Kjaamor

I agree with what others have said in that humour doesn't necessarily travel well. For that reason I wouldn't pursue humour in PoE to a great extent. Although I liked Minsc and Edwin (and loved Xan, who is by far my favourite comedy character from the BG games), the humour in BG was often more of a "heh" variety than laugh out loud, and you have to be very careful that such things aren't spoiling the tone for little reward. Personally, the only game that I would really say I found hilarious without breaking the mood was, despite its multitude of sins in other areas, DA:O. I thought the humour was dry and went with the world rather than against it, and it was timed so that it was appropriate light relief when little was going on.

He's a mixed race and gender cage-fighting professor of medicine and astrophysics, like the rest of us on the internet.

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My impression was that this was main design of animal companions, and offered the most optimal use of the companion. However, it it is entirely possible, probable even, that there is a sliding scale amongst animal companions that ranges from tank to dps/controller/healz. At the extreme end of the dps/c/h side could lie ranged animal companions. Ultimately spitting cobras are probably the best of the few real world examples of ranged animal attacks, and even they would be something of a stretch. Thankfully the golden rpg rule of "it's magic" can apply to open up possibilites.

As a general rule, evil, even more so than good, benefits from the title when given it afterwards.

Brevity is important in forums and not everything deserves rich in-depth criticism. Still, for your benefit, I'll expand a little. Art is not technique. Technique enables the art. A child can create a piece that is emotionally stirring or wildly creative despite possessing little talent with a brush. That is art. The artist of that painting could have designed an interesting or dramatic hammer. They chose to go with an ineffectively-sized matt hammer with zero decorative value. The artist could have gone for an interesting background that set a scene. Instead they went for generic colour mist with some very lazy lightning and rose petals thrown in. The artist could have created an interesting outfit for the woman within (and one, I hasten to add, that could expose as much flesh as he likes). Instead they went trawled through the fantasy eroticism habberdashery looking for individual items they thought would be sexy (hoop earrings, thong, minimalist boob plate, solo pauldron) and slapped them on. Finally, the artist could have chosen to create a character with any sense of personality or even affect. There it is. Now, as I said, I went out on a limb with my statement of worst art ever - partly because I've seen some terrible art in my time but more because the greater debate should be whether that picture even qualifies as art. I am neither a master artist nor a master technician, but like the child I referred to in my second paragraph I at least have basic imagination and that puts me ahead of the artist. I think that covers it pretty comprehensively, so I'll politely step away from the picture and its undue attention and let the thread get back on track.

I think I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the previous piece is the most appallingly bad piece of artwork I have ever seen.

I dont need feminism to spell "don't" or emphasise appropriately.

One woman who I considered a feminist came across as a ****, therefore it's wrong that women got the vote. Etc.

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<3 <3 <3 The Prince and the Princess <3 <3 <3

Fixed.

Just for the record, kids in Fallout were not given unkillable tags, but were either replaced with adult representations (Oddly, most frequently the bald, yellow jump-suited peasant type) or were removed from the game entirely. So for example, without going into too much in the way of spoilers, certain quest options were disabled entirely as a result - most obviously some options when dealing with the Wrights. In order to circumvent this, some horribly unscrupulous Europeans would repatch the game using North American patches to enable children. I don't know the legality of this, but certainly it wasn't something supported by Black Isle. I'm not casting any particular judgement on this, just pointing out way it worked. As for unkillable tags more generally, it hasn't bothered me in games and it wouldn't bother me in PoE.

I meant it in a humourous sense which I think may have been lost in translation, but Prometheus had already done the FWIW so it just seemed amusing.

This thread will improve immensely when Josh posts in it.

Having watched the gameplay footage, I'm rapidly coming around to the idea of making a character defined by their stats rather than by their class. I'm inclined to build a character with high intelligence, medium resolve and perception, and actually dump might, dexterity and constitution. From there, I will most likely select either a Paladin or a Cleric to take advantage of the personality bonuses for RPing. Having played so many RPGs where I am the star of my party, I very much like the idea of being the weak link in combat but helping to support the superior fighters around me, whilst providing useful leadership and direction.

I'm not going to get into an argument by trying to convince others, but personally non-combat exp was one of the many things that made VtM: Bloodlines such a great game. Exp is rewarded for clever and well-thought through play, rather than reaching every situation with a blunt tool. I couldn't be happier that PoE is doing this.

She does, and her enthusiasm is to her credit while Josh seems a little more PR-weary next to her. There's a sensation of "The Orlans are so CUTE!" "Yeah, great. Anyway..." EDIT: Actually, I'll retract that having listened a bit further in. The game looks fantastic.

I had the 1988 version for a time but, like many games of that generation, going back to that level of GUI was a bit too much for me to handle. I was interested in the 2001 version but upon hearing that one major bug would cause the player's system files to uninstall when the game itself was removed, I quickly shelved the idea.

Did Josh just unnecessarily elbow drop me?

In practice, though, there are very few games that work exactly like that. For the overwhelming majority, the inventory upgrades of shops are tied in with the progression of the characters and story. New items appear after you have dealt with the orc threat, etc. Now in realism terms this frequently makes little sense, but from a gameplay perspective it serves to restrict item upgrades until you have completed a set challenge. This is different from simply having to engage in time-wasting antics that are frequently at odds with the supposed urgency of the main quest. I can think of no worse gameplay mechanic than going away and letting the clock tick down to achieve rewards. EDIT: Unless the gameplay specifically works upon a time-management perspective and the surrounding quests are timed, in which case ordering items becomes a tactical choice and the situation is turned completely on its head. However it seems that the debate has long since been closed on whether fans wanted timed quests and the answer was almost unanimously "No", much to my personal consternation.

You know, that would be a cool idea for an rpg in the more jrpg vein (not, I hasten to add, PoE). Rather than beginning a romance where you get the girl/boy, starting the game in a romance where you have to keep (or lose) the girl/boy. That would sell like a hot potato, albeit one in the middle of the Sahara most likely. Having just said that, I have recollections of Yahtzee tearing apart a game called Catherine that sounded vaguely similar to that.

In gameplay terms, though, those "return in x days" exchanges are best kept at a minimum. The game, after all, is an rpg, not a mail order simulator.

Maybe if all these games had employed more romance in the first 2 hours...

BG system is what they are going for and is more in keeping with the zoomed out isometric style (since in depth character creation is - take note, D:OS - pointless in such a style). That said, the NWN2 style was probably the most hideous execution of that particular style I have witnessed, and in games like DA:O (whatever you might think of the rest of it) it was done far better.