a much more organised group. SCEJ has been quite lacking the last 5 years or so. Considering he was the head of SM it's quite likely he'd get most of the California based studios to assist due to his close relationship. I think what we're seeing is the direct result of new leadership at SCEJ.

stranger's wrath on the ps3 isn't bad though the PC version was supposed to be given the same high res texture pack later.

I agree with that last bit, the thing is with reputation it's like marks and a score and that's so deep-rooted in our schooling that it's a hard habit to break for most of us.

Huh? http://www.gog.com/page/promo_buy1_get1 I didn't buy dragonshard and demonstone but had the rest (NWN, IWD, BG, Planescape). So I bought one and got the other free. The offer is valid only till the 29th. Any purchase also nets you ToEE but I've already got that.

In all fairness the Vita only cost me £10 but the rest of the stuff was full price. And I'm sure you'll do well by the time you reach my age Dean

Did we discuss Liz Trotta and her inflammatory remarks here? I am curious as to how one can be so skewed. There are so many things in what she said that made no sense including things like 'too much rape' as if there's an acceptable amount of rape. Questionnaire sites are hard but I do recommend reading the OKCupid Blog and their statistics. It does help make ones own qs.

Oh FYI I'm not sure if everyone here knows but a lot of demos are region free and you don't need to swap memory cards to switch accounts. The whole process takes about 3 minutes but you will lose your settings. I've downloaded demos for ragnarok odyssey and gravity rush(the eng demo is on the HK or SG store) and works on my PAL account. Basically if you're interested the whole process can be described as such. Head to settings, format. It will try to deauthorise you so that you don't lose out on your activation and then reset to factory settings. At one point it will ask you if you wish to format your memory card. If you choose No you get to keep everything on it and then when it reboots you're back to the startup. The unfortunate thing is you can't skip the starting video that shows you the features and whatnot but after that you're free to setup the other region account. This is kind of handy for demos and things like that which aren't released in your region. Unlike what was said earlier if you would like to have multiple profiles you do not need more than one memory card but you will need to reset the system and the whole process takes roughly about 3-5 minutes and is quite painless. I've already done it 6 times today just to get demos and then test them out. Mind you if you are transferring your files from the PS3 then the two syncing accounts need to be the same. PS. I don't think I've added you but I'll do so now. I fear that as soon as my wife sees Lumines it's going to be a few hours before I get it back. edit: and make sure you use the panels, they've given us so many panels to choose from. It's just nice. I'm sure we'll find paid panels in the future but it's nice to have these. They won't show up on the PS3 though.

Actually it's traditional in my family to make pancakes that thin but it comes from one side of the family. Also pancake day was awesome with all the different kinds of stuff we made. This weekend it's special Carrot Cake.

Massive Damage week PS3 Binary Domain God Hand Vita 3G (Purchased, temporarily 8GB waiting for my 16GB to be delivered in a few weeks) Wipeout 2048 Escape Plan Uncharted: Golden Abyss Lumines Virtua Tennis 4 Super Stardust/About a Blob (One will be purchased today) Motorstorm RC XBLA Alan Wake's American Nightmare PC GoG the last two D&D games Wii The Last Story Ltd Edition

I know we already have a vita thread to just discuss the vita in general but I felt it'd be nice to have a thread where those who have a vita already could just maybe add each other (I know the PSN thread exists), work on asynchronous gaming and things like that. HSG has lobbies and it's easier when two people are on the FL and can arrange for games and things like that. Plus it's also easier to know what version each person has got/is getting this week and the games we're all getting in the first 30 days. I'll start since I started this thread: Vita 3G I've currently got retail releases of: Lumines Electronic Symphony Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition Uncharted Golden Abyss (arrives tomorrow) Digital Wipeout 2048 Motorstorm RC Escape Plan Frobisher Says I'm pondering about Super Stardust or About a Blob (any recommendations) I'll also be getting Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Everybody's Golf, Blazblue, Dynasty Warriors and maybe double dip on Rayman within the next 30 days or so. So what have you guys got this week or are waiting for. We could setup Wipeout, Virtua Tennis and HSG/Everybody's Golf lobbies (will need to wait a month on this title for me guys ) and can also have crossplay wipeout with those on PSN too. Plus unlike the 3DS launch I know there's at least 4 of us getting it this time so this way this thread could just be about launch, what we got, arranging games/matches and things like that rather than just discussing the fate of the vita and stuff which is what the main thread would be ideal for.

