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Funcroc is obviously an Elder of Zion. Sweet. I can turn these in for prizes, can't I? I'm really interested to see how twisty the plot's going to be. We'll have gone from an amiably-paced plot (SoZ) to what I imagine will be a crisis-a-minute plot. I imagine we'll get that at least. ME's NPCs sometimes seemed somewhat expressionless. One thing AP will have over ME is the lack of a facial creation system. At the climax of ME there's a part where Shepard breaks into a wide grin. On the default character models it looks a little off, on a player-created model it's terrifying.

The facial expressions on the weapons dealer are much better than the other ones shown (notice his eyebrows move where other characters' don't), likely because that particular scene has been polished up for journalists. I suspect that the other scenes are at least somewhat incomplete. The game's only just gone into alpha. Otherwise, I'm impressed by the animation, certainly. Can't wait to see more.

I don't have sales figures, but according to Microsoft 900,000 people downloaded the demo (again, after lots of drubbing from the game press) If a fraction of those people bought the game it would've been at least a modest success. And that's not counting people who bought it without the demo. It's a timesink for the developers, but if you do it right it's the best kind of exposure that will make consumers remember the game come release.

I'm really missing the cinematic-style conversations. I feel like I'm playing a mod, not an expansion.

They say the era of the demo is over, but hell, games like Left 4 Dead, Bioshock, and Too Human all rode well-crafted demos to massive success. Too Human was getting a lot of bad buzz beforehand, too. I was sure it was going to bomb. But the demo was enough. I think it's something to consider.

Well, that was... short. And I think we got a new screenie or two. Very small, though.

Hey, looks like, due to Atari's server mother****ery, I might have bought myself an extra copy of Storm of Zehir! I smell a forum raffle coming on....

Atari's download service seems to be dead today.

I wish to see this in action. If there's as much emphasis on animation as you guys claim, it ought to be good.

I agree, certainly. There's very little in the way of "dead weight" when it comes to exploration in Fallout 3, there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of little "vignettes" scattered around the map, like the prewar house with two skeletons entwined on a bed with drugs around it, or the bomb shelter with meticulous junk statues and plungers stuck to the walls. It's a shame they punish the players by making them hit level 20 by the time they've explored barely 10% of it all (there are mods already out that address this, with the PC version anyway)

The computers at the factory explicitly state that the soldiers are there covertly. The Chinese hadn't invaded the mainland anyway.

If we're being realistic, how and why does everyone use bottlecaps as currency? What gives a bottle cap worth? There certainly isn't a Central Bank of the Wastes. Hell, if we're sticking to canon, how is it that there are several dozen chinese soldier ghouls hiding out in the snack factory? I'm pretty sure the Fallout Bible (which Emil had said was law for Fallout 3) specified that something like .002% of people exposed to deadly radiation became ghouls. Did they have a hundred thousand undercover chinese insurgents packed into that factory before the war? Picking nits is fun!

That pattern hasn't changed. The last two Bond villains are basically rich European accountants.

Noooooooo bug ScreenShot4.bmp

Odd.

I figure it'd be just like Deus Ex with regard to factions, even though there was no choice in that game - You were working for the NSF at one point while still ostensibly being an agent of UNATCO. But eventually you were forced to make a decision that made your loyalties clear, and you couldn't really pretend to be a UNATCO agent anymore.

Fable 2

So it's been 3 weeks or thereabouts since the trailer made its debut. We need new stufffffffffff

Much better than Mass Effect's inventory system. Not as though that's hard.

re: the second part

Nay, I did that my first playthrough, and I ended the game at level 16, I think. I basically only completed sidequests that started in Megaton. And that was on Easy. My second playthrough on Medium I'm at level 11 having not advanced through any of the main story at all. I'm going to get rather bored once I hit 20.

The game gets a bit harder with higher difficulty. Enemies do more damage, so you have to watch your health when fighting super mutants especially. One thing that Fallout 3 improves over both Oblivion and the original Fallouts is the use of traps. They're fairly creative, and mines complicate combat situations nicely. Also, grenades are actually useful! They read up on the Vault City / Gecko docs, I bet. I'm fairly impressed by the quality of the quests in the game. The Family quest was pretty lame, but there's some pretty nice stuff elsewhere. Nothing New Reno caliber, but nice.

Do not fret, conservatives. It could be far worse. We could have a dragon as president. Say what you will about Obama, he does not breathe fire. And he has 3 attacks per combat round, maximum. Which isn't to say he isn't an inherently magical creature.

Which is it, Obsidz? Both, really. You can tweak his appearance (add glasses, hats, a beard, camo facepaint), but there isn't an Oblivion-esque "I want to make a guy with a prognathous jaw and a unibrow" facial editor or anything. No no, the use of disguise and whatnot from mission to mission, that much is obvious. What I was curious about is whether or not you can alter Mike's appearance during creation in some limited way. Ryan suggests not, Matt suggests so. I was thinking specifically something like DX, where you had different skin / hair color presets. Do we as players have any say at all over the Mike's default appearance? Or is Mike only the dude we see in the screenies?

Wait wait. Which is it, Obsidz?