Wynne

I think Cipher is the coolest concept, and it feels so fitting for the Watcher.

I really think a woman can narrate just as well as a man, or a man as poorly as a woman. It's not the gender, it's the--mindset. The way you're thinking at the time you're reading and how well your voice serves the text, blending in enough to make the story itself pop more, but standing out enough to keep the listener interested in the meaning of the words. This is a highly imperfect example, since it's done in realtime as a person playing the game instead of someone thinking like a narrator in a nice studio without any noisy computer fans around, but take it as a hint of what could be. https://clips.twitch.tv/SpineyWimpyMarjoramCoolStoryBob

I really like Ashley Johnson normally, but the pacing is awful. It's like someone was standing over her shoulder yelling "SLOWER! PEOPLE ARE TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND IF YOU READ FASTER THAN A SNAIL COULD SPELL THE WORDS!" I think Obsidian fans are a clever lot, actually, so that's a misplaced sentiment, wherever it might've come from. Beyond that, though, she sounds a little too... something. I don't know. Too American? (I am American, so that's weird to say; maybe it's a specific accent or inflection, possibly not even to do with being American.) It's distracting. Her voice is too distinctive to work very well for a narrator. That's a great thing for NPCs and companions, but not so great for this. I'm biased as hell, but I think they should have hired me. I'm kinda narrating on my Twitch channel anyway, for the protagonist and the flavor text. I tell myself I sound nice and generic. *lol*

Already did the moon godlike for my own purposes! https://i.imgur.com/W1RkLjV.png I think I did much better when I tried Amegani's Moon Godlike, though. I'll attach that one too just in case anyone wants to see it. I used it in PoE, so in the end even though I love Anna Helm's I stuck with Amegani's for this playthrough. I replaced a female aumaua portrait I'd never use, though, so it will need renaming if anyone cares about that. female_amegani.zip

Since England does not exist in the PoE universe anymore than America does, I don't see why they shouldn't use as many accents as they like. I would object more to the use of modern slang in games than any particular accent. I think PoE did well in feeling like its own thing, so Eder's casual twang didn't bother me whatsoever. It made him feel distinct in personality, region, and culture from the more sophisticated-sounding Aloth, which makes sense given their backgrounds. Soldier from farmlands, vs. wizard raised in service to the nobility. It's analogous enough for my tastes.

Definitely not a fan of the watercolor portraits, personally. I understand it's an artistic choice, but I vastly prefer the more realistic style.

This is a hard question, but in the end I would rule it firmly on the side of "it's your character." You choose your character's face, their talents, their alignment... everything. So you, in the end, determine whether your character was just a pawn of the council or whether they might have, in fact, been wiser than most of the council all along (in somehow sensing that it was your place in the grand scheme of things to lose yourself to the Dark for a while.) After all, Dark Side Revan doesn't get redeemed. So in some ways, it has to be a true redemption--you clearly have the choice not to be redeemed, so why wouldn't it be your choice to be redeemed? Jolee and Juhani--again, your choice. After all, you may or may not even have Juhani on your ship, so she doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the whole mess. I guess it depends on how well the council warped your mind, how much of yourself came back after you realized you had been Revan, who you were in the first place, and who you want to be after all that happened to you. It also would depend on whether you even like or respect Jolee and Juhani. If you didn't, even as a Light Side character, maybe that would push you towards Bastila. But in the beginning of your life, even a Dark Side character was presumably a good person--that's why you were a Jedi in the first place, right? So perhaps it's more accurate to say that the Star Forge performed the most dramatic harm upon your psyche. Even worse than the council. Still, what the council did--I would call it an act of war. It wasn't a crime per se, because it was necessity and you were an enemy--but it certainly wasn't much of a healing. I believe most of the masters had murky intentions, not benevolent ones. They wanted to use you against their enemies. Vandar I believe truly cared about you in addition to his duties, but the others... I don't know. Certainly not that selfish, hypocritical idiot Vrook. He was Dark Side from the very beginning; he just wouldn't admit it. He hated you, enjoyed judging you because it made him feel better about himself, and he justified it as prudent caution. He was afraid to do anything to save lives, and again justified it as prudent caution, while countless innocents suffered and died as the threats got stronger. He kept a vise over his emotions, but under the surface he was as led around by them as any Sith. The Dark Side was only one inch away. He was JUST like Atris.

