EnderAndrew

When I saw that poster who gave KOTOR a 9/10 and then gave KOTOR:2 a 6/10 because KOTOR:2 was too easy I wanted to die laughing.

Very true. It's amazing how lucky Theo has been in getting the job in the first place, missing out on A-Rod, keeping Manny, trading Nomar, landing Schilling, etc.

Don't marry. It all ends when you marry. Never...ever....under any circumstances should you marry. Ever <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Damn. Sarah, you know that engagement ring you wanted for Christmas? Well, I kinda spent all my money on video games.

I love Clerks. Thanks for the commentary.

Well, after hearing fan-boys SPECULATE on what Fallout 3 is going to be like given absolutely no facts on the matter, you're firmly convinced what the game is going to be like. Yep, you never trust anything you read on the Internet.

That's a pic that's been on the internet for a while. There are a few pics of supposed concept XBox 2's. The problem is that until recently, M$ hadn't decided on the final hardware specs. They debated how many processors the unit would have, which GPU, whether or not to have a HDD, etc. Would it have a DVD-Burner and DVR support? Would it include HD-DVD? Each of these items changes space, cost, heating issues, etc. So, designing the case before the hardware is pretty silly. On January 5th, Bill Gates will officially announce the XBox 2 at the CES Show in Vegas. After then, we'll know more. We still may not actually "see" the XBox 2 (XBox Next, Xenon, XBox FS) until E3, so who knows.

When Obsidian started on KOTOR:2 they kept it a secret. But they never denied it outright and lied about it. If Akari says no one is working on KOTOR:3 right this second, I believe him. He was always very honest, and very upfront. It may be that sometime soon LA pursues a company to do KOTOR:3, but I trust what Akari says.

Hades loves any game that forces you to play a Jedi in real-time, with a first-person view.

The graphics looked much better in KOTOR:2 The game is slower on the XBox, but I imagine a good PC will have no problem displaying the game at reasonable speeds. Quest design is much better in KOTOR:2. Even on Peragus the quests require a little thinking and backtracking. On KOTOR:1, the quests were insanely easy. You completely discount KOTOR:2's influence system, the variety in characters, and replay value. The Dark Side path is greatly improved. Force Powers are greatly improved. Dialogue is GREATLY improved. Mini-games are improved. Little gameplay issues like weapon switching, etc. is improved. The workbench adds a lot to the game. The mentor/apprentice theme is really nice. As far as difficulty, KOTOR:1 was a joke. Anyone could beat that game. With KOTOR:2 my girlfriend has died a few times and needed to go back into certain battles with more strategy in mind. I seriously think you're on crack.

I save very frequently with most any cRPG. I'm seriously guessing that due to system resources the PC version won't hang as much.

The game has locked up on me, but no game-ending bugs. And I'm loving the game so far.

Bioware supports NWN. It's not on Atari's dime. Atari refused to give bug squashing money to Troika for ToEE. Either way, I really believe a big part of the "bugs" aren't bugs so much in KOTOR:2. The game really seems to push the limits of the XBox, and the XBox only has 64 megs of memory, shared between processing and GPU. It locks up, but I haven't seen broken quests and the like.

Beane's a smart guy. Theo Epstein wishes he was Beane.

Sidney graduated. The third season cliff-hanger was very weak sauce. The third season was obvious, and pretty contrived in general. I still watched the whole season on DVD and didn't hate the show. I generally hate TV, and won't bind myself to a schedule to catch a show I like. But now I've got Tivo service, and I get to record Lost and soon, Alias. I hope he turns it around.

I was shocked when Garden State didn't get a single golden globe nomination in a weak year of movies. Garden State may be one of the top 20 movies I've ever seen.

Sounds good.

Hades, Neither NWN nor DA forces you to play a Jedi. But with mods, you will likely be able to later.

He may have tried. And sometimes we as fans miss what's going on in the clubhouse. The value someone has in team chemistry is often a mystery to fans.

What about self-publishing? What about Steam? It basically cuts publishers out of the picture.

In most places I've worked, MIS/IT jobs are butt-easy, and a joke. I doubt I'll ever be rich unless I get a nice corporate level design job, and they make it next to impossible to get hired into such a position.

I have guesses and assumptions on what companies pay developers. I expect that a startup like Obsidian will probably take care of their staff better than a big company like EA. But growth costs money. But in the end, I have no idea how much a developer sees, and how much they pass on to their staff. You can be like Bethseda and be both the developer and publisher. Or you can be like Valve and use Steam to distribute their own content without a publisher.

What is your budget? You can get a Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro with 128 megs of memory for $105 at New Egg.

Billy Beane looks at talent vs. cost. The vaulted pitching trio hasn't won any championships for the A's, yet their perceived market value is high. Instead of getting trapped in high dollar contracts (like the Yankees), Beane will probably go after much cheaper up and comming players like he has done for years.

It's not guaranteed that a Bethseda made Fallout will be bad. I have many concerns, but we haven't seen much yet. On the topid of KOTOR:2's dark side path, I think people are being silly. We asked that the path be more than simple thuggery, and the team delivered. From what I've seen of Princess Sarah playing the Dark Side path, it's much more complex. Thuggery still exists, but it doesn't work nearly as well. Sometimes you need to lie, and be subtle. You need to pretend to be upstanding to get influence points. And then you convince them to do evil deeds. It's a MUCH, MUCH better Dark Side path.

I'm all for a karma mod to the board. Post count shouldn't be an indicator of how well a person is received in a community. Most people seem to really like Sawyer's posts, but his post count isn't that high. Karma mods are wonderful!