TheHarlequin

It's called Fallout 3 for repercussions of stealing in someone home/store. And I am pretty sure NWN2 cut down on this as well though my memory may be a big foggy on NWN2. Fallout 3 had more crates than any game I've ever played and you could take whatever you wanted from 90% of the shelves in the game without penalty and on most of the remaining 10% the penalty was so nothing that it didn't matter. Not sure what fallout3 you played but not the one I did. You steal in front of someone in their home/store it usually ended up in a fight of them defending their property. You steal when no one is looking you lost karma. Repercussions as I said.

Obsidian simply has better writters then Bioware. I do not think thats ever been disputed. At least made by non-bioware fan boys. If Obsidian got ahold of DA writting wise, I think it would have gone from a 8/10 to a 9.5/10 if not 10/10. Not to take away from Bioware they do good solid writting but I found Obsidian do great writting. See NWN1 vs NWN2 for example.

It's called Fallout 3 for repercussions of stealing in someone home/store. And I am pretty sure NWN2 cut down on this as well though my memory may be a big foggy on NWN2.

Lel, morg, alister and my PC a human warrior seems to be a great combo. On normal we do pretty well considering I still have to hand hold them more then I like as the AI is crap. Won't drink pots when the tactic slots tell them and sometimes chase down a enemy to activte yes another mob of spawns again when the tactics menu tell him not to. And so on... I cold give a ton of examples and what not. But aside from the crap party AI (which apparently now makes a game 'tactical' before if I recall it was simply 'crappy AI'. But I digress) those 3 on normal is pretty decent.

I don't understand this comment. They are a direct take on Klingon society. Certainly nothing that unique or original. In fact one could say its a combo of drow and klingon society. But IMO certainly leans much more to the klingon side of things. All I was thinking when playing the dwarf origin is 'when do I get my klingon battle cruiser'? LOL

If you read the codex entries you would know the answer is yes. I do agree the darkspawn are < JRR's orcs however in terms of background and how interesting they are.

Who says I was reffering to him? You called me a liar anyways so clearly nothing I have has any merit to you. Of course you flip flop when you think my comments can be used in your defense. Humorous.

You are calling me a liar. Nothing more needs to be said then.

Translation: I am to dumb too (insert lack of wits, knowledge and/or intelect adj here) your valid points except to hurl insults like a child. Nuff said.

I found it entertaining. Sadly ppl like Vol *cough*andperhapsyou*cough* need to lighten up and stop being so defensive. It has flaws, dumb party AI does not equate to 'tactical'. Did he go over board in the review however? Sure. But take away the fluff and get to the meat of his points, several (not all) of them are valid. But in the end I found him going so overboard negativity wise it made me chuckle. I THOUGHT others here would find it the same (hence the tone of the post). Sorry to see folks can't grasp that and need to go into geek-rage/defense over views inconsistant with their own and blow right past the humor of it all. *shrugs*

Epic fail for reading comprehension. Not what I said or implied at all. Please re-read my post as I clearly define my standards of what a CRPG labled game entails IMO.

