Editorial Storytelling Bioware-style

[space captain]

Ive got an X-box

^_^


BTW, Phantom Dust kicks ass

 

[DorrieB]

You finsihed it. You didn't hate it. Stop lying.

Don't be silly. Why would I lie about something like that?

I'll tell you something I did like. After I finished NWN (with a feeling of profound dissatisfaction) I went looking for a decent adventure to download, something that would justify the price I paid for the game.

The ones I saw were all rubbish, except 'Sex and the Single Adventuress'. The story in this one is that you've just finished NWN, moved into a villa with a mother hen silver dragon, and developed a reputation as the town's sluttiest party girl. There's a contest that you must win in order to remain No. 1 Slag, and to ensure that you win it you go on a quest for magical sex apparel: Snow White's panties, Rose Red's push-up bra, Beauty's garters, etc., while boffing every single adult male you encounter along the way.

It's a parody, obviously, and the sex encounters mostly stop being funny after the fifth or sixth time. But it lets your character act out a personality, in a story that is all about you, and gives you a personal reason for going off on quests. It also lets you try on a variety of fun slutty outfits during the game. In one part, you have to fight your way through to the top of a tower filled with elemental beings, so you can reach the mad wizard and screw him back to sanity.

I had much, much more fun with that one than with the game I actually bought and paid for.

 

[Sarvis]

You finsihed it. You didn't hate it. Stop lying.

Don't be silly. Why would I lie about something like that?

I'll tell you something I did like. After I finished NWN (with a feeling of profound dissatisfaction) I went looking for a decent adventure to download, something that would justify the price I paid for the game.

The ones I saw were all rubbish, except 'Sex and the Single Adventuress'. The story in this one is that you've just finished NWN, moved into a villa with a mother hen silver dragon, and developed a reputation as the town's sluttiest party girl. There's a contest that you must win in order to remain No. 1 Slag, and to ensure that you win it you go on a quest for magical sex apparel: Snow White's panties, Rose Red's push-up bra, Beauty's garters, etc., while boffing every single adult male you encounter along the way.

It's a parody, obviously, and the sex encounters mostly stop being funny after the fifth or sixth time. But it lets your character act out a personality, in a story that is all about you, and gives you a personal reason for going off on quests. It also lets you try on a variety of fun slutty outfits during the game. In one part, you have to fight your way through to the top of a tower filled with elemental beings, so you can reach the mad wizard and screw him back to sanity.

I don't remember that part, but it was a decent module overall. Of course there are a lot of better ones. Elegia Eternum, Twilight, Lone Wolf... and several others I can't remember.

I had much, much more fun with that one than with the game I actually bought and paid for.

The ability to play Sex and the Single Adventuress was part of what you bought and paid for.

That's really the one basic thing NWN has on other crpgs, and some people around here are completely unwilling to accept it. I bought ToEE and was completely done with it a week later, having played through with two different parties. There's nothing left for me to do in that game. I've been playing NWN off and on for like 3 years now, because even though I've finished all of the OCs there's still hundreds of modules out there for me to have new experiences with.

Yeah, a good number of those are crap... but a lot of the good ones are _really_ good. So overall NWN is a much better value, because I got so much more with it.

I mean hell, I'm playing through a series of modules right now that's just as much hack 'n slash as ToEE, but which are taking me longer to finish!

 

[Volourn]

I played Sex and the Single Adventureress. It had some cool ideas and was kinda fun. However, I simply got bored with it by the time I left the mansion. Bah.

Remember, you somehow managed to finish the 'crappy' OC which is about 30-60 hours. is seriously doubt you hated it as much as you claim or else you never would have finished it. That's why I called you silly.


"Elegia Eternum, Twilight, Lone Wolf"

I played only Eternum out of these three. That's the one with the inn in the middle of nowhere right? It was good. I really love the music for it.


"I had much, much more fun with that one than with the game I actually bought and paid for."

As Sarvis points out quite rightly, playing mods like S&TSA is a apart of the game that you paid for. No NWN, no Free Fucking Mods.


"So overall NWN is a much better value, because I got so much more with it."

