Rostere

Sounds neat

LOL, this always seemed to happen to Edwin in the fight against the crazy imps in the Watchers Keep maze...

So it all breaks down to a matter of how we choose to define what is a meaningful use of music in media. My definition of "meaningful use" in this case is simply that the music contributes to said emotional impact of the scene. For me, it would appear strange that anyone has an opposing view on this. For what is the point of the script? To invoke feelings and to allow the player to relate to situations. What is the point of graphics? To invoke feelings, by simulating the chosen environment. The role of music would then logically be to further shape the atmosphere, don't you agree? As long as you think games should have music at all, I can't see how you could disagree here. I don't think all music in MotB is bad, however. I like the Mulsantir theme and the Imilvale theme, and all the Dreamscape music is really outstanding. But pretty much everything else just feels like filler. Music in future Obsidian games would benefit from being meant to form a larger part of the collected audiovisual experience. I think musicians often come up with uninteresting music for games since they (or their employers) consciously or subconsciously think the music should be oh so subtle and unprotruding since it's only meant to be background muzak anyway. Alright, that might be true.... But I still want to believe that the music in BG2 is objectively good (No, make that correct for its purpose). There are some technical differences between the BG2 music and the NWN2/ MotB music. The latter is more inclined to use long, droning notes in the arrangement while the former more often uses most instruments as part of the actual melody - compare "Dragon Battle" from BG2 with "Shore Combat" from MotB or the main theme from BG2 and its counterpart in MotB (that should be a fair match). Both are meant for approximately the same situation, but the tracks off MotB just fail to be as captivating due to this and other details of the mix et cetera. There are of course examples where the choice of arrangement I just so vehemently attacked works the best, like the Dreamscape themes. Droning, less bombastic tunes like that creates the feeling of an underlying threat or perhaps only a sleepy calmness. Another thing which tells something about how you are meant to listen to the music in MotB is that all the combat music is mixed considerably louder than the other music. If you want to turn up the music to really listen to the "city music", your ears will be brutally slaughtered once you enter a fight. Ok, this is done in quite many games, but if you overdo it some parts of the music will unvoidably be obscured. I really think that a better example of a game that uses music in an ideal way is the old SNES RPG Chrono Trigger. I feel tempted to come up with an example that is not one of my favourite games but I can't, perhaps in part because I usually don't play games I don't like and thus don't know much about their music? Just an idea. Ok, so this was a long post, but I take this seriously

I must admit that I was quite disappointed with the music for both NWN 2 and it's expansion. It might be true that I had too high expectations, but what really bothers me is that I don't believe it's really a failure due to lack of talent as much as a failure due to having the wrong approach to music in games. If you compare NWN 2 and BG 2, the music in BG 2 formed an important part of the game while the music in NWN 2 mostly feels like elevator music (or rather the fantasy RPG equivalent - but I think you understand what I mean). Now, you might say that you should go listen to CDs instead of playing games if you want good music, but if you look at things from that perspective, what is really the point of having any music at all in games? The point of a game soundtrack is really to provide assistance in conveying the atmosphere created by the graphics and the story of a game. Many of the tunes in BG 2 have strong motifs that are easy to remember and hum along with and that was also their strength. This was a bold move, since if you create memorable music which sets the wrong mood, it will create a god-awful discord and be very disturbing. Chuck Berry is a good musician and UT is a good game, but Chuck Berry + UT = epic fail (No pun intended). The music for BG 2 hits the spot perfectly however. Music should have the same role in games as in movies. In The Lord of the Rings, which should be a relevant example, music sometimes takes over the entire soundscape and affects how we feel about what is happening on the screen. (example) Music in games is a tool that should be used to the entire extent of it's power, it's not to be treated as muzak. I hope that Alpha Protocol really will incorporate music with the gaming experience. The main menu of Civ 4 is another excellent example of how music is used together with graphics to form an audiovisual experience which succeds in capturing the very essence of the game, and the fact that this is achieved before the actual game even starts just makes it even better. Ok, so this was a long post but hey I'm on vacation and it's bad weather

I'd like to see something like as part of a level in Alpha Protocol. Or why not ? As for geographical locations: Dubrovnik (If I was a villain in a Bond movie, I'd have a large villa here) Or why not a secret base under a summer resort on some small caribbean island? Of course with a calypso band playing in the background.

I'm currently playing through the PC port of Resident Evil 4. It's literally very hard to stop playing, since there is no "quit" option in the pause menu... In addition to that, you'll be greeted with a BSOD if you try to minimize the game in any way :/

1. Torment 2. Baldur's Gate 2 3. Thief: The Dark Project 4. Hearts of Iron 2 5. Chrono Trigger 6. Silent Hill 2 7. Alpha Centauri 8. Sacrifice 9. System Shock 2 10. Grim Fandango Wow, a list of 10 could not possibly contain all of my favourite games... I have to leave out Original War, Starcraft, Unreal Tournament, The Longest Journey, Arcanum, Dawn of War, Vampire: Bloodlines, Red Alert, Half- Life, Mechwarrior 4 (!), Phantasy Star 4, KotOR 2, Civ 2, Homeworld and many more...

