[WTF]

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.

[project the one after delaware]

I have long wanted to do a high-school/junior high-school RPG, to be honest. I think it could have the potential to be a lot of fun - assemble your party of jock, geek, cheerleader, whatever and try to survive a year as a freshman through all the hurdles of high school life. Gain rep, complete homework assignments, avoid bullies, make gangs, join clubs, ostricize other cliques - I think it'd be awesome.

 

My 2 cents.

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?!

[The what was wrong with "delaware I" thread]

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..

[How many titles are in development then?]

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..?

[LOSE THE F^_^ING CUT SCENES]

My definition of Adventure game is Syberia and The Longest Journey. Probably the only two really good Adventure games of the last few years.

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.

[A KOTOR 2 romour]

Given how long the rumors have lasted between KOTOR2 and Obsidian -- I'd say the odds are very good that the rumors are indeed true.

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.

[Hardware requirements?]

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!!

[What is your favorite kind of undies?]

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

[A little opium for the masses?]

Agh! I never saw any evil remarks? What were they about?

[A KOTOR 2 romour]

KotOR would be an ok game if the graphics engine wasn't so unoptimized, the maps weren't so small, the world interaction wasn't so crappy and the story wasn't so linear.

 

Of course, it was also too easy, had too many stray jedis, made me play an entire game with a haircut as a Texan hillbilly and made no use of ranged weapons..

 

Hrmm.. Strange. When I played the game it seemed like a great game, but now that I think back I only see hundreds of faults. IT WAS FUN, DAMNIT.

[A little opium for the masses?]

America, the land of the sued. Freedom of speech, my a$$.

[LOSE THE F^_^ING CUT SCENES]

Hey, Zante, since you think the discussion is on a low level, how about trying to raise it a bit? Or maybe you think that by accusing people of not understanding the most common things you make yourself look smarter and on a higher level? Trust me, my only problem in this low level discussion is that my vocabulary is a bit.. small. But I guess it's bigger than your swedish vocabulary, so let's stick to english. Anyhow, back on topic:

 

Since Zanteblah didn't bring up anything interesting/new in his reply, I won't bother quoting, but I guess what he is trying to say is: Deus Ex doesn't have personal statistics (where statistics has a secret meaning that only Zanteblah knows!!) despite the mention of both skills and augmentations..

 

All I basically need from a game to make it a RPG is character development, freedom of choice in gameplay, multiple solutions to every problem, a few missions/NPC's/equipment choices and branched dialogue trees and a chance to play the role I want to play. Deus Ex had all those (although the main character's name/role was always JC Denton) plus a semi-free game world (free to explore within the current level).

 

I've played through it as a pacifist, as a good hearted thief and as a mass murderer and each time I've gotten new (and different) responses/rewards/quests from NPC's. I've tried non violent approaches, sniper approaches and demolition approaches and the NPC's react differently to those too.

 

By the way, I just read something from the Deus Ex box:

 

"In this thrilling roleplaying adventure, you play the part of a powerful, nano-technologically augmented anti-terrorist agent."

 

"A richly simulated world of unparalleled interactivity, engineered to react logically to your every action."

 

"Character interaction that matters. Your interactions with scores of NPC's affect the outcome of the game, minute to minute, mission to mission, start to finish."

 

"The ability to create a compelling alter ego. Select and develop your own unique set of skills and nanotech augmentations; determine which weapons and objects you need to survive and solve problems. Will you be the deadly avenging angel, the charismatic master manipulator or the shrewd and stealthy tactician?"

 

Uhm.. So they exaggerated a little, but still.. It's all there. Ok, I am done. Should I put the word "Period." here to make my opinion look more important? Naah.

[A little opium for the masses?]

In the name of Allah the Compassionate and the Merciful,

 

Do not bother brother Mkreku; they are slaves of Bioware and working on their next project for them. They cannot divulge any information until they are able to break their chains of bondage.

 

God willing!

So they cannot tell us who owns that Humvee on the parking lot outside the Obsidian offices? Jesus Christ (and Allah) what a nasty contract they must have with Bioware!

 

I wonder if they're allowed to flush their toilet paper or if they have to save it in little cans for further inspection by Bioware..

[Product placement in CRPG's?]

Ok. Lets say i'm a painter. As a painter, i conjure this artistic ideology and claim that art is the expression of the self, and whatever. End result, i end up painting. However, if i only have one job - that of being a painter - i'm also dependant of people's money to survive. That may mean having to swallow my pride and paint what people like more. However, that doesn't make me less of a painter, and the whole point of me being a painter (and of art itself) doesn't stop existing because i need money to keep painting does it? No. Without money or advertisement, many people would find themselves in dire straits. Racing uses advertisment to finance itself, but it doesn't stop being racing at all; it doesn't remove the main point behind it.

What if the painter paints advertisements?

[A little opium for the masses?]

Ok, so this board has only been around for, what? Two weeks? Anyhow, it is really becoming stagnant and more of a place for disgruntled old BIS/IPLY board members to act out their anger over the fact that Planescape: Torment 2 will never be made. (Watch me eat my cactus when Project Delaware turns out to be just that)

 

So my suggestion is that you, the developers/employees, of Obsidian Entertainment, throw us a bone every once in a while. I know you can't talk about the project, but you can sure as hell talk about other things!

 

How about your long term strategy? What are your plans for the future? What are your development dreams? If not for this project or the next, but the tenth one? Are your hands tied behind your backs on that one too?

 

Who in the team is doing what? Who is the jokester around the office? What kinds of tools are you using to create whatever you are creating? How's work going? According to plan or are you seeing trouble already? Who drives the Humvee and who drives the VW Rabbit?

