After giving it a bit of a second chance I am quitting F.E.A.R. for good. Let's see, it's not scary at all in any way shape or form, it's the gold standard of repetitiveness, none of the characters (save for maybe one) are likeable and quite literally the only positives it has are the AI and the gunplay and the fact that the graphics are fairly good.

The gunplay alone would almost be enough to make it worth playing but the aforementioned repetitiveness (right down to recycling certain intro to level sequences) and the crippling of the AI (when it turned into generic corridor shooter #48502) makes it no better than Alpha Prime in the end. Actually, Alpha Prime might have been more entertaining if only because of the hilariously bad voice acting.

Apotheon.

Man those controls are difficult. Some ogre thing kept one-shotting me.

I even stopped for a while and restarted the game, willing to give it another try since I did pay for it. No dice.

I don't know what game you've been playing, but the one I've been playing is just as bad as KOTOR when it comes to the laugable good vs evil crap. I realize it's partially the Star Wars universe itself and partially the need to build off the first game, but it's still the same idiotic wandering saint vs school bully crap. I think it would work as parody - "oh no, I don't need no reward, please take my credits too, I mean I only saved your life" vs "I R CRUSH, YOU GIVE CREDIT OR CRUSH!". And of course, the second game is even worse in regards to how it treats "grey" Jedi - the first one only punished you by denying you items, the second one denies you both items and the mastery bonus, 'cause you can't master being human, apparently.

I'd also disagree that the companions have been done better, there's a few that just follow you no matter what, and a couple that steadfastly remain evil. And then there's Kreia, who is awesome, brilliantly written, and whom I love a bit too much, but that's one character. One character that is just screaming plot twist from the second you meet her. I mean, at least the big twist in the first one I didn't figure out until the second dream sequence (ship->first planet), but Kreia is transparent to me as my goody two-shoes Jedi Exile to her.

One last thing, I first started playing with the Restored Content Mod, because hey, everyone knows how buggy and unfinished TSL is, right? Nope. I played for about 20 hours, then I deleted it and started again without it. It's impossible to tell what's in the RCM because their changelog is too long to read and they have no high-level info, so let me tell you the three things the RCM does. It fixes bugs. That's good, but I haven't ran into any so far, and I'm nearing the end of the game. I'm sure they're there, it's just that they're not the stuff anyone is likely to care about. It restores content. Which is...icky, to me. I have zero confidence that someone who isn't the original developer would balance and design the content properly. But, I thought, bug fixes, bug fixes trump a few restored bits. That's because I wasn't aware of the third thing it does - it changes the existing content. Removes it in favor of the "restored" content. Uhm, could I please have a restored restored content patch? No? Vanilla it is.

Ah damn, I'll end up restating all this on the other thread as well, but since I'm already typing up a wall, let me add that I think TSL is a better game than its predecessor. It has better side-quest writing and much superior area design. To me, those are among the most important things in a RPG. The combat remained the same, but I thought the combat was the best part of the first game anyway, so I'm not exactly miffed about it. Unlike ch108, I think it has a weak start, and it doesn't really get going until Nar Shadaa, as Peragus, Telos and Dantooine are all very, very tedious, quite comparable to Taris and Dantooine in the first game. Thankfully, Nar Shaddaa is bigger and has more quests than all of KOTOR put together - well, nearly. Its morality is annoyingly B&W (except Kreia, which is literally the only grey character there, and I do mean literally in every sense), there are no story choices to speak of, it also has zero reactivity, the character customization exposes the flaws of the character system (I counted it as a plus in the first game), as it falls apart due to the higher level cap, the crafting is annoying, the forcing of skills upon the player in a game that makes jokes about how many companions you have on a rather small vessel is also annoying, the game is unbalanced, it commits the sin of level-scaling, etc. etc. etc. - and I still like it better than the first one.

Well, I must agree with you on this one - interesting aspects of evil and 'grey area' are represented by antagonists and some NPCs. In most cases you can only choose between being a saint and being a psychopatch.
"Perhaps you were expecting some surprise, for me to reveal a secret that had eluded you, something that would change your perspective of events, shatter you to your core. There is no great revelation, no great secret. There is only you."
As for the other party members, I liked them being a bit less stereotypical than in K1 (where we had: a good soldier, a spartan, a rogue, a strong silent type, a traumatized kid and some more rather boring characters).
Does it change anything more than the thief quest? Haven't played it for some time...

Sadly, Planescape Torment.

Such an amazing story, but I've gotten to a point where I'm going to have the level-grind, and I just don't have the patience. Maybe I'll come back some day.

I thought it was the reading.. There's grinding to be had? It is pretty tough to start that game all over when you were at some point somewhere.

Although I did just install baldur's gates again with that gog thing "enhance your gate aka plolish your cunt" lol, I'm sorry about that but it is a good manual. I've actually never finished Torment or baldur's gates and I like those games so what the hell is wrong with me.

Are we talking about big guards in metal armour? If so, don't give up: there is not so much combat after that point anymore! Also... if your thief manages to sneak out of an area, all the team will automatically follow. Convenient! ;)
I can even suggest you the universal solution for all your enemy problem: toxic cloud. It can massacre a whole horde of enemies in one hit, and if I am not mistaken it has a 100% success ration with the endgame enemies.

Personally, I never had the need to grind.
Edit: Some dialogue with the companions (especially concerning their past) can make them insanely powerful. This might help, too.

No, it's actually fighting Ravel. I suck at RPGs :P

It's not just the grind, I've also just lost steam in general. I hate to admit it, but I simply can't pay attention to a game for as lone as most RPGs require.

I'd really like to finish it some day, though, because as I said... the story is amazing.

