WorstUsernameEver

At least you're sure there aren't mysterious higher-ups organizing wacky social experiments with you and your family.

No screenshots and a December release date? Unlikely. Who knows? Maybe they learned from Bethesda's PR department.

Well there are some problems like not-too-smooth animations and some lo-res textures (I believe the lo-res textures are just for the console versions however) but they're mostly good. I also don't remember all this criticism for other AAA games that ran on Unreal Engine 3 even when they had all this problems (I remember lo-res textures in Arkham Asylum too for example, and yeah, facial animations weren't particularly good either). I also believe we now know why guards didn't react to the stealth killing : subsonic rounds. All considered, it's looking good for me. Not perfect, a little too over-the-top with the abilities and not enough shiny graphically to attract the kiddies these days and the AI still looks a bit stupid, but the pros seem to outside the cons, really, awesome C&C in the character development too, diverse gameplay, differents levels look like they have a different 'personality' meaning that the game won't feel like you're playing the same area again and again and again (Mass Effect I'm looking at you ). So yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

I lolled. Great presentation.

Tim Cain's RPG of the decade is The Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion.

I think you've nailed the problem. The possibility to build a new rpg audience it's there but for some reason developers seems to want to cater more and more and more to other genres' audiences. Mind you, ultimately I'm only interested in playing a good fun game, so if the games manages that without a complicated thought-provoking character progression system it's ok, but I'd like to play a new GOOD rpg sometimes..

Looks fun but far from mind-blowing. I won't suffer if it doesn't get ported.

That's a good argument, but I think that some of this problem could be circumvented with a better level design. Bethesda also trimmed the skills a lot, so it's not like you could do a Medicine+First Aid+Gambling (read as : absolutely totally utterly USELESS character) as in FO1.

Not completely related but J.E. Sawyer complained in his formspring page about the fact that some console games passed certification even when they're not readable on SDTV, so it seems this is a serious concern for Obsidian. Not sure if this reassures you though.

Ubisoft announces "epic fantasy-themed turn-based" HoMM MMORPG.

The melee wasn't perfect but it was a step-up in the right direction for Pyranha and it generally kept a good balance between character skills and player skills, meaning that battle would become easier as your skills went up but without losing too much challenge. Ranged combat however was pretty flawed.

That's a good point and very true. Ideally though, by lowreing the number of skill points available but increasing the ability to riase three choosen skills over the course of the game, skill choice in generakl would have more specific game impact. No more all-characters-can-do-everything syndrome. Which is fine for a shooter, but pretty much completely antithetical to a crpg. That's actually what I wanted to say It also has been done in FWE (the skill points per level value is configurable and can be made as low as 3 skill points per leve + INT bonus, tag skills give 2 points per point spent) so it's perfectly feasible. I'm also sure there would be plenty of complaining about it though... in Bethesda's forum there are even users claiming that people who want maxin' all skills to be impossible 'childish and without self-restraint'

As long as the skill balance is redone from scratch, otherwise it'd just make it easier to max all your skills. If I was designing the game (and fortunately I'm not) I'd give less skill points per level, make tagged skills give you two points for one spent as in FO1/2 and make tagged skills have a slightly higher cap like 125 instead of 100 that would give you consistent bonus. Fortunately I'm not a designer and I just play games.

I'm actual interested in what the mag meant when saying that Hardcore Mode would make combat 'more lethal'. I guess that could mean 'you, your friends and your foes will be more fragile so combat will require more tactics' but it would be interesting if it also changed how skill affect weapon behaviour (accuracy/sway/damage). I guess that if the devs change some of those however it will be for the core experience and not just for the optional HARDCOREEE (I admit, it DOES sound a bit silly ) mode.

Same. My first guess was pornstar-- really, look at that name! Well, I do remember some stories about the fact that.. uhm.. he was well-endowed... but no, that wasn't his profession. He was a damn' good artist, and that's coming from someone who's never been a fan of Type O Negative. R.I.P. Pete, the musical scene will miss you very much.

This. P.S. : Be reassured it's not Gunther.

Maybe it's just me but I saw nothing wrong with the faces shown in New Vegas screenshots. Fallout 3 Vanilla on the other hand... I don't know, it seems like they didn't care if character had inhuman proportions.

I actually think that Bethesda's tried to stay as close as they possibly could to the originals, they're just not good at designing combat systems (especially non-RT) so they focused on the exploration and the storyline (sadly they weren't good at storyline either). As for Far Cry 2, I didn't play either one, but they're both FPS so I don't understand the comparison.

IIRC there's no New Game + option but there is an unlockable Veteran modality where your character starts already with a good deal of skill points and has new dialogue options. Not sure if this satisfies you.

AP EVEN COPIES MASS EFFECT DRM!!! OBSIDIAN HAVE NO ORIGINALITY!!11!!! Sorry, but when I read that I just had to do it. Anyway, I don't particularly like this DRM scheme, but since I want to support Obsidian, the game seems one I'd enjoy and I prefer playing on my PC rather than on my brother's X360, I'll buy it anyway.

...is the only logical conclusion to be succesful these days. There was really no need to resurrect a dead franchise for a succesful FPS though, not to mention that Turn Based Strategy Game still exist and still make profits. @GreasyDogMeat : Wasn't THAT in fact, the reason why the franchise died in the first place?

Never played X-Com but I feel for the fans of the game. Changing it from a TBS to a FPS...

Music as its finest.

Comments on the preview, are, as always, mostly bad. Don't really understand why they think the gameplay is so bad when they swallowed Mass Effect though.

You brought a single, manly, tear to my eyes. A fine song indeed.