Sannom

I have trouble to say that DA is "dark" when the setting has one of those terribly evil horde against which everyone has to set their differences apart and rally behind a sacred leader. You can really say the writer responsible for NWN2's basic plot went to work on Dragon Age, the two have the same presets I didn't finish the game, but as far as I'm concerned, the only thing really dark and realistic thing in Dragon Age is their portrayal of the Chantry, a monotheistic religion which doesn't hesitate to wage holy wars on people who doesn't believe in their deity (poor Dales...) and who uses contestable methods to keep their soldiers under check. Too bad most of this is shown through the books and not through the story and characters. The only fantasy setting in which I played that really stroke me as "dark" is the one of the Witcher : racism, misogynistic and hypocrite men of religion, two sides on a war that are as bad and good as the other, a world filled with monsters who prays on the weak and defenseless, and no "evil horde of doom, we're finished!".

I suppose there is elegance and elegance... So far, I had only one wallbanger on Dragon Age. The whole system is geared toward combat, giving each class a very specific role in the fights. But then, why is the lockpicking ability considered an ability and not a skill??? That is the only set of abilities that is of absolutely no use in combat! It's like they threw away their whole design philosophy for that particular ability, probably to ensure that everybody will try to have a rogue in their party. That is freaking stupid!

Somehow, I think that if Feargus really found time to involve himself on that project, it's probably something that is more "personal" to Obsidian, not another license. Like I said, I really believe the deal for New Vegas is just one part of their current relationship with Bethesda, and that Obsidian get the rights for the SPECIAL set of rules for one of their own IP. That is, of course, all wishful thinking.

Are you talking about the people making the animation for the game at Obsidian or about the two idiots in the video?

As far as I can remember, I don't think I ever lead a nonviolent movement before... that's actually even farther from my real life than common STR Soldiers should like stuff like that, right?

Perhaps not directly but maybe it forces developers to work harder on other aspects of the game if they can't rely on flashy graphics to carry the day? Given that every game has a limited amount of resources available to it during development, if a lot of those respources are spent making great graphics then it follows that other aspects of the game are probably going to have to get limited attention. But I'll certainly agree that there is no direct and automatic correlation between low-res 2d graphics and good writing. Well, look at Planescape : Torment : considered to have one of the best writing in the industry, yet also the only Infinity Engine game who favored aesthetics over gameplay. The game is gorgeous compared to Baldur's Gate 2, but it comes at a price : JRPG-styled spells which block the action, nearly no ranged weapon because of a close-to-the-ground camera, same for Area of Effect spells, etc. And let's not mention the poor choice of class : only two classes of interest, and one of them is so overpowered and adapted to the game in every way that it makes the other one useless.

Aren't Project Georgia and Alpha Protocol the same thing?

Really cool post, kudos to Avelone. Although is it me or do they refer a lot more to Brian Mitsoda now when it comes to the DSS? They cite his names at least once by paper now, he seemed barely mentioned before

If it's Atari, I'm guessing a new Baldur's Gate. Logical, with the swelling of that city in the 4th edition (the population tripled, something like that?) while Neverwinter was completely destroyed... If it's Bethesda, well I guess Torn. Or at least a fantasy RPG using the SPECIAL rules.

They have more time to polish the graphics perhaps? I saw recently an old movie of Mike slamming Gregory's head on the bar, I think you can really see the difference with the most recent ones, both in animation, design, and ambiance (in the last one I saw, people in the background actually reacted to the slamming).

Not the most exciting news, but apparently new pictures of the game were given recently : http://www.jeuxvideo.com/commentaires/9-0-...tm#commentaires Okay, the image of the Russian mob boss still bugs me : is that real, or is it photoshoped? I mean, he looks almost "real"

I heard they also used that time to finish and completely implement Shale, the character from the Stone Prisoner DLC. Would they have known that they had more time, they would probably have included it directly in the game, but I suppose they saw good anti-second-hand-retails value in that thing at that point...

I would prefer an artbook and the soundtrack for a collector edition, nothing too gadget. The collector edition of The Witcher was awesome.

Hummm, pasta !

Weren't we promised more promotion material for Alpha Protocol at the beginning of November? What's up with that?

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/alphap...ag=topics;title You're not the same guy, are you, LoF?

New interview : http://grupo97.halconesrojos.com/index.php...elloneinterview I wish people would focus those questions more on the actual game than on Chris' opinion on everything going on in the game industry! Come on, it's an interview about the game, please try to have more than the third of the questions dedicated to it!

Does someone know why the UK seems to get a new release on DVD of Planescape - Torment? Here, look : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plane-Scape-Tormen...3682&sr=1-4

I think Rorie heard you : http://twitter.com/Obsidian_Ent And apparently, new trailer on the way. Good, it will give us something to talk about other than the delay

Lot of updates those few days it seems. Funnier, there are other people that are actually conversing with Mike Thorton now One asked "So... are you delayed?"

You're weird, you know that ?

This plus Chris' comments on his blog seems to indicate that the reason for the delay is definitely marketing, not the game in itself. Sega wants to push the game farther from Dragon Age, Divinity II and Risen. And probably makes a better marketing campaign. We can probably track the decision of pushing back the game to the moment where the little up in marketing died out a few months ago.

Question : aren't the two Freespace given for free by the original developper? I remember it surprised many people that GOG would sell those games, because they were already given away by the original rights owner...

Little hint : if it takes forever to uninstall, don't panic, it's perfectly normal! It must be the only game that was longer to unistall than to install!

For me, AP's dialogue system has nothing to do with QTE. And people should remember this is not the new model for all of Obsidian's games. Looping conversations might be annoying, but they're still unavoidable unless with a really specific approach to dialogue, like AP does. AP is an ovni, even for Obsidian, and some of the features of that game will probably remain with that game and his sequels or inspirations. The dialogue system probably won't be used except for similar systems. The design that each level brings you really cool improvements will probably remain : Wizard did it for D & D 4th Edition, and Bioware did it for Dragon Age.