I'm happy we agree, though I'd like it better if I was wrong.

It's a great quote :) Good thing I finished the game this morning heh. I started writing my rantview for the games finished in 2015 thread, and there I mention this, but in short: it's great writing, but questionable game design.

Well, here we have a rogue, a traumatized young woman, a certain character under a new armor who is still mostly without interesting things to say, a former companion who shares your troubled past, etc. What I mean to say is, they're still archetypes. I would agree they're written better, though. When I think of Mission's high school drama crap, or Carth pathethic whining - both highly jarring considering their circumstances - suddenly Atton seems masterful.

I don't know, that's where I stopped. Cleared Peragus, Telos and everything on Dantooine but that and the finale. They added the thief and changed the guy in the administrative building's quest to having something stolen instead of him being ripped off by one of the scavengers. This changes how the scavengers look - in RCM, their talk of being the poor oppressed seems truthful, but in vanilla, it's obvious they're just hyenas. It also casts a different light on one of your choices when dealing with the scavenger, going from elegantly sadistic to the garden variety petty violent psychopath crap you're constantly forced into if you're Dark side. Oh, and the scavenger no longer gives you a certain lightsaber part, which means you no longer can build it on Dantooine. Or maybe you can, but it's no longer obvious where to find it. I really can't help but wonder why the hell would anyone do that. Prior to KOTOR, I played Bloodlines. It has nearly the same story as TSL - buggy, unfinished, blah blah. Right. But the most popular patch rebalances, removes and changes stuff willy-nilly. I really don't want to play something like that. I don't care what some guy on the Internet thinks the game should be. I just want the damn bugfixes. Luckily, there exists such a patch for Bloodlines (the somewhat pompously named True Patch). For TSL, no such luck.

Well, at least they gave us some freedom of choice when it comes to Exile's motivation to join the Mandalorian Wars...
What I mean is that not all stories need a twist. And sometimes no twist can work as a twist :)
SPOILERS :) Well, the wise cracking rogue is in fact a tortuter and murderer haunted by the memories of his deeds. The traumatized woman joined her tormentor and in some part shared his perception of reality or at least tried to understand him. Armored one - once proud and daring warrior - is a lonely man 'ruling' derelict and almost abandoned camp, dreaming of his former glory. The old companion is a calm technical genius... and a mass murderer, possibly a war criminal. Even the 'trash compactor' has some personality :)
I think that's the only part that's alerted (if you played unmodded game with a male character - what did Atris say about one of your companions after you left? There migh be another little detail).
And Malachor really shines with the mod.

I just find it odd that they would go about it in such a B&W manner when for the entire duration of the game, there's a character trying to teach you it's all grey.

And what I meant is - why is it a twist to the Exile?

I know, I know, but the KOTOR companions also had backstories - the good soldier is in fact a man bent on revange at all costs (let's disregard how poorly this is done), the spartan (I assume you meant Canderous) spends his days as a lowly mercenary and regrets killing women and children as it finally clicks for him that it isn't the most warrior like thing to do, the rogue (I assume you meant Jolee and not Mission as that would be the traumatized kid) is probably the most interesting of the bunch, having fought the Jedi and the Sith (his teachings and his wife). I have no kind words for Zaalbar, Mission and Juhani :) My original complaint was that no matter what you do, it still doesn't matter. There's the influence mechanic, which I think is more harm than good, but no matter what you do and how you treat them and even if you want them or not, they'll still be there. You can't go up to Disciple and tell him "look, I need you to jump from the Ebon Hawk while it's still in hyperspace...for science". The fucker stays no matter how many times you extort helpless people for petty cash, no matter how many times your first words in a conflict are along the lines "I'm going to kill you all", etc. Same goes for all of them. Even if TSL improved the side-quests, there are no really significant NPCs, all your interesting conversations are with the companions, so I don't think greater reactivity from them is beyond reasonable expectations. Here also did Obsidian pull the same trick, they've justified it story-wise, but gameplay-wise it remained the same.

I did play with a male character, but I'm not sure what you mean. Handmaiden or Kreia? I can't remember what she says immediately after leaving. I think she comments on Handmaiden "eloping" with the Exile?

Does the mod add something to Malachor? I'm having difficulty imaging what. It's a ruined planet with a Sith academy. It makes sense to me that there'll be a ton of Sith for that last level up before beating up Sion and Traya.

Well, the Exile can expect Traya to reveal her motivations, tell him\her something that will change his\her perception on her trachings and her betrayal. And at the same time it's a nice meta-comment for the player.
Jolee is the only one I don't complain about in K1 :) I like having other Force traditions in SW media (like the Potentium, Unifying Force, Alema's Balance or Fel's Imperial Knights) By 'traumatized kid' I mean Juhani - maybe she's not that young, but she certainly doesn't act like an adult.
So, we have Zaalbar, Mission, Juhani, T3 who are boring, Carth who's badly executed, Canderous who has some interesting war stories to tell but not much more, Bastila who's a plot device and finally Jolee and HK who are interesting :) In K2 even G0-T0 has some interesting twist (and that twist is really great in my opinion).
That's why you should play the game with TSLRCM at least once :) That's where the companions were supposed to get their closures before it was cut.
I mean Handmaiden. There is one scene where Atris says that she left at her orders and alternative one where Atris says she left at her own will.
With RCM she says Handmaiden left at her orders.
There is a ton of Sith there... But remember, Exile and the Sith are not the only people on the planet.

Watch_Dogs

Drinking Game

<span class="bold">Syndicate: American Revolt</span>

Whereas I did enjoy Syndicate, I found American Revolt ridiculously hard, I had difficulty even surviving for more than 30 seconds on each level! Not fun at all.