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SKull

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About SKull

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  1. This is really the problem with all modern CRPGs. People tend to talk with ignorant contempt about AD&D but that was RPG for decades and decades; all developed by the gamers themselves for years andn years. Every single detail of AD&D was there for a reason. The job of Black Isle wasn`t to reinvent the wheel but to move the 30 year RPG tradition AD&D represented over to a new medium, period. But at the same time the development of RPGs was taken away from the gamers themselves and put in the hands of more or less clueless devs who all later decided to reinvent the wheel because they had forgotten what their job was. And we have no way of complaining and, because of CRPGs replacing our traditional RPGs, very few alternatives. It is impossible for a development team to make a new system that is even close to being as good as AD&D was. It can`t be done. So why do they keep trying?
  2. Why is it so incomprehensible to you that some people find the game just average, and other people find it terrible? Kind of like, oh let me just pick some random game out of thin air here... how about Baldur's Gate? Or Icewind Dale? Yeah, there are people that don't like some of the classics on which this game draws its inspiration. Is it really, honestly so hard to grasp that some people find flaws in this game - more than they feel can be fixed to make it a great game? What are those people doing in these forums ? Trolling ? The forums are for people who (more or less) like the game, care about its future, want to see improvements and discuss about all that. Even if you've paid 25 or more bucks to back the game, bitching in the forums will not get you anywhere or make you a better person. Oh give me a break! Customer feedback is what these forums are for unless they want to be totally useless. If that feedback is negative the problem lies with the game, not with the unsatisfied customers.
  3. Baldur`s Gate = RPG classic Pillars of Eternity = Not an RPG classic Since we`re spouting opinions as facts; everything about BG is better than PoE, possibly except the graphics. Music, story, game play. You name it.
  4. well, no. mat516 seemed to express our concerns about the review already, so no need to repeat. the thing is, where matt no doubt read the whole thing, we couldn't. am admitting that we got a few paragraphs deep before we realized it were offering little more than a bad nostalgia flashback to too many rants we recall from a couple years o' poe development. the disenfranchised, limited by the obsidian message board medium, found a new outlet to release pent up vitriol? am not actually opposed to such rampages as Gromnir has indulged once... maybe twice. *shrug* lewis black at least tries to make us laugh when he does this kinda thing. no harm though. it is just a review. why do we need a review to tell us about a game we already played? have never made it through an entire codexian review since spazmo's debacle o' a toee review, but at least spazmo pretended as if he were giving tim cain a fair review. sensuki's link had us rolling our eyes after two paragraphs. HA! Good Fun! No just you I think. Also, someone mentioned the word "arrogance". Maybe you should look it up.
  5. CRPGs have never really been hard though, at least not in the way something like Starcraft is hard. As long as you can save all the time this will remain the case. If you absolutely want PoE to be hard then play it without pausing the game and refuse to load your games when you fail. if you die you have to start over again. That sounds hard enough for me and you won`t have to spend any time complaining about the difficulty of a game that isn`t about being difficult, but telling a story and making the player figure some things out to advance the story. It`s not just lazy slackers who make games boring. "Hardcore" people do as well because they always always start moaning about balance, whether or not the game in question actually needs balance.
  6. DUDE...Master Stairs. 'Nuff said. Users/[uSERNAME]/Saved Games/Pillars of Eternity Dude, learn to read. Nuff said. I wasn`t able to reach the master stairs and had to get back up to rest and get supplies. Why are forums always crawling with people liek you who have an opinion and just can`t wait to cram it into a conversation whether it`s relevant or not?