Considering all the delays this game has gone through over the years, especially the delays to produce the console version, you'd think that BioWare and EA might have had some time to play-test it. You know, just start a character, play through the game, and see how it goes. But you'd be wrong. Here is a typical scenario. You are running along a corridor, and set off a trap. Every monster in nearby rooms rushes in and proceeds to kill you. You re-load. You deal with the trap one way or another (pity the fool who doesn't have a rogue in his party), and then proceed to clear the enemies out one room at a time. You then reach a larger room with a lot of enemies, who kill you. As always, since you've been quick-saving every 15 seconds, you reload, send a character into the room, pull some enemies, run back, and kill only those who followed. Meanwhile, their buddies just calmly walk back to their places and await their turn to die. After all, they can't see you, so you're not there. Never mind the fact that their comrades just ran behind that same wall and their screams of agony can be heard throughout the castle. No, they'll just get back to playing dice until you're good and ready to dismember them. There are tactical battles, and there is outright exploiting of poor AI. Abusing the AI became so commonplace in my time with the game - often out of necessity (either to survive or at least preserve health poultices for the inevitable ReallyToughFight), that it almost seems as if BioWare balanced around the bad AI, rather than addressing the core issue. The stats/combat system is prehistoric and yet at the same time indecipherable. Why in the world would anyone base an RPG around D&D style combat nowadays? Well, to appeal to D&D geeks, of course. To create an old-fashioned dungeon crawl RPG with lots of fights and tactical battles. D&D, like Dragon Age, is chock full of weak classes and feat builds. The difference is that the experienced gamer knows those classes and builds and simply doesn't build them. In Dragon Age, there's no way to tell. There is no manual worth mentioning and the tooltips are misleading at best, and utterly uninformative in most situations. How does armor work? I don't know. How is damage calculated? Beats me! Why does the really good weapon only do 3 more damage than the really average weapon, and does this mean anything? Couldn't tell you! And neither could the game. If you're going to build a tactical RPG around an old-school combat system, it is not enough to simply build it. The system must be explained. It is the details of it, how it works, and how to power-game it, that appeal to people who like knock-down, drag-out, tooth-and-nail dungeon crawls. We're no longer in the 90s, there's no excuse to have poorly balanced skills and classes. Every class in the game is playable, but odds are your archers really just won't get the same play time that your mages will. The burst damage and utility of the mages far outweigh the (in)consistent damage of the archers, who are so dependent on positioning (and not having an axe in their face). The BG games (and Icewind Dale) were famous for their tactical battles. Dragon Age won't be. Part of it is that we've gone past the "do this at X time to win" style of play. Mostly, however, it's because many of the difficult battles are poorly done. Say you're walking along a certain road and the 4 of you get ambushed by 20 archers. The tried and true tactic to beating this battle is to turn the difficulty to easy and continue. Clearly, it's how the developers did it. How do I know? Because the fight is so disproportionately difficult compared to everything before, that there's no way they did it in Normal difficulty and thought to themselves "yeah, that fits." It's not even a boss fight; it's just randomly and infuriatingly hard for no apparent reason. It is beatable in Normal, but it is not balanced for Normal. There are good things about the game, very good in fact, but those are not redeeming features. The excellent as always BioWare character development and interaction system is not a reason to buy Dragon Age. Putting big shiny wheels on a broken car does not make that car a good ride. The setting is marvelously well-developed and feels mature, like it's been around as long as the various realms of AD&D. More's the pity then, that the same level of polish didn't go into balancing and AI. That's not to say people won't enjoy the game. Some will - perhaps a great many. I'm on the verge of liking it, but I've had my fill of frustration. Some of those will also post here about how they've played hardcore RPGs since before the SSI Gold Box games and how it's about time that a game hard enough came along, one that respects the traditions of the genre. And of these people, some will even be telling the truth. The rest will just be measuring e-peen. I played Pools of Radiance. I played Curse of the Azure Bonds. I played the Krynn games, and Eye of the Beholder and Baldur's Gate. Trust me, at the very least wait for a few patches, if not for the game to hit the bargain bin. It is disgraceful that a title so long in development is so unpolished and is full of unbalanced encounters. PS Props to EA for finally allowing people to skip their annoying opening logo cinematic. PPS Thumbs down to EA for including an immersion-breaking DLC hook in the game. Yes, I would like to log into the EA servers so I can tell you I'll never pay for DLC. ------- Wow. Makes my review of the battle system/issues seem like a 9 out of 10 review LOL On a serious note, he does make some valid points about the poor party AI.

Talk about someone with their foot in their mouth...

*snip Vol's arseclownery* I did research to get those numbers, don't beleive me go to the forums yourself and count. Unlike you, again, I don't pull 'facts' from personal wishes and pretend they are hard data. *shurgs* I am still waiting for you to show me hard data NWN1 DLC's would still sell in any reasonable numbers today. Like I said, didnt think so. As for this 'im bitter' garbage, please. Did well but not as well as I thought. As said above it was a superior product no matter how you cut it and I am content in that. I forgot to factor in human nature is all. People don't like change. (and many hard core CRPGs run out dated systems from my personal expereince). You make it sound as if I lost sleep over it. Get a grip last thing on my mind for awhile, if you are so over it then stop bringing it up. Again, didn't think so. Anyways... moving on to topics of substance.

Disagree. It seemed very apparent to me that the game follows more along the Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Neverwinter Nights 2 gameplay mechanics. If you want to just look at developer history, you can include KOTOR in there as well. All three of the games you described are decidedly solo games, built around the idea of first person perspective. Dragon Age most definitely is NOT a game like that, and given that virtually the entire game is a party based game where you're encouraged to take control of each of the characters in your party, the games of Bloodlines, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 begin to drastically drift away from Dragon Age. You'll have a much easier time making a list of similarities between other BioWare games and Dragon Age, then Dragon Age and games designed around a first person perspective. On all the FP games you listed I can also play in 3rd person. And can still jump and crouch. Just making the point.

