Undecaf

I liked W1 combat better too. It felt more RPG'y and less messy than the W2 clickety click fest (which wasn't bad per say, but... meh). I've been out of the loop for some time now so I don't know what (or if) they've talked about their plans on this regard, but I strongly suspect they're not going back to W1 style combat; so I kinda hope they take a few pages from the melee combat of Risen (and probably even Gothic 2).

Go **** yourself EA.

It's not a matter of "the game" lacking an "open nature," because it's not so much a game as a rulebook/devkit. The overarching purpose of the product is the production and consumption of user-generated content.K.Let's change the "game" to "initial official module/campaign" then. Doesn't change the verdict, though.

The game lacks in open nature, exploration and overall interactivity (for understandable reasons, I guess), but all in all I found it to be very nice little adventure RPG snack while waiting for the bigger players like Wasteland 2, T:ToN, and PE. Writing was generally good, atmosphere was awesome, combat was fairly simplistic but very sufficient for a storydriven game. I do hope it and the Berlin expansion sell enough for HBS to be able to produce a sequel of similiar experience but with larger and more open scope.

Grand promises, once again. I wish I had any remote interest towards this, but as it happens Bioware instils this same "I know well enough what's to come" feelings of indifference as Bethesda, to even really consider an excitement. Shame.

edit - actually... nevermind that...

Sim City (or Sims) esque Kickstarter imminent.

If they ever return to this project, I do hope the ditch the idea of a "fast paced action combat" and focus more on making combat situational, tactical and character based and overall make the game lean more towards and adventure RPG than an action RPG.

Is Hitman Absolution worth the 6,24€?

Sounds like something Bethesda would do. I doubt that's the trend were heading just yet even if durability and crafting (and their possibly deepening additions to the gameplay) got neutered.

Does removing crafting as a skill mean that everyone can craft everything just as long as the ingredients are provided? If that's the case, I don't think it's a very good solution -- in that it doesn't sound like a mechanically interesting feature.

Arguably one good thing in this regard is that we're going to have a boatload of unique items thanks to our backers. For the sake of sanity, we may very well need to put many unique items in stores to prevent barrels from overflowing with them (slight exaggeration). Sounds very fitting remembering the campaign. By the way, are item-sets ruled out? You know, the need to buy (or find, or both) the whole set in order to recieve a larger bonus of some kind.

I don't really care whether or not item degradation is there or not, but if it is going to be, I would like it to be a feature I care about. Not needing to be overly punitive or annoingly fast, but something whose possible benefits I want to consider when picking my fights or trekking into the unknown. Also, no other opinion on moneysink gear than there could be a balance between found and bought. Some things could be made by an exceptionally talented smith/enchater, or be one of a kind items kept as decoratives before being bought, some things can be just artifacts of different power found in the nature. Maybe the best bow in the realm is hanging on some rich guys wall; maybe the best armor is yet to be created; maybe the best sword is laying at the 15th floor of the megadungeon under the feet of a vaporform troglodyte that can not be killed by usual means (or at all). Or something.

This might've been asked already, but I'm curious. What is supposed to make the player care about the durability scale if it holds no effects until all "life" is depleted from the item - if having full 100% condition is the same as 1%? And as there seems to be "lots" of durability units so it seems a rather long thing to wear an item down, I see no drive to ever want the item in full health. I mean, isn't it just an occasional busywork with no real tangible effects this way?

Shame PE won't be utilizing ToEE like TB combat. I'm kinda hoping Sawyer gets a sudden epiphany and, with Tim, works out a TB mode to accompany the expansion pack. Not expecting it, though.

Wizardry 8 for the first time and I'm having a ball. At the side I have a looong overdue rerun of ToEE.

I know I probably won't like the game, but something in the cheesiness of that trailer rubs me the right way and makes me smile.

Agreed. People should start to get over it already as it's well in the process of becoming annoying. Oh, but it's much worse than that. It was itchy already at the get-go. You immediately get it under your skin and then you have been infected with the weresheep madness. It's like a beautiful drug with side effects that you are happy with. In short, the weresheep are a cool Larian-smitten bunch that loves a great CRPG when they see one. Beware, it's quite contagious! BAAH! Oh, I see the appeal. No question about it. It just seems (to me, personally) that this thing is starting to go a bit overboard, from a neat little joke to a repetitive "not-this-again" one. But yeah, BAAH. Agreed. People should start to get over it already as it's well in the process of becoming annoying. You don't have to participate if you don't want to. And feel free to come up with something else/better...... BAAH!

Agreed. People should start to get over it already as it's well in the process of becoming annoying.

I should be interested in this, but for some reason I'm not.

Skyrim done, Bethesda moving to their next "our best game" presumably Skyrim with Guns Fallout 4. I'm kinda hoping it isn't a Fallout game, but something else.

A spiritual successor to VtMB would be nice, also a Fallout game made in the Onyx engine staying true to the original design of the series (ISO/TB, point'n click RPG). I'd also be interested in a cRPG that (in a way) mixes Might&Magic VI and New Vegas in an original (full or semi) scifi setting with some cyberpunk feel to it. Rich and player driven storytelling (+c&c), interesting rulesystem, full party creation, first person turnbased combat with the ability to split the party (in and out of combat), stuff like that.

There always seems to be something to learn from this game, even thoug it plays out so (relatively) simple.

Does the AI ever learn from its mistakes, or does it always just repeat them? In my last runthrough I caught Chartage from spying about 10 times in a row within a relatively small timeframe?

I haven't played PnP in about 10 years either, but we have made some pretty interesting boardgames with my pals based on the PnP games we played younger. If you have a little gamedesigner in you, you can probably adapt the numenera rules to a conventional board game (so far as I've heard, they're going to be simple). I know I'm waiting for the rulebooks to arrive; we have an ongoing nice boardgame concept in the making where we try to mix Monopoly, HoMM games, and old school dungeon crawling into a nice, not too longwinded boardgame, but there's some trouble with the rules. That is a cool idea. The biggest downside to that is that board games are more dependent on physically being there than even PnP. While it wouldn't be impossible to play a board game over the interwebs, it would be significantly more difficult than PnP. Still, it's a cool idea if I can get a crew together physically. Sorry for hijacking this thread. Thanks. Yeah, that's the downside, but I think the player is more focused and invested on the situation when it is to be started and ended on the same sitdown (not to downspeak the power of PnP, never, I had the most fun playing any game ever when we played few sessions of Cyberpunk about 10 years ago, but board games have their advantages over longwinded PnP sessions). Also, think of letter chess through a chatroom or e-mail.