Ivan the Terrible

I think I'll try that -- I don't believe I had $2K before, but I should now..... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> In my experience, you have to pay it to get that final bit of attention.

Nope.

For the record,

....DROBIN, General Vaklu's sub-commander! On my Light Side playthrough, I encountered him on the Ravager after I had killed Darth Nihilis. He warned me about how all-powerful Nihilis was (*snort*), and how he was slowly killing everyone on board with his presence, at which point I was presented with no options to let him know I had just killed the guy quite effortlessly a few moments earlier. I shook my head, told him to sacrifice his life for Onderon, and moved on with my game. On my Dark Side playthrough, I encountered him again, saying how that 'Old Witch' had saved him after Vaklu's coup had failed....even though, uhh, Vaklu won the Onderonian Civil War. Apparently, despite being on the winning side and turning against his former Sith allies in favor of a new Sith ally (namely, me), he followed up his victory on Onderon by running off for no reason and trapping himself on board the ship of an 'all-powerful entity' who was now supposed to be his enemy. In short, both my encounters with him on the Ravager were distinctly eye-rolling experiences. I'm glad he died in both of them.

Huh. I had forgotten my Baldur's Gate installation came with a pain-in-the-ass demo for Descent III that you can't cancel out of. How obnoxious can you get? Well, in any case, thanks for the suggestions. I'm downloading TuTu as I write, regardless of it's distinctly unmasculine name. I had noticed it before, but never tried it because I was worried about bugs; it sounds like most of that is a thing of the past now, though.

He was the Lead Developer of Fallout. His latest game was (if I understand correctly) the buggy, brainless mess of The Temple of Elemental Evil. That is what we call a fall from grace. Though not really, when you think about it. Tim Cain seems to have a problem with having great ideas for games, then releasing them with major gameplay issues which detract from the whole. Even Fallout was much too short, and had the same sort of problems with redundant dialogue we're seeing in KOTOR II (i.e. you kill the head boss, and then run into some NPC the developers had expected you to meet earlier warning you about how all-powerful the head boss is and how you don't stand a chance against him.)

Honestly? If I were a game developer, I would shrug and say, "it comes with the territory." I have yet to be on ANY gaming message board which didn't feature ludicrously unrealistic optimism prior to the release of the game followed by dozens of flame wars between people who hate the game and people who love the game. The reason why is obvious enough: prior to release, a game's message board attracts the diehard fans, and after release, the game's message board attracts either those who were especially pleased or especially displeased with their purchase, along with some bitter former fans suffering from abused naivete and others dedicated to defending their beloved game at any price. If you're a developer, you either develop thick skin vis a vis the people who are saying that your work is absolute crap and they'll never buy from your company again....or you stop visiting your game's official message board, at the very least until the extreme opinions of both sides cool a bit. I think there's a reason we see Developers so rarely on this board now.

I voted for KOTOR, but I'm actually a bit pleased that TSL is in the lead. What does this say about my personality?

That's a bit lame. I didn't take her out in the past, but I would've at least liked the option....as with Juhani.

HA! Wow! They actually finished it? I was getting the impression it was a dead project at the time I stopped writing for it. /me is responsible for the Tiax dialogues and some of the Shar-Teel dialogues. Not my best work (overuse CAPITALS FOR TIAX'S INSANE SHRIEKING) but it's interesting to see it actually come to something releasable to the public.

Shadowrun, baby, Shadowrun! Not only is it a damned cool setting in and of itself, it has all the features Chris Avellone seems to work well with in games: dark setting, morally ambiguous characters, and the potential for whores whores whores, so many they outnumber all the other types of characters in-game combined! Well....ok, that last one, maybe not so much. Then again, a proper Shadowrun game needs to be more open-ended than story-driven, and while MCA has excelled at the latter my opinion is he has yet to prove himself in the former. Nevertheless, someone out there needs to make another damn Shadowrun game.

Give me an open-ended Shadowrun game, and I will be quite happy.

'Mean' is such a harsh word. I prefer 'sadistic.' And, not to be a humbug or anything, but alas, there really are no swoop upgrades. Why, I don't know. On the other hand, the Swoop game is much more involved now. Many more hazards, and even a repulsorlift thingy which lets you jump obstacles.

From Baldur's Gate clear to Throne of Bhaal, with everything in-between. Enough time has past that I should be able to derive enjoyment from them again. Hopefully. Any recommended mods or other such nifty stuff I should download?

Sorry, no swoop upgrades. And Santa is dead.

Could've just been the entryway that was smashed and broken. Clear away a little rubble, and you can get in just fine..... After all, what else were the scavengers looting, since it said the sub-level was 'the only place left with reasonable salvage'?

Think Chris Avellone shot that 'quote' down. I remember him becoming panicky when he heard someone say that, as he never intended to claim anything of the sort. And I'm with the people who loved the game....up until the end. Both times I've played I was thinking 'God, this game is great.' Up until the end, I would have easily rated KOTOR II as equal to or above KOTOR. On my second playthrough (as a Sith) I was astonished at the improvement in the Dark Side game, and wondering why I walked away so bitter towards the game the first time. But about the time , it kinda starts going downhill. By , I'm feeling empty, and by the end I (like drcloak) walk away feeling literally depressed and with very little good to say about the game. The same thing happened both times. The game didn't have an Ending; it just ended.

Having 'George' develop anything is a potential disaster nowadays. The less he knows (and interferes), the better.

Methinks some people are having faulty nostalgic memories about KOTOR. It was a good game, but 'insulting it's legend' implies that it has one, which it never did.

Have you played through both Light Side and Dark Side? There's probably cinematics for one side that there aren't for the other.

Nope. You have to increase your influence with her, most likely.

To your question a question:

I had the same feeling. I felt myself getting almost nostalgic for Revan and 'the old gang' as I played the game. If we never discover the answer to these questions, I'll find it quite aggravating.

Umm... Darth Maul didn't have any dialogue... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Then you understand my point completely.

Yep.