alanschu

Nice. Though my designs run at greater than 100% efficiency (yes, by putting energy in, I end up getting more energy out! So once it starts, it will perpetually create energy. Conservation of Energy has been broken!).

Go go absolutism! Referring to the idea of taking an absolute definition of something, rather than the governmental scheme made popular by Louis XIV.

Winner! I hate the fact that so many times in games there's little to no real consequences for my actions.

No, they're just their own sect of society lobbying for change. The annoying part for them is how often they cite quotations from tobacco executives from the 70s, and even the 60s.

So did I.

It obviously wasn't, especially considering you don't even need to kill the thing.

Then you played through the game rather slowly. Exceptionally slowly. Especially given that I can beat the game in a single sitting without metagaming.

Based on what though? One of the best RPGs ever was Fallout, and it is by no means a long game. I think a large part of what made games longer back in the day was the fact that we weren't as good at playing them. We'd get stuck on things and it'd take us a while of wandering aimlessly to figure out WTF we had to do next. Games like Baldur's Gate are an exception, not the norm.

But that's not what those "thetruth" commercials tell me!!!

Me too. I'd be very surprised if the Oil companies were not investing any money into alternative fuel sources, lest they all go out of business when Oil does run out.

I remember the good old days when FPUs didn't just come on processors

I think he's talking about KOTOR. I guess they could have cancelled it's distribution altogether on the PC if it totally bombed on the XBOX. Unless of course they thought they could at least recoup the distribution costs, which would result in at least a reduction of losses accrued over the project. EDIT: I was rather surprised to hear it wasn't Microsoft publishing the PC version of Jade Empire though.

The impression I get is that the option Bioware will present will be a condensed, paraphrased term. So you wouldn't see "Evil," but rather "I'll kill you!" or some other short phrase. Fair enough...but, from your next point... You say you were misinterpreting what lines were saying and didn't really know what message they were conveying. Wouldn't Bioware's approach help reduce this ambiguity, helping you to pick an option with the intent that you would like your character to have? I see no reason why you could not still quote the stuff that a Mass Effect PC says because of some witty remarks he has. I'll continue to reserve my judgement until I actually see it in action.

DX was the integration of the Math coprocessor wasn't it?

You must have been a big fan of Lord British.

Not quite the example I was hoping for. Do you really pick the choice for the specific words used, and not the general meaning of the message?

Then you have clearly not played many games.

I think you're just putting your head in the dirt and ignoring the realization that this isn't actually as rare of a phenomenon as you're making it out to be.

I assumed you'd figure I was talking about the experience you could have had, such as picking your dialogue options based on the actual words used.

How can they say conclusively they're at the halfway point, when they regularly find new, previously unknown deposits?

Says who? And it also depends on what you consider a "hack and slash" game. Bloodlines does have sequences that are combat heavy, but I'd hardly call it a hack and slash game.

Can you give an example?

Why?

You can also kill yours. Clearly they aren't invincible. How did Nines kill his? I'm supporting it because I don't think it's as bad of a design choice as you make it out to be. As previously stated, I clearly found the encounter to be an enjoyable one.

That control is a facade. You don't have any more or less control over what your character really says. It just means you don't know what the PC is going to say before he says it. Dialog options in today's RPGs are still pretty cut and dry, and I don't think it's a stretch that most people pick them based on what sort of impression the dialogue is, rather than what the words specifically are. People often pick the "nice" option or the "evil" option, or the "neutral" option. It's a very rare thing to have two options that are both "nice." And if there are, it's usually dealing with an extreme (one is much nicer than the other). Which is still easy enough to replicate with the system Bioware is implementing.