Game News Fallout: New Vegas pulls in $300 Million

[SimpleComplexity]

The number X of people you see is just a representation of the actual number of people who live there which is much higher. Same goes for buildings. The small number of buildings you see is just a representation of how many buildings there really are, which is also much higher. Games are designed that way so you don't see 500 useless NPC's or 500 useless buildings.

FFS this shit is so logical you dont need to be a brian surgeon.

 

[taquinvol]

And I'm not to happy with the forced route you have to take. Why can I not go directly to vegas if I want? Even if it's dangerous it should be an option. But the deathclaws, radscorpions and cazadores are to much and it is not meant that you can outrun them. It doesn't really break the mainquest, why not allow it? I don't want to go everywhere right from the start but it should make some more sense why such a short route to vegas is blocked instead of "every meter is inhabited with deathly creatures".

Odd, with my current, non-combat, non-stealth character that's the very first thing I actually did just because of those damned signs on the road near Sloan saying I shouldn't go that way. All I did was stick to the east "wall" and keep a distance from hostiles until I reached the first buildings and then just ran from cover to cover as Fiends and NCR troops battled it out in the ruins around Vegas.

So far, after about 30 or so hours of gameplay most of which involved wasteland trekking, I didn't encounter as many annoyances as I did in the first few hours of FO3.

In my opinion:

- this time around the wasteland is not a zoo

- settlements actually have a point and means of survival and aren't built around nuclear warheads or inhabited solely by children

- dialogs with NPCs can be humorous (both their lines and the PC's lines) without being farcical or involving cutesy characters, whenever they have been overly polite or friendly so far it's been either a tongue-in-cheek allusion of '50s suburban America as portrayed in movies or they were just sociopaths

- there's a decent level of interaction with followers (so far I only checked out 2)

- as mentioned before it's hard-or-impossible to maintain relations with all factions, unless you use sneaky tactics and don disguises and even then I'm not too sure - eventually you are going to get on someone's bad side

However, almost from the beginning I was already using several mods for fixes, ambiance enhancement (nights not being dark enough for example), game timescale adjustment (it's way too fast by default) and landmark/quest marker removal. The latter should have of been an in-game option really although some quests I received were spoiled by the "hint" description that pops up on the upper left, it's too specific - almost order-like - at times, I hope there's a mod soon to remove those as well.

 

[Black]

im a fag

Fuck, you're so stupid it makes my dick hurt. In FO2 there were only a couple dozens of npcs in fucking NCR and even less unique npcs, even though NCR was supposed to be huge. Was it a fucking big issue then? Only a god damn moron would whine that towns aren't populated with lifeless npcs that don't do shit.
Oh yeah, I played HoMM 3 yesterday. Even though I recruited shittons of units the game still only showed one of each on the screen. What a shitty game!

 

[Darth Roxor]

Fuck, you're so stupid it makes my dick hurt. In FO2 there were only a couple dozens of npcs in fucking NCR and even less unique npcs, even though NCR was supposed to be huge. Was it a fucking big issue then? Only a god damn moron would whine that towns aren't populated with lifeless npcs that don't do shit.

Bullshit. FO1/2 get a free ride because of the perspective. When you arrive at NCR, you're presented only with a section of the city, the rest is not shown/unavailable. The topdown view and section-based maps provide a lot more suspension of disbelief than a first-person 'go anywhere you want' streamlined experience, where a 'town' is made of 8 buildings with 3 npcs walking around the streets and nothing else.

Oh yeah, I played HoMM 3 yesterday. Even though I recruited shittons of units the game still only showed one of each on the screen. What a shitty game!

Now try imagining those vast battlefields of Total War with great armies being represented by 7 soldiers. Doesn't quite compute, eh?

 

[Multidirectional]

Bullshit. FO1/2 get a free ride because of the perspective.

