Wombat

Ane now funcroc back in action

If I had a PS3 I know I would have got the PS3 version over the 360 version. The game is long so it isn't too bad to switch discs if you are playing from the start but just randomly trying to replay cases is a pain. Probably, my biggest surprise for this E3 is still Nintendo seems to have power on catching attention by the announcement of a new console despite the rather fast decline of Wii and the rise of portable computer/cloud gaming. Still people seem to be happy with the console-bound market. BTW, due to the current "incident" (Actually, it's just a usual net drama although I was indeed surprised by the number of fans for DS series.) in DSIII boards, we lost funcroc, which who was basic function of these boards. The boards feel very lacking without him.

Hmmm...gog.com and Gamebanshee have more people than here for various cases but I don't have accounts there and I'd rather wait for the official boards to open. In any case, E3 finished, no new DSIII or other Obsidian game info...there will not be many things going on here now, it seems.

I wonder why some people including myself find it useless while some others don't. I may be doing it wrong. Yea, I haven't taken knife-throwing skill simply because I used bombs for ranged but some people from multiple sources find it pretty useful. Also, I used traps time to time, which turned out to be pretty effective. So, yes, I tried to use tactics available quite a lot but, when it comes to magic, I wonder if I used something outside Quen. Indeed, I used Yarden against a boss fight. With the recent patch, Igni seems to get more powerful, though. Also, I hadn't used 0 weight mod till later part in chapter 2 for I tried to follow how it is designed, first but eventually gave up once I found it dragging the game-play experience too much. I could use less of bombs and traps simply because I couldn't carry them but, after the mod, I got able to spam them. So, yes, I guess I cheated on this part. However, how many people played the game without that mod?

Well, I have already written this and some people said more or less similar things but I don't think most of people here are those who would make the major portion of the sales of Dungeon Siege III, to say the least. [Off Topic] As for game reviews, game reviews are like reviews of movies and literatures (although the latter group are established and those who read books are more likely to write better articles) and cannot but be subjective. I usually read quite many reviews before buying a game but there are always a handful reviews which are reliable in each major site. What we should be careful is that there are some "reviewers" who put spoilers even in their title although their context is not worth reading. Even skimming won't help in these case.

Oh, I don't hate it, either. Agreed, here, too.

As for the character advancement system, a certain character builds doesn't seem to work at all. About combat, I think I have a mixed feeling. It delivers the feel of metal crashing each other quite well but, as a game-play, once Gelart is surrounded, he is done for in the constant knock-back animations. Due to this, the basic "tactics" is trying to lure one from group, which can get boring. For the game-play's shake, probably, removing magic casting animation (although it represents traditional casting time concept) could be a possible solution if it doesn't totally contradict the setting. In any case, I think CD Projekt Red should find a way for combat game-play and visual effect and/or physics to coexist. Also, the Witcher has reasonable difficulty mode, which makes the players to prepare well in harder difficulty. Now in harder difficulty, Gelart doesn't seem to be a sword master at all since close combat means death for him. In recent patch, they seem to have decreased the difficulty level, though. In any case, I haven't used most of alternatives given to Gelart simply because they don't work out well (Aard is just for removing objects while spamming Quen seems to be the only "tactics" while most of potions/bombs are quite useless). Either it is tactical choice during combat or strategic choice before engaging it, most of the "choices" got useless. That said, I think the Witcher 2 has got more streamlined compared with its predecessor. The shifts from QTE/cutscenes to combat feel natural probably due to the lacked bird view camera and faster pacing, which makes story-conveyed pretty naturally, too. I felt like to be put in a movie while C&C is intact and the world feel more vivid than in the original. Dialogues are mixed creature here, too. I think they are generally good. However, due to many background settings, quite many things need to be told to convince those familiar with other the novels. Also, some of the factors are needed to be kept untold till the last part of the story in order to keep some mysteries remained. These made especially the later dialogues tend to be rather explanatory to be natural conversations from NPCs. The flaw is very obvious but I have no idea on how to address the issue. The designers could have put some content to keep the main story flow naturally than putting some fetch/collect items quest, though. That said, as for the claims that the story feels cut in the middle, I must point out that the story is composed of a few plots and, the story arc of Assassins of Kings is completed. Indeed, some other plots didn't see their conclusions but claiming the story is half done due to it would probably be unfair to the designers since they are not in the title. In fact, I think this part is well done to keep the expectation to possible later works while concluding a story. All in all, the game is definitely has its flaws and I definitely could come up with other flaws than what I wrote here but I think the designers did a good job to make them more or less ignorable by doing a good job in putting the players into their world/story. So, yea, I guess I could say that the sum feels better than its parts like with the original.

