Nepenthe

Am I the only one overwhelmed by the stalinism inherent in this discussion - how the murder of millions is just a statistic?

Agreed.

Not saying you're wrong, but why? BioWare is EA's RPG label, they'd at least try to label it as such, otherwise, why do it under the BioWare moniker? This is from a totally new studio, btw. He means it's not an RPG in the form approved by the Quality Gaming Collective.

Huh... I got nothing. Maybe they got the Indy license form LucasArts. Or the Tranformers license. :D

That's not limited to undergrads...

Fixed. If it wasn't for the nasty LCD developers would be making exactly the type of games I want. Actually, it only dawned on me later... I think this collectivist view a lot of you seem to share (whether you describe it in the sarcastic way posited by Hell Kitty above or in the ways you would see it yourselves) is probably the fundamental source of differences of opinion between myself and most of you guys. You view yourselves as representatives of an embattled group of defenders of "quality", under encroachment from gaming publishers all the more interested in achieving sales that people - to paraphrase Malcador's sig - having good taste and the will to put work into appreciating something alone are unable to provide. I suspect this collectivism is also the reason why similar opinions with near-identical phrasing get repeated so often - collectivist subcultures work like that. While I don't even describe myself as a "gamer" when asked. I just like to play games, but don't think I belong to any group or subculture because of it. As I have little reason to view my position as threatened, I'm a lot more likely to view developments positively or at least take a "wait and see approach" to them. Huh.

Fixed. If it wasn't for the nasty LCD developers would be making exactly the type of games I want.

Same. Couldn't stand her flirting, and getting nuked is the only solution in the BioWare universe for that. That's one thing they promised they'd fix (implement a more clear LJBF path), and they ****ing should, it was downright painful how many npc relationships in ME2 ended in some kind of holding pattern because of the way they were just set up for "romance".

Thinking of replaying Pool of Radiance. The mac version (since essentially the three first installments of the quadrilogy had improved graphics and/or audio on mac), to not make it dosbox easy to myself. Need to call my dad to figure out where the SE/30 is, in case I need to get that ROM image somewhere...

I doubt that, at that point they'll shut Bioware down and move essential resources to DICE. Besides, if they're even considering something like that, they future is lost - but it won't make ME3 be like that, so I'll worry about it if it happens. ... Orogun, you notice how you're the only one getting hung on the "story mode"? The presence of the action mode essentially nullifies any potential fears linked to the other extreme... Meh, Ashley still has some issues but fundamentally looks like she did in ME2 (there's also shots on Neogaf not aimed to provoke the reaction you are having). Clearly some work still needs to take place, but hey, this game isn't releasing for four and a half more months.

Doubtful, the "story" people have been loud in Bioware forums and similar locales since BG2 came out, at the very least, so it would kind of make sense to have a dedicated preset for them just as there's one for the "but I like Uncharted!" people. Could somebody explain to me what the "problem" here is? I mean, the more I think about it the clearer it is to me that this allows for them to add complexity to the system in a tiered manner. This could bode well for future DA iterations, where you'd have "awesome button mode", "mook mode" (for the people who just want to feel the NPCs watch them) and "genuine RPG mode".

I was under the impression that you need TRIM supported both at OS and drive level.

No, a lot of retail games are already available via XBLA/PSN, for example Battlefield 3 was Day and Date. I think EA's been exceptionally active on this front. Yeah I know, Games on Demand, but that's only optional. All big budget games will continue to be released on retail as well. But in the future they could use something like Steamworks for console games as well, which means you gonna have to think twice before forking out 60 EUR for something that may turn out stinker. But this is only a natural development, as this means many companies are gonna go out of business as people are starting to get more picky, so only a few best survive for blockbuster productions. The market always regulates itself. Not sure what this means for Obsidian though. Yeah, optional, and not that attractive, either. BF3 was 70e on demand vs. 60e at my normal store without any shopping around. I'm cheap enough to consider 10e worth my while to get off my ass and go there to buy it - and use the 10e at Subway while I'm there. :D

I think he's been regressing of late. The first two ME novels were tolerable at least, but the writing in the third was at points so bad I had to skip forward because it was so painful. All things considered, having serious misgivings about having preordered the game. Don't have the rig to run it (decently at least) and probably, with the new job, won't have the time either. But since I paid for it, I'm "pot committed" now.

No it's a selling point like electrolytes in Gatorade, it doesn't do anything that water doesn't but the placebo effects works wonders. I wonder how they will handle the automatic responses? It just makes me think that C&C its not going to be the selling point of this game. I mean, will the guy who chooses to skip the story will automatically get the best result? The result will be tied more to what (missions) you do than what dialogue choices you pick - this is hardly news at this point. I suspect that you'll pick paragon/renegade in the beginning, and the game will autoselect responses based on that. If they even implement it at that level, it could well apply simply to more incidental dialogues etc. When there's a switch flicked at the beginning, it'll allow for more significant branching.

I don't think those are difficulty options, and if they are, what's wrong with just easy-normal-hard? Always trying to innovate where it isn't needed, huh, Bioware? No, it allows for them to put back the RPG elements that they stripped out from ME2 to make it more approachable to dudebros (though I still think this was exaggerated, but...). If you can't see the difference between a coherent narrative without (constant) player input vs. picking dialogue choices at random, the problem's not at Bioware's end. The more I think about this, the better a compromise it seems to me.

No, a lot of retail games are already available via XBLA/PSN, for example Battlefield 3 was Day and Date. I think EA's been exceptionally active on this front.

No, the problem is that people don't care about how good the game is (or can't think for themselves), they must ride the latest bandwagon title. That's of course the most egregious example, but in general, the quality of a game plays a very small role in its reception, as we see even here very regularly.

Me too. I wouldn't be surprised if "action mode" was a prerequisite for being able to add more rig elements to the default game. Late edit:

Not women, they have special powers that allows them to get by with just tying the hair up. Forced shave just for guys, true story from FDF. (Couldn't do funnier, sorry) I don't think they modeled the Alliance Army of ME after the FDF. But I thought they had tougher appearance rules in the US Army, or at the very least, for the grunts. But whatever. I know it's just a game jadda jadda. Well, my point kind of was that women in armies are often subject to rather peculiar rules - even in the real life. I'm sure I could find some from, say, the US Army if I wanted to, but I went with one I know from personal experience. While I suspect that the people claiming that the alternative settings mean that the rpg is now fully gone know that they are exaggerating, I think the practical effect is more a/b paragon/evil choices (as seen in the leaked video), so that the choices are determined in the ps3 me2 style opening comic. As for the whole thing being gone, the "story-heavy" godmode combat pretty much shows the opposite.

Not women, they have special powers that allows them to get by with just tying the hair up. Forced shave just for guys, true story from FDF. (Couldn't do funnier, sorry)

So, gave the BF3 SP campaign a spin. Was a bit busy with other things, but was good mental-resetting for a few evenings, as games of this type tend to be. They still have a lot of room to improve, there's an abundance of QTEs that I found somewhat annoying. The campaign's also moved to a more CoD type corridor style, and Acti's boys frankly do that better. Though I really liked . No fluid vehicle/foot changes this time around. Still, a slick good-looking FPS production, I normally don't play a lot of them so can enjoy even the more cookie-cutter once when I get into one.

What was the "Origin debacle" again? The bunch of hater-spread bs that was debunked once again last week, on this very forum?

Been ultra-tired the whole week and it hasn't gotten better towards the weekend. Have an exam on tuesday (leadership & management again), that's really interesting but for which I've managed to study 30 pages in 6 days so far. Guess 2 weeks off wasn't enough, so I'll have to try to get another two off before I start at the new place.