EnderAndrew

Publishers decide on the budget and ammount of time spent on beta-testing and bug squashing. On these forums people were foaming at the mouth wanting the game released sooner. Be careful what you ask for. They wanted the world, and they wanted it yesterday. People, stop bitching. We got a game 3 months before the initial release date. In this industry, that's pretty impressive unless you forget how many games ship WAY late. An XBox games needs to be beta-tested for one set of hardware. A PC title sells fewer copies, and needs to be beta-tested with all kinds of drivers, hardware and software conflicts.

Yes. We don't hear about the billions we dole out to other countries in aid. Heck, the US government practicly despises Palestine, but we still give them money. We don't hear about how the US steps into places like Liberia to save lives, and does so without firing a single gun. The US should do more. We ignore places like Rwanda (don't ask me how or why, I can't figure it out). I may disagree with ignoring SE Asia, but I understand tackling SE Asia means butting heads with China. Bush can only be in power for 8 years. 4 of those are gone. In case anyone missed it, Clinton attacked 4 countries without asking a soul. The world seemed to support the US going into Iraq right after 9/11. But Iraq wasn't responsible for 9/11. We treated Iraq as a seperate issue, and Bush gave diplomacy a shot, even though by waiting two years, popular support dwindled. I don't agree with his policies, but I believe that Bush truly follows his beliefs in trying to do the best job he can do. Aside from his blatant discrimination of the gay community, I don't think his views are particularly harmful to the world. I'd rather we had an honest Democrat, or someone interest in Congressional reform. I'd like to see a President more concerned with fixing domestic problems. We can't be everywhere in the world at once, and we get judged for helping one country while not helping another. But at least we are making a positive influence in some people's lives. At least we tried to make a difference. And I'm not saying the US government is perfect. Our past is ugly. Our treatment of the Native Americans is deplorable. Hell, we uncovered proof the CIA sold crack in the ghettos to target minorities. But not every American is evil. Not every American agenda is self-serving.

I greatly respect your ability to debate on a topic with someone with whom you disagree. But I have to say I really get frustrated when I see Bush compared to Hitler. One of them killed nearly 30 million people. One of them preached hatred of other human beings. One of them practiced genocide. The other preaches tolerance for all humans (who are straight). Bush isn't perfect. I disagree with a lot of his views and politics. But I also feel like I know what his views are. He hasn't surprised me once. He's a strongly Conservative Republican. He's from Texas. He supports Conservative Christian ideals.

Must. Avoid. Spoilers. Must buy this game!

I was not overly impressed by the KOTOR endings like most people. I also enjoyed the Torment ending immensely. Maybe I'll be like Ghosty.

Yep. Now imagine swoop-bikes in the Source Engine. Imagine being able to actually fly the Ebon Hawk. Damn it would look and play rather nice.

No, I just don't have much to add on the Euro debate. I largely agree with much of what has been said. The Euro has been doing quite well since it's inception, somewhat surprisingly well considering it's roots in some shaky areas (for instance, I though the reunification of Germany would present several nasty economic ripples). Who knows how the long, long term will look for the Euro. I know the US dollar is losing serious ground, and that places like Japan and France are looking to dump major US currency. I'm convinced that if the US and the international community enforced IP copyright laws, it would greatly help/benefit the US economy. As it is, we allow major markets like India and China to pirate all the US IP they want. We don't get a cent. There is something wrong with half the world's population (between those two countries alone) deciding that stealing is acceptable in the global market, and no one says a damned thing. When Soderberg was remaking Ocean's 11, he said the thieves were good-guys because they stole from a casino. In that, I think most people don't care that the US is being robbed because "we have the money to spare".

It wouldn't surprise me. And I suppose I can live with it. I don't know if I want Obsidian to do KOTOR:3 or go straight into a new I.P. But I have to think that MCA has a strong vision for KOTOR:3.

Yuthura Ban is dead in my universe. And the Source Engine was written with flexibility in mind. The SDK fully supports RPG mods, and to prove the RPG flexibility, they licensed it for Troika's RPG, though it was an early version of the engine.

I have nothing against Bioware, but I'm content to have Bioware create the engine (which they have) and let Obsidian design the game.

The original KOTOR had the Galaxy Droid bug, which if you saved, ruined your save.

Was Gamespy critical of the game? I understand which reviews you want to quote on the box, but unless the dev team felt Gamespy was wrong or out-of-line, I think a team should admit their mistakes as well as their accomplishments. I give kudos to teams that recognize a game's flaws and seek to make better games in the future because of them. It's the only reason I still have faith in Troika after ToEE. Troika loves to discuss what they did wrong, and what could have been better in Arcanum and ToEE.

Even before then, MS had methods in DOS to load files into high memory, and eventually memory managers for RAM above 1 meg. MS is still a horrid company though. And my info in regards to the AGP bandwidth comes from someone who helps make microprocessors. I admit it's second hand information, but I largely trust the source.

Sure it would be to our benefit to control oil, but that has been been consistent with Bush's agenda. Bush has spent billions increasing research for fuel cell technology. Some say it's a myth, but I get my power here in Omaha, NE off a fuel cell power plant. No joke. (We also have nuclear plants in Nebraska). He is giving financial refunds to people who buy hybrid cars, he has passed mandates that auto-manufacturers must produce hybrid cars if they want to sell in the US, and he has passed mandates requiring fuel cell cars from manufacturers in 10 years, or they pay stiff fines. The government also off-sets the cost of production for hybrid cars. Bush has said since day one he wants us to be off foreign oil, and has tried opening the Alaska pipeline, despite Congress's opposition. Yet everyone swears he only want's Iraq's oil. I think he doesn't want to buy oil from anyone outside this country. Hell, Alberta seems to have large surplusses of oil right up in friendly Canadia these days. Have we invaded them?

