Wrath of Dagon

@Kaftan So your theory is the Uncharted Worlds were added so that the rest of the crappy game looks good by comparison?

I actually like the game alot, it ranks as one of my favourite. My point is more, don't hammer a level designer for something outside of his control, and his job description, it's kinda like saying it's the rendering programmers fault because an orginal art asset is crap ya know? The citadel isn't a major quest area until the end of the game, it's more a tutorial area with a slow story introduction. You're entitled to your opinion, I think you're wrong and Mass Effect is infact a really good game, but ya know that's all well and good I'm not trying to convince you otherwise. Fact is... If anything it does suffer from bad art direction. Bioware is likely to suffer more and more now that it's part of EA. I'm not hammering the level designer, I'm hammering the game. I don't know who did what and why, all I know is the final product. And yes, if you look at Maria's post about what constitutes level design, all of that is badly done in ME. As far as you liking the game a lot, so what, some people like to be whipped, what does that prove? You haven't given any real reasons so far why you like the game, while I explained why I don't like it.

Well, it's someone's fault since they're all supposed to work together. And yes, I'm aware of all the excuses why the game turned out the way that it did, but that hardly changes the outcome.

Your previous sentence answers your question, it's sucks as an area for quests. Everything should be used to reinforce the theme, the gameplay, the level design, and the artwork. I would consider art design to be part of the level design, and again it's crucial that different elements work together and reinforce each other. On the Citadel, everything is kind of pointless. Fitting within the story is a minimum requirement, and clever technical solutions is not something the player really cares about, not that slow elevators seem particularly clever to me.

Can you please name one very clever thing about the Citadel? Edit: IMO, great level design needs a theme. One of the problems with ME levels none really had a strong and sustained theme.

Well, Telos station is one of the weakest areas in K2, so yes, it's somewhat reminiscent of that, although even Telos had a lot more going on. The problem with the Citadel it's just bland, empty, there are no real points of interest, and it looks like a mall instead of a galactic capital build by an ancient race. The other story planets are small, linear, and generally very repetitive, with nothing interesting to see. As far as shooter gameplay, there are no features in the level design to make combat interesting. It's a bit hard to explain, but if you played great shooters like Half Life 2 or Return to Castle Wolfenstein you should be able to see what I mean. Also some levels have a lot of pointless empy areas, and doors, lots and lots of doors you have to keep going through. As for Uncharted Worlds, yes they're optional, but so poorly and amateurishly done it's an insult to the player. I didn't think a respected developer like Bioware would have the nerve to copy and paste the same awful area 35 times, only changing the rock color and crate locations!

They can always split it off if it's a problem, they already split this thread once.

I wouldn't be able to find it now, but yes she said they wouldn't let her be a scout because she's a woman. She did say she was in actual combat though, and it didn't sound like it was by accident.

That's what I used to think, but there was a woman on a forum who said she was a sniper in the Marines.

How about some actual frigging purpose for the thing, instead of pure filler? If you want good level design in a similar situation, look at Taris in KOTOR or Peragus in K2.

Yes, and their quests were from a random text generator.

@Gorgon I'm not sure what your post has to do with mine, and in answer to another question, there must be hundreds of photos in that thread, I don't think they're all fake.

No, I meant exactly level design, although the art design was also awful. Who knew the alien future looks like garages and strip malls? All games use copy and paste to some extent. While Halo was particularly guilty of that on some levels, it mixed things up enough so it was still entertaining. It also had some great levels, some open, some restricted, allowing both the player and the enemy multiple approaches. And the Citadel wasn't just clean, there was literally nothing there. Like I said, you'd have more fun walking through a mall.

They're actual soldiers, see this thread: http://www.wargamer.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=133056 I don't think Israel normally allows women into combat, although I found out not so long ago that US does.

Some more detail: http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/static/EkF...ZkZwZkDxEiW.php Which Halo are you talking about Nightshape, and why are you comparing a shooter to what's supposed to be an RPG?

http://www.videogaming247.com/2009/01/08/m...pear-at-gdc-09/ New level creation process apparently, good luck with that, something definitely needs to be done about ME's awful level design.

Israel is unlikely to respond in Lebanon unless rocket fire becomes sustained. Then it's likely to become a bloodbath the likes of which haven't been seen as yet. Hezbollah would be wise to consider their moves very carefully.

Why not, an Islamist terrorist just killed 40 Muslim pilgrims the other day in Iraq and 14 children in Afghanistan, where was the Muslim's world outrage then? Also Iran hates Turkey, and I don't think they're that popular with Arabs either after centuries of rule over them. Anyway, I don't think anything will be done without Hamas consent.

The Palestinians are not being oppressed, at least not by Israel. They'd be doing fine if they were willing to negotiate peace with Israel. The problem is Hamas, they're oppressed by Hamas . http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090108/ap_on_...JhI66olgx0LewgF Now why are they living safe, good lives? Because they're not currently attacking Israel.

I think the problem is when you Alt-Tab, the game saves the video ram in your regular ram. That can become a problem with large amount of video ram on new cards and most PC's limited to 2GB of regular RAM.

The UN official said there was no Hamas inside the school. Local residents confirmed Hamas was firing from the area. They were questioned by telephone and also there are reporters in Gaza, Palestinian freelancers for one thing.

You can look at the Geneva conventions. In a war, you can attack any military target, even if that's likely to cause civilian casualties. It's the enemie's responsibility to keep the military away from civilians. You're never allowed to attack purely civilian targets, although of course we know during WW2 no one actually followed that.

Well I'm glad you found such unbiased sources to make your case. I guess those 6 Hamas terrorists were having a peaceful tea party by the Gaza border when they were killed?

Thanks, that was pretty good actually. He wrote a book you know. You can tell he's a video game writer because he can't resist the urge to tell you what happened to everyone.

My prediction for DAO is 60 hrs, assuming KOTOR was 40 hrs in standard reviewer time.