I think Skyrim is on a different engine, but it's not readily apparent. I'll give Oblivion a try. It was on my list but I scratched it off after my Fallout 3 experience.

I LOVED Skyrim. Just loved it. So I decided to pick up Fallout 3. It was incredibly boring, ugly and just generally not good. I don't know if it was the fantasy setting that made the difference, because Fallout 3 is basically the same game. The character voices are very similar (probably same voice actors), the dialog…

agreed.

I'm not sure responding to one aspect of the oppressive patriarchy with another aspect of the oppressive patriarchy really makes the point you'd like it to.

The best game I've played when it came to gay male representation was Dragon Age 2. It wasn't the best game, but I like the franchise and I seriously appreciated the fact that my male character could form a relationship with Anders. Of course, he totally went bonkers, but that's how most of my relationships end in…

The knight?? I'm down for the dwarf. Wait...does the knight have a beard?

This game looks like it could be fun, but to be honest the character design really turns me off (interest-wise). It actually made me stop to think about paying money to support this kind of sexism/over sexualization. It's not like the warrior character is walking around in a speedo with a raging hard on.

Ah. I think you misunderstood me. I never said, nor do I think, that DA:O defined anything in gaming (except for me). I just wanted to share my experience. It wasn't exactly on-topic.

ET? Like as in 'phone home'?

DA:O is what got me gaming in the first place. I (29yr old male at the time) had never played an RPG, and the last video game I had played was spyro the dragon. Then DA:O happened. I saw it on sale at target for $20 (PC version). I was bored so I thought I'd give it a chance. I lost weeks. The only reason I bought a…

I'd watch the whole thing only if he's shirtless for the entire length of the film.

Isn't this just an ancillary arm of the technique used several years ago in the photo commercials wherein people would hold up photos and the image in the photo would instantly match the background and become 'active,' or real-life? Eh, a stretch maybe, but same basic visual principal. In any case, it's like…

agreed

Speed Racer. That movie in underrated. Not by much.

Well put. I have to agree. For me art is about communicating the deeply personal. As you said in your original comment, there is nothing of the artist in most of those images and as a consequence nothing for me to see.

I thought the exact same thing. The first image, the race horse, is just....inert. And most of these paintings show great technical skill but not much artistry.

I just want to say that I really enjoy these longer articles about the industry and game development. I find it completely fascinating and actually more interesting than the short blurbs about leaked screen shots or what have you (but those are cool too, natch).

I started out as PC gamer years and years ago. The last PC game I played was Dragon Age: Origins. Recently I bought Torchlight to see what all the fuss was about, and to see if I could get back into PC dungeon crawling. I could not stand clicking on everything. It was cumbersome and annoying. It was a frantic,…

No, you're really not being unnecessarily mean. It's that shitty of a post.

In my mind there was a mass cross-media conspiracy to raise awareness of the impending re-release. My well-developed inner world is infinitely more exciting than real life.