Starwars

Yep, meant the Justadventure.com's reviews.

Playing a new adventure game called Culpa Innata. Pretty disappointed since I went into it after having read two reviews that gave it very good scores. Still, it's all-right with a few nice things to it. Not a "saviour of adventure games" for me like I had hoped though.

Robert Johnson - Dead Shrimp Blues

Scouring the Vault for good NWN1 mods I haven't played yet. Unfortunately I think I've pretty much exhausted the ones I would enjoy. Might replay another mod (just finished replaying Almraiven, brilliant), but I'm not sure which one to choose.

Rob posted on the Bioware NWN2 toolset forums a few days ago that 1.11 is currently being tested.

Vader has nothing on that theme song.

I believe it will be a while still before it sees release. It has to go through the public beta first (I don't know when that will be started, but it should be fairly soon). I'm sure it will be worth the wait anyhow.

Replaying a mod for NWN1 called Almraiven. This is my favourite module for the game, it's extremely well done. I usually consider well written dialogue choices important for this type of game, but the lack of them (well, there are some, but they're not that elaborate for the most part) doesn't bother me in this case. It's just to damn good. I'd take this over many full on games I've played. I've also been gearing up to replay Vampire: Bloodlines now that the 4.3 unofficial patch was released. Might start playing the Witcher again, but I lost interest for now. It's a good game (though I don't think it's as good as many people do), but I don't know. To many little flaws, to much filler content and crappy translation... Hoping for a new patch that will reduce loading times at least. Other than that, eagerly awaiting to start playing the Purgatorio public beta, and perhaps Mysteries of Westgate once those get released.

Oh yeah, Grim Fandango is fantastic. That's a game that I really need to replay. The Monkey Island soundtracks are great as well.

Recently, I think MotB has a very strong soundtrack. One of the best RPG ones I've heard in fact. The Witcher also seems solid enough. The Silent Hill soundtracks are excellent. 2 is my personal favourite. 1 might be a bit much for some people. I mostly listen to Fallout, Arcanum and PS:T soundtracks. I think those were spot on in terms of the games directions, and the soundtracks really served to enhance the games.

I've only played briefly, but I think the writing is not very good so far. You can sort of sense some great things there, but I believe a lot of it was lost in the translation to English (wish I understood Polish). However, stuff like the profanity is actually kinda refreshing once you get past the initial "culture shock" so to speak. Some of the dialogues fly all over the place, while others have a better flow to them. Voiceacting goes up and down as well, but is decent most of the time. I've not encountered any hilariously bad moments yet (remember the minions of Black Garius when they're preparing the ritual, hahaha). So far it looks like a good game, though I doubt it will be something that will stay with me after a few years. I tend to not like action-RPGs a lot though, so the fact I'm still playing and enjoying this one is a good sign for me. The games visuals are outstanding I think, and the game actually performs *really* well. The setting seems to be really 'mucky' and harsh (haven't had any experience with the books myself), which is again extremely refreshing. I can't believe some reviewer actually criticized the game for making the player sometimes choose between two 'lesser evil' choices. The trouble performance-wise is the aforementioned loading times which really grates on me unfortunately. I'm still in the early stages of the game, but supposedly it gets a lot better later on. Collecting quests tend to not be very fun.

Though I've not tried these community implemented PRCs, it's extremely awesome to see them. Great work there! And nice interview as well. It's great to see that you're taking an continued interest in the community and keep looking for feedback from modders. It's greatly appreciated Rob. Now let's have another expansion!

I've replayed it 4(!) times since the European release. First time I've replayed a game (though it's obviously shorter being an expansion) that many times in such a short time. Part of it has to do with the extreme RPG starvation I've been suffering from since, well... Vampire Bloodlines (and even that game is very flawed I think). MotB is the best RPG I've played in a very long time. I really hope there will be another expansion the same quality as MotB.

Indeed, and it's also the other way around. I get the feeling that most reviewers don't really want or truly care about a RPG such as MotB, whereas hardcore RPG players are salivating over such a release. I believe one of the review sites even had Knights of the Nine (which doesn't even feel like an expansion pack) rater higher than MotB, which to me is just... I can't understand it. I really don't think Kevin should blame himself for the review scores. He even said himself in the interview that the reviews are inconsistant (they say MotB is much better than NWN2, and yet give it a lower score). I understand that it might be bad in terms of potential sales (though to tell the truth, I don't think it will affect a niche game that much), but I just don't think you can trust the review sites. They follow the trends. And NWN2 is not trendy anymore (and I don't think it even was trendy at release, though it did well).

Alien - Beautifully shot, beautifully acted and beautifully paced. Perhaps not as scary nowadays as it once was, I still think it's extraordinarily tense. The design of the Aliens lifecycle is still a great elements, and the facehugger never fails to gross me out. Such a disgusting concept. Jacobs Ladder - This is perhaps more thriller/horror. But it gave me quite a few startles, and the imagery is quite haunting (Silent Hill was inspired by this film). There are a few "jack in the box" scares that still manage to scare the hell out of me even though I've seen it quite a few times and know where the scares are. Session 9 - Again, more a mix of thriller and horror. Reminds me quite a bit of Alien (though this not very supernatural) in terms of its slow pace. Builds beautifully to the ending, and the location they shot this in (a real abandoned asylum, can't recall the name atm) just makes so much of the film. Dark Water - The japanese version, I haven't seen the american version. I rented this movie expecting a not so scary movie. There was a huge buzz about the Ring at the time (which I liked, but didn't feel it was particularly scary). So I was expecting a good film, but not something that would scare me. I watched this in the afternoon, with the sun shining brightly in the room I was watching, and holy god did this movie freak me out. I'm not sure why, but it *really* got to me. While I don't classify it as horror at all, an honorable mention goes to Eraserhead by David Lynch. One of very few movies where I actually felt uncomfortable watching it. Not scared or disgusted, just really uncomfortable. It's a great film, and man it really messed with me.

