What if Obsidian picked up Mass Effect after ME3...

[everythingbeeps]

What on earth are you talking about? New Vegas is widely regarded as an improvement on Fallout 3 in practically every single way. It's as big as FO3, but with better gameplay, better writing, and more ties to the original games which the guys at Obsidian worked on in the first place.

And don't forget the fact that it was the most thoroughly nonfunctional game to be released maybe the entire generation. There's that too.

I will defend them, because I have played several of their games, and enjoyed them all immensely. If a developer makes a game and I enjoy it, why is it so bad that I defend them? You may not have enjoyed their games, but then, I get the impression that the list of games you don't enjoy would form several volumes of encyclopaedic proportions.

I enjoy a lot of games, because a lot games actually work.

Or they might just be the only developer to combine truly excellent writing with real choice-based gaming and role-playing mechanics. Y'know, because some of us like being able to play RPGs where choices actually matter...

Like the choice between getting up and restarting a frozen console for the fifth time or finally just giving up for good? Like that choice?

If Obsidian's so great, maybe they can start hiring guys who actually know how take all that great writing and those great role-playing mechanics and turn them into a real video game that actually functions.

 

[endtherapture]

That justifies KotOR II being a buggy disgrace of a game. It does NOTHING to waft away the stench of Neverwinter Nights II, or Fallout: New Vegas. Buggiest games I've ever played, and the former had one of the most pointlessly player-fucking games I've encountered.

I can understand people complaining about Kotor 2, but what was wrong with Neverwinter Nights 2? It was released in a somewhat buggy state but then so was the original Neverwinter Nights as much as people like to forget that fact, most rpg are really. But just like with the first game over time thanks to patches and support NWN2 blossomed into a fantastic experience. Indeed I'd say that in many regards NWN2 is superior to the original, it beyond doubt is singleplayer-wise with Mask of the Betrayer easily blowing all of Biowares work in the NWN franchise out of the water.

So I don't get it. Is it just nostalgia making people overlook the flaws of the original game especially upon release, or do most people not remember when NWN was released and just played the 'Diamond' version? Because with Neverwinter Nights at least Obsidian did nothing wrong. Nothing that Bioware themselves hadn't done before anyway. But given time and funding NWN2 became an incredible experience worth playing.

Honestly I think a lot of people just rush to conclusions whenever they heard the name Obsidian. Oh they're far from perfect, but the way some people ***** and complain about them you'd think it was the goddamned apocalypse every time they release a new game. It's getting old.

Notice that you took an argument I never made to roll with there. When I said that Neverwinter Nights 2 was cadaverous with bugs, I never said that the original was better. You seem to have assumed I thought it was better based on my implied (though never stated) preference to BioWare over Obsidian games. You are wrong, at least in this situation. I hated Neverwinter Nights 1. It was so frustrating an experience to me I kind of wished they didn't even make a sequel. But, I think you will find that both Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 are anomalies on their companies' records. Whereas that was the last time BioWare made a shitty game (no, Dragon Age 2 does NOT count. It was mediocre at worse) it was the last time Obsidian genuinely stuck with a game until most of the bugs were gone. Even New Vegas didn't get that kind of star treatment. They're usually content to leave a game sitting after two, maybe three big patches, none of which address the glaring 50% of the bugs within those games.

I am not denying they're good games. I'm denying that they're not buggy messes, and I'm also asserting that Obsidian has too many dark fuck fetishes to be allowed anywhere near a series as idealistic as Mass Effect.

I personally enjoyed NWN a lot more than I enjoyed DA2.

DA2 had horrible writing problems, horribly gameplay problems and was generally a nightmarish game which came as the sequel to one of the most enjoyable RPGs ever, which I poured many addictive hours into.

NWN yeah, the main story was poo, and it pretty much had the plot of Jade Empire and KoTOR, but the main story was just a showcase of the toolkit. I spent HUNDREDS OF HOURS in the toolkit, I was a fourteen year old boy, I had no idea about coding or anything but I spent hours making these adventures which were really fun. Designing characters and quests and the world was really great. There were also amazing fan made adventures which WERE THE REASON NWN WAS MADE, like Crimson Tides of Tethyr which was brilliant.

 

[TheCommanders]

Can I just say (this may have been mentioned) that I hope to god that Mass Effect doesn't get the same kind of shameless sequel squirting afterlife that the halo series is still being subjected to. I like Bioware, and one of their strong points is creating brilliant original IPs, and if a obnoxiously unnecessary sequel to the ME trilogy by obsidian takes away even a small amount of resources for the next amazing franchise Bioware plans to develop in the future, I will personally brick them repeatedly in the metaphorical face. With a metaphorical brick, naturally.