Winter Orgy: 2009, The "Doesn't Quite Make up for this Crappy Summer" Edition

[tmp]

I was meh on Tropico 2 but the new one is glorious. I make speeches from balcony of my palace and everyone drops their work and comes to listen. _{Or else.}

[Ard]

God yes, I played the Tropico 3 demo this weekend also  .  The very fact that you can manually go out and kick ass is an interesting change.  Although it means I'm now getting twitchy since you're now a target walking around for your own soldiers to shoot.  I AM NOT PARANOID DAMMIT.

[Yegolev]

Curse you all.

[NiX]

I'm sure no one cares, but it would seem Heroes Over Europe for PC won't detect gamepads/joysticks/yokes, which means you can't map axises.

[Azazel]

I have Heroes of the Pacific on PC, so that bit of info helps me in a pretty easy decision of not buying the sequel on PC. Gogo Aussie Devs!

[NiX]

Patch incoming to fix the joystick recognition and mouse sensitivity issue.

[Murgos]

Tropico 2 touched my pee-pee.

Wait.  I'm confused.  Does that mean you really liked it?  Cause, you know, I usually have to pay extra for that... 

[Sjofn]

I want Tropico 3 nooooow. Even though I will suuuuuck at it like I suuuuucked at the first one. It was the only builder game that really kicked my ass right out of the gate. I felt so inept! But I really liked it anyway.

I only have two complaints about it after playing the demo:

a) the voice acting sucks
b) the game assumes I'm a dude even if I pick a lady avatar

[Segoris]

b) the game assumes I'm a dude even if I pick a lady avatar

That sucks. Especially since, sadly, it would be correct 9/10 times.

Although if that are the only complaints, that is pretty good

[Riggswolfe]

Day 1:

Alpha Protocol | PC
Dragon Age | PC

Getting but might not be day 1:

Assassin's Creed 2 | PS3
Uncharted 2 | PS3

Maybe :

Fallout: GOTY | PC - Maybe. I have it on 360 but it might be fun to play with mods on PC
Risen | PC - Is this Gothic 4? If so, it's a maybe only because of bugginess.
Brutal Legend | PS3
Demon's Souls | PS3 - This one is only if I see a ton of good feedback from places other than here.
Borderlands | PC

[Sjofn]

b) the game assumes I'm a dude even if I pick a lady avatar

That sucks. Especially since, sadly, it would be correct 9/10 times.

Although if that are the only complaints, that is pretty good

It's less it thinks I, personally, am a dude, but acts like my character is a dude. It's clearly a lady, stop refering to her as a he, voiceovers.

But yeah, on the whole, it's pretty minor as complaints go. I really enjoyed it play-wise.

[Yegolev]

It's less it thinks I, personally, am a dude, but acts like my character is a dude. It's clearly a lady, stop refering to her as a he, voiceovers.

I noticed this in Fable II.

[Sjofn]

I would seriously prefer they not have female as a goddamn option than have it be so obviously a last second afterthought. I can deal with playing a dude, it's not like any female gamers haven't had to do that in their fair share of games, but wrong pronouns, ESPECIALLY in voiceovers, piss me off mightily.

[Ingmar]

Hopefully its just a case of "it wasn't done in time for the demo".

[Sjofn]

That thought crossed my mind, but wouldn't they have all the voice acting done already?

Hopefully you're right, but I'm not optimistic.

But again, if that's my main complaint, that's pretty good. 

[tmp]

I could see the female version voicework skipped in the demo as possible attempt to keep the overall size down, but realistically it probably just wasn't seen as deal big enough to warrant all the extra work and as result isn't there... which would be a pity but oh well.

[tmp]

In other news, no PC version of Assasin's Creed 2 for x-mas

Assassin’s Creed 2 PC has moved to the first quarter of 2010. A bit more time for the dev team to deliver the best quality game to you.

[Yegolev]

It's like your appeal papers went through and you get to live a few more days.

[Lantyssa]

I could see the female version voicework skipped in the demo as possible attempt to keep the overall size down, but realistically it probably just wasn't seen as deal big enough to warrant all the extra work and as result isn't there... which would be a pity but oh well.

And some people wonder why there aren't more women gamers...

It's something 'small' which has kept me from playing a lot of supposedly great games, or contributed to my losing interest more quickly because I can't identify with the character I'm playing.

[tmp]

Looks the Alpha Protocol may be delayed until mid of 2010 as well, which would quite suck...

