Magnum Opus

That's all right. I don't really expect too many people (read: anyone) here, of all places, to agree with me :D. You guys all seem to be pretty dedicated gamers; I'm a periodic one at best, basing my game buying firstly on whether I've got the hardware for it (instead of buying new hardware for games), and secondly on the whims of what's popular in the industry at the time, and whether that happens to coincide with what I'm looking for in a game (which seems to be pretty atypical to begin with). I had a great time with the IE games, and that led me to the Fallouts that had come previously, but games like those are the exception rather than the rule. Right now, I'm in the "the game industry (or at least the PC end of it, which is the only part relevant to me) is turning out nothing but the same-looking forumlaic action-oriented crap that my hardware could barely support even if I WAS interested in playing a game like that" part of the cycle, so it's not surprising that I'm looking at things with a pretty jaded eye. :D

I could understand the "compromise" mentality if the DMC were coming out a month or two after the initial release, and if the news had come just a couple weeks before the game goes gold -- those lengths of time imply to me that they just can't meet their target deadlines in any way shape or form, and that there are still serious, time-consuming issues left to deal with, so it has to come down to one or the other. However, how long is it until this game's released (serious question, there: I don't really know when the game's due)? One month? Two? No firm release date yet? And we're only talking a delay of a week or two: the time it takes to replicate the game and ship it. They're planning for a delay of only two weeks. To me, that's suggests either extremely poor planning on someone's part, or someone's running a little guinea pig experiment. How much of this crap will consumers really accept? How much more can they be conditioned to accept? And tangentially, can we make them happy to accept it? 'Cause that's the response I'm seeing in this thread for the most part. A few rumours later and the board monkeys are more than happy to buy a product off the shelf, and an incomplete product no less, if they still get their DMC more or less right away, instead of three months off. All I see this doing is lowering the bar yet again -- And I do see it as one of the causes in the decline of PC gaming (if not Western civilization :D): it's just too much work. People who are looking for an hour's casual entertainment aren't going to want to go through the hassle of downloading this and that and the other thing just to get the game they already bought working. Pop in the disk, install the game, and go. Not pop in the disk, install the game, and be directed to such and such a website so that you can jump through a few hoops for the rest of the game. Do I personally want the DMC? No. But if I get the game, I'm going to end up paying for it anyway. I accept that. If the product I buy contains things I don't want, I'm prepared to suck it up and just pay for it in order to get those parts of it that I do, because they're telling me it's a package deal: in this case, OC, Toolset, DM client. That's what they're telling us the game consists of (isn't it?), and when I go into the store to pay the already-marked-up price, that's what I expect. That's what I demand. I expect them to sell me what they say they're selling me, in short. Will have to read the box to see just what they're marketing the game as being, but that's the impression I've got right now. OC, Toolset, DMC. Just like NWN1. Only now... whooops. You'll have to come to us to get part of the game you paid for. That, IMO, is what stinks. Because internet access costs money, and it costs me time to download things. Essentially, they're making me pay to get the game I already bought, spending time and money for a product I should already have by any standard marketplace procedure. In this case, it's just a useless DMC; if Bio's stats are correct, only a miniscule percentage of the people who buy the game will use it, and I'm certainly not planning on doing so. What really sucks about this is the notion that they're actively planning for a delay in the core content of their product, shipping an incomplete product to stores and expecting people to pay (full price, I'm betting -- I truly doubt that we'll see any sort of price reduction because the product is incomplete) for something that could have been complete but for a delay of the length of time it takes to press up copies of the disks and ship them to stores. What's that, two weeks? Not months, not years. Weeks. Software development is skipping deadlines constantly. This game has all the hallmarks, from development to publishing, of a bargain bin game for me. Paying first-run prices for a game that isn't even all there yet? Forget it. When the pubishers manage to get their act together and deliver a complete, finished product, then I'll see what they're offering. Not before. Who knows, though? Maybe they'll market the DMC as bonus content for that initial first run. That'd put an even shinier spin on the situation: they've developed this whole other aspect of the game, just for gamers... for FREE! Wow! Just gloss over the fact that it was supposed to be there all along and people will lap it up. Shoddy business practices coming into play here somewhere. There's information I have yet to see/understand before I make up my mind on the issue completely, but from what I've seen so far... unimpressive. Ahhh, don't mind me. I'm just in a cynical frame of mind these days.

