Aye Scout, DA:O deserves a few points for at least keeping the Party alive.

Not every RPG needs companions - many excel precisely due to a sense of solitude (STALKER, on the rare occasions the Zone isn't crawling with infinitely spawning bandits in Adidas stripes), while others succeed with a character whose very nature discourages companionship (the almost-literal lone wolf, Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher). However, neither give me what I -truly- love, that being a real sandbox. Witcher has the vibrant world full of choices but no real freedom of expression, and STALKER has the sandbox but no spades or buckets, just.. more sand, and snorks.

Then you've got Morrowind, which gives me the sandbox and all sorts of wonderful toys - the ultimate open world game - and no companions, unless I feel like re-summoning my Dunmer 'Ancestral Ghost' and making the most of the sixty seconds before he vanishes in a puff of gravedust.

In terms of modern games, the only companion I recall truly appreciating therefore is very recent - my dear Veronica, in New Vegas. If anyone knows anything about her, please keep it quiet - I've not seen where her story takes her and to see it spoiled could break my heart. I've already broken my immersion several times by quickloading to deny the desert her bones... They can't have her. Bastards. Fucking near-invulnerable feral ghoul reaver packs.

Still, BG2 trounces all - and Dragon Age may mimic its predecessor by bringing along the controllable party, but they are a pale shadow of the intense, frightening, amusing and endearing personalities I explored Athkatla with. I didn't finish it either, though. It's just a damn huge game, much larger than my attention span has ever been. Four long runs of Morrowind over as many years and I'm nowhere near even exploring half of Vvardenfel!

Games that feel alive... Scout, this may be a stupid question, but have you played and completed Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines? It may be a tightly bound microcosm of a real world, more 'set' than 'sandbox', with even smaller locations than Deus Ex, but the life of the characters is unmatched. That game is the one and only to surpass Fallout's Talking Heads dialogue. No game has before or since made me feel as intensely -for a character- as Bloodlines.

xtal: You understand, man. You get it. You're in the zone. You're online. You're on the level. You're.. Okay, I'm just feeling a 'Fallout High Five! :D' urge [Image Can Not Be Found]And my sympathies for the loss of the post - I ctrl+a ctrl+c my posts compulsively every 15-30 seconds, a developed instinct from too many losses of 5000-word design propositions and heartfelt debates >.<a (-< hah, that a is an accident while unconsciously copy-saving the passage as I finished typing >.>)

Damn, how can we diverge so sharply in opinion on FEAR yet match so neatly in our appreciation of Fallout, and Alan Wake?

Camp is the key, cheeeeeese is the very heart of it. Wake is a game in the fashion of the film 'Tremors', caught in a perfect balance between unsettlingly violent and horrifying - and hilarious, cleverly written and consciously, intentionally stupid. It is hilarious, it is exciting, thrilling, moving. Mmm. Oneday, Alan Wake will be widely appreciated and I will be able to talk about it freely without the uncomfortable knowledge that I'll be spoiling it for 4/5 people reading this. The Mummy is another good example of a film in the vein of Alan Wake - albeit leaning further toward family entertainment than horror or thriller.

Mm. Bulletstorm. I need money. I need a new computer. I need someone to pay me something.

I can't say I've played many/any games in which everyone feels real. Arcade Gannons are the exception to a strict rule ._.

Finished Borderlands and Island of Dr Ned - now heading onto the General Knoxx expansion.  And I'm rich in the game, rich I tells ya!

Mostly alone, at the moment.  Where I'm staying, if I want to jump online with my PS3, then I need to pull the cable out of my PC and hope my house-mates aren't using skype or otherwise chewing up bandwidth.  In a few months, when I move into my house, then it'll be a very different story!

I don't mind the single player game.  I enjoy getting bigger and better guns, and gaining skills/abilities and levelling.  It's a nice touch to the FPS genre.  The quests are ok, and at least they're not linear... if I have trouble with something, I can go off and level elsewhere (or buy better weapons if I can), and then go back and try again.  I've just got it on it's default difficulty, but I'm not finding it too hard or anything.  And it's lots of fun setting people on fire, or exploding their heads with a well-aimed sniper shot.  Or pumping them so full of acid they dissolve.  Then collecting all of the loot and selling it, and getting bigger guns and shields to start the cycle all over again.

hehe, I find it hard to play more than one game at a time!  I usually stick with a game as long as I can, to get my money's worth out of them.

The expansions are ok - although it appears that they don't have fast-travel in them (at least so far), which is time consuming and disappointing.  The Island of Dr Ned was interesting, although short (around 7 hours of gameplay to get through the whole shebang).  Didn't really look like a Borderlands game though, but it did have the same humour throughout that I enjoyed in the main game.

I've only dipped my toes into Moxxi's expansion... It just looks like arena battles, which aren't that appealing when I could be out questing and levelling.

I like The Secret Armories of General Knoxx (except again for the lack of fast-travel).  It's pretty humourous, got some good bosses, and nice loot.  And it's much more inkeeping with Borderlands' overall theme.  I just took out Mr Shank this morning before coming into work (which isn't that easy, time-wise, as it takes ages to get to him).

I'm yet to play the Claptrap Revolution, which I'm saving for after Knoxx.

Incidentally, I was looking up some of the weapons with special qualities online - there are more there than I thought there would be.  I'd assumed that all of the weapons were just procedurally generated based off templates, but some of the special weapons are nigh unique and intriguing.  I'm going to have to be more vigilant, and see if I can get some of them (I usually just sell everything I'm not using on autopilot!)/

.. I do not agree with that 😉 I am more inclined to believe that some people are simply FLAWED! FLAWED! They do not like things, they just think they do.. *shuffles back to his laboratory-tower*

Thanks for the feedback on the expansions, Jarrod - in the far one-day of tomorrow, I shall endeavor to acquire whatever 'complete' pack they release.

Oh yeah, I remember hearing about that, Lewis, is it any good?  It seemed very interesting at the time, although I didn't know how it'd all go together as a game...

I've finished the Claptrap Revolution for Borderlands, and think it's time to take a little break from it.  And also time to see what's in the bargain bins for me to buy for my PS3 now...

Just picked up Assassin's Creed 2 before work, although now I have to wait until I get home to play it, for the same price as Borderlands above.  I didn't play the first, but I've heard that the second is far better in terms of gameplay.