Wombat

I don't think they are doing tactically wrong and you can make your living room to a fitness club if only they are able to make it natural enough. Oh...my sleeping time...

OK this made me back to watching.

The idea itself may not be so new but that Star Treky voice control can be a killer if it works. Then, it's about accessibility, which Apple surpassed Microsoft with their iPhone/Pad. Wonder if Bing may be able to get popular now. Also, PC users probably don't need to be too jealous since like in the game-pad's case, if it gets so popular, you will be probably able to just put the input device on your PC. Windows 8 will allow you to use touch screens with proper equipments. After all, they are computers. In any case, guess I got the general idea now. Too much noise for my ears.

I admit that, whether its Diablo or MMO, Blizzard style so-called RPG is more of gradually changing combat-focused game-play by building "economy" behind it. A reason why I cannot get into a game-design scheme like this is that I feel as if I were a pet or bacteria thrown in a sandbox/test tube built by the game designers. Personally, I don't call Diablo game-play as role-playing experience since its more of combat game-play advancement system mainly by character customizations such as equipments, class choices and leveling-up than role-playing, means, interacting with characters and worlds. Actually, this is not a first attempt for some of Obsidian designers to combine a Diablo-clone with dialogue-based story progressions. From Lionheart at wiki I still remember the time I played Lionheart demo to find that, despite its using so-called S.P.E.C.I.A.L., the only option is combat whilst S.P.E.C.I.A.L. in Fallout is one of the tools offered to the players to build their own stories. This, by itself, won't come up well with Blizzard's game-design philosophy above. Probably, we shouldn't categorize them under the same name or RPG since the factors from them don't seem to fit together.

Watched this guy's game-play. Let's see how much time he spent on reading/listening the dialogue. Yea...quite many people seem to have expected more of exploration compared with story, or dialogues. I don't play a game in such a way by myself but I can see clearly why some people complaining after watching this.

Seems like Blood Money has influence of Avellone and Honest Heart has that of Sawyer. And the former is mostly criticized due to its game-play while the latter is done for its weak story. So, why did they stop work together, unlike the core project? Didn't Feargus once say story for Avellone and game-play for Sawyer?

Understandably, Chapman appears not to be in the mood of letting us discussing any different project in DSIII thread. Well, there is time before PC demo, anyway. Is that a practical joke for letting you feel stalked traced or just a practical means to get news? Continue reading some E3 coverages. Gaming industry seems to be really expanding... Windows 8 will be able to allow developers to make games for both PC and tablet while expanding networks in rising countries and/or to portable computers (how could we call some of them phones even with the adjective "smart"?) will do the same to more various types of devices. Cloud, IPhone/Pad, Android, and now Windows 8? Wonder if Steam or Gog would be going to integrate their services with a/some kind(s) of cloud gaming, too. For it would be nice for us if we can play budget and/or older games through browsers while letting us to play modern titles with something like Onlive, Gaikai as well as our local computers. Alternatively, would Windows 8 allow us to reach our "local" computers from portable devices more easily with possible standardized IPv6 tunneling, for example? Too many possibilities and quite many chances for game companies. At least, nice to know some of the factors could rather reduce the risks for game companies even if they will make the competition tighter, yea, literally world-wide. So, next and/or current move of Obsidian? Well, beats me. I may begin to "follow" someone, too.

I believe this board tends to be a place where DS series and Obsidian fans "communicate" at the moment. Of course, both biased in their own ways and there is plenty of oil to cause fire considering the surroundings. I may be wrong but I just tried to profile those who would be first to try out the demo, which is not so hugely advertised, ending up with an idea that they would be older DS series fans and/or Obsidian ones. So, some comments are understandable especially I remember some of FO fans reacted in a similar way. I, myself, am probably counted as an FO fan but I can be interested in story/world and also have some common sense on how a company works. However, if you like something about older DS, then, it would be nothing but game-play, wouldn't it? I think this explains some reviews have hatred in it. As for my needs for game, I wonder. For my hands are still full and I'm not a great fan of the loot scheme or action RPG. So, it hugely depends on how Obsidian made NPCs, world, characters interesting. One thing bugging me is that DSIII doesn't seem to have all the main writing power in their hand as Ziet himself complained: What had Avellone been doing, for example? The complaints around dialogue may be partly related with the lack of facial expressions, though. Guess Obsidian's best bet would be in whether they will be able to cultivate new players rather than expecting the returning of jaded older fans from both "factions" Indeed, reading comments here since the project started, it would be one of the games Obsidian developed which had a clear scope. However, I think demand on graphic is unfair but it is inevitable if you make games with that price tag. In reality, designers better learn to how to make the graphics OK with the modern standard or aim at lower budget games. I glanced at some E3 covers and, yes, the demands for better graphics still keep getting higher and higher. Multi-platforming and online gaming can widen the ways of distributions, though.

Er...wondering how Square Enix's quality management dept overlooked something like this, though.

A Japanese game site made a preview of Dungeon Siege III. I was quite surprised to see the articles is quite comprehensive. Guess console RPG is serious market in Japan. When I saw Lucas' face, that baby-face's struck me as a typical protagonist in JRPG, though. There are some comments on the character development system which people here might be interested. As mentioned in various sources, ability and proficiency are special to each character while talent is more generic. Proficiency is somehow translated into "ability enhancement" probably due to make the function clear, though. One example of Lucas' abilities: Shield Attack, hit an enemy with shield, give it 20% damage of normal attack while stunning it for 3 seconds. Blade Dash, Dash forward while hitting enemies on the way. Grace of Knight, Entering into rest status, healing 50% of life in 30 seconds. Also, there seems to be a gauge in each ability which increases when it is used and maximizing it enables something called "power ability." In the case of Anjali, an ability called spinning kick which is kinda area affect close combat attack gains an additional effect of knocking back her targets when mastered. However, triggering power ability requires something called power sphere, which still remains as mystery. Also, there is an interesting side note. There seems to be another character development factor called bukun, roughly translated as military fame, which can be gained by player choices: how the player dealt with quests such as how a sealed door was passed through, or, a defeated enemy was treated. Sounds like more of role-playing factor but it also seems to give bonus to character status. There are some mentions about the playablities but I'll omit details here since they can be seen quite many RPGs nowadays such as quest NPC indicators, waypoints and quest logs. The downer, at least, for me is that there is a comment that there are not so many differences on the main story not depending on which character we use. BTW, one thing which contradicts with info I spotted earlier is that equipment seems to be reflected on the appearance of characters. Check it by your own eyes. http://www.4gamer.net/games/111/G011172/20...ot.html?num=017 http://www.4gamer.net/games/111/G011172/20...ot.html?num=019

The landscapes are beautiful but, judging from game-play clips, I got an impression that NPCs are built from 2D portraits without animated 3D figures in mind: They would look great in 2D but it's shame that the 3D face expressions feel stuck somewhere in the uncanny valley especially compared with some recent titles.

The timing of the release may not be that bad. Dragon Age 2 had been released quite a while with that reputation. Fable III doesn't seem to be so successful. Witcher 2 is exclusively for PC. So, at the moment, a possible rival is just Brian Fargo's Hunted. Also, different from Alpha Protocol's case, Obsidian chose a younger designer like Chapman who have grown up with contemporary console works. One thing I couldn't believe about Alpha Protocol was that Obsidian doesn't seem to have studied/made some researches on the game-plays of contemporary consoles while they are expected to sell in the market. If Obsidian is staying on business, they need to satisfy the expectation of a targeted players of each product. BTW, I've never been bushing AP at all. It's just about the presentation. They seem to have tried to follow the scheme of Deus Ex and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines while the former is nearly 10 years old while the latter is heavily criticized about the game-play even on PC. Some PC gamers, especially old-timers (yea, like some people like you in Obsidian), may not find they are serious problems but Obsidian and Sega's main target was console ones. As a PC gamer, of course, I'd be not happy with probable clunky control but, as long as Obsidian can supply me with story-driven RPGs with decent writings, memorable NPCs and interesting C&C, then, I could stand some downers such as probable bad (not unplayable!) control schemes. Just please know yourself, your already earned fans and study/do some research on your newly targeted players. My two cents. PS So, Onyx's debut is May 31? Fingers crossed.