Exactly... who expects companies to actually deliver on the product they're supposedly selling you these days? I mean, come on, people. First you expect a program to actually come with all parts in the box when you buy it, and next you'll actually have the gall to expect all those parts to work right out of the box with no patching! Where does it end? Getting a printed manual, too?! Madness!

There are a couple minor things to take care of once you get your guild, but the meat of the Thieves Guild is found before you actually get the stronghold, so I'd say you lucked out and got the better of the two strongholds. 'Bout all you can look forward to with the Thieves Guild is fiddling around with your thieves, trying to maximize their profit. Fighter stronghold is much more satisfying, IMO.

Overall, it's one of my favourite game soundtracks, too. I just can't help cringing when I hear those first few notes of Track 4, though... damnable Cliff Racers...

Yep... ice caves en route to the Seer. I think there are three such Remorhaz-infested areas: the one with the eggs; the one with the blind dwarf who makes those neat ice-weapons, upgrades the Sword of Aihonen, makes that ice rose for the bard in Lonleywood, etc; and the one with the seer herself. Definitely purty areas, but not all that much goin' on in them... I tend to forget about those areas, too, for some reason, when thinking back on that expansion.

Cliky

Site updated... looks pretty. Can't really tell much about the game from it as there're only a few pieces of information that I'd consider "solid": the existance of Dwarves (exactly what that means I don't quite know yet, but I'd imagine most of the usual stereotypes apply); a specific place name; there's a segment of life in the setting that subscribes to monarchy-style rule; magic is a pretty pervasive element in the game. Could be everyone and their dog can cast spells, could be it's just something that everyone accepts but no one can really wield. Seems to be a corrupting influence, though how is unclear, naturally. The rest is standard RPG hype, just couched in slightly different language than the hype they had up there previously. Spiffy logo, though. Bronze-age sort of stuff, perhaps? Copper, even? I figure if they had steel and such-like in their setting, they'd make use of it in thier logo. Suggests that smithing and metalcraft hasn't really taken off yet, at least it does to me. *shrugs* Not much new stuff, really. Wait and see, wait and see. I suspect it'll still be a while before anything substantial comes down the pipe.

1. Ravel (Torment). Easy first choice. And for the rest... not necessarily in order: 2. The Master (FO1). Found him/her/them quite disturbing at the time. And the second time, now that I think about it... 3. The Guardian (Ultima 7, SI, 9). Good villain. 4. Nordom (Torment) 5. Korax the Ghoul (BG1: You look veeeery tasty today... ). A little addled, but fun. 6. Sulik (FO2). Like every other joinable in that series, incompetent to the point of being detrimental in combat, but a character with a fun hook nonetheless. Go grampy bone!! 7. Rakeesh (QfG series)... with a nod to Ad Avis. 8. Dupre (Ultima). Most of the characters in that series were defined in imagination almost as much as by the game until the last installation, but SI... *nods* 9. Morte (Torment) 10. The Luremaster (IWD - TotL).

Currently, I see video games as art in much the same way as I see that last Schwarzenegger action film as art.