Boy I didn't know the rep system was so eh disputable. I think to be fair numbers were a bit unfair I suppose. However we're all adults and I don't really see any effect from cumulativeness unless people specfically wanted to get upvotes or downvotes. I will tell you what could have been the psychological issue for some and that's the fact that the downvotes were red. I don't think everyone here's so young that all assignments were done via the computer. Most of us still remember the red crosses from school which when connected with a minus brings forth some interesting results perhaps. I'm just speculating. I think if it was light-blue people would have had less issue. I tell you, dark red and other bright colours like that indicate more anger/negativity etc. Green is always neutral and blue is cooler if both were of a similarish shade I doubt anyone would care to be fair. Just my two cents from working with colours a lot : )

Oh I totally agree, TPB isn't the only and definitely not the best source if you wish to pirate. There's plenty of websites where you can stream and/or download content so I don't really see the point. However I will have to say that some of the people from TPB have acted as twats which might have helped bring their downfall in the long run. As an act it won't do a lot, though in the eyes of the uninformed public it probably could. Unless there's new laws coming that cause more changes.

speaking of piracy, we're moving a step closer to blocking TPB in the UK.

That boss fight was fun though, I tried it twice because I goofed up in what I wanted to say the first time. One thing I'm not entirely sure of is that, conversation mid-boss fight with a dialogue option. Sometimes it's ok but sometimes you're like okay I chose this path just let me do it already.

Just to get this bit clear - every religion has sects and groups. It's not an exclusive to any one religion. And each sect of a religion believes they're the right one. It's valid even amongst irreligious groups. It's the tribal nature of human beings. Sometimes it's possibly valid reasons but more often than not it is - 'I know I'm right and you're right, but I'm more right than you are.' That is a discussion, that is honestly beyond religion and more into the nature of human beings. It is interesting to see how humanity moved from God is in everything to a more solidified concept of an entity. Also something people often forget is that, religions adopt beliefs from pre-existing religions or cultures with ease so long as it doesn't majorly conflict since the early stage of religion is acceptance, assimilation and growth

I know I know but it's the aesthetics man. I just like to see the character I made in her robe or some decent leather outfits. I honestly dislike some of the designs of the might armour but at least it's not so far followed the rule of the better the armour the less it covers. The shields though, whoever designed some of them really knew how to make them stand out. Shame you barely see them when running around. I usually have talismans and rings for decent magicka. It's just the mapping that I forget. Sometimes I've forgotten that I have x spell since I'm so used to just using the early ones I got. Also screw those plants that bite you soon as you head to a treasure - I wish I could kill them.

To add to Dex's point, most religions weren't in the form they are today from inception. It's always to do with politics. Most religions bend to that. Catholicism arose primarily to appeal to the gaudy Roman Empire. I don't believe there's anything in the inception of the original religion that required one to go about such a prescribed manner. They were clever to establish their religion as the religion of the king and also made concessions so it would be accepted by him. When one of the more stronger rulers in the region approves of your religion you have power. It's always power there. In Hinduism it's about social classes; or rather it evolved to be about that. In Islam well the religion was always political to be fair since the purpose was to unite the warring tribes but they split pretty much right after the death of their prophet into two groups. Even so, it's amazing how much freedom was given to women in their early society and all that was taken away later not entirely due to the nature of the religion. It's similar for most religions, though I don't know if I should get into it. Technically most religions did initially assume that science and knowing about the world was the way to a God (Except the ancient Hellenistic Civilisation and the early Roman one - for them the gods were just soap opera). Unfortunately curiousity leads to questions that go against the people who are in the head of any religion. So this takes away control from them and thus in order to maintain control they go on ultraconservative mode and thus a religion which was once a hippy liberal sort of thing for the most part and something that was meant to encourage freedom becomes something that's used to curb freedom. If you think modern atheism won't evolve into a religion then you're sadly mistaken. Any system of beliefs can evolve into a religion. The attitude of some who call themselves atheists is that science says so so it must be true. They didn't question the science, they didn't read the discussion, they didn't try to get the information - they accept it blindly. The basic issue is that we are too lazy individually to find out information for ourselves and choose to stick with the beliefs we were raised with. If there is a religion that needs to exist it should be the religion of inquisitiveness or maybe you should call it the CCC (Commune of Curious Cats). This is different from skepticism in the sense that you are questioning because you are curious and not because you're trying to win an argument. Most modern skeptics fall into the latter category. On a personal note the closest thing I can define myself as is a freethinker but in the post post-modernist sense. I do believe in finding universal truths and I doubt that for me journey will end till I'm dead. As long as we're within the system, i.e. the universe, it is impossible to claim anything as an absolute truth [that is to say, even if we know something to be true, it is true within the universe and within the constraints]. Simple reason being that from our observations we have noticed that it is harder to find an objective truth when you're within the system as your observations are skewed by being inside the system and you're unable to see the bigger picture. The simplest truth is that we still have so much to learn and we still do not know about a lot of things. But we're getting somewhere. Hope we go a lot further before shit happens and any number of things can happen that can destroy our fledgeling species.

