Spider

Oh yes, much gratitude. Truth be told I don't even know if I'll be able to muster enough interest to get back into Gothic 3. Uninstalled it when NWN2 arrived since I didn't mind waiting for a patch to ramp up performance a little anyway. But if such a patch doesn't arrive I'm not sure I'll re-install. It's a good enough game, but it runs like crap on my system. I don't really care about most of the bugs either, but if I could play it on medium textures instead of low, it'd probably be enough. Mostly though, it felt like this patch took quite long to get out there and it just doesn't really fix anything noteworthy. Wonder what took them so long. Compare this to what the NWN2 1.03 patch fixed and what the 1.04 will fix and it seems a bit miniscule.

The only changelog I could find: * Fixed ambient sound bug * Sound occlusion improved * Several physics and character movement bugs fixed * Inventory exploit fixed * Camera behaviour improved I hope that's not all it fixes...

Note that they use the same definition of story as Gromnir does. Ie, not critical path, but basically all in-game quests and characters. They used the Dark Brotherhood as an example of the story in Oblivion. Not that I think it makes much of a difference. Oblivion was a good game for many reasons, but it's quality writing (or story design) wasn't one of them.

Oblivion didn't win the voice acting award though. I think Dreamfall snatched that one. It's still stupid it was even nominated. I guess whoever nominated it was dazzled by Patrick Stewart.

It's my favorite as well, but I'm pretty sure FF12 or Oblivion will take that title. On hype alone if nothing else. I mean Oblivion got nominated for voice acting for crying out loud. And Martin Septim for character. Now, I liked Oblivion, but it's overall voice acting was mediocre at best and I hated the character of Martin Septim (and the rest of the cast wasn't exactly anything to write home about either). So if Oblivion can score nominations for the weakest part of the game, it's got to hold some favor at Gamespot.

NWN2 was also nominated for best PC game overall as well as best RPG. I doubt it will win either, but given the win in best story at least means it has a shot at best RPG.

Exactly how does rideable mounts and upgradeable vehicles help achieve a sense of non-linearity?

Ares must be Starbuck. God of War and all... And the Prseident would make a more logical Hera, if going by the actual characteristics of the godess rather than the name (although she isn't quote as jealous and vindictive as the Hera of legend, the rest fits fairly well). I suppose Caprica (at least the version in Balthar's head) could be seen as Aphrodite. And that just leaves Balthar of the credited cast. As for The Five being unknown to the writers. I have a faint recollection of reading an interview where they said they knew (had decided) who all the cylon models were. So I don't think they're going into it blind.

I guess I haven't changed much. I still do either kinda short or very long posts and I still the voice of reason. And I still have the occasional urge to go out of my way to squash what I find to be BS comments. (not that this post is an example of that, but looking through my history there were a few)

I didn't think it was too bad. But truth be told I couldn't remember much about the story from the original campaign, other than Alma being who she is and you being who you are. But I suppose there are a few things that could be bothersome. But Extraction Point really doesn't do much in the way of story anyway, it's all about getting out of dodge.

Although that is true for basically all romances I've seen in a cRPG except for the one with Annah in Torment.

Does she go over if you fail it? I had a pretty lousy influence with her when playing my evil character, but she still fought against the druids. She wasn't exactly happy about it though iirc. Oh yes. One of my favorite shooters of all time. That and the original Unreal. Have you played the expansion pack as well? I finished that a while ago and it's pretty good as well. Not quite as good (the story elements don't quite hold up, but the gameplay is just as fun) but still loads of fun.

You can demand it of her and she'll dump it in a bag on the ground.

Actually, the influence check is after the battle. She leaves to go with her master. At which time you can attack her for being a traitor if you wish.

Just out of curiosity, what is the rogue level supposed to accomplish?

Interplay is apparently not dead after all. They apparently have plans to start producing the Fallout MMO next year with a projected release in 2010. All this according to a SEC-filing. Link (which in turn includes a link to the specific SEC-filing): http://www.destructoid.com/fallout-mmo-int...es--28559.phtml I'm too shocked to have anything more to add at this point.

20 was an arbitrary number, didn't know where actual thresholds were. It still doesn't really change my point. She will only share that piece of information with someone she trusts implicitly and thus if you do something to disappoint her, you'll have to work that much harder to compensate. I still think it makes sense in regards to how real people work.

No, it means the person is somewhat less trustworthy. Loosing one point of influence is not the same as instant dislike. If I go from +20 to +19, it's hardly noticeable.

There are two big problems with gaming sites in general. First, the writing staff is usually fairly young and typically has no training in writing (at least not at first). This typically leads to their texts being a bit too wordy and lacking somewhat in structure. The only reason they're writing gaming reviews is that they have a good enough computer and play a lot of games. Not necessarily bad criteria, but not exactly good either. The second problem is that the gaming press is almost completely dependent on the companies who's products they are reviewing. The ads are from gaming companies, they need to get review copies to be in business, and a lot of press events are fully payed for by the gaming industry (including travel expenses). There is a reason AAA titles generally get at least decent scores (or better) regardless of how good they are. The movie press had the same problem in it's infancy I believe, and hopefully the gaming press will be able to grow up in a similar way. Anyway, I'd say find a site that have reviews that are detailed. If a reviewer spells out potential problems well enough, you'll usually be able to know whether or not those specific things bothers you as well. If I look at reviews, it's typically at Gamespot. I find that their reviews (if not their scores) are detailed enough to fit my needs and in regards to lesser known games pretty honest.

The engine does not limit you to 4 party members. In fact, in the game itself you control more than 4 on at least two separate occasions. And you can edit the .ini (or maybe it's use the console, not sure) to allow yourself to have more party members throughout the entire game. So the limit of 4 is a design choice, nothing else.

Never said I disliked it or that I was vary of it. In fact, I did just the opposite. I have no idea how it'll turn out since I haven't had any first hand experience with the system. It could be a huge improvement in how RPGs are played, it could totally tank. Only time will tell. All I did was point out how having the main character act out the responses differs from him not doing so. That's your point of playing video games over pnp, not mine. I play cRPGs because I like interactive storytelling and because I like character building. But being able to see the character do things isn't much of a factor as to why I play (it's rather a requirement since it'd be mighty hard to play computer games otherwise, and no text based doesn't cut it). So yeah, I suppose it comes down to player imagination. Since I am playing a character, the emotional state of that character factors in when I am choosing dialogue options. So if my character choses one response based on how I think it feels, and then it acts it out with a totally different undertone, then it's possible I would have made another choice. But like I said, I am not passing judgment until I've played the game. What matters first and foremost is whether or not the game is fun. And I've certainly played enough cRPGs with worse roleplaying options (no matter how bad it turns out) and had fun with them, so it's not the end all, be all for me. As a side note, does anyone know how much input we have on the main character? Are looks customizable? Is gender? And character abilities?

Also voted 8. The lack of optional content and somewhat limited replayability (kinda ok to replay once, but it got a bit dull at the end and the third time is kinda boring so I'm not playing it right now) kept it from going any higher. But the first playthrough was a blast.

Actually, there is a difference. In a more traditional conversation system, the acting takes place in the players head. We may be limited in exactly what we can say, but how the character says it is all up to us. Here we're being spoonfed how the character handles things, resulting in me playing Bio's character rather than my own, even if I do get a say in what the character says. This is not to bash the ME system, for all I know it could be loads of fun. I don't judge anything until I've had first hand experience with it. But there is a huge difference to how it traditionally work in western RPGs.

I could have misinterpreted, but I thought that was what they were doing when they brought civilians aboard the galactica (the whole "we have no food" speech and the man from Kat's past came from somewhere, right?).