Starwars

So just caught this on RPGWatch, and I think it sounds great. It's not a "pure" RPG, but a curious mix of citybuilding and RPG. The developer (Tilted Mill) have made Children of the Nile and Caesar IV in the past, and are now going indie with this game. It will be available for download next month or so (!), and will cost $20. Check the official site: http://www.tiltedmill.com/hinterland/ And a mini Q&A: http://fidgit.com/archives/2008/07/tilted-...ut-into-the.php As someone who loves both citybuilding and RPGs, I will definetely be keeping me eye on this one. And a fresh move to announce the game so close to its release.

Yeah, it was mainly cause I just asked him about it. They mentioned that Storm of Zehir would be shown so I just asked about Alpa Protocol and Aliens as well. Still, an "announcement" here on which games would be shown wouldn't be a bad idea at any rate methinks. Anyways, I'm sure the previews will turn up at any rate, heh.

Replaying Fallout 1 and just finished the Glow, which for some reason I haven't done my most recent playthroughs. Had kinda forgotten how great the atmosphere there is, one of the greatest dungeons (if it can be called that) I know of. The atmosphere is spooky, and generally spectacular. And hey, I remembered to pack my anti-rads to! Still remember the very first time I went there, dying of radiation after playing chess with Zax.

To the Oblivion players. For a Fallout game... Still, I like a good beard.

The best news of the interview for me was the screenshot of the Bar. Very moody I thought. I know some griped about the actual graphical quality, but I can't say I give a damn. The mood is near perfect for me. The rest was not encouraging for me though. While I think it's pretty informative, there were nothing in there that I would particularly qualify as good news (well, AI is supposedly better but that is pretty much the least of my expectations so...). Especially the bit about dungeons being "common" now is... disheartening I feel. A dungeon is of course not necessarily bad (The Glow comes to mind), but if they're common, then I suspect there will be plenty corridor-shooting. Traits/perks is not the end of the world for me, but yet another change that I feel is totally unnecessary and lowers the overall bar just a bit more yet again. The bit about skills affecting damage more and not aiming as much makes me wonder how bigger and more powerful/damaging weapons will be handled vs smaller guns. Considering how Oblivion is balanced I'm quite honestly expecting the worst. Still feel that jamming these skills-sets into a firstperson game will be an excercise in frustration and the wrong way to go about it. Nice of them to answer questions in an informative way though. But yeah, not much good news for me I fear.

The thing that kinda bothers me about all this, is that I actually found the news of moving to the East Coast a great move (one of the first newsbits released I think) as I thought it could allow Bethesda to excercise creativity there (as well as don't worry to much about not breaking lore). Of course I was also hoping that they were gonna keep gameplay more similar to the older games. But now they're dragging these factions over from the West Coast to the East Coast, and I think it'll be a rather hard thing to swallow.

Yeah, and even I feel cartoonish is stretching it a bit. Still, personally when I look at the screenies and gameplay, I don't feel it looks like much like Diablo. Even so, one should keep in mind that I haven't played the game in a long time. And the art people even said at the panel that they themselves had remembered Diablo quite differently than how it actually looked. Especially when it came to the colors. This picture shows kinda what I'm talking about, though it is not exactly spot on (it's also not my manipulation). I would prefer something more akin to the lower picture, but like I said. My memory might be skewed as well.

This is a great topic, and I was reminded of it since I'm now replaying PS:T, hah. But, I also replayed MotB not to long ago, which is also a game with some great writing. Something I think works great in MotB is motivation. I actually played a character that "fell to evil" through NWN2 and MotB, and that is something I've never done in another game as far as I can remember. I've never done that kind of character arc, but it just really worked in MotB. After saving Faerun in NWN2, only to be repaid by dead companions, and this *new* problem... This curse that has now been forcibly pushed upon you by another. It just works so well. The main moment that stands out in MotB is the conversation with Myrkul. What a delighful moment that is. Not only is the dialogue wonderful in itself, but the other elements come together. A unique and great voice, a *wonderful* setting for the whole conversation (speaking with a dead god upon his own corpse while floating through the Astral Plane, great stuff) and a haunting soundtrack. I admire Obsidian for having the guts to put such a huge conversation in the game. It really is quite lengthy, especially if you have Kaelyn with you. Like the guy who did the famous KOTOR2 LP said, most developers would not put such huge emphasis on a conversation in the story, instead putting a boss encounter of some kind. But Obsidian trusts in its great writing here, and it pays off so well. PS:T has once again drawn me in, despite me having replayed it quite a few times. In combination with the absolutely awesome writing, it really is the breaking of clich

They have definetely said that they're paying more attention to 3rd person, but I also remember a preview that said it still really sucked. Can't remember which one it was though. First person is definetely the primary perspective though.