As I said - FUCKING LARPERS! Hypocrites too.. I'm pretty sure if settlements in New Vegas were populated by shitload of useless NPCs that would be the reason for codex elitist wannabes to produce several pages of bitchery about. And then you wonder why developers don't take the likes of you seriously.
I for one am glad we got the version that appeals to reasonable people. Keep as much clutter as possible out of my video games, thank you.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Uh-huh...

Fucking LARPers.... Maybe you would have been thrilled to talk to 200+ NPCs to find out which have quests for you, but I'm glad I didn't have to.

I'm sure you also talked to every 'Digger', 'Citizen', 'Guard', 'Paladin' when playing the Gothic games. Get the fuck out.

If they want to deliver 'immershun' they better do it fucking properly instead of giving some half-assed half measures.


Arcania has better cities than New Vegas

Yup, I haven't seen any city other than Goodsprings, trololololo

 

[Multidirectional]

Uh-huh...

Fucking LARPers.... Maybe you would have been thrilled to talk to 200+ NPCs to find out which have quests for you, but I'm glad I didn't have to.

I'm sure you also talked to every 'Digger', 'Citizen', 'Guard', 'Paladin' when playing the Gothic games. Get the fuck out.

That was a response to him bitching about how there are a lot less than 200+ unique NPC's. But also yeah, I'm not enough of a fag to care about "immershun". I only care about quests these settlements provide me with. There are still simpletons like me who mostly just care about the "gameplay" part in games. Stupid, I know.

Arcania has better cities than New Vegas

I had forgotten about Arcania virus that infected you. You took one for the team, I do respect that. I hope you get better soon.

 

[taquinvol]

I'm pretty sure if settlements in New Vegas were populated by shitload of useless NPCs that would be the reason for codex elitist wannabes to produce several pages of bitchery about.

I think that in recent years the most interesting representation of a crowded city I've seen in a game was in the Assassin's Creed action-game series. Although in those the crowd actually served a game-related purpose.

Surely if designers put their mind to it they could come up with a scheme that doesn't involve some sort of overly-obvious (see arrows, markers, glowing auras and other such silly cop-outs) methods of indicating interactable NPCs.

One of the most obvious ways is by naming the NPCs and displaying that name to the PC while everyone else is just a generic filler. Personally I find that annoying in cRPGs as it does away with all the social motions of meeting somebody new.

I think the main issue, at least with big productions, is that everyone expects NPCs to be fully voice-acted. This is also a big problem with openly moddable games because it limits the amount of content a modder can seamlessly implement into a gameworld without breaking immersion.

 

[DalekFlay]

The number X of people you see is just a representation of the actual number of people who live there which is much higher. Same goes for buildings. The small number of buildings you see is just a representation of how many buildings there really are, which is also much higher. Games are designed that way so you don't see 500 useless NPC's or 500 useless buildings.

FFS this shit is so logical you dont need to be a brian surgeon.

Indeed.

That said though, many games do this better than others. In Morrowind for example because it was a backwater island of natives and missionaries the low populations made complete sense, it never stood out as odd. In Oblivion though the capital city of the entire continent had like 50 residents, which immediately stood out as bullshit.

Fallout New Vegas, as much as I love it, does suffer from the latter a little bit. The New Vegas strip certainly seems much more vacant than it should, as does some other areas like Camp McCaren and Freeside. Fallout 3 didn't have this problem as much as they built the "capital wasteland" to be devoid of life and their cities to be smaller and less inhabited, like Rivet City. In New Vegas the strip is supposed to be this really happening place and the NCR is supposed to be this huge machine but neither really gives that impression in the game.

 

[MetalCraze]

But seriously, are you going to use shihonage's post as the shining example of "examples why it isn't?" The post with exciting critiques like:

His post explains in detail why he thinks the setting is shit.

Your not so. That's all I've said.

One of the few actual "examples" in his post, but still wrong. The characters gives an explanation as to why he sells the toys and even mentions that no one fucking buys them.

Wow so it's even more retarded?
"LOL guys let's put a trader into the game world selling stupid shit... Except nobody buys stupid shit and he complains about it! I think it's funneh!"

