WorstUsernameEver

Stolen shamelessly from No Mutants Allowed I present you a new interview with MCA.

If you can't have called shots or special moves in unarmed fighting, boxing matches a la Fallout 2 will be boring as hell. Otherwise, love all the new info. Also someone "over there" in Bethesda forums posted that there are more than 3 currencies, including casino chips. Has that been confirmed? there's more than 3 types of currencies: There are caps, poker chips, legion gold, NCR dollars, regular dollars. THat's going to require a lot of math to do the conversions....I hate math.....and vans....and vampires.....and the woods..... I missed this post, thanks for pointing it to me. And since this gal is the same one that posted the initial summary (later confirmed by another poster) I'd say it's true, though of course, I don't have the magazine so I can't confirm it. Another correction : Robots, robot police run & keep Vegas under raps controlled by a character inspired by Howard Hughes that lives in The Lucky 38. Lucky 38 is a place no one in the game has seen anyone get into since they care remember and no one has seen the Howard Hughes character himself go figure. So it's not Howard Hughes himself but someone insipired by him.

I ended up doing a bullet-point summary for another forum, so I figure I'll just post it here too for the people who don't want to rummage through all the 'yeaaaah!' and 'Obsidian is lazy!' posts of Bethesda's forums. Take into account that this is a rewrite of a summary of a preview which may or may not be completely accurate in his information. - One of the new followers is an ex-NCR soldier named Craig Boone whose wife has been kidnapped. Followers apparently will have their side quests (I think it was already mentioned, but since it wasn't in this forum..) so you can guess what Boone's quest will be. - New weapons are shown : a machete, a pair of boxing gloves, razors, a SMG-looking gun, C4 with an included detonator. - The Mad Max-looking leather jacket of Fallout 1/2 apparently makes a return, with a host of other outfits that the poster of Beth's forum didn't describe. - Some new animations, like a new reload animation that show the bullets you're putting into the gun have been included. - Combat is apparently now much more enjoyable outside VATS and the previewer found himself purposely not using it. - Game Informer had the first look on the Strip : apparently it looks a lot like 50's Vegas, with bright-lighted Casinos. - The Casinos will have their very own gambling mini-games. Luck (the SPECIAL stat) will of course play a big role in them. Blackjack, Poker, Roulette and Slot Machine are some of the games you can play. - Vault 21 was apparently a vault where every conflict was resolved through gambling. It's now a casino. - Some very interesting info about the Strip and New Vegas in general : apparently the city is in very good shape thanks to a man named Howard Hughes who lives in the Luck 38 (the Stratosphere look-alike you all already have seen in the teaser trailer). He keeps the city in shape with the use of police TV Robots, and apparently had a hand in keeping New Vegas out of bomb's range. Considering all this info my guess is that he isn't human. - This means.. no mob families in Vegas. It will disappoint some and make a lot of hardcore fans who complained about New Reno happy. Personally I'm ok with it since mob families would have felt like a re-hash, though the exectuion in New Reno was almost perfect (the only thing I really would have changed is taking out the porn studios and changin a bit the appearance of the mobs to make them look more rugged). - New Vegas will have 3 types of currency : old favorite caps, NCR dollars from Fallout 2 and Caesar's Legion money (apparently mentioned as 'coins' in some parts of the preview). There will be an exchange rate between this currencies and using the right currency with the right vendor will bring price benefits. That's it, I think.

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topi...-informer-info/ I can't bother to copy all that info and credit the guy so I figured I'd just link it. Sounds positive.

So you're prepared to 'play' 25 hours of cutscene and 5 of gameplay? Actually it's more like 50/50 in terms of gameplay to cutscene ratio... I actually tested it. Don't know, I watched one of my friends playing it with a couple of other friends (strange way to pass time, but anyway we weren't doing anything particular and he had brought his PS3 so why not?) and really, the briefing about the mission was as long as the mission itself. Also, the new character didn't strike me as particularly impressive but I didn't play the game in its entirety so maybe it's just prejudice on my part. Seemed like a fun game, though as far as gameplay goes, I still believe Metal Gear Solid 3 to be the superior game (again, considering I don't have MGS4 probably just prejudice..) with all that layer of gameplay added by the jungle/survival elements.

