The Sith Lords

[Moosferatu]

Has anyone played it yet?

[Kode]

I'm waiting for the PC release since I don't have (and don't intend to get) an X-Box.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Not gonna get it yet [for Xbox] for at least another month.

[Ryam BaCo]

i'll buy the pc version and (hopefully) manipulate my brother that he'll buy it for his xbox

[MrChlorophyll]

PC version, all the way.

[Kolzig]

I might buy the pc version, but first I need to buy Kotor 1.

[Moosferatu]

I just got it for xbox. I've been working on Planescape: Torment, which I'd rather be playing, but since I got it has a Christmas present from my parents I'm going to have to give it a go. Blast! I'm hoping it isn't too long so I can get back to Planescape.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

You can always send it to me. I'm sure I'll find some use for it.

[Moosferatu]

I didn't say I don't want it. I just don't want to play it right now.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Just send it me and I'll keep it 'safe' for the next 2 months or so. Don't mind it coming back to you unwrapped.

[Ryam BaCo]

trep is lying! he'll do evilllll things with it! send it to me! i'll save it from evilllll trep!

[Moosferatu]

I've played about 8 or so hours of it now. I'm quite liking it. So far I think it's much better than KotOR. The Sith Lords has a lot more roleplaying to it. There's a lot more choices and, hey, they even made skills useful (and needed) this time around. The beginning is certainly more fun than KotOR, which I thought was pretty boring. It was such a relief to finally get off that first planet.

A few things do bother me, but they're probably more of annoyances with RPGs in general than The Sith Lords specifically. Why do developers seem fixated on making the main character unable to remember something about his past? It's getting so bloody old running around having to listen to old farts give these long-winded speeches hinting that they know all about your past (or something else of interest), but then not fucking telling you anything. Cut the crap for pete's sake! Then there's just the plan old, long-winded, and drawn out conversations. I just escaped the mining colony and what do we do? Why stand around talking for 20 minutes, while actually saying nothing, of course! They did that in the first one too. Do something awesome and then discuss it to death back on the ship. Fun. It was sort of disappointing too because they were doing an excellent job in The Sith Lords of explaining what was going on while you were playing the game instead of beating you over the head with it in dry conversations. But, alas, they couldn't leave well enough alone and ended up sticking in the fun little plot recaps, etc. in anyway. Oh well, I don't suppose it's really all that bad, and it could just be that it bothered me so much this time because I was suppose to be somewhere and the stupid conversation was making me late. It's always possible that they intended it to be that way too, because you and one of the NPCs actually make fun of the old jedi/sith bat for talking so much but not actually having anything worth while to say.

I'm playing darkside because I want the cool powers. This also bothers me. I don't like playing the darkside, but the lightside powers suck. Sure, they added a few new powers. Now they lightside is unstoppable with Force Barrier which protects the character from 4 points of damage at its first level form and a whopping 15 points at its 3rd! Wow. Hold me back! 15 points of damage! Yes! I mean, sure Force Lightning can do like four times that much damage in one go, but, come on, who's counting? What bothers me more is that, for some reason, they always make it so that if you're evil you have to be a complete jackass and piss everyone off. This can lead to you missing important background info, because the person who'd give it won't talk to you. Granted, I haven't run into this yet, but every time I select something to say I'm always trying to figure out what will get me darkside points with out pissing the person enough to not tell me something or give me a quest. To make matters worse, they introduced something new called influence. Depending on how you treat your companions you can gain or lose influence over them. Again, I haven't had any problems yet, but I'm hoping that I don't have to do anything really stupid to any of them just because they've got skewed ideas of dark and light. Here's an example or what was running through my mind once, "Would it give me lightside points if I showed concern about how her hurt hand is doing? I'm sure it'd increase my influence over her. Darn it! Why can't I be evil and still be concerned about the health of my party members? Just because I'm evil doesn't mean I'm a fool. It's not even a moral issue! ... " I'm not sure if I would have gotten lightside points or not, as I ended up not asking.

