FABIO wrote:

Arbit wrote:

Try an only fighters specializing with daggers setup in BG2, you will die. Try a using thief only specializing in clubs in Torment, you (probably) will die (haven't tried this, but strongly suspect it's true). Don't even get me started on Diablo 2, half the fucking skills in that game are useless. Similarly, as long as you avoid obviously idiot setups in SS2 and apply modules in a semi-intelligent manner, you can survive. As a last resort, you can even adjust the difficulty.

The BG2 and Torment examples are obviously idiotic to anyone who's ever played any sort of RPG before. The Diablo 2 statement is correct, and is the reason I've stayed away from it. I guess it's a game for people who've already played it all the way through(??) or the BDR type who get the full color Prima strategy guide right when they first buy a game.

All the SS2 fanboys pride themselves on the game having such replay value, and that it's so DEEP and OPEN ENDED. No, it's not. The navy class implies that you'll be primarily a tech geek, which will get you slaughtered.

There are only two types of characters that will survive the Many brain corridor (on ANY difficulty): buff marine with assault rifle and psi guy with invisibility. All the hacking and research (with all the fancy chemicals!) skill in the world won't help you there. Deus Ex had security hacking options that actually made a difference (turrets that slaughtered guards in an area instead of being destroyed by zombies with lead pipes), and every level had multiple options to complete it. Sure most of them were crawling through air vents or blowing something up, but that's a lot more choice than SS2 ever gave you.

You could even bring up the strategy involved in choosing which aug to take for each body part. Oh wait, you'd rather cheat code so you wouldn't have to make that decision.

Jesus, you can't possibly be for real anymore.

Mischief Maker wrote:

I still think the skill system (or "virtual incompetence" as I call it) sucked. Luckily someone in the design team agrees with me because there's a code to give yourself all the skill points you need to bring all your skills to master level without putting that "Cheats enabled" mark of stigma on your save files. I like to think that with $50 billion invested in this cyborg, they probably would have taken the time to actually teach him how to shoot, swim, etc. And with the difficulty set to "realistic" the challenge is retained. Instead of a stooge clambering his way towards competence, I start out excellent, then my gradually improving augs made me AWESOME.

The cheat was for the skills. The skill set was retarded and started you out as worse than incompetent. The augs were awesome because they added abilities above and beyond any normal human. By cheating the skills to max (yet cranking up the difficulty to retain challenge) and adding augs as normal, you get the desired effect of starting out as a top secret agent and gradually work your way up to super cyborg. You, the guy who was bitching about taking 15 seconds to aim a gun in Deus Ex, are now bitching about the fix for it?

But I assume you already knew all this; not even you are that slow and oblivious. You ARE Zseni. The actual argument and facts come second to you being right all the time. If that requires completely glossing over the other side's point, restating the same proven wrong argument over and over until you win through attrition, or Orwellian past history revision, so be it.