Maria Caliban

On October 13th, they'll be making the character creation utility available for people to tinker with. Characters created with the utility can be used in the full game.

Are you interested in Mass Effect 2, Wrath of Dagon?

'Dark Energy' sounds so much more interesting than 'Something of Which We Have Little Clue.'

And if a guy drugged you and sexed you up?

90% of the time, if a game has a fixed protagonist, it's a white dude, and that's only because we're including adventure games. We might make it 75% of games if we agree that characters like Kretos, Crash Bandicoot, and Zelda don't count as white. I think that trend is changing and will continue to do so. This is because more women are playing games and expect female characters, more women are in the game industry, developers are seeing more games with female characters, and I'd suggest that as male gamers grow older they are less turned off by playing female characters who aren't overtly sexual fantasies. I will likely pick up Alpha Protocal, but I buy a relatively large number of games in a year. While games that let me play as a woman always have higher priority, I still tend to pick up a number of titles where I can only be a guy. The RPG is hardly the world offender in this front; try finding first person shooters where you can be female. Does having to be a guy decrease the quality of the game? Usually not. Do I understand why Obsidian is going the route it did? Sure. VO is standard in Triple-A games, but it's expensive and takes up space. Also, a predefined protagonist is good for branding. Someone else said that Micheal Thorton reminded them of defaultShep, Drake's Fortune, Doom Guy, etc. Of course he does, that look is something gamers are used to. Depends on how you define 'bother.' It tends to irritate me if there's no female option and if there is that option, the majority of the time I'll choose it. At the same time, I have never found a game unenjoyable or been unable to slip into character because the PC was male.

From her post, I gather that since this was an Obsidian game, she assumed she would be able to make a female character. Moreover, the comparison with DX suggests she thought it would be an excellent game. She got excited about the game, and just found out that she couldn

Thank you.

Woman makes legitimate complaint. Woman is called a brain-dead b*tch. Maria decides not to read page 2.

Not sure what you're talking about.

If you're going to discuss women in video games, there's no reason to start with the flotsam.

I don't think anyone can match Alyx. Both are pathetic meat creatures. An insect unworthy of consideration. My cybernetic children will feed on their flesh and none will know their names. I will decorate my home with their carcasses.

Yeah, you'd have to actually be able to use GfWL to get those. Too bad it has DRM, huh? As far as we know, Dragon Age does not use Games for Windows Live. People like achievements. They're also launching the new BioWare social site where you can attach your achievements to your profile. Achievements also give developers feedback on what people are doing in the game. How many times they're playing. What races, classes, and specializations they play as. What endings they go for. What followers they take along. What quests they complete and how they complete them. etc.

Yes. In fact there are 100 more on the PC.

Hey guys, just a reminder that if you're going to talk about the achievements to use the spoiler tag. I'm trying to keep myself pure here.

No, I was commenting on something I found amusing. People also think BioWare did NWNII and KotORII from the comments I've read. You provided a spring-board for me to talk about the subject. We seem to have similar thoughts on the matter.

That's always been an interesting insult. I'm not sure how sucking balls is bad. I can't imagine a guy going, "No, don't suck my balls! Anything but that!" Actually, if a wireless router tried to do so, that might freak one out.

I actually wasn't disagreeing with you in my last post.. at least not regarding people saying BioWare was the savior of RPGs. Actually, I didn't know we were disagreeing on that other thing either.

You mean back when people didn't know the different between BioWare and Black Isle? We still get posts about BioWare making Planescape and Icewind Dale... What game studio has consistantly produced better RPGs than BioWare? KotORII, NWN II, and the Witcher were all good games, but they all used BioWare's game engines. What would they have looked like if Obsidian and CD Projekt had to make their own game engine the way BioWare did? The Witcher had far less content than even Jade Empire. KotOR II had some fairly obvious cuts in content that hurt the gaming experience. I don't think Neverwinter Nights II is better than Mass Effect, Knights, or Jade Empire, and while the graphics were superior, I don't consider the story that much better than NWN OC. I haven't played MotB yet, but I have heard great things about it. What about Betheda? Fallout 3 was a good game, but I wouldn't call it a good RPG, and for all the complaints about BioWare's writing, they manage to come up with better plots and dialogue than Bethesda did. Blizzard? Are their World of Warcraft and Diablo games better RPGs than BioWares? Again, I think they're great games, but not good RPGs. Trokia did some interesting stuff, and I love Vampire: Bloodlines, but the ending is a drag and there isn't as much content. It's a matter of breath and depth, BioWare does both, while other companies usually focus on one or the other.

They're saying the graphics aren't good enough. That's hardly a positive. I'm not sure what 'levels' refers to. Do you level too slowly? Is it difficult to figure out a solid character build?

I don't remember that ever being the case. I think BioWare is one of the few development companies that have lasted a long time, but I don't ever recall a time where its works were considered flawless or there weren't other good games to play.

Dead Space is good. I found it scary, but several others here have said they didn't find it so. That said, if I were going to pick between Dead Space and Mirror's Edge, I'd pick Mirror's Edge because I find it the more interesting game. It's shorter and easier than Dead Space though.

New monitors, maybe. Existing monitors, I don't think so.

As far as I know, Will's spoiler is nothing but fan speculation.

It seems to have four different harddrives, something I haven't seen in laptops. Should thic be moved to the tech forum?