Jump to content

Morgoth

Members
  • Posts

    10009
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    11

Everything posted by Morgoth

  1. I just installed IWD2 again, and now I'm curious how exactly the process was in creating these beautiful areas for the IE games. Is it all hand-painted/Scanned/Photoshoped (if yes, how did you get all these photorealistic details into it? Inclusive Ligthing/Shadows) or is it 3D art, then rendered (if yes, how the hell did you manage it to complete it in that century?). And then the characters... I suppose those were created as a fully 3D detailed model and then you rendered frame for frame, till you got an animation, right? It was never really clear to me how 2D games were made, so any insights from the veterans who worked on the IE games are welcome! Thanks.
  2. Scores? I don't see any scores here.
  3. No, if you would read the text, you would know that this isn't a review. I just shared some impressions, and probably will write down a review when the Extended version gets released.
  4. Strategic options? Uhmm not really. Combat isn't the strength of this game anyway, and the battle I had with the wolfs wasn't anything special. You pause the game, select your weapon, select the enemy, unpause, look what happens. But it was quite boring. No battle screams, weak weapon sounds, no splatter, jerky animations....meh. There're 5 difficulty levels, I started with normal. Although it's supposed to be easy in that level, the wolfs were quite a hard nut. Or I just didn't care too much. And I already said that the interface is nothing special. You activate the items directly in the inventory (a'la Gothic2) and then make use of it. But I didn't get the chance to exchange some stuff with a merchant. But there're plenty of screenshots that shows you the interface. Edit: Did I say no battle screams? LOL how should I know when I turned off the VO? Maybe there're some, but that won't change anything. Yes, NWN had blocky characters, but Bio did a relatively good job to let them look quite good. The animations there are much better too. If you thought NWN has a static world, oh boy, prepare what you awaits in TF. Everything there just looks and behaves ugly. But maybe they make new animations for the Extended Version? And yes, NWN had a thousand time better art direction than TF, and that matters to me certainly. I wasn't expecting a game that could be compared with the big boys, neither did I expect such an unpolished Beta software. In the current state it just makes no fun, and I doubt the Extended Version could change that. I can live without VO, but the dialogs, characters, story is something very essential to me, and when TF doesn't manage it to keep my interest up from the beginning, it's just a sign of bad design.
  5. Yes, I've installed 1.6.5 plus Beta 1.7. Does that solve a lot of problems? According to the Bugfix list, yes. I even heard that the retail version couldn't be started on some Ati Radeon cards. Well, now I can run it (but with choppy framerates.... and yes, my machine can even run Bloodlines smoothly! And there're also some strange graphical artifacts... seems like the Mip Mapping doesn't work properly). Anyway, it still feels very unpolished. No, I was really looking forward to play this game, so there was no negative bias in advance. Here again, maybe, just maybe the game has some strengths, but then why does it piss me off from the beginning? Even Gothic2 or Arcanum with their slow starts kept me up to try harder till I got rewarded with more involvement into the world, but TF fails in that regard. It's just bad design.
  6. Yes it will. Silver Style is still working on getting the "Extended Version" out of the doors (supposedly end of April). The Extended Version (which equals with v 1. will have two new areas (and quests), new speech in HQ, new portraits, some better graphics here and there, ton's of new features, bugfixes etc. That is what Carsten Strehse (the guru of SS) promised. After that I think they'll put their efforts into the English/NA releases. Ohh, and there's already an Addon in the works. When the "Extended Version" content gets released, I'll give it a shot again, and should I somehow find some joy in it, I'll write down a real review again.
  7. God's gift??? Haahhhaaaa.... The God of Boredom perhaps, yes.
