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Possible explanation for this - Feargus was featured on the "How great is Final Fantasy?" panel at Squeenix's GDC event. Doesn't negate the possibility that there's a deal going on there, but that might just be it.

Sega talks a bit about potential sequels.

There are indeed Tranq rounds, but they will not be as numerous or cheap as regular bullets, and thus need to be used wisely. As far as interrogation goes, it's not in the same sense as Splinter Cell, where you can grab guys in the level and press them for information. There are interrogation scenes, but they're special.

About that : I'm not the only one who thinks that the guy falling to his death is not directly after the throat-chop, right? His position isn't right for the transition... When you watch the walkthrough, the SEGA guy is talking about the AR's auto-aim feature and his voice gets audibly clipped in the transition from combat to killin' the guy. So we can assume the transition was not in game, but was edited in.

I don't think that was ever really an argument. The argument was that Apple just didn't care about gaming, which was true. The official "gaming" department at Apple was something like 5 employees. Apple spent the past year and a half helping Valve to make sure OpenGL on Mac was up to scratch, and helping Valve port their games. Only took them, what, 10-12 years?

Did we get any confirmation about whether XP was doled out upon enemy neutralization, or mission completion, or both? Matt?

That's not necessarily something to celebrate. I would've liked it if stealth were more useful beyond gaining a tactical advantage in combat - I think there's a real desire on the part of some for stealth to be an alternative to combat. But the level design that we've been shown - Moscow and the Middle East- has been highly linear, as in a shooter. You move down this canyon and deal with encounters.

So it does look that way. Don't know how I feel about that. I mean sure it's "cinematic" but still... It's going to take some getting used to.

Sounds like a "professional" response. $10 says it doesn't go down well with the chick. Anyway, can we get confirmation that is indeed how the narrative is set up and not just the format of the presentation? I liked Pulp Fiction but I'm not sure that would work very well as a gaming experience.

Not that new, but Sega's confirmed that delay time has been devoted mainly to gameplay tweaks.

Onderon.

That's management's call. They don't have an infinite number of staff, so it would mainly be a matter of picking out however many (probably a small staff of 10 or so) you'd need to fashion an XBLA game.

Interview with MCA at one of my other frequented sites, The AV Club.

I don't think that was ever really an argument. The argument was that Apple just didn't care about gaming, which was true. The official "gaming" department at Apple was something like 5 employees.

Note that Steam and Source-based games being translated does not necessarily mean we'll see AP or other newer games ported.

Interesting. So DLC and a sequel is dependent on how well the game does, eh? I'm buying like three copies, so I'm covered.

One of the tiring things in ME that was absent in DA was the incredible inflation of the protagonist's role. Shepard's set up to be basically unstoppable, while the Grey Warden, no matter what he/she does, is never given the appearance of being outside the influence of politics.

Before the Aliens Cancellation there were around 100 staffers at Obsidz. Then they cut 20 positions. I don't know if they've built back up from that but 80 employees works pretty well for a 30-30-20 split (FNV-???-WoT).

Play Wanderer's Edition. Hardcore mode seems to take after it, Obsidz might have drawn from other aspects as well.

Character creation is same as F3's, more or less.

I too feel cheated and empty when not presented with artificial women that I can fancy.

They've talked at length in print about the Saudi Arabian mission, which is the first one, specifically choice and consequence w/r/t handling the arms dealer at the end. They've also talked at length about choices you can make w/r/t Sie in Moscow, and how prior choices influence whether or not you even meet her there. I don't know how much more they can do. Certain things, like a change in enemy firepower when extorting or killing the arms trafficker, are difficult to "show". Hopefully we can have one of those 15-minute "preview" videos ala Brutal Legend. But it would be nice to, say, see the beginning of a debriefing conversation with your handler, and all the variants that go along with how you handled your last mission.

I don't know where you're getting this. Community survival missions in the Fallouts are macguffins, generally - Through them, you stumble upon the real threat. Super Mutants, Enclave, etc. There are a few "secure water / gold / power" quests, but they have little or no bearing on the actual survival of a community. Fallouts aren't really about surviving in the wasteland, most people in the game seem to get by more or less fine. They're about defeating the Big Bad, same as any other game.

Not so fast bitches. Steam might be getting an OSX client but OpenGL compliance is a whole 'nother animal. Remember when... Alvin Nelson (I think) was talking about OpenGL and why nobody develops for it? Valve can bring the Orange Box to Apple PCs but not much else, without publisher cooperation.

I was talking to a friend of mine awhile back about Obsidz, and the possibility of their being bought out by a publisher at any point. My friend said Sega or Microsoft were contenders. I said that, to a certain extent, an ownership scenario could turn out well for Obsidz - there would be guaranteed publishing, good funding, and perhaps a degree of stability that wasn't there before (looking back on it that particular argument didn't hold water). My friend pointed out that if bought out, Obsidz would lose all control over what it is they developed. First Bungie, now this. In both cases the omnipresent rumors suggested that the successful developers wanted to work on a new IP, and in both cases, despite the unprecedented success of the developers, the publishers fought tooth and nail against them. At least Bungie stayed whole and maintains a more or less amicable relationship with Microsoft. Activision are just bastards.