Sermon

Happy Birthday Feargie! Hope you're going to celebrate accordingly!

I don't know. IMO nothing beats a mouse/keyboard combination when playing an FPS. The joypads are far too slow controllers to really effectively play an FPS and I'm much faster with the mouse/keyboard combination. After an hour of getting used to, most of my friends, who have never played a PC-FPS before, actually prefer the mouse/keyboard combination to the console/joypad controls, because they agree with me that you can react a lot faster and be more precise.

Yep, I was thinking the same. System Shock isn't that old. Feels like yesterday when I played it. Now, if I would mention the old Commodore 64 game "Master of Magic" from 1985 and got that reaction I wouldn't be surprised, but System Shock ...

Sounds definitely very interesting, Volourn. Like I said, I like what I've read so far about the game and it's a pity that there are no plans at the moment to port this to the PC. If I had an X-Box I'd definitely buy JE. Here's hoping for a PC-version ...

Exactly my opinion. I still think that games magazines are giving away scores that are way too high anyway. If you look at a rating from a scale from 0 to 10 an 8.4 is definitely very good and nothing one should complain about, especially when this review seems to be, like you said, genuine and not biased like a few others have been accused of.

No he doesn't. He says: However, Jade Empire's combat system isn't that great. It can be pretty fun, especially if you go out of your way to introduce more variety than you really need to survive. He says you can basically beat every foe with the same tactics, and if you play that way the combat is repetitive and simple. However, if you don't do that and put a little more variety into your fighting it can be fun. That's how I interpret his statement. I thought this review was very well balanced, pointed out the pros as well as the cons of the game and was IMO quite objective. After reading this review I actually got quite interested in JE and if I would own an X-Box I'd seriously consider buying this game ... because of reading this review. He merely does what is every reviewers' duty - describing the game and all the options you have in the game in detail. Just because combat is dull doesn't mean I shouldn't go into detail on how it works and what options there are.

Yes, I've read Feargie's statement. Nevertheless I think that there is still a big enough market for PC-only games, just waiting to be served. Problem is that publishers don't think the same. At the moment the PC is only an afterthought in the minds of the publishers, because the really big bucks are with console games these days, but like I said, while the PC market is not as profitable at the moment, I think it's still big enough to warrant PC-only games.

Own setting, own rule-system, old-school-CRPG-style and ... PC-only, then I'd be happy. Although I'm pretty sure old-school-CRPG-style and PC-only are probably not going to happen ...

Best Combat: Temple of Elemental Evil Best Old-School: Ravenloft - Stone Prophet Best Story: Planescape: Torment Most Fun: Icewind Dale + Heart of Winter + Trials of the Luremaster

I think (hope?) there must be loads of PC-gamers out there who start getting sick of all these console-style RPG's. I think there IS a market out there for traditional CRPG's, the problem is no-one caters to that market at the moment, because it's consoles where the really big bucks lie. As for the avatar. It's some unused BIS art (I think for BG3), a character portrait by Vance Kovacs. I've been using this avatar for quite some time for all my IE games as a character portrait, but lost it when my old PC crashed beyond repair. I recently re-discovered it with the help of J.E. Sawyer (thanks again, J.E.! )

Sure, but they weren't top-class developers with tons of experience and a huge track-record back then. They were still newcomers in the business and hadn't done a game on the complexity level of BG before. IMO it WAS a bit of a gamble for Interplay and I give them credit for that.

If a publisher decides to go with a rather unknown developer to make a huge RPG based on the D&D license at a time when RPG's are literally dead, then the publisher deserves IMO some credit for having faith in the developers' abilities.

The thing is that PC-RPGamers desperately need a good, old-fashioned, traditional PC-RPG. Badly. Nothing against KOTOR, but personally I am getting tired of all the console-style RPG's and replaying all the old CRPG's is getting boring as well. I think there is a market for a PC-only RPG that values the old traditions.

Now, if BIO would have gone bust right after the release of the BG games, then this would be a valid statement and you could blame BOTH Bioware AND Interplay.

Every company that takes part in the making of a computergame holds a share of the games success or failure and in consequence influences the individual participants' success or failure based on how well the product will perform on the market. Making a game is a joint venture between developer and publisher, therefore both are responsible for the success/failure of their product, which in return influences their respective successes/failures.

That would indeed be worrying ...

There's nothing wrong with giving credit to BIO where credit is due (and they deserve it), but with denying that other parties were also partly responsible (how small a resonsibility it might have been) for BIO's success as well.

Hey Volo, don't back out of this conversation with a statement like this because you've run out of counter-arguments. Why not admit that J. E. is right about this and you're wrong?

Volourn,Apr 4 2005, 06:05 PM Not discussing quality here. I'm talking about what drives the game. In BG; it's finding out who's trying to kill you and learning about your past. In IWD, the story is just an exuse to get the player to the next dunegon. While I agree with you on IWD's story being mostly an excuse for combat I will say that this is also true to a certain extent for BG, although not as obvious as in most of IWD. In terms of quality I'm not saying that IWD's story is great, but for a hack'n slash game it does have a decent plot, which I can't say for BG if you view it as the epic it wants to be. My fave - and I'll know I'll get flak for it - but, I'll say TOB is. Whatever floats your boat. Fine with me. I just loved the atmosphere in TOTL and the haunted castle setting. Very moody and atmospheric indeed. Don't give credit to Interplay/BIS for BIo's success. BIO is 100% responsible for their success and will be responsible 100% for any failures. Yes, Bioware is mostly responsible for their success, but not alone. Interplay/BIS contributed to Bio's success, you'll have to admit that. That was the point I was trying to get across. I don't. The IE art is virtually equal in my book. Dialogue. The dialogue in IWD is better.

the artwork was far better in IWD <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Definitely. I wholeheartedly agree.

Volourn wrote: You say all this yet then you respawn with your opinion. Classic. These rants were

I'm not talking about Bard's Tale, I was talking about Gothic. As far as Bard's Tale goes - can't play it. Downloaded the demo and it won't even let me install

I know what you mean though. I was quite gutted by the controls at first, but I was intrigued enough by the gameworld that I wanted to play on and after a few training rounds, lo and behold, I got better and better with handling the controls.

The Gothic controls actually do make sense and are easy to work with when you've gotten used to them. Should be no problem after one or two hours of gameplay. Just because they're unconventional doesn't mean they're sh*t.