mkreku

I am sure the Obsidian coders know where they stand in the competition, or at least they should be able to approximate. What I am wondering is if we can expect to see any technologically impressive games coming from Obsidian or if they're satisfied with using licensed engines (like in the case of KotOR2) or settle for the technological level of the Infinity Engine (Planescape: Torment = basic graphics, very little voice over, a few movies, yet the game comes on 4 cd's. Compared to Sacred = great, zoomable graphics, lots of voice over, gigantic world that never needs to load, a few movies, comes on 2 cd's). I'm just interested in what they're able to create.

Christ, that's one nasty looking spider! And I'm usually not afraid of spiders.. Probably because we have these sissy swedish spiders over here. They mostly roll over and die the moment you look at them.

Uh.. I'm sure it does. How about trying to make sense instead?

I was just wondering.. I know you guys are great writers, you can create superb settings (Fallout mainly, although that was really a continuation of what Wasteland started) and you have some fine artists/modellers/designers. But what about technical skills? What are your coders like? Could you guys code a Crytek Engine (Far Cry has the most impressive graphics engine I've ever seen in a game)? Are you skilled enough to compete with the Source engine? Do you guys have the technical knowledge to create a believable 3D world, with huge maps, realistic physics, day-and-night cycles, graphics using shaders/volumetric fog/bump mapping/realtime raytracing (http://graphics.cs.uni-sb.de/~sidapohl/egoshooter/) and so on? Or are we stuck with games using the Odyssey/Aurora engine? Please enlighten me.

Hehe, I have ZERO points after the first day. I suck at fantasy leagues! Better stick to RPG's

Ok, let me give you an example of your version of economy. Imagine a store that has ten full meals. There are eleven hungry people in the store, and you, Volourn, are the one with the least money. Of course, the ten people with more money than you are going to buy all the food no matter the cost, leaving you hungry. Do this for three weeks and you'd be dead. Would you blame the other people in the store for not having enough "self control" then? There's a very limited supply of top hockey players in the world. The few clubs with alot of money are going to drive up prices on those players (and consequently ALL players) until the poor clubs die. If the store owner put a price cap on the meal, you'd have a chance of getting some food and maybe you wouldn't starve to death. Star players are franchises in themselves and can turn around a bad trend for a club, both economic and on the ice. I just realized something. I'm trying to explain something (although pretty basic) to a person with the mental capacity of a rock. I'M DONE.

And as usual you lie. Where did I write that?

Dumb as a rock as usual. Every team in the NHL has different markets. Canadian teams can offer less money because of a different currency. Cities like Detroit, Toronto and Denver and Philadelphia have a huge hockey following and therefore their markets are profitable. They buy the players they want and drive up prices sky high. Then there are smaller markets like Tampa Bay (Reigning Stanley Cup champions), Nashville and Columbus that can't afford to pay the same salaries to their players. Because of the CBA they have to anyhow and naturally they can't make ends meet. A league can't exist with 3 wealthy teams battling it out and 27 poor teams being cannon fodder.

Ok, if you want to read more about USA's actions in Iraq, check out this site: http://www.fpif.org/ It's a great source for information about the foreign affairs of the USA. I searched for the WMD's found in Iraq. It seems they found 500 haubitzer shells containing Sarin gas somewhere. I missed that piece of news, sorry. I still don't think that's reason enough to invade a country, kill hundreds of thousands of people and put a trade embargo (which have killed a million children since 1991, "According to Ramsey Clark's book, The Children Are Dying: The Impact of Sanctions on Iraq, the embargo of Iraq instituted by the Clinton administration managed to kill one million Iraqi children

