Helpful Morrowind tips:

Character Creation:

(note: some of the following is blatant opinion--your milage may vary--also, you may know all this shit--if so, ignore me)

1. Create your own character class--most of the pre-made ones are kinda sucky in one way or another.

2. Argonians and Khajiit can't wear boots or helms, which means you'll miss out on using a few good items. This isn't the end of the world by any means, and the races are cool in other ways. Just sayin'.

3. There's no real reason to pick more than one armor skill for a major or minor skill.

4. There's no real reason to pick more than one or two weapon skills for major or minor skill (plus maybe Marksman, if you feel like it).

5. It's not a bad idea to pick at least one magic skill as a major skill so you can get immediate membership in the Mage's Guild, in order to use their fast travel options and free potions. This is true even if your character is a straight fighter or thief type. Mysticism is pretty damn useful because of the Mark and Recall spells (teleportation). Alteration is another good one for levitation and water walking/breathing.

6. Unarmored, and Hand to Hand kinda suck ass, in my opinion, especially at lower skill levels.

7. Armorer is a skill that's always useful, in my opinion (unless you're going w. Unarmored). Acrobatics is fun when you get it up to crazy levels and can jump across town.

8. Decide how you're going to open locks, and either pick Security (open locks with picks/probes) or Alteration (open locks with magic). They both have their pros and cons.

9. The only birthsign I would warn you away from is Atronoch, only because it's annoying (especially if you haven't played the game before) not being able to regenerate your magicka normally when you rest.

Other Tips:

1. SAVE OFTEN. Especially early in the game. It can be pretty easy to get the crap beat out of you suddenly. Don't be afraid to turn the difficulty down if it gets annoying.

2. If you get arrested, even if you just pay the fine and are free to go, any stolen stuff on you gets taken away and placed in an evidence chest somewhere in the (potentially huge) city. Getting your stuff back can be a pain in the ass.

3. If you're a thief, be careful that you don't try to sell something back to the same merchant you stole it from. Sadly, if you steal a diamond from Merchant X, and then try to sell them an entirely different diamond later in the game, they'll cry thief. Try not to steal generic stuff, or just steal from certain places and sell to different places.

4. If you get a quest from someone out in the boonies, be sure that their location is mentioned in the journal entry. If not, write it down. I have several quests that I'll probably never complete because I have no idea where to find the bastard again, and this world is HUGE.

5. Once you reach Balmora initially, and talk to Caius, don't be afraid to put him on hold for a while and just explore and try things and screw around. There's almost never any time value to quests in this game, and when there is, it's clearly stated.

6. Go ahead and check the data files for Tribunal and Bloodmoon (when you first start up the game, under data files). This gives you the advanced journal
options of Tribunal (e.g. click on a quest and get all journal entries related to that quest, instead of having to page through several hundred pages of journal) and other improvements.

7. It makes the game a little easier at the very beginning if you aren't too moral, and steal all the stuff from those first couple of unoccupied rooms and sell it. Also, early on, you'll be getting attacked by assassins if you're running Tribunal. You can stop the attacks by doing the first couple of steps in that quest (talk to guards, talk to guy at Ebonheart), but I always let them go on, since I can usually kill them and the armor that they wear is quite valuable (and useful, if you have the light armor skill). 

see GA + no I can't say I speak thai although I hope I at least learn some basics during the three months I'll be here. I'm here as an exchange student at the fine art faculty of the university in Chiang Mai wich I'll spend some time in but I'll also move around quite a bit I hope. 

I'm a Hitman fanboy so I finally got around to writing a set of reviews (more like overviews, it's a lot of work otherwise)...

http://phaitplays.blogspot.com/2006/01/review-hitman-series.html 

Are there Fable lost-chaps mods?
if its modable at all (excep custom tatoo)

quick google didnt help 

Bleh, it was quite good overall I guess.

FPS sections (most of the game) were very good fun, if a little simplistic. Very frantic and tense - the "no HUD" mechanic was done very well, and added to the immersion. Health is based on a "two strikes and you're dead" idea - first hit injures you, and get this - the sound goes quiet, the game slows down and the screen goes all dramatic and motion blurry, and some LOTR-style ethereal choir starts singing, and you can hear your teammates dramatically shouting your name and stuff. It's really over-the-top and cool, but kinda makes me laugh when you get nibbled by a millipede or something and everything goes into "Boromir Death Mode(tm)" You have to avoid damage during this time until you recover, or a second hit will kill you. Little is more satisfying and adrenaline-pumping than whipping around to throw a spear point-blank into the face of a raptor belting towards you whilst you're trying to recover. V-Rex chases were genuinely scary. Team-mates were done well and didn't annoy me for once.

Graphics were awesome for the Xbox, with some truly breathtaking scenery and lighting in places.

