RPGmasterBoo

Its not. Its generic and bland and nothing special when compared to Oblivion. Guess where that puts it.

I grew extremely annoyed with the ineptitude of the combat AI and ditched the game.

Actually Bulgakov doesn't fall into that same gloomy crowd. His principal work "Master and Margaret" is still pretty dark though. You can't really sum up nihilism with a dictionary entry that takes 6 disparate definition without bothering to sum up where each one is from. Political nihilism that led to various bombings and assassinations at the end of the 19th century has very little to do with moral nihilism which in turn has little to do with metaphysical nihilism. The only common ground is rejection, of political systems or moral norms or something else. Otherwise you're talking about a bunch of different things. But nihilism isn't about meaninglessness - at least not of the sort you're implying. If a nihilist is arguing that say moral norms have no meaning its not beacuse he's a "coffe shop goth" but because he can offer a philosophical argument that those norms are contrived, a fiction created by society etc. Its just a viewpoint, there's nothing dark about it. It infers negative reactions among those that don't really get it but dislike what it implies. That's how you get an instant nihilism=something bad, reaction. That may be the reaction of the majority but why are we following their criteria?

I pick the option that lets me get me in her pants... or bikini as it were.

I ran into a dude with power armor that I killed with a bat...

That's a bit harsh. It is a very strong multiplayer shooter that has introduced a leveling system to keep people interested longer than a few rounds. It might not be the best shooter out there, but it was the first to really capture the treadmill design of an MMO in a FPS game, and they reaped the rewards from that. It wasn't a particular criticism of CoD, I meant it on an overall level, as in the theme that seems to sell well. Military shooters are a dime a dozen and even though games are in many way limited limited they still offer a diverse range of experiences. Military bang bang affairs are so... mundane... in the grand scheme of things. Then again the adolescent male is the target audience so I really shouldn't be all that surprised.

That's actually depressing. The best selling game, of all things, is a retarded military shooter.

am not seeing anybody in this thread making the claim you suggest. regardless, even if somebody was making such a claim, how does bg2 balance problems impact da:o balance? you is making complete nonsense arguments that got zippo impact on the issue at hand. might as well tell us that diablo 2 mages were just as imbalanced as da:o mages. who cares? so what? assuming vol is correct, why does existence of overpowered mages in a d&d game made a decade ago make one bit o' difference regarding the balance o' mages in a non-d&d game released in 2009? HA! Good Fun! Why do you insist on logic where it doesn't apply?

DAO is worse than BGII because BGII is the better game. That's all there is to it. Just wake up and smell the roses because no amount of bickering and vague claims will change that. Neither your nor mine personal tastes figure into the equation. ...Then again NWN series is the best ever, and who am I to argue that.

Yeah, but you still have to start from somewhere. They said it was going to be dark fantasy (at least early on as far as I remember) and some comparisons are in order. Dark fantasy is obviously a rather weakly defined subgenre (if its even that at all) but some of its common traits aren't really found in DA. All that I'd argue is that its a Bioware game through and through and the same as everything else they've made, without any substantial deviation from the original formula. And with about as much innovation as ME's dialogue wheel. I suppose everyone's marketing is as full of **** as theirs - I'm probably to blame for noticing their claims and actually expecting that something would come of them in the final product.

Back on topic: Wiki again If this is what Dragon Age was supposed to be I'd say its still far closer to regular high fantasy. Even though its supposed to be bleak and pessimistic given the storyline it never really feels that way. It doesn't even attempt in earnest to set this kind of atmosphere. The only recent game that actually fits this description is the Witcher. Visually bleak, at times morally ambigous and lacking the obvious heroic slant of DA. (though you do save the world in the end, kinda)

Nihilism is just another philosophical viewpoint without any inherent slant towards "dark" or any other moral (?) classification. Then again it did clash with the (at the time) dominant christian morality so it was basically branded as "dark" or at least "unacceptable". The questions it poses are still too uncomfortable most people, christian or not because it usually questions some fundamental values taken for granted. Wiki article (not all that great but it'll have to do). What it its: The usual usage: While Nietzche is usually the poster boy of nihilism, I think Max Stirner's philosophy is much stronger and more consistent.

