Slowtrain

I'll just take a moment to pessimitically point out that the IW trailer drew raves also.

Fatman could have been fine if there were like 5 mini-nukes in the whole game and it weighed like 200 lbs/kg whatever. As it stands, it was storage locker material, never to see the light of day. So that's fine, I'll just keep ignoring it in NV. First time I tried to fire the Fatman, I aimed it poorly and managed to hit a rock outcropping instead of the group I was aiming for and nuked myself. I reloaded and shot it again and missed, probably nuking some innocent wasteland wanderer who had no idea what was going on 100 yards away. Mini-nuke critical failures would make the silly thing worth something.

I hope Aram appreciates this. Christ on crutches, I'm having flashes of Aram's 5,000-word manifesto on handloading back during Van Buren. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw you were around. Well not really, but I was surprised, yet pleased.

Coundn't agree more. That text detail was an enormous loss in Bioshock as well. Awesome item descriptions and details rule.

Fatman could have been fine if there were like 5 mini-nukes in the whole game and it weighed like 200 lbs/kg whatever. As it stands, it was storage locker material, never to see the light of day. So that's fine, I'll just keep ignoring it in NV.

Free health sucks in a game where death is something to be avoided and especially in resource management gameplay. Nonetheless, if that's the only problem, its not a big deal though. It is however a big fat X in the negatives column.

I hope Aram appreciates this.

Not to mention Bethesda sounds like a great producer. Can't be worse than Sega, that's for sure. I've been very impressed, from what we've heard, about the way Beth is handling their role in NV's development. IF this sort of thing keeps up, I may have to stop slamming them.

I'll agree that the gfx were not high end, even for the time. Dunno if I would say they were average though. Regardless, and more importantly, I've heard people say that DX wasn't great at any one thing, gameplay wise. Not a great shooter. Not a great stealther. Not a great rpg. Not a great story. etc and so forth. And I would tend to agree. But what DX did do, what made it a great game, was that it put all these different gameplay styles into a one game better than, well, really any game ever. And on top of that added its own particular brand of panache. So yes, in a sense, average gameplay. But no, not really. It's one of those games that has never yet been surpassed or equalled in its particular idiom.

I'm just happy that Sega has NOTHING to do with this whatsoever. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Happy, happy, happy. That was apparently a match made in Hell. Or something.

Yep, it looks fine to me. *scratches head* The spate of somewhat extreme anti-AP reactions seems so odd.

Considering its Obsidian when wasn't it. There are most of these issues but they are exterrageted. They are not worse than in most other Games. So, if you don't go into a negative mindset into this game there is a good chance you will like it. If I had plenty of money, I would just buy it and take my chances. But, while I can afford the occasional game purchase, I really can't afford to throw away the money on a game that I don't enjoy or that's just too buggy. If Sega/Obs released a patch, it would at least reassure me that they are standing by the game and working to make it better. Right now, I can't even tell if they just released the game to get what money they could from gamers and are just glad to be done with it. If that is the case, I really don't want to spend money on the game. No way to tell of course. Unless time and money are spent developing a patch or two.

The opinion split on this game is remarkable. I read one post and I feel like, yeah, all right, sounds good, I'll get it tomorrow. Then I read the next post and I'm like, yeah, all right, sounds like a potential POS, I'll pick it out of the bargain bin in a few months for 1/3 the price. meh.

Nope it doesn't, but it may very well change how "quality" is defined by the gamer. I would say quality si as much subjective in a game as it is objective. Just look at the current opinions on Alpha Protocol. Everyone is playing the same game, objectively, but the opinions on quality are varying enormously.

I'll buy it if it gets a patch, one at least. If not then, I dunno. I've been looking forward to this game for a while, but I'm quite disappointed that it appears such a chop job. I was expecting more. If Obs and Sega stand by the game with a patch or two, then I'll feel a little more positive about spending my money. And, yes, I enjoyed Bloodlines. The development of this game has been a mess from Day 1, it seems. Where the fault lies, Sega or Obs, I have no idea.

ALso did a bunch of other cool VA roles.

Yeah, the form compression comes off kinda wonky. A lot of weird foreshortening happening there. Also, wtf with those eyebrows? Devil-man?

Which quest? Don't know the "official name" but its the Save the Farm From Goblins quest that takes place outside of Chorrol. Wes Johnson VAs the father and both the brothers. He does a good job giving them slightly different voices that suit each character. See? Humans, mutants, robots... But this one might also actually be a good VA if he really managed to pull off what Slowtrain said. That was priceless. I'm not saying he's the greatest VA ever. But he's solid enough for a video game. To me its more of a Bethesda issue anyway. If they want one voice actor to do a huge number of parts, that's their call.

This always bugged me. I mean, I'm no expert but if they do VO for multiple characters, and use the exact same voice (their "default" voice, if you will) for all of them, can we still call them voice actors (i.e. are they really earning their pay)? I'll just point out that there's a quest in Oblivion where Wes Johnson plays all three npcs involved in the quest. There's a point near the end, where al three npcs will be talking with you and to each other at the same time. So basically, that's Wes Johnson having a three way convo with himself. He pulls off making all three voices slightly different quite well. Blame Bethesda for putting him in that dumb a situation by not hiring a handful of additonal voice actors to provide some variety.

Ahh, the great days of HoMM. If I can find my copy I might take you up on your offer. I always preferred the single maps scenarios to the campaigns, which I never felt were very interesting. HoMM 3 was always my fave, too. What size is your map? I like the huge ones best. Lots of room to stretch out and explore.

We only get really upset when a boobie is shown at halftime at the Superbowl. Then it's a national outrage, of course.

*waits for Volourn*

I think Yahtzee is like reality television. Ultimately, the entertainment is much more important than the reality.

That's true. I was thinking about the non-explosive traps when I wrote that. But doesn't it make matters worse then? Having 2 skills that perform the same function? Perhaps simply have one "technical aptitude" skill that deals with solving, troubleshooting, repairing, hacking anything of a technical nature? Perhaps combine trap disarming with lockpicking? There's no right answers here, of course, just possiblities, but I think working through a game's skill lists and tightening things up makes for ultimately a stronger game And again, I'm not trying to say that crpgs should be forced to have extremely limited skill lists neccessarily, but rather that the skills just be very definitely DIFFERENT skills rather than several variations on a particular "flavor" of skill.

I would say you keep it simple enough that each skill has an obvious use that is plainly different from other skills and has worthwhile in-game use. Why is disarming traps in FO3 repair and not science or perhaps explosives or even lockpicking? It seems a very arbitrary choice and when something gets that arbitrary I think its time to go back and review the skill list again because you're doing something wrong.