Tale

I could do without the tunnels, personally. But I'm not strongly advocating against them.

Really enjoying Undead Nightmare. Ammo starts out fairly scarce, but saving a town dumps a ton on you. I still find myself running out, however. And I just got a flaming pony. It's nice to play as John Marston again, after how the regular game ended. And it's often hilarious to see the ignorant townsfolk response to a zombie apocalypse.

I'm not generalizing to an extreme at all. It is the same deal. RPGs dangle carrots to get you to experience the content. Companion quests and interactions are content. That's virtually a rule. As a generalization it's appropriate.

I don't see how that's clear at all. A good argument can be made against Caesar, but the abundance of options to be friendly to NCR only helps Yes Man/House since they want to maintain tourism. It does not deny the other two. No you can screw over the NCR at the very end and make vegas independent or house controlled. But my point is the NCR is shoved in your face right after leaving goodsprings. and you don't get any real chance to work for CL until near endgame. You can easily bypass the BoS entirely just by happenstance. Same with the Khans. So you really only get any true investment with the NCR, mission wise, until 50% though the game. By then many folks will be so invested with them few will turn on a dime to jump ship the first play through. It simply seems really loaded in favor of you getting into bed with the NCR. With that said, I draw the conclusion the official canon is going to be the courier helping the NCR and them taking the area. I could be wrong but certainly seems thats what the devs wanted you to do by the unbalanced sway in their direction for most of the game. House is "shoved in your face" even before the NCR are. Who's the first person you meet outside the Doc's house? The NCR, if following the main path, offer nothing before House does. Primm and the Outpost offer squat. They merely exist. Nobody's going to get invested on those two places anymore than they'll get invested in the one Legion mission there. You want to talk investment, look at the fact that House is the only one who gives you a resting place that isn't a run down shack. The Lucky 88 is probably the most meaningful location in the game to players. House is also the continuation of the quest you get at the start of the game.

RPGs incentivize content. It's little different giving a buff for reaching the end of a companion's content line than it is giving XP or items for reaching the end of a dungeon or doing a quest. Yes, yes, maybe there's something to be said for doing away with that entirely. Let players turn down quests completely without fear of missing some xp gains, gold/caps/florens, weapons, or armor. But I don't see people exactly calling for it. Even New Vegas has something similar. You do the companion quest and the companion gets a buff that ultimately helps you. Though it's tied only to outcomes for their quest they like.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare It basically cost me $5 for the disc version. This is the first I've used the new Dashboard. Glad they finally let you be signed into two messengers at once.

I don't know. I think it would be a pretty great game that made the path you choose have some dire consequences; like combat just got a whole lot trickier because you choose a noble path and the evil (but powerful) mage will no longer fight at your side. This could of course be balanced with some kind of longer term reward for your decency but I would really like it to be a tough choice to have to stick to my principles knowing full well that the cost is high. The good path/evil wizard companion being a simple example. I completely and one hundred percent appreciate the notion of using choice/consequence to present a message about those choices. IE: Good is difficult. It promotes my sole ability to appreciate and analyze narratives by their themes, metaphors, and messages. I think it creates a deep combination of storytelling and gameplay. But Origins never tried it and I can't be disappointed for DA2 not going that route. I'm actually more attached to DA for strategy. So I can support it as a design goal for greater thematic purpose, but not if it's not tied into greater concepts. I see where you're at and I can't entirely disagree.

You know you want to. Anyway, it's kind of a narrow discussion. It's basically Persona (3/4) and Mass Effect/Dragon Age. Persona's only implied and Dragon Age wasn't entirely consistent (Morrigan is a partial aversion). So, it comes down to "The Problem with CONCEPT is SOMETHING PRESENT IN ONE FRANCHISE." Maybe KOTOR had it that way, too.

Past the initial reaction, I'm quite okay with them staying with you regardless. I might prefer if there was some choice and consequence element. Perhaps akin to Alpha Protocol's where a bonus is conferred, but a different one depending on approval or rejection. That may conflict with my next sentence however. I'm attached to the party members being a valid choice for all players, simply so combat strategy doesn't interfere with roleplaying. Though not necessarilly at the extremes, such as a player roleplaying a complete unrelenting sociopath, eating babies, while the kind companions just sigh at him. With them denying that particular path, it's not an issue.

Because credits roll isn't the issue, the relationship itself stops developing entirely. The relationship plot of the game stops at sex. This is completely aside from whether all plot stops at sex. In both ME1 and ME2 there is no further relationship plot after the sex scene. Unless you count the after game cuddling. Or it's Jack, who is treated as a deviant. I don't recall enough of Avatar to comment on its particulars by comparison.

I don't see how that's clear at all. A good argument can be made against Caesar, but the abundance of options to be friendly to NCR only helps Yes Man/House since they want to maintain tourism. It does not deny the other two.

Krahulik from Penny Arcade recently recommended http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/24-CryoburnCD/CryoburnCD/ It took a rather lot of scrounging on my part to find the actual download, however. And I can't remember where I ended up.

I am sustained by your torment.

It's coming out on PC too. Date still TBA. hahahahaha

I have never heard of this place but am fascinated by the concept. And the front page of that website just reminded me about Mark Twain's autobiography. VWOOSH

The issue wasn't "pointless sex scenes" it was "sex as the goal." Movies are much better about that than games. I think the last movie I saw where the relationship culminated in sex was 40 Year Old Virgin. Lots of times they have sex much earlier and then spend the rest of the narrative getting to know each other or dealing with conflict, if sex itself appears at all.

Get Joss Whedon involved and I'm sold. Edit: Or Mel Brooks.

Interesting. I never noticed that. So there were 2 different VA's who did the US version of Geralt? I owned the UK version.

I actually had it that I clicked on a male soldier and he said his main story one-liner, then I clicked on a female soldier and I got the same one-liner...in the exact same voice as the male soldier! That reminds me of Boiling Point, where a character conducted an entire conversation with a different voice actor for each line. The Witcher had shades of this at times. Geralt would just randomly change voices between lines, but there only seemed to be the two.

No, I'm saying the Vatican was acting like a bunch of totalitarian dip****s. I criticize them for it the same way I do Stalin or Mao. But Stalin and Mao are people. And the church has had far more popes than I am willing to name. I could have said "the USSR" and "China" but I prefer to criticize the head mother****ers themselves. Yes, but not all of the Popes engaged in it. Why not single out the particular head mother*****ers in this case? By name. Or maybe you can blame the Russian Czars and Chinese Emperors.

No, I'm saying the Vatican was acting like a bunch of totalitarian dip****s. I criticize them for it the same way I do Stalin or Mao. But Stalin and Mao are people.

Isn't that the preview Maria said got stuff wrong? I don't know. All of them. What if they allow a chubby option for male Hawke?

Yeah, like that's a real country.

Yeah, the Roman Catholic oppression of Florida was a dark time in history.

So, what you're saying is I have competition?