The Bard's Tale E3 Impressions

GameSpot has put together some E3 impressions of InXile's The Bard's Tale after spending some time with the game and CEO Brian Fargo at this year's E3. Here's a little something to get you started:
As Fargo explained, the bard won't be any kind of "chosen," prophesied hero born to battle some 2,000-year-old evil. He'll be a coarse, imperfect, and emotional character who will occasionally screw up and be laughed out of town and will storm off into the countryside in anger. The game will attempt to get rid of as many standard role-playing conventions as possible while adding as much personality and humor as possible. For instance, the bard will find not only numerous side quests but also off-topic asides that may simply be there for the sake of having a bit of fun. In one scene, the bard enters a tavern presided over by a scantily clad barmaid and a small throng of drunks. After conversing with the barmaid (and having considerable trouble looking her in the eye), the bard then spoke to the nearby drunks, who all began singing a loud, drunken ode to beer and the fine, upstanding fellow who must have invented it some time ago. Drunken hangers-on chimed in from all corners of the snug tavern, and the ridiculous song itself went on, and on, and on...not to provide any kind of cryptic clues as to where to find the blue key to open the blue door, but simply to provide comic relief.