Llyranor

The difference is that there was zero hype over it. I'd be very surprised if it ended up as a feature.

You'd think Bethie would hype such a feature, hmm?

I'm doing pretty well with a light armored ninja using a sword and a shield. I keep agility up and run around a lot. I prefer dodging to just sucking up damage. I keep arrows handy too. I don't remember having much trouble in Kvatch. I let the guards absorb most of the damage while I flanked. My time in Oblivion was spent outrunning the enemy. My only battle there was the duel with the sigil keeper, and it wasn't particularly hard, either. Could it be the difficulty level, as well? I've noticed they make a big difference. I keep mine at default normal. Unless they're areas where the battles are mindless and boring, then I put it on easy so that I can mow through them. Spam-clicking attack isn't my idea of a challenge. For the locks, not that I've been actively looking around, but if you join the Dark Brotherhood, there's a guy there that'll sell a lot of them.

Too bad they only botched up the faces. The game could use more fat people.

Perhaps, but that's because Obsidian specifically wanted it to be that way (in terms of making scripting and dialogues pretty much the same as in NWN1).

The concept of MMORPG in and of itself (even with monthly fees) isn't really my main gripe. It's what they *currently* consist of. Sorry, but I don't care about grinding XP, killing monsters for items or exploring random dungeons. That's not my idea of fun. The playerbase doesn't help, and is probably a big factor in hindering the genre's progression to the next level. What I want is an actual online roleplaying community in which you actual have a role in the community other than generic adventurer/fisherman/miner #454598374834. Remember that EVE Online story where one employer hired a corporation of assassins to kill a powerful CEO of another corporation? The assassins infiltrated the targetted corp (an operation taking over a year in real-life) in order to get close to the CEO. The double agent became a very trusted individual. Eventually, they staged a massively coordinated operation, in which all the infiltrators from all over the galaxy/universe/whatever stole from the corp's storage crap and ran off at the same time. At the exact same moment, a carefully planned ambush (and very risky) on the CEO was made, and she was brutally murdered. Now THAT's the stuff of legends. What's the difference between that and performing fetch quests? Human-human interaction drives the drama. The concept of a human society should be what drives the game. The event above didn't really on game features in order to be possible; it was purely human-human interaction. What the game needs to be, essentially, is to provide a world where that kind of stuff is possible. Look at the possibilities. A PI firm where members get hired to spy on particular targets. It doesn't have to be content-driven. Guild A has a vested interest in finding more about person B in guild C, so it hires person D, who's a PI. D spies on B and reports continually to A, and gets regular payments in exchange. THAT's interesting gaming, and actually gives PURPOSE to the fact that the game's MMO. Or what about some escorting agency? Someone needs some goods delivered to a specific location, your agency gets hired to ensure its safety. It may be completely uneventful. Or, maybe another party got hold of this news, and hires people to ambush you. The point is that the game needs to provide a society/world where events are PLAYER-driven. It needs its own politics. It needs to lose its 'gamey' feel. Instead of being concerned over when you'll reach lvl 34, you'll focus on increasing the prestige of your agency (an out-of-game mechanic, too; it won't be tracked in-game, but by the PLAYERS). When that happens, THEN I'll be interested.

Haha, thanks for the tip. That was a fun quest. There was some good potential to include branching dialogue in there. Too bad it all ended up the same way Also, I am now officially a VAMPIRE NINJA. The new abilities are definitely cool, and will help a lot for my Dark Brotherhood quests too. Travelling under the veil of night from now on is also quite interesting. I could find a cure, but I'm a VAMPIRE NINJA. Speaking of the DB, I've finished the first batch of quests (assigned by one agent, I'm now getting quests from another one). For those who are interested in how the quests have been so far: 1) Pirate: 2) Accident. 3) Prison. 4) Staging. My current one sounds pretty cool. Kill dude X, who lives in city Y. No more details are provided, so you have to do your own detective work. All of this has been enjoyable so far, and a good distraction from the lackluster portion of the main storyline.

Part 2. Speaking of Part 1. Bethesda's attempt at introducing "diplomacy" into dialogue was hilarious. The singular PC choice you were offered did not help, either. Oh well Boromir is still a dream, though

I'm currently at a not-so-good part of the storyline (the linear 4 star maps sequence), so it's losing steam. We'll see how it turns out after this part is over with. I'm about to retrieve Jedi #3.

I could care less if 7 million people weren't actively playing my game. They paid for the retail copy, so the joke's on them.

