I am officially and totally *doomed*. I opened *Star Wars – Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords* aka. KOTOR II.
And played it for 7½h straight.
Argh!
For those of you interested in these things, the first *Star Wars – Knights of the Old Republic* aka. KOTOR was developed by BioWare – the guys that went on to make the Jade Empire, one of my favorite games.
Back to KOTOR II, though. I was astonished to see that they already use something like the d20 rules. That’s a bit more rules than I was expecting for a roleplaying game. In comparison, I see how the Jade Empire simplifications introduced were clear improvements.
KOTOR II was developed by Obsidian Entertainment.
Strange, it seems that Never Winter Nights was also developed by BioWare, and Never Winter Nights 2 was also developed by Obsidian Entertainment. I’m sure there’s a story hidden in there and I just need to look at the right Wikipedia pages to discover what it is. Some moments later: Indeed! Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, second paragraph: “The game’s system is based on Wizards of the Coast’s Star Wars Roleplaying Game, which is based on the d20 role-playing game system derived from the Third Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules. […] A sequel […] was developed by a different studio, Obsidian Entertainment, using an updated version of the engine from the first game. Bioware was occupied with producing Jade Empire and wanted to focus more on their original productions than licensed games, but they recommended Obsidian for KotOR’s sequel.”
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Amazing.
Oh, and I did say that BioWare was working on a new title I can’t wait to lay my hands upon, right? The keyword is Mass Effect. Look at some of the videos.
An interesting idea I noticed: If you look at the Mass Effect download section, you’ll see that avatars (!) get a significant amount of page area. That’s how important it is to get your little icons placed in forums all over the net.
Oh. And now the bad part. Remember that KOTOR II was done by Obsidian, not BioWare. Then think of the awesome D&D parody comic DM of the Ring; start reading the author’s blog... And read the comments in his discussion of the lousy Never Winter Nights 2 ending. And notice how *they don’t like the KOTOR 2 ending either*.
discussion of the lousy Never Winter Nights 2 ending
Oh noooooo!
Doomed to play a great game with a lousy ending. 😢
#Games