The Omnifarious Host

I had this one a couple of times too. My only suggestion is to save before you start conversation with her that lead to sparring sessions. Best advise I can give

Not everything Dark Horse has done with SW has been worthwhile reading, not all of it has been bad either. I do admit that I can't pick up most of the things they release because the Dark Horse Expanded Universe is so looney. This idea appeals to me as well. The problem is that Dark Horse hasn't done anything original with the franchise since the KOTOR series was launched. They have mostly been producing filler stories, and these stories have been clashing very badly with the canon films. Some of these stories have plot holes are so huge that you could navigate Death Stars through them. It would be nice to get some original KOTOR stories, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

There is no "black colored crystal" in the game. You do get a "personal crystal" that will turn as light or as black as your character's soul. Every now and then it's a good idea talk to Kreia about your crystal and she will make sure that it matches your progress towards the light or the darkside. Near the end of my first game my personal crystal description was "glows brightly".

The rarity of lightsabers is good, and the fact that later in the game the usefullness of the workbench becomes 100% clear. The workbench produced some fantastic Lightsaber upgrades. It was interesting how people with certain skills could only be the ones to build certain things for you. Some Lightsaber upgrades required high repair skills while others require moderate to high Awareness or Treat injury skills. While the Ebon Hawk has the workbench, T3 acts as an upgrade station as well. The only problem I have is that crystals are too much of a roll of the dice in certain places. The places you can buy them don't have the same gear each time. I'm on my 2nd run through the game and alot of the great crystals I had in game one just aren't there this time around.

I could agree with that if weren't the argument that Kreia uses. She's not talking about tough love, she's talking about the balance of power and the nature of people vs the nature of the force. She attaches dark things to every single scenario. Helping people or standing by and doing nothing. She is terribly conflicted and talking out of 2 sides of her mouth in many examples. A Jedi at fault with charity? With help? With service? I am constantly gaining lightside points and losing influence with her whenever we talk. It remains to be seen what long term impact this will have on the story.

-No spoilers here so don't worry, you can read with safety- Ok after several hours of solid play I decided to come up for air and talk briefly about Kreia and the other people who will be joining your party through the game. First of all get your full weather coat around Kreia because she is COLD. She has no respect for anyone except you. She's very disturbed to find herself in the role of teacher. I think she recognizes it as the WILL of the Force and won't walk away from obviously what is a "calling" There are moments when she can say things that are very wise and profound, then there are other times she can be icy. I get the feeling that the last 5 years HAS BEEN REAL BAD FOR THE JEDI. You have people interested in purchasing Jedi like collector's items on Ebay. The Republic is basically waiting to sneeze it's guts into a tissue paper and lay down and die. There isn't a heck of alot of hope, just a lot of darkness and confusion. If there is hope, then you are that hope because the galaxy has had hope sucked out of it. Real dark times. It's not just Kreia, it's all of them. Your party. They are such a conflicted group of people. Winning influence will leave you wondering if you are losing focus of what's important. If you are playing a lightside game like I am then you recognize that you literally are the moral compass for this group. This is not Revan's loyal bunch of unselfish companions who wanted to make a difference. This is a group of "Me- Myself- and I", and "What's in it for me" Watch your back because I don't trust any of these people..............yet.

That's the feeling I'm getting from the game stores. The people at Gamestop didn't know and didn't care when the game was going to be released. People kept coming in asking for it and each time the guy would go to his computer! It was hilarious! How could the guy forget something he had read only a few minutes ago?

The biggest problem I'm hearing about from people who SAY they are playing the game right now is frame rate issues. When too many characters on the screen the game slows down. Others are saying that they haven't had any bugs during gameplay, only during level loads. Save often would be my advice.

Nice quote. I know another. It goes something like this: "The Woman, for she is the power of the breath of God"

I got off from work and headed straight to Target and found that TSL had been sold out. I was told only one day before that they would not run out of copies due to heavy ordering. Now they don't know when they will be getting the next order. The man in the electronics dept admitted that they didn't expect to be sold out so quickly. I drove around to the game stores. I don't really know why, I certainly knew what to expect from the brainless wonders who mind the retail counters of the gaming industry. I had no high expectations, actually no expectations at all. If I got lucky I would be happy, if I didn't........well tomorrow was another day. What I found was more than garden variety incompetence. What I met was a weird kind of cluelessness from the staff at the 2 game stores I went to. One guy at the local Gamestop said that KOTOR2:TSL was not that big of a release, so there wasn't an overnight delivery priority. He actually had to check his computer for a release date. I thought, "Why wouldn't he know what the release date is?" There is a giant TSL poster in the damn store, so I broke out laughing. I wasn't alone. So I looked at the people in the store. "How many of you came here to get a copy of TSL?" Almost everyone in the store was there for the same reason I was. We all looked at this guy like he was dumbest person in the gaming world. I counted about 15 people in the store at the time, more would pop in and out from time to time asking for a copy of TSL. "You're not going to have enough copies to meet the demand" I got no response because this guy knew I was telling the truth. The most award decorated game of 2003, a million plus best seller, and a pre christmas release date, and Gamespot doesn't think it's a major release? I know I won't be coming back to Gamespot tomorrow because this guy told me he didn't know when the delivery was coming in. "Check in around Thursday" Puh-leeeeze! The people at the local EBgames were alot better. They know they have copies coming, they even know the general time of their delivery. They told me to reserve and so I did. Some guy walks up behind the register and asks, "What are you doing?" He tells him that I'm reserving a copy of TSL. "Ok that's the last one, don't do anymore" Are you guys starting to get the picture? No one took the release of TSL seriously at all. Except us of course. The discount chains are sold out for being the first out the gate. The game store people are checking their computers because quite honestly they don't know what the hell is going on beyond the 6 inches in front of their faces. Too many people want this thing, and the game stores are going to be cleaned out. My advice if you don't have a reservation to pick one up is to go online. Yeah I know, the waiting, but at least you will know that the game is going to be delivered. The people at the local game store? Well he has to check his computer then guess. Demand for TSL is huge, and there just aren't going to be enough copies to go around. Pre-orders are exceeding the number of units being delivered now. The biggest problem with TSL may not be the game play it may be getting your hands on a copy.

