GreasyDogMeat

What does Hades, a questionably obnoxious forum poster, have to do with a guy who ran a zoo and numerous shows to educate the public about animals? From everything I've heard Irwin was simply swimming above the stingray and suffered a freak accident. Now, if Irwin was jabbing the thing than yes, he had it coming. My father used to be a diver and has had numerous encounters with rays, batrays, sting rays etc. He even once stepped on a stingrays spine and the spine went straight through his toe. He didn't even need to go to the hospital or Dr. for the injury, simply washed the wound off thoroughly in hot water. Stingrays are generally docile creatures and a good 90% of the cases where someone is stung is from stepping on them. Even when stung, a very small percentage of people are killed by them (Less than 1%). What happened to Irwin was a tragic accident and very ironic. Apparently they were shooting a show about the most dangerous underwater sea creatures, and Irwin decided to film stingrays at a look at some of the lesser dangerous sea creatures. Indeed they are.

I really can't understand the hack job they did on the editing floor. Did no one play test Malachor and point out the oddness of having a GOTO vs. Remote showdown that involved the possible destruction of Malachor going completly unfinished? Or the awkwardness of the trip to Malachor in the first place. They really could have made it work, or atleast made it less obvious if they had actually hacked MORE from the story. They needed to edit the talks with HK47 to remove the obvious references to 'Sure Exile, if you figure out how we'll go to the HK50 factory and shut it down! Yup, it's coming up in game if you gather a few clues", completly edit out the remote on Malchor V and instead have the Exile either set the computers to blow the planet if good or not if evil and add some sort of cutscene on Telos where the Exile says good bye to his/her buddies and tells them to wait while he goes alone. The way it was left edited in game though just feels like they were literally in the middle of adding these things, got a call from LA and realized they needed the Gold Disc the next day. "Oh crap, just throw out what we're working on now and hope the game players are too stupid to see the incomplete plot lines".

I hope you 'THOROUGHLY' washed your hands. I had a great childhood invlolving animals growing up. I had everything from pet rodents to snakes, lizards, tarantulas, wild rabbits, cats, dogs, you name it. One thing that I was tought from an early age and find very important is to always wash your hands after handling wild animals, especially rodents who can carry some nasty diseases. Once while living in a moble home we found and raised a family of Opossums for a few days until giving them to the animal shelter to take care of. It is amazing how timing can effect the tameness of an animal. Two of the baby animals we found the first day were like little puppies. Friendly, snuggly and non biting. Two days later we found another group of the babies we had missed. These on the other hand, were snarling, snapping, viscious babies. Another funny instance involing an opposum involved one under the house. We had a series of vents in the house on the floor, and one day I noticed an odd growling sound coming from the vent and our dog was looking at it like it was a can of moist n' meaty. So, I tap on the bottom of the vent and suddenly, from below, a huge wam and growling and snarling comes from beneath the trailer. The dog flips out and we are laughing our heads off because, like the neighbor below you pissed you are listening to loud music at 3 AM, our opposum house crasher was banging the roof trying to make us shut up and stop knocking on 'his' roof. We eventually chased him off but I always laugh remember him smacking on our floor vent.

Little kids... ::shrug:: He was popular with youngsters and I remember watching a bit of one of his shows that was obviously aimed at itty bitty tikes.

I don't think people are surprised that he got it, it is HOW he got it. Not only is it surprising because a different animal than what he usually exposes himself to got him, but that stingray stings are usually non-fatal unless they go untreated or sting a person in bad health. Of course, a massive percentage of the people stung by stingrays are ones who step on them and then get it in the leg, not DIRECTLY to the heart. Bad bad luck. I really enjoyed his happy go lucky style and it is a shame he wont be around for his family and all the kids who got hooked on his show. "Mommy, why isn't the crocodile hunter on today?" Even bigger tragedy if he had learned something over the years and was starting to tone it down whe he decided to just 'hover' over the ray a bit to close. Haven't watched his show in a while so he was probably pushing it as far as usual.

