Azure79

That would be my main concern as well. I couldn't imagine playing vanilla BG with all the cool mods out there. Not to mention I still think the games look very good. All I would like are some unique character images for each class and better combat animations really.

Wow, first time I've heard of this. A remake would be cool, but I'd rather have something new based on the Infinity Engine. Who owns the rights to the old Infinity Engine games? Do they need approval from the DnD company to remake this stuff? Does Bioware still own the rights to the Infinty Engine?

I just read this entire thread when I should have been studying. Awesome job. Have you ever done an Ironman using full SCS? I love SCS but just thinking of doing an Ironman makes me weep. Put me down for a armorless kensai in BG2. We'll see how long I last. (probably not long)

I think the ending is ok, it is just presented in a way that doesn't provide any kind of meaningful insight into why the whole Reaper cycle exists. Plus I don't think it makes any sense.

I don't think the 'best' ending is the same as the 'secret' ending you get when you get your effective military strength up to a certain point. I don't think you can't get the 'secret' ending unless you play MP, but it being the best is up for debate according to how you played your Shephard.

I don't know man, I thought Vanguard was quite powerful. I only carried a shotgun and no other weapon. My melee damage was maxed out through armor and weapon mods and my biotic powers were maxed out through the skill tree. I could charge right in, deliver a nova, shotgun an enemy or heavy melee and my charge would be ready again. I could zip around the battlefield offensively or defensively and I loved taking out dangerous enemies like snipers and engineers with a charge to their face.

I thought sabotage and hack were pretty fun. I didn't have it being a Vanguard, but I had Tali using it all the time in the Geth/Quarian levels. I would just hack a few rocket troopers and geth bodies would start flying around everywhere.

Well according to the ending

Just finished the game on Hardcore with Vanguard. Pros: Good integration of all the previous party characters into the story. Choices in previous games do seem to have some impact as you play the game. Most previous party members in my game had satisfactory conclusions. Basic gameplay is really fun. I almost didn't use a gun. I just biotic charged and one shot killed everyone with heavy melee attacks, which recharged my biotic abilities faster which helped me charge more. There are many fun and viable ways to play this game with each character class. I felt like it was almost a 3rd person brawler with the Vanguard class. Increased customization elements in modifying your weapons and armor. I can easily imagine playing Vanguard focused on pure weapon damage or biotic damage instead of melee damage by customizing weapon and armor. Your choices in-game can lead to vastly different outcomes in the specific level you are playing. Good variety of enemies and some excellent set piece battles. Personally I loved the music and general artistic backdrop of each planet you visit. Also a small touch, but I like how many missions start with the door to the shuttle bay opening and you jumping out as enemies take shots at you. Very exciting. Cons: Pretty much the ending. Too much stuff all at once without any explanation. The entity at the end uses weird circular logic that doesn't make any sense and basically the player can't challenge it. More questions than answers. No satisfactory epilogue. Though I am interested in which direction they will take subsequent games in the MEverse, considering the state the galaxy is in at the end. Kai Leng. His entire character seemed out of place. He seemed almost silly, talking like he was incredibly lethal while his main weapons were a sword and throwing stars(?). Does he not know that those will be pretty ineffective against a space marine in heavy armor with shields, wielding a lethal arsenal of modern weaponry? Overall: Awesome game and well worth the money.

Wow, keep us posted if you do decide to go this route. I will definitely contribute as much as I can. I would probably get the most enjoyment out of a game Obs wanted to make without publisher pressure or limitations, so if this gets a green light make anything you want with the funding available.

Esc-> Help Topic. Ah thank you.

