Tel Prydain

Looking forward to trying this. Sadly, this time of the year is game over-load, Or I'd have brought it day-1.

I rate New Vegas the top RPG of this generation. Stats that matter. Branching plot. Interacting factions. Heaps of player agency. I look forward to your next project.

Good luck, Travis. I enjoyed Lily and Raul.

Good to hear. Can't wait to see what Obsidian are up to next! Hoooooly, crap. You're still alive. And still in character. I should visit this place more often.

Sorry 'bout that, old chum. I feel like I know you... I've chatted with you on the Interplay boards, the codex, the old bioware board and the new 'social' Bioware boards. Pretty sure I've bumped into you other places too... maybe the Troika forums? Used to use the tag 'Larryboy_Dragon'. Dropped it because... well, because it was dumb. Perhaps I'm just not memorable. aRPGs, sure... Would agree 100% with Dragon Age. Would agree 70% on Mass Effect 1. But Mass Effect 2.... it's no more an RPG than Bioshock. And Dragon Age 2... oh sweet lord above... after Dragon Age 1 was such a refreshing breath of air, DA2 was just.... In Dragon Age 2's defense, it's more of an RPG than Mass Effect 2.... and slightly more tactical on console due to a 'move' command for companions... but it was otherwise the biggest disappointment this generation. The character build options that changed how you play the game and solved quests. The open, active world that made sense. The Character agency that allowed you to make decisions that mattered. No other game this generation has done those things better. Outside of combat? The three games are all mostly combat! Gameplay? Navigate a series of shooter levels that are only designed as shooting ranges. Doom +1 Finish a bunch of those levels and get a bit of story. Doom +1 Levels can not be returned to. Doom +1 Loot? Just a handful of per-determined guns. Doom +1 Inventory? Nope. Doom +1 Combat - action game where you Shoot the other guys. Doom +1 'Magic'/Biotic powers Ultima +1 I mean, I guess that ME2 has C&C... if you consider an slight change in dialogue a consequence. Oh yeah - don't get me wrong. I'm not a misanthropic Codexer - Akalabeth and Ultima 1, 2, 3 are all crap. I mean, in their day they were awesome, but their day is long gone. Hell, I'd add Ultima 4 and 6 to the list of "games that were great, but are overrated by modern-day RPG gamers whose nostalgia goggles are glued on and are unplayable today". The only thing saving Ultima 5 from that list is that 5's story and theme are perhaps the high-point of the series (7 was a great game, but like you said the story was overrated). Also, U5 has one of the greatest C&C moments in RPG history. I mean, it didn't have a lot of C&C, but the one situation it did have.... if they tried that in a modern game there would be touches and pitch-forks. Anyhow... back to what I was going to say... Bioware games are ever creeping ever closer to the 'adventure' genre.... like... they have gone past Quest for Glory and are now slipping into Kings Quest teritory. That's cool... and you can argue that it's 'roleplaying', but it's not in the traditional cRPG genre anymore.

Another forum user messaged me requesting I sell my Gecko-in-a-Can. I couldn't ever part with it, but I did agree to post some pictures of the Gecko and the Can, signed by the mods of the old Interplay forums. Just in case anyone else cares: http://failingfalloutnewvegas.wordpress.com/gecko-in-a-can/

Oh, Voly. Bioware makes action adventure games that are fine games, but awful as RPGs. New Vegas is the only console wRPG this generation worthy of the title. Dungeon Siege was a solid aRPG. Alpha Protocol was a technical mess, but there was a solid RPG under there. Again, Bioware make fine games, but Mass Effect 2 has a lot more in common with Doom than Ultima.

I agree that HoF, when used as

I'm sure both of them are very upset. I played the original games, and they weren

I like that the Multiplayer element of this game is tailored for groups of friends who want to experience the game together. This is infinitely preferable to the level mixing

I'd also be keen to hear what the future holds. DLC Please!

I hope it does well. New Vegas convinced me that that Obsidian is the only RPG maker today who cares about adding roleplaying features to their roleplaying games. Unlike Bioware

3) Only if you were REALLY bad. 4) That was just the difficulty turned up to 11. That's like calling ANY game's hardcore mode a 'whole new game experience' 5) I'm a console gamer (mostly due to having a family), and this is a pet peeve of mine. I'd love a IE style RPG on my console. Dumbing down a game to sell more to the massive console casual market =/= a requirement to dumb down a game just because it's coming to console. Agree with all your other points. IWD 3 (or a spiritual sequal to IWD) please! Unless you're pulling in maxed level characters from a previous game (i.e. basically cheating) the new characters would be first level. When would that ever be a good idea? By "action-RPG", they mean "combat-heavy RPG". But since you were certainly sarcastic, you probably already know that. Seriously? It

Icewind Dale, while being a combat focused game, still managed to have a strong narrative and solid roleplaying. Dungeon Siege is much the same. The focus of the combat is a lot different, but the idea of mixing strong story and roleplaying into a game that is predominantly about combat is in the same vain. I

I don't think the narrative is as strong or the game is as long... but it totally gave be a IWD/Diablo hybrid vibe. I would LOVE to see IWD with this engine.

What really strikes me here is that some people were wanting Borderlands, wereas DS3 is Icewind Dale. For a group wanting to playtogeather it's great. For random games it's terrible.

I enjoyed Too Human - and once it all clicked it was pretty good... but I can't believe you'd say it was better then DSIII. The classes are less diverse, the loot is no better and it only has a handful of areas.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have high hopes for anything from Obsidian since they crafted the only modern RPG I consider worthy of the label

As annoying as it is, it's great for online - you don't want any one person snagging all the loot.

Got to play my 360 version last night.

Yeah. A few things. A) I never said they were on par with Fallout 1. I only said that they were one reason that people like FO3 over Oblivion B) The list only covers the main quests, not the 'ad-hoc' quests like the cannibalistic families. C) That list is deliberately misleading in many cases. For example, it describes

Me too.

Fair enough. I was responding to posts specifically in this thread and it's predecessor. Playing Last Remnant now, actual. Surprised that I'm enjoying it - the combat is kinda different.

I commented on this before

Agreed. It's kinda scary that different styles are just assumed to be 'bad' or 'wrong', rather then different. I like story driven RPGs (like KotOR and Mass Effect) most, but I can appreciate a good open world RPG like Fallout 3 or Morrowind too. Obviously Oblivion was so crap, and that's why it sold so very badly.... I'm not sure I'd like that... I mean, that idea is good. And the setting is great. But I'd be kinda bummed out that I'd spoiled myself by reading the Van Buren doc. I'm not such an Oblivion fan, but I love Fallout 3. First thing is that there were far more