Hurlshort

Congrats! Post some pictures when you get the chance. Since my baby girl is a month old, I can tell you, you will never sleep the same again

I loved Morrowind's sandstorms. Oblivion never wowed me like the first sandstorm I entered in Morrowind. I felt like I should cover my mouth. The first EA game with 3D graphics wowed me. I also though Front Page Sports Football was way ahead of the pack in terms of player animations. WoW wowed me with the attention to detail. Entering a crumbling human stronghold really felt like I had gone down to ground level from the original RTS games. Areas like the Underworld and the Warlock HQ in stormwind are incredible atmospheric.

Quest for Glory IV had some tunes I still hum today.

The snes Zelda.

GW is successful, but the whole game is designed very differently. It doesn't require the same servers that an mmo does, because it is all small instances. It also isn't that much cheaper when you pay $50 every 6-months for a GW expansion, which was the original goal of the developers (although they haven't kept that release date timetable.)

I'm a bit surprised it took this long for the WoW flamers to come out of the work. Blizzard is a company trying to make money. They released a very successful product, whether it interests you or not. They have a pricing plan that is no different than most other MMO's on the market, they just sell more. Most MMO's companies do not make a ton of money due to monthly fees. They have a very large overhead and incur monthly costs that non-MMO developers don't need to worry about. Many MMO companies have gone under, some even before releasing the product, some even while managing tens of thousands of subscribers. You need about 100,000 subscribers to be profitable, but of course that has a lot of variables. So I really don't get the whole bashing of a succesful PC gaming franchise. It's one of the few things keeping PC gaming going, so I consider it a blessing.

I wouldn't recommend the expansion unless you have a level 58 character sitting around. I bought it and regret doing so, because I had no interest in grinding out the last few levels on my level 55 paly to access the new content. The new races are cool, but the quests are pretty much the same as every starter area and that will only get you to 20.

The whole roshan question was just a query. I mean, I still find it hard to understand why you would join the Obsidian forums if you aren't a fan of their work and then immediately jump into an argumentative thread. You did clarify your intentions in another post, and I haven't questioned your identity since. One of the developers pointed out that most of our criticisms are just personal preferences. I was simply stating mine. The roshan bit was just an afterthought. I'm no Lou Gutman, so I'll concede.

I'm not following your logic. If certain players group together (as they do now), then what harm could be done if they had some of their own special (non-magic) items. More like "diary icons" than weapons, if you follow my meaning. I think one concern Cant has is that it will take away from the atmosphere of the game by injecting ridiculous content that doesn't fit the setting.

EDIT: Saw your post now, Hurlshot. I don't know who Roshan is. I guess I've been reading the Codex for too long, thus becoming used to everything being more or less an attack. I'll let my post beneath stand, as I dislike erasing stuff once it's posted - you never know if someone's already started reading it. But take it with a grain of salt. /EDIT This is my last post defending myself against one-liners. Yes, I'm sure he just meant nice things by first disagreeing with me - not adressing any of my suggestions - and then putting an equality symbol between me and someone I'm sure isn't well liked. My fail safe internet psychology evaluation tells me: 1) He didn't read my post beyond that I didn't like unlimited saving. 2) He saw that I didn't enjoy NWN2, a game he likes. 3) He decided not only to disagree with me, but also making an unnecessary MW = Roshan connection. Why I don't know. I am taking this with a grain of salt, but I'm still unsure how or where I disagreed with you. My one liner was "For those of us with small children and difficult schedules, a flexible save system isn't just a preference, it's a necessity." That's hardly argumentative, it's simply a statement about life, and it was made to support the folks who mentioned needing to leave quickly for work.

Roshan = MountainWest = J.E. Sawyer? Hardly. I don't like unlimited saving, but I can understand why some people do. And really, I don't see what your problem with my post is. My first suggestion was to count the number of saves and rewarding the players who don't save at every turn with a simple acknowledgement at the end of the game - it won't affect you. My second suggestion was to implement a one-time "emergency save" at every session, thus giving players who play before they go to work, or have children like yourself, a chance to save at any time. A third suggestion would be to make it a choice at the beginning of the game, just like easy/normal/hard is. Actually, your criticism is egotistical and unwarranted. "I have children so the game must let me save at any time. MountainWest = idiot?" - instead of writing that piece of useless text you could have given a suggestion on how to solve the problem so that we both could enjoy the same game to the fullest. Something I at least tried to do. But it's easier to just say no, eh? Not having to think. Wow, to be honest, I didn't type a full explanation because I was busy feeding said child and it's hard to type while doing so. You seem to be fairly new to the boards and you've thrown yourself right in the middle of an argumentative thread, so I don't think it's a stretch to question whether you are an alt of another poster. There are a lot of folks who use alts here... Anyways, I really didn't attack any of your suggestions, I simply stated why it's so important for me to have a flexible save system. I'm a big fan of a hardcore option in games, but I understand that a developer doesn't want to spend too many resources on an option that not enough paying customers use. So...are you implying that roshan is an idiot? Because I think that's a bit uncalled for. He's more of an evil mastermind.

