Azdeus

Very Hollywoody, very generic - but quality wise it's really well done. Just wish Activision was'nt involved.

It's not that difficult to reconcile them but you lose the help of one of the most powerful elven mages (in case you wanted to side with the elves) or of the werewolves (in case you wanted to side with them). So, maybe it's an easy choice from a 'moral' point of view, but from a practical standpoint it was well done (though, the fact that the role of your allies is really downplayed in the end, made this practical/moral contrast less pronounced and much less interesting). That's probably why I don't remember it in well, and now that you point it out it's decent, though if it had any real impact it'd be great. Now that I think about it, I need to reinstall the game and not patch it so that I can get the proper ending myself.

As far as I can remember they explode with a supernova, and then the core implodes - most probably leaving a black hole in it's place. Or was it that they implode and then explode? Hmm. I wonder if NGC 3603 going supernova is close enough to impact us here on earth, I know some people have spoken of Beetlegeuse going supernova will. But is 22.000 lightyears out of our "range" so to speak? 300 solar masses. Damn, that's big...

Orzammar was good, except the dungeon-crawling. But the Elves? I don't remember that much about it except it was really easy if you decided to move for reconciliation. And wanting my character to kill 'em all for playing around with me and wasting my time. I remember the sidequest with the artificer and his wife as more morally grey though.

Good to know that my memory did'nt fail me, Biowares take on consequences seems to be as clever as ever.

Know what, you're right. And therein lies the problem. What the gaming industry wants/needs is spare parts (a steady highly profitable revenue stream). What they have is optional extras (add-on sales that may or may not happen depending on the quality of the add-on and the economy/fanaticism of the buyer). They do need that, and they've tried to exploit it by episodic games or just plain MMO's, only MMO's has been successfull as far as I can determine. But I don't agree with for instance some of Koticks ideas, mostly due to him being an ass. When it comes to some games, I've felt that they've been underpriced due to their quality; I'd wanted to pay more for for instance The Witcher, and to a lesser extent Alpha Protocol. (Even due to the bugs, or in the previous case due to Enhanced Edition <- That was some awesome fanservice)

If I could, I'd get a steamfree version and mail the money. *Grumbles*

Think he means Briareus. Think Tim Cain mentioned FO was in development for roughly three years in his Matt Chat #66 interview.

Most certainly, yeah, can't argue that they're good at marketing and whatnot. Where did you get your numbers from though? I doubt that they actually earn that money, but WoW's a cashcow that's true.

I just spotted this article Actizzard is a big spender. Don't worry though, they will regain all that money - and some more - once you bought the three main campaigns and whatever other DLC's they plan for you to buy. Their CEO probably has some awesome plans to squeeze every nickle and dime out of your pocket I'm sure. Can't even type his name in without the censorship bot kicking in.

Not entirely, no - I'm mostly nitpicking, and retelling what I've read. I don't have any real proof of the opposite at the moment, but what I can say with pretty decent certainty is that it was very much a different beast than the other two games.

So what did keep you from it, if you don't mind me asking? I'm just glad that TOA's are'nt legal here. Now I'm not 100% certain about that statement, since it was a few years ago I spoke to the lawwoman, but that might've changed. Not available to me, unemployed, and the bank has previously said they don't have such a thing. (Roughly 5 months ago)

Hehe, in my defence; I did'nt claim it was commercially successfull, and critics did love it. Then again, what's more important to me is that I love it. <3 I do wish it had been commercially successfull, that way there would'nt be that - in my opinion - horrible Oblivion mod that it later became.

Ah, yes, that's it! I was neither impressed or disapointed in what I saw, I thought mostly the gameplay looked quite like a shooter.

*Nods* Never saw the acronym before. And VB? Wow, you dug deeply there. Was still just a lurker over there back then. My definition of grindy is just... lots of combat, plain and simple - but it's certainly not helped if they're repetitive aswell. I do well remember gathering money by sleeping in the area around... the city after Candlekeep. And selling the equipment. I think I just felt the DA: O grinding due to the fact that it was more recent and I had "already" started to get bored with combat.

Aliens and Dungeon Siege 3. AP used Unreal Engine 3. Yes, ofcourse - knew that, just missed the 'v'. >_>' And yeah, saw that video I think - Dark, Blurry and low quality recording right? Like cellphonecamera quality?

Have'nt played either one of those in more than 5 years probably, so you're quite likely right in that. Might've been that those encounters did'nt require you to do much besides let the character scripts ran on and possibly manage your mage a little. I remember my first BG playthrough, did'nt have a mage. Ever. Never liked mages, hence my fondness for how DA: O dealt with them. Yummy.

Well, if 'WUN's' speculations are correct, I do hope there will be some way to get hands on some sort of retail piece. Don't have a credit-card. *sad face* That said, I like speculating, makes living fun. Onyx was the AP engine, right?

I know what you mean, it's a dead horse that's been beaten back to life and then to death again. I have my own, quite strict yet simple definition of what makes an RPG what it is, but combat is'nt (necessarily) part of it. Yes, they do know their fanbase well seemingly. Many people love their games through rain, sleet and snow, and I don't begrudge them that. While Bioware certainly has resources, I think the main hindrance to them expanding their combat systems and exploring possibilities for non-combat alternatives are hampered by their own fanbase aswell. I've played most of their games, and I can't recall a single place where you could for instance avoid combat through dialogue. (Though the opposite I think is available). I thought that Fallout was hailed as the game resurrecting cRPG's, atleast by the critics, but my memories may fail me or might be too colored by nostalgia for the right memories to be set correctly. You're quite right about the grindy combat, but atleast I remember the combat in the BG games to be less... grindy as it was. Not saying that you are wrong now, since this is personal experience, but most people that I know that played Diablo hated the BG series. Edit; Yes, that is quite true, writing non-combat or building stealth areas are time and resource consuming - would'nt dare to say anything else. We're most likely talking ten times the amount of time and effort of doing this. The results would be a better game though, and if these sort of things were to nestle their way into the mainstream gaming... games, I would'nt mind paying more money for my products either. Cloning mobs and just designing a dungeon takes a long time, hence why Diablo and its successor used RNG to create the dungeons. J-NPC = joinable npc or..?

Hmm... does internal project mean it's an IP of their own, or could it just aswell be something someone hired them for? Say Bioware hiring them to make an DA: O expansion? (Wich really would'nt surprise me.)

^- *Salute* I'm using hyperbole here, but sometimes it felt that World of Warcraft had less combat than Biowares games. I don't know why they chose to have the amount of combat that they do and don't give any alternatives to it, and they're hailed as the best RPG makers the world has to offer? *Sigh*

Safe to assume that is not the "unannounced project"?

I do hope they get around to doing that aswell. I'm mostly bored of combat myself though(Get enough of that of the news), might be that I'm alone in it - but having alternatives is nice.

That would be a blessing, yes - while I enjoy the style of combat they employed it kind of dwarfed just about everything else in the game, and the combat itself was'nt that interesting. I do hope they let you get some alternatives to fighting in the sequel, but I don't have much trust in Bioware letting you do something as complex as that.