SteveThaiBinh

They seem much less of an improvement over The Sims 2 than that was over the original game. I admit though that I'm more interested with how it plays, and in particular how smoothly it plays. Isn't a free-roaming world likely to be less smooth, more jerky?

It's a MMORPG, right? Sorry, I don't do MMORPGs. Not my thing.

Some information and screens from The Sims 3 have finally been released - I have to admit they don't look quite as impressive as I'd hoped. I'm also not sold on the loss of the bladder bar.

Can we keep this civil? It'd be a shame to lose the thread.

Excellent. Problem solved.

I think that's a wrap.

That transitioning-with-familiars bug is fixed?!? Hooray!! The travelling menagerie gets underway tomorrow.

Knowing so little about either game, it's hard to vote. Thinking just of the concept, a modern-day setting is great and more interesting than either sci-fi or fantasy, but I'm sure the Aliens RPG will be good, too.

I saw it and automatically read 'Thornton', too. But then, I used to live in a place called Thornton.

Thread pruned slightly. There now being threads devoted to Windows Vista elsewhere in the forum, please discuss its merits (or otherwise) over there.

Splendid. Do you have a link to the fix list? So there might be news on Mysteries of Westgate soon, if we're lucky...

I bought Vista a while ago but never installed it. Now that SP1 is out, it's time to think it over again at least. Are there any advantages to Vista over XP for playing games like NWN2, The Witcher and Gothic 3 (for example)?

Problem solved, although I'd be interested in hearing anyone using Vista SP1 comment on their experience over in Skeeter's Junkyard, as I'm contemplating making the leap to Vistaland myself.

Thread pruned. We were talking about character creation and customization, were we not?

He does indeed have a point. It was a very good post, Nick.

In the context of game worlds (do you know which thread you're replying to?), why wouldn't developers want to pull off an Oblivion? What was so fatally wrong with Oblivion's open world design that mimicking it "boggles" you? I don't know. The cities and countryside of Oblivion felt rather empty and lifeless. Was that a design decision, or does the streaming/open world approach require more memory, so that less can be devoted to populating the world with interesting things and people?

It does? Mine has a limit of 2.8, I think.

Thread pruned. Let the discussion of suggestions and ideas for Kotor 3 continue in a positive and constructive manner.

It's up and down like a yo-yo - they must be working really hard on it, I think.

Bloodlines-style large hubs are probably the way to go - if you can keep the load times reasonable and get the press on-side, it makes the most sense. NWN2 was criticized rather absurdly for not having these 'streaming maps' - it was different to Oblivion, therefore it was a point against NWN2. Alpha Protocol will most likely be released in the wake of Fallout 3, so the same PR problem could arise, but SEGA seems to be better at the hype thing (cover of Game Informer, after all), so it's a matter of implanting the idea that 'hubs=good' into the minds of game journalists and reviewers.

I have never seen 24, so can't comment on Mr. Bauer. Between Bond and Bourne, Bourne definitely, but the Bourne of the first movie please - no killing off the romanctic interest simply because the writers can't handle grown-up stories. R.I.P. Marie :sad:

I like to be able to customise as much as possible, and it will be a shame not to be able to choose gender, certainly. If you're going to close off the choice of playing as a female character, in order to give greater depth to the male character's story, then the story really has to deliver in order to compensate. I'm hopeful that it will deliver. Some of the unofficial info leaked in the Game Informer article suggested that you'd be choosing your 'manner' in dialogue trees (aggressive, cautious etc.) rather than reading and selecting actual lines of dialogue in a Kotor2 style. If that's the case, then good ol' Mike's every word will be recorded by a voice actor and there can't really be any choice of voice set, I guess.

Ooh, I think that might stick.

A modern real-world setting is a wonderful opportunity to move decisively away from the simple lightside/darkside spectrum and towards a more complex exploration of ethics in the kinds of activities 'spies' engage in. The press release does say "the decisions made and actions taken in each mission will ultimately transform the type of secret agent Michael Thorton will become.", but this might just refer to the force/stealth/tech paths, I'm not sure. Nevertheless, I think there are some exciting possibilities here that play to Obsidian's strengths in storytelling.

Does that make you a hizzi or a nappie? Whenever I do tests like this that focus on broad, sweeping statements of opinion, I come out on the economic scale as quite far to the left, but if the test looks at more specific questions related to initiatives actually under discussion in the UK, I come out as centre or centre-right. Socially, I'm always way to the left, though.