It depends on how old your Xbox is. I bought a new one and the bugs I had on KOTOR1 and few other games came to an end.

The guys working at GameStop aint the brightest people working at gamestores in my local area. One guy told me Thursday and the other told me Tuesday. The promo in the store says Dec 6th. When I pointed that out to them they said "Oh! It might come out tomorrow, just give us a call first" This Gamestop didn't have a copy of Fable until almost 3 days after official release when everyone was already playing it. There were other stores that had the game, even other Gamestops. This is the reason why I don't put money down on games anymore. It's not a guarantee that you will be playing the game on the release date. Target was the first place I looked this morning. The man at the Target store tells me they already have them in stock and will have them on the shelves tomorrow. No early releases though. LA might have had something to do with that. Amazon.com even states on their site that they will be getting their copies FROM Target. So if any of you have a Target near you and you are worried about the game stores with a late release then I suggest you find your local Target because the guy I spoke to says they won't running out of copies. He says they have a standing order to keep themselves well supplied up untill Christmas.

I suggest you phone ahead before heading out to a store. The people who work in game stores aren't always the brightest people and they may not put the game out as soon as the delivery truck arrives.

this guy says 60hrs!!!

the reviewer said that it took 17 hours to get a lightsaber. I wished he would have elaborated on if this was THE lightsaber quest or if you won't be able to loot a lightsaber from one of the fallen foes in the game. 17 hours?!!!!!

Ok this was a review that we won't be able to fully appreciate untill we play the game. It's just that simple. After we play the game we might not like this review at all or we just might be in aggrement with the reviewer. This could have been a game with a F- grade or a 33.0 and it would still be a vague review. After praising Obsidian for the longest about "if it ain't broke don't try and fix it" lines, IGN goes on a bashing parade of technical issues. So what are they saying as they give the game a very high scoring 93? It's not that the attacks on the game engine might not be warranted(we all knew the game engine had save and load bugs that had us saving our progress constantly), but that they attack Obsidian for not upgrading it after the fact. I'm ready to play the game. I'm not interested in reviews that attack the developer for doing something that it was praised for by game sites and industry publications for almost a year. Obsidian didn't mess with the engine. They didn't fix it, they just left it alone. If the game's plot story comes up short, well I sort of expected that it would. Most of us know by now that this is a trilogy. If they had told us that the game wasn't worthwhile playing I would have taken that more seriously than the critique on technical issues. I wish I could have asked the guy who wrote this sparce review some questions instead of all the technical whining. Yeah the game's load times are going to be a little long but why didn't you tell us about the gameplay itself? That required no spoilers, no plot giveaways. Why not tell us about the voice acting? What about the screen resolution? Did Obsidian give us a true HD 1080i game?(like Enter the Matrix for Xbox) Couldn't you have elaborated on the game's new FEATS? We know almost nothing about the new feats in the game. What about the issue of Jedi Robes and the issue of some with hoods and others without? Alot of people were interested in that. How do the Sith Robes compare? Do they all really flow as beautifully realistic as they do in the trailers we've seen? There were so many things the reviewer could have been telling us. It's interesting. It's not the most flattering review and still they give it a 93. Clearly someone enjoyed themselves while playing. They invested 45 hours. Some reviewers don't even finish a game before they start writing. Here is what I took from the review. "KOTOR II's overall story is not quite as strong as the sweeping epic of the original, but its pieces are more compelling" We always knew that topping the original Revan storyline was going to be impossible. No one should expect the new PC's story to be more epic than Revan's. "Many of the smaller story elements -- the music, the questions about the very nature of good and evil -- are stronger than the original KOTOR, but Obsidian didn't do the best job at tying them all together. The story starts strong but stumbles across the finish line. And KOTOR II suffers from some of the same problems of the original" So the reviewer thinks that game starts strong but ends weak. Fine, but KOTOR1 had the same problem? Hmmmm, we'll have to think about that. "I like KOTOR II's story, especially since it ties in with the events of the first game, but it doesn't come together in the end as well as it should have" We will all have to experience this for ourselves, but I'm willing to give the reviewer credit for stating how he felt. Just that some of his messages are mixed. Some good things that were mentioned were: "When the dialogue is silent, KOTOR II's emotional core is punctuated by an excellent score. This is one of the best soundtracks of the years, with more than an hour of original music. John Williams set a standard with the Star Wars movies and the music of KOTOR II resonates his influence. The score is just as much a part of the story, because it helps set the mood of a moment and adds a human element to a video game world." That's encouraging. "It's going to take some time before you receive your Lightsaber (it took me 17 hours to acquire mine), but once you have the handy energy sword you begin learning Lightsaber Forms. Think of these almost like martial arts styles. You can switch to any of the forms you've learned at any time, even outside of combat. Each form has its benefits and drawbacks. Shin-Cho works well when you are surrounded, while Juyo is an overly aggressive form good for one-on-one battles (but leaves you more open to Force attacks). It's surprising to see how vulnerable certain forms make you in the wrong situation and how powerful they can be when chosen wisely." 17 hours to aquire a lightsaber?!! Yessh!! But the Lightsaber forms are most welcome. "There's no level cap, so you can get pretty powerful before the final battle. By the time you reach the last few areas, you'll be able to rip almost any enemy to shreds. In a way this makes sense, since you are building up your power to be a great Jedi (or Sith). Scrubs shouldn't be able to touch you. One of the last worlds is just a mess of Apprentice Sith being slaughtered by your superior swordsmanship. The only problem is this ease remains in some of the final boss battles. I won both of the final battles without dying or feeling particularly challenged, a far cry from the difficult end-game against Malak in the original KOTOR. I wish the bosses gained a power boost based on your experience level to offer some difficulty in their final defeat. But the boss battles are pretty interesting, if not particularly challenging. It's the revelations they provide that proves more engaging than the combat itself" I like the idea of being powerful near the end of a game. I didn't want a Leval Cap so I got what I wanted. No complaints here, although the reviewer whines a bit more. Basically the reviewer left it open for gamers to decide, and we will once we play it ourselves. But you really have to wade through alot of mixed messages that end with a 93 rating to read this review.

