Purkake

System Shock 3 kthxbye. That would probably be Dead Space 2, no? As for SS3, maybe wait until DX3 gets released and copy the good parts from that?

The Wings of Liberty campaign should be pretty epic, with all kinds of crazy upgrades and units.

Dun dun dun!

Obsidian should look into merchandising, t-shirts, mugs, etc. That's how Double Fine did it.

I kept telling you people, but nobody listened... I think the open world design fits it just fine. You can choose your angle of approach, fly around like a madman, arrange daring escapes when the bad guys show up, etc. I didn't even realize there was a cover system until half way through the game. Try Just Cause 2 if you haven't yet, it's just as fun, except that you do crazy stunts and blow things up instead of dismantling them beam by beam. The world is way larger and you get to parachute and grappling hook around it.

But not more than an original title.

I'd say that the characters in NWN2 OC are bland and uninspired, especially by Obsidian's standards.

However original a sequel is, it still has all the baggage of the previous games in the series and certain expectations from the previous fans.

For CoC check out www.yog-sothoth.com, it has a very friendly community and some nice materials. There's also www.planewalker.com for 3.5 ed Planescape stuff and Dumpshock for all your Shadowrun needs.

It's certainly more buggy than the games that he compared them to. Might want to pick some buggier examples next time.

Oh please, Alpha Protocol is bugged up the ass and we don't even have a patch.

The mainstream doesn't read game reviews, but the mainstream isn't really the target audience for a new IP either, especially without some serious marketing muscle behind it. If enough reviews say the same thing, it will eventually reach some of the general consciousness by word of mouth, but that is a far cry from actually reading specific reviews. Companies do use Metacritic ratings as a measure of success, for whatever reason. Alpha Protocols bugginess, on the other hand, is well documented. I don't know why you would be making such obviously false claims.

I just replayed Duke Nukem 3D and it's still surprisingly fun.

The whole game journalism is a big joke, I don't know why everyone is so concerned with it here. I felt it was missing the tactical aspect, sending everyone into melee got me the same results as meticulously pausing and managing my spells and whatnot.

When I think of the NWN2 engine, fun combat is the last thing that comes to mind.

Strong hook? MULTIPLE HOOK!!! And it works with steam, thanks for that. I thought that's what you meant by "trainer" BOLOpatch is where it's at, man!

Who doesn't like making a little extra on the side?

Torment works fine on Windows 7, haven't tried BG2 yet.

Are you using BOLOpatch? I didn't have any problems with it.

The decision to use Steam is the publisher's (Bethesda and Namco Bandai in this case) as is the decision to make it Steam-only. This has nothing to do with the the goodness or indeed badness of Steam. If you want to play the game either install Steam or play it on a console, this isn't up for a popularity vote.

What about Heroes of Newerth or Demigod?

By removing it?

Yes, because the story ended on a cliffhanger. Alpha Protocol, on the other hand was wrapped up rather nicely.

In related news, have you already registered NMA as an official cult? I hear you get tax cuts that way...