Maria Caliban

I occationally open this game up and play for a couple hours. It's the game version of a can of coke.

Fascinating to see the refutation of basic human thought processes such as retroactive thinking? An excellent DX3 will redeem the franchise, and allow more spinoffs/sequels for these devs. If 1) retroactive thinking is a basic human thought process, and 2) a new sequel or prequal will ruin the original, then shouldn't DX2 have ruined the original in the minds of DX1's fans?

That would be wonderful. I've often thought that one of the big factors holding wRPGs back is the emphasis on graphics that inflates cost and thus requires a bigger return of investment. I had hoped to see that on the Wii, but it still seems to have controller issues. Are you insane? The ME fanbase would have a collective heart attack. You speak of this as it would be something bad, why is that? I found ME2 to be markedly superior to ME 1 when it came to combat and would like to see them retain it. I think having ME3 be a turn-based game would both hinder its development and take away from the feel of series. That said, a turn based RPG or even a RTS in the ME universe would interest me. I've noticed that sequels and expansions to popular games tend to be better than the originals (especially when they use the same engine). NWN2 was better than NWN, but so was Shadows of the Underdark, and Mask of the Betrayer was better than NWN2. BG 2 was better than BG. There are exceptions (I

Hey guys! Good to see we're all looking forward to the dark second chapter of BioWare's Epic cRPG Masterpiece. I hear it's a framed story. Also, qunari have horns. I've played a number of PnP games with only a 2-man party. You need a GM that knows how to create conflict resolution that involves more than fighting, and typically a hired NPC. Note that killing things in NWN only gave 1/10 the standard XP, so BioWare could hit you with almost x10 the normal amount of monsters. :/

From what I've heard, Moridin is not bugged. The issue is that Moridin is a whimp and if you have him try to 'hold the line' he needs to have a loyal 'heavies' (Garrus, Grunt, or Zaaed) with him when he does so.

These days? ME got 2 patches, JE 1 patch, Knights got 3 patches.

If you harden Alistair, you can get both. I played more. So far, the Architect is a much more interesting villain than Loghain.

I'm okay with limited respawning (when it makes sense) and limited scaling. There are areas where things will pop up if you kill them. The deep roads in Dragon Age, for example, could have had respawning darkspawn. There are apparently hundreds of thousands of them down there. Likewise, if we have a world where killing stuff makes you more powerful, then NPCs who are killing stuff (bandits preying on travelers, for example) makes sense. Quest for Glory is the only game I know that did this 'right.' It also had a time limit in Quest for Glory 2. I thought Vampire - Bloodlines did this well.

I can't help but agree.

British coalminer. The 1.03 patch causes semi-frequent CTD and breaks pick-pocketing. A great deal of the anger on the BioWare boards is more due to Mass Effect and the expectations it raised. BioWare would have been better to do what they did with Shadows of Urintide and only allow us to play a new character. As a standalone expansion, Awakening is fine, but

From what I've seen, if you set Alistiar up as king and did a US, then you can just play as the Orlesian Warden and it's the same as an imported US. I haven't see any reference to my hero's actions in the Origins save for some conversation options between the Howe son and my Cousland PC.

I'm about 10 hours into Awakening. I admit to being punked by BioWare in regards to the beginning - I'm not sure if the spoiler has hit this thread or not - but am enjoying myself so far. If you decide to import your saved game with that information, you must play your dead character. If you don't import your saved game then you get the default Orlesian Warden. There's no way to import a game and then play the Orlesian. You swore off Dragon Age before the first game even shipped, Boo.

Nothing is inherently dark in fiction. 'Dark' refers to elements that tend to cause a negative emotional reactions. Do nihilistic concepts cause negative emotional reactions? They do, consistantly. See, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. There are very few stories about how being meaningless in the scheme of things is great, but there are many about how it's horrible. Why? Because people dislike the idea that life and morality are ultimately meaningless. Now, you might find that reaction stupid or wrong, but that's still a consistant reaction. There's nothing nihilistic about Conan though. His motivations might not be good, but he's still presented as a heroic (hero as in Greek heros, not boy-scouts like Superman) figure whose struggles and triumphs are meaningful. How many are quite a few? Show me a nihilistic fantasy that's as popular as Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. Even in dark fantasy like Dawn and Dusk, Song of Ice and Fire, the Books of the Fallen, Best Served Cold, or the Black Company, we're lead to believe that the events are important. That they have meaning. Yes, but I never said that dark stories couldn't be emotionally engaging, so I'm not sure what your point is. To clarify: A story can be dark without being nihilistic. A dark story can be emotionally engaging. Nihilism will make the reader or audience perceive the story as being dark. Now, I can give you examples of a story that

As I don't drink coffee and am not a goth... The real problem is that you, personally, don't find nihilism dark. Many people do. If you have a story where the events are meaningful for the hero, but it makes it clear that in the scheme of things, these events mean nothing, then they will perceive it as being dark. That you find this illogical or wrong doesn't change the emotional reaction of the reader. Look at some of the most popular fantasy series: The Wheel of Time, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, the Sword of Shannara. There is Good

Wish they'd made a second Alpha Centurai. Some people find nihilism bleak, some find it liberating, and other find it rather matter-of-fact. I think many people read fiction, especially fantasy fiction, to see characters and events that are deeply meaningful within the frame of the story. If they're made aware that those characters and events are not meaningful, they will perceive the work as being darker. Even if you populate it with fluffy bunnies.

Possible hint of Dragon Age sequal or expansion coming out 02.01.2011 - link

Patch * Various changes have been made to code and resources to support the Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening expansion pack. Most of these changes do not affect Origins itself. * Some players were experiencing increasingly long load times. A major cause of this problem has been fixed. * At higher levels, non-player characters now receive a bonus to armor penetration. This mitigates an unintentional imbalance with well-armored high-level characters, since armor penetration previously did not scale as aggressively as armor itself did. * Elite-rank enemies (lieutenants) can no longer be shattered. This preserves the intended tactical design of many combat encounters. * Portraits for summoned creatures (like a ranger's wolf) were displaying improperly while in the party camp. This no longer occurs.

I

I thought DMC 4 was a very fun game. Over-the-top fighting, a setting that looks like 1600 Vienna, rock music, an attractive male protagonist, and a solid action story.

It didn't feel that way to me at all. I found constantly having to keep on my toes made the game better. I'm not sure if this was aimed at me, but it was at the end of a post where you quoted me. I'm not saying Heavy Rain isn't a game. I haven't played it and, while parts of it look a bit tedious, haven't formed an opinion on it. It looks somewhat like Indigo Prophecy, a game I enjoyed until I reached the end and found the storyline unraveled.

This.

I hope we learn what happened to Rhodes. That has to be one of the most major plot drop offs I've seen in a video game.

All games require more than interactivity, but it takes more than interactivity to make a game.

I thought the combat in Silent Hill 2 was well done. Silent Hill 3 gave you a katana and I beat the last fight by firing my pistol at it a dozen times. I don't remember Silent Hill 4's combat, other than that nothing stayed dead and the camera was horrible.

I prefer the combat in ME 2 to that of ME 1 for no other reason than I actually take cover. After level 20 in ME 1, I never took cover with my soldier.