AwesomeOcelot

It's just going to be a console made by Valve, probably running linux. You could have once argued that consoles were very different in terms of hardware compared to PC, but since the Xbox, Microsoft and Sony consoles aren't really different. I think what Gabe means is the hardware is going to be designed like a console or small form factor PC, like a laptop, Chromebook, or Mac Mini. Hopefully it'll be a far more open platform, so no license required for games or peripherals, and the linux rug won't be pulled like with the PS3. I don't think Valve believes in closed platforms and paying 3rd party developers for exclusives, their problem with releasing their games on other companies platforms has been because they don't like using the technology and having the restrictions placed on them. So expect the kind of models and openness of the Steam platform and store, but in console form.

The greatest dialogue game is Fallout, followed by Bloodlines, both had skill check dialogue, Arcanum was great too, then New Vegas and Fallout 2. It's a hard sell to say that it's bad, doesn't work, and needs to thrown in the dustbin, a really hard sell.

It makes perfect sense to add modifiers to text to denote tone or add gestures, [starts sharpening blade], to show that the PC is expressing themselves in a certain manner because text does not communicate everything that would go on in conversations. Didn't make as much sense to have [iNT] This is you, using your intelligence, apparently something you don't do all the time. I'M BEING PERSUASIVE. I would love to have different success and failure states, different quests and options, different dialogue and conversation, from having speech skills, the original Fallout and Bloodlines did this a bit, and when they did it was fantastic, like The Master and Beckett.

I think the problems associated with speech skills come more from having all NPCs voiced and having to balance them against the combat skills. The speech skills in VtM: Bloodlines were great for the dialogue, and good for role playing, dialogue and the dialogue system worked in that game. This is actually a good portion of a solution assuming that someone hasn't already metagamed the hell out of that particular conversation. I know seeing that little [iNT] or (Intimidate) for me is so obvious to the point that I don't even bother reading the other options. Ideally the "charismatic" or other options would be added without knowledge that they have been. So basically once [skill or stat] hits a certain level it adds new dialogue options but with no tag or collor change or any other indicator. It's just another option. The most blatantly obvious argument against Skill > Stat is simple. When is the last time you "practiced" your intimidation? Furthermore how does one exactly get better at intimidating? On the other side of the coin...would you not find an individual who can bench press 300lbs at least a LITTLE more intimidating than a scrawny stick figure, particularly upon initial encounter? Similar examples can be provided for each skill/stat combination. I think you can practice to be more intimidating, it's about training your body language, gestures, learning how to make yourself look more imposing, dangerous, even showing feats of pain endurance by harming yourself can be intimidating. Bloodlines suggested that intimidation wasn't about brawn, a big but stupid person isn't as intimidating as a smart and mean person, so intelligence increases intimidation. Read Of Mice and Men, the small guy intimidates the big guy, because power dynamics don't always work the same way as a weight lifting competition.

That's definitely an important part of the game, and I miss that part, it's rare in new games, but I also want role playing in my dialogue, that means skill checks against my characters attributes, it makes sense in the same way combat does. My character is not necessarily going to know everything from the conversations in game that I'll need them to know. If it's multi-choice they tend to be pretty easy to game and you can't exactly set conversations up as a quiz. You can't implement that into a system without knowledge flag checks which some adventure games use, they tend to be annoying. Yeah, it's a bit of simplification to just have "science" as a skill, but then again some people have a wealth of science knowledge across disciplines, maybe not focused or expert knowledge. If you're a biochemist it's a fair bet you know quite a bit about physics, and maybe electronics and programming. In the Fallout series I never thought the knowledge that comes from the science skill was out of the question, I didn't think it was ever that specialized, only that perhaps hacking and science knowledge should be separated, as repair and science are.

The way the "speech" skill works a lot of the time in the Fallout series, especially in New Vegas, it's something your character really should have already had access to either with intelligence or charisma, but intelligence and charisma checks can be used really well in dialogue, they have been used really well in dialogue. There's also nothing wrong with technical knowledge checks, in Fallout it's medicine or science, but in middle age-like settings it could be lore or herbalism. I don't see how the skill check answers would fit a character less than the other answers provided. Obviously the original Fallout and Bloodlines do this the best, results may vary, it's not a fundamentally flawed system, it's a brilliant system, sometimes implemented badly. It's hardly a "best answer" to "win", it's use skill or don't, just like any other part of the RPG.

No.

Boo! Hiss! Boo, I say.

Total War games are great, I wouldn't write off Creative Assembly without seeing it first. Relic didn't do a bad job with 40K, at least Dawn of War 2 was great, even if Dawn of War and Space Marine are mediocre at best.

Could be because they have to accommodate people of unusually large size.

I would have guessed 2K for that character, but then that's not taking into account animation, it looks more than fine at the perspective and distance the game camera will be. Not that poly count matters for that much, Dragon Age: Origins characters apparently use 10K-12K polygons each, which is higher than Half-Life 2's 6K-8K, but you can make up your own mind about that. It's not how large a poly count you have, it's how you use them, and by that I mean have great texture artists that work with the various maps because that's clearly more important in terms of how good characters look. Some of Assassins Creed 2's models use less than Half-Life 2's models, and they look pretty good. Animation trumps all of that anyway, it's way more important to get the animation right.

