Dvader said:

I expected a nice long debate when I got off the plane and I get fast food talk... Eh good enough. Wendy's is easily the best quality food of the big three fast food joints.

Big three "burger" themed restarants. The big three (in terms of sales) are Taco Bell, BK and McDs.  I think KFC would even beats out Wendy's (in terms of sales).

robio said:

What the hell was wrong with the Water Temple? For years I heard people complain about it. I do not remember having any issues with it at all. That upside down stone temple in Mask of Majora was much much harder.

People say it's hard. I would not know.

In Phantom Hourglass is that the Water Temple? I know I quit the game becuase of it, not because it was hard -- it was fucking boring. I got sick of going back in there endlessly.

^Yeah, I'm talking US. Remember, I am a US citizen.

Do any of you guys have In'n'Out in your region? I think they are exclusive to So.Cal and Arizona.  They were the inspiration for the original McDonalds.  To this day they still only serve 4 items (shake, soda, fries and burger) but they have a lot of off-menu orders you can make.  No freezers, no microwaves, everything cooked when you order it.  meat-eaters love it (I know I liked it when I was a meat eater).

Del Taco is better than Taco Bell too, but that's limited in region.

aspro said:

People say it's hard. I would not know.

In Phantom Hourglass is that the Water Temple? I know I quit the game becuase of it, not because it was hard -- it was fucking boring. I got sick of going back in there endlessly.

No that, I think that is the "Temple of the Ocean King"

aspro said:

^Yeah, I'm talking US. Remember, I am a US citizen.

Do any of you guys have In'n'Out in your region? I think they are exclusive to So.Cal and Arizona.  They were the inspiration for the original McDonalds.  To this day they still only serve 4 items (shake, soda, fries and burger) but they have a lot of off-menu orders you can make.  No freezers, no microwaves, everything cooked when you order it.  meat-eaters love it (I know I liked it when I was a meat eater).

Del Taco is better than Taco Bell too, but that's limited in region.

A friend of mine took me to an In'n'Out some place in California as we were driving back from San Francisco to San Diego.  I enjoyed it and the sort of cultiness of it.

I heard of another burger restaurant chain similar to In'n'Out in a sense I guess called White Castle which is only found in a few Eastern States.  Wouyld be interesting to go in one of those

^That would be a good sign.

I've started playing Gothic II Gold, I got it and a few other games for free from gog.com for buying The Witcher 2 from there. It's holding up surprisingly well for a game from 2002 that was actually considered dodgy and ugly at the time too, what with it being from a German developer. Models and textures and stuff can be butt ugly up close but the fact it's completely seamless (so far, there may be load screens at certain parts, I don't know) with not even indoor to outdoor or back transitions and has a day/night cycle and weather conditions and stuff makes it seem solid enough, few games are so seamless even these days. Gameplay is alright too, the basic actions are simple enough, if a little unconventional, and the combat can feel a little dodgy but I'm told it improves over time as your skill with weapons and stuff increases allowing your character to swing them more efficiently and form combos, though it's not likely to ever feel as good as current action games or anything.

There are npcs with schedules, people who tell you to gtfo if you barge in houses and attack you if you steal items, brawls that end with not death/game over/killing the other but with knock outs, with them even taking your weapon and gold after kicking your ass, and possibly murdering you if you REALLY pissed them off (town guards can be especially brutal if you don't comply with their requests, lol) and the quests have been decent.

Even though I'm only in a first small area with some fields, caves, and a small city with its various districts (market, harbor, upper quarter, etc) it's already been a little open ended. For now I need to get to the upper class district of the city to deliver a message, but I wasn't even allowed to enter the city, so I did some work for a farmer outside, and he gave me a discount on farmer's clothes and told me I can tell the guards I work for him to let me pass. I could have also entered in at least one other way, getting a pass from a merchant who was outside, in return for Gods know what. Now I'm in the city, their rules don't allow me to go to the upper district so I still can't deliver the message. I have to become a citizen and I can do that by getting an actual job. I'm adviced to try and be accepted as an apprentice for one of the master tradesmen there. At first I'm told that only one is likely to accept me, and he tells me to do that I need the approval of the other masters too, as well as to do a small task for him. To get the approval of the other masters they also ask me a few things, but I also find out that they can also accept apprentices contrary to what I was told by the first master I asked (pesky bugger really wants a helper!). Then I even discovered I can bypass all this and try to join the militia if I complete a mission for them, though they normally only accept people who already are citizens too. So yeah, there's a lot to decide already for this basic task and on top of that there are also other quest lines to follow, like a mystery of various missing people, being able to talk to those who knew them and ask around etc.

Certain characters have tried to help me in return for future favors, blackmail me into doing bad deeds for them (my refusal will probably cause me some trouble later), I've met a money lender, I've been knocked out cold and got my gold stolen by a thug outside the tavern who wanted me to pay him for entry (and I foolishly refused), after gaining conciousness I bled all over the city until I found an empty bed in the local brothel to rest and heal at, only to wake up and find my blood trail still there but all dried and brown instead of bright red. Then I paid the pimp for a little one on one time with a certain "lady" who could give me information about some of the missing persons, and since I had paid anyway, after she told me what she had to say we got it on with a The Witcher style cut scene (which froze so I didn't see it but it was probably shit, the game's old).

And I haven't even tried to mess around with things like spell casting, alchemy and crafting yet, I'm only like level 2 and learning points you use up for both extra statistics and skills are a real investment you don't take lightly in this game. I've only increased my one handed weapon skill.

So yeah, this thing was way ahead of its time, much more seamless and somehow more dynamic and open ended and varied than most W/CRPGs these days. The developers are now working on Risen 2. I liked Risen 1, though it felt rushed in some ways (like the shitty ending section) but I hope Risen 2 is closer to Gothic gameplay, it could be freaking glorious (and Risen 2 early screenshots look pretty great too, with the pirate theme and all). Have some crappy Gothic 2 screenshots. I actually started the game in the tower seen at the distance in the 2nd screenshot so it seems that most of what you see is places you can actually go to (save for too steep to climb mountains etc) not just always distant decorations in otherwise limited environments. Speaking of climbing, you can do that too, get on rooftops, find different routes and hidden stashes and things. Of course, it's no Assassin's Creed, it's also clunky, but it's certainly more than most W/CRPGs allow these days, with no jumping at all or, if there is, being barely enough for a little fence or whatever is blocking your way.

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Wow that MW3 trailer is fantastic. Looks like its World War 3 which is going to be real fun to see. The graphics are much improved.

MW3 looks very much like Battlefield.