fastpunk

I decided to give Icewind Dale 2 another go. I tried it a while back, after finishing the first one, but I didn't get far. Now I tried my hand at a party of 4, with a drow bard as a leader. It's surprising to see how NPCs react to my bard's race, and how dialog options have changed when compared to the first time I tried the game (first time through I had a paladin as a party leader). Plus, 3rd Edition rules are more flexible than 2nd Edition, so planning and building my party was very pleasing. Also, there were a lot of small details and nice touches that I had missed the first time around. Like that blind woman living in the Targos Docks, she's one of the many forms of Ravel, from PS:T. These details add a lot of flavor. Also, the game is quite well written so far, and the combat feels slightly better because of the improved interface. Combat encounters also seem to be designed differently. They're more continuous, the first one relied more on shorter bursts of action. I just hope it keeps all this up for the entire length of the game, cause it's very cool so far.

So they're focusing on improving the combat. Well, Mass Effect's combat was pretty good, and with some tweaks it can be great. Companion and enemy AI both need a few enhancements. Also, some tweaking to the responsiveness of the cover system would be great. Also, did I see weapon reloading at about 45-50 seconds in? But as much as I'd love to see combat improvements, I feel there are other areas that need a lot more attention, like the dialog system, and general pacing. Also, side exploration should either suffer massive improvements, or get the boot. Anyway, I'm interested in this one, and I hope the PC version comes out the same time as the other versions. Btw, any news on that?

I'll chime in with some personal expectations. Now, I realize the game has limited dev time, so I am not expecting FO:NV to have different game mechanics when compared to FO3. It'll probably just have some tweaks. and some small enhancements maybe. That said, since FO1 and FO2 were more about exploration and discovery than they were about story, I expect New Vegas to be the same. My greatest hope is to get a sense of wonder every once in a while, and to discover interesting places and meet interesting characters. And of course, a reactive gameworld would be awesome. I just want a damned game that feels just as fresh and captivating as the first Fallout. Don't really care what perspective it plays from, or what combat system it has. And I certainly hope it won't go for a story-driver approach. Dunno, words seem to come along harder for me tonight for some reason, but overall this is what I hope FO:NV will be about: exploration and discovery.

Nightmares on Wax - Capumcap It's one of NoW's best tracks ever. Check it:

I'm also playing The Witcher, and like Aristes, I'm quite satisfied with the purchase. It's a thoroughly enjoyable experience thus far, though I'm only in chapter 2, towards the end. And as a fallback game, I play UT3 + Titan Pack, with some mods added to the mix. I tried The Ball: Teotl a few days ago, and it was really entertaining. Now I'm trying some new custom maps. Good fun all around!

Bioshock was a solid shooter, and I'd enjoy playing an improved sequel, if only to see some more of Rapture. It's a lovely place, in its own twisted way.

Awesome! That was the best Yahtzee review I've seen in a long while.

LTJ Bukem - Music Nothing like a bit of Jungle to get the blood flowing...

Yeah... "Obsidian Making Fallout:New Vegas" would be better suiting as a top level category with three or four threads within. (even if just those few.) You know what would be perfect? A Fallout: New Vegas sub-forum over here on the Obsidian website.

Dunno, I found the KotOR2 tutorial level pretty good at setting things up. Controlling an astromech droid, patching the place up... it was fun enough, and short. Anyway, both KotOR2 and NWN2 gave you the opportunity to skip these tutorial sections if you wished to, so I wouldn't worry about it. I wouldn't count Okku's Barrow as a tutorial level though; it's a prologue.

I very much prefer the Vampire: Bloodlines way of leveling up. Eh, 'leveling up' isn't quite the right term though, cause it didn't have levels per se. You'd receive experience points for completing objectives, and you could spend them right then and there... or save them for later; your choice. This way, the game doesn't encourage/penalyze any of the multiple ways of completing objectives. It seems like a perfect fit for AP. Well, the previews suggest that this will be the case with AP's Michael Thorton as well. It was mentioned quite a few times that he'd start out as a well trained agent, just not with much field experience.

Dark Athena sure looks good. And some people actually called its graphics sub par. It's ridiculous how high the expectations for graphics quality are set these days.

With Garrett's story arc over, I imagine we'll be playing a new character. I do hope the core gameplay remains unchanged. Overall, I'm curious. But no matter the outcome (this may be a success, or an 'Invisible War'), it will never change the fact that Looking Glass' Thief games are a little slice of heaven.

Zero 7 - In the Waiting Line

I've been entertaining myself with Need for Speed ProStreet. The big surprise is that it's better than I expected, and certainly better than what the reviews have been saying. The tuning options are great and it's one of the game's most entertaining aspects. You know, tuning that drag car in order to shave off another 0.5 sec. on your 1/4 mile time, tweaking the handling on your drift car to make it loose and easy to slide... that sort of stuff. The big problem with the game is that track configurations are kind of hit and miss, and the driving can be a bit weird on twisty tracks. On the other hand, the sensation you get from driving at 300 km/h is just fantastic, and the cars usually have really brutal acceleration, which I like. Seems like the game needed some extra playtesting. Regardless, it's the most evolutionary NFS game in a long while. It's sad that EA didn't decide to build on ProStreet, and went back to making NFS Most Wanted clones.

Right. It's like Fallout 1/2; another Fallout game sounds good, but outside of the established fanbase no one would buy it. It would have been nice if you'd have read my post beyond that sentence you quoted. "Not to mention that it would have to be radically different as a game, and probably get rid of the very things that made Torment so great" is what I said after that. This applies to FO3. It's radically different when compared to FO1/2, not only in terms of game mechanics, but also in tone. In other words, it changed to adapt to the new requirements of the market. If it had preserved the core game mechanics and tone of the original FO, the situation would be quite different.

Suave or professional is how I'll be playing. I'm not much for aggressive, collar-grabbing, face-shooting action.

I've heard about it in passing a couple of times, but never took an interest. Until now at least. It looks good, but there's little to go on. I mean a teaser video, some screenshots, and a feature list is not that much. I'm curious though, as it could be good.

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If you install Storm of Zehir you're going to have 3 camera modes again - character, exploration and strategy. Actually, I think that even if you have NWN2+MotB installed, you'll still get 3 camera modes, provided you updated to the latest patch, 1.22.something. The camera focused on the active character is the Exploration camera. Strategy cam works like the one in Infinity engine games.

Absolutely true! Um, except a Fallout game with complex quests and dialogue, no randomly generated areas, set in a wild west casino town, has absolutely nothing to do with Stalker. Oh and did you get the memo? Stalker didn't invent the FPS-RPG hybrid genre. Since when is STALKER an FPS-RPG hybrid? That's one memo I didn't get.

Yes, but what about the combat system and the AI? I haven't played FO3, but as I understand it, those two were sub-par. I'm sure those things are kind of tied to the engine.

I'm sure it will, good sir. Fallout and crates are a natural fit.

Maybe this is why George Ziets came back from Bethesda, for this project. He might be one of the leads or something. One thing's for sure, since this is scheduled for late 2010 release, it's probably been in the works for some time now. Anyway, I dunno what to say. I've never liked Bethesda and the type of games they usually make. So if this is just another first-person, sandbox RPG, like FO3, then... it's not that exciting. I hope this is more of a classic RPG. Regardless, I'm glad Obsidian's working on something besides AP, now that Aliens got canceled.

I'll second this. It's a solid movie, with great performances from both DiCaprio and Crowe. Last movie I saw was Max Payne. It wasn't too entertaining... but at least I got to see Olga Kurylenko in a very short dress.