Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning(Released on February 7th)

[Aikouka]

Every new game on release has bugs look at Skyrim,Witcher 2,Dragon Age 2 etc..you can bet a patch or two will be available a some point.

Don't forget that the demo is 3 months old and they worked on bugs and other anomalies for the tomorrow release.

I probably wasn't very clear in what I meant by play tests. I guess I should call them something like "player trials".

I actually don't care much about the bugs as the only one that really affected me was the "black screen of death". Once I found out how to get around it, I was fine. However, I do think the game plays oddly on the PC, because the controls haven't really been tailored to it. I talked about it earlier, but an example is how you swap spells.

My talk of "play testing" really just means that it feels like the game could have been better if they brought people in to say, "I don't like this..." or "I do like this...", and consider the feedback. Releasing a demo is nearly worthless for this as it is typically far too late in the development cycle to change anything other than minor issues (or bugs).

The only important thing is to avoid changing something that is simply just not what the person prefers. An example of this is how I'm not a huge fan of the whole can't steal from people without consequence stuff. I don't really play the realism RPGs, so I'm not used to this, but it seems that this was a direct goal of the developer. If I submitted that as an "I don't like this...", they should obviously ignore it or consider ways to make it easier on some (perhaps make it less annoying at lower difficulty levels?).

I also wish that they would remove the voices. It just seems way too weird to have everyone but the main character have a voice. The responses and questions that you can pose are all scripted anyway. I guess it makes it seem more awkward because your character just stands there in a very stoic manner like he's one of those guard people in England (you know... those people with the fuzzy hats).

 

[thespyder]

My talk of "play testing" really just means that it feels like the game could have been better if they brought people in to say, "I don't like this..." or "I do like this...", and consider the feedback. Releasing a demo is nearly worthless for this as it is typically far too late in the development cycle to change anything other than minor issues (or bugs).

The only important thing is to avoid changing something that is simply just not what the person prefers. An example of this is how I'm not a huge fan of the whole can't steal from people without consequence stuff. I don't really play the realism RPGs, so I'm not used to this, but it seems that this was a direct goal of the developer. If I submitted that as an "I don't like this...", they should obviously ignore it or consider ways to make it easier on some (perhaps make it less annoying at lower difficulty levels?).

I think you are assuming that releasing a Demo is for the purpose of changing things. More than likely it is released for the sole purpose of enhancing sales for people who may be on the fence, or to energize the ferver for those who have been anticipating.

 

[Aikouka]

I think you are assuming that releasing a Demo is for the purpose of changing things. More than likely it is released for the sole purpose of enhancing sales for people who may be on the fence, or to energize the ferver for those who have been anticipating.

Nah. I just wanted to make the point that the demo can't really serve as a "play test" before someone tries to argue for it.

 

[thespyder]

I had actually meant to make a second comment from the above quoted. Why do you have a problem with games that implement consequences for picking pockets? And where do you find games where they don't? I am thinking even WAY back with Baldur's gate, if you got caught you had to fight your way out. And then anything you stole wouldn't sell unless you sold it to the guild. Pretty much consequences, right? Or are you talking about the guards picking you out of a crowd?

 

[Mem]

I just received an email saying my retail copy is on the way so looks like be playing it soon .

 

[Kelvrick]

I had actually meant to make a second comment from the above quoted. Why do you have a problem with games that implement consequences for picking pockets? And where do you find games where they don't? I am thinking even WAY back with Baldur's gate, if you got caught you had to fight your way out. And then anything you stole wouldn't sell unless you sold it to the guild. Pretty much consequences, right? Or are you talking about the guards picking you out of a crowd?

Maybe he means the part where in a lot of games you can go into random people's houses and just start ransacking drawers, chests, wardrobes and they'll just let you steal their gems while they continue living in their hovels?

