WorstUsernameEver

If I recall correctly he just helped with some programming work, but didn't feel there was much of himself in the project. It's also the reason why he usually doesn't answer to Bloodlines questions in interviews. Bloodlines *is* an amazing game, though, yeah, definitely agreeing with the OP there.

It'll be a really early screenshot so I'm adjusting my expectations accordingly. That said, I'm curious at what kinds of results they can get from pre-rendered backgrounds in 2012.

IIRC Feargus said in the comments that you'll get asked what you want to do with your extra-pledged money in the survey sent after the Kickstarter ends. Making a single reward tier for every possible combination would be insane, after all

Well, money will have them adhere to a certain strict release schedule anyway, they can't just go on ad infinitum. And I agree with the OP's concerns, although it has to be said that Obsidian has gotten a tad better with planning and scheduling over the years, and at least they won't have to implement stuff they don't want to. Also, Adam Brennecke was responsible for more or less planning the development of the DS3 DLC and that turned out well when it comes to polish, if I recall correctly (haven't played it yet).

I haven't played the Air Temple, but Treasure Isle was really short (in the realm of 1 hour /1 hour and half). It also basically reused assets from the main game and didn't really introduce anything new. Overall it's a fun quest, but only get it if you don't really have anything else to grab. (This is basically the main reason I'm wary to grab the other DLC, not to mention I have uninstalled Risen 2).

C2B is probably over the moon. Really glad to hear about George as a stretch goal, and while $2.8 isn't a given, I'm confident that it will be reached by the end.

Even Microsoft is thinking about abandoning their point system.

I don't know, last time I checked, the only IE game to not get an expansion was Planescape: Torment, and I don't think many fans would have complained about one. I really don't have a problem about an expansion, since I expect they won't really be able to cram all the content they can think of in an expansion, and this will give them something to look forward and also an excuse to keep focused on a smaller scope (more polish). But yeah, my fear is basically that they're being too aggressively optimistic with projections (which seems weird given that they didn't predict the obvious day-1 success of the project). EDIT: I apologize for my posts feeling kind of disjointed, but the thread moves fast and it's kind of difficult to reply to single posts.

Well, on one hand, I'm pleased by the news. On the other hand, uhm, isn't it too soon to plan for an expansion? Obsidian has to be EXTREMELY careful with the planning there, they have no publisher delaying the project (in other words: give them more money) if they hit snags during development, and how are they even going to fund the expansion in the first place? What if the game isn't a success? Are they going to tell people who spent $165 "ooops, no expansion, we guess"? I don't really want to sound like a spoilsport, and I understand that they're trying to raise enthusiasm but.. yeah, any way to assuage my fears?

It's my impression that, generally speaking, that's a fairly huge problem with RPS. They like to play the part of the smart-oriented, PC-catering "new game journalists" (which most of the time they do decently), but they also tend to be very susceptible to hype and get caught up in industry/publisher memes such as "you can't innovate while working on an old-school style game!". They also tend to be fairly enamored with the "immersive sim genre" (whatever that means) which, by default, means they tend to think highly of titles that fit that category. They once posted a long retrospective article on Vampire: Bloodlines that essentially lambasted the game for not being immersive sim-like enough (also because it was rushed near the end, YOU DON'T SAY). It's a good site, but, yeah, has its problems.

The system sounds interesting (personally I'm neutral on the issue of cooldowns.. as long as they're not MMO-style, since skill-spamming is IMO a boring way to do combat) but I'd have to see how it's executed in-game and how it affects the pacing before I can comment (I agree with Sawyer that rest-spamming is an issue and I'm no fan of Vancian, but sometimes solutions are worse than the problems in game design..) I'd also (as a non-moderator) humbly suggest people to relax and let those who are against cooldowns as a mechanic explain their stance and their thoughts on this update. I'm sure the discussion will be more readable as a result.

