Nonek

The whip intrigues me on Edair, huntsman, slaver, Indiana Jones fan? That and the name reminding me of the legendary firefighter Red.

Well most "ism's" are based on differences being unacceptable to the societal norm, with the introduction of such a strong focus on the players soul perhaps we could have soulism, for want of a better word. Imagine a race of Eternity who have learned to master their souls, just as an olympian learns to master their body, with this awakening and joining with the immortal half of themsleves they would obviously judge themsleves to be superior. What would they think of the normal human, that he was nothing more than a barely sentient beast perhaps, or perhaps that they are pitiable and need to be protected and taught, enslaved? Perhaps the oldest of these awakened beings would abandon flesh all together, seeing it as a distasteful and clumsy thing compared to the purity of their essence, and the swarms of humanity that breed and multiply as nothing more than parasites to be scoured away.

I like a nice spattering of humour on occasion, however the Joss Whedon style of humour which is I believe called "snarky" has never particularly struck me as very amusing, just somewhat infantile and lacking in wit. More of a fan of acerbic and nuanced comedy personally.

Forgot I made this. But anyway, yes the being chewed up by a high dragon and spat on the floor only to miraculously pop back up after combat, with a negligeble wound as a penalty did bother me in a lot of games. It's not really about realism it's internal consistency, that and strategical planning where we can derive a more satisfying experience because we have been challenged and not found wanting. If combat is just trivialised immediately afterwards, then what challenge is there, you're left with grinding through a repetitive series of combats where you have full access to all your skills and magics rather than emerging limping and wounded, on the knife edge of defeat but victorious because of your own superior tactics and strategy. Ultimately I find the action rpgs that do hand hold the player in this fashion trivial and boring, I like to be challenged, not confronted by endless waves of easily dispatched opponents.

I want to play as an exceptional individual, right man in the right place at the right time. One thing I don't want however is to have no connection whatsoever to the ongoing plot, because at some point in the story i'll stop and ask myself why would I be doing all this if i'm not personally involved. Point of fact I think Obsidian does this quite well, it introduces logical segways into the plot. Whether it be the shard buried in the weilders heart by accident, being a useful pawn in a gamble to grasp power over the Mojave, framed and betrayed by a secret goverment agency or Jayne Kassynders determination to wipe out every last member of the organisation which killed her father and you are a part. A chosen one, a pawn of prophecy is something I despise however, the tame lapdog of a particular belief who must fulfill his destiny. Who must embrace his fate, because of otherworldly eminences, that's just deeply disturbing and wrong on a personal and philosophical level to me. I may as well not be doing anything if the dictates of fate demand that such and such a scenario must come to pass, and how can you perform good if there's no temptation or choice to challenge you. The true heroes conquer adversity and overcome the impossible, they don't just perform their assigned role then line up to be martyred for the cause. So chosen one no, competent and deeply enmeshed in the conflict yes. Hell even better if the conflict was created and is perpetuated by the protagonist so that he is also the antagonist like in Torment, that's just mind trippingly brilliant, because the whole game says to you that your previous choices had some pretty damn big consequences.

Sad to hear, i'm not a zealous fan of Biowares modern games, but they do provide adequate entertainment and distraction for the price. It must be sad for the gentlemen to see their company being so publicly castigated, by what were a generation of seemingly devoted fans however. Still a retirement into the brewing industry's as close to doing what you love as I could possibly imagine.

Imagine a race of slaves that would object to being freed however or simply cannot, they did not have their freedom taken from them but gave it away as payment for a debt, somewhat similar to the haruchai from Stephen Donaldsons Land books. It would be their personal and harsh code of ethics that forces them to serve, not their supposed masters at all. Indeed the "slave owners" could be horrified at the lengths to which these honour bound fanatics would go to pay their supposed debt. Who then do you side with, whom can we look down upon from our supposedly enlightened twenty first century viewpoints. Do we free them, break their curse and damn the whole race to shame and dishonour, for their own good. Who are we to judge the issue, and what right do we have to interfere in the dischargement of their debt, and are we doing so simply to feel good and heroic. That's the kind of moral minefield i'd like to see laid across the protagonists path, and with Obsidian i'm hopeful that we'll see such struggles in the grey areas between reality and idealism.

I don't really like villains who are presented as hateable, i'd rather have a mirror for the player character, there but for the grace of god go I. Kreia, Elijah, Jayne Kassynder the usual Obsidian antagonists who make one question ones own conduct and beliefs if they were placed in a similar position, and sometimes they are even proved right in the end. The ones I hate though are the stupid, the illogical and the useless such as in Dragon Age 2, shallow cliches built around a single theme whom you neither know nor care about until five minutes before the end of the game.