Recently updated ship dates from GameStop and Amazon.ca list Alpha Protocol for June 1 and June 30, 2010, respectively. Most online retailers still show the game due the last week of October of this year, but if two independent retailers are showing a delay, don't be surprised if others follow suit

[Velorath]

Would probably be for the best if it got delayed.  Right now it's scheduled to be released way too close to Borderlands and Dragon Age for me to find the time to play it, and early next year is packed with way too many games already.  Summer seems like a good time for it.  Besides, I'd rather see Obsidian have a game delayed then see them have another game getting rushed out before it's done.

[schild]

Heh.

The Risen choice quote for their ad on Steam is:
"A Compelling RPG experience with some great ideas." - Score: 84%

I do not think I could come up with a less fantastic way to advertise if I was paid to advertise poorly.

[Le0]

Day1:
Borderlands
Left 4 Dead 2
Dragon Age

If feedback is good:
Alpha Protocol
Risen
Tropico 3

when price drop:
Assassin's Creed 2

[Aez]

Heh.

The Risen choice quote for their ad on Steam is:
"A Compelling RPG experience with some great ideas." - Score: 84%

I do not think I could come up with a less fantastic way to advertise if I was paid to advertise poorly.

"A RPG experience with some ideas."

[Riggswolfe]

Since Alpha Protocal was delayed I went ahead and ordered Risen. Amazon claims it'll be here tomorrow so we'll see. I could use a good Gothic-like RPG.

[Lucas]

I just returned home with Risen Collector's Edition in my greedy hands.

[Sky]

Since Alpha Protocal was delayed I went ahead and ordered Risen. Amazon claims it'll be here tomorrow so we'll see. I could use a good Gothic-like RPG.

Ah, shit. I didn't realize it was out and resubbed to EQ2. Should've gotten Risen instead. Dammit.

[Lucas]

Well, very first impression about Risen: installation went smoothly and fast, changed resolution to 1920x1200 (native one of my monitor); changed anisotropy from 16x to 8x but kept every other setting to default. Game runs VERY smoothly for me (granted, I still have to get to a crowded area), looks pretty good, and yes, got a Gothic feeling with interface and all from the very first minute I started playing.

Oh, my rig is nothing special (basically, a late 2006-Early 2007 one): Intel Core Duo 6600, 2GB  Ram, 8800 GTS 640MB, Vista Home Premium SP1

[CaptainNapkin]

Risen demo was released. I downloaded but didn't install to check it out yet, will do so tonight.
http://risen.deepsilver.com/blog/pages/en/news/news.php

[Riggswolfe]

Amazon supposedly shipped it on Wed. but it still hasn't made it here. Checking their page shows "shipping information recieved" under tracking. *sigh*

[Sky]

If they ship it USPS you'll get tracking info after it arrives. USPS's online stuff sucks compared to UPS. UPS's web interface is pretty much real-time.

[Trippy]

Amazon supposedly shipped it on Wed. but it still hasn't made it here. Checking their page shows "shipping information recieved" under tracking. *sigh*

It didn't have Release Day shipping available?

[Riggswolfe]

Amazon supposedly shipped it on Wed. but it still hasn't made it here. Checking their page shows "shipping information recieved" under tracking. *sigh*

It didn't have Release Day shipping available?

That's basically what it was. It was UPS as well. I am a Prime member so always have UPS 2 day shipping. I called and their Indian tech support guy finally found out that UPS had never picked it up so I canceled my order through him and told him I'd send it back if it ever made it to me. Then I called Gamestop and Bestbuy locally and found out neither of them have it in stock. I think Cthulhu or someone is trying to hint that I should just wait until it has a few patches and pick it up cheaply.

[CaptainNapkin]

Well the Risen demo ran great with everything cranked to max. It's pretty short but was interesting enough that I'll pick up the full game. Felt like Gothic 3, which is a game I actually played to completion, and that's a rarity for me.

[Severian]

Well the Risen demo ran great with everything cranked to max. It's pretty short but was interesting enough that I'll pick up the full game.

When you get the "end of demo" message and get sent back to the opening scene you can reload your last autosave. The automated end comes from dialogue with a couple of characters who are ready to guide you to another area. Then there are physical boundaries, but the game warns you when you are at the edge, and you can push it a little. You can spend a fair amount of time just messing about in the demo area, I reached level 3 and got a couple of NPCs into an endless fight with each other. You can also manually save on top of your "autosave" slot before trying something stupid. Which I recommend. Doing the stupid.