WorstUsernameEver

By the way Gromnir, now you've made me interested in grabbing Icewind Dale and giving it a try.

Then you can join the Dragon Age... Storm of Zehir discussion!

Problems with Storm of Zehir imho were two : - lack of an engine that supported that style of gameplay well (if you don't have a fast enough computer say goodbye to the gameplay and hello to loading screens!); - lackluster main quest path, with encounters and dialogue not strong enough to make anyone who isn't a fan of the combat still play the game; I don't think it's as bad as Volourn is making it to be, I had fun with it, and honestly, part of the fun also came from seeing how some modders implemented SoZ features in their mod (see the splendid, Ravenloft-based, Misery Stone), but it's no masterpiece at all. I'd give it a 6/6,5 on 10.

The Seven Dwarves resurrected? For a moment I though that 'Resurrected' was part of the title. Imagine it for a moment, it would be fun : you're the decaying corpse of a dwarf, member of a band of seven, bandits that roamed through the kingdom and wreaked havoc. Then one day.. you were killed. And now, resurrected thanks to a clueless necromancer that just wanted a skeleton but picked up the wrong scroll, you're back... for your vengeance!! ... No, it sounds sucky. Really though, I'd be interested in knowing what Seven Dwarves was, and, for the matter, what Project New Jersey or whatever was the name of the project that Annie Carlson whines so much about the fact that it was canceled. I have the feeling that if it really was that good as a project, I'd end up whining too though, so maybe it's for the best.

Matt 'beardless' McLean is reading. Will he announce that the new project will be 'The Beard RPG' ?

I have to share your criticism. They think Deus Ex didn't have a distinctive art style? Ok, that's fine, tweak the art style. But the cities in Deus Ex looked NOTHING like this. ...meh. Still cautiously optimistic, but I don't understand moves like this. Not at all.

Nope. The boxed PC version uses Uniloc DRM, which means you'll need to be online to activate the game the first time you run it, but after that it should be ok as far as I know.

I just hope the team working on this project is small. I mean, Obsidian doesn't have that many employees, and honestly, my opinion is that they should work two game at a time max, with maybe a small team dedicated to patching. Ok, honestly, an opinion on management that comes from a gamer shouldn't be taken seriously.. still...

Don't get me wrong, I understand your plea, and I understand why you have faith in Obsidian, considering their past track record (though, to be honest, Obsidian isn't Black Isle, they share a lot of devs, but also have a lot of new faces, some really talented actually). Point is, sadly, there isn't much I can tell you except 'let's wait and see' when talking about 'revolutionary and perspective changing' RPGs. Even the most promising indie I've seen (the excellent Age of Decadence, that basically looks like everything a Fallout sequel should have been, placed in a new, fresh setting) are far from 'perspective changing' and my guess is that with the market as saturated as it is now, and publishers so bent on making only either blockbusters or shovelware, we'll have to wait a little bit. Of course, my hope is that we'll have to wait less, and Obsidian has an unannounced project so who knows..

Wouldn't count on it. It will turn out to be some console hack'n'slash with D&D names, a Baldur's Gate : Dark Alliance III most probably.

I never found any of the Drakensang games appealing. They're so old school in a bad sense. I only played Drakensang's demo, but it seemed to me like the art direction was painfully bad, controls and graphics better than NWN2, and the combat system felt about as stale, without any info or tip inside the game to understand how it worked. I also heard that the sequel is much better however.

It may very well be the fantasy project Feargus hinted way back with a GameBanshee interview. Let's hope it's turn-based or at least RtwP.. yeah I know if that's the case it will inevitably be called another Bioware rip-off or whatever, but Obsidian has a tradition when it comes to this kind of games, and had at time to think about what were the flaws (technical, writing-wise and gameplay-wise) of Neverwinter Nights 2, so there is great potential, assuming they take the right choices and that production goes smooth as butter, something that hasn't happened before with the other published projects.

