Magister Lajciak

I think it's because they want a simultaneous copies. What appears to you that "all the stores have copies" might not actually be the case and even if it is the case in the U.S., it might not the case in other countries.

I'm not sure I'd call the main quest excellent. I'd say the main quest is competent. OK - fair enough. As to combat, is it dependent on the player's reflexes or on the in-game statistics of the character or on both? Ouch - dialogue used to be one of BioWare's strong points. Hopefully, this will not carry through to other BioWare games, such as Dragon Age.

Thanks for the love! I also love it when my gaming framerate is good. (sorry, I couldn't resist!) I want to say that I think the improvements in quality in Obsidian's games really do show as one progresses from your oldest games to your newest. The Mask of the Betrayer is just top notch. If I were to have another suggestion, apart from those I already stated earlier in the thread, it would be to concentrate on your main strengths: story and dialogue. This is a great asset of Obsidian and I hope you will keep putting it to good use rather than trying to create games that concentrate on other things. Good luck and let me say that I am already awaiting the Storm of Zehir with anticipation!

OK, so as I understand it so far: Main quest: excellent but relatively short Sidequests: optional and long but boring

Well, I guess we do know that he still has some sort of oversight and involvement with LucasArts, but we don't know the extent...

Never mind - problem solved - just some BIOS stuff.

ATI are supposed to be really good in the desktop space, but in the mobile space they are not so great. Their higher end cards are simply not available. It is only recently that a couple of laptops with the ATI Mobility Radeon 3850/3870 even appeared on the market, but they are only a tiny number of laptops (thus not much choice) and lag pretty far behind NVIDIA mobile cards. I guess this will eventually be rectified with the 4000 series, but for now NVIDIA leads by a huge margin in latptop/notebook graphics.

I just received my new laptop and it does not come with a pre-installed OS, so I am trying to install Windows XP on it. The setup process, however, tells me that it cannot find any active HDD on the computer... Any advice as to what I can do? Can I 'activate' it somehow or something?

Ugh, that sounds pretty terrible! I dunno, it wasn't that bad, although I found myself humming the theme from "Moon Patrol" while playing... While most of the planets are similar, they're relatively easy to break up between the main quests without finding them monotonous. The vehicle did control like ass though. I guess I am somewhat startled. BioWare usually tends to emphasize the story and does not believe in extraneous content.

Hahaha are you being serious? If you get two levels of that Perk, they'll help you. One level and they won't be hostile towards you. A good perk to take if you are wandering away from the city. Those mutated bears can do some serious damage. Sounds great! Can't wait to play the game!

Biodrone? Bio = Bioware Drone = spend in dull or monotonous activity Quite right. Biodrone AKA Volo. Ouch! What is the reason for this moniker? Is Volourn that much of a BioWare fanboy or is it something else?

Unreal Tournament 2004 In fact, that is the only FPS I have played anytime during the past 3-4 or maybe even 5 years.

Purely an indication of something that fails my criteria Fair enough! Yeah, EA used to be pretty bad with the studios it acquired, but it has learned its lesson and now lets them mostly manage themselves. It has actually become pretty innovative and good at creating new IPs or injecting quality into existing ones.

That's what I also fear, but I nevertheless hope for another expansion. I don't like 4E all that much, at least not in the PnP format (maybe in CRPGs it would work better, but some Obsidian devs commented that it translates poorly into the electronic space, because of things such as marks and so on)...

Thanks! It seems I will be fine.

I have received joyous news that I ought to be receiving my new computer today. That means I will soon be able to romp the wasteland just like the rest of you!

That sounds both funny and cool at the same time actually.

Yeah, they pretty much used to assimilate and destroy the studios they acquired, but now they allow them to retain their corporate identity and be relatively independent.

Nice and concise summary for those of us who haven't had the chance to play it yet - thanks! Are you crazy? The landscape is dead on OK, OK - as I said I haven't played the game yet.

It is indeed more of a publisher than a developer question, but it is often advantageous to wait for all stores to receive their copies of games before releasing them to the public. This can cut down on initial piracy if the pre-release security is good.

Hahaha are you being serious?

Well, I am looking forward to Dragon Age and expect that it will live up to its promise. EA has gotten better at leaving development teams alone and supporting them to produce quality products - this is not your old EA anymore, though they do have some anti-customer policies such as DDRM.

Nice and concise summary for those of us who haven't had the chance to play it yet - thanks!

That's definitely true, but any comparison thread is bound to invite the tearing down of some of the things being compared.

That's what I thought, but: