Gizmo

Star Trek perhaps, but I'd prefer a full fledged Fallout title using the engine; with something akin to VB/Tactics turn based combat.

This is awesome: http://www.gog.com/reclaim

Shake hands with a coworker; pass around a box of doughnuts; cubicle wars, talk in private; not worry about someone at your ISP stealing game data in transit, or eaves dropping on conversations traveling through their networks. Group meetings without attendees disappearing [ due to technical difficulties ]. Walking across the room with a flash drive full of data, to test on a different PC, Mac or console machine; not worrying if not everyone owns one of each at home. Control over corporate hardware, and the option of an offline intranet for development machines; avoiding crypto-locker. Not having to worry about friends and family using a remote development machine to download music and who knows what else bundled with it ~or them doing a system restore, or deleting something important (like saved passwords). Centralized tech support who don't have to make house calls.... The list is virtually endless, no?

Not especially pretty, but it was fun. *Strange (possible bug): The first time I tried this, the pet dragon's head got big too. This didn't happen when I tried it with the space-piglet, but afterwards it no longer happened with the pet dragon. The credits list Josh for this feature.

Apparently the game has been canceled. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/537511454/seven-dragon-saga-by-tactical-simulations-interact *At least for the time being; though they've said that they plan to re-launch it again after they reorganize and refine it.

Na... they aren't going to regroup anything. EA is where good studios die. EA has been cannibalizing game studios for about 20 years. Bullfrog, Origin, Maxis, Westwood, and many others. Bought by EA, used, abused, eaten up, discarded. We'll see the same happen to Bioware in a few years. Maxis has been with EA for 15 years, and the Sims was developed under that partnership. I'd agree with you on the others, but the EA/Maxis relationship is a tough sell in teh EAvil Empire argument. Did not EA take the Bullfrog guys away from a DK3, and put them to work on a Harry Potter title? (That's pretty evil in my book.) I was pretty sickened by what happened with Westwood too.

What about [and it's been suggested in one way or another], but what about defaulting to option #1 (after a public announcement), and adding an opt-out (of option #1) on the backer pages; such that any backer who requests their kit sent as-is gets it as-is ~sans updates. For those that will never open the box... does it really matter if it's the then-current patch version? With a cuttoff date set by Obsidian, if 500 opt-out, then they could get 550 discs [now] for those that requested them, and order the rest of the discs for the rest of the backers when their updates are completed. Now... if 30,000 people opt-out... that would be very telling. *BTW I'm fine with Option #2.

I finished EOB2 early this week, and finished Menzobarrenzan just tonight. I'm was going to play Stone Prophet, but it's effectively Menzo 2... So for me it's either DA:O or WL2 next. EOB2 spoiler [i found out last week ~after I'd completed the game.]

The tale end of Menzoberranzan; soon to play Stone Prophet or DragonAge:Origins. Tougher choice than one might think.

It's even better when you realize that it spends their APs to do it. But That alone does not make it a better sequel IMO. *Truth be told, if I could only pick one Fallout game, it would be Fallout 2; I prefer Fallout... but it's short, and Fallout 2 has fixes that Fallout needed from day 1.

Fun is a subjective thing, and there is such a thing as the wrong kind in context. A game is not always an improvement for simply being fun. FO3 can be fun, but it's not the kind of fun I would look for from the Fallout series; and it's depressing that this kind of fun has replaced what the series traditionally offered. It's the same thing with Witcher IMO. Tomb Raider too, if that's its future. To illustrate it differently: Books can be fun, but a book like the Fountainhead is no more an improvement on Hitchiker's Guide, than the reverse, and if the style of one replaced the other in future installments... that could be both fun, and very sad at the same time. It's something I would actually read, but wish didn't exist.

This makes someone wrong? You post to say, "You are wrong; goodbye."? If you want to claim that I am wrong, I would like to see some point of opinion, or proof. Mindless agreement does not make a person wrong ~or right. I asked a simple question: What is being valued here, to say that these sequels are better? When I look at the Tomb Raider comment, I see a lament for how something is intended, and a claim that something else that adopts the name is seen as a better version of the original ~by having no relations to it. How does that work? A better Tomb Raider would have had better puzzles. Fallout 2 was quite a stretch from Fallout ~aside from gameplay. It stripped away an aspect of seriousness and replaced it with misplaced lunacy, along with some welcome improvements. Fallout 2 was bigger, and had bug fixes; UI enhancements... Much of it was better ~gameplay-wise, but the good came with some bad, and came with some misconceptions of the setting. Witcher 2 chucked the game en masse. What they did was turn it into an over-shoulder hack-n-slash with minigames tacked onto the RPG... The RPG was decent enough, but the gameplay sucked as a sequel ~IMO. IMO it ruined the appeal of the series, in favor of a different appeal. That doesn't make it better, that makes it different. FO3... doesn't warrant much attention as a sequel. As a standalone TES variant it's superb, but it's not better than the original Fallout, it sidesteps the comparison completely, by being an almost entirely unrelated work that officially bears the series name, and some of the faction names... and it copies the use of bottle caps as an ultimate "Me Too". New Vegas is a welcome ½ step in the right direction, but it's still a FO3 spin-off... not a much of a sequel to Fallout 2; but I don't think it's trying to be... at least NV was not a numbered game.

