38 Studios is Working on a Game, Apparently, Afterall (Kingdoms of Amular)

[Margalis]

That NYT dude calls every game he plays the best game ever made.

[Murgos]

This is going to have to wait until I get bored of Skyrim.  I played the demo and although I liked it I like what Skyrim does, and the way it does it better.  I'll give the combat to Reckoning but everything else?  Skyrim.

[Mrbloodworth]

I played the demo again with a friend.

I'm not really sure how this can be called an open world. The Level design seems most like zelda. Fable had a much more open world than this.

[shiznitz]

I don't think a demo is the best place to experience that.  The demo is to show graphics and game mechanics.  Most demos fall short on the world space exploration.

[Azazel]

Games are popular now.

I read that in US magazine.

I understand that Curt is also well known outside of gaming circles, so perhaps the press find that a good reason to run with it? Then again, out large dailies run a couple of the latest game reviews in their entertainment guides, since you know, gamers these days own cars and houses and have jobs and families and all that. We done grow'd up.

[schild]

Oh, anything that isn't found in a pure gaming-centric magazine/website/whatever is way more than likely to be paid product placement. It's just advertising.

We didn't grow up, advertising dollars did.

[Mrbloodworth]

I don't think a demo is the best place to experience that.  The demo is to show graphics and game mechanics.  Most demos fall short on the world space exploration.

Eh, you get 45 min to do your thing. I have looked at maps online, as well as in game. Not seeing the open world. Oblivion was open, this is a series of hallways with creative set pieces. I suppose its open in that you can peruse any direction and quest you want. But it is not really an open game world, its a series of hallways. ALA Zelda.

Does it FEEL more open later? I guess that's what counts.

My friend, who has not really played a RPG of this type. Liked it, and ill admit, I was interested in possibly picking it up.

[Murgos]

I don't think a demo is the best place to experience that.  The demo is to show graphics and game mechanics.  Most demos fall short on the world space exploration.

You get 45 minutes of the full game after you get out of the starter dungeon.  Actually, if you finish the starter dungeon once you can then start your 45 minutes from the end of the starter dungeon from start-up.

There is plenty of opportunity there to pic a direction and start running.  You can get pretty far/try out pretty much all the low level systems.

[jakonovski]

I don't think a demo is the best place to experience that.  The demo is to show graphics and game mechanics.  Most demos fall short on the world space exploration.

You get 45 minutes of the full game after you get out of the starter dungeon.  Actually, if you finish the starter dungeon once you can then start your 45 minutes from the end of the starter dungeon from start-up.

There is plenty of opportunity there to pic a direction and start running.  You can get pretty far/try out pretty much all the low level systems.

I ran around for 10 minutes and reached the end of the demo area. Crap demo, excellent end product.

[Hawkbit]

Crap demo, excellent end product.

This is true.  I was unhappy with the sluggishness on the PS3 demo, but it seems to be all but gone in the retail version.  There's still some pop-in that irks me, but overall a decent product.  I wouldn't say it is open world, but to me it feels open.  To look at a map, it looks like a small game.  But to play, it feels massive.

[Job601]

Oh, anything that isn't found in a pure gaming-centric magazine/website/whatever is way more than likely to be paid product placement. It's just advertising.

We didn't grow up, advertising dollars did.

That might be the case for EW or People, but it's certainly not true of the New York Times, Slate, or other mainstream media outlets with journalistic integrity that are starting to have intelligent games criticism.  I'm much more suspicious of the influence of industry dollars in the corporate pure-gaming centric world.

[schild]

Ok.

[Khaldun]

I don't think Schiesel is a paid shill. I just think he sees his role as a gaming evangelist, meaning that yup, every game he plays is the best game he ever played, pretty much. His formula goes roughly like this:

1) Wow, fun!
2) But also: art!
3) And even: social significance!
4) Plus: it's purty
5) Aside: gamers are people too
6) In summary: best game I ever played, and if you don't play games, give this one a look.
7) (Footnote: unless it's a really nerdy game, then don't look at it, but still, 1-6 otherwise apply.)

He's basically trying to be a typical middlebrow journalist culture-critic but knows he's hamstrung by the fact that the typical NYT reader/NPR listener wouldn't be caught dead playing a video game. So he can't just say "this film has a great mise-en-scene", or "this restaurant's version of nouvelle cuisine is innovative", or "The bassoon solo reminded one of Goethe's Faust", etc. 

[shiznitz]

Oh, anything that isn't found in a pure gaming-centric magazine/website/whatever is way more than likely to be paid product placement. It's just advertising.

We didn't grow up, advertising dollars did.

That might be the case for EW or People, but it's certainly not true of the New York Times, Slate, or other mainstream media outlets with journalistic integrity that are starting to have intelligent games criticism.  I'm much more suspicious of the influence of industry dollars in the corporate pure-gaming centric world.

