greenwarden

I'm YouTubing the sdtk now. I need it in my life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpazNoXTMYU

Whoa, nostalgia bomb! I remember leaving my bookstore job at around seven every Saturday night, pressing through the drizzle with the sound of that soundtrack (that pseudo-monkish "aaaaaah aah ah aaaaah") going through my head, which totally put me in the mood to play. I'd get home, make some lumpy oatmeal with brown sugar for dinner, and fire up my PSOne. It was paradise.

I know I was kinda blunt- thanks for taking my words in the spirit they were intended. I have also gotten caught up in the numbers game (usually when I am under a lot of personal stress, and I just want something to go a certain way for once, dammit! ) - in that mindset, it is hard to really relax and enjoy the game. Anyway, it sounds like Freya has a real direction now- I hope you have fun with her.

Legion is awesome- by far one of my favorite characters in ME2. Oh yeah, a femShep Sentinel- great fun! Anyway, at some point I may try playing a dude, but since I can always watch my husband blunder around as his dudeShep, it may be awhile.

For power game characters (that's not meant as a personal judgment- this character is supposed to excel at everything, so...) like this to exist on console, I think you'll need the Oghma Infinium exploit. Once Dragonborn comes out for PS3, respec'ing will make it even easier. But in order to minimize perk usage- I don't think you need to max "gateway" perks like stealth or light armor. Illusion magic will negate the need for 5/5 stealth, and unless you really want silent roll and light step, you might not even need muffled movement from the left side of the tree. You can just use the Muffle spell or any of the pre-enchanted muffle shoes that are in the game. In all cases, since you're going to mess with smithing and enchanting, there should never be a need for all five ranks of any gateway perk. The combination of those two perks, in my opinion, negates any combat challenge the game has. Also consider the importance of those final elemental perks, like fire making enemies run away- my experience has shown me that this is more of a nuisance than anything. From a power gaming perspective, only lightning's special effect perk is useful, since it basically lops 15% off of all enemies total hit points. Consider specializing in one element, for character definition as much as for saving perks. tl;dr: Those five tier gateway perks become less and less critical as your skill increases. "Fortify X" enchanted gear makes this even more the case. Personally, Vou, though...these characters. You say you want a more immersive experience, but the characters you describe don't sound believable/relatable. I realize they're based on mythology (or Valkyrie Profile ), but they sound like min/max god mode characters with no meaningful attachment to the game world. If you are looking to roleplay and get immersed, you need to try to imagine your characters as seeking to live in the game world, not master it- to be a part of the world, not above it. That doesn't mean they can't be exceptionally skilled, but there needs to be direction. And, there's nothing heroic about being good at everything- the most memorable heroes have always had flaws, and moments where their own array of talents were not perfect for the task at hand. So much of what we value in heroism is about the effort, not the outcome. Don't let "perfect" become the enemy of "good," is the gist of it, I guess.

Jac, I have fond memories of my female Shepard. They wrote some great dialog for her- for both Shepards, actually. And, maybe it's because I'm female, but I don't think I could ever play a male Shep. GOG is having an amazing sale right now, and so I picked up Legends of Grimrock. I love old fashioned, first person dungeon crawlers a la Wizardry, and one of my favorite Oblivion modders, Phitt, just came out with a quest mod for Grimrock that looks great. Started my game last night, and so far, so good. It's a really polished and atmospheric interpretation of a typically kinda dowdy genre, and the sound design is quite nice.

I liked Lost too, Witty, but I ran out of patience. I'll always appreciate its ambitions though. It was nice to not be talked down to by a program- it assumed I was smart enough to keep up. And I still think it had some very good actors- the actors who played John Locke and Benjamin Linus in particular. Nowadays with my schedule being as busy as it has been, I am prone to streaming Spongebob through Netflix at the end of a long day.

And another vote for the Fable soundtracks- they just put me in the best mood, you guys. Also: yeah, I love Jeremy Soule, his music has such special memories for me as an ES player. I also love the soundtrack Kumi Tanioka wrote for the old Gamecube game, Final Fantasy:Crystal Chronicles- it was really ahead of its time, in its use of authentic medieval instruments and world influences. I'm also a huge fan of any soundtrack Hitoshi Sakimoto has written- Dragon Quarter, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story- these are all, in my opinion, soundtracks of distinction: somewhat contemporary, almost industrial, in feeling, yet timeless. Love them all. And finally, Yasunori Mitsuda- the Chrono Cross and Xenogears soundtracks are both great.