mkreku

Guess you'd hate Gothic then.. Not only were you forced into a role, it was the role of a petty criminal (you never find out what he had done to get thrown in jail). I mean, as long as you start as a soldier it's ok, isn't it?

I loved the nr. 8 opening of Gothic. You're a common criminal and you're tossed into a magic prison without a clue as to what is going on. I loved being able to find out everything on my own and the fact that an entire world was contained within that magic bowl. So 8 is my favourite intro.

I'm glad Obsidian doesn't give a crap if you think they're doing "hand-me-downs" or not. Their reputation will be based on how good a game they can make, no matter what the title of the game will be. Ok, I didn't want a KotOR2 personally, but it will not hurt their reputation in any way. It will probably only boost their popularity and fame.

You're such an asset for this board, Volourn.

I'm beginning to ponder this myself. So far it's just been bickering ground for old BIS board members, it seems. Obsidian, you could really help here, by just posting SOMETHING for your fans. I was under the impression that boards like these existed so the developers could have close contact with their fanbase. Guess I was wrong.

My short venture into QA: Me: "Uhm, this corpse-eating Staff Of Corpse Devouring can not only absorb dead bodies, but living bodies too.." Programmer: "Stupid idiot, could you be any less specific?" Me: "Well, you need to check the living flag, before running the absorb_Corpse routine or else the Staff Of Corpse Devouring will absorb anything you point it at. I'm supposing it was only meant to absorb already dead bodies, right?" Programmer: "Are you f***ing trying to tell me how to do my job?! ARE YOU?! You're a f***ing NOBODY!! Don't you think I know what f***ing flags to check?! Are you totally blah blah blah" and so on. If you can find a team that doesn't take your attempts at constructive critiscism personally, I'd say go for it. But it can be a very unpleasant and unrewarding task.

Gothic/Gothic 2 also does this. Whenever you've taken a huge step forward in the main story, the games switch chapter. Switching chapter means, in reality, en evolvement of the entire world of Gothic. New monsters pop up where there were none before, new quests arise from old NPC's, new areas open up, NPC's get new dialogue trees that recognize what you've done and so on. I think it's a great way of making the game world feel more alive and in an ever changing state. I just wish the Gothic-games made the switch between chapters bit more.. subtle. As it is now you get this huge loading screen which actually says "Chapter X". It would be more immersive if it kind of just happened. There's really no need to tell the player he has entered a new chapter, since most often most people don't see their daily lives being divided into chapters..

Yeah, that was the nicest part of Morrowind. Unfortunately the worst part of Morrowind is closely connected to the best part, namely that EVERY dungeon/cave/whatever in the wilderness had a door (how stupid is that?!) that all looked exactly the same and the inside of everyone of those hundreds of tiny little caves/dungeons/tombs looks almost exactly the same as the next one. And to top it all off, most of them were completely empty, except for some generic monsters. Now, THAT's an effective way of killing any kind of fun you might get out of exploring a world.. By the way.. I waited several years for Morrowind (since I loved Daggerfall), pre-ordered it from North America (very expensive) and got it way ahead of most of Europe. Then the stupid game dies on me after only 5 hours of playing. Therefore I think I am entitled to despise this game. At least a little.

I kind of see KotOR as the Call Of Duty of the RPG genre. Call Of Duty is like Quake.. But dumber! The reason it became a success was because the developers made it extremely cinematic and scripted. Apparently, if a game is cinematic enough it sells bundles and gets rave reviews all over the world. But if you look closely at Call Of Duty, it's just a simple rail shooter. Always only one way to walk (a corridor), everything always happens exactly as it did the last time you played (scripted). KotOR is kind of the same way. The maps are all so small you can never get lost and there's never any doubt over where you should go next. It also looks extremely good and has a lot of scripted events and cutscenes. Unfortunately (at least for us who enjoy "deeper" RPG's) it is also very shallow and simplified. But I guess I shouldn't bash the game too hard. For some reason I had a lot of fun with it, despite of all its shortcomings.

