Child of Flame

About 30 million north of the US. Yes there are nations outside the US. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> <mindblow> Whoa! </mindblow>

Obsidian isn't attending this years e3 <{POST_SNAPBACK}> ...they aren't? Isn't that one of the only redeeming things about working in the Gaming Industry...LAN gaming aside. I mean, FFS, they're in IRVINE!!! They could DRIVE there.

I ain't gonna argue with you. There are few things that could be better and that is the inventory display and management. Most everything else has keyboard shortcuts. I find it second nature by now --> I don't "see" the interface, I play my character. Give it a few playthroughs and you will see the beauty of the system too. As a whole I find Fallout unsurpassed in RP goodness, even today after seven years of playing it. And that in the end, is what matters most to me. Still I know what you are saying ... the interface may be getting a bit outdated, yeah? :edit: I hear alot of really good things about Arcanum. Says if you like Fallout, you may like Arcanum as well. Hope I can find it one of these days. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> IMO, it's better in Baldur's Gate, i.e. it wasn't such a pain switching between combat and movement. That's what I HATE though. I don't mind using my keyboard, this all mouse crap with tons of clicks just to open and walk through a door is what's pissing me off. On another note, I don't KNOW any of the hotkeys, because I have to Dual Jewel version, which has NO MANUAL! If someone could just list the controls out here, it would be appreciated. That or link me to a .pdf file, and depending on how bad I wanna play more of it, I'll download it on my 28kbp connection.

Seeing as this is my dedicated Infinity Engine game list I ask questions and you answer them (and you'd better like it), I can't figure out how to transfer Inventory Items to Ian in Fallout (1) aside from bartering them with him for different stuff. If someone tells me this was a 'design decision' I'm gonna barf...then again, it IS made by St. Timmy. Also, any chance there's a manual for the Fallouts in .pdf format like I've found for Torment? If there is, I might just put my Fallout game on hold for a week or so, pick up Toment again, and then get back into Fallout on Wednesday when I can go to my family's church and leech the bandwidth of their highspeed internet connection.

I love copy and pasting. As for Bio's stories being repetitive, I have to agree with Volourn. There's some similarities, but it's not the same story rehashed. If you seriously think the story of KOTOR is based around your 'love interest turning evil' I must honestly question whether you actually played the game as opposed to just reading about it. The game's real plot twist and interesting story is centered around the PC's position - Bastila's fall to the darkside is kept to a sideline late in the game, and isn't really built in such a way that it could suprise anyone. The NPCs are telling you "She might have fallen to the dark side" the whole time. For an NPC sidequest it was pretty good, and more than most party NPCs get in any RPG. were it the main quest I would have been disappointed, but it simply wasn't. And of course, the BG series is all about your character's love interest being seduced to evil by Irenicus through being weak-willled, right? Oh wait, it was totally different. I agree insofar that Bio isn't necessarily redefining the industry with each new game, but that's worlds different from rehashing the same story or not creating any innovation at all. Bloodlines didn't have anything particularly original about it either, but that didn't stop it from being a fun game. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Grr, I already said Baldur's Gate was exempt, those stories were fairly well done. I was talking more about Bio's recent games, but none of them really pushed anything. Not even design wise, except for the [overrated] toolset in NWN. I didn't play ToEE or Arcanum, but I found Bloodlines amazing. And I really hope no one's going to try and argue that the interface for Fallout was done well. The SPECIAL system is good, but the cursor is a pain to use.

Everybody knows that they'd working on KotOR II I/II: The Stuff We Left Out of the Last One.

Having a good story, characters blabla is mandatory anyway, so how is that pushing the genre forward in your opinion? And letting the combat fade into the background only means that the combat is not done right, so how does that push the genre forward? When it only would come down to those criterions, Bio just could make BG3, BG4 etc. like BG1/BG2, or would have done KOTOR2 themselves, with no noticeable gameplay improvements, they would probably still make a lot of money, but at some point people would ask themselves "Hmm, it's time for something new". That's the reason why Bio's last few (and next) projects distinguished a lot gameplay wise, and why they let the sequels doing someone else (LOL). There you see you can't have improvements roleplaying wise when there're no imrovements gameplay wise. Developing a story isn't the big problem for designers, but how to craft story interactively, this is the actual hard part. For example, F1/F2 or IWD1/IWD2 were in the end, apart from some rule changes, just the same games, but only distinguished story and content wise. That's for many people enough, but that doesn't heave a developer to the famous status like Bioware enjoys now. And I'm not talking about whether you think their games suck or not, that's something subjectively and does not influence Bio's enduring success. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Please point out major advancements between Bio's games that weren't done by someone else first, other than NWN of course, the toolset was it's only redeeming quality. AFAIK, aside from graphics improvements and rules changes, most of their games were fairly similar. What was special about Bloodlines was the level it immersed me. They took the faces from Fallout and fully realized the potential of them (i.e. you could see the emotions on the faces of the NPCs that YOU were causing), and the story was just overall done better than anything I'd come across in awhile. The NPC characters were believeable, and not forced, or stereotypes like in so many other games (Bio's included). It's a shame Troika is no more.

Just curious, did you start as an act of rebellion against your father...minister's kid and all?

