Starwars

God I hate these shows and the people who appear in them. So, just what can be found in there? There is some short AP stuff in the second part of the episode. Is that all that's showcased?

Don't really care too much about Namco distribution or whatever, but it is interesting to see that they appear to still be aiming for 2010.

Hope it will be some good footage and hopefully it's a sign that some more stuff is coming.

It just kinda struck me what a huge deal the romances are for Biowares games. Prior to both DA release and this, the discussions regarding who you can romance and who you can't are really active. A few games ago I would've dismissed the "romancers" as a pretty small group but just seeing all the discussions everywhere... You really get a sense that it's a big deal. As for the game, I dunno. I thought ME failed in A) providing good action RPG gameplay and B) providing an interesting story to follow. I do know that they were aiming for a sort of mainstream-ish, blockbuster sci-fi type of deal but I just feel it was incredibly flat. Hope ME2 can improve the formula in some way. The characters seem to be a bit more interesting at least. I also hope they have created more interesting areas to explore.

Some more from Misery Stone. The atmosphere and custom content of this mod is really great. Definitely feels like Ravenloft. A lonely house: A prison in Ravenloft - generally not the best place to be: The cells of the prison:

Too bad.

Long in the making, the NWN2 module called Misery Stone was finally released. Misery Stone is a mod set in Ravenloft. Great stuff so far. A small forest: One of the inhabitants of the forest: Misery Stone's version of the Overland Map: The module has a really nice horror-vibe to it:

It's a really bad photoshop job, it was confirmed by some editor or somesuch of the magazine. Also, Mark Morgan composing would be really cool.

Painkiller is excellent if you really just wanna go in there and kill some stuff. Fun weapons (and I use them *all* which is nice) and really excellent level design. Good fun.

Think Jade Empire is Biowares most underappreciated game for sure. I don't think the length was a weakness at all. But, I don't think it came even close to realizing the great potential of the setting or the combat system (a great idea for an action-RPG but not challenging enough). It could've done well to shake off some of "KOTOR-ness" as well. A game set in the Jade Empire setting, with the political machinations of Dragon Age inserted into it would've *really* cool. I hope they'll return to the setting someday.

Win indeed. PS:T is one of those games that just knocks me on my ass everytime I play with how awesome it is. You'd think that I'd be sick to death of replaying such a story-heavy game but the writing is so well done and the interactions the dialogues provide are great. It's too bad that Curst and onwards (until the very end I'd say) is rather lackluster when compared to exploring Sigil though. Even so, I just can't resist it. The atmosphere of Sigil is so *thick*, even the fetch-quests (of which there are quite a lot, or simple quests at least) feel interesting due to the texture of the gameworld and characters. Amazing.

Oh Annah...

There have been several mentions in the past of negotiating and stuff with putting NWN2 on there, I think they even confirmed that it would actually be there. But nothing happened so not sure what's going on.

Wow, 3 playthroughs already? I really liked the game but I definitely faltered when I tried to replay it, even with a completely different character. I think I'm gonna need a fair bit of time before replaying it to the end.

DA > BG2 > BG > JE > KOTOR > ME > NWN

Excellent interview. But stuff like this kinda worries me a bit. Now, is there an actual mechanical, supertechnological thingy that we use to do this or is some sort of weird psychic ability? I think one of the things that still has me a bit cautious in regards of hyping myself up for the game is that some abilities seem to go a bit towards the "superhero" angle. Some of it seems fine, but I hope it won't go overboard. But yeah, very good read.

Yeah, but the weapons were at least attached to people who took advantage of them. I understand that in order to create these games, there needs to be a fair amount of firearms in the gameworld. But at least don't make them just lying around, have them be in use.

The entire weapon balance thing could have been done much better simply by doing what Deus Ex did: making the pc skill have a really profound effect on weapon effectiveness. In other words, even if a level 1 pc has a plasma rifle or the Blackhawk, their crappy 25 weapon skill means the weapon wil still be nigh useless. If you recall Deus Ex handed you most of the best weapons in the game on the FIRST LEVEL in the FIRST CONVERSATION, and gave you the last couple on the next level with one exception. But you didn't have the skills to make them uber so it didn't matter. COnversely, if you built your pistol skill to master level you could go through the whole game with nothing but the basic 10mm handgun. Fallout 3 skills were a) too easy to raise and b) didn't have nearly enough effect on the ability to use weapons. I agree with what you say here, but you'd still have the 'millions of guns littering the wasteland' syndrome. I mean, it's been 200 years (200! A long time) since the bombs fell in Fallout 3, and the Capital Wasteland is populated with a fair number of people and many of them are quite capable. The amount of resources all around that are just there for the taking is ridiculous.

