Morgoth

Yeah again, that argument Killian stated just doesn't affect me at all. Heck, I even decided to play with the original Sheppard in Mass Effect, because my own made were too ugly anyway. Did that bother me? Not at all. Playing premade characters is fine in my book, what I want is diversity and innovation in gameplay and a great story with likeable characters.

Tim Sweeney (the brain behind the Unreal Engine) thinks that software rendering will be the future, and API's like DirecX and OpenGL will finally cease to exists. Click So, where's my software rendered

I've only 3 Mbps, but no download limit. But that's maybe because I'm living on the country side. 100 Mbps...wow, that's criminally fast. Me wanna have that too!

I read this article at Gamestar.de (translated into German), where Alex St. John, one of the co-inventor of DirectX and now the GM at WildTagent, thinks that there won't be a Next-Gen of consoles anymore, because the business model just isn't sustainable anymore, MS, Sony & Co. still making tons of losses with each hardware sold (how do they justify these losses to their shareholders?), and blames Intel, Nvidia, MS & Co. for the lack of attention why the PC just doesn't get more focus/isn't advancing so fast as it used to be. It's funny, because if you ask Sony or MS about the their next "big thing", you won't get an answer. Sony says the PS3 will have a life span of 10 years, but that's because they can't afford developing another CPU (the CELL costed several billions to develop, and they still make tons of losses despite some return of games sales), MS is here clearly in the advantage as they're just using mass-market hardware for their 360, but whenever questioning about their next Gen console, they won't answer either. Except they're talking alot about their future online prospects, so at least they got that right. Graphics starts to distinguish over different hardware generations less and less, so what point do you have introducing a new gen. of consoles, if it doesn't bring you a huge jump of graphics quality into your living room? It made sense from Xbox to 360, but what's to expect next? What capability should Sony, MS & Co look instead to distinguish their hardware? Weird control schemes a'la Wii remote or Guitar Hero? Online? But that's what you got the PC for. The electronic distribution model becomes more and more prevalent, so why should publishers/developers continue to pay MS/Sony fees for retail copies if it would be much more profitable to expend the electronic distribution model instead? So, I'm not myself sure what/how the next-gen consoles should look like, and what they should offer... What do the devs think? Will consoles finally exctinct in the next 5-10 years, MS & Intel finally smart up and invest into the PC/Windows market to advance the medium (both hardware and economical models), is this after all an requirement, and most importantly, will we still get story-orientated, singleplayer RPGs despite the lack of the retail console market? Discuss.

Well, NWN2 comes with editing and modding options, this one not, plus character creation isn't as detailed as far i know, atleast in the demo you can't change appearance more than just genre Mod tools are not really a selling reason for someone who just wants to enjoy a great singleplayer RPG, and changing appearances isn't really a game breaker for me either. After all, I want a good story, not a silly barbie doll dress kit.

People tend to compare it with NWN2, but the Drakensang engine is less clunky and has a far better camera.

uh CoH:OF? it unbalanced the game (like usual) The campaigns are ok, but it's no longer about tactics it's just swamping your opponent with armor. One of the German missions makes it possible to have a Tiger and two other Supertanks on the field AT THE SAME TIME! I also read that the campaign is better than in COH vanilla. So, why not giving it a try then? And who cares about balance? Fun is what is important. Balance...Pff. it's campaigns actually. COH:OF has a brit and a german campaign attached to it. I was able to fight my way through the german campaign but the british one I just didn't have the heart to finish. So, it's Tommies and Krauts then. Looking forward to it.

Well, scientists usually opt to do "experimentations" on their own childs, because it's less risky and what not.

uh CoH:OF? it unbalanced the game (like usual) The campaigns are ok, but it's no longer about tactics it's just swamping your opponent with armor. One of the German missions makes it possible to have a Tiger and two other Supertanks on the field AT THE SAME TIME! I also read that the campaign is better than in COH vanilla. So, why not giving it a try then? And who cares about balance? Fun is what is important. Balance...Pff.

Bethesda is overrated. Sure, Fallout 3 was one of the better games I can remember playing lately, but really, the emotional fanboyish nerdrage should be reserved to those who really earn it. LONG LIVE BIOWARE!!!!!!!!!!!11111111one!!1!

Early reviews state that the campaign will be underwhelming and "dumbed down". Well, I guess I'll pass and better get Opposing Fronts instead.

Well it actually got a lot attention, in Germany at least. Not so sure if this will be the case for the rest of the world too, however.

That's why it sucks working on publsiher-owned franchises. You're sooner or later bound to get laid off, no matter how well it sells.

It's called greed... Drakensang guys are still not infected... Seriosuly though, I'm glad there're still publishers like dtp or Deep Silver around that publish games like Drakensang, Divinity 2 and Risen. It shows that you don't need to throw sacks of money at teams to make enjoyable games.

The Dark Eye: Drakensang

Wow. Tomb Raider Underworld sells 1,5 million units, and Eidos plays the sad Panda. PoP sells 2,2 million units, and Ubisoft plays the sad Panda. In other news, Drakensang sells a bit over 100k units, and publisher dtp announced this as "major" success. Addon and Sequel are being developed.

Yes a lot of benefit to developers... If it is a closed system it means, the manufacturer can issue licences to developers who want to develop for it... The easiest way to make ****loads of profit is to give away the license only to selected few publishers, which in the end would mean lack of games on the market which would lead into skyrocketing their prices... With advantage, I actually meant programming for the hardware. Also, silly "exclusives" would stop as well. Something I wanna see for the Next-gen consoles (~2012) is an optional Internet Store, some equivalent for Steam where I can buy full version over the internet and download them. But of course they'd have to be cheaper than retail copies, otherwise there's no point for paying the same price.

Well, from a developer point of view, this certainly would bring a lot of advantages in development. Not so sure however how this could benefit the customer.

I agree. Going for 30

I'm pretty positive that IWD required a larger team, mostly artists. The areas were all individually modeled and hand-drawn, while for SoZ you could quickly create areas within the toolset that didn't required any sort of post-rendering (except the walk-meshes maybe), plus there were already tons of finished prefabs from the previous NWN2 games that surely helped a lot to speed up area creation.

I'd exclusively buy at Steam if it would be cheaper. Forking out 50€ for a new game that I also can get for 30€ at play.com+free shipping? What's the point then? Steam is only good if the prices drop after 6-12 months or when there's some special christmas sale offers or things like that, but it's crap for new releases. Way too expensive.

3 vs 3 is a lot fun, especially if you're on the winning side. Except for the crappy lag I had today, I'm really enjoying the mp aspect of DoW2 very much.

That's the point. Now that I know FEAR2 will also use Steamworks, I know I'm not gonna get it anymore (except later for the bargain bin) due to the fact I can't make money for selling it back, thus forcing me to buy less games.

Yeah, Gamestar also has some ingame screenshots, plus they said the current version of Risen already runs more stable and is more polished than the patched Gothic 3. Well, not really a big feat.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to sell DoW2 then. Not that this is a big bua-huahha, as play.com is criminally cheap compared to some local shops. It just doesn't make it worthwhile to purchase games that I can finish in 7 hours anymore at full price and then sell it back (a'la FEAR 2).