Judge Hades

That is one of the more annoying things about KotOR which no doubt will be in KotOR 2. The way that KotOR2 is sounding like I don't even know why they are even bothering letting the player make his or her own character. It won't matter much due to the limitations on role playing being put into the game.

Criterions that I use in judging a game objectively is not that hard to follow and anyone could use it to determine a game's overall worth without getting into biases. I judge a game on how well each aspect of the game works with one another and how well it provides entertainment. I also keep in mind the target audience of the game as well. Music, graphics, story aspects, artwork, gameplay, and etc must be consistant with each other and provide entertainment during the process of playing the game. If all the elements are consistant with one another and gives a good presentation of entertainment it gets a high score. If there are inconsistancies and bad game play the game recieves a lower score. Its not that hard to be objective. Putting my own personal bias in a review is just bad form because my tastes in games are quite different than the mainstream and casual gamer.

It deserves that score. Leaving out all my own personal biases and tastes, it is a well crafted CRPG.

Does it matter what aliens they put into the game. You can't play them.

Sorry, I don't play MMORPGs. I gave them a try with Ultima Online and Anarchy Online but found them downright pathetic. All they were was level milling and zero story. Sorry, I don't play games like that. I want a game that not only allows me to make any character archtype I want while still give me a good interesting story and role play opportunities. Morrowind and KotOR are the extremes, I prefer a balance in between.

No.

Range fighting doesn't do a soldier any good with that Guardian's Force jump ability that puts him instantly in melee. Also Guardians have a d10 HD. Consulars have a d6.

I don't particularly give a crap about Iraq. All that money we are pouring into that country would be better spent on US schools, infrastructure, and US Citizens. Iraq is simply a money pit that has given Bush dreams of grandeur. Manifest Destiny and all that bullshat. We need to get our troops home and our tax money spent here in the US. Screw Iraq. Let them take care of them own damn selves.

If memory serves the Soldier gets a d10 hit die with the lowest hit die of a Jedi is d6 (maybe d8). Properly equiped soldier versus a properly equiped Jedi Guardian, and the Jedi will win every time.

Thing is fodder units shouldn't be among character classes.

Simple common sense. Not everyone in the galaxy have the abilities to hold their own against a Jedi/Force User. The average grunt will get his arse handed to him every single time. 1st level soldier against a 1st level Jedi (any class) will get owned by the Jedi.

I don't want to play a Jedi. The major fault in the Star Wars RPG is the damn Force powers and the Jedi classes which are way too over powered. I like to play my character, Volourn, not have the power play my character.

Then he would be completely useless since you start the game as a Jedi which you can simply hack and over power opponents and obstacles without even breaking a sweat.

Are you drunk? Less options then the original? There is more. Have you even read anything about the game? Okay, I want to play a scoundrel. Oh wait, I can't. How about a Scout or Soldier. Oh wait, I can't. Far more limitations on creating non-Force users, still limited to be only human, and forcing the player to play the developers' characters. Yep, that really opened up the diversity there.

As long as Obsidian is making hand-me-down games like KotOR they will never make a revolution in computer role playing games, but doing so often means taking a big risk and Feargus is wise to play it safe for now. Hard core CRPG fans who were disappointed with certain parts of KotOR, such as the horrid combat system, party management, and AI, will and should give KotOR2 a pass over and wait for the next Obsidian game.

Here is an important question: Will NPCs do as they are instructed to do or will their stupid AIs have them run off somewhere and attack random enemies totally ruining any sort of strategy that I was trying to set up?

I hate mini games. Real CRPGs don't have mini games. Fallout didn't have minigames. BG didn't have minigames. Ultima 4 didn't have mini games. Hell, not even NWN had minigames. Mini games add nothing to the story of the game therefore a complete waste of time to work on, develop, and play.

Thing is they aren't using the d20 Skill based Force system. They will be using the baseline KotOR system so skills and skill based characters are a moot point.

Doing a hand-me-down game in the first place was a big mistake. Jedis aren't skill based characters for the most part. Skill based characters such as Scoundrels will not be a part of the character creation or development process so they won't be considered as important. Its all Force this and Force that. Face it, skills will be the last thing they will worry about because they aren't important to the Force user character type in which they portray them in the CRPG. I don't seeing this changing at all.

As long as Jedis and Force Users are the focus, its not going to happen.

It would have been better if we could have the main character as a non-force user through out the game.

Sorry, edited my post.

They can do that sort of crap in the movies and in the d20 System game so it stands to reason for them to do so in the CRPG. Skills are useless since we have no choice but play a force user.

Why bother with skills since we are forced to play force types anyway? Force type characters are way over powered in the game and can blast through any obstacle. Now if they made the game a bit more balance and allowed a varied amount of character types then skills would be an important part of the game but as it stands now it is just flavoring and overall worthless.

I count KotOR as a good game, though with a lot of limitations. I will call KotOR 2 a humiliation because it looks like it will have even more limitations on character creation and development, which is a bad thing in a sequel, and the fact that the original crew that made KotOR what it is is not even working on the sequel. Its a hand me down game that will probably be worse than Episode 1.