  8. Today I received my copy of TF I've acquired at Ebay for a relatively cheap price, so I thought I should share some of my impressions with you, but be warned: I only played ~45 min because I couldn't stand it any longer, which already concludes that the game must suck, and that, Ladys and Gents, is indeed the case. If that suffices, good, otherwise go ahead for the longer version of my rant. Let's begin with tech stuff a'la Graphics/Sound: Graphics: When I first started the game, I experienced the unpleasant Choppy-Shock-Effect I only remember back from Ultima 9. After some sacrifices (turn off the shadows completely!) the game ran better, but still with choppy framerates. Anyway, I'm not impressed. Although the houses and other geometry are highly detailed and the textures mostly hi-res, everything is static. The characters look like and move like wood puppets (and your PC moves like he pissed into the pants), there're no facial expressions, just ugly painted textures on a rough head. And with the silly looking portraits and the general bad art direction, this game does not do a good job in immersing you into the game world. I think Silver Style have done an overall bad job in that regard. Voice Overs: The German Version has fully Voice overed dialogs, but most of them sound out of place and boring. I guess they just hired bums instead of professional voice actors. They're also recorded in LQ and have a subtle tin like reverberation....maybe it's the air? (but then they should sound like Mickey Mouse! (w00t) ) Also, I don't like the fact that all of those wood puppets are babbling with Berliner dialect when the setting is supposed to take place somewhere in the Southern-West USA. But the good thing is you can turn the speech off! Sound: Solid, but nothing special. I wished they could have used more sound sources, but otherwise you hear that what you'd expect from a PA setting: Howling wind, thunders from the far, some crickets... Music: Not bad, but again, nothing special. Fallout music was better, it added a certain hazardous note to the already hazardous atmosphere, whereas TF uses a more Tribal kind direction. If that didn't already discourage you, then read along and get a taste of the worse things a'la Controls/Combat: Controls: Similar to NWN. Your PC is centered in the middle, and with the mouse wheel you can zoom, and moving you cursor to the side of the screen let you rotate the cam, and moving the mouse on the top/bottom alters the cam angle. Still, NWN's control scheme feels more polished, whereas in TF I always spend too much time to get the angle into a right position. Not a good thing, but I guess when you play longer you should get used to it. Interface: Well, a right mouse click onto your ugly portrait opens the inventory, which is pretty standard. There're the slots where you can carry everything from ammo, weapons, food, armor... you get the idea. When you click onto a weapon in the inventory, it's activated. No drag & drop a'la NWN. The interaction with the environment is pretty simple too, just hold down RM, and you get some options like collecting items, unlock doors etc. Combat: Well, I only fought one battle with some wolfs. Hitting Space pauses the game, select your enemy and then shoot stuff. That is all I can tell you so far... Oh, and it didn't make any fun at all! I miss SPECIAL and the splatter effects from Fallout. So, what's about Story/Role Playing? Character Creation: Well, you choose a portrait, Intro plays, game starts....wait, what's about character creation? That is something you do after ~5 min of gameplay. After you walk into the village with the hanging down minibus which indicates "New Government", you walk down the street to a crowd and experience first hand how a guy gets beheaded with a good old style scaffold. After that, the so called President makes a speech through a loudspeaker, namely how necessary it is to deal with the trouble makers and so on... the crowd thinks the new government is great and everybody is satiesfied and goes back to do their usual business. Aha. Well, so after talking to the President (who looks like a clown), you can assign to work for him as a mercenary and fill out a document where you now can give yourself a name, nationality, a special characteristic (a'la tall, or ugly) and of course putting your points into 6 available attributes and 14 skills (almost all the same as in Fallout). There's also a special signing box a'la "Herewith you agree that your body may be used as food after you die". Nice, but probably useless. Story/Quests/Roleplaying: Uh oh, now that's the more difficult part to describe, what could I tell you when I only played around 45 min? Let's start with the Intro: It's a very nice done CG movie, that takes place somewhere in a biosphere. You see a white haired woman (probably scientist) having a conversation with a white haired girl (drawing some ugly pictures). After some standard blabla, the girl asks what the word "Courage" means. And that is where you come into place. Seems like you're searching for your father and sister who got captured by a gang of villains, and after the camera moves into the girls freaky eyes, you see your PC standing in front of the before mentioned "New Government". Nice. But after that, I only had the chance to do "Get to guy A and talk to him, then guy A tells you to go to guy B and so forth" things. Also, the tutorial in the camp was very boring. It might be possible that the story gets unleashed to a later point, but right now, I didn't feel to continue the game, because there was just no point in doing that. NPC's/Role-Playing: Pretty bad. As mentioned before, the NPC's do not only look like wood puppets, I think they are wood puppets. The dialogs aren't really interesting written (choices are pretty limited too, sometimes it's just an endless to and