In Response to Jorian: Full Throttle was awesome, but with the unfortunate death of the guy who did the main characters voice I don't want to see a sequel or remake, unless the remake is simply a 3d update to the classic that manages to bring the characters and landscape to more impressive life than they accomplished with the art direction in the first game. Shame, that guy had a perfect tough guy voice. In Response to Rosbjerg: I totally agree we need a new Aliens or AvP game. The technology out now (Doom 3 engine, FEAR Engine, Unreal 3 Engine) is perfect for the mood an alien game would need. In Response to Dark Raven: Call me crazy but I personally loved the two Elite Force games.

Knights of the Old Republic 1: Swift Tard. (Greatest randomly generated name EVER and I just had to use it) Knights of the Old Republic 2: Dack Cracken. I was considering Dack A$$Cracken, but I figured I wouldn't get too crazy. " It has a nice pulp sci fi ring to it. Join us this evening for the adventures of Dack Cracken in the 85th parallel dimension!

Hmm, if they had some jabs at Black Isle I missed them, if that's what he meant anyway. If they did, I think that's another no no for troika considering their track record. Icewind Dale and Planescape are on my 'classics' list and my hard drive, I don't have any troika games on my HD right now.... well except for Vampire which I may give another shot.

Apologies, I meant security guards. Which doesn't make me feel any better about it being forced. By the way, what is BIS?

If it was for comic relief it failed miserably. It just made the game feel like it had conflicting agendas. I do admit I laughed at the Malkavian line, I want a Nuclear Warhead and Murcurio responds with something along the lines of "Only a lunatic would want one of those, that's why they have nukes in Washington". If they had added a few clever lines like these and just left it at that, it would have been fine, but you add all these little jabs and jokes it started to get... obnoxious. As for sex in Vampire stories, yeah, but it felt like they were over doing it for the sake of distraction. Or maybe they just did it because they could and I'm somehow trying to connect the two based on the glitchy buggy experience I had. Probably the latter but I wouldn't be sruprised if it was the former. "

"Also: Wasteland ^_^" They already remade it... it's called Fallout.

"Now, it's been a while so my memory may be a bit flawed here, but I never felt the sequence you're talking about was directed specifically at Bush. It was more directed towards the position of the president. And as such it made perfect sense to me, the most powerful man in the world (or so they say at least) is a fairly likely candidate to be the head vampire. It was simply something the guy you talked with would accept given the state he was in. It would have made just as much sense regardless of who was president." That's how I would have felt as well if it wasn't for other direct references to his name in the game. There is a impeachbush 'easter egg', the go kill the president line, the ability to choose the history 'war profiteer' and some 'tie ins' between the 'prince' and the president. I don't like people trying to shove their political beliefs down your throat when you are trying to get away from that crap and enjoy a game. I turn the news off, sit down and am suddenly bombarded with some odd mesh of hipster "If we don't stop the violence, when will it end?" quotes along with a game that pretty much forces you to murder 'innocents'' at certain moments and jokes about killing the president. The game is not Deus Ex, it is nearly impossible to beat the game in a non-violent manner at specific points and while it was one thing to force you to kill enemy vampires it was another to force you to kill cops. I often tried to sneak around and spent a good 30 minutes trying to avoid one section of combat, only to find it was REQUIRED to kill a cop and take a keycard off of him to proceed. It was also such a major disapointment that there didn't seem to be a major story arch. They bombard you with these hints of a returning evil power and in the "WHAT'S IN THE BOX" ending... felt like a total rip off. Where's the ancient evil power I have to stop? They have this massive build up to the final end where you have to fight through hordes of enemies so you can watch a cutscene of you getting blown up because you didn't choose what the developers wanted you to choose. Almost made me feel like the devs were trying to give me some little life lesson. "See kids, killing cops for keycards is ok but if you side with the man you will BLOW UP!" Sigh. Another thing that bugged me was how frequently sex was shoved down my throat. Don't get me wrong... I enjoy a little 'romance' to enhance a good RPG story... but it REALLY felt like Troika, much like a balding middle aged man who buys a Ferrarri to overcompensate for his... Troika was trying to shift focus away from other aspects of the game. What... the game has bugs? So what, didn't you see those jiggling boobs? And look... the screen goes black and she moans! How can this not be the GREATEST GAME EVER??

