WorstUsernameEver

Obviously they are not the main attraction of the games. But since it's Vegas, and since I doubt they took many resources and manpower, why not? I don't understand all the negativity.

Never said they are. But they are far from the 'interactive save screen' I've seen them implied to be in this thread.

Thanks alot Krezack. You scared them off. Actually Joseph 'Choices choices choices' 'Mr.Cinematics' (those were one of the things I would never criticize in Alpha Protocol, they were nice, really) Bulock is still reading. And probably thinking we're all dumb for discussing design in such an uneducated manner. Or not.

Naaah, no problem. I thought so, since it clashed with the fact that you appeared to don't know whether Dragon Age II will be RtwP or not, but who knows?

Then don't play real time with pause games. I don't see why just because a certain crowd doesn't like that type of games they have to be erased from existence. By the way, I agree with virumor, the encounter design in Dragon Age (and pretty much every real time with pause game I've played after Baldur's Gate 2, except maybe Storm of Zehir) was atrocious.

Meh. Different strokes for different folks. It's not like every game needs to be actiony, you know?

Hopefully we'll see some footage from Dungeon Siege III.

True, but they're showing the game to the press apparently, and I don't think they'd show placeholder models on the pre-order page of their game. Then again, Bethesda still is letting people see placeholder super mutants for Fallout : New Vegas, so who knows? EDIT : By the way, just to clarify, my perplexity has more to do with the 'new art style' than with the engine capabilities.

. What I found most interesting was not the ammunition and other loot that could be had, but the notes that I found and added to my Pip-Boy. Some notes were letters written to loved ones, while others were journal entries that NCR members had been writing just before being surrounded and subsequently killed by the Caesar's Legion. Avellone explained that the notes in Fallout: New Vegas are intended mostly for flavor, though there will obviously be some that yield useful information (such as codes to locked doors). As a fan of little lore-inducing elements like this, it was a welcome sight Nice. The game is already content complete and looking pretty polished, so I don't foresee any reason why we won't be experiencing over 150 hours of post-nuclear entertainment when the game ships on October 19th. Really nice. As shallow as it may sound, a nice, polished game from Obsidian is just what I need.

Different types of games though. They're all action RPGs. Exactly. Not really.. there will be companions who will fight by your side, but they will be controlled by the AI, and if anything, the combat looks more action-y than the first. Not that I think it was a bad move, but that's for The Witcher thread. Probably the costs for Dragon Age were really high, but it has been developed for a very long time, has changed its artstyle and setting at least once (originally it had quite the Conan-y vibe) and was developed on a new engine. Now that they have the engine they can just focus on tweaking graphics, fixing the balance issues and adding depth to the combat system and building new content.. instead it looks like they're revamping the franchise for.. some reason. I really really hope it's still real time with pause. It's a compromise, but since no one wants to do turn-based it's still better for me than every game being an action rpg. What do you mean by 'DA2 demo' ? You're a member of the press and were invited to see the game? P.S. : Yeah, I know about Planescape : Torment, but that was a sort of 'one of a kind' experience, and I doubt BioWare is trying to replicate it. Not to mention that as Mask of the Betrayer showed, you could still tell a powerful with dark themes story without a premade character.

A Biowarian noted that on Play.com Dragon Age II page appear a couple of very early screenshots. .. They're very lo-res, so it's difficult to judge but...

I wasn't talking about Dungeon Siege III. And I doubt the developers would let the main player drop out from the game, but we'll see.

I can't honestly manage to imagine someone who plays Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age without at least a little bit of micromanaging and goes far. Not even on easy. I don't know whether that was the case with Dungeon Siege, but if it was, and the game seemed to be designed to give you some input (after all it's an RPG, not a football managerial game ) then it's bad design. Pure and simple. Or, in other words, if it looks like I have to play the game but even not playing it the game wins itself.. it's bad design. It really, really is.

But Paul never predicted a match without Germany before, so I wouldn't write Netherlands out just yet.

New The Witcher 2 high resolution screenshots.

To be honest though, Syriana was cited as an influence during the 'Mitsoda days'. Not much of that kind of feel is in the final product.

If KOTOR sold 1,58 million copies it's a good result. RtwP rpgs don't sell that much anyway, and considering it was a game with supertroubled development, churned out quickly because LucasArts was getting greedy (not that Obsidian is faultless, considering they agreed with a deadline they obviously couldn't meet, but hey, maybe they really believed they could've patched it later), if you're excluding some really big successes like Dragon Age : Origins (it had an incredibly big marketing and some huge hype behind it). Not an overwhelmingly good result, considering we're talking about the sequel of an impressively rated game, with an already done engine and all that stuff, but a good result nonetheless, and I remember the numbers for NWN2 being quite good too, otherwise I don't really understand why Atari would fund 2 expansions + an adventure pack. Still, it all comes down to 'I think I remember' 'if the numbers are right' etc... I can't really make good judgments without reliable sales data.

Albatross- 24 (-1) Not a particularly compelling character, and some of his action (like the attack on the embassy) border on the nonsensical, though probably I'd have to blame the fact that Obsidian had to force himself into writing the character in a OOC situation just to keep the challenge level the same if you're working with SIE or Albatross as an handler. Henry Leland -20 (+1) As far as reputation gains go, he's probably the most nuanced character in the game. You have to give credit to Avellone & Co. for putting so much work into a stereotyped villain and making him this awesome. Konstantin Brayko- 17 Omen Deng- 27 SIE- 28 Scarlet Lake- 27 Sis- 27

If anything, having 6 performances means that there's a higher chance at least one is decent, compared to being stuck with a mediocre one.

Working on a niche game almost no-one cared about except a couple of guys on the Codex (never played it, so I don't know if it's good or not, but that's the truth) would be good how? I mean, maybe they game would turn out good, but it's not as the name would entice anyone to buy it, the 'hardcore crowd' probably wouldn't like it, and if anything, Obsidian should work on more original IPs.

Good, very good to know.

What I said is that Obsidian probably will die if they continue releasing unpolished games, with design problems and that most of the press feels are 'unfinished'. As for Dragon Age 2, we don't actually know if it will have multiplayer or not at this point.

It's not that I don't like voiced protagonists, it's that : 1) I like variety in my RPGs, and not having a voiced protagonist gives you a lot more variety when it comes for the player to define its character, dialogue options etc. You don't have that kind of freedom with voiced dialogues. 2) Poor voice acted dialogues can RUIN a game for some. EngShepard is almost unbearable for me (the italian voice actor in Mass Effect was good, the one in ME2, not so much, judging by the demo). Michael Thorton sounds a bit.. emotionless, especially compared to the other characters in the game.

This goes straight in my sign.

I thought I forgot. I was wrong. Damn you Purkake, may you burn in the depths of hell!