PrimeJunta

Maybe they'll have pantaloons?

Can you name a male NPC in The Witchers or other mainstream RPG's which do better?

Yet the same game (series) has women NPC's with more personality and agency than just about any RPG, does its best to allow you to create emotional connections with them, and writes relationships with them that are not pure ego-gratification. While both games had features that were similarly problematic as anything else out there, IMO it's not fair to dismiss them because of that without even acknowledging what they did better and, yes, more maturely than any other mainstream title I can think of. Triss, Shani, and Ves are not props, objects, eyecandy, or cheap thrills.

You most certainly can fake those vides. Forsaken Fortress did if not exactly that, something dangerously close to it. Specifically, during the Kickstarter and the updates they presented gameplay video showing combat, animations, lighting, base building, and what have you, and ALL of it was fake. As in, not in the final game, and the final game, such as it was, didn't look even close to similar. Making a fake gameplay video with little toons running around in a scene with some FX laid on top but no underlying mechanics, no or extremely limited user controls is MUCH easier than making an actual game that's actually playable, let alone fun.

I understand why they did it (i.e., to avoid punishing players who like to switch party composition), but I thought it was a lazy way of doing it. P:E's solution sounds much better. If I know they're getting stuff done while I'm out pursuing the main quest, leveling up makes sense.

Man, if any thread ever needed a whaambulance, it's this one. Grow up people. In the meantime, pass the ointment.

There was a recent interview at Red Bull Games where they said that yeah, there will be racism. Also drugs and prostitution. I guess that would make the P:E subtitle Sex & Drugs & Rock* & Role. *Adra

There has been a change. P:E has reversed the publisher/studio power relationship. Obsidian is producing a significant new IP which they own, and they, rather than the publisher, are calling the shots. I too would love to see our current entirely ****ed up IPR laws, and the attitudes and economy underlying them, change. That however is a bit too much for a game studio that's in the game business rather than the revolution business. If it can shift things somewhat in a saner direction, that's all good as far as I'm concerned. In the meantime, Obsidian just like most of the rest of us has to operate in a capitalist economy where salaries have to be paid, IPR lawsuits avoided, and sales made. If they can do all that with a 100-person-plus studio, while at the same time making significant strides to break the AAA-production-based publisher stranglehold and making some pretty damn good games they've more than earned my support.

I agree with Kjaamor here. In NV they made ammo crafting a thing at least. My personal favorite in this respect though is Arcanum. There's only one type of bullets, to be sure, but if you're a gunslinger you pretty much have to make your own or go bankrupt. Digging around in rubbish bins like a hobo actually makes sense in that game, and it's the only game I've played where that's the case. "Oh goody, some charcoal, a rag, a railroad spike and a spring!"

Although P:E is probably not that game, I would like to see one where social rules governing carrying of weapons are enforced. Only nobles carry swords openly, nobody walks into the lord's presence armed, and armor is only worn when expecting to go into battle. That would make room for all those neglected weapon types. Could even have whole categories of concealable or disguised weapons -- walking-sticks with lead poured into the pommel, sword-sticks, boots with sewn-in sheaths for knives, a belt that doubles as a garotte, and so on.

...without going grimdark for the sake of grimdark. That's about how it's shaping up AFAICT.

Delays are symptomatic of underlying problems. While any project can get delayed once, a repeatedly delayed project is likely to have other visible issues that will make it less than great.

Having crowds of people wonder around for flavor is nice. Having them speak generic greetings or background chatter is nicer. Having all of them be discrete individuals with hand-written dialog is a silly waste of resources. I.e. if it was me, I might add procedurally-generated crowds where appropriate. Mix and match heads, hairdos, and attire, give them random lines of chatter, and a generic label so you don't confuse them with characters who matter. Just not so dense crowds that it makes getting from place to place a chore.

I believe this is how it's going to be. I remember the devs mentioning that you'll need to do stuff for faction reputation in order to progress, but what you do is largely up to you. I.e. you have to eat a cookie but you get to choose which one to eat, and they won't make you eat all of them.

Unlikely. The stronghold was a stretch goal, whereas exploration is one of the core planks. If you don't like exploration, you probably won't like P:E. Likely. There are no alignment mechanics, but there are faction reputation and personal reputation mechanics. These ought to support a much broader range of paths than simplistic good/evil(/law/chaos). Unlikely. Combat is also one of the core planks of the game. There may be nonviolent solutions to some quests, but this is highly combat-focused. Murder hobo was pretty much what all the IE games were about, except maybe PS:T and even that got pretty murderous towards the end, even if you were murdering tanar'ri and baatezu.

If you have to complete the optional content in order to beat the end boss, how is the content optional anymore?

I disagree strongly. IMO TESO is a textbook example of how not to do a classless system.

Also, the sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick. /thread

IWD2 is only $9.99 and Anachronox only $5.99. That's sixteen bucks. You'll need $24 worth more, sir. We'll need your e-mail address. You'll get a mail with codes you can redeem to get the games. I'll PM you about that.

@Stun, I'm fairly certain everybody expects tangible results from a completionist run. The disagreement is about how dramatic the impact of those results should be -- like turning down the difficulty from Heart of Fury to Easy, or from Hard to Normal, or something in between. I prefer a moderate impact; i.e. I'd rather not just coast through the endgame even if I did complete everything. There's also disagreement on what the game is allowed to do to produce those results. Personally I don't really care what happens under the hood, except that I like it if it's subtle. Any of the methods discussed here can be done well or cack-handedly. If content gating is a door that won't open because reasons it irritates me, but if it flows naturally from the events, it's great. If level-scaling produces bandits loaded up with magic armor and weapons worth a king's ransom, it's incredibly irritating, but if it's a matter of subtle changes in group composition I won't even notice. If the level cap is set so that I hit it halfway through the game I'll probably stop playing, but if it's near the endgame I don't mind. And so on.

@BruceVC You got it. To summarize including your role in it: 1. Me and Gnostic gift you with a $20 or less GOG game(s) of your choice each now. I.e. you get games worth up to $40 total. 2. If P:E is released before midnight of Dec 31, 2014, you gift me with a GOG game or games of my choice, worth up to $30. 3. If P:E is not released before midnight of Dec 31, 2014, you gift Gnostic with a GOG game or games of his choice, worth up to $30. A happy victory dance here by the winner is optional. I think we're good to go. Which games do you want?

@BruceVC You're not taking the bet. You're keeping it fair. Me and Gnostic are taking the bet, but you're holding the stakes in escrow until it's decided.

@BruceVC You're just the trusted third party here. Come to think of it, you would deserve compensation for it. How about both of us buy you a $20 game each now, and then you buy the winner a $30 game? You'll end up $10 worth of game ahead.

It would be awesome if it turned out the Watchers were a complete rip-off of the Witchers.

Cool! @BruceVC, which games do you want?