WorstUsernameEver

Interesting, but for now, I honestly don't feel like I have to generate characters with a randomizer. They just usually either come together on the fly or I design them (if they're plot important) when I'm preparing the session. Thanks anyway.

Oh, Neverwinter Nights 2 had plenty of bugs. Granted, most of them simply didn't bother me, and I was lucky enough to never encounter the gamebreaking ones, but you're being revisionist here Tigranes. Neverwinter Nights 2 had sliding enemies, teleporting player characters, a lot of abilities were broken, etc... The expansions themselves weren't all that buggy, true, but the original game? Oooh it very much was. I like Obsidian's games, but it's not like their 'buggy' reputation isn't their own fault.

... You understand what I said.. right? You think they're horrible because you think the style is horrible. Point is... the criticism here is that Alpha Protocol lacks a focus, a style when it comes to art. Just look at another Obsidian's project : New Vegas. Magically that flaw just isn't there. There is a sense of style. You may or may not like the style, feel like they could have done a better job with assets, etc. but the style is there. When I look at Alpha Protocol's screenshots, I don't get that sense of style. Part of it may come from the fact that the game world is pretty real-world inspired, but even then, it does feel a bit disjointed.

Brink looks like **** in terms of character models. That's incredibly poor art direction that looks like it's geared toward the tween demographic. That's an interesting thing though, and it actually speaks in favor of Nightshape, from a certain POV : Brink has a strong art direction, so strong actually, that it elicited a <<the characters looks like 'four-letters-word-that-I-am-not-sure-what-it-is-but-I-certainly-have-an-idea' >>. As for Alpha Protocol's art direction, I don't know, I'll comment when I play it. New Vegas seems to have a much more coherent art direction and look than Alpha Protocol though.

Are you referring to the Tweak Pack? I remember it was a Weidu mod that incorporated some big mods like high-resolution and Qwinn's fix pack, but it's a lot of time since I followed Infinity Engine's modding.

Again.. the game never gave me that impression. Again and again they repeat that the fact that his soul has been taken out has made him incapable of feeling anything... Also, even if what you say is true.. I don't know. He never worked well as a villain for me. It's not just the inner conflict that bugs me, but also all the circumstances surrounding him.. it's like Diabolus Ex Machina to the max, with his hawt Elven Queen fianc

Could very well be, true. Still, I'm not that comfortable with the control system for XBOX360 when it comes to Dragon Age, and I also don't personally own the console, so buying the game for PC just seemed like a natural fit. And even with Awakening's bugs, I don't regret this decision one bit.

From his POV though, he has to work for a living. Would you really compromise your work just to show that you have 'guts' ? Granted, even if it's true there is a lot of bias and probably a bit of hatred/jealousy too in that post (maybe HE was one of the 'real designer' that tried to make Chris Parker change his ideas?), but, and I'm telling you, BUT, if the post is true, it also casts a shadow on Obsidian's next projects. If Obsidian has indeed such a bad project management, then I'm not sure if I really would like to buy another game.

You may be right on this Volourn.. still doesn't change that Sarevok works better as a threat for me than Irenicus. Irenicus I don't know.. he seemed schizophrenic as far as his portrayal goes. He should be emotionless and yet he's driven by revenge and jealousy, and basically goes on to try to complete his plan again.. after failing the first time you'd think he learned the lesson, but no! I liked him the first time I played Baldur's Gate 2 but trust me Volo.. I played the game a lot of times, and the more I played it the less I liked him as a character. Part of it stems also from the fact that the italian dub is pretty ****ty when it came to his character, because at least, the english version has Irenicus giving really awesome delivery to his lines. Granted, I still feel he is ridiculous (dangerously ridiculous but still...), but at least he works a bit better.

I'm not familiar with the rogue bug but the JNPCs are bugged to hell and back Volourn, at least on PC. Things like approval going to 100 because of broken triggers during side quests, impossibility of making a party member ( ) do the Joining ritual if you break the sequence of events that the developers probably intended you to do (then again, if you give me freedom in the order to tackle different main quest mission I'm going to take advantage of it!), dead NPCs reappearing during the final sequence, etc. Add to that the frequent crashes and Awakening is by far the buggiest game I've played from Bioware. Granted, it is indeed awesome IMHO, and felt spot-on when it comes to story, interactions, feel and depth.. it's just that there is a remarkable similarity between this project's lack of polish and usual Obsidian games.