They don't know squat about nihilism, all they did was exchange one set of values for another. In their case nihilism is just a fashion displayed with a few wacky hairstyles and an obsession with black clothes. As if that makes anyone really different in any relevant way. It irks me because I love listening to all sorts of metal but can't stand all the "ooo we're so different and special" attitude that comes with the subculture. A few days ago I was in this gothic club (because I like the music) and everyone was dressed uniformly in black like the world ran out of colors or something.

Its just an Oblivion clone, only not as polished.

Wish they'd made a second Alpha Centurai. Some people find nihilism bleak, some find it liberating, and other find it rather matter-of-fact. I think many people read fiction, especially fantasy fiction, to see characters and events that are deeply meaningful within the frame of the story. If they're made aware that those characters and events are not meaningful, they will perceive the work as being darker. Even if you populate it with fluffy bunnies. Hey I put that quote up a week or two ago! AC rules.

IMO the PC gaming market is not dying just because the consoles are more profitable, but also because its quite stale for a while now. If millions upon millions of dollars pumped into games every year result in an endless parade of clones and sequels people will get bored. I presume the PC demographic is older and pickier in general. The same would apply for the console crowd if they weren't in mostly younger (thus less interested in innovation) and more "casual" in their gaming habits. Most of the innovation for the PC comes from indie games that aren't likely to begin any real trends. Stuff like Braid, World of Goo etc. may be fun but it all really a "fire and forget" bag of tricks, not real innovation that could spark a definitive change.

Yeah I never understood those claims. I've played both to 90-95% completion without rushing and its always been between 20-25 hours at most.

SCII Beta. I'm loving the Zerg. They have a new tier 1 unit, the Queen which has this insane ability to force the lair/hive to spawn 4 more larvae after a set amount of time. I've been abusing it to overrun/out-produce Terran players with masses of zerglings/hydras/roaches. Of course, I still suck at the game, but its nice to have a few early victories. Also the Queen can build these creep tumors which expand creep (for free, each one being able to spawn another one) giving you line of sight wherever there's creep. Of course they can be destroyed but most people ignore them. With a little micro you can expand over the entirety of a small map in a very short amount of time. Everyone I've run into plays Terran or Protoss for some reason. The Protoss players kick my butt with cheapo strategies such as spamming photon cannons all over their base entrance or carrier massing, but its still a lot of fun.

Who are you and what have you done with the unreasonable, insane person that goes by the name of Volo?

1. If you have cavalry charge the ram as its coming to your walls. Use mounted archers with the melee attack. Dont actually let them fight, retreat right after the charge impacts the ram. The enemy is stupid, you can flank attack anything with light cavalry. A coordinated attack can cause massive fear, I've defeated 10 times stronger tactics through repeating actually quite ineffectual charges until full rout. When they turn their backs to run, run them down like grass. Slaughter two or three units like this and that's it. In fact, forget the ram, just charge the weakest enemy units, prefferably peasants and the like. Through fear you can win 90% of ME2 battles. or 2. flame arrows have a random chance of setting fire to a ram. Just try it until it works. Good luck with that though. Combat in ME2 is neither as clever nor as tactical as it appears, only the vastly overpowered enemies like the Mongols are truly problematic. You'll get the hang of it. I was winning absurdly difficult battles several days into the game. Remember: cavalry is everything, a mix of cavalry archers and medium cavalry should handle almost everything you need.

fles... es... s....

Funny thing is, even though it has a wonderful atmosphere the Stalker games aren't PA. The Zone coexists with the normal world, which functions perfectly well. That's one of the more attractive ideas for me - an otherworldly place in what's really a mundane world. A nice, perhaps even romantic notion. Some of it is even used in the plot: /spoiler/ The protagonist decides to return to the Zone and stay there, even after his mission - for unspecified reasons. You can only assume he found something there, he couldn't find anywhere else. /end spoiler/

Or we could try the Fading Suns which covers the former three in one nice package.