This goes without saying. NWN is still the game I play the most even now three years after its release. if Iw ere track the amount of time playing each game I own every month, NWN would be #1 ever since its been released. And, most games get trashed by the 6 month mark.


I must say I haven't played NWN as much lately. Wait.. Before,people rush and gloat! I may not be 'playing' it as much (other than small gasps of MPing the OC lol); I am finally closing in on finishing a mod FINALLY!

It'll will r0xx0rs the b0xxers of all! (Except those with no taste!)_


LOLOLOLOLLIPOP

 

[DorrieB]

Fair enough. For what it's worth, I'm sorry for acting like an asshole.

I have no idea why I needed to get it off my chest that I was awfully disappointed by the actual game, but that's hardly an excuse. You're right that I did get something decent out of it in the end, and I probably could have got more if I'd been willing to try a little further. Maybe I'll dig it out of the wardrobe and look for those downloads you mentioned. I shan't play the game again, though.

I'm not actually mad, you know. I just act that way sometimes.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Fair enough. For what it's worth, I'm sorry for acting like an asshole.

First off, there's no need to apologize around here. This is the Codex, after all. And there's especially no need to apologize to Volourn who's just a troll/flame bot that accuses others of trolling and flamiing all the time. Like it'll probably do with me for writing this. :D

I personally never finished the game. I tried three different times and finally managed to finish chapter one on my third try. But then I never got past the in before I was downloading user-made modules. I never cared for the combat system in NWN and so I went for modules that relied heavily on story just so I could try and get my money's worth from the game. I found a few decent ones, but felt that I never did truly achieve my goal of getting what I put into the game back, despite what the Biowhore Troll Bot 1138 might think.

 

[Volourn]

"Fair enough. For what it's worth, I'm sorry for acting like an asshole."

LOL You aren't. It
s just an exchange of an opion. Please, don't ebcome an Afterschool Speical. You might start to sound like the crybaby Otaku who likes to have sex with my brothers. What a freak! He's the only troll around here anyways.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Don't forget your mother and father. They love it.

 

[Ortchel]

This thread sucks.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Fair enough. For what it's worth, I'm sorry for acting like an asshole.

I have no idea why I needed to get it off my chest that I was awfully disappointed by the actual game, but that's hardly an excuse. You're right that I did get something decent out of it in the end, and I probably could have got more if I'd been willing to try a little further. Maybe I'll dig it out of the wardrobe and look for those downloads you mentioned. I shan't play the game again, though.

I'm not actually mad, you know. I just act that way sometimes.

No reason to apologise. The game just plain sucked. I made it to Chapter 3 hoping it would get better and because I was going to write the review of it. I wanted to finish it so I could write the review, but I just got to the point where it just annoyed me so much, I couldn't.

The whole point of chapter 3 is that there's three pieces of the worldstone out there. The bad guys have a piece, and you need all four pieces to do anything cool with it, right? Well, I got two of them. Had no idea where the third one was, and I really didn't want to explore more - ever again. I figure if you need four, there's only four, and I have two, TEH EEVIL HAS BEN DEFETED because 4 - 2 = 2 and 2 < 4. I could make a stab at saying that because I was also a DRUID that balance had been achieved, so let me go on to the next stage as well, but that'd be kind of a geeky stance. I could also say that if you can't protect two of the worldstones, you're probably not going to be able to protect three of them either, therefore the final one is pointless to get.

It's also rather stupid that something so important that's split in to three parts would have just one guy looking for all three when TEH EEVIL is also looking for them. It should be a race against time, right? So send three teams instead of one guy!

Anyway, it just got to be too much, so I stopped and reviewed it being 2/3rds of the way through Chapter 3.

 

[Shagnak]

I never even got out of the city.
I'll give it one thing. There is a fair amount of gameplay in the city, but it was all crap. Crates and chest and shit lying on the sides of the road. Meh.
Hence I did not get any further. You can get out of the city, right? (I take it from Saint that you can).
Unfortunately I was so fucking bored after 10 hours (?) or so that I don't want to have to repeat the experience of going through the whole zombies and prison escapees thing again just to find out that the story does not improve after all. I felt slightly guilty about this, after all I payed for the bastard, but many opinions (including Saint's) have cured that.

