Don't we all?

I loved the way Bioware talked this up as something new, when it'd been in BG, Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment etc.

....short of us old timers, back when games were on more than a single disk

BG1 had 5 discs (6 with expack) and you had to put the disc in when you got to that stage of the game. Ugh.

At least it wasn't a floppy...

I thought Dragon Age was kinda boring.  Very scripted and forced and the action just wasn't that great.  I'm also already tired of the DLC milking of players and almost never partake.

I'm an old school PC gamer, I miss isometric style games like baldur's gate and x-com.

I'm really tired of everything being turned into 1st/3rd person shooter style games (or RTS).

I'm also a MMORPG player since EQLive...and the first person style RPGs to me always feel like empty and lifeless MMOs.  For single player cRPGs, I just absolutely prefer the older style isometric full party games like BG, IWD, TOEE or action RPGs like Diablo, NWN1, TQ, FA1/2.

Fallout 3 is/was an abomination.  It might be a decent game, but it deviates so far from the style of the originals that it's just not really Fallout.

Same with the upcoming x-com debacle.  X-COM is one of the most beloved pc games ever and releasing some first person shooter with the name xcom attached is just wrong.

I keep hoping that jagged edge will finally see a new version that's the same style game modernized but it wallows in the void like X-com.

I really don't get it.  The Baldur's Gate style games are some of the most popular in cRPG history yet nobody makes games like that anymore.  NWN1 had/has a massive following and was insanely popular yet they moved away from the original style and brutalized the franchise with 2.  The X-COM series is STILL considered one of the best things about PC gaming history and NOBODY makes squad-based turn-based tacticals anymore.

PC gaming has lost its heart for the most part.  It's all about repetitve and ultra bloated FPS and RTS now with so much effort put into visuals that gameplay is often lacking and the dev costs are insane due to the art/graphics involved so they effectively drift away from making PC games to making dookie to sell copies to pay for it all.

The only company that sticks to its roots is Blizzard, who pumps out hit after hit and proves that you can improve on older style games and gameplay that PC gamers actually LIKE, have solid graphics without causing everyone to buy a new PC, and sell a ton of copies.

SC2 is getting rave reviews for being basically the same game it's always been with some improvements and tweaks and exceptional gameplay/campaign.  Some say, don't give it good scores because it's basically the same as SC1.  That's idiocy.  You rate games on how fun they are, not on how much technical glitz and how fine a graphics card demo they are.

Diablo III will be out eventually.  It'll still be an isometric game with a fixed camera angle - very dated style.  But it'll have a great storyline as always, great gameplay, high level of polish, great replayability, and it'll be fun as hell.  That's good game design.  And it won't be a frickin first person shooter.

They do stuff themsevles (and you setup special tactics for targeting and ability use), and with the Advanced Tactics mod you can make your tactics better and have your own player char automated. Not to mention have rouges automatically get into backstab position.

That really enhances the game for me.

It's optional. You'll want to do it (especially with the mages) to get the most out of your party/for the hardest battles, but the AI is much better+more customisable than BG2 so you can rely on it for the most part without any issues.

I honestly can't wait to see the amazing games you all come out with, I mean you can criticize bioware so harshly that means you can damn sure do it better.

There are a lot of neat games coming out of some of the European (I know this is a broad term) companies.  Really neat ideas and conceptsm nich type RPGs and Stategy titles. The problem is, often times the quality is not there and their support is abysmal. It's easy to get burned and wind up with error messages in some foreign language and CSR that shrug and tell you to buy the nex game which should be better.

Well I didn't mean that all of them are low quality or that all from one region is always high quality. There are jut a lot of RPGs and Strategy titles coming out of the eastern european area that don't get much press that are niche like/unqiue, but there are some quality issues attached to them which, frankly, keep me from recommending them to people.

That has to be the most pathetic defence for anything... Ever. Seriously.

I consider myself a good designer, but I don't have a clue how to program. Then again, I might like diminishing returns far too much. :<

Quite true. I am playing the witcher actually and it is pretty enjoyable.