StillLife

Not to diverge too much off topic, but since there are some D&D knowledeable people participating in this thread: Why do you feel there are so many FR CPRGs and no Dragonlance? Did that setting die/become FUBAR or something? I haven't followed it for ages. Last I noticed, there was another Cataclysm or something and the minotaurs took over Ansalon, but I had assumed it was still alive and kicking. Anyway, they are both somewhat traditional fantasy settings--yet DragonLance seems to be greatly underused as a video game setting. Both have popular books with very popular characters(Raistlin anyone?), but the differing races in Dragonlance always seemed more interesting to me than FR. I hate halflings and as I mentioned earlier, Drow are lame. Krynn Minotaurs and Kender are great though. The gods and the way magic was split into alignments was more interesting too.

Good point. I always thought Drizzt, mainly Drow were a bit silly myself. I always play rangers/hunters/survivalists though. If there are any true main heroes of fantasy goofiness, they are rangers. Unlike other classes, a ranger can't really be a fully evil bastard, can they?

Probably misinterpreting it as I no longer follow D&D speak, but am I to assume there are no rangers? That would be a travesty if so.

I'm looking forward to this game. I've liked all of Firefly's past games, including the quirky Space Colony. I'm also looking forward to Caesar IV from Tilted Mill, and I'm afraid they're gonna end up screwing each other over with two similar games. Knowing my luck, they'll both go out of business as a result. Not a bad marketing idea though. Hopefully they'll catch the eyes of more casual Civilization and Sim City fans who might not have looked at the game otherwise.

Good grief man, do you go to war with all games you play?

I wish I was was more interested in NWN2, considering its developers, but I'm not. I couldn't get into the originals mods--they always felt like a waste of time to me and the main campaigns were like a snack rather than a full-course meal. I'll still be buying it around the release date though I bet.

Now where's the fun in that?

There does seem to be a disturbing lack of information about Dragon Age. It's been in development...even announced for what, at least two years now? The average cheesey Angelfire page is more informative and fancy than the DA site too. Either: A) Microsoft threw some cash in Bio's direction to pimp the 360, and abandon making PC games. B) BioDemic decided to pull everyone but two guys off DA and move them to Mass Effect since by default, console games are far more important than PC ones. C) They've run into huge problems with the game and want to keep it on the DL. D) Dragon Age looks atrocious and critics/publications are reluctant to even mention it for fear of incurring BioDemic's wrath. E) BioDemic is afraid if they release DA anytime soon(or at all) they won't be able to milk NWN and their new MMORPG as excessively. F) All of the above.

Hmm, this could have been an interesting topic but instead I find a Pokemon discussion? You're all fired.

What you described is one of the reasons why I barely consider Oblivion an RPG. I am enjoying it for the most part, but I don't get the same thing out of it that I do a CRPG. It appeals more to my taste for first-person shooters--one of my other favorite genres--than anything. I think if someone goes into it expecting an experience similar to a regular RPG, it pretty much fails miserably in that respect.