Actually, it matters PC only, which is smaller market. No matter what they say, hardcore fans will probably buy it anyway (Well, I wonder how bad it would be compared with NWN2) but, if they release it in the described state, it is most likely to affect on the score in major review sites. A possible bright side is that, despite of the reputation of clunky controls, different from CD Projekt Red's, Obsidian's interface tends to be good and I hope this standard will be kept in this game, too. I admit it is rather subtle part but I think it is a part of know-how they have built in their past CRPG developments (Somehow, traditionally, Japanese standard is quite high in this respect, though).

Judging from info from various soruces so far, that one seems to be by design so I guess more possible problem can be this one. PC Gamer Hands-on

Hi, am I reading about a review about the Witcher 2? Jokes aside, Obsidian seems to have gone as far as the way points so why not fast-travel, which would suite story-focused RPG? With those, of course, I feel sad but not surprised at all.

Agree that interface needs some polish for accessiblity. Also, one of the reasons why I think it is mostly designed for console in their mind is the interface and control. I cannot even choose items use mouse wheel. I did neither. Wonder if it will have any effect. Since the game is trying so very hard to beat you over the head with C&C, even for saving a kitty from a tree, I bet it will. Interesting but I wouldn't expect much difference when it comes to the outcomes. The fact is that the Witcher setting seems to be established that they cannot do many things about the world and that this is a sequel which can be a possible prequel (A series such as Fallout is hit much harder by with this contradiction). Besides these restrictions, even the Witcher is not about how players can influence the world but about how to enjoy their own takes about the fixed story, portraiting the main character as they feel to fit. So, you know the bottom line: you may be able to get more of pieces to make bigger picture behind the story but will never be able to change the outcomes dramatically except some minor characters/details.

I don't mind some humor but wonder if I would like that of Fable 3. Well, if you know something belongs to a different marketing segment for people who have different taste than you, why do you need to bother? It's just Witcher 2 and Fable 3 are tagged as RPG. L.A. Noire attracts my attention since it seems to be more atmosphere/story-focused. Simply, I don't have any console.

As for Aeronright - I don't know about technical details but some people seem to see loading screens even in supposed seamless areas.

Finally, I had my hands on the game (got it at gog.com with pre-order, yea, since it is still a PC game). Playing with everything maxed out with the exception of motion blur effect, which looks nice but I'm not thankful to it in combat. I don't have frame rate but the performance so far doesn't make me feel that I need to do check it at all. After all, I made the current PC with this game and Deus Ex: Human Revolution in my eyes. I put a single file from the achieved saves I kept from the Witcher since the designers told us that they would reflect the choices in the original long time ago. Since I'm on Windows 7, I reproduced the folders to the file, which may not be necessary. So far, Foltes seems to remember Gelart had saved his daughter. I'm yet to know how other things affected, though. So far, 2 is more likely to be what CD Projekt Red was trying to achieve, in terms of visual quality with decent C&C story-telling. No-top down view anymore but it makes QTE much less abrupt and stream-lined. Game-play feels more like for gamepad rather than mouse & keyboard. Currently, I'm using m&k, which feels slightly clunky. I just started but I suspect that it is more likely the syndrome which is common in modern video game development. Development got its weight on visuals/3D rendering and their bug fixing that a game won't get much content. Have you read an interview with Ziet on The development of Dungeons Siege III, where he ramented the size of the writing staff had been dramatically reduced compare when he was working on Neverwinter Night 2: Mask of the Betaryer? Generally in that interview, I was surprised to find how his line of thought is similar to mine but the condition in modern game industry is quite for a company like Obsidian to satisfy the modern demands while keeping some writing standard. I'm quite happy with the visual nowadays which enables the expression we can see films/movies but I guess non-sandbox story-focused RPG suffers a lot here. Guess its you canot always get what you want scenario. In any case, so far, I'm quite happy with the game while I fear it won't end too abruptly as some reviews imply.

That is the one thing that's always annoyed me about point & click as well. Overall I don't mind P&C for certain types of games, but trying to click on an enemy and ending up running towards them instead is ALWAYS aggravating. Well, this depends on the scheme. I don't know about Diablo or something like that but if I'm capable of controlling whole the team, I'd assign such opponents to ranged/magic characters while let the melee charas prevent the opponents in question attacking them directly. This is, of course, about infinity engine style, though.

