Slowtrain

maybe. In some far flung future. Long after humanity has turned to dust.

Even at its best DX combat and movement mechanics were a bit clumsy and awkward feeling. Haven't played it for quite a while so I don't really know how I would react to it now. ANd yeah, the AI was stinky, but really has AI improved much since then? Maybe, but not nearly enough imo.

I have really big hopes Squeenix is going to test that theory at some point. I would love to be proved wrong in the worst way.

the Giants mod for Morrowind was outstanding. It added a lot of awesome creatures. Morrowind also had the Adventurers mod which made a lot of great changes and made the game even more interesting. But, yes, I agree MW had less need of mods than Oblivion. By a lot.

If Deus Ex was released for the first time today with better graphics it would get panned across the board and sell about 8 copies. It would be considered too slow, clumsy. and confusing. It would also have too many big words.

All you really need is Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul + the unofficial patches.

This should answer your question. OOO improvoed the game dramatically for me, but it still didn't really make it "good". I've said it before, and I'll say it again, if anybody wants the Oblivion experience in a different, more successful, though still flawed, package, the Nehrim TC is worth taking a look at.

But I need time to think which escort from Bio-Date Corporation I take to the bunk! It's serious business! ALways take the one with the most fur.

Just don't go make a sandwich or do the laundry while you're involved in dialogue about the end of the universe. It's a good moral lesson.

Mine (vanilla game) were loose in a dvd case. WHy are you looking for the disks? More coasters for a holiday party? To play. And I happen to have it installed right now. I played a bit of it last night and was quite pleased. Interesting. Didn't you say earlier that originally you found it boring? What do you think you are seeing in the game this time that you weren't when you played previously? Are you playing with some mods? Or the vanila game?

Don't get me wrong. As a gamer, I think Bioware has settled into a very uninteresting niche. But I can't really criticize the desire to make money, especially after so many other developers have failed to survive.

The thing is alot of the old BG/BG2/NWN crowd will probably buy ME/DA anyway, but the newer crowd raised on DA and ME probably won't buy BG. So its not that the BG crowd is being dismissed, it's just being taken advantage of a bit.

I'm surprised the numbers are so small. At this point I would have expected an overwhelming majority of gamers to be regular dlc purchasers.

Is 26 people a crowd?

BW stopped making games for tabletop grognards and D&D geeks a long time ago. Which is probably why they are still in business

It's made BW (and many unrelated others) a lot of money though. Emo wierdness is a big draw.

Mine (vanilla game) were loose in a dvd case. WHy are you looking for the disks? More coasters for a holiday party? On ecompliment I can give Oblivion is the great variety of enemy critters. Much better than say FO3. The ES has always been pretty good at that. Hopefully it will continue.

Spork syndrome is always a concern when games try to do to many things. Personally, I would give some kudos to BW for not falling into the "every game must have mp" mindset

I think the idea would be that splitting out dev time on multi-player lessens time spent on the single player game.

Fixed that for you... People seem to like it though. As bizarre as that sounds...

I'd love to see an xp system as well, but like you I think it unlikely. If they would just get rid of the variations in the modifier for stat increases at level up and just gave every char a consistent number that would be enough to make me very happy. One problem with th current ES char system is that skill books and bobbleheads aren't worth very much, so they'd have to rethink how to replace those.

And anyway as both Hurlie and Virunor pointed out FO3 is different, and much much improved, in regards to level scaling. The level scaling is far les intrusive, partially because there are no npc pig farmers and goat herders wearing elven cuirasses and carrying ebony claymores. and hopefully this FO3 approach will carry over into Skyrim.

I'll always remember that Chargers helmet. RIP.

FO3 doesn't really use level scaling, but area scaling. You'll run into yao guai at level 3 if you head to the western part of the map; the higher your level, the higher the chance they'll also spawn in other places. It uses area scaling in a few areas, which is much better, and KUdos to Beth for that choice. But it still uses level scaling for populating the majority of the world. If SKyrim works like FO3 that will be aok with me.

While Im not 100% sure, I believe Kelverin lost his battle with oral cancer and passed away earlier this year. For the last 6-7 years he was part of our fantasy football league and when he didnt report in this year a few of us went looking for him. His real name shows up on an obituary in his home town, his email has been disconnected and calling his telephone results in a different person now answering. Maybe he just took the long walk into the internet wasteland but Im fairly certain hes gone. That's very sad.