She didn't come across as "overly friendly" - but so what if she did? All characters have to be depressed and angsty about the 200-years-old-now apocalypse in order for a setting to be believable? Buh?

How exactly do you know it happened 200 years ago? There are still retarded slavers, there are no vegetation, there is no nothing that reminds of civilization except towns built using junk (200 years later! Germany was fucking rebuilt in 10 years after WW2).
But hey in Sawyer's world living in a lawless lifeless shithole for 200 years makes people happy? Whatever you say man

Wow, that's a pretty in-depth criticism ya got thar.

So he's correct?

Oh, and as a bonus - that "Nightkin basement" example? There's a way to do that without killing a single Nightkin:

Yeah by using the retarded Obsidian's stealth from AP aka using "hide in teh plain sight" coupled with dumb AI cheats

TL;DR stuff

But how does it make the game any less shitty?
And there's nothing special about the setting either. Oh look some factions fight each other and one are retarded 100% generic evil guys dressed like clowns. In a world 200 years after the war that is still a PA shithole.

And what you wrote is nothing but a backstory which is nothing but fluff.
What I mean is:

If they leave, it means groups of pissed-off Nightkin will be roaming the Mojave.

But do they leave?
And if yes what are consequences apart from more nightkin respawn everywhere?

I can ask the same about every single example there.

But you see my main complaints aren't about the writing which you are keeping pushing at me like it's my main complaint. I want to play the game not read the game. Most of my complaints are exactly about the gameplay stuff, the game itself. I want to know why it's a better game and you keep talking about the text.

Companion: "If we go in there, I'm going to kill every Legion member I see. Is that a problem?"
Player: "That's not a problem, that's a solution."

Sounds like a bad edgy talk



...

Certainly not the ones provided by people who think it's good - who would listen to them, they are obviously fanboys.

Of course. Because all the points are "noooo people who think it's bad are rrrrroooong! It's better I know it!", or in the best case "yeah the gameplay is shit but look - it has text in it!"

 

[Xor]

It's pretty clear that the Fallout 3 engine doesn't handle multiple NPCs on screen well. Actually, I've heard that is a flaw of the Gamebryo engine, so I guess it's the fault of shitty programming from whoever wrote that engine. I suspect that engine limitations account for the lack of generic NPCs in both Fallout 3 and NV - no point in putting them in if all they're going to do is cause framerate issues. That's hardly a game-breaker for me, but I guess it utterly shatters the sense of realism for some people.

Also, if the developers were to add 200 unique NPCs to a town, each with their own model, dialog, and quest, there would only be one town in the entire game. Would that be better than having an entire open world to explore? I don't know, but I don't really know of any game that takes that approach, either. Even Fallout only had maybe 6-10 unique NPCs per settlement, because there just wasn't time to write in more.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

I experience slowdowns whenever there are 15-ish NPCs on the screen, so I for one am glad that there aren't more. Moreover, in any game you have to accept a certain level of abstraction. Have you noticed how Vice City doesn't have 4 million people in it? And that's the whole city. There may be 2000 people in the whole game. 2000 is significantly less than 4 million, no?

 

[MetalCraze]

It's pretty clear that the Fallout 3 engine doesn't handle multiple NPCs on screen well. Actually, I've heard that is a flaw of the Gamebryo engine, so I guess it's the fault of shitty programming from whoever wrote that engine

Yes Obsidian's inability to use finished engines properly is engine's fault.

Somehow nothing stopped Gamebryo from rendering dozens of NPCs in Guild 2 and even keeping calculating them off-screen. Considering that each NPC has its own goals and schedule. And I was able to play that with 8 years old CPU.

Keep being an apologist.

I experience slowdowns whenever there are 15-ish NPCs on the screen, so I for one am glad that there aren't more.

Yes because having 50 non-slowing down NPCs on the screen is worse.

Moreover, in any game you have to accept a certain level of abstraction. Have you noticed how Vice City doesn't have 4 million people in it?

