3361

I’d argue one of the keys to Fallout’s success in creating memorable characters was that the voice acting was pretty good. Several known actors (Richard Dean Anderson, Tony Shaloub, Clancy Brown, Richard Moll), a few that were unknown at the time but have turned out to have nice careers (Brad Garrett for example), and a number of the better voice actors we’ve seen (Kath Soucie, Cree Summer, Tress MacNeille). Not too many duds as it turns out.

Obviously Bethesda needs to make sure they aren’t just relying on Malcom McDowell and Ron Perlman. However, their history suggests the rest will be generic voice actors.

3362

I will wait for a mod that removes scaling and fixes the eyebrows.

3363

Ultima 7? I’m bad with names at the best of times, but I can talk about a lot of the characters’ stories. I’ll leave out Iolo and Shamino and Dupree since you mentioned them already.

Christopher, the first dead person you see. Rammed through with a pitchfork apparently by his buddy the gargoyle. There’s the asshole mayer who doesn’t believe I am the avatar, who makes me dig my goddamn map out of a box every time.

Spark, Christopher’s son. Overheard some of the stuff, decides to adventure with you.

The shipwright in Trinsic, drunk, or speaking like he’s drunk. Ugly as fuck. Claims to know nothing but you can wheedle details out of him.

In Paws, there’s the guy at the butcher shop who sells serpent venom. He’s a greasy bastard who you don’t trust the instant you see him. Then there’s the single mother, barely able to keep things going, looking after her son, who is blamed for stealing venom. The fellowship family in that town has a super brat of a son who is convinced that everyone who doesn’t follow the fellowship is worthy of scorn and derision – this is why he frames the other child.

In Paws there are also the beggars without limbs. I believe there’s mention of them removing them simply to be able to beg more, but I might be making that up in my memory. However, since freshly limbless beggars are memorable enough, they count.

In Britain, there is, of course, Batlin, the leader of the Fellowship. Who attempts to be nice to you and claim that the other fellowship members were pushy and overzealous simply because of their extreme faith. He seems legit, if you ignore the fact he’s actually trying to summon the guardian and employing Elizabeth and Abraham. Which, while you don’t actually meet them (or if you do I don’t remember), end up pretty fleshed out as Fellowship hitpersons by the time you kill them later in the game.

There’s a guard in jail, in britain, for stealing apples for his poor family in paws (which I believe was actually the single mother and her kid who gets framed). He was grabbing them from the royal orchard, and has no remorse.

Lord British, of course. Then there’s the gargoyle in the castle, the representative of the gargoyles. To be sure he was an interesting character. To also be convinced that he wanted the best for both races. To be surprised when he disappears.

And ah, Charles the Jester! Do you get the game? Do you know it? Do not lose! It is fun. I suck at it, though.

And poor old court wizard, whose name I can’t remember. Insane like all the other magic practitioners. He’ll still sell you some badass spells though.

In Cove, there’s a woman who minds the shrine of compassion all by herself. One of the only people left in the world who cares for the shrines. She has a sad story about lost love. Also she has the hots for the avatar but I’m too virtuous for my shirt!

Anyway, this post is long. And now I want to play Ultima 7 again. I could probably go on but I get fuzzier and fuzzier on the details, so no worries.

I think I made my point though. Or maybe I just wasted 20 minutes typing. Who knows.

3364

I’m going to go play Ultima 7 now for the first time. I’m expecting big things, Charles!

3365

I plan on playing U7, but I feel like I need to play U6 first, since I played U4 and U5 already.

Waiting on that Dungeon Siege remake.

3366

I like excessive. Plus, it’s the only perk with no downside. Well, except for the aesthetic reasons you’ve given.

3367

I already replayed U4, after Origin made it a free download. But is it still possible to find U5?

3368

http://exult.sourceforge.net/ makes ultima 7 easy.

3369

Wait, so are you speaking from memory of playing U7 when it first came out, or did you just play it a few months, or a year or two ago? Because that rather changes things.

3370

If by perk you mean optional trait…not to be confused with perks.

3371

I’m perfectly content to confuse them with perks, really, although I do know what you meant.

I was amused to notice/remember upon booting up an old saved game of Fallout just now that my sniper rifle is displayed as a shotgun on my character sprite. When does the bitching about not keeping that tradition alive start?

3372

If B€¥h£$da gets weapon modeling correct it will show that they don’t understand the core of the Fallout mythos!

How’s that, Matt?

3373

Sir, you have my respect and admiration.

3374

You forgot the theater troupe playing outside the capital. They were amusing.
And that ship builder who had himself in high esteem.
Etc etc (Lots of years since i played the game :S)

3375

Not really. What this amounts is having a fresh experience when talking with several different NPCs. You DON’T have to click them all or go through their whole dialog tree… unless you want to but the fact is that each one of them is unique.

3376

It’s easier to have unique dialog for NPC’s when you don’t have to record voice actors for each of them.

What a pity modern gamers seem to be illiterate.

3377

You say this like it’s a negative thing.

3378

I don’t even understand what Brendan wrote.

3379

traits have been folded into perks and you get to pick one every level.

3380

Yeah, each character has unique stuff to say, but the characters were still just indexes you were required to access in order to continue playing the game. You can’t leave the first town until you ‘solve’ the murder. Your sleuthing is merely clicking on all the dialogue choices until you get everything you need. And sure, you didn’t have to click on every dialogue option, but you know damn well that you did because that’s how we play games. We explore every possibilty in order to find and exploit the best possible outcome.

The characters in U7, Fallout, etc. aren’t fantastic. They are servicable. The fact that content like this is held as the pinnacle of what games have to offer is really pretty sad.