Wolfmann

Sorry...I failed to mention I had just handled the Red Eclipse. I couldn't get back on the Ebon Hawk It worked itself out. I had to do two side quests, then the comlink message came. There is a bug where you can appear neutral to the Exchange, even with all your side quests completed. No worries now, thanks folks!

After I leave the Ebon Hawk I'm not getting the comlink message from Visquis...is there a trigger or notoriety I'm missing? I've met Visas and exitted right after. As well, when I went to talk to Saquesh...I only get two dialogue, none of which allow me to go any further. More friggin' bugs...

Leaves it open for an appearance in K3...

You could assume he gets smoked by HK-47/50 at the end of the Prologue...he'd just be junk droid parts.

Yaddle, that is. And she's ugly as hell, btw. More or less Yoda in a skirt...

For KOTOR: I disliked Kashyyk the most. My favorite, overal, is probably a cross between Dantooine and Manaan - though I disliked the Manaan underwater missions the most, and ALL of the Kashyyk missions. Dantooine and Manaan were both beautiful places that really showed off shader and frame buffer effects and it was just peaceful. Yavin has a strange place in my heart as well...but that was only because it had the hidden Trandoshan attack - in which I handed some scale back to them. I also like the goodies you get from Suvam after you quel that attack. For TSL: The Peragus missions were a waste of time. Otherwise Telos was the the one I disliked the most. I liked Korriban because it was the first time you stand off against Darth Sion. Favorite for TSL: Trayus Academy. Because you are or should be so powerful you are like a hot knife through butter, but it's still challenging enough for you to have to tactically plan your attacks.

KOTOR was like all first's in a series. It established the framework of expectation for the others. It received 10/10 in many reviews and is in my opinion still one of the best, RPG's and hands down is the best Star Wars game, ever. KOTOR 2's deficiencies however are partly Lucasart's fault (rushing the product for Christmas release) as well as the problem with all mid-quels: it is only the foundation to set up the finale. As far as middle sequels (mid-quels) go it was still pretty good. But, unlike KOTOR, it never had that A-HA! moment like Revan's Revelation did in the first one. For that, it automatically loses a point. It still received 8/10 in most reviews. Both stories are plot and character driven, and I suppose you should judge the success of an excellent game those factors. Do you care for the character enough to want to follow them to next plot? And do you want the story to keep going? For both KOTOR 1 & 2, you have to answer yes, though the characters in the 2nd were inherently weaker and more poorly written. Kreia, Diciple, Mira, and the Exile herself were the only real compelling or tragic characters. The other's were clearly filler. Go-to, Bao-dur, Handmaiden, Hanhar, even Mandalore were filler. You could easily remove them and not lose anything to the game - though Mandalore is pretty handy later in the game. Atton is an exception, because he has a dark secret - but it's not presented with much fanfare or drama. Revealing his past, much like revealing Kreia as Darth Traya (which you could see coming a MILE away) is anti-climactic at best. Obsidian dropped the ball in creating a moment like Revan's Revelation in TSL. As for parallels to the original trilogy...NO SH*T SHERLOCK. This Star Wars thing is formulaic. The developers knew there could very well be three games, and they have made parallels to the original star wars movies because that MAKES THE MOST SENSE. Don't look at it like cheating, look at it like you're experiencing the same experiences as AHP, ESB, ROTJ...only 4,000 years previously. You're engaging in an experience that is your own, but has been shared with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and the others. Overal, both games are a dialogue on life - the struggles of the few are repeated through out history by the many. They are intelligent written, well produced, and though the second suffered from factors outside of the developer's control, both products are still excellent. In the end, I still prefer KOTOR over KOTOR 2, but I play both at least once a year back to back, so it's really inconsequential.

