Lorfean

Picked "A little beastly" and checked Bull-ish, Aquatic, Werebeasts, Scalies and Undead. Undead could be particularly interesting as I can't think of any games where this has been explored without it becoming the main theme of the game (VtM: Redemption/Bloodlines) or a major choice that would make most groups in the game treat you/your faction with massive distrust, disgust or even outright aggression (WoW's Forsaken race comes to mind).

Dude...

That's cool, but you know as well as I do that when that happens, there'll be a deluge of posts from the same people demanding gay/furry/transgender romance arcs. There's already been a few. I'm not sure that situation would be preferrable to the status quo. This. I'd prefer Obsidian just stay quiet on the subject.

Heh. Yeah, I know. Heavily improved of course, but still the same engine. I believe they developed it in-house and those are the only two games ever made with it. But the ToEE version of that engine is pretty impressive -- beautiful graphics and a great turn-based combat system. I never finished that game (some day) but would've loved to see more CRPG's made with the engine. It seems Co8's Keep on the Borderlands total conversion project has officially been declared inactive for now

What does THAC0 have to do with anything? We're just talking about the engine, not the rulesets.

I think your mixing up your engines here, or you just worded your post a bit poorly. Arcanum was not an IE game and neither was Fallout 2. Infinity engine - Baldur's Gate + expansion - Baldur's Gate II + expansion - Icewind Dale + expansions - Icewind Dale II - Planescape: Torment Fallout engine - Fallout 1 - Fallout 2 Phoenix engine - Fallout Tactics Arcanum engine - Arcanum - Temple of Elemental Evil As for the OP's question -- I think I'd prefer projects like Eternity and Wasteland 2, that take the 2D isometric graphics style and the strongest gameplay elements of these games and use them as a basis and inspiration for new games in modern engines. Technology has developed a lot since the late 90's / early 00's and I think using the IE or another old engine would just limit them and create a lot of extra work to improve compatibility, high resolution support, etc. Both Wasteland 2 and Project Eternity are using the Unity engine btw -- so I guess that makes this the start of the Unity engine era

See, I was always under the impression that they kept that stuff in the oversized sleeves, folds and countless hidden pockets of their robes?... I do have a soft spot for the Gandalf look, but it's not a requirement for me and a more practical look for spellcasters could be cool too. Of the concepts shown in this thread so far, I really like the Pathfinder stuff and the Witcher 2 design.

I've occasionally enjoyed romance side-plots in games in the past, but it's not something that's important to me and I wouldn't want Obsidian to spend resources on them if it means sacrificing quality/quantity of other parts of the game. What worries me most is that, should they come in here and announce "yes, we will have romances", some people will start loudly demanding a certain number of options, sexual orientations, etc. be covered and it becomes this endless discussion where a few very vocal people try to force their opinions down everyone else's (including the devs') throat.

31 Baldur's Gate series Icewind Dale series Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer Fallout: New Vegas + DLC's I played BG for the first time when it was released in 1998 and it was my introduction to both AD&D and "real" CRPG's, and it changed everything.

Just increased my pledge to join the order and would like to request the title Shadow Thief of the Obsidian Order

Maybe. But it's not a necessity. I felt an extremely strong connection to the characters, events and world of Fallout: New Vegas, especially in the DLC's, and that was due to the amazing stories and great C&C in the game. It didn't have any romances. Unless you count Fisto... And yet there are plenty of games that sell well enough without making T&A one of their selling points. It's not necessary -- not for sales, not for creating a stronger connection between the player and the game and certainly not for overall story quality. If they do choose to write a romance subplot I will be fine with that and I trust them to present it in a graceful and elegant way, like in MotB, but I wouldn't want them to sacrifice any other features just for the sake of including romance options.