Mixed feelings about this game. There were things I really loved but at the same time I can understand why Troika went out of business. Can't these guys release a game without a million bugs that make quests uncompletable? There were at least 3 quests that were glitched for me during the course of the game, neither of them major game completion quests but it was still maddening. The load times were awful too, but I wasn't surprised as Half Life 2, using the same source engine, had similar problems. Doom 3 and FEAR both load much faster and smoother. I know, Bloodlines is a RPG and more stuff to put in memory etc... but still. Also, fictional violence is all fun and good, but I was really getting tired of the anti-Bush jabs. You don't like the current administration, want to hide impeachbush easter eggs in the computer, fine, but joking about killing the man is another thing. I can just imagine Troika sitting around thinking it would be hilarious to add in dialogue options to send a vampire off to stake the president. Maybe I'm the only one who didn't find it funny. Note: This is NOT an attempt to promote political talk about current administration or anything like it. I just don't like joking about killing real people. Maybe you hate the presidents guts, I know I've hated various ones and am certainly not pleased about certain aspects of this administration, but I don't think killing someone because I disagree with them is funny. If people want to discuss this further, PLEASE DO NOT TURN IT INTO A POLITICAL DISCUSSION OF POLICY, stick to if these kinds of jabs are acceptable or not. I could have overlooked these jabs, but then I saw a billboard with the developers feelings about how awful violence is and how we have to stop real world violence, yet they've created a game that wallows in gore and the darker side of humanity and added jokes about killing real world people. Mixed messages guys. MAJOR ENDING SPOILER AHEAD Also, I was incredibly pissed at one of the endings that involved siding with the French 'Prince" and being blown up by that hippie a$$hole. That was a huge slap to the face. I didn't like that guy to begin with but it really gave me a nasty view on the game that you were just a pawn in this story to get rid of 'teh evil corporate big wig guy'. I was really expecting something bigger out of the story and this ending turned the game from epic to petty revenge story and you are the pawn. All these little things added together have stopped me from giving the game a second play through. It was funny, but as my Malkavian went up in flames and that hippie puke laughed and the credits started to roll... I was glad Troika went out in flames and was wondering how Tim Caine and co. had gone from perfection (fallout) to Temple of Elemental Evil and this. I'd have to say Troika's shining moment was Arcanum and even that game had major glitches and flaws (the combat system). Temple of Elemental Evil was a beautiful game, engine and music wise, but had some of the worst dialog, voice acting and bugs I've ever seen in a game. I never even managed to complete it thanks to obnoxious voice acting and npcs who would pick so much crap up that they couldn't move anymore and wouldn't sell it or pass it to me. Maybe I'll try the game again sometime when the bad memories die down, give it another chance. My first impressions were not very good though, other than the crazy Malkavian stuff like the TV guy talking to me.

There is a remake of Dark Forces being made using the Jedi Academy engine. They released a 3 level demo of the first 3 levels of Dark Forces, very amazing. I've been waiting on this remake longer than the Quest for Glory 2 remake and the TSLRP combined. This may sound odd, but I would LOVE to see a remake of the old SSI game Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday and it's sequel Matrix Cubed combined into an RPG that plays like the recent KoTOR. I love pure Sci Fi RPGs and it is rare to find one as pure as that game was. No force, ghosts or magic, just blasters and genetic modification. Not even space aliens. I really believe this game would rock if they added party members you could banter with and just increased the features size and scope of the game. It would likely be a fairly fresh game too considering how many people didn't play it. It would also be quite cool to see some remakes of other SSI series, like combining all 4 games from the Pool of Radiance series into one remake with updated rules and npcs who bantered with you etc. It really would be something special to see these games rendered in 3D with their whole story archs connected and enhanced. The Marathon series remade on the Halo engine would rock. They also 'need' to remake both System Shocks on the Doom 3 engine. I'd love to see the Quest for Glory series remade using something like the Oblivion engine. I think there is a project like this already in the works but I haven't seen any progress or screens so far. I really loved this series, awesome combination of role playing and adventure gaming. The game had some backdrops that if rendered in 3D with updated music would be stunning. I would LOVE to see a remake of the sega version of Robocop vs. The Terminator in 3D FPS mode. Violent timetravel story wtih cool music. They really need to get cracking on a new AvP game in the Doom 3 or FEAR engine. The technology now is just perfect for a new aliens game.

