Lord Elvewyn

It'd be cool to see and I've thought about asking myself but I've heard that the MMO is KotOR 3-X. Any true KotOR 3 would cut into the profit of the MMO so I'm thinking KotOR is dead.

There's some logs on the republic cruiser you board before getting to Telos. I think there's some mention of it being retasked to to pick you up but I can't remember the details. I think that's about all the backstory there is apart from your exodus from the Jedi order. It's suggested\implied that the exile's still affected by the war so may've been travelling. Not sure what the time frame involved between Revan taking the fleet into the outer rim, the exile's return, Revan's defeat of Malak and the KotOR II events is though. I'd guess not more than a few years between each but that still means he'd've been travelling for quite a few years.

Is that the direct translation or translated back? Assuming Brazilian's speak Portugese, I'm being lazy and not looking it up ... Wmguto estou a fim de palavra medo leva a um leitor bastante confusa. Which Google translates back as "I'm so afraid of the word leads to a rather confused reader". Close but not I'm afraid the word order leads to a rather confused reader. I think there's plenty of opportunity for some fun. ... Some Swedish syntax mangling Obsidian spel

And for an example of performance there's the likes of The Force Unleashed (& its sequel) which port console performance\controls to the PC

Keen=Critical Threat Range x2

Not really, he meant the version they showed was pre-alpha. Yet, this was the same demo that journalists saw in August. Furthermore a build shown to the public is usually a tested older one. So, we can assume they are quite a bit further with the game. Ofcourse they are. It isn't a big deal for me, because I have already decided to buy the game. But I really do not think they will be releasing the game in March. I don't mind if they prove me wrong. If they can't release the game by Autumn then they'll have to hold off for many more months. Isn't Diablo 3, the 300lb possible rival, scheduled for release during winter? It's not definite that it'll be June, and it's not Blizzard saying it is, but if they do ... maybe D3 released for Christmas 2011?

RPG not an MMO? Given I've never played an MMO I'm not quite sure what you're getting at unless you're suggesting some skills are deliberately unbalanced in non-MMO's? I'm wondering if the GameSpot info's based on an early version of KotOR II. I thought Flurry\Rapid Shot provided one extra attack, which is what the results seem to show. Hey, don't look at CS. If my theory is true and the bonus only works for one strike, the real loser is Power Attack. And remember that this is an RPG, not an MMO. The developers of these abilities (Bioware) also made fighter abilities for Baldur's Gate II, and believe me, they are not equal. (But that's hardly on topic, as it doesn't answer any question) I know that I prefer to give Mandalore a Mandalorian Heavy Repeater and I'm pretty sure I never see more than 2 attacks. Don't know about pistols, as I make people dualwield if they can. Okay, post-testing (cheated some more XP to my final save to explore the previously unlearned feats, also some constitution to survive a game where Kraya can do 350 damage criticals): Critical Strike: Two attacks connected. No critical hits (though that doesn't say anything), but Kraya had to roll against con exactly once - not twice. A second test with Master Speed gave me 2 criticals, on the rolls of 17, and 13. So I guess you're right. The Crit Range modifier applies to the whole round. Rapid Shot (one pistol): 2 attacks (and no hits, but no surprise there) Flurry (one lightsaber): 2 attacks. Edit: For anyone wondering: Yes, I used the Master version of each of these feats. I simply shortened their names because I couldn't be bothered...

Ah no I believe Critical Strike affects all your attacks, certainly the penalty affects you for an entire attack round and it would be incredibly lame if the benefit didn't also. Flurry provides you with 25%-200% more attack capability (depends if single\dual weld+Master Speed) without penalty. If CS only impacted on the first strike then you'd have a 25%-50% chance of doing 100% more damage per attack which would be majorly underwhelming especially given the DEF-5 drop. It's supposed to affect all attacks. Hmm according to Gamespot - KotOR II you're supposed to be able to get 80% criticals. Maybe they goofed? Flurry gives you an additional two attacks (not one) if you solo weld. My preference is for CS myself. Sniper Shot's the ranged equivalent and again I prefer that. Hmm not sure if Rapid Shot gives 2 additional attacks all the time or only single weapons, something to check. Anyone know?

