Slowtrain

I don't know if putting a game in the Firefly universe is enough to make it a "Firefly" game. Firefly, unlike say Star Wars was really about the characters. SUre, there was that neo-American west feel to it, but it was the characters that made the universe interesting, not the other way around. Star Wars, otoh, can get away with simply having a "star wars universe" filled with different and unknown characters. I don't know if a firefly game can.

That looked great in 720! I do agree it looks a little too shiny; the environment could use some Firefly style grunge to make things look a little more lived in. ANd the graphics seemed to have an odd plastic sheen that made them feel a little flat, pretty but flat. It will be interesting to see if they can pull off this squad-based tactical gaming in this style of game. Looking Glass did it pretty well with Terra Nova many years ago, but I haven't played anything that does it well since. I look forward to the day when Jag 2 style games can be done in a more FPS-style. I hope there is more to the gameplay than just travel to planet X, land, start shooting, then go back to aspace station for a bit more dialogue. Right now the gameplay seems a little thin. I thought the framerate was OK. A few hitches here and there on some of the effects, but otherwise not too bad. Playable, anyway. Dialogue and voice-acting were wretched. I felt like I was watching Attack of the Clones and listening to Anakin and Padme proclaim their love. gah. Hopefully that's just filler.

That's not entirely true. I for one, am still holding off on purchasing NWN2. If the game continues to be patched and supported and positive word of mouth builds, then I would gladly pay full retail for the game in a few weeks or so. If support begins to peter out at this point or soon after, then I will consider my position of waiting on a major game relase to prove itself once again vindicated, and will pass on purchase. Perhaps down the road I would pick it up in the bargain bin or something. Perhaps not.

It's quite true that I am not one of the best of humanity's children, intelligence-wise or any other-wise. Nonetheless, I quite enjoy reading. Books, cartoons, screenplays, magazines, etc and so forth. I don't however enjoy reading my games. A little reading can be a good thing. Fallout 1, for example, which is probably my favorite crpg, never struck me as a game in whcih the reading was an onerous task. In PS:T, the reading struck me as an onerous task. IMO, PS:T would have been well-served by cutting the combat altogther, editing down some of the text-heavy areas, and adding more adventure game elements. As a D&D adventure game, I think it would have been more focused and probably more generally well-recieved

No, I just mean edited. Even the best authors have editors. Sometimes, oftentimes, less is actually more.

^I'm afraid I lack the supercomputer neccessary to run the aforementioned Alan Wake.

I agree. But I've heard so many devs claim ground-breaking AIs in their soon to be released games, but which turn out in the end to be just broken AIs. the Dark engine which powered Thief and SS2 was quite good for its time in creating AI's that could respond to sound and motion. Combat AI's in games like FEAR and Far Cry are quite good and are not rare anymore. Other devs have laid claim to emergent gameplay. I think Harvey Smith was big into that term when pimping DX2. But, hey, somebody is eventually goign to get it right. Maybe that someone is Ken Levine and maybe that time is mid-2007! w000t! or something. :joy:

I don't disagree with that. I think PS:T failed for a variety of reasons Irrelevant combat is probably more interesting than irrelevant dialogue. Not for everybody of course, but maybe for the mainsteam audience. Anyway PS:T was the embodiment of irrelevant combat and had a huge amount of irrelevant reading. I think it would have been a better game if a lot of that text had been edited out. Stream-lined so to speak. Fallout and even BG struck a better balance between time spent reading and time spent doing. edit: quote fixing

If the cover was Annah with her saline enhancements and tummy tuck, sales double! Not many impulse buys on some weird lookign blue guy with a bad do.

^I wasn't meaning to sound down on Bioshock. This is the one game currently in development that I might make a leap of faith on and buy the day it is released. I agree with almost all of Ken Levine's game development philosophies, and Thief and especially SS2 remain some of my favorite games. So if Bioshock is "only" as good as SS2 and does little more than rehash SS2 gameplay mechanics in a different world, that's more than OK with me. And just becasue the setting doesn't particularly compel me now, doesn't mean it won't make for an interesting game in the end. SOme of what Levine says appears contradictory however. He talks about creating a game that will make everyone rethink what an FPS is all about, but then he turns around and talks about hacking turrets, shooting cameras, and using different ammo types on different targets, all of which is really really old news. So I've yet to really figure out what part of Bioshock he is intending to be so redefining of the genre. Maybe he just means that he hopes that Bioshock will bring the gameplay mechanics of SS2 to a much wider audience that may not be familiiar with them. Therefore while Bioshock may not redefine the genre for the relatively small number of gamers who have previous experience with SS2 or DX, it may help redefine it for a larger audience who is used to only Doom and Quake? Maybe? I don't know. Its not very clear what he is attempting to say.

That was an interesting interview, but I've yet to see anything about how Bioshock ias going to make people rethink the entire FPS genre. It still seems nothing more than a rehash of SS2. Perhaps the AI enhancements and better graphics will give it more impact on the gaming public than SS2 had And I still don't find the setting particuarly compelling. Still, interesting to see how it turns out.

