Slowtrain

I am just hoping that ES 5 draws a lot more from Fallout 3 than it does from ES 4. Otherwise, continuing the current downhill trend from Daggerfall to Morrowind to Oblivion will practically guarantee that ES 5 is the worst game ever made. Oblivion is idiotic on practically every level.

Is it worth playing as a game? Or is it just a curiosity?

I think you're right. Damage rating for weapons appears to have some aspect of a damage per second or a damage over time rating. When I looked at the minigun, I believe its damage was 34. I thought that was pretty impressive at first, thinking it would be 34 damage per shot with a very high rate of fire. But I don't think it was doing nearly that sort of damage when I used it; its 34 damage is not a per shot damage. The missile launcher, otoh, definitely does its listed damage on a single hit.

How long though does a game company have to last to be considered a success? How many games need to be released? I'm sure Troika wanted to stay in business longer and release more games; so does every company. I think to label companies that go under as failures is pretty hash and dismissive of all the effort that goes into running one's own business. If Obsidian goes out of business now, with ALiens being cancelled and Alpha Protocol unreleased, is Obsidian a failure? If AP is released, but Obsidian still goes out fo business, are they a failure then?

Passionate and yet misguided.

*shrugs* I don't think Troika did any worse than some other developer studios in that regard. Sir Tech failed; Looking Glass failed; Troika failed. They all made games and ran out of money so they had to close the doors. No reason to put Troika in a different category.

Small game studios seem to have short lifespans. They either run out of money or get bought up by a larger entity. Or both. I don't think one can say Troika failed anymore than one can say Looking Glass failed.

Most of the studios that designed worthwhile games did go out of business: Troika, Sir Tech, Microprose, Looking Glass... There's no shame in being included in that list.

John Romero should be the only person on that list.

Pcs just look cool carrying the flamer as well!

You should max that out ASAP. The better weapons fall under Small Guns. Big Guns are useless. They are nothing like the first two Fallouts in damage. The flamer rules at close range in real time combat. I don't know how well it works in VATS, but in real time multiple enemies are often charging in at you really fast. The flamer takes down those multiple targets pretty fast. Its lethal. The minigun was disappointing at first use, but I really haven't played with it much too much. Fallout 3 is lot like a slightly more complex Diablo 2. WHich explains why DR likes it so much!

That's awesome. If you get into it, and just accept it for what it is, the game can be a lot of fun. SOme of the dialogue lines are pretty funny. Especially the jerky ones. "I'm from the Family. Let me in." lol. ps: to disarm landmines:

FOr me, the absolute best part of this game, the part that screams fun, is a) the sledgehammer b) mines c) the flamer DOing horrible things to enemies with those three devices is a constant source of amusememt. Sad. Innit.

This stuff doesn't bother me. I'm immune. I played Oblivion. Nothing will ever be that generic, empty and poorly written again. The only thing the review seemed to comlain about was the boring faux-rt combat and the generic nature of the gameworld. Those things don't bother me.

I can't argue with you. Its a hit or miss game really. You're either going to get into running around the wastelands or not. Its not a crpg; its not an adventure game, it has no story that is worthwhile, your pc isn't going to make any difference in the gameworld. Its the typical Bethesda crap where nothing really matters, but do it anyway. Just because its there. For me, that's enough, because I like those sorts of games. My biggest complaint is VATS and the sucky FPS combat. If they had made this a better fps game, it could have been really fab. Combat is so clunky that it is painful. Only melee weapons feels OK.

I agree. There's nothing wrong with gameplay mechanic of weapon degradation, but the rates in almost all games are way too high, where it just becomes annoying without adding anything to the gameplay.

I'm still considering it. Husby is going in for major eye surgery in a couple of weeks, so I won't be doing much game playing until after he's recovered. If I do get it, I'll post my impressions here after I've played for a bit. Thanks, Di. I hope things go well for you and husband.

lol. Awesome. On a completely unrelated note: WHy the hell can't my character run? Every NPC in the game can sprint like the gates of hell are closing in behind them. ANd they never get tired. edit: Just to point out that in true Bethesda fashion, my character appears to move faster walking backwards than walking forwards.

Do explain this, I haven't read the review fully, but it seemed to list all the really horrible flaws that I found when playing the demo. IT sounded like a reasonably complex and fun crpg?

ABsolutely. That's the strength of the game. I've got 4 different pcs in play currently and they have all gone directions on leaving the vault. Each one had different experiences and found different things.

Seriously? I recommend:

That review made the game sound pretty decent. I hate going on reviews though. Di, did you end up getting this?

This level of ignorance is actually nauseating. February can't be over soon enough. Good ****ing riddance! COme on, dude. That's harsh. DR brings her own slant to things without attacking anyone. Without her, and others, life on boards like this would be deadly dull.

WHat do you guys do once your char is maxed to the current max level? DO you put them away until the next xpack comes out and start new characters? Is there stuff for a fully maxed character to do? IS there still challenge in the game? I onyl ask becuase all of you seem to have 80 level chars that are pretty um tyte.

Bethesda did a pretty good job balancing the skills. They are all pretty useful in their own way. I've recently started using the flamer in combat a lot and it is pretty useful against charging melee enemies. That and mines are my current way of dealing with combat at the moment. EVen with a very high small guns skill, they are pretty weak and take a lot of shots to kill things.