Morgoth

And who would be inane enough just to buy a game to read it's books?

Weird, I found CoD4 to be bland and boring. But well, that's just how it is. Opinions and stuff....

I wouldn't want to touch HL2+Episodes these days either, since I played these to death. But back in 2004, I got a boner when playing HL2 for the first time. And I'm still looking forward to Ep3 plus further HL games like any other Valve fanboy out there.

Hmm, a shame I sold my copy a half year ago. Never managed to play beyond chapter 2. Anyway, I just ordered a new copy over Ebay for a reasonable 20

What about these two adventure packs? Do these seemlessly integrade into the OC, or are these seperate adventures, and if yes, are they any good?

I wouldn't mind seeing Obsidian using the Electron engine for a new game for a change. Another hardcore PC RPG a'la Arcanum, Fallout or something new would be cool, even though this game would need to be self-funded (as Feargusaurus once stated). If that won't gonna happen, they still can continue making NWN2 expansions...but still?

The Kaft hates WAR, so chances are I'm gonna like it. And waht do you mean with "little gameplay"? There's a solid combat system with tons of traits, skills and spells to your disposal, plus some interesting RvR gamemodes (Public quests, Battle Zones, Scenarios, and the good ol' fashined PvE). Sounds like a lot of fun to me. WAAAGH!

Yeah, whatever, Xardosaurus.

Uhh, Bloodlines has absolutely fantastic writing No, it was okay, but surely not fantastic. But then again, Bloodlines also put additional emphasis into the actor performance, I thought that contributed also to the personality of the NPCs. In the end, it's not purely the dialog quality that makes or breaks an RPG these days, but how well all parts (acting, VO, design, functuality) play together that make it a satisfying experience. And I think if I can survive some badass dialogs a'la Gothic and still can enjoy it, DA should be a diamond among good ol' fashioned RPG goodness.

Ah thanks, that's what I wanted to hear. And yeah, it's actually the RvR aspect that interests me in Warhammer. After all, I want to play a MMO longer than just a week before I get bored (a'la AoC). Sooner or later I'm gonna pick it up, once those GOA imbeciles have the EU servers under control.

Bioware has consciously never really shown plot points or story revealing dialogs in videos. Fair enough. I trust DaveG & Co. to deliver a game that is the butter and bread of Bioware. I.e. a game of good ol' IE quality.

A good VA can always compensate for bad writing quite easy. In an IE game, bad writing would have been a game breaker to me.... But when I look at rather "mediocre" written games with full VO like Kotor, Bloodlines etc., it's not that bad because the VA supplies a lot of atmosphere and authenticity.

After finishing Warhead, I'm playing some Crysis for a change. Can't really say why, but I'm now enjoying it a lot more than in my first play-through. Must be because I'm playing it on my more recent PC rig. L0L.

Could be a fun game with some personality for a change.

Fallout 3 definitely looks very promising to me, even though I see it more as a FPS/RPG hybrid, less as a full fletched RPG, and even more less as a successor to F1/2, even though the "3" does say so. I'll lurk the forums and wait what people have to say after spending some dozens of hours into it. Or I go to the RPG Codex - If there's a lot of whining, chances are F3 is gonna be a good game.

It's awesome. Go get it!

Since there's too much fanboyism and whiners over mmorpg.com to make a decent judgement, I thought maybe some Obzidians who played WAR would be kind enough to drop some honest opinions? I'm especially interested in the combat system and the PvP stuff.

The Doctors worked on a game called "Battleground Infinity". Interplay later suggested to use the DnD license. And back then BG wasn't a multi million franchise. If some new developer wants to make an RPG, fine, create your own IP.... but I don't want some amateurs messing around with the mighty BG!

Oh yeah? You rather want to see Bethesda doing a BG sequel?

Just finished Crysis Warhead. Pretty cool game, I definitely liked it more than the Original.

Only Bioware or Obsidian are qualified to make a real BG3.

Such beautiful water. But it looks even better ingame.

Meh. Ambitious Mod makers will never hold back to create something good, no matter how "complicated" the tools are. Heck, look at the Thief FMs. Most crappiest Leveleditor I've ever seen, but people still continue to make great FMs with it. Waiting for rendering MegaTextures? So what, good excuse to get some sleep.

Mass Effect surely was a great game, even though it had plenty of shortcomings. The biggest criticism was that it lacked a certain scale, a certain "epicness". The Citadel felt so empty and dead, and the story missions were so underpopulated as well. Like on that iceplanet....wow, there was basically nothing to do. And one of the better characters, Matriach Benezia, was so underdeveloped, even though she showed potential. You just entered the room, shared some talk, and then had to kill her. Disappointing. Gameplay wise, ME was the best Bio game so far. Satisfying Squad-Action gameplay (at least on the PC), overall good level design (especially the last 2-3 hours were great), and not too much time-wasting in messing around in menus, inventories and other game-interrupting nonsense. The dialog system just facilitated the more faster paced nature of ME. Now it seems, I have to get used to the more old-fashioned Dragon Age style of playing an RPG again. Not that this is bad, I just hope they don't try to pull a Jade Empire on it again.

Official release date for Mirror's Edge is November 14th, with demos coming out next week September 26th. Click PC users, as usual, get screwed by not getting a demo next week, and having to wait for the full version a bit longer.