Definitely more open than Fable, but not quite Ultima / Elder Scrolls / Two Worlds. Not a deal breaker, just wish it was a bit more open.
See, the way I see it is it's more of an action RPG with open world elements, rather than a full-on open world RPG like Elder Scrolls, which I'm fine with, as I feel it has the elements of an open world that I like with the straighter focus of an ARPG, if that makes any sense....
Interesting law and order system in the demo. I opened a chest in a shop, and was told I was breaking the law. Next thing I knew, I was fighting an infinite wave of guards, 2 at a time. I eventually left the shop and left town (which was now full of hostile guards). When I came back to town after doing some quests, I decided to turn myself in. They took me to jail, where I lost some experience. But I gained way more experience just fighting those guards earlier, and I still got to keep all the loot I stole that got me into trouble in the first place.
So really, not much of a disincentive not to steal.
The UI on the PC was awful compared to Skyrim. I think I'll wait for the sale/price drop.
My biggest problem with the game from a mechanics point of view is that I just can't get a handle on how small the world feels when I turn the camera around. It feels like I just turned 90 degrees, and it turns out I've already turned 180 degrees and am going back the way I came. It's never happened to me in a game before where my sense of direction is so completely off. I wonder if they have a different field of view compared to everyone else, or if the controls are more sensitive or what.
But either way, thank god for that mini-map. Without the minimap, I wouldn't even be able to go down a windy narrow path in this game, I'd keep getting turned around.
I played the demo today, and I really liked it. I'm not having the issues others are posting. The game is a little too wow-like in the graphics, but otherwise it's thoroughly enjoyable.
I really like the combat. I went warrior with a hammer and it was really satisfying. I'm going to try the other types as well. I wish you got to try out the chakrams (sp?) in the demo, but it leaves something to look forward to when it comes out. Buying day 1 here.
Thing I didn't know: the money behind this game is Curt Schilling, the baseball player who founded Multi-Man Publishing basically to rescue Advanced Squad Leader from going out of print.
I bought mine from the woman behind the bar in the inn in the first town. They're a blast!Originally Posted by Spect
Supposedly there will be a hardcover guide by the people who did the Dark Souls guide.
I have a $20 discount code from Origin that I was considering using on this - their digital download version is priced at $60. Mass Effect 3 is also $60, so I could do that instead...or just wait for both games to be discounted on Steam and play through my enormous backlog in the meantime.
ME3 won't be on Steam, though.
You might be the last gamer in America who didn't know that.
I'm sure there are others. Clearly there are gamers who are not sports fans.
Peter, the name of the studio behind this game is 38 studios. Curt wore #38 in the MLB. Being from Massachusetts I was a huge fan of his for helping us win our first World Series in ages. This was in 2004. I remember reading stories at the time that Curt was a big EQ2 player and he'd often be online playing with his son. He's knew that he wanted to get into gaming after baseball and found his opportunity as you mentioned.
Plus, he still works as an analyst for ESPN. The dude is pure cool, IMO.
I knew about his game studio, but I didn't know about his love for Advanced Squad Leader. So I spent a few minutes on Wikipedia this morning reading about it.
Any thoughts on the pre-order bonuses? Looks like I'll get it from Amazon to pick up the dowsing rod as it seems like it'll be pretty useful finding reagents around the maps.
Thanks for posting those, triggercut. That was a great read.
I played the demo for about 1 hour and thought it was decent. The story was interesting. I didn't like that I couldn't choose from the standard fantasy races, Dwarf, Elf, etc. I also didn't like how close the default traveling camera was and that I couldn't move it back more.
Okay, Chakrams might be my new favorite thing.
Unless you can equip them on a spaceship, I doubt it!
I think I'm going to have to try another run at the demo tomorrow to give those a try. Game comes out in what, a week, yes?
I read another forum where Curt posts a lot; he is the real deal who just happens to also have been a pro athlete.
I was going to pass on this (consolish ARPG+skyrim/tor fatigue=EU3 or MoM time) but I enjoyed the demo enough (combined assurances it was 3-month old code hacked out of the main game, causing problems) to use that "Welcome to Gamefly!" 30% coupon that would have otherwise gone unused.
Last edited by rhinohelix; 01-31-2012 at 09:49 PM.
Curt's a member here and has posted before.
Okay, my favorite NON-SPACESHIP thing. Holy shit those things are fun to use!
When he says a lot, he really does mean a lot. Curt has been discussing his MMO, his RPG, RPGs in general and game design over there for months. It's pretty cool that he's a video game geek just like us. :)
Actually, it's pretty cool that he used to be a top-league pitcher. Being a game geek like us isn't that much of an achievement...
As for:
Seriously? I only Play Skyrim on xbox so I'm not sure, but all I hear about Skyrims pc UI is that it's really really awful. Surely Amalurs UI can't be worse? The only thing I personally don't like about it, is having to press escape several times after equiping something new....
Playing with the 360 controller, you simply hit the ">" button to jump back into the game. It's likely there's a keyboard shortcut for this as well, but I didn't see one mentioned during the tutorial. Saves having to hit ESC 5 times.
Believe it, its definitely worse.
Ehm, enlighten me then: how is it worse? Or, since I haven't played Skyrim on pc so I can't compare, how is it bad? Like I said, I only disliked the escape-thing, which may be solved by a button I haven't yet discovered (thanks for that Krayzkrok!), so I don't see what's so bad about it...
I don't see any button to get straight into the inventory or out of it. Click click click click click. Also mouse clicks don't seem responsive in the menu.
Like the Skyrim UI, it's obviously designed for a controller not a keyboard, and I enjoyed the game a lot more when I used my 360 pad. During the tutorial the first time you equip that rusty sword it informs you, in the small easy-to-miss text at the lower right of the screen, that pressing the > (start) button on the 360 pad jumps out of the inventory back into the game. I'd missed this text when playing on the keyboard, so it may have highlighted the right key at the same point. I've since uninstalled the demo so I can't check, but I'd be surprised if there isn't some shortcut. But still, the menu is a pain to navigate by keyboard / mouse.
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