alanschu

Chocolate chip preferably

December 25th is a horrible day for sales. Now December 24, 23, 22, 21.... (and even 26) are good! December 26th is quite possibly THE MOST heavily shopped on day of the year, at least for those who know what's what. December 26th, all the sales prices are cut because it's the official 'end' of the holiday rush, hence you get what you would have paid twice as much for before Christmas. My grandmother had a sort of ritual where the day after Christmas, she'd hit the stores and start buying next years Christmas presents at low, low prices. That's dedication to family for ya. I was curious last December so I took some notes. There was some stuff I considered buying for myself, but money was a little tight so I said to myself I'd buy them after Christmas. So I went in on Boxing Day, and not one of the items was actually any cheaper, despite them all having some sort of percentage taken off. I grudgingly bought two of the items at two different stores. The third store had actually jacked the price up and put a sale tag on it and people were eating it up still, even though had they bought it just before Christmas they would have actually paid less. I called the clerk on it and she just stared at me dumbfounded and insisted the price was actually cheaper than before. But considering supply and demand it makes perfect sense. Since everyone expects the first few days to be such a bargain day, I probably would do the same. People are blind and just make the assumption, while many shop owners end up making more money clearing out stock that they couldn't get rid of in time for Christmas.

I'd say the Sith are like a gang. The recruit the disenfranchised individuals from society and spew forth the propoganda about how the Republic is evil (which is probably all that is really required for most people). Promises of increased power and fortune probably bring in a fair share too. Sure there are more legit alternatives, but that generally means following someone else's rules (the evil Republic's rules that is...since they've all been indoctrinated).

Ivan, what happens in the last frame of your sig? I think the girls are dead but I'm not sure.

Never really played a PnP game before. Some friends tried to get me to play a D&D game once. Although I got crappy dice rolls for my character so he sucked. The thief in our group kept trying to pick our pockets (actually anyone's pockets). And our group of level 1 characters ran into some wolves and I died....which sucked. Shortly afterwards the game dissolved and we played some GoldenEye on the N64

Nah....I'm done with it.

Wizardry 8. Minimal voice sets allow for multiple male and female voices, the regulating difference being the personalities. There are several pre-recorded voice sets for different personalities (moody, intellectual, backstabbing, etc). The reason i don't see this being incorporated into TSL is simply the cost and work associated with recording several types of voices. Given that apparently all speech will have voice over, it's likely that there will only be one voice set for either gender. Wizardry 8's was mostly for barks though wasn't it?

I think the way it is supposed to be looked at is a character with a lot of hit points isn't stronger per se, but a similar attack does less damage (as a percentage) because s/he would make sure that nothing vital gets hit.

Do you buy your games? I find myself playing through the crappiest of crap because I figure if I buy the silly game, I might as well finish it. And the replayability comes more from how you beat stuff earlier in the game. You can solve it alternatively. Fallout is the same way. It's not "replayable" at all if I was to take your definition. In Fallout 1 you take out the Master and the mutants. In Fallout 2 you take out the Enclave. The great replayability of those games is still playing through the same quests...but in different ways.

Sounds like you've accomplished much in your 30 years. It's kinda like in Howard Stern's private parts, when the people that didn't like Howard Stern were the ones that listened to him the most.

It is. Games where you do not play the developers characters are few and far between (which is indeed a bad thing). I can respect that they wish there was more freedom in the game. There were plenty of times that I wish I could have done more in the game (particularly influence the actions of my NPC with more permanent changes in their characters). The problem comes with the continuous regurgitation of the same thing over and over, making it come across like KOTOR is somehow an exception to the way games are actually made. Furthermore, I still contend that the game allows you to create the character that you want...admittedly not as varied as Fallout....but I cannot think of any quests in Fallout that can be completed in such a way that quests in KOTOR could not be completed. In Fallout, quests were generally completed in a good or a bad way....same as KOTOR. In Fallout, you generally had options to go in with force, or use more subtle methods such as convincing people that your opinion is right or manipulating the environment.....KOTOR also contains these quests. I'm also commenting on the fact that they do nothing but trash the game as being a poor game since it does not have this freedom that they want so badly....and they reiterate it over and over and over. I'm also commenting on the fact that since the game didn't go exactly the way they wanted, they point out how it is weaker in certain aspects to a different game...when if they were to look at it more objectively they aren't as different as they are making it out to be.

I would imagine one Sith Lord per planet.

No it's not. If the game is supposed to be coming the Christmas, then I can plan for it. If it gets delayed, oh well...then I consider what games may or may not be coming out around its next release date. Definitely don't make a big deal about it though, or get too excited.

That is what we're doing.

