A n00b in LA

[Cantousent]

A gamer geek gets a very small peek at E3.

 

 

[Gorth]

You lucky bastard!

[~Di]

Argggghhhhhhh.... I would have had to take a plane and drive for hours to get there... but sharing cold pizza with my favorite BioWarians??? I'd have crawled over the Cajon Pass without kneepads for the chance!

 

Argggghhhhhhh.... so.... jealous.

 

[tripleRRR]

Well at least some of us get to go to gaming Mecca.

 

 

TripleRRR

[Volourn]

Nice post, Eldar. Very telling, indeed. Beh. Pizza! Pizza all mine.

 

Anyways, I 've been telling you that JE would haveots share of role-playing stuff and your dialogue stfuf that you mention further illustrates. The thing, I'm most worried about is the combat so i ahve soemq uestions about it. Can you pause ala the other BIo games? I've ehard that you can but ti's best to ask someoen who's tried it and won't make things up (I hope ). Also, you said combat was easy to learn; but is the combat is easy? (of course it's just a demo so it can change but). Also, does the combat consist more of striaght fighting or is there tatics involved ala other BIo games in regards to various combat skills, spells, etc.,e tc. So many questions. Heh.

 

Anyways, nice post.

 

P.S. Bioware, which i'm sure you know, has already announced their next PC RPG game. No need to ask 'em. :D

[Gromnir]

Argggghhhhhhh.... I would have had to take a plane and drive for hours to get there... but sharing cold pizza with my favorite BioWarians???  I'd have crawled over the Cajon Pass without kneepads for the chance!

 

Argggghhhhhhh.... so.... jealous. 

 

nonsense... no need to be jealous. if Di wants to go, and is discouraged by plane fare/air travel/whatever, Gromnir and Di could do a road trip next year.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

p.s. eldar should have thought ahead and made hard copies of Gromnir posts... just in case.

[Cantousent]

It's realtime with pause. No need to worry on that front. The fighting really is, well, fighting. There are some ranged attack sorts of moves, but your enemies can be on you pretty quick. Some of them seem to require ranged attacks like that big Elephant looking thing they were fighting in the big demo. Don't count on ranged attacks in quite the same way you might have in Baldur's Gate, though. Really, I doubt if I know any more than the hardcore fans that have been following the development.

 

Next time, Gromnir, I'll be prepared. heh heh.

 

BIG EDIT FOR VOL:

 

The thing about combat is that you're almost always damned close to your opponent. The camera can spin. You can get closer or farther away from your character. Your enemies can sometimes surround you. I found combat very easy, but at least one of the monsters was made easier for the demo and the character you played, no matter which one you created for the demo, had enhanced abilities as you would suspect.

 

The lead programmer was there and I asked him a bit about the areas. He said that the areas were taken from different parts of the game. By the time the player managed to get to the last area in the demo, he (or she, if you choose to play a woman) had a whole slew of powers. That included magic fire and ice moves, crescent or dual ax hand to hand styles, and the ability to convert into a huge hulking monster. That's just the demo. I'm sure the whole game will include the special items and such that Bioware showed off on the big demo. Considering all that, I don't know if strategy in the traditional sense of building a party will be the rule. I doubt it. However, personal style and approaches will definitely be part of the Jade Empire experience.

 

Also, what I got about Dragon Age was, "we're working on it, but I can't tell you anything about it." heh heh. Sorry Vol, I just don't have the skinny on anything. I'm not a reporter type, just a gamer.

[Volourn]

You are tuly a paid spy. :ph34r:

 

Err.. thanks. Some good,a nd bad stuff about JE's combat...

[Cantousent]

The thing to remember is that it's not going to punish folks who don't like to rely entirely on reflexes. You will have the opportunity to think about moves and different styles and approaches definitely have a huge impact on combat. In that respect, it has strategy. The thing is, obviously you're not going to build a party of six characters with wildly different abilities and powers. In Baldur's Gate, the player can build a party with a Fighter, a cleric, a bard, a wizard, a thief, and ranger. ...Or the player can build a party with a paladin, two clerics, a wizard, a fighter/thief, and sorceror. ...or the player can build a party with a barbarian, a fighter, a paladin, a cleric, a druid, and a mage/thief. ...Or etc.

 

Obviously, strategy in Baldur's Gate is different than strategy in Jade Empire. ...But strategy is different in Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old republic, and Neverwinter Nights, right? Different requirements for the player doesn't necessarily mean something bad. Even in the small demo I played, different styles had a substantial effect on how well I did against the monsters.

 

One part from the big demo that I found quite cool was when the main character walk near some of the baddies and overheard a conversation. He could then run around speaking with folks around the map. In that respect it's a lot like KotOR, which I take as a good thing.

[Volourn]

Cool. B)

[~Di]

nonsense... no need to be jealous.  if Di wants to go, and is discouraged by plane fare/air travel/whatever, Gromnir and Di could do a road trip next year. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

p.s. eldar should have thought ahead and made hard copies of Gromnir posts... just in case.

Heh-heh. Wouldn't that be a blast? Not sure E3 would ever be the same after a joint visit by the Gromnir/Di tag-team, but it would sure be fun!

[tripleRRR]

They would probably be warned by an anonymous phone call telling them to bar the gates.

 

 

TripleRRR

[Cantousent]

I've recently heard that it was really a fan event. That must mean that a lot of folks just didn't hear about it. That's kind of good, since it meant that there were plenty of machines to use for playing the demos. ...And it was after hours so no swarms of sweaty geeklings. I mean, I wasn't really sweating, but I was definitely a geekling. No swarm, though.

