greylord

All the talk about Arcanum with the nice game but terrible combat reminded me of another title...a bit newer, but sort of fits the bill. Lionheart was actually a pretty fun game. I really enjoyed it for the first...1/2 of the game...maybe even 2/3. However, it's another one of those games where combat was more like...hmmm...not exactly stelllar there. I don't think it was like Arcanum...I think maybe they should have had a party dynamic with BG style gaming instead of what was with Lionheart...not exactly my cup of tea with the combat. The latter half of the game could be enjoyed...and I did enjoy getting through it (much like I enjoyed finishing up KoToR 2...believe it or not...I actually did enjoy the endgame...even if it wasn't nearly close to being even remotely as stellar or even good like the rest of the game)...but it didn't stand a candle related to the earlier portions of the game. In fact the early portions of the game are almost like a different game in the approach. When I boot it up, I REALLY enjoy the first portion of that game...seriously. So, with all the talk on Arcanum...thought maybe I'd boot up the Lionheart Love. Plus I think it has a better chance for a sequel than Arcanum...and I probably could go for a Lionheart Sequel as long as they fashioned it more after the first half with a DIFFERENT combat dynamic.

Let me get this straight, your solution to not being able to play games (DRM) is to not be able to play games (Platform). Sounds like a solid plan. No, the solution is that DRM prevents me from playing the game at will. Console I don't have a problem with the installation and playing of the game. Even if it has a platform DRM associated with it, it's not the type like the PC which has never been a simple fix and sometimes does bad things to MY PC. Also don't have to worry about always connected to internet or occasionally connected to internet problems with a console like you do with some PC DRM. I still play games on the PC however, and actively support games that actually work on my PC. I just finished another play through of ME2 recently, and wondering if Elemental: War of Magic has been patched enough at this point to not have to worry about the bugs that much...if so I might buy that one and play it.

If you really want significant...stop looking at RPGs and start looking at RTS games. Half of them you are the Leader of a nation, empire, or something else and are the leader of the forces. They all follow your directions typically...even more obedient than slaves! Almost like they worship you so much that they are more like robots! {sarcasm detectors should be going off as you read my statement above}

Good statement. I personally know several friends who were more adamant against Piracy than I originally...but now are rampant pirates. Why? All of them, to a person...finally found a game that the DRM was simply too much...so they went and downloaded a cracked version...and they have been downloading the cracked versions ever since. Me? My solution was simply to do more gaming on a console...hence my PS3.

??? NOt certain what you are saying...but I'm glad that I'll at least be able to INSTALL it on my PC (Legit copies of game with DRM don't install since my gaming rig is normally NOT connected to the internet...so me is happy that I can actually have a PC game that will install).

Which Comic book Batman? After Bruce Wayne had his back broken, I beleive the New Temp Batman killed a villain or two...was supposedly to have killed the Joker...but like all Super heroes...Super Villains always come back as well. Then there was the entire Batman shooting a gun incident...though it is explained that technically that was a clone of Bruce Wayne....and the Real Bruce Wayne being tossed back in time (when finally the REAL heir becomes Batman instead of some pretender like the last time Bruce was out of the picture). Sorry... Just being snarky... I know what you meant...and I suppose you're right. We'll Call Garrus modelled after the "MOVIE" batman...though technically that's more of...he doesn't really kill the villain...he just doesn't save them.

I know you mentioned it already, but I still think ME starts with the hero. In ME you are already a hero which many already know. Sure, you get elevated to spetre status, but you are already a Commander AND a legendary hero. It continues even more in ME2. I feel that you have that effect already even if you feel differently. IN BG2 it's sort of halfway...I mean you are someone who is actually being hunted because of who they are already. In a few of the FF games you are already someone of reknown...either hero or villain with a reputation to match (FFIV anyone?)

While I disagree that RPG's have the best combat (in my opinion that would be FPS, Third Person Shooters...and DEFINATELY the fighting games like Street Fighter IV) the ME series, inclusive of ME2 still counts as an RPG.

Bah, Humbug... RPG's have been mainstream since...well FF first was created. Maybe not specifically Western PC RPG's...but RPG video games have been a large chunk in many ways. In fact many credit FFVII as being THE GAME that drove the original Playstation over the brink into popularity, breaking the ice wall it had previously been pushing against but unable to break out of. Action RPG's got their breakout as massively popular when Diablo came out...further exemplified by Diablo II and the slew of games that followed it's lead. I'd say Action RPG's are still highly popular. Turn based RPG's still are being put out in large by JRPG makers...with Atlus being the major player there. I'd also say RPG's are bigger then ever on the PC...but NOT the tradition RPGs... Many FPS as well as other games have Roleplaying elements in them. Ways that I can increase my damage with shots, gain the ability to have certain weapons in game, and other items which basically increase my player's abilities and capacity as I progress in the game. This isn't a new thing either. Take a look at the Jedi Knight series where it incorporated this Roleplaying type experience into a third person shooter (hmmm, now that I think about it, I loved the JK series...and ME has some similarities with JK). I think the definition of RPG being used here is a little too narrow. I think RPGs have been mainstream, but gain and fade in how much mainstream they are. I'd actually say they are at a high point of popularity right now as opposed as downhill. Square Enix, Blizzard, BioWare, Bethesda, Atlus, Raven (well...not as much now, but they were) are all pretty big in the RPG scene...even Sega has a few that have come out in the past few years. They just aren't all turnbased...

Really? AFAIK Bioware said DA2 sold 1 million copies in two weeks. VGChartz pegs it at 927,857 in two weeks discounting digital distribution (Doubling PC sales figures to account for such would yield 1,109,689). Unless you live in the land of unattainable standards and eternal failure, I'd say that's a pretty decent estimate. You do understand when there are public announcement about sales figures from a company, they do NOT state exact sales numbers right? You do understand all of the factors that surround such an announcement as well as why they do not ever release actual sales numbers right? VGChartz are fake magical fantasy numbers. He is 100% correct in that assessment. Also realize that most times BW release shipped to sale numbers instead of actual numbers sold. VG chartz seems to be the best indicator of sales besides NPD that is around in regards to actual store sales. Or you could believe that Dianetics has been the number 1 bestseller for the past several decades, every year, due to how many they have in their shipped to sales numbers (they don't count the shipped back numbers)... VG is like the NYT bestseller list...both get information which is more a sampling of what is selling out there and extrapolate, then the real hard numbers, especially in these days and times (actual hard numbers for book best sellers from retail and electronic is wild crazy in how far the numbers differ)...but probably reliable enough to figure out how well something is doing in comparison to something else. I have to admit I haven't really bothered to pay attention to the numbers for DA2, or look them up. Still to early in the ballgame to really determine how it's going to do. Give it a year, see what the sale price of it is and then look at the resultant numbers and one probably could get a better picture. I have a feeling it won't do as well as DAO did, or that ME2 did...probably not even as good as ME3 will, even as a last month release (though that is VERY hopeful thinking on my part, ME3 would literally have to sell better then any BW game ever has before...which I'm thinking it might, depending on DRM and how annoying it is...as well as if they screw up or not with ME3 and it gets out during the first week sales or not). Christmas can be a good time for sales. I'm certain DA2 made money for BW however. I'd be greatly surprised if it didn't. I think the compressed timeline for making it, with the shortcuts they took (reused areas, reused romances, reused major areas for acts...etc.) means they spent less on it then DAO or either of the ME games...meaning that percentage wise they may even have made a higher percentage money off of DA2 than any of their previous games! As I said however, hard to tell this early on. Anyone up for the quarterly?

Actually, at the End of Arrival... WARNING...MEGA SPOILER if you haven't played or at least got the same end to Arrival that I did

Yeah but that would mean that they would have to think and there is a strict no thinking policy at BW. Which has an "originality" clause where if you actually come up with an original idea your contract is immediately terminated, also games made by gamers for casual gamers are the worst things ever. Ahh, they aren't that bad. My mother in law is addicted to Bejewelled...my wife loves it, and we have an ongoing contest on who has the high score on the machine. Then there's Minecraft...but that's getting off topic. I'm eagerly awaiting ME3's release. I'm thinking it's pretty interesting that

I... But... It... Just... Oh, wait, it's a February 8th article. In other news: VGChartz sales figures for DA2 shows a rather large decline in sales. It looks like a radiation decay graph right now. Guess they didn't get the CoD fans on board. Well, I got it the day it was released...but I was SORELY disappointed. ME1 and 2 got me, was excited by changes that sounded a lot like what they did with Me1 to ME2, making it more appealing to the CoD gamers as you may call it. For me, if I had known now what I found out when playing DA2...it definately would NOT have gotten me. May have even skipped DA2, or at least waited till it hit the bargain bin (it's worth a bargain bin price). Hopefully ME3 continues to appeal to me. That's still a must buy day of release sale for me...we'll see after that. I did play DAO and DAA, I actually thought they were better games than DA2...personally speaking...even if they are more RPG centric than DA2. Something about the older ones simply appealed to me more...

No, no he's not. Listen, I dislike David Gaider's design philosophy and I think that making everyone a cookie-cutter bisexual is a cop-out, but you're putting things in his mouth to carry out an agenda. That's dishonest and I'd invite you to stop doing it just to sugarcoat what's essentially a knee-jerk reaction. Luckily for you guys, Geralt was straight in the book and it looks like he's still straight here. No...he states this towards his heterosexual gamers from what I read These are all offensive to me. First he calls me ignorant from what I can tell, then he staes that I'm being catered to so much that I see a lack of catering as an imbalance (the game doesn't cater at all...in fact in many cases it blatantly ignores ANY sort of balance in that arena and caters mostly to the bisexual and homosexual crowd). finally he says restricting options for others is horrendous...but he's already restricted options for the heterosexual gamers...and also the Homosexual gamers...the only ones he actually caters to are those who are Bisexual...as those are the ONLY romance options...and the ones who don't care if their partner is Bisexual. Many heterosexuals want a heterosexual partner...and believe it or not...many Homosexuals want Homosexual partners...not someone that's going to flip the other direction depending on the night. As I said...previous to this my problem was more that all the options were psychos...but his comments show a blatant...arrogance that looks down on anyone who may feel uncomfortable with the way they designed their romances...and THAT's discrimantory and discrimination. THAT is FAR more bothersome than ANYTHING else I've read...and PROBABLY WOULD make me feel like not supporting the DA series anymore. Normally people from companies are smart enough not to go out and make foolish statements like he did. The claim of money and time restrictions are completely legit and neutral. Instead of trying to explain himself...he should have stayed out of it completely. Dissing on customers because of sexual preferences is a prime way to really make customers dislike you and rather mad at what many will see as active discrimination where they may not have seen it previously. I have now taken the idea that Gaider himself is a pretty discriminatory guy...I have no idea why he feels like he is priviledged enough to be such a heterophobe...but it's disturbing. Probably more so than the Psychotics that were your romance options in DA2.

Yeah, I can see that. We all like different games. I was one who hated the overland travel/exploration in ME1...I like mining much more than that, anyday of the week. Mining was much more fun on the PS3 version of ME2 than it was on the PC...hopefully that's an indication of what they will do for ME3. ME2 mining on the PC was a major pain...but I still preferred it over ME1 bouncing through the mountains. Hated having to go through all the inventory in ME1, especially as it was all tailored to specific species. Not quite as bad as what they did with the DA2 armor customization...but still annoying. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad...if there was a better way for it to be organized than they did in ME1 and made it more generic so that your turian, krogan, or whatever allies could wear the same types of armor as humans...etc. Truthfully though, the most annoying to me was the sniper rifle shakiness and aiming that didn't correlate with where you shot (which they changed in ME2 thankfully) being connected to skills...and the overland travel. Don't get me wrong though, I did and do enjoy ME1. More than DAO, DAA, or DA2. I just enjoy ME2 more. I also think someone at BW doesn't like EA's DRM schemes...and so enjoyed their big middle finger to EA with the Paul/Old Paul item with ME1. If they went back and made the entire thing like ME1...that would be far better then them taking cues from DA2 and using that as a basis for ideas. If the PS3 version is what they are using as the engine for ME3...the differences between that and the PC version I played means that much of what they have done already are actually improvements to the original ME2...so I suppose much of that is a good indication that perhaps the changes will all be good.

Bottom line is, you're feeling insulted because they're catering to a group you actively discriminate again. That's cute. I think it's more of the opposite effect, discriminating against Heterosexuals. I actuallly was annoyed but not offended until I read Gaider's post. To me that actually speaks FAR more towards a person being discriminatory (in this case...ironically, towards heterosexuals...and if taken the wrong way, even against homosexuals as everyone of the romances is BI instead of being one way or the other...great way to save money...not so great at appealing to everyone) than much of what I've read elsewhere. I can't actually believe he came out and stated that...that's a pretty big slam towards Heterosexual gamers. I guess that he simply wants them to go away and not buy games by him? That's typically what starts to happen when you discriminate against a type of person, they stop buying your stuff. How is he possibly discriminating against heterosexual gamers if the heterosexual romances are still in the game? It's not the game itself. It's him calling heterosexuals idiots and other items that is discriminatory. Actually some of his comments towards anyone not Bi-sexual is actually downright offensive...and he's saying he's being polite...which means his real attitude towards us is actually pretty mean hearted.

Bottom line is, you're feeling insulted because they're catering to a group you actively discriminate again. That's cute. I think it's more of the opposite effect, discriminating against Heterosexuals. I actuallly was annoyed but not offended until I read Gaider's post. To me that actually speaks FAR more towards a person being discriminatory (in this case...ironically, towards heterosexuals...and if taken the wrong way, even against homosexuals as everyone of the romances is BI instead of being one way or the other...great way to save money...not so great at appealing to everyone) than much of what I've read elsewhere. I can't actually believe he came out and stated that...that's a pretty big slam towards Heterosexual gamers. I guess that he simply wants them to go away and not buy games by him? That's typically what starts to happen when you discriminate against a type of person, they stop buying your stuff. One other edit: Up until I read the statement by Gaider...I was had an even bigger problem with the fact that all romance options in DA2 were Psychos instead of anyone that was somewhat normal. Now, I think it's Gaider's attitude towards Heterosexual gamers (aka, most gamers in the world I would assume, but perhaps not that many playing BW games?) that actually has disturbed me the most about DA2.

Wow, well I learned something. I actually trust the stats BW gets, as they get them off the machines connected to their servers as people play from what I can tell. That probably gives them a good ability to get accurate numbers. So what did I learn...for some reason BW games attract a LOT of Homosexual players. So many in fact that it would mute any complaints of disturbed Heterosexual players. I would guess that would mean if the sales are that significant that they would make such a drastic thing in DA2 where everyone can sleep with everyone, you're (and here's conjecture) talking of numbers of 30-60% of players are either homosexual or try the homosexual romances. That's not an insignificant number of sales. It does make one go hmmm...and wonder about the demographics and such. Why would so many more Homosexuals be playing this game vs. heterosexuals to make such significant numbers? And here's the stereotype...one also wonders...if the homosexual crowd is such a big percentage of buyers of BW...will BW's next game franchise be some sort of musical Adult game with a lot of dancing and hidden references to broadway? Afterall, from Gaider's statement it appears that it would appeal to a major demographic of their gamers...and if they are willing to ignore some statements by the heterosexual gamers...it would indicate the homosexual gamers could carry BW by themselves...or at least a BW game. Interesting... PS: As an aside, I think there are many Heterosexual gamers Gaider offended with his choice of romances...but not all speak out or say it. For many, having a male...or female hit on them is offensive or off-putting, having it done multiple times...is even more offending. Perhaps the one choice of a homosexual or lesbian romance is a better option to cater to that audience than forcing everyone to be bi...afterall, last time I checked the world isn't a majority of Bi either. Of course, the other thing could be that they make it so that you can't ignore it even...and put it blatantly in front of you. Gayboy as I call him...is rather annoying in that aspect (that's Anders...not Gaider...for you people wondering). I haven't gone to the forums and made as big a stink about it as some...but Gaider ranting on many of those who are customers instead of perhaps keeping his yap quiet-unless his goal is to actually DECREASE sales...si probably not the smartest thing. He should have simply stated that they were constrained in time and money due to EA restraints-though that seems like an even bigger thing they can't say recently...to blame EA for some of the faults like reused areas...etc. - and creating the romances in such a way was a time and money saver that allowed them to put other content in. That's far more politically correct, offends far less, and doesn't make him come off as some ****-*** who could care less about anyone but the specifically Far Left Gay Rights agenda (and there are OTHER Homosexuals out there that DO NOT favor that agenda who may also be offended by his words in that quoted peice of text). If he keeps that attitude up, not that it will affect their sales that much, it means I probably WON'T buy the next DA3...not that my vote of buying it or not matters. Apparantly they have enough homosexuals players to keep their sales numbers up all by themselves. Second Edit: Does this mean that I should definately buy the Witcher 2...we know what slant that game takes towards their sexuality...