Did someone just allege the NYT has journalistic integrity?     Sorry,  wrong place...

[Paelos]

I don't think Schiesel is a paid shill. Read his review of Civ 5 after everyone else was raving about it. He went out of his way to describe how it was dumbed down and would piss off a lot of the experienced players. He said he liked the idea but felt it was over-simplified and lacking.

[Venkman]

Jeezus. If you're coming here at all, more than likely you've written a game review or two in your time, or even just in your head, and have spent way more than you should have buying games you spent way more time than you should have playing.

Who gives a shit about journalistic integrity with regards to video games? They're advertising even if they're not product placement because the opinions expressed are for people who are not way-core gamers in the first place, and quite likely are reading the review to buy as a gift, or even just to be conversant in it at dinner parties or some shit. It'd be like a movie nut only seeing a movie because Ebert wrote a glowing review of it. Core gamers and mainstream media...  

Ok.

[Tannhauser]

With electronic gaming creeping up on movies in dollars earned, don't we deserve some good reviewers?  We can't have thoughtful criticism because "LOL video games"?

 What's the difference in admiring the Mona Lisa and finishing Planescape: Torment?  I've done both and, sorry, but Torment left a longer impression on me than a pic of some skeevy Italian tart with a post-coital smirk. 

Maybe that makes me an uncultured American but so be it.  I'm not going to pretend to the Most Interesting Man In The World, when I'm not.

Ok veered way off there...my point is there could be valid game criticism without advertising concerns.

[HaemishM]

With electronic gaming creeping up on movies in dollars earned, don't we deserve some good reviewers?  We can't have thoughtful criticism because "LOL video games"?

We can't have thoughtful criticism because the video game industry is full of rock star ego man-children running companies and web sites who will write anything so long as the exclusives/ad dollars/page views keep rolling in.

[Typhon]

Story: A bit further into the game and I have to admit that I like some of the story lines concepts.  The Fae start off seeming all kinds of awesome, but by the end of the House of Ballads line you're seeing the cracks/flaws and I felt pretty bad about killing off the Maid.  There has been dialog that makes me laugh out loud, a definite plus.

Combat: A bit further into the game and I really like how combat gets more options that you are rewarded for using.  At the same time, your basic attacks still provide quite a bit of value and you fuck yourself if you don't work them into you repotoire.  Dodge (which at this point is a teleport) + attack launches a single target into the air and smacks him repeated with a whirling circle of <place you weapon element here>.  It's gonna take awhile before that gets old.  The fate meter/system is the perfect answer for, "ahhhh!!!! I can't kill this boss!".  Just run around whacking shit for awhile till your fate meter is full and go kick his ass (and get massive xp!)

I just really like the game quite a bit.  Playing for the first hour I would have said, "game is ok, nothing special".  Now (8 hours?) I'd say, "will definitely being rolling other characters/playing more!".

yes, I'm blushing about the fanboi on my nose.

[Venkman]

With electronic gaming creeping up on movies in dollars earned, don't we deserve some good reviewers?  We can't have thoughtful criticism because "LOL video games"?

We already have thoughtful criticism. My point was that we shouldn't expect it from the NYT.

There is a whole sub-topic here about the "language of critique". But I don't know if we want to have that debate again :)

[Paelos]

With electronic gaming creeping up on movies in dollars earned, don't we deserve some good reviewers?  We can't have thoughtful criticism because "LOL video games"?

We already have thoughtful criticism. My point was that we shouldn't expect it from the NYT.

There is a whole sub-topic here about the "language of critique". But I don't know if we want to have that debate again :)

But maybe, just MAYBE, if an outlet like the NYT starts to seriously evaluate something instead of the gaming wank sites we get on a normal basis, it might accrue some value to the consumer?

[Rendakor]

Story: A bit further into the game and I have to admit that I like some of the story lines concepts.  The Fae start off seeming all kinds of awesome, but by the end of the House of Ballads line you're seeing the cracks/flaws and I felt pretty bad about killing off the Maid.  There has been dialog that makes me laugh out loud, a definite plus.

Combat: A bit further into the game and I really like how combat gets more options that you are rewarded for using.  At the same time, your basic attacks still provide quite a bit of value and you fuck yourself if you don't work them into you repotoire.  Dodge (which at this point is a teleport) + attack launches a single target into the air and smacks him repeated with a whirling circle of <place you weapon element here>.  It's gonna take awhile before that gets old.  The fate meter/system is the perfect answer for, "ahhhh!!!! I can't kill this boss!".  Just run around whacking shit for awhile till your fate meter is full and go kick his ass (and get massive xp!)

