ShadowPaladin V1.0

Make a good first target for the lightsaber... I can definately see the appeal in Jedism though.

I'd pay it if membership included a lightsaber

You would probably have to pay royalties to George.

expecting a computer game to work out of the box, what a novel idea. Any console game that hasnt worked has always been down to a bad disk.

Being a Jedi is a sort of cross between a budist and Gai worshipper. I dont see any reason why it cant be a valid religion.

That would depend on what you expected from the extended versions. They are closer to the book than the edited version. But they still have the made up bits in them.

Excellent

Wouldnt fancy his chances of beating the Echani sisters. Definately go for con because it for implant purposes only the raw value counts. Going for 14 is a pretty good plan , then just spend your upgrade points because you wont be seeing 18 req implants till later in the game anyway.

They add in some missing bits. But the thing most people complain about are the changes and those dont get addressed by the missing bits. One of the biggest is Osgiliath because if your actually aware of the distances then Frodo would have never gotten back in time for his showdown with Gollum. Leaving out the scouring also changes the tone of the ending. I'd probably give it a 9 out 10 for watchability and a 7 out 10 for adaptation.

Bombadil is pops up in the Gawain and the Green Knight story too. He's not really central to Middle Earth because no one really knows who he is anyway. The main purpose of the Barrow Downs would be to equip Merry with his dagger of westernese for the dispatch of the Witch King At least they did have the good sense to have Aragorn hand out weapons.

I'd tend to call them unrealistic expectations. Unless you actually wrote a KOTOR in the same mold as a JRPG. And while I love JRPGS to bits, its not like there are more than enough coming from Japan so having something different and more open makes for a welcome change of pace.

Actually, PJ co-wrote the screenplay, with Philipa Boyens and Fran Walsh, so he shares some blame for the story, considering they were brave enough to change large parts of The Fellowship of the Ring; it was well within their remit to edit {i]The Return of the King[/i] (which they did, but not to its betterment, imo). :cool: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Without the scouring of a the Shire ROTK was lacking. While the other changes were irksome nothing except the osgiliath debacle came close. King Kong dosnt really appeal to me. I'll probably catch it when its on cable.

Yes it does, or rather it might. There is more to design than simply doing it. Same thing happens in Grandia II. What do they have in common ? They are linear and dont have choice. In a JRPG you can do pretty much anything with the story because the player knows from the outset that it's pre written and they are along for the ride and to handle the gameplay elements. Your not trying to fool them into thinking their actions are important or will have an impact on the story(although in some cases they will even though the player wont know it at the time). In a game like KOTOR if you want choice to matter then you cant have these programmed destinies. There have to be workable alternatives and most players are going to go for the perfect and miss the poignient. But thats just how it is. Yes but what you have there is a snap shot. It dosnt take into account any previous actions. Anyone can write a snap shot like that , but actually writing a workable story around them, without simply making it linear and "pre destined" isnt as easy as you might like to think. Any PnP DM will tell you that a campaign rarely survives first contact with the players intact. It must be fluid enough to move without breaking the story. It's very like your example of tension. You totally disregard the alternative of just going another way or chucking a few grenades into the darkness.

I've got a mint condition Daggerfall up in the attic.

Actually you had a lot of it. Mira would be the obvious example. The thing with the influence system is its going to work differently with someone like the exile, than it would with a "normal" human. Thats realistic. If your character dosnt share HK's outlook then why would they want to get to know him ? Perhaps they would want to find out some of the history, but you really dont expect a sentient being to just give it up for free to anyone do you ? If you thought your LS mastery was worth what HK knew, well thats choice and roleplaying is all about those. Whether or not developers should pander to lazy gamers is a whole different issue. You have to wonder if it's the system or the gamers who have become accustomed to spoonfeeding who are at fault. Personally I never had any problems with the influence system, its probably more straightforward than many I have encountered.

But thats the whole point of the influence system. It's to represent the reality that people with like goals and outlooks become closer and those without dont. While you can obviously manipulate people by pretending to be their friend (another thing the influence system allows for) you are to a certain extent going to have to play their game, and that may in fact rub off on you. Kreia is simply beyond everyone else in her experiences. At some point you have to draw a line between being player friendly (ie spoonfeeding the player) or challenging the player. Since Bioware appear to have the spoonfeeding thing going. Its nice to see something with more depth from Obsidian.

Well shes female.

Well that would be one of the advantages of a smaller pool of NPC's if you halved the number of NPCs in theory at least you should be able to give each twice as much dialogue.

HIGH FIVE! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I own it but I've never played it :"> Is it different or something ? I was refering to the N64 version.

He's Anakins father

One of the key elements is how important is a particular aspect to the game you are designing. If you take something like Harvest Moon. Getting married is a key element of the game as is forming relationships with the other villiagers. At the same time, you have to run a profitable working farm (which is where most of the gameplay is) but what you do on the farm will carry over into the more social elements of the game too. For example another key aspect is finding out what each person likes and dislikes.Giving them something they like will make them like you more (in KOTOR terms you get possitive influence) giving them something they dont like will make them like you less (negative influence). Forming friendships will get you things like recipes (which you can then use to gain more influence) access to locked rooms in their houses which will play new cutscenes. And most useful perhaps, they will open their stores out of hours for you. But the biggest influence factor is getting married and unlike your typical dialogue based stuff, this one takes some real effort (and a ton of cash). Because while you are wooing your prospective wife. So are some other people in the villiage. And if you wait too long, then your rival will end up marrying her. So it's not just a case of someone sitting around and waiting for you to ask, work too hard and dont spend enough time socialising and you will find yourself out of prospective wives. Of course in a game where relationships and marriage dont play such a large part it would be nonsensical to spend quite so much time on it wouldnt it?

Only if you dont make use of the workbench.

Well JE has a surrender monkey ending but it's totally pants and a bit nonsensical. Chrono Trigger has a LOT of endings, but it also has the possibility of being a really short game. Pirates is different. A lot like Princess Maker in the way that your career is rated and your given an ending. It's not really a game model that you could fit into story based RPG because the whole idea is that you are writing your own story each time. FFX-2 has several endings, but they are not based wholy on picking options, but rather are a rating of how complete you were. Ditto with Suikoden , in order to score the best ending you need the 108 stars. Otherwise you get a very different ending which you wouldnt exactly call happy. Star Ocean has something like six buried in their somewhere. Shadow Hearts II is much more straightforward with two endings. Different games require different approaches. I'm happy to admit i'm totally spoiled by 20+ minute ending cinematics and that things like KOTOR are all very blah when it comes to endings. I see the ending as my reward as the player of the game

Kreia is very much a constant which definately adds to her strength as a character. Well there is a sort of catch 22 with the whole choice thing. And its this. Most people dont actually finish games, let alone replay them. Generally this means that you cover more people by making the game longer and more detailed, rather than making the game more replayable. KOTOR only lets you kill off NPCs when they are no longer required. It really dosnt matter if you do kill them or not at that point. You wont be seeing them again anyway. Obviously you cant kill someone off when you meet them because they are required to tell the story. For example without Bastila you dont have much of a story at all so she has to be protected from death by the writers. It dosnt make that much sense from a realism point of view, but thats one of the dowsides of using the party as the main plot story telling device.

Ocarina of Time without a doubt.