 

[Aikouka]

I had actually meant to make a second comment from the above quoted. Why do you have a problem with games that implement consequences for picking pockets? And where do you find games where they don't? I am thinking even WAY back with Baldur's gate, if you got caught you had to fight your way out. And then anything you stole wouldn't sell unless you sold it to the guild. Pretty much consequences, right? Or are you talking about the guards picking you out of a crowd?

Oh, I don't mean it's a terrible thing that shouldn't exist in the game. I'll wholeheartedly admit that I'm not used to it. I've never been much of a "wRPG" player, and in jRPGs, it's pretty much standard that you take whatever is in a treasure chest.

I don't actually mind the whole "crime aspect" to the game, but I thought some aspects of it were rather frustrating. The problem that I had related to how to absolve yourself of your crimes or the fact that no one in the town will talk to you if you steal something, and some of the tougher NPCs will try to kill you. Oddly enough, this one NPC also kept reviving even though I killed him quite a few times.

I guess the problem is that if you steal something, you pretty much have to hope that your bribe works (it only had a 13% chance in the demo) or you have to go to jail and serve out your sentence (and suffer an experience loss). It also didn't feel like they explained some of the numbers, or maybe I just skipped past the explanation, because I grew tired of the constant pop-ups (that use different keys to get past them :|). I was rather annoyed when I had a 99% chance to steal something successfully (or that's what I assume the number by the item means), and I ended up getting caught. I also waited until the guard was not in sight for me to attempt to steal the item, which I figured would give me a better chance.

I guess that last scenario annoyed me, because if you're going for realism, how the hell would the guard even know that I committed a crime if he's upstairs!?

In some ways, that system doesn't bother me as much as the combat itself. I just really don't think they considered how to implement it properly on a PC, which I think would have easily come up if they brought in people to try out the game during the development process.

 

[thespyder]

As I posted earlier, I did not like the K&M controls for the game, so I will probably pick up the console version instead. I don't see anything about the game that makes me want to push my already straining PC for this game.

As far as the stealing, I get that game developers want to be seen to make theft less than desirable while still making it a viable choice within the mechanics. I admit that in the demo I didn't play around with theft and so i don't know of which you speak. and I hope that you can actually get away with it to some satifying degree and that what we saw was early on before everything was implemented.

I know with Skyrim, I am not really pleased by the implementation. I have been caught a couple of times in towns where just walking into town got me thrown in jail. a) how did they know I stole stuff? Most of it was so generic that people would be hard pressed to say "That apple belonged to my great aunt Nelly". b) I am sorry, but once the inhabitants of a house/castle start attacking me, all their stuff is forefit. period. If everyone is dead, no one is going to be pointing fingers at me. At least not for theft (he he). c) My stealth expert is VERY good at what he does (100 Stealth plus the entire perk tree completed). He shouldn't get seen very often. How do people know it was him? And he is quite a powerful member of the guild, which should count for something. Shouldn't it?

 

[zinfamous]

It's kind of refreshing to see those sorts of comments about the combat system. I actually prefer a more fast-paced, action-style, third-person combat system to a slow, first-person system. It's probably related to how I played more 3D action style games than the old first-person RPGs that came out on the PC quite a few years ago.

While I like the combat in God of War (which the reviewer claims to be the pinnacle), I think it's nothing more than one or two combos over and over and over again throughout the game.

Granted, I've yet to play GoW 3, but with the first 2, there is only one weapon set worth using--your blades of chaos, and about 2 or 3 combos that will zoom you through God Mode quite effectively. At least with Skyrim, if you get tired of one style, you can somewhat easily switch to another (hard to go from mele to caster though, if you've properly specc'd one way.) I think it still has more options in the end, even though it does things that I've always disliked (quipping spells on hands. bleh...)

Anyway, I'm glad this is reviewed well. It looked to me like more of the same, soulless kind of action RPG. I liked DMC--but I don't really want to play it again. Pretty much why I stopped playing Darksiders after 2 hours.

