Pidesco

I think Extras is much better than The Office.

I generally have to restart the PC every time I want to boot up Mass Effect. For some reason, it seems to need a clean boot. I don't think this is Securom's problem. Bioshock, for example, was an UE3 game, with activation based Securom and, not only was it stabler, it also ran better than Mass Effect.

What, did they drop the wrestler monkeys dressed in foam suits design for the sequel?. Also, I remember watching a preview video for GoW2, and everything still seemed gray, gray, gray, gray, and a tad more gray.

So, Q1 by Sega standards actually means "Spring" (End March to June). Good to know that Colonial Marines and AP will be released in June. Fixed.

I can't say the same thing about Mass Effect, however. Ain't the variety of life grand?

The first Gears of War had about the worst art direction in the history of forever.

Youcan get a new 775 mobo for less than 50

Planet of the Dwarven Apes RPG.

That

Leave D&D behind for crying out loud! New IP!

Help the man.

It wouldn't be a step backward, it would just be different. Unless you think movies are inherently better than books. Of course, I'm 100% sure Bioware doesn't want this. No large game developer wants it at this point. Publishers are becoming more and more averse to investing on games that don't appeal to an, already established, huge customer base, probably due to ever spiraling development costs. Frankly, I think publishers need to grow a brain.

This is just one game. I'm guessing Obsidian felt a male character would work better, considering the setting and plot. You can always wait for Aliens which will doubtlessly feature prominent main female characters. And don't mind Morgoth. I'm sure he meant no harm.

Yeah, these days VO is a given, but that doesn't change my point that production costs are stunting the growth of the genre. And frankly, as I enjoy reading, I wouldn't mind if a big budget RPG was released with more limited or no voice acting. Furthermore, whether there is VO or not is kind of beside the point of whether I enjoy a game or not. It's the perceived quality of the writing (and the VO, as the case may be) that determines my enjoyment of an entertainment product. Torment was as much a game as any other RPG. It's a game with different gameplay emphasis compared to other RPGs but it's still very much a game, not a novel.

Yeah, and Mass Effect has none of that. Also, this just isn't true. Less people will play a 100 hour game than a 10 hour one, but that was just as true in the BG2 days. Now unless everyone who bought BG2 suddenly keeled over and died, I'm sure there's still an audience for such a game. There just isn't enough audience to justify a game that blows up the budget with endless voice overs and graphical shinies. Imagine how much Torment would have cost if all the lines were voiced.

They've been making their games tighter and tighter, and lighter on content, too. It seems to be due to technical progress. There's only so much content you can make when every line is voiced, and when your platform barely renders the gameworld, much less the actors to populate it.

By your count AP should be brilliantly awesome. Frankly, regarding Bioware, I really don't see much improvement in characters or roleplaying. What I see is them selling the same game over and over again to wide acclaim.

MotB's NPCs were much, much better than any NPC Bioware has ever written. ME's combat was indeed a big improvement over previous games, but almost anything is an improvement over KOTOR and JE combat. And while NWN2's combat was never any good, it was still better than the horrible mess that passed for combat in NWN. I don't see how KOTOR2's combat was worse than in the first KOTOR. It's exactly the same.

The whole performance? Bioware has yet to make a game with actual good combat, their plots are generally drivel, and the roleplaying is limited to Mother Theresa vs bully manchild. Also, I don't see why I should lower my standards regarding game writing, just because most developers are even more atrocious than Bioware in that department.

The writing and roleplaying is generally pretty bad in Bioware's games. What's better about the NPC interaction in BG2 is that they actually interacted with you, as opposed to functioning as magical monologue dispensing machines that only work at certain designated plot points, or at level up. "oh, look you saved some planet I never visited! Now I can reveal my innermost thoughts and feelings to you, even though you've kept me shut in the cargo bay for the entire game. Let's bump uglies!"

I'm betting that this will be KOTOR with a larger party. I know they are supposed to be going for a BG2 experience with Dragon Age, but seeing as this going to be on consoles, they are going to have to heavily change the combat to accommodate gamepad control. Regarding the NPC interaction, it will probably be more or less the same as every Bioware game after BG2. Then again, it has breast fondling so: SOLD!

That's macula, not makula.

But that's the point - campiness doesn't really allow to develop a character outside of being campy. What?

I think you should elaborate Morgoth, as there is no rule stating that NOLF style campiness doesn't make a good RPG.

Which ones of those did you play on the PC?