I do agree that the rogue mage is pretty sweet but it's hard to find a good robe or even find the necessary bits to create one and so I've got a fair number of points in might too. I've not made a lot of crystals and I do have some points in detect hidden which I guess I should improve based on what you said. Personally I don't care about armour, but I do care about weapons and that's always my main focus in games like these. I just like to find one awesome armour and be done with it. But I love having several weapons. Personally I love the chakrams (kind of weird to use it as a plural in English,but yeah) because they just take down enemies for massive damage. Combine that with a fae blade and dagger and that's pretty much what I carry about. I just love the fast weapons. Everything else seems useless to me at the moment. I guess since I didn't spend more than 8-10 hours with Skyrim I'm not quite burnt out on this as yet. Plus i suppose the thing is entirely my fault too for not caring about Skyrim since I just don't care to play in the Nordic lands. The world is just eh to me for the most part. Whereas the world in Amalur feels fresh. I think it's because I've spent over 200 hours in Morrowind that I just couldn't feel that way about the other TES games since. Oh and the combat, finally a WRPG that does combat decently instead of a clunkfest.

Well yeah there's that aspect when it comes to making armour but often the armour that you get via quests usually ends up having certain attributes that make it so much easier to salvage and make better stuff from. At the moment I'm not making my own armour but rather using what I get and salvaging the useless ones. Of course it does mean I don't tend to have a lot of money but I could always make the weakest ones into some new armour and sell later. I agree the initial area can get quite tiring but it's still nice. In a way the music reminds me of warcraft and WoW to some extent. Finding armour is a pain but I noticed that repeating certain areas does help you get them. Helps that there are two orange guys in the Fae city in the first area. But the thing is the scope of the game feels massive, it's quite comparable to TES2 and Morrowind. I wasn't fond of Oblivion and not super fond of Skyrim either for that matter. At this point I'm just trying to be the max for every faction. It was nice to enter the Fae city after finishing the house of ballads thing for obvious reasons. I'm also playing more of a battlemage though I'm still between all three classes and as always I maxed out my speechcraft since it's actually useful (which I figured from the demo since high speechcraft at the start pretty much guarantees that they'll give you a lot of potions). Three things I focussed on were Blacksmithing, Alchemy and Persuasion.

Count me in as someone who liked it as well. I've spent around 25-30 hours with it and don't really feel like I've hit a major dent on the story because I just like the side quests and exploration. It's going to be a slow-burn for me. Fast travel is great and apart from the main areas of Fae territories you need to be outside dwellings and caves to use it. Also getting and improving a house and creating armour/weapons make it a lot more enjoyable. Though fighting trolls gets tiring after a while. Question: How easy has it been for you guys to find set items? I'm finding it on par with Diablo 2.

It seems like a good song to let the afternoon fly by.

But that's Fringe always isn't it TCP? I mean they make 20 something episodes and a lot of them are filler. Some of them introduce characters who have what 30 second airtimes sometime on a crucial episode? I do like the show but man it seems like they love fillers as if to distract the audience from the overarching plot.