Bigpoint takes over Radon Labs and announces Drakensang 3.

Why would anyone do this? Pick up Two Worlds 2, I mean. Aside from horrid voice-acting, Two Worlds wasn't bad. Two Worlds 2 appears to be improving on all fronts. To be honest, the only thing I've seen until now are screenshots and gameplay videos that look exactly like Two Worlds, with just a better visual presentation. Maybe the voice acting will be better? From the look of the screenshots, TWII will deliver the same inconsistent world-building that made Two Worlds such an honestly unique title! Japanese cities? Why not!

Promised the big post so here it comes. Let's just say that you're starting with a very specific indication of where your tastes lie, which is not bad, but many may disagree with you, and no, Baldur's Gate II is not 'without a doubt' the most epic and amazing RPG, for various reasons I'm not going to cite now. Let's just accept that as your opinion and go on. Fallout 3 and Oblivion are both weak on the rpg mechanics, yeah, but that doesn't disqualify from the genre. Of course, many on these boards will agree with you, but I don't think they're FPS at all, they only share superficial similarities. Try playing a real first person shooter, you'll notice that the experience is remarkably different. Granted, I understand what you're trying to convey here.. the market lacks games similar to Baldur's Gate II and Kotor II, two games that favored character's skills instead of player skills, were generally more detached experiences, and focused on telling strong stories (something that both Oblivion and Fallout 3 definitely lack). Here I think naivety comes into play, I believe. The idea that Obsidian, as a developer, strayed from those license as a conscious choice because they didn't let them concentrate on graphics or .. whatever. Nope, licensing is something based on more pragmatic things, and unfortunately the D&D license probably won't see games for a lot of times, and LucasArts for now seems more interested with Bioware's work on The Old Republic (their Star Wars-based, Old Republic-era MMORPG) than with the possibility of making a new Star Wars rpg (KOTOR III?) with Obsidian. Fair from a business point of view, considering that KOTOR II sold less than its prequel, and was generally (though far from universally) criticized for its very different writing and storyline, not to mention the fact that the ending didn't make much sense (we already know the story behind this so I'll skip it) and was a pretty buggy game. Here you're basically stating your preferences for an RPG design. Fine, I'm certainly not going to argue with what you like, especially since I agree with most of these things (and I'm a bit tired, so I don't really have the strength to discuss this too ). Again, seems to me like you basically don't like action-rpgs, but just a closer look to the market (especially the european one) would show you that FPS/RPG hybrid are still a minority. It's true that there are more 'twitchy' games and less RtwP/turn-based ones, though, but that's about the only thing I can agree there. Also, it seems to me like you're ignoring a gold mine for a supposedly 'hardcore' rpg player : indies. Games like Eschalon, Age of Decadence (.... 2012, that's the date it will come out, I just feel it ), Geneforge, Avernum etc. all provide turn-based/detached combat, an involved character generation process, usually interesting plots, sometimes choices and consequences (as far as I know, Eschalon and Avernum don't provide much choices, but then again, let's be honest, Baldur's Gate II was largely a linear game too). It's true that they don't have the production values of an AAA game, but let's be honest, you've complained that your computer isn't capable of running Mass Effect, so that's not what you're searching for, right? Just to reassure you, I think that Obsidian WOULD like to make an rpg that tops those games. It's just that it's not easy, and they also have to take care of the other segments of the market. Also, consider that porting this type of experience on a console it's not that easy, you have to inevitably deal with interface problems, hardware limitations etc. Look at the console port of Dragon Age if you want to have an idea of how clunky an interface of a 3d AAA game with a philosophy quite similar to Baldur's Gate II and Knights of the Old Republic II can turn. By the way, if you haven't play the game, try it. I'd say that, with all its faults, it's an enormously fun experience that definitely deserves a chance, and also what's closest to what you consider 'the most epic rpg'. We'll have to disagree on this one. I found DA's setting and factions to be its weakest link. At least ME2 had The Force, Jedi... oh wait Seriously though, Ferelden, Wardens, The chantry, Dark Spawn etc. was as uninspired as could possibly be. Only slight redemption came from a few interesting, atypical NPC's like Sten, Dog and Zevran. If developers want to base it on real world cultures, why not pick something more "distinct", like Celts, Picts, Sumerian or whatever. As I've already said, Grey Wardens and Darkspawn are the weakest part of the setting, but considering how Bioware pulled even the British-lookalikes of Ferelden, I consider myself satisfied. You also forgot to cite the dwarves culture, the depiction of the elves, while not particularly original (it's practically taken from The Witcher), it's better than your usual 'high-and-mighty old-and-wise elf', Sten's people have an interesting culture, and the package comes together rather seamlessly, something that the Forgotten Realms' writer were definitely never capable of pulling off well imho. Then again, I would have preferred another type of setting, not so afraid of pushing Bioware in a different direction.. problem is, it's evident that it's not what the mainstream wants (or Bioware's fan, for that matter). Bioware have catered to the broad audience, and their fans in particular, since practically the beginning of their career as RPG devs, so it doesn't come as a surprise that they tried to go for a 'detailed but ultimately unoriginal' world. There are still a lot of little touches that imho make Ferelden recognizable, which is more than what I expected. P.S. : I'm pretty sure I made a lot of grammar mistakes in the post since it became so long, feel free to point them out to me so I can edit them out and pretend I've never made them!

