MadMalachi

I've always liked ROTJ for the lightsaber battle at the end, but Empire Strikes Back has long been my choice for the best of the original trilogy, for several reasons. First, from an archetypal viewpoint, I thought it best showed a crucial point in the development of the hero, regarding the acquisition of knowledge. Knowledge, especially self-knowledge, is a critical event and one that always comes with a price. Odin gained all the knowledge in the world by hanging from Yggdrasil, but it cost him an eye. Oedipus gained the knowledge of what he had done to his father (and with his mother), and that led to the loss of his eyesight as well, among other things. Knowledge has a price, but acquiring it is inevitable in the development of the hero. This is true in many myths, and you can probably think of others. In Empire, you see Luke acquiring knowledge of where he came from (i.e. Vader), the price being the loss of his hand (symbolic on a couple of levels), and how this colors his development as a character. Yes, despite the wooden dialogue, we actually see character development. Luke no longer whines about picking up power converters, and I found this refreshing. Another reason I like Empire better is that it seemed more in line with life as we know it. No, I don't mean lightsabers and all that jazz. I mean that the ends of Episode IV and ROTJ have these great huge explosions of Death Stars, celebration, complete triumph. I don't know about you guys, but to me life is much more like what happens in Empire. You don't often get the explosion and complete triumph at the end. You don't get closure. Maybe I am pessimistic, but I believe 90% of life is reacting to the stuff that gets thrown at you, and some of it really sucks. Sometimes you learn stuff like Darth Vader is your father, and your hand gets cut off, and your best friend is frozen in carbonite. The best part of Empire, though, is at the end when Luke and Leia are arm-in-arm on the ship and staring into the vastness of space. Despite all the bad stuff that has happened, there is always hope. But really, the important thing to remember is that Empire lacked 1) Jawas 2) Ewoks 3) Gungans The other stuff I mentioned? Just gravy. Cheers, MadMalachi

I'm sorry about that, the word filter does not seem to allow the common nickname for "Richard" that is the moniker of the current US Vice President... I was watching the Vice Presidential debate on Tuesday, and it occurred to me that Cheney seems like the sort who could fling Lightning with the best of 'em. In his look and demeanor. That's all. I just wondered if anyone else had made the same observation.

Not to get too political, but I had to say it... Is it just me, or has it occurred to anyone else that VP **** Cheney kind of looks like a Sith Lord? He has this grimace and "Don't screw with me" look on his face that is actually rather terrifying. I could easily him as the sort to throw around Force Choke and Force Lightning, if such things existed of course. If Obsidian wanted concept art for a Sith Lord boss, then I think it's right there. MadMalachi

What other Obsidian games have you played then? Tell me, I'd love to know. ^_^ <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Obsidian=Black Isle Studios reincarnated. BIS games included Planescape Torment, the Fallout series, the Icewind Dale series, etc. All in all, some of what are said to be the greatest RPG games of all time. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Agreed. About the IWD series, I know it's considered an RPG lite compared to Torment, Fallout, the BG series, ect... But I liked it anyway. Maybe it's because I played IWD after completing BG2: SOA, and I though it was a nice little break after the insane amount of side quests BG2 brings you all at once, lol. Also I thought the story was great, though not as complex as some others, but I expect that in an RPG lite. I've come to expect great stories from those 2 companies and I know that they can come up with a rare jewel once in a while. But I don't expect like some few gamers I saw here and there on messageboards to release the mother of all RPG's (storywise) every single time they release a game. That's plaine ridiculous and reastically an impossible feat. That said, all in all I prefer more complex RPG's, I did find IWD alot of fun to play and would gladly play a third installement if one ever comes out. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm sorry, I did not mean to imply any shortchanging of Bioware. If nothing else, then Bioware has provided the Infinity Engine, which has been the basis of so much of my enjoyment in CRPGs for the past --what, 7 years? 8 years? And they have done much more besides providing the Infinity Engine. Neverwinter Nights is a love-letter to the entire roleplaying community. Bioware is a great company, and they deserve our support. The point I was trying to make was in response to the poster who was uncertain as to whether Obsidian were up to the task of following Bioware. I will repeat that I have no doubt they will do even better than Bioware. Why? Because they have the advantage of working with Bioware's technology, i.e. the engine from KOTOR 1. This should free up a great deal of Obsidian's time to work on what I consider to be their special strength, which is story. Fallout is brilliant. Planescape: Torment is in a class by itself, in terms of story and development. Perhaps a better way of phrasing it is this: Obsidian will work wonders with KOTOR 2, but this is no slight to Bioware, because they did so many things right with KOTOR 1. Does that make sense to anyone else? Of course, I could turn out to be wrong, and the game might suck. But it's not going to suck. MadMalachi

