At any rate, lets all change the standards again, so all those old computers that can't run anything later than Firefox 2 have to be shipped off to some foreign dump where they leak poisonous chemicals in to the drinking water.
::grumble grumble:: Memory leak ::grumble grumble:: Bloated ::grumble grumble:: Not nearly as good as it once was ::grumble grumble:: Most development money comes from Google ::grumble grumble:: Not as good as Gecko/Opera/Safari/Chrome/etc
It MIGHT have something to do with the fact that you are running Crossfire. I don't know if Dragon Age has any problems with Crossfire, but you might want to try either disabling it or physically removing one of the video cards.
I think you might have been encountering a weird one there. My gaming PC, my fiancee's gaming PC, and all of our friends' gaming PCs run Win 7 x64, and none of us had the problems you described.
We have a variety of hardware, with different brand and model video cards, motherboards, and CPUs...it might be a problem specific to your hardware config. Or the install could have been botched.::shrug:: sorry
Once again, the list I showed you included some of the most highly regarded nonJRPG or MMO RPGs that have ever been released...and they all came out in the last 10 years.
Morrowind Oblivion Fallout 3 Neverwinter Nights Neverwinter Nights 2 Knights of the Old Republic Knights of the Old Republic 2 The Witcher Drakensang Baldur's Gate II Deus Ex
All of them huge games, all of them highly regarded, all of them released within the last ten years, and all of them not only released within the last ten years, but spread out quite evenly. Based on this part of your post:
If all you can point to as good examples are games from several decades ago, you have a dead genre.
I'd say the genre is alive and well. What more do you want?!
First, you complain about the lack of big-time RPGs in the last 10 years. Then, after I create a list showing that many of the most highly regarded nonJRPG RPGs were released in the last 10 years, you complain about having to play the same ones over and over?
Who says they have to be from the last 10 years? Still, using your ten year requirement, I'll try.
Morrowind Oblivion Fallout 3 Neverwinter Nights Neverwinter Nights 2 Knights of the Old Republic Knights of the Old Republic 2 The Witcher Drakensang Baldur's Gate II Deus Ex
I LOVED the Dwarf Noble origin story...the politics portrayed were complicated and engaging, and it was interesting seeing the race try to work out their problems.
In a way, I wish I had played as a Dwarf Noble for my second playthrough...entering their city as an outsider would have been much more intimidating than starting as a Dwarf.
There are ways around this...Dragon Age (and BioWare games in general) are designed so that if you want to power through them, you can...but if you want to know every little detail about the world, you can do that too.
The first Mass Effect is a good example. Literally doing everything and talking to everyone I could find took me right around 30 hours.
My fiancee only extracted the minimum information she needed from each NPC and moved on, and did maybe a handful of side quests. Her total playtime? About 13 hours.
She enjoyed it just as much as I did, with the only difference being that she knew enough about the Mass Effect world to understand the storyline, while I decided to learn about it on an esoteric level. It all depends on your level of commitment. If you don't want to hear everything an NPC has to say...just don't ask them about it:-)
In comparison DAO seems very much targeted at casual gamers
On the contrary, Baldur's Gate was targeted at hardcore gamers, not to mention based on what was, for all intents and purposes, a much less forgiving and rudimentary RPG system.
I wouldn't call a game which could potentially have nearly 100 hours in a single playthrough as "targeted at casual gamers"...just because it isn't as difficult as Baldur's Gate doesn't automatically make it casual oriented.
RPGs shouldn't be imho.
For the most part, I agree with you. Luckily, there are a TON of huge RPGs which would make "casual gamers" shit themselves:-)
Re:Still waiting on the BioWare / Illusion merger.
on
Dragon Age 2 Announced
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Given how much the BioWare games are turning into Japanese "dating" sims.
I call bullshit. The relationship aspect of BioWare games is an entirely option part of the experience, and involves no more strategy than picking the "nice" sounding conversational lines.
I sunk 70+ hours into my first game (female Dwarf Noble) did as many side missions as I could find) and put about 40+ hours into my second game (female City Elf). Dragon Age's world really felt alive, and I felt like I was having a direct impact ont he way things were going.
I don't usually like to gush on about a game, but even with its flaws (slightly wonky camera, some textures looked like they were from the N64 era while other textures looked very realistic, etc) Dragon Age deserves every bit of attention and praise it gets. Truly great storytelling, and truly engaging gameplay.
Regardless, as I've said many times on this site...in the year 2010, honestly thinking that most if not all digital communication that you engage in isn't tracked, monitored, or recorded at SOME POINT, either by a company or by the government, is just foolish. I operate under the assumption that I have zero privacy with my cell phone and online, and act accordingly.
Seriously? Calm down. They aren't monitoring the communication of private citizens, they are monitoring incoming connections on critical infrastructure systems.
Besides, monitoring the communication of private citizens happened a while ago under a happy little thing called the Patriot Act.::flamesuit::
Slashdot Mirror
At any rate, lets all change the standards again, so all those old computers that can't run anything later than Firefox 2 have to be shipped off to some foreign dump where they leak poisonous chemicals in to the drinking water.
It's the American way.
::grumble grumble:: Memory leak
::grumble grumble:: Bloated
::grumble grumble:: Not nearly as good as it once was
::grumble grumble:: Most development money comes from Google
::grumble grumble:: Not as good as Gecko/Opera/Safari/Chrome/etc
Sadly...I REALLY REALLY wanted to include it, but alas :(
It MIGHT have something to do with the fact that you are running Crossfire. I don't know if Dragon Age has any problems with Crossfire, but you might want to try either disabling it or physically removing one of the video cards.