But that's about the only bright thing I see in it. Point is.. it seems credible. It's either a (former?) dev post or has been posted by someone who has some very strong (bad) feelings against Obsidian.. or a troll. But somehow, I don't think a troll would actually work so much about a troll post, or even inform himself about how development works, unless he already knows. It is anonymous, it fits with the informations we have about the development cycle of the game etc... Granted, even if it's true, you can feel the bias of the poster, against Chris Parker (who knows? he may have something to say about this), against SEGA and against the project itself (after all, if you work undirected for a long time, when feeling the other canceled project is strongest, you may very well end up hating the game you're working on), and (as I've already repeated so much that I think people should already pretty much know at this point)... I'll reserve my judgment for when I play the game (as it should be).

This will be probably an incoherent rambling, but meh, I'll try to keep it as simple as possible. If anyone of you is familiar with the World of Darkness, this is kind of.. a mix of both, with less emo-ness and more outright silliness. Simply put, there are a few pillars I worked on when I designed (such a big word for a couple of badly organized lines written part on PC and part on paper... I honestly just like mimicking developers' way of writing for once X

http://supportwiki.steampowered.com/wiki/Steam_Refund_Policy As with most software products, we will not offer refunds for purchases made online as outlined in the software license - please review Section 4 of the Steam Subscriber Agreement for more information. We can make an exception for pre-ordered games if the request is received prior to the release date. Considering you have already played the game, if I'm getting it right, looks like there's no refund for you. Sorry =/

Oh I've plenty of NPCs like that. Part of the philosophy of this campaign, is that even random NPCs should provide entertainment and be memorable, so usually I try to give them a character trait on the fly and emphasize through either body language, change of voice tone, speech patterns etc. Granted, I may have overdone it, but so far it seems the approach has been appreciated by my players. Next post will be the setting, this time I promise (and after writing that I'll finally catch up with you Warhammer sort-of-blog-thread, promise ).

Lol. I'll try writing up something comprehensible about the setting. Even if I can't change it anymore, it's still nice to hear a couple of comments about how bad and unoriginal it is (and surprisingly, the familiarity/originality balanced worked pretty well so far ). Also looks like another player is going to join for the next session.

If it's another Dungeon Siege I hope it's moddable.. maybe they can do a Ultima IX remake this time, correcting all the game's flaws?

Can't say I blame you. Can't say I blame you at all, and being a bit Obsidian fanboy-ish it's painful for me to say this.

Not exactly J.E's finest hour, that was his writing yes ? Mostly remembered as that annoying NPC with lengthy dialouge who would appear before several major battles. Much of the nuisance I think comes with having both a predictable 'surprise' and a linear game. Maybe Melissan could have worked if she wasn't so front and center, always providing an explanation. I don't think J.E. has ever been involved with the Baldur's Gate saga, unless we want to count the canceled The Black Hound.

Thanks Whipporwill that's interesting. Any word about the economy outside the city itself? I have to decide where to set the cover-up facility devoted to.. well, technically the production of a magical drug.. sounds silly and technically it's silly, but somehow it worked in the context of the setting.

I'd just like to say... I've joined No Mutants Allowed forums to write a post about Alpha Protocol. Life is strange indeed.

Apparently no word on a patch, sorry Gromnir, at least as far as I know =/ I almost feel like Bioware has sneakily outsourced this expansion to Obsidian, considering how buggy it is.

... Seems like my suspicions about bad management have been confirmed. Great to hear that at least the other projects will come out well, bad to see that Avellone's writing has been a bit wasted on this unpolished (going by the reviews and comments) game. Still, I'll give a more appropriate judgment when I finally play the game, hope I still can have a lot of fun even with all the flaws (then again, considering I had a lot of fun with Vampire : Bloodlines it's a good possibility).

While I don't think AP is a rip-off of ME, you must admit that Obsidian COULD have been inspired by some design choices after Mass Effect came out. To be honest, it's not like Black Isle didn't do that before. Planescape Torment was based on the Infinity Engine, it used the same ruleset etc.. granted, it was a D&D license, but are we sure PS:T would have came out like that without Baldur's Gate?