Been through this several times on the Codex, but what the hell. On Oblivion's level scaling: What's the point of having things scale? 1. It's not a linear game you're trying to power your way to the end of. It's a sandbox. If you play it 20 hours, or 100, the level scaling will ensure the game is always at least moderately challenging, that is one of the main functions of the system. If enemies always remain near your power level, you'll always find a challenge to face in the game. There is no getting to an uber level where you can one-shot everything, or any fear of venturing somewhere that is too high above your level either. If somethings extremely difficult, you just need to try harder, utilize more beneficial equipment, or lower the difficulty. There's never a need to give up just because something is above your level. Why am I supposed to be motivated? 1. It's assumed your desire to be entertained through playing the game should be enough motivation...to keep playing. Does someone play an online FPS or a game like Vice City for the thrill of artificially enhancing the strength of their character? No. 2. Many of the rewards(houses, decorations for your homes, horses, nice magical gear, etc.) in the game come through static monetary requirements. To get more money, you need to keep leveling. Selling a few ebony pieces of armor you find in a dungeon is a lot more profitable than selling a couple rusty iron pieces of armor. 3. At certain skill milestones, your character receives perks which provide various benefits. From different offensive abilities and effects, the ability to run faster, and stuff like that. 4. There are a few quests which have a level requirement to begin. Worth pointing out that not all enemies in the game seem to scale with your level. Certain creatures you encounter at lower levels appear to have a cap to them; at some point you'll be able to kill them in one hit for the rest of your time with that character. I could be mistaken, but it seems to be the case with many humanoid enemies too, with the difference being that their equipment continues to scale so they're not total pushovers. Rather than just the same old monsters getting stronger with you, new powerful ones will start popping up as you advance though. Also at higher levels, you'll come across various magical equipment that greatly boosts your stats or defenses and does give you a noticeable power edge over everything from that point forward. Okay, all that said, the incentives in the game, while present, are weak which is why the system can feel pointless at times. Unless you're really thrilled by the idea of having the fastest horse in the game, and a house in each city that is. That--as Gromnir suggested--is where Bethesda ultimately failed. There's nothing inherently wrong with the system itself, and the mere fact it's not traditional doesn't make it so. It's really very smart system in a game that is striving to be a sandbox RPG. I think that's why people are disagreeing with you here Brios, you seem to be arguing that it's bad just because it's not traditional.

Heh, I don't think you're gonna run into a shortage of Star Wars games anytime soon.

Nope, two was enough for me. I'm done with Jedi's and Star Wars in general for a long, long time. That last one they made for the consoles wasn't too terrible. It was worth a rental.

As others mentioned, the number of NPCs in the game is no excuse for next-to-none of them being interesting. Fallout 2 and BG 2 had a lot of NPCs, many of which were memorable. There were more interesting characters in little ol' Shenmue 2, and that game had a ton of voice-acted NPCs as well. Actually, I'm having trouble even thinking of a CRPG that didn't have at least a few distinctive characters like Oblivion does, aside from Morrowind that is. The arena trainer was about as good as it gets as far as personality in Oblivion goes, and that's not saying much.

And thus, we are presented with one of Bethesda's biggest obstacles in creating a decent Fallout sequel: they suck at making interesting characters. Whether it's been lack of interest in doing so, or simply a lack of ability is the question. Tell them to hire some talented writers there in Bethesda-land before attempting to work on FO3, please ShadowStrider. Shame Obsidian is hogging so many of the good, proven ones. I really hope they don't have Brian Mitsoda working on some shallow, dialogueless, hack & slash.

No idea, haven't played either of them. Third-person action games aren't really my thing anymore unless they're player vs player games. @Haitoku: WTF that does mean? Anime is not just about the artwork, but it has a certain style all it's own. Far too much friggin excess. From excess mellowdrama, gore, feminity in male characters, cutesyness, boyishness/girliness, excessive cheese humor, to excessive weapon sizes, excessive anti-heroes, pretty much everything is done to ridiculous and ultimately annoying levels in the majority of anime.

Hey I never claimed to be in love with the implementation of horses in Oblivion. As ShadowPaladin pointed out, being unable to engage in combat from horseback seems odd, since they are there. I also think a big part of the clunkiness I mentioned is more due to somewhat weak implementation, rather than realism. I do think you're being a bit excessive in claiming they're a waste of resources. Look, if we're gonna be hit over the head with these fantasy worlds with crazy magic that can revive people from the dead, exquisitely crafted uber weapons, complex chemical concontions that can do all sorts of neat stuff, it's about time someone figured out how to ride a f'in horse, right? It's a logical step to have mounts in a game with a large medieval gameworld you're supposed to explore. Horses often play a significant part in the overall makeup of a dynamic character too. Gandalf wouldn't have been quite as interesting without Shadowfax, neither would the Riders of Rohan without their trusty steeds. My guy is a knight, a knight just wouldn't be complete without a horse to ride. Nevermind that there's no way in hell anyone decked out from head to toe in extremely heavy, solid metal plates is gonna travel very far without a horse in the first place. Medieval/fantasy heroes and horses go together like peanut butter & jelly. So yes, their presence does add something rather significant IMO, aside from just allowing you to get from A to B in the game faster.