Agreed. And grump grump, using Keen + threat range x2 parts in your lightsaber doesn't get you a double bonus The way it works, as I understand it is: Lightsaber - Criticals 19-20 Keen/Threat Range x2 - Critical Range x2 Critical Strike x2-x4 - Critical Range x2-x4 So ... critical range 2 (19-20) x (1 (Keen) + 4 (Critical Strike) = Critical Range of 11-20 (if Master Critical Strike) and Shien style gives you +1 critical multiplier. In short, roughly every 2nd swing should do triple damage - Ouch!

Could you use something like Isobuster (see Wikipedia link for details) to extract your disks to HDD and install from there? Alternatively if it is a bad copy can you return the disks for a replacement copy? I'm assuming they're new of course.

Well, Blizzard has a dedicated fanbase and they will of course want to leech that fanbase dry. Now, those people will most certainly get Cataclysm. A Q1 release for Diablo 3 would still be too close to the WoW expac's release, which goes against Blizzard's current marketing policy of spreading their releases across a certain period of time to maximize long term sales. It's why they're pushing Heart of the Zerg, or whatever the next StarCraft II installment is called, to mid 2012, and it's a long time for Blizzard NOT to release anything for a year and a half. Of course they would release Diablo III somewhere in between, closer to HotZ but still a ways away. However, you're right that ToR has little to do with it. I was pretty sure Cataclysm was due out in February as well and that would divide the potential Cataclysm audience and a close Diablo III release would further divide sales on both of their franchises. Blizzard would not make such a mistake. They would release it closer to another seemingly dead period, like they did with Wings of Liberty's June '10 release. Am I seeing too much into this marketing stuff? And why am I analyzing fraking Blizzard for Pete's sake! I shouldn't have to be doing this here!!! I'd say it's relevant in this instance. Obsidian's not going to want to release DS3 at the same time as Diablo 3 comes out - all the game stores will be fawning over the 300 pound gorilla product. So if you can work out when it's due for release then say pick a point 3 months before or after that then it might be a credible date, assuming it's not rushing Obsidian too much. For myself I'm hoping for no delays and a 1st quarter release (for DS3). If Blizzard release Diablo 3 in June, and I've read they always go overtime on their estimates, then if Obsidian fail with an 'early' release it'll not be 'til spring or even Christmas 2011 before DS3 is scheduled for release. I'd really rather not wait that long!

And what if I do have an accelerated soundcard? Does my computer explode then? Minor nitpick [Look out spelling Nazi on the loose ] Better make it Polish, like German or Aussie. I was wondering what polish gamers were. Something akin to a superior sort of gamer like polished manners demonstrate good breeding? Then I realised it was simply wrong casing

And what if I do have an accelerated soundcard? Does my computer explode then? Nope it accelerates the pitch so you get the Chipmunks talking to you

What of LAN support? That's probably THE reason neither my brother or I am rushing to get Starcraft 2. Online's fine if you've got decent internet and play online but what of friends\family getting together offline?

I'm sure I read XP is the primary OS for Steam users somewhere in the last month or two. If this is factual then it's truly absurd. Fair enough game companies don't want to bother with anything earlier than the prior OS, in this case XP, Win95, Windows 3.1, DOS etc but XP's still so mainstream it has to be aimed for. Maybe when XP users migrate to 7, Vista and XP can be dropped from the system requirements but not yet.