 

[zinfamous]

I had actually meant to make a second comment from the above quoted. Why do you have a problem with games that implement consequences for picking pockets? And where do you find games where they don't? I am thinking even WAY back with Baldur's gate, if you got caught you had to fight your way out. And then anything you stole wouldn't sell unless you sold it to the guild. Pretty much consequences, right? Or are you talking about the guards picking you out of a crowd?

He was talking about his experience with JRPG, where you can typically walk around and loot whatever you want that is lootable, with zero consequence from anyone that is obviously watching you.

I grew up with that system, too, and am somewhat on the fence with it. While I agree there should be consequences and ways to get around looting and not having people see you, the fixes for this tend to be just as unrealistic (being able to sneak and disappear in plain sight and broad daylight if your skill is high enough; bribing or just paying some guard off to, you know, ignore that murder, among other realism failures).

 

[Rhezuss]

Anyone having the game showing as installed in their Steam library?
Read that it's "normal", unofficial post though...hope everything is ok at release/pre-load.

 

[Aikouka]

I found myself switching weapons a decent amount during the demo depending on what I was fighting. With spiders and bears, I preferred using the bow (spiders poison you if you're close and bears are too slow to catch you), but with most melee enemies, I would just use my daggers. I thought Wolves were kind of a pain, because they're the one creature that's actually faster than me. I would typically use magic if I had two of them on me at once.

 

[thespyder]

Anyway, I'm glad this is reviewed well. It looked to me like more of the same, soulless kind of action RPG. I liked DMC--but I don't really want to play it again. Pretty much why I stopped playing Darksiders after 2 hours.

If you don't mind my asking, where are you seeing reviews? The couple of sites I visit don't have any yet and I am curious what people are saying about the game. I get that Fanbois are going to post more and earlier than nay-sayers. But I find that the flavor and support of the ratings can tell you things as well.

I played Darksiders but found it extremely derivitive of games like God of War, only not done as well. Camera was to close and you couldn't see what was attacking you from behind, not enough variation of attack, to many invisible walls, and really only one way to go/complete a given objective. that sort of thing.

As for God of War itself, You are right in that the primary weapon was your blades of Chaos. However, there were a fair number of combinations that you could milk out of them to change up combat, which is what I liked. And I felt that the combat was varied enough to make it so you didn't get bored. Not to mention the fact that almost everything you faced was analogus to a Boss battle. And the TRUE Boss battles were epic indeed (IMHO). If you haven't played 3, you really should. it was (IMHO) significantly more epic than the previous games and the upgrades that came out of moving to PS3 were significant to say the least.

 

[cytoSiN]

If you haven't played 3, you really should. it was (IMHO) significantly more epic than the previous games and the upgrades that came out of moving to PS3 were significant to say the least.

Not to hijack or change the subject or anything, but ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Epic in every sense of the word. The Tartarus/Cronos battle alone is forever seared in my gaming memory highlight reel, and I've been gaming since the early 80s.

 

[thespyder]

Not to hijack or change the subject or anything, but ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Epic in every sense of the word. The Tartarus/Cronos battle alone is forever seared in my gaming memory highlight reel, and I've been gaming since the early 80s.

Yeah. I got my PS3 just for this game (initially) and don't feel like I was cheated in the slightest for having made that choice.

 

[zinfamous]

If you don't mind my asking, where are you seeing reviews? The couple of sites I visit don't have any yet and I am curious what people are saying about the game. I get that Fanbois are going to post more and earlier than nay-sayers. But I find that the flavor and support of the ratings can tell you things as well.

I played Darksiders but found it extremely derivitive of games like God of War, only not done as well. Camera was to close and you couldn't see what was attacking you from behind, not enough variation of attack, to many invisible walls, and really only one way to go/complete a given objective. that sort of thing.

