<MASSIVE FACEPALM>

I do not understand why Malaysians seemed to vilify KoTOR 2 that much.
Yes, it didn't have a proper finale (Because the publishers rushed them to finish it)
Yes, it had a lot of hanging side quests (Same reason as above)

But it was so much better than the first game:
Kreia alone was well worth the price of admission (Never have I seen a more morally ambiguous character in an RPG done so well)
The ability to make almost everyone in your squad into a jedi/sith was beautifully done.
One of the first PC RPGs that actually gets morality right (Which up until Mass Effect, Bioware seemed to screw up as well)

KoTOR 2 may have been a lot of things, but it certainly wasn't that confusing (Especially early on).

NWN2 was also a pretty damned good RPG. (One of my favourite characters is that they actually nailed a Lawful Evil NPC perfectly)

I'm a massive Obsidian fanboy and I am happily awaiting the release of Alpha Protocol.

The problem with KoTOR 1 was that aside from the MAJOR TWIST, it was pretty standard Bioware fare. While KoTOR2 didn't have a MAJOR TWIST, I think it had better characters and overall narrative.

Uh huh. Kreia was a fairly complex character and in a way that description of herself was quite apt.

As for big bad boss Darth man, that's just typical villain speech... Nothing to get your panties in a bunch over.

Ion Storm Austin, creator of Deus Ex, were also ex-staff of Looking Glass Studios. That game is awesome, so what's your point?

Quite irrelevant actually since they were actually around for 5 years (After producing 2 more big titles) and the studio was closed because Eidos wanted to remove the Ion Storm branding after Romero screwed it up. My point was, just because someone breaks away from a big company, doesn't mean their games would automatically suck (As you were implying)

Also, I think you're mixing up you being confused about an NPC's morality compass rather than the NPC's themselves. Even then, if well written, could be a great character.

This post has been edited by H@H@: Feb 8 2010, 11:11 AM

Except when it didn't want to wipe out your hard drive every time you saved.

I kid, I kid... it was a rare exception.

Troika suffered the same fate as John Romero; Good designers, not enough technical know how.

God no. I want to PLAY my games, not WATCH them.

/Obsidian fanboy mode GO
I will argue till the day I die, that KotOR 2 was miles ahead of the first game and it is entirely Lucasarts' fault for forcing them to finish the game early. Sans the ending, everything about KotOR 2 was magnificent. The characters were far more interesting (Kreia alone was worth the ticket of entry), the world greyer and some very interesting mechanics (Like the ability to influence your NPCs very drastically). The only problem was that the game was clearly unfinished, but up to that point it was sublime.

Also, Bioware hasn't exactly had a super stellar record either. Up until Dragon Age (Ok, Mass Effect really... but it wasn't the renaissance that DA was), they were widely accused of being formulaic, using unrealistic extremes of right and wrong and having fairly drab storylines. Jade Empire & Neverwinter Nights were two utterly atrocious RPGs that sullied their reputation really badly. The former having the most retarded attempt at making a more interesting morality mechanic and the latter having a truly forgettable single player campaign.

I love Bioware, I really do... But I also really love Obsidian as they are willing to try things which Bioware won't... And when companies try new things, more often than not the QA doesn't match up and I can't really blame them for it if the end results are still brilliant in spite of it.

This is funny since most of the original CRPGs of yore were the exact opposite of that. Ultima Underworld, Might & Magic, Wizardry were all really old school RPGs that were all played from a first person perspective and featured far more depth than Morrowind and Oblivion combined.

Morrowind was a good game... GoTYs were well deserved. But Oblivion was so crap compared to it. Smaller world, less interesting, too many identikit dungeons and several innovations that downright didn't work (Radiant AI... lol)

I will say that Bethesda knows how to make worlds with a lot of interesting things to do (As evidenced by Fallout 3), but they're truly horrible at doing main quests as they all fairly boring.