For contemporary RPGs, it was a shift away from the full lines of dialogue that had become pretty common. It's not new, but it was different compared to most recent RPGs. Gothic already used the 'streamlined sentences' back in the day. There wasn't a wheel or any cinematic presentation anyway. I don't know, the dialogue wheel was mainly a marketing gimmick, I don't believe there's seriously someone who considers that an innovation if we're excluding some deluded marketing guys journalists...

So you're prepared to 'play' 25 hours of cutscene and 5 of gameplay?

I really really hope Obsidian gave the reviewers the debug feature of seeing all the outcomes of different choices like they said they were thinking about in an interview. This really would highlight the 'branching narrative' they're trying to push.

When did Mass Effect 2's reviews started appearing compared with the game's release? Since Obsidian is plagiarizing EVERYTHING from Mass Effect they'll probably plagiarize the review policy too!!

Duck and Cover I guess.

Are you serious here? I'm pretty sure they also said that the Dialogue Stance System was designed by Brian Mitsoda, and it has practically been in every build of the game.. I probably said it other times, but it also reminds more of Fahrenheit than Mass Effect as far as dialogue system go.

It could actually be an awesome game, but it doesn't look like Obsidian is trying to strike that tone.

What we've seen right now hints at an healthy mix between spy flicks trope and a serious storyline. As for Mass Effect, I've always felt Bioware did a disservice to the setting by introducing the 'Reaper' plot. You have galacy politics, you are pretty much a licensed cowboy cop for the Council, all that racial tension, disparity etc.... and instead on playing on that you introduce Mecha-Cthulhu. Meh.

They changed it again. They could have just called it Gothic 4 for what it's worth..

Well, I hope he's joking. The fact that he also believes the devs stole the mod's code... well. Let's just leave it at that.

No matter what Bethesda would've concocted for FO3, it would never have been Fallout enough. *snicker* I just would've settled with decent writing personally, since nothing will be 'Fallout' enough (though I'm still not convinced that super heroes fit, my dear friend Gromnir ) for some people. ... Bethesda really dropped the ball in that department.

If it was a joke, it would be "meh". When it's serious, it's scary... Whoever came up with that gem obviously doesn't know anything about the development process of games. I would even go as far as to say "anything about games". I'm not joking. Not to mention the fact that apparently, just because a couple of features in New Vegas (just weapon modding and Hardcore mode, really) have been inspired by mods, he feels like he already owns the game, by his reasoning, since he added those features to Fallout 3 with mods. HUM.

The Beth's forums are.. whacky. I just read a closed topic about how Obsidian has stolen all the hard work of the modding community and people that play on PC already own Fallout : New Vegas.

They updated the content also, not to mention that now it looks more in line with the box art.

