The Gaming Den

Well, this weekend steam is having a big ol' sale on a bunch of star wars games. Among them are Knights of the Old Republic (abbreviated kotor) and its sequel. Because the total price of those two amounts to less than ten dollars, I am tempted to buy them. However, I have a couple hangups.

Hangup the first: Are they in fact good games that would be worth the money to buy them on steam?

Hangup the second and more imposing: I made the decision a while back to boycott EA and their works. Suffice to say, I loathe EA as a company, and don't want to support them. That said, would buying the kotor series over steam contribute my money to EA, who currently owns Bioware, and in so doing break my boycott of them?

The first KotOR is amazing, and you should totally get it; it's one of my favorite games of all time.

I personally can't stand the sequel; it was a broken and unfinished piece of shit since literally the developers were ordered to release the unfinished game by Christmas but apparently there are mods that fix how unfinished it was.

(I had the XBOX version, so no luck for me there, and I'm not buying another copy of KotOR II, especially since my supposedly top of the line as of last year computer can't handle running anything made after 2000.)

But if they're bundled together I'd get both.

As for your boycott I would suggest that since you're not buying it for EA that it doesn't count as supporting them.

Yes, buying EA games from Steam will send your money to EA. Steam isn't a brick-and-mortar store, so it's not like with most way old games where if you buy a used copy from the bargain bin there's no way the store will order more, which means EA already got paid for that copy and they won't get paid for a replacement. In Steam it's all electronic, so I'm almost certain that EA just gets a direct cut of every single sale to every single customer, no longer how long it's been.

It's also possible that Steam just forks over a boatload of money to buy the right to sell the game in general and then makes 100% profit for themselves off of every sale, but I don't think that's how it works.

The first game is quite decent; the story could have been better, but it's got good characters, and mechanically it's relatively tight.

The second game though? Yeah, like Darth Rabbitt mentioned, they cut the actual fucking ending. So all the philosophical wanking in the story ultimately builds up to... fucking nothing.
It also has torturously bad gameplay, stemming partly from the opening levels taking up half the game, and partly from it just plain being a mechanical trainfuck.
Maybe the restored content mod fixes the story, I don't know. But I'm guessing the AI will still be retarded and that it will still be an Over 9000 Epic Level d20 game, with everything that entails.

So, if you're worried about supporting EA, I think it's safe to just sit this one over.

I loved Kotor II. The ending is basically non-present and the parts immediately leading up to the ending are a weird, disjointed collection of setpeices with strange transitions, but hell, it's a large game and a good 70-80% of it is complete and enjoyable.

I hate Steam far more than I hate EA, but...

Since it's a sale, EA will get very little money than if you were to buy it at full price, so you won't have to feel too bad. Unless you're of the mind that EA employees don't even deserve pennies that they find on the street.

Either way, KotOR is pretty much the Star Wars video game, so I'd go for it regardless.

Ok, that sparks my curiosity. Why, Shrapnel, do you hate Steam so much?

Personally, I've found that the only thing that fucks a computer harder than Steam is iTunes. And it's a pretty close call there.

Archmage Joda wrote:Ok, that sparks my curiosity. Why, Shrapnel, do you hate Steam so much?

Well, the fact that Steam games will only play on computers with an internet connection is really bad: if, as sometimes happens on my computer, the wifi decides to have a bad hair day and stop working, then so does Steam.

But what really gets me is the fact that, as Maj says, Steam can also fuck up a computer: I've had many experiances where, say, I'd be in an important part of a hard quest in Fallout 3, and then all of a sudden Fallout force-minimizes on me, because of some stupid ass steam updates to games I don't even have. (iTunes does this, too, again as Maj says. Each time iTunes forcequits my game to install some shit-ass update, it makes me really hope that Steve Jobs suffered before he died. Fuck Apple.) Steam will also take it's sweet-ass time loading, and can slow the computer to a crawl.

Also, in Steam games, if you press the "Home" button on the keyboard, it brings up some Windows Live menu thingy. This isn't necessarily bad, but it's really annoying when using something like console commands in F03 and New Vegas.