well you couldn't ask for better confirmation than that

Well appearently some people already have the game. If the information I'm getting from a few friends across the country is accurate, it seems that some of the nation's discounters(we know who they are) have started putting the game on the shelves and gamers lucky enough to be there are snapping them up. The discounters don't waste any time waiting for dates. If they get something in stock they put it on the shelves immediately. That's how I actually was able to get my PS2 years ago. 2 days before the official launch. The few people that were with me were all standing around like we were in shock and couldn't figure out what to do. They were all locked behind a glass display case, so naturally we needed someone who had a key. Turns out the only guy who had access to a key that morning was a man working in the paint dept. This man who was busy mixing paint clearly knew nothing about the official launch date. He goes into some back area, comes back with the key and we head over to the electronics dept where there were 4 more people standing around with the group I left behind. He never asked us what we wanted out the display. He just opened it. Some guy was about to ask if we can get a PS2. Everyone gave him a look that squarely meant SHUT UP! I reached up and grabbed one of the boxes off the pile(no games were on display), the others followed, and we all headed towards the nearest cashier. The paint man only followed us to the cashier counter because he couldn't carry all the boxes by himself. The cashier was just as clueless as the register that rang up the purchase. I had figured that PS2's bar code hadn't been put into the system yet, but I later learned that nothing goes on the floor of the discounters without first being coded in. My dumb luck. So it is very possible that there are some people playing KOTOR2 right now. It's true, your local game store is going to have way more copies than the discounter, but the discounter might already have it on the shelf. It's just 3 more days. Most of us can wait, some of us won't have to.

The best thing I could say about the latest IGN films is that we finally got a better listen to the game's score. It sounds better than the music in the 1st TSL trailer. I turned up the sound on my speakers and could actually hear the depth coming from the orchestra. As for the Force Powers.............well there aren't too many of the new Force Powers in that video. Battle Meditation looked interesting enough and capable of handling numerous foes at once. We still don't know how foes will react after you cast it but from the most brief explinations of the power that I've read, enemies should be in a bad mental state at the very least. Not too much there. Interesting, but mostly I was impressed with the music, very movie score-ish sound too it.

According to OXM Kreia is supposed to only have one hand.

Maxim also gives terrible films 3 and 4 stars. Well what could you possibly expect from one of the lad magazines? It's not a magazine for grown men. A man who knows what kind of woman he finds attractive doesn't need to be told, "This babe is sooooooo HOT!" (w00t) You really have to laugh at it. It's like a print version of one very long halftime beer commercial.

Really? The idea of a wise old tree being a Jedi Master doesn't sound intriguing to you? Oh well, to each his own.

True

Ok, someone should explain why Kreia has 2 hands in this image.

Ahhh, the hazards of posting in a forum with kids suffering from hyperactivity disorder. Proof that Ritalin is not the cure the medical community made it out to be. As far as KOTOR discussions go nothing is worse than the LA KOTOR forums right now. There should be a sign, "Those not suffering with a Behavior Disorder need not apply"