Vaapad is also known by it's "Sith" form of Juyo. Darth Maul was a Juyo practitioner, so Sidious must've had some knowledge - even if the style was in a slightly different form. And Vaapad doesn't just chennel dark side energy...it's practitioner harnesses dark kernels within them to give them power and strength. The practitioner then becomes a reflection of who they are fighting, or are able to reflect back any powers or abilities used against them. It is much like Aikido or Aiki Jitsu, in that you use your opponent's strength against him - though Vaapad is a much more aggressive style than Aikido. Hmmmm...he had to know Anakin was coming. He had to know, force powers or not, that the Jedi council saw him as a threat. And he had spies to tell him when his arrest was imminent. It would not be hard to call for Anakin to arrive near or around the time of his imminent. Palpatine, after all, had his light saber on him...something he normally wouldn't of. I think the truth falls inbetween the fact that Sidious knew exactly what he was doing, but like any good plan it rarely survives first contact. Sidious HAD to know his pupil would betray the Jedi order, if for no other reason than to uphold the ideals of the very Order he was betraying. And he had to know that Mace was coming for him. Where things went to crap is when Sidious got a taste of his own medicine - but he also had the advantage. He knew that Anakin would fall. Or he would not have summoned him. In Anakin's fall, Anakin was conflicted against his earlier decision in killing Count Dooku. Defending an unarmed prisoner, and possibly making amends for his lack of judgment against Dooku, the situation was dire enough that Anakin saw what he felt amounted to an innocent person, or an unarmed prisoner, about to be killed by a Jedi Master. The Jedi's moral code is very specific: defend the innocent - those unable to defend themselves. So, I could very easily see Sidious throwing his weapon away to give the apperance of defencelessness. But that's just conjecture.

There is some facts within Force theory that some of it's practitioners tend to be sensitive to events that happen in the future. Darth Sidious was not near invincible, though... Mace is the better fighter. Yoda may, however, be stronger and wiser in the Force. Being a better Jedi does not mean you will win a light saber contest. I can accept some of this, but let's face it...he was getting his butt kicked handily. Now...was he just fortunate, knowing that Anakin would most like be along (85% true)...or did he take advantage of Mace's arrogance and confidence and put the Jedi Master into a false sense of security, especially given that Anakin had not yet fallen. This really doesn't prove anything. Sidious could've called him, foreseeing his arrest by Mace and the others. George wouldn't know even if you asked him.

I never seen a star wars TV series that I really liked, or wasn't for kids. Be nice if they could do a good job for it, and actually watch a star war TV series during prime time on a Friday or Saturday night.

Interesting point. I thought about this after AOTC came out - it was unfinished, unpolished and you could just see it screaming for "Special Edition" treatment in say 10 years (which Lucas is still young enough to reap the benefits of the bucks he'll charge us for producing something that it should've been on release). As a business man, he's brilliant - as a director and writer...he needs to take some lessons. For all the development time that he took, he really did a horrible job of the prequels. Or did he? If you look at it from the style and genre of saturday morning serials like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon...etc...he actually did a pretty good job. And if you look at all the movies, TV shows, merchandise...the Empire his movies has created is immense. Far bigger than the sum of their parts. With that said...Revenge of the Sith wasn't the worst in the trilogy. Attack of the Clones and A New Hope are tied. Empire, for it being a middle sequel, is probably the best...but Phantom Menace and Return of the Jedi are both pretty good. Let's face it...when you use unknown actors, you take a risk and not all your Hayden Christiansen's can turn out to be Harrison Ford's. All the other main actors, from Ewan MacGregor to Ian McDermid are excellent actors - and this time left with shoddy director that didn't vette his storyline enough. If you look at all the special edition behind-the-scenes looks Lucas more or less, aside from Rick McCallum and Nick Gillard, has surrounded himself with kiss ass yes-men. They all hover around him, and he dictates, and they don't offer counter points (it's sad because you know any one of them is hanging on to him, thinking he'll in some way just "see" them as talent and throw money at them). Still...it's a multi-billion dollar empire and the crappiest of these movies are immensely better than any of the Star Trek movies - with two exceptions (Wrath of Kahn, and First Contact).

The original point is that Nihilus did so utilizing his abilities and powers. Sidious needed a machine to amplify some specific knowledge (beit technology or forced based). Sure...where to start though? heh,heh.

If the planet is laid to waste and devoid of sustaining life, is there a difference?

It's a good one. Why let it die.

I thought you posted it was okay, except for one...(peragus)? If you've properly copied the movies folder to the installation folder, and it still is not working the only thing I could suggest is re-starting the game (which is a pain in the ass because the Peragus missions, even the initial Telos missions are too, but I'd much rather it have cut one or the other out).

