Diogo Ribeiro

Granted. Like i said, i didn't remember of any particular event, as its been years since i've played it.

Thats somewhat similar to John Romero's story, isn't it? Only except falling into evil, he fell into relative obscurity.

Coma fits quite well in a fantasy game? If you say so.... Anyway, the romance felt disconnected at some points. Using coma, or any character-disabling event, as a means to expose some character's motivation or feeling that he was unable to express until then was badly pulled off. Come to think of it, until that particular scene, i can't recall of any event where Squall actually hinted he liked Rinoa, wheter in dialogue or thought, yet he crumbles as she goes veggie. Not only that, the romance was terribly cliche. How many times have we seen silent, angsty teens depressed about everything, and girls with a high tolerance for being mistreated, all the while making advances towards someone who doesn't give a damn about them? The 'romance' reeked of south america, drama-dripping soap operas.

Its good to know i hold such a great place in your heart. <3 Vollie.

I think this can go both ways. In the beginning you might need a droid which can help you familiarize with planetary regions, alien languages and diplomatic resources. But you also might need a combat droid. It depends on how diplomacy and combat are included in the game. If the earlier areas include enough situations of both diplomacy and combat then its just a matter of letting the player decide which to take. However, if the game will include overal more combat situations (which i'm inclined to think), then you might need a combat droid early on, and not just towards the end. Of course, what you could do is to give players more ways of droid customization, so that he the customization, plus its growth, can lead him into being a good backup in earlier battles, an adequate fighter at mid levels, and a walking behemoth of destruction towards the later stages (should you feel so inclined), without necessarily sacrificing the diplomatic aspects (supposing they'd be used, anyway). Even taking into account player skill to determine the level of the droid's usefulness, why would a lower PC skill would allow me only to construct a standard protocol droid? A combat droid, or any kind of droid used for combat, in theory, should be easier to build than a protocol droid. A combat droid has to know how to operate a weapon, a protocol droid has to know how many languages? How many pieces of information regarding customs or geographical information? Still, I'm supportive of the concept, though. I think giving players a droid which can be customized for different needs would make certain elements in the game more interesting and possibly replayable. A droid could help in many things, some of which already described above. Also, to avoid getting a "be all, end all" droid, we could decide wheter to take a customizable protocol, or combat droid, instead of just taking one that could be all.

If thats true, i certainly could've used some of those robes whenever i had to take exams.

I don't think so. The romance felt contrived. It had its moments, but not enough to be called the 'best romance in any videogame'.

Thats not a bad idea. Although if its being based on a skill, then this suggests the higher the skill the better the chances of creating a better droid. This might lead to players keep on raising the skill to a point where they might effortlessly create an uber-droid, and worse, that by the time they make one, they won't need it. Regardless, the concept might work, still. Assembling a droid would be interesting. Perhaps even decide what kind of behaviour modules to install on it, or even decide to switch certain parts of it to handle certain situations (like inserting regular arms to hold weapons for combat situations, or give it work droid parts to do menial tasks like carry heavy items, etc).

I don't particularly feel Irenicus to have been good or bad. I think he had the potential. He had the motivation, and somewhat intricate at that; his actions, however, just felt somewhat erratic. As for villains one could sympathize with... i'd have to throw in the Master from Fallout, but also Kerghan the Necromancer from Arcanum. Ravel as well.

I don't think the romance should advance by means of full control of the PC, but neither do it i think it should solely depend on NPCs. A combination of PC-driven interactions, as well as NPC banter, would likely be best. I'm not keen on having to prod romanceable NPCs for reactions, just as i don't want them to be prodding me at inconvenient times. A combination of both methods (self-initiative and NPC initative) would likely provide a better development and timing of the romance. O'course, if you really want to improve them, ditch them all togheter. Best improvement it can get.

Nope, it is not ALWAYS bad, just must of the time. Quite true, unfortunately.

Aw, shucks Seriously though, i also like Briosa. While i haven't met him for that long, he strikes me as someone honest, credible, intelligent and humble. He's Portuguese also, and that's icing on the cake B) .... must not... unleash... unholy wrath....

