Niten_Ryu

Bioshock 2 have that system and it worked great IMO. It was great to have telekinesis (especially tier 3 ) and shotgun at the same time. I liked Bioshock 2 more then original Bioshock, especially since combat mechanics were better. I bet I like Bioshock Infinite(s) too as I love extreme views of some philosophy as main villain. Both Andrew Ryan (objectivism) and Sophia Lamb (utilitarianism) were good villains. Bishock infinite(s) will probably be exceptionalism and nationalism - "It is our Holy Duty to guard against the foreign hordes". I love it

In the context of

He's not totally wrong. Many games have

It's a sandbox game. People are willing to look the other way on some of the not-so-great things just because it's a sandbox game. Mediocre writing, frustrating & average combat and dated engine they don't seem to matter as much as being able to freely roam in the wilderness and exploring. This is it. Personally I've played pure sandbox games without any story (other then I create for myself), with utterly horrible engine, full of bugs and unbalanced game mechanics (something like The Sims would be prime example of such game). Personally because I like Fallout's world aspect so much, I'm willing to tolerate at lot of crap just to experience it. Sure it won't be perfect, actually far from it, but it still provide several hours of quality exploring and adventuring. Obviously if you hate sandboxes and don't find the world of Fallout interesting, then bad writing, crappy engine and poor combat mechanics certainly won't help you to like the game. I think out of those, bad writing is the most hardest to fix but not impossible (unless Codex, Gromnir or NMA make the rules what's bad or good writing... then it's impossible).

APB = 100 million wasted and only thing they made right was awesome character look customation system

They also have crappy engine - Gamebryo Ok, now the good news. iD software fixes engine issue with their Id Tech 5 (used for Rage currently) and they have probably the best knowledge in the game industry about how to create good FPS combat mechanics. Now only writing sucks. Obsidian could help with that

I'm playing Bioshock 2. I'm suprised that it's better then I expected. It still has annoying respawning enemies but at the same time there's familar, old skool FPS feeling in it. Yeah, I think it finally confirms that I dislike most WW2 FPS and prefer games to have some supernatural elements in it. /mental note - Buy Singularity and new Wolfenstain from Steam holiday sales if the price tag is low enough.

One of the key features of the Star Wars setting is lost knowledge. Fighting techniques get lost, entire races get lost, star systems get lost... Sith basically lose and rediscover information about something all the time. Jedi try to keep archives but those places get destroyed all the time. Then there's that lovecraftian "knowledge corrupts" thing going on and it makes sure that Jedi can't know all the secrets. Sith could know all but it's in their core philosophy that they don't share that knowledge. It's like our own dark ages. Some settings like Warhammer 40k use the same trope.

KotOR today 2,25

I absolutely hate Gamebryo engine but I'm probably going to buy Fallout New Vegas right away (hopefully world aspect and storyline will carry the game over bad engine and subpar combat mechanics). While I have tons of unplayed games from last Steam holiday sales, unfortinately there ain't any CRPGs in that mix. That said, I'm still looking forward of next Steam holiday sales.

Of course it was. Same with Mass Effect 2 (I can't go with you Shepard.. unless you buy the DLC). More cliffhangers and loose ends the main game have, the more options there's to milk customers for few extra dollars.

I'm playing Titan Quest. But I'm not sure why, because it's rather poor Diablo clone. Developers worked extra hard to make ancent myths boring as a glass of water. Then there's that MMOG loot system where random drops are just as random as in WoW (or similar game). I don't even want to know what kind of grinding would have to be done in order to get compite set of some light blue (I guess Titan Quest version of epic or blue gear) items. I think game was part of THQ pack. So far games that I've bought from last summer Steam holiday sales have been good, but no wonder there's few rotten apples in the mix.

Since when does the PC in RPGs have the ability to jump or crouch whenever they feel like? I don't think it's that weird. Basically I see certain game features as evolution. In Doom you couldn't jump or crouch. World was true 2d and obviously FPS. Around the same time, Ultima Underworld offered more real 3d world (honestly I don't remember if you could jump in that game). Quake changed the game and gave us full 3d world. You could jump around as much as you wanted but crouch was nowhere to be seen. Around those days, more tactical turn based game like Jagged Alliance and X-Com allowed us to crouch, prone, and levitate / move up in ladders. Games were 2d, but had several height levels. In time, features from different genres of games became common. Games like Call of Duty had jump / crouch / prone and Deus Ex (while no prone stance), allowed multiple solutions to how to enter certain place. You could sneak, use brute force or jump around and find alternitive entry into some place. Games like Thief series and Splinter Cell perfected the sneaking. Few years later, Bioware merge their expertise in the area of the CRPGs with 15 years of FPS history. And what do they do? Against all predictions, they choose to skip many features and in the end, find out that they were absolutely right to do so. Not only they do it once in Mass Effect, but change game mechanics again in Mass Effect 2 (simplify even more). This means that their market research is top quality and they certainly know what majority of their players want. Like I said, I look game and combat mechanics (and the world aspect and rule system) the same way most look at story elements in this board (and other CRPG fanboards).

Bioware get's away with all kinds of weird design choices like removing ability to jump or crouch whenever player feels like it. They know modern gaming audience really well. I'm more focused on game mechniancs and world design rather then story elements but it's safe to say that EA's and Bioware's massive resources on various areas and they rarely take risks without focus testing it or researching recent trends. ME2 was success with masses and in the end, that's what matters for 'em.

