Starwars

From the Jolt preview: I'm sorry, but I have to wonder what "genre heavyweights" we are talking about here? If we're talking the realms of RPGs, the only games I can think of that really do the "cut scene thing" at all are Biowares games, and at least Mass Effect and/or Dragon Age don't particularly advanced in this section either. Just what are they comparing with here? Secondly, I can see the appeal of having travel distances to play between safehouse and missions. But really, why is it so hard to accept a different approach in the gameplay here? If this was a sequel to Baldurs Gate or whatever, then yeah, a mission-based approach would surely be a disappointment. But this is a new IP, doing different things. There are some great mission-based games out there. And again, with the animations, emotion etc... Just what are we comparing with here? Mass Effect? Fallout 3 (oh lawd)? Don't get me wrong, I don't think any RPG has matched Bloodines in terms of "digital acting" on NPC faces, but I hardly think Bloodlines is what they're comparing with here. Come on guys, give us something to work with. This sounds more worrying to me, and it's something which is often a flaw in action-RPGs if you ask me. But then again... Why did noone bring up that you can fire an entire clip of Assault Rifle ammo in someones face in Fallout 3 and they still ran around just fine? Blergh, I hate some previews for this reason. It's very selective stuff. One game is magically excused, another one isn't. I'd love if the gaming journalists were more critical of games overall but the change in attitude and facts reported, depending on what developer is developing the game, really sucks.

Probably one of the better "previews" (even though it's obviously written by an OEI member) that I've read. Shadow Operative sounds a bit cheesy, but the rest of it sounds really nice. I think my first character will try to be as "pacifist" as possible in the game, should be fun to try out. Hopefully a mix between stealth, technical aptitude and something else will work out well.

Mega Man 2 soundtrack - Crash Man Stage Oh yeah.

Hey, it's Alvin! Awesome. Looks pretty good I think.

Fallout 1 with Planescape: Torment coming in second place.

Pantera - Revolution is my name People usually bash on Reinventing the Steel, but I always felt it was one of Pantera's best (if not the best) releases. Revolution is my name is one of my favourite tracks from the album.

The thing is that AoD focuses on things which *can* be done with a smaller team. If we focus on the choices & consequences for example, that could easily be done in a friggin' mod for NWN2 if someone felt like doing it. It's not rocket science (though it does of course take work to write up different paths and manage variables, but it's not exactly pushing the medium), it's just that games like that are not provided by the industry. If VD started talking about how AoD has soil erosion or some other advanced feature, I would be more dubious. He has said several times that AoD will not an innovative game, just that they hope to deliver a good old-school cRPG with focus on choices & consequences. Molyneux for example talked all about how we would love characters in Fable 2 and feel real emotions etc etc (I remember one preview about the dog which I found almost creepy to tell the truth). Those goals are a quite a bit loftier than providing choices & consequences. But he was *always* very critical of the gaming industry, long before AoD ever started so it's not like he suddenly started doing that just because AoD got announced. And if he would suddenly stop doing that once he had started developing AoD, he would've obviously looked fake to many of the people who the *game is targeted at in the first place*. Maybe it is unprofessional, could very well be. But again, the people who AoD is first and foremost targeted at probably agree with his views. Not to mention that while he has been very critical of certain game companies (Bioware is a good example), he has still managed to conduct great interviews where David Gaider is involved for example, as well as many other game devs (a fairly big number from Obsidian as well). Not to mention that David Gaider has stated that he looks forward to Age of Decadence, and he recently posted in support of the Zombie RPG as well. Perhaps even industry people find his attitude refreshing, or that there may be a good game in the making here? I don't know. He has most definetely not said this. And furthermore, there are plenty of games which he has been quite positive about. He called Mask of the Betrayer a masterpiece for example, and spoke favourably about Storm of Zehir as well. He also enjoyed Mysteries of Westgate a lot. As I recall, even his Fallout 3 review had quite a number of positive aspects to it.

