Starwars

Does anyone really watch these things for the sake of them being reviews? I mean come on... I think it's more like he's paid to create these humorous episodes, it's not like there's not effort involved there.

I think the acting and dialogue worked really well in Risen actually. They could have some more character depth in there, I'd agree with that.

Ah, gaming industry...

Really looking forward to this, first game was really really excellent for the first chapters. I hope they can keep it up for the entire game this time around. And a pirate-RPG is one of those things I've been wanting for a long time now.

The only way to roll is being a human noble and marrying Anora and then putting her in place in the bedroom. AAAAAW YEAH!

Interesting news... But still, who knows what direction the game would've had to take in this day and age and EA being what they are?

The bath house is a very specific bug to do with the people in there trying to swim or something like that. There was a fix up somewhere and I think it simply reduced the water level so that they couldn't swim, hehe. Was actually surprised that it wasn't fixed in the latest patch.

When ME2 came around, I remember there was a site that had listed a bunch of saves from ME1 that you could import. Is there anything like this for DA2 as well?

Your taste is bad. But yep, I would say wait until it goes down in price a bit.

I really love the weapons in this, except for the Sniper Rifle. Game is fun as hell, just too bad that it feels sorta constricted by its campaign and levels. Still, even though it's short, going through the campaign again is lots of fun and now I can skip the cutscenes without any remorse.

Also, most important tidbit... Matt McLeans beard is still alive and well!

Really, really agree with the above post regarding level design and so forth. That said, I did enjoy some of the scripted "omgwtfbbq" sequences a lot, like the train ride. But the more normal levels could've really benefitted from a design closer to Painkiller. But yeah, I really love some of the weapons. The flail gun and the special fire on the cannonball gun are just a lot of fun to use for example.

Went out for After work yesterday and managed to gather a whole lotta people that normally don't come along which was awesome. In particular, one extremely charming girl who I've worked with only once (she doesn't normally work in the same psychiatry ward that I do) and we really had a lot of fun. Didn't know what to expect since she's actually 10 years older than me but we got along great. Most people would arrive later or drop off earlier but me, this chick and one other guy met up at 4pm and started eating and drinking, and we didn't head home until 4am. Lots and lots of fun. Of course, I've felt like crap all day and I still feel like I'm gonna puke my guts out any second but it was worth it. One of the most fun nights out I've had in a really long time. Though I was really reminded of how much I dislike clubs (very generally speaking I mean). It's OK in the early evenings but when they start raising the volume so that you have to shout to hear each other, then it just sucks. I mean, dancing is fun and all but I tend to like my communications to consist of more than shouting "WHAT?!" every 5 seconds. Once that happened though, we all got tired off it and headed off to various pubs instead.

I don't think an interviewer could ask for a greater subject for an interview than Feargus. That guy is always hyper, always very approachable and open, seemingly very knowledgable about actual games and their mechanics even though he's the CEO and doesn't shy back at all from discussing negative points about OEIs games or even possible future projects. Don't always agree with his ideas and stuff he talks about but he's a cool dude.

I've definitely said No to her and had it work. And of course, if you don't have high rep with her, she won't try it in the first place.

Generally speaking, I think Bulletstorm is fun as hell. I do wish it had been more of a classic, "pure" FPS, like Painkiller where you could jump, story segments were only at the end of levels/chapters and there was none of the upgrading bullcrap. The story is rubbish but I was surprised at how fun I found the writing to be, I expected to absolutely *hate* it but it's good and silly fun. And I love the weapons. Only weapon that I don't like is the Sniper Rifle because the gimmick really slows the game down. All things considered, it's the most fun FPS I've played in quite a while.

Started up Bulletstorm today and been playing campaign a bit. It's really fun but I was really hoping for something a bit more akin to Painkiller where the levels themselves were basically just decimating onslaughts of enemies in cool levels. Bulletstorm does have that to degree of course but I think there are too many interruptions in the "flow" of the game in the campaign mode. Too many pointless areas that you just run through, the upgrade system is lame (and again, really interrupts the gameplay flow). The story isn't really good but it's fun in that B-action movie type of way, and the writing is just all-out silly which actually works *much* better than I expected beforehand. It's fun and silly stuff. Plenty of scripted "omg waht is happening?1?!?!1" moments, like in CoD, just with a huge adrenaline shot put into them. So yeah, when it's fun, it's *really* fun.

The problems I had with Dead Money were A) for some reason it removed the need for sleeping, the numerical value just isn't there anymore. H20 and Food still work. And B) I got 2 or 3 crashes but I don't know if these were isolated to Dead Money or whether it's just the general engine wonkiness

It'll suck if it's only on Xbox live, SUCK I TELL YOU! Though it's nice that they're getting into smaller products like that as well, I really hope we'll see PC support continue.

Great to hear George Ziets talk a bit about the game. Was always interested in... uh, hearing him talk I guess? Hehe. But it's great to hear them reaffirm that there will be choices to make, some which will come back much later on. I truly think OEI is pushing the choice bit, along with the writing, as a thing they will deliver on. I hope it continues.

In this day and age, permanent choices are considered hardcore.

Also finished it and found it worth the money. And found the whole "oh god the difficulty and traps are so unfair" complaining greatly exaggerated. If you're careful, you'll be fine. It's nice though that it really does feel like a much more hostile environment than other games. I think many more modern players would have some trouble getting used to how the game puts the pressure on you. I was never hurting for supplies in the game but I think the game definitely had a nice tension to it because of the many ways you can get damaged. That said, if I had went in under level 20 (I was 24), I may well have sung a different tune. There was a particular section with the radio things in the casino where I had to reload a few times though but that was pretty much the only situation where I felt annoyed. The story, writing and all that were top-notch. Good skill checks and awesome voiceacting. All that was extremely well done and I was surprised at how invested I felt into it, despite it only being a DLC. Still, I do hope upcoming DLCs will be a bit more open in very general terms. I tend to like games where I don't get sorta "locked away" for a long period of time.

This was an interesting and insightful post, thanks. I've started Dead Money today (have just recruited the team) and am enjoying it so far. The fact that you were aiming for a horror-ish experience was interesting to read for me. I actually thought about this when I first started up Dead Money, more specifically in terms of the audio. I think one "flaw" is that the audio-scape constantly reminds me of New Vegas, you hear the same music snippets and so forth that you hear in the wasteland which introduces a certain level of familiarity that perhaps shouldn't be there. Now, I really loved the audio of New Vegas (actually one of the best soundscapes in a game that I know of) but it seems to me that the Sierra Madre could've really benefitted from a more separate audio to make the player feels out of the comfort zone. When I heard familar musical snippets as in vanilla New Vegas, there was immediately that "connection" that took me out of the hostile feel for a bit. Don't know if that makes any sense. Two very simple audio cues that work wonderfully was when recruiting Dog/God and Christine. In the case of the Super Mutant, hearing the voice talk to you when going down into the basement was plenty creepy I think. In Christine's case, it was a nice touch to hear the "thumping" throughout that level. Just some random thoughts that sprung into mind since you mentioned the horror aspect of it.

Same here, very early on. I won't make any claims to difficulty yet (my character is level 24 going in) but I think it really encourages you to move slowly and keep an eye open. And with that in place, I think it isolates many players from enjoying it, hehe. If you're a naturally slow-moving player, I think you'll have a much easier time with this. It's certainly atmospheric and yes, very Avellone so far. Just the conversation with God/Dog was pretty awesome, well written and interesting.

That's an excellent preview, going through all the factual stuff first and then laying down his own feelings at the end. Good job, whoever wrote that!