Maria Caliban

I hate that having a low weapons skill makes fights harder but having a low speech skill means you simply can't access some conversations. How come in a single-player game, I'm still reminded that I ought to be min-maxing my stats?

Internet fallacy - the tendency to view all conversations as rhetorical pissing matches.

Okay, I have some thoughts. 1) They already have zombies and vampires. Why not werewolves? 2) It's Vegas, baby! Stop judging this man by his bizzare sexual tastes.

World of Warcraft. Deathknight vs dw rogue vs sword and board warrior feel completely different.

Yes, immersion tends to be used a great deal by players and is mostly subjective. At the same time, having a dude hang around in your camp who's only purpose is to tell you about a quest that the game doesn't ship with is an inelegant way to advertize the DLC. Mass Effect 2 didn't need to pull that sort of thing and seems to have done very well with their DLC. Dragon Age 2 will likely do what ME 2 did and have an interface on the main screen or launcher that tells you about new DLC while keeping all visible quests in game related to content that's already in the game.

Stand alone or will I need to re-install FO3?

I want to know how something so hyped could be so unappreciated. I rarely found it difficult, but always found it absorbing.

I agree, it was a major immersion breaker. Especially as they didn't need to stick an NPC in your camp just to add the DLC. They managed to slip Shale and her quest into the game without anything so obvious. As I understand it, when they put him into camp, they didn't even known what quest he's be part of.

I just found out it's hit shelves. Strange, I thought it was for November.

I have not seen this trailer. The last one I saw was the CGI trailer with the female bounty hunter.

What TOR has, is not space combat. Yeah well I'm talking to Lady Bioware and trying to sound civil. Can't say: "whats with that pos casual/arcade game thrown in where real gameplay should be" 'Lady BioWare.' I actually don't know what arcade game you're referring to. I haven't followed Dragon Age 2 or The Old Republic. I already plan on buying them and dislike the forums.

No, they never did, but they never said they would. They said that after April 2010, they wouldn't guarantee that the content would be available.

Why 'This is the New ****' was a great trailer. Nice.

"Star Wars" and "BioWare" are the selling points. "Explore the Star Wars universe as a Jedi/Sith with a BioWare story." There are eight classes and each class gets its own quests, cinematics, VOs, and companions. (Yes, there are romances.) Classes also have advanced classes they can enter into. By combining different advanced trees, you can come up with atypical roles such as ranged tank and stealth healer. I'll just quote the blog.

How is the game when compared to Risen?

Aren't you feeling the love? Indeed! Just so you know, the Old Republic MMO is under development in BioWare Austin. It's a branch of BioWare that was created just for the MMO. If it Kotor were to bomb and BW Austin shut down, BW Edmonton would probably still make Dragon Age 3 and whatever they're doing after Mass Effect 3 comes out.

What a friendly thread! I plan on picking up the game and playing it to see if I like it or not. I suspect that like many MMOs, you get a free trial period.

I'm glad you agree. Anything to make your day brighter.

A game can be whatever it wants to be. However, I dislike the characterization of people who want a third option as slack-jawed morons. And if a game is going to claim it's more than mindless entertainment, then it needs to show just that. The Infamous choice fails to do just that. In fact, most of these 'tragic' A or B choices fail to do just that. Actually, the end of the latest Prince of Persia was probably the best instance of this. The player's choice is to turn off the game or play out the Prince making a horribly selfish and stupid decision. Bad things happening because the character makes the wrong decision is fine.

Your polls is flawed. Market analysis reveals that the largest disposable income group does not appreciate having to make sacrifices. Where is the instant gratification in that?!? John Doe who is a nobody needs to feel special and important and therefore has to be able to pull off the things that he/she normally daydreams about while seeking escape in drugs, drinks, daytime tv, romance novels and video games. Giving people hard choices reminds them of their usual shortcomings and lack of achievements and therefore is usually only popular among sadomasochists... or weirdos... or elitists... or... Strangely enough, your mockery makes me agree with the lack of suck-or-blow options. When I look around me, I see lots of suck-or-blow. It's hard for me to think of an adult who hasn't had to make hard choices, or failed at something no matter how hard they tried, or come to understand they aren't 'special or important.' Yes, when I was 18, the idea that 'life is hard and sometimes you don't win' was a deep revelation. Now that I've put a couple relatives in the ground and realized that a large number of the things I've hoped for won't be happening, I have to wonder what good this information does. Why pay $60 for blatantly artificial tragedy that doesn't add anything to my understanding of humanity or life? If such moments could hit me in the emotional gut or lead to intellectual exploration, that would be one thing, but I've never encountered a no-win situation that didn't feel like the game developer going 'Head I win, tails you lose.' You seem to be mocking people who desire facile, happy fantasies, but given the alternatives are facile, unhappy fantasies, I'm not sure how the first is less of a legitimate desire.

I've tried several times for a cultural victory and failed completely. I now realize it's because I've had fairly large empires. I'm now trying for an India three-city cultural victory. Hopefully, I'll start in the Americas.

They had a large transition from the old forums to the BioWare Social Network. I know Mary, a DA dev, said she had to get permission to post on the new forums and go through a special training class. The abilities of the moderators were likewise restricted, so they could no longer temp-ban someone or delete threads, but could only lock threads and issue warning. There was an incident where a troll hopped on one day and posted thread after thread of erotic PMs he had supposedly received from the only mod around. They might have changed their policy since then. Lastly, there's now a red 'report post' button. This doesn't go to the mods or admins, but directly to EA customer service.

IMO, its because having a physical copy gives people a feeling of ownership where a digital copy is at the discretion of the supplier. The faux GoG going out of business and the resultant "what about my games" is a good example of this. If we could somehow "own" the digital version I dont think as many people would be adverse to it. Also, not everyone has a great internet connection. It took be about 3 hours to download Civ V. I know several people who would have had to wait a week for it. At that point, why not just drive down to the corner Wallmart, Best Buy, or Fry's and pick one up for the same price?

I didn't see casting time or cool down, but the PC was a fighter. The part I saw looked a great deal like Dynasty Warriors gameplay. Leaked german vid. There's clearly cooldown in the very video you linked! Okay. I didn't see it. However, I did link it.

I didn't see casting time or cool down, but the PC was a fighter. The part I saw looked a great deal like Dynasty Warriors gameplay. Leaked german vid.