hollowcrown

Dark Souls is a cool action game but it's only very minimally an RPG.

Those orders show up in their library because they bought the game on Steam. I know...and?

Thanks for being so understanding! I'm not demanding the game be released now or anything and I appreciate the team is probably very busy, but it would just be nice to know when the game is gonna be released to us backers for pre-loading since there's a lot of uncertainty right now over it and Steam pre-orderers might get the game playable before some of us which would suck. And the transparency being overlooked at the very end of the release process is very frustrating for us who are so excited for the game.

First of all; at the moment there is no product to use. You can use the product on Thursday, when it goes live. No need to panic. Yes, streamers and reviewers have a review build to play at the moment. That is standard procedure for any game. Nothing to whine about. Indeed, we all wish to preload the game, and you will have that opportunity today. Brandon Adler stated in another thread they will push out the keys today (they're on pacific US time so that might mean tomorrow if you are in some other time zone). And people taking their day off on Thursday is just peachy. They will get to play the game when it goes live, which is 9 am (PDT) on Thursday (again, according to Brandon Adler). Seacrest out. Not necessarily, given that different internet speeds take different amount of time to download games, sometimes several days to download a single game. That's why preloading is such a great feature, it allows everyone to enjoy the game on release day regardless of their internet speed. But you've made your mind up already that no one is allowed to be upset about this so okay matey.

Steam orderers don't have the game pre-loaded if that is what you're getting at. Not that it matters anyway, cause we can't play it (activate the game) until Thursday anyway. So calm the eff down. The drama on these forums are getting reaching ridiculous levels. Wanting to use a product you've paid money for on the day it is released isn't "drama" at all. I want to play it on Thursday and most other games on Steam that are pre-ordered have a pre-loading function so it's just a bit opaque as to why the keys are taking so long to come out (especially when streamers have the game already). You also have to consider that people may have taken time off of work for this game (I haven't, personally) so if they're wasting a day of their holiday downloading the game because Obsidian didn't sort out preloading and getting keys out on time then that's going to be very disappointing for them. Especially since we paid money for this game, we do actually have a right to question what is going on.

I've enjoyed the whole process until this last week where the transparency has got out of the window. Steam orderers have the game in their library already but us backers who were were from day one are stuck wondering "when?". I'm in the GMT time zone and Tuesday is nearly over. After I get home from work tomorrow, I'm only going to have a few hours of download time before Thursday which means I might not be able to play the game Thursday evening at all (which would suuuuuck) I appreciate the team have been super busy, but Obsidian could definitely learn a lot from this week for future projects - prioritise everyone equally or not at all. It shouldn't be hard to get the keys out to us.

Watching these videos made me super happy that by backing this game I could give good people a livelihood and the means to work on a project they were passionate about, and get a game out of it. Really brings home the human side of game development and that actual people make these games rather than just faceless companies.

What time is that GMT?

I got the same Tier as you and kickstarted the game in addition (the digital only copy I think, $20 or dollar). I think I get a digital copy of the game but I'm not sure. If I have to wait for weeks to play the game due to postage times that would suck.

The story. I have no idea of what the plot is or what to expect so going into a story with no idea of what it's about and learning about a completely new world is gonna be cool.

Any news of when we can redeem our keys and begin preloading?

DA:I was a fun game but not something I ever want to replay. Simply too many loading screens, boring loot, filler gameplay, go here collect x of this item kill x of this creature. It is not a game that would be fun to replay.

The new screenshots look beautiful! Can't wait to be playing the game in a couple of weeks time for the first time ever!

Yeah but Bioware can't write a game without a precusor race of ancients

Glad that I'll be finished my PoE playthrough only in time for TW3 to be released. Seriously anticipating this game.

If you want infinite content, go and play an MMO, or Diablo 3, or Skyrim. Hand crafted, unique content > infinite, procedural content for me (and most others on these boards), and as this game is in the style of the finite Infinity Engine games of old, then I'm glad there isn't boring procedural boring so we can grind loot or experience or to use up our potions on.

