Fairplay

I don't know. I thought ToEE was pretty good once it was thouroughly patched. Bloodlines was pretty good too. I think the biggest problem was that they never focused on making sequels. Horseshoes one day, knives the next. Once they figured out how to make a good horseshoe, they should have stuck to making horseshoes. At least for a while.

That's it! Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds, James Woods - You're all on my no-see list!

Is it true that Muslims are not supposed to make any depictions of living creatures? I thought that was absurd, but then I thought about Islamic art and I know they have a lot of geometric designs n' stuff but I can't think of any famous portraits or anything. If that's the case, then why are movies and TV n' stuff okay? Or do only extremists take it that far- like in Taliban Afghanistan?

I hope Palmer had insurance.

I think it's odd that someone would complain about not being able to get certain components and spells and junk in VIII (great game) but doesn't care a whit about the awful Knights of the Round materia in VII. Now THAT was awful.

The only one I didn't like was IX. The minigames were horrid, and I didn't like the characters or the setting. Also, I never played XI. However, I haven't really loved an FF since VI. What was really neat was watching the improvement from IV to VI. It seemed like they really wrung the animations, sounds, controller input, and the cartridge memory, among other things, for every ounce of value. Plus, I liked the characters - and there were a lot of them. There were a lot of optional quests to pursue. I was really blown away at the half-way point in the game. No FF since then has had as much optional material in it, which makes them feel overly linear.

That game is so old. But they haven't made an english language game even remotely similar to it since then, AFAIK. Maybe Monster Rancher is sort of the same, but not really.

I don't like the polar-opposite NPC rival thing. It might be fun to have a quest/motivation dealing with handling an NPC that is supposed to be the "chosen one". *Kill* "See. I told you he wasn't the chosen one!" *runs from angry mob* or You aid the buffoon in saving his village by accomplishing many tasks and making many sacrifices. Then you bite your tongue while the village rewards the chosen one. or You tell the truth about how it was really you who saved the village. Then get ridiculed by the entire town. Something like that.

There was a tiefling that used punch-daggers in the game, right? I call her rat-girl because I can't remember her name and she had a tail. The insects were in the game. I like to play RPGs thouroughly. You could interact with them very much like familiars in SoA. I forget what they were called, but you could buy them from a merchant someplace in the ciy, I think.

1. Shadows of Amn. It was quite a big game. I really liked the stronghold concept. They took the partner/relationship system in BG1 and made it fun. The characters were well written. I know this is sacrilige to most people- but I thought the characters that join you were better than the ones in PS:T. There were more of them and they had more psychological depth and more interesting stories. I liked the fact there were major quests to fulfill for each NPC. Sure, PS: T had interesting and zany characters like Morte, rat-girl, etc. - but while the basic concept was interesting, they never really drew me into their personal stories and their relationships and personal development was a *yawn* IMO. Also, Unlike many RPGs before it, the NPCs stuck around even after you dismissed them. It always causes me anxiety when NPCs disappear or go beserk (like in ToEE). The voice work was great. BG 1 had nice voicework, but BG 2 was great. It was at least as good as games like Grand Theft Auto, but without even having the celebrity factor working for them. (or is that nostalgia?) Basically, I thought SoA was a great game with lots of content and many many extra touches that most other game developers wouldn't put in (like class specific strongholds). 2. BG 1(w/ TotSC) - The ambitious first project. Big game. Lots of NPCs. 3. PS: T - It was a good game. I liked the originality of the main character design. They played with some cool concepts (like the insect pets) but didn't really successfully develop any. I didn't think the story was bad, but I didn't think it was anything to rave about. Also, the CD killed my disk drive, so maybe I should recuse myself from this case. 4.Throne of Bhaal. It was too linear. However, viewed simply as an add-on, it was quite adequate. It added some more details to Sarevok's character. I liked it. 5. IWD - I just don't like the concept. Hack n' slash without much plot development. No NPCs to develop. System that doesn't allow for much customization of characters except a little at generation. What's the point? I guess if you liked that kind of game, it might be okay, but Diablo might be better. 6. IWD 2. It was probably better than IWD, but I never played it.

