Wrath of Dagon

No one has as much dialog if that's what you mean, but as far as quality I don't see what's so great about Atris. I never entirely got the point of her character while playing, may be if it was clear that she betrayed the Jedi gathering I'd appreciate her more. So I'd say most of your party members are better than her. As far as others, perhaps the Sith Academy master and his assistant. And Bastila isn't silly or black and white at all, she's trying to be a good Jedi, but her hubris and passions are corrupting her, that's a very human thing to happen. As opposed to all the mumbo-jumbo about destroying the force that's a large part of K2.

No, I didn't like Zaalbar, but I actively despised Hanhaar, he's just a pure psycho, nothing interesting about him at all. Elekra complexial? What's that? I liked the Handmaiden, but Bastila was a more interesting character and had better dialog. Visas was just plain boring. Carth was a well written crybaby, Bao-Dur was dull, I did like Atton but again Carth wins on dialog. Sure, if you actually get to unlock that important info, which I never did. Mission was good though. Well, K1 created HK-47. Also you forgot Jolee and Canderous. I was talking more about party members, although if you want to talk about NPC's overall I believe K1 still wins.

Exactly, it's Jade Empire, a mythical version of China, it did not claim to be actual China like Mulan. Art design was good, and technically it had the best graphics until ME, but I still prefer KOTOR art design because of the subject matter. The writing in some of the quests was quite good, although I agree the characters were weak, and since they didn't do much in combat there wasn't much reason to have them at all, except if you got Death's Hand in your party. He was cool, and actually useful in combat. Also Zaalbar was in K1, K2 had the psycho Hanhaar, ech. Overall K2 characters were much less interesting than K1, Kreia excepted.

Pretty sure AP has XP. XP is such an abstract reward though, I much prefer cool loot, the thrill of finding something better than anything you've got so far. AP being set in the real world it may not fit well unfortunately.

It's a little too jokey, but I wouldn't say over the top. What about the cursed forest quest with the cannibals, and the pirate layer, and the drowned city aside from the ghost children? And I don't just mean I didn't like them, it was just pretty clear to me they weren't even trying. Most of those were just some very formulaic dialog and then some fighting, nothing interesting or compelling.

I know it's chockful, but it's mostly just filler which has no reason to be there except waste time. The "western" ass was well done, but was too over the top to fit the game. I also really liked the liver transplant quest, but aside from those, can't really think of anything else that was other than mediocre. In contrast, almost everything in Tien's Landing was interesting. Edit: Both times I played the game, it was like two different teams made it.

You have fighter, mage, and rogue. Pretty sure the same skill trees are available to the entire party, although there could be some exceptions, like the dog.

The rushedness showed in most quests in Imperial City being really underdeveloped and boring. The Lotus Academy was just a retread of the Sith Academy from KOTOR, and they had to resort to even a second academy! Plus you had the arena which took up the bulk of the time there. Also if you look at the world map, it's similar to maps in other Bio games, but this one only has 2 locations, with there really being no point to traveling between them. Clearly there were originally supposed to be more locations, but they got cut. And what weak area in HL2?

@newc It did show, and so did ME stuff. I'm being objective, it's a matter of perceptiveness. @Moat I guess I was lucky I never found that combo. There were quite a few battles I had to attempt several times on hard and barely made through.

You're right that constantly being fed rewards is a major factor in making RPG's addictive. The subconscious brain can not distinguish between real and imaginary success, and releases dopamine regardless. I would dispute that ME got anything right though.

Since there are only 3 base classes, a party of 4 should be enough to make a balanced or a specialized party.

KOTOR1 was high quality throughout, KOTOR2 was unfinished and unpolished, although often brilliant, Jade Empire Tien's Landing was well designed, but Imperial City was rushed and full of filler, Mass Effect had poor quality throughout as a result of time and resource constraints. One should be able to realize that without regard to personal preference.

I'm not sure to what extent the origins include any kind of morality, but in general they promised more than clear cut good/evil choices. And this is not a D&D setting. Also you may have better luck asking on the official forum, the worst that can happen is they won't answer.

I've thought about this some more, and I can generalize this further. A game has presentation, content, and game mechanics. In an RPG, I want the order of priority to be content, game mechanics, presentation. As a counter point, in a shooter I want game mechanics, presentation, content.

Well, that's what we got AP for (crosses fingers)

The biggest problem with Oblivion I thought was the over-reliance on repetitive dungeons. If they got rid of those, that's already a huge step forward.

I'm still hoping there'll be some quests based more on dialog, I think they mentioned more extensive dialog trees before.

Not yet, but they're planning to release a lot more info before the game comes out. Personally I think we already know enough, but they got to do the marketing.

Origin is a background you pick at character creation, like a dwarven prince or a human mage, they haven't been very specific. Actually I believe it's a combination of background and class. Then you play through a prequel, which is unique to every origin. Once you're done with that, you join the main story, the beginning of which they seem to be demoing in trailers and videos. As far as the villain, defeating the Darkspawn (a locust like enemy) will be the main goal of the game, though there will be other twists and turns. No multiplayer right now at all. 4 party limit, and I believe up to 20 enemies at a time. The big battles seem to be only in cutscenes.

Looks very impressive actually. From what they show, doesn't seem like you can have much of a dialog with NPC's though, still looks like Oblivion dialog.

Not really, you're just repeating the same thing over and over anyway. On easy (or normal really) you're just repeating it less, getting through the encounters quicker, and feel more powerful. Edit: Plus you can put your party on AI control, and don't have to micromanage.

The battles seemed a lot more tactical. The battlefield was bigger compared to your army, and there were lots of terrain features you could exploit to maneuver your forces and gain an advantage. Usually the battles lasted longer thus allowing for more tactical battles. Also I've experienced a lot of different situations during the battles and had to adapt my tactics. In RTW the battlefields seemed smaller and more featureless, and battles usually came down to the armies rushing each other and battles being over very quickly. I could pretty much just pin the enemy in the center with my heavy units and hit him in the flanks with fast units and do that in almost every battle.

Yes, an RPG can be built around global choices and consequences (which is Iron Tower's approach) but I don't consider that essential for all types of RPG's. I do think that even a relatively linear story driven RPG must provide at least localized choices for the player, else I don't really see where roleplaying comes in.

All these battles we've recently had over ME vs KOTOR in the wrong threads got me thinking. Most people don't seem to react to games the same way as myself. I think a few years ago I was pretty well aligned with the mainstream, but not any more. What do you look for in an RPG? I look for interesting quest design, and more generally I find my favorite games have story told through gameplay. Specific game mechanics don't matter so much, so long as they are at least somewhat entertaining.

Any one else think that battles in MTW1 were a lot better than in RTW?