The Bard's Tale is neither a sequel or a remake. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is a spinoff. It is NOT a reboot or re-imagineering. Fallout 3 is a sequel. There are plenty of video games whose sequels are far superior to the originals. Way too many to be listed here. Actually, video game sequels (especially the second game in the series) are generally - in fact, almost always - better than their predecessors. Examples include (of the top of my head): Baldur's Gate II, Fallout 2, Mass Effect 2, Uncharted 2, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, Portal 2, Diablo 2, WarCraft 2, The Witcher 2, Batman: Arkham City, Torchlight II, Borderlands 2, The Walking Dead Season 2, .... I'm sure I've missed lots of sequels. In the video gaming world, sequels are usually at least as good as the originals if they are not straight-out superior. (Which is why I am very excited for the next game - game no. 2! - in the new Lara Croft reboot series.) Witcher 2? Fallout 2? FO3!? I don't see it. What is being valued in these that seems at all better than the in first ones? The graphics? Of these three I would rank Fallout 2 as the best sequel to an original, but even Fo2 had serious [credibility damaging] problems with its deviations and mistakes. As to the OP... How can any followup be better than the original by not competing with it? Tomb Raider was a puzzle game; you say the reboot isn't one; so how can it be a better Tomb Raider ~with no puzzles?

Game looks fantastic, but the demo gameplay I've seen has that awful tinge of simulator sickness that tells me I'd not be able to play it for more than a few minutes a day. Is it the 1st person view? It plays like any 1st person shooter, minus the shooting. There is a free demo available, it's called The Talos Principle Public Test, on Steam. You can try it out yourself and find out if it makes you ill. No, it's not the FPP, it's that the engine design [or settings] of some games directly cause this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulator_sickness Not every FPP game does this. I am not really sure of the exact cause; it might be the FoV, might be the frame ~or refresh rate... I dunno. Battlefield 1942 did this for me; quake 2; rise of the Triad ~a little bit. Bobbing [of the view, while running] is said to sometimes lessen the effect. games with slick frictionless movement can cause this. It's not so common with major AAA titles (that I've played) ~probably because they test the hell out of it and catch that before release. Serious Sam 1 & 2 did not have this issue, but both gameplay reviews that I watched of TALOS certainly did. It starts as a mild headache, and quickly progresses to serious discomfort and the can cause one to lose their lunch. The effect lasts a while after you quit watching; it becomes painful if one doesn't quit watching. Once [somewhere] I read speculation that the mind takes what it's seeing as impossible, and assumes that you've that poisoned [drugged] yourself and starts getting ready to empty the stomach. * It's not impossible that the Youtube video itself partly contributed to this, so perhaps I will try the demo anyway.

Game looks fantastic, but the demo gameplay I've seen has that awful tinge of simulator sickness that tells me I'd not be able to play it for more than a few minutes a day.

Just a flight of stairs left before the end of EoB2 for me; [that and the dragon]. This is something I absolutely hated in IWD2. You could send your thief out scouting ~but why bother; if they were ever spotted anywhere ~and managed to hide again... The enemies would then 'conga-line' a path through any terrain ~even to the other side of the map and attack your spell casters even if the party was completely hidden from view. It was ridiculous.... They would have had to be on a different map to remain hidden!

"Eye of the Beholder 2". I've just passed the door that requires the mark of Darkmoon. *I'd forgotten how fiendish this game is.

But of course... while that option does exist... surely it is to account for Mentat or Psycho withdrawal penalties that may be in effect at the time of the conversation. It wouldn't do to have the PC [currently drooling] to speak elequently or without any hindurance while under a -4 inteligence penalty. *And in the case of dissmissive NPCs, the effect is temporary, and [hopefully] they can be approached later.

Splinter Cell, Eye of the Beholder 2, Menzoberrenzan; DragonAge:Origins; Wasteland 2.

The last boxed game I bought was WL2; but the games I would usually buy, I rarely find the box versions. If given the choice, I'd prefer the boxed edition of anything over the digital. *But sometimes that choice is ruined by terrible DRM... I've picked the digital version over the physical before, when the DRM was too onerous to risk installing it.

Any fantasy setting can potentially be realistic within its own context. Dragons can exist in a setting that has dragons; Dragons cannot exist in SplinterCell ~its own fantasy setting of a sort. Witcher can have trolls and stay realistic in context... but Witcher cannot have those same trolls [with thumb in mouth] suddenly inflate themselves like a balloon and float off into the sky, nor could Geralt pull a Glock hand gun out of his satchel and shoot them down with it; these would be unrealistic in context.

[As of last night] I'm exploring the 11th level in EoB1; Just acqiuired the stone sphere portal key. I think I will import and continue on into EoB2 after I complete EoB1. In EoB2, Insal does not leave the party [iRRC] if you've dropped a PC before resting ~bit late I know. Mild EoB2 spoiler/warning:

'Eye of the Beholder', Menzo, and SplinterCell; with Dragon Age: Origins and WL2 both on hold... but soon to be returned to.

I think Witcher was the best RPG of the last decade. I liked the game for its gameplay mechanics; which Witcher 2 utterly ruined or discarded outright. (Though I do like the W2 art design.) I liked Geralt and the Witcher world setting for precisely the first reasons you mention. The W2 minigames and QTE's annoy; and they somehow ruined the dice game; they turned the bar fights into Whack-a-mole/'Simon Says'. The engine trick with the doors meant that Geralt had to fully enter a new room... this also annoyed; it shut the door ~even if that room was seen to be full of enemies; and sometimes the doors would lock. Combat devolved into random sword swinging; gone were the Witcher sword styles and combos; gone was the multiple camera setup; gone was Geralt's common sense usage of potions. Gameplay-wise Witcher 2 was a real let down for me.