There really isn't any idea discussing things like this. You have your beliefs and I have mine. What I would appreciate, though, is if you (like me) could provide some links/documents/texts that support your claims. I'm interested in reading whatever it is you americans read since you seem to be quite content with US politics over the last century. I'm especially interested in hearing where you got the facts that they found WMD's in Iraq? I have heard no such news. "Sweden has the luxury of not being a target of terrorism. When people show up on your doorstep and want you dead, let's see how you react." Did you ever ponder over WHY Sweden isn't a target for "terrorism"? Show up on your doorstep? Violence seldom comes unprovoked. The text below is an open letter to President Bush from one of his own soldiers. You can easily find it on the internet. The highlight was put there by me though. Dr. Robert M. Bowman, a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the USA Air Force, in an open letter to the USA President, George W Bush (2001): "We are not hated because we practice democracy, freedom, and human rights. We are hated because our government denies these things to people in third world countries whose resources are coveted by our multinational corporations. And that hatred we have sown has come back to haunt us in the form of terrorism..." "We are the target of terrorists because we stand for dictatorship, bondage, and human exploitation in the world. We are the target of terrorists because we are hated. And we are hated because our government has done hateful things. In how many countries have we deposed popularly elected leaders and replaced them with puppet military dictators who were willing to sell out their own people to American multinational corporations?" "We did it in Iran when we deposed Mossadegh because he wanted to nationalize the oil industry. We replaced him with the Shah, and trained, armed, and paid his hated Savak national guard, which enslaved and brutalized the people of Iran. All to protect the financial interests of our oil companies. Is it any wonder there are people in Iran who hate us?" "We did it in Chile when we deposed Allende, democratically elected by the people to introduce socialism. We replaced him with the brutal right-wing military dictator, General Pinochet. Chile has still not recovered." "We did it in Vietnam when we thwarted democratic elections in the South which would have united the country under Ho Chi Minh. We replaced him with a series of ineffectual puppet crooks who invited us to come in and slaughter their people, and we did. (I flew 101 combat missions in that war....)" "We did it in Iraq, where we killed a quarter of a million civilians in a failed attempt to topple Saddam Hussein, and where we have killed a million since then with our sanctions. About half of these innocent victims have been children under the age of five." "And, of course, how many times have we done it in Nicaragua and all the other banana republics of Latin America? Time after time we have ousted popular leaders who wanted the riches of the land to be shared by the people who worked it. We replaced them with murderous tyrants who would sell out and control their own people so that the wealth of the land could be taken out by Domino Sugar, the United Fruit Company, Folgers, and Chiquita Banana." "In country after country, our government has thwarted democracy, stifled freedom, and trampled human rights. That's why we are hated around the world. And that's why we are the target of terrorists." "People in Canada enjoy better democracy, more freedom, and greater human rights than we do. So do the people of Norway and Sweden. Have you heard of Canadian embassies being bombed? Or Norwegian embassies? Or Swedish embassies. No. We are not hated because we practice democracy, freedom, and human rights." "Instead of sending our sons and daughters around the world to kill Arabs so the oil companies can sell the oil under their sand, we must send them to rebuild their infrastructure, supply clean water, and feed starving children. Instead of continuing to kill thousands of Iraqi children every day with our sanctions, we must help them rebuild their electric power plants, their water treatment facilities, their hospitals; all the things we destroyed in our war against them and prevented them from rebuilding with our sanctions." "Instead of seeking to be king of the hill, we must become a responsible member of the family of nations. Instead of stationing hundreds of thousands of troops around the world to protect the financial interests of our multinational corporations, we must bring them home and expand the Peace Corps. Instead of training terrorists and death squads in the techniques of torture and assassination, we must close the School of the Americas (no matter what name they use). Instead of supporting military dictatorships, we must support true democracy; the right of the people to choose their own leaders. Instead of supporting insurrection, destabilization, assassination, and terror around the world, we must abolish the CIA and give the money to relief agencies." "In short, we do good instead of evil. We become the good guys, once again." "The threat of terrorism would vanish. That is what the American people need to hear. We are good people. We only need to be told the truth and given the vision. You can do it, Mr. President. Stop the killing. Stop the justifying. Stop the retaliating. Put people first. Tell them the truth."

Hahaha, I love the creatures in this clip.

I'm sorry, you must have missed the fact that mini games are optional in KotOR 2. So now just shut up and let us who like mini games (except the turret mini game) dream of better times

I was actually only going for the aestethic purposes. They weren't supposed to have any special features or functions. Just a bit of variety.. But I understand if the real Star Wars fans would be upset so I withdraw my wish.

I wouldn't mind the guy who always voices Garrett in the Thief-series doing the male lead role in KotOR 2. He's a really great voice actor who can make the dumbest dialogue seem believable. I have no idea what his name is though and he might be too "attached" (well known as?) to the Garrett character to be a wise choice in any other game.