Finished Dragon Age Awakening... I'll try to list some pro and cons first and then explain what I thought about the plot, the characters and the new mechanics. Pro : - much, MUCH less filler-ish combat than in Dragon Age : Origins, this expansion was to the point; - the new characters are almost all likeable and interesting; - Vigil's Keep is what the Crossroad Keep could have been had Obsidian devoted more time to that section of the game instead of the stupid first act of Neverwinter Nights 2 ; - the new Darkspawn are much more interesting; Cons : - crashy; - the new levels (25-35) didn't really add much to the gameplay; - Anders; - most of the new companions are underdeveloped; The Plot Awakening's plot, if I may say so, is a LOT better than Origins. While Origins felt mostly like isolated stories from different parts of Ferelden loosely stringed together by the threat of the Blight (no wonders that the ending felt anticlimatic for so many, IMHO), Dragon Age Awakening has a very tight plot, with an interesting twist of that freeform hub structure that has characterized all of Bioware's games after Knights of the Old Republic (with the exception of Jade Empire). The Darkspawn are also a much more interesting enemy, though the moral conflict about their newly-gained intellect could have been expanded upon. The fact that the Architect, an interesting character with a quite interesting design, was so prominently featured in all the previews and appeared roughly two times in the game, with just a little bit of dialogue was... a letdown. The Characters Bioware has been praised a lot for their focus on characterization, and while I feel that this praise is sometimes excessive, you can't really argue that they did a bad job with Awakening. Most characters have a compelling but not overly-complicated and melodramatic background (something that felt like a relief after Origins' JNPCs). They also tie nicely with the already established lore, giving the player new point of view about some factions (e.g. Justice, Sigrun). Not all characters are good.. I'm talking about Anders here. One of the most boring character I've ever had the pleasure seeing in a Bioware's game. OH I WAS LOCKED IN THE TOWER! OH I WAS LOCKED IN THE TOWER! All the WHOLE GAME. He had just a couple of more interesting conversation, but for the most part it was a meh character. Even Oghren was better. Yeah, I hated him, but, as deluded as I may be, I think that was the point. Oghren is irresponsible. Oghren is foolish and immature. The best thing you can do for Oghren is make him a Grey Warden so you can make use of his only talent (combat) for a good cause. The Mechanics Premise : Awakening is really just an extension of Origins. There's nothing that changes dramatically the flow of the game, nothing that changes tactics or alters balance too much (though I've noticed that mage seem a bit less overpowered compared to other classes). So what can I say? I say that they could try harder. All of Neverwinter Nights 2 expansions had mechanic changes that altered the flow of the gameplay and made every campaign have its very distinctive flavour. I have a feeling that Bioware was simply afraid of the backlash that could result from departing from the tried-and-true formula of Origins. The Vigil's keep quests weren't exactly groundbreaking but felt well-integrated and well-executed, and I felt my choices ultimately had an impact. In the end it's a short, enjoyable expansion that I'd definitely recommend.. though I'd suggest waiting for a patch.

I never felt Fallout 1/2 atmosphere to be particularly claustrophobic. Oppressive? Yes. Desperate? Yes. But not claustrophobic. (Yeah, semantics, but they're important for me ) I think a lot of the atmosphere in Fallout 1/2 was conveyed through the use of the soundtrack and sound effects.. something Fallout 3 did well, but not as well as the originals. To be honest, though, I don't expect that kind of atmosphere from New Vegas, and wouldn't want that too. We're talking about the desert surrounding Vegas, and I think Obsidian is touching the themes of the city nicely so far : a contrast between the humour of the location and the quite depressing occupations of the wastelanders.

Finished Dragon Age : Awakening. I'll post my impressions on the Dragon Age Origins topic.

A more fair comparison would be taking into account the console sales of both games. If the difference is comparable... well then the argument about 'early crack significantly reduce PC sales' would be stupid. Though I believe it's true they reduce them.. just not as much as the publisher/developers want us to believe.

I have a hard time playing evil as well i couldnt do it in kotor ill try and play evil in alpha protocol in my third or fourth playthrough. It's probably because you think "yeah, I'll try evil this time" and then as you play most games, the "evil" choices are usually really psychotic stupid choices rather then evil so you end up not using them....... Exactly! If they go as 'gray' as they can with choices then I'd rather a mix of 'evil' & 'good' and make my own bad ass. Old games like KOTOR 2 for example had some crazy bad guy choices that were somewhere around 'Kick the women with no legs' and then all of a sudden you're more dark side. Hopefully the fine line between good and evil will make it more emersive. I thought DA:O did a good job of that actually. (crosses fingers for AP) Star Wars is a very manicheist setting though, I can't actually see a Star Wars game going grayer than Kotor II, thuogh I'm not a Star Wars fan (I mostly ignore the 'Expanded Universe' thing) so maybe I'm not the most qualified to comment.

The little bits I managed to listen (the german voice-over was kinda distracting) were very funny and Thorton voice acting seemed much better than some of the trailers made us believe.