I think the effort to balance the weapons in Fallout 3 is admirable because, yeah, it really was unbalanced in the other games. But I think it also leads to other problems, which works in tandem with how they made the Repair skill work. The game world is pretty lousy with weapons, even more advanced stuff like Laser Rifles aren't hard to find at all. Plasma rifles are rarer though. Now, I'm a fan of the weapon degradation mechanic and I think it fits in well. But I think I'd rather see a system where A) you used more standardized "parts" that fit into different sorts of gun. This could reduce the number of weapons just lying around in the gameworld where they would've very likely been looted away. And while the "parts" items could potentially viewed as too much of a valuable resource to be found in the wasteland, a guy would need a high Repair skill in order to make use of them. Random Wastelander Joe Schmoe wouldn't have the know-how to make use of them. I think it would've felt a bit more natural like that, where the actual weapons are fairly rare. And B) I really think the degradation should do more harm when it's getting lower. EDIT: There is also the problem of the player character being able to use every weapon in quite a useful way, despite really low skills with it. The last guy I played had no energy weapon skill at all except the default values, and I quite honestly didn't see that much of a difference in difficulty using a Laser Rifle than I did using small guns (which I had invested in). And while it may make sense that anyone should be able to pick up a Fat Man and fire it (depending on how it's designed) it just feels so wrong because it is a weapon of mass destruction no matter *what* your skills are. It would feel much better in my opinion if something powerful like that was only usable (or at least be effective) for the people who really pushes for a single skill. Reward specialization in the skills.

Yeah well, I don't like you guys either!

That thread should be burned in the fires of hell. Just when I thought I had forgotten about it.

Not generally a fan of the over-the-shoulder third person stuff but I bet this could've been quite creepy to play. I wonder though if their next Onyx game will also be the same perspective. I hope not personally, but who knows.

This was something that surprised me about the demo. Because combat is not really the focus of the game, and just one of many paths you can take through it, I did not expect for it to be this strong. I think combat systems in general are pretty weak over the board in most RPGs, even ones that focus more on combat. So it was fun to see that this had obviously received a lot of attention (and still does as there are still tweaks being made and still a few things not implemented in the demo). A few months ago I would've likely been in the "release the goddamn game" camp, but now I'm glad they're taking the "Blizzard route" and tweaking away until the game is really strong. The potential is definitely there.

It's funny because when it was first announced that Beth was setting the game on the East Coast, I thought it was a *great* idea. I was one of the people who never thought that stuff like the factions (BoS, Super Mutants, Enclave), characters and that stuff was what made Fallout Fallout. And so I was actually really looking forward to seeing what Bethesda could come up with for Washington in terms of the story and all that. I thought it'd be great because A) it'd be exciting to head to new territory, see new factions and stuff and it'd allow Beth to put their own stamp on it and B) it would save them the trouble of having to make sure everything fits story/faction/lore wise with the other two games. So I was really disappointed when I saw how much of that returned, and how much of it that was in my opinion totally screwed up when compared to the other two games. *That* was the area where I wanted Bethesda to do new stuff, to populate Washington with their own creations and so forth. But it all pretty much turned out the way I did not want it. Factions returned, even characters, plot items. While the gameplay was remade completely and re-fitted into the gamebryo Elder Scrolls style. SPECIAL remained but was butchered and stripped down. The general roleplaying and writing was a step up from Oblivion to be sure but still left a lot to be desired (really came apparant when I tried to replay the game with a totally different character than my first). The one area where I think they did really well was the visual side of things. While there some bits I don't like (the Super Mutants for example), I think they did really well in transferring the "50s of the future" vibe to 3d. And some places, when you're out in the wasteland, are just really eerie when you look around. I'd say that excelled in that for the most part.