Could you at least try not to lead off your anti-Steam tirade with blatant lies? Steam has an offline mode. If Steam disconnects from the Internet during gameplay, unless you're currently in a multiplayer match or something, it just keeps going normally. You do need to have an Internet connection at least once to authenticate your account's ownership of a game, but that's like once per game. You can start games offline, and if your connection drops out suddenly you can keep playing.

Also, Steam has absolutely fuckall to do with the Windows Live menu thing. Because as you may have just observed, that's Games for Windows LIVE hijacking your Home key, not Steam. Those are different programs, made by different people. Fallout: New Vegas doesn't even use GWFL. It is very stupid that Fallout 3 uses GFWL because that actually is terrible, but that's Bethesda's fault for using Microsoft's shitty service and has nothing to do with Steam.

Steam is a bit of a system hog though, and keen on autostarting every boot up because you ran it once.

I mean, I think it's great and has revolutionised PC gaming, but on my laptop it can be a bit of a pain.

Steam, Settings, Interface, uncheck "Run Steam when my computer starts".

Steam's offline mode doesn't always function. I have no idea why not.

Chamomile wrote:Steam's offline mode doesn't always function. I have no idea why not.

Well, you've got to set it to offline mode while you still have an internet connection; if you're unexpectedly offline you can't use it. So, that part's a bit of a pain.

Bad news, everyone!

EA has exclusive rights to PC and Console Star Wars games now!

What the fuck, Disney?

The first KotoR was really really cool until I got to the planet where they promote me to a Jedi Trainee and they're all "hey we don't have much for you to do right now, go help the locals", and then the locals are some local farms or whatever, and the local space farms are being attacked by space wolves and I realized I was just playing a Baldur's Gate 2 quest in space.

Then I lost most of my interest and didn't play past that.

Game play mechanics wise, both games are phenomenal if you don't mind turn based combat. The second one has a few hiccups in it, such as the force crush ability being an auto win in boss fights for the Sith Lord prestige class.

Story wise, the first one is far and away superior in almost every way. The only benefit the second one has, is that you start off Jedi instead of having to work your way there. The second one spends half the game opening up plot holes you have zero chance of ever closing. My advice? Buy them both, play the second one first, and treat the first one as a prequel.

If you do get the first one, take life drain.

It's terribly important. There's this one fight that is a sick practical joke for people who did not, and it torpedoed my first playthrough.

I'd buy it. Bioware shouldn't be punished for the good games they make (or, better said, made).

KaNT wrote:Story wise, the first one is far and away superior in almost every way. The only benefit the second one has, is that you start off Jedi instead of having to work your way there.

Instead you get you first lightsaber somewhere around the middle of the game, later without a walkthrough. Which is decidedly not awesome. You can, however, go double gun haste precise shot flurry of shots with premium guns. Jedi gunslinger is kinda awesome mechanically and conceptually, especially three of them at once.

John Magnum wrote:Could you at least try not to lead off your anti-Steam tirade with blatant lies? Steam has an offline mode. If Steam disconnects from the Internet during gameplay, unless you're currently in a multiplayer match or something, it just keeps going normally. You do need to have an Internet connection at least once to authenticate your account's ownership of a game, but that's like once per game. You can start games offline, and if your connection drops out suddenly you can keep playing.

Shiritai wrote:Well, you've got to set it to offline mode while you still have an internet connection; if you're unexpectedly offline you can't use it. So, that part's a bit of a pain.

Okay, I didn't know that there was an offline setting; I'll have to check that out later.

Also, Steam has absolutely fuckall to do with the Windows Live menu thing. Because as you may have just observed, that's Games for Windows LIVE hijacking your Home key, not Steam. Those are different programs, made by different people. Fallout: New Vegas doesn't even use GWFL. It is very stupid that Fallout 3 uses GFWL because that actually is terrible, but that's Bethesda's fault for using Microsoft's shitty service and has nothing to do with Steam.

Okay, so I was wrong about that one; either way it's really annoying.

Steam is a bit of a system hog though, and keen on autostarting every boot up because you ran it once.

THAT always pissed me off to no extent. Eventually I just said "fuck it" and removed it from the list of programs that autostart at boot up. My computer began running much faster after that.