alanschu

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Dammit....if I knew you I'd actually PAY you for your time. Wait a minute, what do you mean by "Play HotU multiplayer" The way you say it, you make it sound like it IS different. I had no problems playing the other OCs in multiplayer. In what way would you need to walk me through HotU multiplayer. BTW, I extend this invitation (not the money, to play) to anyone else, including Volourn, so I can verify whether or not something has somehow made HotU playable in MP.

Actually, I extend this offer to anyone, even Volourn, just to verify that the game does in fact work now in MP. My roommate and I were extremely disappointed when we could not get it to work.

No no no, we don't have to play the full thing. I just want to see the very beginning, to test it. It would take a few minutes. Nope, the Inn Keeper piped up and said I wasn't allowed to do that. Patience is kind of moot, when the game puts my character inside cutscenes.

I can't really remember, because I was a few years younger at the time. Right now? Not any less satisfied than the conversation with the President.

You hold the last one to the same morality as others? Yes, absolutely. Why don't you try practicing what you are spouting off before you go passing judgement on people. I like good games, short or long. Of course I'd rather they be longer. But I understand that, with finite resources, a longer game does not equate to higher quality. Demanding longer games for the sake of longer games, and then buying those games simply because they are long is just as bad as not buying a good game because it's short. Lets say you like the quality of Obsidian's games, but they just aren't long enough. So how do you vote? You can buy it, or not buy it. Since it's not long enough, you don't buy it. Ok, so Obsidian makes no money. Obsidian's publisher makes no money. So how does Obsidian find the capital to make the longer game that you are looking for? Recognize, that to create longer, quality games, you will require more money. Which means you have to have more sales in order to recoup the losses. How many of us are, realistically, willing to start spending more money on games? Which has the negative side effect, of course, of not selling as many units. Which means that, in the end, they might not actually make as much money as they needed to stay in business. I'll happily voice my opinion against people like you whom are "disatisfied," because your interests have no guarantee of making good, long quality games. The business in question may not send me a care package, but they may not include mindless, pointless filler in a game to artificially increase its length. Fair enough. And if I still find a game experience wonderful despite its shorter length, I'll buy it. I mean, some of my most favourite game experiences were over in a few hours. Metal Gear Solid, one of my favourite games of all time, with awesome memories of the experience, to the point where I can gladly pick up the game and play through it again because I enjoy the story, can be beaten in two hours. Resident Evil 2, can be beaten with both Leon and Claire in under three hours. Fallout can be beaten in a single sitting. I certainly don't feel Fallout is a subpar game because it's not as long as Baldur's Gate. While I enjoy both games, my Fallout experience is much more memorable than my Baldur's Gate experience. Get off your high horse. If you want to voice your opinion on a subject, expect that some people might just voice a different one.

Seriously then, how did you do it? Because I had to do all sorts of work around to prevent myself from spawning INSIDE the cutscene at the very beginning of the game. And I was completely incapable of going down the well into the Underdark because the dude beside me said I couldn't go and only my roommate's character could go down. This was only after we spent about a half of an hour trying to get past the opening cutscene. Seriously, lets play a game. I will go and install it right now.

I guess I just don't remember feeling as though the President was the climax of the game. The detail that went into Horrigan's death animation alone made me think he was the intended final villain. Especially when we had encounters with Horrigan earlier in the game.

Lacky of who? And he still can't be more of one than Horrigan himself. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'll have to play through the game again.

Uh huh. No problems. Riiiight. It would certainly explain the fallout on their message boards. The Multiplayer was broken.

I disagree. The President seems like more of a lacky IMO.

Frank Horrigan, immediately after the president, was more the "big boss" IMO.

Since I was accused of lying, and someone was trying to convince me that Hordes of the Underdark is very playable in Multiplayer:

I'd be more upset if it wasn't 100% following the status quo of publishers not talking. He isn't clarifying himself, so just assume it's 20 hours and let it die.

Probably.

After looking through Volourn's continued explanation of his Orc Shaman backstory, I have come to the conclusion that he's making it all up as he types it. My 2 cents.

I'd probably rather have a game that is good and 40 hours than fantastic and 10 as well. Depends on what "good" is of course. I love Baldur's Gate, and would love to have another game that is long and keeps me captivated. I found Deus Ex to be an excellent long game as well. But with the cost of game development skyrocketing, I think the chances of a good game also being long is decreasing. Being 40 hours is no indication of quality, and I don't think that 10-20 hours is an insufficient period of time to tell a quality story either (mostly because there are many, many games that do tell excellent stories in significantly less time than 10 hours).

CBC has mentioned that the Edmonton game is the Canada-wide telecast. Calgary I believe is Southern Alberta, and maybe parts of BC. I think there's some BC.

...... I expect better from you Llyranor.

Not really that practical where $$$ are concerned. You get what you pay for, but when you pay 50-60 bucks you expect to get your money's worth. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Exactly. I don't think that length of the game is and end all be all. A crap long game is much, much worse than an excellent short game IMO. Sure, I'd love for there to be an excellent long game, but I don't think developers should go about saying "Ok, we need to get 30 hours or else."

that would be nice, but it ain't practical. crpg story is not novel writing or short story writing. got relatively fixed resources... and if it turns out that your resources not match your hopes and desires for story, which you thinks is gonna get cut or expanded? looks at nwn2 for your answer. content (possibly relevant or even integral to story,) got cut 'cause quality of game could not be maintained with september deadline looming. just write the story. bah. is not realistic... is not the way a game developer can approach. crpg story is not and cannot be organic. HA! Good Fun! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Errr, but "just writing the story," I was thinking that they should not concern themselves with meeting arbitrary lengths. Make the best available story, with the resources allotted. Don't make a story longer, nor shorter, "just because."

Then the big, dumb, violent orcs would have likely done something about it sooner. Or the big, dumb, violent orcs would likely have never let the chieftan come to power to begin with, unless the chieftan was in some way smart enough to do maintain power. At which point, he'd probably recognize that the big, dumb, violent orcs he was leading were building up their bloodlust. Leaders that lead simply because they are bigger than the other people don't maintain power that effectively. Furthermore, you've created a character that seems to value his might more than anything. Given the apparently stupidity of the chieftan, I'm surprised that he was smart enough to rationalize why they shouldn't attack the humans, yet dumb enough to think that his pacifism (which seems out of character for him) would not jeopardize the image of strength that he seems to highly value. And that the rest of the tribe seems to value. It would seem more plausible for your chieftan, given he's not very smart, to not exercise any restraint in wanting to kill humans. Especially when, psychologically, he's been reinforced that displaying his might (killing the previous chieftan) has allotted him more power. Yet an Orc Shaman, humiliated by defeat, segregated for a period of time, comes in and says that their god would want them to kill the humans....

I don't consider tangential sidequests to be a contributor to non-linearity in any way. I know it's not possible to be 100% non-linear, but many of the Ultima games I have played were quite non-linear. Which I enjoyed, because if I got stuck following up one part of the game, I could explore a bit an help myself out. In Ultima VII, I got stuck at one point and ended up doing some adventuring through the lands. I found a locked door and was able to solve the puzzle to open it, which had me talk to the person inside. I told her about the state of the world (she was an old friend from other Ultimas that was magically put asleep). She gave me other tasks to do, and in doing so I was able to piece together how I was stuck on my first task, and successfully complete it.

I use the Sprites too, but let's face it, HOI2 isn't exactly OMG W0wz0rs grafix!!

Exactly!

Since I'm an evil critic, the big guffah is the ease of which the guards seemed to have been successfully coerced.