Essentially, the AI is fine. I don't really have any complaints about it. Even the NPC-NPC crapathon would be acceptable. The problem is how much freaking hype Bethie infused into it. Playing through the game, Radiant AI pretty much doesn't really mean anything. It's just AI. AI is fine, but just AI.

http://www.madminutegames.com/ TC2M is a wargame based on the American Civil War (it's a strategy game and happens to be in real-time, but labelling it simply a 'RTS' isn't doing it justice). It has pretty cool implementation of chains of command. The demo allows you to try out being a brigade commander as well as a division commander. It's not a twitch/micro fest, and tactical planning is what will allow you to win, not fast clicks-per-seconds. It's being published by Paradox, and due for release in mid-April. I hadn't heard of this game before until the demo got out (I simply downloaded it since I noticed Paradox was publishing - good strategy publisher/developer). I'm not even American, so I have ZERO interest in the American Civil War per say, yet this game turned out to be very interesting. I don't remember the last time I enjoyed the battles this much in a 'RTS'. I'll definitely be picking this one up. This is being made by two guys who've been working on this for the past 4 yrs in their garage in their spare time, in addition to their full-time jobs. Gotta respect and support that. The prequel of this game also won the 'Gold' award from Wargamer.net for 2005 in the wargame category http://www.wargamer.com/articles/readersch..._2005/page7.asp If you have any interest in wargaming, I suggest trying out the demo. That means all those dudes that introduced me to Paradox from these forums (Galactic Civilizations II, Hearts of Iron II, Europe Universalis III, etc). Links can be followed by clicking on the website url above. Here are some interviews: http://www.wargamer.com/articles/civilwar_...iew/default.asp http://pc.gamezone.com/news/02_07_06_12_15PM.htm http://uticensis.blogspot.com/2006/03/deve...orb-timpko.html And a preview http://www.wargamer.com/reviews/second_manassas_preview/ Footage here: http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=2417 The videos don't do the graphics justice, if you care about that. The demo showcases high res sprites (that's right, freaking 2D) that are actually pretty appealing to the eye. More importantly, look at the SCALE of those battles. Those maps are bloody massive.

Another major gripe I would have with the game is that, despite their effort to breath life into the world (via Radiant AI - which, as far as I've seen so far, hasn't been groundbreaking in any way - and whatnot), they've pretty much failed. The world still feels pretty artificial. Ohnoz, evil gates to another dimension are popping up everywhere, please help us Chosen One! Why is the PC the only remotely competent individual in the world? Please do this, okay, now do that, then do this again, and that. The world revolves around the PC, without whom there can be no 'world'. You can go for a picnic and go pick mushrooms, but don't worry! The gates to Oblivion will gladly wait for you! Take your time!

The scaling leveling system works fine for me, so far. Not being forced to grind for its own sake is a good thing. Also, there are difficulty levels that you can switch on the fly in-game. Too easy, pump up, pump down, etc.

Those are the two I've noticed so far. As Shadowdawg said, you can avoid them completely, but auto-attempting lockpicks, or skipping persuasion altogether.

I've noticed that as my persuasion skills increased, I can now rotate the disc around, thus giving me more options. I guess increasing lockpicking makes it easier to stabilize.

Depends what your goals as a developer are, of course. Indie devs

You're right, they should conceal the fact that they're working on DA despite already announcing it. What next? Bethesda denying ever acquiring the Fallout license?

Something that keeps popping up is how completely linear the main storyline is. Heck, even the 4 star maps have appeared, now, only you have to do them one at a time (so far, anyway, I've found the first Jedi). The way it progresses reeks of linearity as well. NPC X needs some time to decipher something, you need to do this *specific* quest (that has no bearing with the main storyline in a direct manner) in order for the story to continue. Hmm

No, you'd have idiot console bashers constantly yelling at Bioware for selling out. What hype has there been for the game? A website? A closed E3 presentation? You've never seen any footage of the game, all we've been exposed to so far is a few screenshots which represent the engine at best, since the artstyle is apparently going to be very different. The hype come from the stupid media. Go murder them. Bioware is just being a business.

What bloody difference is there between "We're making a PC game!!!" and "We're making a PC game, named Dragon Age!!!"? Just suck it up and wait, or boycott. Bioware cares either way.

New Stardock interview http://www.firingsquad.com/features/stardo...erview_gdc2006/

Meh, if he's shaking, it's because I'm the next CEO.

Man, I hope they rush Dragon Age!

All in all, it pretty much feels like Morrowind 2.0. There have been improvements, but the similarities stand out as well. The main dialogue seems to be better written, but it's painfully linear (5 hrs in, at least), and the PC only gets 1-2 dialogue 'choices' at a time at best. The dialogue system is definitely an improvement, and the 'wiki' system seems to be more tolerable and toned-down this time around. The problem, however, is that it is STILL too prominent. There's really no opportunity to infuse your character's personality into the game, unless you're the kind of player who likes to roleplay Diablo. Most of the changes from Morrowind have been for the better, so I'll applaud Bethesda for that. Still, from what I expect of your roleplaying/storytelling standards, you will probably not enjoy it enough to warrant a purchase.