 

Are you planning on showing any of your work at the E3? Are you working on one or several projects? Who comes up with the ideas in the team? How does an idea get the green light to go into production?

 

Erm.. and so on!

 

My point is: we're interested in anything and everything about the project/Obsidian/the team. Not everything can be The Big Secret, can it?

[LOSE THE F^_^ING CUT SCENES]

blah blah blah

As usual you start twisting and turning, like a rat in a trap. It's pointless having a discussion with you if you're going to leave out everything that makes (in this example) Deus Ex a RPG and focus on its faults. No, Deus Ex isn't a perfect game (which you've clearly pointed out, although it doesn't have anything to do with this discussion) but the game is, no matter how you try to convince people otherwise, in fact trying to be consistent AND have a world that reacts according to what you do. Sure, it fails sometimes (just Like Fallout/Fallout 2 did sometimes) but the idea is there, clearly for everyone to see, unless you decide you want to look in another direction. Like you just did.

 

And then we have another word problem. What is it with you and words? Why is it that if something isn't called "Strength", but instead is called "Augmentation", and both does the exact same thing, you don't think it's a personal statistic? Or did you choose to ignore the augmentations all together because they don't use generic RPG names? The augmentations gave you speed, stealth, strength, intelligence and whatever else you wanted, were upgradable (4 times? Can't remember) and actually had an impact on the gameplay. Which I am sure you'll deny somehow. Pointless.

 

One thing you can keep doing, though, is that constant applauding you do for yourself whenever you think you've "won" a geek argument.. "i've just brought down your blah blah" is such a sad remark. It saves me the time to try to make you look silly.

[A list of RPGs in development]

Everyone has probably already seen this preview of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (published by GameSpot) already, but I thought it was an interesting read and worthy of a post in this thread.

[Product placement in CRPG's?]

There are lots of racing games with real product placement. Microsoft Rallisport Challenge had lots and lots and lots of commercials on the cars, around the tracks and I think even in between races. Same with a whole lot of other racing games, like Need For Speed, Colin McRae, Rally Trophy and so on.

 

In those kind of games it really doesn't disturb you, it actually makes the game feel more realistic, especially if you recognize some of the brands that flies past you

[LOSE THE F^_^ING CUT SCENES]

Of course, its missing some of the more important things, like personal statistics, a world that reacts to what you do in a consistent manner, and a larger set of consequences to what you do.

Since when doesn't Deus Ex have personal statistics, a world that reacts to what you do or grand consequences of your actions? You seriously need to play that game before discussing it.

 

What is it you're not getting this time? Are you arguing for arguing's sake, by any chance?

[worst websites.]

Check out this, its most horrible thing that roams the net. I mean... epileptics sure like that page and overall it's sooooo horrible.

Ok, so the homepage made my esthetic soul jump off a bridge, but MTV3 is actually a good TV channel. I usually watch it when I go visit my parents (who live close to the finnish border).

[Suggestions for project Deleware]

I also want my actions to affect the outcome of the game world, but I am not so sure that chapters is the right way to go. Gothic used this system, and everytime I ended up in a new chapter I was reminded that it was only a game I was playing. Maybe if the chapters were invisible for the player it would work, but since the general public demands clarity and simplicity (it seems), they wouldn't have a clue as to what just happened unless you got a big sign in the middle of the game saying "Chapter 2", followed by fanfares and orchestral music.

[How many titles are in development then?]

Actually, they could have thirty projects going on at once if they wanted to. Back in the days, it only took ONE programmer to write an entire game from scratch. They even used to compose the music and make the sound effects themselves.. Nowadays they have 30 people on the same game, coding "modules".. Geez.

 

And I still think the Ultima's beat the crap out of 95% of todays RPG's!

[worst websites.]

I have no idea how I ended up on THIS site, but it is by far the dumbest and ugliest I've ever seen.

 

And don't blame me if your teacher spanks you for showing him that piece of rubbish.

[A list of RPGs in development]

If your own reactions or skill with the controls are the deciding factor in combat and other scenarios rather than how the character is defined, then you lose the "Role" in Role Playing Game as now you are just playing the Role of yourself and your abilities which is what Sammael or Taks meant. Probably the most important aspect (I don't look at is as just one of many aspects) as well of RPGs is the ability to develop and grow your character as time goes on so the character's skills can improve. But the definition of an RPG seems to be so vague and misunderstood these days, I guess it doesn't matter. At best, I would consider this game a FPS with RPG elements. Not a big deal. So is Deus Ex 2 and others.

I think the FPS style is the best way of playing an RPG because it allows me to play the game through the character's (that I've created myself, not necessarily by using skils/levels/attributes, but by name and such) eyes. The skills should be directly visible to me at all time (such as bad aiming when low level) but I want to execute all the action myself. To me a game like Planescape: Torment is less of a RPG than STALKER is, because in that game, when you start it up for the first time, you already have a name, a history and a "reputation" within the game world. That makes it impossible to play anyone else than the Nameless One, thus it isn't role playing to me.

 

But you're absolutely right: this isn't a big deal. We'll just play the games we like in whichever fashion suits our tastes. I'm sure I'll be sneaking around STALKER in a cowardly RPG style in a near future anyhow

[PLZ MAKE LIONHEART 2!!!]

Come to think of it, Lionheart 2 could probably be a good game. It just needs more heart, a better story, a more interesting main character, a better game world, improved combat and upgraded graphics.. Uhm. Did I forget something? Oh yeah, a new name.

 

How about "Poodleheart"?