Why not. RPG-lite sure but you have a RPG stat/combat system, make decesions in the game world as your character and a main storyline. Last I knew those are the basic qualifiactions for a CRPG. As been proven by CRPGs past and present linear or non-linear storyline does not make or break the label of CRPG. But I see what you are trying to imply, In your world if it does not have dragons or mutants in it so it clearly can't be a CRPG.... Funny, reminds me of a PnP RPG by Steve Jackson (Of Car Wars fame) called 'Toon'. You played a cartoon character in a cartoon based world. Think a RPG based on the loony toons franchise. By your apparent logic that isn't a RPG either then. However the players of that game back in the day I am sure would disagree as I do here to you on the same principal. And yes the modern GTAs I consider CRPGs too. Hell those stories, plots, acting, open world and how you can effect some of the game world surpases some games labeled as a strict CRPGs. Nothing prevented you from RPing and making choices in those games. Plus the skill based system was pretty neat. So yes those technically can be considered a CRPG. Were they as deep as other CRPGs on a RP level? No. But certainly on a minunum level at least they qualify in my eyes.

Because having them go from Windows 2000 which they can apparently barly understand to unix will be so much 'easier' for them. Thats one step forward 3 steps back. Love to see this poor girl try to explain how to use the command line to them if a GUI challenges them. Plus linux has its own exploits and certainly isnt immune. Less so then win32/64 (due to simply having a much smaller market share) but still has its own group of security issues.

If I recall the EULA correct they can pull he plug at any time for any reason with a 30 day notice. The 'notice' however can be anything from a front page announcement/press release to a foot note buried in the small print on said web page.

> Man, your loathing of BIO and bashing of them is still nonstop. Not at all.. retail 101 actually. And im bashing them non-stop? Please read the first 3/4 of my mini-review and explain to me how thats 'non-stop bashing'. Quick run down wonderful and interesting writing and story, mostly great GFX, awsome sound and music. And gave a average score to the combat system I find fault with. Damn... I need to stop my non-stop bashing of them it seems. > An 8 year old game that likely has more actual fan participattion than newer games - including its own sequel. *snip other non-fact based comments* Took a quick look over at a few of the nwn1 forums and nwvault. Both pretty slow. Only about 3 or 4 threads updated a day it seems in the most populated forums for nwn1 and nwvault is even slower news wise with new content for nwn1 few and far between. Took a look at the equivlant forums for nwn2 about 10-12 updated threads still a day. NWN1 community is indeed down to cult level. Sorry thats a bitter pill for you. As for the 'legal' comment. Don't be gulliable. Thats the default reply when theres either company politics involved and they can't or/and don't want to say anything as its a non-issue to them. 'Sorry legal reasons cant talk about it' translation 'none of your fracking business kid. company perogative'. Happens all the time. Its a easy way out from them not to have to deal with the handful of people who even noticed. If you think people are still buying the NWN1 DLC then you'd think someone would have noticed BEFORE 4 months went by? Just saying. And do you have any hard numbers to back up your wild acusations besides your fanboy merit badge? Didn't think so. In other words just pulling 'facts' out of the air. *shrugs*

So one cant role play/build their main char (in the vision they.. well envision) in FO:T then? Does FO:T has less RPG interactions the same way IWD does? Yes. Does that remove it from the CRPG umbrella? Not in my view. Not saying its as deep as say FO3 or NWN2 or DA but it still qualifies as a CRPG. You seem to be hung up on these labels such as 'action this' or 'role play that' or whatever fits your fancy this week. They all have CRPG elements just some more deep then others. But IWD just like FO:T had a story and aspects to RP within the game world. More accurate would be to call IWD and FO:T CRPG-lite perhaps but still a CRPG and under said umbrella. You are arguing on symantics in essence. That point aside, FO3 is a CRPG no less then DA is. DA has JUST as much action as FO3 does. So DA is a 'action RPG too' then? And I never said a CRPG needs to have jumping or crouching. Or even implied that. The question was asked and I answered. Nothing more.

A obsolete, almost 8 yr old game had support pulled. And the news exactly? Did no one think eventually NWN1 was going to fade away retail wise? *shugs* Considering the community is down to the cult level its not a big deal really. Whos going to pay for DLC for a 8 yr old game at this point?

You can in Fallout 3... ? fallout 3 is neither an rpg like dragon age or baldurs gate, nor an action rpg like diablo or torchlight... its more like a shooter rpg Fallout3 is a CRPG just as DA is a CRPG. They fall under that same umbrella. Now when you drill down are they different subgeneres? Yes. But they are both CRPGs and should beable to compair the two as they have more similar CRPG aspects then not. Lets also clarify a CRPG is a computer role playing game. Do they both qualify as such, a RPG on a PC platform? You are able to play the role of the main PC and play said role? Your actions effect the world? A stat or/and skill based mechanic? Able to interact with NPCs? All Yes. Now if you want to get picky there have been a few 3rd person CRPGs (action or otherwise) you could jump or/and crouch. Fallout:Tactics comes to mind.

Very narrow view you have of my comments. Akin to Vols in fact. *shugs* to each their own.

You can in Fallout 3...

I didn't find the AI worse then DA. Was it great or even good? Not that I recall but A for effort at least. At least the mages used spells on their own and the clerics casted heal.