archangel979

Only reason why it went downhill is because players don't want to read anymore and so the games have catered to this public.

Methinks people overly associate open-world games with MMO's. What's the difference between doing a quest in BG1, and doing a quest in DA:I? It's not isometric, and there are fewer map transitions. Seriously. I'm not going to tell anyone to like DA:I, but at least dislike it accurately, please. Anywho, while I think DA:I is great, in its way, I feel that PoE is also going to be quite great in different ways. Quests in BG1 are actually real quests where you talk to people to get it and and to turn it in and get cool conversations.

I can do this game as well. NO to all of your noes.

You have understood it wrong they aren't called Elder lions (or wolves) because they are old but because they are older less domesticated race/species of lions/wolves who grow larger, tougher and are less afraid of people. I would say it is sadder still see that those cultists use those giant beetles as their front door guards. And still nobody would call them Elder lions. Elder comes from Dragons or Vampires because such creatures power increases with age. With normal animals their power decreases with age. Elder is the opposite of how they should be called.

Someone who holds up characters like Minsc as the pinnacle of RPG writing really shouldn't be lecturing other people on their tastes. And you might want to learn to read. Or at least stop pretending like you don't know how.

There is not much old school with TW2. What sets it apart is more time and effort being put into quality quests and dialogs compared to modern Bioware and other developers.

When it is ready pls

Total Biscuit ripped DAI a new one yesterday on stream. And it is not the first time. He also said it is not in his top 10 games of the year and surely not GotY.

Lol. Since I didn't play the beta I cannot be 100% sure but I read enough about missing options that that is not likely. The game does not come close to complexity of NWN2, and IE games still are on whole another level. No need to lol. If you haven't played the beta, you're in for a pleasant surprise. If you go by the most critical comments, you're getting a very skewed idea about the game. Some people have been completely over the top with the negativity (and, frankly, just nastiness towards the devs). PoE still needs tuning and there are still bugs (like the exploit that Sensuki posted in this thread), and there will be more bugs found (I expect Sensuki alone to find at least four of five more showstoppers before launch, at the rate he's going) but the game isn't going to be a disaster -- for most people. If, for example, someone can't live with the XP system, they will go to their grave cursing Josh Sawyer with their dying breath. You should let them. Just enjoy the game. It will be good. If we're lucky, it will be great. (And someone will mod in combat XP so the people cursing Mr. Sawyer will be doing so in vain). While I can agree with you that this game will have at least OK combat, that is not what we were promised. NWN2 had OK combat, DAO had OK combat. But we were promised IE level of awesome combat. I will not settle for anything less and will be calling out OE for it.

Tactics in these games usually come down to reading what all your options do. I seen lots of people play BG1 and dying constantly because they don't bother to read what all the cleric and mage spells do. They rather savescum 5 times until RNG gods love them then use a right spell or potion for the situation.

In BG new commands were usually needed every 6 seconds if you were a spell caster and any non-caster usually fought same enemy until that one dies which didn't happen for few rounds (6 second = 1 round) unless they were trash mobs where you didn't even need to pause at all. So you paused at worst about every 6 seconds and at best until anyone on enemy team died. Casual players didn't bother much with effective use of spellcasting and just paused to give troops new targets after current ones died so they paused even less often. In PoE everything is faster and deadlier and as such asks for pausing much much more often. Also from what I understand, PoE will not support AI scripts for your characters like IE games did. But isn't there a "slow mode"? Slow mode means nothing. It slows down everything, not just how much damage is dealt.

There are still Elder Lions in the game Those poor old Lions are still being murdered by adventurers...

I must admit while I do remember the looks of MotB NPCs, I don't remember much more about them. In my book that does not make them interesting. NV I managed to play for 12h only, only had that flying ball before I quit that boring game. Kotor 2 for sure didn't have all NPCs being interesting although on average it has most interesting one of all Obsidian games I played (I didn't play Alpha Protocol, DS3 or South Park). People have differents tastes. Even within a lifetime, tastes can shift wildly. When I was a kid, I loved standard high fantasy stuff (Dragons of Autumn Twilight - Tanis, Sturm, Raistlin, etc). I liked the good guys and the bad guys. The good and evil. Then I got older and tried to be edgy (Black Sun Rising, Vryce, etc). I liked the flawed "antiheroes." But now, I am even older. I want something much more basic. I want believable characters I can connect with. The bottom line, as how it was stated in Zero Effect (one of my favorite films), "there are no good guys, there are no bad guys, there are just a bunch of guys." Obsidian gets this. With the occasion exception, they give characters real motivations. While they may not be memorable to you, I find their characters to be moving. They are certainly muted. They are not CARICATURES. They are CHARACTERS. As such, they may not "stand out" in your memory. However, as all true characters, they move you. They speak to the human condition. Bioware caricutures are cute cartoon things and they are funny. But they do not help you understand yourself or your place on this pale blue dot floating about in infinity and into oblivion. I guess you like mediocrity. I want NPCs that are as complex as Kreia. If that is not possible, I would rather have fun and silly ones like Minsc and Xzar than something in between those two extremes. Minsc and Xzar make me laugh each time I hear them, Kreia made for very interesting conversations. I don't want those that are not fun with their barks but also don't have anything really interesting to say when you do talk to them. Oh and banter between evil characters in BG2 was awesome (and between evil and good ones).

