OK, so I’ve made the commitment to play Jade Empire. Despite my long time passion for RPGs, work/family life has just not allowed for the usual time and dedication to play the genre. But, given the fact that I was able to “sneak in” almost 50 hours to finish Burnout, I figured I could do the same for BioWare’s masterpiece.

While I am only a few hours in (just killed off Goa and got back to the school in ruins), I am enjoying the game very much. The combat system is a bit tricky to master, especially when there are a lot of enemies to fight at once. But, it does give you the feel of playing Soul Calibur in the middle of an RPG ;) My one gripe is all the talking/reading, standard for games of this scope, but tedious when you’re trying to sneak in an hour of play late at night…

Looking back, it is truly amazing how far BioWare has come. I’ve known Ray and Greg for nearly a decade and recall the day when I got news of their work on Baldur’s Gate. I was working at Matrox back then, and we helped fix some sprite transparency issues with the tiling engine: it was a little knoll with a bright pink background color-key… Ah, the good old days…