Slowtrain

I'm just going to buy the regular PC edition off Amazon for $50 USD. Amazon is now the only retailer I will do business with for boxed games. I'll probably buy STALKER: Call of Pripyat at the same time. My first two game purchases of 2010! Woooo.

I'd argue that the media controls the opinions of the electorate and thus indirectly the leadership who must court the electorate in order to remain in power.

I'm sure that the official Obsidz response will be "pricing is a question for the publisher and/or the retailers-- we have nothing to do with it." That's like a lobbyist in America saying "the policy is up to Congress - we have nothing to do with it". Obsidian is essentially functioning as s subcontractor hired by Bethesda to make this game. It is highly unlikely Obs has any say whatsoever on pricing.

Depends what you like in a game. If you are looking for story and characters, then probably you won't have much interest in FO3. If you like exploration of an open world, then you'll probably enjoy the game for at least a while.

He did a pretty good job hanging in there with low health.

Again, it's a tutorial. If the NPC just gave you the ingredients it would miss that step where it teaches you how to pick them up in the first place. Yeah, you could argue 'even a 5 years old could do that', but it wouldn't be a good tutorial if it was all based on that assumption. Fair enough. One quest doesn't represent the bulk of the game regardless, so no need for me to dwell on it. I need to go collect 10 lawn chairs anyway.

To be fair, it's the Survival tutorial. It's basically meant to tell you how to pick up these things in the gameworld and then use them to prepare the healing powder. I hear you, but still, just have the npc give me the things I need. No need to turn my pc into an errand boy or girl. Understand I'm not blaming Obs directly--this kind of stuff is still too common in rpgs in general. I was just hoping Obs would raise the bar a bit. Starting the game with a fetch-it quest is just kind of blah. Hopefully, it's a rare exception to what will otherwise be a complex and surprising collection of story-related quests.

"Go find and bring me back...." Why are rpg designers, even good ones, still doing these crap fetch quests?

Nope. It's a seriously fugly game. It looks worse than games much older than it. But that being said, it's still going to be the only game I buy this year. In the end, the graphics just don't matter at all.

That Dam looks pretty large, but there's nothing I can see to really give it scale. The screenie is taking looking slightly down from above which will tend to make things look less physically massive as well.

Game developers who think they are filmmakers. Bleah. Most game developers can't even get gameplay right; maybe they should concentrate their energies there first.

Good lord. That was the game that made Witchaven look like a work of genius.

They are, get this, actually trying to revolutionize MMOs. Babes in armor. Al new, all different. :/ Umm, no? Definitely!

They are, get this, actually trying to revolutionize MMOs. Babes in armor. Al new, all different. :/

But otoh, there's Oscuro's which basically saved the game for me. I didn't really care about the gameplay. Nothing could fix the butchered setting. That's cool. I was just the opposite: Bethie's lore does nothing for me; I just wanted the gameplay fixed so I didn't feel like I had thrown my money down the drain.

I don't really think so, Bethesda is still the one who made 80% of the work, building the base for the enhancements, giving the basics for the mechanics, etc. Modders have different view points, experiences than the devs that helps improving some things according to their taste and other fans that help them. Doing 80% of the work is great. And I'm not saying its quick or easy. But doing 80% of the work is like writing 80% of the book. It's a lot, but it's not enough.

But otoh, there's Oscuro's which basically saved the game for me.

Mods are great. Not all mods, of course, but the concept in general. AS we've seen from the last few Bethsoft games, the mods are usually far superior in every way to the vanilla game itself. (A fact that I think in some ways Bethesda should find highly embarrassing, still I hope not too embarrassed to stop realising the construction kits) So NV is a new game that is like a mod, except from a fulltime studio that makes game for a living. Sounds like the best of both worlds to me.

So I've been playing this on and off for the last week. Anyone lookign for a first person sandbox rpg should at least give this a try. AFter all, its free. And very good. Much better than Oblivion.

All of you who are into this should try the Oblivion TC in the other thread. It's quite good. ANd I speak as someone who hated Oblivion. But the TC, while having to retain some similarities to the vanilla game, is nonetheless extremely impressive. And you can swim and run off cliffs, if you choose. Also, it's free.

Private interest groups are pretty much the most frightening force on the planet, barring a few governments, given the large amount of power thay often wield along with an astounding lack of accountability for the "decisions" they make.

Why anybody anywhere thinks these are a good idea is completely beyond my comprehemsion.

It may not have been their intention, but it sort of pokes the entire "achievement" fad (which is laughable) in the eye with a big rod in a satirical way. Achievement: Veneral Disease? Surely, that's all ready been done.

Lesbian ninjas dual-wielding katanas while riding miniguns.

Depends on context. The WItcher didn't need them. Other places they might be fine.