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Indeed, they're a martial culture in the purest barbarian sense. They're not simply conquerors, working towards achieving a state of conquest. They're a martial culture working toward the expression of martial deeds for their own sake. The Spartan comparison certainly works in a number of very good ways (particularly the homosocial character of the culture), but in sheer lust for battle as an inherently worthwhile, sustained pursuit (that is to say one is never not at war - if one lacks for enemies, one seeks more elsewhere), within the western world, only comparison to certain Pre-Christian feudal Germanic cultures can really provide an adequate equivalency I think. However, the Spartans certainly do have a great deal in common sociologically.

Anyway, more importantly, how attractive was Nihilus, before he became, well, a hole in the fabric of life itself, and Sion, before he became, well, a mess of crumbling flesh and bone held together only by the force.

More or less my thought, yeah.

Well, I just came back from a recitation of Beowulf, the great Anglo-Saxon war epic, in original Old English, by some professors, me, and a bunch of English and Medieval studies grad students, so I'm biased, but I would certainly say the Mandalorians are more than anything a very generic idealised hero culture of that sort. Early medieval Germanic Europe is just one example, but it tends to be the major source for the general ideal that comes up most often in Sci-Fi/Fantasy literature and film. But really, the notion of a tribal heroic warrior culture (i.e., Pre-Christian) is a pretty standard sci-fi/fantasy theme, and the Star Wars franchise tends to draw on this sort of very standard mythic convention.

I'm going for "bottomless pit of suckitude." With our new, subtly religiously referenced, "Darth Jesus," in a plot that bear's no resemblance whatsoever to prior themes: You, Darth Jesus, are a bottomless pit of suckitude, within the Force. Others are drawn towards you, by your actions, and by your very presence in this universe. Through your suckitude, they too come, in time, to suck, just as do you, and to wield that sucking, such that the Force itself, as it flows around us, begins, instead, to suck. Your sucking becomes that of those you touch, and their sucking becomes that of the galaxy. They, and we are sucked in by it. There must be an end to the sucking, Jesus, before all life in the galaxy is blown away in the growing sucking which flows from, and through you.

Wait...you mean she isn't supposed to be hot during the game's period?

... OMG. You, shop, the Longest Journey, now. :"> <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Wow, I've been caught up so much in whoring Planescape: Torment out to everyone I know for the past couple years, I'd forgotten what a masterpiece of storytelling The Longest Journey was. Though certainly, I've continued to look forward to Dreamfall. I'll definitely have to remember to go back to getting people playing that game :D

And in breaking news this hour: Top-Secret Bao-Dur/Spherical Utility Droid Romance Scandal Revealed!

Hey, terrific pics. Nice.

Someone must have done this. But indeed, I did a google image search not long after I bought the game and a couple times since, and found the same thing. No one's posted pics that I can find, yet. I might like to make a wallpaper.

I hope sincerely that storytelling can get the attention it well deserves in the world of gaming, sooner rather than later. Like many things, it continues to be lost in the shuffle much of the time, lost in the sheer, disorganised madness that so many game development projects turn into. As it is, game publishers continue, for the most part, to fail to think like purveyors of a highly profitable artform. Most game publishers and developers alike seem to somehow have taken the lessons learned by managerial science, mainstream media, large industry and collaborative artwork and thrown all those lessons right out the window, favouring instead for the whole of the development process especially a level of stupid, chaotic disorganisation that would normally seem more appropriate to a dorm full of first-year soon-to-be-drop-out undergrad engineering students. I hope that game development and publishing both face some major restructuring over the next 10 years, because it doesn't seem that the creative process and the business end of things are, together, or independently, functioning is a sane and productive manner at present, conducive to the creation of great works of art media.

So the Lucasarts QA department finally figured out how to install it? <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think KotOR II was just about the right number of NPCs. So I'd wish for something other than more NPCs or less NPCs in general. I'd like to see more NPCs at once. That is to say, I wish the game permitted larger parties. I didn't like having to leave behind some of my favourite companions, simply because I could only have two with me at a given time.

Mira has this whole 'trailer trash' motif going on. Can't dig it. Bastila was developed, but not in a particularly interesting way. Atris was a librarian who turned dag-nasty evil and joined the forces vying for galactic destruction. Err...think I have to go with the evil galaxy-destroying librarian.

One more vote for Hanharr and he'll tie Disciple. Go Hanharr! :D Incidentally, I voted Exile, as I was an Exile fan while playing Male LSM, but now that I'm playing a Dark Side Female, it's Atton for me all the way.

Or they could just have Lucas make it canon that when female jedi masters fall to the dark side, they talk like male voice actors. Ooh, scary.

From the Romance with Bao-Dur UNLOCKED! thread, I'm beginning to think we need to visit Iridonia

I'm finding dark side less morally repugnant than I would have expected. Usually, I find being evil too unpleasant to be gratifying, in an RPG. But it seems it's possible to get enough dark side points, while avoiding most light side points, in this game, without simply making one's character seem hopelessly inhuman. Normally, like most people, I end up playing kind of Chaotic Good.

If only there were a character with Bao-Dur's voice, Atton's wise-cracking and my male Exile's model. All the compelling male characteristics got spread out

My dad (a few rooms away) even called out to me, "You alright?" I was laughing so hard. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> So...you sound like an Iridonian in the midst of mating when you aren't alright?

It kind of highlighted for me how attractive his voice is when it isn't immediately apparent that it's coming from the big spiky whitish alien head of a guy with one arm.

Oh my god...so awesome...

These are common tactics when using a "mage" character. There

There were indeed some *ahem* lovely "clothing" mods for Bastilla. Here's to hoping for something similar for KotOR II.

I figure I'll be falling in with the "the patch does come out in a week or so, but it's just another European version dialogue fix" theory proponents, pretty soon