No. The city was lifelike enough to look like one apart from the consolish NPC rendering distance.


Stop with this "it's Gamebryo's fault!"
The engine is just a bunch of code. If some fairly obscure devs can create a game where multiple cities live, breathe and develop at once and still keep the framerate reasonable - anyone can make the engine render 50 NPCs walking here and there. Unless the programmers are shit of course.

 

[Sceptic]

It's funny, because isn't this the sort of thing people used to praise in old school games?

Used to? the same people who praised it in old games still praise it in both old and new games. The people you're thinking of, who are criticizing it now, have never played the old games.

 

[MasPingon]

One of the few actual "examples" in his post, but still wrong. The characters gives an explanation as to why he sells the toys and even mentions that no one fucking buys them.

Wow so it's even more retarded?
"LOL guys let's put a trader into the game world selling stupid shit... Except nobody buys stupid shit and he complains about it! I think it's funneh!"

Skyway, I can't belive how stupid you are. First of all - you don't have an opinion, you didin't even play the fucking game. I'm sure it's only because you are living in some shitty country where things like dual core and 2 gb ram are only rumors.

I'm not going to explain why the dinosaur in Novac isn't retarded, it isn't even suppose to be "funneh" . It's just there, in the right place in the gameworld, in ruined shithole, where people are trying to live an old way, but are to stupid to see they are doing it wrong.

You have seen shit, you know nothing, just shut the fuck up cause it burns my eyes

 

[Multidirectional]

One of the few actual "examples" in his post, but still wrong. The characters gives an explanation as to why he sells the toys and even mentions that no one fucking buys them.

Wow so it's even more retarded?
"LOL guys let's put a trader into the game world selling stupid shit... Except nobody buys stupid shit and he complains about it! I think it's funneh!"

You really enjoy making an idiot out of yourself? There's nothing retarded about that situation. The guy has a decent shop going. There's some shit leftover in the building from before he started the shop. He doesn't know what to do with it. It's either throw it out, or try selling it to some random fool. So a new face wanders into town and his store and he mentions these souvenirs on the off chance that person is stupid enough to buy those.
What the fuck is so horrible about that? No one in real life ever tried to sell some stupid useless shit to you to make personal gain? Or do you never get out outside your room?
It's both tragic and hilarious that people like you actually see themselves as "elite gamers" or dare to complain about "quality of writing". Like any of you would have a fucking clue.

 

[Silellak]

And what you wrote is nothing but a backstory which is nothing but fluff.

It's not all backstory. Some happens in game. How the fuck is it any less relevant than the shit in shihonage's post? He mentions a few vague examples spread through the entire game, and you hold it up as the gold standard of New Vegas critiquing. Why? Because it was critiquing something Obsidian made.

Have you seriously not figured out that blindly hating everything Obsidian does is just as bad as blindly praising it?

I can ask the same about every single example there.

I only briefly touched on the quest design, but even in that little snippet, I showed how quests tie together and can block out other content from that playthrough. Let me diagram it for you:

1. Brotherhood Quest 1 -> Brotherhood Quest 2a -> Murder Faction X -> Never get Faction X's quest

2. Brotherhood Quest 1 -> Brotherhood Quest 2b -> Different quest entirely

So, just in that small example, making decisions in Quest 1 directly influence not only which follow-up quest you get - the other one being content you will never see - but one of the two quests involving wiping out a minor faction, and in doing so, potentially locks you out of another quest.

And that's just one example that includes two not-even-main-quest quests. The fuck more do you want out of C&C? Isn't "multiple solutions defined by your character build leading to playthrough-specific content" the gold fucking standard for C&C in an RPG?

But how does it make the game any less shitty

I already explained at the beginning of the post what I look for in a sandbox RPG. Combat is not high on that list, otherwise I couldn't stomach Ultima VII for more than an hour. The point I was making - and I think I did make it - is that saying "FO3 == NV" is flat-out incorrect. Maybe "FO3 == NV" when it comes to what you want out of a game, but that's an entirely different argument.