Finally, what's with the women PCs that you can choose from? I was thinking about being a woman this time, but decided to stay male after seeing that they still looked as horrendous as they had in KotOR.

[Duncan]

One of my problems with KOTOR was that while playing light side, you couldn't choose any of the funny answers in conversations. That pissed me off. I think at one point you could say to Jolee "I hate you, old man." But if you're light side, you don't get to say anything funny, you could only echo the Jedi philosophy or whatever.

I agree with you about the overuse of amnesiac characters, but what I really hate in RPGs is revealing that the player character is someone of grand importance or The Chosen One or something. I think it's a lot more fun and rewarding to start off as some nobody and build your way up to getting all this respect and recognition from all the other characters, rather than getting this sudden shortcut to fame and success.

Oh, here's a question: what is the PC selection like in general? I remember seeing one of the trailers and noticing that some of the PCs in there looked exactly the same as in KOTOR. Are there actually different ones this time around?

[baconian]

I'm playing darkside because I want the cool powers. This also bothers me. I don't like playing the darkside, but the lightside powers suck.

This is why Kyle Katarn was so fun to play as. I haven't played kotor 1or2. Anyone have any comparisions between them and the jedi knight series?

[Moosferatu]

Oh, here's a question: what is the PC selection like in general? I remember seeing one of the trailers and noticing that some of the PCs in there looked exactly the same as in KOTOR. Are there actually different ones this time around?

Most of the faces are the same. I couldn't tell you if the added any new female faces, but it doesn't really matter if they did because they all look like crap anyway. They added a few new male ones that are pretty cool though. In fact, I'm using one of them. He's got this awesome full beard. Can't wait to see what it's going to look like when he's completely evil. Come to think of it, he reminds me a little of the stereotypical Jesus...

The character creation in general is pretty much the same, but they've changed around what different attributes do so you actually need all of them, so it's a lot harder to pick what you want. For example, CON now also determines what implants you can use. The higher your CON the better implants you can wear. It's also important to note that this is only modified by your actual CON, so if you're wearing a belt or something that raises your CON from 15 to 16 when it comes to what implants you can use it's still 15. Another example is that charisma now lessens the penalty for using force powers of the opposite side. I'm not exactly sure how effective this is, though. Other than that the rest of character creation is pretty much the same. Besides, you know, a couple of new feats and jedi powers. Oh! At level 15 you can pick a prestige class, but I haven't gotten there yet. Also, there appear to be a number of different lightsaber styles, but I can't really say much about that because I'm just now finding out about it and haven't yet got a lightsaber of my own, though you do, thankfully, start out as a jedi.

[David]

I always play lightside, whether it's a Star Wars game or not, now that I think about it. I think I have a guilty conscience when it comes to games, and I probably am compensating for being a horrible person in real life by always being the hero in games. However, I think the Jedi Order is in need of a new old wise Jedi-type saying. It could go something like: "Hey, our powers aren't that shitty, get back here! Don't make me chok...lightni...shut up".

That said, though, I actually don't think LS powers in KOTOR/TSL are that bad at all, but I only really use a couple of them religiously in combat (Stun/Disable/Destroy Droid and Heal). The rest are forgettable, admittedly. However, I will salvage my argument at this point by questioning your skill in this game and making myself appear tough. Here goes: If you need DS powers like lightning to win fights, then you probably just suck at fighting.

*disarming smiley*

[Moosferatu]

Actually, I usually go for fighters over weaker, mage-like characters. In fact, my first play through of KotOR I was lightside jedi guardian. It's just that it's hard to resist the coolness factor of choking a guy or decimating a party with a couple of lightenings. Also, the combat really isn't that hard no matter what way you go, and the AI likes to try to take over everything. I really wish there was a way to turn of the damn character AI. It takes the fun out of fighting. It was really bothering me as I was playing today. I would issue orders to all party members before the battle started, unpause, and all of none of them would do what I told them to do. Argh!!! So annoying.