RangerSG

Championship Manager 01/02 (the best sport's sim ever, IMHO) Civ 2 (easily the best of the series) the 1st 2 X-Coms Interplay's old New World Colonization/Revolutionary War sim...something of the New World (egads, can't remember it right now). Colonization The original Pirates MOO 1 & 2 Sorry, turn based strategy will always trump RTS for fun to me.

NWN2 was pretty buggy on release, yes. But not unplayable like MEPC is for lots of people (me included). Demiurge has earned a one way trip to my "never buy again" list after this fiasco.

I have to say, this has been a month so far where Bio has sold a great deal of whatever capital it had with it's fanbase rather cheaply. From the "Dragon Age speaks to a very, very, very important audience..." spiel, to this non-event on the website, to the headache over the NWN 1.69 patch (which may or may not have been avoidable). This is not their best fortnight ever. That said, who knows, the trailer may be impressive and surprise us, I believe Gaider has it in him to do that, regardless as to whether or not the suits in the offices above him 'want' him to.

Agreed, my Sith PCs will use dual pistols without remorse until people get close. Very nice for removing the chaff from battles. And personally, I find 3 melee characters in battle very crowded. So I always take 1 ranged character, whether that's Kreia for support and "ranged" force fire, or Candalore/HK-47, or Atton/Mira pre-Jedied. I don't need them running around with vibroblades when I've got lightsabers in front.

Rifles are pointless? Hmm, seems to me the Candalore always manages to chew up and spit out enemies. Now granted, it was a lot more fun with the Ordo repeating cannon in the original. But even with the Mandalorian assault weapons in TSL, he could administer a lot of hurt. Now, that said, I'll always go for lightsabers for my PC.

Seems Atari always knows how to screw Alazander. First with Tyrants of the Moonsea in NWN1, when they cancelled the project and gave the money to that dreck "infinite dungeons" (which fewer people played than played Tyrants, for good reason). And now MoW delayed for no good reason for almost a YEAR. Gads. What, Atari look at these things and go; "Gee, that looks too much like an RPG, we can't make that?" or something?

No, it was certainly better than NWN or any of it's expansion's, plus all the user made mods I ever got around to finishing. I dunno if I would say that KotOR was better than all NWN mods. I can only judge the mods I finished and I certainly didn't play a tenth of what's out there, but from the ones I did play.... And Volo is right about combat, but that is the only advantage NWN has.. I've played some mods that were easily as good as most professional releases these days. I don't know what mods you chose to play, but I'd stack Aielund, Crimson Tides of Tethyr, A Dance w/ Rogues, or the Kosigan series up against most anything professionally released, including the NWN2 OC. And for MP, I'd play any NWN PW before I'd play any MMO. And not just because I'm cheap, but because many of those actually promote roleplaying, as opposed to the constant chattering in MMOs. I won't defend the NWN OCs, only Hordes was above tolerable, and SoU was a disaster. But if you can't find gems in the mod community, it's because you made poor choices. Now several of the best builders have moved to NWN2 for SP mods, but NWN1 is still preferable as a multi-player vehicle.

Pessism? Maybe, but I remember what EA did to Origin Systems and Westwood. I am leery about the future of any company that bought out by EA. Nothing wrong with being skeptical of EA. But so far they seem to be trying to learn from past mistakes. Time will tell, and no, I don't trust EA.

Interesting. The bar screenshot was very nice, I think. And although I've come to raise an eyebrow at BethHype, I'm generally impressed by the interview that they're treating the game seriously. On the trait/perk issue, I can understand what they're saying for most perks, though I don't entirely agree. Small Frame (which I often liked to choose) would always be a creation choice. You can't go back and say; "Oh, I want to be petite." That said, I can see many traits being perk-like. Chem-resistant/reliant developing over time, for instance as you use for chems and either become addicted or acquaire a tolerance to them. So I understand the choice, though I'm sure this means certain traits are gone, or they'll have "choose only at level 1" perks; which it sounded like he was saying they don't. So I'm officially cautiously optimistic. Nothing in there seemed horrible. If they used the Oblivion dialogue system and actually did make the NPCs smarter, it would be a viable approach.

