StarWars KOTOR

[PeteJ]

I was in Bedford on Monday, wasn't too impressed. But then I did have to get up at 4am and travel for 5 hours to get there, so nothing was likely to impress me

I was in the County Council building, the one with the unfinished top floor because they realised it would be too heavy and sink into the river bed. The designer of the building killed himself because of it. Quality place.
Also noticed that they put roadworks everywhere just so they can fit in even more pointless roundabouts.

I'm really hoping Goblin get this in stock (KoTOR, not Bedford) for the weekend, though I get to spend more time with Kirby if they fail.

[MartyG]

Nah, the Devs were quite mindful of this apparently. They made it impossible to attack non-hostile creatures due to the possibility of murdering someone who was integral to a main quest, and being unable to proceed without them.

They obviously played Morrowind - far too often have I killed people in that only to be told the quest is now futile, and reload your game.

Regards
Marty

[Treble]

Never played a Bioware game before, so I'm going to give one of you the chance to list their outstanding titles and explain why they are so good.

[PeteJ]

They have monkeys!

Tehee!!

[Treble]

SOLD!

[MikeF]

I want it, but I may wait for the PAL release for the Downloadable content

[scottcr]

What I'm thinking now is that the PC version will be suitably different to justify owning xbox and PC version.. the PC version is apparently being tweaked to make it less "arcade action" and more RPG.

There's not going to be a mod community for KOTOR, neither is the game online enabled, therefore, I'm assuming all downloadable content for the PC and Xbox will be the same..

[shock33]

Don?t suppose anyone knows when Goblin are getting it in? (I realise I could of course ask goblin!)

[PeteJ]

Now that's the question of the day!

They delivered Viewtiful Joe very quickly, so hopefully it'll be the same again. Unfortuantely they've failed to get Joe back in stock since...

[JRMacumber]

Never played a Bioware game before, so I'm going to give one of you the chance to list their outstanding titles and explain why they are so good.

Well, without a doubt my favorite Bioware games are the Baldur's Gate series. What is so special about them? Egads... that's hard to describe. I guess the first thing that hooked me was the quality of the story. Every RPG has to have a story, and most seem to center around the big bad dark sorcerer taking over some good place or kidnapping some beloved princess, and you the hero must save it/her. But Baldur's Gate wasn't like that. When you started off, you were nobody. A nothing. A librarian's adopted kid who say the only man they ever loved slaughtered in front of their eyes, and then had to run before it got them too. Over the course of the game you learned that you were actually a Bhaalspawn, as were dozens of others, children of a dead evil god, all of you invested with some of his power, and all of you fighting to see who would rise to the top to become the new god of murder. By the time you finished Baldur's Gate 2: Throne Of Bhaal, you had the powers of the heavens at your disposal, and a path to godhood at your feet. It was... an amazing adventure.

But to get through that adventure you had to have help, and the cast of characters that littered your way was phenomenal. Whether it was Minsc the brain-addled ranger who thought his pet hamster Boo was a miniature giant space rodent, or Elminster who would periodically show up to offer cryptic advice, all of them were voiced and scripted to perfection. "Go for the eyes, Boo!" is a line I'll never forget.

But really it was the gameplay that sealed the deal. The most famous RPG system in the world is easily Dungeons And Dragons, a pen and paper game that has often been attempted in digital fashion to few successes. But Baldur's Gate was the closest yet to getting it right. Character creation, equipment, combat, spells, and just about everything else was as close as you could get to a computer version of the D&D ruleset that I'd ever seen. Not perfect, but as close as you could get electronically. And that kind of fathfulness is damn hard to pull off, and to do it with the kind of flair was on another level all together.

THe combat, though, was the best of it all. In the game, combat was turn based, as it always is with D&D, but here you could run it in real time if you wanted to do so. You could just let your character and the NPCs do what they wanted according to their combat setup. But, if you wanted to give specific orders, you just hit the spacebar and time stopped. You could then change weapons, call up spells, use special abilities, change who were fighting, map out a new route, etc. Hit the spacebar again, and bam, it was done. You were always in control of what was going on.

The graphics and sound was just as good. An isometric third person view, it looked marvelous, and only got better as the newer games came in higher resolutions. Animations were fantastic, textures were wonderful, voice acting and sound effects were damn near perfect, and the music was sweeping. Nothing was amiss here, really.

Finally, the length of the games, should you hit all or most of the side quests, was MASSIVE. I think, over the course of two games and two expansions, I spent well into 200 hours playing Baldur's Gate. From windswept castles, to Underdark caves of the Drow, to forests, to desert, etc., so many adventures, so many people to meet, so many different enemies to fight. Dragons, fell wizards, dark clerics, warriors of legendary strength, umberhulks, you name it. Incredible.

Anyway, I guess what I want to say about Bioware is that so far they have done nothing in half measures. Every aspect of the games that they make that I've played have been layered with care, understanding, and incredible craftsmanship. They do not take their job lightly, and give every aspect of it the greatest possible attention to detail, pouring sweat, blood, and tears into it. Not one game has ever failed to amaze and impress beyond measure.

[PeteJ]

Plus, they have monkeys*.


*this may not be true

[JRMacumber]

Well, not monkeys, but they DO have kobalds. Not monkeys, exactly, per say, but nasty little buggers all the same.

[scottcr]

aren't kobalds more dog like?

[JRMacumber]

aren't kobalds more dog like?

Hey, they're small, hairy, and vicious. Close!

[Treble]

That's what I wanted to hear. Well, their approach seems suited to this kind of game, and anything that updates old-fashioned RPG game mechanics has got to be good.

I have to say, I'm more excited about this game than I have been about anything for a while - odd for me to look forward to an RPG so much, no matter how progressive.