Leonard Boyarsky speaks here, together with the art director: http://www.gamespot.com/video/930659/61931...ent-art-panel-1 Pretty interesting stuff, and they actually adress directly what I was complaining about above. Interesting views, and I think I'm gonna replay the games and see if I find what they're speaking of is true. They really do an *excellent* job of presenting the game though. How I wish more developers did it like this.

I never got into D2 at all, I just felt it lacked that truly apocalyptic horror-ish atmosphere that Diablo 1 had in spades. I should try replaying it sometime though.

Maybe art isn't what I'm thinking of, but so far it's actually the mood and overall graphical look of the game that I don't feel jives well with the older games. I think we *do* see that cartoony look (though not to the same degree) from Warcraft 3 in the gameplay video. I think the graphics would do very well if they were a bit less colorful, and a lot darker really. More depressing basically. One of the boons of Diablo (well, Diablo 1 at least, I can't really remember Diablo 2 at the moment) was that I found it to be actually quite creepy despite the whole isometric view. That scary edge is missing completely from the gameplay video I think, even though the game still seems beautiful on its own. I also hope it won't be *to* over-the-top. Again, Diablo is hack'n'slash action but I felt the whole atmosphere and general creepyness really raised the game to a higher level Other than that, it seems like it's pretty spot-on in how it follows the older games, and the gameplay looks fun. The *addition* of more roleplaying, without taking away the heavy combat/hack'n'slash seems great. It's been mentioned elsewhere, but it's funny to see how Blizzard treats it sequels when compared to Fallout 3.

No, they did say somewhere (though of course I can't remember where at the moment, but I am sure I of it) that we *could* make it into epic levels, but not necessarily.

Level 3 is fine by me, and perhaps suggests that our party will have had *some* simple experience rather than being ultimate n00bs just starting out. But then again, exp gain is rather borked in a lot of RPGs. In fact, I really hope that the exp gain won't feel to fast, and the fact that we can make it into epic levels have me a bit worried. I only hope that is due a lot of explorable content, and not just the standard "omg xp booooost!!11" that we see in many cRPGs. I suspect it will be a mix of both though. The fact that they said on the Bioware forums that it will be more low-magic is good though, as I think the lack of uber magic items all over the place might really damper that feel of your character getting uber powerful in way to short a time.

I also agree with that. Though I like I said, I also do enjoy more story-heavy games, but I do not enjoy this trend of story being the generally most important ingredient. And yeah, the strength of RPG gameplay for me was indeed the whole tactical, slowerpaced type. It's still odd to me that developers try so hard to mash the whole stat thing together with a more action-based approach. I really think that approach loses the best of both approaches, and often becomes a lesser thing. Neither tactical enough, nor adrenalinefilled enough. Mass Effect was a good example of this for me. Yes, the combat works and flows pretty smoothly, but it is oh-so-unfilfilling for the most part. I am really glad though that we at least start out at a low level in this game. While I still enjoyed the combat in MotB a lot more than NWN2, it was mostly due to the encounters being set up in a more fun way. I found it quite hard to manage everything due to the epic levels, and while I can appreciate the crazy amount of destruction that goes on when all spells are being fired off, it can also be immensely confusing. I've never liked realtime w pause that much but if the developer makes enough effort of providing encounters that are fun and varied, it can still work quite well.

Most likely because there is a generation of players brought up on Bioware games from BG2 and forward, who thinks RPGs first and foremost needs to have a huge story, involving characters and romances to choke the player with. They could never see what would be the appeal of the games you mentioned, or even games such as Fallout and Darklands (which have also been mentioned as inspirations). I think many people who like RPGs actually don't like the gameplay of them very much (which I guess would be a reason why RPGs are moving into action-based territory), and would prefer something where they can be on autopilot until the next grand cutscene occurs. That said, I enjoy Biowares games also, and found something like MotB to be truly excellent. But I would love a game that doesn't put the story on the forefront, and instead try to have better gameplay and more reactivity to the player and his choices. I really hope SoZ will deliver that.

Depending on when this interview was conducted, I would naturally guess Alpha Protocol and Storm of Zehir. Still, haven't heard anything else about his immediate involvement with SoZ (though as I understand it, he does oversee all of Obsidians projects), but it would be welcome to see his writing again. Thanks for posting the interview. I'm afraid that many of his changes in the "How would you do Torment today?" would lessen the game for me. I think I enjoy extremes in games. There's nothing wrong with wanting to improve the combat system obviously, but if that, coupled with more fights, would take away attention from the rest of the game (which is what makes this game a practically unique jewel and truly memorable) I suspect it would just be a less interesting game to me.