I more or less dreaded the sections where you play as Kong in third person - often feeling only semi-interactive, the controls were kinda crap, and I died many a time because I couldn't actually get Kong to do what I wanted him to do. Looked very nice though - very "cinematic" I must say :}

Overall, I'd have liked a game with just the FPS bits, with a bit more variety to the puzzles (I got kinda tired of the same old "find fire to light bushes, find lever to open gate" stuff) and none of the Kong bollocks. Worth checking out if you've got a console. 

I'd recommend saving often as well, mainly because the memory leakage is appalling. The acronym CTD is universally understood as "crash to desktop" (without any explanation.)

Also, at the very least, get Morrowind Enhanced executable and Journal Enhanced. Buy a quill and inkpot from Arrille, and make all the notes you need. Preferrably in character.

If you want a fortress teleportal ring, you can use mine. Read the book on top of it. It contains hints as to how it can be used.
http://www.breakthinktank.com/cgi-bin/btt.pl?morrowind/fortressring

There's also Necessities of Morrowind, which requires you to sleep, eat lunch and dinner, and drink. Better still, it allows you to rent rooms for up to a month at a time and cook your own meals, independent of Alchemy skill.

Also, the Less Generic NPC mods are fun. At the very least, install the Pelagiad and Seyda Neen ones and hear about Erene Llenim's glory days or Madres Navur's colourful visions (and guess what the references are to!) Quests included. This is having a major effect on the design of a village I'm working on.
http://lgnpc.sabregirl.com/

Also I prefer Motoki's Better Heads since they don't shave years off old Caius.

Anyway, if you prefer housing, either wait for me to finish Varlninya or get either "Houses and Apartments" or "The Latest, Greatest Housing Mod Gold". Infinity Warehouse rocked.

LGHMG has a quest associated with its Vivec property, but that's pretty darn expensive, unless you do lots of Dwemer delving. H&A are more modest places that you can buy from a place in the Hlaalu canton. These mods conflict WRT Caldera.

Or, if you're Evil, download Shannon's HellHouse-X. My only beefs are that the slaves in the Crypt of Necrosis won't follow you, Arrille has a teleport amulet right at the start, and the use of Secret Masters' alchemy gear. There's an old thread on TheLys about potential HH quests, but I think Shannon (and modeller Barabus) are busy with a monster city. I reckon it looks alright.
http://www.thelys.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1129

And me? I got most of my MW crap from TheLys. Including Lilarcor. 

Just got back into playing it.

Fun going through the early 4-6 player missions that I'd skipped before, on my own, and getting lots of loot. Kinda makes up for a moment of insanity buying 4 bottles of black dye to p1mp my threads.

They are making a Chapter 2, I'm kinda fearful for my life o_O 

opinions ? 

Basically, more Painkiller. In fact, absolutely, completely, just more Painkiller. If you want more Painkiller, get the expansion. 

Ico (PS2)

I made a point of ordering a European import version, with the original Japanese cover art: http://img434.imageshack.us/img434/3027/icogoodcover0yp.jpg to save my eyes from the soul-searing abomination that is the cover they made for the Western release: http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/8561/icoshitecover7fl.jpg

The entire game takes place inside a single vast castle of madness, that could have been lifted straight from the etchings of Giovanni Piranesi. You will spend a good 10 hours inside this castle and the interconnectivity of the environment here is phenomenal, probably the best I've seen.

For those not familiar, the game is all about solving environmental navigation puzzles in order to escort a rescued girl through the castle (and escape yourself). The girl has limited mobility compared to you, and thus you must create different paths allowing her to progress whilst keeping with each other as much as possible in order to protect her from the shadow monsters that frequently try to claim her. You can't die yourself (unless you fall from a great height), but it's game over if the girl gets caught by the shadow beasts and you don't rescue her in time.

Overall I think it's a genius game with awesome atmosphere and art, occasionally marred by slightly quirky controls.

I've already pre-ordered Shadow of the Colossus, which is Team Ico's follow-up to this game. 

Played this mind boggling boardgame.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/17282

I don't really know where to start. It's a game made for young girls, and the objective is to shop as fast as you can. Each player starts at a shopping center parking lot with some pocket money and a credit card. There's an electronic complex in the middle of the board that, after pushing a button, says to you in a nice digitized voice how many squares you can move. Then you go to shops and buy stuff. When you run out of money, go to the bank to use your credit card. All these events have some randomity which comes from using your credit card with the electronic reader in the center of the game.
There are sale and clearance placades at some random shops, and they are shuffled at times - often it's good to try to get to those shops.

What this game does to young person's world view is slightly interesting and more disturbing. The objective is just to shop virtually anything as quickly as possible. Running around the pink-coloured mall frantically chasing sales and clearances and getting more from dad's bottomless well of money with the credit card doesn't sound like very constructive or a way of life I'd like to raise my daughter to.

