Hehe, yeah. I was shocked when I found out that some party members could get involved into disputes that made one of them leave or even have them attack each other.

You know what irks me about many games these days? They are too forgiving. Party members don't "die", they just pass out and get up once the battle is over. They don't argue to the point where one of them goes "adios, muchachos", and DEFINITELY won't attack each other. You can pretty much treat them like crap, calling them every name in the book, and they stay with you and your party. Heck, in BG2 party members could get chunkified/petrified/imprisoned depending on difficulty settings and so on.

It's not that I like running back and forth for a raise dead/resurrection scroll every time a party member gets it, if I wanted that I'd just beg for save point system (which, in the console fanboy eyes is a sign of being a 'better' gamer because it takes you more tries to get something done - lol. They stray, my friend). No, if you want to you could just save every 2 minutes and make sure nothing "bad" happens in your game, for all I care. But that's not roleplaying, that's powergaming. Sure, you could reload every time you say something bad to a party member, closing off their romance tree (like when you agree to sleep with Aerie the first time when she offers herself - I bet a lot of people fucked that up ), or every time someone gets imprisoned without you having a "freedom" scroll or high-level mage on you. But that's part of the story, dammit. Or better: your story.

A mate of mine still has nightmares of Cernd (who, by then, was one of his main's closest friends and more powerful party members) getting chunked by the shadow dragon. Or about Yoshimo betraying him at Brynnlaw. That's the kind of games we want to play. Not games who reward me for every fucking thing I do, or on the other side of the spectrum, always force me into taking the safe path even if I don't fucking feel like it.

Lesson 1 in game design: don't needlessly irritate the player, but give him the opportunity to do stupid shit. Point in case: a high building with a balcony: don't make it so that the balcony has no railing, making it that the player can accidentally fall off. But don't stop him or her from jumping over the damn thing and falling to their splattered death. THE PLAYER IS NOT RETARDED. He knows he will die if he jumps off a 50-foot building. And if he wants to, let him, fall to his death. Easy, right?

Another example: a town, with a blacksmith, church, tavern - the whole shabang. If the player wants to talk to them, then fine. If he starts a mass genocide for no apparant reason, LET HIM. No person in their sane mind would expect any other outcome than all these people not offering him their jobs and quests or sympathy afterwards (if they live). Shit, what does anyone expect? Yet, in many modern games, you can return 2 hours later and everyone will be like "oh hey, wassup?" Seriously. We can do better. We deserve better.

Free and lenient saves (for example 3 quicksaves, just to make sure) + a harsh, unforgiving world = realistic. It's getting a little tiresome that we have to suffer for all the retards in the world who go apeshit on the local shopkeeper, and then get all angry because they fucked up a part of their game world. Because that's who companies are catering to these days.


/rant off

Wow... not often you'll see this in public but

/applaud Ox

well said!

BG2 voice work...Irenicus and Ellesime.

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdy-k_qLdQg

"I...I do not remember your love, Ellesime. I tried. I tried to recreate it, to spark it anew in my memory but it is gone, a hollow, dead thing. For years I clung to the memory of it, then the memory of the memory, then nothing. The Seldarine took that from me too. I look upon you and feel...nothing. I remember nothing but you turning your back on me along with all the others. Once my thirst for power was everything, and now I hunger only for revenge. And I WILL HAVE IT!"

I miss BG2. Irenicus 4 life bitches

I don't believe I've ever seen a villain in a computer game that was so intriguing. You rarely see that in movies either. Hollywood demands villains with cardboard characters (with notable exceptions like the Joker off course).
Still, this one is great too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWVS6syc ... re=related

heh, yea, Irenicus was a pretty interesting villain. Smart and crazy. Most other enemies (including Saravok) are pretty forgettable, in any game.