I know I've gone dormant for a long time, but hey, I'm still waiting and checking. My excitement has not died. This is a wonderful game, and a few years aren't going to stop me from wanting to see it treated as it deserved to be treated in the first place. Thank you so much for your hard work, Team Gizka!

I just ate Ore Ida microwave fries with a delicious Bolthouse Farms drink: Perfectly Protein, which is basically a vanilla cinnamon chai tea latte kinda thing. Healthy, yet rich and luscious.

It kinda sucks that Oblivion was delayed, but as they say in the demos, the entire game was technically done--technically. It's that they weren't satisfied with the polish. "We decided that we wanted to get it done right, that we still had stuff to do optimization-wise; you know, in the last week we've reduced load times by like 400%, so there's lots of speed and performance things. The content is done, the game is done, you can play and do everything. For us now, it's the level of polish." I mean, think of how many companies would just shove it out the door for the Xbox 360 launch, done or not. I think Bethesda learns from each of their efforts, and they want Oblivion to shine--to sell it when it's done rather than just make profits as soon as possible. This is one of the benefits of becoming an increasingly large company; you can afford to wait and polish more. Difficult to the extreme for such a huge game, but clearly, they want to. What I'm looking forward to... --Dungeons. The game has "over 200 dungeons, all hand-crafted." From what I saw in the demo, Oblivion is a marked improvement in terms of environment personality. The sheer amount of useable traps looks very exciting. --Combat. Now your player skill in blocking will actually matter--you choose when to block, and your block skill determines how much damage the block absorbs and how much the block saps your stamina. A perfect balance of action and RPG elements, where both matter. --Magic. Playing a pure mage is a far more viable option. Your mana regenerates this time around at a rate which purportedly makes it as useful as a sword for a fighter or thief. --Stealth. Emil Pagliarulo has been hired and listened to. The dimension of actually playing a thief has apparently been added. (I didn't feel thievery was satisfying in Morrowind; I used shadow-related mods.) You can use stealth and cleverness to defeat your enemies, and shadows actually seem to matter this time. Demo #4 shows that you can shoot an arrow into a log, causing the force to roll it downhill and crush a small foe. You can also roll a ball into a tripwire, triggering spiked battering rams to swing from the ceiling into enemies not aware of your presence. --Dialogue. Yes, there is a basic Wikipedia format to some of this--but there are some specific lines to say which you can gain in the course of dialogue as well. Do I think it will be KOTOR-level dialogue? Emphatically not, but it still looks improved from the last game, and--like in many movies--the acting adds a whole new dimension to the dialogue, so even if the writing isn't Mervyn Peake, it already comes across better. And there's more than one writer assigned to the game (obviously, due to the vast amount of NPCs), so while Estelle Renoit's dialogue is rather blah, what's given to Patrick Stewart is decidedly better. --Mood Ring. Har. Couldn't resist that descriptor. Sort of like Morrowind's mood affectation features, but a little deeper. I like it because it's slightly more intuitive, more personal--besides the Demand/Bribe options, you have the Mood Ring--Boast, Bully, Joke, Admire. And their face will change as you pass the cursor over the different sides of the circle. Why do I like this? Because it's so real life--you trade expressions with others to know what to say. You can glare at someone slightly and see whether they look nervous or unmoved to know whether you can press them that way. You can check them out and see whether they are stiff or flattered in response. (An answering frigid glare of death from somebody in real life often stops a come-on line dead in its tracks, doesn't it?) You can get that little sparkle in your eye as you think of something funny you heard, and see the answering interest. In Demo #5, this is just what happens--admiration and boasts bring no interest, but a twinkle in your