Cantousent

Ah, Kaftan doesn't mean anything by saying stuff like that. You have to read statements like those with a goofy voice. Of course, that's how I read ALL of Kaftan's posts. hehe I wasn't much of a fable fan, but I never owned the game. Who knows. Wasn't my cuppa, though.

I'm probably going to get a quad. I'll have my initial system specs up for review before I purchase anything. By that time, there might be new developments.

Anyone know of a good case? I was thinking Thermaltake.

You can build your character to a higher level than someone running straight from the expansion. You can build your character with the new prestige classes. Those seem to be the biggest reasons to play the original game again. Personally, I will be running a fresh campaign in order to use some of the new builds.

Tarna, my friend, if you're going to drink that much booze, at least share some with me! hahaha I agree. I've simply become completely disgusted with the Republicans. I registered republican on my 18th birthday, which I spent in the service of my country as an enlisted man of the USN. If you're going to build your party as the party of values, you might want to have a few. F'n rat bastards. We're fellow conservatives, but there's no party that isn't big government in our country. The only question is, where do we want our government? I'd like mine out of my bedroom, out of my pocketbook, and out of my personal life. The government's purpose is to protect our interests and uphold our constitution. Now the bums don't even have the grace to step down in shame when they break our laws. We. We're the ones who strive to uphold not only our place in society, but the principles upon which it is built. There was a time when I would shake my head in silence because the accusations against my party were baseless and petty. Now, I hold my piece because, increasingly, I have this fear in the pit of my stomach that my party has already sold me out. That my party is the party of false values. I'm not cosmopolitan. I'm not worldly. I'm just provincial clod who believes that our elected officials should be as good as their word and, failing that, they should be removed from office. But to be replaced by whom? By me? By you? Can you see either of us getting elected to office? I don't have it in me to argue the point after I've stopped believing in it. ...And so I have no argument at all any more. I have no stomach for it. It is not the country who has betrayed the politicians. It is the politicians who have betrayed the country.

I think the approach you've described is a good idea, GDM.

My favorite was the music in the city. For some reason, in a belated response to pop, I don't mind the city there as much as Neverwinter. I guess I've just grown to hate the city of Neverwinter over the years. As for the main theme, I don't know why, but it reminds me of PST. The city music has a certain haunting feel to it. I'm not particularly conversant in the language of music, so I can only say that I liked it, really.

I see Alexander Brandon in this thread. I think, and beg forgiveness if I'm mistaken, that he's the sound guy. I really should have said something about the music. In many areas, it is simply superb. As for the difficulty, I agree with Monte. It's probably a no-win situation. Some folks, like Sawyer, can number crunch on the fly and will do well even with an inferior build. Other folks, especially "casual" players, will have a harder time. I'm probably in the middle somewhere, as I don't relish combat in CRPG for its own sake. On the other hand, there were some "difficulty" bug reports with which I completely disagreed. One, in particular, struck me as ridiculous.

With skills being king for a rogue, I'd rather have one with a high intelligence. 10 Dex seems low, though. Sounds like someone was trying to "roleplay."

"When I played through the expansion the first time, long stretches were so trivially easy that I became bored. I enjoyed the story and the areas a lot, but the overall low level of difficulty probably would have made me stop playing the game if it hadn't been an Obsidian product." I'll make a bet that there will be a sizeable number of players who find MotB quite hard. There were testers, for crying out loud, who wrote bugs about the difficulty being too high in some areas. What's key for me is that the areas that are easy are quickly traversed. For example, the starting area is pretty small. Even scouring every inch of the place, I was out very quickly. On the other hand, this isn't a combat-monger's brag fest. If your sole desire is a game that tests your mettle in the most severe conditions of computer gaming, this might not be your game. The combat is engaging but not difficult enough to turn away players who don't want to slog through super tough battles every step. It is a shortcoming of the DnD system that it allows character builds that are not viable. If a 10fighter/7cleric can't survive, why allow the player to build one? Once we add in the spirit eater mechanic, I'm not worried about the game being to easy for the majority of players. I'm worried about it being too hard. Here's the disclaimer, just so folks can have a single sentence to characterize my entire post: I value CRPGs mostly for the story and combat as a means of progressing the plot.

I plan on hanging out in the spoilers section in order to help folks. There will be rough spots for some players. It will be fun, but some aspects of the game will be quite difficult.

Any scorn from the Codex is a compliment to my ears.

I'm a bit hamstrung in that I cannot cite specifics. For instance, that "start out" area that Sawyer mentions does not have particularly tough battles, but there are some side areas there that I found interesting. They provide some opportunity for background information. The enemies in those side areas are different from each other and both are different from what the player faces in the rest of the start area. The battles aren't particularly tough, but it's the damned start area. The whole start area gives more important story information, and that information is delivered more frequently, than the orc cave. Finally, if it takes you three hours to get out of the start area, you probably aren't making it through those battle as easily as you did in the orc caves. For what it's worth, I understand your interest, but there's no way to convince you short of letting you play the game. Until then, you can either take my word or not. I won't hold a grudge no matter what you choose. I guess, since we're talking difficulty, I can say that I wrote a few bugs saying that combat was too easy in areas. I can't cite which areas, now, for obvious reasons. There were at least a handful of bug reports claiming that certain areas were too high. In one particlar area, I think the vast, VAST majority of folks would scream bloody murder because, at that time, I don't think the party could win the battle.

