Pop

They sort of hint at the fact that their first task for Obsidz is to find a publisher for an as-yet-unsigned project.

Is same-console multiplayer out?

This is a good thing for PC gamers on a budget - I spent a fair bit of change on my rig like 4 years ago and it'll run any and every current game like a champ, because everything's specced for consoles. Probably won't handle Crysis 2 too poorly, either.

So here's a nightmare scenario for you.

They're talking about Havok Behavior, which seems to be an animation blending / pipeline simplifying tool, different from the Physics toolset that's been in use for years. I remember it being announced around the time of the Aliens RPG, actually (can't remember if that game was to include it). Doesn't look like they were lying about Skyrim being the first large game to use it, either - according to Havok's site the only games to have used it are SEGA's Golden Axe reboot and a whole lot of Disney games (including Epic Mickey). Hard to say whether it's just hype, but they probably paid enough for the tools that they think it's worth it.

So Zenimax filed some trademarks that are pretty obvs DLC names - Honest Hearts (the speculated New Canaan DLC), Lonesome Road and Old World Blues. My prediction: Honest Hearts = Lonesome Road = Old World Blues =

There weren't any jumping bits, at least, not chases or pitfalls or anything. There are a few sections where jumping across platforms ameliorates your chances of getting through a radio zone.

Unless you want to start up a dedicated console thread, no. Spoiler tags are being used.

If we can't get DLC that seamlessly folds into the core game (and I think a companion added as DLC would be great) I think having all the DLC as a loose, parallel narrative (similar to the sort you commonly see on cable dramas nowadays) is almost as good. Think of it not as disparate DLC but an episodic xpac. If all the speculation turns out to be correct we have four likely DLC locales so far - . Those would seem to leave . But yeah, having a pro-Legion companion would fill a very badly needed gap in the game.

ugggggh I can already tell that the DLC is going to be, like, the closure for me as a Van Buren obsessive. It's so good. It's so good.

So Dead Money is really, really an MCA joint. Like it is completely obvious and you would quickly figure it out even if you hadn't heard of Avellone's involvement (he wrote everything) beforehand. A bevy of eccentric / broken characters compelled to (tenuously) work together for reasons other than "the world depends on it"? Inter-character relationships that are subtle and not "sexy"? More of this please. Oh I forgot you all are PC mooks. FACED. PS there are a couple of references to in it, connected to . Can't wait to see what they've got for us next.

That's what I'm concerned about as well. AP's narrative design was made with the DSS in mind and I doubt that Bioware has done the same with ME3. At the very least that means we won't see the intricacy of C&C we got in AP. Also one of the best things said by devs on the bioboards re: DA2 was that, and I'm paraphrasing here, "Content that 90% of players won't see in a single playthrough should not be implemented". So, you know, there's that.

So who's the BBC in this analogy? Who's the Guardian? Who's the NYT? The point being, highbrow game forumites have been pissy about the role of game journalism since Oblivion started getting 10.0s at the very latest, but I don't think I've ever seen people rush to "THIS SITE IS ILLEGITIMATE" with quite this level of knee-jerk fervor. This indicates to me that either (a) highbrow game forumites do, despite all their protestations, believe in the real legitimacy of "game journalism" and the professional standards that game news sites supposedly have, and this site obviously does not live up to the standards set by the industry, or (b) there is something else about this particular website that makes it even more odious than any other would-be "game journalism" site, such that highbrow game forumites would have such a viscerally negative response to it. Both explanations are plausible. But I can only take the long history of game journalism criticism on this site and others at face value and believe that they really do think that gaming journalism as a concept is illegitimate (and I'd agree with them!) So that leaves only (b). And I can't really see anything that would draw such ire beyond the fact that he's a dude who happens to be black, is boisterous and excitable in demeanor, uses a lot of slang and carries around a ridiculous wrestling championship belt. The fact that he's open about the fact that he's just there to talk about games he's excited about and doesn't pay lip service to bogus "journalistic standards" that nobody really takes seriously should make him more appealing, not less. He's honest! What's the problem? Obvs, it's that he acts in a way that many young black men do, and we can't have that! No sir.

It's a press event. With Ray and Greg. In public. With a lot of "journalists" in earshot. I mean I know we're not big fans of black people around here but geez. Incidentally, Bitmob has a nice profile on the dude, who seems like your average fan. The best thing about him is that you can't endlessly bitch about how he's not a "game journalist" and how "game journalism" is a sham, because he doesn't walk around with that pretension. And really, what other commentator can you name who would call out Bioware's brand new mechanic as indebted to another recently released game, to their faces, at a press conference? Homework assignment: Go around looking at other sites who mention it and see if they do. Bet you they don't! Cuz they're impartially reporting on the genius of Bioware. Get this guy into the White House Press Corps (or maybe not, cuz he's black).

It's weird, a guy on Something Awful who apparently interviewed a lot of people about this game seems to believe that the first iterations had a lot more 'camp' than the finished product. And given what we know about the hostage situation in the plane plus the free-fall duel that ensues, I would be inclined to believe him . The guy on SomethingAwful is Pop. Yeah, that's me. Most of the stuff that I have is from talking to MCA and company at PAX East some 8 months or so ago. I had a thread about it here, with .gifs and everything. The unused stuff on the disc is news to me, though. It seems to be a staple of Obsidian games (there's stuff in FO:NV indicating Victor was once a companion, for example, and KOTOR2 was chock full of stuff), I wonder if it's standard practice. How much could we learn about the revisions in game development by rooting around in files?

Also there seems to be some consternation over the newly revealed White Drizz't character -

Well I don't know, just think of how awful it would be if I opened up an Obs game and changed a bunch of random settings only to find that when I moved my mouse, up was down and down was up! I'd say that's a failure of design. I'd want my money back.

Over at SA people are having a lot of fun with the awesome rationale Bioware has given for not making Friendly Fire a toggle: Bioware: Sensitive to the needs of those who don't understand how binary switches work.

If ME1 was a good RPG, great RPGs must really suck.

Floaters. Your opinion is invalid.

It's not a new IP.

I don't remember EA ever being mentioned in relation to the Red Eagle deal. It's not in the first two press releases, at least. Unless I'm not looking closely enough.

Holy ****, White Drizz't is overtaking even Tali as the biggest Bioboards wank object. Creepy.

That's not a given - it's just that other devs will have to go through Zenimax to get the engine. Zenimax isn't stupid, they're not going to sit on idTech when they can be making money off of it.

Stranger things have happened!