Honestly, D&D 4 seems to me like D&D: Uwe Boll Edition... But that's just after a brief look at the manuals. I'm looking forward to 4e Forgotten Realms with mixed feelings (to say the least!), though.

You Are A: Chaotic Neutral Human Wizard (3rd Level) Ability Scores: Strength- 14 Dexterity- 12 Constitution- 17 Intelligence- 19 Wisdom- 17 Charisma- 15 Mehehe! Those are some nice stats.... Detailed Results: Alignment: Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19) Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19) Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20) Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (21) True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (21) Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (22) Lawful Evil ----- XXXXXXXXXX (10) Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10) Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXXX (11) Law & Chaos: Law ----- XXXXXXXX ( Neutral - XXXXXXXX ( Chaos --- XXXXXXXXX (9) Good & Evil: Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXX (11) Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13) Evil ---- XX (2) Race: Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13) Dwarf ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10) Elf ------ XXXX (4) Gnome ---- XXXXXXXX ( Halfling - XXXX (4) Half-Elf - XXXXXXXXXX (10) Half-Orc - XXXX (4) Class: Barbarian - (-2) Bard ------ (-2) Cleric ---- (-4) Druid ----- (-4) Fighter --- XX (2) Monk ------ (-17) Paladin --- (-19) Ranger ---- (-6) Rogue ----- (0) Sorcerer -- XXXX (4) Wizard ---- XXXXXX (6)

My computer: Gigabyte GA-X38-DS5 mainboard Intel Q9450 (Cooled by Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme w/ Noctua NF- P12 fan and Coollaboratory Liquid Pro thermal paste) 2 GB RAM (Corsair Twin2X2048-8500C5D) Asus DRW-2014L1T optical drive Western Digital 500GB SATA II Caviar SE16 hard drive Asus Geforce 8600 GT (512 Mb) graphics card (weak, I know, but better cards with a silent solution cost a lot) M- Audio Delta AP192 sound card Creative SB 16 PCI sound card (don't ask) Antec Solo chassis Oh, and I also have two quiet Noctua fans mounted in the chassis and one cooling my graphics card two of these are controlled by an Akasa panel on the computer's front. My speaker setup is truly evil - I use a pair of unmatched speakers (the oldest being from 1994!) and one of these buggers all routed through a Tapco mixer table on my desk. The monitor is an old Dell Trinitron P1110 21'' (currently running at 1800x1440, 32 bits, 75 Hz). By all accounts, I should have stayed in the nineties, I know If I want to though, I could just plug in my old computer into my current monitor for some tr00 dual- boxing since I can change between two VGA signals with the flick of a switch. So I can play, say, Civ 4 and Alpha Centauri at the same time if I want to. That's neat EDIT: Ah ****e, I forgot to tell that I have two OS:s, XP Professional on one partition and Vista Business on the other. And my Vista has Win98 on a virtual machine . Needless to say, continuity is important when I build my computers.

I think we might have had a bit different expectations. I read his books before I played the game, and if I hadn't liked them, it is very likely that I never would have bothered about the game. While it is true that Lovecraft's stories might not be very scary, I don't think that's their only purpose. Your choice to only judge the books from this point of view further proves that we simply have different expectations. I think Lovecraft handles the concept of the unknown very well, and I think that you could also approach his booksas science fiction/ fantasy. On a side note, I must add that I don't usually read what's classified as "horror novels" and the like... So even if we were to discuss Lovecraft from your point of view, I don't know any "scary" novelists to compare him with.

duh!

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080422/cltu149.html?.v=2 The fact that they mention Giants and Sacrifice (and Messiah!) must mean that they realize that those games have fans... I don't know if I want sequels, but I'd really like to see more games like Sacrifice - that was a quite unique visual experience, to say the least.

No, the box art for PS:T was great.

Torment did not have the option to choose gender or appearance, so for me any game that can compensate with story does not need to have a that intricate character creation process. I would also prefer to "create" my character in- game, through choices and actions, not pre- game. The dialogue mechanics remind me awfully much of a game called Fahrenheit... Though some of you might remember it as Indigo Prophecy.

Wouldn't random generation ruin all the fun of replaying a game, to see what happens if you make different choices?

I agree completely. I loved the Baldur's Gate series, but I too have never finished NWN 1, even though I bought the Platinum Edition of the game. Heck, I did not even finish the first campaign... NWN 2 was/is vastly superior to NWN 1, and the Mask of the Betrayer simply blew me away - it is an outright excellent game and one of the best CRPGs I have ever played. True, the NWN single player campaign is worthless... Most fans of NWN 1 like it because of it's editor and multiplayer capabilities, I think. Why they don't like NWN 2? Well, if they actually played through the entire NWN main campaign, that should say something about their taste in story and dialogue.... Maybe they would really rather be playing Diablo, anyway. Or perhaps their conservative instincts influence their opinion when a new company takes over, who knows?