melkathi

I'm not sure whether I should love or cry... That game deffinitly does not have the same target audience as XCOM

The evil playthrough only really becomes different from the good once you meet the elves. But there are little things. The companions have a nice chemistry and Virgil's reactivity to which path you choose is good as well.

I played an evil elf in one playthrough with "sold your soul" as a background which prevented alignment from improving. Yeah, doing that quest was a bit... let's put it this way. That was the first and only time I ever did an evil playthrough of any game. The evil playthrough does have a nice bonus though: you can kill all the gnomes you want and not worry about alignment hits. Though an evil playthrough is well worth it when it comes to companions. I found the evil companions to be some of the best around. Sarcastic Geoffrey is great and so is Torian Kel. And the evil party makes the last part of the game more personal and interesting. Plus you can skip part of the game by teleporting to a certain location, attacking a certain npc you probably shouldn't even meet during the evil campaign and going straight to the last part of the game

I prefer they stick to traditional than to not explore any changes they do "correctly". But if there is actually thought behind anything they do, then I'm all for it. What irks me sometimes is when fantasy settings introduce artifical distinctions within a species just to add variety. If hill dwarf has sandy, blond hair while a mountain dwar has black hair, for example, just because they have to have a difference.

Guess we'll see. But at least they have given it some thought. I'm happy with that.

That's interesting. May have to check it out when I get home.

No the difference between the two has always been mostly about culture and magic affinity. Biological differences have hardly been explored. Dwarves are short and have beards, elves are svelte and have pointy ears. Besides that there is no percieved biological difference. The differences from there in high fantasy come from cultural, societal reasons. Elves are a reflection of an idealised nobility coupled with a romanticised return to magic and nature. Their appearance is based on that, not on Elven biology. Dwarves, usually crafty miners reflect a working class, their skin is leathery, their hand calloused from hard work. But that makes their appearance based on their society, not on what truly would affect the genetics. If dwarves as a species developed below ground, would they in reality not be far more sensitive to light? After all, so many fantasy settings have dwarves that never go above ground. Take Dragon Age for example that you mentioned in the first post: most dwarves never leave their underground kingdom. Yet their vision is perfectly fine above ground with a bright, glaring sun, while below ground, where their species has live for thousands of years, they need torches and artifical light the same as hmans do. Their skin is tanned as if they had been plowing fields all day all their life. Usually in fantasy, elves, dwarves but also to a certain extent the human nations have physical traits slapped on to reflect the cultural role they play. The actual biology is usually left out. It works the way it is, but as DRevan says, it is interesting to see Obsidian going that extra bit and looking at it at that slightly deeper level. It actually seems to be a sign that they are taking the world creation serious.

Makes sense though. If pigmentation is an evolutionary response to the environment, then related species (because let's face it, there isn't that much difference between an elf and a dwarf or a human) within the same environment would, over the hundreds or thousands of years develop similar traits, no?

Wait a minute there! Obsidian convinced your employer to give you a raise so you can back at a higher tier? Hoy Obsidian! I got this pending job application. Any chance you can speed up their reply and make it a positive one? I'll up my pledge as well

Awesomesauce And yeah. Valve seems to be doing pretty well compared to other players in the industry.

In a way similar to Tarant from Arcanum then? I don't mind mixed species ethnicities. As long as it's done well (of course that is the case with anything, right?)

Though if Steam goes out of business we loose our games. If GoG goes out of business we can still have backups of the installer. Love how with GoG you download an installer and don't install from online.

Well they are welcome to take out that endless dungeon and use those resources for a new Crossroad Keep

Which is perfectly right according to X-COM probability theory!

I heard that Depths of Peril kinda does that, but I can't recommend it to you, since I haven't enough courage to try it. It's a pretty fun game over all. Plus, it's only like ten bucks. Thanks for the recommendation Milten and the info Hanged Man Whenever I wanted to be a King I played Birthright Though it sure wasn't the best game ever

Loved Crossroad Keep. Hope we get something at least as involving.

Still waiting for someone to pick the title "Not a member" ... Very tempted to change mine to that

Don't get me started. I miss the whole leafing through a manual while waiting for a game to install bit. The good ole days when you'd take a bus downtown. Stare at shelves. Grab the game (pay for it). Then fish the manual out of the box on the bus ride home. Run to the supermarket to buy cookies and crisps and drinks and stuff to eat while playing. Get home. Open Pc, run the installer. While the game insalls, continue reading manual while throwing chips in the oven... Good old days of being a student gamer...

I am fairly certain that if 75% chance shots only missed their target 1 out of 4 times, old fans of the series would complain that this is not a true X-Com experience

You are a moderator, you have influence. Get Obsidian to get her to voice Cadegund Yeah, I wish The rumours about our "influence" seems exaggerated, but I would love for her to voice something in PE. We need to get the Obsidian Order to mobilise on the matter !

You are a moderator, you have influence. Get Obsidian to get her to voice Cadegund

Don't like the games To me, the only thing worse than Mass Effect is Dragon Age 2 But hope you will have fun!

Victoria Kruger. Hasn't done much else though other than Trine, Trine 2 and DA2.

Monks are not. they are found in plenty of things outside of D&D. They are found in plenty of things outside of D&D. They are since 3rd edition also found in D&D. That does not make them classic fantasy though. In western terms classic fantasy would be high fantasy, based on medival Europe, the way Middle Earth is. Martial artists from fortress monasteries are not part of that. If taking "classic fantasy" from the western point of view, then monks are part of it, but as scholars in heavy robes, crouched over ancient manuscripts and squinting under bad candle light.

Amazon says I paid. Just not by email... a bit strange. Kickstarter would also have given their system a lot more stability. Right now they have a lot of frustrated fans out there, I wager.