fro clickfest until you get another dialog choice, which just means that you can end the dialog). But hey, maybe that changes when you delve deeper into the game (which I won't). Your party members are...well, don't expect anything deep, in fact, I think they're just robots. No, that would be an insult. Even that silly Czerka Droid in Kotor2 had more personality than all NPC's together I met in the game. Conclusion: Although it's not really fair to give a judgement in a so early gameplay process, TF does at least a good job in telling you "I'm boring!!! Don't play me!". Yes, that's it. I just couldn't stand it anymore, so I quit and uninstalled it. Maybe I'll re-install it again when the free update to the "Extended version" gets released, but I think that won't change the "heart" of the game at all. All other RPGs I played managed it at least to introduce the player to the world and give him/her some reasons to delve further into it, but TF feels more like a Beta software (technically) and has A) a very slow and uninspired start and poor Morgoth didn't give it a real chance or B) just sucks throughout in almost every aspect. Take your pick, I suggest you stay away from it, unless you have no taste and think boring games rock!
  9. Nope, I avoid WWII Shooters generally, neither do I look for the Squad-based gameplay in RC (which I think is pretty underdeveloped, but I don't mind it). No, I can't really describe what made the RC demo so enjoyable to me... I feel the force is very strong in it. I think I better draw back and ask Master Yoda whether he can give me some advice what to do next...
  10. Alrighty, thanks. Unfortunately, I just learned that the German Version does not have these Extras. <_< Damn. I thought the demo was so cool that I'm currently thinking about a purchase, but damn, I also heard that it's so
  11. One question: Are the Extras in any way interesting, or is it just one of those "nice, but useless" thingies? And how many Extras are there, and does it depend on the game's difficulty how much get unlocked?
  12. Wow, 15 hours into the game? You really must like it then...
  13. You as a consumer, Hades, have the choice to buy the game or not. There's no need to play the faultfinder here and give the devs some kind of awkward threats, I mean, let them first get the job done, then you can point out that you're pissed off if the game doesn't appeal to you.
  14. Who do you think you are, a judge on that matter?
  15. FFv3R doesn't look worse than FF1, you better go to a doctor and check your eyes. And no, FF is not a RPG, but still a very kewl game worth getting it.
  16. Why didn't they just licenced Bio's Aurora Engine instead of that wacky Lithtech?
  17. I thought you acquired a Xbox for 100 bucks a while ago? Anyway, I guess I'll have to wait for the PC version, if there won't be a PC version, I will survive (I think ).
  18. That's because there're still no games available using UE3? An engine doesn't "produce" substance, that's still the job of the creative minds working on the game. But the best idea is worth nothing if you can't realize it with proper technology. Ohh, and when we're at substance: Even you admitted that you've enjoined Deus Ex, a game that, without any doubt, has substance. But hey, just go over to the Bioware Boards and lecture the devs that they will fail of delivering substance due to the usage of UE3...I'm sure you'll make an ass out of yourself there (again). Good Luck!
  19. Gothic 2 is one of the worse CRPGs I have played. Sorry, you are not selling me on the basis of the Gothic series. :puke: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I don't sell you anything. And your taste in CRPGs has nothing to do with the fact what can be done with Unreal Technology.
  20. Woahh, now that sounds really crappy. I thought the German version was pretty good written (and voice overed), but I feel pity for those who have to bear this crappy translation. Anyway, if you can stand it, I suggest you delve deeper into the game, I know it doesn't appeal at the beginning, but the game has it's qualities (read above: immersion).
  21. Nothing beats the original Unreal and UT when it comes to the Unreal franchise. I never really cared about the sequels. @Hades: You're talking nonsense, read again what the UE3 is capable of. Just because the Engine is from a company that only makes FPS doesn't mean the engine is only appropriate for FPS. There're plenty non-FPS games out there using Unreal Technology, even Gothic 1 uses parts of that. And with the seamless map transitions in UE3, things can only get better. I for one am happy about Bio's purchase of the UE3.
  22. Whatever Bio makes with the UE3, I suspect some really hefty hardware requirements.
  23. Sorry to disappoint you, but last time I heard RPGs are still about interactive storytelling. Anyway, you can continue ranting about K2, or you better just contact LA and ask them nicely whether they'd be so kind to remaster the movies just for you. Oh, and don't forget to transfer the $$$$$ to their appropriate account. Good luck!
×
×
  • Create New...