Oh and I'm not some anti-Boiware dickhead, I actually rather enjoyed the two add-ons.

 

[Sarkile]

I managed to force myself to play all the way to Luskan. Which chapter was that? Five or six?

 

[Saran]

I never even got out of the city.
I'll give it one thing. There is a fair amount of gameplay in the city, but it was all crap. Crates and chest and shit lying on the sides of the road. Meh.
Hence I did not get any further. You can get out of the city, right? (I take it from Saint that you can).
Unfortunately I was so fucking bored after 10 hours (?) or so that I don't want to have to repeat the experience of going through the whole zombies and prison escapees thing again just to find out that the story does not improve after all. I felt slightly guilty about this, after all I payed for the bastard, but many opinions (including Saint's) have cured that.

Oh and I'm not some anti-Boiware dickhead, I actually rather enjoyed the two add-ons.

While the OC didnt really bother me, i will say that the expansions campaign beat the shit out of the original, and if i was to go back and play NWN again, while i might play the expansions, the OC is too bland to be worth the effort.

So, IMHO, a decent enough game, but with a lackluster OC.

 

[Stark]

some said the 2 expansions are better, but i didn't find the first one significantly better.
i complete the OC and the first expansion simply because i was determined to play it to conclusion. it felt like an assignment to me. i did not get much enjoyment out of the 2.

needless to say, i didn't bother to get the second expansion. word of mouth is, it's much better but i'm simply too jaded to bother to try it out.

and to those who proposed getting those custom modules... i tried a couple of hall of fame modules, but didn't like them either. felt like playing adventure games that're too tightly scripted for my taste.

in Bioware's defense, i did enjoy Kotor, and have fond memories of playing BG.

 

[Saran]

......and have fond memories of playing BG.

Ugh, my advice is to keep them as fond memories, im currently replaying BG1 and i have to say that it really has dated, in fact its a bit of a downer compared to how different it is compared to the memory i had of it, though i believe BG2 has the ability to scroll with the keyboard, something ill need if i decide to play the whole series again considering the sore wrist i have from using the mouse.

 

[Fez]

You should play BG1 through the BG2 engine then.

 

[Saran]

You should play BG1 through the BG2 engine then.

Holy shit, you can do that!

Is it some sort of a mod, or do i need to mess around with the games files?

 

[Shagnak]

Is it some sort of a mod, or do i need to mess around with the games files?

Use the bg1tutu mod.

Available from here.
http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/index. ... &Itemid=98

Its pretty good, and has other mods written specifically to fit with it
There is some mild mucking around. I tried it a while ago, and don't remember any major hassle, just some basic notepad editing and an auto-conversion process.

 

[Fez]

It's a mod. It's not hard to set up. They have been releasing tweaks and updates for it for a while now. You'll probably appreciate the changes.

 

[Saran]

Thanks for the help lads.

 

[Greatatlantic]

I've looked at the footage for Jade Empire, and I got some serious Final Fantasy X vibes from it. I expect a lot of cut scenes to take the place of actual roleplaying. They are also relying on the "you are special" plotline. Dialogue choice will be there, just not in force. Where the game will suceed or fail is with the action sequences. I think there is a very real chance combat will be grossly unbalanced, and maybe not even fun. Time will tell. However, if you could pass up FFX, I'm willing to bet you can pass up this one.

 

[MarFish]

Where the game will suceed or fail is with the action sequences. I think there is a very real chance combat will be grossly unbalanced, and maybe not even fun.

Wow ... world class prediction abilities here.

looks at Fallout 3

"Where the game will succeed or fail is the combat system. I think there is a very real chance that combat will be imbalanced and hectic and maybe not even fun"

looks as Dragon Age

"Where the game will succeed or fail is the implementation of combat. I think there is a very real chance that combat will be imbalanced and maybe not even fun"

looks at any other game

"Where the game will succeed or fail is <random major feature>. I think there is a very real chance that <random major feature> will be <unbalanced | boring | hectic | sux0rs> and maybe not even fun!.