I think a finished TSL would be better than KotOR. But as is, I say "neither." K1 has a better light side and better story, because it's finished. K2 has a better dark side path and better characters top to bottom. The restoration project is something I want to see and will play. But that won't change my rating here, because it's not fair to rate games on mods unless modding is at the heart of the game, IMHO.

I'd absolutely love to see one. Please, don't touch 4e with a 50' pole. Pathfinder looks far more fun, and playable.

Depends on the sports sim you're talking about. Football Manager (Worldwide Soccer Manager in the US) and games of that ilk, where you are in charge of personel and/or tactics, do much better on the PC. I couldn't imagine playing FM08 on anything but my PC.

They are the same entity. EA owns Bioware. They are the same company, same corporation. EA isn't just publishing Bioware's games. THEY OWN BIOWARE, completely and totally. No, to be the SAME entity, All of Bioware would have to be all of EA. That is what the word "same" means. Bioware (in corporate law terms) is a subsidiary of EA. Though, while we're on this, one with near complete creative autonomy by terms of the deal, and one of their execs sitting as an EA VP. So again, before you resort to condescending language, ensure you are accurate in your terms. And the MEPC port wasn't done by Bioware anyway. That's why the "Demiurge" logo is there.

Tigranes, Germantown, PA is a real place. So I can see them using it since the game occurs in the eastern US. No different from using Redding in FO2. And again, I don't see the difference, robo buttercup would be just as bad as robo lassie. It's hokey. But until one sees it IG, there's no way to know 'how' hokey it is. That said, it's not confirmed, and being spun up over rumored items is silly anyway.

At the risk of defending Bethsoft, which I hate doing, I do have to ask why a robotic horse is so much more offensive than a robotic dog, like FO2 had? That's one of those things I'll have to see IG before I make a decision on. Is it probably hokey? yeah. But is it any more hokey than robodog? *shrugs*

Well, technically, only the last part of your statement is true. Bioware is not EA, since Bioware does not constitute the entirety of EA. Nor is EA's business confined to Bioware, so the first part of your statement is false. Also, your statement overlooks that publishers and developers are two different entities when it comes to producing and packaging a product regardless of their business relationship, unless the two are the one and the same entity in entirety. So before using condescending remarks (intentional or not), ensure they are entirely accurate.

Ahem, the box would be done by the publisher, that being EA.

I agree about Gaider entirely. And what you say about Bioware's execs having played a double game with their whole "we're indie/no we're not" game. But Gaider is as good at making a quality RPG as anyone. And it's his involvement in this, and his keeping this a grim, low-magic fantasy that intrigues me too. You cited Fafhrd, I could throw the Black Company and ASoIaF in there too. And I've seen both of those discussed in their forums favorably by him. So I'm confident those are resonating somewhere in this. Kaftan, Once again, that's your hangup. And it didn't answer anything I said. Every genre has it's conventions. If you don't like them, stay clear of them. Saying you've "outgrown" them is at best thoughtless, at worst egotistical. Some of the most intelligent authors in literature write in fantasy today. Steven Erickson and R. Scott Bakker are two of them. You can use the conventions of a genre without coming off as cliche. So to say you're more "mature" or intelligent than people with multiple graduate degrees comes off as hollow to me. There's few works in contemporary literature as darkly humorous as Glen Cook's Black Company. Nothing immature about the genre at all. And once again, in gaming terms, First Person Shooters annoy me, and I think they're good for nothing but blowing off a few minutes steam in mindless aggression. But that doesn't mean I go onto a Halo or Half-life thread and talk crap about it.