I still have no idea how game development works.

Trust me, we've noticed.

 

[MetalCraze]

It's not all backstory. Some happens in game. How the fuck is it any less relevant than the shit in shihonage's post? He mentions a few vague examples spread through the entire game, and you hold it up as the gold standard of New Vegas critiquing. Why? Because it was critiquing something Obsidian made.

No. Because his critics weren't about the backstory or faction motivation but what's in the setting itself, how the game shows it to you.

No matter how good the writing is when a game shows you a totally lawless lifeless area that nonetheless has rare traders selling shit in the streets to nobody - that's a bad way to present a setting.

1. Brotherhood Quest 1 -> Brotherhood Quest 2a -> Murder Faction X -> Never get Faction X's quest


2. Brotherhood Quest 1 -> Brotherhood Quest 2b -> Different quest entirely

Well that's only logical and how it should be

So, just in that small example, making decisions in Quest 1 directly influence not only which follow-up quest you get - the other one being content you will never see - but one of the two quests involving wiping out a minor faction, and in doing so, potentially locks you out of another quest.

I asked you a question about this before.
Are these decisions just you selecting "ok I will go and kill that faction" through dialogues?
Or actually done in a good way where you make some mistake somewhere and don't have the shining "tip"-like stuff telling you that omg this will totally lead to that through dialogues like with that companion?

Isn't "multiple solutions defined by your character build leading to playthrough-specific content" the gold fucking standard for C&C in an RPG?

If they are tied to the build. If they are just a dialogue option that just kills off the other faction which an easy way out of doing it in a more complex way (like say that faction actually hunting/capturing you with more stuff going from there) - then no.

I already explained at the beginning of the post what I look for in a sandbox RPG.

The fluff? And about combat - it's the major part in the game yet it's just a banal shooter. And stats influence little. There are no builds as you are always a guy with a gun etc. I don't understand how it can be interesting. Even in not too old RPGs, even multiplatform ones different builds lead to a different gameplay. Bah it's even true for VtmB which has the action part as the weakest one just like all these shooters called "RPGs" today but that's being counter-balanced by the character build specific content as well as working stats.

Even in all those RTwP RPGs of the past decade which were mostly about combat and less about quests it was very satisfying just creating your character and always led to a completely different gameplay. Class-based or class-less mattered not.
This is what I miss in all current shitty shooters - no matter what stats you select you end up with the exactly same gameplay bar some minor fluff. Add to that that all exploration is ruined by the quest-compass too.
I guess that's why I find Divinity 2 quite playable despite having a lot of problems.

My problem with NV is that there seems to be nothing else but choosing stuff through dialogues

I still have no idea how game development works.

Of course. Some obscure devs come and do magic with Gamebryo in their, what, second game ever?
Supposedly pro devs from Obsidian come to do their 5th or 6th game and blam they fail to turn one of the most flexible engines around at least a little.

Must be an engine's fault.

 

[commie]

Somehow nothing stopped Gamebryo from rendering dozens of NPCs in Guild 2 and even keeping calculating them off-screen. Considering that each NPC has its own goals and schedule. And I was able to play that with 8 years old CPU.

Nice strawman there if you think rendering 'DOZENS' of tiny, low poly figures in a RTS game proves that Obsidian were just shit that they didn't do it in NV. Oh and why only 'dozens'? That's not realistic! Medieval towns had thousands of inhabitants! Caesar III had HUNDREDS of sprites on screen 8 year earlier than when Guild 2 came out so why couldn't the makers of Guild 2 do the same? Gameplay decisions and/or engine limitations no? Divinity II also doesn't render many NPC's on screen at once. Notice a pattern with Shitbryo here?

