Drowsy Emperor

I was bored to tears by Shin Megami Tensei games and ended up quitting each and every one of them. JRPG's are such a dated gameplay design its a wonder japan hasn't become bored of them. In western RPGs things at least shift around, even if its not always for the better.

Grimrock unlocks in a few minutes and I've got my graph paper ready :D

Its only old because its well established.

There you go: http://www.eurogamer...-age-3-concepts The presentation: When I see these ex-trekkie cosplaying trash fanatics fans I yearn for the days when this hobby was about solitary nerds in basements.

I think its a case of (too) high expectations. Blockbusters are there to be watched for all the pretty explosions, sudden plot twists, stock characters and stock drama. In depth analysis just shows how nothing really makes sense which is natural because its all about style, the oooohs and aaaahs. If ME3 had a better ending you would have all gobbled it up and never mentioned all the ridiculous stuff in the series as a whole. Now that the illusion of consistency in the experience is ruined, everything is suddenly a problem. But the real problem, I think, is wanting a more meaningful, in-depth experience from a game that never offered such a thing.

Apparently the primary source of food are chopped up monsters, so I don't think we're gonna starve any time soon. Pre-ordered at developers website. That way you get both a stand alone installer and a steam key.

I don't like it either, but since there was no mention of it in the two reviews that we've had so far its probably safe to assume that food won't be much of a problem. Either there's enough of it to go around or the bar depletes really slow.

Most likely. Updating and clearing up the code should make the game even easier to mod, no?

I don't believe its that good, but I sure as hell am playing it. What's wrong with a food bar?

Zoom. That one I really don't get. I mean, it would be useful if there were lots of hidden detail in the backdrops that could be brought out by zoom, as with looking at a 18 MP photo, but it isn't like that. It's like looking at a 1 MP photo on a 1280x720 monitor. You can zoom in all you like, if you find big pixels wonderful. Don't know why you'd want to zoom out further given that BG already has a decent area map and at any modern res stuff is already small. Seems pretty much entirely like them trying to tie the conversion to OpenGL (which is very useful for things like ARM given their relatively weak performance relative to desktop) into something practical for PC. I'm not implacably opposed to the whole project but I am deeply skeptical, mainly because the hype has so far been perfectly balanced to trigger my hmmm? detector on multiple angles. BG3 teasing. Inconsequential (for PC) engine tweaking. Lots of vague promises with almost nothing concrete. At the moment it looks like everything has been done primarily for the purpose of getting it working on iPad despite constant comments about how important the PC is. Basically, I'm not enthusiastic because they've given me no reason to be enthusiastic. That could change if they release more than vague promises but for now I see no reason for excitement, and no reason to buy a game I already own again. Now I don't know how the end product is going to look but working zoom is a pretty big feature for me, for the following reasons: 1. at 1680*1050 the game looks very pretty but the characters, portraits, and text are tiny to the point that its not practical to play that way. The small circular perspective of the characters doesn't look good on a large map covered with the fog of war - because it was not intended to be played like that. 2. at lesser resolutions the game looks like crap stretched all over the screen So if the characters and environments are sharp on my native resolution (and don't distort) while zoomed in I'm satisfied. I'm assuming maximum zoom in will be limited to 640x480 size except you'll be able to see more of the game world obviously, so blocky pixels won't be an issue. Especially if they do improve the rendering as promised. As for zoom out, I assume it will be limited to the native resolution or something, although it obviously doesn't have to be.

They're all correct, except that Gaider and Bioware have let narrative take up too much space in their games at the expense of everything else. If it was really good stuff like PST you could claim its necessary and a part of the experience, but when its 10 minutes of cinematics for every 3 minutes of gameplay in which all the characters spout predictable lines straight out of a Marvel comic, its just a waste of space.

Epic fantasy versions of Gilles de Rais? I seriously hope the people at Bioware aren't aware of the story.

It sounds like Overlord for the most part.

Hat-trick! All those games own.

My only worry is the summer release date, which seems too soon for substantial improvements. Then again, I'm not a game designer.

1. I suppose it helps them work the UI and whatnot, but its all under the hood stuff so why do we care? 2. They are adding an unspecified number of new areas and quests, new music and one more NPC. 3. I did see something about restored cut material but I don't remember where, so its an open question. 4. We'll just have to ask them. There will be new difficulty settings most likely. 5. Probably not. We have to ask them. 6. Probably impossible. Why would you want to do that, the environment wouldn't be seamless and some parts would be pretty nonsensical? "Travel" between locations is implied and part of the original design. 7. There will be no achievements. Beginning tutorials will be reworked to make them more friendly for new players.

