Antagonist

Mr. Sawyer once again wins the first price for integrity in interviews. Good stuff.

Well, but still it is admirable when people try to change things which in their opinion are wrong (though I don't really admire Charles Manson ). At least we'll experience how the perfect, uncomromised RPG looks like according to certain Codex standards. Excuse my lack of long-term knowledge of the Codex' history but I'm not aware who "vis" is. Do you mean Visceris, the local poster here ? Yeah, the "dumb****" label is cheap and it comprimises their self-proclaimed free speech policy. No argument there, admins on power trips are always scary. I mildly disagreed because it was my (obviously failed) attempt at humour to point out that sometimes certain Codexers behave like an old bickering couple. They hate each other but yet they share so many similarities and fail to see it. It's a discussion board and although one can argue about the quality of said discussion there one can't deny that they do the term "discussion" board justice.

Well, I feel like I have to stand up for the Codex here a little bit although they sure don't need my defence and probably don't care about people's opinion here. But reducing it to the regular trash talk and occasional hyperbolic discussions especially when it comes to favourite topics like Fallout, Troika and Oblivion doesn't do it justice, it's still a necessary counterweight to the mainstream journalism. Maybe my views are affected from lurking on the Codex for a long time but I like them because many of them don't settle for the watered down action RPGs which are released today and they attack the people who defend these titles because "we should be happy that any RPGs are released at all". Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe. Plus, there's more to the Codex than whining. Look at Serge/Vault Dweller for example. Instead of complaining endlessly about the (rather sad) state of the industry he sat down, formed a development team and is making an RPG himself. I'm pretty curious about the outcome too as armchair analyzing is often easier than trying to right things by yourself. But before someone points it out: Yes, I know that it is rather an exception to the rule but still. I also disagree with Gromnir that Volourn doesn't fit in the Codex. While Volourn's and the regular Codexer's (whatever that is) views may vary they both have the same tendency to frenzy when it comes to defending their pet topics (that is Bioware and Troika). Regarding the interview I agree that some of the questions were a little bit disappointing because we've read them time and again in other MCA interviews (bet he copy and pasted parts of it). I wish Serge would have concentrated on debating essential RPG designs from an abstract point of view instead of losing himself in discussing past games. Oh well, maybe next time.

I stopped following the development of Dreamfall for a while but from what I read it's a mixed bag. The lead designer said that they would shorten the dialogues (probably to please the XBox monkeys with an attention span disorder) and the game game length is supposed to be 10-15 hours. I'm also sceptical about introducing fighting and stealth elements which are justified with "bringing the genre forward" and dropping the point-and-click interface for direct control (meaning it's developed for the Xbox first and PC users just have to eat it or leave it). Yeah right, we already know from RPGs what good such approach has done: Thousands of action-adventure clones with minimal role-playing. It's generally a strange move because TLJ is loved as an ADVENTURE game and not some would-be platformer. I hope Funcom knows it's a dangerous intention to reach for new markets with changed gameplay elements and risking to alienate your core fanbase (Brotherhood of Steel anyone ?). I also don't like that they switched the main character for the sequel but that's a personal preference of mine. I was really interested to continue April's longest journey after the end of the first part and experience her growth as a character first hand and not from the point of view of another character. I have a nagging suspicion that this change is also due to the new Xbox market: It's difficult to make a game for a new audience which would require extensive background knowledge about the main character so it's easier to drop it (main char) alltogether and introduce a new one which has no knowledge about recent happenings at all. I fear that we'll be treated with extensive flashbacks and history lessons to communicate the background history of TLJ to new players although people coming from TLJ will probably know it. I'm reserving final judgement until the game is out and I have read some descriptions about the gameplay but right now it smells like sell-out to me.

Sorry if had been brought up before, but I recommend Killap's Fallout 2 patch which eliminates dozens of bugs to increase your enjoyment: Patch including official 1.2 fixes (US version only) Patch without 1.2 fixes List of corrections Don't forget to check out the last modification dates on the server of the files I linked to as Killap is still working on it and releases updated versions.

To use Volourn's very own words: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ultima 9 should be without a doubt in such a list. It is the epitome of selling-out a franchise and it is easily the biggest disappointment with games in gereral I ever experienced before and after. All the traits that made (later) Ultimas classics like a vibrant world, freeform gameplay, interesting NPCs with well thought-out stories and any sense of continuity to boot were dropped. There were some other horribly flawed games like NWN 1 but they were simply boring and didn't invoke such feelings of repulsion due to the immense expectations.

