Fairplay

I thought Ron Howard made Willow.

Troika staff posted on internet message boards when they were making Arcanum. They were very interactive. Maybe too much so.

If they are really going under it's depressing. I saw huge potential in all of their games. But they never made a sequel. That's the sad part. I can understand why they didn't make Arcanum 2. Their post-game analysis was pretty much correct. The combat system wasn't very engaging. However, I thought a ToEE sequel would have been fantastic. The problem with ToEE, in my humble opinion, was NOT that combat was fun and that the story was poor. The basic concept was good. They just did a half-job on everything. For example, I thought the art was good, but the animation was sub-par. The world looked nice, but it didn't feel like it was alive. The NPCs and quests were neat, but the bugs overwhelmed them. Most everything looked like an amatuer product. If they could have just fixed these things, the sequel could have been pretty good. But I guess they probably had problems with Atari and WotC, so maybe they just decided to cut D&D loose. Finally, we never got to see the mysterious post-apocalyptic game. Anyway, hopefully it's just a rumor.

Other than World War or other modern settings, I think they've used up many of the obvious choices. I guess a China: Total War could be a possibility. A lot of its history has been well documented and would allow for a variety of factions as well as neighboring tribes and nations to play/fight. The setting could allow for some variety in units, terrains, as well as suitable quotes for those loading screens ;p. Plus, the ever-present Mongols could make yet another appearance depending on the era. I wouldn't be opposed to something set in a fantasy/sci-fi/post apocalyptic world though. It isn't like the Total War games have been totally devoted to realism anyway.

Another thing I liked about Bloodlines was the use of chinese and japanese in the game. It might just be me, but I really get a kick out of foreign languages (and foreign english) for some strange reason. Also, I thought the computer passwords and assorted e-mails were funny.

Yeah. That was the biggest issue for me. But I only had those problems in hubs, and not all the time. I thought it was a big improvement over Temple of Elemental Evil, which just didn't seem like a finished game (both in content and stability).

This is probably blashphemy but I'll say it anyway: Planescape: Torment. It wasn't bad, but it fell below my inflated expectations. A lot of people seem to think the story was awesome, but I thought it was only okay. Plus it killed my disk drive. Morrowind- I don't get the hype. The game was buggy as heck. The XBox version didn't work well either. It had good points, but it gets way too much credit IMO. Black and White - stupid puzzle game. X-Com sequels. Suikoden 3. the new Pirates! - I think I liked the old version better. Final Fantasy VII - not truly bad, but it was the sequel to VI. Lionheart - If you played it, you don't need an explanation.

You know, I expected the game to be pretty awful. I don't normally like FPS games (not even FPS/RPG games) but Bloodlines was pretty good. Discuss.

Perhaps. But I do think Atari pushed them to release ToEE both ahead of schedule and unfinished. They also censored the game content- according to Troika staff. Troika also said things like, "we'll release a patch, just as soon as we get the okay from Atari" Things like that make Atari look like asses, even if it was true. Of course, the game had bigger problems than that, but combat was quite fun, IMO. It really had potential.

Hi. This is my first time posting. I had some comments and suggestions on KOTOR II. I know it is too late to change anything, but I thought maybe some of these ideas and concerns might be taken into account in future games. I don't understand why the rather short (and in my opinion, fun) tutorial was optional, but Peragus was not. Peragus was boring and long and the player had to go through it before they could start making decisions- which was the fun part. I understand that Peragus was essential to the plot, but there must have been some way to get the plot across without having to go through the entire thing. When T3-M4 finds the broken droid that helped him on the Ebon Hawk, he should have made one of those R2-D2 sad noises. That would have been a nice touch, IMO. I know that not all players would recognize the droid if they skipped the tutorial, but, as I've said before, I don't know why the tutorial was optional since you can't "jump straight into the action" anyway. Also, I got lost on Peragus. For some reason, I had a hard time finding my way around the docked ship and going through the fuel line. I think the designers should have added a "locked door" feature to this level of the game that is used in many other games. This "locked door" would keep the player from back-tracking into unessential/not useful areas. Or they could have payed special attention to the map on this level so that it was easier to find your way around. Citadel was another problem. The first time through I managed to finish most of the issues there without ever visiting the security office. At least visiting the office and getting the main plot out of the way should have been automatic. At the very least, they shouldn't of made you hunt for the office. It should have been located in a highly visible area right outside your apartment. Of course, I have to mention the ending. A visual aid would have helped the enjoyment factor tremendously. I know that there would have to be a different scene for each ending element and maybe the game was shipped before everything was ready, but even a static or semi-static picture with Kreia's voice would have been nice. Maybe that wouldn't go well with the dialogue tree, but I don't see why that particular tree was designed that way anyway. Of course everyone wants to know what happens to their allies and what the effects of thier decisions were! Influence- I really like the idea of influence, but it seems like there wasn't much influence going on. As far as I could see, influence was just a replacement for the timer used in games like Baldur's Gate 2 (great game). Other than jedi training and light/dark changes there wasn't very much going on. I was hoping that you could perhaps change how your characters behaved and behaved towards each other in a major way. Teaching jedi was a very cool feature, but subtle changes in your NPCs would have been absolutely great. non-combat features- I thought the non-combat or at least the non-combat centric features were greatly developed in this game. However, I don't understand why the end of the game was a purely non NPC combat gauntlet again. I loved the new features like dual strike feat, charisma combat bonuses, great uses for skills, and influence over your NPCs. Then the game ends in an NPC free zone that happens to be one long combat gauntlet. I doesn't make sense from a design perspective and I didn't enjoy it as a gamer. I truly enjoyed the middle portion of the game. Some areas could have been better, but it far exceeded my expectations. I liked the skill uses, the multiple tasks building up to one goal, the attack on the settlement...really, I liked almost everything. But then the game started to end just when I was looking forward to seeing/doing more. The inventory should have had a better sort feature. In RPGs, I tend to be a packrat and if I recall correctly, this inventory system was actually a step-down from KOTOR I. I don't understand why it was left like that. Finally, Kreia should return her items. Is it realistic? No. But it really sucks when all your best equipment gets stolen by an AWOL for good NPC. There were a lot of other things in this game I had problems with, but I assume that if Obsidian had more time to make this game, they would have been improved or resolved- just based on past work and interviews given by some of the members. I won't mention the issues here. I continue to look forward to Obsidian's work and I hope they do a better job in the future. Portions of this game were absolutely fantastic! If anyone else has comments they would like to add, please feel free to post them here.