Maria Caliban

Picture of your toon?

Elves dressed in leather cheerleading outfits. That sounds like someone's fetish. I may not be able to appreciate it, but I can imagine someone going, "I know this looks horribly unrealistic but it gets me off. It worked for Soul Caliber, didn't it?"

It's sad. The moment I saw your link, I started downloading it and uninstalled Oblivion. I'd very much like Skyrim to not suck.

I reinstalled DA:O the other day. I looked much better than I imagined in places. The wizard's robe, for example, had some very detailed but understated pattern on it while the armor that the soldiers at Ostigar wore looked both bulky and functional. Then I my PC got an enchanters arming cap, aka the toothed condom. I struggle to understand how someone designed that, created the art assets, and QA people dressed their mages in it without someone going, "WTF is this?" At least it's original and not a clich

To me, 'it has an attribute called strength' was never a defining element of Diablo.

If you don't have any saved games, there are three defaults: The warden lived, Alistair took the throne. The dalish warden died, Alistair and Anora took the throne. The dwarven noble killed Alistair, had Loghain sacrifice himself, and Anora has the throne. (this is from memory, so it might not be completely right.) Anyway, Kirkwall is a selection of 6-7 maps, and you can go to a map at day or in the night. You select the time at the world level. They're saying it's comparable to Athklatla.

I did find it boring previously. However, with modded interface, PC leveling, inventory, and creature and quest leveling, I can now appreciate the giant sandbox feel. It will never be in my top 20 games (or RPGs) but I can actually 'finish' the game now. If another developer produced games with half the problems Obsidian's games tend to have, I'd never buy from them. I consider Fallout: NV an excellent game, however.

Interesting idea. I first saw timed dialogue in Indigo Prophecy by Quadratic Dreams, and their next game, Heavy Rain, was apparently full of QTE. While they might be separate to some, I think they serve the same design purpose of a simple gameplay system that gives a sense of urgency while not disrupting the narrative.

Toolset might not happen.

Destructoid preview. Yes.

I think the new UI looks fine. It's less 'fantasy' looking than the DA:O one, but I like that the clickable areas are all together and you know the absolute value of stamina/mana/health as opposed to the relative value. And I think the new icons are more clear and distinct than in DA:O.

It's the 20th, so the embargo has ended. Here's a 4-page write up by the Escapist and a German preview. RPG France.

But if the game sold well but wasn't popular, why did BG 2 get even bigger sales? That would suggest not only did people play and enjoy it, but it got good word of mouth.

You have a point. Especially since Zynga has managed to net $150 million on a 'free' game.

Greetings! A month or so ago, someone recommended a scary adventure game to me and linked me to a Let's Play of it. The game started aboard a boat with a gentleman reading a note from his father. Then the player fiddled around with the world physics. I recall thinking the setting was icy. I thought it was Amnesia: The Dark Decent, but that's not right.

I hate it when what I say is something very different from what I mean to say.

Percentage of gamers buying DLC is going to be low when you include 40-something women playing Farmville in your sample. Moreover, it doesn't tell us how often that group that bought DLC does so or how much they spent. It's good to see the PC is ahead in DLC.

Mine (vanilla game) were loose in a dvd case. WHy are you looking for the disks? More coasters for a holiday party? To play. And I happen to have it installed right now. I played a bit of it last night and was quite pleased.

Does anyone recall whether the Oblivion disks came in a DVD case, jewel case, or paper slips? I am searching for mine to no avail.

Having a demonic horde burst from the ground just as the torchbearer lit the flames and proceed to lay waste to the assembled spectators would surely make it a game to remember.

It's Twilight because

I keep on thinking that if I start a game of Oblivion and install just the right combination of mods, I'll get a play experience I'll enjoy.

They adore him.

Didn't the original Witcher have free DLC?

Indeed. Also, woot! to Diablo III coming out in 4th quarter 2011. I expect that means we'll get it sometime in summer of 2012.