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Year 2004 at RPG Codex

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by chevalier, Dec 28, 2004.

  1. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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    Remove all ads!
    RPG Codex has posted an year article looking on the happenings of the passing year as well as the expectations it has created from the end of the year perspective. They speak about BioWare:

    BioWare mostly kept a low profile in 2004, being hard at work on the best and the latest form of CRPG entertainment - Dragon Age, a game that's supposed to have it all: annoying party banter from Baldur's Gate II, dull "tactical" combat from Knights of the Old Republic, and the "make your own crappy module" aspect of Neverwinter Nights.

    And about Interplay:

    Well, on the one hand, it's definitely dead, because it's kinda hard to think of Herve's mom's basement as Interplay. But on another hand, it's legally alive, kicking, and looking for some fools to finance the latest chapter in "How Every Decision I Made at Interplay Was Way More Stupid Than the Previous One" (Vol. 1), a book by Herve Caen, a moron extraordinaire. Herve is making an MMORPG now, the infamous Fallout Online, "FOOL". I guess soon he will be joining internet forums and typing "I r maeking kewl MMORPG!!111 OMG! do u want to join my team?"

    And Obsidian...

    Obsidian Entertainment, Bioware's trusty sidekick, has scored some crumbs off the Bio's table: KOTOR 2: Attack of the Clones and NWN 2: Everything Fallout fans have asked for since Fallout 2!(TM) Since Feargus Urquhart has mentioned his ideas about Knights of the NEW Republic, it would take a rather cold day in hell to see an original game with the Obsidian logo on it.

    They also complain a bit about Troika and Baldur's Gate 3. Can't say I don't agree with them... Read the whole thing at RPG Codex.
     
    chevalier, Dec 28, 2004
    #1

  2. Rednik Gems: 21/31
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    I read that yesterday, and I am sad that I have to agree with it 100%. The RPG market looks stagnant at the moment with little chance of recovery. If you look at the upcoming releases like Baldur's Gate 3 and Fallout 3, it's apparent that the developers and publishers stopped listening to their base and are out for maximum cash these days.

    The only RPG from 2004 that I actually enjoyed was Gearhead, while the rest were disappointments. I still haven't played Bloodlines, but from what I heard the FPS elements and massive amounts of bugs crippled it.

    I guess I have to look forward to Geneforge 3 then.
     
    Rednik, Dec 28, 2004
    #2
  3. Beren

    Beren Lovesick and Lonely Wanderer Staff Member Member of the Week Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    [​IMG]
    Coming from a bean counter in the Atari board room, I have to ask, wtf is that!? :eek:

    Please, for the love of god and all that is good in this world, please, please, don't blow this for the established fan base. Please ...

    Yes, its probably too much to ask for. :( Much as I hate to admit it, what little I've seen from Atari indicates that they're bound and determined to pooch this one royally. 'Tis a shame ... :sosad:
     
    Beren, Dec 29, 2004
    #3
  4. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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    They seem to have a knack for making bad decisions, yeah.
     
    chevalier, Dec 29, 2004
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  5. Ancalìmon Gems: 14/31
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    Looks like most developers are out of inspiration and grab the established values for easy cash again. Pity. The only rpg im looking forward to right now is Guild Wars, although it leans more to hack&slash. MMORPG with no monthly fees, hmmmm :)

    I have bloodlines.

    First off: great game. Fps elements aren't a total distaster. Sure, it ain't great, but it works. Now bugs: there are a lot of them. Most have been fixed by the 1.2 patch though, so its almost perfectly playable now.

    The biggest issue however, is performace. I have a P4 GeForce 4 ti4200 256RAM 2.6GHZ, and the loading times are nearly ten (!!) minutes for the whole town you are currently playing in. When the loading is done, the game runs pretty smooth, till it starts raining. Now, you can imagine, there are quests where you have to go to small house x, ask y and bring a message to another house z. Result: load the entire town twice, and each house twice. 25 minutes loading time. And all of this at absolute minimum settings and my cache file set to 1.4GB.

