roshan

I hope that you realize that I was being sarcastic! But recently the UN has been moving away from using FGM and has started calling it cutting instead.

According to some whiners, they do. Here, too. That's only if you equate FGM with circumcision, which is tough to do within reason. But what are we supposed to say? That we don't like it and don't think it should be practiced? Great example to use against cultural relativists, though. Just watch them squirm when they venture to justify why this should even be allowed. Which I guess is the point of this thread. But it feels kind of bad to take something so gravely serious and use it as a blunt instrument. There's a case pending here in the US, down in Georgia. African immigrants, sad stuff. They're trying to pin it on the father, but from the looks of it both parents were complicit, or at least had no problem with it until they broke up. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yes, but according to the cultural relativists, it isnt mutilation, its just female genital cutting, sort of like cutting a sheet of paper. "Mutilation" is a subjective and judgemental western imperialist word.

??? What do you mean?

What do you guys think of the practice of female genital mutilation?

I bet if it was NWN2 then there would have been a line of 10 people telling you to break the pipe on the way to the room.

Thats why I say that leftist bastards have hijacked computer gaming.

At advanced stages of the game Diablo 2 can be very difficult especially if you play single player only and thus dont have all the powerful unique and set items. And this is if you use character guides and thus know where to invest all your character and skill points. If you mess up your character then you have no chance in the end game in hell difficulty. And when you die you lose XP and most of your money. This is actually a lot more difficult compared to NWN2 where death is actually beneficial since it cures disease and level drain. In Diablo 2 you need to use a potion to heal yourself or go back to town. If your ally dies you need to spend a lot of money resurrecting them, and you need to keep them alive with potions sometimes. In NWN2 you can hit a button and instaheal everyone after combat. You dont even need to keep any potions. If bosses in Diablo 2 randomly have lots of powerful buffs then battles can require a lot of strategy such as for example hit and run tactics, or deciding who to take down first.

NWN2 is the epitome of dumbdownedness in PC rpgs. Compared to NWN2, Diablo 2 features tactical combat. Not only is combat in NWN2 repetitive, boring and completely unchallenging, but the game is also completely linear. It doesnt leave anything for the player to discover or figure out. Eeverything is mapped out in a straight line. Not only do the areas progress linearly but the area design itself is for the most part also completely linear. No houses to enter, no non essential NPCs that the player can have a chat with. No need to even decide who to take in your party, half of it is decided in advance! I really hope that Ferret doesnt get to design RPGs anymore.

NWN2 is the epitome of dumbdownedness. Combat in NWN2

This is my desktop.

Old news. Scroll down... Its been on NMA for weeks.

Herve is just spouting BS. I believe the SEC thing was just an attempt to con some foolish investors. It was reported at NMA etc a few weeks ago.

What does that even mean? Don't have time for a 40+ hour game? Does that mean they buy Jade Empire (15 hours) and then never again buy another game because they don't have the time? Or they buy Gears of War, play it for 10 hours and then never play another game again because the don't have time? All these people not having time for a 40+ hour game only own ONE game that they've played once in their entire life because they don't have time for any more? A 40+ hour game is like four Gears of War-type games. Most gamers have more than four games. I am sure they aren't planning on playing the 40+ hour game from start to finish in one sitting. 40+ hours only means more value for your money. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Pidesco has a point. I, for one, find myself unable to play a lot lately because of full-time employment. Heck, I have finished NWN2 only a few days ago (and at the cost of severe sleep deprivation). And funny thing, I remember roshan bashing FO2 for having garbage skill mechanics that doesn't offer a lot of choice and calling it a "massively flawed game". Is Fallout 1 that much different? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I have never even played FO1, only FO2. By like FO, I meant with a similar style of gameplay as the Fallouts (of course, I am assuming that Fallout 1 was similar to the second game, which is not unreasonable) And Fallout 2 is still my second favourite RPG, despite it having a largely meaningless character generation system.

Because I played all the way through till almost the end of the game before quitting.

That's because the game wasn't very hard. :whistle: I think the difficulty in balancing comes from the fact that an experienced player always knows what's going on (not as easy for a casual player to notice, say, that Bishop's arrows are doing the creature no damage when there's a billion other things going around), and they can prepare adequately by manipulating the copmlex system of buffs. Experienced players IMO can give themselves a sizable advantage the second time they fight an encounter; if they fought unexpectedly the first time or were just mauled, next time they know what to do differently. I would say that this is partly because of the superpowered rest mechanism, and partly because in most encounters you can see the enemy long before they see you, and you nearly always get to prepare then throw a few fireballs in there before they can retaliate. More ambushes, more dispel spells by the enemy (modern games seem to really skimp on enemies using dispel / breaches), and so forth. Uh, anyway. Yeah, party member restriction thing had nothing to do with anything else but the story IMO. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Actually, most of the time the party members were forced without having anything to do with the story. Both Khelgar and Neeshka had no relation to the main story whatsoever, yet, they were forced. Zhjaeve did nothing in Nolaloths valley except for stupidly stating the obvious, I dont even remember her talking to the dragon. Similarly, it was not necessary for Shandra, Sand, Elanee, Casavir or Bishop to be forced on the character. With very minor adjustments to the story and dialogue, they could have become completely optional characters. I think Chris Avellone has been praised so much for PST that his success has gone to his head, and he thinks that everyone will like whatever crap he comes up with.

I think you're taking this a little too seriously if you think that. And I don't think NWN2 was oppressively linear. There were plenty of unrelated quests that you could do as you moved along the main path. But the main draw of the game was obviously the central storyline. Plenty of unrelated quests? You must be joking.

Whether the plot has bifurcations or not is not really relevant. Fallout 2 provided the option to ignore the plot entirely. In a good non linear RPG, the plot shouldnt be shoved down a players throat. If they want to do their own thing, they should be able to do so. NWN2 not only forced the players to follow the plot, but for the most part it left nothing else for the players to do except following the plot. In fact I think the reason why NWN2 players enjoyed the stronghold so much was because for the first time in the entire game, they had the ability to do something else other than follow the plot. It was like throwing bits and pieces of food to starving people.

Id really like a game without yet another stupid hero plot. I agree with Crashgirl, theres no reason why a game like Fallout wouldnt sell to the mainstream. Neverwinter Nights 2 is pretty much a completely linear game - the plot, except for a small portion where you can choose between two factions, is completely linear. The area progression is also completely linear except for perhaps a couple of places. Not only that, most of the areas themselves are completely linear, just walk through one path killing the bad guys. You dont have control over your own party, you cant kill who you want, you cant enter any houses, and except for merchants and plot characters, there isnt even anyone you can talk to. The game has no reactivity at all to your decisions. Class and race choices have no impact on the game whatsoever. The only thing NWN2 did decently was speech skills, but those generally cost you rather than provide bonuses. NWN2 is by far the most dumbed down RPG experience to be had on the PC.

I dont mind real time combat. I dont like FP views though.

I dont think I will like those sort of games. I find the dialogue system to be particularly repulsive.

No, not like the Elder Scrolls games!

Maybe he wants Volourn...

Does Obsidian ever intend to make a non linear game which gives the player numerous options like Fallout 2? Or did that style of RPG design die with Black Isle?

I dont know. Thats all Ive picked up from the Bio Hypemachine.

Dragon Age will use an enhanced verson of the Mass Effect dialogue system.