Spider

It probably is. But again, marketing probably thinks it's worth it. If the appearance of Patrick Stewart hadn't been deemed a succesful marketing strategy, they would hardly go down the same path again. Do you remember the actual numbers? Just curious.

Do you have a link to such a statement? I have read that voice talent is fairly cheap, even with fairly known actors. We're talking less than a days work here. It's not that I don't believe you, I was just wondering where you got the info from. Anyway, regardless of the expense, I'm not sure hiring Patrick Stewart affected the development of Oblivion one bit. I'd guess that the money for him came out of the marketing budget rather than the development one. Note how I'm saying "guess" since I don't have any actual knowledge. It's only what makes sense to me. NMA + DAC + RPG Codex != the entirety of Fallout Fandom

My point exactly. I thought Patrick Stewart made a good impression in Oblivion. And if the story was already established by the design, exactly what was the problem with casting him in that role? Or to put it another way, would Oblivion have been a better game if the role of the king had been played by voice talent of similar quality as the rest of the game had?

So if the Overseer in FO 1 had been played by Liam Neeson (or similar) would that have made it any less of a game? Getting a known name attached to the game is a good thing from a marketing perspective. There are people who will notice the game solely through that name, people who otherwise may not have. But it is a marketing decision, not a design one. And the design, the actual game play, isn't affected one bit. Well, apart from having some lines that have a higher probability of being well acted. There really aren't any budget concerns in play either. Voice talent for games is fairly cheap in the overall picture and it's not like Bethesda needs to turn every penny. So there really is no downside to this announcement (unless you have an irrational hatred for Liam Neeson of course). It may not have an especially noticeable upside either, since it still doesn't say anything whether or not the game is actually any fun. Hopefully the teaser will help with that (but probably not).

Given that we have seen or heard absolutely zero about gameplay or design philosophies, what do you base that statement on? Neither the music or the concept art bears even a glimmer of resemblance to anything in FOBOS. Ruined landscapes vs thongs, neutral classical music vs bad metal...

Thanks a bunch, I'll be sure to pass it along (and keep it in mind for myself when the time comes).

Thanks, but I'll pass. And for the record I never thought the OC was broken. Unpolished sure, but not broken. So I was actually wondering if they had run ouf of OC issues (haven't played since prior to the 1.05 patch, so I wouldn't know)

Although only the vaults were really retro 50s. Places like Junktown and the Hub felt way more Mad Max (well, the sequels anyway) than anything else. SO I don't think either of these two artworks say anything about Bethesda's direction for the game. They did have a poster with the PIP boy that was very 50-ish in it's style last year. So they probably remember him. (unless you mean the piece of equipment, which is actually the thing named PIP boy, the guy in the instructional videos isn't afaik, but is usually called that out of convenience) For reference: http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2006/...1355_screen.jpg

Aside from the fact that you can't jump, iirc, it just felt like the real deal. Hard to describe more exactly. The emphasis was on stealth, not running and gunning. If you were careless, you'd get shot. And if you got shot, you'd either die outright or possibly just get severely wounded. Weapons felt like they "should" and the ai was competent (although not as good as is avaialble these days). The opponents were neither amazing marksmen or totally inept. Like I said, if you got careless you'd probably die.

From a player's perspective, not exactly an exiting patchlist. Have they run out of things to fix in the single player campaign?

Thanks for all the replies. They helped a bit. In regards to the PSU, a lot even. The SLI option is more a future-plan than anything immediate. Ie get a good card now and in a year get the same card when it's cheaper rather than doing a full upgrade at once. Or at least having the option of doing so. But then I talked to my friend again who had talked to some other people about RAM and then it got confusing. I tried looking at the wiki link Meta provided, but it's a bit too technical for me to get into (as in the language, not the concepts as such). From what I could piece together from a phone conversation just now, my friend had learned that buying better memories (as in speed) was worse than buying worse memories, because the better ones couldn't be used in dual channel mode or something like that. Specifically, it was better to buy PC6400 memories rather than PC8000 (the same amount) because the processor (E6600) couldn't communicate fast enough with the memories for the higher speed to come into play at all. I didn't quite get it and thought it sounded a bit weird, so does anyone know what he meant? Basically, all other things being equal and money not being an issue, what type of memory will net the best performance, with a Asus n680i and Intel E6600 (the stuff he'll most likely be getting). An explanation as to why would also be appreciated. Here's your chance to show off your knowledge.