Lesson ... don't make pointless posts bashing <random bioware|bethesda |squaresoft game> trying to raise your l33t codex points, it makes you look stupid.

But since we are bitching about that game now ... let's see:

I watched a video some guy made of the game demo and it appears that they managed to do what Vampire was lacking - organized real time combat. I would have sacrificed quite a bid to have their target lock feature in VtM.

Some interview (gamespy?) stated that game has around 300k words of dialog, that's close to the LoTR trilogy. Unless it's all monologue, I predict there will be plenty of dialog choices.

The main issue for me would be the lack of character customization - granted, the chick player characters all look hot, which is always a good thing ( www.pvponline.com/archive.php3?archive=20040601 ) but still...

 

[Greatatlantic]

Wow ... world class prediction abilities here.

Nah, but whats the point of even discussing an upcoming game if we can't have fun predicting how it will turn out? I wouldn't state the obvious, however, if I didn't think it was relevant. Of course combat can make or break almost any game. However, Jade Empire is billed as an action RPG.

Lesson ... don't make pointless posts bashing <random bioware|bethesda |squaresoft game> trying to raise your l33t codex points, it makes you look stupid.

Well, the missus has already convinced me I'm stupid, so nothing lost to a bunch of strangers on the internet. That being said, I'm hardly bashing the game, especially before it comes out. I'm just posting my impressions from the footage and previews I've seen/read so far. I could be wrong, it has happened before. But where is the fun with out some bold predictions?

Some interview (gamespy?) stated that game has around 300k words of dialog, that's close to the LoTR trilogy. Unless it's all monologue, I predict there will be plenty of dialog choices.

Quantity in no way reflects quality. Just read the great John Galt's speech from "Atlas Shrugged". I also think there will be dialogue choices, just not in a great supply or a focus of the game. I'm expecting a lot of cut scenes, too, which eat into the word count with out giving any real dialogue choice.

The main issue for me would be the lack of character customization - granted, the chick player characters all look hot, which is always a good thing ( www.pvponline.com/archive.php3?archive=20040601 ) but still...

Hmmm... I didn't think there were any female PCs in this game, just a few female NPCs who could join your party. I was under the impression the game revolved around one character with a bunch of mysterious tatoos on his back with "secret meaning". As for character customization, I'm under the impression you only get to choose what fighting styles you know. That means no persuasion feat, no barter, no locking picking, just new fighting styles. Thus, why this game will succeed with its combat or fail with it. Recent Bioware titles have rewarded Munchkinism in a big way. It would not surprise me if one or two combat styles were simply superior and allowed a player to coast the rest of the game. Or that the grunts were just canon fodder and bosses required a player to rethink their difficulty setting.

 

[MarFish]

Wow ... world class prediction abilities here.

Some interview (gamespy?) stated that game has around 300k words of dialog, that's close to the LoTR trilogy. Unless it's all monologue, I predict there will be plenty of dialog choices.

Quantity in no way reflects quality. Just read the great John Galt's speech from "Atlas Shrugged".

I never used the word quality... Mentioning the one book you have been forced to read in school won't make changing the subject look any better.

Hmmm... I didn't think there were any female PCs in this game, just a few female NPCs who could join your party. I was under the impression the game revolved around one character with a bunch of mysterious tatoos on his back with "secret meaning". As for character customization, I'm under the impression you only get to choose what fighting styles you know. That means no persuasion feat, no barter, no locking picking, just new fighting styles.

Guess you are under several wrong impressions, which makes it even easier to dismiss your ramblings as uninformed and have-to-collect-l33t-points behavior.

Just from browsing their webpage I get:

- there are apparently 3-4 different dialog skills (charm, intimidate and intuition have been mentioned)

- there are 6 or 7 different characters, at least 3 of them female

- you get to level up your character and distribute stat points

Next time, inform yourself...

Thus, why this game will succeed with its combat or fail with.

Thus people who don't inform themselves end up looking like idiots ...

 

[Selenti]

What does DrattedTin think of Bioware storytelling?