These down/up arrows which indicate plus and minus are nice but yea brief explanation may help (I almost wrote "mouse-over" but there is no such thing in consoles). Quite many players won't read manual/help. MMORPG Rift seems to have this system and so does Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. I tried something like this on PnP long time ago, as a sub-product from an attempt to give in-world reasons to character advancement systems but, yea, considering the calculation tasks, that would work better in CRPG. Probably too late for DSIII, though. Oh, yea. I found the Witcher 2 turned some cut-scenes into things which make the players spend less time on just passively watching it, to say at least*. I built a habit of taking cut-scenes in RPG as resting time to action and got game-over screens due to it till my brains switched to action game mode, where I can see much less cut-scenes. I don't play action games outside of a certain genre and yet but guess it's enough to find that we don't see too many cut-scenes in them. Even scenes which have PC-NPC interactions are mostly done in in-game.* <A mild spoiler for Roche path in Chapter 2> Don't even bother to check her name while you indeed reckon Lucas (check the quote below)? Is this because of the setting, perchance? She is not exactly a human character, which might explain the lack of emotion. poor Boonie you're gonna forget all about him now, aren't you? Butts and boobs will have universal effect but let's see how his charm works on ladies and gay people from different nationalities/backgrounds. Some might be swept by mature male charm of Reinhart.

As for the control scheme, I suggested RTS-ish game-play option for PC quite a long time ago. However, even I suggested it by myself, I don't think it can achieved easily. In fact, more realistic aspects of my doing that was to see if the designers have better idea/plan or more realistically, if they put weight on game-pad control scheme, which is a rational choice considering the circumstances, to say at least. I made the "suggestion" since it's no brainer that it must be a major hurdle for multi-platforming for this kind of game. So, no surprise for my part. Er...level-scaling? What is the point of it in a non-sandbox style RPG like this one? Must be a misunderstanding of some sort.

Gametrailers is quite good for searching video archives for E3 coverage for games of my interest. The art-style is not my cup of tea at all but I wonder how they tie exploration/NPC dialogues with their lore, which seem to be quite massive.

And what I was asking is what your point is in doing so since it's way too late for DSIII. I had already explained my motivation about AP was because of my expectation to Obsidian. However, guess I have better things to do than how other people spending their time. In any case, I cannot see if DSIII will be successful as a business unlike in the case of AP.

What is your point? My point is that, since Obsidian planned DSIII with focus on some features with clear scope, it's impossible to make everyone happy. People have various expectations. Simply, what you are saying is not within the scope of DSIII and writing comments here won't change that. So, relatively legitimate criticisms could be something about the executions of the scope of DSIII. The designers did their best to show what DSIII is about and even released the demo. If you are unhappy about its direction, you don't need to buy it since even a few months of "fixing" wouldn't change it. Am I saying something hard? Indeed, I criticized Alpha Protocol but I play stealth action games outside of RPG since Thief series and couldn't but notice the game couldn't be successful. Since I'd like Obsidian to stay on business, I clearly criticized its design direction. However, in DSIII's case, I cannot point out what is wrong with the design decisions even if it doesn't sell well.

Here's the full explanation from Nathaniel. So you are right in that all abilities are purchased in the course of the game, but like I said, maxing all of them out is not an option and choices have to be made. When I read it first time, I couldn't make head or tail of it but, after seeing some UI screenshots, I guess I understand it more. Yet I guess I misunderstood talents till I read it again.

This is from another thread but Chapman seem to have expected some reactions, which wouldn't be a surprise for those who watched the development from its earlier stage.

In that case, I'd just call it misunderstanding since you are simply giving feedbacks as some others here are.

Oh, so you are still interested in DSIII, then?

This makes me think why should you spend your time on a game which you are not interested in if you had better things to do at all? Blizzard makes good games =/= no interest in other games, no time, better things to do. Lets try to draw logical conclusions. If I wasn't interested in DS3 why would I be disappointed.. hmm As Krezack pointed out, you are simply one step behind in terms of the logical connection. Obviously, DSIII turned out to be not your game, so, why are you spending your time here? You are doing what I would never do. In fact, although I had my account at Bethesda boards for The Elder Scroll series, I hadn't posted a single comment at Fallout 3 boards till Obsidian began to make New Vegas simply because I knew it wouldn't have what I liked about Fallout series from the beginning. Simply, taste differs and I know what I'd like to do.