Buying for buying's sake, stuff you don't really need. It seems like a complete lunacy. Maybe it cannot be viewed as anything else in history. Or then a joke from the eighties. :) 

You should have tried this instead:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/6113 

oh my god. This is the best game I've played in years. I had my doubts originally with the whole franchise crossover thing and all, but boy! Those Wachowskis really put my fears to rest as soon as the game started! Wow, what great fluid combat and pretty graphics. I wonder if Doom 4 will use the Path of Neo engine. I always wanted to try living in the world of the matrix and now I can! It's just like another Matrix film but I can do whatever I want! Swell!

Well, that's the review I would have written if I was 12 years old and semi-retarded. What the fuckity-fuck is wrong with the twats that made this game? It looks like someone shat on an N64. And if I turn the graphics up high all I get is too many reflections and 10 frames a second, great. I guess a geforce 6800 isn't good enough to play this abortion of a cash-in.

First you get too many intro movies, then a shitty in-game cutscene where you see the models for the first time. Jesus, the neo model looks more like Optimus Prime than Keanu Reeves. Then you take the red pill (unless you're smart) and fall down the rabbithole, or the "awful mirror shader brought to you by 1995" then you get some bonus random 3d shit with shiny code going everywhere.

Soon you get your first cutscene: stuff stolen from the first movie but ingeniusly re-edited, apparently, by the same pig-fuckers that put together an episode of MTV's cribs. Then you get some combat. Imagine the best combo you could possibly do in Prince of Persia. Keep that mental image; in Path of Neo you can probably do that combo by clicking the mouse a few times. Really fun if you're the kind of gamer who enjoys opening and closing folders.

I'm so very angry. It's a huge insult to anyone who can dress themselves or count into double digits to release this as a 'game'. This is worse than apartheid, it is filth. It's the bloody glitch in the matrix, and if you complete this game or even enjoy it you are most likely a horrible paedophile nazi. 

oh my god. This is the best game I've played in years. I had my doubts originally with the whole franchise crossover thing and all, but boy! Those Wachowskis really put my fears to rest as soon as the game started! Wow, what great fluid combat and pretty graphics. I wonder if Doom 4 will use the Path of Neo engine. I always wanted to try living in the world of the matrix and now I can! It's just like another Matrix film but I can do whatever I want! Swell!

Well, that's the review I would have written if I was 12 years old and semi-retarded. What the fuckity-fuck is wrong with the twats that made this game? It looks like someone shat on an N64. And if I turn the graphics up high all I get is too many reflections and 10 frames a second, great. I guess a geforce 6800 isn't good enough to play this abortion of a cash-in.

First you get too many intro movies, then a shitty in-game cutscene where you see the models for the first time. Jesus, the neo model looks more like Optimus Prime than Keanu Reeves. Then you take the red pill (unless you're smart) and fall down the rabbithole, or the "awful mirror shader brought to you by 1995" then you get some bonus random 3d shit with shiny code going everywhere.

Soon you get your first cutscene: stuff stolen from the first movie but ingeniusly re-edited, apparently, by the same pig-fuckers that put together an episode of MTV's cribs. Then you get some combat. Imagine the best combo you could possibly do in Prince of Persia. Keep that mental image; in Path of Neo you can probably do that combo by clicking the mouse a few times. Really fun if you're the kind of gamer who enjoys opening and closing folders.

I'm so very angry. It's a huge insult to anyone who can dress themselves or count into double digits to release this as a 'game'. This is worse than apartheid, it is filth. It's the bloody glitch in the matrix, and if you complete this game or even enjoy it you are most likely a horrible paedophile nazi. 

 

i mean, it was actually worse than the enter the matrix games. 

I've always wondered what a game made by pig fuckers would be like. 

Starbuck, all about mailing that to the developers ;). 

for president 

http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2001/ps2/ico/0713/ico_screen025.jpg 

How is that pretty or 'awesome art' 

Like the Doom 3 engine, it looks like shit when it's just a still shot.
Also it has more to do with the compositions and atmosphere of the scenes, not with how pretty (or not) the rock textures are. 

You know, there are more to games than just random screenshots interpreted horribly out of context.

Also, what czg said. 

Prey is the perfect example of a D3 engine game that look really meh in shots and great when moving. I couldn't give a fuck about it when I saw the early shots, but after I saw the E3 trailer it shot to the top of my FPS most wanted list.

Ico is one of those games that pisses me of purely because I've never played it (not ever having owned a PS2) and everybody spazzes over it all the time. The time I saw it moving, it looked cool, but I didn't particularly want to play it... just watch it and look around the castle. It looks really relaxing to play, and seemed to have quite a strange atmosphere. 

I browsed thru gamespot screenshots section - it's the average shot from the bunch. (neither best nor worst)
Blame me for having a helpless "mapper syndrome" but that's a room with same dull tile texture over all the surfaces, misaligned too.
Even if there is bumpmapping and dynamic light its still a dull badly textured scene.
And (from the screenshots) most other areas look about the same - dirty brown...

Now I even think there must be truly brilliant gameplay and thick atmosphere to compensate for such a lack of pretty visuals.