Or perhaps the time of old skool D&D CRPGs is over and not really worth pursuing anymore... The last CRPG in that vein was what? Wizardry 8? How well did that take off?

This is funny because Bethesda themselves contracted Oblivion to make this game (Since Bethesda is a publishing company itself)... And don't make it sound like Obsidian is out to steal everyone's IPs or something. They are a freelance developing house that makes RPGs. Its not exactly easy to self-fund a new IP yourself without doing some work for others first. And for them it paid off big as their "sequels" were pretty damned good.

And as a result, they are now working on their own IP... The upcoming spy RPG, Alpha Protocol which is looking fantastic.


/Obsidian fanboy mode EN~~~ Wait a minute, why should I bother stopping this mode?

Aiks, oddly enough, I noticed that he put the typo there in that quote, I laughed and inadvertently made it myself...

Actually there are, but they're pretty hardcore. Like Darkfall Online and Wurm Online. The former is more PvP focused, while the latter is more about just RPing.

Oh I love Morrowind. I think its one of the greatest RPGs of the 90s... Its Oblivion that I'm not a fan off. The one thing that Bethesda are great at (Creating a nice world to explore and run around in) was sorely missing in Oblivion and thus was well short of the Morrowind's quality.

Steam is actually quite flexible with modding. I've modded everything from CS, HL2, UT3 Black all with no issues in Steam.

Also, since its built using the same engine for Fallout 3, no new SDK should be needed.

Actually, since it IS coming with Steamworks, that's probably why it doesn't have one. Not a good move to undercut retailers.

Uh, but the plot does suck. Its kinda lame and has probably the most ridiculous plot hole in a video game (Right at the very end)

If anything, its the non-plot quests that deserve praise.

Uh, Fallout Tactics & BOS both had multiplayer.

The Factions video pretty much sold this game for me.

And the only review I'd ever believe would be RPS... (And especially not from a site called "Attack of the Fanboy")

I think it was settled for awhile already... When you buy games by Obsidian, you *expect* bugs... Its kinda like a trade you could say... Bugs for meaningful gameplay choices.

The only game breaking bug that forced me to reload was when you suddenly seemed to be walking on air, unable to interact with anything (Which also happened sometimes in the first Mass Effect). But yeah, Alpha Protocol was well worth playing despite the bugs.

And I prefer to look at it as the Magical Disappearing Car in Fallout 2... Walking to Navarro and back was no fun.

This post has been edited by H@H@: Oct 19 2010, 02:18 PM

RPS Wot I Think

So, they basically took the one thing that I liked about Fallout 3 (The exploration of the Capital Wasteland with interesting locations and vignettes) away. Add together a lack of ambition (Which Obsidian almost always nails in spite of the bugs), I'm really going to have to take this off the buy list.

I iz disappoint... Now to wait for the flurry of DLC expansions and the GoTY to come out before I buy it.

Ah well, all the better for my wallet.

This post has been edited by H@H@: Oct 22 2010, 09:49 AM

True, it was a very opinionated piece, but that's my preferred method for review writing (So-called "technical" reviews bore me to tears really).

IMO, a good review doesn't try to be "wholesome", whereby they focus on each aspect evenly because that's not how games work (Pre-NGJ). So, while it may look really biased, it works as a sort of "review" as it centres around the reviewers thoughts and impressions of the game on the whole and not the sum of its parts.

Plus, if you look through the hailstorm of comments, Jim Rossignol (The goto guy for reviews on RPS since he's the most eloquent and level headed of the guys) concurs with Quinns, so its not exactly a renegade opinion (In one of the earlier WITs, they mentioned that these pieces generally reflect the general consensus of the whole team)

But the thing is, this IS an Obsidian game and you can plainly tell something's wrong with it when the mainstream reviews like the game and the converse happens with the more critical ones (Alpha Protocol being a prime example). I don't want a by-the-numbers game with them... I want something fresh, something ambitious, something interesting. Its just so disappointing to see them falter at it and sadly enough the mainstream reviews prove it.