Once upon a time... There were da rumourz in a wee fishin' village called Easthanve, nestled on the shores of Lac Dinneshere in the Greate Frozen North... otherwise known as The Spine of the World. Aye... rumours, friends, rumours of beasts most foul, of Winter gripping the North more savagely by far than in living memory. Of giants, and war... and on the eve of one such windswept and bitter day, a messenger arrives in Easthaven, seeking out those in power, be-seeking aid from the local militia on behalf of non other then the Druid of Kuldahar himself. Upon so speaking, did the messenger die... and thus begins the adventure... of...a lifetime!! Swiftly gathering his resources, Hrothgar, the leader of Easthaven, did soon mount a expedition on behalf of his beleagured friends to the... south? east? Can't quite recall the direction in which they didst travel, but lo! Fate was already conspiring against them. The shipments to their isolated town had been disrupted by Orcs most Foule! And then, seemingly by chance, did a nameless band of staff-bearing heroes enter the fray. Aye... by chance alone was the North saved from beetles and goblins and squirrels most dire. Set out from Easthaven did they... but no! An avalanche in the mountain passes! Horror! The Enemy Unknowne sends forth hisserits minions to waylay Hrothgar's brave band, sparking cruel cascades of snow and sending them to their frozen grave. All but that fate-marked band of unnamed heroes. Blah blah.. Kuldahar... Meet the Druid... Druid goes "Dunno whazzup... help?" Heroes are all, like "Sure dude!" Druid goes "Kewl! Check out Vale of Shadows. Nastiness lurkin' in da darkness, man... nasty. Could be the Root of All Evil." Heroes are all, like, "Sure, dude!" Alas, Kresselack the Black Wolf, Mournful and Sneaky Spirit of the Vale of Shadows, was not the evil they sought, and then did our heroes return to the Druid in shame and foreboding. Then did the Druid say unto them: "No clue, dudes... need, like, an ARTIFACT! So we can, ya know, SEE where the enemy's at. Dude." To which our heroes replied "Shure, dude. Like... uhh... know where one is?" And did the Druid respond "Most assuredly! The HEARTSTONE GEM! shall save us! Fetch it for me, will ya?" To the Temple of the Forgotten God did our heroes sally forth... only to find the good priests of the temple slain, and the Gemstone gone. Woe and Confuddlement! And did the Druid say, "Dude... what's that yer carryin' there? Priests at the temple workin' on a new beverage?" "Nay!" cried the heroes, distraught, "'tis poison most foule!" "Poison! ACK! That's bad karma, man... luckily, the nature of the poison itself means that those who stole the Heartstone gem can only be in... Dragon's Eye! Dude." Then did the mightier heroes sally bravely forth yet again, this time into the volcanic depths of Dragon's Eye. "To dragon's eye we go... to dragon's eye we go.. hi ho the merry- o to dragon's eye we go" Then, at the last, did they find that which they sought. The Heartstone gem, scrying bauble magnificent. Too bad they had to hack their way through legions of yan-ti, undead, lizardmen, and trolls to get it. Oh, and the demon. Yxunomei, to give the beast a name.... Marilith by trade. Seems someone else wanted the Heartstone gem as well... and new hints from the verbose beast of an "Old Enemy". Intrigue! "To Kuldahar we go, to Kuldahar we, hi ho the merry-o, to Kuldahar we go" O Cruel Fate! The village attacked! Foes unknown, the Large and Smelly Orogs have come! To the village they came. And among them... another. One with hands of blood, reaching out to drain the life of the archdruid. "Dudes... dying. Bad karma, dude... shapeshifter? Unknown... unknown." "But what shall we do now... dude?" Cry the heroes. For with the death of the Druid, the Heartstone gem is so much paperweight in their unknowning hands. "To Larrel... elven archmage. Used to play... canasta together... told him how to use it... in a drunken haze... your only hope, now." "To the Severed Hand we go, the Severed Hand we go, hi ho the merry-o, the severed hands we sow." Undead... shadow... failed mythal... armies of darnkess... Ah ha! Larrel! Seems he's a touch mad. Just let me fix that... there we go. All better. Well, except for the Undead thing he's got goin' on. Looks good on him. And then did Larrel use the Heartstone Gem, and he spake unto them: "Seek ye thy foe in the Den of the Betrayers, in Dorn's Deep shall all be made clear." "la la la la... ooo! Dorn's Deep! Nice statuary." Revered Brother Poquelin, self-styled Priest of Ilmater... blood stained robes... many, many enemies... drow... Svirfneblin... corruption, death, pain... Ooo! Not very nice at all. "Blaste ye, heroes! I didn't really want Dorn's Deep anyway! I'm goin' to... Easthaven! Ha HA!" Then did the Heroes path come full circle, and found they themselves back in the quiet little fishing village of Easthaven. But lo! What change hath the twisted Priest of Ilmater wrought? Sheathed in ice was the Temple, shattered were the homes, and imprisoned were the townsfolk by cyclops. Woe and Calamity! Said the Priest of Tempus to the heroes: "Get 'em! Will be along shortly" Said the heroes to the Priest: "Dude!" Begun then was the final act, the confrontation with the maddened Ilaterian priest... only.... "Dude! Yer not Priest!" "Nay, Heroes... Demon am I! And now, to open this portal of which you have heard many rumours, to unleash the Blood War upon this fertile ground. I--" "Dude, seriously?" "Dude!" Then did the formerly embittered and faithless priest of Tempus, Everard, hurl himself bodily into the re-opened portal to the lower planes, halting the demons from drowning his beloved, frozen popcicle land in the blood of its people. Quoth the Demon: "NOOooo! Dude!" Quoth the Heroes: "IIiiieeeeyaaaaa!" Quoth the Demon: "Dude?" An then what a battle ensued... the portal closed, the demon slain and sent back to the Hells for a hundred years. Victory! Then did our heroes flee the shattered temple and raise their swords in salute. "Dude!" Good story. Good characters. Loses a certain something in translation, though.

1. BG1 + TotSC* Had a large, largely explorable, and consistently presented world with things to be found, a good bit of history, and colourful NPCs. Had an engaging story that had a few "whazzat?" moments (Nashkel Mines, Iron Ore Disruption Scheme, etc), but which was still "present" enough to drive the game forward if I was willing to overlook certain things. And Durlag's Tower. That place kicked butt. 2. BG2 - SoA* Joinable NPCs. Romances were a little odd, but still a highlight. Tons and tons of combat. And SPELL combat. Big game. Lots of interesting dungeons... little bit disjointed at times, though; flipped from Egyptian to Gothic. Distracting. Flashes of brilliance, I'd say, with the Ust Natha (setting, quests, and intrigue), even though Drow were never my favourite society. Good villain. Sarevok was good, too, but I just like Irencius better, despite his whole "bondage" fashion sense. Greater replayability than BG1, and only one "WFT" moment when I went to hunt down Bodhi in Chapter 6 and it somehow took me 12 hours to make my way from the Slums to the Graveyard, conveniently allowing the sun time to set so she could surprise me in ambush. I hate it when they do things like that. 3. IWD + HoW + TotLM All told, a fine game. Second most memorable NPCs of the group, by a wide margin. Best items, too, with the descriptions. Better quality artwork. A little too hack n' slashy, a little too "straight and narrow" through the game, but a few really good dungeons in that one, too. Top notch dungeon crawl. 4. Torment. Wonderfully developed joinable NPCs in most cases (FFG was a little thin). Ravel... two thumbs up for Ravel. Combat, though, when I wanted to fight it up, didn't provide nearly the same level of engagement as BG2's, and the spells were... cumbersome at best, a waste of time at worst. Spectacular, but unwieldy... was afeared for my monitor when playing a mage, switching video modes with those movies so frequently. Setting wasn't to my taste -- too "gritty" -- but the way it was conveyed worked well enough. Don't mind "reading" my way through games in the slightest, but it could have been tightened up in places. A little too heavy on the "freshman philosophy" at times, but considering the visceral nature of most games, I'll take it. Gladly. Found it to be the buggiest of the IE games.... wish they could've found time to complete the last third of the game. Never really did like the radial interface they used. Very interesting concept, questionable execution. Unmatched in certain aspects, easily surpassed in others. Overall? Middle of the pack. 5. IWD2 Best first chapter in any of the IE games. Went downhill from there. And down... and then down some more... bumped up a notch... back down... then up... down.... Inconsistent offering. Good battles, some really memorable ones, too.. loved the implementation of Mordenkainen's Sword that it had. Again, good items, still like the artwork, the portraits especially. A little too rigid, though, in terms of when you level up. Party of Six needs to pretty much have a dedicated thief in order to really have a chance at some of those traps, not much room to spread the skill points around. Spells too closely rationed. Last fight was a b*tch on HoF, hated the fact that you couldn't save between round 1 and round 2 on any difficulty setting. Love-hate relationship with Puzzles, loved the customizable interface. Best icons of any IE game. Liked the character creation and level-up options in this game the best, too. Subraces, subclasses... neat-o. 6. ToB. Too high-level. Too cheesy. Too combat-heavy. A few interesting items but went overboard with the "upgrading" concept. Felt rushed, should've ditched WK and added a bit more meat into the main storyline, instead of having half the expansion have nothing to do with anything. Likely wouldn't have even mentioned this one except for the Wild Mage. Best class ever. Oh, and Angurvadel (original version). Finally a decent longsword! *Interchangeable, really. Both great games and the best of the IE bunch, IMO.

Oh yeah, and the first one was better than the second, 'specially after you get it patched up with Trials of the Luremaster.

Pro: More challenging combat than the other IE games. "Expanded" history of the region: you get to see what happens to Kuldahar & the Severed Hand after the first game. Nice little bit of continuity to the setting, instead of always dashing off to far corners of the globe to see new sights. Overlapping areas can do wonders for a game's setting between one game and the next. Some well integrated puzzles: Fell Wood, Dragon's Eye. Good use of setting... not quite so obviously puzzle-like as some others I've seen. Cera Sumat & the Six Lost Followers. Definitely a highlight. Very nice story all told, good fight, good reward. More useful druids. Nice options for character creation/advancement. Much preferred over 2nd Ed. Yquog. Yquog rocks. Cons: The well-integrated puzzles tend to road-block things; once you've figured them out, they become chore-like, requiring completion in order to advance. Very rigid level-up and party balance scheme. Little leeway regarding when you level up. Spells are carefully rationed, too carefully, IMO... typically left my wizard "wanting". A few too many areas... would've preferred a little more complexity/detail to some of the existing areas instead of the larger number of simpler areas, especially in the middle area of the game. Targos and the Severed Hand were really well done, the Ice Temple grated somewhat (both times... the layout highlighted the difficulties with the pathfinding excruciatingly well), Fell wood and the wandering village I liked, but everything after that, and before Kuldahar, seemed drawn out. Monks. Don't like monks. Goofy class, that. Vaguely disappointed with the Chief Bad Guys. Lots of backstory, not much there when you finally come face to face with them.

Gotta admit, I don't see where the confusion is, here. Some people like action and leveling up and loot and don't want that hamstrung by concerns of plausibility. Others, where levels are significant at least, as in DnD, prefer a slower pace. Why? Because they value the Setting, the Story, and maintaining the integrity of those things above achieving Godhood in under 30 hours. Call it Believability, call it Immersion, call it Good cRPG Design, call it what you want, it all boils down to what you value in a game; action and challenge, or a believable setting where all the rules are known and make sense, and where those rules actually define the setting. The number of monsters you face, where they're found, how soon you face them, how quickly you advance, what you get in terms of relative power when you advance (if DnD was a system where a character's potential was largely tapped out at level 1000 instead of level 30, going up to level 20 in a 30 hour game wouldn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, would it?), what sorts of items you get and where... all of these things matter. 'course, some people just want to follow the rules for the same of following the rules, but I don't think that's Hades, here. Not really, anyway. After all, he names BG1's rate of level advancement as being ideal in cRPGs, and that was quite a bit faster than your typical DnD PnP session, I think. Hell, most PnP characters are more into politics and retirement when they hit level 9 and 10, aren't they? They're too damn old to be running off to save little Timmy every time he falls down a dungeon. Some people just want different things from their cRPGS, that's all. Me, I've seen enough Action RPGs for a while. I want one where there's a little consistency and plausibility regarding the setting and the character's place within that setting. In general, though, that seems to be too much to ask for.

Well, subtlety is quite beyond me, you know, and since I'm never, ever sarcastic, you'll just have to take my posts at face value (ha ha... smilie humour, there), and run on the assumption that I'm going to mistake yours constantly. Better for all involved.

Dungeon Keeper 2's a game I picked up once at one of those old computer equipment sell offs (got Wheel of Time, Dungeon Keeper 2, and Heretic 2 for $1.50 CAN), but I've never actually installed it. I probably should one of these days. :D

Well, if we're going to be pro-rating our favourites by the smilie system... Quest for Glory 1: Quest for Glory 2: Quest for Glory 4: Doom Baldur's Gate: (+TotSC: ) Baldur's Gate 2 - SoA: Fallout: Fallout 2: Diablo IWD/HoW +TotLM: ... Damn, how's that for irritating?

I've been studiously trying to innoculate myself against the hype for this game (apologies to any who read this who are in marketing... am not really comparing what you do to spreading a virus or some such :D), but given some of the things I've read about it, it hasn't been easy. Some of the descriptions of the situations their AI can generate sound like too much fun to pass up. Even if the dialogue ends up being crap, the story fizzles out

Hmmm... I recall my first game being one called "Haunted House" on my dad's old Radio Shack TRS-80... late 70's, I'd guess. It was a text adventure . I've never been what you'd call an avid or prolific gamer, though. I've been around long enough to see the genres develop and more recently, begin to overlap, but I've never made an effort of play as many games as I could. There were a few combat sim games (A-10 tank killer, Falcon), a few FPSs (Wolfenstein, Doom, Hexen), a few adventure games (King's Quest, Quest for Glory, Riven), but mostly I gravitate towards cRPGs. I got over my "fast-paced action and level up" fixation with arcade style games like Round 42 and later Arkanoid (and most recently Diablo), and The Bard's Tale did a similar thing for me regarding cRPGs. Now I value games with a high degree of what I call "innate replayability": not so much the heavily scripted story arcs that you see sometimes, where there's a profound choice to be made at only one or two points in a 40 hours game, but where an effort has been made to provide a complete game world whose laws are consistently applied (to NPCs, monsters, and my own characters) where I can putter around at my leisure, get into and out of trouble all on my own, with a good bit of history, myth, and culture thrown in to flesh the whole thing out and just enough story to give me a bit of direction. Ultima 7 was the one of the best games I've come across for that sort of thing so far, with Baldur's Gate 1 not all that far behind. IWD did it very well, too, although using a more combat-heavy approach. Torment was also good in this department, but in a more cerebral way; instead of collecting loot, stacking crates, and essentially establishing myself as Richest Avatar Alive, I was molding my character according to the rules of the game. All of these games offered the freedom and imaginitive outlet that I play these games for in the first place. Escapism; I read fantasy books for the same resons. A well designed game can just to it better. I think that's what it boils down to for me. I look for things that appeal to my imagination more than test my reflexes or tactical ability. I couldn't care less if I'm not particularly challenged by the combat as long as the monsters are where they are, and why they are, for a reason. Some challenge is necessary, if only for that feeling of satisfaction you get when you're all still standing at the end of the fight, but variety and imagination are what I really look for in a game now; I know there'll be a good bit of challenging combat regardless of what game I get. Maybe it's always been that way, though; way back when your character on the screen was a nine pixel block involving all of three colours, imagination was half of the experience (or, in the case of Rogue, more than half ). These days, just glancing through the various online gaming sites, that sense of "been there, done that" has only grown for me. Action RPGs are everywhere, but they're generally too "actiony" for my tastes these days. Screenshots are of no help whatsoever, since they all look the same to me anyway. All 3D, all with very similar colour palettes, all with similarly blocky characters, 2 dimensional textures for leaves on the similarly blocky trees, all with similarly over-the-top weapon trails and spell effects. Or, all with very similar Next-Gen graphics, depending in the game in question. The hardware became standarized, but at times it almost seems like the graphics and the gameplay did too, with all of them pushing the same envelope at the same time in response to the last blockbuster title.... or it could be that there's just going to be a confluence of graphics at some point, with all of them achieving "life-like" in the end. Whatever the reason, I'm left feeling with a distinct sense of "bleh" about gaming these days, where I'd rather go back and play one of the classics again. If there's one thing that gives me hope for gaming these days, though, it's the genre-crossing that we're starting to see more and more of: FPSs are using more character development and story to direct the action, and games like GTA:SA have more freedom and depth to their game worlds than some cRPGs. They're still limited to how many different things you can blow up, shoot holes in, or drive through, but it's getting there, albeit slowly. On Topic (it's just for show, really): 40 hours could be fine for a game... or not. For me, it depends on how the game plays. The NWN OC, at ~60 hours, I'd guess, seemed painfully long at times (I could go into the reasons why, but I'm blabbering enough as it is), while both BG1 and BG2 managed to achieve a happy medium where I could have kept playing even longer than I did if there'd just been more areas to visit and more dungeons to clear out. Neither of those games seemed too long at all. Diablo, similarly, felt perfect to me given the style of game it was, clocking in at around 6 gameplay hours (the Hellfire expansion included). It just depends on the way the game plays, and I won't know that until I get my grubby little mitts on the thing and try it out. Ideally, I'd like enough content to keep me going for a decade or so while the industry advances far enough to interest me in gaming again, but that might be a little much to hope for.

I agree, but not together, unless you start at 15th to 16th level. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Maybe video games just aren't your thing anymore? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Can't speak for The Judge, but I've been wondering the same thing, myself. Where the levels are meaningful in the game system (such as DnD levels) I vastly prefer slow level progression, for a variety of reasons. I prefer games designed around the premise that my character is still part of the world in which events take place, and that my character is bound by the rules of that game world just like everybody else, instead of games that put my character first regardless of any other consideration. I prefer games where it is possible to stumble across fights that are simply too hard for me. I don't expect to be the Moste Powerfule Knyght On Lyfe at the end of my month-long tenure as an adventurer; there should always be somone out there who's stronger than I am. Always. I prefer games with stories that extend to every aspect of that game, from the rumour-mongering peasants to the ruins found in the woods at the edge of town to the placement of the monsters: having combat for the sake of combat isn't what I'm after in a cRPG, and having a deep story that only extends to a handful of NPC, a specific fight or two, and one or two choices in an otherwise repetitive gameplay experience doesn't do it for me anymore. Having combat offer a tactical challenge and nothing more is pointless; combat for the sake of combat, just so that you can fight another fight that will somehow be balanced to provide the exact same level of challenge you encountered 10 levels ago, only there are flashier lights and bigger monsters involved now. There's got to be more behind a fight than an experience point or two and a shiny new weapon. Maybe I'm too picky, maybe I'm just bored with games in general. Or maybe they're just not making the games I really want to play. *shrugs* I suspect all apply with me at the moment.

Have you tried running your DirectX diagnostics program? (click Start, Run, and type in dxdiag). Click the Sound tab that refers to your sound card and run the diagnostics; that might give you some idea of what's gone wrong, too. Failing that, Windows has it's own Troubleshooting guide... you can find that under the "More Help" tab of the DirectX diagnostics proggy. Any problems I've been unable to resolve myself, it's usually been of no help whatsoever, but you never know... you might get lucky with it.

No sewers? Well... crap. (get it? sewers? crap? HAHAHAHAHA!) Out of the whole Mountains/Forests/Caves/Sewers/Plains/City/Wilderness thing, though, Sewers is easily my least favourite place to go adventuring, so I'm not all that sad about not being able to putter around in places like that. A loss? eh... I suppose, if only because cRPGs usually have sewers. *shrugs* But hopefully they've seen the error of their ways and are going with barrels to break open, instead of crates. Barrels, people... you just can't do better than a good barrel. Still going with a noticeable hub system, though? That's a little disappointing. Hope it's at least disguised relatively well... not a fan of hubs as a means of game world or story design. BG1 could be considered hub-like, but it didn't feel like it to me. World of difference between a BG1 -style hub and a NWN1 style of hub. World map is, at the very least, a step in the right direction.

Woohoo! MO for teh win!!

I love you. :ph34r: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It's the avatar. How can anyone not love that face? I know what you mean, though. Things just seems faster on today's Intarweeb. Twitchier, I'd almost say (I blame MTV, high bandwidth, and drive-through windows). Not that that's what influences my posting style; I just tend to blather on and on and on and on in those rare events when I've got anything to say at all.