They were crammed in the crates, waiting for the perfect time to strike.... right as you board the ship to leave.

I don't even think they should make the KoTOR series 'canononinonical' (what the hell ever). Players should play these games however the hell they want and the only thing making some variation of the story 'official' is going to do is force some dweebs to only play using those character choices because 'that's how LA said it goes'. What's the point of a free choice RPG if they already have the story in stone? It's like some bozo at LA is saying, "I PLAYED A FEMALE EXILE CAUSE SHE HAS A NICE A$$, THAT MEANS FEMALE LS EXILE IS THE OFFICIAL WAY THE STORY GOES! GET OVER IT SUCKAS! HAHA!". Whatever... as far as I'm concerned the way I last played Kotor 1 & 2 is 'canon'. Then when I replay them the next time it will be my 'canon' again. Though I may relaod and make a different choice. Enjoy the games however you want, screw the 'canon' version.

There are enemy remotes that repair droids in that area. I always figured it was one of them.

I have no idea where some people are coming from with 'it will change the story'. It doesn't change the story, it COMPLETES it. Having GOTO confront the remote on Malachor then threaten the remote that he will prevent the destruction of Malachor then show the planetoid blow up makes doodley sense. Ok... uh did that little remote somehow trick GOTO, what happened? The restoration project will explain. HK-47: "Master, there is a factory producing the HK-50 knock offs. Later we can find out where they are being produced and shut them down!" ... Unresolved. Restoration project will again finish the story. One second you are with your party fighting on the Telos station, boom, the next you're on Malachor by yourself, but oddly the remote and Mira seemed to have followed you. No dialog exists between your main character and these two stowaways. No planning took place before you go to Malachor. You just go there. It felt disjointed and surreal. Like some massive section of the story had been skipped and you were just plopped down on another planet. While I'm not sure if even the restoration project can fix this, It's going a long way to making it less painful and more enjoyable and fix numerous plot holes. Most stories can function with a few things removed or changed. For example, in KoTOR 1 a meeting with Deadeye Duncan on Manaan was cut from the game unfortunatly. It's just a short humerous encounter though and not some major intrigue. If you were to never meet Duncan again you would just assume he died on Taris. That's not the case with the droid facility, the showdown between Goto and the remote or the awkward seperation of NPCs at Malachor.

Thanks for the great and indepth breakdown Architect. Even if a person doesn't buy the Kreia - Kae connection your posts have been very helpful in understanding her motivation and what lead her to her position. Wouldn't that have been a great extra twist at the ending though? Just as you defeat Kreia/Traya she gives your memory back and you remember her from the Mandalorian wars and as the mother of the Handmaiden. This is one thing I love about KoTOR 2 over KoTOR 1, all of these extremly complicated and woven storylines that you learn a little bit more of every time you play. The game is just layered like a mega onion. KoTOR 1 is much more in your face and plain, (This is Malak, he is a bad guy) besides the plot twist that is. On the other side, it's aggravating trying to figure out how many of these intricate plot twists and hints are 'brilliant' because they were designed that way, or because of all the cut content that has only left hints and minor clues that may have even been removed as well. Is the Kae - Kreia connection only the chunks of a whole that the devs didn't have time to COMPLETLY remove ala HK50 factory/GO-TO Remote showdown, or a great 'read between the lines and decide for yourself' plot?

