fastpunk

Interesting blog, thanks for the heads up! I'm seriously looking forward to this game, specially after all this talk about reactivity. Also, why does Darcy appear four times in the image with all the characters? He's actually the big bad guy, isn't he? :conspiracytheory:

Sure, couple times in act 1 and 4 I was little irritated with running back and forth, but the reason why DA was overlong to me is because it constantly felt like I had to go from point A to B while the space between had nothing but monter killing. That equals massive yawnfest to me. I didn't get that feeling in TW. Well, all the walking around in TW got tedious sometimes for me. Yeah, it wasn't quite as tedious as some of dungeons in DA, but it still artificially lengthened the game.

Matters of taste and so on. To me DA felt just overlong game filled with nothing but darkspawn/other monster killing in a boring static world, while TW felt just the opposite. It's just amazing to me how great game CD Project RED managed to make as their first game ever. Well, CD Projeckt did spend 3 or 4 years on it. Actually, cancel that, DA was in development since 2004. I would disagree with you on the overlong part, though. Yeah, DA feels overlong, but so does TW. I mean, the time you spend walking around in TW is ridiculous. Some sort of fast-travel system a la Mysteries of Westgate would have made a huge difference. Otherwise, I agree, TW's world felt more palpable. CD Projekt even got it down to details like people running for cover when rain began, or going about their work during the day and retreating to their houses at night. Plus, the day/night cycle actually had some influence over gameplay (could have had more, but it's better than nothing).

Good God!

Leftfield & Nicole Willis - Swords From my favorite Leftfield album, Rhythm and Stealth. Leftism didn't age quite as well as this one.

The ghoul thing, if true, is a pretty frickin awesome idea. I'd certainly play a ghoul, maybe even in my first playthrough. Also, vehicles being in is an interesting addition. I always wanted to go all 'road warrior' in an FO game. Maybe Obsidian can make a quest about a mack truck full of fuel needing to be moved to some location while under attack from road bandits. But seriously now, the whole thing looks very promising if true. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Well, besides Obsidian's upcoming games (Alpha Protocol and Fallout: New Vegas) I'm really looking forward to The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. I finished the first Witcher a few months ago, and only now, after letting it marinate for a while, I realize how much I enjoyed it. So yeah, I'll be keeping an eye on the second one. Besides that, I'd like to try Mass Effect 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 for the PC.

Peace by Depeche Mode. From their new album, Sounds of the Universe. Can't say it's their best but it's slowly growing on me. The myriad of synth sounds that decorate pretty much every song make it feel like a blast from the '80s, but song structures betray the 2009 production date. What I don't like is that lyrics are kind of... basic, simple... dunno, they just don't impress. To conclude, it's a decent album overall.

I didn't even know A Bug's Life was regarded as some sort of failure or half-failure. It's one of the first Pixar movies I ever saw, so there's some nostalgia in it as well. But I also find it to be a genuinely good movie, with heart, so to each his own. Must be some sort of terminator pandemic going on in here.

I'm playing through Tomb Raider: Underworld once more. Here are some pics (sadly, scaled to 1024x640 by photobucket):

What? You mean master Vrook is Mr. Fredricksen? The voice sounded a bit familiar, but I didn't make the connection until now. Anyway, Up was pretty good. I wouldn't count it among my Pixar favorites (A Bug's Life and Monsters Inc. still rule), but it was entertaining nonetheless. I also watched The Terminator friday night. I lost count how many times I've seen that movie, but I still find it gripping. Gonna watch T2 soon enough, and then start watching season 2 of Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Decent, my @ss! Bethesda has got a lot of work to do until they reach decent. Dialogues in FO3 feel like they've been written by a 12 year old kid.

Ah, an inhuman money-making scheme. Sign of the economical times maybe?