Congradulations, you've taken the first step to being able to put on a smug air of internet superiority. Now get your butt working on learning all the hotkeys maggot.

There's like, people who actually, like, care about this sport?

Sorry, I had just gotten up and was sleepy. Baldur's Gate should be excluded since it was [basically] their first game, and the one that all the stories spawned off of. I stand by this point, to me, they were all rehashes. If anything, I'd say this is the 'feel' that Morgoth is talking about. Crappy storytelling because they can't think of a new primary twist other than "YOUR LURVE INTEREST TURNS EVILE!!! ZOMG!!!" When I think of an RPG, I think storytelling and immersion. Bio didn't do this very much (Baldur's Gate aside, as it was the first of the 'new wave' of RPGs). I haven't played Arcanum or ToEE, so I can't speak for them, but for me, Bloodlines did this more than any game since Torment. Also, I know people are gonna flame me for this, but I liked the combat more than in Fallout. The SPECIAL system is awesome, but the way the interface is is cumbersome and hard to use. ---> <_< ---> Oh please don't be ridiculous. Troika pushed the RPG genre? No. Aracanum, basically a Fallout, but less fun. ToEE -> Utter Crap. Bloodlines at least enjoyable, but some heavy problems, especially balance wise --> destroys gameplay experience. Bioware made NWN and brought forth a huge Mod community that we only know from the FPS scene... there's a powerful toolset that every moron can use, there's a RT DM Mode and the game still has great support. And with HoTU Bio proved that they even can deliver a better SP experience than some other full price titles from well-known RPG companies. So there's for everybody something. And that for a game that just was meant as a multiplayer platform "heavy". <{POST_SNAPBACK}> As I told Volourn, when I think RPG, I think heavy story, and the combat should almost fade into the background. Bio hasn't written a good story in any of their RPGs that 'pushed' the genre since Baldur's Gate.

Are you SERIOUS?!! What honestly has Bio 'pushed' in recent history? I think the game of theirs that 'pushed' the most, even though it wasn't in the RPG genre, was MDK2, with it's weapons creation system and story in a shooter. Most of Bioware's RPGs from Baldur's Gate onwards have been rehashes of the same story with setting/NPC plot differences. Most of the tech in their games I'd seen used before in other games. NWNs tileset system wasn't the first moddable game using similar tech, you just like to think it is. I will give it to them that they made it easier to mod than most systems using similar tech before it, but please, don't say the 'push' the genre. I ain't no fanboi, but if I had to say anyone in recent years had 'pushed' the genre it would be Troika, but they screwed up pretty dang bad, as well as not putting the polish into their games they should've. Meh.

I know it won't happen, but I'd love to see simultaneous release (as was promised with KotORII) with KotORIII.

Dude, text based games are the ****. Anyhow, text is PERFECT, if anything were to be changed, I'd say make the darker grey a more 'Obsidian' color. But that's just me.

Negatory. Did you even bother looking around before posting here.

Dude, Star Wars was always ALL ABOUT the midichlorians, don't pretend it wasn't. George is just like Herve, HE HAS A PLAN!

Stuff it Mr. Blake-I'm-Not-Nationalistic-GO-AUSTRALIA!!! Did your other username get banned after all that trolling you were doing the other day? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> what are you on about on topic please <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm on about you making a doppel account because you pissed off the mods Mr. Obsidian-doesn't-ban-they-just-censor. This is your original profile is it not Master Jedi?

Ditto.

Couple quick questions: 1). Is it worth paying full price for, or should I stick to Torment, and the Fallouts, until the price drops, maybe with an interval of Blood Money and Chaos Theory in between (those are two titles I KNOW I'll be impressed with). 2). How longs is it, total? It sounds like 30 hours is the general consensus?

I wish they'd make NOLF3, as well as AvP3. I long to be a Predator again.

Cheaper to just buy a regular HDD and a Conversion Kit to turn it into a portable mass storage device.

---> ---> " *cough*Four-Page-Thread-On-This-Very-Subject-On-This-Very-Forum-That's-Still-On-The-Front-Page-Of-This-Very-Section*cough* <Edit>DAMN ME FOR TAKING TOO LONG WITH MY BASTARDIZED HTML CODE!</Edit> <Editx2>And how the hell was the original post that I read changed in my quote, you know, the "in case everyone hadn't heard about it yet" one. Grr! DAMN Invision Power board and it's crafty ways. And DAMN YOU MAX POWERS!</Editx2> <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I had realised my mistake of posting a dupe only after I had posted it, so I went back and changed it. I'm a sneaky one <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hrm, next time I quote a post I'm going to have to take a screenshot beforehand to avoid such discrepencies. Haha! There was still a piccy of it in my browser cache. You are foiled!

There's diplomats, and theivey people, those are useful.

---> ---> " *cough*Four-Page-Thread-On-This-Very-Subject-On-This-Very-Forum-That's-Still-On-The-Front-Page-Of-This-Very-Section*cough* <Edit>DAMN ME FOR TAKING TOO LONG WITH MY BASTARDIZED HTML CODE!</Edit> <Editx2>And how the hell was the original post that I read changed in my quote, you know, the "in case everyone hadn't heard about it yet" one. Grr! DAMN Invision Power board and it's crafty ways. And DAMN YOU MAX POWERS!</Editx2>