  7. To quote Sims 3: "Taba flims!" Apparently that makes sims literate so maybe it`ll help you.
  8. This is weird. My quicksaves take about half a second while my loading screens last 15+ seconds. And it apparently doesn`t matter if it`s a broom closet or Alaska I`m loading. it`s exactly as slow every single time. And I have a high end PC so shouldn`t have any problems. I`ve just uninstalled it now because it isn`t playable for me. I was on level eight of Od Nua but before the master stairs when I ran out of supplies and needed to rest. This entailed 14 loading screens up and down so about 7 minutes straight of staring at loading screens just to rest and buy two supplies. I don`t understand why the loading screen barrage in PoE wasn`t dealt with in alpha. Anyone who for whatever reason gets stuck with long loading times will be driven up the wall by them. And even if they aren`t, do you really need to load each floor of buildings separately? What are they, Taj Mahal?
  9. And another one. Who in the world could possibly care when you stop reading something? Just leave the page and don`t leave mindless comments when you don`t have anything intelligent to say. Just the utter stupidity of complaining about people`s opinions when that`s all the people on this forum are doing all day long boggles the mind. Yes it`s an opinion. That`s why I posted it here, in order that I might express my opinion. But of course, my opinion are a waste of time, even though you decided to leave a mindless comment underneath it anyway, while your mindless comment is worthy of everyone`s serious contemplation! All hail the Mindless One! Meanwhile back in the real world, opinions are what forum posts usually are unless they are trolls or questions. Just go read a book or something. Or take up gradening. Internet forums clearly aren`t for you.
  10. I stopped reading here. Good, you don`t sound very interesting. Now all that remains is to stop commenting on threads when you have nothing intelligent to contribute and we`ll be getting somewhere.
  11. Well, look, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and you're definitely entitled to yours OP. But I think it's strange to expect PoE to be better than Baldur's Gate. The comparison itself is fair - this is a game that explicitly sets out to recapture some of the spirit and style of the Infinity classics. But how could exceeding and improving upon those games possibly be a meaningful measure of PoE's success? I mean, the Baldur's Gate games are two of my favourite videogames ever. There is nothing that has drawn me back in so frequently and so satisfyingly as the BGs. For me, deciding that PoE isn't worthy of hype because it isn't "better" than two of the best games ever made is like saying that Interstellar isn't worthy of acclaim because it isn't "better" than 2001: A Space Odyssey. I`m not saying that I think the game is bad, let me repeat that because it doesn`t seem to have registered with everyone. Only a 10 to me means a perfect game, which sort of implies to best in the genre or if not the best at least something innovative and fresh. I realize that we have different ways of looking at things like this but I have about....ten - fifteen games at 10 in the entire history of PC gaming. So that`s why I thought it was so strange to go on MC and find almost all tens for PoE. Of course it is just my opinion but I think both BG games and Torment are better games in the same genre as PoE full stop. Not in every single respect obviously. Some things in PoE are very nice indeed. But overall I stand by this opinion. And to me that takes it down to a 9 all by itself. Not because PoE is bad but because it could have been better. And we know it could have been better because we have examples of games in the genre that are better. I would also say that Divinity: OS is a bit better because it manages to be very original in many ways, which is not easy these days. The other issues I listed drag PoE down one point each in my mind. One for not being open enough and too linear - the exact same complaint I made about both IW Dale games in comparison to the BG duo - as well as not having as many NPCs as I would have liked, and another one for the loading times. And that`s a 7 to me. These are not small issues to me at all but crucial to the gameplay and the longevity of my enjoyment of the game. And I know that there are many side quests and stuff to do. That is not what I mean by linear. What I mean is that you only ever have one or two areas to go to outside Defiance Bay. There`s not really much choice involved. Not everyone minds this at all of course. But I do so to me this is a limitation I am not happy with. Exploration and a sense of freedom of choice is a key element of traditional RPGs, long before Baldur`s Gate was even on the planning stage. Yet it has been almost totally lost in CRPGs and this annoyed me when I played IW Dale and it annoys me now. Like we say in Norway though: opinions are like the bum: split down the middle. I am happy that people are enjoying the game. It is a good game. But my rather peculiar experience on MC led me to come here and write something as well. Not because I hate the game. But because I have some issues with it I wish I didn`t. I still wish Obsidian luck with any new KS projects or any sequels to PoE. And if it is as good as PoE I will certainly support it like I just did PoE, as long as it isn`t a sports simulator, an anime dating game or an FPS action game. I have to have some principles! But there must be room to express oneself about reservations to a game. Even PoE.