You could point out that the Codex has an extreme point of view, and associated reactions (likely just as extreme as sites that do virtual handjobs to certain companies and devs). Then again, the site's theme is precisely that. The site has a staff, and various regulars, who tend to dislike mainstream games, and certain attitudes within the gaming industry, which pretty much is the reason why they (me included) tend to "crack down hard" on some people, and situations. But its not really about entertainment, as far as i'm concerned; its about a community with a certain attitude and outlook, like any other community with a certain attitude and outlook. That we get entertained in the process, however, is a different thing

Well, the lack of criticism on my part comes from a somewhat simple set of reasons. For starters i'm fairly new there and am not that much of a regular user. What little time i spend there hasn't given me any insight which would lead me to have criticism of it. Also, i don't know the vast majority of people who post there. Hell, off the top of my head, i only know Volourn, ShadowPaladin, slowtrain, taks, Zap$$ter and Gromnir. I probably know someone else, but can't seem to remember anyone for now. And what little time i have spent there hasn't been enough to give me knowledge of others' personalities either. (Note that i'm saying i know these people in the sense of knowing them as best as one can over the internet, and with minimal contact; aside Volourn, i don't talk much with the other people i mentioned, mostly because of a lack of points to discuss, or simply because i'm not exactly great "buddy" material, or even because i haven't spent enough time around them to loosen up.) This isn't to say criticism of the forums isn't warranted or not; alls i'm saying is that i haven't found anything there that could lead me to make criticisms. I could dish out some form of criticism if i was more acquainted with the forums. As such, i could point out some things i personally feel to be wrong with forums i visit more often, as i'm better acquainted with what goes on there, and with its posters. EDIT: Tried fixing quote tags. EDIT 2: Damn. And Azael is there as well Forgot about him

Your loss. I assume you'll unfortunately keep on repeating yourself instead of forgetting the matter, then? A shame, that.

You know, playing a premade character isn't always bad. Its not so much the problem with playing a premade character per se; rather, the problem happens when the premade we're given isn't interesting. The Nameless One was an interesting character to play, placed in a situation which was also interesting; and you could not play that character otherwise. Playing a Jedi however, is usually something we've all done one way or the other (and the character type is something that, even if people haven't played it, they're largely acquainted with it), but if the story as well as the character are worth it, i'm willing to give it a go.

Like a sexual harassment lawsuit and a restraining order. Overal, i haven't had any complains about Mistress' Lair. Until now, of course. Just another forum for discussion.

Given "open-mindness" is categorized as "being receptive to arguments or ideas", your attitude on this very thread is quite the antithesis of it; specially because you're claiming others can't take a little open-mindedness when you're actually not accepting it yourself, and the others you're accusing of not accepting it are the ones fostering it, after all.

There's a room?

Will exactly all characters be liable to be influenced by the PC? I hope this isn't the case with all of them. I believe some characters should have a mind of their own and resist some, or most, of the PC's influence. I don't think all NPCs should be portrayed as easilly influenced, or gullible.

I don't care much for more Force Powers; what I'd like to see were more opportunities to use them, wheter in combat or outside of it. And specifically, i'd prefer the removal of situations where i'm told i can't use my force powers to logically bypass obstacles, like being unable to jump over gaps because i have to solve another puzzle. This is bad design. Instead of telling the player he has an ability but he can't use it, create instead a situation where the player can choose to use the ability or not.

Definetely. While i can understand someone not liking the overal gameplay of Torment, wheter in itself or when compared to other IE games, this was one of the elements which really elevated it from the others. The ability to have several interaction elements used like this (an interaction possiblity inside an interaction itself) was what made the experience great on that particular level. Unfortunately it wasn't used more often, but what was there rocked the casbah.

The ability to play back movies is always a nice feature, but cutscenes usually can't be replicated (cutscenes using an ingame engine, not video). Having a playback option for combat sounds iffy. I'd much rather have a special slow motion sequence depicting a critical hit or the death of a powerful enemy (possibly from a random angle), than having the option to replay a repetitive combat animation.

Let's hope that means a simultaneous release on PC and Xbox. More importantly, let's hope that the PC version actually feels like its a PC version, not a barely disguised port.

Well in a good CRPG, like Arcanum, the race would have drastic effects on the game. For instance, just about everyone will treat you differently and quest can be solved differently. Er, despite having Arcanum high on my favourites list, the racial differences weren't that drastic in the game. If you played a socially unacceptable race (such as a Half-Orc or Half-Ogre), you still had the chance to beg, grovel or otherwise convince people to look differently at you, sometimes without stats determining their acceptace of you, and to have NPCs give you quests. Remember, if you were socially unacceptable and ugly, but intelligent, you could still get quests.