I reckon ToB was the classic example of a rushed game. It had so much potential to be a third game of the series, filled with sidequests, each chapter focusing on taking down another member of the Five, with proper character development given to each of them and Melissan. Either way, I preferred ToB to ToTSC. ToTSC wasn't bad, but I prefer post-game expansions to in-game expansions. I would like to do the expansion pack with my first character, so it feels fresh and new. Revisiting the game only playing the DLC content just isn't the same.

In all fairness though, he really doesn't come across as the sharpest knife in the drawer, based on this video. Still, yay for him being hyped about PoE! He's good, I like him. His gripes with games are the same as my gripes with games and we get excited over the same things. He often brings up major issues with games that the mainstream reviewers simply don't bring up, and his reviews are always long and in depth. The humour can be very low brow sometimes, but he's a passionate guy and that really shines though and does it for me

My thought, too. I can see him thinking the game is something it's not, and then chainsawing the game by it's ankles come release. What little I've seen of him, he seems like a loudmouthed knuckledragger exemplifying the non-gamer gamer generation of self-appointed "nerds", the douchiest of the douchiest. That's really unfair on him. He's a big RPG gamer. He might not have played old games like Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, but he's certainly a big fan of modern ones - Dragon Age, Dragons Dogma, The Witcher series, Kingdoms of Amalur, Deus Ex are ones that he has enjoyed in his time making reviews. He's also not a Call of Duty "loudmouthed knuckledragger" at all. He appreciates the story of games - as shown by how much he likes The Witcher as well as The Banner Saga. I think the attitude that he's too unintelligent to enjoy the game is elitist, condescending and wrong. He's personally one of my favourite reviewers out there, offers great insight and passion, is someone I almost always agree with and it's downright disrespectful to talk about him in this way. It reflects badly on this forum as well as people who enjoy this genre of games.

This actually looks quite exciting. Hopefully it can replicate the depth of encounters present in BG, and tell a good story too. Despite other RPGs being good fun (like NWN, Dragon Age etc.) I have never found anything as easy to replay or with as much depth as BG2. This seems more NWN inspired than BG however.

I'd rather see what the lore and story of Pillars is like before they move onto another IP so quickly. Hopefully it will be worth more games exploring. So...Firefly RPG from Obsidian? Definitely in on that

What was great about Athkatla was the illusion it built about a BIGGER city than it was. This was in part due to "zoning", we only saw selected small highlights of the city, and there were always buildings in the distance we could reach, which made it feel huge. There were also many layers of the city and little side alleys, sewer sections and walkways between buildings which made it feel massive and intricate when I played it. Also there were a lot of random NPCs which made the place seem busy. Peasants standing around chatting, priests preaching, sailors walking around the docks. This gave a sense of buzz around the city as people went about their lives ignoring you. The world didn't revolve around your party, and even after the Underdark, life in Athkatla went on as normal which was great in terms of the secret war type story that the plot revolved around. Finally there were the ambient sounds which were happening the distance. The sounds in Pillars might not be finished yet but having those distant echoes of children playing, a tradesman selling his wares, or a bell ringing for church or to signify a ship departing were all great. Also I think the original NWN did a great job of making a city seem busy and alive - same reason as Athkatla were great, only that there was a lot going on in the city and the different regions really felt great - the City Core felt SAFE and busy, the Prison district felt like it was rioting etc. Luskan had a different feel from Neverwinter too based on the sound effects and weather used. Basically it's a bunch of little things which add up to make the game great.

The magic of BG2 is that there's so much freedom so you can play how you like. Not only are there a myriad of difficulty settings, but within the game there are a whole load of different ways to play. You can do a balanced, party of 6. You can do a caster only party. You can solo as a warrior, solo as a thief, solo as a mage. You can dual class. You can make your party out of your own character or the pre-made NPCs. Even within that, you can play your mages and casters in different ways. You can pre-buff using spells or potions or protection scrolls. You can counter using your spells. You can abuse the system using spells like Project Image and Simulacrum. Or you can play using traditional damage spells and not all of the crazy exploits. That's why the game is so wonderful and why 15 years later people are still finding new ways to play.

If I did the initial digital-only backing on Kickstarter, and then later ordered a physical copy of the game via the backer portal, do I get a key and a physical copy or do I have to wait for my physical copy to arrive before playing?

Use Any Item is too powerful. You can break the game with dual classed thieves using that ability!