Half-Life 2 is a great example of a game made better by the fact that it's linear.
I think you might have been encountering a weird one there. My gaming PC, my fiancee's gaming PC, and all of our friends' gaming PCs run Win 7 x64, and none of us had the problems you described.
We have a variety of hardware, with different brand and model video cards, motherboards, and CPUs...it might be a problem specific to your hardware config. Or the install could have been botched. ::shrug:: sorry
Ah, ok...I misunderstood what the OP was getting at.
I agree, that was a bit annoying. Not really a deal-breaker for me, but definitely noticeable.
Once again, the list I showed you included some of the most highly regarded nonJRPG or MMO RPGs that have ever been released...and they all came out in the last 10 years.
Morrowind
Oblivion
Fallout 3
Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights 2
Knights of the Old Republic
Knights of the Old Republic 2
The Witcher
Drakensang
Baldur's Gate II
Deus Ex
All of them huge games, all of them highly regarded, all of them released within the last ten years, and all of them not only released within the last ten years, but spread out quite evenly. Based on this part of your post:
If all you can point to as good examples are games from several decades ago, you have a dead genre.
I'd say the genre is alive and well. What more do you want?!
Wait wait wait.
First, you complain about the lack of big-time RPGs in the last 10 years. Then, after I create a list showing that many of the most highly regarded nonJRPG RPGs were released in the last 10 years, you complain about having to play the same ones over and over?
Sheesh. No pleasing some people.
What about Shattered Steel?
Also, don't forget about Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment. They weren't made by Bioware, but it utilized their engine.
Seconded. Definitely an awesome game worth playing through. It was wonderfully but unidentifiabley charming.
Who says they have to be from the last 10 years? Still, using your ten year requirement, I'll try.
Morrowind
Oblivion
Fallout 3
Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights 2
Knights of the Old Republic
Knights of the Old Republic 2
The Witcher
Drakensang
Baldur's Gate II
Deus Ex
I'm sure there are others that I'm missing...
Drakensang was far superior.
I don't agree that it was superior, but it was definitely an under-represented gem.
I can't wait till the english version of it's sequel comes out in august.
SERIOUSLY?????? daGHP:S(OEH G(P*ASE HTG(W* EHA I had no idea there even was a sequel! You just made my day :-)
I LOVED the Dwarf Noble origin story...the politics portrayed were complicated and engaging, and it was interesting seeing the race try to work out their problems.
In a way, I wish I had played as a Dwarf Noble for my second playthrough...entering their city as an outsider would have been much more intimidating than starting as a Dwarf.
...I take it you didn't play it on the PC? Because you could do the very things you described with the camera in the PC version...
There are ways around this...Dragon Age (and BioWare games in general) are designed so that if you want to power through them, you can...but if you want to know every little detail about the world, you can do that too.
The first Mass Effect is a good example. Literally doing everything and talking to everyone I could find took me right around 30 hours.
My fiancee only extracted the minimum information she needed from each NPC and moved on, and did maybe a handful of side quests. Her total playtime? About 13 hours.
She enjoyed it just as much as I did, with the only difference being that she knew enough about the Mass Effect world to understand the storyline, while I decided to learn about it on an esoteric level. It all depends on your level of commitment. If you don't want to hear everything an NPC has to say...just don't ask them about it:-)
In comparison DAO seems very much targeted at casual gamers
On the contrary, Baldur's Gate was targeted at hardcore gamers, not to mention based on what was, for all intents and purposes, a much less forgiving and rudimentary RPG system.
I wouldn't call a game which could potentially have nearly 100 hours in a single playthrough as "targeted at casual gamers"...just because it isn't as difficult as Baldur's Gate doesn't automatically make it casual oriented.
RPGs shouldn't be imho.
For the most part, I agree with you. Luckily, there are a TON of huge RPGs which would make "casual gamers" shit themselves :-)
Given how much the BioWare games are turning into Japanese "dating" sims.
I call bullshit. The relationship aspect of BioWare games is an entirely option part of the experience, and involves no more strategy than picking the "nice" sounding conversational lines.
Hardly the same thing as a dating sim.
I sunk 70+ hours into my first game (female Dwarf Noble) did as many side missions as I could find) and put about 40+ hours into my second game (female City Elf). Dragon Age's world really felt alive, and I felt like I was having a direct impact ont he way things were going.
I don't usually like to gush on about a game, but even with its flaws (slightly wonky camera, some textures looked like they were from the N64 era while other textures looked very realistic, etc) Dragon Age deserves every bit of attention and praise it gets. Truly great storytelling, and truly engaging gameplay.
Regardless, as I've said many times on this site...in the year 2010, honestly thinking that most if not all digital communication that you engage in isn't tracked, monitored, or recorded at SOME POINT, either by a company or by the government, is just foolish. I operate under the assumption that I have zero privacy with my cell phone and online, and act accordingly.
"...I believe the Star Wars episode doubled that audience."
"Well, yeah, but double ten people is, like, twenty people, so..."
I'm still reading through Red Thunder, but the two other books in the trilogy are patiently waiting on my book shelf:-)
If you like John Varley, you should check out Steel Beach. Insane book.
Seriously? Calm down. They aren't monitoring the communication of private citizens, they are monitoring incoming connections on critical infrastructure systems.
Besides, monitoring the communication of private citizens happened a while ago under a happy little thing called the Patriot Act. ::flamesuit::
That depends...are you positronitive?
Obviously, these people never heard of the "Squeezer" from John Varley's Red Thunder.