Absolutely impossible. As far as I can hypothesize, the engine doesn't support maps bigger than a certain number of tiles in length and width (even if maps aren't made of tiles, there are still limitations, there always were in the old games), and even if it did, you'd have to rewrite half the game, because most scripts are attached to areas they exist in, for example "upon first entry, do this", etc. If you were to merge areas, you'd have to merge scripts, rewrite most of them under new rules, some of them would conflict, you'd have to go through all of them and rewrite so many things, it'd be almost like making half a game from scratch. Besides, what's the loading time with modern specs and an SSD? I don't see what your problem is. A number of technical tweaks would be possible though, for example: to get factions reworked. If you suddenly become hostile with shadow thieves, the ones who are on another floor shouldn't know it. Or line of sight tweaks. And other tweaks... I'm sure they could also ask the community for other good ideas, be it technical or story tweaks/changes/features. Yet they don't ask for anything but your money. Actually when I asked them if I could do anything to help, he (one of the devs) said to keep reading the updates and that they'll be asking for our (as in the players) assistance at some point. He didn't say what it would be about.

Okay, would you now give a suggestion or is that going to remain some faint expectation that the game inevitably fails to meet? The way I see it, we could bitch all day long about how these evil money sucking developers are trying to trick us all into buying a decade old game again or we could draw up a list of stuff we want to see done and fixed, make sure they get it - and see what they do with it. It costs nothing, I'll even do the leg work of writing up and sending the email on behalf of the "jaded fans loitering at Obsidian forums" - all you have to do is supply the grief.

AP is the bestest game ever!

Nice dodge bud, but no. I'm not doing the legwork for you (much less on Twitter. Ugh!). I was simply curious whether you really knew any actual details about the new build beyond "ZOMG mousewheel zoom!" or just buying into the hype. Shame it's the latter. Actually I do know some stuff, but your tone is routinely equal parts irritating and condescending so I have no real reason to share it with you. Please don't lose any sleep over it.

the marketing point was difficulty, but that's not what makes the game good. The only good thing about the difficulty is that it forces you to pay attention to what you are playing, which gives you the time to really notice all the great things about the game because you aren't rushing through it. Combat System: the game has possibly the best combat design of any action game i've ever played. You must be precise, methodical, and know when to strike and when to block or dodge. its not fast like devil may cry or ninja gaiden, its slow and all your moves have real weight behind them. animation and hit detection are excellent, but its the thoughtfulness and timing of the combat system that sets it above other action games. leveling up has a minimal effect on your ability to defeat enemies, it mostly comes down to how good you are at fighting. having better equipment means you can make a mistake (maybe just 1) and keep fighting, and having better weapons means the enemy will take a few less hits. but no matter what, almost any enemy can kill you, and every boss will take 2-5 tries to defeat before you learn its weaknesses and how to attack it. Art Direction: dark, moody, frightening, gothic. AAA art design in every sense of the word, from enemies to armor to the environments themselves, the game is among the best in the last decade. i wish the game had a god mode cheat just for players who don't like hard games to be able to wander around and enjoy how atmospheric the game is. Level Design: fantastic, on par with the best metroid and castlevania games, if not quite reaching the heights of Ocarina of Time. the more you play the more you will appreciate the care and attention that went into building the world. it makes corridor games and most modern games in general look like the work of lazy children. not everything about the game is good though: the difficulty level spikes dramatically when you get about 2/3 through the game. it was hard enough at the beginning, but i actually got to a point where i could get to 3 different bosses, but couldn't kill any of them even after several tries. I wish this game had an easy mode that unlocked after you die 100 times, just giving all the enemies half the life and changing nothing else - the game would still be very hard, but not frustratingly so. also, some people dont like the combat system because its too methodical, but thats a personal taste issue. I can live with hard combat as long as its not a grind fest. I don't see you saying anything about the story?

I haven't played a good RPG since the first Witcher so I know where you're coming from. The reality is that the single player RPG costs too much money, entails too much work and pays too little unless you're Bethesda or Bioware. If the kickstarter thing doesn't get it off the ground, nothing will.

What's the point? The characters have moved on and the bhaalspawn story arc is finished. You could tack on anything you want, but then it would really be milking the cow for all its worth.

Yeah, that's puffery, so I expect that kind of talk to appear in the devs' Twitter and ****. But, since you are apparently paraphrasing, maybe you can explain in detail what "a complete graphical overhaul" exactly means, considering that "the details of which aren't all clear at the moment". And while you're at it, maybe elaborate on what that "plenty of new content" actually is... Or maybe you could just get off your lazy ass and read twitter for the few scraps of information that are available there?