Humodour

I wasn't even talking about RAM or load times. I was talking about open-endedness of maps; what's available and when. I guess you could say KOTOR1 was sort of open-ended because it allowed you to choose what planet you visited. But yeah, I like hubs. Be it Fallout 1's The Hub, Deus Ex's Hong Kong, Bloodlines's city area, or PST's wards. What I HATE is being forced to do hubs/wards in a pre-determined order. A little choice here goes a long way.

I was wondering about that too. Did AU find a cure for HPV or something? Yup. http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=8028

A fairly restricted poll. No, I'd like a mix between the two; Bloodlines, for example.

I don't dislike Visceris, and it's not his opinions that grind my bones; it's his proclamations after his opinion. I'm as worried about pre-set characters as any of you. But I think we've all played enough awesome games that use pre-set characters to know that it won't make or break the game. Heck, as far as I'm concerned one of the strengths of PS:T and Deus Ex was their ability to weave a detailed and intricate story with a believable atmosphere due to the amount of knowledge they could pre-determine about the character. A good story almost necessitates some level of restriction over who/what the character is. It's arguably one of the reasons stories in novels tend to be better than stories in games. By the same token, an RPG isn't defined by character creation, as Deus Ex and PST certainly showed (and heck they still had facets of character creation; it's not like everybody plays the same type of character). What's more realistically a problem to me is this dialogue system they are using. It sounds like it will either work brilliantly, or be a major flop. I happen to like selecting between dialogue options; even if it is as limited as in Deus Ex.

They do genetic profiling at birth, and only those predestined for greatness are allowed a name that would result in the initials JB. It's true! Proof by counter-example: JC Denton Q.E.D.

Seriously man, can you just give it a rest for once?

I require being required to reload my weapon.

Agreed with Muso. As much as I adore silently taking everyone out with my baton, I'd prefer if stealth was more complex, sometimes a mix of stealth and forced combat, etc (because they called over the radio, activated an alarm, whatever). Still, it's a fine line. Don't change it so that stealth isn't fun any more. Oh dear god, please no.

YOU BETTER GIVE ME LINKS OR I WILL...FIND...YOU Edit: WHAT?! No Rube? Hey! Be thankful for what you get!

Agreed! Also, I liked how Deus Ex (ONE) handled the powers/magic aspect of the game. The augmentations were scientific, believable, restricted, and most of all based off current technology. Still, I'd probably be content with no special powers, as in Fallout. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Force_Warrior

They've clearly stated before that a full team isn't always working on a game, and that variously the teams lose and gain members of the development cycle. With that in mind I think it makes it possible for a NWN2 xpack, Aliens and AP to all be in advanced stages of production.

R2D2.

I think they have 3 teams but 2 projects. The third team works variously on the two projects at various times, or is responsible for x-packs and content updates.

Alexander Brandon has been associated with so many of my favourite games (heck even Jazz Jackrabbit 2). It'd be nice if he worked on AP.

Excellent! Is that you, Ms. Urquhart?

I was just reading the wikipedia entry on current and near-future developments in soldier warfare in America. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Force_Warrior Pretty neat stuff.

Mysteriously knowledgeable hobos screaming "the end is nigh" and giving your cryptic clues.

Well, sure, HPV is fairly harmless now. And who do you have to thank for that? That's right. Australia.

Dropping the u is stupid. It's part of a general Americanisation to dumb the language down. Exempli gratia: 'thru'. Heh heh heh.

Inside a larger crate, definitely. It's got the whole mystery and intrigue thing going on. If it's just on top of another crate it screens "help me I am a damsel crate in distress", and that's so 1400's. It's like Schroedinger's cat - you don't know whether the hostage crate is smashed or not until you open the crate containing it.

I wanted to start a separate thread on this from the Ratings thread. Basically, one of the reasons I put off buying Vampire: Bloodlines for so many years was the perception that it would be an immoral game with no options for the chance of moral behaviour. In this regard, where does AP stand? Is it morally ambiguous, but offers moral stances and choices to those who actively seek them out? Is it morally ambiguous, offering evil and lesser evil? Is it good vs evil? Is it good vs evil but you get to choose which side? EDIT: Oops, just realised SteveThaiBin already made a thread about moral choices. Still, the material seems independent enough to stand as a separate thread.

Personally I am in favour of home-schooling but only really in the following two cases: 1) Child is just too far ahead academically, but pushing them up a few grades is inappropriate (Giftedness) 2) A desire to push the child academically (it's certainly a myth that schools go at the exact pace a child learns at - most children learn much faster) I think home-schooling for religious purposes is immoral.

Yep, saw Ark of Truth. Loved it. All in all typical Stargate style, with lots of fun cameos.

This game makes me excited in my pants.

So will you guys be drawing any inspiration from Get Smart? I shore hope so! If it's good enough for the CIA, it's good enough for you.