WorstUsernameEver

The dialogue in the footage was an improvement from Fallout 3 and Oblivion. Mediocre and unsubtle, but hardly hilariously bad. Of course, there's gonna be a whole game after that, so plenty of opportunities for mad MUDCRABZ and CRIMINAL SCUM. P.S. (@MechanicalLemon): Yeah Michael Hogan is a guy from the Legion.

Aside from the VA (which was a placeholder), that was all in the demo.

Honestly, the leaked footage shows nothing that couldn't already be seen in the three-parts demo video they released and showed to the press time and time again.

I get your point about leveling too fast, although we knew about that pretty much since the very first coverage when Todd Howard triumphantly boasted that we'd level even faster than Oblivion and the level "cap" would be raised, but I'm not sure if I understand your point on scaling? The fact that he talked about dying a lot while trying to go into hard zones sounds like a nice thing to me, maybe I'm missing something?

Playing a bit of Morrowind (and when I'll be done with it, Oblivion) to prepare for Skyrim. Also playing some Darksiders and Cthulhu Saves the World. Gotta clear my backlog a bit.

Yes, it's a pretty bad intro, they went with the cinematic flavor but Bethesda just isn't experience or good enough with that. Writing also lacks subtlety although to be honest, I do think it's a step up from Oblivion and Fallout 3 from the little I've heard of it. Combat is the same as Oblivion. ..overall, none of that is likely to hamper my enjoyment of the game since I was expecting it and since those are not the elements that I enjoy in the Elder Scrolls series. That said, I'll be very disappointed if they don't nail exploration, atmosphere and lore this time and if the mechanics are as weak as in Oblivion.

We know there's a New York project in development. We don't what it is, and judging by some comments by Tim Cain, the design is still being finalized. We know Josh is project director on another project. We know they're working on a project for a "lead animation franchise". We know, going by what Feargus says (and going by past history) that they're all going to be role-playing games. That's about the extent of solid facts available, I think. P.S.: Do we know if expansions/DLC receive a state name too? I'm inclined to believe at least DLC do not.

We know for sure that the animation project is named New York. New York joined after Virginia and assuming Sawyers Project was the next.... Well, North Carolina. From where? I just don't understand where this information came from.

Did I miss something? I don't know where you guys have been taking your names from.

Honestly, maybe Bethesda's PR is having an effect on me, but it seems like in many ways, this is a return to form. Still pissed for the lack of attributes and I still believe the writing will be bad outside of books, and the combat will still be clunky, but I enjoyed Fallout 3 so.. there's hope?

It's a Bethesda game. Solid fps is relatively unimportant because you'll still get micro-stuttering. On the other hand, the flying ragdolls will be entertaining.

Lol. More than enough.

I wish. I guess this just isn't Bethesda's thing. FO3 didn't have any either. You would think after watching Obsidian pull it off they would be interested in trying to give some personality to people that follow you around. Actually Fallout 3 had it, while much less than Fallout: New Vegas. The reviews were less than stellar, since Bethesda never had good character writing in any of their games (in Morrowind everyone was basically walking Wikipedia, and Morrowind has the best writing of the series). Better for them to stick to their guns and do environmental storytelling, tons of lore, in-depth dungeons and exploration, etc., they simply do a different type of RPGs.

Yeah, I keep wondering what they will be calling the next one. 720 is stupid. Maybe XBox Vista. Rumor said that the codename is 'Xbox Loop'. Codenames mean nothing most of the time though, so even if true, we simply do not know.

I wonder what they all thought when they pitched Dungeon Siege III.... Otherwise, very good read. Actually, it was Square Enix's idea.

I honestly doubt WOT will ever get published (or even developed) so I sure hope Obsidian signed an advantageous deal and got a little money squeezed out of it anyway. As for the announcement, eh, better this way than another fiasco of the proportions of the Aliens-Alpha Protocol couple. P.S. : I believe one project is an XBLA game anyway? That shouldn't require the same stuff size as an AA project.

Three. Pretty much Obsidian's usual number of projects at a time.

If it's like the other NVInteriors, you get more places to explore. This means there'a s little bit more loot in the world, but it's really mostly just flavor and didn't alter my experience. I say it's okay to put it in your load order in the middle of your playthrough, but it's probably safer to wait for bigcrazewolf to comment.

By the way, in case there's anyone interested in a retrospective article Eric did one for the Icewind Dale games on GameBanshee.

Isn't retail that?

I don't really know what you're talking about, nor care. But I like the fact that they've gone back to Morrowind's style for the Imperial Legion.

That's good though, it means Steam won't be the only big guy on the market - which should hopefully help with competitive prices... or maybe not. Well, wouldn't it be better if these kind of services weren't owned by publishers or developers though? EDIT: Just for the sake of completeness, I was more noting how some people seemed convinced that Origin was just a rebranding and how that turned out to not be true, for once.

Origin becoming more and more like Steam.

The really important question is: does he still have the beard?

Grand Theft Auto IV is, in my opinion, the worst of the modern (third person shooting) GTA. The story and writing are weak, unsure on whether they want to be a satire on the US or a gritty crime story (I heard Red Dead Redemption has similar problems, but I didn't get the chance to play it), the driving is all kinds of wonky. I never played Saint's Row, so it may well be that now that Rockstar has gone for the gritty feel they've kept walking that road paved by Vice City while also making use of much smaller budget. That said, I don't think it reduces the achievements of Rockstar, with all the problems they have.