I just really like the game quite a bit.  Playing for the first hour I would have said, "game is ok, nothing special".  Now (8 hours?) I'd say, "will definitely being rolling other characters/playing more!".

yes, I'm blushing about the fanboi on my nose.

I think the fate system is pretty overpowered. Even using it fairly liberally it's up for pretty much every boss, and has thus far killed every one I've used it on with zero difficulty.

[taolurker]

Curt Schilling is going to be on Conan O'Brien, more than likely talking about this and 38 Studios.

[Sky]

Maybe Triumph will poop on him.

[Xilren's Twin]

Just a bit more on the world size - yes it's not truly open world, but still has a lot of area.  There are 5 main geographic regions, each with between 5-12 zones inside.  Each zone is a pretty big area filled with quests, dungeons, towns, mobs, resources, lorestones, secrets, chests, etc etc.  Im about 15 hours in 15 now and havent even gotten out of the first geographic region yet.  I expect to get 30 hours out of this game at a minimum.  I have my first house which is clearly Oblivion influenced - got it as a quest reward, can pay money to improve it several times, so it has an alchemy station, a gem crafting station, plus a ton of reagents gowing in my basement, and the stash chest which is linked to other stashes.

i still hate the elves though.  While i intellectually appreciate what they trying to do with all elvish lore with the ballad and saga themes, it annoys me like watched bad fantasy role playing on an MMORPG server.  "Hail good sir, you have the noble air of the hero about you.  Wouldest thou like to accompany our hearty band to delve into the depths of yon shadowed cavern?  Tra la la and huzzah!"  Groan.  The lorestones in particular need a mute button :)

[Rendakor]

The lorestones in particular need a mute button :)

A thousand times this. I'm clicking you for the XP and bonuses, not because I want to hear some long drawn out lorelol.

[MuffinMan]

I really want to like this but the camera is driving me bonkers.

[Venkman]

Oiy, yea, one of the things I didn't like. Never got the lollore stuff though. Seeing this thread, kinda glad :)

But maybe, just MAYBE, if an outlet like the NYT starts to seriously evaluate something instead of the gaming wank sites we get on a normal basis, it might accrue some value to the consumer?

Yea but then we'd end up with Fox News countering with DEVILWORSHIPLESBIANLOVERKISS crap again. I'd rather they stayed out until the crazies all retired :)

[Hawkbit]

My first real disappointments are in the DLC.  I can't stand it when companies give DLC codes, but when I add it to PSN it still gives me the option to buy it.  I bought it already with the game, dammit!!

Also, I was thinking of getting the weapon pack DLCs just for giggles, but apparently they scale only to the level you purchased them at.  So if you buy them at lvl 1, they stay lvl 1 permanently.  But open them at lvl 40 and they're lvl 40.  Only not really, because only the armor stat scales, not attributes.  They're utterly useless.

I want to give you my money, but I'm not going to just flush it down the crapper.  At least make me *think* its something worthwhile.

[Jobu]

Curt Schilling is going to be on Conan O'Brien, more than likely talking about this and 38 Studios.

That's clever that he can use his baseball fame to sneak into real media like that. Can you imagine, say, Marc Jacobs, Smedley, or Rob Pardo on the late night circuit?

[Merusk]

Clever, sure.  But the real clever part is he went with the show that, despite having lower ratings, actually is viewed by his demographic and not Leno or Letterman.

Don't forget Pardo et. al somehow got a whole episode of South Park, which was also their demographic.   

[Typhon]

I really want to like this but the camera is driving me bonkers.

This is my experience as well, the camera is terrible.  I keep telling myself that the real camera system had some bugs so they haven't enabled it (but I'm pretty sure that I'm lying to myself)

[murdoc]

Curt Schilling is going to be on Conan O'Brien, more than likely talking about this and 38 Studios.

That's clever that he can use his baseball fame to sneak into real media like that. Can you imagine, say, Marc Jacobs, Smedley, or Rob Pardo on the late night circuit?

Jimmy Fallon routinely has "gaming" guests on his show.

[Severian]

You can watch the Conan episode online here: http://teamcoco.com/video

Either the full episode or the Schilling segments. Two have baseball-related titles but the third is: Curt Schilling Puts Conan in Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning

BTW one other reason for Curt to go on, and to be able to get on, Conan in particular is their Boston connection.

[ffc]

A comment about the story:  I'm in the fourth area or so and am still interested in where the main quest goes but I agree there is an issue of quantity over quality.  My ears automatically shut off when I tag a lorestone and I'm skipping the conversational wiki overloads.  With all the bland dialogue I guess I'm not surprised the most entertaining quest for me was a very short one I stumbled upon outside of a quest hub town to lure out a monster. 

If anybody on PC wants to skip the intro videos, go to Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning\content\data\bink and change the name of reckoninglogotrain.bik