EnderAndrew

Can you please refrain from explaining the story of the game?

The game is secretly a death-ninja. It is just being death-ninja sneaky.

It's been a while since I read the article, but I think M$ bought out VMWare, and that company would be doing the backwards compatibility emulation if possible. I'm not sure if that solves the legal issue of NVidia's technology not being licensed in the XBox 2 however.

PC users also expressed slow-downs in KOTOR.

I need to catch up.

First off, I don't know that Sony will have three PS3's either. When Sony was developing the PSX (not the PS1, which was officially the PSX, but the PS2.5, which was also the PSX) then rumors were flying that both the PS3 and the XBox 2 will have DVR support, DVD burners, and the works. Now that we're getting closer to the releases for these consoles, I think we're learning more, but we won't really know officially what the XBox 2 will be like until January when Bill Gates officially announces it, and then e3 when we see it for the first time up close. xbox-scene.com is a good place for news, and this thread here has a good history of all the XBox 2 development news including M$'s decision to pursue flash memory, and the possibility of backwards compatibility. http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=155839&st=0 (M$ already owns the rights to a PC Emulation program that may be used with the XBox/XBox 2).

I....don't.....want.....to.....know.

Darth Vader got punked by one shot from the Falcon's blasters.

Maybe so.

The majority of video game players are male. And it's hard to market a game to the masses where the protagonist is evil. Cannon will be a male, LS oriented protagonist for both games.

That was the most exciting part in the game.

I think there is a valid point here. The more influence you have on a person, the easier it should be to gain more influence. Once they shift their alignment towards yours, your natural inclinations should resonate with them since they agree with you.

I just talked my girlfriend into buying the game for us now, even though we should be spending our money on other people for Christmas. Then again, we do have most of our Christmas shopping done.

That's true. They could still release XBox 1 games after the XBox 2 launch. But the XBox 2 may not be backwards compatible due to the fact that the XBox 1 runs on NVidia technology, and the XBox 2 will run on ATI technology. They haven't paid the rights to license NVidia pixel shaders in the XBox 2. Who knows?

Fair enough. I never played X-2.

I think if we were going to release KOTOR:3 on the XBox 1, you could still get away with the one engine. But as KOTOR:3 will likely be an XBox 2 release, I think LA will push for a new engine. I think that's why they were already doing KOTOR:3 preproduction a while back.

Hey, all I'm saying is that if you don't define a game as an RPG unless you get to create whatever character you want, then Planescape Torment isn't an RPG. Considering that most JRPGs easily have twice the plot of a Baldur's Gate, and three times the plot of IWD, then JRPGs need to be classified as RPGs. They may not be a style of RPGs you enjoy playing, but they are RPGs. They are 10 times the RPG that Diablo is, and Obsidian's CEO calls Diablo a RPG.

I don't have much respect for any "revolutionary" RPG where you can't even play as a female character.

But Hades loves playing Jedi so much. Can he live without KOTOR:3?

I know a lot of people who absolutely loved the Nihilistic Vamp game, and I hated it. It was absolutely non-cannon from White Wolf's world, and had very few RPG elements. Combat was imbalanced and boring. Graphics were poor, and the story sucked to boot. The voice acting was horrid, but a lot of games have bad voice acting. I'm willing to bet Bloodlines will be much better.

I understand how you felt. Ultima IX actually hurt my feelings. I had so much respect for Richard Gariot's ability to innovate, try to shape the future of RPGs, build worlds, and tell stories. What I got for my $65 (preordered Dragon Edition) was a slap in my face.

I have plenty of additional hardware in my XBox. I've also modded my case out. So, I have extra cooling. But I have seen some fried XBoxes. Don't ask me why (probably noise concerns, the stock XBox is loud) but they actually REMOVED a fan from the XBox after the 1.0 models.

I felt rather cheated by the release of Ultima IX after what was promised with that game. But I only waited for 5 years, and Ultima IX was the culmination of everything Ultima. Since they I try to keep expectations low and just enjoy games. Unless MCA makes the game, and then I demand perfection. If the game is not perfect, then I blame Feargie for not fetching coffee properly.

The story about the 3 different versions of the XBox was from the same website that said Microsoft was produing their own CPU for the XBox and PC's. That same website also said NVidia was making the GPU for the XBox. That website made a lot of completely fake/bogus claims. There won't be 3 versions of the XBox 2 (Xenon, XBox Next, XBox FS, whatever they will call it). Microsoft spends a lot of money to ensure that XBox Live is secure. They have been doing a lot more to ensure that people don't get on XBox Live with modded XBoxes. Putting PC's on XBox Live will change everything. You'll have cheaters and exploits, you'll have been with advantages due to superior hardware. M$ will only lose money on the deal. Having an "optional" HDD is also bad because Live uses the HDD, and programmers can't build support for the HDD into games if not every has the HDD. We know how that worked for Sony. Steve Balmer from M$ has said that flash memory is more likely than another HDD in the XBox 2, but it will have built in storage of some kind, and I'm willing to bet money there will be one model of the XBox 2.

KOTOR:2 will likely win most RPG of the year awards. It won't win 30 game of the year awards because it faces MUCH stiffer competition than KOTOR ever did. Half Life 2 (sequel to one of the most heavily awarded games) Doom 3 (again) GTA:SA (sequel to the then best selling game of all time) Madden 2005 (ho hum, but still fun) Metroid Prime: Echoes 2 (The Gamecube fans who don't play other games will campaign for their game of the year) Halo 2 (some chump game that is obliterating all sales records) Fable (was supposed to forever change RPGs) Metal Gear Solid: 3 (I just read someone today call it the best game he's ever played) Hell, there are darkhorse games like Vietiful Joe 2 - sequel to one of the games that beat KOTOR for a GOTY award last year. Should I go on?