  12. I`ve been enjoying playing PoE quite a bit. But for the life of me I can`t understand the hype over the game which seems almost hysterical to me. After having finished the game I felt pleased but at the same time slightly disappointed, perhaps because I had expected more. I do not think it is an improvement over Baldur`s Gate at all quite frankly. In some cases it`s just not as good period. When I wrote a Metacritic review to this effect, where the flood of 10s is just beyond belief, I was subjected to a comical campaign of enraged fans who not only downvoted this review - fair enough really - but made a campaign of downvoting all my other reviews also. I have never experienced anything like it on MC, not even when I trashed a WoW expansion. It is quite amazing. Anyway, just so I`ve said it, these are my three main reasons for not agreeing with the hype: 1: Lack of replayability. There are not enough companions for replays to have much to offer. Yes I know you can make your own party members. But I never liked to do that in the IE games. I prefer the immersion of recruiting NPCs and having party members with some sense of personality. And eight is just one playthrough and change as far as I can tell. The eight there are are good. That isn`t the problem. But the way I play these games I will never play a monk, rogue or barbarian at all because there aren`t any. Secondly it`s not open enough compared to Baldur`s Gate. Apart from Defiance Bay there`s only really ever one place you can go at any time, unless you want to be instantly killed of course. By contrast Baldur`s Gate had like 20 areas to choose between at any time and you could deliberately spend ages doing something completely irrelevant to the main quest. And you just can not in PoE. 2: Obscene loading times. There are just too many loading screens and they last for ages. At least 25 seconds is my experience and it just makes exploration a pain in the butt when it should be the best part of the game. 3: It is not better than Baldur`s Gate. And it should be considering that Baldur`s Gate is 17 years old. To me this takes the game from a 10 if these, in my opinion major, issues were not present to a 7, which was what I gave the game on metacritic when the campaign against me there started. A good game but very far from a classic. It is also not the best game in genre, which I think it should be to merit a 10. Other than that the game is fine and I said so in my review. I did enjoy my one playthrough quite a lot and do not regret buying the game. In fact I love the genre and will happily support any devs making games like this, even if the games are average, just so more might be produced in future. But it still has to be criticized fairly a and not be fawned over like some rediscovery of a species believed to be exitinct. "Look everyone it`s a dodo! Don`t raise your voices or say anything disparaging or it might die off again!" And the honest truth for my part is that I don`t imagine I`ll be starting a new game of PoE anytime soon, because I just can`t find a compelling reason to do so. Maybe in a couple of years after a few patches and after some more companions have been added. But just how is this game a 10 when BG is better in these respects by far? What is BG then? An 11? 12? I am hard pressed to find any aspect where I think PoE is the better game. That doesn`t mean it`s bad. Just that some people seem to have lost all sense of proportion when it comes to PoE. The hype is just unbelievable. I would be curious to know just how many of the people who are now raging while downvoting my reviews on Metacritic, simply because I had the temerity to criticize obvious shortcomings with PoE, will even be playing it in a couple of weeks, once their first playthrough is done with. Frankly I doubt very much if any of them will. I know I`d rather start my 53rd playthrough of Baldur`s Gate right now.
  13. I figured that was the case and that they`re not meant to be as slow as they are for me. But my loading screens right now are about...15-20 seconds? When you`re in the Stronghold or in Defiance Bay it`s just terrible. Enter a house - loading screen - walk for two seconds to the stairs - loading screen - nothing on the second floor and down the stairs again -loading scren - out the door - loading screen. Repeat for every house in every area and every time you want to visit the stronghold and it just saps the fun out of exploring for me. I`m pretty sure that whole houses would load in BG and not just one floor at a time. That would already have helped me a lot here. It`s weird that it changed duration for you though. Maybe there`s some issue with Steam. I suppose we`ll have to be patient for a bit and see how it goes.
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