It may help to remember that strong stories and strong characters like John Marston or Cole Phelps are somewhat narrow in their presentation, in that it is the developer of the game and the writers that create the characterizations and you, as the player, don't have that much room to add to who that character is as an individual. Games like the ones Bioware create tend to leave those characterizations in your hands to a degree. The story presented through the game itself isn't as strong as in more focused titles, but it comes with the freedom to create aspects about your character that add additional depth. If you don't have that narrative gap, or enough of one, you take that freedom away from the player. For example, my Bounty Hunter deals with a spice addiction that leads her to going on it then having to detox, as miserable as the experience may be. Nothing in the game handles or suggests that, but I had the freedom to include that as part of my character when I consider her personality, actions, temperament, etc. and try to keep her consistent with that and other aspects of her character that I have created off screen. Not that the storytelling doesn't need improvement, even in this model, but I'm not sure I would be as quick to sacrifice too much room to essentially write my own character in favor of the characters that while strong and part of strong stories is dictated to me. Just my .02 creds on the matter.

I can't help but notice how everything except the recent texture models for the gear itself look terrible. It's nice that their newer models have better textures...sucks that so much of the rest of the game, including the original playable character models, are still stuck in 2004. EVE managed to upgrade everything from their 2003 models, what's keeping Blizz?

I've seen populations as high as 180+ with no second instance at the Fleet, and as high as 140 or 150 in places like Coruscant and Dromund Kaas, again without a second instance.

Excellent read, enjoyed the review. A comment on the commentary regarding the Jedi Consular, and how could you possibly rise higher than becoming a Master at the end of Chapter 1? Major spoilers incoming:

In an ideal world, every refinement of other products within an industry or genre, no matter or recent, would mean new additions (again, no matter how recent) would also have those refinements, regardless of difficulty of designing said addition on top of original development goals, hurdles, and deadlines. Let me know when you find that ideal world. It's about setting reasonable expectations, and in the MMO industry the players, as a general rule, are terrible at doing so.

It might also cause all sorts of grief for those who do join a group that does not specify no cutscenes yet has one or two that try and enforce it anyway using said add on to target those not skipping. Unintended consequences and all that.

It may be a Nvidia thing, not forced AA, as I haven't had AA forced on till today and had the shadows flicker in the trees in different spots (Belsavis, Voss, and Taris come to mind) since early access.

It's arguable that it's less of a student/teacher relationship between the JC and Nadia because she has been on your ship for a while and so being friends before becoming master and padawan is a real possibility.

OK, make her romance-able as LS. On one condition. Remove Vette as a romance option. No reason my Jedi Consular or Trooper or Sith Inquisitor or Bounty Hunter should get one option when you get two, since the only reason you get two is because one is locked behind a choice.

While they probably use some variety here or there...I'm wondering what else you would do with a city-world where streets and alleyways are the norm. Only thing that really springs to mind is more high-rise places, similar to the location you visit in Mass Effect 2 to recruit Thane. A place like Coruscant, and again Nar Shaddaa, would work well utilizing vertical space more so than horizontal...and going up instead of down more often.

Have you done the Bonus Series? You pick it up around level 40 from the Fleet and you meet him during that series.

Switch the last two due to mechanics. Smuggler/Imperial Agent and Republic Trooper/Bounty Hunter.

Remember how it gets a bit cramped in DC in Fallout 3, what with the roads and alleyways that are still around? Paths tend to become a lot narrower in big cities like that as I'm sure you're aware.... Coruscant is a freakin city-world. Not a lot of room for wide open spaces, except perhaps at the top of buildings (like the Senate Building area) and most of what we do is a few levels down. It would feel weird to be in wide open areas in a city like that, in my opinion.

I've only finished the male Jedi Consular one thus far, and while I did find it sweet and do like it, I think it does come across as a bit awkward because there is a huge narrative gap there.

Agreed. I would love to see them do what CCP does...remove the amount earned through these ill-gotten means, even if means putting the individual into a negative balance. Doubt BW will be that harsh, but it would be nice to see. I actually saw a youtube vid about this yesterday (through a discussion on another game forum where someone was bashing the game and used that as ammo) and sent in a bug report about it. I'd be very surprised though if they weren't aware of this issue due to other reports and/or the metrics they track.

First time in Coruscant and I was running along toward a quest area...was headed won one of those ramps that are all around the dock type area and went to jump over the railing that was in the middle to try and sneak past a pack of mobs I did not want to fight at the bottom of said ramp. It was then that I learned that there is a narrow gap there, which I had somehow missed seeing. Imagine my surprise at jumping over a railing and discovering nothing beneath.

You are absolutely correct that it is no different. However, ones of these happens far more often than the other. Care to guess which one it is? Hint: established communities often look down on newcomers.

It only has a good story if you are Horde. You're a plot device or a pop culture reference if you are Alliance.

There's a difference between breaking from the prejudices and having gay/bi relationships and making it so every character is or isn't. Each character is given a personality and a preference, much like was the case in DA:O, and I think it takes something away from the character if instead of you experiencing the interactions with them, be they gay or straight, that they somehow are all of the above based on your control and not on their own personality. Let there be companions of all preferences, but let each one be who they are. You get stronger characters that way, in my opinion.

I'm level 39 on my Consular and just got the Alderaan Bonus Series from the Republic Fleet. I hadn't checked to see if it was there before that time, but I am ahead of you in terms of quest progression, as I have finished Hoth. If it's not at the fleet now, perhaps you have to finish your class story line there to get it?

Somehow the story becomes about how the game is teaching kids to Force Choke others or something, while a looping video of CoD plays in the background. That would be totally worth it for the backlash and laughs to follow, actually.

I lost a blue doing that, heh. Good thing it was at the end of one of the beta weekends, so I didn't sweat the loss.

I think it depends on what you are comparing. A number of newer things introduced in Cataclysm definitely seem to be on par with a number of things from TOR...the special model characters like Nozdormu and Thralls new model come to mind, and to an extent the newer gear items, or at least the weapons and shoulders, as the other pieces tend to stretch and become visually distorted...and nothing in WoW moves like the cloth pieces on the clothing here. Other things, like trees, land textures, and player character textures (the character model, not the gear) don't come close to what you see here. The shader in this game is definitely a newer, more detailed one...many things stand up to closer inspection better here, which is an obvious must given the reliance on cutscenes. Thralls new look is essentially the quality found in TOR, and much of WoW isn't up to that same level. That is something to remember...many of the things that do compare to TOR come from the latest expansion, and as such the development of those assets occurred at a time much closer to TORs own development. Compare anything BC or Vanilla and TOR wins. The aesthetic, or art direction, certainly lends itself to comparison in some ways since neither is going for a truly realistic approach...and the fact that a number of things aren't being shown at their high level of fidelity makes comparisons seem that much closer.

It's not ammo to slam on someone's gear. Often issues can pop up with certain drivers or certain hardware configurations, and others might know the solution to the problem, whether it's tweaking one or two settings, getting a specific driver that maybe isnt the latest, or some other solution. At the very least, it allows for Bioware to look to see what complications are on their end that aren't playing nice with your system and work at fixing it...something they can't do if they do not know where the particular issue might bet coming from. Since they can't exactly test every hardware configuration out there, reports like this from players are important when problems do arise. You really don't need to be so defensive.

I had this problem for a bit, though I also couldn't change any of the settings on any profile either. Had to reinstall with the setup file flagged as run as administrator before it would work...and then had to create what was essentially a no delay macro mapped to each button that corresponded with the keybind I wanted to use. I have both it and a razer naga, and the latter is so much better for this game.