I bet it was longer then 8 hours as that's just your average day in the world of the MMOGs. Back in my more hardcore MMOGs days in early 2000's I think I spend 24+ hours straight in Asheron's Call Darktide server (PvP, and my guild needed defend good leveling spot... in retrospective it seem really stupid ). I probably couldn't do that anymore, as few years ago just your basic 4 hour raids in WoW were more then enough. As for the bosses, FFXI and EQ probably still hold records of those ultra hardcore bosses that'll take ages to kill. Then again, it's not that different from wipefest raids when you die all the time, spend a lot of time running back (and clearing trash mobs). Currently I don't have any active MMOG subscriptions so I don't know if I still have tolerance for those.

It's great to watch these matches with good commentary. Players at the speeddemosarchive are working speedrun on brutal but it'd be really great to see how well the world class players would do on singleplayer campaign (or rather how fast they'd complite it). It's rare to see top players singleplayer videos. Quake 3 Arena days I saw... was it Fatal1ty to destroy singleplayer bots with such ease that it more or less ended my tour of duty in Quake 3 multiplayer.. as I barely beat the most advanced bots

We used Darkseed on art class in mid 90's, with other Gigers work like Aliens and traditional art. Most were just happy to play Amigas and PCs, but IMO that was a fun class.

From design perspective, it's very important that everyone use correct terms when giving critique or praise (or developer will in worst case scenario make complitely wrong changes... if they choose to listen the fanbase. Always a bad idea IMO)). FedEx quest is very much used in game biz and it's well defined what it means (well, before this thread I didn't think it would be even possible to define it differently as term FedEx is rather selfexplanatory). From Quests: design, theory, and history in games and narratives By Jeff Howard "A frequent variant of the fetch quest could be referred as delivery quest (less formally known as FedEx quest), in which a player must carry item from one character to another." RPG Programming with XNA Game Studio 3.0 By Jim Perry "A FedEx quest, named after the delivery company, is a quest in which the player has to deliver to an entity". Massively multiplayer games for dummies By Scott Jennings, Alexander Macris "The FedEx quest: A quest in which you're asked to bring something to someone else".

FedEx quest was named after FedEx Corporation, who deliver stuff (that regular post might not do or maybe take too much time) from one place to another. It could have been UPS quest, as it's older company. Walking part is not important, getting certain item and bring item is what this quest type is all about. It could be the key you need to open certain door, when you could just blow it up in some FPS. It could be The One Ring that you need to throw into volcano. Or it could be something very simple like to bring moldy bread to prisoner. Fedex quest can be used for pacing, to give reason for player to reach certain location or explore certain area bit more (so that all the hard work that designers, graphic artist and level designers do won't go complitely waste). In the case of KotOR, to lose Sith armor was vital as it meant that designers didn't have to do more altenative dialogue trees. Getting papers in return and then FedExing 'em to sole Sith trooper was simple way of doing it. Not the most elegant way, but not many players would protest about it. Personally I think your issue is random quests (or randomly generated quests), especially in sandbox games. Random quest generators, NPCs or quest hubs. Some of the random quests can be FedEx quests, as it's very simple to randomly generate 'em. Here's item x, bring it to location y. Those quest generators are made because usually developer don't have time or resources to make enough quests for the large sandbox world. You definately see this in some MMOG and singleplayer games. KotOR don't have any random quests.

You remember wrong. Getting into Lower City was possible without the papers as you could disguise yourself as Sith. When you talk about getting in Undercity to Gang boss, he just say "A simple disguise might have worked with the Upper City guard, but the security down here is much tougher. You need proper papers to get past him". And then you meet the Sole Sith... in deserted corridor. This is not about lack of options. This is about FedEx quest. You're given papers and only way you can advance is to complite that FedEx quest. Bring papers from place A (from Gang HQ) to place B (Sith guard). Bioware chose to do quest this way. They also could have designed it complitely differently. They didn't because FedEx quests are part of the CRPGs.

Heh, Halo Reach got leaked... damn those PC pirates... I mean... Consoles don't have pirates right? http://kotaku.com/5620742/microsoft-is-rea...o-reach-pirates

You're wrong in this case. "Collect 20 shining bear asses" are grind quests. Developers can make it even grindier for making "shining bear ass" drop rate for something like 1 out of 20. Thus you have to kill on average 400 bears to complite the quest. Notice that if quest giver then say "Now take this wagon full of shining bear asses to local butcher", it'll become FedEx quest.

Name some then. I wonder what's your definition for the FedEx quest, as KotOR seem to be full of 'em. Let's take for example the getting into Undercity. That place is not optional nor you have a chance to kill the (sole) guard at the elevator. Nor use jedi mind trick or bribery. You have to give him papers. You get the papers when you trade your Sith Armor (again, not optional item) for 'em. FedEx quest. Get certain item. Bring item to location x. Notice how your optional methoids for advancement are not available. In this case you've delt with countless of ruffians, sith, jedi, robots, ruled the Sith ect ect. But yet somehow you can't beat a single guard at the elevator. You have to bring him Mcguffin. That's a FedEx quest and CRPGs, both new and old are full of 'em.

Just checked youtube and I don't think there's "let's play" on Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds. So commented version of that would be fun to see.

Heh... Cryptic just stepped into big pile of crap. AOL's NWN, Bioware's NWN and now Cryptics. Times have changed and companies try to find different models for leeching out the maxium amount of cash out of consumers. But MMOGs are tricky. Just recently APB developer managed to waste 100 million to their MMOG and in the end the game was worse then free to pay GTA4 multiplayer. Now it wasn't suprise that they are bankcrupt now and only (positive) thing that people remember from that game is awesome character customization system. Will Cryptic choose Turbine's D&D Online subscription model? Or Guild Wars? Or traditional monthly fee? Personally I don't think any of those options will make 'em a good profit (or even give 'em investement back) as MMOG players go thru content really fast. They'd need to have some sort of Blizzard mojo to keep players interested of the game (and keep buying those items, add-ons or subscription fees) and that's just about impossible in their weird co-op, tiny population realms.