Hi, I'm not attacking anyone. Just having some fun with Roshan. @rosh: I was referring there to good buddy Reekwind. In all seriousness, Grommy postulated on the possible why's for the failure of PS:T. And I am merely responding that the reason I didn't like it, and why I know some others didn't like it, is that PS:T is a very static game: You walk from place to place and do a lot of reading and that's about it. And a lot of the reading was about really inconsequential yet really drawn out stuff. Like Reekwind. Plus the cover looked cheesy as hell. IIRC, it was a BIS employee in a wig. Good grief. PS:T did some OK stuff, but it was doomed to failure, I think. Rightly or wrongly.

Yes, the pinnacle of computer role playing is a game where alignment, class choice and race had 0 impact on dialogue. You are kidding yourself. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No no the pinnacle is obviosuly a game where an npc was given 6 panels to talk about his farts. quality!

that is maybe why ps:t were loved by some, and failed with so many others. HA! Good Fun! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Nah, it failed because games are meant to be played not read. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Typical complaint of the common low IQ and/or attention deficit PST basher. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> awesome! Also, it failed because the cover was a big blue ugly bastard. Totally gross.

that is maybe why ps:t were loved by some, and failed with so many others. HA! Good Fun! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Nah, it failed because games are meant to be played not read.

And just to reiterate, I am not bashing D&D in and of itself. There is a huge difference between p&p D&D where a good DM can really make a campaign interesting and CRPG D&D where the developers can't even program an AI that can figure out a way around a small rock in its path. And really, it is an even more hideous gaffe in a D&D crpg vs an original setting like the Elder Scrolls, cause all the rules and monsters and mechanics and balancing and classes have already been done in D&D. All the devs really need to concentrate is building an intersting story out of an existing ruleset. In Oblivion the devs needed to build and balance the ruleset AND create the world AND create the adventure. I cut them more slack because of that, even if the Persuasion wheel is the single dumbest thing ever in a crpg. My opinion, of course.

Granted, mm blows at low level, except as a spell stopper against opposing casters in some games. But my point was less about MM specifically than about the repetitive nature of D&D crpgs. Same spells, same monsters, same weapons, same stats, etc and so forth. I think there needs to be an charge laid upon developers, that if they are going to keep plumbing the exact same ground over and over again, then they better work darn hard to make that ground as interesting and attractive as possible. Now this is not a knock against D&D specifically, since any rule system game gets less interesting if it is overused. But, D&D, as implemented in CRPGS, is not the most complex and interesting of rulesets, either in its actual use or the end results it creates, so it suffers worse than other rulesets might from overuse. What I was hoping for from NWN2 was a game that would a really fun and interesting game that would make its use of the D&D ruleset something I could overlook. Based on everyone's posts that I've been reading I don't hold out much hope for this to be the case anymore. Just my take on it of course. Personally speaking.

Oblivion's character skill creation and development was a disaster. A joke. Designed by people who are afraid that ADD teenagers won't be able to stay interested long enough to recommend the game to their friends. No question. However, D&D in all its incarnations is so dead and dried out that's like a stuffed moose hanging over the fireplace. How many ****ing times can I take magic missile as my first level spell before I'm grotesquely bored with the whole process. Sure D&D isn't a great CRPG ruleset, actually its pretty poor without a live DM to make it work. But its biggest problem for me is that its simply overdone. I don't have much motivation to spend money on another one more time here we go again D&D crpg anymore. For the kids its still fresh though, so good on them. Oblivion may not be good, from a rules perspective, but at least its not something I've played thirty times already. And, like I said, D&D ain't real good either in a crpg setting either, so its not like we are comparing genius to idiocy

I wouldn't really say I am excited, but I loved Fallout and I love DF/MW/Oblivion (yes, there are some of us who can find love for both FO and Elder Scrolls!) so I think there's a lot to be said for combing the best aspects of each. Of course, we may end up with the worse aspects of each, which is why I'm not excited. I'm interested in seeing what happens with it though.

awesome.

I didn't think it was possible to play a game a 2 fps. 2 fps isn't a game; it's a slideshow.

150MB is pretty big for save game file. I wonder what info is being saved that takes up that much space. My Vampire saves are around 700k, my Oblivion saves are around 2 MB, and even my X2 saves are only 5 MB. X2 is a huge non-linear game that has over 100 sectors that are all constantly changing in realtime. I can only imagine the amoutn of info that has to be kept track of there. I wonder if NWN2 is saving images as part of its save files? Or sound? I can't imagine what else would take up that kind of space.

Celerity is just so awesome its silly. I'll match your gunslinging Toreador with my Brujah buffed with Potence and Celerity. Wheeee! How many times can you hit your enemies while they are spinning about in mid-air!? ^_^

Awesome. *Adds Hell Kitty's mojo to list*

^_^