My problem with the docks war was that it was in the city of Neverwinter, where I'd rather not set foot again if I can help it.

It might depend on where you are. When I gave him lead poisoning, he was in the room and I was between him and the med station outside. He ran for the one downstairs. If I'd been in the room with him, he'd probably have run outside.

If you're willing to take a chance, you can use the medstation against . Just rush into the room and down the stairs to the right. Then hack the medstation. You might take a few hits on the way, but then you've got better coverage than standing toe to toe with him at the door. After that, use the weapon o' choice 'gainst his crazy ass. I'd suggest burning oil slicks, but the first time I basically did the old west move and gave him with my revolver.

Ah, great news and many thanks! I hope they changed the AI behavior so they run to those med stations more often, I hacked every single thing I could find, and made a point of hacking med stations first. Even without the patch, I killed a number of splicers with hacked med stations. hahahaha I kept wondering if one of them would do the same thing to me, but I never used one without hacking it after I found out they could be used as weapons. :Cant's shifty-eyed icon:

Oh, just bite me, fin boy. I didn't want to ruin my exploration and I pretty much stopped reading as Shadow got all nutso about the setting and the Little Sisters. Now, I only got to the end of the second page so far, but I disagree completely in regards to the final boss ending. I thought it would be ball-room blitz, but it turned into a wedding-chapel waltz. Our last man went down like a two bit prostitute in a twelve dollar brothel. I didn't mind it at all. I'll play it again on hard and I'm sure it will be a bit harder. Probably not much, considering all the phat tonics I'll have equipped, but harder at any rate. We are in complete agreement as regards . I figured out that there would be some twist along those lines by the time I got there, and I was certain as hell that , but the voice acting really carried the day for the whole thing. Bioshock has some of the best VO work I've ever seen in a game. BTW: Dianne McClintock I pretty much scoured the game, but I'm probably going to go through again just to see what I can find. I'm with Azarkon in that I don't think this game qualifies as an RPG. That's not a slam. I just figure that the term must have limits to have any meaning, and I draw the line well before Bioshock. I don't care. I'm an avid FPSer. It's not like a good FPS is inferior just because it's an FPS. It had some great moments. In fact, the ending might be the best FPS ending I've seen. On the other hand, I don't know if has the design muscle to wrest the FPS crown. On the ugly side, loading was far too long. I thought the XBoxesque "do not turn off the machine" was just plain goofy. Not a real complaint, but it seemed quaint. The graphics weren't all that. I guess if I play it again on a DX10 system, I might have a different view. The graphics were good, but not "OMG awesome!" Luckily, the retro, art deco look didn't require graphical awesomeness. Anyhow, in areas where I'm repeating something someone said, take it my agreement. I don't know what happens past page two of the thread, but I'll read it all tomorrow before I start my inevitible second run.

Wow, Shadow sure missed the point on this one. The little girls weren't supposed to be scary. (Well maybe as a sort of warning sign to how ADAM and EVE had warped the society of Rapture, I guess) The real reason to use little girls was to give a strong psychological incentive for the player to forgo reward in order to save the little sisters. Would people have been as inclined to rescue toothless octogenarians drinking wine out of a bottle in a paper bag? The little sisters aren't supposed to scare us. They're meant to appeal to our better nature.

Thanks for preventing a double post, pop. Anyhow, I've finished the game and I got the "good" ending. What a surprise! Anyhow, excellent ending. The final boss was easy as hell, but who cares? I think designers spend too much effort trying to make sure the end boss is teh most awesome!!!11!!1! In that respect, they did a great job with . That whole scene had real impact.

I have carefully read nothing of the spoilers. I went to Point Prometheus where I was about to face when I decided to go back and finish some open business. the fruit, attacked me in his apartement and so I ended up with his hot diggity, I'd given up on accessing that area. Guess it's back to the ol' bathysphere for me. I suspect they'll throw more curves and twists before the end. I don't trust any of them, really. I've rescued all the Little Sisters I've met. I don't regret it. The adam I have earned so far has more than sufficed to cover my needs. I've got all my plasmids pimped and all my tonics have at least half of their slots open. I'm a picture taking fool. My favorite research upgrade is the one that lets me Word to the wise, "snappy snappy." Okay, I'll have to read this thread in full when I'm don.e

Yeah, there were some parts of NWN2 that make replays a little bit of a chore. Personally, while I understand that a lot of folks liked the docks war, it certainly wasn't my favorite. That was, I thought, the weak part of the story as well as the weak part of the gameplay. The orc caves were at least straightforward. Kill a bunch of orcs. Still not my favorite, but at least it got me out of the city. If I never see another game set in Neverwinter again, it will be too soon.

Oh, I'd meant to say something before now. I just got back from my trip on Monday. The wife met me in Las Vegas and we drove back to Sunny SoCal. Yes, Calax and Feng canceled on me, but that's okay. I was up in that area anyhow, in Livermore. I did opt out of eating at that sushi place, though. It would have been great to eat there with you guys, but I couldn't see playing those prices to eat by myself. As it turned out, my timing was perfect. Now, my trip down from Washington to Las Vegas, which had me sitting in my car for over 22 hours, and going without sleep for about 40, was much worse.

Wow, now that's something that helps the whole party. Well, except warriors and rogues, but nothing's perfect.

How shameful. Did you see those two blues in there?