Tigranes

Arcanum's really the only full-blown tech/magic merger in a post-90s, traditional western RPG.

Resist Abraham's fanatical impulse to stab Isaac! Press A repeatedly to prevent the dagger from descending.

Nothing wrong with a well done fantasy. If anything, the last 5 years have seen a deluge of modern, postapocalyptic and sci-fi settings.

It's not DS4, It's not Fallout 4, It's not Elder Scrolls, so let's move on from that. It's 100%. And it's probably not Wheel of Time.

Elder Scrolls Online also uses an ouroboros, and they definitely aren't doing anything Elder Scrolls. The Wheel of Time collaboration appeared to lapse quite some time ago with Red Eagle not getting much done anywhere, but I guess you can't rule it out. Icewind Dale 3 is not out of the question, though I'm not so sure about that.

On the Codex, George Ziets said:

Bethesda owns the Fallout license, and will produce FO4 internally. If Obsidian ever make another Fallout, it won't be until a Bethesda FO4 comes out - meaning, at least 3 years out. Sorry.

Zero chance.

Most likely an original fantasy RPG project. Which is great, but why abandon the Project title series?

RPGs as we know it are sort of impossible without feature creep, really. I do think Obsidian got a lot better at managing it, if you compare NWN2/K2 with AP/DS3 and even FNV. As in, there was feature creep, a lot of it, but the end product survived in better shape.

Cool, where's that from? Of course preview builds will see a lot more improvement, but I can't preview what I don't see, and there's no guarantee that everything I (or anyone else) don't like will be changed. E.g. I didn't hold them to account for any bugs, since it looked pretty clear that most bugs were from missing features, etc. But my major criticism was about character building, and seeing as how they have stretch goals for things like passive abilities, it's safe to say with the $70k they wouldn't add those things. In other cases, like the writing, it's pretty likely they won't change (though I thought the writing was fine). I did knock them for the ridiculous world map icons, then found out they were placeholders, so that's my bad. I think Kickstarter changes the dynamic here, as well - in a normal preview you can be optimistic, then in a later preview/review tell readers that the game delivered or not. Here, people will be voting with their wallets on the basis of this preview and other information. Nevertheless, I felt that based on what I saw the game will turn out a good one, which is why I backed it and said it's worth backing. Anyway, they have now hit 70k and have edited the stretch goals so 80k would be enough to see them add passive abilities. I'd really like to see them get that, I think there's a good chance.

Let me shamelessly plug my Codex preview of Expeditions: Conquistador. It's got 4 days to go and looks like it'll make it, though I really think they need the first stretch goal.

Are there any gameplay / quest mods that make it a fresh experience? I don't care about the DLCs or cosmetic mods.

I think Obsidian has gotten a lot farther than Troika because (1) Feargus' industry network and ability to get contracts far surpasses Tim's, although part of it is that the Troika owners were always more restrictive about what they accepted, prefering to close the company; (2) There seems to be a greater willingness to get to grips with the business side of things, make hires in that area, etc. Of course, Obsidian was always envisioned as a larger operation than Troika, and thus with slightly different ends.

In the game industry, and actually, in most industries, people who take forever to get in touch with then take forever to finish the interview is pretty common. That doesn't mean you can't be annoyed at it, but on the whole, if you get it finished at all, that itself is something to celebrate. After all, if you're not a major news outlet or something, you aren't doing them any favours, they are you. Hope it works out eventually though, Chris Avellone's always been good answering questions when he is able in my/others' experience.

Looks fine to me, camera doesn't need to go any closer in this kind of game (as much as I liked watching NWN2 battles at super-closeup).

Yeah, imagine if they had more than 6 people or something to make it, so that they didn't have to skimp on the later areas. Also just really needed a few convenience fixes, like for item swapping with followers, stacking items, and fast travel for technologists. Currently in Ashbury with my level 15 tech dude, discovering the use of flash grenades.

(1) PM them. (2) Chris Avellone's email, at least, is available somewhere. (3) Sawyer has a formspring and his own blog which might yield details.

To clarify, I meant now that it's out, I don't have much else I'm waiting for. Previously you had to buy an Applething, since the devs lost their source code and had no real means of distribution.

By that point there will be so many good mods, I'd probably ignore the DLCs and go on a modspree.

King of Dragon Pass just came out on GOG, so really, there's not a whole lot. KOEI's Romance of the Three Kingdoms?

Just did a Butcher inferno run, and: (1) There's like 3 times more drops as before. Mostly useless as usual, but picked up a decent bow. It should have been like this at least from the start, really, though maybe they've overdone it a bit now... (2) None of my friends are ever online, and public games have like 5 people per level, too. Damn. (3) Auction House is just nuts. Conclusion: Meh, guess I'm done with it.

Make your PC the thief, very powerful smashing through everyone in dual-wield, and the flanking makes the combat a bit more interesting as well. Really enjoyed DAO but probably won't go back to it now. Been restarting 3 or 4 characters in Arcanum not able to choose what to play and it's delightful.

So... how is it? I'll probably buy it just to enjoy it with friends, as I did with GW1, though in that case too I thought the game itself was just meh.

When's the last time sales for a 5 year old game benefited anyone other than the publisher and the distributor, financially? Unless we make it sell another million copies now and give them some oomph with future investors.