It's amazing how facts vary depending on which country you're from. Since I'm from Sweden and Sweden is neutral, I always assume that the news that reach us are somewhat unbiased. And let me tell you, they're entirely different from the way you seem to view the world. The actual second world war was fought on the east front, but numerous movies, documentaries, pure propaganda films have depicted the entire war as being dependant on the US. This was not the case. As you stated yourself, a lot of russian soldiers perished in the war, but a lot of germans were also killed. The elite troops and the newest equipment were spent on the russian front. The soldiers who were entrenched on the western front were often young end unexperienced, mostly because the germans weren't expecting any big offensives from that direction, at least not until late into the war. You claim the US hands out a lot of money to countries around the world. I don't know much about that, but I do know that the US trained the talibans in Afghanistan (with American funds and weapons) to stop the russian invasion. The Iran/Iraq conflict was made possible with American weapons. The Israel/Palestine conflict was started by American interests. How about Latin America? (I hope you can "read between the lines" in this document.) Did you know Fidel Castro has survived 25-30 assassination attempts, all by the US? Have you heard of President Allende? Do you think the US protects democracy? Read this or this and see if it might change your mind a little. (I know it won't, but still.. It's difficult to change something you've been indoctrined with your entire life). Do the US, being a huge country with a war machine that cost billions of dollars, have the right to invade any country they want for whichever reason they want? Do you believe in weapons of mass destruction? I bet you do, but the swedish UN Secretary (and weapons inspector) spent several months in cooperation with the Iraqi government and he filed a report (prior to the war) that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. President Bush called Hans Blix a liar (not in those words) and decided to attack Iraq anyhow. Did you know that Iraq has been under a trade blockade since 1991? I saw Fox News declaring american soldiers as heroes and supermen as they used their high tech weapons to murder Iraqi soldiers. The truth is the Iraqi people don't have medicine, new technology or any sort of military power. Cuba has been under a similar blockade since forever (1950?). If you still believe Bush's words (which I am sure you do) about America being "the lighthouse of democracy in the world", I suggest you take the time to read this site. It's a great source of facts about democratic incidents around the world. If you think envy is the cause of the widespread US resentment around the world, then this is a good page to read. It is quite fascinating for me to read the choice of words you use when describing the US involvement in several conflicts. "bailed them out".. I hope you someday will realize how much unnecessary violence the US uses for "bailing" us smaller nations out. Most of these conflicts could probably have been solved diplomatically, although that is only speculation since it's already history.

Well, that was a surprise. Portugal has a team full of stars and home crowd advantage and yet they played like they had lost before the game even started. Greece played well, especially their defense, and they were also very effective up front. Well done, Greece! Spain is outplaying Russia right now. Great match so far!

Uhm.. This is not quite true, although I think this is what all American school books say. The truth is that the russian army faced 70% of Hitler's troops on the east front. 10% of their army was stationed in Italy and only 20% were fighting the "allied" forces. If the US hadn't come to France then the french people would probably be speaking russian today, not german.. Anyhow, what bothers most nations in the world is that the US refused to pay money to the UN for decades. They ended up owing the UN billions of dollars, but two weeks after the incident with the twin towers, the US suddenly paid all their debts. Then they asked the UN for help. Oh, and do you know which nation has started the most wars during the 20'th century? US of A.

The European Football Championship 2004 is about to start in 30 minutes. Portugal (the hosting country) meets Greece in the opening match. Then it's Spain vs. Russia. And Sweden looks better than they have for the last few.. decades. At least this time we HAVE to advance beyond the group play. Go, Sweden, go!

Not sure if this has been posted already, but I thought it was a nice preview so I thought it'd do no harm if posted again: http://www.actiontrip.com/previews/starwar...sithlords.phtml Two pages and a few screenshots. Quite a lot of facts, although they may be known for all you fanatics already

I want to be able to seduce a Hutt. That's all I want. Thank you.

What?! You want to teach kids how to steal stuff from stores? No no no, what would LucasArts say about that? It's all going to be about flowers and pretty birds, you know.

Did anyone ever play that old C64 game called Paradroid? It was about a small, puny robot, on a huge spaceship, that could challenge and "take over" bigger robots in a sort of mini game to become better and better. The mini games were simple, yet demanded a lot of tactics. You were supposed to connect a couple of power nodes, you on your left and the opponent on the right. Whoever connected the most nodes won control over the robot. Small robots started out with few nodes, while big robots had a few extra nodes (and often won because of them). The playing field varied, though, so it was never only a question of who had the most nodes. ANYHOW.. For some reason I thought that mini game would fit perfecty in the KotOR universe. Although the node building would be repair skill dependant and I'm not sure where such a mini game would fit, but it might work in lightsaber building. Uhm.. Paradroid rocked!

I was thinking about those blasters/rifles/pistols (long range weapons) and how useless they were in KotOR.. How about if they had a knockback function to them? Everytime you hit someone in the face with a blaster they'd be sent back a few meters? That way the melee enemies wouldn't be all over you in 2 seconds after the battle started. Or perhaps if guns could momentarily stun opponents? Or just knock them off their feet? That might work to make long range weapons a bit more useful..

I wonder if it's possible to get a lightsaber with a curved "blade"? It would look neat and it should be possible for someone strong in the force to bend light through sheer will. Of course, for it to work they would have to go around thinking "Bend, you bastard! BEND!" all the time, but still..

You definitely need a new hobby.