Oh...I remembered that I "suggested" something like this since there are still quite a lot of C&P fans around especially in these fora boards (yea, I know it's getting old) and someone pointed out that the designers gathered the thread. What I was worried at that time was that they might not be able to make C&P scheme feel natural enough but, watching the video, it seems to be quite smooth. And personally, I'm bit surprised to see that someone on PC hates it. In fact, even Gamespot shows disappointment in the shift from Dragon Age to Dragon Age 2. From the bad section: Blizzard's Starcraft II was also a hit, too. That said, I understand taste differs. In fact, I like WASD scheme in a certain context, too. However, if I manage a "party", I'd like to have C&P scheme, personally. What I "suggested" was both. When I'd like to focus on a single character, I'd like to have WASD or something like that even through game pad, leaving the control of the other characters to AI or the other players, while I'd like to have C&P, dealing with more tactical game-play with a "party." IIRC, this hasn't been done by any other game. However, I thought this could be possible when I was reading earlier info on this game. I know Obsidian's reputation for game-play is not so good but, this time around, they are doing this on their home-brew engine. I hope they will be successful and it won't be too late for someone like the OP to stay away till some reviews come up. It won't hurt when you try to use your time more efficiently. Just two coppers.

Gothic 3 was vast...but quite empty, too...somehow realistic for deserts, though. I'd rather point out Gothic 1/2 if it is just about the liveliness of the world. I also point out the Witcher, on this account, too (There is an interesting review at RPG watch). Personally, I think Morrowind has its own liveliness but it is not presented as visuals: Most of them are in dialogues and in-world writings. Like you find dark elves are not happy with the presence of the Empire underneath but to trigger such conversation, the characters conversation skills have to be high. Also, even the house of Redoran eventually shows their political interests if players get deeper in them. These things make tings more convincing to me. They are different approaches but, I think, makes the world lively. For me, characters and dialogues are quite important, too. Something like Hanlon in FONV makes players to think before doing any action. He might be deluded and probably plays as a part of the "corruption" of already too big NCR, ironically, but his action is understandable and questions how actions of individual means in an overwhelmingly huge organization, which can be sympathized by some players, for example. Bit of a serious touch here but, there is YesMan, too. His character and manner are so friendly and pleasant inappropriately to what he is doing/talking about: a nice touch of dry humour. Entertaining, but with some twists and insight to our own societies. Haven't played FO3 but I am quite sure it doesn't have an NPC like them. I don't know about other people but, with game-plays, these things keep me interested.

You must have a lot of background processes running all the time. I have 6GB ram and with a video editor, graphic editor (lots of stuff open in it), 9 browser windows, music player all running right now it's only at 1.5gb of ram being used. If I open & run FNV on top of all that, it goes up to about 2.5-3GB. The topic seems to be bit derailing considering the OP is asking about old games but, yea, same story here. Running FONV, my system doesn't seem to be sweating a bit, using only 20% of 8GB ram.

About the game-play, they seem to have tweaked stealth system. Also, it seems to be faction system, too. Judging from that "last witness killed" message, I think it could be rewarding to play both assassin type char and, hopefully, no-killing intel spy type one, which I personally like (There cannot be a single witness if the "job" is done successfully, can there?). At least, as for game-play, Bethesda is doing decent job, IMO. What bugs me is, of course, the content. As for comments on perks, I think Beth seems to be listening to hardcore RPG fans, too. IIRC, Codex wrote a critical review, on which, they mentioned the lack of additional dimension to the game-play through character progression. On the other hand, they won't be happy with the some "simplifications" of the character development system but, as long as the core-game-play is like that, rather than detailed numeric stats which may not be well-translated into the context, more intuitive approach would fit it. Again, the problem with Beth, Bio or Bliz I have is that they decidedly take the games as escapism, giving up doing something which can stimulate players brains. You may call it something like art or literature but I'm not into mind-boggling experience and don't like to ask myself why I am spending my time. Whether it is Diablo or Oblivion, while their game-play attract quite many people, and personally, I like the stealth game-play of Oblivion, but the lack of the content is so severe to me.

Hope PC control scheme won't hurt much. For I finished FONV and, wow, there is so much love into this game. I don't know what yous achieved, either, but I'd say grats on the team. Prob I should be more critical to some parts but hard to be so at the moment. Yous make games I like to play and I thank yous for it.