I can imagine how bloody hard it must be to implement a thing like this, and make it balanced. Then on top of that, make it managable enough for people who don't care for stuff like that. I remember when I first read about this thing (which if I remember correctly was actually quite a long time before the game was released) I thought right away that this is something that is gonna piss people off. There are many who don't like such 'limitations' or clocks in their RPGs. Again, people have different opinions, but I've always wondered where the particular mindset of "I don't play RPGs to be stressed" came from. I know a DM (at least the ones I've had throughout my PnP career) would absolutely not let me wander around mindlessly if my character was inflicted by something like the spirit-eater curse, or if I had to save someone (say, like Imoen in BG2). I just don't know where this mindset came from, and why, in the RPG world. That said, I don't think limits should be there just because. Some games require them, some do not. I believe I would've been more happy with BG2 for example if there had been some sort of rough consequence for farting around while Imoen is being kept prisoner. Not necessarily game over, but just a rough punishment of some sort. Something that really make you feel like "whoops, maybe I should've actually hurried up a bit". Oblivion is one of the latest example where it just feels silly that there is this invasion going on, and yet nothing *ever* happens. That said, in Oblivions case I'd rather seem them make the story interesting. *cough* Overall I'm happy that Obsidian included it in MotB, and for me the game would've not been as fun without it. I want the story to carry over into the gameplay when applicable, and it makes all sense in the world in the case of MotB to have the curse actually affect you.

Well, most of the complaints I've read about the spirit-meter is that people feel it's to hard to actually go devouring spirits. I would say the game/spirit-eater mechanic is much rougher on you if you're evil (and eat a lot of spirits), but you also gain certain powers at the expense of always being on the hunt. While I would've liked a different kind of balance (basically in that you're royally screwed either way, just in different ways, hehe), I think it does make sense. I'm not gonna go into an argument here (getting tired of it after reading a million threads on this particular issue at the Bioware forums, heh), everyone has different opinions obviously, but did you *really* try to get into/learn this mechanic ~Di? Using Supress in the presence of spirits (Okku counts) and elementals (summoned elementals count) will boost your spirit-energy and reduce your craving at the same time. You can get your craving down to 0 or close to it with no real problems at all, and after that your spiritmeter will go down at a *very* slow pace. And as far as I know, the spirit-meter freezes when you're in conversations. It's obviously not a mechanic that everyone will like. Personally I found it reinforced the story a lot. For me personally, I can get extremely annoyed at a plot that *insists* on bad stuff is happening, or that you *must* hurry, and yet nothing ever happens. I'm extremely happy that Obsidian included this thing (though I personally don't think it's implemented in a perfect way), and I really do feel that more RPGs should try to bring plot-elements over into the actual gameplay as well. But yes, I guess that's one good thing about the NWN games. It's easy to customize them.

I was always afraid that Gann would be just that, emo. But if anything, I think he's emo done right. He's obviously got issues on the inside, but he's not the "woe is me!" type. I think it was a pretty nice touch to make him as charismatic and flirtatious as he is. Again, it's really to bad that there are not more interactions between the party members. Lord knows there are possibilities for some really interesting ones with these characters.

I wonder if it's possible to succeed that Diplomacy check though. It's a neat twist for the character though. It's kind of a shame that it's sort of transparent though... I mean, One-of-Many suddenly starts speaking with the Childs voice after devouring Myrkul and wants you to meet him with no other party members nearby. It's sort of a give-away. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed that twist.

I played a Neutral Evil Warlock that *only* used Supress (except in dialogues) and I ended up almost the exact same alignment as I had when starting.

Haha, yeah. I tried that on my first playthrough, though I think the cutscene kinda bugged out a bit. There was a *huge* pause before something happened. I thought the game had frozen and was about to restart when it finally started working. Performance wise, the worst areas for me was Mulsantir, Imaskari Ruins and the Skein. Mulsantir obviously has much stuff in it and there is also the presence of water, just like in Blacklake or the Docks District in the NWN2 OC. It's mainly near the water I got slow-downs, and if I turned off Water reflections and refractions I got smooth performance. I'm not normally one who cares about the graphics, but I do like nice water effects a lot (and I think NWN2s are very nice), and so I do have the options turned on anyways. I might try turning them off in the Skein next time though to see if that improves performance there. Other than that, the MotB areas had pretty good performance for me.

Hardest part for me was exploring Myrkuls Vault earlier in the game. My party was Me (Bard), Safiya, Gann and Kaelyn. When I entered the room with the Lich King I pretty much got completely run over. Fun times. Didn't really have a overly strong meleer in that party. Playing the game with Okku, Barbarian One-of-Many or a melee character of your own I would guess, just makes the game a lot easier. I was also slightly shocked when you encounter the Red Wizards + mega gnolls in the Veil Theatre after getting to Mulsantir. The opening was kinda soft on the combat-side so I was completely unprepared. It's nice that you can avoid that encounter if you have Intimidate though.

Cool, I did not know that. I always thought you had to essentially betray him twice (destroying the book, and letting the priest get away) and then he tells you that he had you followed. Thanks for clearing that up. I wish there was an option to just downright attack him though.

Yeah, you have to go to Eternitys End first. You get the option for dropping the book on the floor, and when you go to the other place, one of book-keepers is still there and you can decide on what to do. If you let the keeper run away, Rammaq will find out about it.

I think it's a bug in the games mechanics somewhere, or so someone said on the Bioware forums. I got that as well. First thought it might be part of some cut content featuring a deleted companion called Bad Strref.