I'm guessing that going in with knowledge of the lackluster ending helped ease the surprise. And/Or you didn't pay as much attention to certain points. The game left way too many unanswered questions. The first time I beat the game I was shocked that it was over. I started wondering why I was feeling... unfullfilled, then I thought of various plots. What the heck was the deal with GO-TO and the remote? Was there anymore to the HK-50 factory? Why did my character just run off without saying good bye to any of the companions? Why was Mira the only one who came to Malachor with the Exile? The deal with how Kreia died but the Exile didn't with their bond? Many of these things were pretty major plot points. Sometimes directors can cut an entire character out of a story and still have a plot that works perfectly, KoTOR 2 hacked out way too much. The game itself until leaving for Malachor was amazing and had me hooked at every new plot twist and revelation. The ending though really sapped the overall enjoyment of the game. I'm glad someone wasn't horribly disapointed by the ending though. In all honesty I really can't see how anyone who had paid attention to the story and was waiting for the big pay off(s) at the end to be revealed could not be disapointed with it...

How in the world would you get stats like those from the personal crystal? The stats I just mentioned were at maximum light side. Max dark side stats are Chr +4 Dex +3 Str +5 Attack +2 Damage +3 Unless I'm mistaken, the crystal is only improved/changed based on your current alignment shift.

I switched Z & C to A & D. set C to flourish weapon and F to walk. I prefer to change the camera view by holding the right mouse button and moving the mouse, or by simply moving the mouse pointer far to the left or right to spin the view. Then I rebind camera left and right to Z & X, though I never use them. Basically, use whatever feels most comfortable for you. You don't need major twitch reflexes in a RPG where you can pause any time you want.

Dex +3 Str +3 Wis +4 Attack +1 Damage +3 My personal crystal. I would hardly call that a useless item. In fact, I can't think of a single item in the game as beneficial as the personalized crystal. As Kreia explains, the crystal changes as you change. If you master the Dark or Light side of the force, go talk to her again and check the new stats of the crystal. LOL, the personalized crystal is about as useless as the BFG is weak in Doom 3. As for the crystals in the cave, is it possible they change based on how you defined Revan at the start of KoTOR 2? Did you say he went light side or dark side? It may not matter... just a thought.

I rather enjoyed being an evil bastard in KoTOR 2. I'd have to say the highlight of the dark path is killing the Jedi Master voiced by Ed Asner. I hated that guy and wanted to kill him in the original KoTOR. Even when following the light side, it is REALLY difficult to not start a fight with him. I never touched the evil paths in Baldur's Gate series, or Neverwinter Nights, but the evil path in the KoTOR series is just so fleshed out and different than the light experience that I really think you are doing a disservice by not completing it atleast once on the dark side.

I'm not really picky about who I bring along. I basically bring along anyone that is low on influence and is aligned with how I want to play the game at the time. If I'm playing a lightside character all bring along any neutral or LS character low on influence. Atton Kreia Visas Handmaiden Disciple Bao Dur T3 Mira All can gain influence with a LS Exile. If DS, Atton Kreia Visas Hanharr HK-47 GO-TO Mandalore This is actually one of my complaints about the game. If you want to play LS and convert a DS follower to LS, say Mandalore, you essential have to play against your alignment and do things that character likes. Even then when you have converted this character over to your alignment, they still will only be pleased with things they used to like. Mandalore's char sheet may say 100% lightside, but he'll still be pissed over kind acts and still like your character being brutal to others. Same if you go DS and manage to get Bao-Dur darkside. His sheet says darkside but kill anyone around him and he throws a fit. It would have been nice if they had added some sort of script that once they were converted to their opposite starting alignment they started ignoring deeds that they used to hate. Since this isn't the case I don't bother trying to please people of the opposite alignment anymore. I just focus on making those already on my alignment happy and converting the neutrals over (Atton & Visas). The only odd one out is Kreia, as she'll be just as upset over an overly cruel act as she will over an overly kind act. She is usually easy to placate though with lines like, "I'm sorry, I'll consider your teachings more closely from now on." Despite her 'neutral' stance she is very handy to have along. Despite her one handed status, which means she is pretty poor in combat, she has some very nice bonuses. Besided her bonus to earned xp discussed earlier, setting her attack stance on Force Support turns her into a constant buffing machine for your melee jedi. If I ever ran into a challenging battle, having Kreia in the background throwing force powers left and right very quickly changed the tide of the battle. Once she ran out of force power, which takes quite a while considering her power, she would start using a single handed blaster I equipped her with. She really is great to have along if you can put up with her 'pleasant' demeanor and her poor combat skills.