CRPGs: very, very soon

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Thu Mar 28, 2002 4:20 pm

@fable,

Everything I read about dungeon siege gives me more of a BG2 than IWD feel. However, the developers themselves speak of appealing to the diablo audience. Diablo didn't do much for me but I haven't anticipated a game this much since bg2 (although with bg2, I was already familiar with the IE so I knew what I was getting).

Perhaps I'm just very wrong (see Milton Berle thread- just kidding

) and the game won't live up to the hype I've created for it. mr. fixits online dungeon siege page has some nice info regarding the game. They have some spells and a great outline of the multiplayer aspects to come. Looks like with multiplayer, there will be games where you can have multiple parties compete for the prize in the same game. Party to Party combat should be great fun.

With Gates buying out/taking over on the DS project, I would hate to think he would only produce a game on par with diablo. I'd like to think he's bright and ambitious enough to research the market, realize BG's and Diablo's are number 1 & 2 in their genre, and then take the best elements of both and combine them into one game. How far was GPgames into the project before Microsoft butted/stepped in. Perhaps where I credit Gates, I should be crediting Chris Taylor.

Also, could you elaborate a little on the Morrowind game. I'm not familiar with the game, company, or past works. Is this the group that did Daggerfall. I didn't play that game. I've been to their website and am just trying to comprehend some of the hype. Your review of MMIX is interesting but with past MM experiences, I think I'll pass on that one.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Mar 28, 2002 4:30 pm

Like you, I'm hopeful DS will turn out to be BG2-ish, and that the PR has only been misdirected because of this attempt to sell it as Diablo 2. I'm a bit worried that with so many CRPGs in the wind, the Diablo 2 push may actually backfire; that some RPG players will simply go for Morrowind and give DS the go-by. We'll see, soon enough.

As for Morrowind, I always disregard the hype, and I take the reviews with a dose of skepticism especially if the critic can't refer to any game more than a year old and keeps using adjectives like "best" and "greatest." It does have a lot of potential. So far, though, I've seen no previews by people who truly played beyond simply selecting a character and joining a guild.

humanflyz · Post by **humanflyz** » Thu Mar 28, 2002 6:43 pm

@Ned Flanders:

Morrowind is the third game in a series called The Elder Scrolls. The first two games are Arena and Daggerfall. Daggerfall received a lot of attention back in its day. Some attentions were really, really good, some really, really bad. It's like a game that's either love or hate.

Daggerfall is best known for its extreme open-endedness, gigantic exploration, and huge character customization. I cannot begin to list out all of the statistics, but I've played the game, and I can tell you that all of the above really makes Daggerfall an interesting game. However, the game was plagued with horrible bugs, such as cannot save, corrupted save files, a lot of 3D clipping, and it took a lot of company-made and user-made patches to fix most of the bugs. By then, the people who hated it threw it away, and the those who liked the game stayed with it.

Morrowind is basically the same, except with better 3D graphics. It basically tries to preserve everything that's good about Daggerfall and none of its faults. From what I heard, there is only one NPC that once you kill, the main story cannot continue. You can basically screw the damsel-in-distress and sell some illegal made enchanted weapon as a drow assassin. There are roughly about 300,000 objects in the game, all of which you can pick up and store it in your inventory. Although the scope of the game is less than Daggerfall, it is still very huge. Of course, all of this is from the info I've heard. There's a preview on Gamebanshee written on Morrowind based on a press build of the game.

@fable:
Is it safe to assume that you will write a preview of MM IX on the Gamebanshee website?

Demis · Post by **Demis** » Fri Mar 29, 2002 1:54 am

Arx Fatalis?

A few days ago when i was reading a couple of previews for the upcoming games i was surprised to learn about this game called Arx Fatalis. The game is developted by Arkane Studios and published by Fishtank and it's inspired from the old-but-great Ultima Underworld games. This was enough for me to actually wait half a day to download the demo

. After a few testing hours of the demo i was really impressed from it and now i have the need to get it but the release date in still on "coming soon". Any of the ultima funs will love it and i suggest to give it a try. I only hope that the game will not come along will IWD2 Morrowind and NWN. I'll just have to save some more money now.

For those who are interested check out the Official Site of the game.

As for Morrowind, Gamebanshee's preview is very interesting and from what i can assume this game will be huge.

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Fri Mar 29, 2002 3:01 am

I don't get it - isn't MM IX released in the states yet? I was able to by it here yesterday and we normally never get anything before you do... Not really interested in it (bought the french version of MM VII once and was extremely disappointed). Did get Homm IV though, and is very satisfied so far. I do like the serie and this one is much better than its predecessor. Haven't really had time to evaluate the AI, though.

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Mar 29, 2002 8:17 am

M&M IX is available, or should be, within the next couple of days.

I just got Dungeon Siege in the mail. Haven't looked at it, yet. If Buck's interested, I could do a review of that.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Fri Mar 29, 2002 8:41 am

fable,

My interest in DS has been well overstated here. I'd certainly like you to look into the basics. It would be appreciated.

K0r/\/f1@k€$ · Post by **K0r/\/f1@k€$** » Fri Mar 29, 2002 9:29 am

Just downloading arx fatalis - thought i'd give it a go. I'll let you know what I think in 99% and 9 hrs 48 minutes time

VoodooDali · Post by **VoodooDali** » Sat Apr 06, 2002 1:23 pm

I'm feeling more excited about Deus Ex 2:
Check out what the developer said about it on Gamespot:
GS: Deus Ex was praised for its open-ended structure, which lets you approach different situations using different means and then having to deal with the consequences of those actions. Are you seeking the same sort of feel for the sequel? Are you expanding Deus Ex's cause-and-effect system in any way?

HS: We are shooting for much more of this. We realized how to do this (through simulation and emulation) as we were working out the gameplay in Deus Ex (and as we looked at other developers' games, like System Shock 2, for instance). We're planning on Deus Ex 2 featuring far more flexibility and player internationality.

WS: To follow up on what Harvey's saying, free-form gameplay is a big part of gaming's future--maybe the most exciting part. In Deus Ex, we tried to give players real choices with real consequences, but there's a lot more we can do. Frankly, I felt like Looking Glass threw down the gauntlet in games like Thief; we picked it up with Deus Ex, and some more recent games--like Grand Theft Auto III--threw it right back in our faces. We're hoping--and planning--to embrace that challenge here. If we realize even half of our plans, Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3 should represent big steps forward in the area of open-ended gameplay.

Sounds good, no? Unfortunately the estimated release date is Spring 2003