You have to discover dungeons and the like by traveling around the map. Other places aside from major towns, you can't "warp" to without having been to them before. Oh Gromnir, you can be such a silly developer antagonist/attention whore sometimes. I don't think the guy carries on much about the games realism from what I have seen.

Yeah, but most of those are available on other platforms, or shouldn't be purchased in the firt place. The Playstations strength; the thing that differentiates it from other platforms, are the cliche anime/Japanese imports. I'm not knocking the system really, but despite the fact it will have a lazy mans DVD player, and you can play a bunch of old, dated games most people probably wouldn't replay anyway, it would be impossible to justify paying a price of over $150 for it if you generally disliked anime games.

PS anything = bad investment if you tend to dislike anime games. I find it interesting that consoles seem to be gradually nearing the costs of PCs though. I shelled out $1100 for this rig(which is two years old now) and still plays most games at medium to high settings.

I guess the fact it's a unicorn is supposed to be its main appeal. I just happened to stumble across the nutty thing a while back ago and it trampled me. It may be stronger in combat than other horses, though that doesn't count for much.

Eldar, you know horses come in different speeds in Oblivion right? My black horse goes quite fast..it's no Sonic the Hedgehog, but what the heck. Then again, my guy's a heavy armor wearer with relatively low athletics, so maybe it just seems fast. Either way, it's a great benefit over just running. As for the the actual feel of the horses, it's not irrelevant in a game that attempts to be immersive and present a somewhat lifelike world. I sure as hell don't want a horse in a game to handle like an arcadey sports car, especially when you'll be riding it in first-person. That would greatly hinder the immersion. As for the defecation and urination thing, the juvenile part of me(85%) says hell yes! Imagine having the capability of encouraging your horse to do its business on the a fallen foe, that would really liven up the game. It would be Radiant. Perhaps in the near future, we'll see the release of an official mod from Bethesda which enables bowel movements for horses...for a price, of course. One can only hope.

Yeah I actually don't mind the horses in Oblivion too much. If you've ever ridden horses, it is actually a somewhat clunky, akward experience. The game seems to capture that well.

Brilliant. I had almost forgot we live a world where there are only extremes, and there must never be more than two options. Thank you so much for reminding me. So, since a lawsuit is extremely unlikely to be successful, and expressing contempt for business practices and discouraging others from giving into them must surely be whining... Waah? BTW, charging for video game items is still a new practice in the scheme of things. You make it sound as if it's been a standard practice since Pac-Man. Nice job not giving any examples of older games that did it though.

Expansion packs are usually like mini-sequels. There's a big difference between providing another 10-15 hours worth of gameplay, and charging consumers for insubstantial things that should either have been in the retail version of a game, or created for a full expansion. Getting charged cash to buy individual new weapons, armors, spells, house decorations, and various other junk to complete or enhance the retail version of a game is a step in the wrong direction. Would it be alright in your wise, level-headed estimation if movies were released with missing special effects you had to buy, or if full-price books had additional paragraphs and sentences you could purchase online??????!!!!!!!!11111 Say 100,000 people--not an unreasonable estimation--buy the horse armor upgrade for Oblivion...that's $200,000-250,000 for putting horsey armor in the game! If I was a publisher and wanted to rake in some cash, I know that would be a tempting trend to follow. "Hey Jim, why don't we go ahead and cut out half of the equipment we have for the game and sell each piece individually for cash online? We'll make a fortune!" Lovely use of caps and excessive question marks by the way, I totally feel like an overly demanding, irrational jerk now. Off I go to club a baby seal.