I work in MIS/IT for two casinos in Iowa.

In May, a bomb with Sarin gas was used in Iraq. We also discovered missles with Sarin gas in them. Did we find huge stockpiles? No. Did we expect to. I don't think so. Clinton claims that he destroyed the larger stockpiles when he bombed Iraq with no real warning. US Intelligence before the war said they believed large numbers of weapons were leaving the country because we gave them so much warning. We had pictures of large caravans leaving the country. But none the less, we did find some missles with sarin gas none the less. In addition, we found training materials, training labs, empty containers, etc. for large stockpiles of WMD. The containers show there were WMD in Iraq. The training materials show Iraq's instructions on how to use WMD on incomming troops. And we're looking for what could be stored in a fridge in a large desert. We found small elements, but enough to prove that WMD existed. Then again, Saddam used WMD on his own people and admitted it. Intel agencies from around the world all said they knew Iraq had WMD. We've also discovered weapons sold to the Iraqi government from France and Russia while the embargo was going on. Yet, while people declare the war to be evil, an invasion, or a disregard of life, the same people seem to be forgetting the conditions in Iraq. They forget the torture rooms, rape rooms, the policies of genocide, the use of WMD, the shutting off of water to major cities, the embargos to keep food out of cities, people being forced to flee and live in caves. They forget 25 million people living in fear for their lives. Apparently that counts for nothing. Yes, I know that tens of thousands have died. Revolution is rarely peaceable and rarely easy. Yet most countries have had revolution in their past, and look back upon it as a necessary, and positive moment in their history. Some say that we are creating a puppet government for oil prices, but people forget that the PREVIOUS government was supposedly a puppet government we controlled. I guess it wasn't so. How is it that so many of these countries that the US secrely controls acts in opposition to our agenda? Perhaps the conspiracy theory of the US controlling the world is a conspiracy theory at best. Last time I checked, the UN had over 75 resolutions demanding Iraq's compliance, they haven't declared the war to be illegal, and they legally recognized the sovereignty of the current administration, as well as the previous US occupation before the Iraqi government was formed. The country that was most adamant about vetoing any resolution about going into Iraq had a strong financial motive and dirty hands. France knew we might find out they had been breaking international law, and was set to lose out on money that Saddam owed France. The world is quick to accuse the US of questionable motives, and seems to care very little for the actual facts of the matter. If "justice" is determined by a unanimous vote on a security council, then any one of the nations that holds a seat on said security council can redefine justice however they desire by holding the right to veto. Actual right and wrong seem to matter little to so many people here. And BTW, the 9/11 Commission said THERE WERE links between Iraq and Al Quaeda, just as many foreign intel agencies had said previously, and just like previous Democratic administrators had said in the US. The 9/11 Commission clarifiied that we have no specific proof that Saddam was DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR 9/11. That does not mean Saddam had no ties to Osama. There were several poorly worded headlines on the matter with a specific political bias.

I haven't played Bloodlines yet, but none of the gameplay footage seems to take advantage of the wonderful physics that Half-Life 2.

I understand what you're saying, and I think I could be happy with the same engine if a few things were added/fixed. I'm pretty sure Troika got a very early version of Source considering when they started their game, and when Half Life 2 shipped. Source allows for nice facial reactions. Source has physics models for every object in the world. Imagine Vader and Luke fighting in ESB. Lightsabers mightily clash as debris fly through the air. Source can do that. Source provides great graphics, which scale quite well in Half-Life 2.

1. The Source Engine. Imagine Force powers that actually effect the environment around you. Imagine the visuals of Half Life 2 and Vampire: Bloodlines with lightsabers and going zotty-zotty on some baddies in that engine. 2. The Source Engine. Look at how NPC's have facial reactions in Half Life 2. Combine that with KOTOR:2's influence system. That's gold people. 3. The Source Engine. Combine two of the best selling and best praised franchises in video-game history by using the Half-Life 2 engine with KOTOR:3

3 months between releases is alot better than what happened with KOTOR:1. And I think Obsidian truly tried to have a simulataneous release on their end. Do we want KOTOR:3 right away with the same engine? It could be in pre-production right now somewhere being rushed for next holiday season. It would not surprise me. I'd rather wait 2 years and see it on the Source Engine. SOURCE ENGINE, do you hear me?

Mind you, it's been about a year since I heard this, but I heard we're barely hitting the bandwidth of AGP 4x on most cards. PCI-E is the future, and I don't doubt that. But I upgrade video cards about as often as I upgrade the mobo and proc as well. I doubt I'll need PCI-E for another year or two.

I thought this was a gaming notebook. For gaming, the AMD processors get much better benchmarks. If you are working with encryption/decryption of media files and the like, or applying filter effects in Photoshop, then go with the Intel processor.

Except they have been found, as it has been pointed out to you. And the war was started for a variety of reasons.

It amazes me how often I see people with money who don't tip. I make crap for money, and I'm a huge over-tipper. Then again, I waited tables in high school.

I agree. It's never easy working in someone else's code.