I thought it was a bit strange they were using SoftImage for games, that's usually 3DS Max and Maya territory, the learning curve is going to be rough but they're all Autodesk and there's a lot of overlap between all of them. From the community pages on Unity's site it seems Maya, 3DS Max, and Blender are way more prevalent, so there's probably a lot more support for Unity integration with them.

You have to upgrade drivers sometimes but only graphics drivers and it's just one click after a message comes up asking you, PS3 updates drivers in much the same way and seems to take ages doing so. The PS3 has existed for about 6 years, the PC parts I get don't tend to fail in 6 years. That was one example. One click? What if you want to play a game that doesn't agree with certain graphic card driver, so you have to downgrade it to play it? Consoles (at least my ps3) never gave me any problem, with the exception of freeze on a few multiplat games. Taking ages doing updates? I've never experienced it, and they go automatic. Pc parts (graphic cards mostly, and they're expensive) running over 6 years? I've never bought the ultimate graphic card of a generation, but even if it lasted over 6 yeras, the multiple problems a gaming pc provide will still be there, for a much higher price. What are you doing with your graphics cards, do you ever clean the room your PC is in? Having to downgrade drivers rarely happens unless you use beta drivers, beta is beta. Is it a much higher price? You're probably going to want to have a PC anyway, so deduct that from the cost $300-400. You can get better deals on games for PC, due to more competition and less middle men, so you'll be spending less on those.

Sounds like when a game crashes and you get a sound loop.

MMO, generally the opposite of more action oriented.

It's only confusing because users coming from older Windows versions are not used to it, and some programs have already switched to this scheme while others haven't yet. In Windows 8 and beyond, it seems this will be the standard (and possibly only supported) way how it's done though, so future Windows users will learn to look for user-specific application data in "C:/Users/<USER NAME>/AppData/" from the start, so it will not be confusing to them. To them, "C:/Programs" will seem mysterious and something to be never touched. This was the case with 2000 and XP. Vista/7 added an extra layer of Roaming/Local/LocalLow. It is a bit of a mess and a complete pain in the arse to do anything with, it's very much like how linux distributions do things with there /home/[username]/.settings directory. Also use %appdata% to navigate to the [C/D/F/G]:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming or [C/D/F/G]:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data. As long as they allow me to change the directories used if I need to with an ini file located where the game exe is located I'm good.

No, the volume and effects going on were really off putting, maybe it's down to whoever produced the video though. Apart from that I have preferences about weight and presence that weren't met, maybe I just don't like the voice or accent. Of course this kind of voice acting isn't that difficult, I have no idea of any character behind it, and it doesn't give me any, same with the other clip with mission briefings recited in a dry tone, characters are way harder to voice act. Maybe I'm picky about narration though, I like Fallout, Sands of Time, Shadow of the Templars, Diablo 2, and Bastion in terms of narration. Total Annihilation's narration is OK, although it's so short and generic in content I didn't care about it at all.

We must have played different games, because to me, Beyond Good and Evil's platforming was so effortless and automated that the Assassin's Creed series could be based on it more than we'd ever know On the main story quest line, but there's some great platforming challenges to get pearls.

Voicing the protagonist limits role playing on so many levels it's incompatible with a great RPG, it limits a wide section of the game to action adventure or action RPG status. It also stifles choice and increases development costs on top of that. Never a good choice if you're making a RPG, and since Obsidian said they were making a RPG, the only sensible choice is to not voice the protagonist. Clearly a voiced protagonist isn't suitable at all for a game like DA: Origins. For games like Dishonored it's viable either way, Bioshock & Bioshock 2 didn't suffer for not having voiced protagonists, neither does the Portal, Half-Life, or Crysis (which has both) franchises .

The original Tomb Raider is one of the best 3D platformers to this day, only bested by Sands of Time and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, the level design and puzzles haven't gotten surpassed since. Beyond Good and Evil had some great platforming segments, very reminiscent of Tomb Raider. What the **** is a Zelda?

My guess, new IP RPG that's styled after Torment with Torment in the title.

They don't have to be open world, no one is asking for being able to run for an hour in any direction. You could increase the size by 2, 4, or 8 times with these games without ever coming close to approaching open world. Everything has become very tight corridors, even when outside with these games.

Voice acting is a hard skill and requires talent, there's loads and loads of games with bad voice acting, under 20 games where I thought the voice acting was great. Using actors because of their screen roles is incredibly stupid, but if a game's going to have voice actors, the well known ones are usually that way because they're good. There's plenty of talent about but even if they're relatively cheap, studio time isn't, and even seasoned pros need quite a lot of time and guidance. Casting also costs money.

This isn't some indie game, and that kind of support would just consume development resources unnecessarily. It wouldn't consume much development resources if they were using their own engine. I've got a few Unity games and it installs a bunch of stuff in the user folders and registry, so it's unlikely this feature would be possible on Windows.

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack, has the same kind of style and storytelling as World of Goo, but with very different gameplay, some of it like Gish, two games I love. Pretty much nails what it's trying to do, never overstays its welcome, has a surprisingly varied amount of gameplay in a very short game. I have only seen videos of Dishonored and X-Com, probably play them next year. Closure was also an amazing game.