eye can make the subject's face light up just a bit. --Fast Travel Map. Thank heaven for THAT! Ugh, whoever thought removing fast travel in Morrowind was a great idea must have been on some serious shrooms, or had a lotus enema or something. I don't care if it's unrealistic, it's not FUN. What is fun is, when in a movie, you cut through all the boring parts where people go to the bathroom or lie around reading to the part where something is actually happening. Same principle applies to a video game--you need fast travel. And they learned that lesson for Oblivion. *shakes her head* I can't believe they ever thought otherwise. Honestly. Breakdown: Not all RPGs are the same. Players expect different things from the genre. Anything in which the game is about you playing a role you choose tends to be classified as an RPG. Diablo only fits this by the barest of definitions, if at all--I personally would snort at the idea that it is one, since you can't even make basic quest choices, just whether you swing a sword or fling fireballs... RPG, my porcelain posterior. It's really more an action game. Dungeon Siege II is a mite closer. Baldur's Gate 2 definitely fits the RPG definition, since you can choose your lines and class and gender and all, including good or evil. Same with KOTOR, of course. Planescape: Torment was a great game, but the role was strictly male and kinda undeadish, so it wasn't the broadest of RPGs. System Shock 2 was very action-oriented, but still technically an RPG in vague terms, since you did get to build your character. The point with any RPG, or any game, is to find out what it offers and why you would or wouldn't like it before you buy the game. So here's the point of Oblivion--and if this doesn't appeal, one need not feel obligated to buy it... (nor to stamp feet and childishly proclaim, over and over, for all to hear "I will not buy it because it is not my type of game!") Oblivion intends to create a realistic fantasy world in which you can choose your own path in solving quests. You can be a cutthroat, you can be a thief, you can be an arena gladiator, you can be a mage, you can worship a god, you can worship no gods, and you can choose your quests, your guild, your place in the world. You can play the hero, the villain, or the disinterested pragmatist, or any combination of the above--whatever you like. It's more about the dynamic experience than anything else. You can make moral choices, but it won't be done through "I would never betray my friends, Kreia" party member dialogue--it will be done through whether you choose to kill your opponent when he yields, or spare him; through whether you build up a quest/action reputation with the people of Cyrodiil for helping others or for getting caught stealing and ruthlessly slaughtering innocents. You can also be a shady character without anyone ever knowing it, or even a vampire. So, yes, it does rely more on your concepts, inner frameworks, and your imagination than recorded dialogue choices. Which is better? It's a matter of opinion, and personally, I like both ways. I like the more linear, tightly woven two-pronged storyline of the KOTOR games, and I like the loose, easy freedom of the ES games. I like to experience a well-written deep story with only a few possibilities, and I like to experience a huge defined world where I can do anything and everything I want. It's just different, and we can all buy whatever the hell we personally find appealing. To those of you who don't like Bethesda and don't like Morrowind, you are entitled to your opinion and the expression of it. Concerns and skepticism are completely valid and I agree with some. But we have not played Oblivion and thus do not know whether it will be a decent effort or not, so any heavy-handed dismissals really come across as... lame. To those who have already condemned Oblivion to--well, oblivion, and yes you deserved that horrible pun--don't you have anything better to do than complain about a game not even released yet that you aren't interested in regardless? Like, go talk elsewhere about a game you ARE looking forward to? Because if you don't have anything better to do, and all you're interested in is pointless negativity and making transparent attempts to spoil others' fun, that's really very sad. Well, there's my two cents. On to other topics.