Seems to me that you've already answered your own question -- in all of the ME and Dragon Age games, sex is the end goal / reward for pursuing the various romance story-lines, and with each of these games a huge deal was made of these particular "features". First during the games' development, on the forums, with fans debating the subject endlessly, obsessing over the involved characters, their orientation, the balance between male and female options, the available options for players of different sexual orientations, and so on, and then later in the marketing of the games, during interviews, in the summer-blockbuster-movie-like trailers, etc. etc. It made the romances, and their "rewards" in particular, a major focal point of each release, often to the point of so-called "controversy" -- so much so that it over-shadowed other, much more significant plot-lines and features. And I think that is a direct result of many (many) of BW's fans' apparent obsession over this part of their games, and BW's decision to indulge those fans and implement what basically boils down to a very juvenile "pick the right responses to see some T&A". And I think it is perfectly valid to call them and their community out on that, especially when discussing your preferences for a game by a developer who are generally considered to be a lot more elegant and mature in their writing and the way they handle characters and character relationships*. To many people here, the way BioWare has handled romance in their games is the wrong way, and something they never hope to see in an Obsidian title. * and by relationships I mean anything from companionship to friendship to uncomfortable temporary allegiance to animosity, etc.

IMO romances have become this weird focal point in BioWare's games and in their community in a way that I hope will never happen to Obsidian. They were "OK" in BG2, as side-plots, with Viconia's easily being the best of the ones my characters experienced, but in pretty much every one of their games after BG2 (with the possible exception of Morrigan in DA:O) they felt forced and juvenile and bordering on weirdly uncomfortable. Obsidian have shown time and again that they can create stories that are infinitely more intriguing than anything BioWare has created in the past ~10 years without the whole romance schtick, so for me they don't have to be any kind of priority for PE and I'd rather see the resources spent eslewhere. And if Obsidian does decide to include them, I trust them to do it in a more subtle, mature and tasteful way than BW has.

From The Netherlands, but location is... <------

You really need to start taking things a bit less seriously. People were just wondering, and Monte was clearly joking with his "all the fans are in Europe" remark, yet you´re berating them as if they they´re a bunch of kids who stole from the cookie jar.

I picked "Other or multiple" but it would be nice to be able to just check the boxes for several games in the poll. Anyway, to elaborate on my choice -- Planescape: Torment, the Icewind Dale series, Arcanum, ToEE, NWN 2 (MotB) and Fallout: New Vegas (+ its DLC's and Sawyer's mod) all showed incredible talent in the various aspects of CRPG design and they are the main reasons I'm extremely excited about this project

First is Islamic warriors and second is from Lawrence of Arabia: http://www.google.lt...106&tx=50&ty=44 http://www.google.lt...29,r:0,s:0,i:67 I see the similarites, but I think you're overreacting. I think we can reasonably assume that it's a concept for just one of the cultures or regions in PE's world, and I don't see why designs like this would be a problem. BG2 (which you used as an example) used a bunch of different styles as well between the races and groups you encountered -- the Djinn and Rakshasa had similar arabic-influenced designs, the vampires had an egyptian vibe to them, the pirates and seafarers did the whole puffy shirts and pants thing... It adds diversity.

BioWare is a Canadian company and Black Isle published and acted as advisors on the BG series. I'm guessing he's assuming that, during development, Black Isle's involvement would have some of their team (possibly including MCA) travel to Bio's offices Edmonton to work with them. His post is filled with elitist bull**** and Bio-hate, but I don't think that statement meant anything other than that he wished Black Isle had had more of a hand in BG2's story development

I don't know -- they were planning the whole "Dreamfall Chapters" thing a few years back, which was then put on indefinite hold in 2009 until T

