Equipment wise it's enchanted ebony, dragonbone or daedric smithed to legendary. I think I'm doing about 200 points of damage per hit per sword (plus about 100 points in enchantment damage).

This. You can pump things up a bit more by doing an alchemy/smithing/enchanting trick/exploit, but basically once you hit that there's nothing meaningful left to aim for gear-wise. It's a shame the game doesn't have more/better unique items as it would give it much more longevity for loot-fiends like me.

I've got a horrible feeling that the game scales up the toughness of the opponents to match your highest skill, and if that doesn't happen to be something combat-orientated, you're a bit shafted.

No, it scales to your overall character level. And then only to a certain degree. Generic monster/baddie types have a natural level range and will only scale a bit beyond that. Not sure about bosses but I think scaling is capped for them too.

Ginger Yellow wrote:
Equipment wise it's enchanted ebony, dragonbone or daedric smithed to legendary. I think I'm doing about 200 points of damage per hit per sword (plus about 100 points in enchantment damage).
It's a shame the game doesn't have more/better unique items as it would give it much more longevity for loot-fiends like me.
This, absolutely. At the point I'm at there's little challenge and little reward. There's still plenty of fun in roaming and exploring, but not much to justify saving the game a lot.

hobbes wrote:
I think I'm doing about 200 points of damage per hit per sword
I've named it Beardhammer.

Well, at least if you want more of it there's DLC coming out this year at some point.

But, like GY, I'm just counting down until Diablo 3 myself.

What's on the Portal 2 DLC? And what happens if I connect to Steam?

It's a new co-op chapter, and a challenge mode. As for connecting to Steam, well, you connect to Steam. For PS3 purposes I think it just means cloud saves and cross-platform multiplayer.

Oh, and I think you get a free PC copy of the game.

Woohoo! THQ have all but confirmed that they're working on a sequel to Company of Heroes, after months of dropping hints:The company’s five internal studios are developing games aligned to several of THQ’s key franchises, including the upcoming launch of UFC® Undisputed™ 3 and Darksiders® II, as well as Company of Heroes, inSANE, Saints Row, Warhammer 40,000, and the new title from Patrice Désilets and his team.

anybody else playing echo bazaar? (besides the obvious one, of course)

So, Skyrim then?

Personally, I'd expected more of a game and less of an aimless ramble. Interchangeable, interminable dungeons. Indistinguishable NPC's. Pointless horses. Quests that exist in isolation. Bah. Very pretty though and it does set itself up nicely for a more compelling sequel. Good if not quite that good.

Anyone else excited by the imminent return of Commander Shephard? I, for one, am looking forward to our new Reaper overlords. Even if the multiplayer thing is a bit disconcerting.

Ginger Yellow wrote:
Woohoo! THQ have all but confirmed that they're working on a sequel to Company of Heroes, after months of dropping hints:The company’s five internal studios are developing games aligned to several of THQ’s key franchises, including the upcoming launch of UFC® Undisputed™ 3 and Darksiders® II, as well as Company of Heroes, inSANE, Saints Row, Warhammer 40,000, and the new title from Patrice Désilets and his team.

Fancy a game of CoH? me and my friends play it. Already have a team of 3.

Following a recommendation by @robertflorence on Twitter, I downloaded Quarrel from XBLA, and........it's brilliant. Like a cross between Scrabble and Risk, only loads better than that sounds, with presentation that makes me grin like a massive eejit.

400 MS points, and highly recommended.

Yay! I got a Diablo 3 beta key.

And I've just clocked Red Dead Redemption..

A week's break then I'm going to go back and make it 100%.

Crikey, that's the first console game I've completed in decades.

And after a quick read back through this thread I can see why Fussbudget got me Portal 2 for my birthday the other day.

So I'm almost done with Mass Effect 3 and I'm still not sure what I think about it. My worst fears, inspired by Dragon Age 2, have definitely not been realised, but it is mostly underwhelming. There's a fair bit of stuff to like. The extremely formulaic quest structure of ME2 has been replaced, albeit with one that's only slightly less formulaic. The combat arenas are mostly a lot better than either of the first two games. And they've handled some of the character arcs quite well, all things considered. But there's so much basic stuff that is either a step backward or just stupid. The quest log is the worst I've seen in a Western RPG, ever, which combined with quest design where you're given quests whose objectives are in places you can't access (and don't know you can't access, because the game doesn't tell you where they are supposed to be) makes for an awful lot of wandering aimlessly round the galaxy. Also, there is no inventory whatsoever. Have I picked up the item I need for this quest somewhere on my travels? I have no way of knowing unless I find the questgiver. Best of all, some missions disappear if you progress the story along far enough. In a genius move, these missions are not marked in any way. However, the missions which prevent you from completing the other missions are marked "Priority".

The impending (if not imminent) demise of Game led to me picking up a somewhat bizarre bargain yesterday.

Having received the e-mail newsletter informing me that they're in the midst of a "Shop Spring Clean" (curious code), I decided to get round to buying Deus Ex: HR for the reduced price of £12.99. Bearing in mind the current financial state of the place I resisted ordering online and dropped into the shop; store price £13.99. Still worth it at that price, no?

Just as I was about to hand over the cash the Manager asked me to wait. He returned a couple of minutes later with the Limited Numbers Collector's Edition (the one with the fancy box, figurine, DVD, yada yada) and asked me how much I'd be willing to pay for it.

Now. I'm not really bothered by Special Editions and the like, so I just shrugged and said "I'm too old for figurines".

He scanned the barcode. "It's coming up as £40, but I can discount it to.......£8."

Hence I now have the Collector's Edition. Not that the figurine will ever see the light of day.

somewhat bizarre bargain yesterday.

Seems pretty imminent to me. Can't see how they can survive losing EA as a supplier, right before the release of one of the biggest games of the year and just before their quarterly rent bill comes due. A lot of the Japanese publishers, including Capcom, have pulled their supplies today as well.