ddickinson: I am glad to hear you are enjoying the game. I know many people are very happy with how the game turned out, despite the issues with the downgraded graphics and the simplified controls. It's nice to hear that a developer is still willing to put a lot of passion into a game, rather than just a broken mess designed to look pretty but offer no real gameplay.
I can't understand the complaints about "downgraded graphics". It's easily the best-looking game that my machine can (barely) run. And the devs stated in an interview why they had to switch engines.
As for the controls. IMO they are not simplified, but rather more complex than the second game (with the Full Combat Rebalance Mod at least). If in a hard fight you have to juggle evasion, counters, parrying and attacking whilst also casting signs (spells) and throwing the occasional bomb, you really have your hands full. I could complain that the default keyboard layout is a little counter-intuitive and clumsy (if you don't have huge hands), but with a little experimenting I found a layout I can comfortably live with.
For me the biggest strength is how the world comes to life with all the little stories, and there are literally hundreds of them. Sometimes a few lines of NPC banter you can overhear, telling i.e. of a sad love story or a grandpa telling a scary monster story to a kid by the fire, up to the "big" stories - some of the side-quests are as big as other RPGs main quests and where I am now they nicely entangle with the main storyline.
And it's most impressive how they managed to combine open world and story-telling in a good way. That's really a tough thing to do and something that i.e. Bethesda hasn't managed ever since Morrowind.
ddickinson: It is amusing how people are with things. I always enjoyed being told that I can't be in a relationship with my partner as we both look like women. Apparently to some guys one of us has to have short hair and be quite mannish. Then there are those that ask that since we are both just normal women then who is the man of the relationship. Which has always been a very strange comment to make. If we wanted a man in the relationship surely we would be with a man and not each other? I guess for many people they stick to the usual stereotypes, just as many people think all gay men are flamboyant or wear leather. Not that some aren't, but not everyone is the same. I have not heard the term "bull dyke" before, but then I am not really up on the terminology. People are just people to me, no matter who or what they are. Is bull similar to butch? Or is it some kind of super mega German butch lesbian, one that is so butch she is a bull? :-) (Sorry for the bad joke.)
Ironically the one lesbian couple I know better is like the cliché... one very stout and sturdy, shorthaired and resolute, the other a "fair maiden", fragile-looking and very pretty ;-)
Of the many male gays I've come to meet over the years there's the full range: lots of "I-wouldn't-have-guessed" but also the "walking cliché", flamboyant or very feminine demeanour.
All of them very nice people I have to say. I don't doubt the rainbow people have their share of assholes, bitches and douchebags too, but maybe the (still prevalent) intolerance towards them and their fight for acceptance makes them more open and friendly people on the average.