Talking about a game that apeals more than justa small niche of those who are hardcore RPG gamers? Such as Mass Effect 2... Even ME1 wasn't a hardcore RPG, though harder then ME2. Not many cater to a niche that is smaller than a million souls anymore... Though...I suppose I do play RPG's a LOT...been around since the original BG...so I can't claim to be a complete casual gamer...just one that really liked what they did with ME2 over everything they've done before on the progression of their games. And also checking up regularly on DS3.... Plus, I can only read through the CoD threads so many times before I've read them all twice to thrice over...

reposted some of my thoughts on new info I put on BW's forum... NEGATIVES!

What about this should make me want one? I'm not seeing the appeal. Are they releasing any games for it? Any apps for it? What will I be able to use it for?

I WILL say that...ME2 WAS a LOT better on console. Some say ME2 was easier on PC...but I found the opposite. Something about the control scheme made it harder for me to center my mouse...unlike most PC shooters I play. For example, even on casual, the vault/hacking you had to do was even HARDER for me with ME2 than it was with ME1...and I didn't have any omnigel. Part of that is that with the console version I only had 4 blips to match if I decided to play casual vs. 5 on the PC...but what made it hard wasn't the number, but that my mouse was much harder to pinpoint on the blip. In fact the entire mouse targeting on PC made it a HECK of a lot harder with ME2. Console it was dang easy to target, especially for anything like an FPS...probably because it was more an RPG. I enjoyed the story and conversations on both however...but then it was the same story and conversations so that shouldn't be a surprise at all. The mouse interface on the otherhand drove me batty at times. DA:O I think is debatable which it was better on. You could get more tactical play with it on PC, but it's zooming in on a face whenever you had a conversation was slightly annoying to me. If I'm zoomed out, just leave it zoomed out for the convo's as well. They actually did a bang up conversion job for the gameplay and format with how you select skills and abilities for the Console version. I think I like the PC way of doing it better...but the Console was pretty good and I could easily see why someone would say the Console version was better because of that.

personal opinion...didn't like FFVIII near half as much as I liked FFVII. Probably why I didn't list FFVIII.

Chrono Cross...but the release date only is accomplished if you allow the Foreign release date. I think some would say Final Fantasy VII is the best one, and yes FFVII was released on computer. Personally, I thought it was on a PS1 with the Lunar Eternal Blue Complete, or Lunar Silver Star Complete... All of these are JRPG's however instead of WRPGs...but you didn't specify that they had to be for PC or non-JRPG's...

Thats great and all, but am I being a pessimist if I can't help but think this is some desperate way to boost DA2's sales? That sort of was my thought as well. Though the point of whether someone got DA2 that didn't get ME2 is probably also valid. Edit: Obviously there are some who didn't as from the posts on this forum, but there are probably enough that did that BW doesn't have to worry much about lost sales (plus the game is being sold for what...19.99 for XB360 and PC now days?). I think they are hoping that people will buy another copy of DA2 perhaps for a chance to get the free ME2...at least those who haven't gotten either?