Wombat

Thanks for the info...quite tempting...

Rambling is O.K. in my account since it shows the stream of his thought. The given info is not far from what I gathered but it was nice to hear directly from the lead designer. Just shame that the game-play is not my cup of tea. Final Fantasy Tactics is a great example of that! BTW, have you played Tactics Ogre?

During my usual steam price checking, I found some indie games which can be interesting. Post Mortem, Robin Hood ? The Legend of Sherwood and Grotesque Tactics 2 ? Dungeons and Donuts (Not released yet). How good are they? Well, I don't have time for other games at the moment but... PS I thought a part of Robin Hood legend was written by Dumas pere but my childhood "common knowledge" was beaten by info on the net. It doesn't change the fact that the setting is familiar to me, though.

In that case, the game can wait or you may even want a refund since it's kinda core mechanism. If you haven't gotten it from what people had written here so far, there is no unarmed-build...there is just a simple take-down system, which works in the context of the stealth mechanism, with a few enhancements related with it. The reason why I refrain myself from taking down enemies in stealth action games is that I know it makes the game less interesting. Since the game implemented it in its own system, I don't need to be so "self-disciplined," which is why I think it's a good idea or an interesting approach, at least. I miss climbing/lighting factors but it's a decent blend of cover-shooter and stealth mechanism, I think. Seems to be no complete social path...minor spoiler for the first two bosses . This bugs me but it is same in the original Deus Ex...my usual "tactics" is to keep explosives and spam them against bosses and I ended up with repeating it in this game. It's actually a shame...they made decent mini-games but boss fights seem to mean frontal attack. Nice that reviews had decreased my expectations in this area. As for social enhancement (build), I wonder...I'm still at the beginning but it is quite possible to profile manually at this stage. For example (minor spoiler about the characters of unnamed NPCs), You can see these from the dialogues even without the social argumentation. You see why Oblivion couldn't do this...it requires insightful writers and much more clear visions for each NPC. A possible question here is whether the players can role-play Adam since he is basically trying to manipulate NPCs. However so far, I don't feel Adam too manipulative probably because this cannot be done without understanding NPCs. As a result, the conversation feels quite humane. The system is important but the content, too, which is why I didn't like Obsidian lose too many writers...

Human Revolution...had to give a break to my Assassin's Creed campaign, as expected. So far, what a year for RPG...The Witcher 2 and this...personally, I played New Vegas this year, too.

Yea, realism is important but they put the game-play over it...the resource management adds strategic factor. I like this game so far. The game-play is well-thought in various ways. Conversation mechanics was a mystery but, as it turned out, basically, each NPC has base his/her character but their responses have some random factor (psychological state), which makes the players to listen to them carefully - Nicely done with the moderate random factor. The beauty is that the players are still choosing from a few choices and all of them are equally convincing but the system makes the players to think which choice would be most effective to this particular NPC, at the moment. Also, sneak play is quite well done within the limited resources...like other game-plays...I don't know much about combat since that's what I am avoiding, though. I'm using tranquilizer and take-down but don't find a problem yet. You know the drill...keep your eyes out, checking possible routes...as the loading screen says, the best route may not be apparent. All in all, I like the fact this game makes me think before taking actions. I always thought trial and error stealth can be nicely combined with RPG and I guess I'm seeing a good example. The relatively long loading time is a shame, though.

Yea, kinda history repeats itself. In fact, the game-play of Black Hound/FO3 (not Beth version) was planned to be switchable between RT/TB. Of course, I had already covered that part.

This left me curious. Bioware's original success was implementing a real-time combat simulation controlled by M&K to AD&D video game. The format didn't only satisfy some of existing AD&D fans but also successfully introduced it to new comers. Even when I'm not satisfied with the content of their games, I have to admit the game-play is solid, at least (Well, at least, before I stopped playing their games). Is that possible for them to make a game-play or an implementation to satisfy both real-time combat simulation players and action game ones at the same time? Indeed, I suggested a switchable game-play in Dungeon Siege III boards but it must be tough to implement...even if mechanism is successful, there must be a balancing issue. Hmmm...

One of the reasons why I stopped playing Bioware seems to be that what I liked about their game is the game-play. Without it, I have no reason to play their games any more. If the fan-base is rooted in a specific game-play, it's the end of the story for such fans. However, as a person who has enjoyed 80's PnP RPGs, role-playing game is much more than that. In those days, they made some tabletop RPGs with interesting settings and rule-sets optimized for such settings, for example. Giving the world and letting the players implement things are something which can connect these games and modern ones which I listed in my previous post. The same thing happened to me with Dungeon Siege III. I may turn out to be not bad at the game play but there are game-plays which keep me indifferent. Yea, it's just "horses for courses." Games which frustrate me most are the ones which don't have unified design philosophy...this is same, whether they are PnP rulesets or video games.