Oh my god, yes--the CRADLE. If Bloodlines' hotel scared you, you won't live through Thief 3's Cradle. Not for the faint of heart.

I love Anakin. He's a fascinating character, in my opinion. I don't see any human being as black or white completely--Anakin has good qualities. But the Light Side action would've been to sacrifice personal needs and allow life to happen. Again, Padme would've become one with the Force--she would not have suffered after she died. HE would have been the one suffering, without her alive and by his side. His emotions were strong... they were not wrong. But what he did WAS wrong. All those people Anakin murdered had loved ones, too. He counted the loved ones of others as meaning less than his own. He was willing to slaughter children so that he would retain the pleasure of Padme's company. Very human, very loving, in a sense... but also very selfish, and quite, quite wrong. I don't care how much you love someone. Murdering civilians--babies--for them is not ever, EVER right. Sympathetic, perhaps, but still clearly wrong. Even Anakin knew that. I understand that sometimes the line between good and evil is not clear. I understand human beings have complex emotions and highly debatable philosophies. I understand that there are choices so close that there is no outcome which will NOT be soul-wrenching and conscience-tearing. But in those cases, the 'right thing' to do is whatever, objectively, is the least likely to cause the worst harm. The lesser evil, if you must choose between two. In the case of Revan, I feel what (s)he did was... actually the right thing. It wrought terrible consequences, but as Atton says in KOTOR 2, "the Mandalorians were slaughtering us by the millions." The Jedi Council were, to me, the evil ones in this case, deciding to sit back and wait as a tactical advantage rather than even TRY to do what they supposedly existed to do (protect and sacrifice). Maybe I'll change my mind if I find out they had better reasons than were shown thus far, but at this point I look upon most of them as self-serving hypocritical cowards interested in saving their own skins--with the exception of Vandar, Yoda's granddaddy. He's the only one I saw who seemed actually wise and good. But I digress. In closing, as much as I love those close to me, I hope I would have the strength to sacrifice them for the lives of many if I ever had to... and I hope they would do the same--sacrifice me, if they had to. I don't feel myself more deserving of existence than the loved ones of others. (Unless said others are proven to be a band of pure puppy-murdering jerks or something, in which case, let 'em fry.) Now, that I'll toast to. The Dark Side... doing what you want. In other words, surrendering to every fit of temper you have like a child. Which is fun at times... But I don't find it very appealing except as an occasional stress reliever. Or to do something I REALLY wanted to do the first time, such as kill Vrook or mouth off to somebody who deserved it. Yep, I admit it. It might be annoying to 'do things for people', but then, it's not so annoying when they do things for you, is it? Karma, buddy. Karma. And even beyond that, helping someone who truly needs it just gives ya this warm, fuzzy feeling inside... in real life, as in Star Wars, the 'Light' path is harder, but mostly because few people bother to choose it. If everyone did, I doubt it would be so difficult. As it is, everyone is content to fester and rot in bitterness and quiet loathing. I do think you should be able to kill that evil son of a Sith Vrook without getting Dark Side points. My dad agrees. Ahem. Jolee. The Jedi Council are the only idiots who say that love leads to the Dark Side, and they're idiots. Even the Sith are wary of love. Love isn't evil. That's pure silliness. Like Jolee says, you've got to control your passions--it's ill control of the passions that leads to the Dark Side, not the love itself. Love is inherently good. End of story.

I hate to say it or even think it, but I confess... I am made of mush. While I enjoyed my Dark Side run through KOTOR 1 as a male Scoundrel, and my Dark Side run through KOTOR 2 as a female Consular, I just love that rush of satisfaction that comes from a good deed done. Even when it's total fiction, it just feels... right. To give even at a loss, as long as you're smart enough to know a con game from a real need. I guess I'm too led by my passions... But, hell, who really believes all that "love is evil and leads to the dark side" crap anyway? It only does that if, like any emotion, it's not mastered and overcomes your sense of right and wrong (for instance, Anakin's love COULD have saved Padme if he had refused the Dark Side, being willing to sacrifice even her for the greater good, accepting that she must become one with the Force. Ironically, fittingly, it was the dark side of his love that killed her.) The important thing is to never get so attached to an emotion that it becomes an unhealthy addiction, something which makes choices for you instead of you making choices concerning it. Think about it, all the things that destroy, hinder, or poison a relationship--jealousy, battered spouse syndrome, fights, disconnection, infidelity--come from emotions which someone refused to master... or worse, suppressed. *looks askance at the Jedi Council for a moment, excluding Vandar* Stop me before I start saying "Everything I need to know, I learned from Star Wars..." Aaaanyway, I like the Light Side because to me it represents TRUE freedom. Freedom is essentially light in quality; oppression is essentially dark. I know the general consensus is that the Force is a single entity, and Kreia certainly thought that way, but I don't feel that's true. I feel the physical effects of the Dark Side are an indicator--it bruises, it marks, it scars. It does things to you that you can't truly control once you begin to slip, to surrender. It dominates and uses and masters. The Light Side, on the other hand, offers itself freely--no matter how close to it you get, the choice to change or to remain is always yours. It is not seductive because it doesn't steal or enslave. Your posture may change, people may notice an inner light... but you don't glow or exhibit any Force-related alterations. It's just... you. All of that power, that charisma, the Light Side leaves in your hands, to use well or squander--freedom. All the more scary because you must be strong enough and brave enough to grasp it with your own two hands instead of letting yourself become its tool. But, hell, don't get me wrong. I LOVE a good Dark Side run. It's enjoyable to see how terrible a force you could become, if you wanted to... just to see the other side. It reminds me, more than playing LS all the time could ever do, how much I appreciate the Light.