They did. They are using the final build of the Throne of Bhaal engine. From the Enhancements section: Baldur's Gate 2 Features All of the additions and improvements from Baldur's Gate 2: The Shadows of Amn have been brought to Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. Now you can use class kits, new subraces and classes that were previously unavailable. I noticed this too. Will wait for more screenshots and maybe some proper gameplay footage before jumping to conclusions though. Edit: Seems to me that the ground only looks blurry in some of the shots of the new areas, so maybe it's work in progress? Also, they are apparantly adding a zoom feature to the PC and Mac versions, so that might also be what we're seeing in the more blurry looking screenshots. All in all, it seems to me (also from what Trent's been saying on Twitter) that there's still a lot of work to be done. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt for now -- the new stuff they're adding does seems like it will be pretty cool

Star Wars: The Old Republic Going Free-to-Play Until Level 15

Yeah...they seem to have designed the game to actually "force" one to use the AH. eg, the drops you get are always a bit behind what you actually need, hence people go to the AH. So only people who are/have become strong enough (alone or in groups) get drops that are decent for those who may not be strong enough to do that yet....it's a bit of a catch22, where you're too weak to get items you need, and by the time you can get them, you don't need them. One of the Blizzard guys posted the following regarding the AH's "influence" on Legendary and Set item drops after a disgruntled player accused them of tweaking in-game drop chances depending on what items were available in the AH: That's not what was said or implied at all, sorry if it was confusing. The AH doesn't have any affect on the literal drop rates of items depending on what's available. What I said, and what is true, is that with far more players and an increased proliferation of item trade, we have to factor in how many items are being found by players and how quickly a player can gear up by 'sourcing' items from others through trade and the convenience of the gold auction house. If we say "a player should have X power in Y amount of time through drops" and completely ignore that the time factor can be reduced by simply having access to more drops through trading and the auction house, players would be gearing up far quicker than we've determined they should. It has nothing to do with the auction house per se, but the general ease at which players have access to more items than they would without it and us needing to keep that in mind while balancing drops. It would be rather poorly thought out if we balanced drops completely ignoring all of the ways players can gear up, and trading is certainly one of them. Obviously everyone wants the best gear possible as quickly as possible, and us attempting to mediate that through design that takes all factors into account is not always going to be a popular notion. Link So, basically, even if a player has no interest in using the AH's whatsoever, their chances of finding Legendary and/or Set items is still directly affected by the mere presence and availability of the AH's. This is where their level of near-paranoid control over the game is starting to bother me -- I don't mind having to be online to play this game and I don't mind the heavy focus on multiplayer, but there is no way a game like this needs such a obsessively planned out and manipulated economy or an item/drop system that disadvantages players who prever to play the game without using the AH's.

I don't remember the particular furor Gromnir is referring to, but The Vampire's Revenge easter egg in Tales of the Sword Coast might have something to do with it. In the Firewine Ruins the player encounters an undead knight who drops an item called "Ancient Armor". The armor is meant to be given to the knight's ghostly comrades, who were betrayed by him and can be found elsewhere in the dungeon, but if the player keeps the item and also has the Stone Idol from the quest in the area with the archeaological digsite (area 4100), they can talk to Ulcaster's Ghost at the ruins of Ulcaster, give him both items, and receive a sword called The Vampire's Revenge in return. The sword is a Longsword +1 with the following extra stats: Special: Inflicts damage upon the wielder and heals the target. Special: Affects intelligence in a negative manner.... I think.... duhhhhhh So it's cursed and quite useless. Interestingly enough, I believe it is also one of the very few items that will import into BG2 along with your character, and can be found hidden behind the painting in Irenicus' dungeon, together with the Golden Pantaloons (if the imported character had them too). I don't think anything can be done with it in BG2 though.

I try it every now and then, but never manage to stick with it for long. It's like Zoraptor said -- I feel it's a game I should like in theory, but simply don't in practice. Yet. Some games just need to be played at the "right time" for me to really get into them, if that makes any sense... Anyway, I'm hoping for some real BGEE screenshots this week. I understand why they've included iPad as a platform but that's not the version I'll be playing -- give me some proper PC screenshots and convince me this is gonna be awesome!

Same here. Very tempting offer. I love what they've shown us so far -- seems right up my alley.