Lord Tarondor

I did mention that it had many, many more lovers than haters in its target group, right? I know you got it, but I don't want people arguing with me -- personally, I don't really enjoy the books for a plot but its universe is more than interesting. Nothing like Tolkien's but then again, for me, The Tolkien Universe is at the top.

But... why should I care? A matter of opinion -- many find George Lucas to be a hack. Find Bush to be a hack. The list goes on. Fact is, Harry Potter is popular enough to outsell everything. There's some reasoning behind that, and its because the books, while the plots leave more to be desired, are entertaining. The Sith Lords, to more than just 'a few', is garbage that could be rented and done with. Ya, you have people who hate Harry Potter, but its fanbase outnumbers those who hate it amongst its target group considerably -- TSL doesn't have that, and generally, with HP, each book draws more and its fan-base is pleased with each new installment generally deeming it 'better than the last.' Finally: I can say TSL sucks because Obsidian blows -- should I care that they didn't have enough time? Its not my problem -- I'm the consumer, not their sympathiser and because of that reason alone, I don't really have to know anything about you, or them -- I should get the game and not have to ask, 'Who the **** were the people designing this **** and why does it have more holes than Swiss Cheese?'

I don't have to -- I played the game and had fun but when discussing which story is best of the two, I'm not going to lie. KotOR2:TSL was flawed in my humble opinion and I won't stick up for a game company because they didn't complete their game in the alotted time nor take into account what type of publisher they were dealing with in the first place. That doesn't change the fact that, if I wanted to, I could not get my fifty dollars back for a defective piece of hardware (As I've heard from quite a few PC players). Furthermore, I doubt they sincerely care whether or not I am satisfied nor whether or not you have sympathy for their 'unjust' predictament. I will discuss The Sith Lords, as I please -- I have played the game, fully, both Dark and Lightside, have exhausted certain dialogues to see if anything different will happen and feel I have a good grasp of why the game was they way it was and I don't think its a good enough excuse for the issues I had with it. Furthermore, this discussion has a lot of people saying Obsidian outclassed Bioware but I will defend Bioware who built the graphics and the engine, built the storyline that was stellar, and made in-depth characters in comparison to Obsidians tweaks that crash half the systems its run on (PC-wise), storyline that leaves most wanting more, characters that lack depth, and mumbo-jumbo lines that Alec Guinness, former Obi-Wan actor, found atrocious that are laced within the game. Defend it as you wish -- or not. I'm not here to convert people; I'm merely finding it hard-to-believe people think either game is not cliche in several ways or easy to figure out when considering you're selling to the public -- not Ivy League students. In closing, I think I'll give credit to the desingers -- they had a couple of decent plot areas that were nice and smile-worthy, but I won't care really if they didn't have the time to complete it: money is money, and I don't have time for excuses. I'm the consumer -- I expect a game thoroughly debunked and completed; I got neither and as such, I can be unsatisfied, and furthermore, I can be here as the discussion doesn't revolve around worshipping either Obsidian or The Sith Lords.

Nice one (to the above). I don't have webspace right at the moment so I'll just say my desktop is a custom Photoshop work that has a sleek silver ship (kind of like the Ep. I Royal Naboo Cruiser) leaving a noticably colonised Mars with space and the sun in the left corner. P.S.: For systray and Start menu, I have Photoshop CS 8, KoTOR, D3, H-L2 and basically games and programs all pinned or placed in my start and chat-based systems and my Spyware Detectors and Virus protectors placed in my systray for easy dispatching and owning. As for web, I have Firefox set as default and I use IE and Opera occasionally. Color theme is dark with dark grays and blacks -- I have several intense colors for highlights and bars (use XP) but I tend to change often enough. Personally, I prefer warm or cool coloring -- I generally use blues, greens, and violets for wallpapers and color settings.