Yes, if it presents a more gritty and detailed world, god save us from the overused trope of happy medieval peasants frolicking in the fields. That's so far removed from reality I can't even concieve of how it was born. Diversity in the slaving traditions might be good as well, from the norse thralls who through hard work and acceptance could earn their freedom. To the ancient egyptian slavers who would bind entire civilisations such as the Mamluks to serve them on the battlefield, only for the slave warriors to rise up and snatch the reins of power from their masters.

Something like a flop house behind a brothel, a dirty and seedy place where you're occasionally called to act as a bouncer. Its redeeming qualities should be that the law does not bother the place, it's a great place for picking up rumours and earning a little coin from less than reputable sources.

Personally i'm not asking for a sandbox, I don't want a hiking simulator like Skyrim. I just want a game like Ultima 7 from twenty years past that had a living believeable world and a strong, reactive story. To me it's not a binary choice between the two extremes, games are supposed to be advancing not regressing. New Vegas shrugged off the aimless wandering of Fallout 3 to present a strong narrative led game in a realistic setting, i'm hopeful that Eternity will do the same.

Kreia, Falls from Grace, Cass.

Old. Probably Ultima: The Black Gate (despite the automated combat.)

I can see the reasons for Mr Mads discombobulation, but I trust Obsidian to implement it in a sensible fashion, that and i'm honestly ecstatic to hear that it won't be another case of alternating combat and conversation in brown corridors.

Betrayal at Krondor had a fair few stumpers on the puzzle boxes, always refreshing to go to bed with a nice brain tickler to ruminate on. They were a mix of world lore and general knowledge, encouraging you to pay attention to the setting and its minutiae.

I think that's always an interesting story, the noble intentioned idealist who forgets what he was even fighting for, and becomes that which he hates.

Yes this sounds reasonable, the spate of banditry arising during the early years of the Norman conquest of England, might have been born out of the harrying of the north. To those who don't know, this was an extremely brutal answer to the stubborn folk of northern England who refused to accept Norman rule, the Norman overlords basically commited genocide. After this the legend of many bandit leaders were born, among them Robin Hood. Be nice if we were given the appellation of sellswords or mercenaries, instead of the usual and faintly cheesy adventurer.

Letho of Gulet was a very good antagonist in the Witcher 2, he used more brain than brawn despite looking like cro magnon man on steroids, and he was broadly successful in his goal despite everything the protagonist did to oppose him. In a sense he was a mirror image of the hero, and presented an entirely opposite viewpoint on events and causes. Best of all in the final confrontation you could simply walk away from him, a refreshingly brave decision on the developers part. He's only really matched by Kreia, in terms of an effective and personal counterpart to the player, or maybe the Nameless Ones previous incarnations.

On the fence about this, I thought that some of the best dungeons i've ever experienced were the vaults in New Vegas. Though small they each told a very strong (sometimes quite bloody harrowing) story and even though they were not particularly long, that sense of involvement made them very intensive. At the end i'd emerge with a "phew" of relief, just because it was good to be rid of the particular vibe undercutting them. Too often during fantasy games i'll roll my eyes when the obligatory underdark entrance appears, to the point where i'm slowly beginning to develop racist/speciesist tendencies towards the non existent Drow, Illithid and such like. It's almost always a seemingly never ending slog through far too much combat and far too little content. That said i'm sure Obsidian could pull off an engrossing and immersive (you see what I did there?) subterannean complex if they put their minds to it, the Weeping Stones was very good.

Thought the original Witcher soundtrack was very nice, if only because it used a lot of themes and instruments I hadn't heard before, going so far as to add in a little rock on occasion. The entire theme had a very wistful air, somewhat like Dungeon Siege 3's main track.

There was something like this in both Icewind Dale's as I remember, might be misremembering as it's been awhile though.

I agree on this, if you can breed with another race then that means it is simply another offshoot of humanity, or humanity's an offshoot of elves etcetera. I'd prefer that the other peoples of Eternity are either completely different species, and thus incapable of successful mating or distant offshoots such as the donkey is to the horse family, only birthing sterile mutants. Arcanum had a good bit on this in the manual, introducing not only natural selection but also supernatural selection, where it was hinted at that elves might have been born of a massive influx of supernatural energy affecting a race of mankind. Damn pity that Mr Cain couldn't continue with that world, it was so engrossing.

Though i admit that I seriously enjoyed playing a smooth and manipulative Michael Thornton in Alpha Protocol, who come the denouement finally revealed his labyrinthine network of contacts and plotting to the doomed erstwhile villain, I would also like the plain terrifying butcher to still be available. Perhaps your more psychotic actions could birth a trait such as terrifying presence in New Vegas, where even the most savage of foes learns to step lightly around your character.

I always thought that the Yorkshire accent goes quite well with dwarves, no insult to any tyke native but there were a few quite dwarven looking people there the last time I visited the four ridings. They also have a certain rough, stubborn characters as well as a history of mining and metalwork.

Oh been wondering about that for awhile, cheers.