WorstUsernameEver

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.

Seems normal PR talk to me, it's not like is the first publisher to use the 'we' form, not to mention that Bethesda has a much closer relationship with the developer than most publishers for a variety of reasons, like the fact that, like it or not, it's their franchise now, the fact that Obsidian is building on their technology base and the fact that, for all their fault, Bethesda seems like a very good publisher to me (though they sometimes publish very very ****ty games like Rogue Warrior).

Hmmm, "earlier" the game was much worse in the graphic department. Just look at this old video, around 2:00. The enviroment reminds of the first Splinter Cell without his shadow engine, actually is horrible. The game started to look pretty just recently (with, finally, some decent textures and lightning), I don't think I would have received THAT graphics more "warmly" before Nice preview, I want this game so badly! The video is from april though, I honestly must say that I don't see that much difference from recent footage and the one they released in October.

I'd have more confidence in modders patching it later, though the UE3 doesn't look like it's mod-friendly.. at all....

Yup, it does. To be honest I'm not that bothered from the stupid AI, but mainly just because I'm planning to play stealthily, so I need all the help I can get from their stupidity.

LOL. Am I a horrible person for finding this funny?

After seeing all that texture-popping and the framerate of the PS3 version I'm glad I'm buying this for the PC. Obsidian has some really good designers but they should really level up in the tech department.

From my very very little understanding of german it seems they think the action gameplay isn't good but they seemed very positive about the story and dialogues. I heard 'Mass Effect', but that's it, I didn't understand what they were saying about it, they were talking about it in the gamplay segment though. A bit of a pity that they didn't show some stealthy gameplay, considering from what I've read it seems it will be much much stronger than the shooter-y gameplay.

I can't help but quote this part since you basically expressed what I feel in a much more coincise and precise manner than I probably would.

The contrast between the emotional tone of the voice-overs and the cartoonish face is... strange. Especially since the graphics seems mostly to be striving for realism. I like this weirdness. Still, it's just a trailer and considering how much I'm a fan of shooter (not much) I'll probably pass on this unless they pull the rabbit out of the hat.

Tsk, that's an awkward place to be... Hm, I'd say if you want your rp urges satisfied.. try AP more.. (sure I can't say for definite, but it looks/sounds more likely to satisfy those urges) , ME2 is a lot of fun in it's ways but its much more a shooter with some slight rp aspects. If it's gone this long without you getting ME2, but you've been anticipating AP since October.. that seems to suggest ME2 can wait a touch longer I'm not exactly complaining, it's not like, if I don't buy a game now I can't buy it later (I mean, I discovered Deus Ex just recently!).

Eh, it's mainly a money problem. Is ME2 or AP, this month, and since I was anticipating AP since October I guess Mass Effect 2 will wait a little bit more (and maybe the price will go down a little bit more?).

Still playing Awakening. Justice seems like a fun companion, I expected something like Vhailor and instead I got.. an undead Knight in Shining Armor, with some issues with being in an alien world. Seems like a fun character. I'm beginning to think I want to strangle Anders though. OK. I GOT IT. YOU HATED BEING TRAPPED IN THE CIRCLE. NOW COULD YOU -PLEASE- TALK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE?! ANYTHING??!!

Subject Zero is a woman who grew up being tortured as part of a science experiment. She's a complete psychopath. The voice acting for her is superb. She's the tatooed one, right? I don't remember if I ever heard her voice acting though. I'll buy ME2 sooner or later (I'm not totally convinced by their 'streamlining' but the consensus seems to be that the combat is fun and that the missions are varied enough..), though it's not exactly a priority right now. I enjoyed the first one, even with all its flaws.

I haven't played Mass Effect 2, but going by the vignette, Scarlet Lake's voice actress did a very good job on the character.