Mildly confused about this. One handed swords like longswords do heavy damage but two handed like a great sword is crowd control - more light AoE. Then it talks about two swords to fight skeletons. That's three stances. Is it rather single or double handed weapons deal damage and dual wield does crowd control? I'm thinking DS2 style here. Sword plus shield=tank, two handed sword=boss killer, dual blades=zerg damage. Archon mage sounds interesting. I prefer damage dealing mage style characters rather than mindless meatshields and the like myself. DS2 I played a combat mage though was a Nature Mage in DS1. I've actually got it working again and am replaying Ehb (well a modded version of the elite map) in single player. After pumping up strength to wear decent armour (~Lvl40) I've been progressing my nature skills. Alas my intelligence is low and hard to upgrade. Mana balance solves that problem fortunately

Virumor raised an idea I've been thinking about in the DS3 at NY Comic Con thread . What legendary DS\DS2 locations would you want to see revisited? And similarly which would you like to see avoided? My favourite towns\localities would probably have been Hiroth and Fallraen (the snowy alpine town) from the muliplayer. Castle Ehb and the Goblin caves weren't bad either if I recall correctly. The only area I probably disliked was the swamp. DS2 didn't really have any major highs or lows. Only three towns, none of which stands out to me. Given how long it's been since I played the game I could be misrecalling of course. Time to grab my staff, load up with a ton of mana potions and start killing Krug and other varmits precluding my peaceful visit to Castle Ehb

Sounds very consolish to me. More FPS than RPG in that it's reaction speed rather than understanding, intelligence etc that would rule the day. I suppose if it was simply a stylistic difference blue fireballs versus red or green that might be okay but then would there be much point? Also not RSI friendly. It probably would limit play to 30 minutes or so at a time instead of a 24 hour DS binge or whatever.

DS1 included speed controls. Can't remember if DS2 did or not. Given I know next to nothing about programming I can say in honest ignorance that it should be easy enough to implement On a pc with a different control sheme I wouldn't see it to be a problem. On a console controller where you hack'slay yourself faster reaction and gameplay is more active and preferable. Thats why I said I would like an option. At the moment its pretty good already anyway.

Could it be a bad copy? How about extracting the files to your desktop and trying to install from there. Failing that any chance of accessing another copy to test install?

Not really sure what you're getting at. Are you talking selectable combat styles e.g. fast weak attacks versus a strong but slow boss killing style as per Jedi Academy or somesuch? I don't think this is intended as a button smasher ala Street Fighter, especially given it's not console originating. DS1 had a single click to iniate attacking an enemy while DS2 required holding the mouse down, 1 click 1 attack, which is not ergonomically friendly. Drop in drop out as I understand it simply means dropping in to a game\team\location and garnering experience which upgrades used skills\abilities and possibly unlocking masteries.

Actually sounds like KoTOR II. Guardian was the basic soldier class, then there were the basic scout\rogue and wizard\caster classes. Depending whether you went Sith\Jedi (goodi\evil (maybe)) you got access to another set of enhanced classes. Actually didn't BioWare's Mass Effect have six classes? They were the ones to create the first KoTOR so some influence is quite possible.

Wouldn't stark naked be best for optimising damage in which case there's no gear management. Of course you could mean damage dealing as opposed to damage absorption

Don't forget more game details Pictures are pretty but info's what really counts.

Okay old post but still ... Did you seriously ever play DS2? I played a combat mage leading a mixed party and at times it was tough! Enemies often had spell resistance to one of the 3 combat magics and in some instances were totally immune. There were never any monsters melee or even range immune. NWN2 had the same thing. Magic resistance, and one boss totally resistant. Don't get me wrong I loved being resistant to enemy spells but it sucked when my own couldn't do any damage. DS1 did allow you to max all skills. As I recall it granted the Siege Master class title. I never actually achieved that but maybe if I get back to playing it ... Trying to master everything at once did nerf you but if you concentrated it was different. I think strength first then magic was the best path as it maximised your health\armour and granted you spell power but without a near bottomless pool of mana as was the case if you overfocused on Nature\Combat magic.