@Satsuki:

Kotaku

Jubilation.

@Stephen:

You can still pause combat. On the console or PC version you can stop the action, transfer from character to character, assigning their one next move (you can't stack commands). Strategic fighting has not been eliminated, just not shown much to the press. BioWare, the rep explained, prefers to show off a more exciting, fast-moving play style for the sequel, even though they support the old-school turn-taking approach. That faster style is what they want to hook Fable fans with, what they think even a Borderlands fan might dig.

Character customization is also back, though the talking point there is that, this time, BioWare is going for depth moreso than breadth. This is their version of narrowing things: Each character in your party as well as your own hero has six skill trees, different for each of the game's three classes (rogue, warrior, mage), and each tree has five to eight abilities that can be purchased and used. Some of those abilities have two or three upgrades that can also be locked. Plus, each party member has a unique skill tree among their six.

The bigger change, however, is that the game will no longer support an overhead tactical view on any platform. This was an art and combat-design decision, the BioWare rep told me today. Support for that Baldur's Gate-style view forced the artists to design rooms and scenes that didn't have important things on their ceilings and skies — which top-down players wouldn't see. It also forced the designers into an awkward spot where they had to accommodate top-down turn-taking players and behind-the-back action-first players. By catering to the more reckless of those playing styles, the designers were forced to make the game's difficulty fairly low. Making all players play from some sort of from-the-rear camera view alleviates that. But! PC gamers, your version will include a special option to zoom the camera out, just not up. Console gamers won't get that.

This is hilarious.

@Stephen:

That faster style is what they want to hook Fable fans with, what they think even a Borderlands fan might dig.

The seat is swiveling as we speak.

@Stephen:

This was an art and combat-design decision, the BioWare rep told me today. Support for that Baldur's Gate-style view forced the artists to design rooms and scenes that didn't have important things on their ceilings and skies — which top-down players wouldn't see.

Hahahaha fucking ceilings

@Stephen:

There are classic PC RPG roots here. They're just a little more buried than before.

I am choking on my own spittle.

@IceBorg:

Will they survive?!?

@Tokoro:

WHO WILL SURVIVE!?!?!?

!

@Outerspec:

He's also too far left.

It's still quite an amazing sight to see anyone aside from American right-wing authoritarians call Obama 'left'.

@Outerspec:

hu6IM02ehXw

What if your nurse was high? o_o

@Outerspec:

Lol, no really I do believe they want what's best for this country.

Until stupid shit like this is posted.

@Outerspec:

Now we'll see if they'll stop opposing Obama for political reasons and start working on actual policies.

Rand fucking Paul is in the government. A man supporting hiring discrimination on the basis of race is officially in.

Stop giving the GOP and their tools credit.

Alright, I'll admit I like the featuring of a certain concept here. Ichigo's older now, and has to deal with more responsibilities than before. This means a tighter schedule, attention to fiscal responsibility, and thinking about the future. These are things I think, thematically, can be played with excellence, especially near the end of a story.

Then Kubo has to make everything feel generic and tedious by putting in a bunch of goofy shit in an effort to seem 'funny'. None of this slapstick crap was natural – every time I saw something like Orihime doing -anything-, I slowly became more and more annoyed by the lack of focus on the actually important narrative that was being built up around our protagonist.

And about that brown/orange-haired lass: am I the only one who finds her attitude... unfitting? Yes, say what you will about HM ruining her, but it was a direction being taken, and one would expect everything that happened there to be followed up in sequential chapters. I didn't see that in the closing chapters of the last arc, and I don't see that now.

Uryuu sameface'd everyone.

This chapter managed to have better pacing than before, and still dragged like a snail.

! FOOOOOOT!

@Chopperrules:

There is a rumor floating amiss that states a man who wanks too much will have inferior brain cells and memory.

I don't think that's how it w- you sly dog, you.

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/adam_serwer_archive?month=10&year=2010&base_name=terror_plots_foiled_with_the_a

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Wait, this thread is discussing M:OM now? Shoot, and it looks like I missed all the fun stuff, too. Always late to the party I suppose…

! RIDLEY WAS NOT A KIWI.

@HiroVoid:

I'm surprised you either found or looked for it. :blink:

The Bioware community has, within it, some of the worst people on this earth. My moral duty is only natural in its righteousness, to record their exploits and wiles so that the future world might be warned against the dastardly existence of waifu-culture forged into being by lifestyle in sheltered suburbia, and the whole wide spectrum of internet nerd-ism.

Possibly the only time I will ever agree with David Gaider on anything.

@David:

And you're free to call Isabela promiscuous, if you like. She is, obviously, and rather unapologetic about it. That's a far different tone from some of the "sl*t-shaming" we're seeing going on in these threads, and saying they are comparable goes beyond splitting hairs.