I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been a game with animal-people running around killing each other. Everybody sticks with elves, dwarves, ogres, etc. You'd think it would have been done by now. Master of Orion had animal-people. Other settings with animal people include Usagi Yojimbo, Ninja Turtles, Brian Jaques and Cerberus. It's really quite a common idea. I'd like to see a graphic intensive ToEE style game with animal-people instead of DnD settings. While the graphics themselves wouldn't have to be incredible, there would have to be lots of animations. Animations for things like the rabbit samurai decapitating that spear wielding panda bear. Ya know- cute and bloody! I'm not sure if it's a good idea, but it must be done!

Forget ethics. I don't understand how this is even supposed to work. Don't share-holders elect the officers of a corporation? Are they threatening the shareholders for voting poorly? Are they going to hold foreign based corporations to the same standards? The idea just seems strange. Can anyone explain it?

I think sequels are great. Temple of Elemental Evil could have used a sequel. Fallout 2 was great. Gothic II was great. Baldur's Gate 2 was great. I like sequels.

I'm not sure what you mean by Western. I like the Gothic series, and I think they're made by Germans. Silent Storm's made by Russians, I think. I think there are some indications that some Japanese companies that develop console games might be flirting with ideas gleened from PC games. Radiata Stories (for PS2) uses a 24-hour schedule system, much like Gothic. But maybe not. In any case, I don't remember a time when there actually were a lot of good RPGs on the market. In fact it's kind of incredible that Troika, Bioware, and Obsidian all existed at the same time in the recent past. All three companies were pretty much exclusively devoted to making big, expensive RPGs. That's not even counting companies like inXile or Black Isle or Bethesda or "non-Western" RPG makers. So, in summary and in conclusion...I think there are comparatively lots of RPGs available now... but still not enough.

What happened to that werewolf game like Silent Storm? I forget the name. Is it still coming out?

Gothic and Gothic II are really good. If you like Jagged Alliance 2, you might also like Silent Storm. Also, if you haven't, go play Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. It has a lot of RPG elements and is a lot of fun.

About the OP/CF debate.... The obvious answer is that Smiling Mountain was kicked out of Phoenix Gate for spouting BS philosphy that didn't make any sense. He's a darkside master trying to corrupt jedi away from the lightside by confusing the issue.

Just to clarify my earlier gripe about the story... ancestor worship isn't limited to just China but is common throughout China-influenced cultures, even today. Thus it would seem like an appropriate approach to take towards spirits instead of the "go into the light" approach.

"Jade Empire isn't China. Why are people expecting China?" I think in the "making of" video one of the guys said the Jade Empire was like ancient China if all the myths and legends were true. Also, they obviously went out of their way to make things Chinese. There are even Buddha statues in one area, which I thought was inappropriate since it isn't supposed to actually be China and including a real world religious figure seems inappropriate. They also name it the "Jade Empire" with jade being a Chinese obsession. As I said before, almost all the names are Chinese. Sun, Li, etc. That alone makes me think this is supposed to be Sinoesque <---if that's even a word. That and I have eyes. On an unrelated subject- didn't the story to this game remind you of Final Fantasy x? Except, sadly, FF's was better.

Oh yeah... Open Palm and Closed Fist are stupid too. It's stupid in concept, but was especially stupid because it wasn't well developed and barely had any effect, AFAIK. If they felt the need to have some sort of aggregate accounting of your actions, they might have included an "honor system" where you accrue honor for certain actions and possibly lose honor for a few dishonorable actions. I'm not saying to take out good and evil choices. Just that there wasn't any point to a lightside/darkside meter. One other thing that bugged me about the main story and world design was how spirits were treated. If Jade Empire was inspired by Chinese culture and mythology, I think spirits should have been venerated and treated more like living ancestors or possibly like family gods instead of like poltergeists and zombies that need to be put to rest. Bioware made a big deal about how they wanted to make this game Asian-inspired, but they took a inappropriate and boring approach to the undead. Such a big deal was made out of "restless spirits" and there wasn't a single family shrine.