The Kickstarter campaign has to cater to both the people interested in the mechanics and those interested in the setting. On top of that, no matter how much "work in progress" is stressed, this topic shows fairly clearly that people are gonna react extremely strongly to every piece of information, so I expect they're not going to show snippets of story or writing until they feel fairly confident in them.

well, that's a bit of a strawman, ain't it? (although I admit I'd play the **** out of THAT game!) I've seen people argue that they wanted more or less exactly that. And you're basically complaining about a quick description that it's meant to show how broad the range of a wizard's power is. Nothing about it rules out other more diversified spells (and honestly, it's difficult to do spells that don't resembled D&D spells since they more or less did everything you can do with magic short of going the World of Darkness magic route).

That way some people get the creative setting they want and we're all happy!

Keep in mind that the PE Kickstarter campaign runs for less compared to Double Fine's.

"Innovation" is a loaded term. New doesn't mean good, and just because something errs on the side of familiarity, it doesn't necessarily mean it will have bad writing or won't be creative. Frankly, the reason fantasy archetypes get reused again and again is because they resonate with a lot of people. (I'm also of the opinion that constraining a writer is a good way to challenge him/her to push things in unexpected ways. Bringing a fantasy setting to its conclusions can be a lot more interesting than a title about flying stingrays debating philosophy with books that communicate through scent, not to mention a lot easier to relate to.) Also, I have to be honest, I find the whole debate presumptuous. Apparently it's okay for Obsidian to do what they want to do... until they do something you're not happy with? How does that work? P.S. : John Walker's article is pretty bad. As it happens with some features on RPS, they hide bad reasoning behind a snappy, readable style. EDIT: I like novelties and creativity by the way. They have their place. But I place more importance on good writing and good gameplay.

They never had the intention to let Interplay do a Fallout MMO, that much is clear, but I don't think it necessarily mean they want to move forward with a Fallout Online right now. And The Elder Scrolls Online was in development much earlier than the lawsuit, in fact, they talked about it during the lawsuit.

And there was. No doubt. Except the project has clearly been started when the environment looked favorable for The Elder Scrolls, and after investing so much I think they just didn't want to pull the plug on it.

They basically turn Freeside and The Strip into open, continuous areas as they were meant to be in the beginning, and also restore a bunch of incidental stuff meant to take place in them. Both areas were obviously meant to be like that, but had been gutted into various minor areas because of memory limitations/performance problems. The Strip Open Freeside Open Most people with a decent rig can install The Strip Open without many problem.. it also doesn't really alter the area dramatically in any way, just restores the Promoters' original behavior (and restore one of the two that was cut). Freeside Open on the other hand restores a bunch of stuff, including a Rotface unmarked quest that was cut, the original introduction for the Van Graffs (we got a shorter, more mysterious version), some pickpocket NPCs, squatters coming and going (you hear about them in the final version, but never really see them) and some other minor stuff. Overall, it just makes the area a lot more lively and interconnected, but at the expense of performance/stability.

I can't play New Vegas without The Strip Open and Freeside Open anymore. I can more or less ignore all the other mods, but not those two. So much better. (Playing Fallout 3 right now, which makes me realize how little there is going on in the single town cells in comparisons to those areas, and why they needed to be gutted.)

Don't know if Bethesda would bet even more money on a large-scale MMO, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't risk diluting the Fallout brand with an MMO. I'd expect them to try to expand them in the free-to-play/social market, but who knows! Maybe this is actually Vogel going to single-player party-based turn-based RPGs and Bethesda buying the rights to Wizardry.

Why wouldn't they make expansions available on GOG but only on Steam? Is there any reason for imagining this kind of scenario?

Lolz.

Fantasy artwork has been tired more or less since I've been born. The truth is: it works for a lot of people, and quite a few people actually want *that* and nothing else from their RPGs. Classic, possibly silly-looking fantasy, not something unique.

This is not a Torment spiritual successor. Obviously they're going to put effort into the story, but you have to understand that quite a lot of people actually enjoyed the combat in the IE games and would like for their gameplay to be brought back too.