As for God of War itself, You are right in that the primary weapon was your blades of Chaos. However, there were a fair number of combinations that you could milk out of them to change up combat, which is what I liked. And I felt that the combat was varied enough to make it so you didn't get bored. Not to mention the fact that almost everything you faced was analogus to a Boss battle. And the TRUE Boss battles were epic indeed (IMHO). If you haven't played 3, you really should. it was (IMHO) significantly more epic than the previous games and the upgrades that came out of moving to PS3 were significant to say the least.

The review I read is posted right here in this thread.

I had the same feeling for Darksiders. It just felt like a lame re-skin--maybe it was the poor textures, porting, whatever--but during the intro, the environment felt like they had literally re-skinned on top of some other game.

Hard to describe, maybe--but very boxy and clunky with controls. Very old stuff.

 

[zinfamous]

Not to hijack or change the subject or anything, but ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Epic in every sense of the word. The Tartarus/Cronos battle alone is forever seared in my gaming memory highlight reel, and I've been gaming since the early 80s.

yeah, I know...I keep meaning to get around to it. I was one of those early adopters of the original GoW, and it is one of my favorite series in quite some time. I just haven't had the setup to conveniently play on console for some time.

And now that it can be had for cheaper...

I also haven't played any of the Drake's games.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Don't get the love for God of War. The core combat is reasonably well executed - but then so is Darksiders and a dozen other games. It's big addition to the gaming world was Quick Time Events - and I thought those were universally loathed. And to top it off, the protagonist is an animal with zero redeeming qualities on a neverending quest to be the biggest douchebag ever to walk the earth.

I bought MK9 for the sole purpose of repeatedly using Kung Lao's nut cutter buzz saw fatality on the Greek wombat.

 

[terry107]

Anyone have time to give it a whirl today? I preloaded last night and played about 15 minutes this morning before work.

 

[Anubis]

i was planning on it but steam didnt auto start my DL for me so i wont have a chance to play it untill after work

 

[SLU Aequitas]

Haven't gotten further than the Demo/Introduction area, other than doing a dungeon romp in the nearby mines (nearly got my butt handed to me too, think I was under leveled for it ).

Trying to play with the 360 controller, think I still prefer kb/m though.

 

[cytoSiN]

Keep the first impressions coming, but no spoilers please (or at least use

Spoiler

tags). I'm stuck at work all day even though my copy is sitting in my mailbox as we speak!

 

[PowerYoga]

Don't get the love for God of War. The core combat is reasonably well executed - but then so is Darksiders and a dozen other games. It's big addition to the gaming world was Quick Time Events - and I thought those were universally loathed. And to top it off, the protagonist is an animal with zero redeeming qualities on a neverending quest to be the biggest douchebag ever to walk the earth.

I bought MK9 for the sole purpose of repeatedly using Kung Lao's nut cutter buzz saw fatality on the Greek wombat.

the combat in darksiders is dull and uninspired. God of War does the combat way better, and the quick time events are better executed and appear in what seem like the "right" place. Other games seem to toss them in randomly. I think DMC tops them all in terms of combat depth though.

And yes kratos is an angry douchebag. But so's War in darksiders.

 

[zinfamous]

Don't get the love for God of War. The core combat is reasonably well executed - but then so is Darksiders and a dozen other games. It's big addition to the gaming world was Quick Time Events - and I thought those were universally loathed. And to top it off, the protagonist is an animal with zero redeeming qualities on a neverending quest to be the biggest douchebag ever to walk the earth.

I bought MK9 for the sole purpose of repeatedly using Kung Lao's nut cutter buzz saw fatality on the Greek wombat.

It's because the characters, music, story and well, the entire production value of the game are so uncompromisingly brilliant. The first few seconds into the opening of GoW1 and you think to yourself: "Holy Fuck what is this SHit???" :awe:

I contend that Linda Hunt makes that game.

 

[cytoSiN]

It's because the characters, music, story and well, the entire production value of the game are so uncompromisingly brilliant.

^ This. And I said a few posts ago, the boss fights are definitively epic.