I wouldn't recommend using the fan patch if you play for the game the first time. More often than not the patch creators didn't just fix bugs but simply modded the game because they didn't like some design decisions by Troika. There is more than 1 controversial change to the game, some which will pretty much screw the game balance even more (like putting end game weapons into earlier areas, giving out additional XP etc). The game runs well with the official patch, there are only minor glitches left and I'm pretty sure you'll not even realize they are there. Bloodlines is a great game especially for people who enjoy good writing and voice acting and are sick of Tolkien-like RPGs. It was a little bit too linear and static for my taste but nevertheless it is one of the best games I've played in recent years. Prepare for a big letdown in the last third though were Troika transformed the game almost into a full-fledged FPS.

Huh, I don't consider the RPGCodex home or any other website for that matter. I'm far from a regular there but I enjoy reading some of the discussions as long as they don't turn to pure flaming. Reducing the Codex to the (sometimes extreme) use of rude language is a bit short-sighted because on the other hand there will never be a mod who warns you about some forum guidelines which restrict discussion (see Bio bashing). Well, I'm not the public relation officer of the Codex but I'd really appreciate it if some of the vocal members would keep their private chats out of otherwise often healty topics. It's not fun reading 3 pages of bickering and in-jokes for people who are interested in the initial discussion.

As unpopular as it might be around here I much prefer to read the RPGCodex because despite the harsh enviroment and some extreme positions people there tend to make valid and well thought-out points or at least ones that are worth further discussion. Recently every time I pop into this forum I find many topics which degenerate rather quickly into chats between various members or discussions are led in the form of one-liners. To be honest I don't do much to improve the situation myself because I don't have the time and the inclination but this board is kinda suboptimal for my passive reading pleasure. It's sad too that the developers practically abondoned their own boards. I don't like the Bio Boards but one as to acknowledge that the presence of so many devs inspires the members to contribute to discussions about specific games developed by that company.

About the 7800 series: From what I read in a respected german computer magazine the 7800 XT is not worth buying with todays processors because except from some high-end CPUs like the Athlon FX they are too slow in providing the GPU with data. They made some extensive tests and it seemed that the 7800 XT was usually waiting for the CPU to catch up. Tthat's why they had the same FPS with different "lower end" processors (>= 3 Ghz). I'll wait for ATI's reaction. Their new GPU is supposed to have 32 pixel pipelines (nVidia 24) and support for the new unified shading model which will be introduced with Windows Vista.

I was informed about the sad state of HL:S that's why I only bought the regular package. It was still misleading because Valve made a lot of promotion about Source being the next-best-thing so it is naturally that people expected it to be a total conversion of the original game. Not every customer will check message boards and interviews from developers before buying a game. Right now there is almost no reason to buy HL:S. The upgraded water is not worth it and the models look even worse. For the same price you get a better looking version with both expansion packs. And you still haven't explained why they didn't use at least the High Definition Version of the models (Blue Shift). Valve was just lazy and used the hype to squeeze out some extra bucks from their customers before word got out that HS:S was a scam.

Sure, must be the reason they couldn't include the High Definition Pack in Half-Life: Source. Valve already delayed the release of Half-Life 2 and had to cut content. They probably had no time and manpower to make a decent port of HL1 because it would mean to make new models, textures and modifications to the levels to make proper use of HAVOC.. Instead they obviously used a conversion tool so they could sell their Silver and Gold packages through Steam to people who actually expected graphics and physics on HL2 level. That was pretty shabby and I hope Valve doesn't shut down those guys at Black Mesa: Source.

For all you lovers of Blue Meanie: Blue Meanie Reloaded It's a new 3-D model taken from a fan project dedicated to make a Source version of Half-Life 1 because Valve couldn't be bothered to make a proper one themselves. Black Mesa: Source

Very unlikely because so far the games always have been told from Gordon's perspective and I doubt that Valve will break the concept. It's one of the features they became known for. My theory is that the G-Man placed him there to avoid having Gordon pop out of thin air although that didn't stop him from dropping Freeman in the train at the beginning. I think he tries to avoid unknown publicity and unnecessary questions by outsiders, especially Alex who he decided to save for some unknown reasons. A point of interest: