Tale

I like the idea that you start off struggling to survive. What I dislike is the idea that the random dice gods decide if you live long enough to make it to level 2. No low level PC should be able to die from a single critical hit from nameless bandits, unless the encounter is really weighed in his favor in other ways.

I've been pushing for RPGs to revamp their dialogue system. I'm no fan of cutscene dialogue, where you're basically just held hostage to someone else trying to talk to you. It'd be nice if the dialogue system was something more contextual. Someone tries to talk to you, you press a button which brings up response choices. Or, if you want to ignore them, or even break the conversation mid discussion, you can just walk away. Basically, you still have enough control that while the bad guy is giving his epic speech about how he's misunderstood (and also a god) and that he really tried to be better (but now he will devour your soul), you get to just start firing arrows at him mid-sentence. Being able to walk away from conversations was a nice feature in Neverwinter Nights.

How else are you going to get the golem armor in the third game?

By my understanding a mature theme is a theme that acknowledges the complexity of situations and may potentially challenge ideas of the audience. If art and theme are a form of communication, then the mature theme is the speech intended to make people think and become informed, as opposed to the speech designed to only pander by reiterating shallow commentary the audience will agree with out of hand.

The one thing I like about class systems is it gives them opportunities to be distinctive. The classes get to have different resource pools, ability pools, and gimmicks. You get your wizards that cast with mana, your necromancers that cast based on how many corpses are on the field, and your moneymancers cast based on how much change they can fling right at people's faces. In a more unified system, each stat tends to have a specific purpose for all characters. Your magic user is intelligent, unless its healing magic, then he is wise. But what if I want a charming caster? Or a rogue who's really not as dextrous as he should be, but makes up for it with brute thuggery. He can jam a lockpick in that door so hard it'll open just to get him to leave it alone. Now, the problem with that kind of system is they have to build all those classes.

/salute

Sometimes. Depending on the game. It's not a well known or even well utilized feature of Steam. And you have to be careful about how you uninstall Steam or it might suck up the game data with it. So there's some catches in there.

Welcome back, Alan! I say as he zips past us to never be seen again.

So it's going to be a musical RPG!

There's also D&D games sale on GOG which sounds like a good idea if new title is about to be announced. Or maybe it's just a coincidence, I don't know anything anymore. Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition comes out in 4 days. That's probably the reason for the GOG promo.

I think TLJ/Dreamfall would be pretty safe for Funcom. It can be done without a very hefty budget and it's bound to generate buzz on its own. It just won't be a massive success that would get the back on their feet to making high budget MMOs. Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm talking about.

It's setup to appear only once per day for people. There's a cookie you can delete that manages this. (obsidian.net cookie, not forums.obsidian.net)

The last word on Torment is that Avellone thought they could do a lot better than that, by using the studio's ideas instead of just focusing on him.

Definitely not. They have Onyx. Infinity Engine belongs to Bioware/EA.

I'd prefer a Pratchett/Games Workshop crossover featuring Orks. Just Orks.

I see. So they are asking for a truckload of money for an IP that the younger CRPG generation probably hasn't even heard of, and that's why there hasn't been any proper D&D games in 10 years. I think the main reason we haven't had any proper D&D games is because of the Atari debacle. They had this shift of focus to social/downloadable titles. They basically left AAA development altogether and took the license with them.

Playing Transformers: Fall of Cybertron makes me wish for a Transformers RPG. Customizing your robot, scanning vehicle forms, joining the Autobots or Decepticons, moving your way up through regular Transformer to things like Transmetals or something. Earning a second vehicle form, the ability to shoot out little Transformers like Soundwave, or to join and become a bigger transformer, that kind of thing. That'd be pretty fun.

Infinity Engine is owned by Bioware/EA. So they'd need to license it. Which is why I don't see them using it. Onyx should be capable of 2D work.

Also residuals. But you may be talking about good for the audience in the early stages. A vision statement alone might be more than we get on some games for quite a while.

Sleep, not rest?

It looks like there's more than what we're seeing. To the left of the highest E is a line, which could be from another letter.

This time I do remember the source quote! Looks like ETERNITY might be a winner.

That was an example, not an actual decipher.

Better yet, why? Baldur's Gate did what it was meant for. I see no benefit to dragging it back out.

That's what it sounds like to me.