SSI actually did make a few RPG's based on the Buck Rogers universe: Buck Rogers - Countdown to Doomsday and Buck Rogers - Matrix Cubed. They use the same engine as the Gold Box games (Pool of Radiance, Champions of Krynn etc.) but instead of fantasy you get sci-fi! I could personally never get myself to play through these games, since I was young and had just finished the Pool of Radiance-saga, but if I'm not entirely mistaken I kind of remember these games getting very decent reviews. Ps. The links are from Home Of the Underdogs, a really good page dedicated to old games.

I get all kinds of mails from various game mailing lists (one drawback of being a reviewer) and they're mostly kind of useless. They never reveal any news to me that I haven't been able to find somewhere else before and they're usually just ads for respective company's upcoming titles.

I think I would bust a gut laughing if Obsidian announced during E3 that they're working on a FPS. Imagine how surprised we all would be! Actually, we might not be so surprised, now that i think about it, after all the horrid business decisions that game developers seem to have taken lately...

Ok, I definitely need to get a job like yours! I'd probably get shot if I even as much as looked at the computers at work during working hours..

Need to re-add Heart Of Eternity (3D Action RPG by UDC). Also another game I had found.. Grr, can't seem to find it again. I'll repost it when I find it because I will find it.. Sooner or later. :angry: Edit: I found it! The game is called Getica and is yet another 3D action RPG, it seems, under development by Digital Summoners.

I only liked Mission, but that was because she was very useful. I didn't feel attached to any of the characters in KotOR, including my own schizoid main character.

Agh, I have to agree with Volourn about the controls. Why not give it MOUSELOOK, hello?! Anyhow, the part that disturbed me the most were the miniscule maps. I like to explore, get lost, get back on track and so on. That's mostly where I find enjoyment in games. KotOR was so incredibly simple I could probably have walked through the entire game blindfolded. At times it just felt like one long corridor with little rooms (worlds) placed behind doors here and there.

Well, here we go again. And again I'm hoping to get a few responses from the developers. What kind of games do you play, what games do you like, which games give you inspiration for your projects? It would be nice to know because it's sort of an indication if you're ever going to be interesting in making our (the fans) ideal game. Thanks in advance for your replies!

Hmm.. I don't care about my posts (more posts = more geek) but it seems a lot of interesting threads just disappeared. Hope someone remembers them and re-posts them.

The boss battle being.. The Final Exam! Where you have to solve a few calculus problems (in real time WITHOUT PAUSE), write a few essays and score at least a B to win the game!! Damn, that sounds exciting.. Who wouldn't want to play school after school?!

Strange. The ONLY thing I personally liked about KotOR was its story. I thought it was well-written, well though out and had a very clever twist that at least I never saw coming until it was revealed (I might be a little slow, though). When I reviewed it for NordicGamers I gave it 88/100, even though my personal opinion about it would have given it around 60-70, since the maps were too small for my taste, the quests too easy, the combat too automated and the game too linear. But the production values of that game is amazing.. I wish Piranha Bytes could hire a story/script writer of the same calibre as whoever wrote for KotOR. Gothic 3 could be the best game ever if that happened..

Ok, so it's great that you developer guys have a sense of humour and all (hrmm) but how about this idea for a change: answer the question asked? How. Many. Titles. Are. In Development. Right. Now? Please don't tell me that even that question is of the classified sort..?

Unbelievably off topic, but I just had to recommend this quite new adventure game I played a few months back that I really liked and thought was awesome: Runaway - A Road Adventure. It has really great graphics, a really interesting story and surprisingly good problems to solve. For some reason it didn't score very high in reviews around the net.. I'd say "Highly Recommended" anyhow. Read more about Runaway - A Road Adventure here.

Yeah.. But since Obsidian are about as informative as Elvis is alive, we're still allowed to hope it isn't so. Some people wish for Planescape: Torment. Personally I would love to see Descent to Undermountain: The Return.

Just as long as it comes out within two years or so, so my Radeon 9800 Pro doesn't become an antique before it's released. Of course, I'll probably have upgraded AGAIN in two years time. Damn computers. They're like black holes in my purse, sucking out all my money. I curse you, Moore, for defining that stupid law!!

I prefer thongs.. I love it how they.. uh wait, this was for myself huh? AGH.