Spider

This was more vague than PE and W2 though. I have absolutely no idea what type of gameplay to expect, except it's party based and will have levels. And turn based. But while they cited a number of old school games they've worked on, they didn't really go into which this will be most influenced by. That being said, their video was hilarious though, and was in itself worth the $15 pledge (Notch's came was inspired). I hope they make their goal, even though I'm not 100% sure it's a game for me.

I was talking about DA:O though, where nightmare was fun and the wave mechanic wasn't all present and you got to play with a detached camera that could zoom out pretty far. DA2 was just a grind. I'd still say I like IWD better than either, but DA:O at least came close.

Wasn't very old school/hardcore if you played on default difficulty though, but nightmare mode was insanely fun. but we'll see what the suits say. DA2 did sell worse than DA:O, so maybe they want to go back to a formula that sold more copies. I don't expect it, but I'm hoping.

This is pretty much how I feel as well. The story was interesting on a conceptual level, but fell apart at the end. The combat style with more visceral and flashy effects I didn't mind, but the removal of the detached camera made a complete mess (especially when switching between characters, or using teleporting moves). Basically, it felt like the combat in DA:O was designed for you to control a party, that you could also put ai in place in case you just wanted to control one character, while DAII felt like it was designed to rely more on the AI and not bother with other characters than your own. So yeah, if DA3 gives me back the camera control of DA:O and doesn't rely on a single gimmick for 90% on it's combat, I'll probably give it another look. Otherwise I'll conclude the series is no longer for me and move on. As far as the insults to (and from) bioware developers go, I just want to say I agree with alanschu in everything he's written on the subject. No one should have to take that kind of abuse, and if a person who gets those kinds of messages all the time on occasion break down and lash out in response, that's just being human. And no, RPG isn't essential in a RPG. A lot of RPGs would have been made better without combat, although Bioware's RPGs typically aren't among those (because the story and reactivity tends to be fairly bland, but gameplay itself can be more enticing). but this is my opinion and if someone loves the storytelling in Bio RPGS, but hate the other gameplay mechanics, it does make sense for Bioware to look into how they can best get that player to still buy the game.

The Zoom function shouldn't mess with formatting (ctrl+), what it does these days is just take the page and enlarge everything on it. Like a magnifying glass. So since everything gets enlarged, formatting will be ok for a vast majority of sites. it didn't use to be that way, so if you have a old firefox, it'll just make the text larger, but in newer versions it does.

All right, these mods made me very much wanting to play SS2, but I can't find it for sale on steam or gog. Is it available anywhere?

It hasn't happened yet, and it's doubtful it's a high priority. Maybe when Makeb comes out, but I doubt it.

That one actually might get my money. Nexus: The Jupiter Incident was a terrific game.

I now a few people in my guild have had issues, as is my wife to a small degree (not stuttering but random other graphical glitches). Personally I haven't had any issues, but I have a fairly powerful rig, so that could be why.

Yeah, grim dawn is aimed for an august 2013 release. I really hope they'll be able to get that, really looking forward to it.

Well, yes. Just meant you're not posting much in other threads (on this forum, the PE one is such mess that it's hard to follow any threads there). But thanks for the description. So if DA3 comes out with wonky dialogues it's your fault? Looking forward to talking more XCOM with you when it's out .

lag is pretty bad in flashpoints currently. When they fixed it in operations, it seems like it got worse in flashpoints. Guessing they just shifted priorities around.

@alanschu Just out of curiosity, what is your role at Bioware currently? by the way, it's great to have you back posting here again, even if it is mostly about Bioware. @SWTOR The story focus on SWTOR succeeded exceedingly well in doing what it set out to do, getting people who are not normally fans of MMO leveling to actually play a MMO. I myself is a perfect example of that, I have not played any MMO before for longer than two months and SWTOR I've played since release. The problem SWTOR had had nothing to do with the story in the game, but lack of other things to do. Apparently end game was limited at launch, at least for players with a lot of previous MMO experience who cleared the content fast. But I don't think lack of raids is even the biggest deal, but rather lack of things to do between raids. There is also a fairly strong frustration in parts of the community due to the lack of interaction with the development team. There is basically only one way communication, the community teams gives out info when they can, but they choose what to say and when, there is no way for the players to interact with the developers. It doesn't feel like our opinions are being heard. It doesn't bother me quite as much as others, because I'm still having great fun with the game, but it is a sore point for many players (and I can certainly sympathize). What the game would have needed from the start is more frequent content updates, more event type things to keep people actively interested in the game (one each month isn't too far fetched, instead we've had two total), and two way communication. The actual content they release is pretty good and loads of fun, but when there's 5 months between the updates, things get a bit stale. @Other games Bioware has become very uneven for me. JE was a disaster, but ME was pretty good. ME2 and DA:O were great, but DA2 was pretty bad. Filled with some fairly interesting concepts and ideas, but the execution was so poor that it just fell apart. haven't gotten ME3 and just have no real desire to. Nothing I've read makes me feel inclined to get it, not even to see the end of the story. I'm hoping DA3 will be a better game, but won't get it until I've seen a lot of praise from players I know have similar tastes as me.