 

[Jim Cojones]

I only briefly touched on the quest design, but even in that little snippet, I showed how quests tie together and can block out other content from that playthrough. Let me diagram it for you:

1. Brotherhood Quest 1 -> Brotherhood Quest 2a -> Murder Faction X -> Never get Faction X's quest

2. Brotherhood Quest 1 -> Brotherhood Quest 2b -> Different quest entirely

The way the quests relate with each other and how they open/close some options after completion is indeed cool. There is, however, a huge problem with the individual quests structure, especially considering the fucking quest compass. One of the tasks for the Brotherhood involves:

- going to three places on the wasteland and finding bodies of Brotherhood soldiers - to do that I need to use fast travel to get to a location near one of the points and then slowly run following the quest compass, repeat three times, no thought involved,
- going to three places on the wasteland and talk to Brotherhood scouts - as above,
- going to three vaults and obtaining items from there - still extremely primitive and even now the quest compass shows exactly in which lockers you'll find the McGuffins but at least this time you're encouraged to explore some dungeon areas.

It's hardly an exception, most of the quests are build around the idea of following the compass and then completing simple tasks. The only one I remember that really forced you to think and analyze a bit was protecting the NCR president who was visiting the dam - I must admit it was a pretty cool experience.

 

[MetalCraze]

Nice strawman there if you think rendering 'DOZENS' of tiny, low poly figures in a RTS game proves that Obsidian were just shit that they didn't do it in NV.

Figures in NV are quite low-poly too. The game looks worse than F3 and Oblivion too. And they don't have any complex scripts going on for them.
Yet that lags on modern PCs? For shame.

Oh and why only 'dozens'? That's not realistic! Medieval towns had thousands of inhabitants! Caesar III had HUNDREDS of sprites on screen 8 year earlier than when Guild 2 came out so why couldn't the makers of Guild 2 do the same? Gameplay decisions and/or engine limitations no?

I guess you've missed a part about every NPC being unique and having its own AI being calculated constantly?
What do sprites do in Caesar III? Move around?

Divinity II also doesn't render many NPC's on screen at once. Notice a pattern with Shitbryo here?

No. The game is multiplatform and consoles are very weak compared to any modern PC. However that's understandable for consoles. But the question is - why the fuck 15 low-poly models lag on the modern PC in NV?

I guess Aurora engine was shit too because NWN2 lagged much much worse than Crysis at the time?
UE3 engine is shit too?

And what about Warhammer Online that uses Gamebryo too? It's MMORPG where much more than 5 characters are being rendered at the same time.
Bah even Oblivion which has way more detail rendered than NV ran smoothly on 4 years old systems.

It's hardly an exception, most of the quests are build around the idea of following the compass and then completing simple tasks. The only one I remember that really forced you to think and analyze a bit was protecting the NCR president who was visiting the dam - I must admit it was a pretty cool experience.

That's exactly why I don't see how making quests branching makes them much better when everything besides talking is done for you and is one of my main complaints about the current trend in pseudo-RPGs

 

[Multidirectional]

DDDDEEEERRRRPPPP!!!!

 

[Mangoose]

And what about Warhammer Online that uses Gamebryo too? It's MMORPG where much more than 5 characters are being rendered at the same time.

WAR engine is a POS, btw.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

LARIAN WORKED MAGIC WITH GAMEBRYO!

WAR by the way, looked like shit, ran like shit no matter what settings you used and crashed every time a city siege happened. How do i know this? i actually played the game!

Gamebryo is a piece of technology that should have been retired after the xbox was canned. it's living on life support at this point.

Skyway....shut the fuck up.

 

[commie]

Figures in NV are quite low-poly too. The game looks worse than F3 and Oblivion too. And they don't have any complex scripts going on for them.
Yet that lags on modern PCs? For shame.

Bullshit. It doesn't lag on my ancient 4 year old system with max details. If you are trying to run it on a P4 then what do you expect? Game looks better than F3 and Oblivion as well, though that's relative anyway. I bet it looks 'worse' to you because it's not as colorful.

I guess you've missed a part about every NPC being unique and having its own AI being calculated constantly?
What do sprites do in Caesar III? Move around?

