Stolen Pixels #194: After Curfew, Episode 8

[Canadamus Prime]

hahahahahahahahahahaha! That was hilarious!
Friends don't let evil sociopathic friends run game companies.

As for Obsidian, yeah I was sceptical of New Vegas as soon as I heard they were working on it.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Kotor 2 was so disappointing when Peragus was just about the best "Intro" level of any game ever made. Despite the horribly botched ending, and the quests/combat getting repetitive by the end Kotor 2 was still a great game.

One of the bigger letdowns was the lack of a groovy mystical origin for Darth Nihilus. He should have been the Exile's lost Force connection in physical form. That would explain the insatiable hunger for life energy or else he would dissipate like all force connections do after death.

However I have faith in Chris Avellone, almost all the games he has been involved with are ambitious and tend to have depth to the gameplay. And to borrow from Yahtzee it is better to fail for being too ambitious than fail for being too cautious.

 

[Souplex]

Isn't making more After Curfews kind of in bad taste after the actor died?

 

[Blackbird71]

Isn't making more After Curfews kind of in bad taste after the actor died?

I suppose they never should have considered making the new Star Trek movie, considering that DeForest Kelley and James Doohan are dead, and it's in bad taste to recast their characters.

I guess Peter Jackson making the Lord of the Rings movies was in bad taste, because, you know, the author died.

And I guess they should have stopped making the Harry Potter movies when Richard Harris died (wait, that one actually sounds like a good idea...).

By that logic, Brandon Routh is in a lot of trouble for the whole "Superman Returns" thing. Of course, Christopher Reeve never should have played the part either, what with George Reeves having died in 1959, and even he wasn't the first to portray the Man of Steel.

Anyway, you could go on and on with characters and works that continued on after their originators have passed away. The point is that continuing to use a fictitious character after someone who once portrayed that character has passed on is in no way "bad taste." The very idea that it might be is ludicrous. If the character was being used in a way to denigrate or demean the deceased actor, then that would be a different matter entirely of course, but that's not what this is. I've been a longtime fan of Robert Culp, having enjoyed his work since my childhood. From my perspective at least, if anything, Shamus continuing After Curfew can be viewed as a sort of tribute to the late Mr. Culp.

 

[Tolerant Fanboy]

The Administrator! Can't wait to see Breen interview her.

Is SAXTON HALE going to be on After Curfew any time soon?

Are you crazy?! SAXTON HALE!! on After Curfew would break the space-awesome continuum!

Well, that's what they made the infinite canvas for: So Saxton Hale could triumphantly leap out of his helicopter and crash through the third wall. (The right wall of the panel, for those keeping track.)

Also, I did not know there was an Announcer model in Gmod. I knew they had Scout's mom, but not that bitter, smoke-preserved husk.

...

I'm going to be burned to death, aren't I?

 

[Calatar]

I keep trying to think of ways Oblivion could make games without the bad endings, but it involves working on the endings before finishing the beginning and middle, which may be worse.

Or, they could push back the release date and finish the damn game.

I honestly didn't mind NWN 2's ending too badly. Biggest problem with it was: the ending art-stills sequence had no voice actor, it just sounded like a random nerd DM telling me some backstory. Hardly an epic ending to the quest. The Shadow King encounter played fine though, even if it was irritating that the majority of your party members suffer the stupid "rock falls, everyone dies" fate absolutely nonsensical for 20th level DnD casters. Well... that and the "mandatory" betrayal of at least one of your party members, regardless of your influence with them. Fine, come to think of it, there were a lot of little annoying things about the game ending. Still, it was nowhere near as disappointing as KotOR 2, which just leaves you with a huge WTF feeling.

Well, I'm not a fan of the Fallout world anyways, so I doubt I'll be playing it. I'll rely on you guys to tell me whether Obsidian improved for this one.

Keep in mind though that they made quality complete expansions for NWN 2. It's clearly possible for them to make a finished game, at least when the engine is already done.

 

[johnman]

Isn't making more After Curfews kind of in bad taste after the actor died?

Shamus left the character for a while after his death but now he is back. And why not? Dr Breen is nothing more than a polygon wityh a texture layered over it, and the voice actor simply supplied his voice. Would it be in bad taste if he guy who created the model and animations for Dr Breen died and everyone carried on abusing him in G mod?

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Wasn't Fallout 2 virtually superior in every way to Fallout 1?

*goes to play them and find out*

Oh wait, they've both aged like shit. Fuck that plan.

 

[HT_Black]

Er...am I the only one who's wondering why Metro nearly did an excution style on Dr. Breen? I just don't get it...and that worries me.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

...and - gasp - the ability to actually botch a character build.

Honestly, how is this even remotely a good thing? Is it so bad to let people enjoy RPG's who maybe aren't so good at building up a character? Is it so bad to let people build the character they want to build, and not one of the several characters that will be successful?

 

[Cody211282]

Troll m0ar Shamus Young.

Though I guess I can understand that any fan of fallout 3 would be worried that Obsidian will ruin their experience with additions such as as above grade school level dialogue (one of the modifications they do in the engine is that they allow for more than 60 character sentences lol), motivations beyond "lol were evil orcs", actual consequences for your actions (e. g. not being able to make up for killing 20 people by giving water to beggars) and - gasp - the ability to actually botch a character build.

Oh well looky at what we have here it another

Shamus I'm glad I'm not the only one scared shitless that Obsidian is making this game(and Alpha Protocol). I'm looking forward to both but their track record is so bad I have no faith in them being able to do their job anymore.

 

[The Great JT]

Also, I did not know there was an Announcer model in Gmod. I knew they had Scout's mom, but not that bitter, smoke-preserved husk.

...

I'm going to be burned to death, aren't I?

For what? She is a bitter, smoke-preserved husk.

 

[seule]

Wasn't Fallout 2 virtually superior in every way to Fallout 1?

*goes to play them and find out*

Oh wait, they've both aged like shit. Fuck that plan.

Fallout 2 was whipped out in short order mostly because the biggest gripe with Fallout 1 was that it was just too short. There wasn't a whole lot of difference between the two other than the length, and the fact that the story in the second one just didn't quite feel as good.

Nevertheless, I am one of those people who loved all 3 games, and will be grabbing New Vegas pretty much as soon as it comes out on the PC. One of the joys of Fallout 3 was the ease of modding, and if they screw up New Vegas storyline that's ok... there's plenty of people willing to whip out the G.E.C.K and mod it for our own personal enjoyment

 

[WaderiAAA]

Finally After Curfew is back.

 

[r_Chance]

KOTOR 2 and NWN 2 aside I'm pretty confident about New Vegas. Having a publisher that will let you finish the game means a lot.

As for Kotick... if MW 3 screws up the stockholders will have his liver with a nice chianti.

 

[Koloman Varady]

Still loved Knights of the Old Republic 2. Easily more than the first, for sure. Woulda been nicer if they had time to finish though, I agree on that.

 

[Foolishman1776]

Fallout 2 was better than Fallout. As for Fallout 3, I actually liked Tactics more, even with the invincible robots that show up in the mid game. I will say this, that as buggy and generally unfinished as games made by any company that employs people that used to work for Black Isle, they are usually very ambitious and extremely fun to play. Also, does anyone else think it's funny that Troika made exactly three games and then died?