Finished my first playthrough of DS3. I loved it apart from the wonky PC controls, but I got used to it as I went on and it posed little problem later in the game. I liked all the little wordplay jokes (Baron Barrenbarron - I don't know why I laughed so hard at this) and the writing was good all around. The art direction was pretty good without being too flamboyant. I liked the designs of the armors and weapons. They mostly looked fantastic without going into the realm of silly overkill. As usual Obsidian got me hooked with their lore. I tried playing DS1 and DS2 but was always put off by how drab the world seemed. DS3 got me interested in the world of Ehb and what might be in store in the future. Combat was fun and flowed nicely. I liked how attacks build up your focus which is then linked to special moves. You're continually attacking so you can pull off your special moves and it created a nice rhythm for me. I preferred it much more over cooldown timers and other similar time based mechanisms. Just a few minor gripes. Not enough explanation on what all the item modifiers do. I wasn't sure how agility affected defense or attack. What does doom or retribution do? I'm sure it's in the manual somewhere, but some popup windows might have been nice. Didn't affect my overall enjoyment of combat though. I don't mind linear maps as long as the scenery and environments are interesting and fun to look at (they were), but I'd also like some sprawling areas as well. Kudos Obsidian. I hope you work on DS4 and make a bigger, better game. Oh and did DS2 just get thrown out? I saw references to DS1 throughout the entire game but not anything of DS2. I never finished DS2, but wasn't there some world-shattering event? Never seemed to get mentioned.

The original Dungeon Sieges turned out to be not so fun for me. So I just skipped ahead to DS3. It's fun so far but the controls just don't feel smooth enough on keyboard and mouse. I think the characters attack to where your mouse pointer is, but when it gets hectic you lose track and end up attacking and using special attacks in stupid directions. This is compounded when you move your mouse towards the edge of the screen in combat, the camera spins, so you end up even more disoriented. I think it'll play better with a controller.

Get lots of incineration resistance going. Also there is a silver sword somewhere in Ch. 3 which does 20% damage to gargoyles. I think it's at the end of the path where you fight two big arachnids at the same time. I used the pillars to my advantage since they blocked my flank while I took out enemies one by one.

I pre-ordered DS3, so giving DS1 and 2 a try while I wait. I never played them when originally released.

Yep, I know where you're coming from. I do enjoy TW2 combat. I think it's fun, but my only gripe is that one action doesn't lead into another so overall combat feels like hit and run. Maybe I'm just not articulating my thoughts effectively.

Despite a lot of folks criticizing SoT combat, I really enjoyed it. Once I got good enough, it had almost a trance like rhythm to it. At first it's the flipping and leaping over enemies one after another and then using the walls and finally using the Dagger of Time to create space and timing to take out enemies. I couldn't understand why so many critics didn't like it. I thought it was as fun as the platforming. I liked WW's free flow combat even more. There were just a lot of options you could take advantage of according to the situation in addition to new wall attacks and pillar attacks, plus weapon throwing. As I remember you could even jump from an enemy to the wall, bounce off the wall to kill another enemy. The whole thing was crazy fun. In contrast I found combat in the cell-shaded PoP and the more recent SoT universe PoP dull by comparison.

That actually did spring to mind while I was playing Hassat. I felt like could do all the things like in AA, but in the end it wasn't smooth as AA. I think its mostly because you can transition from attack to counter-attack very smoothly in AA, but in TW2, there isn't really a way to counter attack someone coming from a different angle, just block or roll out of the way. Since you can't transition from attack - counter attack, I found myself rolling away and running in circles trying not to get flanked a lot. It's not how I envision a master swordsman (in a fantasy setting) would fight.

It was hilariously easy though. Pretty much only way they had to thoughen it was fire-arms, and using "special" foes. Good luck seeing them in a mob of 20 and not ending the combo prematurely. Good game, but while the animation of combat was great, combat itself was bad You're Batman, it HAS to be easy. And the combat system itself was actually pretty deep, though admittedly, given the encounter design you had little chance to sample that. Yep, I didn't realize how deep the combat was until I started doing the challenges. I usually don't go for challenge missions in games, but AA's combat was fun enough to get me to play.

I've often thought about the following. Since I read up so much on video games and what's coming out and what popular trends on video games are, even though certain genres hold no interest to me, could I create a portfolio solely on publicly traded video game companies that might give me a modest return. I haven't actually done any research towards this, just a vague thoughts like, if I buy Act-Blizz stock before D3 comes out could I expect an increase in stock price due to the success of the game? My investments are mostly geared towards real estate and by that I mean one rental property, but hey, it's a start.