Agreed. I think they never should've announced the game before they got serious with it's development. But from everything they've said, they're distinctly moving to a world considerably different from D&D. They've pointed at Song of Ice and Fire for influence on it, which I think is a good thing. Or at least was when they first brought up the game and Martin didn't go into his; "I'll release a book every 5 yrs" funk. Distinct cultures, languages, religion playing a significant influence without divine magic. As for releasing the prestige classes, why in the world would they do that until it's ready? When did Obsidian release the PRCs for MoTB? Almost right before release. And that's for a KNOWN ruleset. Why would Bio tip it's hand on what the world is like by including material that could then be stolen before the game comes out? Sorry, that's an absurd gripe. As for the whole "it's fantasy RPG, it must be crap" thing. Obsidian still does fantasy RPGs, so how is it they're different? Or is SoZ a sci fi game set in the FR? Bottom line, just because you don't like the genre doesn't mean the product is poor. That is YOUR hang-up, not the company's. I hate first person shooters, but that doesn't make Halo or games of that ilk bad games. It just means I will never buy them. If you have a hangup on something, intruding into the discussion just to try to foist that on everyone else is downright disrespectful.

Well, seeing as they already said that their elves are NOT going to be like that, you've already done what newc did and ignored what was already provided. Seeing as they're doing their own rules system for the game, one they intend to make viable for PnP gaming as well as CRPGs, and other projects have had higher priority, I don't see the need for the vitriol displayed. Other than the typical "Obsidian-posters must hate on Bioware at every opportunity; no matter the working relationship between the two" mentality. I personally don't get that mentality, since I'd rather the PC RPG sector have several strong and healthy companies, myself. Anyway, new IPs tend to be more secretive than sequels or such. Although I'd have liked more information, and I don't take anything by faith from 'any' developer, I can understand their not being open with information to date without calling DA vaporware, which it's not been. Bioware has been pretty open about the fact that development on this was never fast-tracked until recently.

Well, if there's going to be NPC party members (a debatable concept in a BethSoft game), then not only will they have to learn how to give commands...but they need to solve their abysmal engine pathfinding AI issues that have plagued them since at least Morrowind.

I'll add my name to that too. Pathfinder does look like it would make a better CRPG than 4e anyday.

I have to agree that I'm concerned about the lack of specifics regarding FO3. That said, to me the screenshot is very nice, and it does make me feel like that would be a safe place in a mad world. As for the D3 vs FO3 article. Sorry, I'm not convinced by it. Certainly if the Vault screenie was put next to the original FO Vault 13 screenie, it WOULD look very similar. So I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and be cautiously optimistic while not buying any of Bethsoft's hype.

While I can see the point you're making. I don't buy it. And here's why. The NPC's in a RPG are influenced by the player's decision and develop in relation to what you do. In BG2, romanced and unromanced versions of the partners were considerably different personalities, no matter 'which' one you choose. Were the romances good, were they bad? That's pretty subjective. For the time, I think they were good. I'm sure they haven't aged well. And I think a lot of comparison between what was and what is now makes BG2 seem weak in comparison. But that's beside the point. You can't say it "hurts the NPC entirely" because who they are romanced is DISTINCT from who they are non-romanced. So if you think that's weaker, then not taking the romance can't hurt the whole character, because the romanced version is not who they are anymore. To claim they are is to resort to metagaming, since your PC never took that route. BTW, I agree that Viconia is problematic on a number of reasons. And the whole "Elf priestess" fetish in BG2 made for some real samey feel to them. As for the KotOR2 romances...there's too much cut content still with those PCs to really get a good gage. Sorry. Even if I an read what was 'supposed' to have been there, it's not the same when I can't see it. Safiyra was fascinating, absolutely.

Exactly. I've 'never' understood romance-hatred, except for a poorly done romance (like the NWN2 OCs, MotB was better, but still a bit sudden). They are 'not' mandatory. You don't 'have' to see them. It's an RP option that you can choose or not choose. And frankly, in an RP game, I would say MORE options for roleplay is always better than LESS, assuming they are done with quality. And since story is always more important to me than technical gadgets, if I hear "zots" as an excuse, I'm going to say; "WRITE MORE STORY!" Now if the writer doesn't think it will fit, fine. But if there was room for it in the plot, and it made sense, then it belongs. Period. That said, I think it's probably unlikely given the nature of the party-building system in SoZ that it would fit. So I'm fine either way.