Graeystone

Its a good game. Too bad EA is being stupid though. I get most of my games on Steam and when it comes to sequels and series, publishers will offer the rest of the series on top of the new game. For whatever reason EA isn't doing that with AMA.

I'm sure most of us remembers American McGee's Alice(AMA). After a little over a decade, the sequel is finally out named Alice: Madness Returns(AMR). . .and this game ROCKS! After some disappointing sequels (Dungeon Siege III and Duke Nukem Forever), here is a game that meets all expectations. Plot - Wonderland is in trouble and when that place is in trouble so is Alice's sanity. Now Alice must 'return' to Wonderland. However this this time its not a quest to regain her sanity, but to discover the truth of the events that caused her to go insane in the first place. Graphics - Excellent! Surpasses AMA by all counts. The enemies and citizens of Wonderland and London are done in excellent(if not in creepy at times) detail. The game supports PhysX and it actually works without messing up the game in some way!(Take that Sacred 2 ) Music - Fairly good. Game Play - For PC gamers, there is the choice of Keyboard + Mouse(Fully Customizable), X-Box Controller, or Logitech Rumblepad 2(which I use). For a controller, the game play is really nice and tight. Alice has a 'lock on' command so a single target can be picked and attacked. A downside however is the the key/button must be held down at all times to keep the target locked on. Game Saves are done automatically with no choice of manually saving. This game is HUGE. Estimated game play minus any back tracking is about 18-20 hours. Weapons can be upgraded. Alice has many dresses and can wear a chapter's 'chosen dress' at anytime when the chapter is completed. For those who bought the game with a 'DLC/Bonus' there are additional dresses and weapons.* If a player misses something in a chapter they can go back and search for whatever it is they missed. Overall the game is well worth it. A lot to do and many of the questions that needed answered finally given. *About the Bonus Dresses/Weapons. EA in its less than infinite wisdom screwed up. For those did not pre-order the game directly from EA, there may be a way to unlock the Bonus Dresses/Weapons- Open up 'DefaultEngine.ini' found the AMR config folder. At the bottom of the file there is a line that reads - GIsSpecialPCEdition=FALSE change the line to GIsSpecialPCEdition=TRUE That should unlock the Bonus Dresses/Weapons. Another line will appear in the game's Main Menu called 'Play American McGee's Alice'(or something similar). DO NOT PRESS IT! That aspect of the DLC/Bonus was a limited time offer only for those who pre-ordered directly from EA. Pressing the button now will just exit the game. AMA game files do not exist for regular retail versions of the game.

Some things about DNF you may want to know before buying- Duke can only carry 2 weapons at a time. Duke's 'Health Bar' is an 'Ego Bar'. In other words when Duke gets hit so does his ego. Ego will regenerate over time.

Tried DS III demo. . .and DANG IT! Square Enix royally screws up another series that doesn't have the words 'final', 'fantasy', 'dragon', or 'quest' in the title. Did pre-order but got my money back. What morons don't put keyboard customization in a PC game? One thing I did like is the ability to switch 'forms' with the female character and not have it on a time limit like with the Druid in Diablo 2 or Vampiress in Sacred 1.

"Let my computer live long enough while meeting the requirements to play."

If anyone is on STEAM and pre-orders DS III now, they will get DS I&II for free. However the expansions for the first two are not included.

Don't neglect the seraphim's defense though. Because she is Duel Wielding, that means no hand shield. Shields in Sacred 2 do give some great defense and bonus.(Shield Skill). However with DW, Armor Skill is a MUST besides the usual 'keep the armor weight/combat art's cooling time down'. You can also put put a rune(JUST 1[anymore and the cool down time for combat arts gets screwed up) into Energy Shield and put points into Energy Shield. However Energy Shield is a 'balancing act' all its own.

Going to try the demo here in a few minutes via STEAM. Right now my 'wishlist' is Dungeon Siege III and Torchlight 2 though.

In the backstory of Sacred 1, Sophia the Seraphim gave birth to a son. Whether he could be an actual Seraphim isn't really said as far as I know. Also Seraphims in Sacred seem to be more along the lines of of Valkyries of Viking Mythology so being all female makes sense. Anyway the origins and truth of the Seraphim race is filled with contradictions and plenty of unanswered questions. I've been tempted to created a thread with some ideas I have about the winged race in an attempt to make heads and tails about them. Have nothing against character customization. Has anyone colored the Shadow Warrior green and named him Hulk yet?

One thing I would like to be added is a 'yes/no' option for Skills/Attributes/Rune Creation as in 'Do you want to select/put points in this Skill/Attribute?' or 'Do you want to destroy these Runes to create (Insert Rune Name) Rune?' At the most at least put in a re-spec so players can correct mistakes.

I guess this isn't Doctor Donald Blake who walks with a limp. . .

Indium Shaman - If you are looking to make the enemies more challenging, here are some lines in the balance.txt you can toy with- Enemy_armor = {800,850,900,1000,2800}, Enemy_weapondamage = {650,750,850,1000,3700}, Enemy_spelldamage = {500,650,800,900,2700}, Each number left from right represents the game's difficulty - Bronze, Silver, Gold, Plat., and Niob.(The numbers above are unedited) Don't forget to back up the Balance.txt first before editing!

For my Fire High Elves, Incendiary Shower is for Champion/Bosses while the other fire spells for everything else.

Spam huh- Anyway thanks for the information!

I'd like a copy of the codes please.

This one is a doozy and all to 'real'- Incompetence Inc(trope name) - Sacred 1 Gold can be bought off of Steam. What's strange is that the game developer is Ascaron even though that company went out of business and Deep Silver bought all those rights. At the same time Deep Silver has their own list of games on Steam including Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. . .except it can no longer be bought on Steam even though it is still listed. And of the biggest complaints about the game is that Silver Spring sill won't fix the bugs in Sacred 2/Blood & Ice/Gold and still WON'T offer Sacred 2 Gold to the Western Hemisphere even if its just on Steam which would greatly cut down on the cost of burning the game to thousands of DVDs. http://store.steampowered.com/publisher/Deep%20Silver - Scroll down and click 'Sacred 2' to see what happens.

Jerk'butt'(Sacred 2) - That. . .person you have to take along for the 'Tutorial Escort' side quest. Between letting him having a sword. . .which is a big bad NO.(I think there's another trope for that) and the ego(yet another trope) and lines like - "Entire division to me!". He is such a jerkbuut that failing the mission on purpose is really tempting. He's also 'Too Stupid To Live'. The only other Jerkbutt is the Necromancer/Inquisitor that brings back the Shadow Warrior. Its really compounded in the Light Campaign because the SW is that much more of a victim of the Inquisitors disrespect of the dead. Too Stupid To Live - Any non-invincible NPC you are trying to protect that runs directly into a mob of enemies during an escort mission. The woman who is getting mugged between the Elf Fort and the Elf Capital. She just stands there and take it.(Another trope) Rescuing her puts her into invincible mode.(another trope) The Woobie - Little girl quest givers. The children in the Seraphim Character Quest. The Shadow Warrior(Light Campaign). Really have to feel sorry for the guy - in his first life he fights and dies honorably expecting to spend the rest of his existence in the after life. Then he rudely brought back to life and is told that as far as the the Inquisitors goes he is a 'failed experiment'. First the guy who brings back the SW tries to have his assistant kill the SW. When that fails the Inquisitor tells the SW, "Go bug the High Elves." In other words the Inquisitor doesn't even bother try to release the SW from his new unwanted life. No wonder the SW is so PO'd in the Shadow Campaign. Who Wants To Live Forever - High Elves live for centuries. The Seraphim are practically immortal. The Shadow Warrior is a Zombie. The Dryad probably has some kind of link with the planet(this is a guess on my part). There is also the Resurrection Markers. Outside of Hardmode, there is no real 'dying' for the main characters. Crowning Moment of Bad'butt' - Seraphim's Assailing Somersault when equipped with a Pole Arm/Staff or Throwing Weapon. Breaking The Fourth Wall - In Sacred 2 the Player Characters will sometimes complain to/about the player for letting the game idle. Crowning Moment of Funny - Majority of the Player Character's one liners. Superior Species - High Elves really don't care for Humans. Surprisingly the Seraphim isn't that much better about humans. Everybody. . .no, I mean EVERYBODY hates Kolbolds. The playable High Elf thinks she's better than her own race in EITHER CAMPAIGN. Purposefully Overpowered - The Seraphim's BeeEffGee in Sacred 2. Unlike Sacred 1, the BeeEffGee in Sacred 2 is always 'on' when activated. Also it gives a hefty bonus to Range Skill as the weapon is leveled up meaning that precious Skill Points can be used somewhere else. At some point the BeeEffGee becomes an Infinity Plus One Sword(Trope) and that's WITHOUT the various Skills and Buffs that can power up the BeeEffGee.

Got one for you - Green Aesop http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GreenAesop The Dryad both Light/Shadow campaigns. Although 'mileage may vary' in what she believes in and how she spreads her beliefs. In other words in Shadow she can quite. . .violent in her Character Quests about the whole thing. T-Energy(IE - Fossil Fuels) is not the clean energy people think it is. Its a toxic-sludge so powerful that it can cause rocks to mutate into giant golems.

Revelation also has two armor pieces with Damage Mitigation. The other two sets have one.

Have a concern/question about the Save Christmas Quest - I talk to the Kolbold(or whatever it is) at the docks at the Elf capital. The quest activates and I go to the Ship's Captain close to the Kolbold. But when the Big Map appears the 'ship/port' icon isn't on Christmas Island so I can't go there. Did I miss something, do I have to change the computer's system clock or is this a bug?

I take it you are using the Delphics mainly for Grand Invigoration. Now Delphic Lore does give regen bonus BUT so does eating GI runes and the Silver Mod - Life Energy - Additionally increases the hitpoint regeneration rate. (1.5hp/sec + 1hp/sec per CA level). Delphic Focus is the best bet so your High Elf doesn't have to eat so many GI runes. Now on the matter of Enhanced Perception, just put 5 into Bartering then activate Enhanced Perception. Riding and Divine Devotions are frankly just a waste. For going all out go with the offensive skills and make up for the elemental defenses with artifacts.(The jewels that go into the lower left circle slots of the game's GUI). However if you are not sure about the High Elf's elemental resistance then go with Ancient Magic/Spell Resistance. Ancient Magic has the added bonus of lowering the enemies' spell resistance.(in this case 'ice' based attacks) Here's some links going into details of the three skills - http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php5/Sacred_2:Spell_Resistance http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php5/Sacred_2:Combat_Discipline http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php5/Sacred_2:Ancient_Magic Many would say a High Elf would be better off with a one handed weapon so they can equip a shield and use the Shield Skill. Silver/Gold is said to be easy once a person gets used to it. Its Platinum and Niobium ya gotta watch out for. A lot of people try to get to Level 100 ASAP and beat the game so Niobium opens up.

Temporary Heel/Face Turn(or whatever it would be) for the Inquisitor whenever a side-quest has him do something blatantly Lawful Good - like the Teddy Bear Quest in Sloeford.

Schot - Were you drinking pasteurized or non-pasteurized milk? If you were sticking to just one and it was affecting you, you may want to 'sample' the other and see what that does.

-15 F(no blowing wing thank God). . .yeah, definitely not sunbathing weather. When the average snowfall of the area is a heck of a lot more than the North and South Poles combined. . .it makes Winter. . .interesting. . .

I never touched Blueprint but my Balance is hardly recognizable from the original. Didn't have any problems installing CM 100 Patch however 'mileage may vary'.