I just read this in an interview by Next Generation with Gavin Carter:

"2002’s The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind continued that experience, but one part fell short: the non-player characters (NPCs) were dull as dirt – especially the run of the mill city- and village-dwellers, who shuffled around saying nothing but factoids and niceities. Next to the elaborately scripted characters of competing RPGs, like the Baldur’s Gate series, the people of Morrowind were about as interactive as vending machines."


Um...hello???

"elaborately scripted characters of competing RPGs, like the Baldur’s Gate series"

Did we play the same Baldurs Gate as these guys? I mean hell, the local populace in the cities and towns were faceless drones! Who for one thing, all looked identical and all sounded exactly the same! Their fantastic range of actions varied from "standing" to "walking" to "twitch strangely when attacked because my creators failed to give me any actual animations"

Do you suppose they mean the "clever" scripting on your companions? Who would on occasion indulge in the most irrational of BUG FILLED behaviour without giving you the option to negotiate? Not only that, but they would repeat the exact same behaviour everytime you played. Often enough, if you chose the wrong option in a dialogue with one of them, you could end up breaking a potential side quest forever.

Hmm...must have been some super secret Baldurs Gate which never reached the public.

I think he's just putting down MW NPC's in order to make the OB NPC's seem even better.

Now, onto the actual subject. I never played Baldurs gate, but there were several ones, weren't there? Perhaps he was talking about one of the ones that had good NPC's. Or did all of them have kack NPC's?

I played Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 and Neverwinter Nights. Baldurs 1 was a great game, a real injection into the occasional gaming drought of the 90s. Baldurs 2...well, it was enjoyable, with new classes and such...but somehow felt much more rushed and linear.

Neverwinter Nights was just an awful pile of kak, honestly, it's not even my opinion. That must have been one of the worst games I've had the misfortune of wasting money on. (Mainly because of the split between Bioware and Black Isle before the release)

All of them suffered from boring NPCs. I don't know who he's trying to kid, but without me having to hop on the Ultima bandwagon once again, I can tell you the NPCs in the baldurs games were little more than props.

Fortunately I never had the displeasure of playing any of the console Baldurs games, but I've heard stories...I think one of those games were so rubbish it gave a 12 year old a stroke.

The MW NPC's are only problematical in that their dialogue is too cloned. It is dull to have the same topic in every NPC's mouth. It is why I (generally) enjoy the less generic modifications by the lgnpc team - not the latest however, Tel Mora, as that seems rather too buggy.

I have never played Baldur's gate (although I have a copy) so I cannot make that comparison.

I have a copy of BG2, however I've never played it, mainly because the CDs are utterly busted.

I have played 1 of the 2 console games and can tell you that yes Stampede, you would think them a steaming pile of kak. There *aren't* any NPCs in the game besides the ones who actually give you quests. So that makes... 7? I think. Apart from that there are the ones in the cutscenes, and the villains I suppose.

Otherwise it's just a generic guys wandering about with no dialogue. It's just one big hack n slash with a small amount of dialogue and story inbetween. Still fun IMO, but quite shallow.

reminds me of the Diablo games....they were excellent. But the NPC's were the same case, mindless.

Uhhhhh.....
Where did the title 'Bloody Cheeks' come from if it isn't about blood or cheeks or bloody cheeks, or the missing cheeks on headed zombies?

Please do not revive old threads. This topic has been dead for almost a year now.