 

You guys should pipe in with support of the promotional idea. It might not make a difference, but it can't hurt if folks suggest that they'd like it.

[triCritical]

E3 CREATED A TRAFFIC NIGHTMARE FOR ME!!!!! :angry:

[Cantousent]

Yeah, if you were driving between LA and Orange county, you had it bad. You work as a programmer, Tri, were you there?

[triCritical]

Yeah, if you were driving between LA and Orange county, you had it bad.  You work as a programmer, Tri, were you there?

I was driving from Corona to HB, but I need to take a freeway which hooks up with the 5 going to LA. And that made my Thursday and Friday commute take twice as long going to work.

 

Yeah I am technically a programmer, but I don't work in the video game industry. I work for a company that contracts with the government. I have thought about private sector work, but I have it pretty sweet right now, and I don't work nearly as many hours as those people in Obsidian. I would like to go to E3, but thats because it would remind me of that feeling I got when in Jr High going to the arcade, and it just sounds like a righteous party. Hugh Hefner was there!!!

 

Anyhow, I don't really like to bill myself as a programmer, considering they are all being sent to India right now. I can still do other things like math, science and some signal processing, not to mention a plethora of other computational algorithms and control system filters.

[FrankK]

Time to invest in a Car Pool Dummy.

 

BTW, I heard that for a while, people were hanging out at offramps offering to get in cars and ride with people for cash so they could get in the car pool lane. Probably an urban legend...or career opportunity waiting in the wings--except I get car sick when in the passenger seat.

[triCritical]

Time to invest in a Car Pool Dummy.

 

BTW, I heard that for a while, people were hanging out at offramps offering to get in cars and ride with people for cash so they could get in the car pool lane. Probably an urban legend...or career opportunity waiting in the wings--except I get car sick when in the passenger seat.

For my commute at least, there is no car pool. Sometimes I take the 91 toll road, like on fridays. But the only car poll lane for me is on the 55 and if I get on it I will most likely miss the 22 connector, which does not have a car pool lane. I would not call 45-55 minute mornings a commute. And it takes generally about an hour in the evening, its not so bad. I have a small car so I am not doing too much damage to the environment, about 29-31 mpg's.

[Enoch]

I would not call 45-55 minute mornings a commute. And it takes generally about an hour in the evening, its not so bad.

Indisputable proof that living in Southern California warps your perception of reality. One-ninth of your weekday waking hours (assuming 6-7 hrs sleep) spent driving to and from work doesn't count as a commute!??

[triCritical]

I would not call 45-55 minute mornings a commute.  And it takes generally about an hour in the evening, its not so bad.

Indisputable proof that living in Southern California warps your perception of reality. One-ninth of your weekday waking hours (assuming 6-7 hrs sleep) spent driving to and from work doesn't count as a commute!??

Well there are some people that drive over a 100 miles to work. I drive 38. And when I used to live 6.5 miles to work it took me about 20 minutes. So I gained 40 extra minutes each way and a house. BTW, I bought a house in BFE, so to speak, and the median sale price is 444,000. The national average is about 179,000. The house similat to the one I was renting, 3 bedrooms, 1600 square feet on a 6000 square foot lot is going for 800,000 dollars, and it sold in day! Needless to say many people find SoCal commutes worth the price of admission, however, I was born hear and I ain't going to let all the East Coast and midwest immigrants with money kick me out.

[Cantousent]

I used to have to basically live out of hotels. One week, when I was sick of not sleeping in my own bed with my wife, I decided to commute to a project down in San Diego. It was 108 miles one way every day for a week. I would often be on the road for over 2 hours in the evening. Is it worth it? Well, I decided to pursue my love of classics rather than work as a district trainer.... Plus the pay wasn't all that.

[StillLife]

Sounds like an interesting experience Eldar. Nice hearing directly from someone who's actually played Fable and Jade Empire, as I'm looking forward to both of them.

 

One question: Is there any NPC dialogue in Fable? And how did that whole aspect seem?

[Cantousent]

I might be wrong, but Fable didn't appear to have any dialogue at all. Now, in the demo, the character only ran around chatting with random villagers, but no dialogue. Instead, a little icon would appear over the head of his conversation partner. In the case of the women, it would be a heart if he were trying to impress them. The character also had the opportunity to buy gifts for the target of his desires. These gifts ranged from teddy bears to a house.

 

Alas, I spent most of my time with Jade Empire. I don't really hate romance in CRPGs, but it's not like I was going to go out of my way to seek one, so the area of Fable I did play was all about combat. I didn't think the combat was all that bad. There were a variety of interesting modes, such as magic, melee, and range (including sniper mode). It was quite easy to switch magic and melee back and forth, which is what I did to wipe out a series of skeletons... and some big skeleton bosses at the end of the area.

 

I dunno, I'll wait to see more, but Fable didn't capture my interest quite as well. It had its good points, I'll own up to that, but I expected more. Apparently, at least for the weak willed (like me), it's best not to have high expectations these days. I didn't think I'd like Jade Empire and it was fun.

[StillLife]

Ok, thanks for the info. I had a hunch that Fable would end up more of an adventure Zelda style game than an RPG. Kinda sounds like it. Or maybe more of a Sims meets Zelda?

[triCritical]

Ok, thanks for the info. I had a hunch that Fable would end up more of an adventure Zelda style game than an RPG. Kinda sounds like it. Or maybe more of a Sims meets Zelda?

It is from the maker of Black and White, if I am not mistaken.