I understand. Better than most, I understand. All I really hoped for was an indication of whether I should just give up and play the game again. I'll probably end up finishing KOTOR and F.E.A.R. and then replaying KOTOR 2 regardless of whether the mod is done by then or not. Oooh... and I could do Half-Life 2 and Thief 3 and Bloodlines again... <---*indecisive*

I've been pining for KOTOR 2. I just replayed KOTOR a few times and I have a real taste for it, but... I've wanted it to feel like a new game; to put enough distance between replays that the new mod makes it all the more fun. Can anyone on the team give me a super-vague, totally unofficial hint at a release date which I will absolutely not hold you to? Or maybe a suggestion of whether I'll still be pining five months from now and thus might as well go ahead and replay? KOTOR 2 is a great game and I'll get that restoration mod even if it's five YEARS from now. (Heck, I waited that long for Thief 2's "Shadows of the Metal Age"!) But I would love to know whether I should resist or just indulge myself, then begin the wait again.

The hilarious and perfectly spot-on Malk dialogue was a million times more significant--at least, if you've had the pleasure of playing Thief 3's Shalebridge Cradle, which dwarfs all other scary levels ever, even the ones in the excellent Silent Hill series. But I digress. Bloodlines is one of my favorite games. I have played it around 9 times at least, and I still don't feel sick of it. I've moderated an online RPG based on the Bloodlines setting for a year now. That's how fanatically I love this game, even though I agree 100% with Oerwinde--too much combat-pandering and weak technical chops. It's impossible to play as a REAL Toreador (i.e. use Presence to turn the tide, as opposed to pumping up a combat stat all the way and juicing your physical attributes.) A wistful little part of me will always wish there'd be a sequel. But at least Obsidian got some of these talented people on board. *crosses fingers for KOTOR 3*

Jade Empire Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords Tales of Symphonia Above are the nominees for G-Phoria's RPG of the year. While Jade Empire and Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne have acquired prestige, I had to vote Sith Lords. Even with all its flaws, I played it so many many hours... and so did my father, for that matter. It deserves a sequel. If you want to offer your support to this fine rough gem of a game, please do so. Vote at G-Phoria

I don't really care about any given system as long as it promotes good. If I'm sure it promotes evil, I will fight it in whatever way I can. I believe laws and structures are often helpful, but that they shouldn't become too restrictive, and the populace should agree on them, not just some elite. Neutral good.

Did you miss the all the discussion on how that's total crap because Obsidian themselves said they're working on a project which is 'not a sequel' and 'not a Bioware license'? That's an old rumor and it's utter drivel. Please don't repeat stuff like that; it gets people's hopes up when they shouldn't be up. Fact is, we're too early to get any news on KOTOR 3 except the utter unlikelihood that it will be made within the next five years or ever, at least by Bioware or Obsidian who are both working on other projects, and they're pretty much the only good candidates. Yeah, it sucks, but that's the cold hard truth, and we have little choice but to either accept it or write to LucasArts.

Yeah, I liked the Deus Ex endings way better. Radiohead3--check out the Restoration mod. It's a project to restore the ending which should have been--all Obsidian's work. You may eventually like that ending much, much better. It will feature all the characters you didn't see in the perfunctory crapass 'official' ending.

I choose neither. Atton's all the man I need... and damn, but I wish I could wrestle him in my underwear.

Unless it's a completely awesome game that's worth playing and the bugs are not game-killers. Bloodlines easily evades being anything like a 'stupid purchase'. Abandonware = illegal, unfortunately. Not that they'll hunt you down, but it's still illegal. Stupidly.

I would follow her. And that's saying something, because I'm about as threatening and bloodlusty as a fluffy marshmallow. (And NOT a fluffy marshmallow of DOOM, either. Just a plain fluffy marshmallow without machine guns or other assorted weapons.) It was the right thing to do. A Jedi's life is sacrifice. Sacrifice is the antithesis of sitting on your ass meditating while the Mandalorians slaughter people by the MILLIONS. The MILLIONS. I think some of the Council were just too attached to their Padawans to want to send them out into the world, overprotective and Jedi-centric and parental. Some were afraid. And some really wanted to figure things out before acting. But all of them, regardless, were blind.

They have melee weapons only, so use lots of Mandalorian Melee/Power Shields. And I think they wear energy shields only, so equip Atton with Strength boosters and melee weapons to kill them off.

And then the final climax of watching the ship fly away from Malachor and: "OMG, WTF HAPPENED TO MY CREW? HS, YOU'RE REALLY NOT GOING TO TELL ME? ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH! AT LEAST LET ME STAB MYSELF IN THE NECK WITH MY LIGHTSABER!" ...or maybe it's just me who gets that intense. Hmm... did the revelation in KOTOR I thus not surprise you, or did it?