I'll get it eventually if just to play a part of gaming history. I've seen some reviews and I find it strange it makes fun of modern shooters, but also limits the player within those same gameplay elements. The biggest example being that you can only carry two weapons at once. Wouldn't it be more fun if Duke had access to his full arsenal at all times? It's not exactly aiming to be realistic. I hope someone mods that in.

I would love to see some type of Arkham Asylum combat system incorporated. It was simple but offered a lot of variety, didn't break the flow of combat and made you actually feel like Batman. I mean you could do all sorts of things besides attacking and counter-attacking. You could throw enemies into each other, use your gadgets to trip them up, leap over them etc, all while maintaining a fast rhythmic pace. Geralt has been genetically enhanced with strength, speed, agility and reflexes. I could see a combat scenario going like this. Geralt is surrounded. Player attacks enemy in front with combo. Enemies in back move in to strike. The games gives a small cue to let the player to know press the button for counter attack. Geralt can perform two types of counters. One with the sword and one with the currently equipped sign. If sword Geralt and deflty maneuver away from the strike and counter with something of his own. If sign, Geralt can use any of the signs to ward off the attack. For example, Aard staggers the opponent away, Igni gives flame to the face, Quen allows Geralt to block and counter a sword with his arm, Axii redirects the blow to hit another enemy, Yrden paralyzes the attacker for a short time. Or if that's too complicated, just have Geralt counter with a sword maneuver and then while the attacker is staggered, slow down time (accounting for Geralt's super-reflexes and speed) momentarily and give the player options. Aard to shove the attacker away into a pillar or a group of friends, Igni to set the attacker on fire etc. As soon as that sequence is over you can continue to sting together attacks, counter-attacks and such. You can still keep the use of bombs and throwing knives as part of the combo chain, like Batman could do with Batarangs and grappling gun. Traps are still viable too as they need to be set up and planned before combat actually begins.

Oh God, no. If there's anything The Witcher 2 shown is that CD Projekt RED's combat mechanic prowess is comparable to Obsidian. Hint: it's very very very low. Second hint: Alpha Protocol, The Witcher and The Witcher 2. Next time they should outsource the combat, maybe I will be able to enjoy their game then. Hey, I liked AP combat. Running knee to the face followed by pistol time to drop surrounding enemies. It was fun. Later, I was just kneeing people in the face all the time. Taken as a whole, I find TW2 combat enjoyable. I like the options with the potions, oils, traps, bombs and signs. I can easily have a good time laying down traps and luring enemies into them, then taking them out with bombs. I like the flammable gas bomb + igni combo. There are a lot of ways to play, which is something I enjoy in games. However the sword aspect doesn't make you feel like an expert swordsman, but more of an unpredictable warrior rolling around and taking potshots from behind. In TW1, sure it got a little tedious with just the timed button presses, but Geralt felt deadly. I loved the way he crouched and danced his sword around. I lost a lot of the feel in TW2. Hmm, I feel like an AP playthrough now, with just martial arts.

I wouldn't mind if they went full action for the combat, with the inclusion of a jump button. Jump button + attack button = leaping attack. I'm playing TW2 almost like a Jedi Knight game with my signs all designated to different hotkeys for easy access. I would like to see a return to the style system, with different moves you could pull off with directional keys + 2 attack buttons, similar to Jedi Academy.

I just finished my second run. If an expansion or sequel comes along, I hope CDR has fun keeping track of all the things that can change. This time, I like the combat overall though I also think it's a bit clunky. I wish you could move around in the block position (does one of the skills allow this?) and target enemies better. Often I would just go flying into a middle of a group and get murdered. I also want specific key inputs to pull off specific moves and combos. I found it hard to get timing and distance right because I wasn't sure what kind of attack Geralt would do. Sometimes he would stab, other times he would do a spinning move etc.