Why now? They should have done all the homework before making Alpha Protocol... I think one of the commonly important things between PnP RPG and its video game counter part is that the communication between GM/designers and the players. The tricky part would be that, in video games, designers and the players cannot communicate in real time manner. 1)Mechanical chaos is frustrating. 5)Good gameplay is better than whatever your ideas or whatever the player's expectations are. Kinda impossible to avoid all of this....even in PnP RPG, players come up with exploitation... The different thing is that, even when the designers recognized an exploitation, it takes much more resources and time to apply the issue compared with a game master. 2)What you can perceive is the most important thing. I think "feedbacks" of the choices the players made should be noticeable to them...when the core game is mainly about management and its abstract numbers, the players only look at numbers but, about video games, especially recent visually enhanced video games, the numbers are too subtle for most of the players. So, the designers need to go for more obvious ways to form the experience of the players. AP surprised me that how designers didn't analyze modern FPS or Vampire: the Bloodline Masquerade. I see clearly why RPG designers are blinded since it took me to understand what's wrong with the game-plays. Actually, it may be enough to watch how FPS players are playing. It was a shock when I noticed most of them don't read manuals and start the game straight away. So, the designers need to do a good job in tutorial. Although I don't play many FPS, when I do play, I notice the designers are doing pretty good job about this. A recent blander around tutorial was done in the Witcher 2 by CDProjekt Red but, reading the update for patch 2.0, they addressed this issue...it is nice that this is done before the release of the console version. 3)Strategic failures are the biggest disappointing failures for players. Some people who played Lionheart complained of this issue. The strongest is a melee fighter and it's the right decision, of which I don't even bother to put spoiler tag since it is the information which should be given to the players if the designers didn't make the builds equally. Slightly minor but the same thing can be said to Madae in Icewind Dale II...the players are not informed that she is invincible and it's a common tactics to go for healer/magic user in D&D. The players won't feel fair when the designers didn't signal them beforehand or given "wrong" choices. Hmmm...Sawyer seems to be mainly talking of randomization in mini games, here, probably because he has been developing such type of RPG, where the players go through stories, solving mini-games - mainly combat. However, there are games which are based on different philosophy - sandbox games, which give the players simulated world/stages - some RPGs even focuses on this. This type of games don't share most of the problems mentioned here. I'll make a list from my limited experience...otherwise, the list should be much longer. Mission-based sandbox Thief series/Dishonored Area-based sandbox System (Bio) Shock series/Deus Ex series Open-world sandbox The Elder Scroll series/Fallout series/S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series Oddly, Avellone seems to have love with one of these games since he mentions Ultima Underworld and System Shock 2 in a quite passionate manner in various interviews although it is almost suicidal desire since, as he himself admits most often with his favorite dwarf example, the best moment of the games come from pure simulation rather than any forethought factor by the designers. He sounds like Harvey Smith here, tough. Sawyer has his own love to simulationist RPG such as Wasteland although it seems more of stat-based simulation. Also, we briefly discussed randomization in stealth game-play while back but I wonder what you are thinking of this aspect of randomization - randomization in games where the designers throw the players in simulated environments. In any case, the presentation sounds more of revision for designers who have similar background with some of Obsidian members (Kinda how to play as a game master with the new rule set we have in front of us) rather than what kind of take would be possible for RPG in the current/upcoming tendency of the industry.

However, it seems to be much more complex than I thought. I thought it was just optional objectives which can affect on other missions. The idea is interesting but, considering he admits that they didn't have resources enough to even satisfy the major media and the requirement of the publisher, I think such implementations would be better pursued in a less demanding project.

If you are a person who likes to try tech gears before anyone, you can satisfy yourself to some extent as an early adopter. Otherwise, it would be wise to wait till the tech gets mature and popularized. For, it is quite often the case that once such new devices are popularized enough, the price drops. Why not search the net with some key words such as "product life cycle"? For the general idea can be said to any new product. In the IT industry, the cycle is very fast as you can see the price drops of game soft.

Review scores are quite important for sales but, not a good indicator when it comes to personal likes/dislikes. Reading the context would be a good start...