I've been listening to Massive Attack's new song, Splitting the Atom. The new EP is pretty hard to find so I'm listening on youtube for the time being. Here's a link: Very morose song, akin to False Flags, also a Massive track from a few years ago. But I like it, and I can't wait for their new album in February. Cool lyrics btw: The baby was born Nettles and Ferns The evening it chokes The candle it burns This disguise covers Bitter lies Repeating the joke The meaning it dies Pass me a coat I'm not a- 'fraid to leave I'm letting you know I know what you need I'll turn you around This beautiful town And then you'll believe it when your eyes then deceive you Its easy, dont let it go Its easy, dont let it go Its easy, dont let it go Don't Lose It Its getting colder outside Your rented space They shadow box and they Paper chase It never stops And we'll never learn No hope without dope The jobless return The bankers have bailed The mighty retreat The pleasure it fails At the end of the week You take it or leave Or what you receive To what you receive Is eternited leave Its easy, dont let it go Its easy, dont let it go Its easy, dont let it go Don't lose it Incandescent light at doors In adolescent menopause In little clicks you got the music stops The needle sticks and the penny drops The summer's gone before you know The muffled drums of relentless flow You're looking at stars that give you Vertigo The sun's still burning and dust will blow Honey scars I'll keep you near Our blood is gold nothing to fear We killed the time and I love you dear A kiss of wine we'll disappear The last of the last particles Divisible invisible The last of the last particles Divisible invisible

Is FO:NV really scheduled for a late 2010 release? Seems like such a short dev time. Regardless, I wouldn't expect any news about it this year.

Yes! I couldn't agree more. This is why I like SoZ myself, it manages to mix it. Now you're fighting, then you do some exploration, then you do some trading, then do some crafting and equipment management, then you do a few side-quests etc. You never get saddled down doing one thing for long periods of time. My biggest problem with the game is that towns are underdeveloped, most of them feel like (and actually are) copy-pasta. You've got one temple of Waukeen, one crafting station, and one inn. Rather disappointing. One or two more towns like Port Llast and full access to all quarters of Neverwinter (each with their own quests and such) would have been fabulous - basically if both overland maps had a hub I feel the game would have been better for it. Still, I imagine that would have taken more time and resources than Obsidian had during development, so I guess that's that. Still a fun game though.

I'm playing some Dragon Age. I didn't really get far since I wanted to try the origin stories. I settled for a mage (probably the most interesting aspects of the DA world are tied to mages, so it seemed like the most interesting choice), the other origins were kind of meh. I'm currently in Redcliff, killing undead hordes. Very enjoyable game overall. But I also feel the need to reinstall Storm of Zehir. Going to do it later today and build some weird party geared towards teamwork benefits, maybe bump up the difficulty all the way. Fun will be had!

Ah, another one of those 'top 10 games' thread. They never get old. So, let's see: Planescape: Torment NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer Icewind Dale + Heart of Winter + Trials of the Luremaster System Shock 2 Thief: The Dark Project Fallout Tomb Raider: Anniversary Need for Speed: Porsche Unreal Tournament 2004 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II PS:T and MotB are a tie for first, the rest are in no particular order.

And Alpha Protocol is due May 31, according to Amazon. There's plenty of time between the two to not cause friction. Those are two big MAYBEs. I don't rule out the possibility, but there's little evidence that this will happen.

Agreed. It's probably wiser to build up for a media blitz in the last weeks before release. AP's current release date is in a rather quiet time of the year anyway (not that many game releases in late spring or early summer), it will not have much competition.

Hard choice to make, many games have memorable main themes. My favorite is probably the one from the Unreal Tournament series (I make no discrimination here, I like the remixed versions from UT2004 and UT3 just as much as the original theme). I clocked a lot of hours in these games so I've heard the theme a ridiculous amount of times. UT99 theme: UT2004 theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViTKJFhffKY UT3 theme:

Okay, the previous entry is also a reference to the same thing! "... initial level of tests were more challenging than the doctors thought..." Yup, definitely a jab.

Exactly!

This is great! I can't wait for the day when Microsoft dominates the gaming industry! I can't wait to buy 2 hour games at full price and then have to pay for 5 extra pieces of DLC to just have the complete experience. I can't wait to get my GfWL subscription and choose between super offers like the starter pack (let's you boot up the game and play sp, but only for an hour at a time), home pack (for the home user who plays online sometimes as well, contains full sp functionality) and pro (for the gaming enthusiast with full on and offline functionality, and stat tracking, including the number of times you go to the toilet, pick your nose, and scratch your genitals during play sessions). I'm so happy! A bright new future awaits us! But seriously now, I hope this doesn't happen. Diversity is good, there should be as many game devs and publishers out there as possible. Having a few enormous companies controlling the whole industry doesn't sound that great.

I'm giving a spin to Parov Stelar's brand new album, Coco. It's awesome. And he's also coming here where I live with his band on the 29th. Can't wait for that! Here's the title track and its video: