mkreku

Get out of my thread, nasty spammer moderators!!

Or maybe Bioware is a console developer now?

And today's game is.. SEGA RALLY

What you're failing to take into consideration is the fact that you are changing too. When you first played those old IE games you had not experienced anything like it before. That exhilarating feeling is bound to disappear after a few similar games. I don't think there's anything missing in today's games, what you're missing is instead that feeling, which you won't feel again until something new that suits you as well as the IE games did back then comes along. Or maybe you've just gotten older and now lack the ability to become as excited over a computer game anymore? One of the curses of maturing.

I reviewed Keepsake not long ago. It's a very lonely sort of game, as you're basically alone in the game together with a badly voice-overed dog/wolf. It's very classic in the sense that there's nothing to do in the game except for that one puzzle that will bring you forward in the story. It's easy to get lost (as the game plays out in a Hogwarts inspired arcane university) and the exits are seldom logically placed. The best part of the game is probably the story (you're supposed to begin studying at the university, but on your first day there you find that the place is totally deserted, and it's up to you to find out what has happened to everyone), the worst parts are the voice-overs and the incredibly slow pacing of the game.

Ok, I exaggerated a bit, but my point is that you make it sound like the ACER screen is "OMG IS THAT A YELLOW OR PURPLE BLOB??" bad, which it isn't. Still, I would recommend a Viewsonic VA902 or something, if you're looking for good value for your dollar. It usually costs somewhere around $250.

I can wholeheartedly recommend the ATI Radeon X1800 GTO 256 MB, as it's somewhere around $100 below the X1800 XL and still offers about the same amount of performance (slightly less). The CPU.. A problem is that both Intel and AMD are changing their CPU sockets right now, Intel with the upcoming Conroe and AMD with AM2. Asrock sells futureproof motherboards with exchangeable sockets (from 939 to AM2), so that would be a wise buy. Also, do NOT buy a socket 754 as that's an older technology. Instead try getting the cheapest 939 CPU you can find, it will still be faster than any Sempron. Other than that I have no complaints. And don't listen to angshuman's concerns about the LCD screen. It's good enough to use at home, unless you're heavily into photographing, graphics or publishing. I don't understand why he's even talking about S-IPS panels for a budget computer.. You're lucky if you find a S-IPS monitor for under $1000!

I am guessing they reveal the less attractive titles early on and saving the big titles until last. That probably means we won't be getting any more information about Obsidian's SEGA title until just before E3. Bummer.

The funny thing is that you don't have to worry about how your attribute points spread out. No matter what, you're going to get through the game, unless it's too difficult for you, which is when you lower the difficulty setting. You're still taking an awful lot of time and text trying to explain how the game "forces" you to meta-game. It doesn't. You choose to meta-game because you see those shiny +3 and +5 multipliers and forget that you can still choose the attribute you wanted, even though it only gives +1. I played through the game creating my own character, independent of the attribute multipliers and at no point did the game become too difficult (like Gromnir experienced) or unbalanced. It did become more difficult around level 18-20 but that evened out after a while.

Actually, it's getting kind of old. It's like every post from you is about trying to find some faults in someone else's post, no matter how far back you have to dig. It's not really entertaining and it makes you look like the smaller man. Hey, I can understand it in some cases (*cough*Epiphany*cough*) but every day of the year for every little unnecessary detail you can dig up? Come on.. I much prefer your insightful or witty posts before these bitter and bickering posts, to be honest. But that's just me and my opinion.. and another chance for you to dig up some year old post to compare to this one.

It also lures out the fancier armours..

I wish the game was as good as the support it is getting.

They're going to show Gothic 3. E3 will be good to me this year.

The D&D game I've had the most fun with is Pool of Radiance. The level cap was something like level 8 for fighters, level 10 for rogues (thieves?) and level 6 for mages. No idea what level my clerics could get to. Seeing as that was a very long game (mostly because I kept drawing maps on paper) I'd say 1 level every 5-8'th hour. Or something like that.

It's a content patch, perhaps. But I think most people understands that without the need to write out the word content every time the patch is mentioned.

All I know is that the US navy hired a swedish attack submarine as their opposing force for their naval training in june last year. They still haven't found it (!), and the swedish sub "sank" a huge american aircraft carrier (USS Ronald Reagan, by taking close-up pictures of it, not by firing torpedoes). They're still trying to find HMS Gotland, since they recently hired the sub and the crew for an additional year.. It's kind of like a joke in swedish media. Edit: Here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Gotland_(Gtd)

Uh.. I'm not very fast, but it seems Irrational fixed this problem.. half a year ago! http://www.freedomfans.com/news.php?id=37 Although I only seem to be able to find patch 1.3 Beta..

Freedom Force stopped working for me.

Who knows if they cut out content because it wasn't up to snuff (quality-wise) and not because they were under time pressure? I believe they cut it because of quality concerns and the 20 hour main campaign is a result of that.

Yeah.. Stupid me, huh?

My nick is mkreku. Whether I like the game or not is irrelevant. Jade Empire is generally considered a good game that's too short, which is why I used it as an example. If the game had been able to keep the same standard for 40 hours instead of 14, then YES, the game would have been better. Probably a whole lot better. I think a game can be hurt, no matter how good it is, if it ends too fast. I can't think of any RPG at the moment that fits the description (since I don't particularly like Jade Empire), but Black is a good example. The game is fantastic for as long as it lasts. It excells technically, it delivers the action goods and it actually has a well-told story and a disturbingly difficult end battle. But it only has 8 levels which lasts for 8-10 hours. I had a ton of fun reviewing the game, but my jaw actually dropped when I realized the last level was the last level. Even though the game was satisfying while it lasted it wasn't enough. It left me hanging.

So basically what you're saying is that a game can't be too short if what's there is good?

No, game length is not the standard that should be used to determine a game's quality.. but it sure as hell is a vital part of the game's quality. I find Jade Empire to be a great example of this. Most people who've played it enjoy what's there. But for some it's just not enough anyhow. Why? Because just as you're getting into the game and start appreciating the one-dimensional characters (and finally stop giggling because of the ridiculous NPC names) and the Bioware Standard 1A-story, the game ends. Had the game been 40 hours, it would have been great. As a 13-14 hour experience, it's a disappointment. The games that have stuck with me, the ones that I've bothered replaying, are all huge. The Ultima games in my childhood were exceptionally long games, mostly because I had no clue what to do and just went around killing random stuff. I vividly remember everyone of them. The Gothic's are both long, again maybe because they're open-ended and you spend some time getting lost and being chased by packs of wolves. Still, they are two of my all-time favourites. Same with Dragon Quest 8, Oblivion, and so on. I firmly believe that a game needs to be a certain length for me to take the time to appreciate them fully. How long that gametime has to be? I don't know.

The above looks more like Baley and Musopticon having sex in various positions than math. Coincidence? I THINK NOT.

Enter the Matric was a mediocre title with a fantastic hype-machine behind it. The marketing was much better than the actual game. Anyhow, on topic: I'm not saying they owe us anything. They don't have to tell us anything and apparently they aren't going to either. I just think it's common practice to inform the interested parties about changes within the company that can have an effect on the products they produce. Not every little change/event has to be classified as Top Secret, although that does indeed seem to be The American Way. I am on this board because I recognize the talent hiding behind the Obsidian company name. I am here because I am interested in having a dialogue with the names behind the most promising RPG development team in the business today (except, perhaps, Piranha Bytes, where the language barrier is proving to be quite an obstacle.. I suck at english, but I absolutely blow at german). I am still hoping that I will find out what drives these men, what their motivations are behind their design choices, the obstacles they have to face and overcome, their inspiration and muses (not sure what that's called in plural), the dynamics within the group, the reason why Duct Tape Man became the Duct Tape Man, all that sort of stuff. I even get this perverted joy from reading what these guys appreciate and dislike from other developers titles. So far it's been a disappointment, but at least I have a couple of hundred german Piranha Bytes posts to filter through babelfish. That undecipherable drivel keeps me busy during my bored moments.