If you want to find out, use google and do some research on "3d gaming process" or something similar. Basically what happens when the screen needs to be drawn the video and cpu work together (or in the case of a GPU, the CPU leave the process early). All the vertex geometry - or the things that give the characters shape - is written. It is then back light by light sources (quite literally). Then from there a picture known as a texture is printed on the faces of the geometry vertexes (basically the shapes that the line the geometry creates). From there vertex shaders then bend straight lines to whatever shape. Pixel shaders modify the little dots that make up the texture. From there ALL the vertices are scrutinized - if they are not seen, they are discarded (DX9/10). Then the video card prepares to display it and sends the "block" (series of moving pictures) to the frame buffer for display on the video screen. In his case there is a problem with the math (uses trig and calculus) at the last stages where the vertices collide and the card is determining what to show or not to show. This can be caused by shoddy programming, but a system problem, or by old or bad (or even brand new) video card drivers.

If it's only ATTON, maybe just live with it for now. You could try putting ram sinks on the memory chips of your video card, as well as making sure the temps are down (blow out the dust from the fan...etc). Other than that, it's probably just another one of the annoying small glitches that detract from this game.

Use periods.

When you download each of the updates, you have to double click on the first one. It creates a MOVIE directory. Copy that Movie directory directly and overwrite the one in the installation directory. It worked fine for me yesterday.

Probably just a game bug. There are plenty of them. Lucasarts went for the quick cash grab. Try any driver that seems to fix the problem. Consider using a driver cleaner as well, as not all versions of drivers update or down grade the same DLL's.

Try downgrading your ForceWare drivers. Graphical anomaly's can also be game glitches or due to heat or hardware problems. Alternatively look for 3rd party ForceWare drivers. There are a few out there. www.guru3d.com is where I get my 3rd party drivers. Does this happen in other games, or just to the Atton character and no other characters? Your 6800GS isn't the fastest out there, but it should be more than sufficient. My 6800 GT is in for replacement, and I'm running this game with no problems on a GeForce4 4200 128mb 8xAGP card - in fact I can run it with all the eye candy with 4x AA with 2x AS, at 1280x1024 resolution with everything except Soft Shadows (Pixel Shader 3, DX9 only). It's not butter smooth, like it is with my 6800 GT, but it's more than playable.

How do you define power and how do you define power within the Sith, though? Darth Nihilus was a wound in the force, much, much different. Like a Savant piano player who has no other abilities, social skills, or even intelligent, they can play the piano masterfully. Nihilus was much like that. He probably wasn't the most Powerful Force user, but he was very powerful because Nihilus fed on the force presence and power of OTHER force users. For the intents and purposes of Georege Lucas, the Star Wars canon is massive (he can't possibly be 100% familiar with it), and he was writing his scripts long before Darth Nihilus was created. Darth Sidious could very well be the most powerful Sith of all time, and it does not take away from Darth Nihilus' impressive power, his ability to strike down the strongest force users he seeks. He does consume entire worlds - something that Darth Sidious needed a Death Star to accomplish.

I doubt there was any Master in the Order that could stand against him. Even Revan. Nihilus is an anomaly. He's the Anti-Force, and consumes energy and exists in a physical form in a different spiritual plane. The Exile could only stand against him because of her disconnection...the fact that Nihilus could not influence her grasp of the force. Nihilus could not rob her life force. It should be noted that Kreia did a similar thing to Vrook, Ell, and Vash in the Dantooine ruins...she consumed ALL of their force powers, disabled their connection to it, and killed them because of it. Nihilus would do the same thing, and the stronger and more highly linked the Force user is, the more likely their defeat. The Jedi Order may have had intention to capture Revan, but the strike team going there, and even the General's over seeing the mission had to know that it was a veiled assassination attempt. If it wasn't, then it was to capture Revan knowing they could not contain him. So what conclusion does that leave? They were probably going to wipe his memory anyway. This is consistent with my previous theory above, that the Jedi Council turned Revan against them, not the other way around. He did neither and did both. Revan fell. If you believe it was out of necessity, or as a natural progression of his experiences, especially with Kreia, remains to be seen. Even Kreia reveals there were ulterior motives, but Kreia's own motives are suspect as well. She effectively rejects the force, and believe the Galaxy would be better off without it. Whose not to say she didn't influence Revan, or manipulated him, in to falling for the purposes that appear to be in canon. She effectively manipulated the Exile the same way.