I'm tired of all the 'it's cliche' comments -- lets face it, everything, when boiled down, can be cliche. ITS BEEN DONE! But Knights' first installment and Bioware built good, solid characters -- they built one helluva a story, that, while easy to find out, is nonetheless epic and will sell to the majority of people because its an intermediate type twist. Saying Knights sucks is like saying Harry Potter sucks cause you knew Dolores Umbridge was going to be evil in some way shape or form because she was the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher -- who cares? Its a fun story, and while you may not like it, I liked the fact that it was complete, straightforward, and not filled with what Alec Guinness basically called his lines in A New Hope: ****. You had realistic perspectives from Jolee Bindo, you had a realistic situation between Bastila and Revan, you had people who were incharge who were incompetent and that, while cliche, is still realistic. With The Sith Lords, each line is painful. Master Kreia, while she is gray at the beginning, is still spouting bull**** my ears could hardly take. From the moment you picked the dialogue option, you knew what would happen and it was painfully obvious on the first planet that you were just another oldbie with an issue that at least Revan had no control over and that Master Kreia would be playing you -- you couldn't do anything about it, which makes the story dog****. While this is okay, don't say the first installment is cliche -- Kreia is both painful and cliche. With Knights, there's an easy to figure twist but you get a lot of depth, a lot of story-telling, and in the end, I wanted to hear a good story -- I wanted to be entertained, I wanted a few challenges, and I got that. With Sith Lords, I restricted myself to strictly light thoughts or dark thoughts and options unlike in the first one and I still beat every person with one or two rounds -- there was no challenge. If the point of the game was to show how great a character I was because I'm a Force Wound, then its not really that great of a game. You may find it unique but I just find it a problem and that problem being the developers not having the skills to balance the game properly. I know they didn't have time to finish, but I don't think I could have expected much more with their slew of characters that were really, really tacky either indecent or uncivil or just plain dirty and that just isn't what I want in a game. I'm all for hardcore games with cussing and sex-appeal, but not from Star Wars. I want a realm with civility and depth and I didn't get it with Sith Lords -- Bioware takes the cake -- they had a plot that was significantly more indepth and difficult to figure out than Star Wars I, II, III, IV, V, and VI did and they get my vote.

To be simple, I didn't vote -- none of those characters were 'hot' and none of them were good, either.

While I don't find any of the Knights female cast naughty-thought provoking outside of Bastila Shan, I will comment on The Sith Lords cast concerning depth. None of the characters were beautiful. They were, to be blunt, horrible. Atrocious. I found their lines tacky, and the cheesy raunch-factor each one of them brought to the game was tasteless. Mira was such a... such a... there's no word but I'll say she's a crap character and it destroyed the whole thing Star Wars had going with tasteful women who were either high class or at least proper or capable and had depth. Same with Handmaiden -- the whole 'Echani dueling with only undergarments' thing was such a tacky add-on that I never even interacted with her throughout the game except when absolutely necessary. Ask yourself this: if it was such a necessity than why wasn't she just naked -- if she 'doesn't care' she'd be naked - an exhibisionist. It was just a character to draw the complete low-lifes into staring at a graphically rendered woman with a crew cut -- I'm not that low-life of a person and I found the replacement of a sensible and solid character with that of a 'hot babe' (hurl) to be one more thing to add on the 'Sith Lords Hatred Wagon.' With Bastila, while you can say she was annoying, she had depth -- perhaps the most indepth character in the first game excluding Revan, and while her attire was silly it was something that brought together the conservative Leia and the tight-form fitted clothing of Padme Naberrie and I thought BioWare did it quite well. She had a real issue that Lord Vader even faced -- the loss of their rock and their loving parent and if you played it, you could see it added to her downfall: her interactions with Revan led to it, and if you played a male, she found love in you to be the safest thing in the world -- that's depth. I don't care what Obsidian says about realism when it comes to love but Star Wars is a different universe and George Lucas has shown us both in the OT and the PT that love blossoms quickly and Bastila was such a superb character that it fit really well. With the characters you get in The Sith Lords, you have no conclusions and you have no reason to care as to what happens to them -- why do you think so many people want Bastila back? Why do you think so many people care about her living being canonical and a set thing in the third game? She's a solid character -- she's a beautiful character story-wise and not one NPC character -- not even Kreia -- in Sith Lords could come close to Bastila's depth when you intercated with her and utilised her in the game.

I can write and 'brit-pick' as some call it.

