Wrath of Dagon

Almost as good as Carth, but insane instead of whiny. Edit: The last paragraph in part 2 is wrong though, clearly the proper way to do it is to write everything out in the Codex. Edit2: Btw, here's an older interview they did with Chris about TSL, which explains a lot of stuff that was kind of obscure in the game: http://www.starwarsknights.com/fullstory.php?id=386

Do I need your permission? There's still a 20% chance ME2 might be good, and sometimes I like to talk about bad games and why they're bad, not just good ones.

Well, that's what I meant, concept art looks nice, but I'm not going to jump to any conclusions about the final game just yet. Misleading marketing hype was really a reference to the problems I have with their marketing of the first game.

Looks nice and evocative, but I don't trust Bioware's misleading marketing hype.

How well the health system works has to do with how well it works with the rest of the gameplay. There's no one approach that's best for every game.

They didn't have any choice on having a Star Wars license for ME, but they did have a choice of gameplay. And so what, Assassin's Creed was an unknown IP, yet sold more than twice as much as KOTOR.

Hmm, third person shooter with cover vs. D20 rules. I wonder which one has more post-pubescent male appeal, hmm. The EA purchase was announced before ME came out. And I said hoped, not expected, in fact I said that twice already.

But KOTOR isn't a cinematic action "RPG" clearly designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience. From the way they were talking before release clearly they expected ME to be their break out "mainstream" game. And of course you wouldn't ship the entire amount you expect to sell at once, what would you do with the stock that doesn't sell? It got money tied up in it after all. As far as analysts, Michael Pachter for one. They were talking about $300 million/year in revenues from Bioware/Pandemic combined, which means 3-4 million copies for every AAA game that comes out. That's the only way you could justify the insane purchase price for Bio/Pan.

No, I guess their target audience won't.

That's what I think, about 2-2.5 million, some of it possibly after price cuts. But I think they wanted 4-5 million, similar to Assassin's Creed. At least from the way the analysts were talking about Bioware's potential when EA bought them.

I know it's not proof. I don't have the numbers, I'm working from memory. I remember I was surprised how fast the price dropped, and I know they initially announced they shipped 1.6 million to retailers (not sold through) and then I never saw another sales announcement. I'm going on my gut feeling here, based on all the little scraps of info I picked up here and there. Only insiders have the full story. And I didn't say "expected", I said "hoped for". You are right though in that Bioware no longer exists as a separate legal entity.

Tried Empire Total War demo, doesn't really work at all, you'd think they'd at least do minimal testing. And what's the deal with the ships? They're supposed to be sails but work like motorized, there's no wind direction at all!

Because if it sold well they'd be boasting from here to creation, see Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed. Plus the price was dropped a few months after it came out, never a good sign. And no, it wouldn't be a failure if it at least paid for itself, most games don't even do that. The current theory is that a game has to become a franchise to make money, which is why it was planned as a trilogy to start with.

Cat girl wasn't young.

I bet they only sold about half as much as they were hoping. Of course improving the quality wouldn't necessarily result in any more sales, but would increase the cost. On the other hand at least they won't have to wrestle with the crap engine as much, so at least there's some hope there.

Did he actually write anything for Thief though? It doesn't say in his article. Btw, the guy who did the Cradle level in Thief: DS is supposed to be heading up Bioshock 2, that could be very interesting.

Yeah, instead of the top game writers, that list should be called 'writers who were recently involved in big games', with a few exceptions.

How can it be trying NOT to be the book when the game is supposed "to re-introduce Dante to an audience who, until now, may have been unfamiliar with the remarkable details of this great work of art

Really this is no different than God of War using Greek mythology for their own purposes. I can just imagine the project meeting now: <EA marketing guy> Sony's God of War franchise is making tons of money, we need to rip it off! <Developer> But where would we set it? Ancient Greece would be too obvious! <Dead Space Developer> We already made a bunch of hell creatures for Dead Space, why don't we set it in hell? <Only guy in the room with highschool education> I got it! Dante's Inferno!

I haven't looked.

Nothing wrong with lots of dialog, so long as it's not pointless blather.

GTA DLC to let it all hang out http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/17/hot-flas...pectedly-naked/ I wonder if they cut it before release, or is that still an M? Edit: Actually it's from the review copy at 1up, and it's rated M.

No, it was not me only, read the thread. God of War, Gothic 2, Conan, Age of Conan, Leisure Suit Larry were all rated M. Manhunt 2 was going to get an AO rating but it was modified to meet ESRB's requirements for an M rating.

Your point is? Are you saying that the kiddies seeing loads of violence and gore is better than a bit of sex or a few titties? Depends. Something like Saw would get an AO rating if it was a game, in fact Manhunt 2 is an example of that. And again, breasts get an M rating as stated many times in this thread already, and so does sexual innuendo like in GTA.

Not anything remotely sexual, explicit depiction of sex or of genitals. But you're right, R rated movies can get away with a lot more than M rated games, the ratings are from different organizations and cultural perceptions of the mediums are different. Also a very large part of the demographic for M rated games are children, and game companies know that. So the higher restrictions on M are also practical in that way.