I must admit while I do remember the looks of MotB NPCs, I don't remember much more about them. In my book that does not make them interesting. NV I managed to play for 12h only, only had that flying ball before I quit that boring game. Kotor 2 for sure didn't have all NPCs being interesting although on average it has most interesting one of all Obsidian games I played (I didn't play Alpha Protocol, DS3 or South Park).

Lol. Since I didn't play the beta I cannot be 100% sure but I read enough about missing options that that is not likely. The game does not come close to complexity of NWN2, and IE games still are on whole another level.

They pushed the game back to early 2015 without a specific date, they can release anywhere from January to early April with such a vague target. And with Witcher 3 being pushed back to May now they even got more choice when to release as long as it is at least one month before TW3 (because some people will rather spend their paycheck on TW3 than PoE if they release in same month).

Sawyer wanted to show the world he knows better than 100s of designers at Wizards that worked on different editions of D&D and that is only reason why they are using this system.

Strongly disagree. I have an extensive list of complaints with DA:O, but the characters and the humour of those characters has never been one of them. For me, Alistair remains the funniest companion I have ever had the joy of experiencing in a crpg with Morrigan running a close second. I literally laughed out loud on more occasions than I could count during DA:O, although by the end when the mechanics had become undeniable it was the last game in the series I would play. I'm not averse to a spot of Bioware-bashing myself, but I think for crpgs to get where they need to be, you have to acknowledge what was done well and what was done badly. The DA:O characters I played with felt appropriate to the setting, funny without breaking the third wall, and had at least a small attempt at arcing. This should be praised. The experience was only somewhat spoiled by having a PC who could nob half of them by giving them the sweepings left from doing his job. Then we disagree. Only thing I remember from Alistair was that he is a sulky whiny guy. He was a nobody and would stay so unless you played his shrink for a long while during the game. I would rather take Minsc over him any day of the week.

You misunderstand. I was explaining bioware companions. For Obsidian ones, I never said why I consider others less interesting than Kreia or HK47 (at least not directly). And making companions is not just writing their lines. Other people do VO. Other people animate them, and other people decide when you talk to them and in what surroundings. And other people give green light on including them in this or that state.

I'm not sure I follow. The Bioware companions are very melodramatic, especially the silly ones you seem to prefer. The Obsidian companions are usually more subdued and less over the top, which is why you seem to find them boring. As for great Obsidian companions, Kreia wasn't the only great character in Kotor 2, the game was filled with them. There is also Mask of the Betrayer and Planescape Torment. The latter isn't an Obsidian game, but Chris Avellone, who wrote all the companions, works at Obsidian. The old ones are loud and fun. The new ones are just dramatic and boring. Obsidian NPCs, none are very loud but some are also not dramatic and as such interesting. I enjoyed talking to Kreia about morality, humanity and self discovery. And I don't consider PST to be Obsidian. NPCs are more than just one man.

Well, maybe this says a lot about my love for Bioware companions. I will admit I liked some Obsidian NPCs more (Kreia is still one of my favorite ones), and I would surely not consider those "mundane" like ctn2003 praises in PoE. The crazier = more fun. HK 47 from Kotor 2 is a lot of fun but I don't really remember any from NWN2 OC to be anything special. Interesting is not always those with melodrama backstories, one dimension can often be more fun. For melodrama I can watch soap opera any day of the week.

And Dragon Age's characters are more well known than Obsidian's. This doesn't mean they're better. It usually means the opposite, since anything that appeals to the lowest common denominator is more popular as a rule. The new Bioware characters are boring (DAO and afterwards). None of them are silly and fun. Morrigan was memorable for other stuff, the rest are just plain and boring. I don't want Obsidian to follow Bioware modern steps. Xzar has more personally in his few barks that all the new Bioware characters together (well I didn't play DAI so maybe they got some better ones; OK, Mass Effect had some more interesting characters but also not much).

And still the "silly" Bg characters like Minsc are loved and remembered while "mundane" ones are not. Minsc even got into official D&D lore. I say bring us more silly and fun than boring and mundane.

In BG new commands were usually needed every 6 seconds if you were a spell caster and any non-caster usually fought same enemy until that one dies which didn't happen for few rounds (6 second = 1 round) unless they were trash mobs where you didn't even need to pause at all. So you paused at worst about every 6 seconds and at best until anyone on enemy team died. Casual players didn't bother much with effective use of spellcasting and just paused to give troops new targets after current ones died so they paused even less often. In PoE everything is faster and deadlier and as such asks for pausing much much more often. Also from what I understand, PoE will not support AI scripts for your characters like IE games did.

The "I win" button existed in every IE game in the form of a console command that will kill any targeted enemy. Was you game broken by its existence? That is not a I win button. I didn't even know it existed or how to access it (or console). The true I win button is at least as accessible as broken engagement system.