Oblarg

This is how the timer breaks my immersion: During the dialog, instead of relaxing (as a player who sits on a chair playing a game to get away from the real life stress) and enjoying the fact I made it through one more action phase, and immersing in the storyline unfolding in front of me, my mind is occupied with the fact that any second now a timer will pop up epxecting me to make a decision within a few seconds. If I wanted 'realistic' I would go back to work, not play a computer game. I am close minded? You bet I am. Because I know what I like and how I like to play and I don't need anybody trying to tell me how to. The dialogues are the part where I want to take a breather and relax, de-stress from the action that just happened and get ready for the next part. If there is a playable demo that proves to me that the timer does not break the game for me, I'll consider it. But on paper it does break the game for me. It is not, after all the first time design decision by Obsidian ruined games for me. The Spirit Eater turned my casual slow and relaxed play style into a hurried romp through MotB. completely ruining any interest I had in the actual storyline. I am not critisizing Obsidian for their decisions, but I damn sure reserve the right to decide when those decisions do not cater to me. I am sure they are well aware that every time they make a decision about their games they lose a chunk of players and possibly gain a chunk. I am sure I am neither the first, nor the last person that plans to pass on AP as long as the timer is there. I couldn't disagree more. To me, nothing would be more immersion breaking than being able to sit for an infinitely long amount of time trying to decide whether I should execute this arms dealer or arrest him.

Mass Effect had a perfectly good plot. The dialogue and voice acting were pretty lacking (at times, the voice acting was utterly atrocious), but the story itself was pretty good.

I think adding a pause during dialogue option somewhat ruins the entire point of a timer.

Agent Steel - Indestructive

He was one of the republican presidential candidates for the 2008 election. He was somewhat popular on the internet with his anti-government stance, until it came out that he was also a crazy christian. The XKCD guy also likes to make fun of him every now and then. Needless to say he failed miserably: No joke though, Ron Paul would be a better President than Obama. His international policies are so distantly better than Obama's, and, to be honest, virtually anything bad a President could do domestically does not rival the damage United States has done via military force, coup d'etats, and proxy wars. I could write a significant number of words on this subject, but we all know you guys wouldn't read them. Dumbest thing I've read in ages.

yea thats an awful lot. but nah, i do see this turning into a new trend & personally, i wouldnt mind it at all. it gives me some subtle insight to the characters & story.. lol i will forever remember, "Still curious who's Darcy's harassing, though and who the "MTang" address is - Maria Tang? Marla? Hell, could be Martin for all I know." ... hilarious!.. i later found out its a woman, Maria Tang. i havent looked up on all the characters yet. i dont wanna spoil everything for myself. Mina*

Fatal Violence - Terror on the Horizon I love this band so much.

Go the stardock route, no DRM save an online account requiring CD-key activation to receive future patches, which is not needed to play the game.

Troll thread?

Maybe Yahtzee will review it and like it. That would be incredible, and almost impossible.

Can't stop laughing. This is golden.

Redemption - The Suffocating Silence Did I mention I love power/prog metal?

Really, I don't enjoy the prospect of a long-duration shadow operative. Short bursts, it's fine as an exaggeration of Mikes skill at sneaking, kind of like chain shot. But if you can stay invisible for more than, say, 5 seconds, that's really going to hurt immersion.

Fates Warning - One

One thing that has always bugged me: I fail to see why democratic communism is an unworkable concept. Communism is an economic system, democracy is a governmental one. Why do people always conflate communism with dictatorship?

Lord of Flies, ever one of your posts makes my day.

no offence, but My sentiments exactly. I can't stand green day. In fact, I can't stand any punk at all.

Fast and rocking, you say? I'll give you the fastest, most rocking track from each of my favorite bands. Angel Dust - Border of Reality Fates Warning - Simple Human New Eden - No Ill Intent Destiny's End - Transition Redemption - The Death of Faith and Reason Conception - Building a Force Gamma Ray - Dethrone Tyranny Mercury Tide - My Dear Enemies (not very fast, but damn it is rocking) ARK - Noose All of these songs are incredibly good.

Death metal is more brutal than thrash. I prefer interesting riffs, guitar solos, and good vocals, so I stick to power and prog metal.

New Eden - Stagnant Progression I love guitar-heavy American power/speed metal so much.

Not necessarily. Being aggressive in your playstyle does not necessarily mean you'll be declining her offer for an alliance. In fact, the two are completely different decisions.

Other than the recruit and veteran modes, which change dialogue as well, will there be any generic difficulty setting which controls how tough the enemies are? I don't want to be able to run through a level soaking bullets like superman.

lol you still buy GI. I have two major memories of Game Informer: 1. They gave Paper Mario 2 (or whatever the hell) a bad rating because they didn't like the plot, even though they thought the gameplay was good. 2. They said Mad Catz makes quality controllers. I have bought two controllers from Mad Catz. Both of them are broken. Yes, game informer reviews are usually pretty worthless.

Look in Bruce's eye and tell me you're not lying. I know this is Obsidian and all, but this is starting to sound too good. Like once-in-a-lifetime good. You really are making this game, not bringing it back from the future, or forcing alien slaves to program it, right? Trust me, I was as surprised as anyone. But yeah, thanks to the mission structure of the hubs, some characters you simply won't meet if you skip some of the optional missions. I mean, this is a major character who can pop up in multiple missions and is one of the romance targets, but it's entirely possible to never meet her in a playthrough. Hearing things like this make me really wonder about how all of the seemingly very extensive freedom factors into the endgame.

I think Conception tops Blood Tsunami, I've yet to meet another person (in RL or online) who knows about Conception. Oh, and Germany has more power metal bands than the rest of the world put together (slight exaggeration).