This is way off topic, but where are all these cheap games? Every bidding war I see ends up bumping the price up over $15 US at the bare minimum. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hmm... Just checked E-bay, and there's several copies for sale. Some of them are rather overpriced, but one of them is $8 and change with 17 hours to go... Well worth it, but that's only my opinion. MadMalachi

The folks at Obsidian are the same people responsible for some of the best RPGs in recent memory. Bioware did a great job with KOTOR, but I have every confidence that Obsidian's version will outshine the original in every way. If you haven't already done so, pick up a copy of Planescape: Torment on E-bay. It should set you back all of $5 - $10. Play it, and you will understand. MadMalachi

I can tell you from my experience as a DS Consular that the 2nd and 3rd powers in the Insanity line are really wicked. It's essentially an area-effect stun that (for me at least) seemed to stick much more often than the LS Stun line. I would typically have 16 in CH and Wis, for a +3 bonus from each stat, to hurt the bad guys' saves. For the few that would save, I would hit them with Force Choke. I highly recommend Insanity for DS, since it's probably your best crowd control. Cheers, MadMalachi

Tastes vary.. I liked the old ones better, partially because I saw them before I a teenager. * Episode 1 brought forth TWO worst ideas in SW - JarJar Binx - midichlorian - on the plus side : Darth Maul Episode 2 was a lame "Love story" - Still had JarJar - Hayden Christensen - On the Plus Side : Christopher Lee, Samuel L.Jackson and no mention of the midichlorians. Nuff Said Post Script: - I Just hope that Episode 3 Won't be a Musical (Wouldn't put it past Lucas though). <{POST_SNAPBACK}> LOL, Bane, you beat me to the JarJar/Love story points I was trying to make! Cheers!

Hmm... Perhaps I am one of the "grumpy" then... but do you have any idea how excruciatingly painful it was to listen to the lovetalk dialogue in Episode 2? Do I need to mention Jar Jar from Episode 1? Ordinarily, I would be inclined to be charitable toward an artist's work, but Lucas had over 20 years to write those scripts. I don't think it would have been unreasonable on the audience's part to expect some better stuff. Dooku and Palpy might be great villains... I'm not sure because they had rather few spoken lines. Not much time was spent on their character development in the film. Again, much of the focus was on the love story and dialogue that was so bad that the actors seemed embarrassed to be speaking it. The first trilogy was by no means perfect. The actors in it even then made fun of Lucas' clumsy script. Harrison Ford is supposed to have said, "You can write this stuff, George, but you can't say it. The difference is that the original story focused upon a compelling good vs. evil conflict without getting bogged down in details. Lucas can create tons of stuff with CGI that he couldn't do back in 1977, but has it made a better story? I think one could argue that by concentrating so much upon CGI, the story has rather fallen by the wayside. Just my opinion, take it as you will.

Thanks to Akari for at least his sympathy. As a PC person, I feel as though we have been, well, avoided in the last day or so by the devs and publishers. I can't really say I blame them, since this was going to be a very ugly scene no matter how you slice it. And while we may be upset with LA's decision, because it hurts us, we must realize that it would be foolish for ANY game publisher to miss the holiday shopping season for any game that can possibly make it. LA exists to make money. That is what a corporation does. If it were possible for the PC version to be ready by Christmas, then LA would push it out the door too. I guess my point is that LA is not deliberately trying to screw us. It is a cold comfort, and we should make our displeasure known, but in a way that reflects well on us. "j00 suxorzz!" and the like does not reflect well on us. That being said, I think we should concentrate on the things that Obsidian and Lucasarts CAN do for us. Spoilers are going to be a very real problem. Some of the XBox crowd may do it unthinkingly, some are going to be childish enough to do it maliciously. I think that the forums should be segregated into PC and XBox, much as Bioware did. I also think that the mods should monitor the PC forum with unceasing vigilance. Spoilers and those promulgating them should be deleted and banned quickly and with no mercy. An announcement of extra content for the PC version could also help calm things down. Adding a toolkit for modders would also be a terrific way to even the playing field, since mods are a big reason people love PC gaming to begin with. (Yes, I know this is a pipe-dream, but it never hurts to ask.) There are those who consider the extra time to be a blessing, in the event that the game sucks. The game won't suck. The people at Obsidian have been responsible for some of the best CRPGs in history. They are working within a milieu (Star Wars) that has a mythology and a dedicated -- possibly even rabid -- fan base. The folks at Obsidian (thinking of Chris Avellone here) know how to write a great story, and it is story that drives a true RPG. I love Bioware, and think it is a brilliant company. But I fully anticipate Obsidian's version of KOTOR to be superior in every way. I hope that this adds some constructive elements to a very hot issue. Please feel free to disagree with me, but please keep some perspective. MadMalachi