December 25th is a horrible day for sales. Now December 24, 23, 22, 21.... (and even 26) are good!

You are rationalizing your arguments simply because you have your beef with the game. It's like saying you'll vote for a politician because at least they admit to being a scumbag. Character generation did affect the way you progressed through the game, albiet not a whole lot....KOTOR did have a heavy focus on combat. But to claim you like FF better because they are "honest" is a poor defense. Either you like something, or you don't. The reason why you complain about it is because you do not like the way the game was implemented, and clearly you are a Star Wars aficianado, so anything in Star Wars that seems to deviate or anything (which you claim KOTOR does) becomes bad. Hades' complaints just give you another avenue to complain. As for it "sucking" to play a developers character down two storylines.....welcome to the statusquo (well not quite...since most games only offer one storyline). Sure, KOTOR didn't have to force you to be a Jedi, but Bioware stated from the get go that your character was going to become a Jedi. Bioware didn't pretend that you could play the game entirely as a class other than a Jedi. Anyone that thought otherwise is a fool (which is probably why they are ticked...no one likes being played a fool). As for how many times you finish a game: it's anecdotal and irrelevant. I am currently playing through it for the fourth time. I've also played through Half-Life about five times, FF7 at least twice (maybe 3 times). I'm also currently on my second go round with FF6. I just recently finished Call of Duty for the third time. So you only played KOTOR once. Big whoop. If you didn't like it, then wait for reviews for KOTOR II, and then make your decision.

Therein lies the problem. Who says that what you like and dislike in a CRPG are the rules that game developers should follow.

Not even Fallout allows anywhere close to "all plausible actions." They'd still be programming the game if they wanted to cater to every possibility. It's not "shoddy" work, since they stated the scope of the game was to play a Jedi.

Would they have? The whole game I got the impression that the Sith fleet was getting larger and larger at an accelerated rate, and that all in all the Republic was struggling in the war.

I would have appreciated more endings for Fallout 2 as well. Fallout's ending was probably pretty unavoidable.

Which is probably a limitation of the RPG rules, in an attempt to balance the game. They have to make other classes viable otherwise no one would want to play as anything but a Jedi. If you were to put KOTOR into the context of the movies instead, I contend that not even the ultimate Scoundrel Mr. Solo could have done it. But then again with the Star Wars RPG you can do whatever you want. I don't know who GM'd your Death Star run, but I would never have allowed your "instant" reverse. Considering if it was truly instant the G-Forces would have been infinite, not even your precious droid would have survived it, let alone the ship. You say your ship was a wreck afterwards, but it was still good enough to shoot down to wingmen, and chase down Vader's prototype TIE and crash into it. It just sounds like you wanted to go Top Gun on them.

You hold CRPGs to some benign standard that should never be strictly adhered to. Ultima VII is also one of my favourite games of all time, but there was no way you were getting out of being the Avatar. Interesting too...considering that games like Ultima are what created the term "CRPG." Sure you can argue that the earlier games had a bit more freedom (I only briefly played the first one), the earliest Ultima I had really played was Ultima IV, and considering it was the quest for the avatar. You have played one game that allows you to do what you want, but to hold other games to the same design principles is foolish. Furthermore, to claim that such "open-endedness" is a requirement for CRPGs shows narrowmindedness.

Korriban's level would likely have to been changed. I also would wager that a Scoundrel character would not have been able to complete the game. As for once the game being created the character being yours, the only games I can think of that actually do that are the Fallout games (but even still there are things that I would have liked to have done but cannot since we can only do what the developers program into the game), and I still contend that KOTOR still lets you build the character in your own way (although with not nearly the depth or variations as Fallout). But hey....look at the sales of Fallout versus KOTOR. People like you say that it's "pathetic" that people need to be spoon fed (which is arrogant), while at the same time it is easier to build a story around a character that isn't as free....and a lot of people love games with great storylines (which is why according to everyone but you PS:T is one of the greatest RPGs of all time). As for being upset about Knights of the Old Republic forcing you to be a Jedi....didn't you look into the game at all during the months prior to its release that let you know that the character would become a Jedi? To reiterate: freedom of development can be nice....but it is not the necessity that you make it out to be.

I tend to agree. Once I see some sort of anamoly that indicates CGI, it tends to take away from the movie IMO.

It's still an admission that you are only looking at it from what you extrapolate. However, unless you are some sort of authority in the field of special effects then it boils down to being purely subjective as to what is good or not. It also still comes off as arrogant. Furthermore, you started going on earlier about how the special effects are incorporated to make them look good, when from the beginning EnderWiggen stated that he appreciated the ground breaking visuals. Whether or not they were grossly overused was initially never part of the discussion.