I agree Krezack. And despite my own feelings on this game, I just have this nagging feeling that Alpha Protocol will not manage to strike through into the mainstream (like Biowares games do for example) in the way Obsidian would likely want it to. I think Obsidian makes games that are generally a lot more interesting than Biowares, but the mainstream/gaming media opinion of Obsidian is not like that. While KOTOR2 and NWN2 got good reviews if I recall correctly, the mainstream world seems to remember them as games that were buggy and that didn't live up to their predecessors. While Alpha Protocol is a unique IP, I think the many similarities with Mass Effect will end up hurting the reception of game and the companys reputation yet again. I said this on the Codex as well, I just have a gut feeling that it won't be a very popular game. It might still be a great game on its own, but since it also seems to be aiming more for a mainstream audience, it really needs to hit its mark so to speak.

Hm, when they start talking about the choices in the game, like who might die and live, the appearantly dizzying dialogue trees and the writing it's hard to not get excited. But I have to say that I'm rather skeptical of gameplay choices like the combat system and dialogue system. Bringing action-y combat is always a problem for me, because I feel the balance is nearly always off. Mass Effects combat for example was fun for a minute, but after that you realize you need minimum skills in both shooting and "RPG strategizing". It works well in how it flows, but it's really, really unfulfilling. Alpha Protocol seems to have the added boon of having more ways to tackle things though, which is welcome. But if the combat/enemy interaction focus is sort of not so deep, action-y and generally light then it I believe it will be yet another game that I will have to enjoy despite the combat. Hopefully I'll be proven wrong though. Dialogue system is also something I'm wary about after having played Mass Effect. Yes, it's all nice and stuff at how cinematic you can get conversations to look, but for me it also serves to seperate me from the actual gameplay. And even moreso, when it turns out that the different dialogue choices tend to flow incredibly weirdly in the context of the conversation. Like having a seemingly calm conversation, and I want to put a little more pressure into it by using the Renegade option, and suddenly Shepard waves his gun in the face of the NPC being very threatening. I really hope stuff like that can be avoided, because it not only does a disservice to me the player (as I had no idea that Shepard would start waving his gun around and I'd like to think that I, as the player, would be the one controlling the action), it also doesn't flow well when keeping in mind the cinematic nature on the conversations. I do welcome the fact that we only get to have a certain conversation once though.

One of the devs also mentioned on the Codex that there will be some form of party screen that will supposedly be accesible at certain points in the game, where you can create and add new characters if you wish. I'm guessing you will have some sort of "roster" like the OC when you leave the Sunken Flagon, where you'll be able to pick from your created characters as well as any characters you might pick up through the game. Even though the pre-placed characters in this won't be as "important" as the ones in the OC and MotB, I think I'll try to focus on them on my first playthrough to get a feel for their personalities and such. But the custom party creation is awesome for replayability, especially since NWN2 is really quite massive in terms of races and classes already. I just hope that there really are a lot of challenging encounters to be had in the game. I do wish we got a party of 6 though.

Happy Birthday! Cake at the office today?

What I generally don't like about romances is that they often feel like a design element that *is* sort of integral to the storyline of that particular character if a lot of time was spent on it. Or it's like in NWN2 where it's... strange on how these people offer yourself to you. And I find myself often running into the whole romance thing, despite not wanting it. The worst offender was when I played Jade Empire with a female character, and that male romance guy ended up kissing my character, and I really had *no* idea that I had supposedly romanced him. I thought I had been generally nice, but I guess I had gone over the line somewhere. It was quite the WTF moment. And of course we can turn these people down when they come to your character and say "Um... you're so special to me", but the thing is that it quite often feels like you're shutting down most of that characters development if you choose to turn them down. If there was more interesting content for turning people down, then it wouldn't be so much of a problem for me. But it's still effort I'd like to see put into other aspects of the game/characters.

I would really like time limits in the game where they make sense, and I think it could add a great deal of reactivity and reality to the gameworld (which would fit in well with the more non-linear structure this seems to be taking on). However, I wonder if they're gonna do something like that after the backlash they got on the Spirit Eater mechanics. I loved it myself, but it doesn't seem to be a very popular device... To the point where it works against the game even. Everywhere I go to spread the word on how great MotB is, there is bound to be people complaining about how the Spirit Meter is teh hard!11 and how they only play RPGs to go around and smell flowers. I would really like it though. At any rate, I really do hope that there will be resting restrictions of some kind. I guess at the very least they'll bring in the MotB resting system where you can be awakened by enemies.

Adam Miller is a strange mod developer to me. On one hand, the stuff he does for his mods is pretty crazy based on...well, just what he's doing with the engine. Like the crazy custom GUIs in Dark Waters 2, and the fact that there's basically a Pirates! system in there, and it actually *works*. Just wth. And Lute Hero is just an insane thing to attempt. Haven't tried it yet though. On the other hand, I also think his mods leave something to be desired as a whole. Still, it's always fun to see what he comes up with.

Still playing Mass Effect, tried to do some of those sidequests/planet exploration and it nearly killed any excitment I had for the game. The whole Mako bit is just awful, why in the world would they include that... Urgh. Kinda wish I had just stuck with the main quest, it feels like I lost a lot of my interest in the game now, heh. Still, will continue on tonight.