I avoided the FR books like a plague, and I'm glad I did. Got stuck with Dragonlance because one of my friends was bat**** insane about them, so I HAD to read them to know what they were about. Came out less than impressed. As for Dragon Age's setting, none of the concept behind it is particularly original or interesting by itself, but I think it's better than the sum of its parts. I'd argue that taking out the darkspawn and the Grey Wardens would make the setting MUCH more interesting.

I hope not actually. Worst fantasy setting I've had the 'pleasure' of reading. It's pretty much everything that's wrong in the fantasy genre put into an incredibly generic package. Dragon Age's setting trumps it pretty easily.

I wonder if they changed the ending when they learned the show would be cancelled. They show a calendar or something at some point that shows the date as 2015 and the daughter in her teenage years. Then again, 24 has jumped a number all over the place as far as time lapsed between seasons. One season 6 months have passed since the last, then 2 years here, 5 there etc. Possibly, but with the whole '2016 - THE END' thing on Dyson Frost, I actually think they just went with the planned season finale anyway. I wish they at least gave us some hints regarding, you know, why those guys are doing the blackouts, what's Jericho's involvement in all this, why Mark Benford was such a douche.. things like that. There were a lot of interesting ideas, so it's a pity to see how the series evolved.

I'm sure we can think of a few more alternate spellings first, though! Zhrie? Rihze? eZhir? The possibilities are endless (no they're actually not, but whatever, it's a fun thing to say write).

I'll come back with a longer and more (much more) detailed answer lately, but for now, the only thing I can tell you is that unfortunately we're most probably not going to get another D&D title for at least a couple of years, thanks to legal shenanigans.

How about you actually get hands on the game before you start talking about its flaws in every thread? Most of my posts where on the Alpha Protocol sections and many of them weren't even on the game itself but rather on this kind of 'lovers vs haters' thing that has formed there. Anyway, got the message, ain't gonna talk about the game until I get my hands on it (hopefully soon, most probably 2-3 days before my first exam this month, meaning I'll have to wait mid-June to play it ) .

It's 'Zehir' btw.

Not that it always has to do with reviewers expecting shooters though. I can understand why someone can find inelegant that shooting a guy 3 times in the head doesn't kill him. Granted, Fallout 3 had the same problem, but most of the time you were actually battling super mutants, not raiders (though it felt jarring when you were shooting to raiders.. and I doubt it will feel any less jarring when playing Alpha Protocol).