With that said, I think its time we have a character that is either really old or really young -- preferably really young. Why? I want a game in which the Master-Padawan bond is actually displayed and in which I can participate. I want to be the newbie brought up; I don't want to be someone who's been apart of the Jedi Order who's lost himself. Like I mentioned before, I think one of the surviving Masters -- you know there's gotta be at least one (and if not, GO WITH IT!) or a trainer or near enough Master finds you -- has a vision of you and comes and gets you (on a Core Planet) and you have to escape the Core Planet. Why? Because no one trusts the Jedi, period. The Senate has declared (as in the third movie) that Jedi are no longer to be trusted for they are just as much a problem as the Sith (or so they believe). You have to flee because you're caught with whatever Master or whatever circumstances. You have goals and things you need to meet to get off the planet for whatever reason: Master wants to see if you're worthy enough (lotta Yoda stuff) or you need to find a way to get off. Basically, its a Taris/Peragus situation except I think it'll be non-stop action since you can open the game up with a holovid of the Supreme Chancellor or Senate passing a vote through their hall that all Force-sensative members are under arrest/koa/etc. Pan to character and have a knock at the door -- its Master Sunrider (jk). Either way, I think a young character has more realism to it when it comes to making hard and/or bad choices. Kids/young adults don't have a lot of experience and it can be easier for them to fall. With that I have my biggest issue. Dark Side and Light Side need to be revamped. The choices are way too obvious. I want real choices, and many of them -- I want to feel like I'm a real person and not Buddy Jesus or Lucifer -- I mean honestly, I don't have to have evil intentions by going into a cantina and threatening everyone instead of inquiring about them. I want a Dark Side that is plausible and a Light Side that isn't so mamby pamby or however Alec Guinness said it. Returning characters: For the Light Side, I think Bastila Shan, who is a favourite character of mine, should be back as a Non-Player Character. I think, since they showed their capablities with Hanharr and Mira, this is plausible -- if you're a Dark Side character you could get someone like Hanharr or Mandalore. I think influence should really matter -- I really want to see characters leave your group, put you on ice, or make you choose. None of this heavy influence -- influence is okay but I think it should have a limit and I think we should see NPCs be light-side oriented. With that said, I don't think there are too many NPC Jedi characters left outside of the ones mentioned and with that, we can assume we'll have with the right choices, Bastila Shan, Handmaiden, Mira, Visas Marr, The Disciple and whoever based upon choices made at the beginning of the game. Heck, I think options for how the previous games played should occur in the character creation area and with that, you could even have the aforementioned scenario -- a Master showing up, have any of those Jedi show up as a Master-like character. I think the game should start lightsided, no matter what and from there it gets tough -- decisions need to be made and giving in to the Dark Side may become necessary if you want to win at all. I think the Lightside, in the third game, should be absolutely, positively the most difficult thing out of all three and restricted to true gamers. Dark Side/Light Side have been both, too easy, credit-wise, living-wise, power-wise, and whatever you can name in both games. I think it should change.

I think the most important thing an RPG game should have is a storyline that allows for more questions but gives you a decent wrap-up at the end of the game that makes you feel like your time wasn't wasted. I feel the first installment did that and I feel the second one came up short -- I believe a good, solid, and somewhat exciting and/or mysterious storyline is the essential. Graphics are just not that important when you have a game that isn't like Battlefront or quick action games in which you jump right into the thick of it and blast away. Sure Knights has action but storyline is what drives us forward and thats what'll keep us happy and keep us playing. Next, I want the current system balanced -- all current items balanced: things that aren't needed cut and items that need tweaking tweaked as well as a system that is moderate. I don't want a thousand Force Powers -- I want the Force Powers to mean something since this is, while a long game, not a universe in which I can get adequate training that will rival Yoda who has lived 900 years. I want blaster weapons to have just as much potential when invested heavily in as the vibroblades have -- it may be a war in which shields require close combat but Jedi shouldn't have to be about close combat all the time. I see no need to impress us with stunning new graphics. I see the need for a balanced, well-thought out story that either wraps the current two games up, or proceeds forward and leaves open more possibilites but nonetheless closes up quite well. While graphics are neat, I played Halo 2 for about three hours and didn't find it interesting -- the first one pulled me in; the second one, while pleasing to the eyes, was unpleasing to play (for me). For others, they may like it -- they want the quick stuff, the I don't have to think to hard and invest too much time and get my uber-l33t lightsaber that destroys everyone and their mother, but I want a good story, progression, and something that challenges me for the time I spend in it.

Above is an Ewok.

Coruscant is a very possible world to utilise in the game -- you just need to realise not everything has to be Sith versus Jedi or Evil versus Good. For starters, if you want to create a game apart of the Knights of the Old Republic series that doesn't have a Force Sensative that has been apart of the Jedi Order at any one time and perhaps want a game in which you have a young (sixteen or seventeen year old) character who lives on Coruscant, then you can have numerous scenarios that can be fun. For instance, from there, you can have a Jedi Master, depending on the options you chose -- Revan was Lightside or Dark Side -- say Master Vandar since we can assume at the present time he is alive if Revan was Lightside and he wasn't mentioned in Katarr or in The Sith Lords who knocks on your 'door' so to speak -- he's a Yoda-type: he's had a vision -- you have a destiny and you, the young character need to learn the ways of the Force, find out what's happened to the Heart of the Force and its Death. To mix it up, Coruscant, capital-world of the Republic has decided to do what Emperor Palpatine did 4,000 years in the future: evict and eradicate all Jedi and Force-capable sentient beings. 'Do what must be done!' shouts the Supreme Chancellor and you have a scenario in which it is not just good versus evil but people who are frightened and tired of wars and a kid whose life just got turned upside down because he's caught with Master Vandar. Not only does this give the kid his first option -- getting angry his life is ruined and falling to the Dark Side cause he can't cope with the issue or to trust Master Vandar (or whoever) and become his Padawan, but Coruscant is utilised as a world. Hell, you could have trials to begin the game or escapes from Coruscant like the aforementioned scenario. You just have to think abit and not assume everything will be Sith versus Jedi -- you gotta remember most people neither trust the Sith or Jedi and I think its about time, with all these wars going on, that people stop hoping and start doing things they'll regret -- awful things, but human and realistic ideals that'll make the game fun.