Bloodlines is a fantasy variation. You might be able to call it gothic fantasy or whatnot. KOTOR would be a futuristic fantasy.
I don't see how Fallout could fall into fantasy. Bloodlines and KOTOR are both swords and sorcery games. I never got too far into Fallout, but I didn't see much of the sorcery element.
I don't think the game's point was to create an overall consistent and believable fiction.
Your last point "why not here?" would probably be because it would be damned annoying if the screen shook constantly.
I talked with a friend about RPG genres in respect to MMOs. I'm mentioning it because it applies to non-MMO RPG games recently. He said "Fantasy is a flooded market" to which I responded "Flooded? It's ****ing Waterworld."
Star Wars is swords and sorcery. Not 100% in the movies, but 100% in the three RPGs made off it (KOTOR1, 2, and SWG).
And heck, the upcoming Mass Effect is guns and sorcery. We need more Science Fiction RPGs, we've got barely any, and none recent.
I beat my first playthrough easily enough. I'm maybe halfway through my second.
I can never bring myself to play good characters all the way through RPGs. Not enough funny options.
"We've also got Star Wars franchises like Knights of the Old Republic ... that we will not leave behind. It's very important to us that we grow those franchises."
Doesn't really say anything. It was probably among a list of titles, hence the "...". And with only 2 titles a year, it could be forever before they get around to it. All it basically says is they want to do it at some point when they get around to it.
It's everywhere! Quick, lock yourself in your house because there's terrorism!
On topic, ABOUT TIME! These buggers are late and I felt lied to that my flying automotocar is taking so long.
How can you claim that Half-Life's ending was rushed/unfinished, cliffhanger, or plain missing compared to Half-Life 2's? Half-Life 2's was drastically more of a cliffhanger than Half-Life's.
Action games are also pretty tedious if you just sit down for 10 minutes. You shoot imps in a hallway... and then what? Nothing, unless you play a bit further to the reward at the end of the level. Action games aren't a lick of a bit different from RPGs in that regard. Nor are they any different for people sending you off to do other things before they open doors. Often you have to go find some obscure key that's all the way on the other side of the base just to open a storage closet.
Of course, the inspiration for his post is FF XII. Myself, 5 out of 8 owners of the game on a private forum I regular, and at least one other person on this forum have all either taken extended (indefinitely) breaks from the game or just stopped playing it altogether out of absolute boredom. So, it's not exactly an ideal representative.