It was okay. It was missing a lot and it seemed like they probably ran into problems making this game. One thing I really liked is that I don't think I ran into any bugs. I haven't completely explored the game, but I played through once. Here are some of my views on Jade Empire: On the combat system The martial arts concept wasn't really done well. Each style had about four attacks and really, they only consisted of two basic attacks (mashing the quick attack button and strong attack) It doesn't really do a lot for the mystique or coolness of the fighting styles. While the developers claimed that there were several fighting styles, there were basically only five styles to choose from: martial, weapon, magic, support, and transformation. For the most part, (with maybe one exception) the only difference between individual styles within the same category was the visual representation. Sure, the support and magic styles had slight differences but nothing that made them interesting. I think it would have been better if magic was one style and the different elements corresponded to different attacks. While they were at it, they could have buffed up the other styles with more attacks too (perhaps unlockable moves) or even somehow combining support and martial styles to make more interesting fighting styles. The RPG, Gothic had a somewhat similar combat system, but Gothic wasn't supposed to be a martial arts game and the game allowed more freedom and things to do. The different enemy "types" was stupid too. Just make every style and enemy an individual instead of cramming everything into a few "types" and then giving them different skins and animation. The follower system wasn't very good either. Ultimately, swithching styles just didn't have the coolness of a kung-fu movie which is what the basic goal should have been. On Tho Fan Tho Fan was an interesting idea. However, in execution, it was more suited to a KOTOR game. While it was certainly better than the gibberish in those games, it didn't sound asian at all to me. I don't know why they didn't just use some chinese dialect or at least developed a more chinese sounding language. Most of the characters already have Chinese names, so I don't know why they felt the need to create Tho Fan. On the sounds, voice acting, and music Not bad, but I kind of expected something great. KOTOR II did a great job with this. The GTA games do a good job and I liked the voice work in the previous Baldur's Gate (and even NWN) games better than what was done in Jade Empire. It wasn't horrible, but it could have been much much better. Same with the music. One thing I liked was how they included different comments based on the players choices. It wasn't used much, but there are places where different comments are made based on what character you chose and what nickname you might have picked. On the story I can't really complain too much about it since it kept me engaged, but upon reflection, it really isn't very good. I feel like a lot of the more interesting characters, like the Gaos, were wasted on this game. I felt like the followers were not really developed. For me, that kind of ruins an RPG. That is my biggest complaint. On miscellaneous things -I'm getting tired of making topics I liked the faces. They looked good in the movies and when they were talking. It would have been much better if the audio was up to snuff. The flyer was boring. It could have been much cooler. They include a possible female-female romance but you don't get to see anything remotely good! What's up with that?!!! Gems. Stupid. The Gem interface in the "making of" video looked better than what they had, but even if that made it in, the concept of gems are still stupid. Techniques are a terrific idea but they turned them into plain old inventory items. You shouldn't "buy" techniques. They should be earned or discovered. There should be actual meaning to techniques. They should be accompanied by Alpha Centauri style movies. They really should have done the same thing with styles too. It lacked art. The gems and were stupid, but it was inexcusable to just leave crappy placeholder art in for each item. At least make an effort! What happened to the homebase? I read in a preview that you could select followers to send on important tasks. I was really looking forward to this, but I guess they had to cut it. Anyway, my review of the game is that while it wasn't horrible, it suffered from many questionable design decisions and in addition seemed like a lot of the intended content, including a possibly great story, wasn't finished. The enviroment and game world wasn't really well developed either. However...No Bugs!

The Vault Citizen List of 10 1)Gothic I & II 2)Fallout 1 & 2 3)Suikoden I & II 4)Baldur's Gate 2 5)GTA: Vice City 6)Final Fantasy VI 7)Blade Runner (adventure game for PC) 8)Harvest Moon 64 9)Silent Storm 10)Jones In the Fast Lane wow...I just noticed someone else played Blade Runner.

I don't think he's that great. Keanu Reeves is underrated. Sylvester Stallone is underrated. Decaprio gets a lot of praise for very little. If you liked all the movies he's made, than I guess I can understand if you like him. I liked all the Tom Cruise movies I saw and even though I wouldn't rate him as my favorite actor, I still like him. What are any really great or interesting roles Leo's played? Maybe Arnie in Gilbert Grape, but I'm not entirely convinced that was acting. Most other roles he's played just scream, "Look at me! Look at me, I'm acting!" IMHO. Most of the actors I like have played a great variety of characters, played a particularly well-loved character, or did an exceptionally good or moving job in one of thier roles. I can't really say Leo's done any of these things. But truthfully, the real reason I don't like him is because he presents himself as a self-important actor, and he just doesn't have the talent to back it up, IMO. If he gave funny interviews on late-night TV, it would go a long way to making me hate him less.

The driver sounds like the Nasonex bee.

I've played one too many Final Fantasy mini-games to have any love at all for "challenging" games.