For those of us with small children and difficult schedules, a flexible save system isn't just a preference, it's a necessity. Roshan = MountainWest?

Eh, I'm warming to the idea of the Ducks winning the cup. It would be nice to see a California team finally win it all. I just dislike Pronger and Selanne so much, but they do deserve a Cup based on talent. Still, it's a long series. Ottawa isn't out yet.

That's the trick with MMO's, they put on the box "Game experience may vary" because you can have a vastly different game depending on the server, the players you run across, your guild, etc. There isn't any right or wrong way to play an MMO.

I don't understand why Roshan hangs out on this board. He's started numerous negative topics about NWN2 and he gets the same reaction every time. No one is saying NWN2 is the holy grail of gaming, but most people here are fans of Obsidian. Roshan doesn't offer any constructive criticism, he just whines and whines. Seriously, why bother? I don't go hang out on a forum for poodles and constantly complain how silly they look. Stop wasting your time.

Phoenix Wright is proof that the adventure game genre isn't dead yet. It's very clever and entertaining. It's also pretty odd, but I'd definitely recommend it.

QFT You are on an obscure game developer's message board discussing RPG's.

I agree with your complaints. I'd love to see a game where we leave more of a mark. NWN has done that a bit with DM's able to change stuff in PW's, but that's not necessarily massive. But I question you saying "I quit". You played the game to completion. Sure, MMO's don't really end, but you put hundreds of hours in. Eventually, you will reach a point where the game loses the magic. You seem reasonable, so I doubt you were simply torturing yourself by playing WoW. You had a great run, so why knock it? We all want that game where we affect the world in a meaningful way. But that's not viable at this time as a business model. It requires too many extra hands and it's not tested whether a bunch of folks are willing to pay the $50. Do you know if that EQ server did well? Did it thrive financially? Because those are the questions that will determine whether we will see more of it. As of now, WoW is successful, so it won't be changing much. Oh yeah, go play LotR Online. It's the new WoW, and I love it.

Fixed that. The switch to GFW brought crappiness to it, and my subscription that ends in a few months (after many years of loyal CGW reading) will not be re-newed. Other than the 8 page Microsoft add, I've yet to see any difference. The quality of writing remains the same, so I'll keep subscribing. I've been reading CGW for about 15 years, so I was hesitant too, but I've come to see it as a positive. It's pretty huge that they have Microsoft backing them. It's much better than losing the magazine altogether, which was a real danger.

I bought a DS and I picked up Puzzle Quest and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. So far I've only played Puzzle Quest, and I knew from the PC demo that it was excellent. I'm pretty surprised at how awesome the DS is. I regret choosing a PSP years ago, and now I'm glad I made the switch. Buying the DS was a bit funny. I went to an EB because I had about $70 in store credit, but they only had pink versions. So I went across the street to Target and bought a black DS, and used the $70 on the two games and a carrying case. Oddly enough, Target had about 20 pink versions as well. I'm guessing someone made a mistake in thinking how well that would sell. I would buy Red, Yellow, even Purple...but pink? I don't think there are even many gamer girls that want a pink handheld.

They'll just think you a pretentious ****. I'd actually recommend Pretentious **** 8, it's the best of the series.

I played in a permadeath NWN world for awhile, and paladins tended to die more than any other character. If you are playing in character, a paladin really should be putting themselves in danger way more often than the average character. They are supposed to stick up for everyone and not back down off their moral high horse. It was always awesome to watch an entire party run away while the paladin stood his ground against bad odds.

GFW can hype whatever they want. They are the oldest gaming magazine in publication and the only one that doesn't read like it was written by a High School journalism staff.

Yes, I'm sleep deprived since we had the baby. Which, on a related note, is what hey-ohing can lead to!

You're too old to be hey-ohing, young man!