Yeah, the goldbox games for example. I believe all those were AD&D 1e, possibly 2e

DnD is pimped around like crazy. Only the older Bioware style games capture it correctly.

I want the bethsoft treatment... hell you can just Mod-up SkyRims engine ^_^

Third person bad ass companion RPG sign me up...

You have plenty of RPGs. Let us have ONE :p

(I hate Bethesda these days, because they're one of the companies responsible for the death of oldschool RPGs.)

I agree about the Pimped around statement. But after all if you have something everyone wants, why not. I have to disagree with your later statement and it does not mean the older Bioware style games didn't capture it correctly. I think TOEE did a superb job with the rule set and implementation and Neverwinter did a fabulous job on the multi-player DM table top simulation.

Perhaps you're right. Every Elder Scrolls fan certainly seems to think so.

Say what you like about NWN2 and KOTOR 2 (personally I think they're good but that Obsidian has improved quite a bit since then) but F:NV is an entirely different story. Rather than "a publisher wanting to capitalize on a critically acclaimed game with a sequel, when the original innovative developer wants to move on", I believe F:NV was made because Obsidian asked for permission as they wanted to make a Fallout game. Bethesda most certainly does not want to move on, hence why its "Fallout: New Vegas" not "Fallout 4". Actually, many of the members of Obsidian are the original developers of Fallout 1 & 2 so its not really "sloppy seconds". One could go so far as to say that more describes Fallout 3, as Bethesda was more or less brought in to capitalize on a critically acclaimed game with a sequel.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed Fallout 3 but I thought it was rather flawed and repetitive and I lost interest rather quickly (as I did with Oblivion, though I'm tempted to try Skyrim). Fallout New Vegas is great but honestly may not be your kind of game. Its much less open world and more similar to the older instalments that I'm sure are currently clouding me with nostalgia.

EDIT: Regarding the actual topic, I really hope its not a mere rumour. Obsidian is the only developer I would trust to make Icewind Dale 3.

and that's sad isn't it. in the past we had half of dozen teams who could tackle that kind of project. Sure. they might have failed, shit happens but they could do it.

Obsidian is the only one left. I wouldn't even trust CDprojektred although i would give them *forgot what* of a doubt.

Its very sad. I still cling to hope that Bioware will regain that trust with their next game (whatever that is) but it seems more and more unlikely.

Regain what trust? The Mass Effect series are wildly popular and critically acclaimed, as is the Dragon Age series. What is there to regain, the loyalty of a bunch of nosstalgic isomorphs?

Dragon Age 2 is one of the most horrible RPGs ever created.
Mass Effect will probably lose all its RPG elements after 3, bets are it'll be come back as an FPS, action game, or MMORPG.

Just because people like playing their older games, does not make them blind by nostalgia.

DA2 failed. universally failed. The huge sales happened only because people liked DAO and preorder. then they dropped immediately when word of mouth spread around. just see the numbers. DAO sales were strong for weeks after release. DA2 were not.

ME2 is bad rpg, no one question this. It does not mean it is bad game because it is not. It is really really good in fact. yet it is less of an rpg than Diablo 2 was. Therefore we couldn't trust them in making a good rpg like ID3.

furthermore:
number of sales do not equal quality.

Why do I get this recurring nightmare that IWD3/ME4/DA3 are going to get the modern military FPS treatment?

I can see it now:

Call of Icewind 3: Above and Beyond the Dale

An immersive, cinematic fantasy military combat experience! Kuldahar is under threat, as Makarov the Lich has stolen a magical artifact known as the Nucelous, an immensely powerful Weapon of Mass Destruction! Faerun is under siege, and only you can stop him...

Features:

- Regenerating Health (Because at least you can easily explain that away with some random D&D-esque spell or piece of exotic Elven magical technology.)
- Cover-Based Shooting (Because when the Orcs and Goblins rampaged through the Hand of the Seldarine, they made sure they left behind exactly chest-high piles of debris and pieces of walls.)
- Exciting aerial combat levels where you get to fly in an F/A-18 Super Hornet and tap X to release flares-uh, I mean, fly on a mighty dragon and tap X to unleash your enchanted magical decoys...

Meanwhile, Bohemia Interactive will announce ArMA: Armoured Magical Assault, hyperrealistically modelling arrow drop, armour denting, and magical energy attentuation in fog at distances over 100 ft. We'll all rejoice, until Drow News decides to use footage from the game to link people from Waterdeep with terrorist acts in Neverwinter.