Elder Scrolls Topic

[Steerpike]

Yeah, Planescape is very hard to find these days - at least fully licit copies.  I think it handles amnesia pretty brilliantly, though, as again amnesia is more than simply a plot device but becomes central to the story.  The Dark Descent plays it in a slightly more cliched way, but it does sort of enhance the horror as you begin through flashbacks and journal entries to piece together fragments of your exceedingly disturbing past.

[Ninja D!]

GOG is the way to go.

I thought that the amnesia in Bioshock was really stupid. I thought the whole story of that game, just a justification to lead you along by the nose was terrible and really annoyed me. It made me lose all desire to play that game, knowing my input was meaningless and I would basically just be turning the pages of a book in which I had no control.

[Elemental_Elf]

I always thought Knights of the Old Republic pulled off Amnesia pretty well.

[Nomadic]

I always thought Knights of the Old Republic pulled off Amnesia pretty well.

KotOR did amnesia really well, but in the end you end up finding out who you were before and it adds to the story. A good example of this is the Bourne series (movies/books not games... but still) which flawlessly pulls this off to create a wonderful internal conflict for the protagonist. Having to deal with the fact that you were an ice cold killer after your amnesia has caused your personality to shift away from that creates a serious value dissonance that can often make for great storytelling.

[SA]

Dark Descent and the Bourne series present an interesting comparison. In the Bourne series Jason's own forgotten crimes were the consequence of Operation Treadstone; in Amnesia the protagonist Daniel has no such excuse for his crimes, and can only say "I was trying to save my self". The more Daniel learns about his past monstroities, the more abominable he becomes in the present, by the simple virtue of having those experiences reintegrated into his identity.

And Steerpike, what do you mean Planescape's hard to find?

[Ninja D!]

Some people don't like to buy online and they did mention that they did not want to go the GOG route...though I can't imagine why. You get all that extra stuff in exchange for not having the physical disc. I have a Baldur's Gate desktop wallpaper right now because of GOG.

[SA]

I also saw it on a shelf at my local gaming store. Cheaply priced. I assumed it had a hardcopy re-release.

[LD]

...That amazon offer is almost too good to pass up... I may very well take advantage of that--thank you.

As for Bioshock leading you around- I thought that was amazingly well done and the rationale was very well integrated. The whole story-line concept was exciting-- I played it for the philosophy rather than the shooting :) And I got chills when dealing with Andrew Ryan.

When you look at the game through the lenses of: Objectivism, and Free Will and Religion v. Capitalism and worship of self v. selflessness, it's really quite a deep game.

Bioshock 2... not so much.

[Ninja D!]

I'll admit, I never made it to the end of Bioshock. I got very sick of it because of how much you're led around.

The multiplayer on Bioshock 2 was kind of fun for the two days anyone was playing it.

[Elemental_Elf]

Did everyone catch the g4 interview with Todd Howard? It shows off a number of new things including the map, the menu, new items, interaction with NPCs and a look around one of the towns. The beginning shows footage we've already seen but there is new content later on. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.g4tv.com%2Fvideos%2F53441%2FThe-Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim-E3-Gameplay-Demo%2F&h=794e2

[LD]

I'll admit, I never made it to the end of Bioshock. I got very sick of it because of how much you're led around.

Did you make it at least until the point that you meet Andrew Ryan in person?

[Ninja D!]

Did you make it at least until the point that you meet Andrew Ryan in person?

In my own playing, no I did not. I have heard about almost everything in that game from people. More than that, I've seen most of it because my girlfriend is really big on Bioshock. She's played through both of them at least twice, has a Big Daddy on her desk, and Rapture posters all over her wall.

[Ninja D!]

I'll admit, I never made it to the end of Bioshock. I got very sick of it because of how much you're led around.

Did you make it at least until the point that you meet Andrew Ryan in person?

[Ninja D!]

I just realized how happy I'm going to be with Skyrim. I did enjoy Oblivion a lot -- it was a fun game -- but the more I looked at it and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to fall short of Morrowind. Then with Fallout 3, I knew what Bethesda games were like now. The different setting helped but I wasn't hurt by the fact that there were so few quests or things to discover. Basically, I'm going to love Skyrim simply because of how disappointed I was with Oblivion.

[SA]

Dual wielding swords. Sneaking around the wilderness, double-shanking fools.

200 hours of gameplay right there.