Er...other people's opinion is theirs and mine is mine, whether they are hardcore gamers or casual ones. After all, what it counts is whether I can enjoy a game. The tricky part is that, if a game isn't commercially successful, there won't be a similar game next time. However, in other words, it's just that. I don't know how the game end up with till I play it but I'd take the risk this time around. It's more about time rather than money at times.

Visual is quite important for main-stream games but I have got this habit of not expecting too much from the characters in Gothic series. If they are trying to go for main-stream, I think they need to polish the character models a bit...for even Bethesda, who is now a leader of sandbox style action RPG genre, seems to have done quite an effort in this area. One thing I felt lacking in Risen compared with Gothic series is humor. Humor in Gothic series is not witty or sophisticated at all but the numbing humor fitted the "art direction", somehow, I think. (Is that only me who chuckled at the jumping animation of Risen?) To some extent, the crudeness itself formed the world of Gothic and I wonder how they would appear if they polish graphics.

No, actually, it's an online magazine with a built-in reader. I use Firefox with no script, myself. If you are suspicious, feel free to use sandbox program of your liking. PS Oh, I see. Generally grumpy forum users felt the PR too much. Well, I don't know. I also felt the marketing of the Witcher bit too much but I have no objection to marketing as long as they come up with the quality of the products/services. I guess I'm minority who are interested in how Rolston's story-telling in the open world would turn out and I'm quite a sucker to the detailed world with full of lore since the time of Traveler and Rune Quest (in fact, Rolston worked for some of the supplements at that time).

Interesting. Like the idea. I guess I'm quite a sucker for real-world setting...

Considering the indifference in this board, probably I'd better leave it to news sites. It has got some interesting design decisions although I don't like the art direction somehow. This time around, it's about character development system, which allows the players to mix up different abilities to build their own game-play of their liking. It's not learn-by-dong but seems to share the concept of allowing the players to chose their play styles.

http://www.egmnow.com/egmi/issue/251-2.html I wonder if it will be successful but the system design seems to be done with very game-master-ish thought in mind. Double post...

Yea, I don't think IW was a bad game although it doesn't feel right at all. At least, as far as the story goes, I think they put too much focus on "clever" part without no interesting/solid character development which let they players sympathize with the characters. I admit that I liked some sardonic and satirical descriptions, though. The problem for me is that, as far as the game-play goes, the game sounds like what I have imagined as a possible "next gen" RPG model for years. In fact, in the revealed info so far, I see quite many factors which are similar to what I have mentioned in these boards. So, I guess I need to face reality, which can end up with being bitter, when I finally have my hands on this one. BTW, there are so little info about dialogue-based C&C, or role-playing. I wonder if the game lacks the factor or just people avoiding spoilers. I know about the conversation mini-game but what I mean is more "traditional" one.

As long as I tell him that I love Gothic series and its seamless world, he shouldn't bite me, should he?

Hasn't Gothic series been stories about a nameless unlikely hero save an island/world? Also, I wonder if "consolization" hit this action RPG series as hard as it does some other works except the seamlessness of the world...oh, I guess I understand. Like the recent example below? Well, I have never been happy with the dialogues and story of Gothic series but there are not so many RPGs where a rogue-ish character fits the world like in Gothic series/Risen. I'm still in "let's see" area, though.

While back, I asked myself and I'm quite sure I'll end up with buying this, anyway. After all, we I even bought Invisible War. BTW, just stumbled upon a video clip about the conversation game-play of this game. Edited to avoid double-posting.

Oblivion put off existent RPG fans to some extent while cultivated new fans, of which the designers seem to be quite conscious, judging from the info so far. While they cleaned up the character development system, they made crafting system more complex, it seems, probably for keeping the playability of the learn-by-doing system while allowing some players to indulge themselves with some depth. We cannot tell how the game-balance goes yet but, at least, gamesystem-wise, there seem to be decent efforts put into it. That said, I don't think their writing magically gets better, which keeps my expectation moderate at most.

About the endings of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, You only missed Anarchs, which makes the number 5 in total. Yea...some games are quite cheap when on sale. In fact, due to Steam sales, I have too many games to play atm... With the exception of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I won't buy a game except bargain sales this year. In fact, I most likely will not be able to finish Assassin's Creed series before the release of DXHR. AC series reminds me of sword action adventure movies such as ones based on The Three Musketeers: Being involved in political plotting, climbing towers, jumping from a rooftop to another, running through crowds, going through secret tunnels, eavesdropping, and, of course, sword-fighting. It has very familiar feel. I'm definitely not the first person to say this but, simply, don't expect stealth aspect although it can play an important role in some parts.