This makes me think why should you spend your time on a game which you are not interested in if you had better things to do at all?

Indeed, the graphics doesn't look too great especially after some of "highly anticipated" titles in E3. That said, This actually gives me hope that they've focused on more important gameplay features. That's not how game development works. Plus, secondary textures are often done on contract out of studio. This is why some of Heavy Rain's textures look good and some look awful and low-res. Does this explain why do they look different while they are legitimately from the developers. This looks worse than this and this In any case, good for "true to the original's spirit" but I cannot but feel been there done that.

Off Topic OK, then. It's just that I'm not eagerly checking news for any Blizzard product. However, the long development time makes me wonder and there have been being plenty articles about this "rumor." In any case, I'll rephrase the sentence to "even Blizzard is often rumored to be planning on possible console ports of Diablo III."

I don't know but I skim first and if a comment doesn't seem to have interesting content, I'd skip reading almost automatically. Generally speaking, if I'm reading criticisms, they should have something solid, based on relatively objective factors. You know, its internet and quite many personal reviews tend to just show personal likes and dislikes or plain simple frustration than offering useful information to the others. You cannot read every single comment like that. That said, I found some criticisms are valid. However, as for using Dungeon Siege franchise, it's more of Square Enix marketing strategy rather than what Obsidian could do. We had issues with SecuRom and Steam requirement in the past but these are decisions from publishers and beyond the hands of Obsidian/Black Isle Studio. Also, focus on stories are earlier design decision. SE seems to be targeting various regions. Typical JRPGs have stories and I think Lucas' model is designed for both Eastern and Western markets, for example. The same goes to the decisions on so called "consolizations." Even Blizzard seems to be struggling to adopt Diablo III to consoles and I think we cannot do anything about this aspect of game industry business. As for multi-players...I guess I don't have enough knowledge about this one especially it seems to be aimed at consoles. In any case, these are about design decisions and, I, honestly, don't have idea on how it will sell till the game is released on major regions. So, valid and reasonable criticisms to Obsidian are mainly about the unpolished control/camera works, which was not hard to foresee, and frigid character expressions, which were, at least, for me, tough to expect for a game which has focus on dialogues. Now about bad voice acting. Chris Avellone's characters tend to have better voice acting and I remember he wrote somewhere that he gives quite many descriptions about scenes and characters for voice actors (Knowing his earlier works, I guess he wouldn't be satisfied with just dialogues). Wonder how many Obsidian writers practice this, though. Also, I couldn't but notice someone pointed out slow starting. Even relatively new RPG maker CD Projekt Red found this as a typical RPG issue and addressed it in their own way (However, I wonder if they are in the right track since, in the Witcher 2, <warning: mild spoiler for the beginning of the game> ).

With that number, I wonder how they could keep variance... That said, I wouldn't mind moderate randomization since, TES series isn't story-focused, or, at least, through dialogues. However, I'd like the world to keep its integrity in terms of the atmosphere. In Oblivion, they ruined the believability of the world by the repetitive dungeon designs, NPC dialogues, and level-scaling. About the last one, at least, they are going to address the issue. As for Skyrim, haven't been to there since Bloodmoon expansion. I don't think Bethesda goes for intense lore compared with the age of Rolston, who has a gene from detailed supplement in good old PnP era. However, better thing is it feels less generic compared with Oblivion yet traditional. Dragons seem to be more like that from Beowulf than from those American-comic like D&D colorful ones, for example. However, they shouldn't mass-produce dragons' like cliff racers. Fighting against dragons should feel epic

It is quite unpredictable, I think. Console market is populated and people's eyes tend to go to works with better graphics but it may sell OK as long as it doesn't get "death sentence" from Gamespot like Fargo's Hunted. Also, I wonder if there are JRPG, which are mostly for consoles, like this one, either. That said, no matter how sales would end up, I don't think Obsidian didn't their job well considering the surroundings. Many projects smell worse even before their releases.

I may go as far as Dead Money after I finish the Witcher 2, but may as well just leave FONV with the pleasant memory. Off Topic: Heavy Rain was on my wish list before upgrading my PC to I find it remained exclusive for PS 3. I'd probably go for Assassin's Creed series once it got a sale. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is blinking at the corner, too.

So, do you believe Sony and Nintendo could do better?