Taran'atar

To answer the poll question: HK-47 is one sexy bitch. Note: In case it wasn't obvious to everyone, I was being facetious.

Things are cut from every game. I think what he's trying to say is that this wasn't cut any worse than average.

You "know" Kreia is evil the same way you might "know" that your wife is cheating on you. You can "know" it all you want, but unless you have proof (catching her doing something wrong) you can't call her out on it. Besides, evil or not she helps you regain your connection to the Force, and your character needs all the help he/she can get. Did you even play the first KOTOR? If you did, you'd know that that's perfectly in character for Mandalorians. They don't hold grudges. I assumed it crashed because of the storms seen during that cutscene.

No, it's no worse than most game boards after release. There's always a group that'll complain loudly about something. Even games that are generally well-liked by the masses, the fans on their boards will complain until their fingers are bloody. Half-life 2, Grand Theft Auto, and City of Heroes boards are perfect examples. KOTOR 2 could have been better, especially at the end, but it's nowhere near as bad as the whiners are making it out to be.

It doesn't. Killing a guy that's draining planets of all life did, in an obvious way. Going to Malachor and confronting Kreia was personal. I would assume that one of the droids (T3 is my guess) or another character was onboard when it fell and managed to get the engines working before it hit the ground.

To answer the original question: No, a simpler plot would have made the game feel half-assed. As it is, KOTOR 2 is at least three-quarters-assed. The plot is a good one, they just needed to flesh out some things better than they did. Maybe I'm in the minority on this, but I liked Kreia as the endgame "boss". True, it wasn't much of a surprise to me, and I doubt it was even much of a surprise to the player character, but of the three Sith Lords, Kreia is the one with the most personality, most backstory, and the deepest personal connection to the main character. All of those things make her the best of the three main villains. As for why Nihilus was on the box cover, loading screens, posters, etc. Probably for the same reason HK-47 was on the box cover of the first KOTOR even though he's not a very important character: He just looks cool. Kreia doesn't.

I haven't tried this, so correct me if I'm wrong, but if you tell Atton that Revan was a "dark side" female, the only circumstances where Carth can be killed, Carth won't appear and it'll be some other Republic admiral instead. There's no problem there. You do have a point about Bastila though. If you're "light side", it is possible to kill Bastila. However, since redeeming her is easy, the only way you'd kill her is if you wanted to, which is contrary to the whole "light side" philosophy. Obsidian wasn't unreasonable in assuming she survived. The only other iffy character was HK-47, since you don't have to buy him, but since he's such an iconic KOTOR character, Obsidian wasn't unreasonable in including him either. I suppose it was possible for Mission, Zaalbar, and Jolee to make cameo appearances if you told Atton that Revan wasn't evil. Juhani was the least likely to appear since she can be killed in either ending. I suspect that in KOTOR 3 they'll do the same thing they did in 2. You'll tell some character about Revan, male or female, good or evil. That'll determine which cameos happen and in Bastila's case, the allegience of those characters. They probably don't have to do the same with the exile, since the characters that die in KOTOR 2 aren't specific to the light or dark endings. Atton, Bao-Dur, the droids (except maybe the remote), Mandalore, the Handmaiden, and the Disciple all survive no matter what you do.

The only problem I have with the dark side game is that the storyline falls apart even worse. On Telos, you help the Czerka, and they repay it by shooting down your shuttle, which you're borrowing from them. On Onderon, you help Vaklu, Tobin dies, Kreia doesn't rescusitate him, but he still shows up on the Ravager. On Telos the second time, Bastila is in the next room when you're meeting with Carth, and she can't tell how far you've fallen to the dark side and doesn't try to stop you. There are some times where it seems like the dark side game was thrown in as an afterthought.

I dunno. I haven't played as a male PC yet, so I can't compare them, but I actually kinda liked the way the romances played out with the female exile. Atton and the Disciple fall in love with her over the course of the game, and she has no, or very little idea. Their love goes unrequited, and at the end she leaves and probably never sees them again. There's no happily ever after here. I like that, it's a little more real. Regarding Atton and the Disciple: I would guess that the exile would like Atton more. Don't most women like guys that have names?

Don't pay much attention to fan reviews. They're always biased one way or the other. Either the fanboys will be saying that it's the greatest game ever made in the history of mankind, or they'll be proclaiming it to be the "Worst. Game. Ever." With sequels and media tie-ins it's usually the latter. Hate's cool apparently. KOTOR fanboys complain about bugs, but I think they're looking at the original through rose-colored filters. The fact is that unpatched KOTOR was far worse bug-wise than KOTOR 2.

