Up yours, Obsidian

Not really, I like them cats. Most of them, anyway. There's been a dev post or two that have rubbed me the wrong way, especially if you bring up Atari. They don't like you bad mouthing Atari, that's for sure. I don't know why, I mean, can they really be happy with them as a publisher?

That's what I'm saying. Blizzard has it right, you know? They do it all from the ground up, so if something's not ready they don't hesistate to push back release. One one hand, I suppose that, in a way, has got to be ticking off players. Look at how long we (well, you, I could give a F) have been waiting for Starcraft II? What, like a decade thereabouts? But I guarantee you when Starcraft drops, it's going to be hot (well, for you. Again, remember the afforementioned F). On the other hand, though, they don't have anyone to share the blame when the bugs start crawling out. I mean, like when people hated the ending of NWN 2 OC (which I still haven't seen because much of the middle is pretty tedious) Obsidian is just, if you read between the lines, holding their hands out and saying "Atari." Or how no skin from neck to the wrists and how they changed the Warlock outfit, again, they're pointing a finger.

Speaking of censorship, I just ordered by copy of The Witcher, which looks pretty hot (and like MotB, has been post release betaed by Europe already so I don't have to deal with the BS). Unfortunately, I found out later that there is a censored US version headed my way instead of the real game, which is a kick in the teeth. Now look, you might have noticed that I kept Subtlety of Thay pretty PG. I don't necessarily think that a bunch of nudity is appropriate for every game out there, and mine was one of them. I working on tackling some mature subject manner, like racism and politics, but none of that requires a bare breast hanging out. I don't know, one thing is I'm getting awfully tired of using the same clothes over, and over, and over, and over...

Of course, that doesn't mean I'm against that either, which is why I was disappointed by my ordering the wrong copy. I wanted to play that joint like it's meant to be played. I'm an adult, so whatever.

Funny thing is a lot of cats are blaming America (or AmeriKKKa if you prefer. Also, stop reading my blog if you spell it that way, please.) for that. And to a certain extent, they're right, because there's no other weird cersored copies floating about. Basically the gyst is people think that Americans love violence but fear sex. Patently untrue, we love our guns and ammo as much as our hookers and strippers. But seriously, y'all cats have to understand that it's not us, ol' average American guy just trying to get by, but old Republicans and Christians we've never even met, and Walmart, that are making us all look like bloodthirsty prudes. I swear on my life, I don't know anyone who even knows what the Witcher is, let alone if it does or does not have nudey collectors cards in the game. It's the Jack Thompson, Hillary Clinton, Al Sharptons, uh, Sam Walmart(?)s of the US that are behind all that. But I didn't vote for none of them, and prolly come next year only one of the listed will have public support of any kind. I don't really know the specifics behind it all, but for some reason those people are allowed to make decisions about video game imports.

So, yeah, just so we're clear: It's the F out of our hands what gets censored and what doesn't. I'm kind of sick of it too, but I don't even know who you're supposed to vote for and where to stop that from happening, and I have a feeling no one else does either. Besides, the government is all messed up anyway (oh, you all foreigners aren't any better off, real talk), so for the forseeable future that's life.

So, you've forgotten why I said "up yours, Obsidian" by now I'm sure. I'm in Act III of MotB. This may just be an ego stroke, but my area design is better than theirs across the board, and that's real. Of course, I think they have a better writing staff and I was impressed with many other aspects of the game, but I beat them out there no question. In two places it realy dawned on me: The first is where you fight the Ice Hag, that area is terrible, easily the worst in the game. The second is the Thayan Academy, which was really bare and non-sensical. I also thought the puzzle quests there were uninspired as well. That area was just really disappointing overall, which is unfortunate because it's the only time you get to explore Thay in MotB and I think a lot of people are going to walk away from that one with the wrong impression of Thay.

Say what you want, that's real talk. Want proof? Alright, go check out the Thayan academy that uses the estate tileset, and mine own for a couple of screens.

Alright then, I'm back to it. I've got insignificant NPC dialogue to write and sidequests to script!