Pidesco

I don't think any game has really outstanding writing, not even Torment or Grim Fandango. Writing in games has still a very, very long way to go.

Writing isn't just the words on the paper. It's that, of course, but it's also plot construction, integration of themes, narrative and gameplay, and character development. I'm not sure what you remember of Psychonauts but it didn't have that little writing. Of course, it didn't have as much writing as Bioware's games but still had more than enough to make a critical appreciation of it. Just the intro sequence, for example, was better written than anything Bioware has ever done. I don't dislike Bioware, by the way. BG2 is one of my favourite games ever. That doesn't change my opinion that Bioware's writing is mostly just functional, including in BG2.

Off the top of my head, Obsidian, Irrational, Double Fine and Quantic Dream have better writers. Quite a few companies are about as competent as Bioware.

haha. no. there are plenty of companies who do worse writing, but not that many. Besides that's like a filmmaker bragging that his plots are better than those of porn movies.

^That's NV info right there. The weapons' UI will have info on which skill they use. >_

King Olaf The Old Republican. The game about an old Icelandic Republican who gets appointed the absolute King of Iceland after a freak election year and the finding of dodgy genealogy documents. The player, playing the puppet ruler of Iceland, must find out the hidden truth behind his appointment while trying to surreptitiously rule his beloved homeland. It's an adventure/RPG/strategy game of choices and consequences and has a better plot than anything Bioware has ever done.

Mount & Blade is pretty awesome.

Note how that screenie is a perfect example of dumbing down. In BG you had to actually gather your party before venturing fort. Now, in DA all you need to do is click yes. Weak, Bioware, weak. Removing a crucial gameplay feature from a classic just ain't going to fly with us hardcore people. C&C is dead. I bet we don't even have to listen to the spoken declaration one million and seven times because the console 'tards don't enjoy hearing. Decline of RPGs. Also: "Gather your party and venture forth." I'm going to quit RPGs forever, or at least until AP gets released or until I give Mount & Blade another spin. I hope you're ready to face the consequences, Bioware.

There were two major hype points for KOTOR1 before release. One was simply that it was a Star Wars RPG, the other was that all the NPCs had full VO.

wow.

I thought a melee/unarmed build would be a viable option.

Wouldn't it be easy to include the unarmed navigation animations in the PC version, while excluding them in the console versions?

You "found" it? How do you find such a thing without looking for it? Was Garrus pouting in the cover of Time at the local newsstand? Was Garrus winking at you on a huge billboard just outside of Pozn

I don't get it. If AP has unarmed combat, how can the game not have unarmed animations?

Keep to the topic and lay off the personal insults, even if nonsensical ones. Please.

Haha.

While I won't be playing TOR as I don't go for the whole paid subscriotion deal. It seems to me that having a plot focused MMO seems a contradiction in terms, at least as far the target audiences are concerned. They'll be trying to appeal to two pratically opposed groups of customers, and as such the chance of it falling on its ass is pretty high. Also, the Star Wars licence probably means that they'll want to position the game as a WoW killer, so the chance of not meeting that goal makes failure even more likely. It's kind of an all or nothing project, I think. The game either becomes a massive multimillion dollar hit or it barely even gets off the ground. Will you be working on it, Alan? Edit: Does the "thing" involve ballroom dancing?

Your kidding right? Next-gen consoles can more than handle high detailed graphics as we have seen in many games like halo 3, call of duty, GTA IV. C'mon man be realistic. Im a gamer that looks for graphics and what this PC game is bringing is absolutly nothing compared to what the consoles can bring. Thats why the consoles were invented to bring gaming to life. That's either pretty trollish, or pretty ignorant.

I wouldn't say Fallout 3 was a move forward. I'd call it a move sideways into Bioware and Obsidian territory. So I'd imagine ES V will be Oblivion, just as lifeless but a bit smaller, with less options and about the same number and type of fetch quests. I hope they'll pick up the ball again and move the open world type RPG forward, but I'll be really surprised if they do.

You're not Jorian, are you?

Thanks, man! @Baley: The Pogues are nice and all, but for working out??

Jumping Jack

Reservoir Dogs is so awesome.

CoD4 was a very competent game. It didn't do anything new, it just did everything well. The combat was hectic and satisfying, set pieces well done, and the art direction did its job. I won't ever touch it again, but it achieves exactly what it was aiming for even if it wasn't aiming particularly high.

KOTOR is the same game as BG2, just smaller, with less quests, much shallower and easier combat, and forced party members. People say Anomen is as annoying and poorly written as Carth. I don't know, however, because I wasn't forced to carry the stupid git around. Carth, on the other hand I'll never get rid of, short of a prefrontal lobotomy