    The game is great, awesome roleplaying and looks even at low settings, but boy, I lost all will to play it becouse of those loading times. If you got a good, and I mean a REAL good computer, go ahead and buy it, you won't be dissapointed. Ironically, Half Life 2 runs smoother than this game using the same engine. To think I had the chance to turn this game in, pity I didnt.
     
    Ancalìmon, Dec 29, 2004
    #5
  6. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Not at all. They make great BUSINESS decisions. Just look at Temple of Elemental Evil. Rushed, bugged to hell, relatively cheap to develop, known title = great sales. For as long as that recipe works (and it has also worked with Pool of Radiance 2 [though not Atari's], and it will work even better with any game with Baldur's Gate in the title), Atari has no need whatsoever to change their game development strategy. Make 'em cheap, make 'em fast, ship 'em bugged as hell (and don't bother with patching, unless it's absolutely necessary), slap a familiar name on the box. Instant success... So, unfortunately, unless BioWare or Obsidian get to develop it, there's next to no chance whatsoever that BG3 would turn out to be better than average (if that).
     
    Taluntain, Dec 29, 2004
    #6
  7. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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    People will buy one game. They will buy another game. But at some point they will say enough and the company will go down like Lord Caen's demesne.

    People who aren't D&D fans will likely bear in mind the many failures of the previous games rather than cling to hope against hope that maybe Atari didn't screw up too much this time.

    The whole industry is becoming a reflection of M$. Sell crap, charge max, screw the customers. Release, collect, forget.
     
    chevalier, Dec 29, 2004
    #7
  8. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    You're forgetting one important thing. There's a very long list of known licences / names for Atari to draw from. And that's really the main and only important ingredient in the above recipe. The problem is only getting worse - games are penetrating the mainstream more and more, so there are more potential suckers to buy ****ty titles every month.

    And there's another important thing - if no one else develops D&D games (and no one else will, for as long as Atari has the licence), even if the games are average at best, we'll be forced to play them simply because there won't be any other new ones. Either that, or replay the old ones forever, or wait for better times, which are not likely to ever come. Atari is making money for WoTC, brand name recognition is getting higher, and games are "good enough" for most people. So why aim higher when there's no need whatsoever for it?

    I don't think there's really any comparison to Microsoft here. I think M$ is charging way too much for Windows, but XP is the most stable Windows system ever - so Windows have been improving ever since the first version. And patches for it are continually being released. With D&D games, the situation is reversed. They started out with great games, but the genre is degenerating more and more with every release. And the only light at the end of the tunnel is the train coming through.
     
    Taluntain, Dec 30, 2004
    #8
  9. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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    Not like it would change much, but we could write an e-mail to Atari, expressing our feelings on this, and forward it in a chain so that everyone's address is signed. Perhaps we could link them to this topic or to a separate discussion.
     
    chevalier, Dec 30, 2004
    #9
  10. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Yea, right... as if anyone there would even bother to read it, let alone do anything.
     
    Taluntain, Dec 31, 2004
    #10

  11. Cernak Gems: 12/31
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    Do I detect a note of sarcasm here? Not that I don't agree. I do think--though without any inside knowledge--that you're wrong to blame the developers. They're probably doing the best they can under oppressive conditions. And yes, we won't get another great RGP until the crappy/mediocre RPG's cease to make money, which perhaps will occur before hell freezes over. In the meantime we can keep hoping for newer and better mods to the great ones. Thin soup, I admit.
     
    Cernak, Dec 31, 2004
    #11
  12. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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    We do blame the producers first...

    @Tal: I know. Still, I'd love to sign such a letter just for the sake of it.
     
    chevalier, Dec 31, 2004
    #12
  13. Nakia

    Nakia The night is mine Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    I'd sign the letter, Chevy!

    There are two (2) Chinese games developed by Object Software and published by GMX Media that I find very playable. "Prince of Qin" and "Seal of Evil". They are not perfect and won't replace BG & BII in my gaming affections but I enjoy them.
     
    Nakia, Dec 31, 2004
    #13
  14. joacqin

    joacqin Confused Jerk Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    I havent played either ToEE or PoR so I havent fallen for the license lure.
     
    joacqin, Jan 1, 2005
    #14
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