Since there are people here more knowledgable than me, I figured I'd try and get to some of the gory details of computer building. I have a friend who is in the process of building a gaming computer and will start an upgrading process myself within a couple of months. He asked me today whether it was better to buy 2 GB of faster memory or 4 GB of no-name memory. And I really had no idea. I figured more is better, but up to what point? (and yes, his system will be Vista ready, so he can make use of 4 GB) Bonus question: When shopping for a motherboard, what current one gives you the best bang for your buck? It needs to be SLI-ready, so that kinda narrows it down a bit I suppose. Bonus question 2: How common is it that graphic cards require a direct connection to the PSU. I have (and my friend is considering) an Antec Phantom, a fantastic PSU with only one graphics card cable. So if it's becoming the norm for the graphics card to require it's own power, the Phantom isn't exactly SLI friendly. My card doesn't use it's own power, but it's two years old, so I suppose a lot can have changed in those regards. That's all for now I think.

Try as I might, I can't actually make sense of what you're trying to say here, Meta. There are no major bugs left to be fixed. There are three minor and seven trivial bugs. Then there are 14 tweak and 20 feature issues. So there are no major bugs to fix before attending to the minor ones. Now, if you'd say that a trivial bug needed to be fixed first, then at least I would understand what you're saying. Although any bug that by itself prevents the fixing of other bugs, could hardly be called trivial imo. But it's not my definitions, so it could be I guess. Then again, it's all moot. Team Gizka will do things in the order they feel is best and they're doing a great job.

RT with pause, though. Just to clarify for those less informed. Autopause can be configured so that it plays round based if that's a preference (personally I hate the autobase and have all options off).

You have to be jokeing.. Sarcasm, anyone?

Except that you could take 3-4 hits before going down and being wounded didn't even slow you down. In the original, each hit was a potential killer and if you survived, you definitely felt that you were injured. The original Ghost Recon (and it's expansions) was a fantastic game (although the sniper rifle was a bit overpowered). GRAW didn't hook me the same way at all.

Isn't there a Requiem MMO being developed somewhere already? I thought I heard rumors, but I could have been dreaming. Edit: It was the WoD in general, not Vampire specifically (although no details have been released and it's got to be a looong way off). http://www.white-wolf.com/index.php?line=n...p;articleid=629

I'd guess about the same time as S.T.A... Oh wait...

Actually, if the MMORPG is a success, I think it increases the chances of a KOTOR 3. But that's just me.

To me the most interesting (and most disturbing) part of the article linked was the rumor that DA will get a PS3 port. I just hope they don't sacrifice the PC interface to make it more playable on consoles. Ah well, I'm sure things will be fine.

I just didn't think anyone else said anything that could even be remotely interpreted as criticizing Meta's purchasing habits. And I wasn't really offended (as in I didn't think you were harsh), just wanted to clarify. Personally I don't have any use for anything in the collector's edition, so certainly wouldn't get it. Although the European version is a much better buy from what I gather, so that could have been an option. But obviously I didn't get that. The only thing I really care about is stuff that affects gameplay, and since that was available to me anyways, no need for any fancy extras. Hell, I'd buy all my games electronically if that option was available to me (D2D doesn't sell outside of the US for most games afaik).

What? Cant, now you're definitely putting words in my mouth. I didn't say that Meta shouldn't do whatever he wanted with his money. If the CE is a good buy for him, then it's a good buy for him. I was just saying that the free feats are available to anyone who wants them, regardless of edition. Much like the BG2 special merchants (you know, the ones who actually sold good stuff) was widely distributed after the game's release. Actually not like that at all, since in this case, the feats are already in the engine and doesn't even require any third party modifications. You just need to know the feat ID and how to access the console. So basically what I was saying is that there's no need for people that didn't get the CE for one reason or another to do without those feats. Or to only use one, when in fact you can have both, regardless of edition. Just use the console and the give feat command. The feat IDs are 1764 for Blessing of Waukeen and 1765 for Merchant's Friend. (I hope posting that is ok on these fora, after all the information is publicly available on loads of other place, including, I think, the official boards)

Which can be given to your character through the console regardless of what version you have. Same is true for Merchant's Friend.

Usually when a game wants you to press ~,