Except that there have been numerous showcases of in-game situations, articles on how it's designed etc. Not just "hey guys, we have lots of choices in our game", but screenshots and examples taken from the actual game. And I damn sure don't boo mainstream devs for hyping their games, except when they babble on how it still be the best thing since sliced bread (which VD most certainly has not, though I understand many have that impression) and when they hype things which I think are irrelevant to the genre of the game (Patrick Stewart voiceacting for example). If you think I'm gonna go back and look up all the old interviews, articles and forum discussions where they showcased how this works, you're mistaken. I'm sure you'll take that as a cop-out or whatever, but really man. I may look forward to this game a lot, but I haven't bookmarked all the interesting stuff that has been shown during the time I've followed it. If you really want to, I'm sure you can find it yourself. But eh, you can remove the point you bolded if you want. Like I said before, noone will know whether it's a good game until it's actually released. I'm saying that it's a game which is incorporating things that I care about. Whether they are actually pulled off well when I sit there and play the game remains to be seen. And that impression will color my expectations of the next game coming from Iron Tower.

Congratulations, you have leveled up. Please take another level of Troll.

This is just grabbed from the homepage, but these are the basics for me: 7 distinctive gameplay styles: from knight, serving a Noble House, to grifter, preying on greed and gullibility. Non-combat quest resolutions and a well-developed diplomatic path ( "The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy." Each situation has multiple ways of handling it, based on your skills, reputation, and connections. Each way has consequences that will affect someone or something. An interesting world with rich history and unclear future that your actions can shape into seven very different game endings.

Wow, Inon Zur continues to produce music that absolutely fails to move me in *any* way. It doesn't blow me away, nor do I find anything to particularly hate about it. It's just so... bland. I think the only soundtrack by him I would consider good is the Icewind Dale 2 one, which had some nice stuff on it. But this... Really forgettable judging from the samples above. As meh as much of his music is, I think I'd even like Jeremy Soule more for the whole "epic orchestra" stuff present here. Oh well. I so wanted to like this game when it was first announced (to the point where I was actually excited about it), but it just looks and feels so boring. The more I see from it, the lower my interest goes. EDIT: The interface looks good at least, except for the whole inventory list thing.

A few things here. I definetely don't see the whole "putting VD or Age of Decadence" on a pedestal thing here. You can go to Iron Tower forums and seeing heated (and good) discussions all over the place over how some things are handled. Same thing on the Codex. What some people feel is that VD looks to be delivering a type of game that many of us have missed for years now. This design philosphy has been supported by numerous examples/screenshots/the "let's play AoD thread" etc. You can of course point out that hey, maybe he's lying or whatever. But from where I stand, I'd rather put my faith in someone who is completely new to the industry and looks to be excited by the same things in games that I am, than someone like Peter Molyneux who has a history of telling lies and delivering crappy games. Furthermore, he is clearly interested in involving the community to get feedback and ideas. I suspect many feel that he would actually post the feedback on the combat demo from Annie Carlson and Brian Mitsoda (both of which were harsh on many things) is quite clearly the fact that he wants to be open about his game. Because it's definetely not a "PR piece" that you get fed from most other developers (with a publisher attached at any rate). The above examples doesn't tell whether it'll be a good or bad game in the end of course. But again, I'd rather put my faith in someone new who's trying to push the buttons I want pushed. The mainstream gaming industry have sure done a terrible job of supplying me with games I want to play, so it seems to me natural that I would turn to someone who is trying something different. If it turns out to be crap, then so be it. I'll be more reserved the next time they make a game, just as with any other developer.

It's a really tough battle, that's for sure. The Herald also gains some resistances and stuff depending on the difficulty level (I play on hardcore). I've played the game a few times now, and I always have to reload at least twice on this battle. First time through it took me quite a few tries. This time, my Warlock/Hellfire Warlock turned out to to be the saviour. First for taking out the dudes on the sides, and also using "Summon Baatezu", just to get more manpower (the summons are pretty powerful as well). My party was about to go down against the Herald, but I activated the Hellfire Blast ability on the Warlock and the increased damage saved the day. I love the entire dungeon and final area of the game, think they are very well designed both visually and gameplay-wise (sneaking through ftw!).

Finally found the time to play and finish up a Storm of Zehir save I had lying around.

Yep, King of Dragon Pass is awesome. Also, I guess it's sorta well known but it always seems to be overlooked... But the first Tropico is a fantastic little city builder. And the soundtrack is one of the best evar.

Yep, Deionarra is not a very fleshed out character. That's fine, because you can have a good character anyways. Her purpose is to provide somewhat of a window in the Nameless One's past. The stuff that is touching about Deionarra is not her (because again, we don't particularly get to know anything about her), but the Nameless One himself and his past actions. How cruel he (that particular incarnation) could be, and how messed up his "life" is. And just how much impact his curse has had on not only himself, but other people also. But yeah, she was pulled of well.

Here's some stuff that talks about, well... not graphics. Small interview: http://thereticule.com/2009/08/doublebear-...-and-the-bears/ Another interview/article: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/...ious-Zombie-RPG And a topic discussing one of the game elements at their forums. Apparantly, noise will be an important factor in the game: http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php?topic=990.0

Discworld 1 was a blast, really fun game. One of my favourite adventure games.

The Last Express is an excellent game.

Blergh, not really a fan of "ubermode" or Veteran. Recruit sounds like it could be fun, but why does it have to be unlockable? Oh well. Cool that they give more dialogue options.

The Zork remake is goddamn kickass, really well done. Also, if you like it, the entire Dark Waters campaign is completed (three chapters). Fate of a City was quite good. A bit to much running back and forth, but there were some nice consequences to your decisions. The Conan Chronicles (3 chapters) are really good. And despite what you may think, it's not a hack and slash thing. There are plenty of opportunities for a Rogue to shine for example. It's a lot of fun. I haven't tried it myself, but the Hunt in the Dark mod remake is generally liked. And the sequel called Loltwanchi just got released to too long ago. Asphyxia was pretty good as well.

Not that I'm aware of no.

So what makes videogames so different from a game like chess that makes you excuse the crude look in one but not the other? Sure I know what a graphics whore is. I know very well of the Crysis graphics-whoreisms. But Crysis is also a game that actively made its graphics part of the PR, part of the hype, part of the experience. It was very obviously a design goal to make players cry tears of joy the closer when they managed to turn one more graphics setting up a notch without their computer exploding. But yep, if AoD turns out to be a great roleplaying game with great depth and gameplay, why would one care about its graphics? When you look at the screens of AoD, what is it about them that makes the game simply *unplayable* for you? I don't understand why you need good graphics to enjoy a game that have excellent gameplay and so on and forth. Please explain. I'm sure Iron Tower hopes to make some money out of it. And hell, Spiderweb Software has managed to squeeze out game after game, and those games look a lot worse than Age of Decadence. And I've seen people outside of the places you mention saying that they're very interested in buying it in comments to interviews and whatnot. I mean Jesus, it's not like Alpha Protocols forum sees enormous use, and that's a freakin' triple AAA title with 120 hours of voiceacting recorded for it. is that enough to say that the game will sell or not?

To think that the OEI forums is such a nest of graphics whores. Shame on you people, SHAME! Seriously, why the hell would you even give a damn about the graphics? It's not a game that is about blowing you away with its visuals. Do you also complain about chess, because the chess pieces just aren't detailed enough? Or that the board's black and white squares are just totally unimmersive and oh god I just can't play this... it's just too ugly? How have your eyes become oh-so-delicate, that you would complain about a low-budget independent project's graphics? Where you born and raised by supermodels, teaching you to only look at appearances and ignore the inside? Do you stare at the sun and think "oh hell yeah, that's sum awesome HDR lighting right there wohoo!"?

According to VD, they've gotten quite a few offers from publishers actually (one of which was close to be signed). But then again he must be lying because he is VD amirite. Anyways, this game should be intriguing and thank god it's not using the source engine.