That's crap too. You could argue the same thing that every NPC in NV is unique. In Guild 2 there is no individual AI, just a bunch of scripts based on profession. Uniqueness in Guild 2 between tho blacksmiths is maybe a few more or less gold coins and some randomised needs and stats. In Caesar III they move around, just as they move around in Guild 2. They also have the same type of scripted needs though simplified(tagged to living quarters, which Guild 2 partly does as well).

No. The game is multiplatform and consoles are very weak compared to any modern PC. However that's understandable for consoles. But the question is - why the fuck 15 low-poly models lag on the modern PC in NV?

There's the same lag going back to Morrowind, so if the great Bethesda couldn't fix it in almost 10 years of development, how do you expect shit Obsidian to do it in one?

I guess Aurora engine was shit too because NWN2 lagged much much worse than Crysis at the time?
UE3 engine is shit too?

Well they are shitty engines, what do you want from me? Again you go on abut this 'lag' though which I haven't had with NWN2 or AP, so I really think it's all the viruses, trojans and assorted spyware on your PC that makes it lag.

And what about Warhammer Online that uses Gamebryo too? It's MMORPG where much more than 5 characters are being rendered at the same time.
Bah even Oblivion which has way more detail rendered than NV ran smoothly on 4 years old systems.

I don't play MMO's so I'll defer to your expertise on this.

Oblivion lagged like a shit when I first played it with a 7900gt. Only when I upgraded my video card did it stop with the shit.

 

[MetalCraze]

Bullshit. It doesn't lag on my ancient 4 year old system with max details. If you are trying to run it on a P4 then what do you expect?

Weren't you just saying that the engine is shit and small amount of NPCs are there so it won't lag?

Game looks better than F3 and Oblivion as well, though that's relative anyway. I bet it looks 'worse' to you because it's not as colorful.

More like because everything is brown. And lol you call this better looking?

Looks like some mod or cheap c-class game from the eastern europe.

That's crap too. You could argue the same thing that every NPC in NV is unique.

No they aren't. They all work according to the same static script.

In Guild 2 there is no individual AI, just a bunch of scripts based on profession. Uniqueness in Guild 2 between tho blacksmiths is maybe a few more or less gold coins and some randomised needs and stats.
In Caesar III they move around, just as they move around in Guild 2. They also have the same type of scripted needs though simplified(tagged to living quarters, which Guild 2 partly does as well).

Have you actually played Guild 2 for more than two minutes?
Yes they do stuff in accordance to their profession (which is kinda logical durr hurr) however they don't follow the same set of scripts and the same path. They also do stuff differently. You can reload the game from the beginning of the year and NPCs won't repeat what they did in the same way. They work, they go to taverns to relax, they go to courts with their own needs, they run for positions in power, they hold grudges against each other, etc - and all the time it's dynamic.

Now compare this to "unique" NPC in NV which do... nothing.

There's the same lag going back to Morrowind, so if the great Bethesda couldn't fix it in almost 10 years of development, how do you expect shit Obsidian to do it in one?

I don't get it whose problem is this? Mine? Obsidian chose this engine and the development time themselves - they must deliver a polished game, who cares about their problems doing that?

Well they are shitty engines, what do you want from me?

You heard it here first folks. Aurora which looks and runs much smoother in The Witcher than in NWN2 and UE3 with which 95% of devs never have problems - are shit.

Again you go on abut this 'lag' though which I haven't had with NWN2 or AP, so I really think it's all the viruses, trojans and assorted spyware on your PC that makes it lag.

Why do you lie? Everyone had a bad performance in NWN2, in fact it was one of the main complaints about the game, but somehow your system magically was an exception?

Oblivion lagged like a shit when I first played it with a 7900gt. Only when I upgraded my video card did it stop with the shit.

7900gt is weaker than XBox360's videocard which is basically an upgraded Radeon X1900. Still I remember it running quite well on 7900gs without antialiasing and too much aniso - turning them on caused problems of course.