20 hours huh? All I can say is that no wonder the game felt rushed if you rushed through it.

True. Both can be turned into Jedi. The only definitive answer I, or just about anyone can give is wait for KOTOR 3. All will be explained then (hopefully). The dialogue seems to imply that he remembered something he'd done or something he'd discovered during the Mandalorian wars or while he was the Dark Lord. He remembered some huge threat to the Republic and went to investigate it. Exactly where that is (beyond "in the unknown regions") or whether it has anything to do with Malachor V, we don't know.

I like them both, but I'd say KOTOR was the better game. The original had a stronger cast of characters. Like 'em or hate 'em, at least you feel something for them. The same can't be said about KOTOR 2. I don't really feel anything for any of the characters, except for the returns from the first game. Only Carth and Bastila's cameos, Canderous/Mandalore, HK, and even T3 elicited any sympathy from me. The new characters are likeable enough, but it's hard to get behind them like you can with the original cast.

I just noticed something odd. In the tomb on Koriban, the exile seems to recognize Bastila. Apparently she was there when Malak recruited you to join the Mandalorian wars, but when you get T3 to play the recording of her, all the dialogue options suggest that you have no idea who this woman is. Anyone else find that a little odd?

You did miss something there. After landing on Telos, you meet up with Carth, from the first game. He asks you if you know where Revan went (since your flying his ship and all), you say no, he gives you a message for Revan if you should find him. I assume that in your game Revan was evil, and you told Atton as much? That's probably why this scene didn't show. There are some parts of the storyline that aren't well thought out. I haven't finished the game light side either, but from what I hear, the only difference is that the Ebon Hawk, after being miraculously repaired, picks you up, and you fly it off into the sunset.

Maybe T3 or someone managed to get the Ebon Hawks thrusters working after it fell, and stabilized the ships descent in order to land it safely. He then picked up Mira right before picking up the exile. As for the other party members, my take on it is this: You leave all of them except the droids behind on Telos. Mira follows you in a one-person fighter, which she ejects from right before it crashes into one of those bottomless abyss's (which explains why shes far away from the Hawk and there's no ships to be seen near her when she wakes up). Or maybe the rescue ship wasn't the Ebon Hawk at all, but a ship of the same make and model, being flown by some unknown person.

Is there some point to this? Of course they're going to patch the game. I've yet to play a game that didn't have at least one patch. The important part is what's in the patch. Will the patch include cutscenes and dialogue that make some sense out of the ending? Will it fix the random crashing? Just saying "there'll be a patch" is a waste of space.

Agreed. The ending wasn't very good, actually it was terrible, but just about all of the game until the last map or two was great.

So your windows don't work. Fine. You have a right to take the car back to the mechanic and get the problem fixed. But after telling them the problem, do you stand over the mechanics shoulder as he tries to fix it (for free I might add) complaining incessantly at how the car wasn't working right initially? There's also the matter of the right place to complain. If there was a meeting of people that liked their car and it was working fine, would you pick that place to voice your problems? Of course not. You'd go to customer support (ie, the tech support forum).

I guess the developers figured (probably correctly) that a truly non-evil male Revan would be able and willing to save Bastila.

How do you get influence with Atton? I played through Nar Shadaa, talked to the Twi'leks, and got through the Mandalorian wars dialogue. Now, whenever I try to ask him why he left the Sith, it says "[influence Failed] No, I don't wanna talk to ya. Go f*ck yourself" or something like that. Does anyone know of any other specific points where you can gain influence with him? I already know the "teach me Pazaak" dialogue. What else is there?

Don't pay much attention to those comments. I've yet to see a game forum shortly after release without comments like those. There are whiners and drama queens in every group.

Kreia's "ding dongs" are a clearly different color and texture than the rest of her. More likely they're ponytails and she's human.

How about something between options 4 and 5 on the poll? New character, but Revan and the Exile and their deeds are mentioned but not seen. If you end up playing one of the same characters as before, I'd prefer Revan.

First: If LucasArts and BioWare intended Revan to be a man, they wouldn't have given you the option of playing a female character. They'd have saved the effort of writing gender specific dialogue with Carth and several other characters. Second: I don't have a source to back this up, but I'm pretty sure I heard that the Bioware devs thought of Revan as a woman. Last: So what? If Lucasarts and Bioware told you to jump off a cliff, would you? No? If you won't let them tell you what to do, why let them tell you what to think? What they intended doesn't matter, only the work they did does. This is hardly surprising. People tend to focus on the bad parts of others.