Oh, there's a demo? Then I might actually try this afterall. I found the original to be a bit meh, but maybe they've improved enough for it to be worth another look. Can you play co-op in the demo?

I don't see how this wouldn't have worked in IWD. If anything, IWD is probably the IE game where it would have worked the best, considering how linear it was. In that game you could tie xp rewards to the main bosses of each level, and/or to completing said level. The only difference that would make between murder xp is that you wouldn't have to explore every nook and cranny for that extra monster to kill. You probably still would because there could be mini-quests hidden in some parts of the map, or maybe hidden treasure chests with high quality loot. So exploring would be rewarded, but grinding trash mobs wouldn't (which is especially relevant if mobs respawn). Doing it this way means clever players could possibly make their way to the bosses without fighting and still get rewarded (although getting there this way should pose just as much of a challenge as grinding your way there).

Not sure people advocating this are the ones who have been asking for a realistic setting in the first place. I sure haven't. An internally consistent and believable setting is another thing entirely. I'm not asking for anything that is completely out of place in the game world, I am asking for something that will increase enjoyment of the game. If a man-made construct of that size is something that doesn't work in the game world, then fine make it something else. Make it a huge complex of actual dungeons that some cult have inhabited and chiseled out temples and living spaces in. Hell, it can be a dreamscape for all I care. Wether or not it's underground doesn't matter at all. Watcher's Keep, for instance, has no underground at all and I'm hard pressed to find a world where such a building couldn't exist (if we ignore the inside for a moment) considering our world has similar buildings that predate the medieval times by a fair margin. Look at Hagia Sophia for instance, or Taj Mahal for a better example, although it was built in the 17th century, I don't think that's too far off the technological level PE will have.

I am very much in favor of a large dungeon. I think it needs to be completely optional and pretty hard. The end fight of the dungeon should probably be harder than the end fight of the main story, or at least on the same level. Now to answer the questions: 1: Durlag's Tower was awesome and because it was awesome it felt a little short. So I'd say longer than Durlag's Tower for sure. Monte's suggestion of 50% longer seems fair enough. 2: Story is important, in that the dungeon needs a story, a reason to be explored. So it needs lore and a mystery of some sort. it doesn't need a ton of dialogue though if the lore and mystery can be explored through other means. Also it doesn't need to tie in to the main story at all. Although it could, but should be in such a manner that it's still not required to complete or understand the main story. 3: Yes. While I like story and atmosphere in my games, I also like challenges to overcome. So yes, it definitely is something I would like to see prioritized fairly highly. 4: I would like to see it implemented without it being a stretch goal, but if that's not feasible then sure. Personally I think it should come way before stuff like the players house and probably the 7th companion as well. I think it's that important for a successor to BG2 and IWD (torment not so much, but this game claims to follow all three). So if it needs to be a stretch goal, put it in as soon as possible.

From what I could find, it's actually the other way around. CD Projekt is a CD Projekt Red-owned publisher. It all gets a bit... complicated. According to Wikipedia, CDPR started out as a development studio under CDP, but after a merger with another developer, the whole thing got reorganized, so suddenly CDPR was the owner of CDP. I got confused by it all and just left it out in my original reply.

Isn't CDP still a publisher though, and thus funded TW and TW2 themselves? Besides, there are more studios than CDP and Obsidian doing RPGs. Larian for one, Piranha bytes as well. Then there's the ones who make Two Worlds and the Drakensang people. And I'm sure Bethesda wants a word in this as well.

I don't know. Brand name and operations cost don't really tie in together. Bioware was bought because they had a strong brand name that drew people to their products, and because the EA people thought they'd make that money back with current and future products. The brand name is still strong, which is why it's used for stuff like C&C. Whether or not EA will make up the money it cost them to buy Bioware in the first place is another issue entirely.

Hurlshot, that won't be an issue now. They've merged a lot of servers, so each region basically has one pvp, one pve and a couple of rp servers. So there are plenty of people on them (to the degree that there was a 50 min queue for some last night)

You mean just like ANYONE can say they have a PHd in history on a web forum? I'm not saying you don't, but you're taking a very heavy handed stance in the discussion without providing any back up to your claims what so ever. Then you say wikipedia is a bad source without saying why it's a bad source (specify what is wrong please, not just say it's bad since it's accurate a lot more than it's not). So please provide anything to back up your claims other than just your say so, if you're going to demand the same thing of others (which you have). At the topic at hand, I personally have no problems with guns in this game, and think the developers should act according to their vision for the world.

I thought the demo was actually decent, and if anything made the game look better than it turned out actually being.

Depends on your tastes I suppose. I pledged to Wasteland 2 (turn based rpg with squad combat) and Grim Dawn (action RPG from the makers of Titan Quest). I'm also interested in Shadowrun Returns. Those are the most appealing to me personally.

What Volourn is saying is that the combat mechanics in ToEE are well made. But that encounter design was poor, thus leading to overall weak combat. I tend to agree with that sentiment.